Marty Supreme
Directed by: Josh Safdie
Written by: Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
Starring: Timothee Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Kevin O’Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara and Fran Dreschner
Music by: Daniel Lopatin
Rated: 15
During the 1950s, a young New York shoe salesman named Marty Mauser (Timothee Chalamet) hates his job, and wishes to play professional table tennis. After losing the British Open final to the Japanese champion Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), Marty suffers an endless cycle of insane bad luck after refusing an opportunity for an exhibition match in Tokyo…
After the Good Time and Uncut Gems director siblings, Josh and Benny Safdie decided to go into separate directing careers in 2024, it is ironic that their first new films developed separately, were both about the dark side of the sports industry. While Benny’s The Smashing Machine was a straightforward biopic focused on the career of Mark Kerr, Josh’s new sports film, Marty Supreme, may be loosely related to the life of the eccentric American table tennis player, Marty Reisman, but it is definitely not a biopic.
Despite starting off as a typical sports film, revolving around Marty Mauser’s road to becoming a professional table tennis player in the 1950s, the next two acts go into a completely insane direction, much like last year’s Oscar-winning Anora. With literally everything going wrong for Marty as he tries to get a plane ticket to Japan for a match, such as police chases, a bathtub falling through the roof, trying to get a gangster’s dog back from an angry farmer and having his pregnant girlfriend, Rachel Mizler (Odessa A’zion) tagging along, one can view Marty Supreme as either a crazy comedy, or a satire on the realities of the American dream, as Marty’s ambitious life plan is constantly being ruined via bad luck and his own ego.
Timothée Chalamet is set to receive his second Oscar nomination in a row as the wisecracking, yet constantly humiliated Marty, both Gwyneth Paltrow as an older actress who Marty tries to woo and the already mentioned Odessa A’zion as his pregnant girlfriend, both get fantastic moments as well, and Kevin O’Leary gets a memorable role as a businessman who won’t take any of Marty’s actions, leading to a hilarious payoff involving a ping pong paddle.
Overall, Marty Supreme is a darkly funny, utterly entertaining and well-written satire on how silly the American dream can get, while also being yet another reminder of how talented Timothee Chalamet is and how great the Safdie brothers are at making these types of films, even when apart from each other.
Rating: 4.5/5
Song Sung Blue (2025)
Directed by: Craig Brewer
Written by: Craig Brewer
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson, Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson, Mustafa Shakir, Fisher Stevens and Jim Belushi
Music by: Scott Bomar
Rated: 12A
Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman), a singing impersonator, finds a new passion for performing tribute acts based on Neil Diamond, with the help of fellow impersonator, Claire (Kate Hudson). After they get married, they turn the Neil Diamond performances into a double act called “Lightning and Thunder” to great acclaim. However, when Claire goes through a life-changing accident, Mike must do what he can to help her reclaim their passion for singing…
Based on Greg Kohs’s emotional 2008 documentary, Song Sung Blue, that recounted the careers of the Neil Diamond tribute performers, “Lightning and Thunder”, this dramatised approach to the couple’s life and their triumphs and struggles, is a lot more interesting than the typical music biopic.
Rather than focusing on a singer’s career like Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman, Song Sung Blue is a great tribute to the under-appreciated work of tribute acts, which gives this true story, a lot more relatable feel, rather than the typical problems that rich singers go through. Despite being marketed as a feel-good musical, this film, like the documentary, doesn’t sugar-coat the stress that these people go through.
Despite being slightly distracting as Mike due to his screen presence, especially in a bar fight sequence where he is wearing yellow, Hugh Jackman, as seen in his musical background and in The Greatest Showman, does a fantastic job as this fascinating man, with Kate Hudson being incredibly great as Claire, especially during an unexpected tonal shift after the first forty-five minutes.
Overall, while slightly less down to earth as the documentary was, and a questionable decision not to age up any of the supporting characters, despite the real story spanning two decades, Song Sung Blue is still an emotional experience that celebrates both the passion for tribute performances and the struggles of love throughout difficult moments in life.
Rating: 3.5/5
Hamnet
Directed by: Chloé Zhao
Written by: Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, David Wilmot, Jacobi Jupe, Louisa Harland, John Mackay, Olivia Lynes and Noah Jupe
Music by: Max Richter
Rated: 12A
Starting a family with a woman known for her herbal background and strange habits named Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley), a young William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal), spends time away from them when his playwright career takes off in London. When an awful tragedy befalls their son, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), the depression that his parents feel, soon manifests into the creation of the Bard’s most iconic play…
While films about William Shakespeare are no stranger to awards season, most controversially when Shakespeare in Love took the Best
Picture Academy Award that Saving Private Ryan was expected to win, this latest film based on this playwright’s role in British history has been a long time coming, thanks to the popularity of the 2020 book Hamnet was based on.
Being a fictional account of how the death of William’s only son, Hamnet Shakespeare, led to the creation of Hamlet, Maggie O’Farrell’s book won loads of literature awards at the beginning of the 2020s, so it is true that a film adaptation was always going to happen. With O’Farrell herself as co-writer, along with Eternals director Chloé Zhao seeking to repeat her success from Nomadland, Hamnet is most successful in the acting work and in exploring deeply depressing themes about coping with child loss.
While the whole aspect of how Hamlet was created is surprisingly downplayed in spite what the trailers have been hinting at, both Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal carry this film forward as two people worn down by the world, and the scenes that focus on the loss theme, are the strongest, even if the incredibly slow pacing does make the experience a bit boring at times.
Overall, Hamnet is a fantastic character study about how grief can lead to both depression and powerful inspiration, with great cinematography, acting and music. However, it could have been much better if it were twenty minutes shorter, and balanced both the plots of the loss of the child and how it led to the birth of Hamlet, into a more tighter screenplay.
Rating: 3.5/5
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Directed by: Nia DaCosta
Written by: Alex Garland
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, Emma Laird, Sam Locke, Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Mirren Mack and Chi Lewis-Parry
Music by: Hildur Guðnadóttir
Rated: 18
A few weeks after the humane death of his mother, Spike (Alfie Williams) has had his new solitary life in the zombie-infested Great Britain, cut short when he is captured by the insane Jimmies, a gang of Satanists, led by the twisted Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), who worship Jimmy Savile, and is forced to join them on their murders. Meanwhile, Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), while continuing to live his own life protecting his “Bone Temple” monuments, reaches a breakthrough in his research, when he befriends Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), a large zombie whose Rage Virus infection, slowly starts to wear off in response to Kelson’s kindness and compassion…
Coming just over six months after 28 Years Later brought back the 28 Days Later franchise back into a post Walking Dead and World War Z environment, The Bone Temple was filmed back to back along with Danny Boyle’s return to the series, which is designed to further explain the former film’s extremely divisive twist ending.
The ending of 28 Years Later, in which Alfie the young protagonist, ended up running into a group of Jimmy Savile cosplayer satanists (which does make sense in this alternate universe where the U.K. fell to a zombie outbreak in 2002, never exposing the evil British entertainer’s crimes, like they were in the real world in 2012), was a joke that half the world didn’t get, and a number of the other half, were very upset and angry over the reminder of one of the most shameful aspects of British popular culture history, especially after the television biopic, The Reckoning, aired less than two years before the film was released.
While other viewers also found the “reveal” to be a tonal whiplash from a film that kept up the realism of the original 2002 film, The Bone Temple does manage to make these new antagonists, as hateful as possible, especially with Jack O’Connell’s great performance as their sadistic leader, Jimmy Crystal. Despite their looks and names, Director Nia DaCosta, thankfully doesn’t use this as exploitation, by never mentioning Savile’s name outright, or making any references to his career, as it is just used as a plot device to motivate the antagonists.
