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An error has ocurred. Please try againThe list is in reverse order down to number 20. Then I decided to add more films.
How effing stupid.
This list features films with one, maybe two, F-bombs which add nothing to the film except causing offence. This is not to say that the films are kids' films - they're not - but they are mostly targetted towards an audience on the young side and/or with an expectation of family viewing (albeit not young children)
I have tried to leave out films where a central character simply isn't funny (nearly every Jack Black film, for instance).
Reviews
Speak No Evil (2024)
Enjoyable thriller
Ben, Louise, and daughter Agnes are invited for a weekend to the country farm of Paddy, Clara, and mute son Ant, a family they met while on holiday. We know from that meeting that Paddy's social filters aren't as effective as most people's, but they go anyway. And gradually things go downhill to where the trailer tells you they're going. Let's just say that the final act involves a struggle for survival which doesn't really come as a surprise.
This is a straightforward suspense thriller with quite a slow build, as it becomes clear that what seemed slightly wrong was actually very wrong indeed. But, for all it's predictability, it is anchored by a mesmerising performance by James McAvoy. He is almost likeable for much of the film, yet you are always aware that what you see is never more than skin deep. And, as that surface bonhomie slowly wears away, he becomes truly scary (he's also pretty buff these days: I remember him being weedy and nerdy).
You should be unsure of the ending, but otherwise there won't be too many surprises.
The final shot is terrific.
The Critic (2023)
McKellen is wonderful
Between the wars, Jimmy Erskine has been the theatre critic of a national newspaper, noted for his acidic reviews, the worst of which seem to be reserved for young actress Nina Land. Nina confronts him to ask how she can avoid his savager. Erskine is a homosexual with a taste for rough trade at a time when homosexuality was a criminal offence, and is about to get fired over the morality clause in his contract. Unless, that is, he can obtain some trade-off material on his boss. His boss is very upright, but does have a bit of a thing for Nina. Perhaps Billy and Nina can do each other favours...
The trailer for this film gives the impression that it is a drama laced with dark humour. But there is little humour here, and it gets very dark before it ends. It's a good film, though, with a little bit too much coincidence in the characters' relationships (or, perhaps, too many minor subplots which don't really play into the main narrative.
The cast are all classy, and all are on top of their game, but this is Ian McKellen's film. Jimmy Erskine is as slimy a creature as you'll see in a film this year, or any year. The smug, self-righteous self-interest is overpowering. Is this truly the same man who played Gandalf?
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
Big dumb fun
Arthur Curry/Aquaman is a reluctant king of Atlantis, but a doting father to baby Arthur Jr. Meanwhile, Black Manta obtains a magic trident and, to fight the threat to himself, his family, Atlantic, and the world, Arthur enlist the help of his brother Orm (which means breaking him out of prison for his treason in the previous film).
I missed this at the cinema and have only just caught up with it. If you liked the first one, the odds are that you will like this because it's largely more of the same - big visual action centred around a tongue-in-cheek, larger than life performance from Jason Momoa who is clearly having a whale of a time (pun intended). The visual effects are mostly great, although there are moments when I was very aware that I was looking at people in front of a green screen.
There are a lot of moments, though, when I thought "Hello, I've seen that before," where sequences seemed to have been lifted bodily from other movies. Watch it, and make your own list!
Most of the cast are clearly aware they are in a comic movie, not to be taken too seriously. And then there's Patrick Wilson as Orm. The character is written far better than anyone else is the film, with nuance and shading denied to the rest of the cast, and Wilson, catches all of it, and brings subtlety and strength to his performance. It belongs in a far better film than this one.
Although I greatly enjoyed this in a "leave your brain at the door" kind of way.
It Ends with Us (2024)
Misses its own point
Lily is unable to deliver the eulogy at her abusive father's funeral: he regularly beat her mother, beat boyfriend Atlas to pulp after catching him in bed with Lily, but it's not clear if/how he abused Lily. Adult Lily falls in love with neurosurgeon Ryle, bumps into Atlas, (why don't these guys have proper names rather than characters-in-novels names?), and Ryle turns out to have a bit of an insecure temper leaning to violence. Should pregnant Lily leave him, whether or not the renewed friendship with Atlas leads anywhere?
