Netflix And Chill: War Machine (2026)

When I saw War Machine pop up on the main page of Netflix I admit to being slightly confused. I remembered it being something I'd seen advertised some time ago, with Brad Pitt in a main role, but I didn't know why it was getting a renewed push now. Maybe it was to do with Alan Ritchson also having a main role, and his star being on the rise was reason enough to ensure some extra interest in something that has passed many people by when it was first released. Or maybe, as it turned out, this was just a new Netflix movie with the same name as a previous Netflix movie. You can still hunt around on Netflix to find War Machine (2017), which I still want to get around to one day, but it's a lot easier just now to find this War Machine (2026), a sci-fi action movie with Ritchson in the lead role.

The premise may sound very familiar to most of you. A group of soldiers on a mission (albeit a training mission) end up being noticed by a deadly alien. That's all there is to it, and that's all it needs. These people are looking to complete their training to become U.S. Army Rangers. Most of them will struggle as they reach their limits, but Ritchson's character already went beyond that point a few years ago, when he was in Kandahar with his seriously-wounded brother (Jai Courtney). Once they realise that their training mission has turned into something very real, and very deadly, the squad must work together to try to survive, and hopefully warn others of a potential invasion.

This is predictable and cheesy entertainment, but it's also a good bit of fun. In fact, I'd argue that it's the best thing Patrick Hughes has done since his excellent film from 2010, Red Hill. It's certainly good enough for me to try not holding his past few films against him any longer. Hughes also worked on the screenplay with writer James Beaufort, delivering something that unabashedly works through a number of military movie tropes while adding an impressively deadly antagonist into the mix. It helps that the cast is based around Ritchson as the central lynchpin, a man who looks as if he could do everything that the movie requires of him, no matter how difficult or far-fetched.

Certainly more suited to this kind of material than his ill-judged attempt at comedy, Ritchson keeps a straight face while delivering a performance that ticks off everything you might write down on some kind of stoic war hero bingo card. He's good enough to root for nonetheless, and any scenes with him trying to outwit the enemy are easy highlights. Stephan James, Blake Richardson, and Alex King are the other main squad members to get decent screentime, although James spends a lot of the film incapacitated, and all of them do well enough, Courtney makes a strong enough impression in his few scenes, and stereotypical military leaders are portrayed by Esai Morales and Dennis Quaid, just as happy as everyone else to accommodate every cliché you might expect from this sort of thing.

The special effects and sound work are impressive, the action is generally shot well (although one sequence with a vehicle being chased gets a bit too frenetic and hard to watch), and there are some surprisingly gory wounds and deaths filling up the screen. This is not for the faint-hearted, certainly not when it introduces the main threat anyway, and those after something that seems to epitomise a "no guts, no glory" attitude should be easily placated by this.

It's not great, especially when you consider how derivative and stuffed full of tropes it is, but it is a solid viewing choice that at least feels, and looks, better than many other movie choices that often feel like content instead of proper movies. 

6/10

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Babes (2024)

I totally understand when opinions seem to vary wildly when we see the many "greatest films/films you must see"lists covering specific years that have just gone by, but I was very surprised to see so many people seem to miss, or completely overlook, Babes. Not only is this one of the best comedies of 2024, it's one of the best comedies I have seen in years. I hope this small corner of the internet can allow me to praise it highly enough that others get to discover just how wonderful it is.

Ilana Glazer is Eden, a good friend to Dawn (Michelle Buteau). The pair have been friends for many years, and the film starts with them having to rush to the hospital as Dawn goes into labour with her next child. Eden is happy enough without her own children, but that situation is about to change in a major way, all thanks to a handsome man named Claude (Stephan James). It's not too long until Eden is considering how to cope with her situation, but she starts to discover that Dawn cannot always give her the time and energy that she needs from those she considers more family member than friend.