While this aspect of The Bone Temple is also its biggest weakness, as Alfie Williams’s protagonist from the last film, Spike, is given almost nothing to do, the other plot, revolving around the also returning Dr. Kelson, is the heart and soul of this spin-off. Ralph Fiennes gives another great performance as the crazy, yet kind-hearted doctor, and his plot revolving his attempts to cure and educate a less aggressive zombie (who also returns from the last film), gets the most interesting themes of redemption and most emotional moments of this film. After being built up in the last film with a zombie giving birth to an unaffected baby, it does set up an interesting direction for the zombies, which looks to have a fantastic payoff when Boyle returns for the inevitable trilogy closer for these new films.
Overall, even if her direction isn’t as great as Boyle’s was, Nia DeCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is another good entry in this great horror series. In spite of it’s problems, it does take Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s British zombie franchise, into an exciting new direction, that may be ready to move on from being a traditional zombie apocalypse story, into something a lot more interesting.
Rating: 4/5
The History of Sound
Directed by: Oliver Hermanus
Written by: Ben Shattuck
Starring: Paul Mescal, Josh O’Connor, Molly Price, Hadley Robinson, Emma Canning and Chris Cooper
Music by: N/A
Rated: 15
Set in the late 1910s and early 1920s, two music students named Lionel Worthing (Paul Mescal) and David White (Josh O’Connor), fall in love with each other, over their passion for folk music. After Daniel comes back from service in World War I, he and Lionel go on a journey to Maine to collect folk songs on wax cylinders, which leads to their paths diverging in separate directions…
After winning the 2011 Queer Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Beauty, South African director Oliver Hermanus, has followed suit over the next decade and a half, with films like The Endless River, Moffie and this adaptation of two short stories by this film’s screenwriter, Ben Shattuck.
The History of Sound, clearly shows its source material of two combined short stories, as the main aspect of this film’s marketing, a love story between two men who have a passion for folk music, is only present in the first hour, with the rest of the film only focusing on the Paul Mescal character dealing with his own problems in life. This does make the pacing incredibly slow and unfocused at times.
However, while this film does lift a lot of plot elements from Brokeback Mountain (along with several of that film’s plot points that have not aged well, as queer cinema has moved forward from more problematic clichés in the last two decades), both Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor give fantastic performances and the theme of people finding meaning in folk music, is very powerful.
Overall, despite slow pacing and some questionable moments, The History of Sound is a good love story about the importance of folk music’s impact on people.
Rating: 3/5
Stitch Head
Directed by: Steve Hudson
Written by: Steve Hudson
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Joel Fry, Tia Bannon, Seth Usdenov and Rob Brydon
Music by: Nick Urata
Rated: U
On the top of a hill overlooking the small village of Grubber Nubbin, in Castle Grotteskew, a mad scientist (Rob Brydon), has created a group of friendly monsters, but often ignores them as he strives for making better ones. His first creation, a humanlike monster named Stitch Head (Asa Butterfield), soon grows tired of being left to look after the other creatures, and decides to leave the castle to pursue a career in performing, after being hired by a greedy ringmaster named Fulbert Freakfinder (Seth Usdenov). Now, it’s up to Creature (Joel Fry), the newest monster from the castle, and a sympathetic human girl named Arabella (Tia Bannon), to try and convince Stitch Head to come back…
Based on Guy Bass’s 2010s children’s book series, Stitch Head, this latest film from GFM Animation, whose previous works include Duck Duck Goose, Paws of Fury and the (still yet to be released in the U.K.), Hitpig, does have a good message about true family love, but not much else aside from creative character animation on the monster characters.
Even though the voice-acting, especially from Asa Butterfield’s titular Stitch Head and Joel Fry’s lovable Creature, is very charming, there overall, isn’t much to recommend in Stitch Head for anyone over the age of twelve, aside from some funny moments and some inventive musical moments.
Rating: 2.5/5
Shelter
Directed by: Ric Roman Waugh
Written by: Ward Parry
Starring: Jason Statham, Bodhi Rae Beathnach, Bill Nighy, Naomi Ackie and Daniel Mays
Music by: David Buckley
Rated: 15
Former assassin Michael Mason (Jason Statham), has been living a solitary existence on a small island near Scotland, with his beloved dog. After unexpectedly becoming the sole guardian of his food supplier, a young girl named Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), after her uncle drowns at sea, Mason’s former employers soon catch wind of his presence, forcing him to go on the run across the United Kingdom, to get Jessie to safety.
Not as over the top as other January Jason Statham action films that have been released in the last few years such as A Working Man and The Beekeeper, Shelter is a lot more gritty and emotional, as shown in Mason’s bond with Jessie, but still has the usual gunplay and fist fights that have defined this star’s career.
Director Ric Roman Waugh and cinematographer Martin Ahlgren, do manage to make the Scottish coastal and forest backgrounds, very intimidating and young star Bodhi Rae Breathnach, despite having a weak script, does manage to be a very believable character, which is impressive in a cast that includes Statham, Bill Nighy and Naomi Ackie.
Overall, while not having as much laughs or creativity as his other films, Shelter is another good action film, that helps make the slow month of January, a lot more enjoyable due to Statham’s reliable set of skills.
Rating: 3/5
Primate
Directed by: Johannes Roberts
Written by: Johannes Roberts and Ernest Riera
Starring: Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng and Troy Kotsur
Music by: Adrian Johnston
Rated: 18
Lucy Pinborough (Johnny Sequoyah), a college student, has returned to spend a weekend at her family’s cliffside home in Hawaii, where her father, Adam (Troy Kotsur), has been raising a friendly chimpanzee named Ben (Miguel Torres Umba). As Lucy and her friends, along with her aloof younger sister, Erin (Gia Hunter), relax in the home, a rabid mongoose bites Ben, causing him to go completely insane and murderous…
Loosely inspired by the real disturbing cases of pet chimpanzees attacking their owners, such as the infamous 2009 “Travis” attack, as well as the subject matter featuring as a subplot in the Jordan Peele film, Nope, Primate does exactly what it says on the poster, remake Stephen King’s Cujo, but with a chimp instead of a dog.
While Primate doesn’t explore the ethics of the treatment of wild animals as pets, director Johannes Roberts uses his horror background from 47 Metres Down, The Other Side of the Door and Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City, to showcase a lot of gory creativity in how Ben the rabid chimp kills his victims, with a lot more King Kong references than expected in two memorable murders. However, aside from the wonderful Troy Kotsur, nearly every other character are just bland archetypes.
Overall, despite not shining a light on the causes of these kinds of cases, Primate is mostly concerned with delivering great, gory fun, which is provided plenty by this “Furious George”!
Rating: 3/5
Send Help
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Written by: Damian Shannon and Mark Swift
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Edyll Ismail, Xavier Samuel, Chris Pang and Dennis Haysbert
Music by: Danny Elfman
Rated: 15
Unappreciated financial strategist Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams), despite being promised a promotion from her late boss, is cruelly denied the promotion by his replacement, his spoiled son. Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien). When Linda and Bradley end up stranded on a tropical island after their plane crashes in the Gulf of Thailand, the dynamic between them changes. Linda’s love for television shows about survival, helps her quickly adapt and love her new life, while Bradley’s situation gets worse and worse…
After over a decade and a half of making mainstream content for Disney with Oz the Great and Powerful and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, director Sam Raimi returns to his gleefully twisted roots with Send Help, his most demented and darkly hilarious film since Drag Me to Hell.
Taking a Robinson Crusoe/Blue Lagoon premise of getting stranded on a island, and making it into an “eat the rich” dark comedy that films like The Menu, Ready or Not and Saltburn have done so well, Send Help may be a bit more predictable than Raimi’s usual output, but Rachel McAdams’s demented humour and the director’s love of practical gore effects, makes this another entertaining gorefest from him. Danny Elfman again provides a fantastic score, and while not being as insane as McAdams, Dylan O’Brien does well as the spoiled brat who gets what’s coming to him.
