EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (2025)

 I have never been the biggest Elvis Presley fan. You may wonder why someone who isnt an Elvis fan would go out of their way on a Friday night to see a documentary about the man but I thought that the experience of seeing it on the big screen would at least make it passable to watch. I think some of his songs are fine but could never understand the appeal. The 2022 Baz Luhrmann biopic managed to shed some light on his appeal but Elvis seemed like it was something liked by other people.

This was a screening that I saw at 6:30pm and at the time I booked the tickets was the only screening on but by the day itself they had added another three screenings. It was the largest screen at the cinema and if there were 20 empty seats then I would be surprised. It’s the most attended screening I can remember since Avengers: Endgame and there was a massive queue in the foyer which is something I don't remember the last time I saw that. This was an impressive achievement for a documentary and shows that people are still willing to venture out of the cinema and not just enjoy it on streaming.  

The documentary uses footage shot of his Las Vegas residency with other archival footage to tell a story of Elvis’ life in the military and in the movies. There was one clip of a film where he is starring opposite a guy dressed as a dog. I never wanted to see an Elvis film so badly. The performances and songs were all really good and made me appreciate what a great performer he was. He comments that people can listen to someone’s albums and enjoy them but when they pay to come an see a concert they want to experience it so you have to put on a on a show for them. It’s a great attitude to have.

There was a moment which seemed quite relevant to today and that is the issue of entertainers and he is asked at one point to comment about something and he responds by saying he will keep his opinions to himself cause he’s there to entertain and it is refreshing to hear that take cause we can’t go one awards ceremony without some millionaire popstar lecturing us on their opinions. 

I think that what a documentary should do especially if you are unfamiliar with the subject matter is show what type of person someone is and I think that this documentary does that. Elvis comes across as someone who loves the music, loves to perform but doesn't take himself too seriously that he can’t have a funny moment every so often. When the film ended, there was a thunderous round of applause and I could understand why. This was an amazing 100 minute documentary and it made a non-Elvis fan join in. The only real issue I had was that I wish it had been longer. I felt like it could have been another 30 minutes longer at least and its been a while since I have thought that. 

This is currently my favourite film of the year. I thought that it was fun to watch and it works for people who are Elvis fans and those that are not. I thought that I might like this but I wasn't expecting it to have the effect on me that it did. This documentary shows the reason why going to the cinema is still important. Had I watched this at home I would have enjoyed it but I know for a fact that it wouldn’t have had the same impact that it did end up having sitting in a room with about 300 other people. Definitely worth your time.

Whistle (2025)

 Is it possible for the guy who directed one of the dullest horror films ever to direct a good horror film? Well The Nun was awful on many levels so the chances of Whistle being worse was quite remote. The set up of the film is that Dafne Keen tries to pull off being a high school student and after arriving at her new high school goes to her locker which they haven’t bothered to clear out beforehand and she finds the titular whilst and after Nick Frost dies moments after trying to flog it on the antiques version of eBay the new friends that Chrys has befriended blow the whilst and death is now following them. 

The idea that when we are born our death is also born is kind of a neat idea although the film can’t help itself by being stupid and goes on to say that if we live to be 90, death will spend 90 years finding you and if you blow the whistle it finds you quicker.

Dafne Keen is perfectly fine as Chrys. She has a backstory where she is moving in with her aunt after she took drugs and killed her father. We never see the aunt or any adults really with the exception of Dean’s parents for about 30 seconds. Keen does well as the lead although I do think she just about gets away with being a High School student. The romance between Chrys and Ellie was one of the more interesting aspects of the two characters.

Nick Frost pops at the beginning and it would have been nice to have him do something more than deliver some exposition and then become greedy. Michelle Fairley’s role as Ivy is literally nothing more than exposition. She only has two scenes but they do nothing other than tell Chrys and Ellie what’s going on. She conveniently tells them how to cheat death and that is basically sacrificing someone else in their place. Even after telling them this they have to have it spelt out to them.

You would think that death would be the villain but they decided to introduce Noah (played by Percy Haynes White from Wednesday) who basically gives drugs to the kids from one of them overdosed so that makes him the bad guy and is the obvious choice for the sacrificing part but our scooby gang are so good that they don't want to go through with it even though he is loathsome.. The film gets around this by pretty much forcing  the situation so we get a satisfactory ending but the film ends with the most predictable sequel-bait ending where the pot containing the whistle has found its way back inside the locker. I’m not sure why the whistle doesn't try and find a new location but I suppose that doesn't really matter cause I am highly doubtful that we are going to get a sequel.

The deaths are quite good, especially Dean’s but that might be because he was very annoying and playing the typical irritating sports guy. Rel’s death was quite gory and I was surprised that it was a 15 because 10 years ago this would have received an 18 certificate but I think they probably got away with it because there is a surprisingly gory film and it seemed like the blood was real and no CGI blood which a lot of horror films seem to rely on.

