Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is glorious proof that Marvel have gone beyond satiating audience expectations and initiating newcomers. It must be difficult for them. With so many prior films and TV shows that audiences need to have seen to get enjoyment out of this film, there must have been someone in the boardroom asking for a little more exposition or flashback-like content. The fact that they’ve stuck to their guns and kept the film as a rollicking, thrill-r

There are some films where you don’t just get entertainment, you get an ‘experience.’ Sometimes you can even hold on the entertaining part. They can immerse you, rattle you and leave you feeling like you’ve endured something. The Northman certainly fits within this bracket. This is no casual Viking action film. Prepare for a little bit of dog murder, multiple horse beheadings, a barn full of children being burned alive, mother snogging and your protagonist killing a man with

A review of the new Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, by Rita Skeeter. "Not sure if you could deem this film an adaptation of my far superior book (The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore) but it certainly seems like that’s the suggestion the Wizarding World team want to make with this third entry in what must now be getting close to being deemed one of the most disappointing franchises in recent memory. Telling the story of Newt Scamander was an intriguing step in t

Ok, hear me out. I've realised there's a peculiar parallel in the album careers of Taylor Swift and Biffy Clyro. Is this cutting edge,...

The first signs of superhero fatigue seem to be settling in amongst the wider public if the scathing feedback to Morbius is anything to go by. Audiences are, hopefully, starting to demand more and want to have their knowledge and commitment rewarded by comic book filmmakers. There was always going to be a scapegoat at some point but, strangely enough, Morbius isn’t entirely deserving of that particular wooden spoon. However, being merely ‘watchable’ now is not nearly enough.

The adventure film is the last genre I expected to have a revival. After sounding its death knell after the failed Tomb Raider and The Mummy remakes it’s since come punching back with the Jumanji films, Jungle Cruise and, now, The Lost City, which looks set to be a commercial hit with some savvy advertising. Fair play to it as well. Like Disney’s Jungle Cruise before it, The Lost City is an enjoyable romp and nothing more than the sum of its, rather good, parts. There’s no un

I think, from a personal level, that first glimpse we got of The Batman in 'that' trailer made from the first few minutes of filmed footage was one of the most exciting film trailers I’d seen. The mood, the music and the all-pervasive darkness just screamed ‘masterpiece.’ It’s been an agonising wait to get the full, three-hour film but it’s finally with us. I don’t think anything could ever live up to that intensity of hype but it gets pretty damn close I’m delighted to say.

Let’s cut straight to the chase: Uncharted does not break the curse of the videogame movie. It seems, at this point, that no console adaptation will even get close to matching its gaming counterpart and Uncharted goes on the bargain bin pile alongside the recent likes of Assassin’s Creed, Sonic the Hedgehog and Warcraft. It doesn’t lack in ambition but for a film that’s been mired in development hell, and effectively ‘on the go’ for 15 years, there’s absolutely no excuse for

Why is it that modern blockbusters just seem very ordinary? This is a genuine question. We’re seeing an awful lot of great looking, great sounding, funny and entertaining films that are absolutely stacked with great casts which are just distinctly ‘meh.’ Is it the sheer amount of new films, the increasing competition in a market now competing with equally big-budget TV or a lack of originality? Death on the Nile is the most recent example. Is it great looking? Absolutely: lo

It definitely seems unfair to criticise a film for being exactly what you expect it to be and, more to the point, exactly what it sets out to be as well. I’m, therefore, going to swing that into a positive and declare that Moonfall is the film you’ll be hoping it is when you enter the multiplex, for good or ill. Sometimes a big, hare-brained disaster film is what you want of an evening and what better daft concept than ‘the moon’s falling into the earth because aliens.’ Rolan

Take a trip down Nightmare Alley for an early contender for the end-of-year tally-up. The latest from Guillermo del Toro, and following a four-year wait after his Oscar win for The Shape of Water, is a suitably creepy and fantastical adaptation of the 1946 novel following the rise and fall of a mysterious drifter-type character who falls in with a carnival troupe in 1930’s America and learns to be a psychic and mesmerist. It’s an absolutely riveting story set in a time period

With apologies for the lack of reviews posted after cinema trips to catch Last Night in Soho, Eternals, King Richard, Spencer, Petite Maman and C’mon C’mon last year (as well as digital releases Red Notice, Finch and Don’t Look Up and a second viewing of Spider-Man: No Way Home – it’s just as good second time around) it’s a resumption of normal service in 2022 for The Brighton Film Club and what a place to start as no less than the great Paul Thomas Anderson has come out of t