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.

Film Review - Holy Days (2026)

Holy Days takes place in 1970’s New Zealand and concerns Brian (Elijah Tamati) who is mourning the loss of his mother and is struggling to accept her loss, he also likes to visit a nearby convent that has only 3 Sisters left in it (Judy Davis, Jacki Weaver and Miriam Margolyes) but when they hear of a plan to sell the convent to a property developer they race to find the deeds so they can save it.

Holy Days is good fun and a movie I chuckled at a fair bit while watching it, first of all the film has a good natured sense of humour to it and veteran talents such as Davis, Weaver and Margolyes who know how to time the laughs to get a good laugh out of the cinema audience watching it, Tamati is also a good young lead as Brian and sells both the humour and tragedy of his character well.

The film also has fun using clay animation for some of the films montage moments as the group are travelling New Zealand to save their home and it serves as a good reminder that people make these movies and not machines.

And so that was Holy Days it’s a good fun romp that has good humour and good performances, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Wizard of the Kremlin (2026)

The Wizard of the Kremlin stars Paul Dano as Vadim Baranov a Russian TV producer who is recruited in the 1990’s to help Vladimir Putin (Jude Law) rise to power in a post Cold War Russia.

The Wizard of the Kremlin is the kind of movie that feels like catnip for me, a historical drama about a real life figure and the history they create as well as the history we can learn from but this movie while it has some good archival footage simply does not tell that story very well.

Firstly this movie feels so episodic that title cards literally come up on the cinema screen and after a while I started to think that perhaps this should’ve been a streaming series for Netflix or Stan or Prime Video because there you could have taken the time to really dive into the history of post Cold War Russia, the drinking years of Boris Yeltsin (I still remember the news headlines about him as well as shows like the Simpsons making jokes about him) and how someone like Putin could rise to power and hold it with an iron grip because he is a fascinating figure for better or worse.

And Jude Law does a great job as Putin in this movie and I had my doubts about him in that role after seeing the trailer but happily I was wrong, he has the facial expressions down pat and shows off the ruthlessness and the drive of the man very well but sadly he is in so little of the film that he feels like an afterthought and we don’t really see any of the ruthlessness that he in real life is known for apart from a tiny bit towards the end of the film.

Instead we get many scenes of Paul Dano as Vadim talking in a slow voice and very softly and at 2 and a half hours it just feels like it goes on and on and on and I wanted more of Jude Law in the film, Jeffrey Wright and Alicia Vikander are good in their roles but they like Law come and go.

And in the end what should be a thrilling and compelling story with parallels of history running through its veins ends up a dull slog to sit through and there is a far far better movie here waiting to get out.

And so that was the Wizard of the Kremlin and this spell did not work for me, it should be one of my favourites of the year and instead its one of the worst especially with a fascinating person at the heart of this story that ends up feeling sidelined and to the movies detriment, 1 out of 5.