Bullet Train (2022, dir. David Leitch)

Multiple gangsters and assassins with varying motives are aboard the same shinkansen. Too-pleased-with-itself slapstick thriller, adapted from the novel Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka. Some early stuff works, but there’s little control over the premise, so it falls apart despite committed work from star Brad Pitt and others. A hack approach to Japan doesn’t help.

Here’s the trailer.

Mortal Kombat (2021, dir. Simon McQuoid)

VFX laden film reboot of the now tired violent 90s video game where good and evil martial artists with special powers battle to the death. Checkbox ticking fan pleasing fap-along! Visually pretty in places – but the dull gaps between fights will quickly exhaust your brains and patience!

Sunshine (2007, dir. Danny Boyle)

A last-ditch effort to restart the Sun through deploying a nuclear device goes awry. Handsome though derivative SF that can’t decide if it’s an arthouse piece or a mainstream thriller. In trying to be both, and in quoting from Alien, 2001, 2010, Silent Running, Event Horizon, Dark Star and others along the way, it struggles for clarity and distinctiveness.