28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)

It's strange to find that every new instalment in what is now a fine horror franchise comes loaded with worry and curiosity about where things are going next. I was relieved when I ended up enjoying 28 Years Later as much as I did, but that wild ending had me wondering about how the next instalment would be handled. And then finding out that it was being directed by Nia DaCosta made me uneasy. I like DaCosta, I always want her to do well since she did such great work with Candyman, but "The Bone Temple" seemed to be moving further into dark territory that was also quintessentially British.  

Whether or not DaCosta knew about every disturbing detail in her own movie, and I would hope that writer Alex Garland gave her a primer on one or two key elements, she proves to be a fantastic choice to helm this middle section of what looks set to be quite a brilliant and intriguing horror trilogy. It's already two for two at this point. Now I have worry and curiosity about how the final part will play out.

For those wanting a very brief plot summary, as long as you've seen the previous film, we rejoin this dangerous world as young Spike (Alfie Williams) is being initiated into the gang of Jimmys that saved him at the end of the last film. The leader is Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell), and they are on a mission to serve Old Nick. Meanwhile, Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) is still tending to his ossuarium, and he's also hoping to find a way to communicate with, and perhaps even cure, the infected alpha known as Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry). Kelson and Crystal have very different ways of dealing with the world around them, but fate may bring them together in a way that might force them to find some common ground.

If you enjoyed both Williams and Fiennes in the previous movie then you're going to find their performances equally enjoyable here, although Fiennes gets to do a bit more than the younger cast member. It's arguably O'Connell who steals the show though, embodying absolute evil with a smile and a winning way with words . . . and a real affinity for the antics of the Teletubbies, but Lewis-Parry continues to cast a hell of a large shadow in the role of Samson, particularly when in numerous scenes that have him interacting with Fiennes. Nobody disappoints, but the others worth highlighting are Emma Laird and Erin Kellyman, both standing out as the two female members of the Jimmy gang (named Jimmima and Jimmy Ink, respectively).

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is two films perfectly intertwined. One is a study of evil, and also a look at how people working together can overcome the greatest obstacles. The other is a full-blooded selection of horror movie moments, with arteries cut, flesh torn, and innocent people dragged into sadistic games. And then it stops to deliver a show-stopping sequence that makes incredible use of a very well-known Iron Maiden song.

I cannot think of anyone being disappointed by this if they made it all the way through the previous film. DaCosta may struggle to put her stamp all over this, but there are choices and flourishes that are more in line with her aesthetic than the standard look of the series. It's commendable that she also maintains a consistency that allows the whole thing to feel like a natural extension of the unfolding storyline though.

I may have an obvious bias here. I enjoy every single entry in this film series. The fact that these new films have gone from being unnecessary titles that nobody seemed to want to important and fresh ways to examine the human spirit and expand the lore of the infected is incredible. And there are now three features that could easily be in contention whenever the time comes to pick an outright best film in the series. I will remain worried and curious until the third/final film is released, but that's just habit at this point. All of the evidence so far assures me that I should be optimistic and excited.

9/10

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Sinners (2025)

As everyone knows, certainly everyone who grew up in the 1980s and was so educated by Footloose anyway, singing and dancing can be sinful. Some people would rather that we didn't do it, especially when we can instead spend time being thankful for the meagre morsels of happiness that life allows us. I was awaiting one such morsel when I sat myself down to finally see Sinners, a film I knew I wanted to see on as big a screen as possible, especially after that lovely video from Ryan Coogler that discussed both aspect ratios and his absolute love of film. The fact that I didn't love this as much as so many others shouldn't stop you from also going to see it on the big screen. It's certainly a spectacle, it's often a real audio and visual treat, but it's also apparent that there's ambition here unmatched by the final product.

William B. Jordan takes on two roles here, playing twins named Smoke and Stack. After making some money in Chicago, they have returned to their hometown to open a juke joint, where they will encourage people to drink and dance, accompanied by the music of Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) and their talented cousin, Sammie Moore (Miles Caton). The opening night looks to be eventful enough, with Stack being confronted by Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), Smoke reconnecting with Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), and Sammie hoping to get time to connect with the married Pearline (Jayme Lawson). It's going to get more eventful, however, when Remmick (Jack O'Connell) and a few cohorts turn up, looking to connect their fangs with the jugular veins of those inside the juke joint.

Written and directed by Coogler, Sinners is a bit of something for everyone. If you're a fan of Michael B. Jordan then you get double the Michael B. Jordan, and he's great in both roles. If you want some vampire action then you get it. If you want some energetic music sequences then, oh boy, you really get it. It's a shame that Coogler didn't just dive right into making this a musical. It comes very close to being one anyway, but you can tell that people seriously considered the balance of everything here. There's also some solid drama, as well as a comment on those who have been othered by society banding together to become stronger and less afraid. The problem that Sinners has is that Coogler doesn't quite get the mix right. This feels like an accomplished first or second feature, considering how much he tries to cram in to the film. There's even a coda that would have arguably worked better as an extra short provided as some supplementary treat when the film hits the home market.

