York film preview: Meg 2, Joy Ride and Just Super

Many film fans will doubtless be familiar with the online treasure trove of ‘facts’ about none-more-80s action hero Chuck Norris.

Inspired by the actor’s uber-macho screen persona, these are a series of gleefully OTT deadpan statements (best read in a gravelly “It was a time of war…” film trailer voice) that demonstrate once and for all that Chuck Norris is the hardest man of all time.

“Chuck Norris doesn’t read books,” claims one. “He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.”

My personal favourite is the revelation that “When Chuck Norris falls in water, Chuck Norris doesn’t get wet. Water gets Chuck Norris.”

While he may not quite have attained Norris-level tough guy credentials (though I certainly wouldn’t say that to his face), it’s safe to say that water is about to get seriously Jason Statham in sharktastic super-sequel Meg 2: The Trench this week.

Elsewhere, a road trip gets messy for four unlikely friends in Joy Ride, and it’s off to work we go as the House of Mouse celebrates its centenary…

New releases

Meg 2: The Trench

Jason Statham is back to face more terrors of the deep in this sequel to the 2018 original which saw him take on the megalodon, a super-sized prehistoric shark that literally eats T-Rexes for breakfast.

This new adventure sees another team of shark snacks – sorry, I mean scientists – discover ‘an ancient ecosystem untouched by man’ and promptly start prodding around – unleashing a trio of megs who lose no time in making their way to the nearest beach full of frollicking holidaymakers.

Of course, Statham’s having none of it. The ocean’s his manor, and he don’t take kindly to some jumped-up fish poncing about like he’s the bleedin’ Kray twins…

This looks a whole lot of fun from the trailer (soundtracked by Heart’s Barracuda, naturally) – and the presence behind the camera of cult British director Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers) suggests this could deliver thrills, scares and chuckles in equal measure.

Joy Ride

Four Asian-American friends set out on a hair-raising international odyssey in this raunchy road trip comedy, which went down well with critics when it premiered at the South by Southwest festival earlier this year.

The story follows aspiring lawyer Audrey (Ashley Park, Emily in Paris) as she travels to China to close a business deal for her firm – a mission for which she enlists the help of her chaotic childhood best friend Lolo (Sherry Cola), plus former college roommate Kat (Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once) and Lolo’s oddball cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu).

What starts out as a career opportunity morphs into something more personal for Audrey as she sets out in search of her birth mother – and positive reviews suggest that, like its much-loved predecessor Bridesmaids, this is a film which packs real heart in amongst all the gross-out gags.

Just Super

An 11-year-old gaming fanatic struggles to face up to her superheroic inheritance in this Norwegian animated caper.

Young Hedwig’s family have protected their small town for generations under the masked alias of ‘Super Lion’, with the mantle being passed down to the eldest child – but her lack of any obvious superskills has her father doubting whether she should be the next in line.

When she is called to action sooner than expected, the seemingly ordinary Hedwig must find out for herself what kind of hero she is.

Other screenings

Community cinema

Choir master by day, eco-warrior by night…South Bank Community Cinema rounds off its summer season in style this week with a blackly comic Icelandic tale of a middle-aged woman’s clandestine environmental crusade.

A film whose subject has only become more topical since its release in 2018, Woman at War tells the story of Hella (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir), whose concerted guerrilla campaign against the local aluminum industry is just starting to get results when she discovers that her application to adopt a child has finally been accepted.

As she prepares to give up her one-woman battle in order to fulfil her dream of becoming a mother, Hella vows to go out with a bang, in a film hailed by Mark Kermode as “a subversive romp that splendidly overturns action-movie cliches”.

The film shows at Clements Hall, South Bank on Fri 4th at 8pm (doors 7:30pm) — tickets are £4 (cash only), and SBCC advise that it’s best to book in advance by e-mailing [email protected].

Summer holiday round-up

This October will mark 100 years since brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney founded the company that would go on to become one of the most famous and beloved film studios of all time, and to celebrate there’s a welcome return to the big screen for some of their most enduring hits over the next few weeks.

Things kick off this week with their very first feature-length animation, 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – it’s showing daily at Cineworld and Vue, and you can also catch it at City Screen on Sat 5th and Weds 9th (the Saturday screening is a budget Kids’ Club screening, with tickets at £3.30); Everyman are also showing it in their Toddlers’ Club strand on Fri 4th and Sat 5th (tickets £6.10 child, £8.60 adult), as well as a general admission screening on Sun 6th.

There’s a much more recent Disney adventure on offer throughout the week in City Screen’s Kids’ Club in the form of last year’s Strange World, showing daily from Fri 4th (with an Autism-Friendly screening on Sun 6th and a subtitled screening on Weds 9th) – tickets for all dates are £3.30.

Over at Cineworld and Vue, your budget choice comes courtesy of those irrepressible Italian plumbers in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, showing daily at both cinemas (tickets £2.50 at Cineworld, £2.49 at Vue); Cineworld are also showing Pinocchio: A True Story, a new, non-Disney take on the classic tale, until Mon 7th (£2.50).

Vue also have a plethora of other family favourites on offer at the standard ticket price (£6.99 – £9.99), with The Lego Movie 2 and more recent releases Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken and Elemental all showing daily (the latter is also on daily at Cineworld), while there are a few more outings for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Fri 4th, Sat 5th) and The Little Mermaid (Mon 7th, Weds 9th, Thurs 10th; also at Everyman on Thurs 10th).

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Brilliant British debuts and a Keanu classic: other new releases and old favourites

With the last year having seen a particularly strong crop of debut features from British female directors, City Screen are rounding up three of the best in a short season over the next few weeks – serving as a run-up to another hotly tipped first feature, Scrapper, coming later this month.

This week’s inaugural selection takes us back to the 80s with Blue Jean (Sun 6th), director Georgia Oakley’s drama about a lesbian teacher navigating life in the era of the anti-gay section 28 law – a great chance to catch up with this highly acclaimed tale if, like me, you missed it in its all-too-brief run in cinemas earlier this year.

Talking of making a splash with your debut, Tues 8th sees an encore NT Live screening at Vue for Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s return to the stage in her one-woman performance of Fleabag.

Also on Tues 8th, there’s a treat for anime fans at City Screen in the form of The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes, the latest of several films that owe an obvious debt to the hit 2016 romantic fantasy Your Name, and one which The Observer says ‘comes closest to recreating (its) glistening perfection’.

And finally, two very different cinematic icons return to the big screen as Keanu Reeves takes the red pill (or, in Barbie-speak, grabs the Birkenstock) in The Matrix at Vue on Tues 8th – while Reese Witherspoon heads back to law school in Legally Blonde (now officially only the second pinkest movie ever made) at Everyman on Sun 6th and Tues 8th.