Category: Live Action

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A Better Tomorrow
(Yingxiong Bense,
英雄本色)

A Better Tomorrow (Yingxiong Bense, 英雄本色)

Director – John Woo – 1986 – Hong Kong – Cert. 18 – 94m

*****

The seminal gangster movie that crystallised John Woo’s now-trademark style of brotherhood, bullets and blood and catapulted Chow Yun Fat to Oriental, big screen stardom – 4K Restoration plays as part of Bullets and Brotherhood: The Films of John Woo at BFI Southbank from Friday, 3rd July to Friday, 31st July 2026

After a decade directing comedies and kung fu movies (many for Golden Harvest), Woo’s last two films had been box office flops when producer Tsui Hark gave him the opportunity to make A Better Tomorrow, loosely based at least in plot and character terms on the gritty The Story of a Discharged Prisoner / Yingxiong Bense (Kong Lung, 1967).

Hong Kong’s cinema owners had no problems with two of the three proposed leading men – Ti Lung (from Drunken Master II, Liu Chia-Liang, 1994; Shaolin Temple, Chang Cheh, Wu Ma, 1976) had achieved great success in director Chang Cheh’s martial arts epics at Shaw Brothers (Woo had worked as assistant to Chang early in his career) and Leslie Cheung (from Happy Together, Wong Kar-wai, 1997; Once a Thief, John Woo, 1991; A Chinese Ghost Story, Tsui Hark, 1987) was a successful singer – but Tsui and Woo had to fight hard for third lead Chow Yun Fat, a big TV star lacking any box office clout.… Read the rest

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Exit 8
(Hachiban Deguchi,
8番出口)

Exit 8 (Hachiban Deguchi, 8番出口)

Director – Genki Kawamura – 2025 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 95m

*****

A commuter tries to leave the Tokyo Underground but finds himself retracing his steps within a repeating system from which there is no exit – out on digital Monday, June 8th and Blu-ray Monday, June 29th in the UK and Ireland

A packed carriage on the Tokyo Underground. A commuter (Kazunari Ninomiya from Letters from Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood, 2006), heading to his first day at a new job, can’t help but notice a young mother whose baby is crying. This is not a situation anyone likes to find themselves in, least of all the young mother. One male passenger takes it upon himself to berate and belittle the woman for selfishly allowing her child to make a noise in such a crowded, public space, inconveniencing everyone present. On one level, is he simply voicing what everyone else in the carriage is thinking? On another, is he completely out of order? After all, the mother is not the child making the noise, and she is doing her best to calm it. The irate passenger is clearly not helping the situation.

Perhaps someone should intervene and tell the man to leave the woman alone.… Read the rest

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A Private Life
(Vie Privée)

A Private Life (Vie Privée)

Director – Rebecca Zlotowski – 2025 – France – Cert. 15 – 107m

****

A psychiatrist with an unusual eye problem must unravel the mystery of the recent death of one of her patients – out in UK cinemas on Friday, June 26th

Parisian psychiatrist Dr. Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster from The Mauritanian, Kevin Macdonald, 2021, The Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme, 1991; Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, 1976) is having a hard time. One of her patients Pierre is terminating his sessions after years of treatment following his visit to a hypnotist who managed to cure him of his long-standing smoking habit in one session; indeed, he may sue Dr. Lilian for non-effectiveness of treatment. Another regular Paula hasn’t turned up for her last two sessions, and Dr. Lilian is chasing the invoices.

The reason Paula hasn’t turned up, Dr. Lilian learns in a phone call from Paula’s daughter Valérie (Luana Bajrami (Luana Bajrami from Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma, 2019)), is simple: Paula has just died. Valérie invites Dr. Lilian to the Shemira (basically, a Jewish wake) only for Paula’s outraged husband Simon (Matthieu Amalric from Nino, Pauline Loquès, 2025; The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson, 2014; Munich, Steven Spielberg, 2005) to tell her to get out.… Read the rest

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Animation Features Live Action Movies

Mars Express
(Mars Express)

Mars Express (Mars Express)

Director – Jérémie Périn – 2023 – France – Cert. 15 – 85m

*****

In the 23rd Century, a private investigator and her resurrected robot assistant go to Mars to investigate the murder of a cybernetics student – plays in the Annecy International Animation Festival 2026 which runs from Sunday, 21st June to Saturday 27th June

