Paul Thomas Anderson appears to be this year's favourite, but with strong entries from category debutants and former winners in the mix, it's anyone's guess.
This year’s array of best director candidates for the Academy Award includes a trio making their category debut, a former winner, and a four-time nominee who must be favourite. At the end of 2025, you might have expected Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein) or Yorgos Lanthimos (Bugonia) to be in the final five. However, Josh Safdie moved into contention following the December release of Marty Supreme and the Oscar buzz around Timothée Chalamet’s dazzling performance as a charismatic hustler out to achieve greatness. It’s Safdie’s first nomination in any category and the first film made solo since 2008 and the 2024 split with co-directing sibling Benny. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/01/GettyImages-2255312976-35ced8c.jpg" width="5851" height="3901" alt="Paul Mescal, Pippa Harris, Nic Gonda, Jessie Buckley, Jacobi Jupe, Max Richter, Chloé Zhao, Steven Spielberg, Liza Marshall, Noah Jupe, Maggie O'Farrell on stage at the 83rd Annual Golden Globes held at The Beverly Hilton on January 11, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California." title="83rd Annual Golden Globes - Inside" /> Joachim Trier received a screenplay nomination for The Worst Person in the World (2021), but his nod for Sentimental Value is the first for directing. The story of a reunion between two sisters and their estranged film-maker father (played by Swedish veteran Stellan Skarsgård) has garnered four acting nominations, with only Skarsgård in the shake-up for a statuette. Trier will likely miss out, although the film has a chance of copping the Academy Award for best international feature, and is available on Mubi now. A winner at the 2021 Oscars for Nomadland, Chloé Zhao became only the second woman to receive the Academy Award after Kathryn Bigelow broke that particular glass ceiling for The Hurt Locker in 2010. The Chinese film-maker’s second nomination as director is for Hamnet, the adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about the fallout from the tragic death of Shakespeare’s son, for which both women are nominated in the best adapted screenplay category. However, Hamnet’s chances of success lie with Irish actress Jessie Buckley, whose performance as Will’s grieving wife Agnes seems destined for Oscar glory. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/02/GettyImages-2262996034-bf246b5.jpg" width="7636" height="5090" alt="Ryan Coogler accepts the Original Screenplay Award for 'Sinners' on stage during the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2026 at The Royal Festival Hall on February 22, 2026 in London, England." title="Ryan Coogler accepts the Original Screenplay Award for 'Sinners' on stage during the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2026 at The Royal Festival Hall on February 22, 2026 in London, England." /> Previously nominated as a producer (Judas and the Black Messiah) and a songwriter (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Ryan Coogler (Creed) gets his first director nomination for hit horror flick Sinners. Only the seventh Black director to be nominated after John Singleton for Boyz n the Hood in 1992, who was then followed by Lee Daniels (Precious), Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Jordan Peele (Get Out) and Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman), Coogler is the second favourite. However, Sinners has a record 16 Oscar nominations and wins likely elsewhere, including Coogler for his genre-blending original screenplay about twin brothers confronting racism and vampirism in 1930s Mississippi. And the winner will be… Paul Thomas Anderson for black comedy thriller One Battle After Another, the film-maker’s fourth Oscar nomination as director after There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza and his 14th in total, but with no wins. That is sure to change with Anderson also up for best film and his adapted screenplay about a befuddled ex-revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) on the run from his military nemesis (a superb Sean Penn). With all the main awards bodies (Golden Globes, Directors Guild and, most recently, Bafta) all voting for Anderson, the indications are that one of the finest film-makers of his generation will be celebrating on 15 March.
The Bride review: An ambitious and stylish monster movie that doesn't quite cohere
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s re-imagining of the Bride of Frankenstein boasts a mesmerising Jessie Buckley performance, but there's a little too much going on...
★★★☆☆ The Bride is released in cinemas from Friday 6 March. Add it to your watchlist James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935) starring Boris Karloff and the luminous Elsa Lanchester remains a playful, witty follow-up to the English director’s seminal version of Frankenstein (1931), and is often cited as a sequel superior to its acclaimed original, along with the likes of The Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back and The Dark Knight. Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s re-imagining of the 1935 Universal masterpiece is playful, too, boldly locating to mid-1930s America where the Monster or “Frank” (played by a suitably stitched-and-stapled Christian Bale) has reached the end of his tether after being alone for over a century. His desire for a mate brings the patchwork Romeo to the door of Chicago scientist Dr Euphronius (Annette Bening), whose work in reinvigorating the dead offers lovelorn Frank the chance to have a companion just like him. All they need is a recently deceased corpse… Enter Jessie Buckley as Ida, whose sudden transformation from glum gangster’s moll to dangerously gobby harridan is all down to being possessed by novelist Mary Shelley (also played by Buckley, emulating the monochrome framing device from the 1935 original). Here, the Frankenstein author occupies a shadowy netherworld where she bemoans her lack of agency in life and so injects her proto-feminist ire into Ida, only to put the poor girl in an early pauper’s grave and become the ideal candidate for revival. Indeed, it is Shelley who poses the question from the outset whether the unfurling tale will be “a ghost story, a horror story or most frightening of all, a love story?” In her second film behind the camera (following The Lost Daughter in 2021), Gyllenhaal attempts to harness all those elements, while adding in plenty of genre-mashing moments. From Frank’s love of movie musicals, encapsulated by song-and-dance matinee idol Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), to the unnatural born killers later embarking on a Bonnie and Clyde-style joyride across America, the sophomore director delivers some eye-catching sequences, not least when the newly-deads gatecrash New York high society and perform a raucous dance routine to Puttin’ on the Ritz (wryly referencing Mel Brooks’s sublime spoof Young Frankenstein). Also, dogging their heels is dour detective Jake Wiles (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal's husband, Peter Sarsgaard) and his smart secretary/assistant Myrna Malloy (Penélope Cruz), who has her own fight to be taken seriously in a man’s world, conjuring up such battle-of-the-sexes classics like The Thin Man and His Girl Friday, albeit without the quickfire patter. View Green Video on the source website Buckley is mesmerising as the Bride, recalling Lanchester with her frizzy blonde hair in a vertical state of shock, but with her face stained by a distinctive Rorschach inkblot and sporting black bee-stung lips. This year’s favourite to win the best actress Oscar (for Hamnet) has a ball here, dovetailing wildly between a loud Chicago broad, a well-spoken if tetchy Shelley and an amnesiac punk-rock monster, even during a single conversation. Meanwhile, Bale channels Karloff and gives a restrained, sympathetic performance as a world-weary creation who would rather woo than wound. Gyllenhaal should be applauded for her ambition, stylish flourishes and obvious respect for the original film. However, there’s a sense that all the elements don’t cohere entirely, with subplots involving the Chicago Mob and even the Sarsgaard/Cruz dynamic just getting in the way of the couple’s bizarre but captivating cross-country courtship. Pity, because the stars, the roving cinematography and Sandy Powell’s costumes are all first-class.
The Bride review: An ambitious and stylish monster movie that doesn't entirely cohere
James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935) starring Boris Karloff and the luminous Elsa Lanchester remains a playful, witty follow-up to the English director’s seminal version of Frankenstein (1931), and is often cited as a sequel superior to its acclaimed original, along with the likes of The Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back and The Dark Knight. Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s re-imagining of the 1935 Universal masterpiece is playful, too, boldly locating to mid-1930s America where the Monster or “Frank” (played by a suitably stitched-and-stapled Christian Bale) has reached the end of his tether after being alone for over a century. His desire for a mate brings the patchwork Romeo to the door of Chicago scientist Dr Euphronius (Annette Bening), whose work in reinvigorating the dead offers lovelorn Frank the chance to have a companion just like him. All they need is a recently deceased corpse… Enter Jessie Buckley as Ida, whose sudden transformation from glum gangster’s moll to dangerously gobby harridan is all down to being possessed by novelist Mary Shelley (also played by Buckley, emulating the monochrome framing device from the 1935 original). Here, the Frankenstein author occupies a shadowy netherworld where she bemoans her lack of agency in life and so injects her proto-feminist ire into Ida, only to put the poor girl in an early pauper’s grave and become the ideal candidate for revival. Indeed, it is Shelley who poses the question from the outset whether the unfurling tale will be “a ghost story, a horror story or most frightening of all, a love story?” In her second film behind the camera (following The Lost Daughter in 2021), Gyllenhaal attempts to harness all those elements, while adding in plenty of genre-mashing moments. From Frank’s love of movie musicals, encapsulated by song-and-dance matinee idol Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), to the unnatural born killers later embarking on a Bonnie and Clyde-style joyride across America, the sophomore director delivers some eye-catching sequences, not least when the newly-deads gatecrash New York high society and perform a raucous dance routine to Puttin’ on the Ritz (wryly referencing Mel Brooks’s sublime spoof Young Frankenstein). Also, dogging their heels is dour detective Jake Wiles (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal's husband, Peter Sarsgaard) and his smart secretary/assistant Myrna Malloy (Penélope Cruz), who has her own fight to be taken seriously in a man’s world, conjuring up such battle-of-the-sexes classics like The Thin Man and His Girl Friday, albeit without the quickfire patter. View Green Video on the source website Buckley is mesmerising as the Bride, recalling Lanchester with her frizzy blonde hair in a vertical state of shock, but with her face stained by a distinctive Rorschach inkblot and sporting black bee-stung lips. This year’s favourite to win the best actress Oscar (for Hamnet) has a ball here, dovetailing wildly between a loud Chicago broad, a well-spoken if tetchy Shelley and an amnesiac punk-rock monster, even during a single conversation. Meanwhile, Bale channels Karloff and gives a restrained, sympathetic performance as a world-weary creation who would rather woo than wound. Gyllenhaal should be applauded for her ambition, stylish flourishes and obvious respect for the original film. However, there’s a sense that all the elements don’t cohere entirely, with subplots involving the Chicago Mob and even the Sarsgaard/Cruz dynamic just getting in the way of the couple’s bizarre but captivating cross-country courtship. Pity, because the stars, the roving cinematography and Sandy Powell’s costumes are all first-class. The Bride is released in UK cinemas on Friday 6 March 2026. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Crime 101 review: Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo reunite in thriller with echoes of crime classic Heat
Director Bart Layton delivers an impressive slow-burn that erupts with a nerve-jangling, edge-of-your-seat climax.
Criminal deception is a common denominator in English director Bart Layton’s only other feature films. Whether it’s a French conman pretending to be a missing American teenager in the excellent Bafta-nominated documentary The Imposter (2012), or students pulling off an audacious rare-book heist dressed as elderly businessmen in unbelievable-but-true 2018 docudrama American Animals, Layton is clearly interested in what it takes to become a criminal. For his third film, Layton takes on another heist story, only here it’s a fictional one based on a novella by private-investigator-turned-crime writer Don Winslow. Chris Hemsworth heads a quality cast as professional jewel thief Mike Davis, whose ability to carry out a series of robberies without using violence or leaving any DNA evidence or clues to his identity is foxing the Los Angeles police. However, dogged detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo, going for the crumpled Columbo look) sees a pattern: these meticulously executed heists all take place in the vicinity of California’s elongated 101 freeway. Not that his sceptical superiors or even his partner (Corey Hawkins) buy into this, with his team preferring him to simply "play the game" and close cases. Meanwhile, Davis wants out of crime after a previous robbery nearly cost him his life. Yet, he doesn't realising that his handler (the ever-gravelly Nick Nolte) has secretly enlisted young thug Orman (Barry Keoghan, star of American Animals) to take the spoils from his last job, worth a cool $11 million. The difference between the pair is immediately clear, with Orman being a dirt-bike-riding loose cannon in comparison to the calm, composure of Davis, a precise professional who drives only the sportiest of cars. No moment better illustrates this than Orman's shambolic attempt to rob a jewellery store, which nearly goes catastrophically wrong. And where does Halle Berry’s disillusioned 50-something insurance broker, Sharon Colvin, fit into this increasingly tangled web? As she sees her career stalling thanks to an ageist boss and ambitious younger women eager to take her wealthy clients, will she be persuaded to help Davis fulfil his final felonious mission? Or can the hot-on-his-trail Lubesnick convince her to stay on the right side of the law? The urban thriller milieu, night-time neon landscape and heist narrative will inevitably conjure up echoes of Michael Mann's 1995 classic Heat. However, Hemsworth’s enigmatic mystery man is no ruthless killer (like De Niro’s Neil McCauley) while Ruffalo’s dishevelled but dedicated cop is no match for Pacino’s slick Vincent Hanna, although they do both share crumbling marriages. View Green Video on the source website Hemsworth oozes cool but there’s vulnerability, too, especially in his halting attempts to forge a relationship with Monica Barbaro’s Maya. Of course, Hemsworth and Ruffalo are no strangers to each other on screen, having built up chemistry as original members of the Avengers, Thor and the Hulk, in a raft of hit Marvel movies, and the pair deliver some snappy patter here, not least when discussing their favourite Steve McQueen movie during their first face-to-face encounter. Indeed, Winslow’s original story was actually dedicated to cinema’s King of Cool. Halle Berry (a big-screen Marvel superhero herself when she played Storm in the X-Men franchise) matches her co-stars every step of the way as a woman struggling to navigate a workplace where her age, experience and talent count for little. Well, until Hemsworth’s smooth operator comes into her life. Meanwhile, Layton sustains the slow-burning tension, punctuated occasionally by some riveting chases, as the quartet circle each other on the way to a nerve-jangling, edge-of-your-seat climax where the outcome is anything but predictable. Crime 101 is released in UK cinemas on Friday 13th February 2026. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Saipan review: Éanna Hardwicke is utterly magnetic as Roy Keane in dramatisation of infamous feud
Thanks to fabulous performances and a witty, perceptive script that’s more concerned with the game of life than the game itself, this has something for everybody – football fan or not.
