Film Reviews 2025

 

Drama

General

Best: Conclave - Better than the book as no clues (Prime)
Soundtrack: Tornado – Nasty Tim Roth and gang chase girl to retrieve gold. Does not end well. Ace music by Budapest Art Orchestra (Prime)
Magical realism: The Son of a Thousand Men - Fisherman longing for a son finds connections to other misfits in this Portuguese offering based on a book (Netflix)
Classic: This is England - Everyday tale of skins in 1980’s Britain. Strangely our first watch (Film 4)
Scenic: Train Dreams – Logger helps clear land for railway across America, prettily filmed at golden hour (Netflix)
Quirkiest: When You Finish Saving the World - Social work mum struggles to connect with teenage son. Funny and quirky directorial debut by Jesse Eisenberg (Netflix)
Low budget: Greyhawk - Blind army vet searches council estate for stolen dog (Prime)
Social issue: The Old Oak - Syrian refugees win hearts of Durham ex: mining villagers in gooey Mike Leigh film (Netflix)
Romance
Emily - Imagined affair of Emily Bronte, quite dark in places then they all died, ha, ha! (Netflix)
Action/Thriller

Best: The Accountant 2 - Wolf and brother solve missing family case, rescue trafficked kids. Clever, enjoyable sequel (Prime)
Close second: Dirty Angels - Crack female team rescue girls kidnapped by ISIS. Manic and graphic in places (Prime)
Twistiest: Exterritorial - German woman gets trapped in US consulate (Netflix)
Daftest: Fast X - Jason Momoa hilarious as the camp baddie in this tenth ludicrous outing for Vin and crew. Shut the front door’! (Netflix)
Stunts: G20 - President Viola Davis foils terrorists. Imaginative stunts (Prime)
Fun: The Critic - Ian McKellan hams it up as nasty critic with fatal results (Prime)
So bad it’s good: Left To Die - Rich people dump victims on island to harvest organs. Bad but fun (Prime)
Pedestrian: Relay - Lily James seeks protection from ex: employers (Prime)
Maddest: Ballad of a Small Player - Colin Farrell as fake gambling lord in Macau (Netflix)
Disaster: The Bullet Train Explosion - Bomb on Japanese bullet train means it can’t stop or slow down. unoriginal and overlong but entertaining and perp not who you’d expect (Netflix)
Adventure: Beyond the Mask - Former East India Co mercenary thwarts evil uncle and wins fair maiden while aiding Franklin to establish independent US (Netflix)

Bio
Best: Minamata - Photojournalist Eugene Smith (J Depp) investigates chemical poisoning in Japan. Excellent (Prime)
Close second: The Way Back - Prisoners escape Siberian Gulags, walk to India (Prime)
Hillbilly Elegy - J.D. Vance reflects on grim early life. Would be inspirational if he’d turned out decent (Netflix)
Crime: The Order - FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law) hunts white power supremacists led by nutter Bob Matthews (Nicholas Hoult) in 1980’s Pacific Northwest (Prime)
British: Bank of Dave 2 - The Loan Ranger - See what they did there? Gentle, funny, entertaining (Netflix)
Political: Words of War - Human rights journo Anna Politkovskaya (Maxine Peake) reports on horrific events in Chechnya. Unauthorised version of true events (Prime)
Grim: Sound of Freedom - Ex: FBI agent foils traffickers and rescues kids. Grim but good (Prime)

Disappointing omission: Sing Sing - Convicts seek rehabilitation through the arts. Mainly non-actor cast. Would have been better if the actual play was included, as the comedy Hamlet clips were hilarious (Prime)
Educational: Experimenter - Psychologist Sydney Milgram is maligned for ‘evil’ experiments (Prime)
The Promised Land/Bastarden - Mads Mikkelson as man who battled the odds to cultivate Jutland helped by Tater people (BBC iPlayer)
Royal Tales: Margrete, Queen of The North - Danish queen unites Nordic countries, long-dead son returns, or does he? (BBC iPlayer)
Grace of Monaco - Nicole Kidman as the princess and Tim Roth as Rainier, navigate tricky times with France (Prime)
Jeanne du Barry - Woman becomes lover of Louis XV (an amusing J Depp). By and starring Maiwenn (Prime)
Religious: Jesus Revolution - Intriguing story of the hippy Christian movement (Netflix)

Romance: Priscilla – A life with Elvis. Girly but okay (Netflix)

 

Spy

Inheritance - Woman follows dad in globe: trotting spy larks (Prime)
Chief of Station - Agent whose wife is killed uncovers dastardly CIA twisty doings (Prime)

