Film Review - Companion (2025)

Companion is a new horror film that stars Jack Quaid as Josh, a young man who is taking his new girlfriend Iris (Sophie Thatcher) to his friends at a secluded lake house owned by a man named Sergei (Rupert Friend) but there is more going on here than meets the eye.

Companion is terrific fun and I had a big smile on my face throughout much of this movie, it takes the horror and romance genres and does a neat new spin on it that is best left a secret from you until you see the film (a secret that New Line Cinema/Warner Bros shamefully give away in one of the previews for this movie) and it made me very intrigued about the world this movie created and how it all worked.

The film also has some good horror kills and some good performances, Jack Quaid is very good here first off as Josh who is revealed to not be all he seems to be and Sophie Thatcher is very good as well as Iris, Megan Suri, Lukas Gage and Harvey Guillen are also good as well.

And so that was Companion and this is a really fun horror romance that worked for me a lot, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Captain America Brave New World (2025)

Captain America Brave New World is the 35th Marvel Studios movie and the first with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as the Captain and this time President Ross (Harrison Ford) wants to spear head a treaty over Celestial Island from 2021’s Eternals but sinister forces in and out of his circle have plans of their own.

Captain America Brave New World is not a bad movie but its also a movie that wears the scars of its troubled production and if you look close enough you can see the stitches of the various amounts of retooling this movie went through before release but before I delve into those I want to mention the positives and first and foremost is Anthony Mackie as Captain America, he inherits the shield well and the film works well when it plays to his characters core strengths such as his nobility and his time as a veterans counsellor, if this movie underperforms (and I feel it will) then I sincerely hope Mackie is not made the fall guy because in no way is any of this movies problems his fault.

Also good is Harrison Ford as President Ross taking over from the late great William Hurt and he does well when he’s not a raging Red Hulk monster but when he does become the Red Hulk which has been shown in the previews for this movie well I just sat there going “What the Fuck” as it just looked weird to see an early 80s Harrison Ford turned into a CGI Hulk character.

And there is where I will now go into the problems for this movie and those stem from a sense of storytelling that is not only messy but feels stitched together, I mean you have:

- The Government Conspiracy regarding President Ross

- The Celestial Island storyline

- The Serpent Society as its own storyline

And none of these feel cohesive in any meaningful way I mean Giancarlo Esposito’s scenes feel like their inserted because he’s either in scenes by himself or in scenes with just one or two other people at most and there is a big element named in this movie that I felt was unearned because of the connections it hints at that come at too high a price for me personally and a character comes back that feels like they did a Zoom call and they inserted it in post-production.

As for the action its fine but at times the CGI looks very pixely and the film in sections looks very dark like you can barely see what’s happening on screen and some of the hand to hand combat scenes are pretty good but not as good as what has come before.

And so that was Captain America Brave New World and its not terrible but its also not much of a movie either and those who were hoping Deadpool and Wolverine might have signalled a turning of the tide for the MCU are going to find it to be more like an oasis in a sea of sewerage, if you’re a diehard fan you might like it but if your not I wouldn’t be in a hurry to see it.

And on this final point Avengers Infinity War and Endgame felt more and more like the end of the MCU and those films like the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi did for Star Wars wrapped everything up so well that it made justifying future movies/shows that much harder and ever since that feeling has become more and more prevalent for me and I’m sure for many many others, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - September 5 (2025)

September 5 takes place in Munich during the Olympic Games in 1972 and concerns the tale of the ABC News Crew that first covered the hostage situation that took place during those games.

September 5 while it goes over some familiar territory that other films like 21 Hours at Munich and Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film Munich covered, this movie is more about the news team who first got wind of that horrific situation and is also a great tribute to how hard news crews work when faced with a breaking situation that is unfolding live and in real time.

