Masters Of The Universe (2026)

I know that I moan about fan service when a film or TV show has nothing more to offer. It's something that crops up a lot, whether related to older properties being refreshed for a modern audience or the many horror movies pandering to people who are resistant to any change. Masters Of The Universe is full of fan service, BUT it's all done incredibly well, and it never brings everything to an abrupt halt. There's also plenty going on to surround all of the fan service.

Directed by Travis Knight, who is now three for three with the features he has helmed, this is a bright and fun fantasy film that makes use of a great cast and paces things well enough to help the 140-minute runtime whizz by. Writers Aaron Nee, Adam Nee, Chris Butler, and Dave Callaham get so much right that it's easy to forgive the minor failings, which all crop up in the first act before the film really seems to grow in confidence, ironically at about the same time as our hero.

Nicholas Galitzine is Adam, a young man who is trying to convince people that he's actually a Prince from another world, Eternia, and searching for a magical sword that will help him to gain immense power, readying him to rescue his home from the bony grasp of Skeletor (Jared Leto). Everyone thinks he's mad, of course, until he eventually finds the lost item . . . and then can't seem to use it. Maybe Teela (Camila Mendes), an old childhood friend now a capable warrior, can help him to stay alive long enough to figure things out.

I was worried during the earliest scenes in Masters Of The Universe. It seemed to be a bit unsure of itself, having to get the exposition delivered while tending to do the Marvel schtick of undercutting any heroics or ending any brief action beat with a joke. At least the jokes worked, but I was still worried about it sticking to that template throughout. Amazingly, it doesn't do that. Instead, you start to get something that blends unabashed earnestness with a different kind of humour, the sort of silliness that fans of the property will recognise from their own thoughts and conversations about the various characters populating Eternia. 

Despite having to spend a lot of the time wearing clothing to cover his physique, Galitzine works as both the insecure and "weak" Adam AND the mighty, sword-wielding, He-Man. He looks the part throughout, and also grows into the role in a way that feels organic and absolutely believable, despite the fantastical context. Mendes doesn't need any similar journey. Her character is absolutely confident throughout, and she's also perfect in her role. As for Leto . . . dammit, it may be his best work in years, helped by the fact that you probably wouldn't even recognise it was him playing Skeletor if he wasn't the one in the credits. The line delivery, the laugh, the physicality, Leto delivers a fantastic turn that helps to keep Skeletor as fun and menacing as he should be. Idris Elba is very good as Duncan AKA Man-At-Arms, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson eventually accepts the name of Fisto, and both Alison Brie and Morena Baccarin are good to watch as two very different types of sorceress, the former being Evil-Lyn and the latter simply billed as The Sorceress. There are also some brilliant cameos, most I won't spoil, including Kristen Wiig voicing Roboto, a battle robot that has been turned into a domestic cleaning robot, but could help our heroes a lot if given her access to weaponry back.

The fact that I watched this and started to wonder whether or not it could be time for us to have another take on Flash Gordon perhaps tells you everything you need to know. Then I was impressed by the film-makers having the confidence to use the Queen track from ANOTHER classic fantasy flick. Whether recreating the imagery from the cartoon or not, the visuals are generally a delight, the score from Daniel Pemberton is absolutely fantastic throughout, and the only other disappointment I had after the end credits rolled was the knowledge that it wouldn't necessarily out-perform some (to me) lesser films at the box office, meaning any sequels and/or spin-offs are sadly not guaranteed. But if they do happen, consider my tickets pre-ordered ASAP.

9/10

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Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (2024)

Working nicely in line with the central attitude of "the fast and non-furious", the Sonic The Hedgehog movies have turned into a very entertaining series that stress the importance of family units (not blood family, but any family unit that you make for yourself, which is an important difference) and just keep adding more and more characters to each instalment. I'm absolutely shocked that Vin Diesel hasn't tried to engineer some kind of crossover event yet.

The plot this time around sees our spiky blue hero (Ben Schwartz staying on voice duty) threatened by a powerful stranger (Shadow, voiced by Keanu Reeves). Sonic has Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba) and Tails (voiced by Colleen O'Shaugnessey) by his side, as well as Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter), but he may need the help of someone else. Someone unexpected. Someone who used to be an enemy. Enter Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey). But there may be more than one Robotnik on the scene today. Which is bad news for Sonic, but good news for fans of Carrey.

