Doctor Who: Wish World & Reality War (2025)

Doctor Who has had a bit of a rocky road since Russell T Davies came back. It was hoped that after the Chibnall debacle, we were going to go back to the glory days of 2005 but Ncuti Gatwa’s first season was underwhelming to be kind. Thankfully this season has been a lot better with the occasion misstep. The final two episodes were seen at the cinema and this is the first time I have watched Doctor Who at the cinema since 2013’s ‘The Day of the Doctor’ which remains one of the best moments of my entire life. There are rumours that this might be the last episode of Doctor Who for a long time (possibly 2027) so it felt like a finale in more ways than one.

Wish World

This episode sees the Doctor and Belinda lead a domestic lifestyle where they have a child and doubt is seen as a bad thing. The Rani wants the date of May 23rd to keep going like a bad episode of Groundhog Day so that reality falls apart and the underworld appears and the return of a lost individual.

The idea of the Doctor not knowing who he is did remind me of The Family of Blood two parter and it's always interesting to see the Doctor acting human. The idea of UNIT being a weird office with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart like some tweed wearing office worker was one that I quite liked and thought that they could have done  

If there was an issue with this episode it's that it is a builder episode in that it is building things up for the final episode. Don't get me wrong, its does it well but it's hard to really say that this was a great episode when it had a lot to do and so you couldn't really enjoy it as a single episode.

The Reality War

The bonus of seeing Wish World moments before this episode meant that there wasn't time to think things through but it was interesting to see how the Doctor would get out of this particular problem. Bringing Anita back from the worst Christmas special ever was a good idea and it got the Doctor out of the cliffhanger in a way that I genuinely didn't see coming and yet felt fine. She was made to feel like a companion even though all she did was keep a door open. Honestly Disney couldn't afford a doorstop. The idea that the hotel has doors to previous episodes of Doctor Who including a Dalek was one that I wasn't expecting and it was very good. If only they had done this during Joy to the World then the episode might have been more tolerable. 

Varada Sethu plays less of a role in this episode then she did in Wish World. Its like the more Ruby gets involved in the story, Belinda gets pushed to the sideline which is a shame because I felt that Belinda was a better companion than Ruby. Sethu has been one of the strongest and most likeable companions since Freema Agyeman’s Martha Jones. Millie Gibson is better in the episodes that she has been in but I think that she has been let down by some less than ideal episodes. She never felt like a companion in the way that Belinda did.

The return of Jodie Whittaker was a genuine surprise. It felt like a lovely moment with her walking around the console room and it shows how good Whittaker’s Doctor could have been with better writing and how she was let down by Chris Chibnall. The idea that Yaz and the Doctor had feelings is something that some people have wanted for all of Whittaker’s time and it was crowbarred into the relationship in the latter episodes. Whittaker was a better Doctor than her episodes suggested and her meeting with Gatwa’s Doctor was a lovely moment.

Gatwa regenerating was sort of expected especially as the rumours had been doing the rounds and let's be honest here I dont think for a second that Billie Piper is the next Doctor. I think that this is just RTD having a bit of fun with the future of the show up in the air. There was a big groan when she appeared but I think it quickly subsided. As a Doctor I think that Gatwa’s second season has been so much better than his first although I won't miss his crying at the slightest thing. It’s the law of diminishing returns when he cries so often.

I was quite impressed with the directing. He did direct one of the worst Christmas Specials in ‘Joy to the World’ but the whole thing moves along at a pace that makes the story feel epic. Even though the Rani/Omega storyline was wrapped up with about half and hour left, it all felt like it was naturally paced and it ended the season on a good note not just on a creative note but on a technical note.

Regardless of how the Billie Piper things gets resolved, I thought that this was a very good two parter. The return of the Rani was well handled and well played by Archie Panjabi and the return of Omega didn't disappoint which I was expecting when it was revealed who the Rani was looking for. I didn't watch the previous episode when it aired a week ago so I could get the full cinematic experience. I liked the experience of going to the cinema to see it. The cinema was close to full and there were a couple of people cosplaying and the entire thing made it worth seeing something that aired on TV at the same time. 

 

The Phoenician Scheme (2025)

Having enjoyed Asteroid City, I was looking forward to The Phoenician Scheme. The film sees Zsa-zsa Korda played by Benicio del Toro appoint his only daughter Sister Liesl as the heir to his estate as he tries to secure funding for a project. Like a typical Wes Anderson film, this has an all star cast including Michael Cera, Scarlett Johannson, Willem Dafoe, Richard Ayode, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright and a fantastic looking Benedict Cumberbatch.