Co-written by Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz, both doing excellent work, and directed by Pamela Adlon, smoothly transitioning from helming some TV work to her first feature, Babes is a perfect balance of big laughs and nicely-crafted emotional moments. It has a central message that can be found in many other movies, one about the joys and importance of motherhood and family, but it sets itself apart from the crowd by also delivering the equally important message that family doesn't necessarily mean people you are related to by blood. You can make your own family. Your friends can be family. And the family that you make of your own choosing can be much better for you than the options that you are simply given from birth.

As well as being such a talented writer, Glazer delivers a brilliant comedic turn in her lead role. She's matched by Buteau, who shares a lot of the runtime until division keeps our main characters apart for a while. Not only are both leads great with the material, whether delivering laughs or being serious, but they both feel like they really have been friends since they were children (not surprising as they have apparently been friends for 20 years). It's the kind of onscreen chemistry that elevates everything. James makes a strong impression with his relatively small amount of screentime, Hasan Minhaj is very good as Marty, the husband of Dawn, and there are very enjoyable cameos from John Carroll Lynch (as a doctor as concerned with his own balding as he is concerned with his patient) and Oliver Platt (playing a dad very much aware of his own shortcomings). 

The 104-minute runtime allows for perfect pacing as things move between the jokes and the more heartfelt moments of authentic emotion, there are one or two good needle drops on the soundtrack, and you'll spend the end credits hoping that there's a future where we get to spend even more time with these characters. Babes isn't perfect, but I'll be damned if I can think of one specific imperfection worth mentioning right now. You should all see it. You can thank Glazer and co. for delivering something so fantastic (no pun intended). Then you can thank me for recommending it to you.

9/10

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Netflix And Chill: 21 Bridges (2019)

I'm slightly annoyed that it took me this long to finally watch 21 Bridges, mainly because it finally showed me a performance from the late Chadwick Boseman that really showed him delivering fantastic work. I enjoyed his Marvel turn, pretty much everyone knows that he played Black Panther in a number of movies (including, of course, Black Panther), but I didn't really see anything else from him that made me take notice of his acting chops. 21 Bridges, as mired in predictability and cliché as it is, is lifted by Boseman's performance, especially in a couple of scenes that have him sparring with the equally great J. K. Simmons.

Boseman plays a New York detective named Andre Davis. Following in the footsteps of his father (who died when he was a child), Davis strives to be a good cop. Even while being investigated for a shooting, he stands firm on his record. He has had to shoot people when there was no other choice, but he insists that every one was justified, a "good" shooting. When a big theft goes wrong, two drug thieves kill a number of cops, and Davis is put on the case. He wants to bring the two to justice, but there are others, including Captain McKenna (Simmons) who would much prefer the two to be shot on sight, sparing the relatives of the dead cops a long and painful trial. Davis doesn't work that way though, and he's even less inclined to shoot first and ask questions later as details of the case start to add up to more than just a robbery gone awry. The routes in and out of Manhattan are blocked, and the clock is counting down fast for the robbers, who won't know that Davis is their best chance at making it through the night alive.

Written by Adam Mervis and Matthew Michael (brother of Joe) Carnahan, this is a very enjoyable, standard, thriller. The pacing is perfect, with the robbery and some subsequent gun battles punctuating the ongoing detective work being carried out by Davis, and there are plenty of opportunities throughout the film for the viewer to get one step ahead of the main characters. This is arguably a big weakness within the script, but it still delivers a bit of tension, albeit in a different way. Anyone watching this is just wondering how long it will take certain characters to realise certain truths, and what confrontations will stem from those realisations.

Director Brian Kirk doesn't really elevate the material, relying on his cast to deliver some of the better lines from the script. He also doesn't mess things up, however, and that can be just as important when helming something as entrenched in crime movie tropes as this is. Kirk has faith in his cast, but it's a shame that he didn't get some better people to fill out some of the smaller supporting roles. Seeing some more faces like Keith David (who plays a Deputy Chief) would have helped enormously, even if they were just in for one small scene.

