Film Review - Minions and Monsters (2026)

Minions and Monsters is the 3rd Minions spinoff film and sees the Minions making their way to 1920’s Hollywood where they become stars of the silent film era but when the industry transitions to sound and their dialect sees their career end Minions James, Henry and Ed decide to make a monster movie instead and travel to find the perfect monster to use but they should be careful what they wish for also.

Minions and Monsters is a pure delight that made me laugh a lot in the cinema and put a smile on my face for so much of it, those little guys still make me laugh with their unique way of talking/their physical comedy and inspired chaos that we used to see in comedies like Hot Shows, The Naked Gun and Airplane and while Gru isn’t in this movie I didn’t miss him all that much like I did in the 2015 Minions film.

The film also has a lot of great movie references ranging from famous voices (one in particular was lovely to see) to the Great Gatsby and Babylon to silent cinema in general as well as life on a studio lot as well as 1950’s Sci-fi cinema in one instance, some of these don’t 100% work but a lot of them do.

And lastly the monsters in this movie are great fun especially the monster that shows up towards the end of the film which is very memorable and good fun to watch on a decent sized cinema screen and the small green monster known as Goomi voiced by Trey Parker is good fun as well and acts as the equivalent of Gru from the 2022 Rise of Gru film and by that I mean the English speaking co-lead that helps to anchor the film.

And so that was Minions and Monsters and what can I say, I was delighted with its humour/monsters and cinema references, I had a great time here, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Supergirl (2026)

Supergirl is the newest entry in the DCU now under James Gunn and Peter Safran’s control and this movie is the spinoff for Kara (Milly Alcock) who was briefly introduced in last year’s Superman movie and this story sees Kara enjoying her birthday off world in systems with a red sun so she can get properly drunk but on one world she and Krypto the Dog come across Krem (Mathias Schoenarts) who poisons Krypto and Kara has 3 days to find a cure.

Supergirl is not a terrible movie per se but its also a movie that did very little for me but the one thing I did like about this movie is Milly Alcock as Kara, she does a great job with the material she’s given and sells the tragedy of that character, the fun of the character and the action moments very well plus she has some great moments with David Corenswet who shows up briefly as Superman and he continues to prove himself worthy of that mantle in the role.

But apart from those 2 actors this movie doesn’t really work:

- The first reason is the films storytelling and tone which wants to have a more serious storyline about women being traded for information and to be brides for the Briggins (the race Krem belongs to) but on the other hand it also wants to have the “lets get fun and get on the galactic beers and get drunk” fun while also having the James Gunn trademarks of jokes in every other line and funky pop songs on the soundtrack and the two just do not mesh at all.

Its one thing to want to have this serious storyline but its another thing to mesh that with a Guardians of the Galaxy style of fun and Gunn as a writer/director can pull that off as he showed with Guardians 3 in 2023 but here Ana Noguiera and Craig Gillespie the writer and director respectively cannot and it shows.

- The second reason is Gillespie as director, frankly he should not have directed this movie as all he really does is want to copy James Gunn’s style of filmmaking which only Gunn himself can make work properly because he trusts his writing and directing instincts and because of that he has done great work in both DC and Marvel movies but Gillespie (who came to prominence with I, Tonya and Cruella) feels like he’s imitating that style and doing it badly which often is the case.

And so often especially nowadays these movies if they don’t have a specific style can feel very bland and samey which I am starting to get a little over, these movies have worked best for me when it’s had a strong hand at the helm like the late great Richard Donner or Tim Burton or Bryan Singer who were filmmakers that understood that yes the comics are the source but don’t be afraid to change that in the adaptation process of making a movie out of it and all too often nowadays that firm vision is missing so that the studio in charge can manage any kind of risk with these films as their too important to the bottom line.

- And lastly a lot of the casting didn’t do it for me either, Jason Momoa finally gets to play Lobo an arrogant loudmouth bounty hunter but instead he just comes across as annoying and his makeup work is lit so dimly you don’t really get a proper look at it and when compared to Brad Garrett who voiced that role in the Superman animated series Momoa’s take is nowhere near as good as Garrett was loud and arrogant and brash but never annoying.

And then there’s Mathias as Krem who too often sounds like he’s impersonating Tim Roth while looking like a cross between Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies and Zao from Die Another Day and the Briggins as villains on the whole feel like a rip off of the space pirates from Guardians.

And lastly there’s Eve Ridley as Ruthye and boy does her dialogue outstay its welcome quickly as she sounds like a character from Game of Thrones with her portentous dialogue that sounds like a mouthful coming out of Ridley’s mouth and her whole story arc about wanting vengeance is okay but not all that memorable.

