Alien: Romulus review – This jump-scare adventure sets up the ongoing cosmos saga nicely

ALIEN: ROMULUS

(15) 119mins 

★★★☆☆

IN space no one can hear you scream.

But watch this jump-scare adventure on a big screen and they probably will.

Directed and co-written by Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead) the intergalactic outing marks the seventh release in the sci-fi series (there are also two Predator cross-over films).

It time-travels back to the earliest and arguably strongest days of the franchise, retrospectively positioned between Ridley Scott’s 1979 original (Alien) and James Cameron’s 1986 follow-up (Aliens).

The latest lift-off sees a group of twenty-something explorers encounter the extraterrestrial lifeforms.

Gore-shock scenes

After blasting into orbit to escape trapped lives working for a mining corporation, they discover the abandoned Romulus space station and attempt to loot it for fuel.

But Xenomorphs are lying dormant aboard.

And when the satellite’s systems are rebooted, they wake back up.

The slimy, scuttling, interstellar marauders are quickly up to their old tricks of throttling, face-leaping, body-possessing and hunting to kill.

With protracted gore-shock scenes, claustrophobia and cat-and-mouse montages, there are numerous nostalgic horror homages.

Plucky badass Rain (Cailee Spaeny) is our Sigourney Weaver-style Ripley-esque hero.

And there are many leap-frights which tie in to the Alien legacy.

But there are too many overly familiar moments.

Some big scares feel like tribute scenes, although Alvarez does add some fresh touches of his own.

David Jonsson stands out as loving “artificial person” Andy. While fellow Brit Archie Renaux also impresses as Tyler.

The visuals are superb and some lighter nods, like gravitational smoking in space, UK swearing and lame dad jokes, are neatly considered.

Whether you consider the bold finale a radical “signing off” twist or an OTT overstep will mostly depend on your own personal fears.

But it certainly sets up the ongoing cosmos saga nicely.

Laura Stott

HOLLYWOODGATE

(12A) 92mins  

★★★★☆

DIRECTLY after US forces pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban occupied the Hollywoodgate complex, which was believed to be a former CIA base in the city of Kabul.

In this fly-on-the-wall documentary, multi-award-winning Egyptian journalist and filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at follows the Taliban’s first year in power.

Hollywoodgate captures fighters – led by Mawlawi Mansour, the Taliban commander whose father was killed in a US strike – as they navigate the remnants left behind by US forces in the complex.

Mansour’s men appear less like a real army and more like a disorganised clean-up crew.

Offering an intimate look at their daily lives, Nash’at’s film does a rather brilliant job of offering a raw and uncompromising insight into Afghanistan’s new ruling class, who allow him to film them, despite their obvious mistrust for him throughout.

It’s clear that Nash’at’s subjects had hoped that by allowing him this much access, they would help spread their ideological message globally.

But in the end, the biggest takeaway from the whole film is how deflated and listless these men appear to be.

With foreign forces gone, their dreams of martyrdom have gone up in smoke and all they seem to be left with are pointless spoils of war and a country hugely in need of infrastructure.

Linda Marric

JACKPOT!

(18) 104mins 

★★☆☆☆

IN the near future, a state lottery has been established in California with one winner set to take home billions of dollars.

The catch: To collect their money, the winner must stay alive until sundown, while the rest of the city bands together to kill them and collect the prize, instead.

Jackpot!, the latest action comedy from Bridesmaids and A Simple Favor director Paul Feig, follows struggling actress Katie Kim (Crazy Rich Asians star Awkwafina) who unwittingly becomes the latest victim of the scheme – and California’s number one target for murder.

Chased by a crowd baying for her blood, Katie finds help in the shape of Noel (John Cena), an amateur lottery protection agent, who offers to help keep her alive until sundown in exchange for a share of her winnings.

Feig and screenwriter Rob Yescombe deliver a crudely executed and painfully unfunny comedy that has all the subtlety of a heart attack.

Often relying on the most derivative type of crass humour and gratuitous violence, the film feels like an interminable series of bad gags strung together by the silliest premise.

There is almost nothing here – bar two admittedly decent performances from Awkwafina and Cena – that warrants any kind of attention.

It’s hard to believe this is the same director who gave us the legendary Bridesmaids, a film that will go down in history as one of the funniest comedies in recent decades.