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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Super Nature

Super Nature

Director – Ed Sayers – 2025 – UK – Cert. PG – 82m

*****

The process of shooting the natural world on the Super 8 amateur home movie format of the 1970s brings a participating community of people closer to nature – out in UK cinemas on Friday, September 4th

This starts and ends with the image zooming in to and zooming out from Super 8 footage. The Kodak Super 8 system was the premier format for home movies in the late1960s through the 1970s before it was replaced for the most part by videotape in the 1980s.

For some years, Ed Sayers was involved in a Super 8 film competition wherein punters would enter their films, and most of the material was much the same – family memories or holiday footage. Some of it extremely wild. As he puts it, the medium “painted our memories on film.”

One year, a very different submission turned up from a Frenchman named Roger. Roger had shot footage of flamingoes. 

The nature of Super 8 was that the film came on little cartridges of reversal film inserted into the camera. In terms of footage, the cartridges didn’t run that long. You’d shoot by squeezing the trigger, which would stop filming when released. … Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Late Fame

Late Fame

Director – Kent Jones – 2025 – US – Cert. 15 – 96m

*****

A reclusive New York postal worker who published volumes of poetry years ago becomes involved with a contemporary circle of rich young writers and creatives – out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, September 4th

New York postal worker Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe) lives a quiet life, with a regular, once a week night out playing pool with his mates. He regularly gets answerphone messages from his sister telling him his brother doesn’t have long left to live, and he really should come and visit before it’s too late.

Minding his own business, he’s walking through the park when he’s accosted by a young man. It emerges that Saxberger published volumes of poetry in the 1970s, and while never commercially successful, he is held in high regard by those who pay attention to such things. The young man takes a chance and invites Ed to a meeting of writers, poets and actors. Ed, flattered, says, why not?

So it is that Ed finds himself attending meetings of this artistic circle, run by Meyers (Edmund Donovan from Civil War, Alex Garland, 2024) which consists mainly of young rich kids whose parents are funding them.… Read the rest

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Animation Features Live Action Movies

Terminator 2
Judgment Day

Terminator 2 Judgment Day

Director – James Cameron – 1991 – US – Cert. 15 – 127m

*****

A second Terminator is sent from the future to kill the future leader of the war against the machines – back out in UK and Ireland cinemas in 4K and, where available, 3D to mark its 35th anniversary on Friday, September 4th 2026

In the 1984 original, a Terminator robot (Arnold Schwarznegger) is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother-to-be of the leader of the war in the future against the machines, who are exterminating humanity.

This sequel sees a more advanced T-1000 robot (Robert Patrick) sent back in time to kill Sarah’s now-ten-year-old son John (Ed Furlong). Another Terminator (Schwarzengger) is also running around in the present (i.e. 1991).

Sarah’s recurring nightmare pictures the coming apocalypse when the machines unleash nuclear missiles on humanity. That aside, this is basically an essay on mothers and sons – and fathers and sons – wrapped up in the best chase movie you’ve ever seen.

What makes the film work is the mother and son element. Sarah is a believer in Terminators, the coming war against the machines, and humanity’s fightback in a world where such beliefs are dismissed as delusions.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Terminator 2
Judgment Day
3D

Terminator 2 Judgment Day 3D

Director – James Cameron – 1991 (3D version 2017) – US – Cert. 15 – 127m

*****

A second Terminator is sent from the future to kill the future leader of the war against the machines – back out in UK and Ireland cinemas in 4K and, where available, 3D, to mark its 35th anniversary on Friday, September 4th 2026

Painstakingly remastered in 3D, this plays as well in its current rerelease as it did back in 1991. In the 1984 original, a Terminator robot (Arnold Schwarznegger) is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother-to-be of the leader of the war in the future against the machines, who are exterminating humanity.

This sequel sees a more advanced T-1000 robot (Robert Patrick) sent back in time to kill Sarah’s now-ten-year-old son John (Ed Furlong). Another Terminator (Schwarzengger) is also running around in the present (i.e. 1991).

Sarah’s recurring nightmare pictures the coming apocalypse when the machines unleash nuclear missiles on humanity. That aside, this is basically an essay on mothers and sons – and fathers and sons – wrapped up in the best chase movie you’ve ever seen.

Unlike the 3D conversion of the same director’s Titanic (1997) which proved 3D to be a greatly improved, astonishing revelation, the improvements afforded T2 by 3D are comparatively minor (though they’re peerlessly executed).… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Leviticus

Leviticus

Director – Adrian Chiarella – 2025 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 88m

*****

Following treatment by a faith healer, two gay teen lovers are stalked by a being that for each of them resembles the other – out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, September 2nd

This is at once a drama and a supernatural horror movie made from a gay perspective. At no point (unless I missed it) does the film refer to anyone or anything called Leviticus. Perhaps that’s the name of the monster (who is not named in the film). Perhaps it’s a reference to the Book of Leviticus in the Bible – possibly not such a stretch since key plot elements involve a local, fundamentalist Christian church community – and such gathered groups tend to believe the Bible to be true word for word (rather than, say, using it as a text to be read and engaged with, taking into account its historical context and trying to make sense of it in today’s world).