Also maintaining a number of the same people behind the camera, mainly director Jeff Fowler and writers Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington, this third Sonic movie somehow conveys the sense that every one of the main players had just as much fun as they want viewers to have. The 110-minute runtime flies by, thanks to the extra characters being introduced, or at least teased, quite early on. There are also so many gags and silly little asides that the sheer quantity more than makes up for the varying quality.

Schwartz remains a great voice for the speedy hedgehog, Elba is very fun as the group member always aiming to be more serious and wary than everyone else, and O'Shaugnessey balances him out by being light and upbeat throughout most of her scenes. Reeves delivers someone angsty and dangerous, and feels like a very welcome addition to the core cast. Then there's Carrey, serving up more Carrey than ever before, and having a ball doing so. Whether he's being engrossed in a Spanish soap opera, delivering the expected snark, or performing a hilariously unnecessary choreographed dance number to a Chemical Brothers track, Carrey proves that he's still damn good value when it comes to delivering big laughs. Marsden and Sumpter may not be given much to do, but they still get a couple of good moments that make them just as welcome as the other returning players.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't any kind of modern classic. It wouldn't end up topping any charts (unless it was a chart consisting of movies centred around speedy blue hedgehogs), but it's absolutely perfect entertainment for those who enjoyed the first two movies. Some might think it slightly better than the previous movie, which would make this a series that has continually improved with every instalment, but I am going to settle for calling it an equal to its predecessor.

7/10

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Zootopia 2 (2025)

Whatever name it had when I saw it (I THINK it was called Zootropolis for a while here in the UK), I quite enjoyed Zootopia. It wasn't part of the cream of the animated movie crop from the past decade, but it was cute and enjoyable enough. This sequel is slightly better, although maybe that's just because I can't really remember much from the first film now, but it's nowhere near as good as you'd expect the new English-language box office champion of animated movies to be. I guess that's just a reminder that box office doesn't always represent the quality of the product.

After a short amount of time being celebrated for their work, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) soon find themselves on the wrong side of the law. They start to figure out that something is wrong as they attempt to capture an alleged villain named Gary De'Snake (Ke Huy Quan), which leads to them investigating a powerful family who may have stolen and reframed the history of Zootopia.

With most of the main names returning, for the acting roles and the many "behind the camera" roles, Zootopia 2 should be praised, first of all, for expanding the onscreen world without feeling as if it's changing everything already shown in the first film. Writer Jared Bush, who also co-directed with Byron Howard, has an excellent instinct for details that are fun and imaginative, yet also feel perfectly plausible for a world designed for many different species of animals. 

As well as Goodwin, Bateman, and Quan, who are all great and feel well-suited for voicing their characters, there's room in the cast for performances from Fortune Feimster (playing the superbly-named Nibbles Maplestick), Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Idris Elba, Patrick Warburton, Danny Trejo, and Shakira, as well as a number of other familiar names you may recognise once you hear them speaking.

Everything is obvious and predictable enough from early on, but that's what happens when you have a mystery at the heart of an animated family movie, but there's still enough done to keep tension running throughout, despite the obviousness of the ultimate end point. There's a quirky character added to the mix every 10-15 minutes, most of the gags work well, and I admit that I laughed more than expected when I noticed that Ed Sheeran had a tiny cameo as Ed Shearin.

Amusing, cute, and nicely animated, Zootopia 2 should keep most viewers entertained. I'm still bemused by it being the most successful English-language animated movie of all time, but I guess I'm decades older than the target demographic nowadays anyway. Maybe I'm just slightly out of touch, despite my consistent immaturity.

7/10

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Prime Time: Heads Of State (2025)

Although it is supposed to be an action comedy, I can honestly say that I never laughed once at Heads Of State. Seriously. I actually laughed more during a recent rewatch of Witness, the Harrison Ford thriller from 1985 that absolutely isn't a comedy (although there are a few deliberate lighter moments here and there).

John Cena plays Will Derringer, an action movie star who has managed to become the U.S. President. Idris Elba plays Sam Clarke, an ex-military man who has spent years serving as the British Prime Minister. The two of them are targeted by deadly killers, meaning they have to work together in order to survive. Just typing out this paragraph has made me sad.