This is based on a book which I have not read, so it doesn't feature in my thoughts. This film appears to think it's a romantic drama with a central theme of spousal abuse. Yet it's a little too non-specific to deliver the knockout punch it needs. Specifically, Ryle's one moment of physical abuse is staged in such a way that it could be accidental. Yes,that may be true to life and, yes, it is clear that Ryle has a jealous temper, but this is a drama aimed at an audience. Dad is clearly an abuser, but it's not clear whether it is aimed at Lily. The film shies away fr9m showing whether or not Lily is a victim, and maybe it shouldn't.
The subject is a serious one, and I didn't feel that this film addressed it with the seriousness it merits.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Fun
When Lydia Deetz' father dies, it falls to her and stepmother Delia to clear the old house where all that horrible stuff happened years ago. Delia and daughter Astrid don't get on, which leads to a situation where Lydia needs to call on Beetlejuice for help. And Beetlejuice still has designs on Lydia. But he also has a previous wife.
The story in this film is a little involved, but works quite well, and is different enough from the original to not feel like a direct lift. The concise assessment is that If you enjoyed the original, you're likely to enjoy this too. Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara have great fun reprising their roles. Production design and effects are reminiscent of the original, but better.
And rest assured, if your favourite part of the first film was The Banana Boat Song, well, there's a production number here, too, and it's every bit as bizarre.
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Decent and uncomplicated
A group of young people, disillusioned at being tricked into continuing to labour on a mining planet, decide to hijack the cryosleep on a disused facility in orbit and escape to a better place. Unfortunately, the facility is host to some rather unfriendly critters, and things start to go pear-shaped.
This latest entry in the Alien franchise is a straightforward, stand-alone, science fiction horror romp and, like so many others, the question is who is going to survive. Fortunately, there are some obnoxious characters who we can hope get slaughtered first. The action is generally well handled, although there are times when the geography of the action is very unclear.
I was pleased by the fact that this film didn't try to be clever, a fault of too many of the previous entries.
There are some callbacks, one of which was entirely unexpected, and technically brilliantly executed. Conversely, another one was self-conscious and gauche.
Blink Twice (2024)
Stylish and nasty
Frida accidentally falls in with squillionaire Slater, and joins a group invited to a party on Slater's private island. It turns out that something very sinister is going on.
Zoe Kravitz directed and co-wrote this mystery thriller. It contains some disturbing content, and comes with a trigger warning, so I endorse it: this is strong stuff, not to be approached if you are sensitive about the issues warned about.
I must praise the direction and the performances as well as, to some extent, the writing. Having said that, I think parts of the plot logic fall apart if you look closely at them after the fact, although the story works well enough as it is unfolding.
The Crow (2024)
No better than o4dinary
Eric and Shelly are murdered at the behest of a crime boss. Eric is returned to life as an unkillable agent of vengeance.
The Crow was originally a comic series by writer/artist Jamie O'Barr, setting out the basic plot detailed above. It was an attempt to make sense of the death of a loved one, and was a bleak and unhappy piece, in stark black and white. The Crow was filmed effectively 30 years ago by Alex Proyas, although that film will forever be under a cloud due to the tragic death of star Brandon Lee in an on-set shooting accident.
This version rewrites much of the detail, in particular the antagonist. In the previous movie, Michael Wincott was a stereotypical thug gang-leader, and that was fine - the story needed little more than stereotypes, and Wincott was pleasingly vile.
Here, Danny Huston is a great villain. He is urbane, but has a dark arts gift of ordering people to do awful things, an ability gained while searching for immortality (which he is keen to extract from Eric). Other unnecessary story elements have been added: backstory for Eric and Shelly, an intermediate staging are between life and what follows, a kind of Spirit guide chap...