The best-known true-story feature films about “the beautiful game” have put the lives of iconic football managers like Brian Clough (The Damned United) or brilliant players such as George Best (Best) at the heart of the drama. A manager (Mick McCarthy) and a player (Roy Keane) are also at the centre of events in Saipan, however, it’s a notorious falling-out between the men in the lead-up to the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea around which events unfold in this enthralling fictionalisation from husband-and-wife directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn (Ordinary Love, Good Vibrations). Sporting spats are ten-a-penny these days, going viral almost immediately. But when Republic of Ireland captain Roy Keane walked out of his team’s training camp on the island of Saipan on the eve of departure for the tournament, it created huge press headlines, knocking the status of English talisman David Beckham’s broken foot off both the front and back pages of tabloids and broadsheets. Meanwhile, the fallout in Ireland was seismic and polarising, not least because Keane was a bone fide world-class footballer — honed into a muscular midfield general by both Clough and his Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson — who was going to lead the team to glory. We return to those heady days when the Irish team, minus a then-injured Keane, managed to qualify for only their third World Cup at the end of 2001. And yet, it’s quickly apparent there’s tension between a permanently bristling Keane (played with sustained intensity by Éanna Hardwicke) and a seemingly unflappable McCarthy (the ever-versatile Steve Coogan), as the countdown to the competition ticks away. Although niftily paced over 90 minutes, there’s a fabulous, slow-burning quality to proceedings as the affable, Barnsley-born McCarthy strives to mediate between his star player’s uncompromising professional approach to diet, drinking and training and the rest of the team behaving as though they are on a tourist jolly. But as the effects of the hot, humid location and faulty air conditioning combine with a catalogue of organisational cock-ups — rock-strewn pitches, a lack of footballs or sun cream — you just know it’s going to end in tears, despite the two protagonists endeavouring to put aside their differences for the common good. View oEmbed on the source website The climactic team meeting, when old grievances, misunderstandings and even the definition of being Irish explode to the surface, may be cathartic but there’s a palpable sadness, too, with Paul Fraser’s perceptive script leaving you feeling sympathy for both McCarthy and Keane, especially since the latter never played in another World Cup. Hardwicke (a BAFTA winner for BBC TV drama The Sixth Commandment) is utterly magnetic, capturing the brooding aura of the Irish captain, while also revealing the human being beneath the fearsome reputation. An understated but effective Coogan is equally impressive and is surely now rivalling Michael Sheen for acclaimed film and TV portraits of the famous (Stan Laurel, Brian Walden) and the infamous (Saville). Meanwhile, Alice Lowe and Harriet Cains as the footballers’ wives are a joy, adding some welcome levity when their husbands start taking themselves too seriously. Of course, if you are not steeped in football lore or are no particular fan of the game, you might consider Saipan a film for sports enthusiasts only. However, thanks to fabulous performances and a witty, perceptive script that’s more concerned with the game of life than the game itself, it has something for everybody. Saipan is released in UK cinemas on Friday 23rd January. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Running Man review: Glen Powell proves a charismatic hero in Edgar Wright remake
Wright delivers plenty of kinetic set-pieces in this Stephen King adaptation – but the plot's episodic nature leads to some lulls in momentum.
On-the-rise action man Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Twisters) takes on a role originally played on screen by his Expendables 3 co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger in this explosive, big-budget remake of the 1987 thriller. Set in a dystopian, totalitarian United States where violent television programmes have become the opium of the people, the original film was based on a 1982 novel by Stephen King (under his Richard Bachman pseudonym), but co-writer/director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Last Night in Soho) has opted to stay even closer to the source material for his adaptation. So, instead of Arnie’s Ben Richards being a cop coerced to participate in the game, Powell’s Richards is a working-class Everyman living in an overcrowded slum, whose frustration with his inability to hold down a job and look after his waitress wife and their ailing toddler forces him to volunteer for the financially lucrative if lethal Running Man TV show. Avoid capture for 30 days and $1 billion is the ultimate reward. However, contestants are also hunted across the United States by an elite team of assassins led by a merciless masked mystery man. The action is televised to an audience happy to dob them in to the authorities for a slice of the financial pie, all under the auspices of ever-smirking network CEO and smug puppet-master Dan Killian (Josh Brolin). Read more: Dragonfly review: Brenda Blethyn is at her very best in frequently heartbreaking film Die My Love review: Jennifer Lawrence is superb in this absorbing and quietly devastating drama Killian and motor-mouthed MC Bobby T (Colman Domingo) consider Richards a ratings winner, especially when he continues to evade his murderous pursuers and their ever-present drone cameras, and then survives by the skin of his teeth when they do get close, as in one fiery encounter at a down-at-heel Boston hotel. However, could Richards’s resilience and apoplectic defiance inspire something other than bloodlust from viewers and threaten their best-laid corporate plans? No stranger to delivering breakneck action (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver), Wright produces plenty of nerve-jangling, kinetic set-pieces, whether it is a deadly game of chicken on a bridge or the climactic airborne stand-off. The fact the deadly contest takes place across the US (rather than a murky underground labyrinth as seen in the 1987 movie) also expands the scope of the story, revealing an America riven by economic inequality and manipulated by a self-satisfied few who have no qualms about using fake news to control the narrative. View oEmbed on the source website A similar theme fuels The Long Walk – released earlier this year, and also based on an early King story – in which televised survival of the fittest is used to distract ordinary folk from their impoverished plight. It’s the type of allegory that Wright’s director idol George A Romero (of Night of the Living Dead fame) would have applauded. However, the episodic nature of the plot, with Richards having to don a variety of disguises to lay low and avoid recognition, occasionally leads to a lull in the pace and a lessening of tension. Nevertheless, Powell proves to be a charismatic hero, bristling with anger but also able to stay alive thanks to his own ingenuity and much-needed assistance from those he meets on his travels, such as cameoing William H Macy, Emilia Jones (CODA) and Michael Cera (star of Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs the World), whose mercurial rebel lives in an elaborately booby-trapped bolt-hole worthy of Rambo. Oh, and regarding cameos, keep your eyes peeled for a left-field appearance from Schwarzenegger himself. The Running Man is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday 12th November 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Running Man review: Glen Powell proves a charismatic hero in Edgar Wright's patchy remake
★★★☆☆ The Running Man is in cinemas from Wednesday 12 November. Add it to your watchlist On-the-rise action man Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Twisters) takes on a role originally played on screen by his Expendables 3 co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger in this explosive, big-budget remake of the 1987 thriller. Set in a dystopian, totalitarian United States where violent television programmes have become the opium of the people, the original film was based on a 1982 novel by Stephen King (under his Richard Bachman pseudonym), but co-writer/director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Last Night in Soho) has opted to stay even closer to the source material for his adaptation. So, instead of Arnie’s Ben Richards being a cop coerced to participate in the game, Powell’s Richards is a working-class Everyman living in an overcrowded slum, whose frustration with his inability to hold down a job and look after his waitress wife and their ailing toddler forces him to volunteer for the financially lucrative if lethal Running Man TV show. Avoid capture for 30 days and $1 billion is the ultimate reward. However, contestants are also hunted across the United States by an elite team of assassins led by a merciless masked mystery man. The action is televised to an audience happy to dob them in to the authorities for a slice of the financial pie, all under the auspices of ever-smirking network CEO and smug puppet-master Dan Killian (Josh Brolin). Killian and motor-mouthed MC Bobby T (Colman Domingo) consider Richards a ratings winner, especially when he continues to evade his murderous pursuers and their ever-present drone cameras, and then survives by the skin of his teeth when they do get close, as in one fiery encounter at a down-at-heel Boston hotel. However, could Richards’s resilience and apoplectic defiance inspire something other than bloodlust from viewers and threaten their best-laid corporate plans? No stranger to delivering breakneck action (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver), Wright produces plenty of nerve-jangling, kinetic set-pieces, whether it is a deadly game of chicken on a bridge or the climactic airborne stand-off. The fact the deadly contest takes place across the US (rather than a murky underground labyrinth as seen in the 1987 movie) also expands the scope of the story, revealing an America riven by economic inequality and manipulated by a self-satisfied few who have no qualms about using fake news to control the narrative. View oEmbed on the source website A similar theme fuels The Long Walk – released earlier this year, and also based on an early King story – in which televised survival of the fittest is used to distract ordinary folk from their impoverished plight. It’s the type of allegory that Wright’s director idol George A Romero (of Night of the Living Dead fame) would have applauded. However, the episodic nature of the plot, with Richards having to don a variety of disguises to lay low and avoid recognition, occasionally leads to a lull in the pace and a lessening of tension. Nevertheless, Powell proves to be a charismatic hero, bristling with anger but also able to stay alive thanks to his own ingenuity and much-needed assistance from those he meets on his travels, such as cameoing William H Macy, Emilia Jones (CODA) and Michael Cera (star of Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs the World), whose mercurial rebel lives in an elaborately booby-trapped bolt-hole worthy of Rambo. Oh, and regarding cameos, keep your eyes peeled for a left-field appearance from Schwarzenegger himself.
Black Phone 2 review: Gripping sequel embraces gruesomeness and the paranormal
Ethan Hawke returns as the Grabber in Scott Derrickson's follow-up to his 2022 horror film.