I had very low expectations of Whistle and I have to say they were met. It’s nowhere near as bad as Return to Silent Hill because at least the film made sense but this will only really please people who want to stick on a dumb horror film on a Friday night when they don't have to pay any attention. It is neither terrible nor any good so average is probably the best word to use.

Crime 101 (2026)

 Crime 101 sees Chris Hemsworth play Mike who is a thief who after robbing people decides to plan his final score and encounters an insurance broker wanting out after being overlooked for promotion and the Incredible Hulk playing detective in pursuit. 

The first thing to note is that the cast is pretty impressive. Not quite sure when there was a film with this high calibre of actors in it. It’s nice to see Chris Hemsworth do something that plays in a cinema and isn’t Thor. I’ve seen plenty of non-Thor things but this is the first at the cinema that hasn’t seen him throw a hammer around. I quite liked his performance as Mike. He seems to want to have a quieter life but there is a part that seems like a pipe dream because he is too good at what he does. Mark Ruffalo plays Lou who is the cop who is after the 101 Thief and isn’t taken very seriously by pretty much anybody and even his wife leaves him. They do a thing later on where it's implied that Lou and Sharon have feelings for one another but it never really goes anywhere.

Halle Berry plays Sharon who is the Vice-President of the insurance company who is overlooked to be made a partner and decides to help Mike before getting an attack of conscience. It’s good to see Berry in a film again as it has felt like a long time since I can remember seeing her in a big film. Sharon isn’t the best written character but Berry knows how to make this character seem more interesting that she actually is (Storm in the X-Men film). Barry Keoghan plays Ormon who is someone that is working with Nick Nolte’s character. The thing about Keoghan is that he is very good in playing someone that isn’t full blown unhinged but enough to make him interesting. It’s a fairly 2 dimensional character but Keoghan squeezes everything out of the role.

Nick Nolte ‘stars’ in the film but that amounts to a couple of scenes where he is sitting down, mumbles and after a scene with Orion he is never seen, heard or referenced again. Not sure if there was meant to be more from him but given how hard it was to hear him talk it wouldn’t surprise me if they decided to cut their losses and just have him dropped from the film.

Despite the stellar cast which sees Thor reunite with Hulk, the film struggled with making the plot work. It really doesn't need to be 2 hours and 20 minutes. The only reason that it ended up being so long (I think) is that the film thinks it is Heat or French Connection but it really isn't. The film makes use of its star names to try and get you to the end and I think for that reason alone I was never bored.

The film probably wont win any awards for originality and its going to struggle to be remembered at the end of the year but its worth seeing for the star cast who are doing the best with a film that thinks it is Ocean’s Eleven but doesn't quite have the flair to pull it off. 

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Sometimes there are films that I get horribly wrong with the first viewing. One such film is The Witch and the other is this film. I watched about 20 minutes and got bored so I stopped it. I decided years later to rewatch it and I couldn’t believe how wrong I was. This film is as close to a masterpiece as it's possible to get. With One Battle After Another in the running to win all the big awards, it seemed like a good time to visit the cinema and rewatch this film but see it on the big screen for the first time.

Having recently started to appreciate music scores, I think that Jonny Greenwood’s score takes a great film and makes it even better. This is how I felt with the Sinners score. The score along with several shots of vast emptiness create a feeling that words never could. This is a great example of all areas of a film coming together to make something feel epic.  The final scene with Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano is one of the best final scenes that I have ever seen. It starts off seemingly pleasant enough but then ends with Daniel bashing Eli’s head in with a ten-pin and then tells the butler that ‘he’s done’. Not too long ago, Quentin Tarantino said not nice things about Paul Dano and didn’t seem to rate him as an actor and I don't know what bump to the head that Tarantino took but you cannot seriously watch this film and think Dano is a bad actor. There are moments where his performance could tip over to comedy but I think the skill that Dano has is to keep from tipping over. It’s hard to find a fault in Daniel Day Lewis’ performance and to be honest there isn’t one. There is a reason he has won so many Oscars and it's because he knows how to immerse himself in a role. I don't think it's as good or as menacing as the one from Gangs of New York but in this film it's a great performance.

The only thing that spoiled this screening was the fact that a couple got up and walked out. This is the third time this year that I have witnessed people getting up and leaving. I would expect people to have watched this film before and know that the film is very slow paced and yet this didn’t stop them from buying a ticket. 

If you dont like slow films that then this film would feel like torture especially as it runs at 158 minutes but if you dont mind things unwinding slowly and methiocically then I encourage you to watch it whenever you can. As I said this is a masterpiece and shows that you don't need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make something epic. Just have a story that is told well and actors that do the screenplay justice.

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025)

Normally Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is not the sort of film that I would normally go to the cinema to see however as it has been nominated for a BAFTA and I am trying to watch all the nominated films, I find myself sitting in a cinema on a Sunday evening in Glasgow watching a film that looked in the trailer I saw during GOAT like it was done on MS Paint. Things didn’t start great as a group of people seemed to be out to cause trouble as during the Super Mario trailer applauded when it finished and then when the credits for the film started seemed to be mumbling something to the extent that another person in the screening “Could you shut the f**k up?” I wish I had the courage to say that sort of thing and the best part was that it worked as we never heard another sound from them. Anyway the story of the film sees Amélie born and after starting life as a vegetable becomes verbal on her second birthday and after biting on some chocolate starts to see the world differently and thanks to her live in nanny Nishio-san she takes to thing around her and when her family has to move back to Belgium she is heartbroken to be separating from Nishio but after a near death experience (her second in the film) she learns to live with the realisation that she isn’t the god she thought she was but a normal human. 