The thing about this story is that it works best when kept pure and simple, dealing just with the huge dark issues of love, loss and vengeance. And in all this other stuff, and you dilute the heart of the story.
Bill Skarsgard doesn't really give Eric the charisma he needs, pre- or post-death. I think, in an effort to keep Eric relatable, they've added pain to his unkillability, again diluting the purity of the original concept.
There is an extremely graphic battle in an opera house, albeit it suffers from John Wick syndrome of endless assailants appearing, pair after pair.
This film is very ordinary.
Despicable Me 4 (2024)
Fun
The problems Gru is encountering bonding with his new son are put on hold when the family have to be relocated with new identities due to supervillain Maxime's vendetta. Add in assorted complications, including would-be supervising next-door neighbour Poppy, who threatens to blow their cover, and a bunch of enhanced super-powered Minions, and you have a story which is every bit as chaotic and nonsensical as anything which has gone before.
You have to not expect sense from Despicable Me. Action, silliness, laughter and heart, yes, but sense? I don't think so.
This is the mixture as we've come to expect it, albeit with a different story and different details - everything is different except for one recycled joke (which is still funny). And, although the Minions are not at the heart of the film, they still earn the lion's share of the laughs.
This was great fun.
Trap (2024)
Pretty good
Cooper takes daughter Riley to a huge concert by superstar Lady Raven. There seems to be a vast amount of security which, he discovers, is because the authorities believe notorious serial killer The Butcher will be attending, and they are determined to catch him. Given that Cooper is The Butcher, this poses a problem for him. But he's very resourceful at solving problems...
Written and directed by M Night Shyamalan. Hmm. Well, this man has some hits on his CV. But there are some pretty massive misses too. And this one features his daughter Saleka playing Lady Raven and writing and performing the music - are we to see nepotism added to the hubris we have seen all too frequently?
It's good news, folks! This is a decent no-frills suspense thriller with some very pleasing performance. Josh Hartnett is sympathetic and chilling as Cooper, and Saleka Shyamalan acquits herself well both musically and dramatically as Lady Raven. But, for me, this film belonged to Ariel Donoghue as Riley, a teen thoroughly enraptured by the occasion while being puzzled by Dad's odd behaviour. And the suspense continues beyond the point where you expect a resolution.
I enjoyed this a lot.
Borderlands (2024)
A shambles
Intergalactic bounty hunter Lilith is engaged to find Tiny Tina for her father, only to discover that she has already been found by soldier Roland and, er, man-type thing Krieg. Together with a hobby robot Claptrap and Liliths's estranged foster mother they embark on a quest for The Vault, to which they believe Tina may hold the key.
I liked the trailer for this, and I love big brash colourful scifi, especially with a dash of humour, and especially when the cast includes Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black.
Then I watched it.
To be fair, not everything went wrong, but the stuff that went right was largely "borrowed " from elsewhere. Production design is good, but the heavy lifting was done years ago by Tank Girl (remember that?) and various incarnations of Mad Max. Special effects are good, thank you Star Wars and Guardians Of The Galaxy. Humour - well, I think we can forget humour since it is conspicuous by its absence. The story is hugely derivative, as are the characters. Another sassy robot? Oh joy. Let's also mention a lot of extremely loud sound which drowns out some fairly important expository dialogue.
The film is based on a series of video games, and some of the criticisms may be more fairly aimed at the source material. But whether the fault lies with the source material, script or director (the latter two are Eli Roth) you know a film is in trouble when the word "fault" suggests itself so readily.
This thing is a mess in every way that matters. No, let's be fair - several of the performances are adequate.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Huge fun
Deadpool is recruited by the TVA to humanely euthanasia his timeline. The Merc with a mouth has other ideas, and recruits an alternate Wolverine to put his plan into operation.
It's really difficult to comment in any detail about this film without giving away any of the host of cameos, Easter eggs, and assorted little surprises which fill this film. So let me say that, in using this film to bring the X-Men franchise fully into the MCU, Marvel have done a great job.