After watching race-against-time retro-horror The Black Phone (2022), you may wonder how a sequel is possible. Ethan Hawke’s prolific, masked child-killer “The Grabber” had been “dispatched” by latest teenage victim Finney (Mason Thames), thanks to supernatural aid from a phone line to the ghosts of the dead, helpfully situated in the boy’s soundproofed basement prison. However, when it comes to movie monsters and celluloid serial killers, it’s hard to keep a “good” fiend down, especially if a low-budget flick is a box-office hit (over $160 million worldwide). After all, the slasher antics of the likes of Michael Myers (Halloween), Jason Vorhees (Friday the 13th), Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Ghostface (Scream) spawned lucrative long-running franchises, if with diminishing critical returns. However, writer/director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C Robert Cargill have upped the supernatural ante for the sequel with ghoulish and gory aplomb. They achieve this by taking the original film’s characters (and cast) out of small-town suburbia and stranding them at an isolated, blizzard-hit Christian youth camp where boys had vanished mysteriously back in the 1950s. It’s 1982, four years after Finney escaped from becoming another grim statistic, but his ordeal has left him traumatised and prone to violence, much like his alcoholic dad (Jeremy Davies) became after the suicide of Finney’s mother. Meanwhile, younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), whose dreams helped to save her sibling in 1978, is finding her psychic ability (inherited from mum) more of a curse than a gift, and is sleepwalking around town not knowing what is real, a nightmare or a prophetic vision. Indeed, it's a dream about a frozen lake – and its mutilated ghostly denizens – that inspires Gwen, Ernesto (younger brother of a Grabber victim) and Finney — numbing himself with smoking weed in the hope he’ll stop receiving phone calls from beyond — to go to Alpine Lake Camp. Once there, however, the trio are snowed in with camp supervisor Armando (Demián Bechir), his niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas) and a couple of devout Christian helpers, who don’t take too kindly to Gwen’s expletive-laden tirades (a hilarious tonic to the increasingly oppressive atmosphere). It’s then that the beyond-the-grave evil of the Grabber (Ethan Hawke, back behind the mask) starts to rear its ugly head, generating bloody real-world consequences, especially for Gwen — now the killer’s main prey — who discovers getting wounded while asleep is no protection to actual harm. Of course, horror fans will spot allusions to all sorts of fright flicks, whether it’s Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Poltergeist or The Shining. But Derrickson is navigating his own creepy groove here, sustained by Thames and McGraw, who have literally grown into their roles and deliver emotionally compelling performances as they struggle to process their own personal angst, whether it’s Finney’s survivor guilt or Gwen’s fear she will end up like her mother, all the while trying to survive the Grabber’s nefarious, ever-deadly telekinetic attacks. The first Black Phone was a serial-killer horror with a side order of supernatural, but this gripping sequel embraces the paranormal and gruesomeness in all its gory glory, too. Meanwhile the dream sequences, seemingly shot on scratchy 70s film stock and recalling Derrickson’s 2012 spine-chiller Sinister, ooze unsettling menace and deliver some hearty jump-scares. Black Phone 2 is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Superman review: An entertaining relaunch for the last son of Krypton
Some characters are left underused in this refresh from Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, but David Corenswet makes for a genial hero and his chemistry with Rachel Brosnahan bodes well.
★★★☆☆ Superman is in cinemas now. Add it to your watchlist It may seem like only yesterday that Henry Cavill was dispensing truth, justice and the American way as DC’s big-screen Man of Steel — actually, it was a cameo in 2022’s Black Adam. However, with writer/director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, The Suicide Squad) and producer Peter Safran now the head honchos of a revamped DC Cinematic Universe, a new Superman takes his bow in the relatable shape of David Corenswet, who is more genial Boy Scout than Cavill’s brooding take on the last son of Krypton. Gunn cuts to the chase immediately – no origin story here – as we encounter our hero three years into his role as Earth’s protector, but only after crash-landing bloodied, battered and bruised in the Antarctic. Luckily for him, he’s able to get a solar top-up at his nearby Fortress of Solitude, thanks to whistling up assistance from playful, caped super-mutt Krypto (in a scene-stealing live-action debut). View Green Video on the source website Soon back into the fray against the super-powerful Hammer of Boravia, who handed him his cape earlier, little does Supes know that it is billionaire Lex Luthor (a menacing Nicholas Hoult) who is pulling strings behind the scenes, so consumed is he by his seething hatred of the alien so beloved by the people of Metropolis. Along with the nanite-powered Engineer (Maria Gabriela de Faria), the masked Ultraman and a gigantic fire-breathing monster, Luthor makes Superman’s life a misery, reducing him from trusted guardian to a pariah with an identity crisis and incarceration in a seemingly inescapable secret jail. But what of the Daily Planet’s ace reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan)? Her relationship with Clark Kent/Superman is close, of course, despite bringing him to book for interfering in a foreign conflict (a Russia/Ukraine allusion, perchance?) and for his poor social media presence ("Superman doesn’t have time for selfies"). However, she’s also instrumental in persuading members of super-team the Justice Gang to come to his rescue as the world teeters on the edge of destruction and skyscrapers begin to collapse (again). Read more film reviews: F1 review: Brad Pitt's racing drama is Top Gun on wet-weather tyres 28 Years Later review: A more reflective, human story that puts the zombie franchise back on track Elio review: Pixar's latest will charm children more than it will entertain adults How to Train Your Dragon review: Live-action remake is Lord of the Rings-level epic Lilo & Stitch review: A lavish Disney remake with oodles of oddball charm Gunn knows his DC Comics lore and introduces a colourful bunch of metahumans not seen in earlier DC blockbusters, with the likes of tech genius Mr Terrific (a cool Edi Gathegi), egotistical Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion, complete with the character’s trademark pudding-bowl hairdo) and Metamorpho the Element Man (Anthony Carrigan) all getting time to show off their powers and sling some pithy quips. You can also look out for a slew of cameos from the cast of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films. But with so many characters to introduce, so much action and drama to deliver and a future franchise to establish, the likes of Daily Planet editor Perry White (Wendell Pierce), reporter Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo), Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr (father of the deceased leader of the Suicide Squad) and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl are left underused and underwritten. Nevertheless, subtle nods to the original Superman epic from 1978, not least the regular refrains from John Williams’s iconic and still rousing score, certainly swell the CGI-heavy fantasy action, while Corenswet is refreshingly convincing in and out of costume and the chemistry between himself and Brosnahan’s Lois bodes well going forward. Gunn has certainly delivered an entertaining relaunch. Only time and healthy box-office returns will tell if his rebooted DC Universe has the legs for a prolific franchise.
Superman review: James Gunn has delivered an entertaining relaunch
Some characters are left underused, but David Corenswet makes for a genial hero and his chemistry with Rachel Brosnahan bodes well.
It may seem like only yesterday that Henry Cavill was dispensing truth, justice and the American way as DC’s big-screen Man of Steel — actually, it was a cameo in 2022’s Black Adam. However, with writer/director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, The Suicide Squad) and producer Peter Safran now the head honchos of a revamped DC Cinematic Universe, a new Superman takes his bow in the relatable shape of David Corenswet, who is more genial Boy Scout than Cavill’s brooding take on the last son of Krypton. Gunn cuts to the chase immediately – no origin story here – as we encounter our hero three years into his role as Earth’s protector, but only after crash-landing bloodied, battered and bruised in the Antarctic. Luckily for him, he’s able to get a solar top-up at his nearby Fortress of Solitude, thanks to whistling up assistance from playful, caped super-mutt Krypto (in a scene-stealing live-action debut). Soon back into the fray against the super-powerful Hammer of Boravia, who handed him his cape earlier, little does Supes know that it is billionaire Lex Luthor (a menacing Nicholas Hoult) who is pulling strings behind the scenes, so consumed is he by his seething hatred of the alien so beloved by the people of Metropolis. Along with the nanite-powered Engineer (Maria Gabriela de Faria), the masked Ultraman and a gigantic fire-breathing monster, Luthor makes Superman’s life a misery, reducing him from trusted guardian to a pariah with an identity crisis and incarceration in a seemingly inescapable secret jail. But what of the Daily Planet’s ace reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan)? Her relationship with Clark Kent/Superman is close, of course, despite bringing him to book for interfering in a foreign conflict (a Russia/Ukraine allusion, perchance?) and for his poor social media presence ("Superman doesn’t have time for selfies"). However, she’s also instrumental in persuading members of super-team the Justice Gang to come to his rescue as the world teeters on the edge of destruction and skyscrapers begin to collapse (again). Read more: Jurassic World Rebirth review: Comes close to matching the original M3GAN 2.0 review: Cinematic tonal whiplash may divide fans Gunn knows his DC Comics lore and introduces a colourful bunch of metahumans not seen in earlier DC blockbusters, with the likes of tech genius Mr Terrific ( a cool Edi Gathegi), egotistical Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion, complete with the character’s trademark pudding-bowl hairdo) and Metamorpho the Element Man (Anthony Carrigan) all getting time to show off their powers and sling some pithy quips. You can also look out for a slew of cameos from the cast of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films. But with so many characters to introduce, so much action and drama to deliver and a future franchise to establish, the likes of Daily Planet editor Perry White (Wendell Pierce), reporter Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo), Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr (father of the deceased leader of the Suicide Squad) and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl are left underused and underwritten. Nevertheless, subtle nods to the original Superman epic from 1978, not least the regular refrains from John Williams’s iconic and still rousing score, certainly swell the CGI-heavy fantasy action, while Corenswet is refreshingly convincing in and out of costume and the chemistry between himself and Brosnahan’s Lois bodes well going forward. Gunn has certainly delivered an entertaining relaunch. Only time and healthy box-office returns will tell if his rebooted DC Universe has the legs for a prolific franchise. Superman is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film and Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Karate Kid: Legends review – Reboot lacks the soul and heft of previous outings
The new film can't match TV spin-off Cobra Kai in terms of its treatment of legacy characters.
It is just over 40 years since the first Karate Kid film was released in 1984 to box office success. A sleeper hit, it spawned three sequels, a reboot in 2010 (starring Jackie Chan as kung fu teacher Mr Han) and hit TV series Cobra Kai, which finished after six seasons earlier this year. Credit should go to John G Avildsen, who won the 1976 best director Oscar for Rocky and transferred that film’s "underdog overcoming the odds" formula to the coming-of-age story of teenager Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) taking on his bullies by learning karate from genial teacher/mentor-cum-surrogate father Mr Miyagi (played by an Oscar-nominated Pat Morita). The character of Miyagi has now passed away (Morita died in 2005), but his link to Karate Kid: Legends is established from the outset by a flashback from The Karate Kid Part II (1986), in which Mr Miyagi reveals the connection between karate and kung fu in his style of martial arts. "Two branches, one tree" is his mantra, and that becomes the motif of this sadly underwhelming next chapter in the franchise. Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass The feature debut of director Jonathan Entwhistle (best known for Netflix show The End of the F***ing World) begins in Beijing, where teenager Li Fong (Ben Wang), the star pupil of Mr Han’s kung fu school, is reluctantly about to leave for New York with his doctor mother (Ming-Na Wen). She has a hospital job to take up and has forbidden Li from fighting after a family tragedy. Of course, that does not last for long after Li is befriended by Victor (Joshua Jackson), an affable ex-boxer-turned-pizzeria owner, and his daughter, Mia (Sadie Stanley). Victor is in hock to the owner of a local dojo, whose champion fighter Conor (Aramis Knight) - a bad boy with a man bun - is also Mia’s ex, so no surprise when he brutally puts Li in his place. Li then takes on the role of trainer to Victor (recalling those rousing DIY training sessions from the Rocky films), so he can earn money to pay off his debt. However, it soon becomes clear Li is going to have to face Conor at the annual Five Boroughs tournament. Cue the arrival of Mr Han to help him train, who then scoots over to California to enlist the aid of Miyagi’s heir, Daniel LaRusso, so their combined knowledge and skills can turn young Li into the city’s champion. Read more: The Phoenician Scheme review: Wes Anderson's latest is a quaint tale of industrial espionage Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning review: Closing chapter is clunky but eventually exhilarating All the familiar beats are present but this yarn moves at such a lick, even at a mere 90 minutes, that the formula is diluted to the barebones, and lacks the soul and emotional heft of previous outings. Indeed, a scene of sensei double-act Han and LaRusso demonstrating their martial arts chops is reduced to briefly neutralising a few thugs after one of Li’s bouts. Admittedly, six seasons of the Cobra Kai series set the bar high for its treatment of legacy characters. However, with iconic cast members like Chan and Macchio on board, hopes were high for a more meaningful match-up. Even Wen, who played formidable fighter Melinda May in the Agents of SHIELD TV show and has made multiple appearances in the Disney+ Star Wars franchise, is left merely looking either stern or fretful throughout. Of course, there is a suitably crowd-pleasing if tension-free climax, although the best moment arrives post-credits, when a familiar face from the franchise puts in a hilarious cameo appearance that is worth its weight in gold. Pity the previous 90 minutes could not match it. Karate Kid: Legends is released in UK cinemas on Friday 30th May 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Final Destination Bloodlines review – A slick, ghoulishly entertaining reboot
The first film in the horror franchise for 14 years is suitably wince-worthy and packed with gallows humour.
