The Naked Gun

Liam Neeson’s gleefully bonkers Naked Gun reboot is one of the stupidest films ever made. And that’s a compliment.

Neeson plays the son of Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin. He’s an oblivious detective for the LAPD and he has a knack for barely noticing when all hell breaks loose around him.

The “plot” involves Drebin looking into the seemingly routine death of an engineer. Frank suspects foul play. But his blunt-edged lack of self-awareness gets him taken off the case. Neeson makes a meal out of Frank’s defiance of authority, so it doesn’t take long for him to go rogue and keep sniffing around after hours. The trail leads him to Richard Cane (Danny Huston), a villainous tech entrepreneur who employed the victim. Along the way, he also joins forces (and more, nudge wink) with the victim’s sister, Beth (Pamela Anderson).

The puns are often so bad they’re great and you can see most of the mayhem coming from a mile away. But even though some jokes elicit a groan rather than a genuine chuckle, the hit-to-miss ratio is impressively high. It’s a worthy successor. Frank Sr. would be proud.

Prepare for riotous weekend of tight editing and sharp comic timing as Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz bumps shoulders with his own Baby Driver.

It plays out like a Midsummer Murders on steroids as London super cop Sgt. Angel (Simon Pegg, who co-wrote) gets reassigned to the sleepy village of Sandford and teams with Sergeant Butterman (Nick Frost) to... apprehend a runaway swan!

Hot Fuzz is a treasure trove of movie homages and clichés: from The Stepford Wives to Point Break and beyond; it gets better with each (now big screen) viewing. The jokes are constructed with precision timing, and often the editing itself is the gag, like when they stop a speeding driver after only a few feet of chase, mundane on its own, but filmed with all the intensity of a Michael Bay movie.

It's this constant lampooning of other set pieces and styles that makes Hot Fuzz accessible to the casual viewer as pleasures film know-it-alls. A fraction of the cost of Baby Driver, and set in the middle of Somerset only makes it more impressive how well it holds up a decade on. (research Jack Whiting). This is observational film making at its wittiest. Edgar doesn’t miss a police ‘officer’ trick. Don’t miss.

Taking its name from a certain TV show, The Apprentice is a shrewd and darkly amusing tragicomedy that dramatises Donald Trump's rise to fame and fortune in the 1970s and 80s.

Donald (Sebastian Stan in a garish wig) is first seen as a young man working for a New York real estate company run by his father, knocking on doors and collecting rent from his impoverished tenants, but he dreams of opening a luxury high-rise hotel near Central Station. Enter Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), a vicious lawyer. Donald is spellbound by his three rules for success: always attack, never admit to any wrongdoing, and never admit defeat. Donald then embarks on building his empire, by any means necessary.

The film, which Trump himself called “garbage”, is a surprisingly witty and surreal affair; and one that adds an extra sting in the tail now that he’s running the country again. While it does slide into more conventional biopic beats in the second half, it’s still a fun and engaging dramedy; plus, any excuse for Succession fans to catch Kendall Roy on the big screen is worth a ticket.

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Eddington

How do you deal with the chaotic drama of our times? According to Ari Aster’s new film, Eddington, by adding yet more chaos.

Joaquin Phoenix stars as Joe Cross, the sheriff of the New Mexican town of Eddington. He’s a salt of the earth type. It’s the time of Covid and Joe’s got asthma and doesn’t like wearing his mask, nor does he like the mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), who once briefly dated Joe’s wife Louise, (Emma Stone), a woman with a history of mental health issues compounded by the presence by her mother (Deidre O’Connell) a conspiracy theorist, trapped with them as a result of the lockdown.  

Joe decides to run for mayor to compete with his arch-rival on an anti-mask, Covid-sceptic, MAGA-ish platform. Austin Butler shows up as a cult leader, proffering his own conspiracist version of politics which centers on widespread pedophilia and attracting the attentions of Louise. The local youth begin to organise Black Lives Matters protests even though the only black character in town is the Sheriff’s deputy (Micheal Ward). This neo-western-cum-satire is as bonkers as the plot suggests. It’s weird, it’s funny, it’s ambitious, so strap in.

The Better Call Saul star reprises his role as a kickass family man in a follow-up filled with gonzo fight sequences.

Having been revealed to be a former government assassin who’d reinvented himself as a suburban husband and father in the first film, this sequel sees Hutch still working as an assassin but neglecting his family, so he insists on taking them all on a summer break to a cheesy vacation resort with a goofy water slide and silly cabins – a place to which his dad, the loveable grandpa played by Christopher Lloyd, who comes along too – once took him when he was a kid. Inevitably Hutch gets involved with local bad guys, including a corrupt sheriff (Colin Hanks) and sadistically mean crime boss Lendina, played by Sharon Stone.

