Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

It's hard to believe that this film is 45 years old. I have seen this film many times but never at the cinema so I thought this was a great time to see a classic film at the cinema. The film which started a franchise that fizzled out in 2023 and the trilogy is a great trilogy and a good argument could be made that it's one of the greatest of all time. The film sees Indiana Jones try and find the source of Ark of the Covenant before the Nazi's do. This has a great opening which sets the template of how all Indiana Jones films would play out. 

The whole trying to get the location of the ark is what the first half of the film is about and then it feels like the film quickly and convenient tries to find a way to get the ark on the mountain and the way that Toht's face melts is genuinely terrifying even in 2026. I do find it humorous that Hitler is obsessed with magic and sorcery and it must have begun the narrative trope of a film trying to shoehorn Hitler into their story to have a main villain by having him obsessed with something inplausible.

Harrison Ford is coming off the back of getting frozen as Han Solo and I think that Indiana Jones is his best character. He plays the role so effortlessly and it's because he is so likeable that you really feel gutted for him when he gets the artefacts taken out of his hands. Karen Allen turns the damsel in distress and makes it a strong female character that does occasionally need Indiana's help. Paul Freeman is great as Belloq and is a great villain to go up against Jones even if Toht is there as the Nazi baddie but he's a Nazi and treated more as a comedic villain. Steven Spielberg is in his golden era and this film is arguably the peak of that period. He directs the action scenes well and keeps the whole thing moving along. 

The plot hole that people say about this film would ruin a lesser film but this film is so good that I can still enjoy it. The plot hole even gets used against Sheldon in an episode of the Big Bang Theory. The plot hole is that if Jones did nothing then the events of the film would have played out the same. That's true but then the film would have only been about 45 minutes long. 

There are a couple of bloopers that make this film more fun to watch. First there is the shot where Indiana Jones is mourning the 'death' of Marion and there is a guy in denim jeans walking along in the background. The next is when Belloq is talking to Indiana when he's holding a rocket launcher and a fly lands on his face and goes into his mouth and Paul Freeman does flinch or stutter. Another one is when Belloq and co are chasing after Jones and when Belloq's car stops, Toht has suddenly become very still as if he has become a mannequin. These bloopers bring a charm to the film.

This isn't my favourite Indiana Jones film but it is my second favourite. I think when the other films reach their 45th anniversary in 2029 and 2034 then I will certainly go and see them at the cinema cause then I have seen every film at the cinema. I would even see the trilogy in one sitting cause that's a cool way to spend six hours. This film is a fun action film that pays a loving homage to films of the 40's and 50s and is the sort of film that would great to watch on a Sunday afternoon. 

Pressure (2026)

 A film about the weather isn't the sort of thing that is easy to sell to the cinema going public but that is what we have with Pressure which is about James Stagg (Andrew Scott) who is tasked by General Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) with coming up with a weather report for the upcoming D-Day. Kerry Condon plays Kay Summersby who is Eisenhower's private secretary and the one that seems to be holding everything together and Chris Messina plays Irving Krick who thinks that the weather on June 5th will be fine and Damian Lewis is playing Bernard Montgomery.

As this is based on a true story, there are certain creative liberties that have been taken. Apparently it was a Norwegian that worked out the perfect time for the Allied Forces to attack and Stagg actually collected the information between three different areas. You expect some liberties to be taken but at the end of the day no matter how much they have changed it doesn't take away from what is a genuinely amazing film. I think that the performances are all really good. Andrew Scott is always great but here is plays Stagg in a reserved way which seems weird given how much metaphorical pressure he is under with the D-Day prep and the knowledge that his pregnant wife may be dead after the hospital she was at was bombed. Brendan Fraser plays Eisenhower with a hint of doubt about what to do after a previous mission failed in horrific fashion. The last thing I saw Fraser in was The Whale and this is a better performance (and I liked him that film). Kerry Condon plays what would be a normal character in someone else's hands but Condon makes her very much the support that Stagg needs. Chris Messina plays Krick as someone to dislike but I could help but feel sorry for him when it starts to rain and his prediction is proved to be incorrect. Although using weather patterns from 25 years ago perhaps wasn't the smartest strategy to have, although this is from a position where I know next to nothing about this sort of thing. Damian Lewis is an actor I really like although it did feel like he was hamming it up a little bit. It's the sort of performance you would expect in Blackadder Goes Forth. It's a good performance but given that everyone else is somewhat restrained, his performance does seem a little bit over the top in comparison.

