Dead of Winter (2025)

I'm sure the first two encounters the widow (Emma Thompson) has with the crims in this snowbound thriller are shown out-of-order - as it is, the first encounter is redundant, and the second, in light of the first, is, on the part of the crims, idiotic - and this continuity problem hangs over the first hour, calling into doubt all of the zigzagging the players do back and forth and back and forth between a cabin in the woods and an icy lake, but eventually, the action crescendos to something that allows you to surrender your reservations, and it is nice to see these Harry Brown-style thrillers in which an older person violently takes down deserving crims.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Last Christmas (2019)

Kate, a Bridget Jones type - read, 'annoying' - portrayed by Emilia Clarke, makes a mess of everything - love, work, and relationships including the relationship she has with her boss (Michelle Yeoh in her now perpetual role as a cantankerous Asian Tiger mom), so it makes sense Kate falls for Henry Golding's character - he's a messily conceived part-Willy Wonka pixie-saviour, part-Mr Darcy romantic stalwart slogging-around-on-a-bicycle - who inspires Kate to fix up her messes before the movie reaches an unlikely Christmas magic fantasy ending - a bit like if Bridget Jones suddenly visited Santa's North Pole workshop - but it's an ending that somehow, through all the mess, manages to be touching.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

I Am Legend (1999)

The virus in the 1971 Charlton Heston film adaptation of Richard Matheson's book turned people into eloquent cloaked albinos about as terrifying as the "Street Countdown" participants of that IT Crowd episode, so this much more recent adaptation is already winning by featuring truly terrifying monsters, the Darkseekers, whose cgi may be wonky but whose rapidly increasing intelligence really does pose a problem to Robert Neville, the last-man-on-Earth immune to the virus and humanity's last chance at a comeback, played by Will Smith, looking as good as he ever has and with a bottom lip that should have won an Oscar for its role in this post-apocalyptic scifi blockbuster.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Late Night (2019)

An episode from the life and career of David Letterman - come on, it is - is brought to the screen in this intelligent and funny movie - a frequently laugh-out-loud one - and one that most of all is always interesting, but to nitpick, the one element that doesn't quite work is the writing around the excellent Mindy Kaling's character, a diversity hire to the all-white-male comedy writing team that is slowly but surely sending the career of Emma Thompson's David Letterman down the gurgler with its tired ideas and safe jokes: it never feels like this character is the one absolutely necessary for the change required at the show - she's female, writes a good joke, and is willing to speak truth, but the impetus for change preceded her arrival - low ratings and the threat of Letterman losing his job - so really any non-white-male might have done the trick of refreshing the writers' room? - and Mindy Kaling's character's burgeoning relationship with one of the other writers is also unnecessary, added, probably to bolster the character's wobbly presence. 

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Beautiful Creatures (2013)

Teens familiar with the book series might appreciate this tiresome movie in which ancient feuding families, let's say "the Muggles and the Capulets", have their rift exascerbated by the blossoming love of Eric and Lena, a star-crossed pair of opposites a little like magic-casting Twilight versions of Romeo and Juliet with Southern accents.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Love Actually (2003)

This saccharine romantic comedy is replayed on television about three times a week and I've grown to loathe it, but at least on the first occasion it is a pleasure, featuring an ensemble all-star cast in a series of interconnected stories that share the central theme of messy love.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS