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'The Monkey (2025)' is a horror-comedy from writer-director Osgood Perkins based on the short story by Stephen King. Coming hot off the heels of 'Longlegs (2024)', Perkins' least divisive and most successful picture, the son-of-a-Psycho's latest effort seeks to invert the creeped out to chuckling ratio of his earlier work. Essentially a splatter movie, the flick focuses upon a pair of twin brothers who happen across a wind-up monkey with a penchant for indiscriminate murder. After a messy, elongated opening segment involving the kid versions of these characters, the narrative skips forwards twenty-five years and shifts gears to focus on a father-son dynamic that's constantly overshadowed by the looming threat of the eponymous toy - oh, sorry, it's not a toy, I should never call it a toy. Anyway, this relationship is nice in theory and the idea that you can be so desperate to not pass your childhood trauma onto your kids that you accidentally create trauma all of their own is interesting, but the feature is never quite sure how sincerely it wants to treat its underlying themes and it lacks the nuance necessary to hit on any emotional level. The same is true of its commentary on the randomness and universality of death, which is an intriguing concept that's constantly buried beneath a layer of clunkiness. I do like the premise that the monkey is no scarier than everyday life - or, rather, death - because it's just as likely to cause your demise as, well, just about anything else, but it isn't explored deeply enough here. Neither is the relationship between the two twin characters, which is essential to the story and culminates in a sappy yet fairly engaging exchange that you just know is going to be undercut because of course it is. This is the kind of film that doesn't want to take anything seriously, which is fine, but it also feels the need to hint towards some grander commentary and these two desires don't quite gel. Plus, it isn't as inventive as it needs to be when it comes to its various absurdly gruesome deaths, which don't have any real sense of suspense to them and instead feel like blood-soaked punchlines to jokes that haven't been told. They pale in comparison to the Rube Goldberg machines of 'The Final Destination (2000)' and its sequels, for example. Still, some of them are enjoyable enough in their own macabre way and you can tell that Perkins is having fun with each and every one of them, even if we never quite share his enthusiasm. There's just a sense that this doesn't quite go all the way in most of its aspects, and it's neither funny nor scary so it kind of misses the mark in terms of its target genre. It does get a lot more entertaining as it approaches its finale, to be fair, and its blunt brutality does occasionally catch you off guard. Plus, its performances are all as scene-chewing as they need to be and some of its writing is over-the-top enough to provoke a smirk. While I would say that it's disappointing, it's not particularly bad. I like it a little more than I did just after it finished, but that's not to imply it's been gestating in my mind for all that time. It's a bit of harmless fun (for the audience, at least) that comes close to being really solid on occasion but typically hangs around the 'okay to decent' area. There are better horror films out there, for sure, but there are also a lot worse.

'The Gorge (2025)' isn't sure what it wants to be. Caught between being a high-concept romance and a sci-fi actioner, the slow-paced piece never quite clicks as either. After it sets up its central premise and paints a picture of the boring year its protagonists have signed up for, it progresses into a meet-cute scenario that sees its leads communicate entirely via signs due to the eponymous gorge that separates them. It needs you to buy into their relationship so that its second-half transition into more traditional run-and-gun territory has a sense of stakes, but unfortunately Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy have no chemistry whatsoever. That's largely due to the flat and uninteresting way in which their characters and interactions are written. Their dynamic is the lynchpin everything else hangs on, and unfortunately it isn't sturdy enough to carry the weight of the rest of the affair. Even though the film does have some interesting and surprisingly grotesque creature and set design, it's mostly bland and feels like an outline for a videogame more than a feature presentation. There's some competent action and a couple of enjoyable set-pieces (the best of which involves the vertical ascension of a Jeep), and the visuals are often striking in their own way. It does have that typical 'AppleTV' look in which even things that ought to be real seem slightly unreal for some reason, but there are some aesthetically pleasing vistas and delightfully disgusting crevices to be found once you adjust to the overall vibe. It's very generic and barebones as a whole, but there's the germ of a decent idea here and the designs of many elements are rather distinct (at least in terms of what we usually see in these types of movies). Ultimately, this is an underwhelming experience that's watchable but not much more. It has a few fairly fun sequences, but it's not the sort of thing you'll remember for very long after it's over.

