Digger (2026)

Digger has intrigued me from the moment I first heard about it. It was always going to be interesting to see what Tom Cruise would do post Mission: Impossible and his first offering is arguably the most out-there thing he has done since Eyes Wide Shut. I think one of the main problems with modern cinema is that trailers spoil things but that definitely isnt the case with this film. The trailer made it seem like Tom Cruise plays Digger Rockwell who is a wealthy oil tycoon who has ignored the problems going on in a ?? which is splitting off from Greenland and about to hit Europe causing destruction on a biblical scale. The twist comes when what we are seeing are scenes from a stage play that is based on the 'real' character of Digger. In between scenes Digger is trying to locate his daughter who seems to have gone missing on a. plane.

The trailer not telling you the truth is a gamble. It worked for me but I think for some it will annoy others. I think the idea of the world that this catastrophe caused is more interesting that the story of Digger himself. I think that it is only Tom Cruise and the curiosity of why he chose this role that will get people to buy a ticket. This isn't the first time that Iñárritu has set a film in the theatre but at least you knew that when you bought the ticket and the fantastical moments were the exception to the story. In the case of this film it's the straight moments that are the brief moments. 

There were a couple of moments that I wasn't sure if they were intended or not. The first came when Digger is talking on the computer and a few shots later the monitor has disappeared and there is no clear idea of where it went. The weirdest one was when Digger was talking to that group of people there were several mannequins in the crowd and they weren't very well hidden. Now I know that it wasn't where my focus was suppose to be but at first I only noticed cause one of the mannequins was sitting down whilst everyone else was standing up. I am curious to know whether it was deliberate or an accident.

I think Tom Cruise is great. I recently watched Tropic Thunder for the first time recently and thought it was a great performance and thought that Digger was going to be on the same level and whilst it was closer to Les Grossman than Ethan Hunt, it wasn't quite as intense and Grossman which means that at times it did feel like he was hamming it up. I like Riz Ahmed as an actor. He is always one of those actors that can give a great performance in literally whatever he is in and as the scientist that is advising Digger he does that part very well and he is having the time of his life when he is playing drunk. John Goodman plays the President which is clearly suppose to be a Donald Trump parody. They hammer this point when in one shot all of the President's cabinet are praying behind him in a scene mirroring what really happened with Trump. Goodman (or what's left of him) is great and at times I thought he was better than Cruise.

Digger is a film I liked but I didn't love. It is going to confuse a lot of people because of the switching of the settings but I thought that it worked surprisingly well. I think that if it had been a straight drama parody then it might have worked better but as it is I think that it will definitely be one of those films that people in about 10 years will say is a misunderstood masterpiece and I don't think I will be one of those people but I suppose time will tell.

Godzilla (1954)

With the latest Godzilla film due to come out in November, I thought I would start watching them all from the very beginning. This original film is probably my favourite. The set up of the film is that after a series of ships sinking, an investigation is started. I usually like the fmechagodzillases because it isn't weighed down by over complicated plot strands or characters that are over the top.

The first appearance of Godzilla is relatively lowkey by 2026 standards. The effect might look a bit primitive but for 1954 it did what it needed to do. The next appearance is of Godzilla coming out of the sea and with the black and white filming, it looks a lot more effective and would have probably been the better choice for its first appearance. Something that Godzilla does well (and future films utilise this in every other film) is the destruction is brilliant. His first attack on Tokyo is spectacular and its made even more effective with the great shots to the people as they look on helplessly.

It might be unfair but the scene where there is a discussion about what the reporters saw and there are the stuffy scientists and politicians being shouted at by the residents is a little bit funny. I think this sort of scene was commonplace in films of this period but it just made me chuckle. That's the only time the film made me chuckle. I suppose the other issue with Godzilla that doesn't get really addressed until the terrible Roland Emmerich 1998 version is that it does look like a bloke in a costume.

The score is something that I wanted to point out. Normally films from the 1950's are something that stand out to me because of the score yet there is something about Akira Ifukube's score that manages to convey the terror of what Godzilla is doing yet have moments where the music is somewhat comical. That's not an easy thing to pull off and yet Ifukube manages it really well.

