Movie Reviews

Pretty Lethal is exactly the kind of movie that sounds like a massive fever dream when you explain it to your friends. Five competitive ballerinas get stranded at a creepy inn in the woods and have to fight their way through a ruthless gang of criminals using their dance skills. Throw in Uma Thurman as a disgruntled former ballet prodigy turned crime boss, and you should have an absolute masterpiece of chaotic cinema. Unfortunately, this recent Amazon Prime release lands squarely in the middle of the road. It earns a very solid three stars.

First, let us talk about the good stuff. The core cast brings a ton of energy to the screen. Lana Condor is hilarious and easily steals every single scene she is in. Maddie Ziegler and the rest of the troupe make the choreography look incredibly convincing. When the girls finally tape razor blades to their fingers and weaponize their pointe shoes, the action sequences are surprisingly brutal and genuinely entertaining. The director, Vicky Jewson, clearly knows how to shoot a dynamic fight scene. You can feel the influence of modern action thrillers throughout the whole runtime.

However, the film struggles to maintain a consistent pace. At barely ninety minutes long, the story rushes through character development. We barely get to know these dancers beyond their basic surface traits before the blood starts spilling everywhere. The script is surprisingly thin, relying heavily on tired genre cliches that feel a bit outdated for 2026. Then there is Uma Thurman. She is an absolute legend and clearly understands the campy assignment, but the movie takes itself a little too seriously at times, preventing her from going completely over the edge into iconic villain territory.

In the end, Pretty Lethal is a fun weekend watch if you want to switch off your brain and enjoy some creative combat. It has excellent moments of suspense and some really satisfying takedowns. Just do not expect a deeply layered story or complex character arcs. It is a perfectly average popcorn flick that promises wild fun but only delivers on about half of it.

For over ten years Tommy Shelby and his family ruled our television screens with sharp caps, iconic slow motion walks, and brilliant storytelling. Naturally expectations for The Immortal Man were incredibly high. Fans waited a very long time for this movie to finally continue the grand story. But while the film delivers a beautiful visual spectacle, it ultimately falls short of the massive standards set by the original television series.

Let us start with the positives. Cillian Murphy steps back into the character of Tommy Shelby without missing a single beat. His performance remains as magnetic, weary, and haunted as ever before. The jump to a feature film gives the creators a chance to spend a huge budget and it absolutely shows. The cinematography is dark, gorgeous, and sweeping. If you are looking for stunning visuals and the familiar gritty atmosphere of the series combined with a much grander cinematic scale, the movie certainly delivers on its aesthetic promises.

However the transition from a long television season to a short movie comes with a heavy cost. What made the television show a masterpiece was its breathing room. The series took its time building complex political traps, deep character betrayals, and intense tension over many episodes. In this new streaming movie everything feels entirely rushed. The intricate chess matches Tommy usually plays are quickly replaced by fast plot resolutions and standard action scenes.

Barry Keoghan and Rebecca Ferguson brings fresh energy but the script rarely gives them the space to become as iconic or menacing as past rivals. We simply do not get enough time to truly connect with their motivations or understand their deeper goals. The plot moves so incredibly fast from one crisis to the next that the emotional weight gets completely lost in the shuffle. That emotional depth was always a true trademark of the series and its absence is very noticeable here.

The Immortal Man is a decent and stylish gangster movie but it is merely an average story for this specific fictional universe. It feels less like a grand conclusion and more like an epilogue that tries to pack way too much into too little time. Fans will definitely enjoy seeing Tommy walk through the smoke and fire one more time on their screens at home. But if you wanted the same brilliant storytelling that made the show a modern classic you might finish watching on your couch feeling quite disappointed.

When you watch a movie about pirates, you usually expect massive ship battles and sweeping adventures. The Bluff completely flips that expectation by delivering something that feels much more like a violent home invasion thriller set on a tropical island. Directed by Frank E Flowers, stars Priyanka Chopra as a former pirate forced back into a life of violence. While the movie delivers heavily on the action front, it unfortunately struggles to find a truly compelling emotional core to hold it all together.

The story drops us into the gorgeous Cayman Islands in the nineteenth century. We meet Ercell Bodden, played by Chopra, who has buried her bloody past to live a quiet life with her husband and young son. Her peaceful existence is violently shattered when her old pirate captain, played by Karl Urban, tracks her down to exact revenge and reclaim stolen gold. The basic premise is incredibly straightforward and completely formulaic. You will likely predict every single plot twist from a mile away. The movie runs for a brisk one hundred and one minutes, which means it moves very quickly but leaves almost no room for actual character development.

