FILM: 28 Years Later (dir: Danny Boyle, 2025)

"You feel good?"

"I think so."

After nearly two decades, this third film in the cycle was definitely worth the wait.  Opening with a typically brutal attack highlighting (foreshadowing?) the fact that no community is safe in the Rage-virus-ravaged situation, what then unexpectedly emerges is an absorbing and intelligently-written coming-of-age/rites-of-passage tale that follows twelve-year-old Spike, as he makes his first trip from their isolated island community with his father to the unsecure Infected-filled mainland and finds himself facing the nature of mortality and some harsh realities concerning both parents.  The film cleverly places this current tale into the of 28 Days/Weeks world through conversational drop-ins (with the ending of the second film dismissed in a single sentence on the opening title screen), a couple of which very humorously highlight the boy's isolation as the rest of the world has moved on in ways familiar to us today.  It is very, very Danny Boyle, and cinematically uses many signature tricks from multiple and unusually-deployed cameras, near-experimental collisions of visuals and sound, flash-cut action and masterful moments of beautiful visual composition, which might not be to the taste of casual fans of The Walking Dead looking for a straightforward zombie munch-fest (although the film does not stint on that aspect, with brisk attack sequences that are uneasily tense and full-blooded).  The evolution of the Infected gives a new edge, with the pack mentality and the mighty Alphas offering a new threat.  The film also veers off into unexpected and interesting places, notably in the second half and particularly after a pivotal heartbreaking central family scene and a subsequent decision that fuels the rest of the movie, which maintains interest and develops both story and emotional core well.  The lead family trio is nothing short of superb, with utterly captivating performances by Jodie Comer as the ailing mother, Aaron-Taylor Johnson as the gritty practical father and a truly remarkable turn by young Alfie Williams as their son Spike who carries the film so well, and there two very strong character performances from Ralph Fiennes and Edvin Ryding. A couple of seeds are sown as potential for the second film in this proposed new trilogy (with no end-credits scene(s)), including a final scene which has a tonal shift that is somewhat jarring and may suggest a somewhat different film without Danny Boyle in the director's chair.  Nevertheless, 28 Years Later is elevated horror that offers a genuine and absorbing emotional journey and is extremely well made. 

 

VOD: Heart Eyes (dir: Josh Ruben, 2025)

"Hope Cupid shoots you in the d*ck!"
 

Yet another holiday/calendar murderfest sees a bemasked Valentine's Day serial killer (hence the title) of loved-up couples back on the rampage, as thrown-together co-workers Jay and Ally are mistaken for a romantic pair by the Heart Eyes Killer and find themselves a very real target in this fun and self-aware rom-com-horror.  Mason Gooding is on full screen-charm offensive and Olivia Holt giving a likeably confident performance in the lead roles, and indeed the whole cast understands the tone of the film and works well, including the fun casting of Jordana Brewster and Devon Sawa as a pair of unfortunately-named detectives and Gigi Zumbado particularly good as Ally's sassy best friend.  Heart Eyes works mostly because of its effective balance of the serious elements (gruesome horror and police procedural) with breezy and snarky comedy that never cancel out each other, and it has a lively energy that makes it easily watchable.  It knows its genre well - stalwart rampages at a police station and a drive-in movie are handled deftly - right through to the full-tilt Scream-style finale.  Heart Eyes sits at the lightweight but entertaining end of the horror genre spectrum but is well-made, and as such it works very well indeed.  (There is a mid-credits sequence).

VOD: Predator - Killer Of Killers (dirs: Dan Trachtenberg and Josh Wassung, 2025)

"Did you kill the monster?"

Dan Trachtenberg's 'secret' project is this full-blooded animated entry into the Predator universe, taking the anthology-style approach of four episodes, opening by pitting a Predator against a band of vengeful Vikings, before moving to seventeenth-century Japan and then World War II, before cleverly bringing the key fighters from each era together for a full-on finale battle royale.  In its favour, the film establishes and melds the Predator and Viking worlds extremely effectively from the outset through its characters and use of familiar iconography, which is then replicated through the other time periods.  Impressively occupying a space between video-game and photorealism in an interesting painterly style, the whole story is realised very cinematically and the action sequences are effectively dynamic and handled extremely well.  Each episode has enough ideas to make it interesting, with perhaps The Bullet's aerial dogfight against a Predator ship being a real highlight, and whilst the relatively short twenty-minutes segments give little room for full development they are written strongly and the pace is kept brisk, making Killer Of Killers a pleasingly lively lightweight romp.
 

