Reviews

Leaping from BBC to Sky, but otherwise remaining very much the same, "The Trip" returns for a third season, this time around the beautiful locations of Spain.

High off the successes of "Philomena", Steve Coogan is again encouraged to travel around a European Country, with old frenemy Rob Brydon, sampling the best restaurants of the Iberian Peninsula. Despite his successes, Steve discovers that his agent has moved on and he's not one of the clients he's taking with him and also that a studio has decided to bring in another writer on his next project.

I keep using the term "more of the same" when it comes to reviewing "The Trip" and that again is what we get. Lots of driving to restaurants, shots of cooking, food arriving and, of course, endless competing impressions. There is, perhaps, more of a backstory to this one than either of the previous seasons though, with Coogan aggravated that his success with "Philomena" doesn't seem to have translated into greater faith in him from either his agent, or the studio on his new project. He's also retaking a journey he took as a younger man, when he followed an older woman across the country. Brydon again has a child that he's happy to run away from, though he regularly checks in with his long-suffering wife.

So, you probably know if you like the show or not and nothing here will change your mind either way. It's extremely repetitive, even down to Coogan's' assistant Emma and photographer Yolanda joining them again for a photoshoot. There is another new character, with Kyle Soller appearing as Coogan's new agent, his former agent's assistant. I will say that one of my favourite bits of the series overall is when Coogan cracks and starts laughing and that happens more in this run, than in the earlier ones.

I really enjoy it and look forward to moving on to the fourth season, and to Greece soon.

Have reviewed each episode of "Love, Death + Robots" and am a big video games guy, so thought I'd do the same process for Amazon's "Secret Level".

Crossfire is another game that I'm afraid has entirely passed me by, despite its global popularity. I have, however, played plenty of PvP shooters before and this felt very applicable to almost all of them.

A group of mercenaries prepare to defend a client awaiting extraction from a city largely evacuated dur to an incoming storm. A second group of armed soldiers prepare to try and engage the team, to secure a briefcase that the client is carrying, that contains a dangerous weapon. The morality of both sets of soldiers is questioned during an increasingly violent encounter.

Graphically this one was particularly impressive. Though I recognised the voices of Claudia Doumit and Matt Peters, when Ricky Whittle appeared he was recognisable as him even before he spoke. It's almost photo realistic with its human characters. Buildings, vehicles and explosions are good too, though they're easier to produce. The story though is a little underwhelming, just standard military stuff, though it does play with the idea that in most of these PvP games, you don't generally see yourself as the villain.

Fine, but standard stuff.

2025 has been the year of musical biopics so far, though this film about the early years of Led Zeppelin is a documentary / concert film, unlike any of those.

Looking to break away from his comfortable life as a session guitarist, Jimmy Page established his own band, bringing in fellow session player John Paul Jones as well as two prodigious talents from the West Midlands in Robert Plant and John Bonham. Their chemistry is immediate and they head to American to tour on preexisting contracts for Page's former band The Yardbirds. Their first album is a commercial success, though not well reviewed. They resolve to come again with everything they have for their second album.

The documentary has the full co-operation from the three surviving members of the band who all appear in talking head style interviews, explaining their story themselves. This is intercut with footage from various different sources showing the band performing, or home videos. There is also inserts from an Interview with John Bonham, that never aired anywhere previously, but cover his early life, and time spent with Plant before the band came together. It's quite emotional when they play the interview to the rest of the band, particularly a section when he talks about how he feels about his bandmates. It's a very well researched documentary, though does only get the bands opinions on what's going on, with none of the supporting characters offering any thoughts.

It's a criticism that you see in all the reviews, but it is valid. Ending where they do, with the release of Zeppelin 2, does mean that they can avoid all of the contentious topics that a full documentary would cover. So, there's no spiralling into heroin use, no talk of what they may have gotten up to with groupies and there's no actual discussion of Bonham's death, even how they feel about it. Maybe with the trust that Bernard MacMahon has established with them, they could come back and do a follow up "The End of Led Zeppelin".

If you don't have any interest in the band it's perhaps unlikely to change your opinion, but I enjoyed it.

My son's Godzilla obsession lands us with another film, this time 2016's "Shin Godzilla" which I enjoyed, even if perhaps sometimes I found it to be a little confusing.

Deputy Secretary Rando Yaguchi (Hiroki Hasegawa) is decried when he suggests that a large creature is the cause of damage in Tokyo Bay until conclusive proof of the creature exists. The government is slow to react to the incident and, in the mistaken belief that it is too big to walk on land, do nothing. The creature then does head into Tokyo, destroying buildings and killing people. It returns to the sea, but only briefly as it lands again at almost double the size. The American Government offer assistance, but it may take the form of nuclear weaponry.