Crime

Grimmest: Red Riding Trilogy – Part 1, young journalist uncovers corruption in 1974 in this classic telly film, excellent cast, grim, depressingly not much changed since; Part 2, set in 1980, at time of Yorkshire ripper, just as cheery; Part 3, in 1983, best of the lot. Based on David Peace’s Yorkshire Noir books.  (Netflix)

Action: She Rides Shotgun - Ex: con tries to protect daughter from nasty supremacist gang. Good acting and action, if predictable (Prime)

Convoluted: The Minute You Wake Up Dead - Convoluted series of murders, including sheriff Morgan Freeman. Entertaining (Prime)

British: The Thursday Murder Club - Old poshos solve crimes in gently comedic fashion (Netflix)

Low budget: Irish Ashes - Man returns to inter mum’s ashes, uncovers family’s gangster past. Superior acting to most cheapies (Prime)
Mystery: The Woman in Cabin 10 - Journo Keira Knightly gets to bottom of mysterious doings on bellend’s yacht (Netflix)

Prison: Animal Factory - A wiry Willem Dafoe befriends a young Ed Furlong in the pen (DVD)
Locations: Equalizer 3 - Denzil creates mayhem in Italy. Good locations, Italian dialogue required subtitles (Netflix)
Heist: Goodland - Men plan bank heists in smalltown Kansas, slow and relaxing till it all kicked off. Reminiscent of spaghetti westerns (Prime)
Den of Thieves- Pantera - Grumpy Gerard Butler infiltrates heist gang. Flash with funny bits (Prime)
Sequel: Inside Man- Most Wanted – Crew rob Nazi gold from Federal Reserve. A touch of the Money Heist (Netflix)
Crime Musical - Emilia Perez: Mexican cartel boss recruits lawyer to help him transition. Odd Oscar-winning French opera libretto do, amazing choreography. (Netflix)
Crime Comedy: See How They Run - People planning a Mousetrap movie get bumped off in theatre. Nice locations and décor (Film 4)
Spoof: Hooligan Factory - Hilarious Brit hooligan film spoof, despite a disappointing lack of footie (DVD)
Stupidest: Clue - Tim Curry and Christopher Lloyd in old caper based on the game. Daft but a laugh (Netflix)
Mediocre: Death Pursuit - Vinnie Jones in predictable, mindless mayhem (Prime)
Riff Raff - Ex: crim’s old family come visiting. In a great cast, Jennifer Coolidge (Legally Blonde) the funniest (Prime)
Most dragged out: Wake Up, Dead Man (A Knives Out Mystery) - Benoit solves murder of priest, fun and entertaining but overlong (Netflix)

War

Iraq: Warfare – ‘Honest’, real-time telling of US Navy seal operation gone wrong (Prime)

WW1: 1917 - Overdue rerun, lots of running, massive sets, awesome sound (DVD)

WW1 Bio: Britannic - Titanic sister ship comes a cropper (Prime)

Company K - Rare tale of Gis in trenches. Cheap and hokey but interesting (DVD)

WW2: Sisu - Finnish gold prospector foils Nazis (Netflix)

Bio: The Captain - Mad true story of deserter Willi Herold pretending to be a decorated captain, overseeing executions in last days of war. Artily made, clever juxtaposition with modern Germany during end credits (Prime)

The World Will Tremble - Jews escape first Nazi death camp to tell the world. Not cheery but very good (Prime)

Comedy: The Wipers Times - Soldiers at Ypres produce satirical paper (Prime)

Grimmest: The Painted Bird – Abandoned boy crosses Poland, encountering violence and abuse from locals and Nazis alike. Grim but good (Prime)

Field Post - German soldiers on eastern front at bitter end of the war escape from Soviets. An accidental Christmas film (Prime)

Romance: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Writer visits said society post-war, falls in love (BBC)

Western

Best: Place of Bones - Heather Graham and daughter eke out living in wild west while besieged by men (Prime)

Horror: Ghosts of the Ozarks - Young doctor encounters eerie goings on in remote post-civil war community. Cheap, creepy, good (Prime)

Sci: fi: Bad Land- Road to Fury (aka Young Ones) – Drought-stricken farmer hangs on for water. Echoes of Power of the Dog (Prime)

Sci-fi

Best: Civil War - Journos traverse a near-future dystopian warring US to find despot president (Prime)
Fast-paced: Terminator- Dark Fate - Second viewing of this excellent romp. Linda Hamilton amusingly sarcastic (Netflix)
Time-travel: Our Times - Mexican couple travel from 1960’s to 2025, minds blown by tech and social changes (Netflix)
Animation: Beneath - Explorers below ice on Titan face danger. So-so story, good CGI (Prime)
Music: Helix - Cop in post-apocalyptic Vancouver uncovers mistakes in governing computer system. Mediocre but good music (Prime)