The film does a good job of building up the tension because a lot is on the line. If they get it wrong then the war is pretty much lost and despite Stagg's confidence he can't be 100% sure that he is correct but is pretty confident that Krick is wrong. It seems like people are telling Stagg that he is wrong purely based on the desire to get on with it and it's not helped by the fact that Stagg is the easiest person to be around. The relationship between Stagg and Eisenhower is very good in the sense that their is a respect that forms over the brief time of the story and yet there is still skeptic from Eisenhower who is trying to wrestle with what happened before.

This story started off as a stage play and it feels like a stage play as the film takes place primarily in about three rooms. Despite that I thought that the story was really good and Anthony Maras did a really good job in keeping the pace going and also managing to make a story about the weather interesting. I think that this would form the perfect double bill with Darkest Hour (which this does share a producer of that film) and this is definitely a film that I would happily watch again.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

I wouldn't say that I am the biggest Star Trek fan in the world. In fact this is probably the third Star Trek film I have seen at the cinema with 1991's An Undiscovered Country and 2009's Star Trek (a.k.a Lens Flare the Movie). However with this film being the 40th anniversary I thought this would be a good time to see it at the biggest screen in my local cinema. Apart from the first couple of minutes, you don't really need to have seen the other three films to follow what is going on. Kirk and little gang are heading back to Earth to face the music when they discover that Earth has been visited by a strange alien being that is they surmise is contacting the Whales because they aren't communicating. So Kirk's plan is to go back in time, take two Humpback Whales to communicate with the aliens and hopefully put off the end of the world. They use their Klingon ship to go back to 1986 and come across two Whales that are about the be released into the wild into almost certain death.

The fact that there is no clearcut villain is a bold move but one that works. The story is good enough that even though it has an environmental message at its core, it doesn't come across as patronising. It comes close a couple of times but only briefly. William Shatner is good as he gets to do what he seems to enjoy doing the most, bossing people around and wooing the ladies. Leonard Nimoy is better as the director but he is still good as Spock. DeForest Kelley starts off as the grumpy old man but his best moment comes when he is in the operating room and trying to bring Chekov back to consciousness. George Takei is given the bare minimum to do when he asks some questions about a helicopter and then is transporting a container to the ship. James Doohan seems to be having the time of his life in every scene he is in and Walter Koening suffers from little to do apart from being captured and people thinking he is up to something because he is Russian. Nichelle Nichols is doing her thing and is doing it well but again suffers from having the bare minimum to do. Catherine Hicks is quite good as Gillian who has developed a bond with the Whales and ends up as part of the Federation using her expertise in the future.

This is the most fun I have had watching this film. I found it more humorous than I on previous watches and thought that despite the slightly ludicrous concept, the film makes it work and Star Trek 4 is one of the more enjoyable films in the series. Leonard Nimoy does a good job of directing and the cast are all on good form and at just under two hours, the film doesn't outstay its welcome. Would definitely watch more old Star Trek films at the cinema especially the one where Kirk fights God.

Fall 2: Deadpoint (2026)

Fall 2 was a mystery screening and this was one of the best attended mystery screenings although Mystery is a generous as it was quite clear that it would be Fall 2. There is always a question about whether a mediocre film needs a sequel but clearly Fall did well enough to get a sequel which I confess that I have seen but couldn't be bothered to re-watch it even though it was on TV last night. The sequel follows on from the first where the sister of Shiloh is persuaded to visit Thailand to of a plank walk on the side of a mountain on Mount Kwan by a friend of Shiloh.

Things go wrong relatively quickly once they start their illegal climb and I will be honest that this film did make me a little bit anxious. I'm not afraid of heights but the unstable way that the planks of wood were assembled was enough to make me feel uneasy which I suppose is what directors were aiming for. I am pretty sure that they filmed a lot of this with blue screen but credit go to the special effects because they do make it look like they did film it up a mountain.