I do like the central performances. I thought that the trio of Hideto Ogata (Akira Takarada), Emiko Yamane (Momoko Kochi) and Daisuke Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata)  helped make the human side of the film more interesting instead of reducing it to screaming. Yamane did unfortunately resort to stereotypical 'woman crying/shrieking at what terror she saw' a couple of time but I thought that the role was well performed by Kochi. Takarada as Ogata is a good leading man although if I were judging by 2026 standards I would say he doesn't have the greatest charisma or charm. Hirata is good as Serizawa but it did feel like his character was centered around the eye patch. It was somewhat inevitable that Serizawa would sacrifice himself to kill Godzilla.

The idea that Godzilla wasn't the only one of his species is an interesting idea of having more of these films and getting yourself out of a creative dead end. Even in the 1950’s they were hinting at sequel bait. I still stand that this is one of if not the best Godzilla films. The story is straight forward, the performances were really good and the way that Godzilla was defeated was rather low key but perhaps one of the more inventive ways instead of building mechagodzillas or using every weapon known to man.

Godzilla (2014)

We waited 16 years for a good Godzilla film after the 1998 Roland Emmerich mess forced Toho to do a new one to try and make people forget  what Hollywood had done to their great creation. The trailer looked awesome and my hopes were high when I went to the cinema to see this in 2014. 

The way that Godzilla was created is something that would need to be addressed for a 21st century audience. In 1954 it made sense to use atomic testing but in 2014 this wouldn't have worked so they came up with the idea that the atomic bombs weren't tests but intended to kill Godzilla. I liked the idea very much and thought it did something with what we knew about Godzilla's creation without making it seem silly. 

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is ok as Ford. This is probably one of his better performances but the character is at his most interesting when his dad Joe is in the story. After that he comes somewhat boring.

The trailer made it seem like Bryan Cranston was going to feature more in the film that he ultimately did. I know this was around the time Breaking Bad was on TV so they were probably cashing in on his fame but even now, it would have been nice to have more Cranston because he is such a good actor and his characters grief was a good driving force for that part of the story. Juliette Binoche was also someone that seemed destined for more screen time but her involvement was even briefer than Cranston's. Elizabeth Olsen was fine but was reduced to an almost cameo role being saddled with the kid which wasn't very interesting but I think she did her best.

I actually thought the supporting cast were rather good. Sally Hawkins and Ken Watanabe were really good and the best of the supporting actors as Vivienne Graham and Ishiro Serizawa respectively. It's always good to see David Strathairn in a film and cause the first thing I saw him in was the Bourne films, I always expect him to play a bad guy and being a military man didn't stop that expectation. 

One of the main things that people didn't like was the fact that there isn't very much Godzilla in a Godzilla film which makes me think that they haven't seen many Toho Godzilla films. I think that the fact we don't see him for quite a long time is a good thing because it means that we build up to the epic Godzilla moments. 

The score is by Alexandre Desplat and whilst it is good, it isnt his best but it does what it needs to do and there are some great moments that are helped by his score. The fights between Godzilla and the Muto are well done and I thought that the Muto design was really cool and in keeping with the style of the film. 

I really like this film. This is the sort of Godzilla film that Hollywood should be making. It does a great job of making Godzilla seem like the monster that he is. It's not a perfect film but it starts off the Monsterverse very well and in retrospect is the best that Godzilla would be in these movies. The pacing is good enough although I think that the whole Ford trying to get back to his family is somewhat underwhelming and I don't think that it would have been done better by someone else. 

Godzilla is a great film on its own but as the first part in a currently five part franchise (with the sixth coming out in 2027), it gets the franchise off to the best start.

Hope (2026)

Hope is a film that I had to go out of my way to see. It's not that my local cinema wasn't showing it but the showings were only at 9pm which means it would be midnight that I would get out and so I found a 7:40pm showing in what use to be my local cinema for a lot of my life. Hope is a story about aliens that attack the quiet town of Hope. Police Chief K Bum-seok is shown a dead cow with massive wounds and as he is driving back to the station he drives through a town and that is when he comes across the thing that is causing the chaos. As the film progresses it turns out that it isn't just one creature but a group of them.

