[imagesource: Susie Allnutt / Warner Bros.]

For many people, movies and series are a form of escapism.

We are cooped up inside our homes, amidst a global pandemic, but there’s always Joe Exotic to remind us that things could be worse.

He only has a few days left to try and score a pardon from President Donald Trump, so he better hurry.

If you prefer your entertainment very close to home, how about a film about a couple forced into lockdown together? Enter Locked Down, which has received a very mixed bag of reviews.

Before we get to that, here’s the movie’s synopsis via HBO Max:

Just as they decide to separate, Linda (Anne Hathaway) and Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor) find life has other plans when they are stuck at home in a mandatory lockdown. Co-habitation is proving to be a challenge, but fueled by poetry and copious amounts of wine, it will bring them closer together in the most surprising way.

Take in the trailer:

The movie will be released on HBO Max in the US today, but I’d consider holding off for now.

Let’s begin with The Guardian’s one-star review, which calls the movie a “pandemic stinker”:

…not only would the film have been an insufferable bore without a global pandemic raging on but given the added stresses and strains and possible danger involved in making it now, its existence feels like even more of an offence, a head-smashingly redundant waste of time, talent, energy and resources, a shockingly early yet entirely convincing contender for worst film of the year…

What makes its stench that much harder to endure is that in a different universe, with a very different script, there’s something here that could have flown, especially at this moment…

My advice for surviving 2021 is simple: wear a mask, wash your hands and please, please keep your distance from Locked Down.

Shots fired.

Hollywood Reporter’s review sums up the movie as “supremely annoying,” adding that “this is a script that should have been buried in a vault more impenetrable than the one at Harrods”.

It’s not all doom and gloom, with Variety saying that Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor excel, and IndieWire giving it a ‘B’ rating.

Different folks, different strokes, innit?

By the way, if you like scathing reviews, this one is worth a revisit.

[source:guardian]