When it comes to horror-movie franchises, many have lengthy success and then eventually wither, but they never really die. Right now, both the Scream and Saw series are back in their murderous groove following a hiatus, and there's even a new instalment due for release in 2025 for another gore horse, I Know What You Did Last Summer. So maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised that a new entry in the Final Destination franchise has been produced. Launched in 2000, the first in the series took teen horror away from slasher antics and made Death himself the relentless villain after being cheated of lives by a high-school student’s premonition of an air crash. The survivors then become victims of violently horrific "accidents", even after they realise what is out to get them and the order in which they will perish. The macabre methods of demise, the ominous atmosphere and a decent cast established the creepy template but over four further films, only the elaborate death-dealing carnage tended to stick in the memory, although Final Destination 5 (2011) did tie off at least one narrative loop. Now, 14 years after that fifth film comes this tension-filled reboot, only here Death is spreading his wings further than just a few frantic survivors of a crash or bridge collapse. In a dazzling opening, lovey-dovey couple Iris and Paul are attending the 1968 opening of the Skyview Restaurant Tower where the party (on a glass dance floor!) is really swinging to a storming rendition of Lulu’s Shout. Everything is wrapped in a sun-dappled glow that belies the premonition/catastrophe to come, which takes its cue from the fiery and vertiginous terror of '70s disaster epics like The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. Cut to the present, and student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlin Santa Juana) is plagued with visions of the Skyview incident, and returns to her parents’ home where her search for answers unearths long-buried family secrets involving her estranged mother and a reclusive grandmother. However, her arrival also drags her brother, her uncle and her three cousins into a new game of (avoiding) death, which is brought home gruesomely at a family barbecue. Take your pick from a gas canister, trampoline, assorted gardening tools or a simple shard of glass as to what unleashes the grisly mayhem. View oEmbed on the source website The wrong-footing close calls and death-dealing set pieces are suitably wince-worthy – anyone with a metal-piercing somewhere on the body may want to look away – but the “familial unit as prey” connection adds a different dimension to the doomy proceedings. Also eye-catching is the swansong of the late Tony Todd whose creepy, enigmatic William Bludworth appeared in four of the previous Final Destinations, and pops up to impart some much-needed advice on how to dodge Death’s clutches as well as finally revealing his own personal connection to events. It is a poignant moment and a fitting tribute to the veteran actor who became a horror icon himself after playing the hook-wielding Candyman, and died last year before the release of the film, which is dedicated to him. Co-directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky proved their genre mettle with 2018 sci-fi thriller Freaks starring Emile Hirsch and Bruce Dern, and here, produce plenty of gallows humour to accompany the torturous torment and blood-letting thanks to classic tunes like Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, Without You and Spirit in the Sky. The result is a slick, ghoulishly entertaining reboot. Final Destination Bloodlines is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday 14th May 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Thunderbolts* review: Florence Pugh shines bright in Marvel's thoughtful return to form
Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan and David Harbour's ragtag bunch of failed heroes and jaded villains might just be the answer to turning around the critical and financial fortunes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe…
★★★★☆ Thunderbolts* is in cinemas from Thursday 1 May 2025. Add it to your watchlist Following a lukewarm response to February’s Captain America: Brave New World, could a ragtag bunch of failed heroes and jaded villains be the answer to turning around the critical and financial fortunes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? The signs look rosier with this welcome return to the amusingly fractious action antics that made the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy so entertaining and watchable. Indeed, it is the absence of the Avengers that continues to loom over the world, much to the glee of Machiavellian new CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis Dreyfus), who has been gathering power in the shadows since the character’s debut in 2021’s Black Widow. Her pawns in these off-the-books schemes include spy (and sister of Black Widow) Yelena Belova (a delightfully deadpan Florence Pugh, last seen in the Hawkeye Disney+ TV show), disgraced Captain America replacement John Walker (Wyatt Russell), intangible assassin Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and the ability-mimicking Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko). View oEmbed on the source website However, the first meeting of the querulous quartet at a secret vault out in the desert is nearly their last as their energetic attempts to kill each other are stalled by their battleground turning into a death trap. Fortunately for them, Yelena’s surrogate father the Red Guardian – a slobbish Russian super-soldier, played with infectious gusto by David Harbour – is on hand for a quick-ish getaway in his ramshackle limo, although it is the timely and thunderous intervention of brooding, bionic-armed Bucky Barnes that forces these “defective losers” to team up or die. Fresh from his Oscar nomination for playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice, Sebastian Stan returns as super-soldier Bucky (aka the Winter Soldier), who knows a thing or two about redemption after decades as a brainwashed Soviet assassin. A veteran MCU character, who made his debut in Captain America: the First Avenger in 2011, Bucky is now a US Congressman, who’s been keeping an eye on Val’s shady machinations but soon realises he may need the battered bunch’s help. There are some cracking action scenes (the desert chase, the battle at the old Avengers Tower) but there is also a mournful, almost meditative air to proceedings as the group grapple with their grief and regret, while trying to withstand the devastating power of an unexpected adversary (making his debut in the MCU). Better known for thoughtful dramas like Robot and Frank (2012) and Paper Towns (2015), director Jake Schreier has gone for a muted look to reflect the ambivalence and trauma of his characters. However, he also produces a deft balance of action, spectacle (the Mission Impossible-style opening scene), character-driven interplay and bluff repartee that harks back to the franchise in its pre-Endgame heyday. Read more film reviews: A Minecraft Movie review: Strikes a neat balance for aficionados and newbies Sinners review: A sweltering, swaggering film with plenty to chew on The Accountant 2 review: An action sequel that's dumb fun but doesn't quite add up Havoc review: Netflix's Tom Hardy vehicle comes alive with blood-spattering action Just as Marvel set up the first Avengers film by bringing together superheroes from previous movies, the audience has been able to see all these characters – or “Thunderbolts” as Red Guardian is desperate to call them – in the likes of Black Widow, Ant-Man and the Wasp and TV series Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Florence Pugh’s cool star quality is undeniable but the top-notch cast has a chance to shine, too, delivering genuine chemistry and emotion as a sepulchral darkness falls over New York. It would also be remiss not to flag up a post-credit scene paving the way to next year’s all-star smackdown Avengers: Doomsday. Welcome back, MCU!
Thunderbolts* review: Florence Pugh shines in Marvel's emotional return to form
Following a lukewarm response to February’s Captain America: Brave New World, could a ragtag bunch of failed heroes and jaded villains be the answer to turning around the critical and financial fortunes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? The signs look rosier with this welcome return to the amusingly fractious action antics that made the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy so entertaining and watchable. Indeed, it is the absence of the Avengers that continues to loom over the world, much to the glee of Machiavellian new CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis Dreyfus), who has been gathering power in the shadows since the character’s debut in 2021’s Black Widow. Her pawns in these off-the-books schemes include spy (and sister of Black Widow) Yelena Belova (a delightfully deadpan Florence Pugh, last seen in the Hawkeye Disney+ TV show), disgraced Captain America replacement John Walker (Wyatt Russell), intangible assassin Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and the ability-mimicking Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko). Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass However, the first meeting of the querulous quartet at a secret vault out in the desert is nearly their last as their energetic attempts to kill each other are stalled by their battleground turning into a death trap. Fortunately for them, Yelena’s surrogate father the Red Guardian – a slobbish Russian super-soldier, played with infectious gusto by David Harbour – is on hand for a quick-ish getaway in his ramshackle limo, although it is the timely and thunderous intervention of brooding, bionic-armed Bucky Barnes that forces these “defective losers” to team up or die. Fresh from his Oscar nomination for playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice, Sebastian Stan returns as super-soldier Bucky (aka the Winter Soldier), who knows a thing or two about redemption after decades as a brainwashed Soviet assassin. A veteran MCU character, who made his debut in Captain America: the First Avenger in 2011, Bucky is now a US Congressman, who’s been keeping an eye on Val’s shady machinations but soon realises he may need the battered bunch’s help. There are some cracking action scenes (the desert chase, the battle at the old Avengers Tower) but there is also a mournful, almost meditative air to proceedings as the group grapple with their grief and regret, while trying to withstand the devastating power of an unexpected adversary (making his debut in the MCU). Better known for thoughtful dramas like Robot and Frank (2012) and Paper Towns (2015), director Jake Schreier has gone for a muted look to reflect the ambivalence and trauma of his characters. However, he also produces a deft balance of action, spectacle (the Mission Impossible-style opening scene), character-driven interplay and bluff repartee that harks back to the franchise in its pre-Endgame heyday. Just as Marvel set up the first Avengers film by bringing together superheroes from previous movies, the audience has been able to see all these characters – or “Thunderbolts” as Red Guardian is desperate to call them – in the likes of Black Widow, Ant-Man and the Wasp and TV series Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Florence Pugh’s cool star quality is undeniable but the top-notch cast has a chance to shine, too, delivering genuine chemistry and emotion as a sepulchral darkness falls over New York. It would also be remiss not to flag up a post-credit scene paving the way to next year’s all-star smackdown Avengers: Doomsday. Welcome back, MCU! Thunderbolts is released in UK cinemas on Thursday 1st May 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Black Bag review: A taut and tidy spy thriller with 007 vibes
This spy flick from prolific director Steven Soderbergh is a fun and absorbing ride with cracking cast chemistry.
★★★★☆ Black Bag is in cinemas now. Add it to your watchlist With audiences increasingly drawn to series like Slow Horses, Black Doves and The Agency, which are immersed in the shadowy world of espionage where suspicion and betrayal are constant companions, director Steven Soderbergh’s stylish spy yarn will be right up their (dark) alley. Soderbergh wastes little time with preamble as we follow dapper operative George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) into a night club, where he’s informed of a traitor at Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre, the place he works alongside elegant wife Kathryn (a languid Cate Blanchett). View oEmbed on the source website The dilemma for George, a renowned mole hunter and walking lie detector, is that she’s one of the five listed suspects and he only has a week to catch the culprit. Shades of wartime romantic thriller Allied, in which Brad Pitt has to determine if his French Resistance wife (played by Marion Cotillard) is really a German spy. However, George is fastidious, meticulous and seemingly unfazed by the notion his beloved could be guilty and proceeds to invite the unsuspecting other four to a dinner party at the power couple’s luxury London townhouse. As it happens, these colleagues are paired up, too, with Tom Burke’s dissolute Freddie in a relationship with young surveillance expert Clarissa (Industry star Marisa Abela), and company psychiatrist Zoe (Naomie Harris) dating hotshot agent James (Regé-Jean Page). The subsequent gathering is thoroughly entertaining as George spikes the meal with a truth serum, denuding his guests of their inhibitions, exposing their weaknesses and romantic deceptions, and unleashing plenty of tart interplay. He then cajoles his guests into a table game where each person has to suggest a resolution for the individual on their right. In this moment, David Koepp’s erudite and witty script recalls the acerbic drama of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, only instead of playing "get the guest" as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (also called George) did in that 1966 Oscar winner, here George and Kathryn are out to "get the traitor". Indeed, words are louder than actions throughout, with George being described as “flagrantly monogamous” by the bed-hopping quartet while Zoe’s description of “an aroma of hostility wafting in” when Kathryn comes for her regular psych evaluation is delightfully caustic. That’s in contrast to Soderbergh’s previous excursion into the spy genre, Haywire, in which Gina Carano’s kick-ass black ops agent scours the globe for her betrayer among an all-star cast that included Antonio Banderas, Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas and one Michael Fassbender. Not that an absence of action and punch-ups matters, as Fassbender — channelling another George in John Le Carre’s spymaster George Smiley from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy — proves a mesmerising presence, whether it’s putting his suspects through a polygraph test or facing the possibility Kathryn may be involved with stealing a device that would cause a nuclear meltdown. Read more film reviews: Captain America: Brave New World review – Marvel's latest blockbuster is an insipid and cobbled-together failure Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy review – This fourth film might just be the series' best Marching Powder review: This Danny Dyer film is like a kick in the knackers Mickey 17 review – Parasite director Bong Joon-ho returns with Robert Pattinson in the weirdest film this winter The Electric State review: This $320m film is just more forgettable fare from the Russo brothers There are some Bond vibes, not only because of the presence of former Bond Pierce Brosnan, here playing the unit’s head honcho, and Harris (Moneypenny during Daniel Craig’s tenure), but also as touted candidates for the still-vacant role of 007 in Fassbender himself and Bridgerton break-out star Page have the chance to show off their secret-agent chops. Deft editing by Mary Ann Bernard (aka Soderbergh), a typically smooth score from regular collaborator David Holmes and cracking cast chemistry guarantees a fun and absorbing ride, and all delivered in a taut and tidy 90 minutes.