It took three people to write this screenplay. Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, and Harrison Query. All three should hang their heads in shame. There are a couple of decent flourishes in the action beats, but not one laugh. I like both of the leads, but I loathed both by the time I got to the end of this. Director Ilya Naishuller has helmed some good stuff in the past. This shows him to be lacking any knack for handling straightforward comedy though.

Aside from Elba and Cena, who are both at their absolute worst, the cast includes Priyanka Chopra Jones (equally ill-served), Paddy Considine (meant to be a Russian villain, but not sure what accent, if any, he was told to try), Carla Gugino (wasted), Stephen Root (wasted), Sarah Niles and Richard Coyle (both wasted), and Jack Quaid (who is one of the few highlights). There are others, mainly playing bland baddies to be despatched in one of the many fight sequences that blur together.

Everything about this is lazy and ugly. It's another streaming release that feels exactly like "content", put together by an algorithm with no way to insert a spark of proper life or humanity. Even some of the main locations have a familiarity to them, as if they're the same places used by Amazon for a few of their other big-budget projects.

I have watched, and will continue to watch, a lot of rubbish. Some of it is rubbish that I have a soft spot for. Some of it is rubbish that I enjoy as something to have on while I don't need to overthink or worry about (when I want familiarity, predictability, and a happy ending). This rubbish is the worst kind of rubbish. It's a film that many will settle for, considering how it does have that familiarity, predictability, and expected final scenes, but it treats viewers without an ounce of care or respect. The main premise is silly enough, but it's then made less bearable by the film-makers trying to keep the whole thing grounded in some kind of reality one step away from our own. 

2/10

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Mubi Monday: Second Coming (2014)

While it's not the first thing that she ever did, Second Coming is a theatrical feature debut from writer-director Debbie Tucker Green that shows her to be, quite rightly, confident in her ability to translate her material on to the screen. She gets a hand from a great cast, but there are lots of choices made here that come directly from the person in charge behind the camera.

Nadine Marshall plays Jackie, AKA 'Jax', a woman who discovers that she is pregnant. That should come as good news to herself and her partner, Mark (Idris Elba), except for the fact that the two of them have not been intimate for some time. They don't seem to be at the end of the lifespan of their relationship, but there's something that keeps coming between them, even if it's just a curtain made up of their own worries and overthinking. Meanwhile, their son, JJ (Kai Francis Lewis), tries to get through his school days by ignoring some of the more problematic people around him, both students and teachers. He is happier when thinking of birds, and has a knack for befriending them, even if he can't necessarily heal any that are wounded. Can the family unit survive the revelation of the pregnancy, and will Jax be able to convince people that she isn't losing her mind as she becomes more and more convinced that it's a bit of a modern miracle?

Both Marshall and Elba are fantastic in this, both feeling like very real individuals who are trying to stay content and loving in their own little bubble after spending so many hours of each day being worn down by the struggles and weight of the everyday outside world. I'm not very familiar with Marshall, sadly, but I see now that she has quite an extensive filmography I can explore, and I look forward to doing just that. Elba IS someone I am familiar with, but he's rarely given roles that feel they are quite right for his considerable talent and charm. This still leaves him slightly underserved, but only slightly, but it also reminds you of how fantastic he can be with material that is grounded and not preoccupied with showing him off as a blockbuster star. Young Lewis is a brilliant third side of this triangle at the heart of the film, but I also have to mention the flawless supporting turns from Sharlene Whyte (a friend/colleague/confidant), Seroca Davis (Jax's sister), and Nicola Walker (a counselor who is seemingly unable to offer much help to Jax).

Green is happy to leave viewers without any easy answers, filling her movie with moments of magical realism that may or may not be experienced by the characters involved. Her impressive theatre background feeds in to her cinematic work. Many sequences are put on the shoulders of the characters talking to one another, but there's always the chance that something unnatural will suddenly interrupt a scene, and both the main dialogue and the "background noise" are made sharper by the authenticity and honesty underpinning them. These are recognisable people going through recognisable situations, despite the elements that come along to probe and push against the thin barrier separating the real and the unreal.

Not an easy watch, even if (especially if?) you just end up picking it to get a bit of Elba in your day, Second Coming is a strange and delicate exploration of relationships, the weight of every decision we make, and mental health. It weaves a spell that viewers won't even be fully aware of until the end credits have rolled and you're left to think over every implication, and what your own preferred interpretation of events says about . . . well, I'll leave you to decide that.