It all culminates in a final-act showdown at a funfair that’s just the right amount of silly escapism, with Lloyd, RZA, and even Connie Nielsen getting to join in on the fun too. But if Nobody felt like John Wick was its inspiration, this is almost closer to Deadpool, as the violence gets pushed into more farcical and viscerally cartoonish places.

The Jurassic franchise continues to evade extinction in this seventh installment, as we go back to the basics of dinos chasing hapless people around an exotic island.

Leading the pack is Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett, special-ops type with a speciality in procuring items of the dubiously legal variety. She’s been hired by pharmaceutical rep Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) to join palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis (the film’s standout, Jonathan Bailey) on an excursion to Suriname, and an old facility there that used to function as R&D for InGen, ie the people who made the OG Jurassic Park.

Their task is to collect a few samples of dino DNA that hold the key to curing coronary disease. Zora ropes in her old colleague Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), who has a boat. On the way, they receive a distress signal from a family seacraft.

But of course, it doesn’t take long before things go haywire and the larger carnivorous dinosaurs start eyeing up our characters for their next meal. Rebirth feels relaxed and sure-footed in its Spielberg pastiche, its big dino-jeopardy moments and its deployment of thrills and laughs.

Arguably the most recognisable super-hero of them all, Superman has had a bit of a bumpy ride since the 1978 classic; writer/director James Gunn is hoping to rectify that.

Superman (a perfectly cast David Corenswet) is known to this world, already comfortably saving lives and typing lines as journalist Clark Kent. He’s three months into a relationship with fellow reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), who’s all clued up on the fact he’s actually an interstellar immigrant. His arch-nemesis, CEO Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), is already seething from the sidelines.

Superman is fresh from stopping a US-backed imperialist power, Boravia, from invading the neighbouring country of Jarhanpur. He did it without a single casualty. In his books, that’s a job well done. Only, he didn’t play by the rules of politics. The internet’s started to turn on him, with his status as an illegal alien weaponised as a source of fear and suspicion (very topical).

This new, energised Superman is a reminder that comic-book films can be bold, colourful, and most importantly, fun! Zipping along at a brisk two hours, it’s the kind of film that immediately transports you back to your childhood.

Local Hero

Bill Forsyth’s wonderfully wistful and charming comedy is re-released after 40 years, and its happy-sad aroma is still as pungent as ever.

The scene is a fictional fishing village in western Scotland, making its modest living from the lobster bound for the fancy restaurants of London and Paris, but which the locals can’t afford to eat. Peter Riegert plays Mac, a junior oil executive from Texas obsessed with work and material values, who has been tasked by his eccentric billionaire boss, Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster), to travel to this village and persuade the entire community to sell up so that Happer can build a refinery there and capitalise on the new gush of North Sea oil.

What makes this material really work is the low-key approach of Forsyth, and has the patience to let his characters gradually reveal themselves to the camera. He never hurries, and as a result the film never drags: Nothing is more absorbing than human personalities, developed with love and humor. Some of the payoffs in this film are sly and subtle, and others generate big laughs.

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Parisian taxi driver Charles (Dany Boon) is not having a good day. In fact he’s not having a good anything.

He is tired of barely making a living. He is tired of missing out on life with his partner and their daughter. When he gets a call to pick up an elderly passenger on the other side of Paris, he’s not keen to take the fare until the operator assures him he can turn his meter on from his start point.

His passenger is Madeleine (Line Renaud), a woman in her nineties who is finally moving out of her house into a nursing home. It’s not something she’s happy about but with no family to help her, it is a sad inevitability. Madeleine is in no rush to reach the home and encourages Charles to make stops along the way so she can revisit the Paris of her youth.

As the film progresses, Madeleine’s life story becomes increasingly unexpected, and against his will, Charles finds himself sucked into it. And, more to the point, enraptured with the effervescent Madeleine

Set in the sun-drenched optimism of post-war California, Daniel Minahan’s quietly gripping drama unfolds with far more depth than its premise first suggests.

Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her husband Lee (Will Poulter) are starting a new chapter after his return from the Korean War, only for their stability to be disrupted by the arrival of Lee’s magnetic brother Julius (Jacob Elordi), a drifter with a shadowed past. What begins as a seemingly simple love triangle evolves into a layered exploration of desire, identity, and the pull of untaken paths. When Julius leaves in pursuit of a young card cheat, Muriel’s quiet yearning sparks a secret life of her own as she begins betting on racehorses and embarking on a love she never imagined.

At an unhurried pace, characters are given room to breathe, letting their relationships shift in ways that feel genuine. Edgar-Jones, Elordi, and Poulter work effortlessly together, making the emotional stakes easy to connect with. And it all looks great too, with a clear sense of time and place that adds to the charm without ever distracting from the story.