Yes, it is very much a Deadpool movie. It's full of foul language, crude humour, and graphic violence, and far more so than its predecessors (the violence, although graphic, is also, perversely, much less serious than previously). And Deadpool breaks the 4th wall, and the script is very funny. Disney/Marvel have embraced Deadpool wholeheartedly and with love.
Because for all the disrespect (the film respects Logan's death in Logan, but hilariously disrespects quite a lot else about that film), this film displays huge love for the world of Marvel, and I don't mean just the MCU from Iron Man onwards.
This film had a difficult job to do, and did it superbly.
Fly Me to the Moon (2024)
Pleasing enough
Kelly has a gift for marketing, perhaps because she doesn't feel constrained by little things like the truth. So when dodgy government operative Moe muscles her in to hard sell the 1969 moon mission for NASA, she is able to do a good job, notwithstanding the reservations of h3ad honcho Cole. But things go in a problematic direction when Mo enforces a contingency plan.
This is a big budget romcom, essentially, with the comedy being fairly low key. Based solidly on real events, albeit with a big chunk of "maybe it happened, maybe it didn't " dropped into the third act, much of it depends on Scarlet Johansson and Channing Tatum convincing as the two protagonists. Johansson does so with ease, Tatum less so (to be fair, his character is far more difficult to sell).
This is entertaining enough, although I thought the entertainment value was slighter than the resources devoted to the film,
Twisters (2024)
Decent undemanding fun
After three close friends died, Kate gave up storm chasing in Tornado Alley. But old fried Javi persuades her to join him in testing new twister killer tech. And then their high tech team falls foul of brash Twister YouTube Tyler.
The biggest niggle I had with this movie was the tech, which required a) surrounding a rapidly moving tornado with three units in order to triangulate it, and then b) drive your twister killer jollop into the middle of the tornado aka suicide a la Pa Kent.
Otherwise, this is a decent enough special effects extravaganza, with characters and plot constructed efficiently and effectively. Daisy Edgar-Jones is punky and sympathetic as Kate.
MaXXXine (2024)
Not half as good as it thinks it is
Porn star Maxine Minx has on opportunity to enter the cinematic mainstream. But seedy private eye middleman Kevin Bacon is looking to make things difficult for her. And there is a serial killer out there mopping up girls in Maxine's circle.
This is the third film in a trilogy, and I was unaware of the previous two: backstory may have helped. As a standalone movie, this is a dour, unsavoury affair, populated by unpleasant characters doing unpleasant things, with a deeply unlikely climax. Some very talented people join a writer/director who believes he is an auteur, but who turns out to be a bit of a hack but with pretensions.
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
Not bad
Terminal cancer patient Sam agrees to a theatre trip to New York as long as she gets to have pizza from a place she fondly remembers. But events are interrupted by the arrival of savage aliens, blind but with acute hearing. Sam's quest for pizza suddenly got a lot more difficult.
This third film in the franchise abandons the family of the first two movies and takes us on unlikely journey with the initially unlikeable Sam. Anyone expecting more detail about the aliens is going to be disappointed.
But I think this was a good idea. By the end of the second film I was finding the aliens difficult to find believable, not to mention getting thoroughly irritated by the human inability to develop any strategies to fight back. At least here they don't yet know what they're up against. And the small, human story, set against a huge background, works well.
Inside Out 2 (2024)
Flawed by a hugely unlikeable character
Riley is now 13, and big changes are on the horizon. Her two besties are off to different high schools, she wants to do well at intensive ice hockey summer camp (where she wants to impress her hero), and a new control desk is installed to accommodate a new batch of emotions; Embarrassment, Envy, Ennui, and Anxiety.
This second instalment has the same major strength as the original: a very creative visualisation of the way out emotional identities develop and work themselves out. But there are two major missteps here.
One, Anxiety is hugely unsympathetic, overwhelmingly so. In the first film, Sadness was annoying, yet remained sympathetic. Anxiety, on the other hand, alienates the viewer.