Godzilla films often use their platform to talk about or criticise some other aspect of Japanese culture. The original was a reaction to the atomic bombs of World War 2. This is about how a regimented and structured Government fails to respond properly to emerging disaster - much like they had with the Fukushima nuclear disaster. There is also criticism of the Governments refusal to stand up to outside influences, particularly the US. Similar thoughts would appear in "Godzilla Minus One" and again the heroes of the story would be those who arrive at a plan and execute it, but only once the machinery of Governing have checked out.

The "Godzilla" model in this film is fun, the earlier phase, with it's huge googley eyes is almost comical, if he wasn't also so gross, as he pumps geysers of blood out of his gills. The phase he returns in is a little more traditional, though his tail works differently to what I've seen before. I thought the CGI work was good and the mixture between CGI and model work well done.

I will say I found the film to be a little confusing. I was watching the subtitled version so there are often two sets of subtitles on the screen at the same time - as the explanations of who the characters are also appear on screen in that format. Some of the aspects of the story were a bit lost on me - but generally I understood what was going on.

Perhaps if I hadn't already seen "Godzilla Minus One" I'd feel even more positive about this film, as it is it's good - but I know that there's better to come.

A feature length episode of "Black Mirror" to end the third season, and the first on Netflix. It's a well-acted, though perhaps narratively underwhelming episode - though I'd love to see these characters recur.

The murder of controversial journalist Jo Powers (Elizabeth Berrington) is investigated by DCI Karin Parke (Kelly MacDonald) and her Trainee Blue Coulson (Faye Marsay). A second death - of newly unpopular rapper Tusk (Charles Babalola) brings in Shaun Li (Benedict Wong) from the national crimes agency and together the team discover that the murder weapon is an artificial autonomous bee, created to solve the potentially catastrophic environmental issues caused by the near extinction of real bees.

Telling you that bees are the murder weapon isn't a spoiler as that is revealed fairly early on. It's more about who has "hacked" the bees to make them do this, why and whether they can be stopped. The episode takes a fairly traditional form, that of a police procedural and I quite like the team that was pushed together on the case, so much so that I'd be interested in them coming back for a second case, now we know that returning to a story is possible within the show - as we're told that a sequel to "USS Callister" is happening in an upcoming season.

The idea of a twitter "pile on" has only gotten worse in the years since the episode was produced, though now we're at a point when specific incitement to cause harm can result in a prison sentence.

It's not a wildly unfamiliar story though, and (though admittedly I had seen the episode before) I was generally ahead of the team in their decisions and choices.

It's not at the top of the list when it comes to "Black Mirror" episodes so far, but it I did enjoy it.

I watched this film for the "How Did This Get Made" podcast and, whilst I wouldn't, even for a second, suggest that this was a good film, I have to say that I've watched a lot worse for that reason.

On his coronation, Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is betrayed and overthrown by his uncle Set (Gerard Butler) who blinds him and kills his father. A year later, Bek (Brenton Thwaites) breaks into Set's vault to steal one of Horus' eyes, though his escape costs him the love of his life Zaya (Courtney Eaton). He returns the eye to Horus who promises to save Zaya from the underworld if Bek helps him recover the other eye and overthrow his uncle.

There were a couple of faults with the movie for me. I hadn't, until reading the wiki, even considered the issues with inauthentic casting, I suppose they fact they're supposed to be gods overcame that issue for me. The two main problems for me were that the CGI is patchy - sometimes, like the with giant snakes, it's pretty good, but at other times it's horrendous. The other problem is that it's a first half is not strong, so by the time the second halves better moments come around it's probably already lost you.

Which is not to say the rest of it is good. It has plot points that seemingly come out of nowhere, all of the actors (some of whom I like quite a bit) feel like second or third choice options for the role, none perhaps more so that Thwaites, who I really like in "Titans" but has never really proven himself to be a movie star. However, there are some moments of visual flourish that I enjoyed and some of the fight scenes are OK. The second half is better and more clear on what everyone's objectives are

Alex Proyas visual flair remains in evidence but the days of "The Crow" and "Dark City" seem a long time ago, I'd love to think that the comeback hit is still coming but the synopsis for "RUR" doesn't fill me with hope.

I mean, it's a bit cheeky to refer to this as "Season Two" when it ends like it does and there's a "new" season coming in a few months. Ignoring the vagaries of Netflix's scheduling (Cobra Kai, I'm looking at you) I thought this was as reasonable as a return could be.