Black Bag review: There are some 007 vibes in this taut and tidy thriller
With audiences increasingly drawn to series like Slow Horses, Black Doves and The Agency, which are immersed in the shadowy world of espionage where suspicion and betrayal are constant companions, director Steven Soderbergh’s stylish spy yarn will be right up their (dark) alley. Soderbergh wastes little time with preamble as we follow dapper operative George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) into a night club, where he’s informed of a traitor at Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre, the place he works alongside elegant wife Kathryn (a languid Cate Blanchett). The dilemma for George, a renowned mole hunter and walking lie detector, is that she’s one of the five listed suspects and he only has a week to catch the culprit. Shades of wartime romantic thriller Allied, in which Brad Pitt has to determine if his French Resistance wife (played by Marion Cotillard) is really a German spy. However, George is fastidious, meticulous and seemingly unfazed by the notion his beloved could be guilty and proceeds to invite the unsuspecting other four to a dinner party at the power couple’s luxury London townhouse. As it happens, these colleagues are paired up, too, with Tom Burke’s dissolute Freddie in a relationship with young surveillance expert Clarissa (Industry star Marisa Abela), and company psychiatrist Zoe (Naomie Harris) dating hotshot agent James (Regé-Jean Page). Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass The subsequent gathering is thoroughly entertaining as George spikes the meal with a truth serum, denuding his guests of their inhibitions, exposing their weaknesses and romantic deceptions, and unleashing plenty of tart interplay. He then cajoles his guests into a table game where each person has to suggest a resolution for the individual on their right. In this moment, David Koepp’s erudite and witty script recalls the acerbic drama of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, only instead of playing "get the guest" as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (also called George) did in that 1966 Oscar winner, here George and Kathryn are out to "get the traitor". Indeed, words are louder than actions throughout, with George being described as “flagrantly monogamous” by the bed-hopping quartet while Zoe’s description of “an aroma of hostility wafting in” when Kathryn comes for her regular psych evaluation is delightfully caustic. That’s in contrast to Soderbergh’s previous excursion into the spy genre, Haywire, in which Gina Carano’s kick-ass black ops agent scours the globe for her betrayer among an all-star cast that included Antonio Banderas, Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas and one Michael Fassbender. Not that an absence of action and punch-ups matters, as Fassbender — channelling another George in John Le Carre’s spymaster George Smiley from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy — proves a mesmerising presence, whether it’s putting his suspects through a polygraph test or facing the possibility Kathryn may be involved with stealing a device that would cause a nuclear meltdown. Read more: Mickey 17 review: Robert Pattinson sees double in Bong Joon-ho's bonkers sci-fi tale The Electric State review: More forgettable streaming fare from the Russo brothers There are some Bond vibes, not only because of the presence of former Bond Pierce Brosnan, here playing the unit’s head honcho, and Harris (Moneypenny during Daniel Craig’s tenure), but also as touted candidates for the still-vacant role of 007 in Fassbender himself and Bridgerton break-out star Page have the chance to show off their secret-agent chops. Deft editing by Mary Ann Bernard (aka Soderbergh), a typically smooth score from regular collaborator David Holmes and cracking cast chemistry guarantees a fun and absorbing ride, and all delivered in a taut and tidy 90 minutes. Black Bag is showing in UK cinemas from Friday 14th March 2025. If you're looking for something to watch tonight, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscar predictions 2025: Who will win and should win Best Supporting Actress?
Zoe Saldaña and Ariana Grande are two contenders in a field dominated by first-time nominees, but are they guilty of 'category fraud'?
Only one of this year’s best supporting actress nominees has received a prior nomination, leaving four newbies to the nominee merry-go-round that will end when the coveted statuette is awarded this Sunday. And just like Kieran Culkin in the supporting actor category, it looks like there will be only one winner here, too. Flying the flag for Britain is Felicity Jones, who was previously nominated as best actress for playing the wife of Eddie Redmayne’s Stephen Hawking in Oscar winner The Theory of Everything (2014). In The Brutalist, she plays wife to another creative genius, the tormented architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth (Adrien Brody). Like her husband, Erzsébet was sent to a concentration camp and survived, albeit with ailing health, but is unable to join him in America until years after the War. Indeed, her first appearance is halfway through in the film, and yet she is the beating heart of the 215-minute epic. All the other actresses shortlisted are first-timers, although it is hard to believe in the case of Isabella Rossellini ̶ the daughter of screen icon Ingrid Bergman (herself a three-time winner for Gaslight (1944), Anastasia (1956) and the 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express) ̶ whose nearly 50-year career includes terrific turns in Blue Velvet (1986) and Beethoven biopic Immortal Beloved (1994). Her role in papal political thriller Conclave is as a housekeeping nun whose observations could change the outcome of the election of a new pope – and at under eight minutes, it may be brief, but it is a scene-stealing gem, nevertheless. Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass Of the five actresses nominated, Monica Barbaro is probably the rogue selection. One of Tom Cruise’s pilot protégés in Top Gun: Maverick, the 34-year-old plays Joan Baez to Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Maybe it’s Academy members’ love of a real-life musical icon being brought to cinematic life that swung the vote, although the likes of Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson), Selena Gomez (Emilia Pérez) and Margaret Qualley (Demi Moore’s 'other half' in The Substance) may have had hopes of Oscar recognition. As for any controversy, the two remaining nominees have both generated similar rumblings on social media and in the press for alleged "category fraud", as some say their roles are co-starring rather than supporting. Singing sensation Ariana Grande has received her first Oscar nomination for playing Galinda Upland (and future Glinda the Good) in the sumptuous adaptation of Broadway hit Wicked, the Wizard of Oz prequel that chronicles her friendship with Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba before her transformation into the Wicked Witch of the West. The criticism seems a trifle unfair on Grande in her first big screen role, but for the outstanding favourite Zoe Saldaña, who is on-screen in Emilia Pérez more than best actress nominee Karla Sofia Gascón (who has generated her own unwanted controversy), there is more validity to the grumbles, especially since Saldaña's battling attorney is the driving force of Jacques Audiard’s genre-defying crime film. Not that it has stopped Saldaña's committed performance from scooping up the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the weekend’s Screen Actors Guild Award, making her the hottest favourite of the year. View Green Video on the source website The Academy Awards will take place on Sunday 2nd March. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscar predictions 2025: Who will win and should win Best Supporting Actor?
After winning numerous prizes for Succession, Kieran Culkin looks set to continue his film awards season streak for A Real Pain.
Unlike some of this year’s major Academy Award categories, the hot favourite for the best supporting actor Oscar has been the frontrunner since December last year, when Kieran Culkin's puckish performance in buddy road movie A Real Pain garnered prize-winning attention from the critics' circles. As the mercurial slacker to Jesse Eisenberg’s more down-to-earth cousin, Culkin has a ball with his co-star’s sardonic yet sobering Oscar-nominated script that takes the chalk-and-cheese duo on an illuminating trip to Poland, the birthplace of their recently passed Jewish grandmother. Winner of a Golden Globe and a BAFTA, the coronation of the first-time nominee looks assured. But what of the competition? The likes of Jonathan Bailey (Wicked), Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing) and two-time winner Denzel Washington (Gladiator II) did show up in other lists, but not when it came to the Oscar nominations, leaving a quartet of three other first-time nominees and a relative veteran in Edward Norton earning his fourth. Norton was previously nominated as best supporting actor for Primal Fear (1997) and Birdman (2015), and best actor for American History X (1999). This year, the 55-year-old actor has been shortlisted for playing Pete Seeger in the music biopic A Complete Unknown, in which the folk pioneer witnesses Timothée Chalamet’s young Bob Dylan embarking on a journey from folk-music sensation in 1961 to almost pariah status for going electric in 1965. Norton is possibly second favourite. Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass Guy Pearce’s first nomination is for The Brutalist and his pivotal role as Harrison Lee Van Buren, the enigmatic and monied industrialist whose offer of the American Dream to Adrien Brody’s Hungarian Holocaust survivor and visionary architect masks a darker reality. It is probably the Aussie star’s best work since Memento in 2000. A first-timer, too, is Kieran Culkin’s Succession co-star Jeremy Strong, going deep in The Apprentice to play fearsome lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn, whose mentoring of a young real-estate tycoon called Donald Trump in the 1970s and '80s arguably made him the man he is today. And then, finally, Yura Borisov receives a nominee nod for offbeat Cinderella tale Anora, in which the Russian actor plays the henchman/minder to the son of a Russian oligarch who falls for and then marries Mikey Madison’s Brooklyn stripper. Much of the controversy surrounding the Oscars this year involves Emilia Pérez, but if there is any related to Culkin’s inexorable march to victory, it is over so-called "category fraud" – when what is arguably a leading role is mooted "For Your Consideration" by the studio in the supporting category, therefore giving it a better chance of copping an Oscar. You can understand why, with Culkin on screen as much as co-star Eisenberg. A similar criticism has also been made about Zoe Saldaña (another odds-on favourite to win) in Emilia Pérez and Ariana Grande for Wicked. Nevertheless, that is not likely to prevent the first member of the Culkin family from striking Oscar gold on 2nd March. View Green Video on the source website The Academy Awards will take place on Sunday 2nd March. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Who's going to win Best Supporting Actress?
Only one of this year’s best supporting actress nominees has received a prior nomination, leaving four newbies to the nominee merry-go-round that will end when the coveted statuette is awarded this Sunday. And just like Kieran Culkin in the supporting actor category, it looks like there will be only one winner here, too. Flying the flag for Britain is Felicity Jones, who was previously nominated as best actress for playing the wife of Eddie Redmayne’s Stephen Hawking in Oscar winner The Theory of Everything (2014). In The Brutalist, she plays wife to another creative genius, the tormented architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth (Adrien Brody). Like her husband, Erzsébet was sent to a concentration camp and survived, albeit with ailing health, but is unable to join him in America until years after the War. Indeed, her first appearance is halfway through in the film, and yet she is the beating heart of the 215-minute epic. All the other actresses shortlisted are first-timers, although it is hard to believe in the case of Isabella Rossellini ̶ the daughter of screen icon Ingrid Bergman (herself a three-time winner for Gaslight (1944), Anastasia (1956) and the 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express) ̶ whose nearly 50-year career includes terrific turns in Blue Velvet (1986) and Beethoven biopic Immortal Beloved (1994). Her role in papal political thriller Conclave is as a housekeeping nun whose observations could change the outcome of the election of a new Pope – and at under eight minutes it may be brief, but it is a scene-stealing gem, nevertheless. Of the five actresses nominated, Monica Barbaro is probably the rogue selection. One of Tom Cruise’s pilot protégés in Top Gun: Maverick, the 34-year-old plays Joan Baez to Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Maybe it’s Academy members’ love of a real-life musical icon being brought to cinematic life that swung the vote, although the likes of Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson), Selena Gomez (Emilia Pérez) and Margaret Qualley (Demi Moore’s “other half” in The Substance) may have had hopes of Oscar recognition. As for any controversy, the two remaining nominees have both generated similar rumblings on social media and in the press for alleged “category fraud”, as some say their roles are co-starring rather than supporting. Singing sensation Ariana Grande has received her first Oscar nomination for playing Galinda Upland (and future Glinda the Good) in the sumptuous adaptation of Broadway hit Wicked, the Wizard of Oz prequel that chronicles her friendship with Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba before her transformation into the Wicked Witch of the West. The criticism seems a trifle unfair on Grande in her first big screen role, but for the outstanding favourite Zoe Saldaña, who is on-screen in Emilia Pérez more than best actress nominee Karla Sofia Gascón (who has generated her own unwanted controversy), there is more validity to the grumbles, especially since Saldaña's battling attorney is the driving force of Jacques Audiard’s genre-defying crime film. Not that it has stopped Saldaña's committed performance from scooping up the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the weekend’s Screen Actors Guild Award, making her the hottest favourite of the year.
