Written and directed by: M. Night Shyamalan

Riley (Ariel Donoghue) is excited because her dad, Cooper (Josh Hartnett), has got her tickets to a special gig by Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan). As they take there seats it becomes clear to Cooper that all is not what it seems and he’s right. The show is a front for an F.B.I sting operation, headed by profiler Dr Grant (Hayley Mills), to capture a serial killer, The Butcher. That’s a problem for Cooper, and he needs to find a way for them both to get out while avoiding any questions by the law enforcement that’s blocked every exit.

In a recent interview M. Night Shyamalan discussed the premise of Trap. Taking the well trodden killer manhunt film and telling it from the view of the hunted, rather than the hunter.

What this premise gives us is half a good film. Taking the view of the killer, hunted, trapped and desperately searching for an out. But as the story progresses it becomes a problem, as increasingly contrived escape options become open to him and the story becomes more predictable and clunky. The concert itself is really well created, from Riley’s ecstatic reaction, to the convincing nature of Lady Raven’s performance. Although she does seem to have a fan base more interested in the concourse than the concert!

There are some fine performances. Hartnett does a great job in the central role as a caring father, with a very dark side. Ariel Donoghue is thoroughly convincing as an excited girl at a dream concert. Saleka Night Shyamalan works as Lady Raven and a final act turn from Alison Pill is the best part of an overly stretched finale. Although Hayley Mills feels out of place and providing the occasional exposition heavy, clunky, Walkie Talkie voice over.

Trap is an interesting twist on the manhunt film, told from the view of the hunted. It has a couple of convincing central performances. But, as it goes on it falters and the story becomes more unbelievable, with a finale that never seems to end! A promising premise that becomes clunky, predictable and doesn’t deliver on early promise.

Directed by: Justin Baldoni

Written by: Christy Hall based on Colleen Hoover novel

Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) is trying to process the death of her father, who she loved, but also witnessed his violence towards her mother (Amy Morton). When she meets Ryle (Justin Baldoni) a doctor, smart and caring. Soon they fall into a relationship, but when she bumps into a childhood friend, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), she finds that the cycle of violence she witnessed growing up, may now be a part of her life again.

To be upfront I found this and intriguing watch. But I also appreciate it’s walking a tightrope in dealing with a disturbing issue, in the rather glossy way it chooses too.

On the plus side,  It felt a layered and nuanced look at the disturbing complexity of this vile crime. For a long time, it tries to leave you unbalanced and unsure of what is going on, even if the signs are always there, with a forboding and threatening current never far from the surface. Lively carries much of the film and gives a strong performance, with subtlety, never seemingly the victim until it’s too late. But ehile Baldoni becomes increasingly menacing, he and Sklenar, as the men in Lily’s life, are perhaps too obvious and predictable.

And that is were the films main criticism lies, that, for the complexity of its difficult theme, the story is too predictable, the characters story arcs too obvious. The feeling I had leaving the cinema was that perhaps it was all too neat and tidy, its glossy glamour jarring against the darkness of its main storyline, that’s not to say money is a protection from domestic violence, but in this setting it runs the risk of making the characters too glossy to be real. And the story line wrapped in a too convenient bow.

I found this intriguing and compelling with Blake Lively giving a strong performance. But it was also too clean, tidy and a bit predictable, in a way that perhaps fails to do justice to its tough themes. Now while that didn’t stop me being engaged and fully bought into Lily’s story. I do get why it hasn’t worked for everyone.

Written & Directed by: Shawn Levy

Written by: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells & Ryan Reynolds

Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) has been told, by the TVAs Mr Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) his world is going to be destroyed after the death of its anchor being, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), via Paradox’s Time Ripper machine. But this being a world of multiverses Deadpool figures he can find himself a Wolverine to step in and save his timeline. However, the only one he can find is the worst version. The job is made harder when Paradox casts them into the void, a Mad Max looking, cameo heavy  world full of the lost “Fox” universe, which is under the control of Cassandra Nova(Emma Corrin). The boys need to escape the void, destroy the Time Ripper and save Deadpool’s world.

