Thunderbolts* (2025)

I had to once again force myself to be optimistic when I prepared to watch the latest entry in the ever-expanding MCU. It wasn't too difficult though. The trailer looked decent, I liked the cast, and this felt like something a bit more fun, in the right ways, when compared to the few other Marvel movies that we've had over the past few years. I hoped to be distracted and entertained. I didn't expect to find myself enjoying something that so deftly blended fun, action, and some interesting exploration of depression and/or addiction.

Here's the very basic summary. Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), and Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) end up teaming up on a mission that has them encountering the mighty . . . Bob (Lewis Pullman). Bob is someone of great interest to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss), the director of the CIA who wants to gain more power, maintain control, and avoid an ongoing pesky potential impeachment.

Perhaps this is the result of assembling an equally eclectic team behind the camera, but Thunderbolts* feels like the proper breath of fresh air that the MCU was so desperately in need of. Despite most of these main characters being featured in previous movies or shows, throwing them together, and developing the narrative and team dynamic in a way that feels natural and well-handled, leads to a great result. Writers Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo use the main characters well, and without really changing them too much to fit into their new roles (reluctant heroes), while Jake Schreier shows a real knack for delivering hugely satisfying moments of cinematic joy in the midst of something that still feels more personal and smaller in scale than many of the features that preceded it.

Pugh is the nominal lead, and this is made clear in a witty and impressive opening sequence, but most of the other cast members get a chance to shine (perhaps John-Kamen being the exception there, due to being the only one who has the super-power of phasing through objects, making her inherently less present than the others). Everyone certainly does enough to warrant their inclusion though, and it's great to watch them be misfits who also happen to have some well-honed skills. Stan gets to look tough, and has the coolest moment in the entire movie, Russell continues to be a great fit for a slightly more complex character than expected, and Harbour delivers a lot of the laughs. Pullman is a wonderful addition, especially in the moments that show him stuck within his own darkness and bad memories, and both Louis-Dreyfuss and Geraldine Viswanathan (playing her assistant) bring their usual level of excellence.

This is what we've been missing from Marvel for a little while now. It's blockbuster entertainment with a mix of characters that you care about, enough spectacle to make it feel well worth seeing on the big screen, and an exploration of themes that feel like more than just set-up and pay-off for the rest of the movies. I'm sure I missed some references and Easter eggs here, but I was consistently entertained, as well as being very impressed by the way the screenplay gave us quite a literal look at the mindset of someone who has spent a long time burying their soul within an deepening and darkening abyss of self-loathing and self-harm. 

Maybe I'm being too kind to something that just feels even better in comparison to a whole lot of inferior features, but there's a chance that Thunderbolts* is just actually that good. I'll lean towards the latter idea, of course, but am happy if people consider the former option. This doesn't feel cheap, it doesn't feel like a temporary place-holder, and it doesn't feel anywhere close to what would be considered lower-tier MCU fare.

8/10

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The Apprentice (2024)

I understand why people may be less inclined to check out this film right now. All of the warnings have been there for decades, and we've had even more time to watch Donald Trump showcase his incompetence, pettiness, and inhumanity over the past few years, but The Apprentice is a surprisingly fantastic watch, not just because it reminds us all of the fact that nothing the snake-oil salesman who bagged himself a return trip to the White House says or does nowadays is new. He's just repeating from a playbook that he's been using for most of the past half century, and that playbook was written for him by Roy Cohn.

While we all know the Donald Trump of today as a convicted felon, a bully who has been found guilty of sexual abuse, and someone who has allegedly been recruited as a Russian asset way back in the 1980s (according to a couple of different sources), he was once just a pathetic young man who wanted to impress his parents and be one of the rich people that others become desperate to spend time with. He already had his narcissism in place, and a weak nature that would see him beg for help from people until he could get enough leverage to keep his own place at the big table, but he wasn't yet the great monster that he is today. Enter Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Cohn meets Donald Trump (played here by Sebastian Stan) in the 1970s, and they form a friendship and business relationship that basically shows Donald how to keep getting his way throughout his entire life. Attack, deny everything, and claim any loss as a victory. This is a Frankenstein tale, but there are many Victor Frankensteins here, and just as many monsters, each working to reconstruct the other in different ways. 

Although this is the second feature film written by Gabriel Sherman, I have decided not to hold the awfulness of Independence Day: Resurgence against him. This is so good that I absolutely forgive him, and look forward to whatever he's got lined up for future projects. It helps that director Ali Abbasi is at the helm, someone who has spent the past decade making features that range from very good to absolutely superb (I encourage everyone to also check out Border and Holy Spider). Abbasi knows how to handle material that dances between light and extreme darkness, and he puts that skill to very good use here. He also owes a huge thank you to those who helped to cast the film.

