Jake Schreier directs Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan and David Harbour in this third tier superhero team-up movie.
I’ll try and avoid all my old Marvel review cliches here. Even if Kevin Feige doesn’t bother. The three headliners are doing better stuff elsewhere so I’m glad they all got a guaranteed payday. The movie does improve as it goes along but the action never convinces. This feels about as good as it gets currently for the franchise. Just hard reset the machine Disney.
Steve Cohen directs Chad McQueen, Cynthia Rothrock, and David Carradine in this VHS era actioner where two kung-fu cops team up to stop a criminal organization headed by a ruthless boss who’s also a martial artist.
Very run of the mill, cookie cutter stuff. The fights are pretty impressive but even these don’t mix things up enough. Needed a lot more Rothrock and a lot less Chad. Aside from her, the best thing about this is the cheesy henchmen.
4
Perfect Double Bill: Martial Law 2: Undercover (1992)
David Price directs Terence Knox, Paul Scherrer and Ryan Bollman in this sequel to “the town with killer kids who worship corn” horror.
Bitty. An obvious subplot involving a Native American expert has been shunted in during post production to beef it up. Some of the kills are OTT but everything around them is meh. Doesn’t even feature series figurehead Issac.
Trần Anh Hùng directs Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel and Emmanuel Salinger in this French historical romance filmset in 1889 – depicting a romance between a cook and the gourmet she works for.
Yum! The first 45 minutes of this is just the ensemble prepping and cooking an elaborate feast in a grand country kitchen. Could have watched 2 hours of solely that pure sexy culinary ASMR easily. A relaxed romance with lush period details and the ever perfect Juliette Binoche. C’est si bon!
Jalmari Helander directs Jorma Tommila, Stephen Lang and Richard Brake in this ultra-violent sequel to the unkilliable Finnish OAP actioner.
If the first one was a Spaghetti Western in WWII then this is Mad Max in the Soviet Union. Some of the ridiculous kills in this have a Buster Keaton-esque sense of the absurd. Not quite the stamp of the first entry but certainly bigger and bloodier.
Julia Ducournau directs Mélissa Boros, Tahar Rahim and Golshifteh Farahani in this French art house flick about a schoolgirl who gets a dirty needle tattoo during blood borne virus hysteria.
More French extremity from Ducournau. This plays with harsh emotions and oppressive imagery to create a sensual nightmare-scape. The oppressive use of close-ups and a child at the centre of this matter of fact body horror meant I had to take a few breaks from the screen. Yeah, I felt faint and claustrophobic so I popped out a caught my breath, cooled down and had a glass of water. More than once. Alpha is a very overpowering piece of cinema, purposefully disorientating. I will say its ultimate attitude to explore HIV, Covid, addiction and generational trauma justify what a difficult watch it is. There are tremendous performances here, especially Rahim’s lost junkie uncle. Ducournau knows she has the goods, so seeds Easter Eggs and wild set pieces that hint at the ultimate revelations.
Edgar Wright directs Glen Powell, Josh Brolin and Colman Domingo in this sci-fi action comedy where a desperate anti-hero signs up for a game show where he will be hunted for 30 days.
First 90 minutes of this are a blast. I have seen Glen Powell compared to a lot of old school movie stars but his looks, charisma, machismo and self awareness probably hits closest to Eighties Kurt Russell. Yes, please! Wright dials back his house style but still cooks with oomph. The gory and cheesy Arnie adaptation played very fast and loose with the Stephen King source material. While now enjoyable as a nostalgic beer and pizza movie it has never been a revered classic. This is exactly the kinda thing from your childhood you don’t mind being revived and repackaged by the right creatives. Colourful, violent, silly and surprisingly satirical. TRM25 had me… and then it lost me. The third act looks and feels like two of three major reshoots have happened. I don’t actually think they have but this definitely doesn’t stick the landing. The visuals weaken and flatten, the anarchy disappears, the pace slows. It becomes predictable and told through a wincing cock eye rather than active confidence. I don’t think it is sensible to introduce a major new character out of the blue at the start of your third act unless they are a Blofeld or a Lex Luthor type. And there are exciting character actors like Katy O’Brian, William H Macy and Michael Cera who get short shrift in the runtime. Still, Josh Brolin and Colman Domingo make the TV broadcast sequences thump and pump. Almost there and then hits a wobbly standstill.
Rob Bowman directs David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and Martin Landau in this big screen continuation of the hit sci-fi TV series where Mulder and Scully must rebel against the government cover-up of a conspiracy and find the truth about an alien colonization of Earth.
The helicopter budget for this was off the chain. Feels very much still like the TV show only slicker. The Stone Age prologue is a good indicator of the new found freedom the movie format allows. That aside, there is nothing too fresh here but a visual sense of scale. The three big set pieces are solid. The FBI building bomb threat kick starts things nicely and the strange white structures full of bees are memorable (even if the swarming peril is short lived). So it has cinematic polish. The plot and revelations are nothing unexpected if you have even casually watched the “conspiracy” episodes of the series and, personally, I’m a monster-of-the-week guy. Interesting that some of the big reveals teased and set-up here were never revisited. I guess ultimately this blockbuster attempt to indoctrinate newbies and reward fans with a prestige bonus at least realigned Mulder and Scully back onto the same synchronisation. The season preceding this saw them separate for whole arcs at a time. The Duchovny and Anderson chemistry was a huge part of the series’ success and longevity. This multiplex excursion refocuses that winning element going forward.
6
Perfect Double Bill: The X-Files: I Want To Believe (2008)
Mohammad Rasoulof directs Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh and Setareh Maleki in this Iranian thriller set around an investigating judge’s family during youth protests that are being violently suppressed.
Claustrophobic drama told mainly from the POV of the women of a middle class Tehran family. They live in the relative safety of their confined apartment. Aspiring to the better life that the father’s promotion should bring but reacting emotionally to the injustices he is a part of. They and we witness a student uprising through social media, but then it is arrives dangerously on their doorstep and soon it has destroyed their family. Constant pressure cooker. Not the most cheery movie ever made but a challenging watch not afraid of complicity, irony and moral grey areas.
7
Perfect Double Bill: It Was Just An Accident (2025)
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 