The film also has a slew of good performances, Peter Sarsgaard is very good as the head of the sports team bureau as is Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch and Zinedine Soualem as the core news team at the heart of this story, I also enjoyed seeing the late great Peter Jennings used here as well.
And so that was September 5 and it is a well made tightly focused news thriller that worked for me, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - We Live in Time (2025)

We Live in Time stars Florence Pugh as Atmul, a chef who accidentally runs over Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and the two fall in love and have a child together but just as Atmul’s life begins to come together she is diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer and it puts a great strain on her relationship with Tobias and her dreams and goals for the future.

Florence Pugh is easily the best thing about this movie and she delivers another great performance as a young woman trying to find her way in the world only to be hit with the worst possible news, though some of the characters decisions are questionable at times while watching the film you can see where her character is coming from and Pugh sells all of these choices very well.

The rest of the film around her however doesn’t have the emotional resonance it should have, the story of a young person feeling the wind of life flowing in their veins and wanting to make their mark on the world by doing what they love only to be told they have cancer and their time left is potentially limited should be a powerful and moving story but instead for so much of the film I felt cold and distant from it.

And the main reason for this is the use of a non linear narrative, filmmakers like Christopher Nolan can do this structure and make it work very well but here John Crowley who made Brooklyn in 2015 cannot and because of that the emotional resonance which he delivered so well in Brooklyn feels missing here and it is really disappointing.

Also Andrew Garfield feels a little miscast here, now he is a good actor for sure but here he talks very softly a lot of the time and his chemistry with Pugh is hit and miss at times, a better choice would’ve been Taron Egerton who is similar to Pugh in age and would’ve delivered the emotional beats better than Garfield does here.

And so that was We Live in Time and this overall did very little for me, Pugh is great but the film she’s in isn’t and given the potential of this story and Crowley’s work on Brooklyn it feels all the more disappointing but as they say in the classics you win some, you lose some, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - Conclave (2025)

Conclave is the new movie by Edward Berger who did All Quiet on the Western Front for Netflix a couple of years ago and concerns the death of the Pope in the Vatican from a heart attack, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) must now lead the precession to select a new Holy Father and this will bring many secrets to the light.

Conclave is a flat out winner that had me from the get go and didn’t let up, Berger’s direction for a start is terrific, he knows when to increase the tension and make the selection of a new pope have as much intrigue and surprises as possible (and you do not want to know much about this movie before seeing it) and throughout the whole film I felt like I was near or on the edge of my seat wanting to know each twist and turn and surprise around the corner.

The film also has some terrific performances across the board, Ralph Fiennes deserves an Academy Award for his work here as he has to manage this secluded tradition with the political games being played around him as well as trying to find out why the Holy Father did certain things he did before he died, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow are also great in their supporting roles while Sergio Castillitto and Carlos Diehz shine in their roles as well.

Also the design of this film is great and really makes you feel transported to inside the walls of the Holy City where the outside world is a distraction and must not influence the Cardinals as they make this most important choice.

And so that was Conclave and this along with A Complete Unknown kick off 2025 as a movie year with gusto and this is very highly recommended, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Nosferatu (2025)

Nosferatu is the new film by Robert Eggers who made the Northman and stars Lily Rose-Depp as Helen a young bride who years before swore eternal love to Count Orlock, now her husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) has to go to his castle in Transylvania to give him the deeds to a new home in Germany but the counts shadow is a long and terrible one.

Nosferatu is well made by Eggers and looks great on a cinema screen with deep blacks, use of candlelight, snow and very nice production design, on a purely visual level it is stunning to look at.

The film also has a slew of good performances, Rose-Depp at times reminded me of Emma Watson with her British accent but she is very good especially during some heavily physical moments, Emma Corrin is good as well in a small role as is Willem Dafoe while Nicolas Hoult and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are very good as well.

But where this movie lets itself down a little bit is in its storytelling, don’t get me wrong it isn’t bad in any way at all but at times it feels cold and distant not unlike other filmmakers who try to replicate Christopher Nolan’s style of storytelling which can also feel cold and distant at times but also not unlike the Northman felt at times and more often than not I found myself missing the high camp emotion of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula film from 1992 which had great horror moments but also good emotion in its love story as well and that balance isn’t as good here I’m sorry to say.