Mia Threapleton steals the film as Sister Liesl. She is trying to become a nun but is being persuaded to change her mind by her father who might not be her father. The reason why the character works so well is because Threapleton’s delivery is so dry that it was like she was born to play a part in a Wes Anderson movie. Benicio del Toro is very good as Zsa-Zsa but it was hard to really warm to him when he was in a scene with Threapleton because she is so good. The supporting cast is great. Bryan Cranston and Tom Hanks should be a double act in everything they do because they are so good together. They managed to make basketball seem entertaining. Michael Cera is always good at giving a strange performance but then it's revealed to be done on purpose and the moment where he changes his appearance slightly to try and come across more suave and sophisticated was quite amusing. 

I always think that it's strange seeing Scarlet Johansson in this type of film. She was one of the key people in the Marvel cinematic universe for several years and to see her in something so different is quite refreshing. Her role is slightly reduced compared to Asteroid City but she makes it work. Seeing Richard Ayoade play someone with a bit of personality is a strange sight. His delivery when he is doing his normal comedy is probably on the same level as Threapleton. In another life they would have been a couple in this film. Benedict Cumberbatch is in the weirdest make-up I have seen anyone in for quite some time. He doesn't appear until the final 10-15 minutes and then has a great fight with Benicio del Toro.

I’ll be honest that I was slightly disappointed with this film. It’s a film with good performances but I don't think the premise was as good as it was in something like The Grand Budapest or Asteroid City. There are moments that I liked and the performances were all top notch but it's the plot that I struggled with. It seems like Wes Anderson was happy for the performances to take centre stage and make us forget about the overall plot. Things didn't seem to have the charm and fun that it did in Asteroid City. The black and white flashbacks are weird and I didn't find them that interesting. The relationship between Zsa-Zsa and Liesl had gotten better by the time that the flashbacks had concluded and the only real benefit to them was seeing Willem Dafoe and Bill Murray. 

The Phoenician Scheme is a disappointment but still worth seeing. It’s just if this were your first Wes Anderson film then you would wonder what the fuss was about.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)

29 Years after the first Mission: Impossible film, we see the ‘final’ outing for Ethan Hunt as played by Tom Cruise. Whether this will be the final one is debatable but at 63 it's hard to say how many more films Cruise can actually do. Although I do think they will do them for as long as Tom Cruise wants to, the way that the film brings things from the past that most people have probably forgotten about suggests that this might be final. The film sees Ethan Hunt is on the proverbial hunt to find something so that the entity can get inside a computer system for long enough that something Luther has made can kill just before the US President launches missiles to effectively start the end of the world.

The Mission: Impossible films have sort of become a running joke that they are basically known for the stunts. I can't remember the last time that there was a film that didn't have Tom Cruise hanging from it. Another way that they have become a literal running joke with all the running that Tom Cruise does and in this one that includes for some reason running past the UK Parliament and Big Ben.

At 170 minutes, it is fair to say that the film is a little too long. I think that if it lost 20-25 minute then it would have been a punchier film but the fact that its suppose to follow on from Dead Reckoning whether its called Final Reckoning or should have stayed as Dead Reckoning Part 2, it's a sequel that takes too long to get back up and running. 

There are two key action scenes for me. The first is on the submarine with Tom Cruise somehow defying human biology trying to find the device in a submarine that is rolling along the sea bed about to go over a cliff. That’s the great thing about the film, the logic that these films work with is so stupid that it becomes fun. To be fair to the film, it is quite well done and very tense. Bearing in mind that it's just Cruise and he is just dodging missiles and random bits of the submarine, it's a credit to McQuarrie that he manages to make it work. The second big action scene involves, of course, aeroplanes. To be fair this is probably the best action scene to feature aeroplanes. Definitely of the franchise but possibly ever. It starts off with two planes and then ends with Hunt and Gabriel somehow having a very good fight scene that is a lot better than the one in Dead Reckoning. 

Tom Cruise knows how to play Ethan Hunt and after 8 films over 29 years he should really know this character inside out. It wasn't the same kind of performance from Cruise. It felt like he was saying goodbye to the role but he still gives it his all and in every scene it feels like he wants to give us the best cinema experience he can. Before the film started there was a nice little video with Cruise thanking us for coming to the screening and to basically enjoy the film which I thought was a kind thing to do. Hayley Atwell was playing an artful dodger type person in the previous film and this time it feels like she is playing it as someone who was always a supporter of Hunt. Quite a turn around but one that Atwell plays very well. Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames have been a key part of the team and have been a pretty good double act in their own right but Rhames’ Luther plays a small but still important role and his death was well done and I think it would have soured the film if it had been Benji. Pom Klementieff plays Paris in the same way that Hayley Atwell played Grace. Paris was someone who was at odds with Ethan in the last film and is now willing to die for him. 