Mind-bending: Bonded by Blood – (Spoiler) Cloned boy turns out to be killer (Prime)
Hypnotic - In a world of constructs created by ‘hypnotics’, a cop teams up with agent to solve mystery of missing daughter. Interesting (Prime)
Baffling: Ultrasound - A confusing tale of intertwined lives and weird experiments (Prime)

In Vitro - Aussie cattle rancher clones wife. Motive oddly unfathomable (Prime)
Riverworld - Deceased from different ages are reborn in mysterious land. Pilot of unmade series based on Philip José Famer saga. Great riverboat (Prime)
Lockdown: Portal - People in various locations investigate alien doors. Anthology of 4 films, made amidst covid lockdowns (Prime)
Glasshouse –South African cultish family sheltering in greenhouse from airborne virus take in injured outsider. Inspired by and filmed during the pandemic. Weird (Prime)
Low budget: The Artifice Girl - AI created to hunt paedophiles gains awareness (Film 4)
Out of Time - LA detective hunts down escaped aliens (Prime)
European: Brick - Mysterious wall traps German couple in apartment (Netflix)
Religious: Fair Rain - After the rapture, resistance protect holy book from evil government. Different (Prime)

Horror

Best: Frankenstein - Gullermo Del Torro’s brilliant telling of the old classic, faithful to the book, great sets and locations (Netflix)

Creepiest: A cure for Wellness – Sinister goings-on in Swiss sanatorium (Netflix)

Modern times: Locked - Thief gets locked into expensive car by rich owner (Prime)

Interesting: The Offering - Hasidic Jewish undertakers battle demons (Netflix)

Low budget: Interlopers - No-budget Brit flick in 3 parts, made during weekends over 3 years round Manchester (Prime)

Underwhelming: Holland - Nicole Kidman in seemingly idyllic community suspects husband of affair (Prime)

Christian: The Remaining - Apocalyptic and scary telling of the rapture trope (Netflix)

The Devil Conspiracy - Satanic bio-tech clone Lucifer, or is it Jesus? Bonkers (Prime)

Exorcism: The Ritual - Al Pacino plays real-life Fr. Theophilus Riesinger exorcising Emma Smidt/Anna Eklund, documented 1928. Spooky! (Prime)

The Pope’s Exorcist - Russell Crowe as Fr. Gabriele Amorth expels demons (Netflix)

Exorcist The Beginning - Prequel reveals origins of the evil. Well thought-out, spookily convincing, unlike The Exorcist Believer (the fourth instalment) which was slow and unscary, Ann Dowd (aka Aunt Lydia) the highlight (Netflix)

HP Lovecraft: The Whisperer in Darkness - Sceptical prof uncovers monsters in Vermont. Effectively filmed in fake old-style by HP Lovecraft History Society (Prime)

Call of Cthulhu - Old silent film based on HPL story. Good monster (Prime)

Stephen King: 1922 – Man’s written confession of wife’s killing, adapted from S. King’s novella in Full Dark No Stars (Netflix)

Vampire: The Last Voyage of the Demeter - Vampire tale based on a chapter from Dracula (Prime)

Zombies: Herd - Couple mystifyingly go camping amidst zombie apocalypse. Some good ideas (Prime)

Road Wars - Low rent Mad Max effort with rabid zombies (Prime)

War Horror: Ghosts of War - GIs hold a French chateau occupied by Nazis in 1944. All not what it seems, takes an odd turn (Prime)

Sci-fi Horror: Osiris - Marines run around shooting, get sucked up to spaceship, run around shooting aliens with unconvincing Russian Linda Hamilton (Prime)

Comedy                                             

Best: Barbie - NOT a kid’s film in my opinion. Hilarious (Prime)

Freaky Tales - Lives collide in 1980’s Oakland, lots of period detail, very entertaining (Prime)

The Wrath of Becky - Orphan seeks revenge on men who killed those she loved. Very funny (Netflix)
Silly: Mindhorn - Apparent IOM serial killer will only speak to fictional detective. Silly fun (Netflix)
The Killer’s Game - Hitman Dave Bautista takes out contract on himself, changes his mind, bedlam with madcap fight scenes ensues (Prime)

Head of State - Idris Elba and John Cena get stuck after Airforce 1 crash. Amusing mayhem (Prime)
Zoolander 2 - Daft model Derek goes in search of his son. Bonkers (DVD)
Get Duked - Lads on DOE mission come across undead old people. Amusing in places (Prime)
Touching: Dough - Jewish baker employs young refugee from Darfur, suspicion turns to friendship. Touchingly funny (Prime)
The Problem with People - Irish man gets Yank cousin to go meet dying dad (Prime)
Self Reliance – Man recruited to dark web reality show thwarts assassins (Netflix)
Indian - Ek Chata r Naar (A Clever Woman): Young woman gets the better of corrupt men (Netflix)
Action: The Nice Guys - Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe team up to rescue missing girl (Prime)