Having won all the prize money, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) sets about trying to dismantle the games. He employs an army of mercenaries and teams with Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-Joon) who has recovered from his gunshot wound and been saved from the ocean though who doesn't seem to remember exactly who shot him. Gi-hun's plan is to re-enter the games and broadcast his location so his team can invade and break it up, but first he needs to find the recruiter.

I think perhaps it's best to remember that, for all the hype around the series now, the first one worked by taking a relatively simple concept and imbuing it with such rich characterisation that it mattered to you what happened to the individuals in the game. That is, I think, what happens in this second season two, even if perhaps the split of time between the games, the guards and the security team dilute it all slightly. Maybe some of the characters are bigger, certainly "Thanos" is a standout in this run, as is the crazed Seon-nyeo, but at heart is the core characters that you come to know and care about again.

The show works with your expectations too, the return of the first game being the same, so Gi-hun can look like the expert, but then the second game being different, so he looks like a fraud is nicely done. As is the twist involving Hwang In-ho.

I wasn't convinced that a second season of "Squid Game" was the way to go, or certainly one that continued to tell Gi-hun's story but I thought this worked really well and I'm interested to see how it concludes later this year.

"One Mississippi" appeared on the Guardian's best of TV lists a few years back, but in my catching up way I've just made it around to it. I like Tig Notaro and enjoyed this comedy drama well enough.

Tig (Tig Nortaro) returns to the city in Mississippi where she grew up, for the last moments and subsequent funeral of her mother (Rya Kihlstedt). She lives with her stepfather Bill (John Rothman) and brother Remy (Noah Harpster). Tig has recently had a double mastectomy herself and is still in recovery from that. The longer she stays the more the secrets of the past, some previously revealed and some not, drive her decision making.

It is, despite the way it sounds in that description, a comedy - though it's one that leans into Notaro's dry observational style. There are some fantasy elements, mostly in the form of Tig's interactions with her mother, who appears in the story still and the occasional dream sequence. It's still relatively gentle stuff in terms of language, but there are some even more extreme plot points than I've mentioned above, that might be triggering for some people.

It is funny though, honest and well performed by the cast - particularly Notaro who's playing a version of herself and some of the truths of her life. I can't say that I felt I was discovering some massively underseen hidden gem, but I enjoyed the series and will start the second run straight away.

No politics in this review. There isn't the space or the nuance here for the wider positioning of the film in a geo-political space. Instead, I'll focus on the movie, which is as an excellent retelling of an unprecedented event and the complex moral choices that were made.

As his shift covering the Olympic games for ABC television is just starting, Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) hears news about gunfire in the athlete's village. Several Israeli competitors are taking hostage and, as they're on the scene to cover the games, the ABC team suddenly find themselves in the centre of the biggest story in the world. They all fight to keep control of the story and Mason finds himself torn between Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) the head of operations and Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) the President of ABC Sports about how explicit and provocative the coverage should be.

So, this angle on a story that's been retold in Cinema several times works really well. It's all about high pressure decision making and skilled people trying to do their jobs in terrible circumstances. It's a great recreation of the confusion of the time and the seemingly eternal struggle in broadcast news between being first and being correct. The characters interact with the actual footage, particularly with the Anchor Jim McKay and they relay information to him that he says on screen.

A strong aspect of this story is that they don't get everything right and may, perhaps, have made a bad situation worse by covering the earlier rescue attempts - though its was the first ever terrorist situation watched, in real time, by those involved in it. The horror of the effects of their decisions is wonderfully portrayed by the actors involved.

Criticism that it's focused on the wrong part of the story seem misguided to me, there are other films and documentaries chronicling that. This is the story of the story and I thought this complex, emotional telling was well done.

A long day of screenings at the cinema ended with "Love Hurts" that I feared wouldn't be long for the multiplexes, so decided to take a chance on whilst I could. It's not terrible, but I could feel myself forgetting it, whilst it was still on.

Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan) is a polite and enthusiastic estate agent, running an office for Cliff Cussick (Sean Astin). However, in his past, Marvin was a brutal enforcer for his bother "Knuckles" Gable (Daniel Wu) and involved in organised crime. He started his new life after refusing to kill Rose (Ariana DeBose) a lawyer working for his brother, with whom he was in love. Years after that, Rose reappears and with the use of Valentine's cards, drags the whole organisation, including the reluctant Marvin, into a showdown.

