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.

Film Review - The Dog Stars (2026)

The Dog Stars is the new movie by Ridley Scott and stars Jacob Elordi as Hig, a mechanic who lives in a post-apocalyptic world where an unknown virus has killed most of the population but he still likes to fly his plane into a nearby town for supplies and lives with his friend Bangley (Josh Brolin), one plane trip he is forced to land where he meets Cima (Margaret Qualley) and Pops her father (Guy Pearce) and the three decide to team up to try and find the lost Grand Junction,

The Dog Stars like Gladiator II which was Ridley Scott’s previous film looks good on a big cinema screen, the overgrown/run down look of the world, the various green hills and farm land, the empty buildings that looked rotted away and dirtied down are all very effective and they do a good job of bringing you into the world of the film which Ridley Scott has been so good at for so many decades be it Alien/Blade Runner/The Martian as well as movies like Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven,

The film also has a solid cast giving good performances, Elordi makes for an effective leading man and on a couple of occasions he reminded a little of Mel Gibson in the Mad Max movies and he would’ve made a good Max in a different timeline of movie making, Josh Brolin is fine as the typical grizzled survivor who shoots first and asks questions later if at all while Guy Pearce and Margaret Qualley also deliver good work in their roles,

But where this movie falls over is the screenplay and this is a sadly too common an occurrence with Ridley Scott and his movie making, the best films of his combine his great eye for world building and visual immersion with good storytelling and compelling characters and his best 2 films (for me at least) Alien and Blade Runner do this perfectly, those films have tremendous visual design where the sets look like 3 dimensional paintings combined with memorable characters and storytelling that compels you,

Here the storytelling is so all over the place you find yourself going “what the fuck” on a couple of occasions whether it be the attempts at romance between Hig and Cina, Cina’s character arc in general feeling confusing at times, the Mad Max-esque crazies that roam the world which felt like knockoffs of the War Boys from the recent Mad Max movies and then one section with Allison Janney that honestly felt like a different movie altogether,

And also the world the film takes place in feels so vague and ill explained that I sat there wanting a Mad Max 2-esque opening that sets up this world and how we got here especially given how the real world has been 6 years since its own pandemic in Covid and it’s a connection I found myself wishing the film had made,

And so that was the Dog Stars and this is not one of Ridley Scott’s worst but it is very very clear that like Tim Burton he really needs a good screenwriter at his side to bring out the best in his work, it has happened before and I hope it happens again before Ridley either retires or passes away, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - One Night Only (2026)

One Night Only is directed by Will Gluck and stars Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro as 2 Single people (Turner plays Owen and Barbaro plays Ally) who live in a dystopian future where the US Government has outlawed Premarital Sex and single people can only have sex on one night of the year (talk about throwing the bare minimum of bones to people) and Owen and Ally keep running into each other while trying to get it on with others but the clock is ticking and will they/won’t they keep from falling in love.

One Night Only has the ideas for 2 good movies in it, one about the outlawing of Premarital Sex in the US and how society might push back against that and see it overturned and the other a fun breezy “night on the town” esque rom com with 2 appealing leads but instead this movie throws both of those ideads together into the screenwriting blender and neither is done very well at all.

Which is a shame because Mr Dua Lipa-sorry-Callum Turner and Barbaro make for an appealing pair and have good chemistry in their scenes together and throughout the movie I kept waiting for them to get together already so we can just have many scenes of them walking around/looking into each other’s eyes/keeping Dua Lipa away from the set when Turner has to do kissing scenes (I’m sorry I kept making Dua Lipa jokes in my head while watching the movie) but nope the movie has to have the two of them running breathlessly around New York City avoiding each other while the audience is sitting there going “JUST GET TOGETHER ALREADY”

And as for the “Mandate” as the movie depicts it well that’s a whole other comedy right there but its just there in the background and most people in this world just go about their life as if its just accepted and yet in real life we would see HUGE push back/protests/marches/resistance against such an idea as anyone could end up in that ban through a separation or a divorce and there’s nothing they could do about it.

There are also some fun cameos one of which made me smile big time knowing the show they starred in.

And so that was One Night Only and there’s 2 great movies in here but this 1 movie uses both ideads poorly but it’s not that terrible thanks to its charming leads, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - The End of Oak Street (2026)

The End of Oak Street stars Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as a couple living with their kids in their local neighbourhood when one night some strange lights go off outside their house and when they go to investigate, they find dinosaurs roaming the streets and the race is on to try and survive to Dino Mash (The Dino Mash).

The End of Oak Street is a mixed bag for me movie wise, the best thing about it easily is Anne Hathaway who is having a great year with this, The Odyssey and the Devil Wears Prada 2 and here is no exception, she not only does a great job with the warm motherly moments but she also finds to be an effective horror heroine as her expressive eyes and face are put to great effect in that part of the film, in fact while watching her in this movie I thought to myself “I hope she does a horror film role soon as she would be great at it”

I also thought the film was well made and made good use of its suburban neighbourhood setting which was framed very well with its houses on hills and big backyards and slightly annoying neighbours and the dinosaur parts of the story were merged well into that location.

But as for the film overall it wasn’t for me, I’m sorry to say as throughout most of the movie I found myself feeling bored while watching it as this movie so desperately wants to be an Amblin/Spielberg type of films (hell this movie has JJ Abrams as its lead producer) and instead it feels like an Amazing Stories (which was a TV series created by Spielberg in the 1980’s) segment stretched out to a feature film and while it isn’t a long film it was also one that didn’t engage me all that much.

What also doesn’t help is that the Amblin feel is one that many many others have tried to replicate since the 1980’s and a lot of them have failed and I think I am now at a point where these recreations have grown tiresome for me, I really would like something that speaks to now in 2026 where we’re 6 years on from a real life pandemic that fundamentally upended how we understood the world and led to us as a society becoming more insular and distrusting and I feel that has to be addressed in media at some stage as it can’t be ignored forever.

And so that was the End of Oak Street and it has its moments but it did very little for me in the end, 2 out of 5.