The film does a weird thing of bringing connections from the very first film with Shea Whigham’s Briggs the son of Jim Phelps played by Jon Voight and this seemed a bit out of left field because they tried to suggest that Briggs might be a threat to Ethan’s mission but then it doesn't really lead to anything except a handshake at the end. Another random connection was the return of Donloe played by Rolf Saxon. There was a throwaway line in the first one about Donloe being sent ‘sewing mailbags somewhere’ but it was slightly retooled so that he was at some outpost in the bering strait. Weirdly it let to one of the more heartfelt parts of the story and I found myself wanting Donloe and his wife to survive and the fact that Donloe does not resent Hunt for breaking into the Black Vault and sending him to the middle of nowhere was a nice way for Donloe to look at things.

As a villain, Gabriel always felt a little underwhelming. He seemed like someone who wasn't the number one villain but it was only when he was paired with the Entity that he felt like he was a menace and in both films, he had a good final fight scene with Tom Cruise and so for that he is a stronger villain than you would get in most Marvel films. 

Christopher McQuarrie has now directed four of the eight Mission: Impossible films and whilst it felt Ghost Protocol was where this type of MI film started, it does feel like McQuarrie took the tone of Ghost Protocol and improved on it and is as responsible for the success of this series as Tom Cruise is. Even Jack Reacher is a decent film and McQuarrie knows how to make action scenes look exciting when most directors would struggle.

I have loved all the Mission: Impossible films with the exception of 2 and sort of 3. It might not have been the best idea to make the last two films a two parter but I think they manage to Final Reckoning feel like a stand alone film whilst making Dead Reckoning feel like it will be worth revisiting in the years to come and isn't pointless which isn't an easy thing to pull off. If this does turn out to be the final MI film then they ended on a high note. It isn't the best film in the series but it's still a pretty good outing and isn't a disappointment which is something I was worried about as I was about to enter the screening.

28 Days Later (2002)

With 28 Years Later coming out, it seems like an opportune moment to see the previous two instalments. 28 Days Later is a film that reset the zombie horror genre even though they aren't zombies in this film but infected. The film starts with a trio of animal activists who release one of the chimps that are being infected with rage and things go quickly wrong. If only they hadn't done that then the next three films would never have happened. The film then moves along appropriately enough 28 days and we see a naked Cillian Murphy wake up. I’m not quite sure why he’s naked. I saw this after The Walking Dead and it's weird to see how similar they are. The film sees Jim walk around a deserted London which is strange to see and then comes across Naomie Harris’ Selena and Noah Huntley’s Mark and they go to Jim’s family home but then Mark gets killed then Jim and Selena carry on and come across Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and Hannah (Megan Burns). Together they decide to go to Manchester and see help but when they get there then Frank is infected and killed and the soldiers do help but they become really sinister when Christopher Eccleston’s Major West says that he promised his soldiers a woman and that is when things go really wrong and then the infected take over the house.

This is one of those films that had a cast that were not particularly well known at the time but would go on to be big names. Cillian Murphy would go on to win an Oscar, Naomie Harris would go on to find fame and most recently played Miss Moneypenny in the Bond films, Brendan Gleeson is great in pretty much anything and was especially great in The Banshees of Inisherin. Christopher Eccelston is the one that stands out for me because he played the Doctor in Doctor Who back in 2005. Probably one of the most underrated actors to play the Doctor in the new era. He is horrible as Major Henry West. He is the leader of the army soldiers and is playing the nice guy hiding a sinister bully and he’s very good in the role although I do find the posh accent strange coming from Eccleston. Cillian Murphy is good as Jim. I think he does much better work in later years so I can't be too harsh about his acting because he does a good job, just not a great job. Naomie Harris is hard to like at first but once the story progresses she gets better and becomes a nice supporting performer next to Murphy. Brendan Gleeson like Eccleston does an accent that is slightly distracting (this time a cockney accent) but he is the father to Hannah and is the likeable supporting person that he would do in countless other films. I always dislike the fact that he dies because a drip of blood gets in his eye. I just wish he moved to one side as it fell but it's because I like Gleeson.

There is a TV show from the 70’s called Survivors about a pandemic wiping out the world (bit far fetched) but in that there is a scene where they go to a supermarket for supplies and there is someone hanging from the ceiling with a sign saying that looters would be killed and I felt that the scene when they go shopping needed a a darker moment although I understand why they did what they did. The film has plenty of dark moments in this film and the gore still seems effective even after all this time. The camera work is a bit ropey because it is hard to see what is going on especially during the final act when it's the middle of the night and there is very little light.

From a 2025 point of view, the worst thing about this film is the quality of the picture. I know that it was made in 2002 before HD was invented but would it have killed Columbia or Sony to spend a bit of money upgrading the image. There were a couple of shots that looked very grainy and some that looked a bit blurry. The worst part came in the early stages when things looked so dark I thought it was a joke. Also (and this is more of an observation), when this film came out in 2002 it was an 18 but now in 2025 it is a 15 certificate and it shows how far horror has come over the last 23 years. The important thing though is that this film still holds up and is in one of 100 favourite horror films. It would blow a lot of modern horror films, especially Blumhouse films out of the water.  It’s a horror film so it should be scary and there are still a lot of things that are scary and it ends with an upbeat ending which doesn't feel like it seems out of place. I missed this film when it came out in 2002 as it was years before my film appreciation improved to where it is today and I am so glad that I saw it on the big screen. I am very much looking forward to 28 Weeks Later. 