Who's going to win Best Supporting Actor?
After winning numerous prizes for Succession, Kieran Culkin looks set to continue his film-awards-season streak for A Real Pain
Unlike some of this year’s major Academy Award categories, the hot favourite for the best supporting actor Oscar has been the frontrunner since December last year, when Kieran Culkin’s puckish performance in buddy road movie A Real Pain garnered prize-winning attention from the critics’ circles. As the mercurial slacker to Jesse Eisenberg’s more down-to-earth cousin, Culkin has a ball with his co-star’s sardonic yet sobering Oscar-nominated script that takes the chalk-and-cheese duo on an illuminating trip to Poland, the birthplace of their recently passed Jewish grandmother. Winner of a Golden Globe and now a BAFTA, the coronation of the first-time nominee looks assured. But what of the competition? The likes of Jonathan Bailey (Wicked), Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing) and two-time winner Denzel Washington (Gladiator II) did show up in other lists, but not when it came to the Oscar nominations, leaving a quartet of three other first-time nominees and a relative veteran in Edward Norton earning his fourth. Norton was previously nominated as best supporting actor for Primal Fear (1997) and Birdman (2015), and best actor for American History X (1999). This year, the 55-year-old actor has been shortlisted for playing Pete Seeger in the music biopic A Complete Unknown, in which the folk pioneer witnesses Timothée Chalamet’s young Bob Dylan embarking on a journey from folk-music sensation in 1961 to almost pariah status for going electric in 1965. Norton is possibly second favourite. Guy Pearce’s first nomination is for The Brutalist and his pivotal role as Harrison Lee Van Buren, the enigmatic and monied industrialist whose offer of the American Dream to Adrien Brody’s Hungarian Holocaust survivor and visionary architect masks a darker reality. It is probably the Aussie star’s best work since Memento in 2000. A first-timer, too, is Kieran Culkin’s Succession co-star Jeremy Strong, going deep in The Apprentice to play fearsome lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn, whose mentoring of a young real-estate tycoon called Donald Trump in the 1970s and 80s arguably made him the man he is today. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/04/Donald-Trump-Sebastian-Stan-The-Apprentice-a926817.jpeg" width="1620" height="1080" alt="Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn in The Apprentice. They are sitting in the back of a car, with Trump on a mobile phone and Cohn looking at him with a stern expression." title="Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn in The Apprentice" /> And then, finally, Yura Borisov receives a nominee nod for offbeat Cinderella tale Anora, in which the Russian actor plays the henchman/minder to the son of a Russian oligarch who falls for and then marries Mikey Madison’s Brooklyn stripper. Much of the controversy surrounding the Oscars this year involves Emilia Pérez, but if there is any related to Culkin’s inexorable march to victory, it is over so-called “category fraud” – when what is arguably a leading role is mooted “For Your Consideration” by the studio in the supporting category, therefore giving it a better chance of copping an Oscar. You can understand why, with Culkin on screen as much as co-star Eisenberg. A similar criticism has also been made about Zoe Saldaña (another odds-on favourite to win) in Emilia Pérez and Ariana Grande for Wicked. Nevertheless, that is not likely to prevent the first member of the Culkin family from striking Oscar gold on 3 March.
Kraven the Hunter review: Better than Morbius and Madame Web at least
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is in muscular form but a leaden script keeps things underwhelming.
The first live-action appearance of the longtime Spider-Man foe, who made his comic-book bow in 1964, marks the sixth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe franchise following Morbius (2022), Madame Web (2024) and the recently completed Venom trilogy (2018-2024). In his original Marvel Comics iteration, Sergei Kravinoff is a formidable, potion-powered big-game hunter sporting a jet-black moustache and beard, who’s determined to make Peter Parker’s webslinger the ultimate trophy on his wall. This globe-trotting origin tale from director JC Chandor, better known for more grounded dramatic fare like A Most Violent Year, Margin Call and All Is Lost, begins with Kraven (played by a physically imposing Aaron Taylor-Johnson) taking no prisoners in a remote Russian penitentiary before flashbacking to his teenage past as Sergei, the eldest son of ruthless Russian gangster Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe, complete with ripe accent and no little menace). But when an African lion hunt goes awry and Sergei suffers a Revenant-style ravaging, it is only the timely administration of a powerful herbal pick-me-up that saves his life, bestowing the super-strength, speed, agility and heightened senses to transform him into The Hunter. Fast-forward 16 years to the present and Kraven has achieved mythic status as the scourge of the criminal underworld, working out of a secret Siberian base – the Dacha-cave, perchance? – and estranged from his cruel dad and callow but beloved half-brother Dimitri (Gladiator II’s Fred Hechinger). However, after teaming up with his potion-providing saviour-turned-crusading lawyer, Calypso (Ariana DeBose), the predator finds himself the prey of Alessandro Nivola’s up-and-coming crime boss, who has his own hardcore chemical enhancement with which to even the super-powered odds, and an eerily lethal assassin called The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott). Taylor-Johnson taps into the swagger and muscular charisma that made his Quicksilver so impressive in Avengers: Age of Ultron but the leaden script lacks zing and zingers, while the action only really dazzles halfway through the movie, during Kraven’s Mission: Impossible-like sprint pursuit of baddies across London streets and waterways, topped off by a tug of war with a helicopter. Mind you, the 15-certificate means there is a grislier element to the fight scenes, especially during the climactic siege of Kraven’s forest bolthole. Maybe the fact the film’s release was delayed by over a year and the now-familiar rumours of reshoots may explain why yet another Sony superhero spin-off is so sadly underwhelming, although Kraven still has more going for it than Morbius and Madame Web, not least with Taylor-Johnson. His brooding and intense take on the antihero is definitely worth a reprise and if nothing else, it provides ample evidence that the 34-year-old British actor could have the action chops to be a new James Bond. As with the rest of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, the missing elephant in the film is Spidey himself, since the character is still contracted to appear in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe with Tom Holland returning to shoot Spider-Man 4 in 2025. Meanwhile, the future of the spin-off Spiderverse is uncertain, writ large by the absence of any kind of post-credits clue to what comes next. View oEmbed on the source website Kraven the Hunter will be released in cinemas on 13th December 2024. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story review – a life-affirming portrait of a real-life hero
Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s moving documentary charts the iconic actor's rise to global recognition.
★★★★☆ Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is in cinemas from Friday. Add it to your watchlist. Blockbuster superhero movies are ten a penny these days, but it was not until Christopher Reeve took on the role of comic-book icon Superman in 1978 and made you believe a man could fly that such films began to be taken seriously, both critically and at the box office. Director Richard Donner (The Omen, Lethal Weapon) may have had an all-star cast headed by Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, a suitably soaring John Williams score and state-of-the-art special effects, but without a charismatic and capable actor in the title role, it could have been a disaster. View oEmbed on the source website Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s excellent, immensely moving documentary charts the rise to global recognition of the affable New Yorker, who was performing on stage with William Hurt when he found out he had got the role that had been offered to the likes of Robert Redford. Hurt advised him to turn it down and stick with serious acting. Reeve emerges as an articulate and personable individual, passionate about theatre and keen on outdoor activities like sailing, flying and horse riding. Tragically, though, it was a fall while riding in 1995 that changed everything. As Reeve admits, an inch or so either way and he would have been either dead or just nursing bruises. As it was, he was left paralysed from the neck down and needing a ventilator to breathe. The fact he was allergic to horses is just one of the tragic ironies emerging from his story. However, instead of taking the chronological approach to Reeve’s life, the directors continually switch between his journey to star-making Man of Steeldom, fame and his subsequent career, and the aftermath of the accident, his determination not to let disability define him and his move into advocacy for better-funded spinal injury treatment like stem-cell research. Aided by home movies, archive footage and interviews with his family and friends (Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg), you never lose sight of the vital man he was and the one he had to become to cope with such a catastrophic, life-altering injury, while the contrast between the invulnerable character he portrayed so convincingly on screen and his real-world vulnerability is powerfully affecting. Indeed, Reeve's show-stopping, surprise appearance at the 1996 Oscars only ten months after the accident not only had Hollywood's finest up on their feet in tears, but also did more to highlight the plight of hundreds of thousands of Americans with paralysis than anything up to that time. It's such an inspirational moment, you may find yourself shedding a few of your own. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/10/028BrettWileyPeterEttedgui-WillReeve-IanBonhoteA7S04218-0794a56-e1730197586229.jpg" width="3568" height="2381" alt="Director Peter Ettedgui, Will Reeve and director Ian Bonhote in the documentary feature Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story" title="Director Peter Ettedgui, Will Reeve and director Ian Bonhote in the documentary feature Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story" /> There are entertaining anecdotes around the Superman film, too, with producer Pierre Spengler revealing the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner and even Neil Diamond (!) were keen on donning the cape while Reeve admits being disappointed with Brando’s phoning-it-in performance as Superman’s dad on the David Letterman show, prompting the host to waggishly pretend Brando was coming on next. And then there is Reeve’s enduring friendship with Robin Williams, who was the first to make his stricken pal laugh when he turned up at the hospital pretending to be a Russian proctologist. The two had been close since their student days, almost like brothers, so when Glenn Close poignantly says she thinks the comedian (who died in 2014) would be alive now, but for Reeve’s death, you find yourself believing her. Above all, though, it is his family who provide the deepest insight, notably Reeve’s now grown-up children Matthew, Alexandra and Will; ex-partner Gae Exton; and his wife Dana, who devoted herself to his care but passed away less than two years after her husband in 2006. Undoubtedly, there is tragedy in the Christopher Reeve story but it’s a life and legacy sustained by the love and support of his family, and the result is an intensely emotional but truly life-affirming portrait of a real-life hero.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story review – Life-affirming portrait of a real-life hero
Blockbuster superhero movies are 10 a penny these days, but it was not until Christopher Reeve took on the role of comic-book icon Superman in 1978 and made you believe a man could fly that such films began to be taken seriously, both critically and at the box office. Director Richard Donner (The Omen, Lethal Weapon) may have had an all-star cast headed by Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, a suitably soaring John Williams score and state-of-the-art special effects, but without a charismatic and capable actor in the title role, it could have been a disaster. Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s excellent, immensely moving documentary charts the rise to global recognition of the affable New Yorker, who was performing on stage with William Hurt when he found out he had got the role that had been offered to the likes of Robert Redford. Hurt advised him to turn it down and stick with serious acting. Reeve emerges as an articulate and personable individual, passionate about theatre and keen on outdoor activities like sailing, flying and horse riding. Tragically, though, it was a fall while riding in 1995 that changed everything. As Reeve admits, an inch or so either way and he would have been either dead or just nursing bruises. As it was, he was left paralysed from the neck down and needing a ventilator to breathe. The fact he was allergic to horses is just one of the tragic ironies emerging from his story. View oEmbed on the source website However, instead of taking the chronological approach to Reeve’s life, the directors continually switch between his journey to star-making Man of Steeldom, fame and his subsequent career, and the aftermath of the accident, his determination not to let disability define him and his move into advocacy for better-funded spinal injury treatment like stem cell research. Aided by home movies, archive footage and interviews with his family and friends (Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg), you never lose sight of the vital man he was and the man he had to become to cope with such a catastrophic, life-altering injury, while the contrast between the invulnerable character he portrayed so convincingly on screen and his real-world vulnerability is powerfully affecting. Indeed, Reeve's show-stopping, surprise appearance at the 1996 Oscars only ten months after the accident not only had Hollywood's finest up on their feet in tears but also did more to highlight the plight of hundreds of thousands of Americans with paralysis than anything up to that time. Such an inspirational moment, you may find yourself shedding a few of your own. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/10/028BrettWileyPeterEttedgui-WillReeve-IanBonhoteA7S04218-0794a56-e1730197586229.jpg" width="3568" height="2381" alt="Director Peter Ettedgui, Will Reeve and director Ian Bonhote in the documentary feature Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story" title="Director Peter Ettedgui, Will Reeve and director Ian Bonhote in the documentary feature Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story" /> There are entertaining anecdotes around the Superman film, too, with producer Pierre Spengler revealing the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner and even Neil Diamond (!) were keen on donning the cape while Reeve admits being disappointed with Brando’s phoning-it-in performance as Superman’s dad on the David Letterman show, prompting the host to waggishly pretend Brando was coming on next. And then there is Reeve’s enduring friendship with Robin Williams, who was the first to make his stricken pal laugh when he turned up at the hospital pretending to be a Russian proctologist. The two had been close since their student days, almost like brothers, so when Glenn Close poignantly says she thinks the comedian (who died in 2014) would be alive now, but for Reeve’s death, you find yourself believing her. Above all, though, it is his family who provide the deepest insight, notably Reeve’s now grown-up children Matthew, Alexandra and Will; ex-partner Gae Exton; and his wife Dana, who devoted herself to his care but passed away less than two years after her husband in 2006. Undoubtedly, there is tragedy in the Christopher Reeve story but it’s a life and legacy sustained by the love and support of his family, and the result is an intensely emotional but truly life-affirming portrait of a real-life hero. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is in UK cinemas from 1st November. If you're looking for something to watch tonight, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Salem's Lot review: Stephen King adaptation lacks bite
The new film based on King's iconic vampire novel spends little time developing the characters or building tension – rendering it an anaemic offering.