Stan is absolutely brilliant in a role that could have easily been mishandled. He somehow avoids being a clown who becomes a complete villain, although his performance is shaded with both. Nothing is shown here to excuse the behaviour of Donald, but there's a fascinating look at how some of his attitudes were shaped and how he would so often look up to, and put on a pedestal, people who many of us would view as absolute scumbags. Strong has an absolute blast playing one of the biggest scumbags, someone so monstrous that he initially makes little Donnie look like a pussycat, but it's interesting that this year saw both Strong and Kieran Culkin receive a lot of praise for film performances that weren't really too far removed from the personalities they had nurtured throughout five seasons of the superb Succession. Martin Donovan and Catherine McNally are the elder Trumps, Charlie Carrick is the lost brother, and Maria Bakalova adds to her impressive body of work with a captivating portrayal of Ivana.

Although we have much more recent history to learn from, people should really watch this to be reminded of just how much time Donald Trump has spent being an inexorably unpleasant and greedy narcissist who will do anything for a bit of power to wield against others. I doubt this will reach the right people, anyone choosing to watch it will probably not be a member of the bizarre cult he has developed in the past decade, but if there's a chance that even one of those people he managed to confound with his tired razzle dazzle routine can have their blinkers removed, or at least slightly damaged, then that would be a huge bonus. Mind you, the fact that it is out in the world, and making the small-minded bully angry and unable to do anything about it, is just as much of a bonus.

8/10

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Fresh (2022)

If I was single and ready to mingle, and if I were so inclined, then I could see myself easily falling for the charm of Sebastian Stan. He seems sharp and witty, and he has the major bonus of looking like Sebastian Stan. So Fresh doesn't seem to require any major suspension of disbelief when viewers get to see Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a young woman jaded by the modern dating scene, fall for the charm of Steve (played by Stan). Things start to move quite quickly, and it's not long until Noa is heading off for a weekend break with Steve. They'll be in the middle of nowhere. No phone signal. No other people to be bothered by. And no easy way to head home if Steve turns out to be quite different from how he presents himself. And here's something you may not have seen coming . . . Steve turns out to be quite different from how he presents himself.

Most people already know what Fresh is about, but I'm going to keep things as vague as possible here, if only for the people who may be completely surprised by how the film plays out. Let me just say that Fresh quickly turns into a film that is very different from the opening scenes, yet it also stays focused on the same issues at the dark heart of the story. There's tension, there are moments that feel quite horrific, and there is a lot of black comedy running through it, but the most impressive aspect of the movie is the way it remains so identifiable for anyone who has even dipped one toe into the murky and dangerous waters of the modern dating experience.

Director Mimi Cave, making her feature debut after almost a decade of work in short film/music video formats, knows exactly what tone she wants throughout, working well with a smart script from Lauryn Kahn (her second feature), and she knows what to show onscreen and what to imply. The plot doesn't stand up under any decent amount of scrutiny, but Cave and Kahn keep things well-paced and entertaining enough throughout to distract anyone from overthinking the whole thing.

The likeable leads also help, of course. Stan makes use of every ounce of his innate appeal to keep his character eminently watchable, even when his behaviour becomes worse and worse. Edgar-Jones provides a good balance to Stan, countering his upbeat and carefree demeanour with her cynicism and determination to outwit a man she realises seemed too good to be true because he was too good to be true.  Jojo T. Gibbs is a real treat, playing Mollie, the BFF of Noa, and someone who ends up doing some investigating into the life of her new man. Daya Okeniyi is also very good, his character dragged into a situation by Mollie that he soon realises he's not really wanting to be involved in. Andrea Bang and Charlotte Le Bon are two women who are connected to Steve in very different ways, and both do very well in their relatively small roles.

I can see many people being put off by the main turn that this film takes, it certainly takes things down a surprisingly dark and twisted path, but anyone sticking with it will be rewarded with some sly comedy that offsets a lot of the horror with constant reminders that the real horror, the horror we are all more likely to experience ourselves, comes from the experience of women trying to find someone worth spending time with in a world full of misogyny, internal debates about standards and compromises, and random dick pics. 

8/10

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Prime Time: The Covenant (2006)

Directed by Renny Harlin and written by J. S. Cardone, The Covenant is a fun and vapid tale of young sorcerers battling one another as they face a major threat on the way to gaining their full powers once they reach adulthood.

An opening text tells you about the Sons Of Ipswich, descendants of the most powerful families in the area they live, gaining powers at the age of 13 before they fully “ascend” at the age of 18. Caleb Danvers (Steven Strait) is the nominal leader of the four young men, and he is the first one due to turn 18 soon. There’s jealousy and anger in the group, especially when some misuse their power, a power that is addictive and damaging, and things get more strained with the arrival of two newcomers, a young woman (Sarah, played by Laura Ramsey) and a young man (Chase, played by Sebastian Stan). And someone is using powers to cause trouble, but who is it?