8/10

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Prime Time: The Take AKA Bastille Day (2016)

If you have seen other films from director James Watkins then you have seen some decent films, particularly if you enjoy horror movies. As of today, The Take is the last film from Watkins, who has moved towards working in TV in the last few years. There may be a good reason for that. The Take (which you may have also seen, or heard of, under the alternate title of Bastille Day) isn’t very good.

Richard Madden plays Michael, a very talented thief, able to work his way through a crowd and dip into pockets to find passports and wallets. Spying an opportunity when he observes Zoe (Charlotte Le Bon) crying on some city steps, a bag unattended by her side. Michael lifts the bag, rifles through it, and then ditches it elsewhere. And that’s when it explodes. Zoe was part of a group aiming to cause tension and anarchy, but she was supposed to plant the bomb somewhere without anybody nearby, and the incident now puts a target on Michael’s back, with everyone assuming that he is part of the same terrorist group. The French authorities want to get their hands on him, but Sean Briar (Idris Elba) hopes to get to him first. He is supposed to apprehend Michael and hand him over in due course, but the situation quickly changes as Briar finds himself just as quickly targeted as the man in his custody. 

Elba and Madden can do good work when given the right material, and I will always give time to anything that the former is involved in, but they cannot do enough to make this worthwhile. There are one or two moments here and there, and there’s fun to be had watching Elba commit to fully to such a cliché-ridden role, but they are weighted down by the dire script and poor execution of the material.

Watkins, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Baldwin, isn’t suited to action thrillers. This is a film made by someone who has spent a year watching Taken 3 on repeat and reading “Action Movie Tropes For Dummies”. That’s a shame, particularly when the main premise feels like such a tantalizing one. Almost every opportunity is squandered here, from the tension and thrills that could have been created from Elba trying to pursue Madden to the disappointingly predictable real villains of the movie. The only surprise is how much eyeliner they put on Madden.

As for other cast members, they are equally weighted down by a screenplay that puts a pair of concrete boots on them before throwing them into water. Le Bon is left to look sad and vulnerable, Kelly Reilly is given a role that allows you to say “maybe this won’t be so bad, Kelly Reilly’s in it”, and Thierry Godard at least gets one or two decent moments on the way to an underwhelming finale that once again wastes the opportunity to make things more exciting.

I can imagine that many will be able to enjoy this as undemanding fun. It at least has decent pacing and one or two action beats that should entertain anyone after something familiar and comfortingly simplistic. I didn’t actively hate it while it was on. I just never enjoyed it as much as I wanted to.

4/10

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Beast (2022)

A film is always in a bit of trouble if you end up thinking of other films you want to rewatch as soon as the end credits roll. Films that you think are better, or films that are just more comforting after you have endured something quite disappointing. I stayed focused on Beast for the full runtime, but a little voice in my head kept whispering “it’s been many years since you saw The Ghost & The Darkness”. So I think you can guess that I didn’t love this.

Idris Elba plays Dr. Nate Samuels, a man who has decided to take his two daughters on a trip to South Africa. The family will be shown around some of the local area by a good friend/expert guide named Martin (Sharlto Copley). Everything quickly takes a turn for the worse when the family end up being stalked by a rogue lion with a vendetta against humans. Having separated from a pride wiped out by poachers, this animal isn’t hunting for food. It’s out for revenge.

Writer Ryan Engle, fleshing out a story idea by Jaime Primak Sullivan, really drops the ball here, but is allowed to do so by a director, Baltasar Kormákur, who should know that more needs presented onscreen to cover up the weaknesses in the script. Most of us haven’t encountered a lion, for example, but I am sure we can all imagine how easily limbs would be torn and lost if we met one that was in a bad mood.

The CGI stays consistently good though, which is a big plus, and many scenes in the first half of the film work really well in a simplistic “it’s Jaws, but with a lion” way, so there’s enough to enjoy while the cracks start to appear. I also really enjoyed the score by Steven Price (I am listening to it right now while writing this review), a selection of music that evokes the right sense of geography and tension throughout without filing the soundtrack with every obvious and easiest choice. Although it is something I sometimes forget to mention, or speak of in the abstract rather than the specific, major kudos must go to those crafting the cinematography, especially for making the night scenes so dark and thrilling while also still keeping everything clear and visible enough.