It gets a lot right though, and delivers satisfyingly adult content in a world that seems intent on diluting every work of art in order to appeal to that mystical four quadrant demographic. Sinners is sexy, occasionally very sexy. It's intelligent. It's thoughtful. There are some good gore effects deployed when we get the vampire action. And it has a rhythm and bass thrum running through it that allows the score and soundtrack to help propel the narrative in a way I haven't felt since the equally-admirable-but-less-successful Babylon, which, interestingly enough, feels like it would make a nice bacchanalian pairing with this. There's one sequence that is already a strong contender for scene of the year, and I say that as someone who doubts that this film will make my own personal Top 10 when such things are due to be considered.

It helps that there isn't a weak link in the cast. Jordan easily holds his own alongside Jordan, and it was perhaps inevitable that in a film like this he would be the only one capable of matching his own cool and charisma. Caton, a young singer (and now also a guitarist, after learning it for this role) making his acting debut, stands out as a talent to keep an eye on, especially if he keeps getting roles that allow him to win over audience with his amazing voice. I always feel that Lindo is overlooked by too many directors out there, with the exception of Spike Lee, and I'm glad to see that he's typically great in a role that makes very good use of him. Steinfeld and Mosaku bring different ways of showing their strength opposite different Jordan characters, both getting at least one impactful emotional beat, and Lawson feels authentic in how she responds to the music and energy around her. O'Connell gets the most obviously fun role, which he does well with, and the rest of the cast includes Saul Williams, Yao (AKA Thomas Pang), Helena Hu, Li Jun Li, Omar Benson Miller, and David Maldonado.

Sinners wants to be so many things, including a decades-spanning epic in the style of at least one other sexy vampire tale I could mention. The fact that it doesn't hit every target that Coogler is aiming at doesn't make it a bad film, and doesn't make it a waste of your time. It's just a shame that it may end up leaving some people (like myself) a bit unsatisfied when thinking of the many ways the ingredients could have been adjusted to improve the end result. Although, having just said that, I was VERY satisfied with a certain moment that happened near the very end of the movie, something that felt cathartic and also clearly underlined a point about monsters not needing to be fanged and/or supernatural.

7/10

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Prime Time: Money Monster (2016)

While I like all three main cast members here (George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jack O’Connell), I had spent a long time delaying a viewing of Money Monster. I suspected I would enjoy it, but was never in just the right mood for it. And if there is one typical viewer who doesn’t need reminded of the evils of what many perceive as an unfair stock market system, it’s me.

Clooney plays Lee Gates, the smarmy and self-centres host of a TV show that offers advice to people looking play the stock market game. His producer, Patty Fenn (Roberts), knows exactly how to work with her onscreen star, allowing him to go off on occasional tangents before pulling him back to whatever should be the focus of the show. Both of these people are about to be put in a terrifying situation by Kyle Budwell (O’Connell), a young man who lost his stash of savings in an anomalous stock crash that he suspects was engineered without any consideration for those unable to afford such a dip in their fortunes. Kyle has a gun, a jacket packed with explosives, and a very strong desire to keep the cameras on him and have everything playing out live as he gets to the truth of what may be a financial scandal.

Written by Alan Difiore, Jim Kouf, and Jamie Linden, who have all worked on a wide variety of projects that I have enjoyed to varying degrees, this is a smart and tense thriller that provides a fantasy scenario in which an enraged failed “everyman” has a go at smashing at least one small part of the giant machinery of capitalism responsible for widening the chasm of social inequality. It’s easy to stay alongside Kyle, thanks to the script and O’Connell’s performance, and viewers will want an ending that provides some kind of the justice he is seeking.

As well as the famous faces front and centre, there is also an extra famous face behind the camera, this being another feature directed by the talented Jodie Foster. Not only does she do well with the material, probably well aware that the script is full of tasty little moments for the actors to sink their teeth into, but she shows admirable restraint by not casting herself in the role given to Roberts, a role that I could easily imagine her excelling in.

Not that Roberts is a lesser choice. She exudes the will and savvy of someone more than capable of keeping a cool head in such a crazy situation. Clooney uses his showbiz charm to deliver his smarmy host, but also enjoys allowing that facade to start crumbling as things look to get worse and worse for him. Then you have O’Connell, playing his desperate man almost like a confused child who had just learned of a terrible secret. He’s a sad figure, but also senses something that others should have already cottoned on to, and one scenes at about the mid-point, where police have his partner communicating with him, underlines just how much he has lost. Elsewhere, Dominic West is as watchable as ever, even as a slick businessman trying to stay on his plane long enough for everything to blow over, and Catriona Baife is very good as his strained assistant, trying to maintain the company line until she also starts questioning just how the financial “glitch” occurred. 