And so that was Nosferatu and it is worth seeing and well made but I prefer the Coppola Dracula film instead, The Blood is the Life after all and the Blood runs a little too cold here, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Wolf Man (2025)

The Wolf Man is the new horror film by Leigh Whannell who made the Invisible Man in 2020 (one of the very last movies I saw in a cinema before the dark times, before the cinema closures) and stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner as a couple who’s marriage has hit a rough patch when he gets word that his father has died and he has to go to his Oregon farmhouse to clean it up but in the woods lies a mysterious creature of legend, one called Face of the Wolf.

2025’s movie year coughs up its first hairball with the Wolf Man as this was a near total bore to sit through:

- First the movie looks cheap, now I get that Blumhouse (the production company that made this movie) tends to do their movies on the leaner side but a werewolf story is not one of those stories you can do on the cheap, you need a decent sized budget to pull this off and here the werewolf effects look like a cheap makeup job where there’s some face paint and a few facial strands pasted onto the actors and it pulls you out of the film

- Secondly the sense of horror is absent, going back to the Invisible Man which was Whannell’s previous Universal monster horror film that film fed on very real horrors that women have regarding abusive partners and how they lie/convince them into believing something else entirely and when they try to get others to believe their situation they find it hard and it really gave that film a genuine sense of dread, here that is gone and it so wants to be like the Fly by David Cronenberg and it is NOTHING compared to that film

- And lastly the storytelling feels like a big missed opportunity, the idea of someone getting sick mysteriously and how their loved ones and the world around them reacts to it could have been dripping with dramatic and horror potential in this post Covid world but instead it just plays out like a bottle show of a TV series where it all takes place in one location and it just feels like such a letdown especially when you have a talent like Whannell who is capable of so much better

And so that was the Wolf Man and honestly if Universal wants to bring the classic horror monsters alive for a new generation, they should hand the keys to Robert Eggers instead as this is nowhere near as good as it should have been, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - A Complete Unknown (2025)

A Complete Unknown is directed by James Mangold who you may remember from such films as Ford V Ferrari and Walk the Line and this time he tackles the life and times of Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet) and his rise to fame, meeting Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) as well as Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Sylvie (Elle Fanning.)

A Complete Unknown is a movie I very much enjoyed and first off it is due to the confident and assured direction of James Mangold, this is not the messy and heavy green screen direction of his Indiana Jones film the Dial of Destiny from 2023 but instead this is the precise and assured Mangold that made Ford V Ferrari in 2019, every moment in the 141 minute runtime feels like it is here for a reason and like in Ford V Ferrari the runtime barely drags.

And the second reason is the cast, Chalamet has really come into his own as an actor since doing Wonka and the Dune films and here he shows once again what a great talent he has become nailing not only Bob Dylan’s speaking voice but also the singing, one song in particular I was very happy to hear him do in the film, Boyd Holbrook is almost unrecognizable as Johnny Cash in fact I thought it was Timothy Olyphant when watching the film, Edward Norton is also very good as Pete Seeger while Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro are good as well as Bob’s on again off again love interests.

If there is a failing with the film its that the storytelling hits a lot of the familiar notes of these kinds of films, young kid wants to get famous in music, he gets there and finds himself stuck in the bog of fame and wanting to create and how he wants to try other things and others just want him to do more of the same, nothing new here but Mangold does it well enough that it didn’t overly bother me much.

And so that was A Complete Unknown and it is a very good film and worth seeing when you get a chance, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2025)

Wallace and Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl is the new Aardman animation film and sees Wallace (Ben Whitehead replacing the late Peter Sallis) and Gromit struggling to pay their bills so Wallace invents a handy new Garden Gnome called Norbot (Reece Shearsmith) but little do they know that Feathers McGraw has gotten wind of Norbot after a news story and he begins to plan his vengeance.