On a related note, there was a sneak peak scene of 28 Years Later and it does very much feel like its in keeping with 28 Days Later. It's a bit from the trailer where Aaron Taylor-Johnson and the kid come across the body hanging from the ceiling where ATJ is telling his son (????) to kill the body as a test. It was short but sweet.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

I saw Pulp Fiction for the first time last year and couldn’t decide what people saw in it that made it a cult classic. With it being shown at the cinema, I felt that this film was worth seeing in the hope that the large screen experience would improve my opinion. 

The film boasts a very good cast. One that could only be appreciated 31 years later. John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Christopher Walken, a barely recognisable Steve Buscemi and Bruce Willis. Everyone is on top form and there isn’t a weak performance. Tim Roth’s accent is slightly distracting but that is about the closest I can get to saying something negative about these people. The only person who slightly lets things down on the acting front is Quentin Tarantino but he has a bigger issue.

Another good thing that the film has going for it is the soundtrack. There isn’t a terrible song and it makes me want to buy the soundtrack to add it to my collection. I will give Tarantino his dues when it comes to his music choices in all his films. He has a good ear for what works in his films. 

The thing is Quentin Tarantino thinks he is Oscar Wilde or William Shakespeare and a lot of the dialogue in this film is quite bad. It’s made bearable by the actors but to be honest if you gave this to someone who wasn't Samuel L. Jackson or Bruce Willis then this would be the sort of thing on Tubi. There are better Tarantino screenplays such as ‘The Hateful Eight’ but this one is not the greatest. 

Overall, the good news is that the big screen viewing did improve my opinion of the film but I would be lying if I said that I thought it was a great movie. I do think its a step down from ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and I think that ‘The Hateful Eight’ is the best Tarantino film which I suspect might annoy some people but barring in mind that this is early on in Tarantino’s career I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. When I first watched this film it was a 3.5 but now its a 4 mainly because of the cast and the soundtrack. The plot itself borders on convoluted and self indulgent at times but I can at least see why people like it as much as they do.  

Oceans with David Attenborough (2025)

Normally I wouldn’t see a documentary at the cinema. After all even the way that documentaries have turned into movies doesnt make they special enough to take time to go to the cinema to see something that they could see on TV but I had heard some good things about this and whilst on holiday I thought I would take advantage of my free time. Luckily for mid-afternoon on a Sunday when its very warm outside, it was nice to see a dozen people in the screening. Despite being 99 years old, David Attenborough shows us things that we have never seen before in the oceans and even if you have seen everything that Attenborough has been involved in, the chances are that you haven’t seen things like this. 

The thing about this documentary is that it shows us how destructive we have been to the oceans and yet how there is still hope. There is one moment which is jaw dropping at how destructive it is. Essentially there is this net type thing that scrapes along the bottom of the ocean and scoops up anything in its path and usually three quarters of it is thrown away. The waste for such a barbaric method is shocking. In the mini feature that followed the screening, the underwater director says that this was at the top of the list of things that he wanted to include and it was absolutely the right decision and set the tone for the rest of the documentary. There are people from the areas that the documentary goes to that talk about the impact that overfishing has
had and what that means to the area. These are important because the words are said with the experience of the location and they don’t come from a place of self interest but wanting things to survive.  

The documentary isn’t saying that fishing should be outlawed or restricted but just that we need to make sure we don’t over fish and leave some areas to thrive. By doing this the area will overpopulate and thus a wider area is possible to be fished. The documentary is not subtle when it paints trawler ships, especially the huge ones as the bad guys.

The way that we can help things get back to the way they were and even better requires literally no effort. If we leave things and allow them to get on with it then before we know it things will thrive. There is a caption at the end of the documentary saying that in June 2025 there is a conference taking place where they have the chance to save the oceans by insisting on less destructive fishing methods. I genuinely hope they are successful because it feels like we may not have much time left to save things.

From a visual point of view, the documentary should be applauded. I saw things in this that are absolutely stunning and unlike anything I could imagine appearing in a sci-fi film or tv show. The documentary took four years to make and it shows that the time was taken to get every imaginable shot and shows the sea in such a stunning and at times heartbreaking way. 

I am still skeptical about whether a documentary should be at the cinema but I am still glad that I went to see this. I think even the biggest tv screen at home wouldn’t have done this documentary justice.

tHE ultimate message that the documentary is that if we come up with a plan then like Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) says in Jurassic Park ‘life finds a way’.

