The Film Father - Making an Offer You Can’t Review

Starring : Michael B. Jordan, Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caron, Hailee Steinfeld et. Al. Directed by : Ryan Coogler Where It’s Available : HBO MAX in the US and most international territories, Crave in Canada It’s not often that a film can seemingly come out of nowhere based on a trued and true idea, take that concept, tweak it and set the world on fire, but in Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’, that’s exactly what happened. Ostensibly a period-piece genre film, but in truth something that’s much more than the sum of its parts, Sinners is a film that years from now, when you look up ‘cool’ in the dictionary, a still from this film will be staring back at you. Michael B. Jordan stars in duel roles as the twin brothers ‘Stack’ and ‘Smoke’ - two wiseguy street toughs in depression-era Mississippi. The brothers have returned home after several years (where, among other things, they worked for Al Capone in an unstated capacity) with designs of opening up their own juke joint - a Chicago-style night sp...

Starring : Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Giancarlo Esposito et al. Directed By : Julius Onah Where It’s Available : Streaming internationally on Disney-+ It’s funny - the fourth Captain America mainline film in the MCU (and first since Anthony Mackie took the shield from Chris Evans) ends up playing like a spinoff sequel to two of the franchise’s lesser-loved products - The Incredible Hulk and The Eternals. Sometimes it works. Sometimes… the film can be a tad dumb and borderline incoherent. In all its one of the most uneven MCU films in the 17 (Jesus) years the venerable franchise is around. But even a ‘bad’ MCU film still has some entertainment value. The film opens with newly-anointed Captain America, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) raiding a compound in Mexico to retrieve… something. Basically it’s just a cool action set piece to show off Cap’s new moves with the shield and his now-vibranium-infused wings - and also to give the new Falcon, Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) ...

Starring : Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver Directed by : Scott Derrickson Where It’s Available : Apple TV  I’ve been watching a fair amount of Apple TV lately. Severance is the hottest shit on television right now. Before that, season two of Silo was fantastic, engaging, week-to-week television. Before what seems like every episode I was greeted with an ad for this movie. It looked interesting - who doesn’t like Anya Taylor-Joy, after all? I don’t think she’s capable of making a bad film. But I didn’t quite know what to expect going in. And now, after having watched it, this seems completely by design. The top-level description I can give you is that this movie is part-action, part-horror, part-espionage thriller and part-romance. If that seems like a lot, well… it kind of *is*? But for all those spinning plates, it’s remarkably competent and it does at a bare minimum a passable job in every one of those genres. The film is about two lonely special ops assassins who...

Starring : Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Isabel Merced, the ghost of Ian Holm Directed by : Fede Alvarez Where It’s Available : Hulu in the US, Disney Plus in Canada and international territories. When I heard that Fede Alvarez (director of the recent-ish Evil Dead remake and, more recently, the intense “blind man kills a bunch of young no-goodniks” thriller ‘Don’t Breathe’) was helming a new addition to the Alien franchise, my interest was piqued, but tempered. This is, after all, a franchise that hasn’t had an arguably ‘good’ film since David Fincher’s ‘Alien 3’ 30 years ago for Pete’s sake (I see you, ‘Prometheus’ Stans. … you’re very, very wrong. But I see you). Colour me happily surprised when this film jumps out of the gates with a neat concept (anti-capitalist heist film gone *horribly* awry) and great action set pieces. I can say with all honesty, final act missteps aside (we’ll touch on those) this is the third best film in the Alien franchise (behind the iconic, genre-definin...

Last year was … a lot. In a lot of ways. But a good portion of the time I wasn’t decrying the imminent collapse of civilization, I played video games. Quite a few of them, as it turns out.  As has become my wont, I will list here the games I ‘finished’ in CALENDAR YEAR 2024. Again, underline and bold that first part - the games did not have to be released this year (and you’ll note quite quite a few of the games on this list *weren’t*). A few honourable mentions to start with: these are games I’m currently playing (and enjoying) so you’ll see these on my 2025 list, but I’ll note them now so that you know they exist and are relatively worth your time: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024 - Microsoft Studios / Machine Games, on Xbox, PC and Gamepass), Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024 - EA / BioWare on Xbox, PC and PS5) and Astro Bot (2024 - PlayStation Studios / Team Asobi on PS5). 14. Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga (2024) - Microsoft Studios / Ninja Theory, on Xbox, PC and GamePass : ...

  Starring : Lacey Chabert, Dustin Milligan, Craig Robinson, Joe Lo Truglio Directed by : Jerry Ciccorriti Where It’s Available : Netflix! This is one of Netflix’s now-annual disposable holiday films. Chances are, if you’re planning on watching ‘Hot Frosty’, you know what to expect. Netflix has been aping Hallmark for a few years now, releasing several saccharine, treacly holiday-pap-fears disguised as original movies in November and December. They all seem to be connected, too, which is completely needless, yet fun (my friends and I call it the ‘NCU’ Netflix Christmas Universe). This film is very much one of those - honestly even dumber than the vast majority of them. But it’s also utterly harmless and not without its charms. The story as it stands: Lacey Chabert plays Kathy - stop me if you’ve heard this before - a small town widower who has given up on love and has lost the Christmas spirit. That all changes when (here’s the catch) a magic scarf she is gifted by a friend of hers...