Amazing Three: Daffy, Porky and Petunia join forces against evil chewing gum in ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up’.

THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE *** (91 minutes) PG
There’s a rather hilarious gag about influencer culture early in The Day the World Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie that alone would be worth the price of admission.

Blessedly, that golden satirical jibe is but one joke in a relentless stream of verbal and visual gags in this fast, fun-filled animated lark in which Daddy Duck and Porky Pig (complete with signature stammer) join forces with corporate scientist Petunia Pig to do battle with a cheesy alien with a scheme to take over the world with mind control chewing gum.

A lot of effort has been put in to replicate the warm look and comic elasticity of old-school Warner Bros cartoons, distinguishing it from the cool precision of digital animation (though that’s a generalisation).

As has always been the case, kids are well-catered for with lashings of slapstick humour while a large fistful of jokes are aimed squarely at the grown ups who grew up with Daffy, Porky, Bugs and crew.

It’s a delight and, in great news (fingers crossed), we’re soon to get Coyote vs Acme, a Roadrunner film. We’ll count ourselves fortunate indeed if it’s half as funny as this lark.

IN VITRO **** (88 minutes) M
An excellent, taut little sci-fi thriller set in a near-future Australia on a cattle property that specializes in cloning cows for a market hungry for the taste of real meat.

This being the future the science, of course, goes sideways when farmer Jack (Ashley Zukerman) decides to take the nascent technology a step too far, which his hard-working wife Layla (Talia Zucker, who co-wrote with the directors) is none-too-pleased about.

Deploying a minimalist style very effectively, directors Will Howarth & Tim McKeith crank up the tension with consummate expertise, delivering a brace of precisedid ly executed jolts.

In Vitro is a terrific Australian movie that – sadly and predictably – is unlikely to get the public profile or audience it deserves, instead disappearing from its brief theatrical run before hitting the stream, where it will hopefully find its people.

A WORKING MAN *** (116 minutes) MA
Our favourite Charles Bronson-inspired action man Jason Statham is back for even more morally-motivated mayhem in the shoot-em-up, punch-em-up, stab-em-up soiree A Working Man.

Like most of the bad guys herein, the film is proficiently executed by director David Ayers (who did The Beekeeper with Statham) who elicits the usual two-stroke performance from our boy.

Laconic as ever, Jace plays Levon Cade, a down-on his-luck former soldier deeply indebted to his compassionate construction company boss (Michael Peña).

When Jenny (Arianna Rivas), the daughter of said boss, is kidnapped by Russian thugs with extremely poor judgement Cade gets his guns and knives together and goes on a hunting spree after the gang of greasy human traffickers responsible. In the interests of diversity, women are included in this gaggle of low-life scum.

Co-written by Sylvester Stallone (who co-produced with Statham), the film is a celebration of everything Statham fans are entitled to expect: slick production; loads of action; tumbling vehicles; plenty of tough talk; and, of course, the mandatory mumblecore dialogue delivery from Statham.

That’s not a knock, by the way. As an actor Statham knows what he’s best at and sticks to it. And for the record, Statham must be the fittest 57-year old actor today.

The film sports a nicely layered narrative with the ever-reliable theme about family running through it. And action fans should brace themselves for the tribute the film pays to the M-14 rifle, featured in so many war films. It’s a lovely touch and almost enough to make your eyes mist over. Statham certainly can’t be faulted for not knowing his audience.

All up, it’s solid stuff and easily as good as The Beekeeper.

And expect at least one sequel, possibly more. Levon’s Trade, the book on which the film is based, comes from a series by prolific author Chuck Dixon, so there’s lots of source material to mine.

Also for the record, let us not underplay the significance of how Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham, having worked together on The Expendables, have teamed up are now producing action movies together. Consider it a pop-cultural apotheosis, a term coined by Russell Brand when he discovered how Elvis Presley was a huge Monty Python fan.

The term applies to that remarkable confluence and it certainly applies here. More power to them.

OH, CANADA ** (94 minutes) M
Oh, dear.

Richard Gere plays a dying documentary filmmaker who agrees to do an on-camera interview as a means of confessing his many sins, most to do with infidelity.

Great idea and Gere (star of American Gigolo) creates a salty presence but the choppy nature of all the flash-backing is a drain on the attention and makes it tough to feel for the beleaguered characters.

Still, it must be said how we’ll never stop thanking Paul Schrader for showing us the underside of the American psyche with a formidable CV that includes: Raging Bull and Taxi Driver (as writer, for Martin Scorsese); Hardcore, American Gigolo, Auto Focus, Affliction (as writer/director) and Patty Hearst (director). He also wrote The Last Temptation of Christ for Scorsese.

Pity his latest offering is a disjointed snoozer.