Movie Review: Apex (2026)

Genre: Survival Action Thriller  

Director: Baltasar Kormákur  

Starring: Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton, Eric Bana  

Running Time: 95 minutes  

Synopsis: Adventurer Sasha (Charlize Theron) loses her mentor Tommy (Eric Bana) in a rock climbing mishap in Norway. Five months later, a still-grieving Sasha enters a remote Australian park for a solo kayaking adventure. After being warned that hikers frequently disappear in the area, she tangles with a group of uncouth hunters and meets helpful local Ben (Taron Egerton). But deep in the park and on her own, Sasha's next encounter with Ben is less friendly, and she is plunged into a desperate quest for survival in unforgiving terrain. 

What Works Well: The unrelenting fight-for-life mixes elements from Deliverance and The River Wild, and features a constant sequence of thrills, narrow escapes, and breathless chases. Director Baltasar Kormákur maintains brisk pacing, while glorious cinematography by Lawrence Sher captures both natural beauty and epic literal cliff-hangers. Charlize Theron (who also co-produced) stays within herself as a stoic outdoor adventurer, and Taron Egerton ensures Ben is a memorably unhinged villain.

What Does Not Work As Well: Most of the plot points are recycled from previous movies, and more background character texture would have helped to round both Ben and Sasha into more than just hunter and hunted. Some of the close-quarters narrow escape sequences are prolonged to the point of exhaustion.

Key Quote:

Park Ranger (to Sasha): You're going in alone? I wouldn't recommend it.

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Movie Review: She Rides Shotgun (2025)

Genre: Crime Drama Thriller  

Director: Nick Rowland  

Starring: Taron Egerton, Ana Sophia Heger, Rob Yang, John Carroll Lynch  

Running Time: 120 minutes  

Synopsis: In rural New Mexico, former drug dealer and reformed white supremacist Nate (Taron Egerton) has just been released from jail. The Aryan Steel gang already has a price on his head for the murder of one of their members behind bars. Nate scoops up his 10-year-old daughter Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) and they go on the run, while Detective John Park (Rob Yang) is intrigued by the possibility of using Nate to lure Aryan Steel leader Houser (John Carroll Lynch) into the open.

What Works Well: This adaptation of a Jordan Harper novel nurtures an intense yet tender father-daughter drama within a gritty pursuit story, and benefits from two immense central performances. Taron Egerton finds a career highlight as a man unable to escape the shadows of his past, and Ana Sophia Heger is a revelation as his daughter. She allows Polly to register the complexities of awakening to courage within an unforgiving world, while suffering from loss, wracked by insecurity, longing for a relationship with her father, but clearly seeing the danger surrounding him. Director Nick Rowland delivers brisk pacing, and in the conniving Detective John Park and uncompromising white supremacist leader Houser, surrounds the protagonists with memorable secondary characters.

What Does Not Work As Well: The strong focus on Nate's relationship with Polly short-changes some of the broader narrative drivers, including Nate's background, Hauser's organization, and Park's plotting.

Key Quote:

(Repeated line:) This is Steel country.

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Movie Review: Carry-On (2024)

Genre: Thriller  

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra  

Starring: Taron Egerton, Sofia Carson, Jason Bateman, Danielle Deadwyler  

Running Time: 119 minutes  

Synopsis: Ethan (Taron Egerton) lost all career ambition when he was rejected by the police academy, and is now satisfied with a do-minimum attitude as a Los Angeles airport security agent. While operating a luggage screening machine, he is contacted through an earpiece by "the Traveler" (Jason Bateman), who threatens to harm Ethan's pregnant wife Nora (Sofia Carson) unless a carry-on bag containing a biological weapon is allowed onto a departing plane. Ethan has to find a way to save Nora and the passengers from harm, while FBI Agent Elena (Danielle Deadwyler) rushes to investigate.

What Works Well: The production values are glossy, and the action maintains tension with breathless pacing. Jason Bateman is effective in an atypical villainous role, and the bustling setting around the airport security screening area provides a dynamic backdrop.

What Does Not Work As Well: The flimsy premise does not deserve anywhere near two hours of treatment, and the material is stretched with ever increasing doses of incredulity. The plot starts on the shaky foundation of a well-resourced but barely explained conspiracy bottlenecked by one scanning machine, but the plot holes only get larger as the meek Ethan activates his inner John McClane. In an unfortunate role, Danielle Deadwyler runs around issuing orders but is bamboozled by others at every turn.

