Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come (2026)

Anybody keen to be served up a sequel to Ready Or Not is going to be kept happy enough with this, a film helped by the fact that everyone returns to their main roles, both in front of and behind the camera, and by the fact that it seems to be even more gleefully sadistic.

Things pick up immediately from the end point of the first movie. Grace (Samara Weaving) is taken to hospital, soon to be visited by an unhappy estranged sister (Faith, played by Kathryn Newton), who only ends up there because Grace forgot to change her main emergency contact. Nobody believes Grace about the shocking events of the past day, but the worst part of it all is that her ordeal isn't over. Grace AND Faith are snatched, terms are explained by a lawyer (Elijah Wood), and it's time for a whole new bunch of rich and entitled psychopaths to hunt some human prey. They're headed up by Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus Danforth (Shawn Hatosy), and they are happy to use Faith as leverage to keep Grace in line.

It's clear that Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett returned to this premise because they figured they could have more fun with it. That's exactly what they do, adapting a story about two sisters into something that writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy could easily fit into the Ready Or Not world. It's a classic case of "here's what you enjoyed, but a little bit more of it", for the most part, and the direction keeps the focus on fun in a way that makes the slightly longer runtime (this is 108 minutes compared to the 95 minutes of the first film) feel just right.

Weaving slips back into her (iconic?) character with ease, and believably becomes more badass and dangerous as she becomes more desperate to stay alive, and keep her sister in the same condition. Newton is a great addition, entertainingly unhappy with her sister, but also soon showing how much they are cut from the same cloth when things start getting bloody and deadly. Gellar and Hatosy have a lot of fun in their roles, and the former always seems very aware of, and respectful of, the genre baggage she will forever carry into any project. Wood is fun, a calm presence in the middle of a lot of madness, and there are good moments for Dan Beirne, Olivia Cheng, Nestor Carbonell, Kevin Durand, Varun Saranga, Nadeem Umar-Khitab, Antony Hall, and even a cameoing David Cronenberg.

Much like the first film, there are no scares here, and there's very little actual tension, but you get some inventive kills and a whole lot of bloodshed. One or two sequences are drawn out into a showcase of violence and pain, many others are all about the hilarity of how quickly some people can be killed when they're not hidden away in a protective bubble. Everything is very enjoyable for those who were eager to rejoin Weaving in another bit of deadly gameplay.

And special recognition has to go to costume designer Avery Plewes on the outstanding dress that makes an important appearance in the very last scenes. You'll know what I'm on about when you see it. It's a stunning look, but also nicely in line with the journey that the main character has been on.

7/10

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Mubi Monday: Southland Tales (2006)

The second full feature from writer-director Richard Kelly (a talent who illustrates someone flying high and then crashing and burning hard more than any other 21st-century success I can think of), Southland Tales is a sprawling mess of a film, once again mixing some heady ideas and timey wimey trickery with some individual moments of greatness. A couple of scenes still stand out as favourites of mine, but they're often overlooked by film fans because of being contained within such an uneven feature.

I don't even know where to begin when it comes to describing the plot. It's set in America, but an America that has endured two nuclear attacks. There's a war on, both abroad and at home, a war against terror. A company named US-IDent tries to keep all citizens under surveillance, and various people want to strike against them. The main characters we end up keeping track of are an action film start with a case of amnesia (Boxer Santaros, played by Dwayne Johnson), an ex-porn star who believes that she can predict future events (Krysta Now, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar), a scarred Iraq War veteran (Abilene, played by Justin Timberlake), and two identical characters named Roland and Ronald Taverner (played by Seann William Scott).

If you want something that seems to make complete sense, maintains a consistent tone throughout, and doesn't cast people in roles that are completely atypical for them then look elsewhere. Southland Tales is the film you stick on when you want something hugely, almost ridiculously, ambitious and self-indulgent. When you want to see Jon Lovitz as a blonde cop all too quick to reach for his gun and shoot people trying to protest against the current system, or see Kevin Smith give his best performance in a small, heavily made up, role, Southland Tales will scratch that itch.

As well as those already mentioned, who are all doing some of their best work (another reason to give this film a watch if you have yet to do so), the strong supporting cast includes wonderful performances from Nora Dunn, Wallace Shawn, John Larroquette, Bai Ling, Mandy Moore, Zelda Rubinstein, and Miranda Richardson. AND you get to see Eli Roth in a satisfying, and very brief, cameo for those who both like and dislike him.

There's also a superb soundtrack (with The Killers being the best choice for one particular sequence), a fine line in sly humour running through everything, and the general feeling that Kelly had been handed resources he never thought would be at his disposal, and decided to use everything offered to him. The third act may be even messier than everything that precedes it, as hard as that is to believe while you are watching the rest play out, but it's also hugely satisfying. Kelly probably remains very disappointed by the lukewarm, at best, reaction to this. Some will view it as a bad film. I view it as a noble, flawed, attempt to deliver an impressive piece of cinema.

8/10

I think there's a better release coming, but here's a DVD just now.
Americans can get a little bargain here. Or the blu.