Movie Review: Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera (2025)

Genre: Heist Action  

Director: Christian Gudegast  

Starring: Gerard Butler, O'Shea Jackson Jr.  

Running Time: 144 minutes  

Synopsis: After stealing a precious Mafia-controlled diamond in Antwerp, master thief Donnie (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) moves to Nice in southern France to plan a complex heist of the seemingly impenetrable World Diamond Centre. He connects with Cleopatra (Evin Ahmad) and her gang of Serb experts to plot the theft. Donnie's nemesis Nick O'Brien (Gerard Butler) of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is disgruntled with his law enforcement career, and shows up in Nice offering to switch sides. The two man have to guard against each other as well as disgruntled team members, while Mafia leaders are keen to get their diamond back.

What Works Well: This sequel tries something new by dialing down the hardcore grittiness of the original and aiming for a smoother, cooler vibe. The picturesque European locations underline the shift away from violence and towards cleverness, and just the one high-energy (electric) car-chase-with-bullets scene makes the final cut. Instead, director and writer Christian Gudegast elevates a tense and mostly quiet heist centrepiece sequence into a highlight, and searches for seeds of camaraderie between Donnie and Nick. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The running time is again unnecessarily flabby, the plot holes are sometimes just astonishing (including Mafia dudes showing in the middle of nowhere for a perfect intervention), and the supporting characters surrounding Donnie and Nick promise much but all fade into irrelevance. Every prominent vehicle is from the Audi/Porsche family, pushing product placement to an extreme.

Key Quote:

Nick (to Donnie): I'm broke, and I'm sick of being the hunter.

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Movie Review: Another Simple Favor (2025)

Genre: Crime Comedy  

Director: Paul Feig  

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Allison Janney, Elizabeth Perkins, Henry Goulding  

Running Time: 120 minutes  

Synopsis: Mommy vlogger and amateur sleuth Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) is struggling with diminishing popularity when she is approached by her conniving nemesis Emily (Blake Lively). Having maneuvered herself out of prison, Emily is gettering married to the wealthy Dante on the Italian island of Capri, and asks Stephanie to be her bridesmaid. With their disgruntled joint ex Sean (Henry Golding) also attending, it is soon apparent Emily is marrying into the mob, and worse is to come when her aunt Linda (Allison Janney) appears and dead bodies start showing up.

What Works Well: On a few occasions, Anna Kendrick threatens to rescue a scene or two with her persona's innate likeability. When they are not garish, some of Blake Lively's outfits are astonishing.

What Does Not Work As Well: A mechanical mess of a sequel with a plastic soul, this is a glossy conviction-free advertorial lacking heart and wit. The profanity-loaded script sinks under overwhelming dismissiveness, including a collective shrug-and-carry-on after every silly death and no one caring to check on a child after his father's bloody demise. The plot is impossible to follow, the intended twists lost within a morass of repugnant characters seeking cheap shock value through ever-more-bizarre sexual adventurism.

Key Quote:

Sean: I would rather shave my balls with a rusty knife than be at this wedding.

Emily: Oh, let me do that for you.

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Movie Review: Goodrich (2024)

Genre: Dramedy  

Director: Hallie Meyers-Shyer  

Starring: Michael Keaton, Mila Kunis, Carmen Ejogo, Andie MacDowell, Kevin Pollack  
Running Time: 111 minutes  

Synopsis: Art gallery owner Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) is shocked when his second wife Naomi checks herself into rehab. Left alone to care for his young twin children, Andy seeks help from his grown daughter from his first marriage Grace (Mila Kunis). Now married and pregnant, Grace is resentful that Andy was an absentee father, but gradually their relationship thaws. With his business struggling and the future of his marriage unclear, Andy has a lot to juggle. 

What Works Well: This is a slightly updated but overall pleasingly old-fashioned character study, one man reassessing life's priorities as long-neglected paternal responsibilities rise to prominence. Andy and Grace navigate predictable but still engaging ups and downs, surrounded by a rich cast of interesting side characters, including a single gay dad (Michael Urie), the daughter (Carmen Ejogo) of a recently deceased artist, and Andy's ex-wife (Andie MacDowell). His perceptive youngest daughter Billie (Vivien Lyra Blair) brightens every scene she's in.

What Does Not Work As Well: The sentimentality needle leans strongly to the right, leading to the queasiness of self-congratulatory excess. While Andy's often self-serving pronouncements (and inability to stop confusing the names of his daughters) hint at his shortcomings, he is never presented as anything other than a decent good guy. Grace's protestations and frustrations about a short-changed childhood are limited to tell, don't show, relegating her passive aggressiveness to the get-over-it classification. 

Key Quote:

Andy: If life isn't kicking your ass, it's not doing its job.

