IRON SKY: THE COMING RACE *** Finland / Germany / Belgium 2019 Dir: Timo Vuorensola. 90 mins
A likeable, busy sequel to the well-liked 2012 wannabe-cult movie, this post-Trump entry (yes, there is the line “Make Earth great again”) follows events in the wake of 2018, at which point the Moon-Nazi war with Earth ended in Nuclear Armageddon. Cut to 2047: Neomenia, where the surviving Nazis and Earth folk live side by side, is over-populated, falling apart and beset by moon quakes. Aged former Nazi teacher Renate Richter – whose ass-kicking grown up daughter is well played by Lari Rossi – has a disease that can only be cured by Vrilla, the “pure energy” that powers the Moon Nazi ships and affords them eternal life. The Vrill are lizard people (the first intelligent life on Earth) and, with the return of Moon Fuhrer Udo Kier, the plot involves a trip to the “Hollow Earth”. Though the joke is in danger of wearing thin and a returning Stephanie Paul grates for the second time, this is a spirited, great-looking companion piece to IRON SKY. Some of the gags work well, including Tom Green’s Donald, founder of “Jobsism” – a religion from the teachings of Steve Jobs (“Look at your e-prayer app…”). The songs are fun and the incidental jokes are cute (note the old Nokia phone – complete with “Snake” – coming to the rescue, “No Wi-fi needed!”), and, in a beefed-up dual role, Udo Kier is having a great time. The deployment of David Icke-inspired shape-shifting lizard people means that this is the only chance we will ever have to see Margaret Thatcher and Bin Laden in a chase scene on a dinosaur-pulled carriage, while Hitler (Kier) rides a T-Rex shouting “Sieg Heil motherfuckers!” Idi Amin, Caligula, Stalin, Putin, Kim Jong-un, Gengis Khan and Mark Zuckerberg are among the other famous monsters appearing onscreen.
Review by Steven West