Two, Riley is a bit of a brat. Yes, I know, I was 13 once, and the fact that she makes bad choices is of course at the heart of the plot. But it is more difficult to empathise with her then it was with the sad, displaced child in the first film.
The inventiveness, the incredible visuals are all there, but I wasn't as on board as I was first time round.
IF (2024)
Pleasing
12-year old Bea is staying in New York while her father undergoes surgery, something which triggers anxieties over memories of her mother's death. And she begins to see things. Specifically, she discovers that the apartment upstairs is host to a number of wildly diverse Imaginary Friends, all of whom have been forgotten by the now grown children they once accompanied. Together with their grumpy minder Cal, who can also see them, Bea sets out to reunite IFs and people.
This take on Imaginary Friends is rather more grounded than the slapstick Drop Dead Fred from some years ago, but no less sentimental - there is some watering of eyes, to be sure. I'm not sure it all makes sense - there are some gaps in the internal logic - but I don't think that really matters.
Writer/director John Krasinski does a good job, not least in playing Dad. Ryan Reynolds is a likeable grouch as Cal, and there is a stellar voice cast as the IFs. But this film belongs to Cailey Fleming, who is a revelation as Bea.
There is a very pleasing reveal towards the end.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
A little muddled here and there, but a lot to enjoy
Generations after Caesar led the apes to freedom, he has faded into mythology as various clans have formed their own little cultures. Noa's father is the leader of a clan which is based on using eagles for hunting, but a militant clan led by King Proxima Caesar captures most of them, to be labour to find their way into a coastal man-made vault. Noa seeks to rescue them in the company of a philosophical orang-utan and a mysterious human girl.
Apart from checking in at the original Caesar's funeral, this film treads entirely new ground (albeit rooted in the events of the more recent trilogy), and is all the better for that. When it references the past, it is by way of sly nods - the orang-utan's face is modelled on Paul Giamatti in the Wahlberg Apes movie, there is a cheeky shot copied from one in the first Heston film etc.
It's a decent story although exposition is sometimes muddled: names aren't clear, motives aren't obvious. Performances are good and, of course, visuals are excellent: the boundary between CGI and reality is invisible, and the realisation of ruined and overgrown civilization is incredible. Post-apocalyptic has never looked so good.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
Maybe you'll enjoy it: I didn't
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
In a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, we learn the background to supporting character Furiosa from her childhood to the point when Mad Max: Fury Road started.
I seemed to be alone in thinking Mad Max: Fury Road was all style and no substance: an empty mess of great stunts, eye-catching desert scenery, impressive action, cardboard characters, a perfunctory plot, and no emotion.
Guess what? Furiosa is more of the same. Yes, it looks good. Yes, the action is well presented (although there are times when it's really difficult to follow what's going on). Yes, you find out how she lost her arm (see also 127 Hours, Deadpool).
But there is no audience identification, no involvement whatsoever. I simply didn't care about any of these characters. Which was also the case with the previous film.
Anya Taylor-Joy takes over from Charlize Theron as the adult Furiosa in a part which requires her to clamber around on a big truck and look angry, and little else. Chris Hemsworth delivers a career-worst performance (cheer up, Chris, plenty of time to go further downhill). The only character who engenders any sympathy - well, you don't actually see what happens to him, although it doesn't look promising.
I love post-apocalyptic fiction, but the Mad Max films have never really delivered what I was looking for. And this one is a lamentable, loud, empty mess.
The Fall Guy (2024)
Enjoyable enough
Stuntman Colt Seavers is enjoying a career as stunt double for box office star Tom Ryder, as well as a promising romance with camerawoman Jody when a dreadful accident takes him out of the game. 18 months later, he is persuaded to return as Jody directs her first feature film.
Let me start by saying Ryan Gosling is Colt and Emily Blunt is Jody and neither of them is a reason for me to get out of my chair and go to the cinema, notwithstanding that both of them have made films in which they have been rather good. I'm just not a fan of either of them.
Yet there I was, watching a film which was rather inaccurately labelled a comedy romance.