Hallow Road (2025)

Hallow Road stars Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys who are Maddie and Frank who are woken up in the middle of the night by their daughter Alice (Megan McDonnell) who has been in an accident and the movie is basically Maddie and Frank driving to the location talking to their daughter and it all takes place in the car. 

The film is basically led by Pike and Rhys. Maddie wants to call the police and use a sympathetic police officer to help their daughter and yet Frank wants to take the blame and this leads to conflict between the two. One of the reasons why the film works in the way that it does is that these two work well together despite their characters being polar opposite. The fact that the film takes place inside the car apart from the opening couple of minutes and the final few minutes and still manages to be entertaining and gripping shows how good the performances were and also the writing. Credit has to go to director Batak Anvari for keeping things ticking along and never letting the film feel like there was a lull in the action. It was constantly tense as we are trying to find out what has happened and just when things seem to be reaching a logical conclusion we hear a new voice which a woman who has seemingly just stumbled across Alice who has at this point moved the body and starts acting all sinister to Alice. This is really when the tension gets turned up to maximum because Maddie and Frank are very close and yet this voice basically has control over the entire situation and as they get further into the woods the atmosphere feels slightly off and you just know that it wasn't going to end with Alice being found. I am quite impressed how two voices managed to get me so involved in what is going on. 

If I had an issue with the film, it's the ending. The idea as I understand it is that the body found that Alice said was the person she hit is supposed to be Alice but the parents can’t accept this as they have been talking to Alice. I thought the creepy build up was slightly ruined by the idea that there are magical things going on. There is apparently an end credit scene which I missed cause I didn’t realise I was watching a Marvel film.

Overall I thought this was very well done and might require a second viewing so I can see the things I missed and hope that the ending works for me. Worth seeing if you get the chance and definitely one that would be ideal at Halloween.

Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025)

Hurry Up Tomorrow is perhaps not the sort of film that I would go to see but I thought as it featured Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan that it might have something worth seeing. The film sees Abel (The Weeknd) trying to get back into contact with his ex but is in the middle of a tour. Meanwhile Jenna Ortega plays Anima who starts the film by setting fire to someone’s house she then goes on her way to his concert and in the middle of a song their eyes meet and before we know what’s what, they run off to a fun fair to have a good night. The next morning he is about to leave for the next stage of his tour and she batters him over the head and they have a philosophical debate about what his songs mean.

The Weeknd might be a good singer and performer but he isn’t very good as a leading man and when the film goes into weird mystical moments he doesnt help us understand what is supposed to be happening. Jenna Ortega is easily the best thing in this film and after really enjoying her performance in ‘Death of a Unicorn’ earlier in the year, it felt like she deserves better than what the movie gave her. She managed to make her character seem interesting because of how unhinged she got in the second half but I think that the fact her character is interesting is more to do with Ortega than the screenplay itself. I would like to have seen more of Barry Keoghan, he is Lee who is Abel’s manager and he appears in the first part of the film but when Abel and Anima go on their little journey, he disappears and don’t come back until the end. The highlight of the film is the fight between Lee and Anima which is short but quite intense. 

The main issue with this film is that it is very pretentious. I think that the film thinks it is smarter than it actually is. There are some moments where the visuals are a bit weird and dreamlike and there is one moment which came across quite like a David Lynch film but its handled by someone who doesnt understand the mechanics of a David Lynch film. The film does try to invoke ‘Misery’ by having Abel tied to the bed whilst Anima tries to play his songs. This second half of the film is so much stronger but the film can’t quite shake the pretentiousness off because at the end the hotel room is set on fire with no sign of Anima or Abel so there is the question as to whether it happened or whether it was in his head.

There is nothing wrong with taking a usicain and try to make something of their music and try and explore what is in it but to be honest the film lost me with the weird dreamlike moments. The film works best when Ortega and Weeknd have scenes together because they do have some good chemistry. If you are a fan of the Weeknd then this film might be worth seeing but I’m struggling to see them like it. I could be wrong. Not worth the time really. 

The Running Man (1987)

With the remake from Edgar Wright about to hit cinemas this year, it seemed like the perfect time to rewatch the original at the cinema. My original rating was a 3.5 but seeing it on the big screen has made me increase my rating to a 4. Set in the futuristic year of 2019, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Ben Richard’s who after refusing to fire on innocent people is sentenced to a detention zone and after escaping he is recaptured and made to appear on a very popular show, the titular Running Man.  Then along with Laughlin (Yaphet Kotto) and Weiss (Marvin J. McIntyre) they have to try and outrun the chasers. Later on they are joined by Maria Conchita Alonso’s Amber as they also try to tell the truth to the citizens.

