Suzume

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... Suzume!

Original image located here. Accessed 27th February 2026

I've never been a fan of anime director Makoto Shinkai. Honestly I find a lot of his stuff hit or miss with some good ideas let down by laborious execution. Matter aren't helped with a lot of people venerating this guy for reasons I find baffling. And yet, I did enjoy Your Name so maybe he finally got his act together?

There's one scene from Suzume that stands out for me: It involves a car journey that features music I could recognise from other anime - namely, Kiki's Delivery Service and His & Her Circumstances. At first I was chuffed to hear something familiar but then I realised: If this anime is reminding me of other anime then something has gone seriously wrong. 

Okay seriously, there are some good ideas at work here, some extraordinary visuals and I acknowledge Shinkai as someone with a vision. But at the same time, this is a chase movie and it's pace is relentless. It can be exhausting to keep up and it makes some of the slower moments stand out less as a breather and more as aimless. Also standing out is the weirder stuff that seems to exist solely for the sake of it.

So yeah, a decent movie some admirable elements but somehow it left me cold

Rosaline

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Rosaline!

Original image located here. Accessed 13th February 2026

This movie came to my attention through a high concept: A re-telling of Romeo and Juliet through an unseen character - a love interest of Romeo that is immediately disregarded once Juliet enters the picture. Sounds like a challenge to me....

So this is pretty much Romeo and Juliet thrust into the lens of deconstruction and post-modernism (the kind of lens that served Shrek so well). It come across like a fanfiction someone wrote to try and force modern logic and perceptions into a centuries-old text.
And yet, I had so much fun with this movie. There were some great jokes, the cast seem to be having the time of their lives and there are certainly nods to Shakespeare that one such nerd, like myself, could pick up on. The description in the above paragraph may sound like a disaster but somehow it works.

Great stuff

Senior Year

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Senior Year!

Original image located here. Accessed 5th December 2025

Sometimes a film appears on your watch list and it stays there for so long that you forget why you put it there in the first place. But in this case, I think I know why: My first point of contact with this movie was seeing saw that scene where the cheerleader is thrown up but doesn't get caught and is subsequently knocked out. Nothing like some mindless violence to get one interested.

What I got however was a movie that seems to be at odds with itself: On one hand it could have gone and said something about arrested development and being a teen in an adult's body but it did not (did it see Young Adult and get cold feet?). And on the other it could have gone and said something about the current youth being disrupted out of lifelessness by an older person - and while it does do that it comes across as forced. So what does that make this movie?

Certainly there are some good jokes and Angourie Rice does an AMAZING job of channelling Rebel Wilson but the rest of the time? Just too much cringe for my liking. Damn...

Barbarian

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... Barbarian!

Original image located here. Accessed 3rd October 2025

Yes it's that time of the year again: Time for some horror movies.
I have been hearing some good things about this movie - and it's successor Weapons. Certainly I will watch the latter but I should watch the former to grasp just what I'm getting myself into.

Before watching this movie I was told that I would need to go in blind: Knowing as little about it as possible. Turns out they weren't kidding.
Suffice to say, I will keep that approach going. But what I will say that whilst the horror genre isn't my forte this would have be the most unique horror movie I have seen.

Furthermore, that one of the cast is named Kate Nichols is something that amuses me. 

Everything Everywhere All at Once

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... Everything Everywhere All at Once!

Original image located here. Accessed 20th December 2024

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 95 (2022)

You know the Oscars have been around for under a century (at time of writing) but for something that has such longevity, one would think that it would be a big ask for it to produce a surprise. 
And yet, this is exactly what happened: I went in expecting a movie that combines science fiction and kung fu - hardly Oscar favourite material - but what I got was something else: It was visually astonishing, playful in it's nature, high in it's concept, and audacious in it's ambitions. 
I have no idea how this won Best Picture - it's an against the odds victory if ever there was one - but there's no way I'm going to argue. 
What an incredible movie. 

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Puss in Boots: The Last Wish!

Original image located here. Accessed 16th June 2023

So we arrive here: As promised it is time to see if this is cracked up as it was made out to be.

And what do you know? It delivered and then some. Sure I had the slight advantage as I didn't have to wait a full decade between seeing this and it's predecessor, but this truly was a gem.
In a previous post, I may have slammed the Shrek movies for introducing a formula that many have tried to replicate since - and like any formula it can only go for so long before it gets tiresome. But I don't get that impression here: Much like it's predecessor, it breaks away from the formula to say something of it's own.
And that something is one that refuses to talk down to it's audiences and is unafraid to talk about major themes - particularly that of living life that wasn't wasted. Which is big deal given this is a movie staring a spanish-accented tabby with boots and a big hat.
The highlights for me are the Wolf and the quality of animation. Sure it reeks of the same techniques that the Spiderverse movies worked with but it is interesting to see Dreamworks take an approach of 'I can do that too'. One would think it would be derivative but that the animators made wonders out of what they were working with is truly astonishing.
So yes, once again the further Puss divorces itself from the Shrek formula, the better the final product is.

