Directed by Hettie MacDonald and adapted for screen by Rachel Joyce based on her own 2012 novel. Harold (Jim Broadbent) is retired and living in Devon with his wife Maureen (Penelope Wilton), when he receives a letter from an old work friend Queenie (Linda Bassett). In it she shares that she is in a hospice and is writing to say goodbye. Rather than write back, inspired by a chance conversation in a petrol station, Harold decided to walk the 500 plus miles to the Scottish borders to see her instead. What starts out as a lonely journey becomes a pilgrimage as he inspires others with his faith that the visit will give Queenie something to cling onto. But it also forces Harold to think about his own life with its own tragedies and how failing to deal with them has left sadness and hurt in its wake.

This is a film while formulaic and unsurprising has its heart in the right place. But even with its predictability and its unlikely premise it remains watchable and believable and that is mainly because of Jim Broadbents lovely subtle performance. His character never seeks attention and is bemused when he gets it. We feel his enthusiasm and confidence alongside his darkness and doubt. And when we get the, predictable, reveal Broadbent has built a character to care for and you feel his heartbreak as much as you feel his earlier foot ache.

Penelope Wilton offers solid support as his wife feeling abandoned and lost. A couple of small roles Daniel Frogson as Wilf and Monika Gossman as Marina in particular add some additional colour.

It does run a little long and towards the end pushes its faith message a little strongly. But this is not a religious film more one about humanity with its flaws and our need to put things right.

This isn’t a film that will change the world, but it is a well told story whose heart Is in the right place. Even if the story is a little unbelievable what makes it work is Jim Broadbent’s very believable central performance. While it’s a little long and predictable, it is still a watchable good hearted film.

On Sky Cinema in the UK.

Zach Braff writes and directs this often dark look at loss, addiction and forgiveness. Florence Pugh is Allie a pharmaceutical rep, happy and engaged to Nathan (Chinaza Uche). However when driving with Nathan’s sister, Molly, and Husband a momentary mistake leads to the most tragic consequences, that sees the death of her passengers and rips apart the lives of Nathan, his Father Daniel (Morgan Freeman) and his granddaughter, Ryan (Celeste O’Connor). 12 months later we find Allie split from Nathan, living at home, addicted to painkillers and spiralling downwards. When she seeks help with a support group, she finds Daniel, struggling to control his own addictions which brings Allie back in contact with the family whose lives were ripped a part, especially Molly’s daughter. The films follows the struggles of all of them as they try to handle grief, addiction and find forgiveness.

Braff has delivered a well told and often moving story. It looks at how one incident tears apart lives in ways that are impossible to recover from and at best you can hope to live with. Exploring the different ways people cope and don’t.

While heartfelt it does occasionally drift into the melodramatic, especially in a party scene in its final third, which feels a little out of place. It is much better in its quiet moments, some intense, some moving and some humourous.

What really makes this film work though is Florence Pugh. She is, almost as expected, outstanding as Allie. She is compelling and demands your attention every moment she is onscreen. With a performance full of subtle intensity, heart and humour. She creates a character whose pain you feel and who you grow to care for. She is also well supported by both Morgan Freeman and Celeste O’Connor especially.

A Good Person is not perfect. It is a dark, heartfelt and occasionally light look at grief and addiction. But what elevates this above the average is a fabulous Florence Pugh performance. She is compelling and takes you along every difficult step with her to produce a more than watchable film.

On Apple TV+

Directed by Dexter Fletcher and starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas is this romcom action adventure. Cole Turner (Evans) is a farmer helping out on his parents (Tate Donovan and Amy Sedaris) farm and market stall. Having just “mutually” ended a relationship, he finds himself swept up in a new one after a chance meeting with Sadie (De Armas). However when he doesn’t get a response to his texts his family suggest he’s been “ghosted”. So when he discovers she’s in London, he decides to make a big romantic gesture and fly there to surprise her. The surprise is on him when he discovers Sadie, rather than working in Art, is a CIA operative, landing Cole in the middle of an international arms deal, fronted by a former French intelligence officer Leveque (Adrien Brody). This leads to a chase for Cole and Sadie across the world trying to retrieve a dangerous weapon and keep Cole alive while doing it!