We do have an established little genre now of martial arts movies, starring non-traditional action starts. This is another of those, though Ke Huy Quan has done some fight choreography, this is still his first action film. You also have several people in this who aren't even actors, let alone action stars, with Marshawn Lynch, Andre Ericksen and Drew Scott of the Property Brothers also appearing. The film's action though is a touch below the work in say "Nobody" and seems a little more reliant on CGI work - though there is a lot of physicality from the cast still.

The storyline is maybe more complicated than clever, especially as it only really needs to do enough to justify a few fight scenes. There is a theme about love conquering all which is sometimes sweet and sometimes a little bizarre. It sounds harsh but the film might work better without Ke Huy Quan - who is an actor I really like, but he's too earnest for me to buy in this, particularly in the flashbacks to his enforcer role.

The films not bad though, it's just very forgettable.

I missed this at the time but going through the Guardian's "best of TV" lists convinced me to watch this. I wasn't even familiar with the story, having never read Tolstoy's novel nor seen another adaptation of it before. I was struck most by the work of the casting team, in finding a series of actors on the cusp who are now much more famous.

In the early 1800, most of the privileged young adults are only concerned about their social circles and who they might marry. However, the French Army led by Napoleon Bonaparte (Mathieu Kassovitz) are advancing across Europe in the direction of Russia. The men, such as Andrei Bolkonsky (James Norton) and Nikolai Rostov (Jack Lowden) enlist but dreams of glory are met by consistent defeats to a skilled military tactician. Soon the advancing French come to threaten the opulence that the wealthy families are used too.

It's a really impressive cast that was put together for this production. The leads (such as they are) are Norton, Paul Dano and Lily James. I say that because it's really a large ensemble - though perhaps revolving around the wishes of those three characters the most. There is also Tuppence Middleton, Callum Turner, Jessie Buckley, Tom Burke, Kit Connor and Chloe Pirrie in the group that would become household names. As well as the already established Gillian Anderson, Ken Stott, Brian Cox, Adrian Edmondson and Greta Scacchi.

It's a sprawling story and lavish production, taking place over many years and involving several big battle scenes and interiors and exteriors of Russian buildings. I will say, at first, and certainly because I wasn't familiar with the story, I was unsure who I was supposed to be tracking, particularly as I recognised so much of the cast - but eventually it becomes apparent who fits where and what they're after.

It's pacing probably won't win you over, if you're not a fan of costume drama but if you are, it's about as good an example as you can find.

I have reviewed each episode of "Love, Death + Robots" and am a big video games guy, so thought I'd do the same process for Amazon's "Secret Level".

I mean, I have, of course, played Pac-Man in various forms for years. I haven't though played "Shadow Labyrinth" that this particular episode is more closely based around and for a good reason, that it's not been released as of time of writing. There are recognisable "Pac-Man" elements though that I'd assume the game is going to play with.

A humanoid creature falls out of a survival tube and is met by Puck (Emily Swallow) a yellow ball who explains that the creature is the "Chosen" one and its destiny is to help them escape from the maze they are both trapped in. Puck presents the Chosen one with a sword and facilitates the killing and eating of various dangerous creatures to survive. The ultimate aim is to the defeat the ghosts, that haunt the maze and escape.

A bit more stylised than the previous editions of the show and less concerned with photo realism than producing a scary and at time ethereal world. There are moments of real horror in this one too, as the true nature of the puck is revealed and amongst the most gory elements of the whole series so far.

I don't really know what to think of this one, I mentally dubbed it "Zack Snyder's Pac-man" as soon as it finished, as it was such a dark version of what has traditionally been a colourful and family friendly sort of game. If you're looking for something akin to "Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures" this is certainly not that. It was inventive though; I'll have to give it that.

Context is sometimes king when it comes to seeing a movie, so I should mention that I saw "Flight Risk" after going to see Mike Leigh's "Hard Truths". I think the emotional catharsis from one film to the next has led to me thinking more positively about what should have been a fairly standard Netflix thriller - than is actually the true worth.

Recently returned to work, US Marshal Madolyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) is tasked with transporting Winston (Topher Grace) a former mob-accountant turned state witness from a small Alaskan airfield to Anchorage - and then on to testify. During the course of the flight their pilot Daryl (Mark Wahlberg) reveals himself to be a hitman, tasked with stopping Winston from testifying by killing him, and Harris. Harris manages to subdue him but then is left having to control the plane, as well as working out how the Hitman knew that they would be on this plane.