Key Quote:

Traveler (to Ethan): All you have to do... is nothing.



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Movie Review: Eddie The Eagle (2015)

Genre: Biographical Sports Drama  

Director: Dexter Fletcher  

Starring: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Christopher Walken  

Running Time: 106 minutes  

Synopsis: Despite physical ailments and no natural talent, Englishman Michael "Eddie" Edwards (Taron Egerton) grows up dreaming of becoming an Olympic athlete. His mother is sympathetic, but his blue collar father scoffs at his ambition. With the 1988 Calgary winter games looming, Eddie stumbles upon ski jumping and realizes Britain has no athletes in the sport. He relocates to a training facility in Germany, where he encounters the scorn of other jumpers, but also meets former US Olympian Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), who never fulfilled his potential but may now be able to coach Eddie.

What Works Well: This is a traditional and impossible-to-dislike feel-good sports biography, celebrating the spirit of participation and the journey of determination as much more important than results. Taron Egerton brings a naive likeability to the role of Eddie, and director Dexter Fletcher deploys self-deprecating humour to acknowledge the more bizarre aspects of an unlikely quest. The ski jumping scenes convey the dramatic thrill of a gravity-defying sport. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The complete absence of any original or unexpected content underlines the embrace of safe and old-fashioned storytelling, with Hugh Jackman exceptionally familiar as a natural talent who swerved away from success and into the bottle. A faux triumphant music score does not help, nor does the gnawing sense that the celebration of loophole-exploiting mediocrity is simply undeserved pomp.

Conclusion: The spirit of an eagle, the achievements of a warbler.



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Movie Review: Rocketman (2019)

A musical biographical drama with fantasy elements, Rocketman captures Elton John's artistry and the gap between massive public acclaim and dark personal demons.

Dressed in an outlandish devil/angel combo performance outfit, Elton John (Taron Egerton) enters a treatment centre therapy group and admits to being an alcoholic and addicted to drugs, sex and shopping. In flashback Reggie Dwight's life story is revealed, starting with a childhood in England where he felt unloved by his cold father Stanley (Steven Mackintosh) and disinterested mother Sheila (Bryce Dallas Howard), but supported by grandmother Ivy (Gemma Jones).

Reggie's talent on the piano grants him entry to the Royal Academy of Music, and he eventually backs-up touring artists from the US. He adopts the name Elton John and gradually accepts he is gay. A record company executive connects Elton with lyricist Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), and their music writing partnership leads to unimagined global success. John starts a romance with business manager John Reid (Richard Madden), but as the singer desperately searches for true love and personal fulfillment, he falls into a miserable life of empty excess.

On-stage flamboyance is a cloak to hide deep-seated insecurity, and untold riches, fame, fortune and debauchery are no replacement for true love. Such is the story Sir Elton John wants to tell, and he gets to shape his legacy as the film's executive producer. Written by Lee Hall and directed by Dexter Fletcher, Rocketman is a vivid biography using John's music in no particular sequence to underline his emotional state of mind at key milestones, and adding effective fantasy elements to convey the insanity of the pop star life.

Taron Egerton takes on both acting and singing duties, and is sparkling in both contexts. Fletcher keeps the songs short and in service of the plot, and the editing is rational and coherent, with some excellent long and fluid takes to capture the dynamism of the accompanying dancers and crowds.

In adopting the eternal search for love and belonging as a central theme, Hall does not hold back in conveying John's parents as a nightmare of uncomfortable incompatibility with a child's need for affection. And so Elton goes looking for partners of either sex to fill the gap in his soul. Taupin emerges as his spiritual brother and creative partner, while Reid is the passionate but manipulative devil-lover in a business suit offering false fondness.

Meanwhile Elton's vulnerability goes hiding behind increasingly extravagant outfits, the performer wowing the crowd on the outside as he privately sinks deeper into despair.

Once John performs his first Los Angeles show Rocketman zooms quickly through the artist's upward trajectory, and then spends a hefty portion of its two hours wallowing in the unhappy and filthy rich life consumed by the decadence of sex, drugs, and booze. Fletcher almost trips towards self-pitying drama, but Taupin's timely interventions in John's life always help move things along towards more promising outcomes.

Rocketman chronicles the quest for love on and off the stage, a journey where misery accompanied artistic triumph on a most tempestuous journey.

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