Shadow in the Cloud * * * *

Maude the madwoman.  Got to love her!

This film should not exist.   The screenwriters should have stopped and thought "What are we doing?".  When the screenplay  was shown to others for appraisal, the response should have been, "Are you mad?". When it was shown to producers they should have just roared with laughter and thrown it in the bin. No actor should have agreed to do this, and so it goes on. It's such a crazy mixed up idea it simply shouldn't exist. But I'm so glad it does.    
    Shadow in the Cloud is great fun. It's from New Zealand, a country that consistently shows more talent and creativity(and bravery) than us Australians when it comes to film making.  This exciting, delightful, whacky film is a WW11 drama set on a bomber. 
    Starting off with a short educational clip that would have been shown to WWII service people we are introduced to "Gremlins".  A creature that doesn't actually exist but incompetence and carelessness can make it very real.
    The "Flying Fortress" crew are a mixture of allied forces, featuring, Americans, New Zealanders and Brits. (I don't know that such a crew could have ever existed).  There are also two other passengers - one is a girl ("What's a dame doing on board!?") who claims to be on a secret mission.  She is carrying a highly confidential dispatch box. 
    The other unwelcome passenger is.... well.... have you seen Alien or Life?     
    The girl passenger - Maude -  is extremely well played by Chloe Grace Moretz. Shoved down into the only spare seat available (the lower gun turret) she is subjected to never ending sexist condescending comments which she can hear over the radio communication.  But she is not shy of firing back.  As one of the crew says,  "She's got a smart mouth".  From her position , Maude is first to notice the other passenger crawling across the wing of the plane. They think she is crazy.   As the journey continues, things go decidedly wrong and pretty soon Maude is looked at as a Jonah. "And what's in that secret dispatch box of yours anyway?", they keep asking. 
    She warns them, if they open it they will be Court-Martialed. 
    Then Japanese fighter planes start attacking the bomber and Maude shows the rest of the crew just how well she can fire a gun.  Then the "other stowaway" decides to get very active and introduce himself to the rest of the crew.
    By the time we reach the finale of this film, and we have discovered more about the contents of the dispatch box, along with why Maude is on board, and who the other unauthorized passenger is, we reach a level of madness and impossible survival that going to prompt you to either walk out the cinema or embrace it. Do yourself a favour, do not walk away.  There is more fun to come when they land.
    We couldn't live off a diet of films like this, but boy are they welcome once in a while!