Films in cinema this week: Supernova and Fast and Furious

Supernova exists in the same narrative universe, juxtaposing the fear and confusion of a patient with the anguish of caring family members, but this gently paced road movie takes a more conventional approach to storytelling.

"I want to be remembered for who I was and not who I'm about to become," pleads Stanley Tucci's afflicted writer to his life partner, played with frayed nerves and a shattered heart by Colin Firth.

Their on-screen familiarity is delightfully believable from the opening shot of the couple entwined in bed, whether it be playful teasing about the shipping forecast on BBC Radio 4 or a more serious conversation about medicines.

The natural flow and ease of early scenes contrasts with a fraught, tear-wringing final act overstuffed with dialogue which hits premeditated beats at the expense of sounding like a true cascade of emotions.

Rating: Three stars out of four

FAST & FURIOUS 9 (12A)

Four years after F Gary Gray hit the accelerator on a turbo-charged eighth chapter of the demolition derby - the first instalment without original cast member Paul Walker - director Justin Lin slides back into the driver's seat of the penultimate film in the series, co-written by Daniel Casey.

Their script quickly disables the handbrake on plausibility and makes no effort to slalom around gaping p(l)otholes, introducing giant electromagnets for one elaborate set piece that reduces Edinburgh city centre to rubble.

The divisive trams are conveniently absent from the streets of the Scottish capital as souped-up motors thunder over asphalt and cobbles.

London fares slightly better: police cars are trashed during a night-time pursuit but Buckingham Palace and surrounding locales are unscathed.

Characters pointedly spend more screen time discussing their apparent invincibility, emerging from outlandish exploits without a scratch, than enriching emotional arcs or making sense of a preposterous quest to retrieve top-secret technology - codename Project Ares - which seizes control of global weapons systems.

In one case, a character presumed dead in an automotive fireball at the conclusion of Fast & Furious 6 is resurrected via flashback manipulation.

Once it becomes clear that the racers can survive anything, and know it, Fast & Furious 9 jettisons dramatic tension from its exhaust pipe and screeches through a series of bombastic smash 'n' grabs that venture to the only place untouched thus far.

"Two dudes from the ghetto in outer space? You know nobody's gonna believe this right?" grins Tyrese Gibson to co-star Chris "Ludacris" Bridges.

We don't. Lin's picture isn't a complete car crash but airbags are repeatedly deployed.

The perfunctory plot begins with covert ops team leader Mr Nobody (Kurt Russell) capturing cyberterrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron) but his plane is shot down over Montequinto.

Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and the team - Roman Pearce (Gibson), Tej Parker (Bridges) and hacker Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) - head to the Central American jungle to investigate.

Following a daredevil escape from a minefield, they come face to face with Dom's younger brother Jakob (John Cena), a master assassin with an axe to grind, preferably against the forehead of his older sibling.

Intercut with misty-eyed flashbacks to 1989 and a traumatic incident on the banked oval of a speedway track, Fast & Furious 9 shifts through first and second gears but never achieves top speed.

Lin orchestrates spectacular, pyrotechnic-laden stunts in an emotional vacuum, heavy-handedly emphasising the importance of family in throwaway exchanges between team members.

Almost every surviving character from the sprawling saga is shoe-horned into the gung-ho globe-trotting.

One half of Hobbs and Shaw materialises during a humorous end credits tease for the 10th and final film that will, on this disappointing evidence, have to incorporate an alien invasion, the melting of polar icecaps, a zombie apocalypse and full-cast song and dance number to up the ante.

Rating: Two stars out of four

DOGTANIAN AND THE THREE MUSKEHOUNDS (U)

Animated TV series Dogtanian And The Three Muskehounds is fondly embedded in my childhood memories of the early 1980s alongside Battle Of The Planets and Dungeons & Dragons.

The anthropomorphised adventures of an aspiring swordshound and his mouse sidekick put a fresh spin on Alexandre Dumas' swashbuckling 19th-century novel The Three Musketeers.

The infuriatingly catchy theme tune - "One for all and all for one, Muskehounds are always ready!" - is spared for the end credits of director Toni Garcia's feature-length computer-animated revamp, accompanied by karaoke-style words on screen to inspire howling in the aisles.

In a loving nod to the past, soft-focus flashbacks in the film look suspiciously like excerpts from the TV series replete with expressive hand-drawn visuals.

Repeated blasts back to the 1980s underline the quintessential sweetness and rumbustious humour that is lacking in Garcia's remake, based on a script by Doug Langdale that spruces up a plotline from the episode Daggers And Diamonds involving a stolen necklace, a beguiling masked thief and the looming threat of war between France and England.