The difference between humans and machines is one of the great themes of science fiction from Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) to Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995). Mars Express takes its name from an Earth-Mars shuttle which, following a bravura action / chase sequence early on, not unlike the one at the start of Ghost in the Shell, is used by private investigator Aline Ruby (voice: Léa Drucker from Custody, Xavier Legrand, 2017) and her assistant Carlos Rivera (voice: Daniel Njo Lobé) to transport a captured suspect from Earth to Mars where, it transpires on arrival, the relevant paperwork to detain their prisoner has been wiped from their on-person devices and internet-accessible office, meaning they are forced to release their prisoner. The narrative is littered with cleverly thought out ideas like this.

The setting is the 23rd Century and mostly Mars, where the pair are hired to search for a second year cybernetics student who has gone missing.… Read the rest

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Nino
(Nino)

Nino (Nino)

Director – Pauline Loquès – 2025 – France – Cert. 15 – 96m

****1/2

A young man attempts to cope with the news that he has throat cancer in his first weekend following diagnosis – out in UK cinemas on Friday, June 19th

There are some films you watch which are so close to parts of your own life that it’s impossible to be objective about them. This doesn’t happen very often to this writer, but it happened on this film. Over a year ago, completely out of the blue, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. As a UK citizen I’m entitled to free healthcare, and as a cancer patient my treatment is fast-tracked. My initial experience was of being tested for cancer, waiting a week or so for the results to come back, and having the presence of the cancer confirmed. That gave me around ten days to adjust, but it was a terrible shock. Not least because my (mis)understanding was that men didn’t get breast cancer, only women did, so that couldn’t possibly be what I had. And, obviously, it was life-changing.

Cut to the film Nino. A name film, named after its central character. What follows is my own highly personalised reaction as a cancer patient / survivor.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Hell or High Water

Director – David Mackenzie – 2016 – US – Cert. 15 – 102m

*****

Hell or High Water

Two brothers embark on a series of bank robberies even as two Texas Rangers follow their trail – out in the UK on 4K UHD

Entering the Texas Midlands bank early in the morning, a woman employee (Dale Dickey from the G, 2023; Iron Man 3, Shane Black, 2013) finds herself at gunpoint from two masked men in the middle of a robbery of a Texas Midlands bank. Sadly, only Mr. Clauson (William Sterchi) has the keys to the safe – and he won’t be in ‘til 8.30. At which point, one of the pair pistol whips him after his friendly, “good mornin’”. The gung-ho car driver is the elder brother Tanner (Ben Foster from Christy, David Michod, 2025; The Messenger, Oren Moverman, 2009); his quieter younger brother Toby (Chris Pine from Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins, 2017; Star Trek, J.J. Abrams, 2009) tells him to slow down.

Another Texas Midlands interior: an old man (Buck Taylor from Yellowstone, TV series, 2018-24; Gettysburg, Ronald F. Maxwell, 1993) is talking with the teller (Kristin K. Berg) about the box of old coins he found when the pair burst in and take the money from the till.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Disclosure Day

Disclosure Day

Director – Steven Spielberg – 2026 – US – Cert. 12A – 145m

The first two hours *****

The last half hour ***

Hoping to reveal to mankind the hitherto censored truth about aliens visiting Earth, a man and a woman flee their pursuers across the United States – out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, June 10th

The plot is in the title. This is the day we find out. The day when everything is revealed. As in the film’s posters. The man (Josh O’Connor from Rebuilding, Max Walker-Silverman, 2025; The History of Sound, Oilver Hermanus, 2025; La Chimera, Alice Rohrwacher, 2023) and the woman (Emily Blunt from The Fall Guy, David Leitch, 2024; Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan, 2023; A Quiet Place, John Krasinski, 2018)) saw a deer and a bird. The implication is that that encounter caused them to see and understand; the title further suggests that they want to disseminate that understanding to the wider world. All this sounds very evangelical to me: receive the message, get the word out. You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.