Overall, despite having a shocking absence of something that every Sam Raimi film has (not counting a blink and you’ll miss it photo seem at the beginning of the film), Send Help is another load of gory fun and only the master of The Evil Dead can provide!
Rating: 4/5
Iron Lung
Directed by: Markiplier
Written by: Markiplier
Starring: Markiplier, Caroline Rose Kaplan, Troy Baker, Elsie Lovelock, Elle LaMont, Jacksepticeye and Isaac McKee
Music by: Andrew Hulshult
Rated: 15
In a dystopian future, the majority of the universe has mysteriously disappeared as the result of the “Quiet Rapture” causing all stars and planets to vanish, leaving only the moons behind. With the only survivors living on space stations and starships, a convict named Simon (Markiplier), is sent on a mission to explore the depths of a moon covered in an ocean of blood, in only a ramshackle submarine called “Iron Lung”…
Only a few months after Chris Stuckmann made his directorial debut with the heavily flawed Shelby Oaks, another prominent figure in the YouTube community, Mark Fischbach, or better known as Markiplier, has done the same with this video game adaptation.
Known for his Let’s Play videos on mostly independent horror games like The Dark Descent and the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, Markiplier seems like the perfect fit to bring Iron Lung, which is a 2022 indie horror game revolving around being stranded in a submarine on a moon with a blood red ocean, to the big screen. However, while a lot more visually appealing than Shelby Oaks, this would have been better as a thirty minute short, rather than a feature film.
As simulator games tend to focus more on exploration and atmosphere than plot, Iron Lung is at its strongest in creating tension out of the cramped setting of a small submarine submerged in blood, with cinematographer Philip Roy and video game composer, Andrew Hulshult, both managing to make this environment, absolutely terrifying at times. However, being both the director and the writer, as well as playing the main character, Markiplier does unintentionally come across as a bit overwhelming, despite giving a great performance.
Overall, Iron Lung is a technically superior film to Shelby Oaks, though the incredibly slow pacing and lack of plot can make this experience, very boring at times.
Rating: 3/5
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
Directed by: Pete Browngardt
Written by: Darrick Bachman, Pete Browngardt, Keven Costello, Andrew Dickmamn, David Gemmill, Alex Kirwan, Ryan Kramer, Jason Reicher, Michael Ruocco, Johnny Ryan and Eddie Trigueros
Starring: Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol, Fred Tatasciore, Loraine Newman and Wayne Knight
Music by: Joshua Moshier
Rated: PG
Porky Pig (Eric Bauza) and Daffy Duck (Also Eric Bauza), are best friends trying to make enough money to save their farmhouse from being repossessed. After taking a job at a bubble gum factory, the two crazy animals soon discover, along with Porky’s new crush, Petunia Pig (Candi Milo), that the factory’s new gum flavour, is actually being used to brainwash the world’s population, and aliens are responsible for this insane plot..
After nearly a century of making people laugh at their antics in hundreds of shorts, the Looney Tunes franchise has finally done something that shouldn’t have taken this long to happen: make a fully animated theatrical film based on their iconic characters that isn’t either a collection of previously released shorts (the five package films released throughout the 1970s and 80s like Daffy Duck’s Fantastic Island, 1001 Rabbit Tales and The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Movie), or a live-action hybrid (like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Looney Tunes: Back in Action and the Space Jam films). Originally intended for a streaming release, before a wild series of events (including the change of management at Warner Bros almost causing the death of the franchise and another film being the subject of a massive online controversy), would bring this film to the big screen.
Unlike most of the previous films that used every single character from Bugs Bunny and Foghorn Leghorn to Sylvester and Tweety, The Day the Earth Blew Up only features Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, along with the cartoon pig’s rarely seen love interest that mostly appears in merchandise, Petunia Pig. Taking inspiration from shorts where the selfish duck and the straight man pig teamed up together in 1950s sci-fi themed shorts like Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century and Rocket Squad, along with that decade’s science fiction B-Movies, The Day the Earth Blew Up is an outrageously funny movie, that has all the comedy and crazy moments that only the Looney Tunes can provide.
While some of the franchise’s more casual fans may be a bit put off by some changes in characterisations, such as Daffy being a bit too nice at times (fitting, as this depiction of the character takes more inspiration from Bob Clampett‘s zanier take on the cartoon character rather than Chuck Jones’s more crafty version), Eric Bauza does a fantastic job as both Porky and Daffy, and the fantastic animation, makes this hilarious spoof on cheesy sci-fi, even funnier than usual for this franchise built on laughs.
Overall, despite not having much to offer anyone who isn’t a fan of Porky Pig or Daffy Duck, as well as having one baffling absence, given the subject matter, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is lots of fun, with fantastic animation and all the comedic moments that people love about one of the longest running cartoon series in history.
Rating: 4/5
GOAT
Directed by: Tyree Dillihay
Written by: Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley
Starring: Caleb McLaughlin, Gabrielle Union, Aaron Pierre, Nicola Coughlan, David Harbour, Nick Kroll, Jenifer Lewis, Patton Oswalt, Jelly Roll, Jennifer Hudson, Sherry Cola, Eduardo Franco, Andrew Santino, Bobby Lee and Stephen Curry
Music by: Kris Bowers
Rated: PG
In a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, a young Boer goat named Will Harris (Caleb McLaughlin), dreams of joining the city of Vineland’s most popular “roarball” team, the Thorns, led by his idol, a panther named Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union). After going viral for showing up the Thorn’s rivals, the Lava Court Magmas, Will ends up becoming the newest player on the Thorns. However, Jett isn’t so keen about this, and Will must do what he can to prove himself to her…
After the massive success and award’s campaign that Sony Pictures Animation have had for Kpop Demon Hunters, all eyes are on them now, especially with the upcoming release of the highly anticipated Beyond the Spider-Verse, the final instalment in their beloved Spider-Man animated trilogy, as well as inevitable sequels to KPop and The Mitchells vs. The Machines.
However, as most of these projects are going to Netflix due to a prior streaming deal, it is vital that they keep making theatrical content as well, from relaunching the Hotel Transylvania franchise, to making more original content like this one. With GOAT being the company’s first original theatrical release since 2017’s The Star, it was only a matter of time before they would tackle a sports movie, even if the plot doesn’t break new grounds in the subgenre.
The beloved animation style that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse pioneered, is a perfect choice for depicting the intensity of sports matches, as seen in several recent anime films like The First Slam Dunk. Being an animal version of basketball, the “roarball” games are the highlight of GOAT, with insane timing in the character animation and overwhelming backgrounds, proving that animated basketball can be a lot more than just Space Jam.
While GOAT’s premise doesn’t change much in the underdog formula, the voice-acting, especially from Caleb McLaughlin, Gabrielle Union and the likes of David Harbour, Nick Kroll and Patton Oswalt, just to name a few, all helps in making the Thorns, loveable characters, especially with Nick Kroll’s hilarious Komodo Dragon and Patton Oswalt’s easily irritate proboscis monkey coach.
Overall, while GOAT does feel like Sony Animation’s answer to Disney’s Zootopia and Illumination’s Sing films, it is still a fantastically animated, very funny and heartwarming sports film, that should give Sony another score in mainstream animation , and possibly more awards nominations for next year’s season!
Rating: 3.5/5
“Wuthering Heights”
Directed by: Emerald Fennell
Written by: Emerald Fennell
Starring: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes and Ewan Mitchell
Music by: Anthony Willis
Rated: 15
In the late eighteenth century on the Yorkshire Moors, Catherine Earnshaw (Margot Robbie), grows up with Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi), a mysterious young man who her father finds in the Liverpool streets, at their Gothic home of Wuthering Heights. When Catherine ends up getting engaged to the wealthy Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) of the nearby Thrushcross Grange, Heathcliff disappears, only to return three years later with massive wealth and his own darker ambitions..