"Flight Risk" is exactly what it looks like. A silly high concept action thriller that maybe is saved from being unwatchable by it's three leads. Wahlberg starts off fairly level-headed and charming but as his true character is revealed becomes more and more unhinged. Michelle Dockery has to carry the film and does well enough with an American accent and a few emotional reveals along the way. Grace gets to play morally dubious smartass, which is very much his wheelhouse, though he generates most of the films laughs.

I'm not sure why this one in particular warranted a cinematic release when streaming now tends to be the home of dumb B-Movies like this - maybe it's that Wahlberg's star power is a little higher, maybe it's Mel Gibson back behind the camera, though this is comfortable the least ambitious of the films he's directed.

Maybe it was just because I'd been haunted by "Hard Truths" but I enjoyed the take-out-the-brain fun of this one. I'll never need to watch it again though.

After plenty of comedy in the opening of this season, episode five shows something very different. A dark and humourless vision of a planet gone to hell, and presumably, the start of this season through storyline.

The emergence of the Celestial in the middle of the planet is not stopped by The Eternals and the Earth is split apart. In the chaos and confusion, Quentin Beck (Alejandro Saab) rises to power with a combination of Stark Enterprises armoured core, his own affinity for deception and control over an all-powerful Vision. The resistance is struggling but manage to buy Riri Williams (Dominqiue Thorne) enough to create a weapon capable of downing the Synthezoid. But The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) has seen her fail many times and knows she will fall again.

I suspect we will be revisiting the moment at the end of the episode for the remainder of the run, Jason Isaacs appearing as another "Watcher" is a welcome addition. Dominque Thorne makes her first appearance reprising her role from "Wakanda Forever". There's also a return for Emily VanCamp and Tessa Thompson - though both Benedict Wong and Jake Gyllenhaal have their roles played by soundalike actors.

The rest of the episode is fine. I feel like it skips over both what happened to the rest of the Avengers and how Beck took over Stark Industries a bit, to get to the story that it wants to tell. I liked the look of it though, particularly when Beck's illusion powers were again brought to bear.

I didn't enjoy this as much as say, the Russian buddy cop episode, but it was fine.

I've written reviews for each season of "Shadow and Bone" that are lodged against the final episodes of the runs, but, with cancellation confirmed I thought I'd put something here too, to sum up my overall feelings.

The country of Ravka is split in two by "The fold" an area of dark magic and literally darkness, that contains creatures called Volcra. Though commonly mistrusted, and in history hunted, the world contains humans with magical elemental powers called the Grisha. One such Grisha is Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) who has grown up unaware of her gift as she avoided early detection. Whilst crossing the fold, it becomes apparent that her power is the most unique of all, she is a Sun summoner and if properly harnessed, her power can bring down the fold for ever.

The Alina storyline is actually only one of three that run through this series, two of which interact at regular points. Another see Kaz Brekker, an entrepreneur, set his team on trying to kidnap the Sun Summoner and a third sees Nina, a Grisha taken as a slave by Matthias and his crew, before eventually winning him over and the pair becoming lovers.

It's admittedly all a bit "YA" for someone of my age. The relationships are chaste affairs, with longing looks, there's not much swearing or explicit violence, though the body count does start to mount up. I did like pretty much all the characters though, with Ben Barnes probably being the pick - literally the handsome devil. And that admiration of the characters is what got me through the series, even when the first couple of episodes were baffling dense with introduction of characters, locations and ideas.

If you're at all inclined to a series like "Shadow and Bone" then I think that this is perhaps the best of those available - but maybe life is a little too short for everyone else.

I watched the first season of "Shadow and Bone" around it's release in 2021. The second season though has taken me a few extra years to get back around to - so perhaps I'm one of the reasons that the show was cancelled, despite reasonable reviews and, apparently, viewing figures.

Arrested for murder Kaz (Freddy Carter) and Jesper (Kit Young) are liberated by adventurer Sturmhond (Patrick Gibson) who is looking for Alina (Jessie Mei Li) who has a price on her head for increasing the size of the Shadow Fold. When Sturmhond and Alina meet, he reveals who he truly is and plans begin to form. Kirigan (Ben Barnes) is also recruiting Grishna to his side, for a war he believes is now inevitable.

I suppose, despite all those years between the viewing, I feel much about the second season of "Shadow and Bone" as I did about the first. Netflix went through a real spell of commissioning a lot of "YA-style" fantasy fiction, some of it working, much of it not and, whilst I'd say that "Shadow and Bone" was certainly on the better side, I feel it still falls a little short of the higher tier TV series.

