FRIENDSHIP : Tuesday 22nd July 2025

I saw the M Rated 'FRIENDSHIP' earlier this week, and this American black comedy film is Written and Directed by Andrew DeYoung in his feature film making debut, although he has a whole stack of Directorial credits for short films and multiple episodes of TV series including '555', 'Dave', 'Shrill', 'PEN15', 'Our Flag Means Death' and 'The Decameron'. This film had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September last year as part of the festival's Midnight Madness section, and was released in the US in late May. It has received positive reviews from critics, and has so far grossed US$17M.

Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) is a socially awkward marketing executive working in the fictional city of Clovis, and he and his wife Tami (Kate Mara) are preparing to sell their family home. Having recovered from cancer about a year ago now, Tami is becoming increasingly frustrated with Craig’s emotional disconnection and his lack of interest in her growing flower business, so much so that she has rekindled a relationship with her ex-boyfriend Devon (John Segarra). 

A new neighbour - Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd) has just moved in down the street. He is a weatherman on the evening news, and he drops off a gift to Tami to introduce himself. Austin invites Craig over for a beer that evening and Tami accepts on his behalf. Craig agrees, albeit reluctantly.

The pair quickly strike up an unlikely friendship, bonding over '70's and '80's music, work frustrations, and a shared sense of being unfulfilled. During their first hangout, Craig introduces Austin to his personal mantra 'just ask' which worked for him in a work situation recently. This philosophy inspires Austin to pursue his longtime dream of becoming the town’s daytime weatherman - a gig he would much prefer to working nights. Later that evening Austin takes Craig on an adventure through a hidden tunnel system beneath Clovis City Hall, and they explore it together, having a beer and a cigarette atop the City Hall building overlooking all of Clovis. 

The next day, Austin calls Craig at work and convinces him to take the rest of the day off to go mushroom hunting in a nearby bog. Craig sinks knee deep into the boggy marsh and loses his mobile phone in the process. On their way back, they pass a yellow sports car at a dealership and Austin says that if he ever buys one, Craig will be the first to ride in it. As their bond goes from strength to strength, Craig becomes increasingly enamored with Austin, and even more so after Craig and Tami attend one of Austin's punk rock shows in which he is lead guitarist and singer. Energised by the connection, Craig becomes a more mindful husband, father, and coworker.

Cracks in their relationship however, begin to appear after Austin invites Craig to a hangout with a group of his friends. Initially cordial and relaxed, the evening takes a rapid and unexpected u-turn when Craig,  escalates a friendly boxing match with Austin by landing a cheap shot which sees Austin knocked to the ground. The group recoils at this, and Craig reacts by stuffing a bar of soap in his mouth as a bizarre act of self-punishment, while attempting to apologise and make light of the situation. 

Following this incident, Austin distances himself. Craig, desperate to reconnect, visits the TV station unannounced and causes Austin to fumble his words during his first daytime weather broadcast, for which he is admonished by the news anchor. Austin formally cuts ties with Craig, who later breaks into Austin’s home while he is out and his wife Bianca (Meredith Garretson) naps, and inadvertently steals a handgun from Austin's home office.

In a vain attempt to recreate the connection he had with Austin, Craig takes Tami, reluctantly, on a manic date through the underground tunnels beneath City Hall. Tami becomes disoriented and goes missing. The Police get involved in the search, resulting in both Craig and Austin being arrested for trespassing in the tunnels previously. In jail, it is revealed Austin wears a hairpiece, a secret he begs Craig to keep. Tami is eventually found about 24 hours later, shaken but safe. 

At her welcome-back party, Craig is shunned by Tami's friends and family and upstaged by Devon in a welcome home speech. Craig invites everyone to join him in a parade for Tami, but he end up standing alone outside his house very dejected. Tami later moves into Devon’s pool house. Craig’s downward spiral goes from bad to worse - he loses a very important client pitch and suffers a public meltdown at work, resulting in his immediate termination from the marketing firm.

