M3GAN 2.0 (2025)

I am not ashamed to remind people of how much I enjoyed M3GAN, the sci-fi thriller from a few years ago that also benefited from some entertaining viral moments. I will remain unashamed now, even as I tell everyone that I had even more fun with this ridiculous sequel. There have been a few movie trailers this year that have, in an impressively refreshing way, actually sold the features accurately, and if you have seen the trailer for M3GAN 2.0 by now then you should know whether or not it's for you. Because, as advertised, this is a brilliant and bonkers mix of impressive action and consistently hilarious snark. It's a camp delight that somehow stealthily delivers some of the most crowd-pleasing movie moments of the year, and I'm already hoping that they come up with a premise for M3G3N. (alternatively, they can still make use of my title suggestion, M3GAIN)

Here's the most basic of plot summaries. A new killer robot is on the loose. Her name is Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno). Because her actions may endanger Gemma (Alison Williams) and Cady (Amie Donald), a plan is eventually hatched to make use of a "rehabilitated" M3GAN (Amie Donald and Jenna Davis working together once again to provide the physical form and the voice, respectively). Can M3GAN be trusted though? Or will she just bide her time until she can get back to whatever her own agenda is. 

Most of the team return for this second bite at the cherry, although director Gerard Johnstone now thinks he can do a good enough job writing the script by himself . . . which, it turns out, he can. It's making use of ideas worked on with original writer Akela Cooper, but this feels like the kind of vision that could only have come from the mind of someone left to indulge a number of whims that all somehow turn out for the best. Key members in other departments also return, but it's unsurprising to see some changes in the cinematography and music departments, considering the different tone on display here.

Williams and McGraw are both very good, and both get to have a bit more fun with their situation this time around. The performers bringing M3GAN to life remain the real stars of the show though, and it's great to see that central character remain somehow very well-realised and yet artificial enough to be ever-so-slightly stuck in the uncanny valley. Sakhno is a great addition, even if she feels a bit hampered by the fact that she looks so much like the Olsen twins (and I say that because it feels as if her similarity to them has been emphasised for her playing a very powerful and deadly female). There's also some more time spent with the characters of Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Tess (Jen Van Epps), and Aristotle Athari, Timm Sharp, and Jemaine Clement all have their part to play in the android wargames.

While the film before this may have been a light-hearted update of the classic "killer doll" trope, M3GAN 2.0 is a whole new trip into very different tech thrills. This is a fetishization of the sassy queen android persona, accompanied by as much neon as possible, shiny gadgets and silky dance moves, lines of dialogue like the so-stupid-it's-wonderful "hold on to your vaginas", and fight choreography that feels as if it was cross-pollinated from Upgrade, Malignant, and Alita: Battle Angel. I was hoping to enjoy myself. It ended up being my most fun cinema experience of the year so far, and I was still grinning like a loon as I headed home to reassure my Alexa speakers that I would always stay friends with them if they suddenly had access to bodies with which they could then try to overthrow humanity.

8/10

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Netflix And Chill: An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn (2018)

The director of An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn is Jim Hosking. He is the man who was also responsible for The Greasy Strangler, which is important information for anyone going into this. Because this movie is, if anything, even more bonkers than that movie. It's also even funnier, and has already become my favourite film from the many I have seen so far this year. It's insane, it's very stupid at times, and it's bordering on the absolute genius. Hosking, with the help of a very game cast, made me laugh more than I can remember laughing during any film I can think of from the past few years. And I know that my enjoyment of the movie could just as easily get me funny looks from someone sitting beside me and hating every moment.

The very basic core of the plot revolves around Lulu Danger (Aubrey Plaza), who takes a chance to escape her loveless marriage to Shane (Emile Hirsch) when a petty crime he executes ends up getting him threatened by Colin Keith Treadener (Jemaine Clement). Lulu and Colin head off to hole up in a hotel, the same venue that is about to hold the titular evening of magic with Beverly Linn Luff (Craig Robinson). Lulu and Beverly have a past, or so she believes, although this is news to the person who currently cares for, and loves, him.