Although Emily Brontë‘s Wuthering Heights, her only novel due to her death shortly after the first publication in 1847, has proven to be incredibly difficult to adapt due to its very dark themes of domestic abuse and petty revenge, it hasn’t stopped numerous successful adaptations from trying, such as the 1939 William Wyler film with Laurence Olivier, several Hindi versions, a 1970 film with Timothy Dalton and even a 2022 biopic about Emily herself.
While it is clear that she has skill as a visual storyteller and can get some great moments from her previous filmography, director Emerald Fennell is a very polarising auteur with both Promising Young Woman and Saltburn dividing opinions over how they handled their subject matter, and her adaptation of this classic story is no exception.
Despite having some incredible cinematography, especially in scenes that highlight major moments from the first half of the book (Like most adaptations, this version of Wuthering Heights only tells the “Catherine” half of the story), a lot of the plot twists will come off as very confusing for both purists and for anyone familiar with the source material. While it is important for adaptations to deliver a unique take on a well-adapted story, “Wuthering Heights” makes so many baffling decisions, that it can only be enjoyed as a film removed from the context of the story.
Although Emily Brontë‘ never intended for this story to be a romance, Emerald Fennell’s adaptation ups the sex factor to the highest note, with both Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s older versions of Catherine and Heathcliff, often feeling like parodies of these twisted characters of literature, although they do give good performances when removed from context.
Overall, as a film by itself, “Wuthering Heights” is a serviceable crowd pleaser for anyone looking for a 50 Shades of Grey style romance period film, even if the Charli XCX songs don’t fit the tone. However, for anyone looking for the best version of this story, I would recommend looking elsewhere for the earlier film or television adaptations before watching this “unique” version for comparison.
Rating: 3/5
Cold Storage
Directed by: Jonny Campbell
Written by: David Koepp
Starring: Georgina Campbell, Joe Keery, Sosie Bacon, Vanessa Redgrave, Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson
Music by: Mathieu Lamboley
Rated: 15
For the last two decades, an alien virus that crash landed on Earth in 1979, has been sealed into a government storage facility in Kansas. However, the ground level buildings have since become, the site of a self storage company. After two workers named Travis (Joe Keery) and Naomi (Georgina Campbell), discover the virus, they must do what they can to stop it infecting any more people or animals, until two former employees of the government who have dealt with the disease before , Robert Quinn (Liam Neeson) and Trini Romano (Lesley Manville), can arrive to save them…
Despite having very uninteresting characters, even from usually reliable actors like Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville, there is a sense of enjoyment that can be found in watching Cold Storage, based on its cheesy premise alome.
Much like he did with Jurassic Park, and the first Mission: Impossible and Spider-Man films, writer David Koepp gleefully takes fun from his story that this film was based on, to full effect in how it depicts an alien virus mowing down its victims and how creative the gore can be.
Overall, while none of the characters are that interesting, all kinds of violence from deer explosions, green viruses burning off flesh and the insane methods that the characters use to try and survive, all makes Cold Storage, an entertaining B-movie with a lot of fun moments and inventive kills.
Rating: 3/5
Scream 7
Directed by: Kevin Williamson
Written by: Kevin Williamson and Guy Busick
Starring: Neve Campbell, Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, David Arquette, Michelle Randolph, Jimmy Tatro, Mckenna Grace, Asa Germann, Mark Consuelos, Tim Simons, Matthew Lillard, Joel McHale, Roger L. Jackson and Courteney Cox
Music by: Marco Beltrami
Rated: 18
Several years after helping the Carpenter sisters, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), has gone back to her quiet life with her family, while trying to get along with her eldest daughter, Tatum (Isabel May). However, a new Ghostface (Roger L. Jackson), arrives to wreak havoc in Sidney’s new home of Pine Grove, Indiana, and to make matters worse, claims to be one of the first Ghostface killers, Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), back from the dead. Sidney, Tatum, along with Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and recent survivors, Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding), must now find the truth behind Stu’s comeback….
Even when not bringing up the uncomfortable elephant in the room about why the seventh entry in the long-running Scream franchise has taken into this direction (don’t ask, it’s depressing to talk about), this film lacks a lot of the originality and meta elements that made every other Ghostface battle, so fun to watch.
While the returning writer of the first four films, Kevin Williamson (who also directs for the first time in this series), does have some creative kills still in him, he doesn’t either build on the insanity of the world-building of the original trilogy, nor take the fun subplots of the film within a film series that has always been a highlight of the sequels, Stab, in any new direction, apart from the obvious choice that cannot be brought up, due to spoilers.
While the only returning elements from the previous two legacy sequels, Randy’s successor niece and nephew characters, do have some fun moments, even the likes of Neve Campbell (returning after being absent from Scream VI) and Courteney Cox, look very tired to be here, and a lot of the new characters feel like cliches that any previous film, would have made fun of.
Overall, despite some fun kills and an interesting use of cinematography in some Ghostface scenes, Scream 7 feels like everything that the franchise swore to not be like (the whole reason the first film existed in the first place), with boring characters and a lack of its trademark wit.
Rating: 1.5/5
Hoppers
Directed by: Daniel Chong
Written by: Jesse Andrews
Starring: Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Majimy, Eduardo Franco, Karen Huie, Tom Law, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Dave Franco and Meryl Streep
Music by: Mark Mothersbaugh
Rated: U
Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) is an animal-loving college student, who spends her time protecting a beautiful glade from urban development and her arch-nemesis, Mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm), as the place used to be an area where she and her late grandmother (Karen Huie), would enjoy nature together. After discovering that her college professor, Dr. Fairfax (Kathy Najimy), has invented a device to send a person’s mind into robotic animals to study real ones, Mabel ends up transferring her consciousness into a realistic beaver robot, so that she can convince the animals to save their habitats, while also trying to avoid an even worse situation…
Having finally reached their thirtieth feature film over three decades after Toy Story officially launched the CGI animation revolution, Pixar Animation Studios have decided to take a page out of Turning Red’s book, by making another comedy centric film about a human girl transforming into an animal. However, despite what the trailers say that it is “absolutely nothing like Avatar”, Hoppers is basically like that, but for animal lovers and families, with Mabel’s adventures as a robotic beaver, being both fun and entertaining for anyone looking for something akin to recent comedy focused animated shows.
Speaking of which, the creator of the hit Cartoon Network series, We Bare Bears, Daniel Chong, brings his trademark animation style and his love of quirky comedy, in how the animals look in their character designs and in how their societies work, especially with some unexpected dark humor, that gets huge laughs nearly every time when the supporting characters constantly try to eat each other.
While some aspects of the plot does feel a bit unrealistic (especially in the third act, when animals wearing crowns, flying sharks and a caterpillar possessing a creepy robe with the voice of Dave Franco, are the most believable when compared to what certain characters end up doing), Hoppers does still have its heart in the right place, especially with the relationship between the pessimistic Piper and the optimistic king of the beavers, George (Bobby Moynihan), and how it gives a great message on how to deal with feeling powerless, in a seemingly cruel world.
Overall, despite the story sometimes going close to having questionable Raya and the Last Dragon style logic about how to deal with problems and not every joke getting a laugh, Hoppers does manage to be an entertaining, funny and heartfelt story for the whole family, much like most of Pixar’s filmography.
Rating: 4/5
The Bride!
Directed by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Written by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening and Penélope Cruz
Music by: Hildur Guðnadóttir
Rated: 15
Fed up that her novel, Frankenstein, never got a proper sequel before her death, Mary Shelley (Jessie Buckley) possesses the body of Ida (Also Jessie Buckley), and causes her death to set in motion, her new story. In 1930s Chicago, over a hundred years after being created, Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale), or “Frank” asks scientist Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening), to create a female companion for him. As Ida is brought back to life as “The Bride”, she and Frank decide to live life on the run across America, watching movie musicals, and for the former, finding her place in the world, while the police follows their trail…
Although we have been getting, as of 2026, a lot of projects related to Frankenstein such as Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel from Netflix, the 2023 Oscar winning feminist take on the premise with Poor Things and 2024’s YA aimed Lisa Frankenstein, this third feminist reimagining, changes focus from the monster, to his equally popular bride.