I thought that Harriet Slater (Jax) and Arsema Thomas (Luce/Billie) were doing their best with what was a flimsy at best script and use the restricted setting well enough. I think that other people might get more out of their relationship although I only found it interesting after the truth about Luce comes out.

The film splits a flashback between Jax and Shiloh as they go skydiving and it ends with Jax telling Shiloh to drop dead which was the last conversation they have so the film is about her coming to peace with how things ended and doing the trek in her honour. The first twist that Luce is in fact a fan of what happened and in fact named Billie was somewhat predictable but I suppose that there wouldn't be much to enjoy about this film without the predicable things.

It was clear that Jon was either going to die saving our two leads or be an evil guy with a sinister secret and it rather predictably turned out to be the latter. The oxygen tanks they were given contain Fentanyl and Jon was using Jax and Billie as drugs mules which was mildly interesting although it does feel like it was one plot contrivance too many. The film didn't need this and they could have been rescued by someone else. 

Fall 2 or Fall 2: Deadpoint as it is also known as is an ok film. It's a film that doesn't have much in the way of plot and so would have to rely on its characters and them being interesting enough to get you through it and sadly I found both Jax and Billie to not being the most well thought out characters because these sort of people who do these stupid treks are hard to feel any empathy towards. I don't think that there needs to be a third but if this takes the money then that third one will be on its way.

Coyote vs. Acme (2026)

Sometimes a film's backstory is just as if not more interesting as the film itself. Coyote vs. Acme is one of the most infamous films that has come out for quite sometime as back in November 2023, Warner Bros in a latest example that they don't know what they are doing, decide to shelve this film and get rid of it as a tax loss despite it supposedly doing well with test audiences. Nearly two years later we get to see just how dumb Warner Bros were.

The set up of the film is a convoluted plan of Wile E. Coyote to try and catch and then eat the Roadrunner. He decides to sue Acme for selling him faulty goods with the plan that once Roadrunner appears in court then Coyote will be able to pull of his plan. I thought that the live action/animated balance was quite well done. I know there will be comparisons to such films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Space Jam films but I think this is more in the Roger Rabbit side of the spectrum as the story is good and the slapstick humour is well done.

Will Forte is very good as Kevin who is the lawyer who is helping Wile E. Coyote and they dynamic is at the heart of the film and credit to Forte because a large percentage of his scene are with Coyote and he makes you believe that Coyote is really there. Lana Condor is very good as Paige and makes her character more likeable and entertaining than the story probably made her scene. John Cena plays Buddy Crane and he was more effective as a villain than he was during his brief heel turn in WWE in 2025. 

The film is directed rather well by Dave Green who manages to balance the live action and the animated parts of the film rather well and I guarantee that you will have missed some gags the first time around so it will definitely require multiple viewings. The film did feel like it was starting to run out of steam when the story moves to Washington with Senator Elmer Fudd leading proceedings. Thankfully the interaction between Coyote and Roadrunner is quite lovely and makes you realise what you probably already knew and that they have been doing their thing for so long that its become something else to them.

Warner Bros' decision to shelve the film could potentially harm the film as it sends a message to the audience that they didn't believe in the film so they may lead some people to wait for it to end up on streaming but I suppose time will tell. I really enjoyed this film. I thought it was funny and it should do well with the young audience. 

Insidious: Out of the Further (2026)

We have been on a great run of horror films this year with Backrooms, Obsession, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Evil Dead Burn and Primate and yet we have another Insidious film to remind us how good we have had it. The last Insidious film was one of the most horror films I can remember seeing and yet Blumhouse feel that we need another one of these films. It is a new family with Gemma and Maya. The film starts in the distant past of 1999 where a young Gemma is living with her mom who is being possessed and ends up dying. Fast forward 20 years and we see a grown up Gemma who is weirdly staying in the same house with her daughter Maya and she is a dental hygienist and straight away my fear of dentist put me on edge.

