The Thing (1982)

The Thing was the highlight of my movie marathon (having already seen The Shining in the cinema a couple of months ago). The Thing is one of those films that I avoided growing up cause my tolerance of gore was quite low in the early 90’s when I would have watched this. Thankfully I put this right and was glad to be able to see it on the big screen. I think this might actually be John Carpenter’s best film although there are other films that deserve to be involved in that particular discussion.

The special effects are glorious and show why practical effects will always be better than CGI (something the 2011 version should have realised). They look really good on my TV at home but on the big screen you can appreciate the effort that went into them. They all look disgusting and are just as effective today as they did in 1982. There is one stop motion shot which doesn't quite work towards the end but apart from that the effects that Stan Winston created here are some of the best ever.There is one matte painting shot which is designed to show the where the spaceship was buried and it does look like a matte painting on the big screen but that is one of the few dated things that is in the movie.

One of the things that I love about this film is the isolated setting. I always like isolated settings because they mean that the cavalry isn't going to come over the nearest horizon or help our main characters out. The characters have to use their heads to try and get them out of the situation and the way that the characters are written means that you can see them working together even if they are at odds some of the time. I do think that there are too many characters for too much of the film so it means that we have to put up with some characters that don't really connect with me. The only ones that do are MacReady, Blair & Childs and that is because they are played by Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley & Keith David. To be fair, they are really good as Kurt Russell is at the peak of his career and the thing to like about MacReady is he doesn't start off as the tough guy but is sort of forced into it by the actions of the film. Wilford Brimley is distracting at first by not having a moustache.

I like the fact that we don't know for a long period of time who the ‘thing’ is. The shadow doesn't look like any of the cat so there is no way of knowing until the big reveal. The Thing is not in any rush to show itself and that is another thing that the 2011 version fails to understand. You don't have to have everything spoonfed to you and apart from the opening shot, we don't know anything about what the Thing is and how it got here. 

The Ennio Morricone credited score sounds an awful lot like a John Carpenter score and that is probably because it is. Carpenter views his score like wallpaper which is a bit dismissive but in the context of this film and a lot of films around this period, that attitude works to the film's benefit. There is something alien sounding about the score and when there is an alien hiding in plain sight it does what a score should do and that is compliment what is going on.

I have always thought that this film was very good but seeing it on the screen has made me appreciate it even more. The story is simple, the setting is perfect, the way that suspense is used is brilliant and the gore/horror is some of the best of this era. I have changed my rating which isn't something I tend to do with films that I have seen before. This is a five start film in my opinion and one of the best horror films of all time. 

The Omen (1976)

The Omen is the first part of a four part movie marathon which starts at nine at night and ends around eight hours later in the early hours of Sunday morning. The 1976 Omen is arguably the best and starts at 6am on June 6 and sees Gregory Peck star as Robert Thorn who is the US Ambassador and his pregnant wife gives birth but sadly the baby dies. Thorn is given the choice of taking a baby who has just been born but has lost his mother and taking him as his new child but without telling his wife Katherine (Lee Remick).

Gregory Peck is very good as Robert. His world slowly starts to crumble and he seems to accept what is happening but with an understandable amount of scepticism. The only time this scepticism becomes an issue is when he is told to kill Damian and Robert goes back to seeing Damian as a child.Lee Remick does ok as Katherine although her role is somewhat limited and the only time she really gets anything to do is when Katherine jumps out of a window and into a neatly placed ambulance. It is always harsh to criticise child actors  as especially now they are quite good but back in the 1970’s that wasn't the case and Harvey Stephens does ok as Damian. He does a good job of looking like a normal young boy which plays into the ideal of him being the son of the devil even harder to believe.

I have never felt this before but the whole part of the film where Robert and Keith go to Italy and visit the graveyard is actually my favourite part of the entire film. It’s done with a great sense of atmosphere and it is the part of the film where we really get some development in the story and crucially some answers to what is going on. It takes place at night but we can still see what is going on which is the main issue with a lot of horror films today.

Being a Doctor Who fan, the inclusion of Patrick Troughton is a main reason why I will always rewatch the show. It is only three years since his last appearance as the Doctor and this might be a dumb thing to say but as Father Brown it is very different to the Cosmic Hobo that he played in Doctor Who. His run is also very different and shows that his run in Doctor Who was a stylistic choice instead of how he normally runs or it could have been a stylistic  choice in this film. His role in the film is important because he is trying to convince Robert of the danger that is about to come over his family. He is obviously dismissed by Robert but it leads to his death which is a really good one because it seems to come out of nowhere. David Warner is another person with Doctor Who connections having starred in several audio adventures right up until his death. In this he is very good as Keith. Saying Warner is good in something is an obvious thing to say but he brings something great to whatever role he is in and seems to have better luck in making Robert understand the severity of the situation. His importance to Robert inevitably leads to his death and its a very good death like Father Brown. He loses his due to a freak accident and whilst the prop head does look like a prop head, his death is still shocking.

Given that Damian isn't in it as much as you would expect, it's a credit to the film that his importance to the plot comes across as effective as it does. It’s only at the end when Robert takes Damian to the church with the intention of killing him that the scale of what could happen is really understood.

The writing and directing were very good. It always amuses me that the director of this would go onto direct The Goonies which is one of my favourite films and is tonally very different to this film. I like this film but have to admit that I don't love it. I think that there are moments which are very well done but there is something that doesn't quite work for me. I have watched it many times over the years and with each watch I hope that  something stands out to me but each time I find myself feeling the same. It’s not bad by any means but it doesn't work for me in the same way that it works for others. It is still the best of the series even though it works as a good double bill with The First Omen.

Masters of the Universe (2026)

I genuinely love the 1987 version. I know its terrible by every aspect you would judge a film but for entirely nostalgiac reasons, I love this film and will defend it to anyone. I knew that this film would, on a technical level and creative level, surpass the 1987 version. The setup of the film is that Prince Adam is sent away from Eternia after Skeletor attacks the palace and after spending 15 years trying to track down the sword and is brought back to Eternia to take on Skeletor. As a plot goes its pretty basic but then it doesn't need to be overly complicated when there is so much world building and supporting characters to  introduce.

When I heard that Jared Leto was cast as Skeletor my heart sank because he has managed to be terrible in pretty much everything he is in although he was passable as a soulless character in TRON: Ares but in this he was actually pretty good. I was surprised how much I enjoyed his version of Skeletor. There were a couple of moments where Skeletor was funny and I didn’t know that Leto had that range. It shows how good he can be when he reigns in the pretentious attitude. If you had told me a year ago that I would enjoy a Jared Leto performance then I would have questioned what drugs you were taking. They got the look of Skeletor right and he comes across as appropriately menacing and is close enough to being OTT to get away with it. I thought that Nicholas Galitzine was quite good as Adam. He is believable as HR Adam and then when the story needs him to be he-man then he looks the part. Sadly we do have to spend an hour with him as HR Adam but the moment when he becomes He-man is a great moment and he looks the part whilst still having the charisma to be a strong lead. There is a lovely moment between Galitzine and Dolph Lundgren. It was nice to have Lundgren actually say something instead of just a humorous cameo shot. It doesn't really add anything to the story but it was a nice moment for people like me to appreciate. Idris Elba seemed to be having fun as Duncan who starts off as the tough teacher before becoming the drunk has-been and then back to being the Man-At-Arms that we know him to be and its just nice to see Elba in something other than Sky adverts. He’s a great actor when he decides to actually be in films and TV shows instead of adverts.

There are a couple of things that the 1987 version did better. I thought that Alison Brie made a poor Evil-Lyn. She just wasn't very……evil. She was trying to do humour and it just didn’t work. I thought that Meg Foster did a better job. I also thought Kang was better in the 1987 version. It looked creepy and evil and a genuine threat but in this film with all the characters he is reduced to a couple of shots but even when we saw him on screen it didn’t look as good. I also thought that Tesla was at time annoying because they were determined to try and show her as a strong female and felt that being dismissive to what her drunk father said was the best way to go about it.

There is a Flash Gordon vibe which I wasnt expecting and there are a couple of Highlander references including a song from the 1986 classic and I wondered why they went for this vibe and it was revealed at the end of the film when its revealed the Brian May was involved mainly with the guitar and I thought then that it all made sense. The score from Daniel Pemberton is quite good for the film. I have liked his scores in the past (most recently Project Hail Mary) and thought that it was appropriate for the film. Some of the songs used did make me wonder whether James Gunn was involved but he wasn't (obviously).

The film inevitably has post credit scenes. The first scenes gives up an appearance from Orko which explains the message of the film, the second one hinting at the return of She-ra and the third and final sees Evil-Lyn pick up Skeletor’s Skull which I think everyone saw coming. That didn’t have the impact of the 1987 version but I suppose you can’t have everything. Should we get a sequel it was clear they were going to need a way of getting Skeletor back in the film.

I got the He-Man movie I wanted even with some issues with the script and Alison Brie and whilst it will never diminish my love for the 1987 version, I can honestly say that this film was everything that it needed to be. I’m not sure how this will do given that Mandalorian and Grogu has underperformed at the box office but hopefully it wont be 39 years before we get another He-man film.

Backrooms (2026)

I was genuinely looking forward to this film more than Mandalorian and Grogu. The trailer had a lot of mystery without spoiling too much so was the perfect type of trailer. The film is based on a web series that started on creepypasta and this got picked up by A24. Now I have never seen the YouTube stuff that he did but this film is a continuation of that stuff but I dont feel like i was missing out on not having seen it. There will obviously have been Easter eggs in the film but I never felt like I was missing out but if you have seen the other stuff then you will get the references.

I thought that when Mary is pulled away by the people in the hazmat suits and it fades to black that the film was over would have been a terrible ending but then thankfully it continues but then worried again that we were going to be bombarded with exposition but thankfully we weren’t and what we ended up getting was a satisfying ending that l thought was mysterious but still gave us enough information. The explanation is that a company that started to do work in MRI stopped all that so that they could research this area that seems to go on and on forever. 

The film doesn't have many performances but that two central ones are Chiwetel Ejiofor who plays Clark and Renate Reinsve who plays Mary the psychiatrist. I liked Reinsve in Sentimental Value which was Oscar nominated this year and both of them play flawed people. Clark runs a furniture store that is failing (never see a customer) and his marriage is falling apart and he lives in the store and once Mary finds him, he decides to stay because its where he feels at home and can sort of wallow in his misery. Mary has her own issues, she seems to have a good life by being a psychiatrist but we see that she has a book for sale and we see her eating her dinner on the couch and she had a mother who seemed to have a mental illness. The film ends with her seemingly trapped in this world but it is left ambiguous. Ejiofor is very good as someone who can’t get past the fact things have happened to him and he can’t accept that he is responsible. The scene where Clark is at the dinner table with Mary, the bearded guy and the woman in the red office dress and he grabs chunks of white something and puts it on the plates and it was at this point that the focus shifted to Mary as she is trying to escape from the 8ft Pirate Clark. They dont spend a huge amount of time together so it’s hard to really rate their chemistry but on their own they were both very good.

There is a great sense of claustrophobia when they move into the Backrooms. There were a couple of moments which genuinely did make me jump and this was a rare case of jumpscares actually working because they weren’t earnt so I didn’t mind. The fact that it is brightly lit shows that you can light rooms and things can still be unnerving or scary. The 8ft Pirate Clark looked creepy even when we got to see it which is not what I was expecting but again shows that you can make this stuff work when you reveal things.  

I do think that we are in a strong period for horror films. There is this, there was Obsession, Iron Lung, Exit 8 and this is another film that is made by a YouTuber and it’s shocking and quite frankly soul destroying to know that Kane Parsons is 20 YEARS OLD!!!! This film did have involvement from the likes of James Wan and Osgood Perkins so hopefully they had a positive impact on him and this is the start of a very promising career. Very good stuff.

Power Ballad (2026)

Power Ballad was a mystery screening and I was very disappointed if I am going to be completely honest. I saw the trailer and it looked fairly empty in terms of story and despite having Paul Rudd, it was the idea that he was sharing the screen with one of the Jonas brothers that made me doubtful that this would be a good viewing experience. 

It seems to be a universal impossibility to dislike Paul Rudd. Even in something that isn't perhaps on par with a lot of his other stuff, Paul Rudd has the enviable skill of elevating whatever he is in. As Rick he is someone who is in a band that sings at weddings and uses his skills to help Danny come up with some cool lyrics during a drinking session. They even manage to make it plausible that an American would be living happily in suburban Ireland which isnt as easy to do as you might think but the explanation that Rudd gives worked for me. I think if it had been someone else then it wouldn’t have had the same effect. To be fair to Nick Jonas, he was perfectly fine as Danny. Playing someone who seems desperate for a hit after years in a boy band is perhaps something that he could lean into but despite having made a shed load of money off the back of someone else’s work might normally make me dislike them, Jonas still comes across as likeable. It is perhaps helped by a scene where he suggests giving Rick some money but is stopped by his manager. The pair work well together and even though they spend most of the film separate, they still manage to compliment each others part of the story.

The supporting cast is good as well with Sandy (Peter McDonald) being an unexpected comedic sidekick to Rick. During the LA portion of the film he becomes the most entertaining part of the film. Havana Rose Liu makes her second appearance in a film I have seen this year after appearing in Tuner but this is a smaller role and doesnt really add much to the story.

The early scenes of the singing left me slightly worried that this film would be terrible. It was clear that they singing was added on in dubbing which is perhaps understandable for Paul Rudd but as Nick Jonas is a singer in real life it seems obvious to have Jonas sing live when it was being recorded. That was as bad as it got a the singing later on seemed to either be done at the time or the dubbing was better. 

The ending is slightly absurd. So after spending most of the film making it clear there is no evidence that Rick co-wrote the song, his daughter who just a few days earlier was in a car accident and had her arm in a sling yet it miraculously disappear, comes across a video which shows that he sung the lyrics year ago and literally in the next scene Rick throws a huge wad of notes into a buskers collection basket. It felt like they ran out of money and couldn’t film the ending or at least didn’t have time to film it but it felt like about 20 minutes was reduced into 90 seconds which felt a bit odd.

Whilst Power Ballad isn't as bad as I feared. It isn't the sort of film that I would have seen which is perhaps the point of a Mystery screening. I think that it's a film with its heart in the right place but something was lacking which means that I doubt that its a film that will get a repeat viewing. 

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)

The first Star Wars film at the cinema since 2019 feels like it was the result of chaos after multiple failed attempts to try and make a film which have included a Taika Waititi trilogy and a Rey Skywalker movie which may or may not still be happening. To be honest this is perhaps this is the most unenthusiastic I have been about an upcoming Star Wars film ever. I am genuinely looking forward to Masters of the Universe more than this. That is the state of Star Wars in 2026. I did watch the tv show and got through them in quite a short period of time. Seasons one and two are quite good and whilst there is a dip in the third one it’s not the train wreck most would have you believe. Sometimes when there is a film of a tv series there is a question as to whether you would need to have watch the show to be able to follow what is going on and I don’t think you do. You would be able to better like or dislike the film but I don’t think that there is anything you would be missing. I did think that it was weird that there are no call backs to the three seasons but that might actually be a good thing so that people won’t have had to watch the previous episodes to follow what is going on.

Everyone seems to go gooey eyed about Grogu and despite not saying a word there is something likeable about him. Credit to Pedro Pascal who apart from one scene is under the helmet. I know he took it off (or had it taken off him) a couple of times in the TV series but its only done in one scene and rather than have to go through the rigmarole like they did in the show (which formed a whole episode), they get round it by implying that if he kills them all then that would void it. They put the helmet back on so they avoided the Stallone problem from Judge Dredd. Sigourney Weaver pops up to basically deliver exposition and I think that she deserved better. Jeremy Allen White or his voice heavily distorted plays Rotta who is trying to get out from Jabba’s hefty shadow. The character was fine but it was impossible to tell that it was White so my question would be what was the point in having him if you can’t tell that it's him. The only voice that was entertaining was Martin ‘Marvel films are just theme park rides’ Scorsese. His role is short but it was just fun hearing him in a Star Wars film

The score is really good from three time Oscar winner Ludwig Göransson. There feel like a few nods to John Williams’ score but still enough to feel like it’s part of the Mandalorian series. It’s not the best score from him but it does what it needs to do and make the film seem more epic than it perhaps deserves. Don’t think this is going to win any awards but it is still a banging soundtrack.

This is a fine film. It’s not the disaster that some were predicting and probably wanted because they don’t like what Disney has done to Star Wars but the honest truth is it’s fine which in a normal film would be ok but for a Star Wars film isn’t good enough. It felt like the fourth season that we never got but just squashed into two hours and twenty minutes. Would I want more Mandalorian and Grogu movies? Probably not, but just to have Star Wars back in the cinema is enough to feel like this universe is getting back on track.

Tuner (2025)

This showing of Tuner was a preview which based on the trailer looked interesting. Tuner does remind me of Baby Driver for several reasons. In this the film has someone with a hearing issue who is good at something and uses this skill to commit crimes to raise money. He then falls in love with someone without them knowing of the truth. It might be unfair to compare Tuner to Baby Driver but the similarities are undeniable and then there is the use of Egyptian Reggae at one point.

Things seem to be going on nicely for Niki but then when he is tuning a piano at some fancy house, he comes across people trying to break into a safe and when he helps just to get the noise to stop, they offer him a job to do more work for them. This gang runs a security business but it seems to be a front just so they can sneak into the wealthy houses and nick valuable but small quantities of jewellery.

I thought that Lee Woodall was quite good as Nikki, the last time I saw him was in Nuremberg which he was equally as good at. Niki is a likeable character who seems to have lost his parents at a young age and manages to make a life for himself despite his hearing issue. Havana Rose Liu plays the love interest Ruthie who starts being slightly uninterested with Niki but they soon become a couple but I liked Ruthie because she has career aspirations and is very driven without coming across as unlikeable. This character shows that it can be done to have a female character in a film with ambition and like ability. 

I thought that both Liu and Woodall worked well as a couple and that there was always going to be something that causes an issue otherwise the film wouldn’t happen and the watch that Niki gives Ruthie was always going to be the thing that caused the issue but it was perhaps obvious that someone in the film was going to pop up and be the owner of the watch. 

Jean Reno is the owner of the watch and plays a very important maestro who appears in two scenes (technically three but the first is just a far away shot of him in the crowd). Sadly the final shot of him is of him waddling like he had an accident in the trouser department. I may be being harsh but it was something that just seemed to stand out to me. The brief scenes he is in are really good, although they are so brief you could have given it to someone that isn't as well known as Jean Reno. 

Dustin Hoffman features pretty heavily in the trailer but his involvement is minor. He features at the beginning but once he is admitted to hospital he spends the rest of the film in bed before Harry dies. Perhaps it was purposefully misleading to suggest that Dustin Hoffman’s involvement in the film was greater than it turned out to be. That’s not to say he wasnt good because he was and there was a nice grandfather/grandson relationship between Harry and Niki but it would have been nice to see more of Hoffman.

I liked Tuner but I felt like it didn’t quite have the energy that it needed. I don't think that there was anything that caused the film to be slightly disappointing but I think in the hands of someone like Edgar Wright who is known for his stylistic direction, this film would have gone down better and might find a wider audience. It’s not directed with any particular flashiness but instead its more of a character piece but it still lacks that high note that the film needs.