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.

Until Dawn (2025)

Video Games are a mixed bag so this was always going to be a risky movie to sit through. I have never played the game and was not aware of the premise although the name did ring a bell but I couldn't have told you anything about it before seeing this film. Until Dawn is directed by David F. Sandberg who returns to the horror genre after directing the slightly disappointing Shazam! Fury of the Gods. 

The plot sees Clover and her Scooby gang of friends try and find Clover’s sister Melanie who disappeared and after getting some help from a gas station member of staff who definitely had nothing suspicious about him, end up in a house which appears to have been turned into a museum. All the gang are killed in record time and I was quite surprised but then they all wake up and have to go through it all again. There is a hidden secret of the house and the town where the scooby gang learn that experiments have been going on and people only last 13 times before they will disappear so they can't just keep going on and on and on. 

The cast is ok with Ella Rubin doing a good job of being the leader and her motivation to do some unwise things is understandable. Michael Cimino is slightly annoying as Max because he’s just there to be nice Clover because he fancies her. Odessa A’zion is another good performer as Nina and Ji-young Yoo did well with Megan and its a very underwritten role where she seemed to be there purely to show some moments of telepathy or something like that. I’m sure that Belmont Cameli is a nice guy but as Abel he is extremely insufferable and a complete moody so and so and I just wanted him to not make it but sadly they all do. Peter Stormare was the only person that I was aware of and that was purely because of his role in Prison Break.

There are some good things in this film. Firstly the premise of trying to survive until dawn and having to be proactive means that there is something going on and not just scenes of nothing. Another thing that works in the films favour are the deaths which is kind of the bare minimum I would expect from a horror film. I don't think I have seen as many people explode as I have done in this movie. The deaths are very good and there is one moment where Megan’s calf muscle explodes leaving her with only half a leg and then her stomach expands and thankfully it's not too graphic but enough to be horrific to stand out.

I must admit that I enjoyed this film a lot more than I thought I would. It wasn't anything spectacular but it did what it needed to do and did it quite well. The gore was appropriate although I would have liked someone to have brought a few more lights because it was hard to see things at times. I know that might have ruined the atmosphere but a decent cinematographer would have found a way. Compared to the video game is something I can't comment on but given how many of these video games turned into movies that I have seen I get the impression that this film was quite faithful to the video game. On its own merit the film works and that is all you can ask for. Definitely worth your time but I would wait for it to come out on streaming and when we get to Halloween. 

The Accountant 2 (2025)

The Accountant 2 comes nine years after the first film which saw Ben Affleck go through a film with no emotion and being quite handy with a gun. I’ll be honest that I thought it was ok at best but wasn't really crying out for a sequel especially nearly a decade after the first one but since we are in an era of belated sequels i suppose another one won't make much difference. The film starts with J.K. Simmons’ Ray King, killed after meeting Anaïs and Medina from the first film, is trying to find out who killed him and she enlists the help of Christian Wolff (Affleck) and he then enlists his estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) to help.

The thing about this film is that it's very hard to like. I was never bored and felt like it was a massive step up from the first one but I just found it almost impossible to connect with. There are moments that I enjoyed such as when Christian and Braxton take on the compound and in fact the second half of the film is much stronger than the first. The relationship between Christian and Braxton is one of the few highlights of the film. 

There isn't really as much to write about as I normally would about a film. It’s not terrible and it's not great, there is something there that makes me not hate it but I would be being dishonest if I said I would recommend this. Not sure that the film needed to exist but here it is and it’ll entertain some people when it eventually ends up on streaming. The film would definitely be improved if there were more J.K. Simmons, he always makes films more entertaining.

Warfare (2025)

Warfare is another film that I knew very little about. I saw a trailer and was quite intrigued by it so I went into this with the hope that this might be a hidden gem and that proved very much to be the case. The set up of the film is quite simple, a bunch of soldiers are on a surveillance mission in Iraq and then some insurgents start attacking them and the film follows this group of soldiers as they try and escape. The film is told in real time which is one of many reasons why the film is one of the most tense films that I have seen for a very long time. The film starts off with one of the most bizarre beginnings I can recall seeing for a very long time if not ever. As the film begins we see the music video for Call on Me by Eric Prydz and then cuts to a bunch of soldiers enjoying the video. On reflection, this is done on purpose because for the rest of the 96 minutes the film doesn't allow for anything approaching happiness or enjoyment so it's like the directors saying ‘enjoy this, cause this is as good as it gets’. 