This is a great film that might not have aged well as some films from the 1980’s but that is part of the charm. There are plenty of Arnie puns which got a great reaction in the screening that I attended. Arnie was never the greatest actor but his physic and charm helped an awful lot. Jesse Ventura’s role was brief but he has a great scene where he comes in looking like a bad sci-fi robot. There are a couple of cheesy clips of him as a workout instructor but I was just distracted by his hair piece. Being a wrestling fan in the 1980’s and early 1990’s it was always great to see a wrestler in a movie. Yaphet Kotto is another familiar face although I know him really from Alien which I didn’t see until just a few years ago and as one of the people that helps Ben Richard’s, you want to see him make it to the end but sadly in these sort of films the nice people that don’t look like Alonso probably wont make it which is s shame. Speaking of Alonso, she was fine. Her character has an attack of conscience once she realises that the government has been lying. It does seem like an oversight that she is the witness to what happened at the airport and yet isn’t told to keep quiet or they find out what she knows and then fits a fake narrative to make it less obvious that they made things up Alonso is the romantic interest for Arnie but to be hones they don’t really have any chemistry that makes a relationship seem genuine although that is probably more down to Arnie. The real star of the film is Richard Dawson as Damon Killian. He acts like he is the greatest person in the history of the world and hides behind the fact that he has a contract with the government to basically do whatever he wants. The reason why the film is as good as it is is that we have a villain that is so horrible that you want the good guy to be victorious. 

I do like the gameshow element of The Running Man with Killian intereacting with the audience and giving them prizes and its hilarious to see what constitutes a prize in their 2019. If Bradley Walsh or Alexander Armstrong gave a contestant or audience member a board game version of the show that thing would end up on eBay before the episode aired. Asking the audience what chaser they want does seem to be a bit of a risk because that person would have to be in the right place at the right time. The plot is fairly straightforward and even if you had never seen this film before you could still walk out where it would go but you watch these type of films to see Arnie beat/kill people in fun ways and then put them down with a pun. Otherwise what is the point of an Arnie film. Despite a lot of the visuals not holding up and the idea of what 2019 would be like not matching up with reality, the film does feel like we aren’t that far away from it in 2025. Now whether the Edgar Wright version will be as good as the 1987 version is doubtful but I think that this film has stood as one of Arnie’s best films alongside Terminator and Predator. 

The Running Man 1987 is an entertaining film that is rewatchable many many times. The story is straight forward enough but the action scenes are well done and its directed with the sort of energy that most films of this era have. 

An Unfinished Film (2024)

Sometimes I go into a screening knowing absolutely nothing about the film and ‘An Unfinished Film’ was one of those times. An Unfinished Film sees Director Xiaorui try and finish a movie that got abandoned a decade earlier. We see some of what was shot and it's clear that even if they do remake the film it will never get past the censors and so it is more of a personal mission to tie up a loose end. As the film is close to being completed, Covid his and the hotel is placed in lockdown and the rest of the film becomes about the remaining crew trying to keep their spirits up which for Jiang Chen’s (Qin Ho) is tougher than for others as he has a new baby at home.

As I didn’t know anything about this film I genuinely thought that this was a documentary. It was only during a skirmish with some officials that I saw there was no cameraman when there would have been one that would have appeared in shot. Truth be told, there were a couple of shots that looked too well framed to be a documentary but it was the skirmish that made the penny drop in my mind. 

The performances are really good. Qin Ho is the lead as Jiang Cheng who we spend pretty much the rest of the film once Covid hits and his slow descent into depression. It’s hard as well for his wife and bearing in mind that all of the scenes with Sang Qi (Qi Xi) are on a phone, she still manages to feel a big part of the film and it's hard to not feel sympathetic towards the pair of them. The film doesn't have a huge amount of upbeat moments once Covid hits but there is a great moment when they celebrate Chinese New Year and they all celebrate things in their own way with Jiang Cheng doing the Baby Shark dance which along with Hugh Grant doing a Jar Jar Binks impression in ‘Heretic’ might be one of the more random things seen in a movie. That brief moment ends with everyone dancing in the corridor before being threatened with legal challenges if they don’t return to their rooms immediately.

An Unfinished Film is a very good film. Despite being five years ago the cloud of Covid still seems to hang over us all and I can remember being furloughed when the country like the world had been put into lockdown. I had a house with my family to keep me going but the horrors of having to go through this alone even with zoom and social media keeping us connected is shown in harrowing detail thanks to Lou Ye. Bearing in mind that I didn’t know anything going into this film, I thought thet despite an air of confusion about the film, this was well worth the risk and I think sadly this probably wont get  seen by a huge number of people but if you get a chance to see it then you should. 

