Hrkn to .. Share Radio's Film Review

James Cameron-Wilson thought he was in for a treat with #2 Supergirl, starring Milly Alcock. But it is disappointingly tedious, with lots of fighting and killing and a surprising 12A certificate, given that it deals with alcoholism and sex trafficking. #27 Blue Heron, a Canadian film about childhood trauma, is highly regarded by some. But James found it self-indulgent, abtruse and unfathomable. He...

James Cameron-Wilson says that, despite the heatwave, box office was up 72%, thanks to #1 Toy Story 5. Maintaining the franchise's fantastic quality, it is vastly amusing but also perhaps the most moving of the films. With a plot about the damage screens are doing to children, it has a joyful score, new characters and a stellar voice cast. At #12 is Virginia Woolf's Night & Day, with Haley Bennett...

James Cameron-Wilson was intrigued but not overly excited by #1 Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg's first sci-fi film since Ready Player One. Emily Blunt plays a TV meteorologist dreaming of better things who shows signs of ESP and can suddenly speak foreign languages. A spiritual companion to Close Encounters, it gets ever weirder, taking in AI, religion, quantum physics and more, but is essential...

James Cameron-Wilson found #1, the horror spoof Scary Movie shouty and exhausting, emerging despairing for humanity. The brief trailer, however, is quite funny. #13 Savage House feels like a Jacobean tragedy but is an original, supposedly a satire on our own times. Starring Richard E. Grant and Claire Foy, it's supposedly a black comedy but the tone left James depressed. It is well made, with exce...

James Cameron-Wilson is rather mystified by the success of #1 Backrooms, with Chewitel Ejiofor. A horror film based on a web series, it baffled James, unaware of its precedents but people are loving it. James was much more taken with #9 Power Ballad with Paul Rudd. Written and directed by John Carney, it's even better than his earlier films such as Once and Sing Street. Peopled with interesting ch...

After watching #1 Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, James Cameron-Wilson says he's exhausted by all these fantasy franchises. The effects are impressive but the plot seems redundant and he was extremely bored. Not so with #8 Finding Emily, the best romcom he has seen in quite some time. Produced by the team behind Love Actually and Bridget Jones, it's about a student trying to find a girl he c...

James Cameron-Wilson urges us to see #7 The Christophers, Steven Soderbergh's virtual two-hander with Ian McKellan and Michaela Coel. About the children of a famous painter trying to get a forger to finish some of their father's canvasses, it benefits from superb acting and a magnificently witty script. Although a theatrical experience, it is a thing of beguiling beauty and is very funny. At #64 i...

James Cameron-Wilson finds #3 The Sheep Detectives a bit of a curate's egg. An anthropomorphic fantasy, families will take the astonishingly animated sheep to their hearts in a plot worth of Agatha Christie but the acting is annoyingly hammy. Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard & Soft is a concert film directed by James Cameron. Often hard to hear the lyrics, it is perhaps one for her fans. Out on Blu-Ray...

James Cameron-Wilson says that #1 The Devil Wears Prada 2 has taken 85% of the first film's total in just 3 days. Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway have reunited, along with much of the behind-the-camera talent. It's a formulaic and superficial pleasure but has plenty of laughs. James thinks Primavera, about the composer Vivaldi, is one of the best films of the year: it is...

James Cameron-Wilson says that Michael's £11.5m opening was 68% of the weekend take. It's the biggest opening for a musical biopic but, under Antoine Fuqua's direction, it's a hagiography telling only half of the Michael Jackson story. With his nephew in the starring role and six producers having the surname Jackson, perhaps that's not surprising. Overly affectionate, it doesn't feel real but that...

Not a great week. James Cameron-Wilson found Lee Cronin’s 'The Mummy', #4, an OTT, grotesque blend of Egyptian frolics and Exorcist-like demonic possession, genuinely unpleasant. Not much better was the Kander & Ebb musical 'Kiss of the Spider Woman', #51, a downer set in a prison cell with Jennifer Lopez as the Spider Woman, at least in the fanciful dreams of Luis, an imprisoned homosexual in 198...

James Cameron-Wilson found the romcom #7 You, Me & Tuscany implausible, clichéd and derivative dross. However, he adored #9 California Schemin', a true story directed by James McAvoy about a pair of Scottish wannabe rappers who pretend to be American to get noticed. Told with cinematic verve and with great performances, it's an extraordinary story which reminded him of Trainspotting. James found K...