Can the vampire really be rising from the dead again as cinema’s go-to monster following years of zombie domination? 2024 has already seen the release of Abigail, in which a band of mercenaries come a cropper after kidnapping a tweenage heiress for ransom, while the upcoming remake of 1922 silent classic Nosferatu from The Witch director Robert Eggers (and featuring It star Bill Skarsgård in the title role) is due out in the UK on New Year’s Day. Into this mini-revival of big-screen vampirism comes the first celluloid version of Stephen King’s second published novel, Salem’s Lot, directed and adapted by Gary Dauberman, who has credit in the bank for scripting the hit films based on King’s It. The 1975 page-turner was adapted as a three-hour TV miniseries in 1979 and directed by Tobe Hooper of Texas Chain Saw Massacre fame. Genuinely creepy and scary with arguably David Soul’s finest performance as the novel’s haunted hero Ben Mears, it was later edited for cinema release, influencing the likes of Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass on Netflix. A 2004 TV series starring Rob Lowe and Rutger Hauer was set in contemporary times. King labelled his story as "Peyton Place meets Dracula", setting his tale in a sleepy rural town in Maine where the arrival of antiques traders Richard Straker and unseen partner Kurt Barlow coincides with the return of writer Ben Mears (played here by Top Gun: Maverick’s Lewis Pullman) to the home town where he was orphaned as a child. Dauberman retains the 1970s milieu – fashions, hairdos, drive-in as social hotspot – but then spends little time on developing the characters or building tension before revealing the identity of the evil about to suck the life from the community. The demise and disappearance of the Glick brothers sets the ghoulish train of events in motion, but that iconic scene where a floating and fanged Danny Glick is scraping on windows to get at his victim (seminal in the 1979 version and emulated later in a 2000 League of Gentlemen Xmas Special) lacks bite here. Indeed, in next to no time, the 1,200-strong community is whittled down to a motley quintet of vampire hunters (Ben, girlfriend Susan, an alcoholic priest, a doctor and schoolboy Mark Petrie), who are all that remain to save the day. Admittedly, the final confrontation at the local drive-in offers some edge-of-the-seat thrills, yet the best adaptations of the "King of Horror" tend to be when fully-formed characters have imbued a terror tale with emotional depth. Read more: Joker 2's biggest problem is it doesn't commit to being a musical Transformers One review: Animated prequel is earnestly enjoyable Here, so much is missing (Ben’s chilling childhood experience at the Marston House, later home to Barlow and Straker) or undeveloped (his relationships with Susan and Mark), leaving a fine cast of veteran performers (Alfre Woodard, William Sadler, Bill Camp) lost for (a few more) words. To be fair to the director, who also scripted all the Annabelle films from the Conjuring Universe, the movie was due for release in 2022, but delays, reshoots and executive reorganisation at Warner Bros have seen the film cut by at least an hour, according to Dauberman, including an opening scene depicting Ben’s Marsten House nightmare. Meanwhile in the US, it has gone straight to streaming. Maybe a director’s cut would be an improvement, instead of this anaemic offering, a false dawn for one of King’s finest excursions into fear and sweat-inducing fright. Salem's Lot is showing in UK cinemas from Friday 11th October 2024. If you're looking for something to watch tonight, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Deadpool & Wolverine review: Could Ryan Reynolds's crude antihero actually be Marvel’s messiah?
With the help of Hugh Jackman, this irreverent romp shows that the titular Merc with a Mouth might just be Disney-Marvel’s unlikely saviour
★★★★☆ Deadpool & Wolverine is in cinemas now. Add it to your watchlist. To say there is a lot riding on Deadpool & Wolverine, the third Deadpool adventure, both critically and financially, may seem like an odd assertion, considering both of his previous escapades made a healthy $780 million at the worldwide box office and went down well with audiences, critics and fans alike. But much has changed since Deadpool 2 was released in 2018, with Disney completing its acquisition of 21st Century Fox a year later and having the lucrative opportunity to add that studio’s X-Men characters, Deadpool included, to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the MCU’s fortunes have faltered since 2019 and the $2 billion heyday of Avengers: Endgame. Audiences and takings are down, with last year’s The Marvels barely making $200 million and already announced titles delayed by years. Deadpool & Wolverine is the only MCU film out this year, so the notion that Ryan Reynolds’s lewd, rude Merc with a Mouth will be Disney-Marvel’s saviour is not a ludicrous one. Indeed, Reynolds spells it out with typical fourth-wall-smashing gusto from the start, when he declares himself the "Marvel Jesus" after being enlisted to help the Time Variance Authority with their multiversal problems. Followers of the Loki TV series will already know about the TVA and its mission to protect the Multiverse by trimming failing alternate realities. But when Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool) realises TVA agent Mr Paradox (played by Succession star Matthew Macfadyen) is threatening the lives of his friends and his lover (Morena Baccarin), he decides he will need muscular assistance from iconic X-Man the Wolverine (a welcome return for Hugh Jackman). But, hold on. Wasn’t Logan in 2017 the final chapter for Jackman’s ageing mutant mauler? Well, yes and no, as we see from the bloody, all-action opening when Wade revisits Logan’s final resting place in the hope his healing factor might have kicked in. Let’s just say Wade must look elsewhere in the multiverse, so we get the chance to check out a range of Wolverine variants that will be familiar to many a longtime comic book fan. View Green Video on the source website Eventually, it’s a bitter, booze-guzzling Logan — "the worst Wolverine" — who is persuaded to help, and then this very funny, action-packed romp hurtles into its own as the pair bicker and battle with each other and nearly everyone else they meet after they are dumped into The Void, an inter-dimensional dumping ground ruled over by psychic psycho Cassandra Nova (The Crown’s Emma Corrin). Here, the self-aware send-ups come thick and fast – the duo fight in the rubble of the 20th Century Fox logo – as do some genuinely gob-smacking cameos and callbacks to Marvel’s cinematic history. The wanton slice-and-dice violence, expletives on tap and throwaway gibes at the likes of Marvel chief Kevin Feige and Mad Max film Furiosa quell any concerns Deadpool may get Disneyfied. View oEmbed on the source website Admittedly, the in-jokes and quickfire banter may not travel so well for the uninitiated punter, but like Airplane!, there is enough pithy patter and gags (deftly delivered by director Shawn Levy) to leave you smiling or laughing out loud. Reynolds, meanwhile, is at his impish best, and he has the perfect foil in a suitably gruff Jackman, who provides timely gravitas among all the mirth and mayhem. Time (and billion-dollar box office targets) will tell if Deadpool is indeed the saviour of the MCU and can get lots of bums onto lots of seats. Or will this third outing be just a fillip before the release of Captain America: Brave New World in February 2025, which will see Anthony Mackie take on the mantle of the star-spangled Avenger? Roll on next year.
Deadpool & Wolverine review: Could Wade Wilson actually be Marvel's messiah?
The notion that Ryan Reynolds's lewd, rude Merc with a Mouth will be Disney-Marvel's saviour is not a ludicrous one.
To say there is a lot riding on Deadpool & Wolverine, the third Deadpool adventure, both critically and financially, may seem like an odd assertion, considering both of his previous escapades made a healthy $780 million at the worldwide box office and went down well with audiences, critics and fans alike. But much has changed since Deadpool 2 was released in 2018, with Disney completing its acquisition of 21st Century Fox a year later and having the lucrative opportunity to add that studio’s X-Men characters, Deadpool included, to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the MCU’s fortunes have faltered since 2019 and the $2 billion heyday of Avengers: Endgame. Audiences and takings are down, with last year’s The Marvels barely making $200 million and already announced titles delayed by years. Deadpool & Wolverine is the only MCU film out this year, so the notion that Ryan Reynolds’s lewd, rude Merc with a Mouth will be Disney-Marvel’s saviour is not a ludicrous one. Indeed, Reynolds spells it out with typical fourth-wall-smashing gusto from the start, when he declares himself the 'Marvel Jesus' after being enlisted to help the Time Variance Authority with their multiversal problems. Followers of the Loki TV series will already know about the TVA and its mission to protect the Multiverse by trimming failing alternate realities. But when Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool) realises TVA agent Mr Paradox (played by Succession star Matthew Macfadyen) is threatening the lives of his friends and his lover (Morena Baccarin), he decides he will need muscular assistance from iconic X-Man the Wolverine (a welcome return for Hugh Jackman). But, hold on. Wasn’t Logan in 2017 the final chapter for Jackman’s ageing mutant mauler? Well, yes and no, as we see from the bloody, all-action opening when Wade revisits Logan’s final resting place in the hope his healing factor might have kicked in. Let’s just say Wade must look elsewhere in the multiverse, so we get the chance to check out a range of Wolverine variants that will be familiar to many a longtime comic book fan. View Green Video on the source website Eventually, it’s a bitter, booze-guzzling Logan – "the worst Wolverine" - who is persuaded to help, and then this very funny, action-packed romp hurtles into its own as the pair bicker and battle with each other and nearly everyone else they meet after they are dumped into The Void, an inter-dimensional dumping ground ruled over by psychic psycho Cassandra Nova (The Crown’s Emma Corrin). Here, the self-aware send-ups come thick and fast – the duo fight in the rubble of the 20th Century Fox logo – as do some genuinely gob-smacking cameos and callbacks to Marvel’s cinematic history. The wanton slice-and-dice violence, expletives on tap and throwaway gibes at the likes of Kevin Feige and the Furiosa film quell any concerns Deadpool may get Disneyfied. Admittedly, the in-jokes and quickfire banter may not travel so well for the uninitiated punter, but like Airplane!, there is enough pithy patter and gags (deftly delivered by director Shawn Levy) to leave you smiling or laughing out loud. Meanwhile, Reynolds is at his impish best, and he has the perfect foil in a suitably gruff Jackman, who provides timely gravitas among all the mirth and mayhem. Time (and billion-dollar box office targets) will tell if Deadpool is indeed the saviour of the MCU and can get lots of bums onto lots of seats. Or will this third outing be just a filip before the release of Captain America: Brave New World in February 2025, which will see Anthony Mackie take on the mantle of the star-spangled Avenger? Roll on next year. Deadpool & Wolverine is out now. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Road House review: Jake Gyllenhaal is a class act in slick remake
There's a 'new sheriff in town' feel to director Doug Liman's reimagining of the 1980s flick.