Naim (Joe Bird from Talk to Me, Danny & Michael Philippou, 2022) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen) hang out together in the area around their small outback town. Naim is unnerved by the sight of a snake digesting a toad.… Read the rest

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Animation Features Movies

Kiki’s Delivery Service
(Majo no Takkyubin,
魔女の宅急便)

Kiki’s Delivery Service (Majo no Takkyubin, 魔女の宅急便)

Director – Hayao Miyazaki – 1989 – Japan – Cert. U – 103m

*****

A young witch sets up her own small business and must learn to make her way in the world – out in a 4K remaster in regular UK and Ireland cinemas from Friday, August 28th following last week’s exclusive presentation in IMAX cinemas

Having reached the age of 13, young Kiki (voice/1989 Japanese dub: Minami Takiyama; 1998 Disney dub: Kirsten Dunst) must leave home to do a year’s apprenticeship as a witch in a location where there isn’t one already. Loaned at the insistence of her mother (voice/1989 Japanese dub: Mieko Nobusawa; 1998 Disney dub: Cath Soucie) the latter’s tried and tested broomstick, and accompanied by her talking black cat Jiji (voice/1989 Japanese dub: Rei Sakuma; 1998 Disney dub: Phil Hartman), she flies out on a night of the full moon. An encounter with a somewhat snooty witch who has just completed her year out reminds Kiki that she needs to develop her own special skill: at this stage, she has no idea as to exactly what this skill might be.

Resting overnight in an in transit railway cattle truck, she takes off again and arrives in Koriko, a bustling city much bigger than the tiny, provincial town where she grew up.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Colony
(Gunche,
군체)

Colony

Director – Yeon Sang-ho – 2026 – South Korea – Cert. 15 – 123m

*****

A scientist wreaks revenge on his former corporation in a bioterrorist attack which turns its victims into zombies – out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 28th

Inside the Doongwoori building, CEO of the Chains Bio corporation Kang Woo-chul (Kim Jong Tae) gives a speech about mass communication via networks. Her ex-husband Professor Han Kyu-seong (Go Soo) urges Professor Kwon Se-jeong (Gianna Jun) to speak to CEO Kang following his speech, but Kang is called away for a phone call regarding one Suh Young-chul and a possible bioterrorist attack.

Encouraged to find Kang and leave her card, Kwon witnesses him assault another man behind the frosted glass walls of his office. That other man is the aforementioned Suh Young-chul (Koo Kyo-hwan), who fights back, injecting Kang with a serum which makes him vomit, writhe and turn into a zombie. Pretty soon, Kang is biting others, giving rise to a local zombie outbreak.

Despite witnessing the initial stages of the assault, Kwon is unaware of the injection and everything that follows, stopping at a cafe with her ex to quiz him as to why he left her.… Read the rest

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Bitter Christmas
(Amarga Navidad)

Bitter Christmas (Amarga Navidad)

Director – Pedro Almodóvar – 2025 – Spain – Cert. 15 – 111m

***1/2

A woman learning to deal with panic attacks is actually a character playing out a screenplay as it is being written by a writer director coming out of an arid creative period – out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, August 28th

This loosely falls into the category of the story of the film being written by a person outside that story, with a parallel narrative dealing with the person outside the story writing that story.

Almodovar uses this schema to talk about the writer-director whose creativity has dried up. And the medical phenomenon of panic attacks. 

Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) has a migraine she can’t shift. Painkillers and rest – in the words which appear at the bottom of the screen of Elsa’s narrative as Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia) types them on his laptop – only make it worse. Her partner Beau (Patrick Criado) stays at home that evening to be there for her instead of going to the club as he normally would on a Friday. But then she feels worse, so he drives her to hospital, where she’s given an injection and a sedative, stays in overnight, and the next day feels well enough to go home.… Read the rest

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Animation Features Live Action Movies

Coyote vs. ACME

Coyote vs. ACME

Director – Dave Green – 2026 – US – Cert. PG – 101m

*****

After years of personal catastrophe because of the numerous defective ACME products he’s used trying to catch the Roadrunner, Wile E. Coyote finally decides to take the ACME Corporation to court – out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 28th with previews Friday, August 21st

Cartoon character Wile E. Coyote (voice: look, he’s a silent character who never speaks, just occasionally holds up signs with words on) sets about his latest plan to trap the Roadrunner (voice: Tucker Hawkey). This time he can’t fail. Because. Jet-powered boots. Made by ACME. Yet, he inevitably, hilariously, fails. Because. Made by ACME.

He has had it with ACME. 

So, armed with a box containing the evidence, he visits low rent law firm Avery, Jones & Maltese (named after director Tex Avery in whose Bad Luck Blackie (1949) pianos fall from the sky, and director Chuck Jones and writer Michael Maltese who created the Roadrunner cartoons) who advertise their expertise in successfully suing ACME for damage and stress caused by their defective products. Typical defective item: plaintiff receives maybe $300. This is chicken feed to the huge ACME Corporation, so they always pay up.… Read the rest