Some time later, Craig attempts to rebuild his life. He reconnects with his son, Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer) and buys Tami a brand new customised van to support her flower business. The family is seemingly on the mend, until Craig drives past Austin’s house and sees him hosting another guys’ night and with the yellow sports car parked outside his house. Overcome with jealousy, Craig storms the gathering, holds the group at gunpoint with the gun he stole from Austin previously, and forcibly attempts to recreate the first night they all met. When Austin attempts to wrangle the gun out of Craig’s hands, it goes off, causing everyone to panic and duck for cover. In the struggle, Austin’s hairpiece again comes off. Craig, desperate to retain this shared secret, threatens his friends to stay on the ground while Austin puts his hairpiece back on. The Police arrive unexpectedly and Craig knocks himself unconscious while attempting to flee the scene by walking headlong through a plate glass door. In the back of the patrol car, Craig imagines an alternate version of events in which nothing went awry during that initial group hangout, and everything turned out like sunshine and rainbows. Craig watches from the back of the patrol car as Austin turns and gives him a wink, and Craig lets out a beaming smile.

A comedy no matter how intentionally black or bleak it's meant to be, needs to be pretty special for me to buy into it, and as such 'Friendship' really missed that boat! Whilst Tim Robinson may have the comedic chops to carry off his TV shows 'Detroiters' and 'I Think You Should Leave' this cringe worthy, anxiety inducing, and uncomfortably absurd film feels more like an over extended version of his TV series that has long since worn out its welcome. Paul Rudd, Kate Mara and Jack Dylan Grazer largely play it straight leaving Robinson to do the heavy comedy lifting which after the first twenty or so minutes I was largely over already. The critics conversely are waxing lyrical about this film, but I just left the cinema feeling ho-hum about the whole experience. 

'Friendship' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP : QUANTUMANIA - Tuesday 21st February 2023.

I saw 'ANT-MAN AND THE WASP : QUANTUMANIA' this week, and this M-Rated American superhero film is based on the Marvel Comics characters of Scott Lang (aka Ant-Man) and Hope van Dyne (aka The Wasp) and is the direct sequel to 2015's 'Ant-Man' and 2018's 'Ant-Man and The Wasp', is the 31st entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the lunching film of Phase Five of the MCU. As with the two previous films, Peyton Reed returns as Director for this third instalment. The film saw its Premier screening in Los Angeles on the 6th February, before its worldwide release last week, having gained mixed Reviews from critics, although it has so far earned US$288M off the back of a production budget of US$200M, making it the third highest grossing film of 2023 so far. 

The film begins with the back story of Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) trapped for some thirty years in the Quantum Realm, where one day she encounters Kang (Jonathan Majors) an exiled traveller who crash lands his craft, and who explains that they can both escape from the Realm if she helps him repair the Multiversal Power Core that is necessary for him to leave and for Janet to return to Earth to be reunited with her daughter. After many attempts to repair it have failed they one day have success but as Janet plugs in the power core she sees a vision of Kang conquering and destroying entire timelines. Kang reveals he was exiled by his own variants out of fear, which leads Janet to turn on him. Outmatched, Janet uses her Pym Particles to enlarge the Power Core and therefore render it useless.

Back in the present day and following the Battle of Earth, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has become a successful memoirist having penned a best selling autobiography titled 'Look Out For The Little Guy' which charts his adventures with The Avengers, and has been living happily with his girlfriend, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Scott's now-teenage daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) has become a political activist, resulting in her doing jail time before being bailed out by her father. While visiting Hope's parents, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet, Cassie reveals that she has been working on a mechanism that can establish a link to the Quantum Realm. 

When demonstrating how the device works, Janet panics and shuts it down, but contact had already been established so opening up a portal which sucks Janet, Hank, Cassie, Hope and Scott down into the Quantum Realm. Scott and Cassie land together and are found by natives who are rebelling against their ruler, while Hope, Janet, and Hank land in close proximity elsewhere and set off to a sprawling city to find Scott and Cassie. 

Hope, Janet, and Hank meet with Lord Krylar (Bill Murray), a former close friend of Janet's, who explains that things have changed since she left, and that he now answers to Kang, who is now the Realm's ruler. The three are forced to flee and steal Krylar's ship. The Langs, meanwhile, are told by rebel leader Jentorra (Katy O'Brian) that Janet's involvement with Kang is indirectly responsible for his rise to power. The rebels soon come under attack by Kang's forces led by M.O.D.O.K. (Mechanised Organism Designed Only for Killing), who is revealed to be Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), having survived his apparent death at Scott's hands when he was unevenly shrunken to subatomic size in the Quantum Realm and became a mutated, cybernetically enhanced individual with an oversized head. 