Harlin is someone I have mentioned before as a director who consistently delivered fun movies for a number of years before then losing his touch and helming movies that felt far removed from his better outings. As much as many may deride, and even hate, The Covenant, I have always thought it was a blast. Cardone’s script is predictable and just the right level of silly, taking time, for example, to allow the main characters to shout “Harry Potter can kiss my ass” as they take their car up in the air while they evade police. It will make you cringe at times, but it's better than any script used in Cardone's own directorial efforts, I can tell you that much.

The cast are all attractive youngsters, picked for how they look in the different groups, and probably how they work in scenes that have then shooting balls of energy from their hands (a special skill that Strait also displayed in the enjoyable Sky High). Nobody stands out, not even Strait or Stan, but they fit perfectly with the cool and glossy aesthetic of the movie. It may be a film with supernatural moments dotted throughout almost every scene, but this is not aiming to create any scares. Thrills, yes, but no scares.

There’s an energetic soundtrack, ready to pop up whenever it takes Harlin’s fancy, the CGI isn’t too bad, masked by the blue/grey colour scheme a lot of the time (it isn’t great, but it is serviceable), and you get decent pacing from start to finish. It is a teen movie, unashamedly so, and definitely aiming to appeal to people who have enjoyed the massively popular hits of supernatural pop culture touchstones from the past few decades (Potter, Buffy, Charmed, Supernatural). It doesn’t even entirely work in that regard, yet it makes itself almost impossible to find boring and unlikeable. Which is a statement I know will just encourage responses from anyone who found it boring and unlikeable.

I have watched this a few times over the years. I would happily watch it again. I know I am in the minority, but this is my review and I’m not suddenly going to start to pretend that I have any sense of shame.

7/10

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Destroyer (2018)

Karyn Kasuma may actually be one of my favourite female directors. She's managed it quite stealthily, and not without a mis-step here and there, but when I look over her filmography and realise how much I like the films that I have seen from her then I realise that I should be bringing her name up a bit more often. I may not have liked The Invitation quite as much as many other people but I DID like it, and the fact that I still rate Jennifer's Body highly helps to make up for that.

I could say something similar about Nicole Kidman, who has spent the past couple of decades building up a very interesting body of work. The fact that she wasn't right for a few of the roles that she took on meant that I perhaps dismissed her filmography as nothing more than a series of bad calls and bad movies. That's not the case at all, and Destroyer, a film that may once have been considered yet another mis-step for her (by me anyway), reinforces the fact that Kidman is, and has almost always been, an actress willing to take risks as she works with challenging material.

Kidman is Erin Bell, a detective who has been burnt out for a number of years after an undercover job went horribly wrong, although we're not exactly sure how until the movie is ready to reveal everything. She believes that a major baddie (played by Toby Kebbell) is back in town, needing stopped, and she'll do anything to make that happen. Meanwhile, her daughter (played by Jade Pettyjohn) seems to hate her guts, her partner (Shamier Anderson) is constantly kept in the dark, and her world is contracting around her as she focuses obsessively on exorcising past demons and getting the result that she wants.

If you read that and just found it to seem like a whole lot of familiar clichés then I couldn't say you were wrong. There's a lot here that we've seen many times before, usually with a male character at the heart of everything. The burnt-out cop who doesn't play by the rules, the tragic past that created their attitude in the present, the personal stakes when it comes to dealing with the villain, writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi are unafraid to use these elements liberally, relying on some other twists and turns to keep things feeling fresh, as well as the strength of the cast.

And what strength the cast show. Kidman is almost unrecognisable during her first few scenes, and it's not just the impressive make-up changing her. The physical side of her performance, her mindset affecting everything from her walk to her dead-eyed observance of the hazy world around her, ensures that there are very few moments that have you watching and thinking of her as anything other than Erin Bell. The version of Kidman we all know really disappears, and this may be her best performance yet (although I am now keen to catch up on the rest of her filmography). Sebastian Stan is also excellent, playing the other officer involved in the undercover operation, and there are solid turns from Tatiana Maslany, Scoot McNairy, Beau Knapp, Bradley Whitford, Zach Villa, and others. It's a shame that the one performance that doesn't feel right is Kebbell, playing someone who swaggers around like the lead singer of a big-haired '80s metal band, and shown to be charismatic and persuasive without anything to actually show why people view him that way. The fault there doesn't lie with Kebbell, it's an issue with the script and direction, but any scenes that have him as the focal point suffer when they should have been clear highlights.