The cast do what they can to help make this as watchable as possible. Elba has been a bona fire star for a good few years now, and if anyone can face off against an angry lion then I believe he can. Iyana Halley and Leah Jeffries are good as his daughters, respectively, Meredith and Norah, with the latter being the older sister who tries to be more pro-active in some of the dangerous encounters. And Copley is as good as ever, despite the fact that he is saddled with delivering a lot of the exposition and then being voted “most likely to die” in any scene that features all four of the main characters together. Despite some other supporting turns, the film generally stays focused on the quartet vs the lion (which is the strongest aspect of the script).

Although not a terrible film, Beast ends up folding under the weight of one implausibility atop another, which leads to an ending that is hard to care for. In fact, it’s sadly laughable. If you think big cats don’t have decent eyesight, don’t have great hearing, and wouldn’t sniff out potential prey hiding just beside them then maybe you will enjoy this more than I did. You will also have to accept that people can be mauled by a lion, while punching back at it, and somehow not watch their arms and legs being moved meters away from their body.

If you don’t like Elba or Copley then this will have even less appeal. If you do like them though, well, this isn’t the worst way you could spend 90 minutes. It just ends up being dragged down to something average when the bad outweighs the good.

5/10

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Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (2022)

A sequel that, I’m just going to say it now, is actually better than the first film, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 manages to be a fantastic bit of fun for everyone. Maybe I was just in a slightly better mood when I saw it, maybe it was helped by not having the baggage of the first film, or maybe it just is a little bit better.

The plot is once again a fairly simple one. Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) wants to get back to Earth, and he wants to get revenge. Meeting the mighty Knuckles (voices by Idris Elba), Robotnik increases his chances of success, especially when they also locate a green emerald of great power. Meanwhile, Sonic (Ben Schwartz) is joined by Tails (Colleen O’Shaugnessey), who has arrived just in time to warn our blue, spiky, hero of impending danger, while Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie Wachowski (Tika Sumpter) try to enjoy their time at the wedding of Maddie’s sister, Rachel (Natasha Rothwell), and Randall (Shemar Moore).

When I first started to get interested in videogame consoles I ended up drawn to the world of Sega. My trusty Spectrum 48k had lasted me through many years, I could never master the moves for Street Fighter II or really show off on a Mario game, but when I started playing on a Sega Master System I soon began mastering Sonic The Hedgehog. Between that and Alex Kidd In Wonderland, I was finally starting to develop some gaming skills. From there it was on to the Megadrive, where Mortal Kombat drew me in further, and a trajectory that would lead me to the Sony PlayStation, with any incarnation of that console now being my favourite. What I am trying to say is that Sonic was my jam. For a number of years. The character design, the level design, the gameplay, it had everything I wanted from a platformer (although let’s also take a moment to remember the brilliant advert/game that was Cool Spot).

Maybe that is why I enjoy this sequel even more than the first movie. After everything being set up last time, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 will especially please those with fond memories of the videogame series. Elements are incorporated into the movie in ways that feel natural and organic, and nothing disappoints, from the name of a coffee shop “HQ” to the use of the golden rings, and even to the final form of the main villain.

Schwartz is still great as the voice of Sonic, and both Elba and O’Shaugnessey give vocal performances that are perfectly in line with their characters. Marsden and Sumpter are the reliable human friends again, of course,  although both are great at what they do, but it’s Rothwell and Moore who get to have more fun, particular when their wedding starts being interrupted. And then there’s Carrey, once again having a blast as the big baddie. He may not have the kind of standout moment that I had to highlight in the first film, but he delivers one great moment after another.

Jeff Fowler returns to the director’s chair, easily finding a sweet spot that evaded him for most of the first film, and Pat Casey and Josh Miller once again handle the writing duties, couching their exciting adventure in a couple of nice moral lessons, one about what it takes to be a hero and one about friendship and family.

Bright visuals, full of FX work that pops out of the screen without giving you a headache, a great score, also with one or two fun musical moments in there, and cute characters make this a real winner. It might be slightly overlong, and it is missing a truly memorable set-piece/moment, but I could have easily watched it again as soon as the end credits rolled. Because it reminds me of everything I loved about the games.

7/10

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Prime Time: This Christmas (2007)

As is evidenced by the many posters you can view and by almost every Hallmark TV movie you can choose to view, Christmas movies are largely populated by smiling, white, heterosexual characters all just waiting to kiss the right person under the mistletoe. You do get exceptions, and some of those exceptions have opened the gates for some better movies, but straight, white people still seem to be the norm. I watch many of those movies, some would say that I watch more of them than anyone should, but I do try to widen my viewing options sometimes. When I remember.