Scott and Cassie are taken to Kang, who has them detained in cells. He demands that Scott helps get his power core back and restore it to its normal workable size or else he will kill Cassie. Scott is taken to the core's location and shrinks down. Once inside he is overwhelmed by a mass of variants of himself, but Hope arrives and helps him gain the power core and using several Pym Particles reduces it in size. Kang, surprise surprise, reneges on his deal with Scott, and captures Janet and destroys her ship with Hank on it. 

After being rescued by his ants, who were also pulled into the Quantum Realm, they evolved rapidly, and became hyper-intelligent, Hank helps Scott and Hope as they make their way to Kang, aided in vast numbers by an army of ants, and Scott who has grown to an enormous size that he towers over Kang's domain. Cassie rescues Jentorra and they begin an offensive uprising against Kang and his army. During the fight, Cassie convinces Cross to turn sides and fight Kang, though he sacrifices his own life in the process.

Janet is able to fix the power core as she, Hank, Hope, and Cassie jump through a portal home, but Kang appears before Scott is able to make the jump and attacks him nearly beating him into submission. Hope returns and, together with Scott, destroy the power core and knock Kang into it, causing him to be pulled into oblivion. Cassie reopens the portal at her end for Scott and Hope to return home. As Scott happily resumes his life, he begins to rethink what he was told about Kang's death being the start of something terrible happening, but quickly dismisses the notion as he joins the family to celebrate Cassie's unbirthday at a restaurant, making up for all her birthday's that Scott missed. Remember to remain in your seat for the customary mid-credits and end credits sequences. 

'Ant-Man and The Wasp : Quantumania' is everything you have come to expect from a big budget, big spectacle MCU offering, with its heavy handed use of CGI to build a world and all the fantastical creatures and structures contained within it, to its use of A-list acting talent to give the film gravitas, to the introduction of a new cosmic villain that we are likely to see across multiple MCU films into the future in Kang the Conqueror all wrapped up with Scott Lang's quirky and not too serious take on his world and his new found place as an Avenger. All of that said, there is so much seemingly endless spectacle on screen here, that at times it's difficult to keep track of exactly what is going on. The story is also pedestrian and predictable and the plot is thin on the ground and seems to serve no other purpose than to introduce us to a new super villain and establish the next phase of the MCU. However, at a lean 123 minutes running time it doesn't outstay its welcome.

'Ant-Man and The Wasp : Quantumania' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

AVENGERS : ENDGAME : Wednesday 24th April 2019.

I saw 'AVENGERS : ENDGAME' at my local Multiplex on its Australian opening night and sat in a packed out theatre showing back to back sessions throughout the day - all to sell out audiences. And so if you didn't already know it, this is the direct sequel to 2018's 'Avengers: Infinity War', a sequel to 2012's 'The Avengers' and 2015's 'Avengers: Age of Ultron', and the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 'Avengers : Endgame' arrived this week following much hype, eager anticipation from legions of fans across the world, and plenty of record breaking buzz despite the plot secrecy from Marvel Studios, Directors Anthony and Joe Russo and the principal cast and crew. Following on immediately from where 'Infinity War' left off the film picks up after half of all life in the universe was killed due to the actions of Thanos once he had amassed all six infinity stones and placed them strategically in his Infinity Gauntlet, and simply clicked his fingers. The remaining Avengers and their allies must reassemble to revert those actions in one final stand to restore balance to the universe and save all humanity . . . or half of it at least!

With an ensemble cast that consists all of our much loved Superheroes and a few nefarious intergalactic villains too, and the conclusion of eleven years of MCU story telling that has so successfully interwoven individual standalone films with cross-over episodes to drive a franchise that we're invested in, Box Office records could well & truly be smashed here. Advance ticket sales amounted to about US$130M, with the potential to top the worldwide Box Office takings of US$2.05B as seen for 'Infinity War'. At a running time of three hours and two minutes, the film has so far received generally positive Reviews with Critics praising the Direction, the Acting, the sheer entertainment factor, the emotional heft and this being a fitting end to the 22 film spanning story. And all this is off the back of a production budget somewhere in the region of nudging US$400M, which must qualify this film as the most expensive of all time. At the time of publishing this Post on 27th April, Box Office receipts were at US$305M, having been released on 26th April in the US, on 25th April in the UK, and in China, Australia, parts of Asia and Europe on 24th.

The film opens up with Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) at home on his remote property on a bright sunny day. He is teaching his daughter to shoot arrows into a target while his wife and younger son prepare lunch. It's a picture of domestic bliss. His daughter shoots a bullseye, his wife calls lunch ready. As Clint retrieves the arrow from the target he momentarily looses sight of his other beloved family members. When he turns around there is an eerie silence and they are all gone, vanished into dust . . . victims too of the Thanos snap!