Even though, like the Igor character, this character never existed in the original novel, this iconic undead woman made cinematic history in 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, oftenregarded as the peak of Universal’s Classic Monster franchise, as one of the first mainstream female cinematic monsters, despite only appearing in the last ten minutes.
Even though this premise has been done before in the 1985 film, The Bride, Director Maggie Gyllenhaal mixes in elements from the novel, the 1930s films, and even the likes of Young Frankenstein and Bonnie & Clyde of all things, to make this more madcap take on the character, a meta character study of the Bride and what she would have been like, with her own personal character arc. While the unnecessary framing device of her constantly getting possessed by the ghost of Mary Shelley herself, does feel like unnecessary distractions from the plot, Jessie Buckley carries the entire film with her charm, and her relationship with Christian Bale’s movie-loving Frank, is genuinely charming as the these two characters make chaos together.
However, in spite of The Bride making good use of its 1930s setting with fantastic production design and a clever use of one of the best moments from Young Frankenstein leading to a very entertaining dance sequence, a lot of the subplots and additional characters feel very unnecessary. While the likes of Peter Sarsgaard, Jake Gyllenhaal and Penélope Cruz all give great supporting performances, they feel like they belong in a completely different film.
Overall, despite having loads of appealing parts to its premise, actor chemistry, production design and meta elements of the Frankenstein story, The Bride has other parts that don’t always function together and can come across as awkward.
Rating: 3/5
Mother’s Pride
Directed by: Nick Moorcroft
Written by: Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft
Starring: Jonno Davis, Martin Clunes, James Buckley, Gabriella Wilde and Mark Addy
Music by: Simon Boswell
Rated: 12A
An unsuccessful young musician named Cal (Jonno Davis) returns to his rural Somerset hometown, to help out with running a failing independent pub run by his estranged father, Mick (Martin Clunes), and brother, Jake (James Buckley), who haven’t been on speaking terms with Cal, after he didn’t attend his recently deceased mother’s funeral. As the broken family tries to keep their livelihoods intact, while also under threat from a neighbouring pub business, Cal then discovers a book of beer brewing recipes created by his late grandfather, that may help turn their luck around…
The writer of the 2000s St. Trinian’s films and Fisherman’s Friends, Nick Moorcroft (who also directed the second Fisherman film), crafts another feel good film about British culture with Mother’s Pride, only instead of singing Cornish fishermen, he tackles something nearly everyone can get behind in these divided times, the importance of pubs in the community.
While the formula of those films is still there, complete with Martin Clunes playing a major character coping with grief, there is something emotional about how this film highlights the struggles that independent pubs go through, and the dangers of selling out to larger companies. Alongside the already mentioned Clunes giving the best performance, the likes of James Buckley, Mark Addy, Gabriella Wilde and Luke Treadaway, all manage to give great performances and laughs, especially with Addy’s hilarious local getting the biggest chuckles.
Overall, despite it’s cheesiness, Jonno Davis’s main character being not as interesting as the others and having a slightly rushed conclusion, Mother’s Pride is another feel good film, that deserves to be on the house!
Rating: 3.5/5
Project Hail Mary
Directed by: Phil Lord and Chris Miller
Written by: Drew Goddard
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz and Lionel Boyce
Music by: Daniel Pemberton
Rated: 12A
In the far reaches of space, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), wakes up with amnesia, as the sole surviving astronaut on the starship, Hail Mary. After learning that he was a science teacher sent to seek out a solution to a galaxy wide dimming of stars in numerous solar systems, Grace soon comes into contact with another starship. However, that craft also has a sole survivor, a friendly five-legged rock-like alien with the same purpose, who Grace names “Rocky” (James Ortiz), and decides to join him on his mission to save their home planets…
Based on another one of Andy Weir’s epic science fiction novels, more than a decade after Ridley Scott’s 2015 adaptation of The Martian became one of the best sci-fi films of the 2010s, Project Hail Mary not only lives up to that excellent film’s reputation, but also manages to be an incredibly inspiring and engaging story about humanity and friendship, in a time where people need this type of storytelling the most.
While Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have had their reputation slightly hit by accusations of production mismanagement in some of their producing work on their animated products and Spider-Verse films, (which may have been why they ended up getting removed from directing Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2017), their talents for great storytelling is undeniable. Even though they didn’t write the script for this, (bringing back Drew Goddard from The Martian for that), Project Hail Mary is their best structured film by far, with a great message in the end credits, hinting that they may have matured into the directors that they are clearly capable of being.
After proving himself in playing an isolated astronaut in First Man, Ryan Gosling is absolutely fantastic as a funnier, yet more interesting and emotional version of this type of character, throughout his character arc in both the past and present narratives of this film. While both Sandra Hüller and the hilariously deadpan Lionel Boyce give great performances in the Earth bound past story, it is the adorable alien, Rocky in the present space-set narrative, that gets the best moments, thanks to the skill of his puppeteers in making a creature without a face so emotive and the voice-acting performance of James Ortiz.
While the changes in the aspect ratio in the past and present stories can get distracting, Greg Fraser, once again, proves that he is one of the best cinematographers in the business in making the space environments, absolutely stunning, with Spider-Verse composer, Daniel Pemberton, giving his best music to date.
Overall, Project Hail Mary is something that will not only serve as solid competition against Dune: Part Three and Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day in next year’s Awards campaigns (2026-2027 for future reference), but also manages to be a fantastic and emotionally moving film, that, much like how The Martian was regarded as one of the best films of the 2010s, shows that Andy Weir’s stories are highly recommended for creating fantastic films like this.
Rating: 5/5
Reminders of Him
Directed by: Vanessa Caswill
Written by: Colleen Hoover and Lauren Levine
Starring: Maika Munroe, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow, Lainey Wilson, Nicholas Duvernay, Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford
Music by: Tom Howe
Rated: 12A
After serving six years behind bars, due to being convicted for the death of her boyfriend, Scotty Landry (Rudy Pankow), on a vehicular manslaughter charge, a young mother named Kenna Rowan (Maika Munroe), is released on parole for good behaviour. Struggling to find a job and to build her life back together for the daughter that she had taken away from her during her incarceration, Kenna soon discovers that she has been looked after by not only Scotty’s parents, Grace (Lauren Graham) and Diem (Bradley Whitford), but also by his best friend, a former NFL player named Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers). Kenna and Ledger soon strike up a friendship, and must now try to convince Grace and Diem, that Kenna can be a good mother…
Far less insulting than the last Colleen Hoover adaptation, Regretting You, Reminders of Him does admittedly reuse loads of that previous train-wreck’s most prominent tropes (dead parent, living one trying to reconnect with child, while also falling in love with someone close to him/her, etc.), that it feels like Hoover on autopilot.
However, the impressive cinematography and music, some likable side characters and a more honest look into survivor’s guilt, does make Reminders of Him a lot more interesting and relatable, especially with Maika Munroe and Tyriq Withers‘s more grounded performances. Plus, the presence of Bradley Whitford always makes anything better.
Overall, there isn’t anything as bad as Regretting You in Reminders of Him, thanks to those positive elements. However, the rest of it is so forgettable, that it cannot be much else, apart from being material designed to solely appeal to a specific audience.