Probably not a film anyone would consider essential viewing, and there are a couple of different elements mixed in that distract slightly from that great central idea, but Money Monster is old-fashioned entertainment with a bit of modern pizzazz added to it. You have great actors working with a solid script, and a commentary at the heart of it that has sadly featured in a number of other movies in recent years without any major change in sight. It may prove a bit frustrating, but it is also a perfectly enjoyable way to spend just under 100 minutes.

7/10

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Unbroken (2014)

Jack O'Connell stars in this look at the incredibly tough life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete who was shot down during WWII, survived for 47 days in a raft, and then ended up in a Japanese POW camp where he became the target of a particularly vicious authority figure there. It's a story that shows the very best and worst of human nature, and the movie is highly recommended, even to those already familiar with the tale.

Directed by Angelina Jolie, this is a film that ticks all of the boxes. There are many moments here that we've all seen before, but they all add up to an impressive final product. And I guess this is one of those many occasions when truth seems stranger than fiction. It certainly has moments that feel very much like traditional Hollywood moments, but this is almost necessary to outweigh the darker sequences.

Using the book by Laura Hillenbrand as a template, the screenplay has been put together by William Nicholson, Richard LaGravenese, and the Coen brothers. Yes, you read that right. The Coen brothers. While no part of this ever feels like a Coen brothers movie, it's interesting to wonder just how much they contributed, and whether their presence is the reason that the film doesn't gloss over some nastier incidents that will make viewers flinch.

O'Connell is fantastic in the lead role, even if his accent isn't exactly spot on. Going through an incredible transformation between the beginning and end of the movie, he manages to keep showing inner strength and some kind of hope (sometimes for rescue and sometimes, I guess, for death), and keeps you rooting for him even as the odds of him surviving look to grow bigger and bigger. Domnhall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund and Finn Wittrock do well in their supporting roles, and Jai Courtney even manages not to irritate me during his brief time onscreen, but the other major figure in the movie is the nasty Watanabe, played by Takamasa Ishihara. He does superb work, creating a monster who has no real rhyme or reason to his actions. He takes a dislike to Zamperini from the very beginning and that is that.

Jolie does a fine job in the director's chair. As by-the-numbers as it is, there are a number of ways in which she refuses to go for the most obvious approach. The score by Alexandre Desplat is used more sparingly than you'd expect, for example, and the material is supported mainly by those central performances and some reliably fine work from Roger Deakins.

Unbroken doesn't rewrite the rulebook. It's a great story, and it's told well.

7/10

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'71 (2014)

Okay, now is not the time for a history lesson. Neither is it the place. But to be fully aware of the tension running through '71 you have to at least be slightly aware of the situation that tore apart Northern Ireland, and sometimes spilled over into areas of the UK, known colloquially as The Troubles. It was a war over the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, with the Unionists (who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK) on one side and the Republicans (who wanted to break away and form one united country of Ireland) on the other. A heavy military presence, with most soldiers transferred over from the UK mainland, was required, which didn't go down well with those living in the region. Religious views also helped to keep the battle raging, and that's about all I'll say just now. Please take this paragraph as nothing more than an attempt at a VERY brief overview of a complicated situation that scarred Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom for decades. There's plenty of material out there, by much smarter people, for those who want to read up further on it.

'71 stars Jack O'Connell as Gary Hook, a young British soldier who finds himself isolated from his unit on the streets of Belfast. It's 1971, hence the title, and he is in serious danger. The republicans will kill him if they find him, and there's even a chance that some of the undercover personnel on his side will turn hostile if they think that he could undo all of their hard work. It's going to be a long night for the young lad. IF he's lucky enough to survive it.

Director Yann Demange has been doing some great work on TV over the years (including being at the helm of the superb Dead Set) and he makes the transition to the big screen with no small amount of confidence and skill. It helps that the script, by Gregory Burke, is as good as it is. Although it mixes moments of immediate danger with moments showing characters grappling with choices that they must make, the tension remains high for every minute that keeps our main character in such dangerous territory.

O'Connell has been a rising star for a good few years now and this is yet another fantastic performance from him, with the movie making the most of his youthful looks to underline just how out of his depth he is. He carries most of the movie, despite not always being the focus of every scene, but he's helped by some other great actors. Sean Harris lends his usual intensity to proceedings, Paul Anderson and Sam Reid do decent work, and Corey McKinley makes a strong impression, portraying a boy who is shown to be much more than just your average young lad.

'71 is a film that requires patience and concentration, but it rewards viewers with a movie experience that mixes visceral thrills with intelligence and a roster of well-sketched characters. In other words, it's highly recommended.

