Shadow in the Cloud (2020)

I had quite high hopes for this - I liked the premiss. A WWII bomber flight has "Maude" (Chloë Grace Moretz) secreted in the lower gun turret. She has a secret cargo - but what could it be...? As they travel, some of the rather asinine crew become suspicious of her, her package and when they begin to see things; when things start to go a bit awry with the plane - then the crew must brace themselves for quite a surprise! Sadly, though - the execution of this isn't up to much. The acting is poor, the special effects straight from an episode of "Stargate" and the score tries very hard to compensate for the lack of menace generated by either cast or director. The story allows itself to get caught up in the relationship issues of the crew, never a great thing with an adventure film and the ending is just plain daft. Sorry - I love my sci-fi, but this is just really disappointing.

This might be one of the most entertaining things I’ve ever seen. Simply stupendously sensational stuff. 'Shadow in the Cloud' is bonkers, I had a blast watching it. There were no rejected ideas in the writers room, that’s for certain! I'm glad to see that this hasn't been slaughtered via reviews; at least not to the level I was expecting. It’s utter madness and I’m fully here for it, the amount of craziness they fit into less than 80 or so minutes is nuts; the special effects - aside from the iffy end fight, granted - is neat for a production of this standing. Chloë Grace Moretz legit gives a great performance, easily her best that I’ve currently seen. The rest of the cast fit their roles well, with the radio comms made great use of for large portions for the cast behind Moretz. I thought it’d get boring being so talky at the beginning, but it never did. Immense rewatchability to this, I’ll no doubt be revisiting it. It makes absolutely zero sense, like whatsoever, but it might be the best 'switch off your brain' flick out there. No joke. It's unashamedly stupid and I kinda love it; you definitely can't deny its originality either!

Great watch, would watch again, and do recommend. Sometimes it is a really great thing to go into a movie with extremely low expectations, and I certainly went into this thinking it's going to be boring. That's its a WW2 courier movie, but it really is so much more. It honestly feels like this is a collection of stories that are all stitched together in a fantastic way. It's modular storytelling, and while it's a trend I've been noticing in the beginning of the 2020's this goes above and beyond. It's almost a 5-act movie, but each act is it's own 3-chapter act. They nailed the writing in this so that it is both powerful and captivating. It's not just a WW2 story (though that's the setting), it's not just a woman's story, it's not just a hero vs evil story, it's not just a captive / isolation story, it's not just a combat story: it's really all of these and more with some great cinematography to enhance it all the way though. This is definitely worth the watch, and don't let any aspect of "I heard it was an x movie" stop you. There is something for everyone here, and it's all good.

Honestly I don't know why I enjoyed this film. It is dumb, really really dumb. There are so many bad American accents from the New Zealand cast, the stunts are snort out loud ridiculous. But somehow, this film has a visual style and creativity that at times lift it above it's B Movie and proud station. I would be VERY selective about who I recommend it to. I really had fun watching and shaking my head at the silliness and would absolutely watch it again