The first Deadpool outing under Marvel is a bit of a mixed bag. Overall it’s fun, it retains the things you want. Self referential humour, comedically bloody fight scenes with entertaining ways to kill and maim and its “adult” language and great soundtrack. But it also suffers in a way its predecessors hadn’t with the weight of the MCU dropped on it. It has to juggle not only its own story history, but also has to add other MCU properties. For someone like me, who knows the MCU  but not in detail, I sometimes get taken out of the story by the feeling of there are links I should know but don’t. Because of it the storytelling then feels a bit slow.

But there is still plenty to enjoy. Reynolds and Jackman have fun, with plenty of humour and occasional bits of heart. There are gratuitous cameos. Chris Evans, Channing Tatum, Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes to name a few. McFadyen hams it up as Paradox and Emma Corrin enjoys it as Cassandra.

Overall as a bit of Marvel entertainment, even with the reservations, it is what it should be, fun.

It’s probably the Deadpool I enjoyed the least and can feel slow. But that said, there is plenty to enjoy. Reynolds and Jackman are great together. The humour and gratuitous comic book action is there as is a great soundtrack. It’s not perfect, but still fun.

Directed by: Lee Isaac Chung

Written by: Joseph Kosinski & Mark L. Smith

Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a brilliant scientist who thinks she may have found a way to tame tornado’s. But when the experiment goes tragically wrong, she runs away from her passion. When 5 years later an old friend, Javi( Anthony Ramos) invites her to help in a new experiment she reluctantly returns to storm chasing. Here is where she meets YouTube sensation tornado wrangler,  Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a cocky adrenaline junky. But Kate realises that she has much more in common with Owens and soon they team up, using their expertise and skills to try and stop a massive twister wreaking havoc.

I didn’t have great expectations for Twisters. But it’s a fun, action filled, blockbuster disaster movie. It’s loud, fast moving and full of action set pieces. And much better than I’d expected

It’s not all big wind action though and Daisy Edgar Jones’s does a great job of providing a character to care for as she tries to deal with trauma and guilt. There’s also a fun chemistry with Powell’s Tyler. The classic action movie wise guy, who we, unsurprisingly, discover has greater depths. It does occasionally stretch the story by looking at profiteering on disaster and the impact of climate change, but only at the very surface.

Twisters knows what it’s there to do and that’s to deliver roller coaster levels of up and down action. And it doesn’t try to do too much else. It’s full on from the start and, as buildings, cars and people are sucked up into the vortex and come crashing down again, you feel very much at the center of it. And the story rarely takes a breath as it whizzes through its 2 hour runtime.

Twisters is a good old fashioned summer blockbuster. It’s action packed, fast moving fun with effects that take you to the center of the action. Daisy Edgar Jones gives us a character to care about and there’s a good chemistry with Glenn Powell. If you’re looking for your summer action blockbuster fix, this should do the trick.

Directed by Greg Berlanti

Written by Rose Gilroy, Bill Kirstein, Keenan Flynn

It’s the height of the space race as NASA’s Apollo program races the Soviet Union to the moon. But the American people are losing interest. The answer, NASA needs marketing. So when shady government agent Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson), makes ad exec Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) an offer she, literally, cannot turndown, she heads to Florida. Where she must up the programmes popularity, help generate funds and win over programme director Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), who does not need marketing in the way of delivering the most complex challenge in human history. All while Berkus demands she delivers the guarantee of the perfect moon footage!

This is hard film to call. The Apollo missions are an incredible piece of human ingenuity and this celebrates that, while also having a bit of fun. But you have to tread carefully with the subject matter and a missed step can be easily made. And this is where Fly Me to the Moon stumbles.

It gets lots right. Tatum and Scarlett Johansson are enjoyable screen presences and there’s a great chemistry between them. Harrelson blends fun and sinister in the way he does. Ray Romano, Jim Rash and Anna Garcia all offer good support.

It also looks and sounds great, the recreation of the time, place and excitement of the Apollo are pitch perfect.

But there is, for me, a big missed step. It’s not the idea of the conspiracy but rather the use of the tragedy of Apollo 1 as a half baked plot point. It’s felt very unnecessary in what is , basically, a light hearted caper. And it lost me at that stage. Which was a real pity, all the fun that had worked earlier then began to grate. Which was a real pity.

Fly Me to the Moon was, for its first half, really enjoyable. But then, for me made a misstep, that made all the fun things begin to grate. Which was a pity, because up to then it had lots to enjoy. Great chemistry between its leads, it looked great and was fun. If, what was a misstep for me doesn’t bother you, you’ll enjoy this. But it spoiled it for me.