Weird: The Al Yankovic story

And this week's Friday Night movie has been... Weird: The Al Yankovic story!

Original image located here. Accessed 26th May 2023

Being the uber nerd I am, it should come to no surprise that I am a fan of Weird Al Yankovic. I've seen him live twice and it's a true display of one's nerd credentials - and, as I found, a good way to annoy one's big brother. So of course I would see this movie.

Years ago, I saw the movie Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story which I thoroughly enjoyed for it's mockery of the Rock Biopic. The reason I mention it now is that Weird is telling the same joke.
But what does it matter? This was the funniest movie I have seen in a long time, with genuine belly laughs, numerous references, the blatant disregard for factual context and the complete absurdity of it all. And the fact that Weird Al is played by Daniel Radcliffe - Harry Potter himself - and he actually does a fantastic job is just the icing on the cake.
Seriously, I can't remember the last movie I laughed so hard at XD

Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night

And this week's Friday Night movie has been... Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night!

Original image located here. Accessed 10th February 2023

So again we head into the anime well to tackle the latest entrant in a widely-known franchise. meaning we have a niche of a niche here.

For the non-anime geeks among us, Sword Art Online is a widely-known franchise. But it is also quite the polarising one. It has it's fans sure but it has it's haters who cite dull characters, poor plotting, squandered potential and that the abridged series was a considerable improvement.
Personally, I have a soft spot for Sword Art Online as it was the first anime i saw after a number of years away from the medium. It reignited my interest in anime and, later on, proved to be a handy basis to build a relationship around.
That being said, am I aware of the arguments made against Sword Art Online? Yes.
Do I enjoy it regardless? Yes.
Do I think it's two leads, Kirito and Asuna, are a couple worth shipping? Yes.
Do I wish that the makers ditched the rest of potential love interests and focus on these two? Dear God Yes..

And as it happens it helps to be a fan of franchise because in regards to this movie, it provides what you expect. It doesn't do anything different and it won't win over any of it's critics. It's playing to the fandom which is nice if you're in on it but meaningless if you're not.
Its Sword Art Online on autopilot which, as I type those words out, makes me realise how depressing such a notion is.

Thor: Love and Thunder

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Thor: Love and Thunder!

Original image located here. Accessed 5th August 2022

Another stab at the current phase of the MCU (for those keeping score it's the fourth one). I have been watching the current phase throughout these past couple of months and I will admit that whilst they have been enjoyable there is a distinct lack of direction. Which is concerning in that the MCU has pretty much defined itself by having everything planned out and adhering to a long-term plan.
In addition, assessing a MCU entrant presents quite the challenge as previous efforts have been so spectacular. That does make for a tough benchmark to follow making anything that happens to fall short look like a red-headed stepchild. Or something.

So what of Thor: Love and Thunder? Well it can't be denied that it's following the same template as it's predecessor. Ragnarok may have done a dramatic shift for the character and rejuvenated him in what many people never thought possible so in a way, such a shift would be tricky to follow. So It looks that they decided to stick with what worked before.
And you know what? It worked.
It may be adhering to a formula that worked previously but that's not really detrimental to the movie. There is bombast, there is creativity, there are tonnes of laughs, there is inventiveness, there is a genuinely compelling villain and some very interesting developments for Odinsson and the Asgardians. Also Russell Crowe stealing the show as Zeus.
Is it a misfire? I don't think so.
Guess there is value in sticking with what works

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness!

Original image located here. Accessed 22nd July 2022

I have been following a lot of criticisms about the current phase (no.4) of the MCU. Chief among them is that the movies of this phase seem to lack a sense of direction and, after such a pay-off (Endgame) from years of build-up, there is nowhere left to go.
Personally I did enjoy the Eternals and Spiderman: No Way Home but even I will admit that the criticisms of being directionless are hard to ignore. After all, when you climb the mountain and find nowhere left to go, what do you do?

That being said, I did find this latest instalment to the MCU something of mixed bag. On one hand, there is so much continuity to cater for that the movie seems to groaning under it's own weight. Also, there is a lot going on here that the pacing seems to go at light speed and is therefore difficult to pick up. In addition, this isn't quite the horror movie I was expecting.
But that's for the first half: Maybe it's just me but once the second half kicks in, this movie remembers it's a Doctor Strange movie and plays into it's strengths: The creative & striking visuals and Benedict Cumberpatch. It's great to see Benedict playing different iterations of this character and some truly impressive visuals (the staircase immediately comes to mind). And I also must give credit to director Sam Raimi who is able to make his own stamp - especially when doing so isn't an easy task in the MCU.
So yeah, not a bad effort but the problem of 'where do we go from here' still persists....