Rent Blue Iguana (2018)

Gratuitous violence and a patchy production. - Blue Iguana review by AH

This is one of those look-alike black-comedy heist flicks that celebrates bad behaviour. "Oh, come on, lighten up!", I hear you say, "It's only a movie!"

I'm not sure why there's so much demand for the glamorisation of violence in films. If this film was exceptionally well made and compelling in other aspects of its production one might argue that the violence is somehow justifiable, but actually this film has little going for it at all. The story told (a very unlikely one, bordering on the unfathomable) has very little in common with most peoples experience of life and unless one gets a kick out of watching people shoot at each other with handguns I'm not sure I can think of any reason why you would want to watch this film. What's so entertaining about people behaving badly with guns?

Bizarrely, Simon Callow appears in this production: goodness knows why. The scene in which he appears is entirely redundant; it conveys the impression that it's been spliced in from another film, possibly by accident. I expect we're supposed to find the sight of one of our leading thespians uttering foul language hilariously funny; a thirteen year old pleb might well do so, but I imagine most of us find this sort of thing tediously immature.

The action grinds to an almost-standstill halfway through before winding itself back into gear and finishing with yet another absurd shoot-out. The soundtrack is appropriately hideous. On the plus side, the film looks good and there are some comic moments; Phoebe Fox does especially well.