VOD: Creation Of The Gods 1 - Kingdom Of Storms (dir: Wuershan, 2023)

"Remember, it doesn't matter whose son you are.  What matters is who YOU are."

Another enormous-scale Chinese blockbuster, the first of the Fengshen trilogy, this is an epic fantasy that depicts the battle between humans, immortals and monsters three thousand years ago, following the Shang dynasty and the desire to become King Of All Realms at the coming of The Great Curse.  It takes in expected cultural and generic themes such as family, honour, sacrifice, ambition, betrayal and destiny right from the start and plays them out on the intimacy of the royal court and the most enormous-scale battlegrounds.  It has a wonderful huge orchestral score, it is visually ravishing - the costumes alone are astonishing - and the ambition and scope of the mostly successful VFX work are hugely impressive, from the huge opening snowbound siege to the final showdown.  There is plenty of melodrama alongside some surprisingly brutal moments, the cast gives it their all with a couple of notable performances from Ji Fa and Yin Jiao, the mythological info-dumping gets a bit dense and the mid-section is stodgy, but overall the film has all the elements that will delight fans of (Far Eastern) high fantasy that is executed extremely well.  Look out for the portentous (if inevitable) sequel-baiting mid/near-end-credits scenes.
 

VOD: Snow White (dir: Marc Webb, 2025)

"You know, I really don't remember you being this...opinionated."

The curse of the live-action remake - damned if you make changes, and damned if you stay faithful to the original - hit this movie from the moment the first trailer dropped leading to a dismal box-office run.  Despite its variable run of revisiting its greatest hits, Disney ploughed on with this divisive more-musical take on the OG and makes a rather decisive having of the original's title, positioning it very much in the mould of other modern-day Disney musical properties and as yet another young female empowerment tale.  It is perhaps inevitably updated in some respects, with Snow White seemingly becoming a freedom fighter with the forest rebels, which sits oddly next to faithful classic touchstone moments recreated here.  The film often looks stunning, with the interiors dressed to the hilt and vibrant exteriors a riot of (CG) detail, but it does suffer ultimately from CG overload, with some scenes more animation than live action.  Rachel Zegler is mostly strong and delivers the songs well, and Gal Gadot strides through her scenes as the Wicked Stepmother with a cool furniture-chewing sneer.  What remains is s slightly ill-judged mid-ranker - it does not work like Cinderella or Beauty And The Beast - very much for today's Disney-fed youngsters and tailor-made for an inevitable (or now, perhaps not) stage version, that shows variable respect to the original and pales beside it, but manages to have some effective moments on its own terms, such as the surprisingly joyful song finale.  
 

VOD: Spoiler Alert (dir: Michael Showalter, 2022)

"What are you? Drunkard or junkie?"
"I'm a photographer."
"Both, then!"

This quiet comedy-drama follows the relationship between photographer Kit and TV journalist Michael over thirteen years from its first steps to its tragic ending.  The first half is firmly in warm and fuzzy rom-com territory but with snappy and sparky dialogue and some charmingly funny moments - with the bonus of Sally Field and Bill Irwin, both magnificent as Kits' parents - until it takes a much sadder and ultimately heartbreaking turn in the second half.  Based on a real-life experience, the film is very well-written, with even Michael's seemingly-superfluous sit-com-styled flashbacks ultimately carrying real weight.  Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge are terrific in their roles, nailing both the comedy and dramatic elements with aplomb and creating effectively a couple to root for.  Playing like a more charming, witty and likeable version of the same year's Bros but with the trajectory of Hiller's classic Love Story, Spoiler Alert succeeds very well as both a sweet comedy and as a romantic weepie and is very enjoyable, made all the more poignant by a brief clip of the real-life Kit during the credits.