Rating: 2.5/5
The Magic Faraway Tree
Directed by: Ben Gregor
Written by: Simon Farnaby
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Billie Gadsdon, Pheonix Laroche, Nicola Coughlan, Jessica Gunning, Nonso Anozie, Jennifer Saunders, Simon Farnaby, Rebecca Ferguson and Claire Foy
Music by: Isabella Summers
Rated: U
A modern family, on the advice of the happy go lucky father, Tim Thompson (Andrew Garfield), move to a remote location in the British countryside, where Tim used to play as a child, to set up a tomato growing business. While some of the three children, especially the eldest daughter Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) have trouble adapting to this, everything changes when they encounter a magical tree. With the help of the friendly magical residents, including Silky the fairy (Nicola Coughlan), Moonface the guardian (Nonso Anozie), the aptly named Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns) and the forgetful knight, Mr. Watzisname (Oliver Chris), the Thompson children are off on adventures to numerous worlds of adventure and life lessons..
Despite being one of the best known British children’s literature writers alongside C.S. Lewis, Michael Bond and Beatrix Potter, Enid Blyton, best known for Noddy and The Famous Five, hasn’t had much adaptations of her books that aren’t connected to Noddy or Famous Five.
With the massive success of the Paddington films and the upcoming new Netflix adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia on the horizon as of 2026, one of Bylton’s lesser known book series, The Faraway Tree, has had a modern day update from Paddington 2 cowriter, Simon Farnaby, that seeks to recapture the charm of the marmalade loving bear’s films.
While changing the 1930s setting of the books to modern day 2020s does lead to the typical jokes about modern culture that gets old quick, The Magic Faraway Tree does start getting more imaginative once the tree and its inhabitants come into the picture. The likes of the numerous sweets, birthday and schooling worlds are all beautifully rendered with great visual presentation, even if the 1980s disco look for the Land of Birthdays is a bit questionable.
While the child actors do a fine job, it is the residents, such as Nicola Coughlan’s whimsical Silky, Nonso Anozie’s pessimistic Moonface, Jessica Gunning’s Dame Washalot and the numerous residents of the worlds, that really steal the show, even if Rebecca Ferguson’s Dame Slap antagonist, does show the limitations of adapting episodic stories into the structure of a feature film, as she feels like an afterthought. Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy and Jennifer Saunders do manage to make their grounded adult characters, very interesting though.
Overall, The Magic Faraway Tree doesn’t rewrite the book on comic of age stories about children going into other worlds like how Narnia and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland did. However, it does manage to be a very sweet, funny and heartwarming adventure that will please families looking for something more down to earth, even with a magic tree portal to numerous worlds as its focus.
Rating: 3.5/5
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Directed by: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic
Written by: Matthew Fogel
Starring: Chris Pratt, Anya-Taylor Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Benny Safdie, Donald Glover, Glen Powell and Brie Larson
Music by: Brian Tyler
Rated: PG
After saving the Mushroom Kingdom from the evil Bowser (Jack Black), plumber brothers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day), have moved there, to serve as official protectors of the realm for Princess Peach (Anya-Taylor Joy). When Peach departs on a rescue mission after hearing that the strongest princess in the galaxy, Rosalina (Brie Larson), is in trouble. Mario, Luigi, a shrunken and seemingly redeemed Bowser and the former’s new adorable dinosaur companion, Yoshi (Donald Glover), set out to help her accomplish her mission. However, Bowser’s sadistic offspring, Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), has other ideas…
Despite being slightly divisive over how it worked as a feature film by itself, there is no denying that Illumination’s 2023 animated adaptation of Nintendo’s most iconic franchise, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, blew the infamous 1993 live-action film out of the window, by sheer box office and popularity alone (even if the latter has been getting a cult following that I simply do not get, apart from being memorable for all the wrong reasons).
However, unlike Paramount’s live-action Sonic the Hedgehog films that took time to jump from one game adaptation to the next, the inevitable sequel to the 2023 film, has decided to skip World, Land, RPG and numerous other games in the now over four decades old franchise, and go to the most popular game in the late 2000s, the Super Mario Galaxy duology.
While these Nintendo Wii titles are regarded as some of the best games in Mario’s history, the narrative does suffer in having to share its title with those games, as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie only takes elements from the two games, Super Mario World, Super Mario Odyssey, the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2 and Yoshi’s Island, to create its own story. (And that’s only counting the Mario centric games that it takes elements from.)
However, there is no denying that these Mario films are the best looking films from Illumination to date, and the numerous new worlds and action sequences are so fun to watch on the big screen. While Chris Pratt’s take on Mario is still questionable and the lack of screen time for the fan favourite character, Rosalina, may disappoint some fans, all the others, such as Charlie Day’s Luigi, Anya-Taylor Joy’s Peach and of course, Jack Black’s Bowser, all get their own memorable quirky moments. Both Benny Safdie and Donald Glover also bring their new characters of Bowser Jr. and Yoshi, to life with a lot of energy.
Overall, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie does lack any kind of plot and character development that is expected from sequels, and the title is a bit misleading for fans of the franchise. However, this film still manages to be well-animated, very entertaining and a great representation of why people love this franchise so much, even if we have to accept the fact that, in the inevitable Donkey Kong film, the chances of Banjo-Kazooie or even (god forbid), Conker appearing in that, are not impossible, given the amount of non-Mario characters are in this!
Rating: 3/5
You, Me and Tuscany
Directed by: Kat Coiro
Written by: Ryan Eagle
Starring: Halle Bailey, Regé-Jean Page, Marco Calvani, Aziza Scott and Lorenzo de Moor
Music by: John Debney
Rated: 12A
Having given up her dreams to be a chef after her mother’s death, Anna (Halle Bailey), has had to make money by taking photos of her squatting in the homes of rich people. After encountering a spoiled young Italian man named Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), who accidentally invites her to stay in his Tuscan villa, Anna is soon encountered by his eccentric, yet loving family, who think that she is his fiancé. However, Anna soon grows to bond with them, especially with Mattel’s more responsible cousin, Michael (Regé-Jean Page)…
Despite sharing a lot in common with another Italian food themed rom com, 2018’s Little Italy, You, Me and Tuscany does feel a lot more authentic and stronger with its themes of found family and rediscovering lost passions. While a lot of the supporting characters get the biggest laughs, especially the family members and their hilarious quirks, both Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page‘s two leads, have fantastic chemistry together.
Director Kat Coiro expands her television background work on the 2020s Matlock reboot and She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, with making the backgrounds of Tuscany look absolutely stunning, even if one major subplot doesn’t have a satisfying payoff and one of the more antagonistic characters, gets off a bit too easy.
Overall, despite being the cheesy fluff (or, in this case, Parmesan cheesy stuff), that most romantic comedy can be summed up as, You, Me and Tuscany is a mostly charming dish, whose sweet spots can be found if you dig into the centre of its strengths.
Rating: 3/5
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy
Directed by: Lee Cronin
Written by: Lee Cronin
Starring: Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace and Verónica Falcón
Music by: Stephen McKeon
Rated: 18
Eight years after their daughter, Katie (Natalie Grace), disappeared from their home, TV reporters Charlie (Jack Reynor) and Larissa Cannon (Laia Costa), get the shock of their lives when she is found alive and imprisoned in an Egyptian sarcophagus. However, Katie has become catatonic as a result of her imprisonment by cultists, and her behaviour soon becomes extremely violent, leading for Charlie to seek outside help for answers…
Despite the long-awaited legacy sequel to Brendan Fraser’s Mummy trilogy finally being green-lit for a 2028 release date, there was another new take on Universal’s Egyptian horror franchise being planned, that got released at the worst possible time, thanks to lingering bad memories of the 2017 Tom Cruise disaster that was intended to launch a new cinematic universe of Universal’s monsters.
While this attempt to go back to the scary roots of the 1932 Boris Karloff film, was in production at Universal to follow up the 2020 and 2025 modern day reimaginings of The Invisible Man and Wolf Man, Lee Cronin’s new take on The Mummy, was eventually sold to New Line Cinema and Warner Bros, once the decision was made to go back to the franchise’s beloved 1999-2008 series.