Written and directed by Ti West.

Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) has made her name as an adult film star, but is now trying to break into mainstream film after landing a role in Elizabeth Bender’s (Elizabeth Debicki) horror film. But in 1985 L.A. there is also a killer on the loose, the Night Stalker. Maxine’s hopes for movie stardom are put at risk, both by her past in the form of a visit from private detective, John Labat (Kevin Bacon) and when The Night Stalker’s crimes hit close to home attracting the attention of Detectives Williams (Michelle Monaghan) and Torres (Bobby Cannavale). What will she do to save her dreams?

This is the third in the X trilogy of films. I’ve not seen the first two, but that didn’t matter and didn’t stop me having fun with this enjoyable horror thriller. Thanks in no small part to its smart opening 5 minutes that tells you everything you need to know.

There’s excellent performances all around. Mia Goth’s titular Maxine is a super portrayal of a determined driven wannabe star, with a dark past.  Bacon’s sleezy P.I., Cannavale’s misguided policeman and Elizabeth Debecki’s over powering director all add to the story, but there isn’t a poor performance from any involved.

The story telling barrels along delivering  three parts intriguing thriller, and a great fun overblown high camp horror finale! Offering a good balance between thriller, horror and dark comedy.

The look and soundtrack captures 1985 perfectly, with its seedy, dark world for the story to play out in. And there’s lots of nice use of the film set and gore at the right level, with plenty ot whince inducing moments to enjoy.

Maxxxine is three parts intriguing thriller with an overblown camp horror finale. Its great cast is led by Mia Goth’s portrayal of Maxine and comes with a fantastic 80’s feel and soundtrack.  Its well paced, well told and balance’s its horror and intrigue with a sense of fun no more than in its nuts finale. All adding up to an enjoyable 104 minutes.

Written and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Written by Efthimis Filippou

Yorgos Lanthimos teams up again with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe with this anthology film. It is made up of three separate stories each starring Stone and Jesse Plemmons and to varying degrees Defoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau and Mamoudou Athie. The stories are unrelated, although each look at the human condition, the need to please, be wanted, be loved. The first focusses on Plemmons’s Robert, who will go to any lengths to please his boss Raymond (Defoe). The second finds Plemmons playing a cop, Daniel, whose wife is missing, however, when she returns, all is not what it seems and finally Stone and Plemmons are Emily and Andrew, members of a cult, tasked with finding their version of “The One” a woman with the ability to bring life back to the dead. Each told in a surreal, absurdly dark version of reality.

There is no doubt Lanthimos’s approach to film making is not to everyone’s tastes. He is experimental, uses cinema as an art to tell his stories and has a liking for the bizarre. But he treads a fine line between  imaginative story telling and style over substance. And Kinds of Kindness struggles to balance the two.

The film is definitely not going to work for some and didn’t all work for me. On the positives note, the stories all intrigued. The first and third the easiest to follow, they are stories of an eagerness to please and go beyond ones own levels of acceptable behaviour. The second story is more absurd and had a less clear message, if one at all!

But, it is much too long at around 2hr 45m. This is a big ask for this level of weirdness.  And then there is a question about how much substance it really has and whether it is just style and self indulgence over substance and some will certainly see it that way.

Kinds of Kindness will not be for everyone. I enjoyed it for the most part and the cast are hugely watchable. However, it is overly long and at times is style over substance. If you don’t like weird, give it a miss. Even if you do, strap in and proceed with caution!

Written and directed by: Michael Sarnoski

Written by: John Krasinski

It is the day the world changed. Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) is a terminal cancer patient in a hospice just outside of New York. She’s part of a group who head into the city for a show. But it’s there that the Aliens, who attack based on sound, land and create carnage. As people try to escape, Sam has one goal, to go home, via her favourite pizza parlour. On her journey she meets Eric (Joseph Quinn) scared and lost and a long way from home. Together they aim to get Eric to the river and supposed safety, and Sam to take her last days on her own terms.

The problem with making a prequel to A Quiet Place (which was hinted at at the end of Part Two) was always whether you could tell an interesting story about how the world was plunged into silence. It may well be possible but Day One, unfortunately, is not it.