I was never really into Wallace and Gromit growing up (I was more into Disney animation as a kid in the 90s) but I heard very good things about this movie and Feathers McGraw as a villain (those eyes are like the Terminators in the first two films) so I decided to give it a watch.

And my goodness I loved every minute of this movie and I really really pity the other animated films released this year because this one has set the bar and firstly I have to mention the stop motion animation as it is not only gorgeous but you can really tell that there is a human touch to it all especially in the eyes of the characters where the good guys have a real soul to them while the villains well it’s like staring into the Abyss especially with Feathers McGraw.

Speaking of Feathers McGraw what a great villain, cunning/unassuming and moves with stealth like precision plus is a master of disguise (you can’t fool me with that glove Feathers, I know your not a chicken) in fact during one of his disguises I laughed so hard I had to go back as I missed a line of dialogue and in a couple of occasions I was reminded of Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget.

And lastly this movie is a riot, I laughed pretty much out loud the entire time I was watching it and I will not lie a part of me wishes this was in cinemas this summer holidays because it would’ve been a massive hit with families but alas we’ll have to settle for it being on Netflix instead (This is all Feather’s fault.)

So LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND, Feathers McGraw is out there, he can’t be bargained with, he can’t be reasoned with, he doesn’t feel pity or remorse or fear and he absolutely will not stop.

EVER,

Until he has Vengeance and as for this movie well I loved every minute of it and I have no hesitation giving it a full 5 out of 5.

Film Review - Paddington in Peru (2025)

Paddington in Peru is the third film in the series but is not directed by Paul King though he is involved as an executive producer and story writer (he decided to go and make Wonka instead), this time Paddington (Ben Whishaw) receives word from the reverend mother of the home for retired bears (Olivia Coleman) that his beloved Aunt Lucy has gone missing in the Amazon jungle so Paddington and the Brown Family head to Darkest Peru to go and find her.

Paddington in Peru had an awful lot to live up to for me mainly because the first two films were such high watermarks for family films and what didn’t help matters was that not only was King not returning to direct but also here in Australia this movie is opening less than a week after Sonic the Hedgehog 3 which managed to buck the trend of the third film being the worst in the series so could Paddington also buck the trend or would it be left with a Marmalade Sandwich all over its face.

Well sort of while I don’t think this is a bad film per se it is also the weakest of the three but still I had a good time with it, it made me laugh, it made me smile and it still has a lot of that same heartfelt charm the first two films had, Ben Whishaw picks up right where he left off and plays this role so well its hard to imagine what Colin Firth would’ve done with it when he was originally cast in the role, Hugh Bonneville is as fun as ever as Mr Brown while Emily Mortimer does okay but struggles to fill the boots Sally Hawkins left behind as Mrs Brown (she too went to make Wonka with Paul King.)

The standout here is Olivia Coleman and her sense of humour and slightly manic energy fit so well in this world of films while Antonio Banderas is perfectly serviceable, but he is mainly helped by the writing of his character though at least he gets much more to do here unlike in Indiana Jones in 2023.

But all throughout this movie I couldn’t help but think that this movie while fun and entertaining it just doesn’t quite get as good as the first two films did and that has to come down to not having Paul King in the director and writers roles, don’t get me wrong Dougal Wilson does a perfectly fine job but he doesn’t have that same tight focus and firm vision King had with his films.

And in all honesty I don’t blame King for not wanting to direct this movie and choosing to make Wonka instead because I don’t feel that he really had another Paddington film in him, it isn’t like the Sonic film series where there’s decades of games to draw from for new films (though that series will soon fully mine the classic games for their films) and the pressure on him to deliver another classic would’ve been probably too much, that said I do wish this one was as good but its still perfectly fine enough.

And so that was Paddington in Peru and while this is still a fun and charming watch it also falls short of the heights of the first two films and it’s a bit of a shame especially given that not only were the first two films that good but Sonic 3 was able to buck that trend but as they say in the classic, you win some you lose some, 3 out of 5.