 

VOD: The Brutalist (dir: Brady Corbet, 2024)

"What was it like, the war? We hear some stories here that make one's toes curl."
"I would not know where to begin, Mrs Hoffmann."

Getting away from post-War Europe and forcibly separated from his wife in 1947, Hungarian architect Laszlo Toth (a composite of real-life characters) travels to make a new life in America, and the film follows his journey from struggling immigrant to the subsequent rise, fall and reappraisal in both his architectural and personal worlds.  Part American social history lesson and part classic underdog tale, for the most part director Corbet's passion project balances its ambitious scope with the deeply personal tale deftly.  Adrien Brody excels in the lead role which is tailor-made for his particular brand of sensitive, haunted character work, with Guy Pearce also a standout in a strong cast as wealthy patron Harrison Lee Van Buren who recognises and nurtures Toth's talent in what becomes an increasingly fractious relationship.  Daniel Blumberg's stark score reflects not only Toth's design but also his inner demons to great effect.  It is a heavy and difficult film that is not entirely successful in its third act, but it impresses with its scale, ambition and storytelling.

 

VOD: Nosferatu (dir: Robert Eggers, 2024)

"Dream of me.  Only me."

Eggers sets his long-gestating variation on the Nosferatu property in 1838, when a newly-married Thomas Hutter is sent to Carpathia in order to secure a property deal with the aged and reclusive Count Orlock that puts both bride and groom on a terrible path of fate.  The ever-reliable Nicholas Hoult performs well as the eager Hutter, with an unrecognisable Bill Skarsgard giving the sparingly-used Count an effectively other-worldly feel and strong work from Simon McBurney, Willem Dafoe and Lily-Rose Depp.  Blending the occult and the sexual undercurrents works well here, giving this curious love story a strange romanticism.  The film's slightly colour-drained look gives it an old, classic feel, with the mostly wintry chilly blue-tinted settings almost nodding to black-and-white at times.  Its period world-building is very impressive, allied to a consistently unsettling score/soundscape and gorgeous use of wide landscapes that contrast well with claustrophobic intimate shots.  Offering the director's signature style, with interesting use of camera and artfully-constructed hallucinatory moments, this is in some ways Eggers's most mainstream so far with a bleak, dread-filled iteration of a familiar tale.
 

VOD: Kraven The Hunter (dir: J.C. Chandor, 2024)

"I don't hate people.  I hate what people do."

After an opening breakout from a remote Russian prison demonstrates our protagonist's considerable physical strength and skills, the film flashes back to the teenage Kravinoff half-brothers and a painfully-laboured origin story that sees young Sergei given his powers (which include an affinity with animals) when healed by an ancient potion following a hunting accident.  Sandwiched between half-decent action sequences are stodgy dialogue scenes and Kraven's crusade to take out vaguely-sketched criminal antagonists.  It is perhaps more male-centric, bloody and more 'adult' than most recent Sony/MCU films, with a firm focus on the male family dynamic, including Russell Crowe doing Russell Crowe as the uncompromising gang-boss father, and Kraven's more sensitive 'weak' half-brother Dmitri, who gets kidnapped and requires rescuing (a far-from-subtle act of gender-stereotyping subtext).  Aaron Taylor-Johnson always delivers and here he is a great fit for the title character, giving an impressive and powerful performance that is way beyond anything else that this film has to offer.
 

VOD: Heretic (dirs: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, 2024)

"Are we talking about religion...or board games...or music?"

A24's popular creepfest sees a pair of optimistic young Mormon missionaries paying a visit to a man who has expressed an interest in their faith, but as the discussion and situation becomes increasingly uneasy and a snowstorm settles in, the young women find themselves trapped  with this plausible zealot with a very different perspective on religion and a specific reason for keeping his captives.  Mostly a claustrophobic three-handed bottle show, Hugh Grant paces his sinister performance extremely effectively, with Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East both conveying the Sisters' situation very well.  It has an eerie sound design and oppressive visual mise-en-scene, both of which contribute greatly to the film.  It is rather talky, but the collision of thriller tropes and the discussion of religion/faith/philosophy makes for an unsettling and interesting movie, even if it does run out of steam in the second half.