Film Review - Project Hail Mary (2026)

Project Hail Mary is based off of the novel by Andy Weir and stars Ryan Gosling as Dr Grace a middle school science teacher who is recruited by the US Government to help them on a long form mission in space to save Earth from the slow death of the Sun due to a mysterious substance, along his journey he meets another nomad which he names Rocky due to him being an alien rock creature and the two begin working together to save their home worlds from extinction.

Project Hail Mary is a long film but it is also very good and first off credit belongs to Phil Lord and Christopher Miller the talented directorial pair who also gave us The Lego Movie and the 2 Spider-verse films and this movie is as enjoyable and as fun as those movies were, they bring a light sensibility to the film and along with Drew Goddard’s script they balance heart and humour very well.

Speaking of Goddard’s script it is very good also as like he did with the Martian in 2015 (also based off an Andy Weir novel) he seems to understand how to adapt Weir’s novels for the big screen and like the Martian there is a lot of warmth, a lot of comedy and a lot of science here and all 3 elements are blended together well.

The film also has a great central performance by Ryan Gosling as Dr Grace and he is asked to anchor this movie with a rock creature for a lot of the runtime and he steps up to the task very well handling the films comedic and sincere moments with ease while also making us believe in his friendship with Rocky who is no Payakan the Whale from James Cameron’s Avatar sequels but is still a memorable character in his own right.

Where the film does fall down a little for me is the length, the film is 156 minutes in length and I felt it a lot of the time, what also doesn’t help this feeling is the back and forth structure of the screenplay which felt like to me something that works better as a novel than it does a movie as you would get invested in Grace and Rocky saving Stars and then it would cut back to Earth before the mission began and those scenes after a while lost my interest.

And so that was Project Hail Mary a film that I enjoyed very much despite its script issues, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026)

Ready or Not 2 is the sequel to the very enjoyable 2019 Horror film Ready or Not and sees Samara Weaving return as Grace the Bride to be who survived her encounter at the end of the first film but instead of picking up the pieces she’s stuck in a new game regarding the Danforth family (David Cronenberg, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy) who bring Grace and her sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) to their family owned golf resort for a new game of survival.

Ready or Not 2 is not as good as the first film (very few horror sequels are) but I still had a good time watching this movie and first of that is the Radio Silence directing duo who do a good job directing the film and making good use of the golf resort location as they did the mansion in the first film and they also deliver some fun horror kills.

The film also has a pretty good cast, Weaving and Newton as the sisters play off well together and have good chemistry, Kevin Durand is good fun in his small role while Hatosy makes for a good psychotic villain as does Maia Jae and Nestor Carbonello.

But where this movie falls down a little bit is in its storytelling don’t get me wrong it isn’t bad per se but Elijah Wood’s character as a lawyer makes this story feel more complicated than it needs to be at times and Sarah Michelle Gellar’s role feels like a waste of her as a horror icon by the time it was done.

And so that was Ready or Not 2 and it’s a fun horror romp but the first film is better, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Bride (2026)

The Bride is written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhall and based off of the Bride of Frankenstein and stars Jesse Buckley as Ida a young woman who falls to her death on a staircase and is reanimated back to life by Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening) as a request for Frankenstein the Monster (Christian Bale) who desires a companion after a century of loneliness but their escapades catch the attention of 2 local detectives (Peter Sarsgaard and Penelope Cruz) as well as a popular movie star (Jake Gyllenhall)

The Bride is all over the place as a movie, so much so that there would be times while I was watching it where I would have a big smile on my face and then in the very next scene I would be sitting in my cinema seat going “What the Fuck is this” but before I delve more into that I want to talk about the positives as there are some.

Firstly the cinematography by Lawrence Sher, the production design by Karen Murphy and the costumes by Sandy Powell are all top notch, the sets feel real and lived in like a cross between Tim Burton (Bening’s character felt like a character from a Tim Burton movie) and Guillermo Del Toro (who coincidentally just made a Frankenstein movie for Netflix), the costumes feel very authentic to the 1930’s setting so much so that you can almost feel the wool of the uniforms and the fine silk of the suits and the cinematography lights these well including the night scenes.

The film also has a great performance by Jesse Buckley as well and she goes for it 115% ranging from vulnerability to dark humour to sadisticness with ease and if this movie didn’t have her in it it would be nigh on unwatchable.

Because the real problem here is the screenplay and the more I thought about this movie I kept thinking “So What”

Yes this movie has great cinematography,

Yes this movie has great production design,

Yes this movie has great costumes,

And it has a committed performance by an actress who knows what movie she’s making.

But so what without a script that has a firm sense of narrative direction, a consistent tone and a clear structure all of that means nothing and this movie lacks all of those, the narrative direction is absent as it feels like Gyllenhall just throws every idea she had for this movie into the script in the hope that something/anything might stick, the tone ranges from sadness to action to seriousness to black comedy with all the subtlety of a car driving at fast speed and there is no clear structure to the storytelling at all it goes from one plotline to the next without taking the time to develop any of them.

Well except the detective storyline where the woman does all the work like she’s Penny from Inspector Gadget and gets none of the credit and this is a real waste of a world class talent in Penelope Cruz.

As for Christian Bale as Frankenstein well his performance ranges from brooding silence to mumbling his lines and then YELLING HIS LINES LIKE THIS AS IF HE WAS BACK ON THE FUCKING SET OF TERMINATOR SALVATION!!!! and it just got annoying after a while, as for Jake Gyllenhall and Peter Sarsgaard their fine but not in the film enough to be all that memorable.