And so that was Supergirl and both Milly and David are great as the last survivors of Kryptin (unless somehow General Zod returns in which case you’d better start practicing how to kneel before him) but this movie suffers from an inconsistent tone, boring villains and lacklustre casting, its not terrible but its not much either, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Disclosure Day (2026)

Disclosure Day is the new movie by Steven Spielberg and stars Josh O’Connor as Daniel Kellner a government cyber security contractor who goes on the run from the Wardex Corporation and its head Noah (Colin Firth) meanwhile Kansas City Weather Reporter Margaret (Emily Blunt) starts speaking a strange language while on air and soon enough she gets caught up in the mystery that Daniel is also caught up in.

Disclosure Day despite some wobbles with its ending is a movie that I really enjoyed and the first reason for that is Steven Spielberg’s direction, there are so few filmmakers that know how to move a camera like he does and by that I mean that it feels like a natural extension of his arm and that is on show here with many long tracking shots, energetic action moments and excellent camera blocking that makes you feel like your with these characters on this journey and feeling what they feel.

Januz Kaminski’s cinematography is quite good especially in the films night time scenes, there are so so so so many movies nowadays that make their night time scenes look like washed out pixelated messes where you can’t see a fucking thing but here you can see everything as your meant to in those moments and the streaks of light that sometimes come through windows or the flashes of police lights are used to great effect to add suspense and tension to the scenes.

The film is also littered with great performances, Josh O’Connor works very well here as a classic Spielberg everyman, someone who is good at what they do but have nothing special about them but we instantly feel that certain connection to them, Colin Firth is great as the chief villain and he has a very memorable scene with a table that is great to watch, Eve Hewson is also very good as Jane (Daniel’s girlfriend) and she has some great moments of her own while Colman Domingo is his usual charismatic self while also bringing a warm mentor feel to his character.
And then there is Emily Blunt who honestly deserves an Oscar nomination for her work here, she is much the lead of this movie as O’Connor is and she is simply superb here and she is asked to do a lot with this character and she more than steps up to the plate, sometimes the movies Blunt stars in can be hit or miss (hey it happens) but when she’s this good (and she has rarely let me down performance wise) I won’t complain.

But there is one more person that deserves some love and that is Courtney Grace as a news anchor who has one key scene in the climax but sells it really well and almost steals the entire film.

But if I do have a minor quibble it is in the storytelling, David Koepp isn’t the world’s best screenwriter but for so much of this movie I was intrigued by the mystery, invested in what was going on and wanted to know more about what the truth was Wardex were trying to hide and when that is all revealed I enjoyed it but then it cuts to black and that’s it the movie’s over and part of me can’t help feel that if that moment had been extended a beat or two then it would’ve landed better for me.

And so that was Disclosure Day and it is along with The Drama and Mortal Kombat II one of my favourite films of the year so far, I really enjoyed it, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - In the Grey (2026)

In the Grey is the new film by Guy Ritchie and stars Eiza Gonzalez as Sophia, a lawyer who is chasing after a financial debt for a large company that is in the hands of a criminal known as Salazar (Carlos Bardem) but given he has his own private island and plenty of police and private army people to protect him she’s going to need some help which is where John and Michael (Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal) come in.

In the Grey is typical of Guy Ritchie’s work in terms of something bad’s happening, someone good wants to fix it so they get the team of people together to help them fix said problem but I had a good time with this one nonetheless, Gonzalez/Cavill/Gylenhaal make for a good group of heroes and one detail I really liked in the film is how Sophia’s team plans out every detail in terms of their mission and how it could go wrong and if it does they need to get Sophia to safety and there is a fair bit of time devoted to the planning and preparation on their part that I did enjoy.

As for the broader storytelling it does tend to tie itself in knots at times in terms of who’s working for who, who’s doing what, how is all of this going to play out, where everyone is at any given time and again it does feel a bit knotty story wise but it didn’t pull me out of the film thinking “how is this making any sense” it works fine enough that I still had fun.

And so that was In the Grey and it’s a fun watch if nothing remarkable, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)

The Mandalorian and Grogu is the movie based off of the Star Wars TV series and Pedro Pascal is back as the Mandalorian with Grogu at his side as they are hunting down Imperial warlords but they are then tasked to find Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White) the wayward son of Jabba the Hutt.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is not a bad movie to watch but its also one that doesn’t really do all that much for you either, the opening action scene is fun with Mando hunting down a former Imperial officer and you see what feels like the kind of action scenes of Mando kicking bottom left right and centre that you would rarely see on the TV series and it gets you in the mood for the film.