Feeling like an Evil Dead film in disguise, due to this new film having almost nothing in common with the other Mummy films, by focusing on the concept of preserving a kidnap victim rather than being actually mummified, Lee Cronin does, admittedly, add a lot of new ideas to make his take unique from other versions. However, much like the 2025 Wolf Man, a lot of the new ideas either don’t make sense, or, are way too far removed from any other version of this story, that it feels like any demon possession film, just with an Egyptian flair.
Overall, while not as embarrassing as the failed Dark Universe launch film, and having enough practical effects to make it look appealing for horror fans, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy still feels entirely misguided, in spite of the effects and some good performances. This would have been better as another Evil Dead spin-off from Cronin, or as an Exorcist film with an Ancient Egyptian theme.
Rating: 2.5/5
Hitpig!
Directed by: David Feiss and Cinzia Angelini
Written by: Dave Rosenbaum and Tyler Werrin
Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Lilly Singh, Anitta, RuPaul, Hannah Gadsby, Flavor Flav, Lorianne Ashbourne and Rainn Wilson
Music by: Isabella Summers
Rated: PG
In a world shared by both humans and anthropomorphic animals, Hitpig (Jason Sudeikis), is a pig who has been working as a bounty hunter for lost and escaped animals, ever since his mentor, Bertha (Lorraine Ashbourne), was eaten by a crocodile. When Hitpig is hired by a greedy showman called the Leapin’ Lord (Rainn Wilson), to recapture an escaped elephant named Pickles (Lilly Singh), he ends up going on a crazy adventure with the optimistic elephant, while his rival, animal activist Letícia dos Anjos (Anitta), tries to convince him to return Pickles to India…
While plans to adapt Berkeley Breathed’s 2008 children’s book, Pete & Pickles, about a pig bonding with an escaped circus elephant had had two cancelled attempts, one as a Technicolor preschool series in 2010, the other, as a proposed DreamWorks Animation film in 2014, British animation studio, Aniventure, would finally take on this premise, with a far more comedic twist of the pig being a bounty hunter.
While not having the best story and animation style, Hitpig, thanks to the efforts of Co-director and Cow and Chicken creator David Feiss, does have some incredibly funny moments, especially with how the human/animal world is explored. Even if not all of them land, it does prevent this film from being boring. The voice-acting, especially from Jason Sudeikis as the titular character, does also manage to be strong, apart from Rainn Wilson’s incredibly annoying antagonist, with the highlight being Feiss regular, Charlie Adler, providing numerous voices to some of the funniest side characters, such as Super Rooster and a hilarious lobster.
Overall, despite being very average for a family film, Hitpig is mostly saved by its comedy and fun characters.
Rating: 3/5
Michael
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Written by: John Logan
Starring: Jaafar Jackson, Nia Long, Juliano Valdi, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Laura Harrier, Jessica Sula, Mike Myers, Miles Teller and Colman Domingo
Music by: Lior Rosner
Rated: 12A
Ever since 1966, Michael Jackson (Jaafar Jackson), has been performing with his brothers as part of the musical band, the Jackson 5. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the young musician wishes to branch out to a solo career. While his attorney, John Branca (Miles Teller) and co-producer Quincy Jones (Kendrick Sampson), help him make the Thriller and Off the Wall albums, Michael has to face his greatest challenge, going against his manager and abusive father, Joseph (Colman Domingo)…
Despite all the controversies regarding this idea in the first place, ever since the huge success of the 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, and how it kicked off a whole new wave of musical biopics focusing on the likes of Elton John, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and even the Cornish sea-shanty group, Fishermen’s Friends, it was only a matter of time before the King of Pop would moonwalk to the same treatment.
Let’s get one thing out of the way first. As this biopic has heavy involvement from the Jackson family and due to legal complications regarding how certain individuals are represented on film, Michael only covers his career up to his 1988 London performance of Bad, mostly focusing on the Jackson 5, the late singer’s attempts to go solo throughout the 1970s and 80s, and showing how terrible his infamously abusive father, Joseph Jackson, was to him. In other words, don’t go in expecting anything addressing 1993.
Although Michael, much like Bohemian Rhapsody, is a very basic showcase of highlights of Michael’s career rather than examining him as a character study, it does its job of being a huge spectacle very well. Jaafar Jackson, Michael’s own nephew, does a fantastic job at portraying his uncle during the peak of his career and Colman Domingo is also fantastic at showing how vile Joseph was to his family. Even if it is disappointing that the other members of the Jackson 5 are sidelined, as they could have been further explored, it’s really funny how Mike Myers is playing another recording executive character (Walter Yetnikoff, the president of CBS Records at the time), after doing the same in Bohemian Rhapsody.
But of course, the main reason why people want to see this, is the music. While some songs such as Thriller are only given small amounts of time to shine, the likes of Bad, Human Nature, Beat It, Wanna Be Startin’ Something and the Jackson 5 songs, are as stunning and spectacular as ever, especially on the biggest screen possible.
Overall, while it would be wiser if Lionsgate would rethink their approach to making another film that told the rest of the story, Michael does its job well as a celebration of the rise and peak of one of the largest entertainers in the world, and should be a nice companion piece to Michael’s other notable big screen endeavours, the 1988 anthology film, Moonwalker and the 2009 documentary, This is It.
Rating: 3.5/5
The Devil Wears Prada 2
Directed by: David Frankel
Written by: Aline Brosh McKenna
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux, Kenneth Branagh, Lucy Liu and Stanley Tucci
Music by: Theodore Shapiro
Rated: 12A
Two decades after her experience with Runway magazine, Andrea “Andy” Sachs (Anne Hathaway), despite becoming a very respected journalist, finds herself laid off due to downsizing. Andy soon finds herself invited back to Runaway, where her former enemy and boss, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), facing problems of her own with adapting to modern times in the fashion industry, has become slightly less mean. When both women learn that Silicone Valley billionaires have their eye on purchasing Runway, Andy and Miranda, along with the former’s previous fellow employees, Nigel (Stanley Tucci) and Emily (Emily Blunt), must try to put aside their differences, to save both Runaway, and fashion itself, from a dark future…
After 2025’s success with bringing Freaky Friday back to the big screen with Freakier Friday, the Walt Disney Company seems to have realised that mid-budget live-action comedies, a sub-genre that thrived in the decades before the 2010s banished it to streaming, might finally be popular again. With their ownership of 20th Century Fox giving them a whole library of content for that type of film, Disney have decided to bring back one of the company’s biggest successes from the mid 2000s, just in time for the first film’s twentieth anniversary.
After The Devil Wears Prada has had two decades of making the fashion industry look like military operations, with both the beloved 2006 film adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel and the recent stage musical in the West End, Meryl Steep’s iconic fashion antagonist, Miranda Priestly, has finally returned for a sequel. However, like the T-800 in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, this time, she must team up with original protagonist, Andy, although that doesn’t mean she skips any opportunity for insults.
While the plot isn’t as interesting as the original’s more satirical tone, both Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, along with returning co-stars Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, completely steal the show in The Devil Wears Prada 2, as their beloved characters .The satire revolving around the ever changing fashion industry is still intact, with the targets revolving around corporate culture, corrupt buyouts and how Silicon Valley billionaires are ten thousand times worse than anything Miranda did in the first film, feeling as timely as ever. Andy’s character motivations revolving to keep the human aspect of journalism, also add a surprisingly emotional element to this sequel.
Overall, despite being slightly less edgy than the original and Emily’s character arc, could have been developed better, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a great return for the icy queen of fashion and her venomous spirit, even if she is doing it for sometimes, good purposes, this time.