Back in Action - Ex: agents Jamie Fox and Cameron Diaz drag their kids into action (Netflix)

Bio: Nonnas - Grieving man recruits grans to cook in Statton Island restaurant (Netflix)

Misbehaviour - Women’s Lib founders disrupt Miss World 1970. Full of amusing cliches (Netflix)
Sci-fi  - Asteroid City - Wes Anderson nonsensical amusement (Netflix)                                                                                                                                       
Crime - Deep Cover - Bent cop Sean Bean recruits improv comedians to infiltrate drugs gang (Prime)
Horror - Boys from County Hell - Northern Irish take on the vampire tale based on belief that the legendary evil dwarf Abhartach inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Prime)
Death of a Unicorn - Man and daughter on way to meet millionaire Richard E Grant run over unicorn, attempts to harness magic power, come a cropper (Prime)

The Menu - Chef reveals dark side to restaurant diners on remote island. Surreally satirical, like an updated Luis Buñuel (Film 4)Musical: The Return of Captain Invincible - Disgraced hero returns to save world from evil Chris Lee, in 1983 Aussie romp, echoing Rocky Horror (Prime)
Historic: Anonymous - Roland Emerich imagines Shakespeare isn’t the real playwright (DVD)
Stockholm Bloodbath - Entertainingly told tale of power struggle between Denmark and Sweden 1520 (Prime)
Spoof: Cunk on Life - Philomena expounds on life’s mysteries, bigger budget spent on unnecessary globe-trotting and odd meta segue into Black Mirror, but still funny (Netflix)
I’m Still Here - Joaquin Phoenix does bad hip hop, director Casey Affleck denies it’s a mockumentary (DVD)

Musical

Bio: Bob Marley One Love - Biopic of the legendary Marley, good singalong (Netflix)

Maria - Last week of Maria Callas’ life with flashbacks. Dreamy, pretentious, clever, Angelina Jolie amazing (Netflix)

Kids: Wonka - Timothe Chalamet as the eponymous character in this jolly prequel (Prime)

 

YA:

Historic: Born to be Great- Alexander of Macedonia - Watchable telling of Alexander’s early life (Prime)

Sci: fi: The Electric State - Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt in a land of robots (Netflix)

Fantasy: Damsel - MBB foils evil royals. Ace dragon (Netflix)

 

Fantasy

Best: Aquaman and The Last Kingdom - Colourful mayhem (Prime)

Low budget: The Hallowed Knight - Knight runs away from losing battle to spooky forest. Arty black and white, good music. Apparently made for the grand price of £3k (Prime)

Visuals: In the Lost Lands - Witch Milla Jovovich and hunter David Bautista team up. Long-winded but good visuals (Netflix)

Weirdness: The Show - Alan Moore oversees strange goings-on in Northampton. Weirdly entertaining, mad soundtrack (Prime)

Needless spoiler: The Rats: A Witcher’s Tale - Dolph Lundgren joins the gang in this season 4 prequel. Starts with needless spoiler (Netflix)

Comic

The Old Guard 2 - Charlize Theron & co fight original ‘immortal’ Uma Thurman, or is she? Perplexing, possibly set up for part 3 (Netflix)

Dampyr - Son of ‘Drac’ becomes vampire hunter during Balkan wars. Based on Italian comic, more planned (Netflix)

Hellboy: The Crooked Man - Comic character goes questing. Moderate amusement, good music (Prime)

 

Arthouse

Arthouse/Fantasy: The Book of Vision - Dreamlike mystery flitting between present day and 18^th century (Prime)

Melodrama: Helen of Four Gates - A long overdue watch, literally silent, amusing pathos (BFI)

 

Documentary

The Thinking Game - Creation and evolution of AGI Deep Mind, quite interesting, Not Sci: fi as the blurb said! (Prime)

 

Christmas

War/WW2: Winter in Wartime - Dutch boy hides British pilot from Nazis. A repeat watch for this excellent story (DVD)

Documentary/AI: A Very Pagan Christmas - Explains links between pagan traditions and modern-day customs such as Christmas tree, Santa, illustrated by AI graphics (Prime)

Horror: The Wolf of Snow Hollow - Alcoholic cop pursues serial killer in small mountain town (Prime)

Crime/Romcom: Jingle Bell Heist - Shopworker teams up with sacked employee to con boss. Romcom masquerading as heist film (Netflix)