Mismatched brothers kidnap a paramedic and her cop patient as part of an LA heist getaway. A superior slice of Bayhem (remaking the 2005 Danish flick of the same name) that’s dumb as rocks, but gleeful and propulsive. An impressive commitment to vehicular destruction, and it looks great throughout. Jake Gyllenhaal clearly has a blast.
Here’s the trailer
A deskbound troubled police officer struggles to solve a possible abduction while working in an LA 911 call centre. Decent US remake of the 2018 Danish thriller of the same name. A stripped-back production that’s effective both as a drama and as a showcase for star Gyllenhaal, who’s onscreen throughout.
Here’s the trailer.
A scientist warns against a new ice age: when it hits, he embarks on a quest to rescue his son. Earnest though daft ecological disaster flick: its environmental messaging gets somewhat lost in soap operatics, awkward storytelling, and contrived menace.
Here’s the trailer.
Peter Parker, on a European school trip with his classmates, comes into contact with both elemental monsters and a new superhero, Mysterio. Upbeat if overlong blend of teen road trip comedy and standard heroic action thrills, acting as a coda to Avengers: Endgame. Well-played and likeable, if episodic on several levels.
Two LA patrol cops cross the paths of a street gang keen to make their mark. Excellent contemporary crime drama focusing on cop camaraderie. A semi-improvised approach and use of found footage give the movie texture, as does the rapport between the lead actors. Recommended.
An ISS research team discover a life-form in a sample of Mars soil. Effective and well-sustained creature feature, making the most of its actors and the limitations of the space station environment to create plausible tension. Recommended for genre fans.
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A woman reads her former husband’s novel. Good-looking though bleak slow-burn thriller intercutting between a novel and its reading; the fiction within the film is more interesting than the frame narrative, though. Michael Shannon superb in support.
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A South Korean girl fights to keep her pet super-pig from the hands of a multinational corporation. Utterly enthralling ET/Pete’s Dragon variant for adults, drawing on Gilliam, Jeunet et Caro, early Besson, Buster Keaton and Studio Ghibli, yet is an original too.
Drama based on the ill-fated 1996 Hall/Fischer Everest expedition. Generally solid, respectful and well-acted mountaineering epic, slightly undone by over-use of CG and by some awkward directorial choices which rob the movie of tension.
A recently-widowed banker reassembles his life. Slight finding-yourself-again flick that does the usual things (wonky almost-romance, child mentor companion), except in a somewhat half-hearted way. A movie built around an idea for a single central scene.
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