Coyote vs. Acme (2026)

If you don't know the background to this movie, if you've somehow been buried in the earth after some huge boulder landed on you a couple of years ago and are only now just regaining consciousness, then it's well worth looking into. I'm not going to repeat it all here. Suffice to say that David Zaslav is a tasteless moron, and Warner Bros. Pictures are continuing to do a very good job of making themselves into strong contenders for the position of the least likeable and least ethical of the major film studios releasing blockbuster hits today. Maybe I am biased, having never liked them since they continued to keep the DVD of Batman Returns being sold here in the UK with incorrect information on the packaging about a commentary track that wasn't present, but I'm sure that I'm not alone. 

Anyway, let's get to the entertainingly simple, but brilliant, plot. Wile E. Coyote is fed up. He's never going to catch the Road Runner, and he has spent decades being hurt and humiliated by faulty ACME products. So he ends up hiring a lawyer, Kevin Avery (Will Forte), to help him sue ACME. Of course, if Road Runner ends up being called as a witness then it's a win win, especially if he can finally trap and eat his nemesis.

Based on an article by Ian Frazier, published in the February 26, 1990, issue of The New Yorker, a number of people were tickled by the idea of our put-upon cartoon creation finally heading down a legal path to find some kind of restitution. James Gunn, Jeremy Slater, and Samy Burch worked on the story, and the screenplay credit here is given to Burch. The film feels like something that could only have been made thanks to the co-operation and collaboration of various Loony Tunes fans, but Burch deserves credit for maintaining a strong central narrative strand that allows for various set-pieces full of expected cartoon anarchy.

Director Dave Green has a a few other projects to his credit, but not too many. This is easily his best work, and it's absolutely on a par with the film that casts the largest shadow over it, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Now that it's out in the world, and hopefully set to do some good business, I'd love to see everyone figure out how to come up with a sequel. And Green would be a very safe pair of hands for that, considering how well he does here at seamlessly blending the live action with the animation, and how he packs multiple great gags into every scene.

Forte is very good in the lead human role, portraying a cynical sad sack who can eventually see how the plight of Wile E. Coyote runs parallel to the plight of so many others unable to take on some of the giant corporations determined to keep screwing them over. He's supported well by Lana Condor, as well as Tone Bell and Martha Kelly, and the whole team feels like just the right mix of people to debate the various approaches to what many view as a hopeless case. John Cena is a lot of fun as Buddy Crane, the slick ACME lawyer, and his main assistant, Bill, is another chance for P. J. Byrne to deliver the kind of performance he can do so easily. Luis Guzmán is enjoyable as the Judge presiding over the case, but viewers will arguably be more excited to see cameos from the likes of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and a few other cartoon favourites (some of them being more pleasantly surprising because of them not being the obvious and expected choices).

While I laughed a lot at this, and laughed hard, I was also surprised by one or two moments that somehow managed to make me slightly emotional. Although I know I would be right in the target demographic for this, there's a part of me that hopes that this can do what other features haven't ever really managed: convert younger viewers into fans of the full-on brilliance of the Loony-verse. Whatever happens, I am beyond delighted that we have this to enjoy anyway. It's as close to a perfect Loony Tunes feature film as you could hope for. 

9/10

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The End Of Oak Street (2026)

I think it's fair to say that a large amount of pop culture over the past half century has been shaped and dominated by two Steves. There's Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. I mention both here because The End Of Oak Street, the latest film from writer-director David Robert Mitchell, takes samples from both of those icons. Maybe that would have happened anyway, I don't know Mitchell well enough to know all of his preferences, but it's hard to think that it's not a sign of J. J. Abrams doing a lot of work in his producer role.

It’s 1982. Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor are Denise and Greg Platt, a couple who seem to be struggling to remain in a pretty unsatisfying marriage. They have two teenage children, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery), and a loyal family dog named Starbuck. Life may not be great, but it's fairly normal. Until they wake up one morning to find that the neighbourhood has been transformed into a prehistoric area, complete with ancient vegetation and a number of dinosaurs. So begins an adventure to find their way home again, or . . . to get their home back home again. 