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Director Andreas Dresen creates a human-sized story rather than a heroic one with his portrayal of anti-Nazi dissents, set during Hilde Coppi’s trial for treason in wartime Berlin.

Lisa Fries (a star on her home turf) gives an outstanding performance in this heartwrenchingly powerful true story from the German home front in the second world war. Fries plays anti-Nazi resistance activist Hilde Coppi, a dental assistant in Berlin who falls in love with Hans Coppi, a communist who is hiding a Soviet parachutist. It’s also her determination that turns Hans’s illicit Radio Moscow listening into secret letters, via morse-code, to comfort the families of Russian-held POWs. She is finally arrested while pregnant, has to give birth in the prison hospital and then has to surrender the baby, Hans Jr, before she is led away to execution.

This is a character study bursting with passion and drama; much more concerned with feelings than feats of derring-do, the film avoids the traditional swastika-draped, sepia-toned wartime movie aesthetic (and refuses to reduce Nazis to comical villains), instead invoking a thoughtful realism, which gives it an unusual relatability. Don’t miss.

Mike Flanagan transforms Stephen King’s novella into a heartfelt, reverse-told drama that swaps supernatural chills for a tender meditation on memory, joy, and the moments that define us.

Perhaps best known for Netflix shows Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Hill House, Flanagan applies his gift for intimate character work to a more reflective, human story. Set across three chapters that play in reverse order, the film begins in a world on the brink, where teacher Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) turns to ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan) for comfort as mysterious ads for Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) appear everywhere. The middle act finds Chuck embracing life in a drum-infused, street-side dance, joined by strangers drawn to his energy, while the closing chapter rewinds to his childhood with loving grandparents (Mark Hamill, Sara Flanagan) and the quiet discoveries that shaped him.

The structure flirts with gimmickry, but Flanagan’s warmth, paired with magnetic performances from Ejiofor, Gillan, Hiddleston, and a career-best Hamill, keeps things emotionally grounded. Bittersweet, playful, and quietly profound, it’s a film that finds beauty in the chaos of a life fully lived.

Zach Cregger follows his breakout hit Barbarian with a confident, twisted blend of mystery, horror, and pitch-black comedy.

Set in a small town, the story begins when every child in a sixth-grade class vanishes from home at exactly 2:17am. Except for one. Teacher Justine (Julia Garner) quickly becomes the focus of suspicion, though she’s as baffled as anyone. Drawn into the search are the determined Archer (Josh Brolin), troubled cop Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), and drifter James (Abrams), as shifting perspectives slowly reveal unsettling truths.

Cregger masterfully balances gruesome shocks with eccentric character beats, keeping tension high while letting the absurdity breathe. Dreams bleed into reality, alliances form under pressure, and then a more humorous kick arrives with a seriously unhinged woman named Gladys (Madigan), who shifts everything up a gear, revealing secrets in ways that are both goofy and much, much scarier.

Garner anchors the chaos with a heartfelt performance, her bond with Brolin’s driven Archer giving the film emotional weight. Ehrenreich and Abrams add charm and unpredictability, while Madigan steals every scene she’s in. And beneath its inventive horror, Weapons carries sharp observations on the education system and the fear of ageing. It’s great.

Filmed live at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in 2016, Hamilton brings the original Broadway cast to the screen with all the vitality that made the stage show a sensation. Rather than reimagining it for film, director Thomas Kail preserves the theatrical experience while using smart camera work to capture intimate moments and dynamic choreography that even the best seats in the house might miss.

Lin Manuel Miranda’s score blends hip hop, R&B, and classic musical theatre to tell the story of Alexander Hamilton’s rise and fall, alongside key figures of early America. The original cast including Leslie Odom Jr, Daveed Diggs, Phillipa Soo, and Renée Elise Goldsberry deliver performances brimming with wit, urgency, and emotional punch.

The production design, lighting, and movement are all showcased in vivid detail, giving viewers a sense of the show’s inventiveness and momentum. Even for those with only a passing interest, it is easy to see why Hamilton became a cultural landmark, combining history and contemporary energy in a way that feels both ambitious and immediate.

Darren Aronofsky’s chaotic and uncharacteristically joyful ’90s crime ride.

Known for films like Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, and The Whale, Aronofsky has built a reputation for spirals of obsession, balletic horror, and apocalyptic drama. Here, he dials down the intensity for something lighter and wilder. Set in the ’90s Lower East Side, the film follows Hank Thompson, a former high school baseball star whose life takes a sharp detour when a seemingly harmless favour, looking after a neighbor’s cat, plunges him into a chaotic underworld of mobsters, stolen loot, double-crosses, and high-speed chases.