James Cameron-Wilson says box office has jumped 113% with the release of Super Mario Galaxy Movie but he opted to go to #3 The Drama, with Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. It's a comedy of manners which is grown up, thought-provoking and enormously funny in a dark way, leading to an unusual post-movie discussion. James also caught #123 Two Women, a French-Canadian comedy of quiet suburban desperation...

James Cameron-Wilson found #2, the Enid Blyton fantasy The Magic Faraway Tree, to be a charmless, farcical misfire. With Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield, it is full of shouty overacting, with music numbers crammed in and is a wasted opportunity. #7 They Will Kill You is a grotesque horror film about a New York highrise which is a temple to Satan. It's another with a surprising 15 certificate. Amazo...

James Cameron-Wilson reports box office up 102% with #1 the Ryan Gosling sci-fi film Project Hail Mary. From the writers of The Martian, he plays a science teacher who wakes up from a coma in space. Like The Martian largely a one-person film, it is great fun early on but becomes self-indulgent, barmy and sentimental, with the trailer giving away a very late plot point. James was even less keen on...

James Cameron-Wilson laments box office down 32%. #2 Reminders of Him, a Colleen Hoover adaptation, is complete trash and yet, predictable though it is, it has relatable characters and is hard to dislike. #3 How to Make a Killing is an adaptation of the famous Ealing comedy, Kind Hearts and Coronets. Sadly, this lacks the wit or appeal of the original and is to be avoided at all cost. As ever, Jam...

James Cameron-Wilson is delighted by #1 Hoppers from Pixar. A sci-fi film with a theme of connectivity to the natural world, it's vastly entertaining and imaginative, with plenty of comic business, even if it becomes a bit complicated at times. #4 is The Bride!, written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. It's the nearest any Frankenstein adaptation has come to being a romcom. Starring Christian Ba...

James Cameron-Wilson is not a fan of #1 Scream 7, despite the return of Neve Campbell. He didn't care for the characters, found the film nasty and thought it made no sense. He was more positive about The Testament of Ann Lee, with Amanda Seyfried giving a career-best performance as the founder of the Shaker movement with an excellent Mancunian accent. It's a bonkers film, being a musical biopic on...

James Cameron-Wilson reports that box office is down 32%, though Wuthering Heights is still #1. #6 is the unnerving but funny horror Cold Storage. Witty, in the mould of Tremors, this gruesome tale of a deadly fungus has all the makings of a cult classic, managing the tricky balance between gross-out horror and laugh-out-loud comedy. At #10 is Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, a sci-fi twist on Grou...

James Cameron-Wilson says that #1 Wuthering Heights, written and directed by Saltburn's Emerald Fennell, is not a close adaptation of the novel and has attracted criticism for casting Jacob Elordi alongside Margot Robbie. However, it is thoroughly entertaining, has a great score and production design and is also quite funny. He found it a cinematic delight and feels Fennell is a national treasure....

James Cameron-Wilson says that #1 Sam Raimi's Send Help, with Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien, the tale of a work couple being stranded on a desert island, seems overfamiliar. Blending comedy and thrills, he enjoyed it in a schlocky way. #19 is 100 Nights of Hero, a bonkers movie based on a graphic novel with Richard E. Grant and Felicity Jones. Set in a parallel, colour-blind world it's about st...

James Cameron-Wilson says the bump up of Hamnet to #1 in the charts shows the important of award nominations. The latest Jason Statham thriller, Shelter, is #3. He's a recluse living in a lighthouse whose past comes back to bite him when he rescues a girl from the sea. It's the same old, same old, but done slightly better than usual. #10 Is This Thing On, about a stand-up comic's marriage with Wil...

James Cameron-Wilson can't recall another week where the top six UK films are all holdovers, with The Housemaid returning to #1. #9 is the ironically-titled Mercy with Chris Pratt a man who has 90 minutes to convince an AI judge that he didn't kill his wife. Set in real time, it is mechanical but James was drawn in by its moral arguments. #13 is the adaptation of best-seller H is for Hawk with a b...

James Cameron-Wilson says that #1 28 Years Later – The Bone Temple deserves its 18 certificate as you will need a strong constitution. Starring Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell, it’s hard to watch but is a gripping horror film with style, beauty and terrific dialogue. #7 Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser, is set in Japan and directed by the Japanese Hikari. It’s an odd but enthralling story w...

James Cameron-Wilson is impressed that The Housemaid has risen to the top spot. #2 is the quintessentially British movie Hamnet, despite Irish leads (Paul Mescal & Jessie Buckley) and Chinese writer-director Chloé Zhao. It's a slow burn but builds to a highly emotional climax. James loved it to within an inch of its brocade. On Amazon Prime, he was impressed by The Tank, a German film about a Tige...