Other titles I considered as viable options for this movie were Jurassic Shrug and Jurassic World: Inconsequence. It's not a bad film while it's on, there are a number of very enjoyable little set-pieces throughout, but it's in line with pretty much every other David Robert Mitchell movie in how there's ultimately no proper feeling of resolution.

The cast all do well, Hathaway is having herself a hell of a year, but they're only present to be surprised and terrorised by the dinosaurs. Any other character development feels clumsy and trite, whether they're plucked from the fields planted by Spielberg or the fields planted by King. Both Stella and Convery have to be more reckless than the adults, and they're eventually joined by Jordan Alexa Davis, who does good work alongside them. P. J. Byrne is an annoying neighbour, Anne Gee Byrd and Emily Kuroda are nicer neighbours, and Hudson Meek plays the kind of bully who seems capable of killing one of his victims (which is VERY much in line with every bully written by Stephen King).

A basic screenplay isn't a huge problem when it comes to something aiming to sell itself as mainstream blockbuster fare. While it's not great, Mitchell does enough here to give us identifiable relationships and moments of dino tension. He just doesn't do much more, and most of the better moments will have you wondering what movie is being homaged (hint, it's usually a Spielberg one, hence the unnecessary early-1980s setting).

The special effects are as good as they need to be, although I think that the best creature designs feature in a fun moment that hints at other directions the film could have gone in before something threatens our leads once again, the score from Michael Giacchino doesn't make much of an impression, and the 99-minute runtime at least shows an attempt to stop the film from overstaying its welcome. It's a failed attempt, but an attempt nonetheless.

Take 10 minutes off this, figure out whether you want to write a better explanation for the strange events or just leave things completely mysterious, and throw in a few more species of predators and this could have been a winner. As it stands, it's just a pale cross-pollination of those two big Steves. And we have lots of them to choose from already. 

5/10

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Countdown (2019)

The theatrical feature debut of writer-director Justin Dec, Countdown is the kind of slick teen horror that will either make you roll your eyes or grin and go along with the main premise. I chose the latter option, and am glad I did. One or two notably weak moments aside, this is much better than so many other films released to the same target demographic.

Things start with some partying young 'uns downloading an app, and that app is called Countdown. Countdown tells you when you're going to die. Which is all well and good for those who are given a fairly normal life expectancy. It's not so good for those who are given days, or even hours. And when the clock reaches zero, there's no avoiding your fate. A chain of events lead to a young nurse named Quinn (Elizabeth Lail) downloading the app, being given a very short amount of time left on this mortal coil, and trying to stop whatever force is going to help her shuffle off it. She joins forces with a young man named Matt Monroe (Jordan Calloway), attempting to save both their own lives and that of her younger sister, Jordan (Talitha Bateman).

Okay, it's not very atmospheric. It's not got any decent bloodshed or gore. It adds some comedy into the mix when maybe it was best to leave it out. And it's about an app. The separate ingredients aren't that good. But Dec does enough to give viewers what they want from this kind of thing, a fun time with some decent deaths. Rules are established, but in a way that allows for some ambiguity while the leads figure out the full extent of the danger that they're in, and everything is played out in a way that is, for this kind of thing, surprisingly plausible. Movie plausible, of course, not real-world plausible.

Lail is a decent lead, if a little bit lacking in anything to make her truly memorable, and the same can be said of Calloway and Bateman. Peter Facinelli is a doctor working alongside our lead, and you just know that he's going to either be trouble or get himself caught up in the situation at some point, or both. Then there's P. J. Byrne, almost unbalancing things as a young priest all too ready to believe the killer app, although there's more fun to be had with Tom Segura, playing a phone shop worker treating everyone he encounters with disdain.

There are a number of ways in which this could have been more enjoyable (a bit more nastiness in the deaths, some more twists and turns in the build-up a la Final Destination), and an attempt to play a set-piece in which some characters take shelter within a circle of protection is undone by one character being written to be stupid enough to allow things to be drawn out for even longer, but there are also so many ways in which this could have been worse.

Not one to recommend to hardened horror fans, but an amusing enough distraction for those who don't mind a bit of lighter fare.

6/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy the movie here.