Here is a round up of new films seen at home this month, starting as usual with Amazon Prime Video:
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War
I have not read any of Clancy’s imposing tomes but have enjoyed all five film adaptations. So, although the John Krasinski TV show has sat unwatched on my Amazon Video list, I was very hopeful for this latest appearance, directed by Andrew Bernstein and written by Aaron Rabin and Krasinski. Retired from the CIA, Ryan is reluctantly thrust back into the world of espionage when he agrees to do a favour for his old boss, James Greer (Wendell Pierce).
There is plenty of action, including an excellent car chase in London, and lots of globe trotting. It is mostly slick stuff but Krasinski and Aaron Rabin’s script has some very clunky dialogue. It also feels very old fashioned with America relentlessly depicted as a force for good. Sienna Miller gives the standout performance as a hard bitten MI6 agent and I would like to have seen more of Kiran Sonia Sawar as one of her colleagues.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Your Fault: London
In this follow up to 2025 film My Fault: London, Dani Girdwood and Charlotte Fassler return as directors and lead actors Asha Banks and Matthew Broome reprise their roles as secretly in love step siblings Noah and Nick. Noah leaves home to study at Oxford, where she meets student Michael (Joel Nankervis). This is a little less offensive than the first film, but it is still populated with entitled, selfish and dull characters.
Rating: 2 out of 10
On Netflix:
Office Romance
Jennifer Lopez is a tough CEO of an airline company with a strict policy against fraternisation in the workplace. But then a handsome lawyer, played by Brett Goldstein, joins the company. You will know what is coming in this romcom directed by Ol Parker and I am not sure that I really bought them as a couple. But what elevates this are some genuinely funny, often sweary, lines in Goldstein and Joe Kelly’s screenplay and a stellar supporting cast that includes the very funny Betty Gilpin, Bradley Whitford, Tony Hale and Jodie Whittaker.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
In the Hand of Dante
In the modern day, a Vatican priest discovers Dante’s original Divine Comedy manuscript. When asked to authenticate it, writer Nick Tosches steals it, while a parallel story follows Dante’s quest to create his masterpiece. What an utter bore this slow, rambling, pretentious movie is directed leadenly by Julian Schnabel. Of the cast, John Malkovich hams it up as usual but Gerard Butler manages to come out of this mess with some dignity.
Rating: 2.5 out of 10
Colours of Evil: Black
This is a follow up to 2024’s Colours of Evil: Red, again based on a novel by Malgorzata Oliwia Sobczak. I re-watched the original and appreciated it more than the first time around. Jakub Gierszał returns as rookie prosecutor Leopold Bilski who has been re-assigned to another small town. When a young boy goes missing, he finds connections to an old missing persons case. Director Adrian Panek also is on writing duties on his own this time and it does not quite equal the first one. Gierszał impresses again and his slow burn romance with the missing boy’s mother, played nicely by Marianna Zydek, works well. But it feels a little too similar, in terms of story beats, and has some lulls.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Voicemails for Isabelle
Jill copes with her sister’s death by leaving her voicemails chronicling her chaotic life in San Francisco. When the number is unknowingly reassigned, an elusive estate agent begins receiving the confessional messages. Despite the on screen talent that includes Zoey Deutch and Nick Offerman, this is a mawkish story populated by uninteresting characters.
Rating: 3.5 out of 10
Over on Sky, subscribers can see:
Dead Man’s Wire
It has been eight years since Gus Van Sant’s last film, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot. He returns with a thriller based on true events starring Bill Skarsgård as Tony Kiritsis. On February 8, 1977, in Indianapolis, Kiritsis arrives for an appointment with mortgage broker Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery) at the Meridian Mortgage company. He holds Richard at gunpoint as he believes Richard and his father cheated him of potential profit after he bought land to develop. Van Sant has an eye for period detail, capturing the very 1970’s angst and aesthetic. Skarsgård is compelling, full of nervous energy and righteous anger and Colmon Domingo is smooth as a DJ who interviews him. The plot, though, feels a little dragged out.
Rating: 7 out of 10
The Internship
A CIA-trained assassin recruits other graduates from her secret childhood programme, The Internship, to violently destroy the organisation. Fussily directed by James Bamford, the plot is predictable and the no name cast very ordinary.
Rating: 3.5 out of 10
Life Hack
Used to encountering scammers online, four young adults come up with a plan to try to steal cryptocurrencies from Don Heard, a tech billionaire. Ronan Corrigan’s film is another example of screen-life storytelling where everything takes place on computer screens, mobile phones etc. That can work, as shown by Searching and Missing but this just gave me a headache.
Rating: 2.5 out of 10
Carolina Caroline
Desperate to escape her small West Texas town, Caroline Daniels (Samara Weaving) runs away with a charismatic con man, Oliver (Kyle Gallner), who takes her on a romantic crime spree through the American South. This works best when the pair are performing their low scale cons. Once they graduate onto robbing banks, it starts to feel incredibly familiar, even though I enjoyed the two lead performances.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
On Paramount Plus is
Untitled Home Invasion Romance. As a last-ditch attempt to save his failing marriage, an actor played by Jason Biggs stages a home invasion during a romantic getaway weekend, in this dark comedy that Biggs also directed. This has the benefit of an original idea that goes to unexpected places. But I really did not like Kevin or his girlfriend.
Rating: 5 out of 10
Finally in rotation on Movies 24 is
The Greek Aisle. When Georgia travels to the Greek island of Corfu to finalize an inheritance, she unexpectedly discovers that marrying her handsome co-inheritor is the only way to meet the requirements. Nikki deLoach is a safe pair of hands and she does what she can as Georgia, but this is a tedious romantic drama.
Rating: 3 out of 10