Here is a round up of new films seen at home this month, starting as usual with Amazon Prime:
The Last Sunrise
Ry (Maia Reficco), a college student with, of course, a chronic illness, goes on a summer trip to Mallorca with her mother. She meets Julián (Fernando Lindez), a local who is, of course, a free spirit, sparking a romance that makes her reconsider her life. This is a dreary, over earnest, story with an insufferable voice over.
Rating: 2.5 out of 10
The Love Hypothesis
Student Olive (Lili Reinhart) is dismayed when her best friend Anh (Rachel Marsh) falls for Olive’s secret crush Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay). Olive impulsively kisses intimidating professor Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman) to prove she’s moved on. Adam needs a girlfriend to prove to the college administrators he intends to stay so they embark on a fake relationship. A formulaic and uninspired romcom that a sparky performance from Reinhart can’t save.
Rating: 3.5 out of 10
The Wizard Of The Kremlin
In Olivier Assayas’ darkly comedic thriller Paul Dano stars as the fictional Vadim Baranov. During the final years of the Soviet Union and the turbulent start of the Russian Federation, a young Vladimir Putin (Jude Law) rises to power, with Baranov acting as his adviser. This is an unsightful film inside this overlong mess. Law is great but Dano is a charisma vacuum who we spend far too long with.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Fairyland
Shortly after the death of her mother in a car accident in 1973, Alysia Abbott (Emilia Jones) and her gay father Steve (Scoot McNairy) move to San Francisco where he can live openly. Steve’s bohemian lifestyle clashes with the expectations of being a parent from both the outside world and Alysia herself. This is an unoriginal and quite uninvolving drama that meanders nowhere in particular.
Rating: 4 out of 10
The Runner
Radian Tafa (Phoenix Di Sebastiani) is due to give evidence against his former boss in a murder case when his solicitor, Maia Marten (Gal Gadot) has her morning run interrupted by a call telling her that her son has been kidnapped. She is given an hour to run to the hotel where Tafa is staying under witness protection and shoot him. If she fails, her son will die. The obvious comparison is with Run Lola Run from 1998. Though it does not quite the same impact as that did, this is a well crafted thriller. Proficient director Kevin Macdonald keeps everything moving nicely and writer Mark Gibson does well to come up with varied obstacles for Maia to overcome to stop it becoming predictable. It was also good to see a lot of non-touristy parts of London captured by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Beast
Retired mixed martial arts fighter Patton James (Daniel MacPherson) now works as a fisherman. When his brother is in danger, he is forced back into the cage to fight champion Xavier Grau (Bren Foster), re-uniting with his old trainer, Sammy (Russell Crowe). Swap MMA for boxing and we have seen this all before.
Rating: 4.5 out of 10
You + Me Against the World
18 year old Alma Lancaster (Vittoria Di Savoia), comes from a wealthy family who believe she is studying law. In secret, she pursues her true dream of filmmaking. On campus, she meets Vadim Arcadi (Lucas Barski) and they collaborate on a student film. At their first meeting, Vadim shows he is an arrogant bully, but he is handsome, so Alma and her friend swoon over him. That just about sums up this insult to all viewers’ intelligence.
Rating: 1.5 out of 10
In The Grey
The very busy Guy Ritchie returns with a new thriller that he both wrote and directed. Eiza Gonzalez stars as Rachel Wild, a ruthless lawyer, who, along with her team of fixers, tries to recover a $1 billion debt from a criminal organisation. This has all of Ritchie’s annoying tics and is full of boring characters who think they are clever.
Rating: 3 out of 10
On Netflix:
The Whisper Man
Adam Scott stars as a widowed writer who seeks help from his estranged father (Robert De Niro), a retired detective, after his young son is abducted. Together, with a cop played by Michelle Monaghan, they uncover a terrifying connection to a decades-old serial killer case thought to have been long solved. There is a massive coincidence at the middle of the story that is quite difficult to get past and it was a brave decision to make Scott’s character so unlikable and his son so weird. However, I found the plot compelling enough and the performances of Monaghan and a very still, controlled De Niro, conveying his pain through the smallest emotions, were excellent.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Best of the Best
Two childhood friends join UCLA’s competitive Bollywood fusion dance team, only to find the road to the US championships is fiercer than they imagined. This is a typical film about a competition. The Bollywood element is meant to make it novel, but in fact, makes it worse.
Rating: 3 out of 10
Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Again?
Always one for quantity over quality, Perry pumps out another drama, the latest instalment of a series that started with Why Did I Get Married in 2007. As a wedding approaches, four couples examine their own marriages. There are some fine performers here, like Taraji P. Henson and Richard T. Jones but they can do nothing with the dismal script that populates this tiresome mess with caricatures who spend most of the overlong run time whining or arguing.