And so that was the Bride and it has some strong elements but So What without a good script to make it all matter none of it does and as great as Buckley is she can only do so much without a firm script to carry the film, there is a reason so many movie documentaries emphasize the importance of the script and this movie is proof of that in real time, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - How to Make a Killing (2026)

How to Make a Killing stars Glen Powell as Beckett Redfellow who was born into a wealthy family led by Whitelaw Redfellow (Ed Harris) but his mother is disowned by the family after she gives birth so years later he plots to kill the remaining members of his family to take his inheritance and hopefully the love of a childhood friend (Margaret Qualley)

How to Make a Killing is okay but nothing spectacular to watch, the cast does a lot of the heavy lifting here and Glen Powell as the lead is okay but I feel he is a lot like Ryan Gosling than Tom Cruise as many thought he would be after his role in Top Gun Maverick but instead Gosling feels like the more appropriate comparison as both can be great in the right roles but when they aren’t they feel out of step though Powell is better at managing this than Gosling is and here he’s fine and serviceable.

The rest of the cast are good as well mainly Ed Harris as the patriarch of the Redfellow family, Topher Grace as a tele-evangelist esque Pastor that Beckett has to get rid of and Jessica Henwick as Ruth a woman that Beckett falls for during his escapades, as for Margaret Qualley she is good here as well and channels that femme fatale quality pretty well and would be great in that kind of role also.

As for the storyline well that did bother me a little as it felt like a variation of the “Look at the twisted loveless billionaires” motif and that works in todays society but I wish it went further than it does and also some of Beckett’s decisions made me go “He’s going to get easily caught” which pulled me out of the film a little as it went on.

But still I liked this movie enough that I thought it was fine, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Crime 101 (2026)

Crime 101 is based off of the novel by Don Winslow and stars Chris Hemsworth as James, a criminal in LA who is meticulous with his criminal work but when he wants out it after a big heist job sets off a chain reaction that ensares a police detective (Mark Ruffalo) an insurance company worker (Halle Berry) and a rival hitman (Barry Keoghan)

Crime 101 is a solid thriller that I enjoyed watching in the cinema, Hemsworth does a good job in the lead role and he anchors the film reliably well, Nick Nolte is also good in his brief appearance and I also enjoyed Mark Ruffalo as the grizzled detective and Halle Berry as the insurance worker.

But where this film didn’t win me over was the side plot with Monica Barbaro’s character, I loved her in Top Gun Maverick and A Complete Unknown but every time the film cut back to her storyline I lost interest as I felt that it took away from the heist thriller that was unfolding around it and her scenes could’ve gone to Berry’s character without too much retooling of the script for that to happen.

And so that was Crime 101 and it’s a solid thriller with a good cast if a little too long with one sideplot too many, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Blue Moon (2026)

Blue Moon is the new film by Richard Linklater and stars Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart a famous Broadway songwriter in 1943 who goes to his favourite bar to wait for his girlfriend Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley) as well as avoid the opening night of the Broadway Musical Okalhoma!

Blue Moon was not for me I’m afraid mainly because so much of this movie is Ethan Hawke’s character (a good actor) droning on and on and on about himself and after a while it began to resemble a 1943 version of “Old Man Yells at Cloud” but instead of that its just “Old Man Confides in his Bartender” said Bartender is played very well by Bobby Cannavale.

There are some other good performances as well, Andrew Scott as Richard Rodgers has a small role but makes it work well enough, Simon Delaney as Oscar Hammerstein is also good but his role is very small while Margaret Qualley is good as well in her role.

So yeah that was Blue Moon, it wasn’t for me I’m sorry to say, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - Wuthering Heights (2026)

Wuthering Heights is based off of the novel and stars Margot Robbie as Cathy, a young woman who falls in love with Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) but as the 2 are poor their love cannot last so Cathy falls for a rich neighbour next door as Heathcliff leaves but when 2 people fall in love passionately those passions can’t be hidden forever.

Wuthering Heights is a mixed bag for me, first off the film is well made and well directed, Emerald Fennell has proven herself to be a good director with Promising Young Woman and Saltburn and while I hated the latter film it did have some good moments and her direction in this movie is nice and lush along with Linus Sandgren’s cinematography, Jacqueline Durran’s costume design and the production design by Suzie Davies which all look great on a big cinema screen and bring you into this world very well.

But where this version falls short is in its casting, Robbie more and more is becoming a better producer than actress as in the wrong hands she can be not that great on screen and here so very many of her scenes are just her staring off into the distance, tears streaking down from her eyes and looking forlorn that her beloved Heathcliff has left her behind and after a while it just got ridiculous to watch and part of me couldn’t help but wonder if Fennell might have been better to get her Promising Young Woman lead Carey Mulligan to play this part instead because I think she would’ve been able to sell the sadness and tragedy at the heart of that character much better.

And then there’s Elordi and his casting feels worse especially after he earned himself a well deserved Oscar nomination for his work in Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein as the title character itself but like Robbie Elordi struggles to sell the pathos and dark core of the character first off because of his accent which starts off bordering on Ocker (and so much so he could’ve done ads selling XXXX Beer) and then towards the end of the film his British accent he starts sounding like Dave Lister from Red Dwarf.

And also while watching him I couldn’t help but compare him to Timothy Dalton who played that character in a previous film adaptation and as good as Elordi is he simply doesn’t compare to Dalton who I’m certain would’ve brought the necessary brutishness and cold heartedness this character requires.

And so that was Wuthering Heights and my hopes for this were mixed and my feelings towards this movie are mixed, Fennell is a good director and does her job well and it looks great but Robbie and Elordi just fall short in their roles and because of that this movie lacks that heartfelt core it desperately needs, 2 out of 5.