Film Review - Drop (2025)

Drop is the new horror film by Christopher Landon who also made Happy Death Day and Freaky and stars Meghann Fahy as Violet, a widow with a young son who goes on a first date with photographer Henry (Brandon Sklenar from 1923) but during their evening she gets mysterious air drops on her phone telling her to kill her date or her young son will be murdered.

Drop shows once again why Chris Landon for the most part does great horror movies, he doesn’t just couch them in the usual “evil person with a metal blade” running around and carving up young teens like their animals in the wild their couched in a fun concept at their core be it repeating the same day in HDD, body swapping Captain Ginyu style in Freaky or “Kill your Date or I Kill Your Son” in this movie and Landon does a great job generating tension and suspense throughout the film and its single location of a Chicago high rise restaurant and the way he moves the camera around also won me over as well.

The cast also deliver the goods as well mainly Fahy and Sklenar who have great chemistry together even though at times I was thinking of Julia Schalepfer from 1923 and the chemistry she and Sklenar had in that show and how once again he is romancing a young blonde woman and as someone who was a big fan of 1923 it was hard for me not to want to make that comparison.

Where this movie does sadly fall over somewhat is its use of domestic violence in a key sideplot, this issue is far too serious to be in what should be a fun high concept horror movie and it could’ve easily been removed with only some minor tweaks to the script and I think the movie would’ve worked just as well if not better without it.

And so that was Drop and once more another movie comes along that shows 2025 as an overall movie year off to a strong start with a fun concept well executed with a great duo of leads, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Accountant 2 (2025)

The Accountant 2 is the long delayed sequel to the surprise 2016 hit the Accountant and once more Ben Affleck returns as Christian Wolff who is tasked by financial officer Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to find a lost child but dark forces are also looking for him so Christian has to reach out to his estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) to help him.

The Accountant 2 was a sequel idea I had mixed feelings about as I really liked the first film in 2016 for its action, its heart and a compelling lead character in Christian Wolff who was an assassin but also lived with Autism and my fear with any potential sequel was that that core aspect of his character would either be stripped out or toned down to appeal this series to a wider audience like the John Wick films have had.

Thankfully that isn’t the case as the Accountant 2 is well worth the wait and is as good a movie as the first one and huge kudos has to be given to Ben Affleck, director Gavin O’Connor (who should be considered for the MCU X-Men movie) and writer Bill Dubuque as they have firstly and most importantly kept Christian as who he is, yes he’s done work for bad people but he is also on the Autism spectrum and that is given more focus here in terms of his social interactions which were there in the first film but not to this extent and I am very thankful for that.

Also boosted is Jon Bernthal’s role as Braxton and he and Affleck have great chemistry together as both brothers trying to bond together as well as action heroes, both are well trained in the deadly arts and their combat experiences are shown well in the films action scenes which have the same precision that they did in the first film.

The storytelling here is also improved as it feels not only more focused but doesn’t get bogged down in a big exposition dump which happened in the first film and really hurt that movie especially towards the end, here the storytelling is cleaner/more focused and also makes time for humour and surprisingly this movie is very funny at times one scene in particular got a big laugh from my cinema audience.

And so that was the Accountant 2 and this sequel does not disappoint, it hasn’t forgotten who Christian Wolff is as a character, the storytelling is improved and it has good action and humour, another big recommendation, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - The Correspondent (2025)

The Correspondent is based on a true story and stars Richard Roxburgh as Peter Greste, an Australian journalist who is asked to fill in for a colleague at Al Jazeera news over the Christmas 2013 period as unrest builds in Egypt but after doing a news story there, he finds himself arrested and thrown in prison causing worldwide outrage over his treatment.

The Correspondent was a movie I was looking forward to as movies about journalists doing what they do more often than not make for compelling narratives and here is no exception, the film works best when you see Greste as the victim of a monstrous injustice, thrown in prison for no real reason except for the fact that he was simply doing his job and yes he has made mistakes in his past (something the film highlights) but he did not deserve to be so horribly treated in the way that he was.

But what sadly doesn’t work as well is Richard Roxburgh’s performance, don’t get me wrong he is a very good actor and has doen great work in the past but here I felt he was a little miscast, for starters he looked way too old to be playing Peter Greste who was only in his late 40s when he was arrested in December 2013 and Roxburgh looks much older and also Greste in real life has a very expressive face and here Roxburgh’s just doesn’t capture that very well, it feels like your looking at the same stern expression most of the time he is on screen.

And so that was the Correspondent and its an okay movie for the most part but it would’ve been better if someone else who was closer in age and appearance to Peter Greste in real life had played that role instead, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Sinners (2025)

Sinners is the new movie by Ryan Coogler and stars Michael B Jordan as Smoke and Stack, a pair of twins who come home to Mississippi in 1930’s America from Chicago and want to open up a Juke Joint but elsewhere a great evil lurks in the shadows.