Up in deep space a thousand light years from the nearest 7/11 Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jnr.) are drifting, having run out of fuel, food, water and pretty damn soon oxygen. They are stranded following their defeat at the hands of Thanos. Stark sends a final farewell message to Pepper Potts using his Iron Man helmet, before falling asleep from exhaustion. Saviour however, comes perhaps when you least expect it.

Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) in the form of Captain Marvel arrives in a flash of bright light and escorts the stricken ship of Stark and Nebula back down to Earth and the Avengers Headquarters. There she reunites the pair with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Rocket (Bradley Cooper/Sean Gunn), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and James Rhodes (Don Cheadle). After a somewhat frosty reception between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers and a status update from the remaining Avengers, Nebula comes forward with the strong possibility of knowing Thanos' whereabouts since the team have drawn a blank in locating him since the snap of five weeks before.

The assembled Team converge on the defenceless, unarmed unguarded garden planet where Thanos is the sole resident, and take him by surprise. Thanos confides that he used the infinity stones to destroy themselves so preventing the Team from using them to reverse his actions. In a fit of rage, Thor uses his new Stormbreaker axe to decapitate Thanos.

We then fast forward five years, and Steve Rogers is chairing counselling sessions with a self help group, Bruce Banner has merged permanently with his Hulk alter ego and Thor has become the drunken ruler (boasting an impressive beer gut) of Asgard's refugees in a remote fishing village on the Norwegian coast which he has affectionately named New Asgard. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) meanwhile escapes from the Quantum Realm not knowing what has gone down in the last five years. After learning the truth from his now adult daughter which he has been able to track down as one who survived he makes for the Avengers HQ where he is met by a surprised Rogers and Romanoff. He explains that for him only five hours had passed and suggests the Quantum Realm permits time travel. The three travel to Stark's lakeside residence where he is now happily married to Pepper Potts and the couple have a five year old daughter Morgan. They discuss with Stark the possibility that they can travel back in time to retrieve the Infinity Stones before Thanos collects them. Stark rejects this, concerned over what altering history will mean for his young daughter, but after reflecting upon the loss of sixteen year old Peter Parker (Tom Holland), he designs a working time machine that can be used to enter the Quantum Realm.

Stark drives to the Avengers HQ to reveal that he has built a stable time travel device just as Banner and Co. have been experimenting somewhat unsuccessfully on Scott Lang with his own time travel techniques. And so the regrouped Avengers split into separate teams for their mission to retrieve the infinity stones before Thanos has done so.

Banner, Rogers, Lang, and Stark travel to the Battle of New York to retrieve the Time, Mind, and Space Stones. Banner visits the Sanctum Sanctorum also in New York and convinces the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) to give him the Time Stone some five years before Stephen Strange even arrives on the scene, and Rogers overcomes undercover Hydra agents and his past self to retrieve the Mind Stone, but Lang and Stark's failed distraction enables Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to escape with the Space Stone. Rogers and Stark then are forced to travel back further to the U.S. Army's Fort Leigh in 1970, to steal both an earlier version of the Space Stone and vials of Hank Pym's (Michael Douglas) size-altering Pym Particles to enable them all to return home to their present day afterwards. The pair succeed, but not before Rogers has a close encounter with his one true love Peggy Carter, and Tony Stark bumps into his Dad, Howard Stark en route and strikes up a conversation about his pending fatherhood to the as yet unborn Tony Stark.

Back on Asgard before it was wiped out, Rocket and Thor retrieve the Reality Stone from Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). Thor comes across his mother Frigga (Rene Russo), whose wise counsel restores his conviction, and he obtains a past version of his hammer, Mjolnir, proving that he is still 'worthy' to wield it. Barton and Romanoff travel to Vormir for the Soul Stone. They learn there from its keeper, Red Skull (Ross Marquand), that it can only be retrieved by sacrificing someone they love. After a struggle between the pair, Romanoff sacrifices herself. Barton returns to the present day, with the tragic news of Romanoff's untimely death, in which the other Avengers share in his mourning.

On Morag, Nebula and Rhodes steal the Power Stone before Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is able to do so. Rhodes returns to the present with the Stone, leaving Nebula stranded behind as her cybernetic implants interface with those of her past self. Thanos leverages this fact and is able to tap into her memory banks to see present-day events. In turn, he sends the past incarnation of Nebula to the future in present-day Nebula's place.