Ghosted is no more than passable fare. It starts off with a fun premise, a romcom that takes a turn into action adventure territory, but rather than working on playing with the genre it instead ends up a pretty nuts and bolts comedy action film.

It’s not terrible and Evans and Ana de Armas are always watchable. While their relationship doesn’t quite crackle, it is fun, with some nice exchanges, humour and some fun action set pieces.

The cast are all equally passable with Brody supporting the leads with his “Austin Powersesque” bad guy and a list of entertaining cameos, particularly in one five minute bounty hunter scene.

But that said, it is pretty predictable and rather forgettable and to be honest runs out of steam long before it reaches the end of its 116 minutes.

Ghosted is a predictable and slightly overlong action romcom, that doesn’t quite deliver on its entertaining premise. Evans and Ana de Armas ensure it’s never terrible, but it’s nothing special failing to get beyond felling like a disposable straight to streaming offering.

Created by Robert Kirkman, written by Ryan Ridley and directed by Chris Mckay is this horror inspired action comedy. Nicholas Hoult plays Renfield a former property developer, until he met Count Dracula (Nicholas Cage) and becomes his “Familiar”, the Counts servant, responsible for finding him his victims, as well as keeping the house clean! Due to a previous incident, the Count and Renfield are now in an abandoned hospital in New Orleans as The Count recuperates. But Renfield is now having second thoughts about the health of his relationship with The Count. He starts attending a co-dependency support group, which he uses to both help him in his relationship as well as to find fresh food for The Count. After one meeting and a particularly messy bit of food hunting he meets a police officer, Rebecca Quincy (Awkafina) and finds himself dragged into a world with local crime family the Lobo’s and their son  Teddy (Ben Schwartz). Which puts Renfield In a battle to escape The Count and help Rebecca rescue her sister.

With the director of the Lego movies behind this it should be no surprise that Renfield is an irreverent take on the  Dracula and vampire film genre and has real fun in this part horror, part action, part comedy romp.

While it has received some mixed reviews I really enjoyed this. It knows what it is trying to do and had plenty of fun doing it. The cast are well judged, Hoult is perfect in the Renfield role getting the balance right between the under the thumb servant and the bug eating “fighting machine”. It will come as no surprise that Cage is clearly having a great time chewing any scenery, and necks, that he can find. Awkafina brings her Awkafina shtick to the role, but not only that she also makes a good fist of being an action hero.

Renfield is a lot of enjoyable fun. Its cast is well judged with Hoult and Cage having a blast with their roles. It moves at a pace, with plenty of humour, action and a long supply of entertainingly gory endings for numerous “henchman”. It’s as fun a 90 minutes as you can spend with the “Dark Lord”.

Ben Affleck with his writer Alex Convery bring to the screen the story of Nike’s battle to sign a young Michael Jordan to their brand. Matt Damon is Sonny Vaccaro Nike’s basketball talent scout, tasked with bringing the best talent to the brand in an attempt to drive sales in its failing basketball division. Frustrated by Nike’s previous attempts Vaccaro suggests to marketing head Richard Strasser (Jason Bateman) and CEO Phil Knight (Affleck) that they change strategy and rather than spread their small budget they go “all in” on one future star, Michael Jordan. Up against the giants of Converse and Adidas, Vaccaro uses his belief, desire and contacts to win over Jordan’s mother Delores (Viola Davis) to get a chance with Jordan himself and setup what would be a new type of deal that would change sports licensing.

What seems like a dry idea, under Affleck’s direction and Convery’s script, is an enjoyable telling of a fascinating story that would change sports sponsorship. It stays accessible by avoiding focussing on the technicalities of the contract or Jordan’s prowess as an athlete, in fact Jordan (played by Damian Delano Young) only appears in profile, rather it focusses on the individuals and the fight to change attitudes and take risks to win against the odds.

It is helped by a smart script that not only does a great job at developing its main characters, in its surprisingly short runtime of 112 minutes, but does so with a well judged sense of humour. It also looks great recapturing 1984 with its colour pallete and evocation of 80’s nostalgia including its excellent soundtrack.

The supporting performances are excellent with the main players well supported by the likes of Matthew Mayer, Chris Tucker, Marlon Waynas and Chris Messina.