The film feels like it ends of a cliffhanger which if it doesn't lead to a sequel then the whole decision to introduce the purpose of the aliens feels a bit pointless. I think if it were just aliens landing on earth and are attacked by humans then I would have been totally on board but the way that the aliens are seemingly humanised by having the couple (played by Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander) mourning the death of their emperor when his ship crashes onto Earth. Speaking of Fassbender and Vikander, I honestly am curious about why they decided to do this film. They aren't bad but it's curious casting choices but it maybe to try and attract the attention of a western audience. 

Hwang Jung-min is the Police Chief that does more running in this film than I have seen in any film. To be fair to him Jung Ho-yeon does her fair share of running (and in one scene riding a bike) and this despite a lot of car driving and horse riding. Jung-min starts off as a cranky police officer and very quickly becomes the hero of the film or at least one of them. 

The action scenes are easily the best things in the movie because they are done so well. The speed that the aliens move means that when they end up killing any humans they just turn into blood and guts and I was surprised that this was a 15 but I suppose that shows that times have changed. The special effects have a mixed time in this film. When we meet the first alien in the town there are some terrible CGI shots which show why it was kept in the shadows for so long. When the action moves to the forest then the effects are much better and I think the lower lighting helps.

The score stood out to me which isn't something I usually associate with a Korean film which might be harsh but it's true. I also thought that the cinematography was quite good. When the story is in the town then the cinematography along with the way the town looks wrecked helps create a great atmosphere and when the action moves to the forest the cinematography works very well and they make the forest looks interesting which isn't the easiest thing to pull off.

Hope is not what I was really expecting but in a good way. I think I was expecting one monster causing mayhem in a quiet seaside town and what I got was several aliens causing chaos in a seaside town and the nearby woods. I think I would like this more if the loose ends were tied up but as it is with no idea if there is going to be a sequel, is a very good film with a good story, some great performances and some nice gore. Not the best non-english language film this year but pretty close.

The Weight (2026)

This was a mystery screening and they have generally being good but there is always the possibility of it disappointing and what made that more likely is that it followed Resident Evil. The set up of the film is that Ethan Hawke plays Sam who is arrested for punching police officers and he is sent to do manual labour with the camp run by Russell Crowe's Clancy. He tells Sam that he can get his sentence reduced to be able to get his daughter back if he and three other men take gold across hazardous terrain for a friend of his. 

Having watched this less than 24 hours after watching Brad Pitt and a dog go through rough terrain I thought I would be tired of what was happening but credit to Padraic McKinley for keeping things going and also making good use of the woods and scenery. It's not as easy as most would think to keep that sort of thing interesting so credit to McKinley and cinematographer Matteo Cocco for pulling it off.

I did feel like the introduction of Anna (played very well by Julia Jones) was because they were worried about having an entirely male line up. I say this cause Anna doesn't really do anything and only gets something dramatic to do when she is about to be attacked by the big guy (whose name I can't remember). I think she was better than the character allowed her to be.

The last act of the film is what makes the film as good as it is cause the journey was easy enough to pull off but making sure it ends in a satisfactory way is harder to achieve and have Sam not get killed by Taggert, get to take a share of the gold, to get one over Clancy and get his daughter back means that the film ends in a satisfactory way that makes you feel good. When Sam and Penny literally drive off into the sunset I felt like the whole film worked perfectly and you end up leaving the cinema happy with what you have seen.

I enjoyed this film very much. I saw the trailer before another film and thought that it looked interesting although there was a chance that I would have waited until it came onto streaming and I am glad that I didn't wait because it was very good from start to finish. I thought that it was a very good story with great performances especially from Ethan Hawke although Russell Crowe deserves some praise. I suspect it will struggle to get seen at the cinema but if you do come across it on streaming that its a good way to spend an hour and a half. It was nice to have a mystery screening where no one walked out which did surprise me. 

Resident Evil (2026)

When they announced that there would be a Resident Evil reboot I think everyone rolled their eyes as if to say 'another one?'. Some were slightly intrigued when it was announced that Zach Cregger would be directing it. I was a big fan of Weapons and really enjoyed Barbarian. The bar was quite low to say that this was the best film in the Resident Evil series considering most of them are fairly terrible and not in a fun kind of way. The set up is that Austin Abrams plays Bryan who is a courier and is delivering organs to a hospital when he is offered a job that pays well to take a package to Racoon City Hospital. On the way he hits someone and things go from bad to worse. Everyone that Brian comes across has been infected and it's the fault of the Umbrella Corporation and the package is part of the cure. 

