SHADOW IN THE CLOUD (2020)
World War II set horror/thriller finds Air Force officer Maude Garrett (Chloë Grace Moretz) joining the crew of a B-17 bomber to deliver a case filled with highly sensitive documents to the Pacific. Maude must not only deal with a highly misogynistic crew that forces her to travel in a gun turret, but with Japanese fighter planes and a vicious gremlin, as well. However, Maude has secrets of her own that come to light as the crew is attacked from without and within.
Ridiculous flick is directed by Roseanne Liang from her script with Max Landis, and they have concocted a mess of parts from other movies and TV shows. Biggest takes are from the Legendary Twilight Zone episode Nightmare at 20,000 Feet and the Heavy Metal segment B-17. As the crew members berate and talk to her in a degrading sexual manner, Maude warns of a creature on the wing, which gets her mocked even more. Of course, there is indeed a little monster on the plane and it starts to tear it apart. This would have been fine enough for any other movie, but Liang and Landis have Maude also being a fraud and what she’s actually keeping in that case is laughably ludicrous, as is the reason why. Add to that, we are bludgeoned with the feminist messages about how women was treated and viewed back then, messages that are lost anyway in the levels of sheer ridiculousness the movie attains. You should see how Maude gets back in the craft after falling out during a battle. Even in a popcorn movie it is face-palm inducing and this silly mess sees itself as a movie with a message. Yikes. Too dumb for it’s own sake, or that of any of the good intensions it might have had, but at least Moretz gives it her all. She’d be a good action heroine in a better movie. It is only a merciful 83 minutes long, so, it had that going in it’s favor.
-MonsterZero NJ
MonsterZero NJ's Movie Madhouse 