This Christmas is a traditional Christmas movie that features a superb cast portraying members of an African American family, the Whitfields (headed up by a matriarch, Ma’Dere, played by Loretta Devine). Everyone has their various problems and/or secrets, but the ones who get more screentime are Lisa (Regina King), a woman married to a man who is taking her for granted, Quentin (Idris Elba), a man home for the holidays while he also tries to evade some bad people he owes money to, and Claude (Columbus Short), a young soldier who has a partner he is reluctant to introduce to the whole family. Then there’s Joseph aka Big Joe (Delroy Lindo), a man living with Ma’Dere while they pretend otherwise in front of some visiting relatives. There’s more going on, a young woman has a good time with a man who is also playing the role of a Santa Claus and one young man is hiding a great singing voice, but those characters I have just named, and their issues, are kept to the fore.

Written and directed by Preston A. Whitmore II, This Christmas is an easy film to enjoy, and a typically sweet-natured and soft-centred seasonal treat. There are scenes that add a bit of grit and/or tension, but they don’t play out long enough to be too jarring in amongst the more standard family scenes.

I will praise the cast in a moment, but it’s worth praising the soundtrack while I remember. A few tunes are well-used throughout, as well as a fantastic number that plays out over the first part of the end credits while the cast get to shake their stuff in turn. It’s a good way to ensure that any residue of sour taste is washed away, and people should be smiling once the screen turns to black.

Short is just fine in his role, but both King and Elba are strong favourites of mine, and both shine in their roles here. They help to elevate the material, basically showing some of the younger cast members how it’s done. Devine is suited to her role, and she plays a character who also needs to learn a lesson on the way to the big finale, and Lindo is . . . well, look, point me to a film on which Lindo isn’t fantastic and I will hold up a mirror in front of your face and point you to a liar. I hope that clarifies how I always feel about Lindo. Everyone else does sterling work, and me not mentioning them by name isn’t to dismiss their performance entirely. It’s just that most of those I just named are big favourites of mine.

This gives you everything you could want from this type of film, and it feels like everything has been put together with a bit more care, and less of a view towards simply delivering a package of Christmas sweetness. The characters grow as the film unfolds, and the satisfying results feel earned. Well, they certainly feel more earned than your usual Christmas movie endings.

7/10

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The Suicide Squad (2021)

There's an extra factor at play here, something that makes The Suicide Squad feel like it deserves to be relished more than perhaps any previous superhero movie within the recent selection of DC adventures. Because writer-director James Gunn got this gig after some idiot attempted to lose him work with Marvel/Disney, which temporarily worked, allowing him to deliver this film . . . before returning to Marvel/Disney for the third Guardians Of The Galaxy movie. So thanks to that idiot, with a name I have already forgotten, for allowing us to receive even more fun from Gunn.

The plot is relatively simple. A squad is assembled for a mission that doesn't seem to have much chance for survival. That squad includes Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), Ratcatcher (Daniela Melchior), King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and one or two others. They wade into the hostile territory of Corto Maltese, where they end up plotting to apprehend an important figure named Thinker (Peter Capaldi).

If there's one word you could use to describe The Suicide Squad it's gleeful. Gunn gleefully throws around bucket-loads of blood and gore, mixing laughs in with the action to provide the most twisted and anarchic superhero film since, well, Super. Strangely enough, that sense of anarchy still manages to feel very calculated and formulaic. The film is wild fun when compared to other movies within this subgenre, but it's not all that surprising when you know the kind of film it is aiming to be, and Gunn makes that pretty clear from the opening sequence (with great use of the song "People Who Died", by the Jim Carroll Band). Thankfully, the set-pieces are entertaining enough to keep your spirits high, and there are also one or two moments that allow viewers to remember that Gunn is good at giving his high-budget fare a good bit of heart and soul.

