Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer star in the new Netflix film
Thunder Force as two childhood best friends who reunite as an unlikely crime-fighting superhero duo. The film marks McCarthy’s fifth collaboration with husband Ben Falcone, who wrote and directed the film, and her first with longtime friend Spencer. Ahead of the superhero flick’s April 9 premiere, Falcone shared five secrets from behind the scenes.
FORCE-FUL FRIENDS
Spencer and McCarthy have been real-life friends for over 20 years, adding to their easy onscreen chemistry. Falcone says he did draw some elements from real life for their characters. “We ve got a group of friends from way back and I think if you asked, ‘Who’s the smartest one?,’ every single one of us would say Octavia. So if something s wrong, who would you want to fix it? Octavia.” And as for his wife, Falcone says, “Melissa is very detailed and disciplined, but she really does work off her instinct. So I just felt like that was a r
Now on their fifth outing as collaborative partners (their first being the matriarchal misfire
Tammy), Melissa McCarthy and director/husband Ben Falcone have struck a comfortable rhythm in their filmmaking. McCarthy funnels her brazen energy into an imperfect, often gauche comedy lead, while Falcone hones in on the foul-mouthed talents of his comedy partner. The surrounding film often feels thin and aimless as a result.
McCarthy s performance is defined by the crotch-gag brand of comedy which once characterised her career.
For
Thunder Force the pair tackle a high-concept, family-friendly sci-fi. While McCarthy’s Lydia and Octavia Spencer’s Emily wrestle with the dynamics of their longstanding friendship Lydia is protective but cavalier, Emily, motivated by grief, is devoted to science a small band of caricature mutants attack their city. After a calamitous incident at Emily’s giant genetics company where she s developing her own superhuman abilities, Lydia also gains
Photo: Netflix
Thunder Force?
There’s already an AC/DC song in the movie, and parent company Netflix has the resources to pay for it. Plus, it’s perfect for Melissa McCarthy’s character, whose apartment is decorated with beer paraphernalia and who treasures her vintage 1994 Slayer concert T-shirt more than her life. The practical answer, as always, is that it’s probably a rights issue. But it’s also just one of the many ways this fifth collaboration between McCarthy and writer-director Ben Falcone squanders what little personality it has.
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McCarthy’s Lydia is the only real character in the film, a pushy but good-hearted loudmouth who drives a forklift for a living and pounds Old Styles at Wrigleyville watering holes in her free time. (Everyone else is a sketch on a cocktail napkin.) A Chicago barfly who loves Van Halen and cries when they talk about the ’85 Bears is a distinct type, and giving superpowers to a dirtbag like Lydia essentially a female met
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Currently Reading Thunder Force Review: Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer in a Superhero Satire That Never Threatens to Rock the Genre Thunder Force Review: Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer in a Superhero Satire That Never Threatens to Rock the Genre
Melissa McCarthy gets more chuckles than laughs in a comedy that sticks too close to her comfort zone.
Owen Gleiberman, provided by
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Director: Ben Falcone
With: Melissa McCarthy, Octavia Spencer, Jason Bateman, Bobby Cannavale, Pom Klementieff, Melissa Leo, Taylor Mosby, Marcella Lowery, Melissa Ponzio.
The “Airplane!” school of chock-full-of-jokes conceptual parody, with its fourth-wall-smashing stupido-smart goofiness, had a pretty impressive run. It ruled for several decades, spawning everything from the “Airplane!” creators’ own “Naked Gun” franchise to me, the media-age Marx Brothers-worthy masterpiece of the form to the Wayans brothers’ “Scary Movie
Thunder Force Review
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PLOT: After years of Earth being plagued with supervillains, a scientist comes up with a formula to engineer superheroes, leading to two estranged best friends coming together to try and save the world.
REVIEW: After teaming together for movies like
Tammy, The Boss, Life of the Party and Superintelligence, you’d think that, finally, the husband-wife filmmaking duo Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone would want to attempt a comedy that was more than simply sticking the former in a one-joke scenario that was funny for maybe a few minutes in a pitch meeting. Not only is their latest,