What the film lacks in depth, it tries to make up for in sheer brutality. Be warned that this is a very hard R rated movie with a completely unapologetic approach to violence. The action sequences are highly visceral, incredibly bloody, and frequently shocking. Priyanka Chopra absolutely anchors the entire film with her intense physical performance. She is incredibly convincing as a desperate mother turning back into a lethal killer to protect her family. Watching her carve through heavily armed men using swords, clever traps, and whatever she can find is undeniably entertaining. She brings a specific raw ferocity to the screen that successfully keeps you invested even when the actual script falters.

The supporting cast feels largely wasted by the rushed narrative. Karl Urban is usually a fantastic screen villain, but his Captain Connor is given very little to do here beyond looking menacing and aggressively shouting orders at his crew. The deep history between Ercell and Connor is briefly hinted at but never fully explored, which unfortunately robs their final confrontation of any real emotional weight. The cinematography is genuinely beautiful, perfectly capturing the lush tropical island scenery and sharply contrasting it with the gritty violence, but pretty visuals cannot entirely mask a very thin screenplay.

Ultimately, The Bluff is exactly what it appears to be. It is a highly polished and incredibly violent popcorn movie that relies entirely on the screen presence of its lead actress. If you are looking for a complex period drama, you will be deeply disappointed. However, if you want to turn your brain off for an evening and watch Priyanka Chopra take down a bunch of pirates, it is a perfectly acceptable and entertaining weekend watch.

Paramount Plus has delivered a sharp and bingeable adaptation of Beth O’Leary’s best selling novel with the release of the six part series The Road Trip. Moving the action from the rainy roads of England to the sun drenched landscapes of Spain, the production successfully avoids the typical fluffy romantic comedy traps. Instead, it offers a grounded and occasionally spiky exploration of why relationships fail and whether they are truly worth reviving. It is a high quality series that feels modern and relatable, capturing the specific tension of being forced into close quarters with people from your past.

The story kicks off with a literal bang when Addie and her sister Deb nearly collide with a Porsche on their way to a friend’s wedding. In a twist of fate, the car belongs to Addie’s ex boyfriend Dylan and his cynical best friend Marcus. With the luxury car totaled, the group-including a socially awkward stranger named Rodney, is forced to share a creaky and cramped minivan for a thousand mile journey across the country. This setup establishes the central theme of the claustrophobia of history, as the narrative flits between their past summer romance in a Spanish villa and the tense, awkward reality of their current situation.

The performances are the series' strongest asset, with Emma Appleton and Laurie Davidson displaying a natural magnetism that makes their past connection feel real and their current friction painful. Adding a touch of domestic chaos and humor to the stifling heat of the van is Pickles the cat. While a small detail, the inclusion of Pickles serves as a clever emotional anchor, acting as a living reminder of the shared life and future that Addie and Dylan once envisioned together. David Jonsson also provides a necessary edge as Marcus, while Rodney’s presence adds a layer of broad comedy that keeps the tone from becoming too heavy or overly dramatic.

While the narrative occasionally hits a few pacing issues in the middle episodes where the flashback structure feels a bit repetitive, the final payoff at the wedding is rewarding and honest. The Road Trip is a solid and decent watch that handles the right person at the wrong time trope with more maturity than most shows in this genre. It is an easy, engaging binge that prioritizes character growth and atmosphere, making it a perfect pick for anyone who enjoys a story about the messiness of first loves and the hope for second chances.

If you enjoyed the high-stakes groundedness of the first Greenland, the sequel arrives on OTT platforms with a very different energy. While the original was a race against time, Greenland 2: Migration is a slow-burn survival odyssey. Directed once again by Ric Roman Waugh, it picks up five years after the Garrity family found safety in their bunker, forcing them back out into a world that is shattered, irradiated, and arguably more dangerous than the comet itself.

The Journey

The story follows John (Gerard Butler), Allison (Morena Baccarin), and their now-teenage son Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis) as they trek across a decimated European landscape toward a rumored sanctuary in the south of France. Butler remains the ultimate "everyman" hero, trading his technical engineer hat for one of a weary protector. His performance is the anchor here, portraying a father who is physically and mentally exhausted by five years of underground living.

Atmosphere vs. Logic

The film excels in world-building. The desolate, gray-toned vistas of a frozen Europe are visually striking and create a persistent sense of dread. However, the script by Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling feels more like a series of loosely connected hurdles than a cohesive narrative. From rickety ladder bridges across the English Channel to random skirmishes with bandits, some sequences feel designed purely for artificial tension. There are also notable logic gaps, such as Nathan’s diabetes being largely sidelined, that might irritate fans of the first film’s meticulous attention to detail.

Final Verdict

At 98 minutes, it’s a tight, fast-paced watch that never feels boring. It lacks the emotional punch and novelty of its predecessor, but as a "decent watch" for a quiet night in, it does the job. It’s a brawny, bleak, and occasionally corny survival flick that works best if you don’t overthink the science.