One or two minor issues aside, like the one just mentioned, Kusama directs with confidence and a precision that isn't always obvious, considering the many flashbacks used to detail the story and the many secondary characters who are only integral to the story due to them being integral to the lead character getting closer and closer to her desired end result, but it is always there. Viewers know that there's not necessarily going to be a happy ending here, yet the finale remains both impactful and satisfying. Great work from Kusama, a consistent talent and a name that everyone should be, or become, familiar with.

8/10

The DVD link is here.
Americans can use this link for a shiny blu.

I, Tonya (2017)

I am quite an inactive person. Well, right now I am training to run for a marathon (click and show support here, feel free to share and/or donate), but I am generally not a sporty type. Never have been. I try to do enough to stop my body from seizing up, that's all. I don't even watch any sporting events, certainly not with advance planning. But I do admire those who are physically capable of great sporting feats. And I do recognise that those performing in competitions, and those trying to become good enough to represent their country at the Olympic level, are individuals who have sacrificed a lot in order to get the smallest chance at achieving greatness.

And I think that's really worth bearing in mind when you think of the story of Nancy Kerrigan. This film may be about Tonya Harding but it's Kerrigan who was the victim, an ice skater who could have been irreparably harmed in a vicious attack that was for no other reasons than to let someone else (Harding) slip into their place. If you don't know the full story then I recommend you look into it. I vaguely remember being gobsmacked as I saw the trial unfold.

This film has been made because of that shocking event, and that's really what it's all about. But on the lead up to that event we get to see what a horrible life has been led by Harding (played by Margot Robbie), suffering a lot of grief at the hands of her nasty mother (Allison Janney) before rushing into a turbulent relationship, to put it mildly, with her first husband (Sebastian Stan). Her constant pleasure is ice skating, something she was very talented at, and something that led to her fame and infamy.

Written by Steven Rogers, who has previously given audiences a bundle of tear-jerking dramas, and one Christmas movie, this is a zippy, entertaining biopic that seems to take Harding's own perspective of events over any conflicting views. That's not a terrible thing, especially when the film states at the very start that a lot of the events are being depicted as they were described in different interviews, but it does lead to a number of moments that have had left some viewers feeling rather unhappy with how things are depicted.

Director Craig Gillespie does good work, despite the obvious soundtrack choices and the execution of certain scenes feeling very much like moments lifted from better films in this mould. I'm not going to namecheck the directors that Gillespie seems to be emulating because a) so many other people have already done that, and b) it's obvious to most film fans as soon as things start to play out.

But it's the cast really making this worth your time. Robbie is superb in the lead role, perfectly portraying both rebel and victim. Stan and Janney both do well as the main people in her life who excel at, well, treating her like shit, and Paul Walter Hauser is amusing as someone creating a fantasy life in his mind that eventually turns into something life-altering for everyone involved in The Incident.

Despite being too flattering to Tonya Harding (well, the title is a clue to where it will stand), and despite slipping here and there, this still makes for a decent show. Even if, unlike the main character, it never comes close to landing its own triple axel.

7/10

Fans of the film may enjoy this book.
Over in the USofA you can order the disc here.

The Apparition (2012)

There are a few bells and whistles on this movie in an attempt to supplement the supernatural stuff with some pseudo-science, but viewers won't be fooled for a second. This is a simple ghost flick, and it's a simple ghost flick that never does enough to raise it above the level of average. That's a great shame, because it has the potential to be something really good on a number of occasions.

Ashley Greene and Sebastian Stan star as Kelly and Ben, a young couple moving into their new home. It's not long until things start to go bump in the night. The couple seem to be perplexed by just what is going on, but Ben may know a bit more than he's letting in, especially considering the frantic messages that he's been receiving from Patrick (Tom Felton), an old friend that he doesn't seem to want to speak to any more.

With its familiar structure - opening scares, calm introduction to main characters, building of tension, standard third act stuff complete with twist that can be seen coming a mile away - and the fact that it's covering some well-worn territory, it's no surprise that The Apparition fails to stand out from so many other modern horror movies. Writer-director Todd Lincoln has a few good ideas, and creates some great moments of quiet unease in the first half of the movie, but it soon becomes apparent that he can't sustain that quality for the entire movie. When things start to unravel, it's fast and unpleasant, dragging the film down and never recovering.

Greene is a decent actress (she's an actress that I really like, at any rate) and she does a perfectly adequate job here, as does Sebastian Stan. Felton is . . . . . . . . another matter entirely. I want to like Felton, I really do, but he seems intent on filling up his post-Potter career with either bad movies (like the godawful 13 Hrs) or mediocre-to-poor performances in good movies (Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes). He breaks the pattern ever so slightly here by giving a mediocre performance in a mediocre movie.

This isn't a painful viewing experience, it's relatively short at about 82 minutes, but it's not one that I can imagine anyone revisiting. It's not good enough for horror fans, and I doubt that it's even good enough for the more casual horror viewer.

5/10

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