Rating: 2 out of 10
The Secret Woman
Helene Söderberg lives a quiet life with her fiancée in Norway, knowing nothing of her past as she is suffering from amnesia, When she discovers she has a seemingly perfect past, including a family and her shares in a shipping empire, she returns to Denmark to uncover why she left. The first half, with Helene not knowing who to trust works pretty well, but then this overlong thriller runs out of steam.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Go Team!
When their team building event gets downgraded to a tiny village, a cheese company’s staff think it can’t get worse — then they learn about the layoffs. When I was working, I dreaded team building days so I think I was suffering PTSD whilst watching this laugh free comedy.
Rating: 3.5 out of 10
Facing El Chapo
Alfonso Herrera and Noé Hernández play federal police officers in Mexico who unexpectedly capture the notorious drug dealer Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán during a routine stop of his car. Reports seem to vary whether this is close to the truth or not, but after a sluggish first half hour, it is quite tense. Herrera is particularly good despite some clunky script moments.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Over on Sky, subscribers can see:
Rise of the Conqueror
In 14th-century Central Asia, when Amir Qazaghan, ruler of the Chagatai Khanate, is murdered, his loyal commander, Timur (Christian Mortensen) rises to power. The action scenes are decent but the plot is uninvolving.
Rating: 4 out of 10
Rabbit Trap
In 1976, Darcy Davenport (Dev Patel) and his wife Daphne (Rosy McEwen) relocate to an isolated cabin in Wales. When the couple accidentally disturbs a Tylwyth Teg fairy ring, they are suddenly visited by a mysterious child who appears to have ill intentions for them. Patel and McEwan are always great but they did not make me interested in this self consciously weird and ultimately annoying chiller.
Rating: 3.5 out of 10
Supergirl
In this follow up to last year’s underwhelming Superman, Milly Alcock stars in the title role. She embarks on a journey across the galaxy to hunt down an adversary who has harmed her pet dog Krypto. A step down, even from Superman. Alcock is fine, but there is too much stuffed into the running time, most of which is uninspired. Needless to say, a lot of the CGI is terrible.
Rating: 3 out of 10
Do Not Enter
A group of content creators known as the “Creepers” livestream their illegal exploration of the abandoned Paragon Hotel in New Jersey, a building infamous for its mob history, ghost stories, and rumours of a hidden $300 million fortune. Once inside, they encounter a rival treasure hunting group while being stalked by a supernatural entity lurking throughout the hotel. Despite the annoying characters this could have worked as a decent horror movie but it totally lacks focus.
Rating: 4 out of 10
Tow
Rose Byrne was so good in If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You a couple of months ago, I thought I would take a look at this true story directed by Stephanie Laing, written by Jonathan Keasey and Brant Boivin, She stars as Amanda Ogle, a homeless Seattle woman who receives a car tow bill for $21,634. Byrne is fantastic again as the spiky, often infuriating, victim of unethical practices by a towing company who removed her car when it was found after being stolen. She is also surrounded by an outstanding cast including Dominic Sessa as her legal aid lawyer, Octavia Spencer as a manager of the shelter Amanda stays in and Elsie Fisher as her frustrated daughter.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Hungry
While vacationing in New Orleans, Sistine (Madison Davenport) and her best friend Hannah (Olivia Bernstone) decide to take a discounted alligator watching riverboat tour in the Louisiana swamplands. Joining Sistine and Hannah on the tour are the tour guide, Rodrigo (Michel Curiel), divorced businesswoman Dionne Edwards (Tracey Bonner), nurse Sally (Samantha Coughlan), her retired firefighter father Tim (Jim Meskimen), and Sally’s teenage son Mikey (River Codack). With the title and set up, you may be expecting that the motley group will be picked off one by one by ravenous alligators.
But before they set off, Rodrigo’s boss, Walker (Joaquim de Almeida) briefly mentions historical attempts by international traders to introduce hippopotamuses to the region, indicating that they will be battling a very different foe. The title is misleading as the hippos kill for kicks rather than to eat, but this was pretty entertaining. Writer/director James Nunn keeps the creatures under wraps for the first half, nicely building the character based tension and has some good set pieces in the second half. Davenport is a decent final girl.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
The following can be bought or rented on the usual services:
Over/Under
In the summer of 2002 Violet and Stella are nine years old and inseparable, spending their days playing. Over the next few summers the girls come together, but puberty, boys, family trauma, and the desire to “fit in” all begin to threaten the magic of their friendship. Sophia Silver’s slow burn of a drama feels very well observed and has the welcome presence of Madeline Wise as Stella’s mum. But, the truth is, I did not really care whether the girls remained friends.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Departures
Benji (Lloyd Eyre-Morgan) encounters Jake (David Tagg) at an airport gate on a trip to Amsterdam. He senses an attraction but is unsure if the feelings are reciprocated. The main problem with Neil Ely and Lloyd Eyre-Morgan’s doomed romance is the structure, so that we know what will happen to the pair from the first scene. Also Benji is a whining bore and Jake an unpleasant manipulator.