It starts out as a promising premise. It does some clever things around introducing quiet into a world of noise. Sam’s world is a quiet one, a hospice a quiet world of contemplation. A marionette show that is about quiet performance as a way to communicate. And then the event itself, how people adjust, the panic of an unknown attacker and suddenly becoming  prey. It’s tense and action packed for 45 minutes.

But then it feels like it runs out of good ideas and moves into a selection of random actions that make no sense. While Sam’s story of wanting to return home to end her life on her terms make sense. Eric’s much less so.

Lupita Nyong’o is good in the lead role, but there is very little to work with. But even less so for Quinn, whose character makes little sense and there’s a an atrociously underused Djimon Hounsou. And even at 99 minutes it drags.

The risk in making a Quiet Place prequel is whether you could find an interesting story. If you can, Day One, doesn’t tell it. It starts off promisingly but runs out of ideas quickly and descends into a bit of a nonsensical mess and, even at 99 minutes, began to drag and had me thinking of shouting out and letting them come and get me!

Written and Directed by: Jeff Nichols

Based on Danny Lyon’s photographic record of a Chicago bike gang. The Bikeriders explores The Vandals bike gang and its leader Johnny(Tom Hardy) from 1950’s humble beginnings into, by the 70’s, something that those who started it could no longer control. It’s told through the eyes of Kathy (Jodie Comer) who is introduced to the gang by her friend and falls for and marries the enigmatic Bennie (Austin Butler). It’s a look at how a club that starts out as a a place for “men who want to sit around and talk about bikes”, to a community for those who live differently which over time grows and  reflects societal change in beliefs and behaviour.

This is a story less about bikes and gangs, and more a thoughtful study of people. People who choose to live a different life, who find a purpose and a sense of belonging, but are more complex than outside appearances may suggest.

The film is built around three excellent performances. Jodie Comer’s Kathy is at the heart with a beautifully subtle performance. Austin Butler is perfectly cast as the brooding Benny and Tom Hardy in the kind of role he’s made his own, portraying a man of contradictions, quietly spoken, good job, wife and family. But has a steel grip on the running of the gang. There is also strong support, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist and Damon Herriman amongst them.

This isn’t a film that keeps you on edge. It is patient storytelling. It has characters that you know enough about to care, but enough mystery to be intriguing. In a way that keeps you engaged from start to finish.

It looks great, with a fine soundtrack. And while it moves a little slowly at times the pace never bothered me and worked perfectly to tell the story.

The Bikeriders isn’t a biker film, it’s about people. It’s patient storytelling, that explores the growth of bike gang culture, but also about community and societal change. Its excellent central performances, give you characters to care about and a story that is engaging and heartfelt throughout and worth your time.

Directed by: Kelsey Mann

Written by: Meg LeFauve & Dave Holstein

Riley (Kensington Tallman) is now 2 years older and Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) have their balance just right. Riley’s life couldn’t be better as she and her friends Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) are invited to hockey camp. But what nobody expects is the triggering of the “Puberty Alarm” and with it the arrival of new emotions Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). With the new emotions taking over, they look to suppress the ones that have served Riley well and change her. Joy and the gang realise they need to fight for Riley and who she really is and this sends them on an adventure to the back of her mind to rescue her beliefs and restore their Riley.

Making a sequel to Inside Out was a risk. But Pixar has delivered, with a sequel full of heart and charm, that covers the complexity of growing and changing, as Riley moves from child to adolescent.

The new characters, especially Maya Hawke’s Anxiety, bring to life the complexity that new emotions introduce to seemingly once simple lives. The battle for “supremacy” between her “stable” emotions and the new ones that are running wild is cleverly observed. This is mirrored in Riley’s life of trying to navigate change and new relationship, but running the risk of breaking what is already there.

It delivers this in a thoroughly engaging story. A beautifully animated, adventure through Riley’s inner world. The voice cast is pitch perfect, the story zips along, in a colourful fun world. There’s lots of lovely attention to detail and humour in its smart heartfelt storytelling.

Making a sequel to Inside Out was always a risk but Pixar has delivered. A touching and heartfelt story that takes us through the complexity of emotions in a wonderfully engaging way. It’s a colourful fast moving adventure full of heart and humour and a perfect follow up to the much loved original.