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Cineworld plans to close 25% of its cinemas and James Cameron-Wilson says box office is down 26%, though Inside Out 2 is riding high with £40.1m, making it the biggest hit of 2024. Prequel A Quiet Place: Day One is #2 but, while accomplished and watchable, it doesn't have the coiled tension of the first two films. Despite loving films of Yorgos Lanthimos like The Favourite and Poor Things, James w...

With the box office relatively robust, despite the warmer weather, James Cameron-Wilson saw Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy in #2 The Bikeriders, taking £1.1m. Despite its great look and some fine acting, he found it a poseurfest that doesn't knit together and lacks real characters. He was impressed by #10 Something in the Water. Although it only took £120,000, this terrific British-made Carribean-set s...

James Cameron-Wilson reports UK box office up a remarkable 100%, thanks to the new #1 Inside Out 2, which took £11.3m. That's the biggest opening of the year and the 3rd biggest UK opening for an animated film. Pixar have done it again with an enjoyable adventure which is both exciting and funny. On Netflix, Glen Powell has a star-making turn in Richard Linklater's Hit Man, a romcom supposedly bas...

James Cameron-Wilson says the box office is only up 10% with new #1 Bad Boys: Ride or Die picking up almost £4m. James found this sequel, 29 years after the original, profane, violent, meaningless and formulaic. #6 The Watched is a cabin-in-the-woods horror written and directed by Ishana Shyamalan, daughter of M Night. But it turns out to be cliched, dreary and often nonsensical. Simon recommended...

James Cameron-Wilson reports that the charming IF has regained the #1 spot at the UK box office. He was less than impressed by #8 Sting, a horror film about a spider which is a dumb and ridiculous sub-Alien ripoff. Although it is familiar and feels like a video game jammed on fast forward, he found the Jennifer Lopez sci-fi romp Atlas on Netflix to be reasonable popcorn entertainment. He was even...

James Cameron-Wilson cheers UK box office up 28%, thanks to the weather. But he regrets the agony of seeing #1 Garfield which is crass, loud & witless, celebrating violence and overeating. He found Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga better than Fury Road, having more dramatic bite and a welcome humanity although, given the near-torture porn content, he was surprised at the 15 certificate. Although it hasn't...

James Cameron-Wilson recommends IF, the new #1 in a UK box office +16% on the previous week. Starring Ryan Reynolds, this family film is sentimental but smart, is beautifully executed by some famous names behind the camera and is both touching and funny. James found the first part of a trilogy prequel, The Strangers: Part One, to be clichéd and far-fetched beyond belief and yet the camerawork of d...

James Cameron-Wilson laments the UK box office, down 32% because of the sunny weather. It meant Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes only took £3.8m. Despite his loneliness in the cinema, James found it a miraculous piece of cinematic magic; clever, multi-layered, exciting and often funny, with amazing production design. On Netflix, he was disappointed by In the Land of Saints & Sinners, a plodding t...

James Cameron-Wilson takes Simon Rose through the UK box office chart, up 27% on the week. New #1 is The Fall Guy about a stunt man. But James found Ryan Gosling smug and obtruse and Emily Blunt irritating in a noisy & cheesy film that, while possessing some impressive action scenes, makes little sense. At #6 is boring low-budget horror Tarot, which is one star all the way. James, however, did enj...

James Cameron-Wilson reports on a becalmed box office. New #1 is the tennis drama Challengers with Zendaya. Although a tennis fan, James became irritated by the cinematic pyrotechnics which got in the way of the drama. He was amazed to see the period-set black and white Italian drama There's Still Tomorrow – Italy's top film last year – released in 142 cinemas. An homage to neo-realist post-war It...

With no big new releases, James Cameron-Wilson explains that the UK box office is down 36%, with Back to Black still #1. At #5 is horror film Abigail about a kidnapped ballerina. Extremely gory, it is also increasingly clichéd. James was impressed by Sometimes I Think About Dying at #19, a minimalist drama in which Daisy Ridley is a shy loner. Nuanced, it makes the audience work but is moving and...

James Cameron-Wilson welcomes a 7% kick in the box office. #1 is Sam Taylor-Johnson's Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black with Marisa Abela giving a stunning performance, celebrating her talent while not shying from depicting the reality of addiction. Although James rarely cries in movies, he was exceptionally moved by the film and loved it. He was also impressed by #2 Civil War, a dystopian USA-se...

James Cameron-Wilson reports on a box office down 36%, with blockbusters maintaining the four top spots. Dev Patel's directorial debut Monkey Man comes in at #5, a violent film about a hustler with a score to settle. Although it has kinetic energy, it lacks humanity and is derivative and wearisome. Worse is The First Omen at #6. Incredibly similar to the plot of Immaculate, it's a horror film with...