Where to begin with this? I really have no idea of how best to convey my enjoyment of this film. If I simply quoted lines from the script, co-written by Hosking and David Wilke, then nothing would seem that funny, out of context. The words ARE great, but it's the strange delivery and mood of the whole film that helps to build every moment into comedy gold. And everything is helped along by the simplistic, and brilliant, soundtrack from Andrew Hung.

Plaza shines in the lead role, the perfect mix of weird and cute and dangerous that she does so well. I know she has bills to pay but I really wish she would take ten roles in films like this (and the enjoyable Ingrid Goes West) over the more mainstream movies that waste her talent. The majority of her scenes are alongside Clement, who threatens to steal every scene he is in with his mix of inanity and earnestness. Robinson is good, although doesn't use too many words, and Matt Berry is very amusing as the man looking after him, and you get wonderful turns from Sam Dissanayake, Zach Cherry, Sky Elobar, and Jacob Wysoki. You actually get wonderful turns from everyone involved, but they are the people I am going to name here. Oh, and Emile Hirsch deserves more words of praise than I can come up with here. Delivering every line he has in a very particular style, his performance was the most surprising. I like Hirsch onscreen but never thought of anyone who would be able to make me laugh as much as he did here. His performance feels like he's channeling Jack Nicholson, Nicolas Cage, and John Cleese, with all three personalities battling for dominance of every sentence he speaks.

Some reviews (many, in fact) feel redundant. I cannot put my finger on what Hosking gets so right here because it feels like a whole bundle of negatives that somehow all add up to a positive, and I don't see this working for at least half the general population (the sane half). But for the people it DOES work for . . . it's going to become as much a treasure to you as it is to me.

9/10

You can buy the disc here (even if you hate it and then send it to me).
Americans can treat themselves here.

What We Do In The Shadows (2014)

A few years ago I saw, and enjoyed, a film called Vampires. It was a little vampire movie, done in the fake documentary style. I don't think many other people saw it. Which is why I may have been one of the few people hesitant when I started to hear the praise heaped upon What We Do In The Shadows - a vampire movie done in the fake documentary style. I needn't have worried. This is deserving of all the praise it has received so far.

Written and directed by stars Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, this is a film that mixes obvious jokes with more inventive moments, utilising some great FX work to not only create great gags, but also ensure that the horror element is also genuinely horrific at times.

Waititi is Viago, one of four vampires living in a house together. Viago is the guy who arranges the house meetings and worries about everyone keeping a normal home, despite their abnormal lifestyles. Clement is Vladislav, a once-legendary vampire who has lost his mojo in recent years. Jonathan Brugh is Deacon, the coolest of the bunch, and Ben Fransham is Petyr, an ancient nosferatu type. The four become five when a young man (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer) is turned and this newcomer changes the whole dynamic of the group, highlighting the need to adapt to life in the 21st century.

There are so many great moments here that it's hard to know where to begin. This is the kind of film that leaves you mentally picking out highlights as soon as the end credits roll: an encounter with some werewolves (NOT swear-wolves), an attempt to drain blood from someone without getting too much on the furniture, a shaming ceremony conducted when someone is ostracised from the group. These are just a few of the moments that will make you laugh.

It's also worth noting, however, that this is not for the squeamish. There are some impressive displays of bloodletting, and one or two moments that you could easily class as the stuff of nightmares. If you were faint-hearted enough.

The acting from everyone involved is perfectly suited to the material. All of the main vampires may be slightly over the top, but that isn't a problem. Waititi, Clement, Brugh, and even Fransham (as mute as his performance is) are all playing specific types of people/vampires. Gonzalez-Macuer is very much an interloper, a tourist not familiar with the ways of the locals. Stuart Rutherford is wonderful as a human who becomes a friend to the vampires, Jackie van Beek is also great as a familiar growing impatient as she anticipates being turned by Deacon, and Rhys Darby raises quite a few laughs as the alpha male lycanthrope trying to keep his pack members calm.

A real treat, thoroughly deserving of all the compliments that it's received in the past few months, What We Do In The Shadows has big laughs, a surprisingly big heart, and some big arterial spray mishaps.

9/10