The show doesn't have any one particularly flaw, which makes it difficult to pinpoint why it's not better. I like the performances, and the visual effects are good. I quite like the characters, and this season adds Patrick Gibson who, at time of writing this review, is killing it (pun intended) on "Dexter: Original Sin". It was the characters that pulled me through the first season and again they're my real reason for staying this time.

It's maybe a little bit too "fetch questy" for it's own good but it does coalesce to an ending that, whilst clearly showing where the series was planning to go, isn't a cliffhanger and does finish off some major aspects of the story.

If you're at all inclined to a series like "Shadow and Bone" then I think that this is perhaps the best of those available - but maybe life is a little too short for everyone else.

For the first time in decades, since the days that I used to leave a VHS tape recording all night to record an event on Sky, I've decided to watch a WWE PPV, the morning after it aired and ahead of any spoilers. It was quite emotional to do, even if perhaps there were some elements of the event that annoyed me. For the record, I've not really been an avid viewer of WWE programming since it moved to BT Sports, but the move to Netflix has allowed me to get back to it.

From the Lucas Oil Stadium, in Indianapolis, this event had Michael Cole, Wade Barrett and Pat McAfee on commentary.

It began with the Women's Royal Rumble match. I thought that overall, this match was pretty solid - save for the ending that was pretty underwhelming, not because I dislike Charlotte particularly, just that it was a low-key finish. There were returns for Alexa Bliss and for the aforementioned Flair - though she was expected to return. I was struck by how generic so much of the entrance music was, and it's clear that occasionally there were "wait, who is this?" moments from the crowd.

Following some awful Slim Jims adverts, the next match was a two out of three falls match between DIY (Ciampa and Gargano) and the Motor City Machine Guns. Whether they're a little burned out by the rumble or not, the crowd don't seem very into this match - which is solid stuff on the most part until it's ruined by an ending run in from the Street Profits.

Then we see a WWE Championship ladder match between Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes. This was great, exactly my sort of match, full of big dangerous bumps and ending with one that could easily have gone wrong and looked dangerous. I wonder if we're seeing the start of a heel turn for Rhodes though, as he seemed to revel in the damage he'd caused to Owens at the conclusion of the match.

Finally, the men's Royal Rumble. Again, not many surprises, no Malachi/Alestair/Tommy Black/End. The only returning legend was John Cena's which was announced ahead of time. Joe Hendry's appearance was widely predicted. There was star power though, with Roman Reigns in for the first time in years, CM Punk, Seth Rollins and Jacob Fatu. Again, the match was good and advanced the stories nicely.

Generally, I thought that the actual wrestling on the show was pretty solid, however, in retrospect I should have used the fast forward option to cut out so much of the disinteresting adverts and background stuff and get the runtime down. I understand that there's a desire for a sports like presentation, but I don't watch any of that sort of stuff when I watch the NFL either. I'd have felt much more positive about the show if it had cut some of that cut out and we'd had another match on the card- probably a title defence by Walter or Rhea Ripley.

I really don't think that there's been a bad episode of "Black Mirror" so far, but "Men Against Fire" is certainly the one I've felt least positively about.

A soldier "Stripe" Koinange (Malachi Kirby) is out on his first patrol with a small unit that hunt roaches, infected humanoid creatures that are plaguing the human towns and villages. Each soldier is enhanced by a neurologically implanted augmented reality system that provides mission critical data. As Stripe completes his first kills, he's exposed to a device held by a Roach that causes his AR system to glitch, though he's cleared to return to work. On his next mission he sees that his fellow soldier, Raiman (Madeline Brewer) has killed a human, rather than a roach.

I suppose my complaints about this episode are the same as everyone else's. Its twist isn't particularly clever. Though perhaps that's not really the point this time. So, we're left with the idea that armies and political parties have traditionally used dehumanising speak about their targets to make the horrific abuses easier to undertake. Which is true but perhaps the episode is a bit on the nose when it comes to that. The biggest problem with the episode for me though is that it doesn't go anywhere - it concludes at what should, perhaps, be the end of the first act.

The performances from Kirby and Brewer are both good though. There is able supporting performances from Sarah Snook and from Michael Kelly. The visual effects work on the "Roaches" is good and the locations seem authentic.

It's too harsh to describe this episode as being bad, but weighed against the rest of the series, it doesn't quite go far enough.

As it was not looking likely at my nearest cinema, I travelled to Sheffield to find a screening of "The Brutalist". Despite its length, I didn't struggle - though must admit that I took the opportunity of the interval to stretch my legs.