Back at Avengers HQ with all the Infinity Stones now retrieved, Stark has been able to model a new Infinity Gauntlet in which the Stones are placed one by one. Banner steps up to volunteer to wear the Infinity Gauntlet as in doing so it gives off enough gamma radiation that Banner retorts that he was made to wear it, given his exposure to Gamma Rays that turned him into what he is today. Upon wearing it and activating the amassed Infinity Stones, the world is restored to its pre-Thanos snap. However, having come through the time machine with the other Avengers, past Nebula uses the time machine to transport Thanos and his ship from the past to the present day, whereupon he unleashes the might of his firepower upon the Avengers HQ and reduces it to rubble.

Amongst the rubble and wreckage of the Avengers HQ, Rogers, Thor, and Stark confront Thanos, though he overpowers them, even when Rogers proves that he can wield Mjolnir.

Thanos summons the entire might of his armed forces, but the revived Avengers arrive on the battlefield, along with the Sanctum Sorcerers and the armies of Asgard and Wakanda. Present-day Nebula convinces past Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to turn on Thanos, and in the ensuing standoff Nebula kills her past self. Following an epic battle between the two factions, Stark eventually retrieves the Infinity Gauntlet from the battlefield and activates the Infinity Stones with a snap of his fingers which disintegrates Thanos and his army into dust which quickly disappears on the wind.  

Enough said, right there! You'll just have to catch the last fifteen minutes to see how it all plays out, but suffice to say, the Avengers survive to battle it out another day - well most of them do!

'Avengers : Endgame' is everything you would wish for in the conclusion of a hugely successful eleven year run of twenty-two films, and then some. It delivers on many levels - the script penned by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely tightly blends action, emotion, humour and the smarts to satisfy even the most die-hard MCU fan; the deft touch in remaining true to what has gone before by Directors Anthony and Joe Russo; and for giving believable grounded performances by the principal cast and most notably Downey Jnr., Ruffalo, Hemsworth, Evans, Brolin, Rudd, Johansson and Renner plus the entire ensemble who all contribute amiably in their own small way to the bigger picture. Epic, exciting, intimate, powerful, expertly rendered down to the smallest detail, and truly a very fitting end to this phase in the MCU that still leaves the door open for some of our much loved Superheroes to return and reunite at some future date, while introducing others that we're only just getting to know. Join the legions of fans flocking to see 'Avengers : Endgame' - and see it on the biggest screen you can - you won't be disappointed. Watch out too for what is probably the last cameo appearance of the late great Stan Lee.

'Avengers : Endgame' merits five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP : Tuesday 10th July 2018.

'ANT-MAN AND THE WASP' which I saw this week keeps the Marvel machine grinding forever onwards churning out superhero fare for us to spend our $20 or so on at the local multiplex. And so it is too with this sequel to 2015's 'Ant-Man', which off the back of a US$110M Budget grossed US$520M at the global Box Office, was generally well received by Critics and audiences alike, and picked up three award wins and another 33 nominations from around the circuit. This 20th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Directed by Peyton Reed once again, who came on board one month after the release of the first instalment. This film was released in the US last week too, but not in the UK until early August. Paul Rudd, who plays Ant-Man/Scott Lang also takes a Co-Writer credit this time around. The film cost US$162M to make, has so far grossed US$185M and has been generally well received. This is the first MCU film to have the name of a female Superhero protagonist in its title . . . . about time methinks!

Set two years following the events that unfolded with 'Captain America : Civil War' and prior to the events that came to pass just recently in 'Avengers : Infinity War' and now under house arrest (explaining his absence from 'Avengers : Infinity War') Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) struggles with balancing his choices as both a father to young Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) and a responsible superhero. Having had to put his mantle of 'Ant-Man' on ice for the last two years for being caught in the middle of the Avengers fight which was in violation of the Sokovia Accords, Lang is now only three days away from being able to step foot outside his own home. He has been patient, compliant and responsible, while Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and her father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) - a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, entomologist, and physicist who became the original Ant-Man way back when, have gone underground, are also in hiding and have cut all ties these past years with Lang.