Daniel (O’Connor) has been caught with a rucksack containing a bunch of objects.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies Music

Köln 75
(Köln 75)

Köln 75 (Köln 75)

Director – Ido Fluk – 2025 – Germany – Cert. 15 – 112m

*****

How an 18-year-old girl came to stage what would become the biggest selling jazz album in history – narrative feature is out in UK cinemas on Friday, June 5th

At a party honouring her career as a music promoter, 50-year-old Vera Brandes (Suzanne Wolff) is upbraided by her dentist father (Ulrich Tukur from The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke, 2009; The Lives of Others, Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck, 2006; Solaris, Steven Soderbergh, 2002; Lulu, George Moorse, Peter Zadek, TV movie, 1991) that she never amounted to anything. In a quasi-documentary sequence, she intervenes as narrator to talk about this being a really bad start, and proceeds to play, like a presenter in a music documentary, some music takes abandoned by bad starts from, among others The Cramps and Bob Dylan.

The film starts again, this time with 18-year-old Vera Brandes (Mala Emde) who enjoys hanging out with friends at jazz venues, such as the one where English club owner Ronnie Scott (Daniel Betts from September 5, Tim Fehlbaum, 2024; Alien Romulus, Fede Alvarez, 2024; Allied, Robert Zemeckis, 2016) is playing.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies Music

Masters
of the Universe
(2026)

Masters of the Universe (2026)

Director – Travis Knight – 2026 – UK – Cert. 12a – 132m

***1/2

Prince Adam must recapture Castle Grayskull and the throne of Eternia after his parents, the king and queen, have been deposed by the evil Skeletor – out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, June 3rd

As his father King Radnor (James Purefoy from High-Rise, Ben Wheatley, 2015; Ironclad, Jonathan English, 2011; Solomon Kane, M.J. Bassett, 2009) of Eternia and his trainer Duncan the Man-at-Arms (Idris Elba from A House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow, 2025; Pacific Rim, Guillermo Del Toro, 12013; The Wire, TV series, 2002-4) know only too well, young Prince Adam (Artie Wilkinson-Hunt from Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, Gore Verbinski, 2025; Strike, TV series, 2017) is a bit of a wimp and generally fares badly at Duncan’s open air group combat training classes in the grounds of ancestral home Castle Grayskull. Adam’s best friend and Duncan’s daughter Teela (Eire Farrell from The Wasp, Guillem Morales, 2024; Barbie, Greta Gerwig, 2023) is much better at learning this stuff than he is.

Nothing has prepared either of the pair for real combat, such as when, out of nowhere, Castle Grayskull is attacked by the villainous Skeletor (Jared Leto from Tron: Ares, Joachim Rønning, 2025; House of Gucci, Ridley Scott, 2021; Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve, 2017; Dallas Buyers Club, Jean-Marc Vallée, 2013) and his forces who defeat the King and his Queen Marlena (Charlotte Riley from London Has Fallen, Babak Najifi, 2016; Edge of Tomorrow, Doug Limon, 2014; Easy Virtue, Stephan Elliot, 2008) and take over the castle even as Duncan, armed with various inventive items of weaponry, helps the two children to escape.… Read the rest

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Being Towards Death
(10 Jian Gan Si Dui,
10间敢死队,
lit. 10 Fearless Squad)

Being Towards Death
(10 Jian Gan Si Dui, 10间敢死队, lit. 10 Fearless Squad)

Director – Sicheng Chen – 2026 – China – Cert. 12a – 120m

**

The terminally ill patients thrown together in hospital Ward 10 decide to adopt a positive attitude towards both life and death – out in UK cinemas on Friday, June 5th

This has one of those weird Oriental movie titles that doesn’t translate that easily into Western languages, the number 10 referring to the ward for terminally ill patients in a particular hospital and the rest meaning a sort of optimistic equivalent of a suicide squad, but less a military type do or die operation than a determination to live in the inevitable face of inescapable, imminent death. The translators have settled on a term borrowed from philosopher Martin Heidegger which probably works better in German than in English, in which language it feels incredibly clunky. It refers to the act of living authentically in the face of death, which is very much what this movie is about. Somewhere in the middle of the narrative, Ward 10’s occupants, who feel increasingly like a close-knit family, name themselves (in the English subtitled version) the Ward 10 Fearless Squad, which would perhaps have been a better title.… Read the rest