The Surfer (2024)

The Surfer was a mystery screening at my local Showcase and this is the sixth mystery screening that I have attended and to be honest it is the worst. The premise of the film is that Nicholas Cage plays the titular Surfer who wants to buy a house with a view of the sea. At the start of the film he takes his son to the beach with the intention of showing him the house but they come across locals who say that the beach is for local people only and the film then becomes the locals making the surfers life a misery, things would happen that would go from bad to worse and everyone seemed to be a local. 

By the time the revelation comes about the surfer being broken down to see how badly he wants the house, I was completely bored and didn’t care. Had this happened 20 minutes earlier then I might have cared a bit more but the pacing was so bad that when something happened I was quite excited because I thought this might be the point when the film means something but then that moment quickly passed. Everytime that something bad happens to the surfer (and that is quite often), I just kept asking myself why he didn’t get back into his car and leave. Things would have worked out so much better for him if he had just left. 

There are two positives. The first is the location and it looks very stunning. Credit goes to Radek Ladczuk for making it look stunning and as the film progresses and Nicholas Cage gets more dehydrated the colours help create the impression even though there probably wasn't much acting going on in terms of getting dehydrated . The second positive was Miranda Tapsell who plays the photographer. She only has two scenes but she is the only person that is nice to Nic Cage. Even his son is not nice to him and sulks most of the time. 

This is the worst film I have seen at the cinema since Megalopolis and whilst it's not as bad as that film, this was hugely disappointing. If you are watching this film to see Nicholas Cage go full Nic Cage then you will be bitterly disappointed. I should have known that the film wasn’t going to be great because there were TEN company logos and you get to a stage where you think they are going to go on forever. That sums up the film perfectly, a film that feels like it goes on forever and isn’t worth it. I honestly think that I would have skipped this even if it when had arrived on streaming but sadly I spent money on this and I suppose the good run of mystery showings was going to go wrong at some point. Not worth your time.

Snow White (2025)

I honestly can’t remember the last time that a major motion picture was released that had the level of hatred aimed at it in the same way that Snow White. I won't go into all of it because I think films should be reviewed based on what you see on the screen instead of all the noise surrounding a film. The story sees Snow White (born in a snowstorm in this version), become a servant to the Evil Queen (Gadot) but when the Evil Queen orders the murder of Snow White, she runs off into the forest and comes across the house of the Dwarfs and with the help of a Bandit they try and overthrow the Evil Queen so that Snow White can become the leader she knows she is meant to be. 

This film might be one of the worst cast films I have seen for a long time. Normally there is someone that stands out in a sea of badness but I honestly can't say that there was someone worth praising. Even Megalopolis had Giancarlo Esposito to make some scenes worth watching.

Rachel Zegler can sing and that is obvious if you saw her in West Side Story. Her version of Whistle While You Work or the one at the beginning are the best ones that she does but whenever she sings is pretty good. However whenever she isn't singing then things fall apart because she is supposed to be leader material and yet she has no presence. Gal Gadot CAN'T sing. She is terrible and I don't think I have heard anyone sing that bad since Russell Crowe in Les Miserables. There were two songs that she ‘sings’ and the first one seems so out of place that I thought I was watching a SNL sketch and the second one was so bad that I was praying that it would stop as soon as possible. When she has to pretend to be the old woman it is a weird moment because the makeup is good and she looks like an old woman but Gadot doesn't make any attempt to sound like an old woman. Andrew Burnap is so bland as Jonathan. He is this film’s version of Prince Charming because apparently Prince Charming in the 1937 version is a bit of a stalker so here we get a bandit who is laughably bad that I didn't care what happened to him. In fact for a moment I thought they had done a live action version of Shrek because it seemed to almost be a parody. The other main problem with Jonathan is that there is zero chemistry between Jonathan and Snow White. None. I don't see what makes Jonathan want to risk his life for Snow White. There is nothing going on and if there was a bit of chemistry it would make Jonathan’s decision make sense. 

Snow White is nowhere near as bad as some people would have you believe and it's not as good as the other side would have you believe. The truth is what I suspected going into the film is that it's somewhere in the middle. It does feel like every bad decision that they could have made they did when producing this film. The CGI dwarfs are distractingly bad. The performances from the actors do shine through and there are some good moments from them but the CGI is quite poor for a film that cost nearly $300 million. It also seems quite cheap at times which isn't what you would expect from Disney. The animated animals were perhaps the only time that the effects seemed to be well done. 

Snow White is a mess of a film. It might be worth your time if there is nothing on streaming or in the outside world. I dont think it's the worst film I have seen at the cinema in 2025, that honour (??) goes to Captain America: Brave New World which fails at being an action film whereas Snow White does at least succeed at being a musical.

A Minecraft Movie (2025)

There is a long running conversation about whether cinemas are dying and to be honest I don't think it is but films like A Minecraft Movie buck the trend. As of writing this review, it has made nearly $900 million worldwide making it the highest grossing English language film of the year so far. I should confess I know next to nothing about Minecraft. I know that it's very popular and that is about it. The set up of the film is Henry (Sebastian Eugene Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers) move to a new town after the death of their mother and Henry goes into a 80’s shop run by Garrett (Jason Momoa) and they end up in the over world when they meet Steve (Jack Black) and try to take on Malgosha to get back to the real world.