Laszlo Toth (Adrien Brody) a Hungarian born Jew has survived the concentration camps of World War 2 and arrived in America to work with his cousin Attila (Allesandro Nivola). Together they design a library for a wealthy patron, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) who becomes interested in Toth's pre-war role as an architect, in the style that would later be defined as "Brutalist". Van Buren commissions Toth to design a new community centre but the scope, scale and cost of the project - as well as Van Buren's resentment of Toth's talent, cause the project to falter.

What works so much in the films favour, and one of the reasons that it has the Oscar nominations for best picture, is that it feels like the product of a singular vision - and one that was likely uncompromising to what perhaps might have been more commercial pressures. The film could have been shortened, the characters could have had some edges smoothed off to make them more or less likable (though also less realistic). I really like the two act & epilogue structure and even little aspects, such as the noises and bits of music in the intermission have been thoroughly thought through. It's such a big film dealing with the weight of its themes whilst simultaneously not becoming belaboured by an abundance of plot points.

Performances are great, across the board, but particularly from Brody and from Felicity Jones, who arrives in the second half of the film as Toth's wife, who is also suffering from the effects of her time in the camps - though unlike her husband it's physical, rather than psychological.

I can't suggest for a minute that it's the sort of film that I'm going to sit down and rewatch again and again, but it's an engrossing and stylish one and I predict it'll be this year's best picture.

When you watch short films, particularly horror short films, I do think it's important to acknowledge that you're not comparing against commercial releases, you're more likely watching friends and family, making something with almost no budget, so you need to be looking for moments in the story, or the performances, that could be built on. With that in mind, "Don't Look Now" is a middling effort from writer, director Christopher Cox.

Whilst arguing with her brother about whether to mow the lawn or not, Savannah (Sabrina Twyla) looks out of the window and sees a man, in a dishevelled suit, with a burlap sack chained to his head. On the phone with her father (Jim Marshall), she tells him what she can see and he explains that he's on his way over immediately, but that she needs to be looking at the figure at all times. Her brother Jim (Danny Roy) comes in, and he can see the creature too. With him watching, Savannah goes to lock all the doors, but when she returns the creature has gone.

So, there's a little bit of Doctor Who's Weeping Angels in this story, with a villain that can't move whilst being looked at, he also resembles Scarecrow in Nolan's Batman films. It's not particularly terrifying, but it's unsettling, particularly when it stands perfectly still. It's a fairly straightforward short though, with one reasonable jump scare and a neat way of half resolving the story.

The acting is not great, from any of the three actors that don't spend the whole 8 minutes with a bag on their head and that hurts the piece because they don't 'sell' what's going on particularly well.

There's enough in this that I'm going to try Cox's latest short and see what that's like, but I don't think that you particularly need to hunt this one down.

Having watched one of Christopher Cox's earlier shorts I decided to jump forward to his latest effort, last years "The Noise Next Door". In every way possible, this is a much better film.

Having moved into his new apartment, Jay (James Sanger) begins to hear noises of a woman in distress coming from next door. He knocks and meets Ethan (Scott Bolger) and his wife Morgan (Natalie Polisson). Though they both claim that they are fine, there's a bruise on Morgan's arm that continues to raise an alarm with Jay, so he reports the situation to building management. He later sees Morgan, hunched in her door way crying through his apartment spyhole, but when he opens the door, she has gone.

As with "Don't Look Away" this perhaps isn't the most original story ever told in the realm of horror short films, but it is carried off with much more panache and style this time. It helps that the performances are better - it almost all rest on James Sanger to carry this off and he does well. I believe his fear, or anger. Scott Bolger too keeps his character on the right side of suspicious in the earlier scenes and I too believed his growing frustrations at Ethan's unwarranted, from his point of view, prying into his life.

The horror element towards the end is well done. Be it visual effects on the character of the foley work of them moving about. There is a memorable flashback reveal and there are some moments of genuine tension in those final scenes ahead of a nice jump scare ending.

Christopher Cox has a lively Youtube page with lots of information about the shorts he's made and, based on the improvements I've seen in just these two shorts, I look forward to see what the future holds.

After a couple of busy months, I've finally found enough time to get back to reviewing each episode of the anthology show "Journey To the Unknown" from the late 1960's. I'm now on what was the sixth episode, according to the IMDB, but 14th according to Wiki's air dates.

Steven Miller (Chad Everett) is invited to a ball at a Stately Home and goes despite his belief that he's never met his host before. When he arrives a Measham House the fancy dress party is in full swing and his host, Sir Robert Sawyer (Edward Fox) is welcoming as if he knows Steven. He then meets Rose (Susan Brodrick) who is dressed in a Butterfly costume and who also seems to have been expecting him. Their flirtations are judged by a disapproving room, then, with increasing desperation, Rose asks him to take her back to London.