Air, under Affleck’s direction and Convery’s storytelling, is an engaging telling of a fascinating story. With a high quality cast that deliver what you’d expect. It looks and sounds great with a script that zips along. Who knew one of the best films I would have seen this year would be about contract negotiations for a pair of shoes!

Written by Matthew Fogel, directed by Aaron Horvath and Micheal Jelenic is this latest attempt to bring the world’s best selling video game series to the big screen. This time it is an animated adventure, Chris Pratt is Mario with Charlie Day as Luigi, who we find in Brooklyn just about to launch their new plumbing business. But when their first job does not go to plan Mario sees a chance to redeem them when there is a major leak in the middle of Brooklyn. However rather then fixing the leak they find themselves jettisoned into a strange world, but separated, Luigi in the Dark Lands. Mario in the Mushroom Kingdom where he meets Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) who has her own problems with the inevitable invasion of Bowser (Jack Black) and his forces. The Princess teams up with Mario to tackle
Bowser and rescue Luigi all before Bowser takes over all of the lands.

This film has had some mixed reviews but personally, I had plenty of fun with this. It’s a bright, fun, non-stop animated action. There’s plenty of humour and while I’m no great player of Mario games, there are plenty of nods to the Mario universe that even I recognised. All squeezed into a 91 minute run-time.

The voice cast is entertaining with leads finding lots of good support with Seth Rogan (Donkey Kong), Keegan-Michael Key(Toad) and Frank Armisen(Cranky Long) amongst them.

The animation captures the feel of many of the games from the earliest to the latest. There is also a fun play on previous Mario “suspect” Italian accents when Mario and Luigi make an ad for their plumbing business.

There’s also a great soundtrack that helps keep the action bombing along at a fair pace.

Mario Bros. Is unlikely to go down as an animation classic. But it is an entertaining 91 minute bundle of fun and energy. It’s lively and colourful, catching the essence of the games. The voice cast are fun and deliver an enjoyable romp through the world of Super Mario.

John Francis Dailey and Jonathan Goldstein bring to the screen this latest adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons. Edgin (Chris Pine) is in prison with his friend Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) after an attempted robbery alongside conman Forge (Hugh Grant) goes wrong. Edgin not only has lost his freedom but also his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman). After two years in prison they engineer their escape so they can reunite with Kira and reclaim what is theirs from the their former friend Forge. But Forge has a strong allie with a red wizard Sofina (Daisy Head), which means they will need help, so they bring together a team Simon (Justice Smith), Doric (Sophia Lillis) and occasional help from Xenk (Rege-Jean Page). The band comes together and go on a quest full of magic, monsters and adventure.

I’ve not ever been a Dungeons and Dragons player, although I do remember the animated series. I also concede that this film has reviewed well with both critics and viewers alike. However, it just didn’t work for me.

While it had its moments it felt more dull and drudgery at times. It had some real pacing problems in its first half particularly, seemingly taking an age to get to what would always be an inevitable story line. Visually it looked okay although some of the CGI did look clunky and unconvincing.

The script is more than understandable for someone like me who is not invested in the D&D world, but it also slow and lacks humour. This impacts the main characters who, while likeable, never feel there is any real camaraderie between them. It is probably at its best when Page’s Xenk is onscreen, bringing some some fun, especially in his interactions with Pine.

Lots of people seem to be enjoying Dungeons and Dragons, but for me it didn’t really work. The pacing is terribly slow in the first half and the script lacks humour and zip. It’s all a bit predictable. I’d hoped to have more fun than I did, but I may be in the minority.

Available on Apple TV+

John S. Baird and writer Noah Pink, bring us this movie adaptation of the true story of the battle to own the rights of one of the most successful games of all time, Tetris. Taron Egerton is Henk Rogers who finds Tetris at a Las Vegas technology show. Initially he believes he has bought the rights to distribute the game in Japan. But when he finds that Robert Stein’s (Toby Jones) software company alongside Robert and Kevin Maxwell’s (Roger Allam & Anthony Boyle) Mirrorsoft all claim to own rights he finds himself heading to Moscow and gambling everything to try and secure rights. Here he finds a country unraveling and a race to secure the rights so his gamble pays off.

It’s a bit of an odd film in reality, the story itself seems crazy but is set at a time of great upheaval as the Soviet Union heads towards collapse. But the film struggles to fully capture the anarchy and energy of the time.