I thought that Amelia Eve was quite good as Gemma. Despite the odd fact that Gemma still lives in the enormous house that her mother died in, she is a likeable person and her relationship with Island Austin (Maya) was quite nice to watch. The supporting characters are all pretty decent with her boyfriend Nick who seems to come on board to the weird situation rather quickly and also Clare who becomes the vessel for Elise to talk to people in this world. 

With this being a Blumhouse film, they don't really have the patience to be clever with their jump scares and things that are supposed to be scary. The house is way too big but that is the M.O of these films. There are periods of quiet darkness and you can set your watch as to when things go bang quite loudly. There are three old people that look odd and that is apparently enough to make them scary. They do have a purpose later on in the film but it's another cliche that Blumhouse films lean on quite a lot. There is also the ridiculous sight of the house having disappeared and no-one seemingly bothered as no one goes out to check so either everyone is in a deep sleep, dead or no one cares.

So yet again they bring the 83 year old Lin Shaye back and she has been the spine of this franchise and they made up for the lack of Elise in the last one. Her first 'appearance' is in the reflection of Gemma's protective glasses doing action moves that would have been laughable. Due to the fact that the character died, they at least keep creditability by only having her in the further. 

There are moments which are quite good. The couch tunnel moment was quite well done and even though it features in the trailer, this is longer version and quite creepy. Also the old couple that live opposite Gemma and Maya have a funny moment when they are both then, the woman points to the sky and her husband just stands there so she nudges him and he then points to the sky and I thought that was quite funny. 

Out of the Further is a huge improvement on the previous film but that was a low bar to clear. I do think that they need to stop doing these films because whilst they may have been popular in 2010 when the first one came out but we are sixteen years and six films on and there is nothing new and the genre has changed where these films are in danger of becoming cliched. If you have seen the other films then you will probably enjoy them but if you appreciate some creativity then I wouldn't have particularly high expectations.

The Dog Stars (2026)

Ridley Scott films are always worth getting excited about. His recent run has been a bit mixed (House of Gucci) but he shows with stuff like Gladiator II that he can still make exciting films and even though his best film recently was All the Money in the World which was nine years ago, there was still a certain amount of hope that this would a good film starring Jacob Elordi and Margaret Qualley. Set in the near future where a virus has wiped out most of humanity, Hig (Elordi) flies a plane with his dog Jasper and returns to Bangley (Josh Brolin). 

I will be honest and admit that I have never understood the appeal of Elordi. He is a good actor and was really good in Frankenstein but he is one of those actors that Hollywood seems to be pushing as the next big movie star. I must admit that I can seen why because he was quite good as Hig. The bond he has with his dog was lovely and it was quite sad when the dog died especially given the connection his previous life. Margaret Qualley gives a nice performance as Cima. She doesn't get off to the best start but as the film progresses she becomes an important part of the story. It's not a performance on the level of The Substance but it's still a good showing for Qualley. Josh Brolin is good (as always) as Bangley who seems to enjoy the new world a bit too much. He is sidelined sadly when Hig goes off and has a brief moment where he fights off people and somehow survives when things start to blow up. 

Guy Pearce is ok as Pops. His moody attitude towards Hig is entertaining and the inevitable cooling means that they get on by the end. Sadly Pops becomes a background character once they return and Bangley is back in the story. He has maybe two brief appearances but that is it.

The group that attacks Bangley are given a brief bit of backstory but nothing more than that and after the battle they don't appear again. There is a mention about Grand Central which takes way too long to get there and once they do then it leads to the most interesting part of the film where Allison Janney's Darlene who is a good villain but is only in the film for about five minutes before Hig, Pops and Cima make their escape. It's a shame because Janney is quite good as Darlene and if this were a TV season then this would be a very good main villain.

The main issue I have with this film is that there are way too many post apocalyptic films and TV shows that do this type of world better. The 28 Years films are better than this and there are seasons of The Walking Dead that are done better. This film has two hours and things feel rushed and there is no time given to get invested in things. If the film had been structured different or been given an extra 20 minutes then I'm sure things would have worked out a bit better. It's not a terrible Ridley Scott film but it is definitely one of his more disappointing offerings.