A murder occurs during a performance of The Mousetrap: an investigation begins. Ever-so-slightly pleased with itself mashup of allsorts – The Real Inspector Hound, Noises Off, Agatha Christie, even a Brian de Palma moment or two – that’s nevertheless brisk, funny, well-played, and looks great.
Here’s the trailer.
On a world where male thoughts are visualised, a young man helps a stranded female astronaut. Ham-fisted loose adaptation of Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go. OK performances help, but a cut-and-shut script and dangling subplots evidence the movie’s troubled production.
Here’s the trailer.
A dying physicist attempts to get a message to a returning spacecraft. Lop-sided though well-meant SF drama, an adaptation of Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton. The story’s wafer-thin, so has to resort to tickbox genre jeopardy done better elsewhere. A shame, as there’s a fine, quiet drama here somewhere.
Here’s the trailer.
A detective races to save the life again of his niece, who is contacting him through time from before her recent murder. Odd timeslip procedural (a cousin to Deja Vu) that succeeds if you go with its premise. Excellent performances and committed direction help no end.
Here’s the trailer.
Reacher investigates a mass-murder committed by a former sniper. First and better of the Tom Cruise adaptations of the Lee Child books, with a focus on old-school lo-fi tough guy thrills, and on a reasonable mystery backed up with excellent character acting.
![Chaos Walking (2021, dir. Doug Liman [and Fede Alvarez])](https://255review.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/chaos-walking-poster.jpg?w=960)
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