Loosening up after the emotional weight of The Whale, Aronofsky delivers a breezy, fast-moving crime thriller filled with eccentric characters, sly humor, and the gritty energy of the era. Austin Butler gives one of his most magnetic performances as Hank, balancing charm with frantic energy as chaos escalates. A stacked supporting cast including Zoë Kravitz, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Carol Kane, Griffin Dunne, Bad Bunny, Matt Smith, and Regina King keeps the energy high.

Shot on location with longtime cinematographer Matthew Libatique, this is stylish, exhilarating, and a reminder that Aronofsky can still thrill while embracing mischief and sheer cinematic fun.

Michel Fessler brings a fresh vision to Felix Salten’s 1923 classic with a beautifully shot, documentary-style retelling that blends nature’s realism with the timeless charm of Bambi’s story.

Using Daniel Meyer’s stunning cinematography, the film avoids overly anthropomorphising its woodland cast, letting the natural behaviour of deer, birds, and other forest creatures speak for itself. Narrated with warmth by Mylène Farmer, the tale unfolds as both an engaging adventure for children and a captivating study of the wild for adults.

From his first unsteady steps, Bambi learns the rhythms and dangers of the forest. Staying close to his mother, he befriends fellow fawns and encounters an array of wildlife from playful raccoons to soaring eagles. The film subtly conveys the interdependence of all woodland life, while also addressing the threats posed by human activity. Laurent Perez Del Mar’s lively score adds colour without overwhelming the natural soundscape.

As seasons shift and Bambi matures, the film captures the cycle of life with tenderness and clarity. Balancing gentle storytelling with authentic natural imagery, Fessler’s adaptation feels both classic and fresh. It’s a celebration of biodiversity told through the eyes of one very memorable deer.

Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch head to war as a couple whose seemingly perfect marriage slowly unravels into a chaotic, darkly funny divorce.

Ivy is a rising chef stealing the spotlight while her husband Theo, an architect, flounders after losing his job. Their witty banter soon mutates into sharp-edged pranks, stinging digs, and mischievous one-upmanship, turning domestic life into a battlefield of absurd delights.

Director Jay Roach hits the sweet spot between laughs and real emotional stakes, while Tony McNamara’s script, inspired by the 1989 original, revels in the ways couples drive each other crazy over decades. Colman and Cumberbatch, equally skilled in drama and comedy, sparkle as they navigate outrageous scenarios with mischievous precision, turning love, ambition, and jealousy into riotously relatable fun.

Supporting players Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon, Allison Janney, and Ncuti Gatwa add extra chaos and comic spark, keeping the energy buzzing. This is a film that savours the unpredictable, messy side of love, showing just how quickly affection can veer into rivalry and how, even in the middle of a domestic war, outwitting and outplaying each other can be endlessly hilarious.

Gentle, clear eyed and deeply humane, the Dardenne brothers’ latest film returns them to the understated social realism that first made their name. Set in Liège, Belgium, it follows a group of teenage mothers and mothers to be living in a state run home where they learn to care for their babies or prepare them for adoption.

Perla (Lucie Laruelle) struggles with the distant father of her newborn. Jessica (Babette Verbeek) searches for her own mother after giving birth. Julia (Elsa Houben) tries to leave addiction behind with the support of her partner and baby. Ariane (Janaïna Halloy Fokan), just 15, wrestles with whether to give her child up, clashing with her own troubled mother.

The Dardennes capture these intersecting stories with an unforced intimacy, avoiding sentimentality while finding moments of humour, tenderness and grace. The young women’s vulnerabilities are never exploited, and each character is treated with quiet dignity. The result is a film that asks difficult questions about love, responsibility and sacrifice without pretending there are easy answers, holding onto the belief that care and connection can still shape a better future.

Freakier Friday

The sequel to Freaky Friday brings back Jamie-Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan’s characters, Tess and her daughter Anna (who is now a mother herself), 22 years after the events of the original.

Tess is still working as a therapist and trying to launch a self-help podcast from her closet, despite her boomer-coded inability to actually hit record. Anna, whose young adulthood included a stint as a guitarist in an all-female rock band, now works as a manager for other musicians.

When Anna’s daughter, Harper (Julia Butters) has a fight in school with her obnoxious schoolmate Lily (Sophia Hammons), she is horrified when Anna falls hard for Lily’s hot single dad Eric (Manny Jacinto); these enemies are both appalled at the prospect of becoming stepsisters. This situation becomes even more complicated – freakier in fact – when a zany palm reader and fortune teller triggers a new cosmic body-swap nightmare, this time involving four women, not two.

Naturally, goofy familial hijinks ensue as our hapless ladies try to adapt to new life in their respective bodies. Freakier Friday is a perfect time at the cinema for all mothers and daughters.