But there are so many action scenes that after a while watching the movie feels exhausting and while watching it it felt like at one point that the movie was coming to an end and I felt pretty good but then whoopsie doodle there’s another hour of movie left on the homeworld of the Hutts and that section drags on and on and on with monster fights, Grogu doing cute things and an environment that looked very CGI heavy.

And speaking of CGI it is very obvious at times that your looking at digital environments because it never really registers as real to your eye (and the human eye is pretty good at knowing what is real and what is fake) and that second episode-sorry-second half of this movie just goes on for too long.

Which is another issue I have with this movie, at 132 minutes this movie is half an hour too long because the storytelling on the whole is so thin and stretched out that you could have gotten away with this if this was the 2 episode premiere of a fourth season on Disney Plus but cut together as a movie it just drags on and on and goes on for so long that I began to feel a little exhausted when it was all over.

As for the cast, Pedro is fine but it is clear that he was only really on set for a week or so to do the shots of him in the suit and an action scene in a pit and that was it he could then do all of his other lines in post production while someone else wears the suit to keep the production on schedule, Grogu is cute but it is high time this character started to grow up a little bit and get older and more assured of his Force abilities but we all know that won’t happen, Jeremy Allen White is okay as Rotta but nothing special while Martin Scorsese and Sigourney Weaver have small roles here because hey why not, pet the Grogu puppet and make a bit of money they do have bills to pay too you know.

And so that was the Mandalorian and Grogu and look its not terrible but that’s the nicest thing I can say about this movie because its long, exhausting action and thin storytelling lost me after a while, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - The Sheep Detectives (2026)

The Sheep Detectives stars Hugh Jackman as George Hardy a Sheep Herder in Denbrook England who reads Murder Mystery Novels to his flock of Sheep but one night he is found dead in his caravan and so his Sheep set out to find who murdered him using their knowledge of mystery novels.

The Sheep Detectives is a nice and cute romp that families will have a good time with as did I, Hugh Jackman isn’t in the film as much but I enjoyed his brief role here and the Sheep are a lot of fun especially Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Lily the main sheep and Sir Patrick Stewart as Sir Richfield.

The film also has a nice UK feel to it as well in terms of its Murder Mystery plot that reminded me of the many many shows that country made with the small town full of suspects and it deals with tough subjects with a nicely sensitive touch that older audiences will understand without frightening younger audiences as well.

And so that was The Sheep Detectives and it is a nice cute romp that many will enjoy, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Mortal Kombat II (2026)

Mortal Kombat II is the follow up to 2021’s Mortal Kombat film and Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) seeks to rule the Earthrealm through the Mortal Kombat tournament and now Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) must rally his fighters to save Earthrealm from Shao Kahn’s tyranny.

Mortal Kombat II was easily one of my most anticipated films of the year (only the Odyssey, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping and Dune Part Three I anticipated as much) even though I was fairly disappointed in the 2021 MK film which was only watchable when Josh Lawson’s Kano (a great Australian) was on screen but MKII the game was a big step up from the first game so could the movie do the same.

HELL YES!! I had a great time with this movie and in almost every way this movie is an improvement and first off you actually have lead characters you give a shit about, Cole Young from the first film felt like a relic of an older time in terms of being the “mainstream outsider” lead and wisely his screen time is much reduced and this time Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana and Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage are the co-leads with Ludi Lim’s Liu Kang and Jessica McNamee’s Sonya getting larger roles and it makes a huge difference as those characters work much better in bringing you into that world and Urban is terrific fun as Cage bringing a smug smartassery with the fighting skills to back it up to the role and working well and one joke he has made me laugh out loud in the cinema.

As for Rudolph as Kitana she is a great find handling both the emotional moments and the battle scenes very well and I hope I see more of her in the future also Ford is a memorable Shao Kahn who was always a pain in the ass to beat in Mortal Kombat II and 3 and thankfully he is a formidable foe here.

Next up the fight scenes and arena locations are so much better than the empty lifeless arena the first film had and many iconic locations from the games are nicely recreated especially the acid pit from Game 2 and the Portal Bridge from MK3 and also the fight scenes are really good here especially when Shao Kahn fights plus Baraka (a very cool practical effect) vs Johnny Cage and Liu Kang vs Kung Lao not to mention the climax of the film in the Netherworld which makes great use of the ensemble cast.

And lastly the storytelling here is much cleaner and it reminded me a lot of the recent Mortal Kombat games where you would have the brief cutscenes before getting to the fights and the story scenes in this movie reminded a lot of those and while it doesn’t always work I didn’t hate it all that much.

And so that was Mortal Kombat II and this is a sequel that knows what it wants to be and does it very very well, this 90s kid is a very happy man, 4 out of 5.