Resident Evil (2026): Review
9/10
In the interests of honesty I've been a massive fan of the Capcom Resident Evil video game franchise for decades. Playing since the original release on PlayStation, I’ve worked my through all of the numbered entries in the mainline game series and most of the spin off titles (including ones I wish I hadn’t like Gun Survivor or Gaiden) but since the original Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil film in 2002, I’ve avoided the cinematic releases like the zombie plague. Despite their financial success they were simply bad films which leaned towards over the top, po-faced nonsense without ever really capturing the game’s appeal. But after the massive success of Barbarian (2022) and the Oscar winning Weapons (2025), Zach Cregger has been chosen to reboot the franchise. A fan of the games, Cregger adapted what he began as an original monster movie into a story set during the events of Resident Evil 2 and together with co-writer Shay Hatten has produced what is easily the best adaptation of a video game.
Reviews:
Mayday (2026) Review:
7/10
Mayday continues Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley’s run of great films that don't find the viewership they deserve. Their new film is a throwback buddy movie that is far more cinematic and carefully constructed than its unceremonious streaming service release would suggest. Despite the formulaic and deliberately retro nature of the film, it's almost shockingly good. A pleasant low stakes surprise, bolstered massively by Kenneth Branagh’s unlikely success as an action movie star.
The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) Review:
9/10
Yasujiro Ozu’s The Flavour of Green Tea over Rice is about the mundane, everyday resentments that can build up over the course of a marriage. In how these small squabbles become toxic and malignant if not properly addressed and dealt with. Despite the fissures in their relationship, you genuinely hope for reconciliation because it’s difficult not to genuinely care about these characters. This bittersweet, at times hilarious comedy ranks amongst Ozu’s finest films.
Coyote vs. Acme (2026) Review:
8/10
Inspired by a New Yorker article by Ian Frazier, the film is set in a world similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) in which humans and Looney Tunes cartoon characters live together, semi-harmoniously. The animated folk obey their own elastic reality and malleable physicality, unburdened by the limited mortality of their human counterparts. After a fan campaign and initial interest from Paramount and Netflix, the film was eventually released by Ketchup Entertainment who had also distributed the excellent Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up (2024), another Looney Tunes film that Warner saw fit not to release.
In Depth: The Hit
How will you face your own death? Will you bravely accept your fate or do everything you can to cling onto life. No matter how you feel now there's truly no way of knowing until the time comes. That's really the central premise of Stephen Frears’ The Hit (1984). Overlooked and underappreciated on release especially in its native England where it didn't receive a theatrical release (and still doesn’t have a UK physical release). It has since developed a devoted following, cited as a favourite by Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan and Bill Hader it deals with its subject matter with maturity and a wry humour.
Recommendations:
Rom-com Recommendations:
The appeal of Romantic Comedies is difficult to quantify with (just like real attraction) so much of what makes them work being subject to personal preference. These films are rom-coms that we feel have done what they’ve set out to do, with great chemistry between the leads and sharp, funny scripts. They run the gamut between more fairly chaste offerings and more steamy encounters so you should find something that you’ll enjoy.
Action films Recommendations:
They’re often derided for their lack of substance or narrative weight but there’s few cinema experiences more enjoyable than a good action film for pure escapism and mindless thrills. It’s a genre that has existed since the dawn of cinema and has been effectively hybridised with most genres. Admittedly it’s often weighed down by utter dreck (such as Steven Seagal’s entire filmography) so it’s sometimes difficult to find the diamonds in the rough. Here are our recommendations that we hope gives a good overview of what the genre has to offer, though we truly struggled to condense our favourites for the list.
Family Films (Older Kids 7+) Recommendations:
There’s so much vying for children’s attention that it can be difficult to get them to sit and engage with movie night. These are films that our kids have loved, one’s they’ve returned to and have sparked an interested, drawn them in or just made them laugh the most. We’ve got a mix of films for different moods and from different mediums, although as always with modern kids films animation is probably over represented. A few of these we’ve seen countless times and if we’re still willing to recommend them you know they’re good.
The on going Film List, which we started back in 2018 that inspired our website:
2018
1. Mindhorn (2016) 7/10
2. Free Fire (2016) 7/10
3. Kong: Skull Island (2017) 3/10
4. Miami Vice (2006) 6/10
5. Bad Moms (2016) 4/10
6. Runaway Train (1985) 8/10
7. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) 4/10
8. Groundhog Day (1993) 8/10
9. Casino Royale (20006) 6/10