Film Review - Resident Evil (2026)

Resident Evil is the new film by Zach Cregger and is based off of the Playstation Video Game series and stars Austin Abrams as Bryan a medical courier who is given a medical crate to transport to Raccoon City General Hospital but en route he comes across people acting strange and his car breaks down due to the snow and he must make his way there on foot and in freezing cold weather while also avoiding zombie like people running after him.

Resident Evil is a lot of fun and really shows Cregger’s growth as a director as the blood and gore on show here is done well and he keeps the pace tight and the tension on a tight leash ready to deploy it at any time plus the film looks great with the ice and snow all around that also is used really well to heighten the horrors that Bryan sees,

And Abrams is very effective as Bryan as well and on a couple of occasions he reminded me a little of Bruce Willis in Die Hard and by that I mean he has that every man quality to him that Bruce had and he handles both the horror and humour very well, Paul Walter Hauser also shows up in a small role and he does good work as well

But where this film does fall down a little is the ending, when it was over I thought “is that it” and it felt a little anti-climactic, no doubt this was done on purpose so Cregger and Co can rattle the penny tin and ask the audience for a sequel down the line and that pisses me off, if you all want a damn sequel how about making the first film work first, it’s not that fucking hard YEESH,

And so that was Resident Evil and it’s a lot of fun despite the ending, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Heart of the Beast (2026)

Heart of the Beast is the new movie by David Ayer and stars Brad Pitt as a retired army sergeant who is travelling around the countryside with his combat support dog Odie when he suffers a heart attack and his plane crashes in the wilderness leaving them both stranded to find a way home and avoid perils such as wolves and bears and logs.

Heart of the Beast is a perfectly fine and enjoyable survival action film that is well anchored by Brad Pitt who brings a calm steadiness to his role while also selling the pain and loss of his army years and the battles he and Odie saw in their time in uniform, JK Simmonds is also good here but his role is really only in 2 scenes at most,

The real star here is Uber the dog who plays Odie and he is a very good boy, every time he came on screen with those beautiful doggo eyes, I was like “Awww look at the doggy” and he and Pitt are great together on screen and this movie wouldn’t work without Uber being as good as he is,

And so that was Heart of the Beast, an enjoyable survival thriller that is well made and has a good boy doggo at its centre, 3 out of 5

Film Review - Digger (2026)

Digger is the new movie by Alejandro Inarritu and stars Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell a successful Oil Tycoon who is tasked with preventing an environmental catastrophe when an iceberg linked to one of his energy projects breaks free and is headed towards Europe and as the President (John Goodman) says “Digger got us into this mess and he’s gonna dig us out of it”

Digger is not a good movie despite some standout moments and the main reason for that is to me it takes what is a very serious issue (in this case a climate and environmental catastrophe) and instead of treating it with seriousness and a sense of anger it plays it mostly for laughs and I didn’t find myself laughing really at all while watching this movie,

Now I understand that satirical/comedic movies have been made about serious real world issues but the thing about good satire (and good comedy for that matter) is that the people making that satire have a fundamental understanding of the person and/or issue that their satirizing but this movie does not have that, it wants to instead just point and laugh at the issue and of the silly accents and over the top parodies that might have worked on The Late Show Australia or Saturday Night Live but at 2 hours it more than wears out its welcome,

What I wanted instead was a film full of righteous fury and anger at not only those responsible for the mess but also us as audience members for letting it happen and prioritizing the short term ahead of the greater good and the person I kept thinking of after I saw it and I was digging through it in my head was a young Oliver Stone,

For when you look back at the movies that made his name as a director such as Platoon/Wall Street/Talk Radio and JFK (I haven’t seen Born on the Fourth of July which is why I haven’t listed it here) those films had that anger that fury at their core in regards to how the greed and hubris of a few left only devastation for the many in its wake and Platoon and JFK in particular highlight this in terms of how one event led to a devastating war in Vietnam (one that Stone himself took part in and informed Platoon as a movie) and how in both Wall Street and Talk Radio he showed how charismatic individuals be they talk show hosts or businessmen can ruin almost everything they touch and sometimes simply because they can,