After debuting in 1989, the original Road House about a buff bouncer ridding a small-town nightspot of its undesirables was just the ticket for a boozy night in with a six-pack and fans of bare-knuckle baloney for company, but has generated a cult following since, not least because of star Patrick Swayze. Fresh from his eye-catching turn in Dirty Dancing, Swayze oozed cool as Dalton ('80s mullet, notwithstanding) and confirmed he had action chops as well as dance moves in an entertaining modern riff on the Western from the aptly named director, Rowdy Herrington. There's a 'new sheriff in town' feel to director Doug Liman's slick reimagining, too, only here Dalton (played with nonchalant charm by Jake Gyllenhaal) is a disgraced UFC fighter haunted by his past (think John Wayne's The Quiet Man), who uses his pugilistic skills to pulverise the thugs menacing a beachfront club in the Florida Keys. Unlike the Swayze version, Gyllenhaal’s Dalton is depressed, down at heel and sleeping in his car before a desperate club owner offers him an alternative to eking out a living in grimy underground fights where his tarnished reputation precedes him. On arriving in sunny Glass Key, the genial Gyllenhaal is soon befriended by the locals – young bouncer Billy (Lukas Gage, The White Lotus), precocious teenager Charlie (Hannah Lanier) – and warning off a biker gang (led by Mayans MC star JD Pardo) with wry lines like, "Do you have insurance?" before "dispatching" them to the nearest hospital where he piques the interest of night nurse Ellie (The Suicide Squad’s Daniela Melchior). Of course, there is more to the plot than bone-crunching bar-room brawls, as Dalton’s muscular intervention is also upsetting the get-richer schemes of twitchy land developer Brandt (an OTT Billy Magnussen), who resorts to calling in an equaliser. Read more: Damsel review: Millie Bobby Brown elevates tonally confused fantasy Dune: Part Two review – A spectacular return to Arrakis Cue the introduction of Knox, played with swaggering brio by legendary MMA fighter Conor McGregor (in his feature debut), an entrance so gleefully badass, it needs to be seen to be believed. A manic force of nature, Knox proves to be a formidable and dangerously unpredictable adversary for our redoubtable hero, and with a director who helped to launch the Jason Bourne franchise at the helm, you are guaranteed bold stunts and electrifying fight scenes awash with UFC-intensity immersive PoV pounding. It's a shame as much effort wasn’t put into adding dimension to the supporting characters, or even to Brandt’s other heavies, played by the likes of Joaquim De Almeida (Desperado) and Beau Knapp (The Nice Guys), who barely get a look in here. At least the '89 version had Sam Elliott at his scene-stealing best as Swayze’s grizzled mentor. However, Gyllenhaal is a class act and gives a riveting performance, even when faced with the bristling bravado of McGregor, who must surely have a future in action franchises to come. The star has emulated his physique from 2015 boxing flick Southpaw and then some, sporting a six-pack that could lay you out if the film was in 3D! View Green Video on the source website Road House will land globally on Prime Video on Thursday 21st March – try Prime Video for free for 30 days. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Dune: Part Two review – A spectacular return to Arrakis
Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya stun in Denis Villeneuve's new instalment.
Dune: Part Two, much-anticipated follow-up to director Denis Villeneuve’s first instalment, is well worth waiting for, especially as only half of Frank Herbert’s landmark sci-fi novel had been adapted with no guarantee of a sequel until four days after the release of Part One. Picking up moments after the conclusion of the 2021 blockbuster which left young Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and widowed mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) stranded in a desert wasteland where humongous sandworms lurk beneath the surface, Part Two finds the bedraggled pair still unsure if their indigenous Fremen rescuers will protect them or kill them. The 2021 epic established how Paul’s noble father (Oscar Isaac) and his people were set up to fail in their stewardship of the spice-rich planet of Arrakis by the murderous machinations of the (unseen) Emperor and his sadistic Harkonnen allies. Here, the story centres on Paul’s odyssey from vengeful youth-turned-eager guerrilla fighter driven to destroy the Harkonnens’ spice-collecting operation to a reluctant if prophesied messiah, plagued by fractured dreams of a destiny that could ignite a holy war as much as bring salvation. No prizes for guessing where George Lucas found inspiration for his Star Wars saga. Once again, Chalamet impresses and demonstrates he is one of the most versatile young actors around, subtly moving from romantic hero via a tentative courtship with feisty Fremen warrior Chani (Zendaya) to a steely leader ready to wreak vengeance on Stellan Skarsgard’s grotesque, bloated Baron and his brutish nephew, the Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista). <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/01/rev-1-DUN2-06002rHighResJPEG-770565a.jpeg" width="6000" height="4000" alt="Austin Butler as the hairless Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen and Léa Seydoux as Lady Margot Fenring dressed in a blue headscarf and dress in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE: PART TWO,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release." title="rev-1-Dune-06002r_High_Res_JPEG" /> Added to this array of formidable foes is the Emperor himself (Christopher Walken) and Feyd-Rautha, another psychotic Harkonnen nephew (chillingly played by Elvis star Austin Butler) whose cut-and-thrust duel with Paul is one of the film’s many action highlights. Also new to the cast is Florence Pugh as the Emperor’s daughter and Léa Seydoux (No Time to Die) as a mysterious Bene Gesserit witch, although their roles are not especially fleshed-out. Spectacular sequences abound, not least Paul picking a whopper for his first attempt at worm wrangling, an exhilarating PoV rush through the dunes that leaves you breathless. Meanwhile, the introduction of Butler’s fearsome Feyd in a colossal gladiatorial arena that seems to touch the sky is shot in a mesmerising mix of monochrome and colour that would not have looked out of place in Fritz Lang’s expressionist masterpiece Metropolis. Stunning work from cinematographer Greig Fraser. Unexpected humour leavens the “all doom and no play” mood of Part One, as Paul’s Fremen mentor Stilgar (Javier Bardem) turns cheerleader once he is convinced the Atreides heir is the messiah who will bridge time and space, past and future. It’s a mercurial turn from the Spanish star, who acts as a conduit for some gentle mockery of fundamentalist belief. As with the Oscar-winning Part One, a thumping score from Hans Zimmer, seemingly earth-shaking sound and fabulous costumes are all present and correct, while Villeneuve confirms he is a master of scale and scope, using the excellent special effects to enhance the action and staggering visuals instead of wallowing in CGI excess, with the climactic reckoning rousingly recalling the Battle of Aqaba scene from David Lean’s majestic Lawrence of Arabia. And with the director keen on adapting more Herbert novels and box-office prospects looking good, a third visit to the Dune universe is surely on the cards. Dune: Part Two is in cinemas from 1st March. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom review: A serviceable slice of comic book nonsense
A more rousing and resonant sign-off to the DCEU would have been welcome before James Gunn's impending reboot of the franchise.
Jason Momoa’s first solo outing as the underwater superhero-turned-king of Atlantis was a well-received billion-dollar hit in 2018. Indeed, it remains the highest-grossing adventure in the DC Extended Universe, launched by Man of Steel 10 years ago, so it was no surprise that executives at Warner Bros were keen to greenlight a sequel. However, a combination of a pandemic, studio changes and other off-screen challenges delayed production and led to rewrites and reshoots. In the meantime, Momoa made a couple of Aquaman cameos (The Flash, the Peacemaker TV show) while keeping up a blockbuster presence in the likes of Dune and Fast X. Suffice to say, expectations were lowered, although original director James Wan returns for the belated sequel that finds Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, hanging out at his dad’s lighthouse and adjusting to being a father to a baby son. However, the juggling of family life and child-rearing with the mundane demands of running a kingdom and maintaining peace with other realms leaves him snoozing on the throne. But that calm is destroyed when old foe Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and craven scientist sidekick Dr Stephen Shin (Randall Park) discover the fabled Black Trident under a polar ice cap, bestowing the villain with enough power to avenge the death of his father and cause a climate catastrophe in the process. Emboldened by the trident, Manta steals an essential element for his schemes from Atlantis, injuring our hero's love interest Mera (and sidelining Amber Heard from much of the picture, or saddling her with banal dialogue like "I sense something in the water"), and leaving Arthur with no alternative but to seek help from angry half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), who was overthrown as king at the end of the first film and is now incarcerated in a remote desert stronghold. The ensuing action-packed prison break is the cue for a chalk and cheese "road movie" out of the Midnight Run playbook, which sees the bickering siblings having to park their differences for the greater good, not least when they discover Manta and his minions on a volcanic island populated by mutated fauna and flora eager to snack on them both. The evolving bromance between uptight, no-fun Orm and his Tiggerish usurper certainly lightens the mood, especially when it emerges that the source of Manta’s power is an ancient Sauron-like evil with links to the Atlantean family tree. Read more: Rebel Moon review: Zack Snyder's space opera is meandering and derivative Wonka review: A cosy chronicle of a young eccentric As the director of Insidious and The Conjuring, Wan again channels his horror nous with a gallery of toothsome nasties, though none that compare to the fearsome Trench creatures from the first film. There is the usual quota of concussive confrontations and the welcome return of Dolph Lundgren (King Nereus), Nicole Kidman (as Arthur’s Atlantean mum) and Temuera Morrison (his human dad). Also, hardcore Aquaman fans will recognise that it is Topo, Aquaman’s cephalopod sidekick in the comics, helping the half-brothers on their quest. A serviceable slice of comic book nonsense rather than a damp squib, then, but considering it’s the swan song to the DCEU franchise before the 2024 debut of the James Gunn iteration of the DC Universe, a more rousing and resonant sign-off would have been welcome, despite a cheeky final line nod to a certain Marvel blockbuster of yore. View Green Video on the source website Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is now available to watch in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Rebel Moon review: Zack Snyder's space opera is meandering and derivative
An abundance of sombre exposition and FX-heavy, slo-mo action only overshadows the efforts of the film's ensemble cast.
Now that Zack Snyder is no longer the driving force behind the DC Extended Universe that he helped launch in 2013 with Man of Steel, the director has set his sights on a galaxy far, far away for his latest action epic. No, not a Star Wars adventure, but the first instalment of a planned franchise (with Part Two due out next April) that bears more than a passing resemblance to George Lucas’s seminal 1977 space opera. After all, the story is set in a universe where a rapacious empire (here called the Motherworld) has turned increasingly tyrannical following the murder of its beloved ruler and his family. So, even a settlement of simple farming folk on a distant moon called Veldt cannot remain immune from imperial occupation, as demonstrated when their rustic idyll is shattered by the arrival of Ed Skrein’s gleefully lethal Admiral Atticus Noble, who orders his thuggish forces to hoover up the fruits of the villagers’ labours and not to spare the rod. So far, so repressive, but then Noble’s brutal minions fail to reckon on the presence in the community of enigmatic stranger Kora (Sofia Boutella), whose attempt to live the quiet life belies the fact she has an axe to grind with the empire – quite literally – and redemption to find. Once Kora has been provoked into action, the plot heads into Magnificent Seven territory, as she and lovelorn farmer Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) embark on a galactic search for warriors to take a stand against the nefarious Noble and his ominously powerful master, the Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee). This meandering quest to assemble a team with a particular set of skills also opens the way for Snyder to pay homage to the sort of movies that captured his youthful imagination in the 1970s and '80s. So, there’s a buff Beastmaster type (Staz Nair) who can talk to the animals - Conan the Veterinarian, if you like; a cyborg swordswoman (Doona Bae) who hails from a city out of Blade Runner; Titus, a disillusioned genius general-turned-drunken gladiator (played by Gladiator star Djimon Hounsou); and ferocious rebel leader Darrien Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher). Read more: Wonka review: A cosy chronicle of a young eccentric Death Stranding film announced, and it's "not just a direct translation" But Star Wars is never far from the surface, as with the cantina scene homage and introduction of mercenary pilot Kai, played by Charlie Hunnam as a rogue with a brogue. And if you are looking for droid representation, there is a mechanical knight left behind on Veldt, who is the last of a race that served under the dead king, but is now nothing more than a figure of derision for imperial soldiers. Boutella (The Mummy), Hounsou (Guardians of the Galaxy, Shazam!), Fisher (Justice League) and Game of Thrones alumni Nair, Huisman and Skrein have the genre chops when it comes to fantasy and comic book fare. However, an abundance of sombre exposition and FX-heavy, slo-mo action only overshadows their efforts. At least Skrein has a ball as a deliciously unhinged but formidable henchman. With the second part, The Scargiver, due for release next year, let’s hope Snyder can breathe life into his characters and unhitch his wagons from Lucas’s landmark to establish a universe and mythology of his own. View Green Video on the source website Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire is now showing in select cinemas and will be available to stream on Netflix from Friday 22nd December. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film coverage, or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.