'Captain America: Brave New World (2025)' is the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one which aims to merge a partial sequel to 'The Incredible Hulk (2008)' with a proper sequel to 'The Falcon And The Winter Soldier (2021)' and sprinkle in elements of 'The Eternals (2021)' while also pushing its wider universe closer towards a position in which a new 'Avengers' movie doesn't feel absurd. While it technically succeeds at the first three of those things (at least to some degree), it doesn't particularly make any headway in the latter. After all, we still don't really know who's going to be on the eponymous team in the upcoming 'Avengers: Bob Downey's Back For Some Reason', and the fact that ninety percent of the possible candidates are either ex-sidekicks or straight-up offcuts that haven't been developed enough to take the spotlight doesn't exactly get me pumped for the supposed next major event in the MCU. A 'Captain America' feature feels like the perfect place to set up the next IP crossover considering the titular character is, and always has been, a flagship of the universe. At the very least, it ought to feel like a bona fide cinematic event and not like something that could easily have gone straight to Disney+. Indeed, this latest effort is undeniably underwhelming when considered against the standard set by its namesake's previous appearances and its implied importance in the future of its franchise. The film, just like Sam Wilson himself, struggles to get out from under Steve Rogers' shadow.

However, I don't believe the affair to be as bad as many people seem to. Disappointing? Maybe. Slight? Perhaps. But bad? Not particularly. It may be lukewarm, but there's plenty to like here and it's far from the worst its series has to offer. Sure, it doesn't rocket the MCU out of the rut it's been in for the past few years, but it also doesn't deepen the hole its franchise finds itself in. If anything, its relatively sour reception just goes to show that audiences are finally getting tired of this mid-tier, frankly lazy stuff that Marvel have been peddling recently and aren't going to get excited about something that's mildly better than the worst they've been fed - and been expected to be excited about - since 'Avengers: Endgame (2019)'.

After a messy opening movement, the narrative presents a relatively interesting conspiracy to unravel and provides opportunity for a number of fairly entertaining action set-pieces. The final segment feels rather tacked-on and comparatively silly, but it's pretty fun if you can just go with it and the visual effects at its core are generally better than the trailers make them out to be. I'm not a fan of the way in which the marketing basically spoils the third act simply so it can milk every last drop out of an audience who now needs everything they can get their hands on to convince them to go see one of these at the cinema instead of waiting the, what, three months it takes for them to pop up on Disney+, but I can't exactly blame the film for that. Still, I'll avoid getting any more specific just in case you somehow haven't seen any of the flick's numerous trailers, posters, TV spots, interviews or plot summaries. The finale is entertaining enough for what it is, almost entirely lacking in weight but hitting a certain level of spectacle nevertheless. Some earlier hand-to-hand combat sequences and shootouts are well-choreographed and cleanly shot, with punchy sound design and dramatic flair, but some of the more CG intensive flight scenes are a little bit flat both visually and energetically. The forced, "that just happened" humour occasionally gets in the way of things, and the messaging is fairly heavy-handed whenever it pops up (although it's still a nice inclusion). Sam Wilson's character development generally feels like a retread, though, as he's still struggling with what we saw him apparently overcome in his last outing. I appreciate the desire to convey imposter syndrome as a pervasive force that only gets stronger the more responsibility you have, but the realisation of this theme tends to feel aimed more at those who decided to skip the Disney+ stuff and head straight into the movie (as do the various newsreels and bits of on-the-nose exposition that remind us what exactly happened in Marvel's famously forgettable 'Hulk' outing).

Despite some genuine issues, though, the picture is mostly well-paced and enjoyable. It's not exactly representative of its subtitle, as it pretty much plays it as safe as it could have, but it's a decent enough time to be worth watching if you're a fan of these films. I can't say that it's something you need to see at the cinema, but you may as well check it out when it comes to Disney+ (if you're already subscribed, that is). Its post-credits sting is a total dud, though, so it's totally up to you if you want to sit through its credits just to see it.