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Movie Review: Blink Twice (2024)

Genre: Psychological Horror  

Director: Zoë Kravitz  
Starring: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, Christian Slater  
Running Time: 102 minutes  

Synopsis: Catering waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) and her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) work a function featuring celebrity technology tycoon Slater King (Channing Tatum). He was embroiled in controversy and took a break from public life, buying an island and getting help from a therapist (Kyle MacLachlan). Frida and Jess are star-struck by Slater and his entourage, and he invites them to a fun getaway. On the island they meet fellow guest and reality TV show star Sarah (Adria Arjona), but what starts as a dream luxurious vacation soon takes a dark turn.

What Works Well: This rich-white-men-are-bad journey to hell is not short on themes. The ripe buffet of topics includes probing a culture obsessed with empty apologies; the mechanisms of sophisticated sexual abuse; the gap between forgiving and forgetting; confronting childhood trauma; celebrity obsession leading none-too-bright women to dangerous adventures in search of drinks-and-drugs good times; and the power of sisterhood. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Poorly paced, frequently bathed in darkness, overly ambitious, and lacking in likeable characters, the plot meanders for too long before finding a purpose. With competing mind-altering substances getting in each other's way, the evil intentions are revealed in defanged minimal impact snippets, courage deserting the project when needed most. The final act defaults to B-movie bloody revenge beats, and given the subject matter, the clumsy attempts at humour are misplaced.

Key Quote:

Slater: Are you having a good time?

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Movie Review: Warfare (2025)

Genre: War Action  

Directors: Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza  

Starring: Will Poulter, Charles Melton  

Running Time: 95 minutes  

Synopsis: The setting is Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006. A Navy SEAL unit takes over a two-storey residential house and sets up a sniper position, keeping close tabs on local insurgent activity. But soon they are spotted and become a target. When attacked, the SEALs have to defend themselves and organize an evacuation.

What Works Well: Based on actual events, co-directors Alex Garland and (former SEAL) Ray Mendoza zoom-in to the operational level and capture stunning intensity, tension, and attention to detail. This is war deglamorized, functioning at the heartbeat, non-heroic, guttural scream-from-pain level. The soldiers' focus on the task at hand is all that matters, represented by real-time problem solving within the machinations of the US military. The drama sustains exhausting anxiety due to serious wounds, disorientation, and the dual imperatives to fight back and coordinate rescues.

What Does Not Work As Well: This is narrative-free and context-free filmmaking essentially mimicking front-line real-time live news reporting. A camera crew embedded with the soldiers would have captured the realism, but the reporters may have provided mission context and asked a few questions about the soldiers' backstories while they were at it.

Key Quote:

Spotter (asking about a potential enemy on a nearby rooftop): Is he peeking or probing?

Sniper: Peeking with serious intent to probe.



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Movie Review: The Assessment (2024)

Genre: Dystopian Drama  

Director: Fleur Fortuné  

Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander, Himesh Patel  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: In a dystopian future, parenthood is strictly controlled due to environmental limitations and mastery of life-prolongation. Couple Mia and Aaryan (Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel) apply to become parents and qualify for an "assessment" to be conducted by stern government worker Virginia (Alicia Vikander). She arrives to live with them for seven days and observe all their behaviours and interactions, but also to test their limits.

What Works Well: The imaginative premise is intriguing, and the plot reveals it's environmental details with practiced patience. Yielding control of the human yearning to procreate is an ultimate manifestation of the destruction unleashed on nature, and the couple's professions reflect the dystopia: Aaryan creates virtual pets for a world no longer able to sustain the real critters; and Mia grows food in living compost. Virginia exposes their readiness (or not) to care for a child, posing universal questions about selflessness and sacrifice, and challenging the tensions hiding behind every couple's facade.

What Does Not Work As Well: The suffocating aesthetic is almost impenetrably muddy, bathing the drama in orange/brown near-darkness. The final few scenes contain a sudden torrent of context-setting revelations. Rather than adding value, all the new information is unquestionably late, including Aaryan graduating from simulating pets, the attempts to round Virginia into a person worth caring about, and Mia's commitment to a journey into the known unknown.

Key Quote:

Mia: What if we're not good enough?

Aaryan: If we're not who is?

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Movie Review: Companion (2025)

Genre: Technology Crime Dark Comedy  

Director: Drew Hancock  

Starring: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid  

Running Time: 97 minutes  

Synopsis: Iris (Sophie Thatcher) is the human-like robot lover of Josh (Jack Quaid). Together they attend a weekend at the remote lakeside home of their friends Sergey (Rupert Friend) and his girlfriend Kat (Megan Suri), with couple Patrick and Eli also in attendance. Josh tries to help Iris overcome her insecurities, but the weekend takes a dark turn when a crime is committed.

What Works Well: Writer and director Drew Hancock asks all the right questions about what it means to be human and the potential opportunities and complications of indistinguishable robots within our midst. The gnarliest dilemmas are revealed during an uncompromising second half, where wicked humour, bloody malevolence, overriding greed, and the essence of romance push the premise to disquieting but logical conclusions. In a delightfully quirky performance, Sophie Thatcher leaks only the most subtle hints about Iris' mechanical innards and software-driven emotions.

