Tuesday 24 August 2021

JOLT

CONTAINS GZZZZZZZZZT SPOILERS

That sound, of course, being the onomatopoeic equivalent of the sound of heavy voltage rattling through machinery. The electric shocks in this defiantly silly but perfectly watchable Friday night dumbo action movie are smaller, to the extent of barely being shocking at all, but there's still a good measure of no-think fun and crunchy violence to be had.

Lindy (Kate Beckinsale) has to wear a special electric vest and self-administer jolts of electricity every so often. She was born with a tendency to irrational and violent rage and now has to zap herself every time she's on the edge of hulking out and beating seven bells out of whoever's angering her: aggressive diners, unhelpful restaurant staff, manspreaders on the underground. She thinks she's found a solution: a budding romance with a potential boyfriend after a couple of blind dates - but then the only man she's ever connected with gets murdered and (in the face of apparent police apathy and incompetence) goes out for headcracking revenge...

Set in America though it looks a lot like London (and apparently shot in Portugal!), Jolt's primary asset is Beckinsale's hilarious take-no-shit attitude which gets you past some of the sillier moments. It's not a great B-movie, but it's a fairly entertaining one: Stanley Tucci is always good value and Susan Sarandon turns up briefly in the hopes of nudging forward a sequel (Jolt 2: Electric Boogaloo?). Don't expect a gamechanging masterpiece and you may well enjoy it.

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