The world that they have created is really good and the $150 million that they spent on it looks like it's been spent quite well. The film cost about double what Captain America: Brave New World and yet A Minecraft Movie looks a lot better. I enjoyed how things worked even if they didn't make much sense to me. 

Jack Black is as annoying as ever. There were a couple of moments where I chuckled to myself but it feels like with each passing year, his manchild comedy routine gets a little bit more tiring. Jason Momoa is actually quite funny and the idea that something the size of Momoa is as cheesy as he is is one of the reasons why the film worked. It did remind me of how in the 2016 Ghosbusters film they cast Chris Hemsworth to play a secretary and the ‘joke’ was that someone who looked like Thor would be a secretary. Well that didn't work but Aquaman being someone who is trying to make something of his faded fame works quite well. I was told that Jennifer Coolidge was quite funny and the funniest thing in the film and she was funny but I found her ‘sub-plot’ to be a bit weak. It only really served a purpose at the end and by that point I’m halfway out the door. Myers didn't really add anything to the story. That isn't the fault of Myers but she was just sort of there and another issue with Myers’ casting is that she is supposed to be the guardian of Henry but looks about 2 minutes older than him. Maybe in a couple of years she might be able to pull off being a mother or guardian but in the case of this film it just became distracting. Hansen is ok as Henry and does have some things to do and it's his actions that lead them into the over world and does help to get them back into the real world. Last but by no means least is Danielle Brooks as Dawn. She is very likeable but doesn't really get anything to do until they are in the overworld and is quite likeable throughout the film.

I did enjoy this film a lot more than I thought I would. I think the fact that I enjoyed the film whilst not knowing what was going on or understanding any in-jokes or references that were included means that the film worked on some level. It has a very basic story and some of the characters weren't as fleshed out as they could have been but bearing in mind that the film wasn't made for a 41 year man and yet still worked meant that they got the balance right. As this has made so much money it is obvious that there will be a sequel. Sometimes seeing a film which isn't aimed at you can turn up positive results and this is one of the more unexpectedly positive experiences of the year.

Thunderbolts* (2025)

Thunderbolts* has a lot to achieve coming just three months after Captain America: Brave New World stunk out cinemas and I was hoping that this would be where the Marvel films would start to get back on its feet after several years of mainly below average stories with the exception being the third Guardians film and the Deadpool & Wolverine film. The set up of the film is Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen) are sent separately to a bunker at the request of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine who is trying to survive an impeachment hearing and so in an attempt to get rid of any evidence she tries to kill them and along with Bob (Lewis Pullman) trying just survive. Bucky Barnes who is now a politician (briefly seen in Captain America: Brave New World) collects them in an attempt to testify against de Fontaine but they soon form a new avengers. Bob has been tested on and his dark side becomes the villain.

My worry about this film being pointless was unfounded because the film ends with a post end scene where the Fantastic Four ship appears with a MASSIVE ‘4’ symbol on it. The film does enough to set up future films while feeling like it's a standalone film which is something I liked a lot. Florence Pugh is very good as Yelena. Her character starts off as someone who is aimless and does jobs but never really seems to get any fulfillment from those jobs. There are moments of humour from her but her development over the course of the film is good to watch. David Harbour is the comic relief in a film which has more than a subtle Guardians vibe running through it. Harbour is funny and did get more than a couple of chuckles out of me. The dynamic between the two is quite charming and lovely to watch. I did quite like the character of Bob and thought that Lewis Pullman played him very well. The dark Bob might not have been the strongest villain but I thought that played against nice Bob he came across as perhaps the darkest villain in a Marvel film for quite some time.

There are some things that don't quite work. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is usually pretty reliable but here it does feel like de Fontaine is a placeholder villain and her character feels a bit of a weak link. Of course she isn't supposed to be the main focus of the film but it doesn't feel like we would miss anything if her character got cut from the film. Another issue was Hannah John-Kamen’s character who came across as particularly likeable and in those early stages when they are supposed to be snippy with each other, it just didn't come across as someone that we should care about. Even though she did mellow a bit as the film progressed I think she got forgotten about.

This is by far the best post-Endgame Marvel film although that is a pretty low bar to clear. Only Deadpool & Wolverine and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 have been anywhere near good and this is by far the best in terms of feeling like a solid Marvel film. The characters work well together, the villain is pretty decent by Marvel standards and the action scenes are so much better than the ones in Captain America it's scary they came out the same year. I don't know if this film means that Marvel are back to where they were in 2019 but a few more films like this and we could be back to good Marvel.