But it is fun, occasionally tense and often intriguing. It looks great, recreating 80’s Moscow and is accompanied by a soundtrack packed with 80’s classics. There is a good mix of heroes to cheer along and some slimey bad guys who get their comeuppance.

Taron Egerton is as watchable as ever. It is the stories of the Soviets, expecially that of the games writer Alexy Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov) and his boss Nikolai Belikov (Oleg Shtefanko), that steal the film. Taking incredible risks for Rogers after been won over by his risk taking and desire.

The story is hugely uneven and is never quite sure whether it wants to be a dramatic retelling of a complex story or an action adventure set in late 80’s Moscow and it’s never quite either.

Tetris is by no means a classic but it’s a fun telling of the incredible story of one of the most successful games of all time. It has fun with its 80’s look and soundtrack, but it’s also very uneven and unsure of what it’s trying to do. Not as entertaining or memorable as the game but fun enough.

Chad Stahelski and Shay Hatten return with the fourth installment of the John Wick franchise. Wick (Keanu Reeves) is still looking for a way out of his life and his debt to “The Table”. But they are not done with him as a new powerful Marquis (Bill Skarsgard) has risen to prominence on a promise to kill Wick. Not only do they come for Wick but also those close to him. Including Winston (Ian McShane), Charon (Lance Reddick), Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his daughter Akira (Rina Sawayama). The Marquis is not Wick’s only problem as he finds he is a “name” for old friend Caine (Donnie Yen) and a bounty hunter (Shamier Anderson). But if Wick can avoid them and the endless line of hunters wanting to cash in on the ever increasing price on his head, then there is finally a way for him to get what he wants.

The thing about the John Wick is it knows exactly what it is about. They are unashamed action films and If John Wick 4 is to be the last, then it has gone out all guns blazing. It’s a 149 minute full throttle adventure from start to finish, that rarely pauses to take a breath and doesn’t drag, even if a couple of fight scenes felt repetitive. Although even at its unrelenting pace it still has time to build in humour and nods to the Wick cannon.

The visual splendour and incredible physicality of the, often long, fight scenes is turned up to 11, highlighed in one fabulous battle that is shot from overhead. It looks fantastic with the mix of neon and traditional gardens in Japan, the decadence of the Berlin night scene to the sweeping use of Paris, ticking off famous sights as it goes.

Performances are what you want and amongst all the action Reeves and Yen bring a world weariness to characters living lives they don’t want. Which balances well against the action.

John Wick: Chapter 4, if it is to be the last installment, has gone out in style. It’s a visual treat that uses to great effect its inspirations from samurai to Westerns. It’s long but doesn’t drag and its action is relentless. For fans of the series, this should be a satisfying conclusion.

David F. Sandberg is back in the Directors seat with writer Henry Gayden joined by Chris Morgan to deliver a second installment of Shazam. Zachary Levi returns in the main role as the teenager given superhero powers. His teenage self Billie (Asher Angel) and his foster brothers and sisters are working hard to balance their double lives as teenagers and super heroes. All is going well, mainly, until a series of events changes things. First the mysterious theft of an ancient staff by the “daughters of Zeus” (Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu). Then foster brother Freddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) bumps into the new girl at school,Anthea (Rachel Zegler), and they quickly hit it off. However these things are not unrelated and the daughters of Zeus have returned to take revenge on Earth and retake the powers that the wizard (Djimon Honour) had bestowed on Bille and his family.

The first Shazam! Was quite a refreshing change, with a light touch often missing from DCs normally overly earnest storytelling. While some of that light touch remains in this second installment, ultimately much of the freshness has gone and while not terrible, it is pretty standard super hero fair.

It’s bangy and crashy, with a silly and predictable storyline. There are things to enjoy, Zachary Levi continues to get the teenager in a superhero body schtick just right. Grazer’s Freddie is perhaps the heart of the film, spending most of the time without his alter ego, as he navigates the events around him and a new relationship with Zegler’s Antheas. Helen Mirren brings some gravitas and humour and Lucy Liu camps it up as a power crazed God.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods, is not a terrible film, but it is predictably average and that is a genre problem more than a Shazam specific one. How superhero films do something interesting in future is a question. It’s not one Shazam solves, it’s fun enough, but nothing you’ve not seen before.