8/10

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Tower Block (2012)

A simple, effective premise. If you don't mess up the other aspects of a movie then, sometimes, that's all you need. And Tower Block certainly has that. The characters, thanks to a solid script by James Moran, are all pretty good, and this thriller cuts to the chase quickly, proving to be an effective, taut, piece of work.

It all starts off with a quick description of what tower blocks once were, and what many have now become. They were a great solution to the housing problem decades ago, but now have been left to rot away, no longer the vertical suburbs full of friendly neighbours. Then viewers are shown a young man being chased. He's beaten. A young woman (Becky, played by Sheridan Smith) who comes out to help is also beaten, but not as badly. Fast forward to some time later. The police visit the tower block, and are hoping to find anyone who can help them solve the murder of the young man. There aren't many people left, as many have been rehoused and only the top floor is still occupied. Nobody is talking. Nobody wants to get involved, to risk getting themselves in trouble with the wrong people. But they can't avoid trouble when a sniper decides to trap them on their floor, and pick them off whenever he gets a clean shot.

Directed by James Nunn and Ronnie Thomson, Tower Block gets so much right that it's easy to forget any flaws/potential plotholes. Unlike Comedown or Citadel, to name two other movies that tried to effectively utilise a tower block setting, this actually provides some thrills while also feeling grounded in something coming close to reality.

The cast and characters work really well. Smith makes for a likable lead, she's tough and believable, and hasn't let the tower block life grind her down. Ralph Brown and Jill Baker are an elderly couple who quickly show what they're made of, Julie Graham is a mother almost always thinking of her son, played by Harry McEntire, first, and Russell Tovey plays a young man who has spent too much time trying to escape into a bottle of booze. Montserrat Lombard is stuck playing a terrible mother, and Jack O'Connell adds yet another bad boy role to his filmography, playing a man who takes protection money from the tenants without offering any actual protection, until he ends up working with them all to stay alive.

The script certainly gives everyone a great launchpad to start from, making the characters easily identifiable, while also rounding them out as the situation unfolds. While it fair rattles along for a lot of the runtime, coming in at just under the 90-minute mark, it never feels rushed, and none of the character developments ever feel as if they've just come out of nowhere.

Tower Block is well worth your time, as far as I'm concerned. It's a lean, mean, thrill machine. Or you can just take that sentence and replace it with something that sounds better. There's at least one cracking jump scare, a few good bits of gore, plenty of scenes that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and a satisfying final reel. In other words, it's perfect popcorn entertainment.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Tower-Block-Blu-ray-Sheridan-Smith/dp/B00C7A8X1Y/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1404243181&sr=1-2&keywords=tower+block

Harry Brown (2009)

Daniel Barber's first full-length feature could, at a casual glance, be seen as a lazy way to fast-track him into the growing collection of great UK film-makers such as Shane Meadows, Danny Boyle, Christopher Smith, Neil Marshall, Guy Ritchie (YES, I said Guy Ritchie), Michael Winterbottom and others. It's a crime movie, it's done with a measured amount of gritty realism and it's got Michael Caine in it. So far so seen-it-all-before. But Harry Brown brings a bit more to the mix than just that.

Michael Caine IS Harry Brown, an old man living on a rather dilapidated council estate, spending his time either visiting his ill wife, playing chess with his friend Leonard (David Bradley) or simply filling the lonely, bleak hours in between such little moments of pleasure while, around him, the local area is going to ruin thanks to local teenagers playing with knives, guns and drugs and terrorising those who try to get on with their daily lives. When things happen that directly affect Harry he is then forced into making a decision he never thought he would make . . . . . . and to start cleaning up the estate. But it's not long before one good policewoman (Emily Mortimer) starts to suspect Harry's hand in the latest, bizarre events.

Michael Caine is an icon, an untouchable living British legend who can get by simply by being Michael Caine nowadays. Which is why it's been all the more impressive to see him put in damn fine performances in recent years and his portrayal of Harry Brown is one of his very best. Vulnerable and weak one moment, tough and dangerous the next, it's all believable thanks to Caine's performance. It helps that he's surrounded by the likes of Emily Mortimer, Liam Cunningham, Sean Harris and a group of young actors who all put in excellent acts, even while playing people you hope to never, ever meet in your life.

The character motivation feels real enough, the twists and turns don't leave you feeling cheated and the script stays truthful (sometimes disturbingly so) within the environment created for the movie so that's a success for writer Gary Young and director Daniel Barber that goes beyond any that a mix of standard crime antics and flashes of style could have provided.

The overall experience may be a little bit cold and bleak for some viewers but this is still a movie worth seeing, one that both entertains and makes you wince while also raising a number of moral questions as events move towards the climax.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Harry-Brown-Blu-ray-Michael-Caine/dp/B002XWV3C2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1372487268&sr=8-2&keywords=harry+brown