James Cameron-Wilson reports box office up another 65% with Kung Fu Panda 4 #1 with over £5m. The animation is superb and the jokes were just good enough to keep James awake. #2 is Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire with £4.1m has amazing CGI and decent human performances from the likes of Rebecca Hall but James wasn't overimpressed with this, the 38th Godzilla film. He found #6 Mothers' Instinct wit...

James Cameron-Wilson says that #1 Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the sort of film that makes him sorry he became a film critic, being rushed, full of bloated CGI and an utter waste of time. He found horror film Immaculate at #3, set in an Italian convent, nasty and utterly formulaic. He and Simon celebrate the cinema re-release of Ealing comedy The Lavender Hill Mob while James urges everybody to...

James Cameron-Wilson analyses the latest box office chart, -28%, still dominated by Dune 2. With no new films to see, James turns to the home video release of the French drama Anatomy of a Fall. nominated for 5 Oscars and winning for its screenplay. It was more rewarding on a second viewing, being multi-layered, perceptive and peopled with three-dimensional characters. He feels that what he though...

James Cameron-Wilson reports on box office down 29% with Dune 2 now up to £19.3m at #1. At #5 is horror film Imaginary, which James found boring, bloated, clichéd and not particularly scary. He hoped for better from the philosophical sci-fi drama Spaceman on Netflix. However, despite Paul Dano and Carey Mulligan, it proved one of the weirdest films he had seen for a long time and suffered from the...

James Cameron-Wilson assesses Dune: Part Two at #1, which boosted the UK box office by taking £9.3m with almost £13,000 per screen. While critics love it and James was impressed by it visually, he found the film confusing and ponderous and admired it rather than enjoyed it. He looks ahead to the Oscars which, for the first time in 20 years, can be seen on terrestrial TV. He gives his predictions f...

James Cameron-Wilson on the UK cinema scene, still dominated by Bob Marley: One Love at #1 with a total of £11.3m in 2 weeks. He was disappointed by Wicked Little Letters at #2. Set in a 20s village, it sees the like of Olivia Colman and Timothy Spall overacting and overswearing in a piece of annoying whimsy. At #6 is the NT Live production of Vanya, with Andrew Scott playing multiple characters....

James Cameron-Wilson celebrates UK box office up 89% with Bob Marley: One Love #1 racking up £6.9m. But James was disappointed, finding the biopic a hagiography, a series of vignettes rather than a gripping story. He much preferred Madame Web at #3 with Dakota Johnson in a well-engineered and much more believable and human superhero story than we've been used to of late. Despite other critics, Jam...

James Cameron-Wilson reports that 2023's box office was up 9% at £978m. This week, though, it's down 25% with no new big films. True-life wrestling pic The Iron Claw, with Zac Efron, made only £750,000 at #3 but nothing rings true and James found it dull. With no other new releases other than Peppa's Cinema Party, James turned to Amazon Prime for the romcom Upgraded which, while hardly a true orig...

While UK box office rose 25%, James Cameron-Wilson found the animated Migration, #1, as processed as American cheese. #2 spy spoof Argylle from Matthew Vaughn he found over-familiar, over-long, unbelievable and lazy filmmaking. #5 is The Zone of Interest which, despite its 5 Oscar nominations, can be hard to see in cinemas. James, however, heartily recommends American Fiction at #10, also garnerin...

James Cameron-Wilson says UK box office is down another 21%. While Mean Girls is #1 but fading, garlanded UK low-budget 4-hander All Of Us Strangers from Andrew Haigh is #2 with £1.1m. Andrew Scott is outstanding in a mesmerising, original film about a gay writer. He was less complimentary about the musical version of The Color Purple at #8, with the showstopping tunes at odds with the dark underl...

In a bumper box office week, James Cameron-Wilson finds the musical reboot of 2004's Mean Girls (#1), dull and lacking fizz, despite Tina Fey's script. Like Simon Rose, he adores Poor Things (#3) from The Favourite director Yorgos Lanthimos, with Emma Stone getting one of 11 Oscar nominations. It's odd, extraordinarily original and visually and aurally glorious. Simon praised The Holdovers, with P...

James Cameron-Wilson marvels that Wonka is still #1 after 5 weeks, with total of £53m at the UK box office. Anthony Hopkins stars in One Life, the true story of stockbroker Nicholas Winton's extraordinary wartime rescue of hundreds of Jewish children. James found it beautifully realised and hugely affecting. He was less impressed with Priscilla, about the spouse of Elvis Presley. Written and direc...