Rating: 3.5/5
The Sheep Detectives
Directed by: Kyle Balda
Written by: Craig Mazin
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein, Hong Chau and Emma Thompson
Music by: Christophe Beck
Rated: PG
George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) is a shepherd who loves taking care of his best friends in the world, his beloved flock of sheep, especially entertaining them by reading murder mystery stories to them at the end of every day. When George is discovered dead one day, a lot of the local townspeople are either too incompetent or uncaring towards him, to find out what happened. Thankfully, his sheep have secretly been capable of understanding his stories, and it’s up to the flock’s leader, a young Shetland ewe named Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), along with her best friend, a Merino that never forgets anything called Mopple (Chris O’Dowd), and the most introverted member of the flock, Sebastian the Icelandic Leadersheep (Bryan Cranston), to solve the mystery…
Finally giving Aardman’s Shaun the Sheep films some real competition, The Sheep Detectives, based on Leonie Swann’s 2005 German children’s book, Three Bags Full, is a wonderful throwback to the 1990s-2000s era of live-action family films about animals, that were not afraid to be a little dark, as long as the ending was happy, such as the Babe films, Homeward Bound, Free Willy and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
As whodunnit mysteries have made a comeback over the last few years following the Knives Out trilogy, the recent Agatha Christie Poirot films from 20th Century Studios, and Netflix’s Thursday Murder Club adaptation, it was only a matter of time before a family film, would get in on the action. The jokes revolving around how the sheep are better than the humans, gets the biggest laughs, with one visual joke involving crossing a road, being the funniest scene of 2026 so far.
Hugh Jackman is as charming as ever in his brief role as George the shepherd, and the cast of actors that voice the sheep, all give them individual personalities, such as Patrick Stewart playing the second pompous sheep in his career (after Chicken Little), Brett Goldstein playing Norfolk Horn twins that won’t stop charging, and Rhys Darby as a sheep with wool over his eyes. However. the three main sheep, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Chris O’Dowd and Bryan Cranston, give the best performances here, as their arcs do strengthen the themes of grief, trauma and acceptance, even if the latter does have similarities to the dog he played in Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, only as a sheep.
Overall, while most of the human characters, apart from Jackman, Nicholas Braun’s policeman character and the always entertaining Emma Thompson’s lawyer character, aren’t that interesting, The Sheep Detectives shines the best, whenever the focus goes back to the lovable flock. A Ewe experience for families to love, while not being afraid to “ram” in some emotional subtext as well, this is a “shear” delight!
Rating: 4/5
Mortal Kombat II
Directed by: Simon McQuoid
Written by: Jeremy Slater
Starring: Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim and Hiroyuki Sanada
Music by: Benjamin Wallfisch
Rated: 15
The tenth Mortal Kombat tournament that will decide the fate of the universe between the Earthrealm and Outworld sides, has finally begun. Needing one more fighter to join the likes of Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Cole Young (Lewis Tan), Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) hires washed up action star, Johnny Cage (Karl Urban), as his final defender of Earthrealm. However, the Outworld side’s true leader, Emperor Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford), has entered the game with his own army of fighters, and only with the help of his adopted daughter, Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), can Raiden’s fighters ever hope for a “flawless victory”!
Although the 2021 big screen reboot of Ed Boon and John Tobias’s Mortal Kombat franchise, was only regarded as just okay, especially when compared to the 1997 disaster of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, it did manage to be hugely successful on streaming. During Warner Bros.’s controversial decision to stream all their 2021 films at the same time as their theatrical release due to the COVID pandemic, Mortal Kombat ended up being the most successful film on the service, beating out even the likes of Godzilla vs. Kong and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which is why a sequel was green-lit despite the low box office results.
With the games being as popular as ever, returning director Simon McQuoid, is finally allowed to go all insane with the infamous violence that the franchise is known for, in Mortal Kombat II. While the 2021 film was merely a set up for the titular tournament, this sequel is the first to depict it since the 1995 original film, with the technology finally catching up, to depict these battles, the way fans have wanted for decades.
While not having much of a story to follow and less impressive background cinematography in the CGI environments , Mortal Kombat II’s characters and world-building, are another highlight of this experience, with the likes of Sonya, Jax, Liu Kang and Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada), all getting their time to shine (well, except for the 2021 film’s original character, Cole Young). Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage and Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana, are the main highlights this time, with both actors being great portrayals of these fan favourite characters, even if the latter gets a lot more screen-time with her coming of age arc, than what the marketing has shown. The likes of Martyn Ford’s Chao Kahn, Tati Gabrielle’s Jade, and especially the returning former Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) and Kano (still a pitch perfect Josh Lawson), all make for fun antagonists.
Overall, despite having barely any plot and a lot of confusing moments for anyone not familiar with the franchise, Mortal Kombat II is the closest this series has come to a flawless victory on the big screen, since the 1995 film, being a highly entertaining time at the movies, with all the fatalities that you can imagine!
Rating: 3.5/5
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Written by: Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allen White, Jonny Coyne, Shirley Henderson, Martin Scorsese, Steve Blum and Sigourney Weaver
Music by: Ludwig Göransson
Rated: 12A
For the last several years, during the three decade long peace between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, a lone Mandalorian bounty hunter named Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), has had many adventures across the galaxy with his adopted son, a baby member of Yoda’s species named Grogu. While working for the New Republic to arrest surviving Imperial warlords, Djarin and Grogu are sent on a new mission to gain information from the Hutts about another potential enemy. However, they have to rescue the late Jabba’s son, the same one who Jedi Knights Ahsoka Tano and Anakin Skywalker saved as a baby during the Clone Wars, Rotta (Jeremy Allen White), before the Hutts will give any information to them..
Even though the Star Wars franchise hasn’t been on the big screen ever since the final entry in the sequel trilogy, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, George Lucas’s space adventures have thrived on the Disney+ streaming services. While the likes of Andor, the final season of The Clone Wars and the subject of this review, The Mandalorian’s first two seasons have seen major praise, a lot of criticism towards other shows like The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Acolyte, along with the streaming bubble burst of 2023, have caused the Walt Disney Company to rely less on streaming in the future.
As a result of this, the planned fourth season of The Mandalorian has been heavily redeveloped into the big screen debut for everyone’s favourite bounty hunting duo, Din Djarin and the adorable Grogu, who have become the franchise’s most original successful characters of the 2020s decade, especially the latter in merchandise sales. Much like how Moana 2 was changed from a television series into a film, it makes sense from a business perspective why this would be brought to the big screen, with even the less popular third season being a major streaming success on Disney+.
While not as obvious as in Moana 2, the plot structure of The Mandalorian and Grogu does sometimes feel like several different episodes combined together, even if removing some filler is welcome for pacing purposes. However, returning director Jon Favreau does make this very welcoming for newcomers to this franchise by ignoring some of the plot threads of the series, to make this standalone adventure for Din and Grogu, a lot simpler when compared to other Star Wars films, in spite of returning characters from Rebels, Book of Boba Fett and (of all things) the 2008 theatrical pilot to The Clone Wars, playing major roles.
While it is questionable how much he was actually on set due to his character always wearing a helmet, Pedro Pascal makes a welcome return as the titular character, and of course, Grogu’s puppetry is still as adorable as ever. Even though more could have been done with Sigourney Weaver’s first role in the Star Wars franchise, the likes of Steve Blum and Shirley Henderson returning as fan favourites, Zeb and the Babu Friks, and even Martin Scorsese playing a new alien character, does get a lot of great moments for Star Wars lovers. However, the strangest thing seen in a Star Wars film, is hearing Jeremy Allen White’s regular voice out of a Hutt’s mouth (and not just any Hutt, a grown up version of Rotta “Stinky” the baby Hutt from the Clone Wars movie).
Overall, while the decision to convert a season of television into a film remains to be seen if it worked, The Mandalorian and Grogu is an entertaining return to the big screen for the galaxy far far away, even if the ones who will get the most out of this, are younger ones, or huge fans of the television series. For those wanting something more experimental for Star Wars, expect it for 2027’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations with Starfighter.
Rating: 3.5/5
Chaz’s Cinematic Odyssey 