Robbie remains arguably the most valuable jewel in the crown of this movie universe, and is once again excellent, while Elba makes effortless cool again look . . . effortlessly cool. Cena is a lot of fun in his role, Melchior and Dastmalchian are both wonderful, and Stallone's vocal work is a lot of fun. But it would be very easy to criticise these characters for obvious parallels, considering the direction from Gunn. King Shark may have more words in his vocabulary, but feels quite Groot-ish, and Cena is as humourless as Drax. Consider Harley Quinn as an equal to Rocket, and that just leaves you wondering whether Elba would be Peter Quill or Gamora. It might seem unfair to think of those comparisons while the film is on, but Gunn practically invites them by the fact that he seems to be drawn to the same kind of ragtag bunch of lovable rogues. 

Each main act here has enough inventiveness and energy to blow away that feeling of over-saturation that many film fans have been experiencing lately. Superhero movies aren't going away any time soon, but that's not a problem when we get some more variety from the films being released. And if that variety sometimes comes from focusing on "the villains" then all the better, because I enjoyed this more than I enjoyed Suicide Squad. And I liked Suicide Squad well enough.

8/10

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No Good Deed (2014)

Idris Elba is a horrible person. In this movie. In real life, from what I have seen of his many public appearances, he seems like a lovely guy. But in this movie he's playing a horrible person. It's just a shame that the film is also quite horrible.

Elba plays Colin, a man who is hoping for parole after serving five years in prison on a manslaughter charge. His parole is refused, with at least one board member reminding everyone that Colin was also the main suspect in the murders of five different women. Heading back to prison, Colin escapes and immediately heads out to get revenge on his ex-fiancée (Alexis, played by Kate del Castillo). He also ends up losing control of his car, and inveigling his way into the home of Terri (Taraji P. Henson), a neglected wife and busy mother of two. And so begins a tense game of cat and mouse.

Well, that's what should happen. What you end up getting is a bit different.

Director Sam Miller has a career full of some quality TV work (including Luther, another show that did great things for Elba), but he tries to maintain a cinematic sheen to the predictable dross here. There's nothing too showy, and he can often let viewers simply enjoy the leads interacting with one another, but there's nothing too static and "stage-bound" either.

Writer Aimee Lagos, with one short and one other feature to her credit (both of which she also directed), is the person who lets everyone down. Her script is trite, drawn out, despite the brief runtime, and often almost outright laughable. The fact that Elba and Henson make the thing even remotely watchable is testament to their talent. Make a list of everything you see in thrillers that make a lead character seem dumb, often just to sustain things until an established end point, and you can check off every item while watching this.

I don't need to go on any more about how good the leads are. I at least knew that I was a fan of both actors before I started watching the film. I didn't expect greatness, but I was hoping for some fun. There are some fun moments, and all of them happen in the scenes that have Elba and Henson working opposite one another in a fluid and flirtatious manner. Leslie Bibb does well in a supporting role (a best friend named Meg), the kind of role that means you just know what's going to happen as soon as you see her billing, and the few other players do perfectly fine, including the young children.

It's not as bad as some ridiculous thrillers, granted, but this is bad. There's not enough room for the plot to have any decent twists and turns, even if Lagos could have been bothered to try harder, and every minute of runtime makes things feel less and less plausible. It's not a painful experience though. It's just a sadly unenjoyable one.

4/10

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Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

Anyone who knows my view on the Fast & Furious franchise should predict that I was optimistic, yet also very cautious, about this spin-off. The car-based core series has often entertained me, they peaked with the mix of action and ridiculousness in the sixth and seventh instalments, and then eight just went too far over into the kind of silliness that kept taking me out of the movie. This film, pairing up Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham for their own action-packed adventure, looked enjoyably silly from the first trailer I saw.

And it is. Which was a huge relief for me. This film makes it obvious from the very beginning that the central characters are almost superhuman and your brain shouldn't spend too much time calculating the odds of all of their plans and stunts being physically possible.

Written by Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce, the story concerns a deadly virus, a cybernetically-enhanced supervillain (Brixton, played by Idris Elba), and a young woman named Hattie (Vanessa Kirby) who has already tried to defeat Brixton, but finds herself defeated. Fortunately, Hattie is the sister of Shaw (Statham), which is why he is asked to help, along with the one person he really doesn't want to be paired up with, Hobbs (Johnson). This isn't a one-man job though, and working together may be the key to any chance of success, which would also basically save the world.

Directed by David Leitch (who previously did such good work on Deadpool 2), this is big dumb fun that runs for just over two and a quarter hours (do any major action movies nowadays manage to come in at a brisk 90 minutes?) and manages to entertain from start to finish, thanks to the comedic tone of the script, the charisma of everybody with a major role, and the pacing. The set-pieces are enjoyable loony, with as many challenges as possible thrown at our heroes while they generally outrun, out-think and out-fight everyone around them.