Then one day, Hope and Pym are able to open a portal through to the Quantum Realm where Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) was lost back in 1987, has not been seen since and is presumed dead. At that same precise moment Lang has a vision of Janet with whom he became entangled when he himself was in the Quantum Realm two years earlier and from which he was able to successfully return. Lang calls Pym for the first time in two years to explain his vision, but gets Hank's voicemail. A short time later Hope kidnaps Lang, miniaturises them and sets a decoy back at his house so as not to arouse suspicion by the FBI Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) that he has broken the terms of his house arrest.

Pym believes that Lang's vision was a message that Janet is still alive, albeit trapped within the Quantum Realm. Needing a piece of hi-tech equipment to create a stable tunnel through which to access the Quantum Realm, Hope meets with her 'supplier' - a black market arms trader named Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins). But Burch has other plans for Hope when he realises the potential of what she is working on, and he wants in on the action. A fight breaks out between Hope, who by now has assumed the powers of her alter-ego 'The Wasp' and is able to thwart Burch and his goons, but not so with a mysterious figure come to be known as 'Ghost' (Hannah John-Kamen) for her power to be able to travel through solid matter.

In the fracas Ghost escapes with Pym's miniaturised laboratory causing him, Hope and Lang to visit the one man they think can help them retrieve it - Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburn), a former partner of Pym's but they fell out decades before and had not spoken in thirty years. Reluctantly, Foster helps Pym locate his lost laboratory at Ghosts place of residence. Gaining entry Ghost is able to easily overpower the threesome and reveals that her name is Ava Starr and she has suffered from molecular instability since she was a child when her father, also a former partner of Pym's, died in an explosion with her mother too, while conducting a Quantum experiment which resulted in Ava's unstable condition. Foster reveals that his is in cahoots with Ava and is in fact her guardian, and is determined to make Ava better by harnessing Janet's Quantum energy. But Pym will have none of this as he believes that this would kill Janet, and so they escape with the aid of some giants ants.

With their laboratory back Pym and Hope resume their plan to fire up the tunnel. They are able to contact Janet through Lang, who gives them detailed coordinates with which to locate her in the Quantum Realm. But time is of the essence and they only have a limited window of two hours before the opportunity is lost for a century or so. Burch meanwhile has reassembled his gang of goons and through Lang's security company 'X-Cons' and his partners Luis (Michael Pena), Dave (Tip 'T'.I.' Harris) and Kurt (David Dastmalchian) are able to locate Pym's lab. Burch calls an FBI Agent he has on the payroll, who in turns contacts Woo and alerts them to Lang's presence while supposedly under house arrest. Lang hot foots it back to his house just in time for Woo to walk in expecting to catch him out - but not so. However, with Ant-Man indisposed, the FBI converge on Pym's lab and arrest him and Hope leaving Ghost to once again steal the miniaturised lab.

Lang let off the hook by Woo, is able to come to the rescue of Pym and Hope and help them escape custody, and they locate the lab in a well executed and at times completely over the top car chase sequence through the streets of San Francisco as Ant-Man goes from being very little to very large. Lang and Hope divert Ava while Pym enters the Quantum Realm to retrieve Janet. Luis, Dave, and Kurt help apprehend Burch, so Lang and Hope can stop Ava who has already begun sapping Janet of her energy. Pym and Janet arrive back safe from the Quantum Realm, and Janet voluntarily grants some of her energy to Ava to temporarily stabilise her.

Lang returns home once again, just in time for a now suspicious Woo to unbuckle his ankle bracelet at the end of his house arrest period. Ava and Foster go into hiding, with Foster vowing to find a cure for her. Wait for the mid-credits sequence, which brings us right up to date, and naturally Stan Lee's obligatory laugh out loud one liner cameo.

It's good to see some levity arriving in the MCU in the form of 'Ant-Man and The Wasp' after the more depressing and distressing 'Captain America : Civil War' and 'Avengers : Infinity War' episodes. Here the more light handed approach works well with the storyline that is not overly complicated and delivers just the right amount of humour to keep it grounded. The action set pieces are well executed and work best when Ant-Man and The Wasp are reduced down to their insect size or conversely Ant-Man grows to be a towering giant of some sixty feet. Both Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly have settled well into their roles and despite their occasional verbal sparring, feel comfortable around each other and with their gifted super powers. Michelle Pfeiffer's role is a little under cooked, and Walton Goggins is half baked, but these are minor criticisms of a worthy and respectable sequel that is fast paced, good humoured, light hearted and still packs a punch.

'Ant-Man and The Wasp' merits four claps of the clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-