Rating: Two stars out of four

IN THE HEIGHTS (PG)

Young hearts run free a short distance from the 181st Street subway stop in New York City in an energetic film adaptation of the 2005 stage musical with a book by Quiara Alegria Hudes and music and lyrics by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Shot primarily on location in the culturally rich Manhattan borough of Washington Heights where "you can't walk two blocks without bumping into someone's big plan", In The Heights is a life-affirming celebration of Latin American people and their cultures.

At a time when diversity is a buzzword on Hollywood's glossy lips, director Jon M Chu's frequently exhilarating picture juxtaposes experiences from Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Puerto Rico against the spectacular backdrop of the George Washington Bridge.

Hudes' script remains largely faithful to her stage version, reflected in a running time close to two-and-a-half hours, and she deftly navigates themes of isolation, gentrification, and racial and income inequality without losing any of the pizzazz of the show-stopping song and dance sequences.

Rating: Four stars out of four

THE HITMAN'S WIFE'S BODYGUARD (15)

The unwieldy title of director Patrick Hughes's high-stakes action comedy, a direct follow-up to his 2017 picture The Hitman's Bodyguard, exemplifies the inelegant, slapdash spirit of a globe-trotting caper which gleefully reunites Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson and Salma Hayek.

Returning writer Tom O'Connor, who penned the sequel's script with siblings Brandon and Phillip Murphy, evidently believes if it ain't broke, don't fix it - a sensible approach if the original film wasn't beset with miss-and-hit irreverence, loopy plotting and tonal inconsistencies.

Those flaws are evident in The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, which contrives a cursory James Bond-esque plot to disable Europe's financial markets as a flimsy framework for slow-motion shootouts, bloodthirsty fist fights and an explosive car chase over a collapsing elevated highway.

A heavy reliance on profanity for laughs becomes wearisome: "Your mouth needs an exorcism," Reynolds informs Hayek during her opening salvo of filth.

Frantic pacing extends to action sequences including a triptych of simultaneous brawls, which surrender clarity to rapid-fire editing.

Rating: Two stars out of four

MONSTER HUNTER (12A)

Director Paul WS Anderson and actress wife Milla Jovovich are seemingly determined to corner the market on bombastic action adventures inspired by video games.

After six chapters of the bloodthirsty Resident Evil series, the couple trade flesh-hungry zombies for more ferocious beasts in an otherworldly escapade based on a Capcom franchise.

The language barrier between the lead actors is played for uncomfortable laughs in Anderson's script, which takes a disconcertingly laidback approach to coherent storytelling as the action oscillates between parallel realms.

Impressive digital effects bring hulking creatures to life and Anderson orchestrates one exhilarating set-piece: a fire-breathing dragon called a Rathalos taking down a military plane in mid-air.

Jovovich and Thai martial arts star Tony Jaa catalyse inert screen chemistry and whenever Anderson runs out of expendable human cast, he casually introduces nameless fresh faces to sacrifice to the towering denizens of the New World.

Rating: Two stars out of four

IN THE EARTH (15)

Written in response to the Covid pandemic and filmed during last summer's lockdown, In The Earth is a trip in the most disorienting, hallucinogenic sense.

Essex-born director Ben Wheatley's return to his psychological horror roots before he dives into The Meg 2 with Jason Statham conjures a woozy, kaleidoscopic nightmare in a rugged, rain-soaked environment that thrums with unseen life and threat.

"People get a bit funny in the woods, sometimes," observes a medic (Mark Monero) near the beginning of the film, foreshadowing more than an hour of phantasmagorical lunacy and gnarly mysticism that unhinges the characters' minds and ultimately Wheatley's picture.

Repeated use of intense flashing images, which may affect viewers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy, is an effective sensory overload to reflect underlying fears of emerging from lockdown and being overwhelmed.

Clint Mansell's score and an unsettling ambient soundtrack vie for supremacy as the script's tug of war between science and superstition becomes increasingly brutal and bamboozling.

Rating: Three stars out of four

THE FATHER (12A)

The mind plays tricks on us and the discombobulated title character in Florian Zeller's classy adaptation of his award-winning stage play, co-written for the screen by Christopher Hampton.

Set in the handsomely furnished London apartment of an octogenarian patriarch, The Father slowly unpicks the seams of supposed reality and questions the reliability of a muddied memory.

Sir Anthony Hopkins deservedly won his second Academy Award as best actor in a leading role - and thwarted Chadwick Boseman's posthumous coronation - for his mesmerising performance as a man grappling with dementia.

Zeller's picture unfolds from his clouded perspective and the Welsh actor is truly astonishing at conveying the see-sawing emotions of someone who can't quite articulate that sense of slipping away ("I feel as if I'm losing all my leaves").

Hopkins whirls effortlessly from volcanic rage to tremulous gut-wrenching despair and co-star Olivia Colman reacts beautifully to this cascading turmoil with a supporting performance of aching vulnerability, sorrow and guilt.

Rating: Four stars out of four