And that was what I wanted from Digger, that sense of “THIS IS THE MESS YOU ALL CREATED WHEN YOU GOT GREEDY, ALL OF THIS IS YOUR DOING”, “The Land is Undeveloped but Rich with Raw Energy and Job Creation” and “YOU’RE A WEAK LEADER, YOU CAVED WHEN YOU SHOULD FIGHT” funnily enough there is one scene in this movie where Digger is addressing what looks like the European Parliament (this scene is in the trailers) and he does point the finger and I sat there thinking “he’s not wrong, they have to take their share of responsibility for what’s happening as well” and if the film had more of that as well as more anger and fury and seriousness instead of bad laughs and satire it would’ve worked much better,

As for Tom Cruise, he’s fine but his wacky accent gets grating after a while and when I was watching it I thought to myself “I wish the Tom Cruise that was recorded yelling at his crew members on the Mission: Impossible set during Covid was in this movie” as that Cruise could’ve done wonders with this role but instead it just feels like another show off performance by a big star, as for the other actors such as John Goodman/Jesse Plemons/Sandra Hueller/Riz Ahmed their okay but felt one note,

And lastly I had this thought as well, if there was someone out there who had the power of a Super Saiyan from Dragon Ball flowing through their veins and they really knew how to use it with the precision of a surgical tool as opposed to a blunt instrument, people like Digger and others would find their prestige to be nothing more than an empty title and their wealth wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s printed on,

And so that was Digger and its another 2026 movie that I just wish was better than it is because there is a great film full of sound of fury at its heart in here but instead it feels more like a tale told by idiots and what is instead said with irony should’ve been said with conviction, what a piece of work is man, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Coyote vs Acme (2026)

Coyote vs Acme is the second Looney Tunes movie to be released by Ketchup Entertainment after buying it from Warner Brothers and concerns Wile E. Coyote deciding to sue the Acme corporation for faulty equipment after the constant attempts to catch the Road Runner blow up in his face so he enlists the help of a local law firm (Will Forte and Lana Condor) but they’ll have to take on Acme’s top lawyer (John Cena) to win the case.

Coyote vs Acme is a mixed bag for me, firstly the blending of live action and animation works really well and the animated characters blend in seamlessly and the Looney Tunes characters are used fairly well here (I particularly liked the use of Foghorn Leghorn as the Governor) and the film has some great visual gags reminiscent of the classic Looney Tunes shorts,

But for me this movie just isn’t a patch on those classic shorts mainly because the story of the film began to bother me a little after a while, the whole point of the classic Road Runner cartoons was that the Coyote was foiled in attempting to catch the Road Runner and to take that and do this “what if” type scenario with the Acme corporation bothered me the more this movie went on,

And also, I don’t quite know if these Looney Tunes characters work as well in feature length form, the classic cartoons were 7-8-minute-long shorts and worked beautifully in that format whereas here and in the past, they have struggled to sustain a feature film long story and I’m someone that is still fond of 1996’s Space Jam despite it being as much about Michael Jordan as it was the Looney Tunes characters,

As for the cast their okay, Condor and Cena fare the best here as they clearly understand what movie their in and play to its strengths well, as for Forte his down on his luck lawyer character also bothered me after a while and his sad sack type performance dragged the film down after a while,

And so that was Coyote vs Acme and it has its moments but in the end wore out its welcome for me and just made me want to appreciate the classic cartoons even more which have been popular sellers for Warner Home Video over the years and maybe that’s where it should stay for me at least, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom (2026)

Shaun the Sheep the Beast of Mossy Bottom is the new Aardman animation film and concerns Shaun’s farmer wanting to impress the local Vet but he’s also lost most of his hair and due to a mix up with a scientific experiment Shaun has been conducting to restore their damaged Pumpkin crop the Farmer is turned into a hairy Bigfoot esque creature and so Shaun, the other sheep and the Farmdog must work together to save the day.