If you enjoyed the interplay between Johnson and Statham in Fast & Furious 8 (which, let's be honest, was at its best when they were onscreen) then I don't see any way that you wouldn't enjoy this. They remain amusingly antagonistic towards one another, and competitive when it comes to who can despatch the most disposable henchmen, and both men get an equal amount of time to show off. Elba is a fantastic villain, and he appears to be having a lot of fun in the role, and Kirby is as good as, if not better than, anyone else onscreen, with a tough attitude and a badass skillset ensuring that she can hold her own in any of the major action sequences (including a scene in which she believably takes on Johnson). Helen Mirren reprises her role, as the mother of the Shaws, and entertains once again in her one main scene, and Eddie Marsan is good value in a small supporting role, a Russian Professor who may be able to help ensure the virus can't harm others.

Plenty of punches are thrown, you get a few moments of vehicular mayhem, there are a couple of fun cameos (which I won't spoil here), and those who are patient enough to sit through the end credits will be rewarded with numerous little extra scenes, which are also a lot of fun. I doubt anybody is going to spend too much dissecting this, or searching for hidden meanings or metaphors, because it's absolutely not that kind of film. But I am pretty certain that it will please most action movie fans, and be on regular rotation when it comes to the home media market later in the year. I know I'll be getting it, and am already looking forward to a rewatch.

8/10

Molly's Game (2017)

Marking the feature directorial debut of celebrated scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin, Molly's Game is another slick, smart piece of work that the man has attached his name to, and it also happens to give Jessica Chastain a great role that doesn't rely on her being defined just by her seriousness and determination (admirable qualities, but not the only qualities I want to see in most performances).

Chastain plays Molly Bloom, a young woman who had a career in professional skiing ended by a freak accident on the slope. Which is the start of a chain of events that leads to her eventually running some major private poker games with very high stakes. Which would all be well and good if she didn't also end up welcoming players with ties to the Russian mob, and having to . . . wiggle herself into a position of illegality to cover some of the higher pots.

If I was ever going to be a sportsman then it would involve me learning how to get better at poker. Because it's the right level of physical activity for me, I like to feel as if I have a chance of winning, and it's just fun. It's also surprisingly cinematic, with many filmed games showing the building tension and how characters react differently to it. This works in Aaron Sorkin's favour, and he structures everything perfectly to reveal more about the main characters, tease out backstory, and lead viewers towards a finale that you don't think will prove satisfying, until it does. And it really does.

The dialogue is as good as you would expect, with the best exchanges being had between Chastain and Idris Elba (playing her lawyer), but also some great lines reserved for her infrequent conversations with Kevin Costner (her father). A lot of the lines sound cool and clever, but there are just as many that show Sorkin's knack for getting to the heart of a character or situation with just one or two sentences.

Chastain is excellent in the lead role, always cool and running through the odds even as things look to be overwhelming her. It's the kind of role she loves to sink her teeth into, with just a bit more detailing her and there to make her feel more human and rounded than she has been in some of her previous performances. Elba is an equally assured character, although he is at times worn down and frustrated by the stance that his high-profile client takes during her defence. Costner gives another great supporting performance that adds to the impressive list he has been building up over the past few years (but I may be biased, having always been a fan). Michael Cera, Chris O'Dowd, and Jeremy Strong are all good as various important figures in the journey that Molly makes to her position as poker game queen, with Cera and Strong both particularly good when angrily trying to assert dominance over a woman who knows she has to stay one step ahead of them. And there are a number of solid supporting turns from people Sorkin picked for their poker skills, lending the gaming scenes an air of authenticity some other films on this subject might lack.

It's easy to see why this appealed to Sorkin, and I am happy to say that he does well in the director's chair. Jargon is explained, dynamics are always made clear, memorable characters move in and out of the narrative, and Chastain looms large in every scene. Molly is never painted as an angel, although we only have her word for her personal code of conduct, but her bad decisions (some of them head-smackingly bad) are given as much attention as her successes.

Entertaining, gripping at times, aimed at adults, and doesn't often feel as if it is pandering to the audience. This might not be a full house for Sorkin, but it's enough for him to win the pot and walk away with a profit.

8/10

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