The leads more than make up for any weaker elements though. Boseman is believable, matching the tough attitude of his character with an intelligence and diplomacy that makes Andre Davis the one cop you would want alongside you if things were going from bad to worse at great speed. Sienna Miller plays Frankie Burns, partnered alongside Davis for the night, and she is very good in her role, playing someone who is looking to both crack the case and help get the suspects an immediate death sentence. Simmons has given many great performances in his career. This may not be up there with his very best, but it's much better than you might expect for the type of character he's portraying, arguably more effective in the more placatory moments that he has in between shouting at people. Stephan James and Taylor Kitsch play the two thieves, with James by far the better of the two, possibly as much to do with the script as it is to do with his performance, and there are a few other players who do decent work while they get caught in the crossfire (including Alexander Siddig, Louis Cancelmi, and Gary Carr).

Distinctly average in terms of the plotting, 21 Bridges is treated like so much more than that by everyone else involved, both behind and in front of the camera, and Boseman and co. turn it into a surprisingly riveting viewing experience.

7/10

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Mubi Monday: If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

It's a difficult job to follow up a film as impressive and moving as Moonlight but that is the job that writer-director Barry Jenkins has given himself. The fact that this isn't quite as good as that film doesn't mean it's a bad film. Not at all. It just means that it could have been better.

Kiki Layne is Tish Rivers, a loyal girlfriend to her partner, Alonzo 'Fonny' Hunt (played by Stephan James). That loyalty, and her strength, comes to the fore when Fonny is put in jail for a heinous crime that he didn't commit. With the help of her family, Tish does all she can to maintain a good lawyer and work on achieving the break that they need to get Fonny released, hopefully in time for the arrival of their baby.

Perhaps it was inevitable that this would prove slightly underwhelming, because only something close to perfect would rival the previous film from Jenkins, and there's a familiarity to the storyline here that stops it from feeling as unique and vital as Moonlight, but that familiarity is also part of the reason why Jenkins must have wanted to make it. Adapting the book by James Baldwin, Jenkins has another tale full of love and race, but it also has a sense of resignation to it, a sad inevitability as we follow the plight of yet another young black man wrongly imprisoned.

Set mainly in New York of the 1970s, Jenkins does an impressive job of evoking the atmosphere of that time without trotting out the expected selection of tunes and pop culture references, instead painting a much more detailed picture with the attitudes of the main characters and the muted colour palette used throughout.

Layne and James are both very easy to root for in the lead roles, with the former a constant source of quiet strength and dignity throughout and the latter trying to act likewise, despite viewing the world around them with more of a cynical and self-defensive attitude (the difference between the two highlighted as Fonny tells another character about a prospective landlord who was a lot more accommodating before he realised that Tish had a partner). Regina King is the standout, however, as Sharon Rivers, the mother of Tish and a woman determined to do whatever is necessary to keep her family happy, healthy, and safe. The film arguably revolves around one moving scene, featuring King and Emily Rios, and it's a moment that illustrates both great pain and great futility for both women. Ed Skrein is a loathsome police officer, and there are uniformly excellent turns from Colman Domingo, Teyonah Parris, Michael Beach, Aunjanue Ellis, Diego Luna, Finn Whitrock, and everyone else involved.

Despite the romantic notions of the main characters, love cannot solve all problems and overcome all obstacles. But it can make a bad situation more bearable, just knowing that someone who cares for you is always on your side, always has faith in you. Sometimes the doubt and judgement of everyone else in the entire world doesn't matter one bit as long as the contents of your heart and soul are an open book to the one you love, and the fact that Jenkins makes this a clear, positive, message in a story that also focuses on the bias of the American justice system and the way in which so many African Americans can be punished for crimes that police want to pin on any black individual . . . well, that's why it's not a bad film. In fact, it comes very close to being a great one. And I look forward to his next one.

8/10

You can buy the excellent Moonlight here.
Americans can buy it here.