The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a pure delight of a film and the first reason for that is the animation, it is stop motion animated and it really shows on screen, there’s a tactile quality to what your watching that makes it feel real and tangible as opposed to some CG animated films that can at times look very computer-ish,

Also the film brims with heart and character, Shaun tries to do the right thing in this movie and when it all goes sideways and he has to try and fix it you are invested in him wanting to fix the Pumpkin crop as well as trying to avoid the Sheep Dog on the Farm plus you want to see the Farmer succeed in winning the heart of the local Vet.

And lastly the film is very funny, there are a lot of times where I not only smiled but laughed a lot out loud in my cinema seat and Aardman Animation are very good at using humour in their films without it undercutting or undermining the more serious moments in their storytelling and this movie is no exception,

And so that was Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom and I loved every minute of it, it has great animation, a warm heart and is very funny, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Fall 2: Deadpoint (2026)

Fall 2: Deadpoint is the sequel to the 2022 film Fall and sees Shiloh’s sister Jax (Harriet Slater) struggling to deal with the death of her sister and her friend Luce (Arsema Thomas) decide to go to Thailand to trek across a deadly mountain trail full of wooden planks but soon they get trapped up on the mountain they must find a way down.

I enjoyed Fall in 2022 more than I thought I would, it had a good premise (especially for a horror esque franchise) and was well made and happily this sequel was enjoyable as well, I prefer the first film overall but it’s not by a wide margin,

Firstly, the mountain trail in Thailand is well filmed with some nice shots of the view from that high up, the rusty bolts and chains that could break or come loose at any moment and the perilous plans the characters must take to try and call for help,

The two leads are also appealing as well as Slater and Thomas work well together as a pair like the pair in the first film did and they support each other well, also delivering good work as directors are the Sperig brothers who make the most of the heights and tension of the moments,

But where this movie does fall down is in its storytelling, there is a side plot regarding drugs here that feels totally unnecessary and could’ve been removed without it affecting the main “we’re stuck really high up, HELP US PLEASE” story one little bit and that is why I do prefer the first film to this sequel as that stuck to core premise and didn’t deviate from it whereas here the drugs storyline bogs it down.

And so that was Fall 2: Deadpoint and it’s an enjoyable sequel and I would happily watch some more of these but next time lean into the horror of heights more okay, 3 out of 5

Film Review - Practical Magic 2 (2026)

Practical Magic 2 is the sequel to the 1998 film Practical Magic and once again stars Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock as Gillian and Sally Owens, sisters who are also witches but when Sally’s Daughter Kylie (Joey King) falls in love and the family curse hits her boyfriend she travels to England to try and break it.

Practical Magic 2 is not a terrible film by any means but its also not that great either and the main reason for that is the screenplay which takes so long to tell its story and at times feels so slow to get moving that by the time you get to England and everything that takes place there feels a little anticlimactic and the climax in particular felt like a bit of a letdown,

The other main issue here is that the story setup for the film is built around Kylie’s relationship with her boyfriend that is barely developed and because of that I didn’t find myself feeling all that invested in whether that was going to work out or not,

And what makes this feels worse is the cast here is good, Kidman bounces around this movie with the energy and vitality of someone half her age and it feels like that if she takes over this movie’s plot then you could easily shave 20 minutes off of the runtime and the movie would’ve benefited from it, Lee Pace (aka Brother Day in the Apple TV series Foundation and the main reason I went to see this movie) is also good as a Professor of Black Magic while Joey King and Maisie Williams are okay as the two daughters but they don’t get as much screen time together as they deserved.

As for Sandra Bullock I did not like her in this movie mainly because Sally is written as a buttoned up nagger who denies her magical heritage and after a while it not only gets boring but drags on for too long and Bullock is at her best when she gets to play warm and energetic characters like she did in Demolition Man, Speed and Minions whereas here it felt like she was playing against her natural strengths and it didn’t work,

And lastly the film is simply too long, it goes for over 2 hours, and it shows especially by the end and if a good 20-25 minutes was cut out of this movie it would not only have worked a whole lot better and made the story not feel so dragged out that it almost overstays its welcome.

And so that was Practical Magic 2 and with this cast you wish for a better movie than this one as I certainly did, oh well you win some you lose some, 2 out of 5.