Sinners shows once again why Ryan Coogler is a great talent of a filmmaker and the first reason why is the sense of history that permeates throughout this movie, the world of the early 30’s American South and the Jim Crow era laws that were part and parcel of that time is fully realized here and you really feel enveloped in that period and what people of colour who lived there had to go through be it the cotton fields or the sense of danger that lurked around every corner.

Secondly this movie is very well crafted in a lot of areas, Ruth E Carter’s costume design, Hannah Bleachler’s production design, Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s cinematography and Ludwig Goransson’s score are all top notch and all of these people deserve Oscar nominations and even wins for their work here, the costumes are beautiful to look at, the production design is excellent, the cinematography is nice and the score is terrific with its mix of original cues and songs on the soundtrack.

And then there are the performances, Michael B Jordan plays both the Smoke/Stack twins here and does a really good job creating distinct personalities with each brother, Delroy Lindo is a lot of fun as a boozy harmonica player who is hired to play at the Juke Joint while Hailee Steinfeld is magnetic here as Mary one of the twins’s love interest and she has never looked more beautiful than she does in this movie.

Also good is Jack O’Connell as an Irish Folk music player who gets wind of the Juke Joint and wants to play there and has sinister intentions of his own.

But where this movie does fall over a little bit is its transition from the historical blues musical drama to vampire horror movie and as good as both sections of this movie are (and they are definitely very good) the transition between the two sections felt a little jarring to sit through at first but once the second half kicks into gear and finds its groove it works very well and delivers some fun bloody effects work.

And so that was Sinners and despite a slight storytelling stumble this is a really good movie with a great sense of history, impeccable craftsmanship and good performances, this is a movie well worth watching, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - The Amateur (2025)

The Amateur stars Rami Malek as a CIA Analyst Charlie who is happily married to his wife (Rachel Brosnahan soon to be Lois Lane in James Gunn’s Superman) when she goes to London for a business trip but sadly she is killed in a terrorist attack there and Charlie wants to find the people responsible for her death.

The Amateur is a good old fashioned steak, mash and peas style thriller that I liked for the most part and the first reason why is Rami Malek, he has always been a good actor and here is no exception as the determination to avenge his wife’s murder begins to show more and more as he devises more and more ingenious ways to hunt down the killers and evade the CIA at the same time begins to show more and more as the film goes on, Lawrence Fishburne is also very fun in a supporting role and its good to see him as well.

As for Rachel Brosnahan, watching her in this movie I thought to myself “She is going to be a damn good Lois Lane” (though whether she will be as good as the late great Margot Kidder remains to be seen) as she was very good in her small role here and had a lot of that sass and quickness and heart that you want in a Lois Lane portrayal, I also enjoyed seeing Catriona Balfe in a small role as well.

And so that was the Amateur and it’s a good solid thriller anchored by a good cast, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Novocaine (2025)

Novocaine stars Jack Quaid as Nathan Caine, an Assistant Manager in a San Diego bank who has a rare genetic disorder where he can literally feel no pain but he manages to fall in love with one of the girls Sherry (Amber Midthunder) who works at the bank but one day the Bank is robbed an Sherry is kidnapped so Nathan has to put his “I feel no pain” disability to good use to rescue her.

Novocaine is definitely one of my favourite films of 2025 so far and the first reason why is due to the unique storytelling concept of the film, sure you’ve had characters like Wolverine in the X-Men where they heal up after getting injured but Nathan isn’t like that this is a real disability he has and for better or worse he has to use it to his advantage to get the girl back and it makes for some very fun action scenes that make good use of his condition and the restricted rating the film has.

Secondly is Jack Quaid and this is the performance that should make him a movie star, at times you can see the sweetness from his mother Meg Ryan in his eyes and his smile while also being able to be sarcastic like his father Dennis Quaid could be in some of his roles and watching him here do these crazy action scenes while also being a romantic lead was very effective and he has good chemistry with Midthunder.

Speaking of Midthunder (who we first saw in 2022’s Predator film Prey) she is very good here as well and I really enjoyed seeing her again after she was memorable in that film as well and I really enjoyed her scenes with Quaid hopefully they get a crack at a proper rom com together some day.

But there are a couple of problems I have with this movie and first of those is the villains, don’t get me wrong their perfectly serviceable but I wish they were more memorable like you saw in movies like Die Hard or the Indiana Jones films or the best of the James Bond films but that has been a long documented failing on my part and Ray Nicholson is perfectly solid as the main bad guy Simon but he isn’t as memorable as he could’ve been.

And secondly I wish that the disability aspect of Nathan’s character had been played up more in the first act before he meets Sherry, sure he tells her about some of the pluses and minuses of his condition but I wish we saw more of it before Sherry comes into his life and accepts him for who he is and not some ideal version of what he could be as the brief scenes we did get really appealed to me and I wish we saw more of them.

That said however Novocaine is great fun, 3 and a half out of 5.