Thunder Force doesn't suck

Melissa McCarthy as Lydia is worthy of a few laughs in this comedy directed by her partner/husband/co-star Ben Falcone and co-starring her real life best friend, Octavia Spencer.

Melissa McCarthy is funny. She makes people laugh with her over-the-top, raunchy, slapstick, and at times, physical comedy that have become her trademark. Even when a movie is not Grade-A (Tammy, The Boss) she still has enough of that ‘umph’ factor to make it work and partners with good actors (Bateman, Bell, Spencer) - and that’s very much the case with her latest collaboration with her husband, Ben Falcone and her BFF, Octavia Spencer.

In Thunder Force, McCarthy stars as one half of a best friend duo, as Lydia. Lydia is cheeky, bold, loyal and never runs from a fight. She’s rough and tumble. She would easily fall into a camp of girls and women I’ve been attracted to as friends in life - not the roughness (but maybe), but the boldness, the lightness in the form of humor, and the fierce friendship she brings into the equation. Lydia is a friend for life and she makes that clear from the get go.

Thunder Force on Netflix packs a punch with its star power. I’m sort of over Bobby Cannavale playing against type as a villain. He’s a fine actor and capable comedian, but I’d still contest his best role to date was in The Station Agent.

When she meets Spencer’s Emily in their elementary school years, Lydia comes to Emily’s defense when a bad news school boy taunts and bullies Lydia by calling her a nerd and telling her to get in the trash. Sufficed to say, Lydia comes to Emily’s defense, punches the boy and the boy ends up in the trash. Cue chuckle (from my son but mostly because she talked smack to a mean kid)

Emily’s tale is one of avenging the death of her parents by evil super-human bandits called “The Miscreants” and so Emily’s mission in life is to become a super scientist and take down the Miscreants. She achieves this end but she gave up Lydia along the way, cut loose the wildcard that would shift her focus from this ultimate end. Sufficed to say, circumstance brings the two back into each other’s orbits as they race to defeat the Miscreants. At first, the disruption to Emily’s life by way of Lydia is unwelcome but over time, Lydia finds her way back into Emily’s good graces.

80s anyone? McCarthy as Lydia and Bateman as Jerry/Crabman in one of the movie’s 80 video montage moments.

All other funny moments in the film come by way of Jason Bateman as the precariously evil Miscreant, known as The Crab because he has crab hands. Any moment between him and McCarthy is fun because Bateman can’t do anything wrong these days. (Smartless, anyone?)

Not surprising for anyone who watches this film, McCarthy hails from the Chicago area. For Glenn Frey lovers, there’s some fun music honoring him as well as Van Halen, Slayer and the city of Chicago (da Bears, White Sox). For anyone who had a pulse in 1985, there’s a “oh yeah, I remember that” moment in the film where McCarthy pays homage to the Superbowl 1985 Bears win. I was 7 and living in Rockford, Illinois at the time (90 miles west of Chicago) and can still sing along to the Superbowl Shuffle. Ok, not really, but hearing it puts a smile on my face.

There have been and will continue to be many critics of the film. This article in Slate goes as far as to argue that McCarthy needs to cut the cord on the husband-wife collabs and have her focus her talents on future partnerships with Paul Feig because those comedies have been more worthy of our time. (Bridemaids, The Heat)

Maybe it depends on what you’re looking for. For me, at 1:47, this movie was the right amount of time and depth for our Saturday night movie night tradition. It held its own and in the Godzilla vs Kong competition, from the week prior, was the clear victor.