What Does Not Work As Well: Almost every problem posed is solved with a sudden demise, and the final act starts to play fast and loose with new rules changing the controls (or lack thereof) on Iris' behaviour.

Key Quote:

Iris: Most of the time it's like... I don't know. It's like there's this thick black cloud covering everything. Like we see the world, but we don't really see the world, you know. We're all just stumbling around directionless. No sense of meaning, no sense of purpose.



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Movie Review: Mountainhead (2025)

Genre: Satirical Dark Comedy  

Director: Jesse Armstrong  

Starring: Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, Ramy Youssef  

Running Time: 109 minutes  

Synopsis: Four wealthy tech industry friends reunite at a lavish mountain-top villa in Utah. Ven (Cory Michael Smith) has just unleashed an AI app enabling deepfakes that are triggering worldwide unrest. Jeff (Ramy Youssef) disapproves of Ven's profiteering attitude and is unwilling to sell him his counter-deepfake application. Souper (Jason Schwartzman) owns the villa but is desperate to make his first billion, while Randall (Steve Carell) is the group's inspiration and guru. Over a couple of days, their grand dreams of global domination reveal schisms that spill into plans for violence.

What Works Well: The premise of tech bros goofing around at the top of a mountain while the world burns beneath them is a promising demonstration of warped thinking, narcissism, and sharp intellects targeting all the wrong objectives. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Writer and director Jesse Armstrong badly flubs the execution, surrendering to theatrical trappings and somehow wasting most of the running time on an unworthy doofus murder plot. Other wayward distractions include a catastrophic addiction to profanities, and long-winded self-obsessed conversations about governing Argentina and achieving transhumanism. It's all supposed to be satirical and ironically dumb in a smart way, but it's just plain tiresome.

Key Quote:

Ven (watching videos of global violence erupting): Not real. Heads don't explode like that.

Souper: Heads don't explode like that?

Ven: No.

Souper: How do heads explode?



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Movie Review: A Working Man (2025)

Genre: Action  

Director: David Ayer  

Starring: Jason Statham, Michael Pena, David Harbour  

Running Time: 116 minutes  

Synopsis: In Chicago, ex-Royal Marine Commando Levon Cade (Jason Statham) is a site foreman working for the family construction business owned by Joe Garcia (Michael Pena). When Joe's college student daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) is kidnapped, Levon reluctantly agrees to find her. He discovers a powerful underworld Russian gang, with Dimi (Maximilian Osinski) as the unhinged scion dabbling in the human sex trade. Jenny fights for her freedom against her captors as Levon works his way through numerous thugs to mount a rescue.

What Works Well: The co-writing team of director David Ayer and Sylvester Stallone deliver as-promised-on-the-label action. Jason Statham injects just enough engagement in the familiar role of the quiet ex-special forces soldier nudged back into action, and the rest flows to familiar beats of unrealistic but well-staged action, sardonic humour, and oily baddies hissing threats and meeting their demise to a soundtrack of quips. Jenny as the victim is provided with spunk, and Dimi makes for an effectively despicable but well-dressed villain.  

What Does Not Work As Well: From opening to closing credits, this is nothing if not predictable, complete with Levon's oh-so-familiar broken marriage and attempts to be a good dad to his young daughter, and the ex-army buddy (David Harbour) with a stash of weaponry that could equip a robust militia. The more serious dialogue exchanges are often painfully inept.

Key Quote:

Levon: Let's play.



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Movie Review: Babygirl (2024)

Genre: Erotic Drama  

Director: Halina Reign  
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas, Harris Dickinson  
Running Time: 115 minutes  

Synopsis: Romy (Nicole Kidman) is the CEO of a robotics company. She is interested in being sexually submissive but is not satisfied by husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas). Romy spots cocky new intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson) at her company, and he selects her as his mentor. Soon they are engaged in a steamy affair despite the risk of negative consequences for both.

What Works Well: Nicole Kidman throws herself into the role, and her sex scenes with Harris Dickinson embellish eroticism with a welcome level of hesitant awkwardness. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Older woman can own their sexuality without being painfully dumb. Director Halina Reign's clunky script is littered with foundational cracks, starting with Romy's inability to think on her feet or articulate any non-scripted thought. In the real word her skills would barely qualify her for a janitorial job, let alone a CEO position. And in any functioning office, Samuel's preening toy boy would have been thrown out on his ear before the lunch hour of his first day. Elsewhere, much of Romy's quest for kinky sexual fulfilment gets bogged down in meandering repetitive scenes before escaping into an implausible faux triumphal ending. 

Key Quote:

Samuel (to Romy): I think I have power over you. Cos I could make one phone call and you would lose everything. Does that turn you on when I say that?

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