There is a mixture of familiar names/faces and new people. Will Poulter immediately stood out to me having enjoyed his performance in ‘Death of a Unicorn’ and ‘Black Mirror: Plaything’ and you couldn't find three more different roles in a short space of time. He is really good at it and pulls it off very well. Another familiar face is Joseph Quinn who was one of the emperors in ‘Gladiator II’ and soon to play George Harrison in one of the Beatles movies, plays Sam who does start to fall apart (understandably so) as the action unfolds and like Poulter he delivers a solid performance and the thing with the entire cast of soldiers is that there isn't a weak one among them. They all pass convincingly as soldiers and this helps to create this world so effectively. Another reason why I loved this film was that it in a singular setting and I love films that do this although making it work is a completely different matter and the tension that runs through the film makes the film feel very claustrophobic.

This film is co-directed by Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland with Mendoza having served in the military and it's clear that the someone with military experience is involved because the way that the action unfolds feels like someone who knows every facet of the terminology used and with war films it's getting harder and harder to make these films feel special and yet this film was totally immersive and captivating. This is a superb film, it has a straightforward plot and yet it is told in such a way that I was never bored and thought that the performances along with the directing help create a scenario that no one would ever want to be in. Superb stuff.

Sinners (2025)

Sinners is one of those films that I saw purely because the trailer made me curious. I didn't know too much about it. This is despite the fact that trailers tend to spoil things with all the twists and turns which leaves you slightly disappointed and I feel robbed of those sort of moments. The plot sees twin brothers Smoke and Stack open up a juke joint after buying an abandoned sawmill from a racist landowner. Things seem to be going well until vampires turn up and start to ruin things.

It’s fair to say that Michael B. Jordan is really very good as Smoke and Stack. There is just enough to separate the performances but from start to finish he brings something amazing to the film. Smoke and Stack are always throwing money around and always seem to be in control but when things go wrong he is just as powerless as everyone else.

The true revelation of this film was Miles Caton. It's rare that an actor’s voice is so wonderful that you want to hear them read an audiobook, especially nowadays. Also I am hoping he was playing and singing because he does that very well. Even if he doesn't then his performance as Sammie is very good and even next to Michael B. Jordan he more than holds his own as a strong and likeable person. Hailee Steinfeld was perfectly fine as Mary but I thought that she didn't really have much of a character. They refer to her past relationship with Stack but there isn't much else. It isn't until Mary becomes a vampire that she has something to do and even then it's not very much. Delroy Lindo is as good as he always is and does provide some light hearted moments. There were more than a couple of people laughing when Delta says that he soiled himself. Lindo is one of those actors that always elevates whatever he is in. The character like Mary doesn't have a huge amount of backstory apart from his opening scene but he manages to make it seem like something substantial. Even though Jordan is the lead, the film has a wealth of supporting characters who help in different ways to make this seem like a big deal.

The success of this film comes down to the fact that it has several genres in one film. There is a racial undertone throughout and then it becomes a vampire film completely out of nowhere. Not knowing that this is a vampire movie means that you are more. The film seems to be plodding along and then Jack O’Connell literally runs onto the screen and turns two KKK members into vampires and it's at this point that the film becomes really good as its an singular setting and no hope of rescue even if rescue wanted to help. The film starts and ends with Sammie walking into a church with his broken guitar with his father wanting him to renounce his music and repent. I say ends but then as the credits start it seems that the film has ended but then the story moves to 1992 with a much older Sammie being reunited with Stack and Mary. It’s revealed Stack made a deal with Smoke. Stack would be allowed to live if Sammie got his freedom when Sammie is offered a chance at immortality he declines and there is a lovely moment when they all agree that that evening was the best night of their lives which is a weird thing to say considering what happened.

Going into this film knowing very little is the ideal way but if you have had the twist spoiled then I suspect that you will still enjoy this film because it never felt boring and shifts what in tones and yet it all comes together to make a film that keeps you guessing from start to finish and I wish more films would take this kind of risk because whilst it wont work every single time, it will lead to potential gems like this. This sort of film should be watched repeatedly and I’m glad that I went to see it at the cinema and it was a well attended screening for 1pm on a Friday afternoon.