Rating: 4 out of 10
Our Hero, Balthazar
Jaeden Martell stars as Balthazar Malone, a teenager from a wealthy New York family. Via social media, he makes contact with Solomon Jackson (Asa Butterfield), a young man living in a Texas trailer park who seems to be intent on committing a school shooting. This feels like a realistic examination of disaffected youths, incel culture and the divide between rich and poor in today’s America, as exemplified by the clever ending. However, I struggled to spend time with the lads, particularly the conniving Balthazar.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Black Box: Flight 298
On a flight from New Orleans to Seattle, contact with the ground is lost. Then, when strange lights appear in the sky, something sinister is about to happen. I enjoyed the middle hour of this scifi tale from writer Stephen Susco and director Steven Quale. Once onboard the plane, a passenger starts behaving weirdly and strange events occur. It is quite tense stuff. But the last 15 minutes or so are a mess, with the problems working with such a low budget are laid bare.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Woken
It has taken a couple of years for the British dystopian sci fi, written and directed by Alan Friel to be released, which was not a promising sign, but a cast that includes Erin Kellyman and Maxine Peake piqued my interest. Kellyman plays Anna, who wakes up on a remote island in the North Sea with no memory, pregnant, and in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. She is nursed to health by a couple, Helen (Peake) and Peter (Corrado Invernizzi), but then the awful truth starts to emerge. There are some original ideas here and Peake impresses, but it lacks a spark.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Chum
Tina (Alice Eve) and Tom (Eric Michael Cole) arrive in Malta for their destination wedding, with their relationship already in crisis. Trying to soothe a tense situation, Tom’s enthusiastic best man, Rick, organises a post-wedding celebration: a three hour private catamaran excursion on the Mediterranean Sea. As is the way, once out in the ocean, a bloodthirsty great white shark targets them. This is nowhere near the worst shark movie of the year, even if it feels like a cross between Jaws 4 and Dangerous Animals. The story takes a couple of unexpected turns and there is a half decent performance by Jim Klock as a bereaved boat skipper.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Blue Heron
In this semi autobiographical drama from writer/director Sophy Romvari, Eylul Guven stars as Sasha, the eight-year-old daughter of a Hungarian immigrant family. They relocate to Vancouver Island in the late 1990s but their oldest son Jeremy (Edik Beddoes) displays increasingly dangerous behavioural issues in their new environment. Blue Heron has been ecstatically received and I expect it will feature high on many critics best of the year lists. I admired Romvari’s craft, with the story largely based on grown up Sasha’s memories, but I found the first half a bit of a grind. The second half, set mostly in the present day, with Sasha making a film based on her childhood, held much more interest.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Kraken
Unnatural behaviour in wild salmon, followed by inexplicable deaths in Norway’s deepest fjord, points to the mythical Kraken. The ancient, multi-armed monster has awakened, ready to crush everything that moves or makes a sound. This is a superior creature feature from director Pål Øie has a good build up, introducing both the characters and a reason for the creature to appear. There are some tense moments when it attacks but the last 10 minutes are a let down.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Doing the rounds on The Great Mystery Channel is True Justice: An Eye for an Eye. It is the sequel to 2024’s initial series entry with law school student Casey Barlowe (Katherine McNamara) and her friends trying to exonerate a mother who is wrongly accused of murdering another mother in the Parent School Coalition. I still like the set up as the investigators have more reason to snoop than the random busybodies who usually populate these films. But it is not as good as the previous film as too much time is spent on subplots.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Mayday was the only significant new release on Apple TV. In 1987, Ryan Reynold’s navy pilot is shot down in the Russian wilderness. He is rescued by Kenneth Branagh’s ex KGB agent who tries to get him to safety. The mix of action scenes, where all the heavy lifting is done by Branagh, and banter between the pair works well. The more heartfelt and serious moments fall flat, though.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
One Mile: Chapter One and One Mile: Chapter Two dropped simultaneously on Paramount Plus. In the first film, Danny Beckett (Ryan Phillipe) a recently retired U.S Army Special Forces soldier, is attempting to reconnect with his estranged wife and teenage daughter, Alex (Amélie Hoeferle). In an effort to repair their relationship, Danny takes Ale on a road trip to visit prospective colleges. They encounter a secretive, off-grid community living in the wilderness who try to kidnap Alex. In the sequel, the same group snatch Alex, who is now at college, again, so Danny has to bust out his special skills for the second time. These were two self contained films and I felt at the end of the first one, the story had been told pretty well. The relationship between father and daughter built nicely and there were some good action moments. Chapter Two is much more derivative and very sluggish in comparison.
Ratings out of 10:
Chapter One: 6.5
Chapter Two: 5