Despite my initial thoughts about the film, I thought this was a fantastic film. A bit strange in the opening moments but when the film gets going then it becomes this lovely and heartwarming story. The film is set in 1960’s Japan and there is a character called Kashima-San who has a bit of a dislike for the family and it stems from Nishio losing her family during the Second World War and Kashima feeling that Nishio is betraying her family. That is the closest that the film gets to conflict but the film isn’t really about conflict, it's about watching this little girl find her place in the world and as she says during the film ‘When You’re Three Years Old, You see everything and understand nothing.’

This is an astonishly good film and one that caught me off guard. If you are expecting Pixar level of animation and nothing else will do then this film will not be for you but if you don't mind a film that uses mainly pastel colours then you will enjoy this film. I am grateful to BAFTA for nominating this film because I definitely would have given it a miss and think that lovely charming films can and should win the top awards which is what i hope this film does come the end of award season. 

100 Nights of Hero (2025)

We are only five weeks into 2026 and I think I might have found a contender for worst film of the year. The film takes place in a fantasy world where there are three moons and women are banned from reading or telling stories. Manila Monroe plays Cherry who is married to Amir El-Masry’s Jerome (last seen in Giant). Jerome doesn't want to consummate his marriage to Cherry for some reason and tasks his friend Manfred (played by Nicholas Galitzine) with trying to see if he can woo Cherry within 100 days for reasons that I forgot because I just didn’t care. 

As performances go, I can’t really fault them. Emma Corbin plays the titular Hero and she is fine although she doesn't really have much to do apart from get in between Cherry and Manfred. Nicholas Galitzine is probably the best although due to the screenplay I couldn’t figure out what his motives were for trying to woo his friend's wife. Manila Monroe does the best she can although spending 90 minutes or so trying to ward off the advances of Manfred gets boring after a while. 

Richard E. Grant and Felicity Jones pop up for what was hopefully a good payday. I am annoyed that they used Richard E. Grant for such a stupid pointless role. He was in it for about 30 seconds wearing a stupid bird like helmet and Felicity Jones has a better 30 seconds but seeing as she is credited as an executive producer it seems like that might have been more of an attempt to give her more money for doing next to nothing.

There were people talking constantly and normally this would be a source of irritation but I was so bored by the film that I just didn’t care. They also applauded the film although the chances of this because they had just seen the the best film ever are slim. This has to be one of the worst films I have seen at the cinema since Megalopolis. Like that film I spent a great amount of time debating whether I should walk out but I decided that I would only walk out if a film was offensive. Another was the fact that the seat I had was a recliner so I was relatively comfortable so I didn't want to leave it.

The issue with the film really centres around the fact that it thinks that it is smarter than it actually is. I dont have any issue with a film aiming high but on this occasion it feels like they thought that setting it in a fantasy world means that they can get away with a lacklustre script or at least get away with stuff that is boring. I walked out of the screening feeling that this film was a slog which isn’t what a film should be.

GOAT (2025)

 Being someone who doesnt have kids it feels a bit strange going into a cinema screening where 80% of the audience is children. GOAT tells the story of Will (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin) who goes to a roarball game (basically basketball) and wants to grow up and be like his hero Jett (voiced by Gabrielle Union), ten years later and the team that Jett is in are failing and in a desperate move they sign Will after he impressed in a viral video. 

I enjoyed this film. It took a while to get going and at 100 minutes its not like its a long film but once the film got into a high gear then it really picked up for me. I liked the character of Will and thought that he was talented without coming across as cocky or arrogant. He was someone who had a dream and was confident enough in his skills. Of the outcast characters in the team I liked Modo (Nick Kroll)  the most. He was funny and quite likeable as a result. I did like Flo (Jenifer Lewis) and the character was clearly a slime ball owner who never had much interest in the team. Patton Oswalt was great as Dennis the ‘coach’ before becoming the coach for real. 

As this film is done by the same studio that did the Spider-verse movies which i generally think are awful even though the animation is good, I thought that the animation was quite good. It’s not Illumination or Pixar level but it's still pretty good although I think the animation is more vibrant in those Spider-Man films. The games take place in various different themed arenas and whilst at times it looked like different worlds from Mario Kart, they all looked amazing especially the final one. 

I had seen a trailer for it and whilst it looked ok there didn’t seem to be anything special about it but I am not the target audience. GOAT is a good animated film that will keep the young one entertained as I heard more noise from the adults than I did from the kids. As they are the target audience it is more important that the film works on them but if it works on adults then it is a bonus. Whether it has the longevity of