As is often the case when I'm watching a story like this one, I'm left wondering just how original it was at the time, compared to how many times it's been done now. I try not to write reviews with spoilers, so I'll keep things vague here, but I suspect that anybody who watches this now will guess what's going on pretty quickly, I certainly did. So, shorn of that reveal does the story work - sort of. How much the other characters know is in constant question, but they're reasonably unsettling with it - particularly as they're in a degree of low budget fancy dress, which is always disconcerting.

Chad Everett wasn't particularly familiar to me, though looking through his credits I must have seen him in a few of his later roles. He's fine in this, and him being an American adds an extra 'out of place-ness', to him at the party. Nobody in the rest of the cast is doing anything particularly memorable as being either good, or bad though.

Again, maybe I'd feel a bit better about this if I hadn't seen the story done so often, but this is a pretty standard version of it.

I've reviewed each season of "The Old Man" and you can find those reviews against the final episodes of the runs, but now that it's confirmed as not returning, I thought I'd put something here to sum up my overall feeling about the show.

Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges/Bill Heck) is a former CIA operative who has been living a quiet life for the last few years. He suddenly discovers that he's being hunted by the FBI and goes on the run. Leading the chase is Assistant Director Harold Harper (John Lithgow/Christopher Redman). Harper, however, has history with Chase from operations in Afghanistan in the early 1980's and there are aspects of that past he'd rather not come to light. Harper's protégé, Angela Adams (Alia Shawkat) begins to wonder what is being kept from her.

There's nothing particularly original about "The Old Man". The gunslinger coming out of retirement for one last stand is well covered and the exploration of the murkiness of the American intelligence agencies has also been done before. Rarely with this level of talent though. Bridges is excellent, as you would expect, and when the scenes need him to become a physical threat, the action scenes are brilliantly thought through in such a way that luck, and training, allow him to take down men much younger than he. As the show runs on though, it becomes Lithgow's though. The confliction within him, transitioning in and out of grief, anger, arrogance and a broken heart is wonderfully played. I should also give a little shout out to Christopher Redman, who does an excellent impression of Lithgow's mannerisms.

What struck me about the second series was that it felt a little more like the generic spy show from the last few years - maybe something like "Homeland" - rather than the show it was in the first run. In their defence, the show has been a little snakebit from the start, with Covid, Strikes and serious illness diagnosis all happening during the filming. It's perhaps because so much of the series takes place in Afghanistan rather than the Midwest.

Generic is not the same as bad though, and whilst I did think this was inferior, it was entertaining enough to keep me watching and, had there been the third season - that was clearly planned - then I would have kept watching. The cast remain watchable even if perhaps the threat of the series becomes more fluid and esoteric. Janet McTeer joins as Harolds ex wife and a serious powerbroker herself, Marion.

I'm really on the fence as to whether, knowing what I know, I'd recommend the series to someone to start now. Given how much TV there is about now to try and get through, probably not.

I quite enjoyed the first season of "The Old Man" but I was a little surprised it was planned to be an ongoing series and not a Limited one. The widening focus of this second season though has, I think, made the series more generic.

Angela/Emily (Alia Shawkat) is taken to Afghanistan where she meets her real father, Faraz Hamzad (Navid Negahban). Dan (Jeff Bridges) and Harold (John Lithgow) enter Afghanistan themselves to try and rescue her - then meet Omar (Artur Zai Barrera) who explains that Hamzard controls a large Lithium mine, which gives him power and influence with the countries that need to buy from him. Having learned that Omar is not who he says he is, the pair lay low in a cave, until Hamzard himself arrives.

What struck me about this series was that it felt a little more like the generic spy show from the last few years - maybe something like "Homeland" - rather than the show it was in the first run. In their defence, the show has been a little snakebit from the start, with Covid, Strikes and serious illness diagnosis all happening during the filming. It's perhaps because so much of the series takes place in Afghanistan rather than the Midwest.

Generic is not the same as bad though, and whilst I did think this was inferior, it was entertaining enough to keep me watching and, had there been the third season - that was clearly planned - then I would have kept watching. The cast remain watchable even if perhaps the threat of the series becomes more fluid and esoteric. Janet McTeer joins as Harolds ex wife and a serious powerbroker herself, Marion.

I'm really on the fence as to whether, knowing what I know, I'd recommend the series to someone to start now. Given how much TV there is about now to try and get through, probably not.