Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Black Bag 2025

  ★★★★½ Watched 18 Mar 2025

  I can be slow-witted at times. This probably explains why I felt Black Bag, the film, wasn’t like its trailer.

  I mean this was mainly a series of conversations - sometimes one-to-one; sometimes a dinner table, literally, number of participants.

  But that didn’t matter: I was engrossed. 

  Things heat up - familiar espionage themes and action make appearances. Yet all the time it’s the talk, the words, reactions, and behaviour of everyone in frame. 

  My only criticism, and its slight, is that although I liked the slinky, jazz score it sometimes popped at weird moments. I am slow-witted B, though, at times.

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  The Monkey 2025

  ★★★ Watched 13 Mar 2025

  I wasn’t entirely sure after the trailer, but the first kill confirmed it for me: watch The Monkey for laughs and you’ll have a better time. 

  If you’re not convinced by the opening, things ramp up considerably to ludicrous, cartoonish levels quite quickly. 

  Yet I couldn’t escape a feeling of unevenness to the narrative, which prevented me from completely settling in. 

  It’s also impossible to ignore that a lot of the inventive kills are presented in a social media-like segment. Good fun in an easy-to-share fashion rather than as part of an overall story.

Popular reviews

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  Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. 2023

  ★★★ Watched 20 May 2023

  I think the original novel had a bigger impact in the US, but even my near-50 year old, male, UK self can recall author Judy Blume from childhood.

  It's not hard to imagine its publication causing a storm because, sadly, the same sort of stuff is happening today.

  It's an engaging watch with more than a few funny scenes; I did laugh out loud at the drugstore sequence.

  Performances are good too, particularly Rachel McAdams who I last saw being criminally underused in the Doctor Strange sequel.

  This probably isn't a must-see at the cinema, though, and might fare better with a home stream.

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  Expend4bles 2023

  ★½ Watched 23 Sep 2023

  I rewatched the first two Expendables films recently and thought they were stupid fun. When the time came to seeing the third film again, however, I was reluctant because of the two hour runtime.

  Thankfully, this fourth film is back to a more manageable 100 minutes. Also making a welcome return is regular Expendables-levels of bloody violence.

  Yet that's all there really is to be thankful for because Expend4bles (no comment!) wasn't worth the nine-year wait.

  The [predictable] story chooses…