This is based on an 80s TV series in which stuntman Colt did bounty hunting in his spare time, the title being basically no more than a loose pun on what stuntmen do. Here, that title is nicely used as one of the central elements of the plot, which was more action thriller than comedy romance. I quite enjoyed the story and the stunts. Gosling did some acting here and there, and Emily Blunt did some Emily Blunting all the way through.
For what it was, it was an entertaining couple of hours.
Tarot (2024)
Good idea, bad script
A group of students find a deck of tarot cards, and one of them reads their fortunes. It turns out that there is a history to those cards. And it's not good.
This is a fairly routine horror movie in which the BigBad works its way through the unfortunate group. And the young cast does its best with the material and there are some decent directorial flourishes, although there is far too much reliance on clichés. Sudden loud noises are too frequent, and creeping around in the darkness means that there are big chunks where you don't know what's going on because you can't see it (to be fair, there are a couple of places where darkness is used quite creatively).
But this film is let down by the screenplay. Far too much of it is there because 'This would be cool", not because it makes sense or is consistent with anything else. BigBad can apparently manifest an entire theatre complete with ghoulish audience, yet can be scared off by someone opening a door. Characters lose and gain personality traits at the drop of a hat.
Kudos for the end, though.
Abigail (2024)
Quite good fun
A group of assorted criminal specialists is recruited in order to kidnap and babysit 12 year old Abigail from her ballet lessons, as part of a ransom scheme. It turns out that they weren't fully briefed.
This crime-turned-horror movie has two main features: a slyly humorous script, and bucketloads of gore. I won't spoil the (slight) plot twist, because just possibly you're going to see it cold, but it's openly in the trailer. The story is quite good, the characters are enjoyable, and the tale is entertainingly told, with a satisfying resolution.
The most annoying character gets knocked off first, which is pleasing.
I quite enjoyed this.
Challengers (2024)
Disappointing
We meet Art and Tashi. Art is a tennis Grand Slam winner who is going through a bad patch and Tashi is his wife and coach. To get him back into a winning frame of mind, Tashi enters him into a knockout challenge competition, where he is matched against down-and-out Patrick. He and Patrick were at tennis school together as kids: they met prodigy Tashi through tennis, and they both have history with her.
The relationships between the three principals is at the heart of this film - the two guys (there is unquestionably a relationship which is more nuanced than mere friendship), each of them with Tashi, and the three of them as a trio.
The film is told through a series of flashbacks (it is sometimes a little difficult following what happened when, notwithstanding the flashbacks being dated) and the relationships change as time goes on.
Tennis features heavily, of course, but is shown in a fairly stylised manner with little attention to the actual progress of any matches except the framing match.
I knew nothing about this film going in other than that Zendaya, who I like a lot, is in it. I don't think this film does her many favours, though, because Tashi becomes less likeable as the movie progresses, and doesn't give her the opportunity to do much acting beyond being thoughtfully down in the mouth and mildly cross.
This is compounded by the fact that neither Art nor Patrick are particularly sympathetic either. So, given that the story is essentially about the relationships between three fairly unlikeable characters, it is difficult to care. And the film pushes towards the results of the Challenger competition duel being critical to both of them, and then cops out with a deliberately indecisive ending.
Zendaya produced, so this was obviously something of a pet project for her. I hope future projects are a bit better thought through than this one.
Monkey Man (2024)
Good first film
A young man takes part in illicit cage fighting, and works his way into a job at a brothel. This is all with a view to revenge.
Dev Patel, lead actor, creator of story, co-writer of screenplay, co-producer, and first-time director, makes a fair job of this revenge-based action thriller. Sometimes the visual flourishes sacrifice storytelling clarity in favour of flash and style, but not too much.
It all gets a bit John Wick towards the end, and I don't mean that in a good way. I know there are those who think Mr Protagonist polishing off a never-ending series of faceless adversaries is wonderful: I'm one of those who thinks that the longer it goes on, the more ludicrous it gets. And there's a touch of that here.
But, on the whole, not bad. His next film will be worth looking forward to.