There are many things that I liked about this film. I thought that the humour was perfect. Bryan isn't an action guy and is actually a klutz who seems to be suffering from the worst luck. The whole house portion of the film was really well done and even though it might have bordered on cliche it never stayed long enough in the house for that to be an issue and the story then moved to Racoon City. The film is only 95 minutes so this is as stripped down as its possible to get and Cregger has managed to keep all the interesting things and apparently in the original cut there were more jokes and they were taken out cause the test audience was laughing. Well he took them out but left enough humour to make it entertaining.

The atmosphere that Cregger has created is brilliant. The darkness mixed in with the snow is used to great effect. Even though its at night I could still see what was happening. One of the the things that I liked in Weapons was how things just seemed to go crazy completely out of nowhere and there are a couple of scenes where Bryan is running and they are all great especially when people are throwing themselves off the top of buildings and its just a great visual. Also Cregger knows how to make jump scares scary. There are directors who rely too much to get a reaction out of people but Cregger knows how and more importantly when to use them. 

I thought that Austin Abrams was really good. He didn't know it all and wasn't even good at firing weapons and his reaction to crazy things happening was absolutely spot on. Paul Walter Hauser is probably the most famous name in this film and he is probably in it for about 10 minutes. He comes in and delivers a bunch of exposition and is quite funny but just cause he is the famous name doesn't mean he was long for this film. 

If I did have an issue with the film then it's with the final ten minutes or so. Once it got into the lab and Bryan transforms, then I found myself not as interested in it and felt it went a bit too silly. The last shot is of Bryan fully transformed almost certainly about to die was probably the right way to end it but I just thought the silliness went a bit too far. 

Overall I really enjoyed this film and was surprised with how much I enjoyed it. I was worried that it was going to go the way that Return to Silent Hill did earlier this year but thankfully it is far more creative, far more atmospheric and better in absolutely every way. I must admit I don't know too much about Resident Evil as I have only played the very first game and watched the Paul W.S. Anderson films so I can't say that I am mega invested in the game series but as a horror film it more than delivers.

Heart of the Beast (2026)

Heart of the Beast was an Insider Screening at my local Showcase Cinema and if you have seen the trailer then you know that it's basically Brad Pitt and a Dog. The longer set up is that Brad Pitt plays James who is a retired Special Forces Officer seemingly living off grid with his dog Odin and whilst flying James suffers a heart attack and he and Odin go on a trek to get to a road to civilisation. The concern I had for the film was whether the dog would survive as I have already sat through enough films this year to have a dog die but thankfully the film answered that within 90 seconds as we then go back one week in time. 

There are only two other credits in the entire film. The first is Anna Lambe who plays the woman who comes across Odin at the start of the film and takes care of him as they drive off into the sunset. It's hard to really critic her performance bearing in mind she's probably on screen for two minutes. J.K. Simmons is in the film for slightly longer although I think it's just so that James has someone to talk to even if it's brief. 

The bond between Brad Pitt and Uber (Odin) is at the core of the film. It's hard to be mean about the dog because he is quite adorable although the film spoils the fact that whatever he goes through the dog will make it. Brad Pitt is an odd actor. Sometimes I think he's very good and sometimes I think he's ok. To be honest, he got outacted by a dog. That's not to say he does bring something to the story. 

The film is pretty good. It's not groundbreaking but for a 90 minute film, I was never bored and never thought that the film was stretching credibility. The CGI bear was pretty bad but that was probably the worst thing about the film. The film did really try and tug and the heartstrings when James was reading the note at the end. Odin's story is more interesting than James' because and this might just be my naivety but dogs getting PTSD isn't something that I thought was a real thing but I suppose it is.

Heart of the Beast is the sort of thing that would be good to watch at home. It's the definition of a streaming movie. It benefits from having an adorable dog, a good lead but also from the setting. This year really has been the year for spectacular landscapes and cinematography. The mountains look stunning and even the woods looked more impressive than in a lot of films with these types of settings. It's a well directed film from the guy who didn't do very well with Suicide Squad.