28 Weeks Later (2007)

Flaunting rules during COVID - maybe that I can kind of understand, but in the face of apocalyptic evidence post-the-virus in this sequel to 28 Days Later, it is hard to believe anyone, even kids, would "sneak out", but they do, and that lapse in credibility becomes the film's defining weakness as, repeatedly, family reunions defy apocalyptic chaos, characters display magical virus expertise, and John Woo-style theatrics push the story towards spectacle and away from the unsettling plausibility that made the original so engrossing.

★★★☆☆

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Molly's Game (2017)

This film adaptation of Molly's Game, author Molly Bloom's autobiographical account of her rise to fame as a high-stakes poker-game madam, is Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut and is a fast-paced, funny and interesting character study featuring Jessica Chastain in the title role, Idris Elba as her reluctant lawyer, and a whole lot of fast prattle just like in that other Jessica Chastain movie, Ms Sloane.

★★★★☆

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The Dark Tower (2017)

This Stephen King book adaptation about a supernaturally gifted boy upon whom the continued existence of multiple worlds relies never ceases world-building so that even three-quarters of the way through, Idris Elba's Gunslinger (a Western sheriff crossed with Devil May Cry's Dante, in a good-versus-evil battle with Matthew McConnaughy's Man in Black, a cadaverous Christopher Walken impersonation) turns to the boy to utter short scene-final explanations - "[the shapeshifting monster we've just bested] was exploiting your weakness, [by appearing in the form of your father]" and "What happens in this world [i.e. beams of light from the sky and portals opening and closing] is mirrored in other worlds," or things like that - and it is funny that by film's end you still have no idea what this intensively explained world is and why anyone should care less about it ceasing to exist, though it won't cease to exist - it is a part of the Stephen King canon that will be dredged up and reimagined forevermore irrespective of whether it makes sense or is interesting or not.

★☆☆☆☆

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The Mountain Between Us (2017)

Like Cupid's bow, a plane crash, a broken leg, starvation, dehydration, and the smell that comes from not having washed for three weeks bring two strangers stranded in the mountains closer together in this woefully scripted but easy-to-watch romantic drama, the best thing of which, not counting smoking hot Idris Elba, is the title which much more succinctly than the movie encapsulates both the differences that separate the strangers and the shared traumatic experience that unites them.

★★☆☆☆

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Star Trek Beyond (2016)

That scene, barely a second long, showing Sulu when he is not at the helm of the Enterprise is a brilliant addition to a series that at its core is a celebration of universal diversity and inclusion, with this particular episode also succeeding where perhaps Into Darkness didn't, delivering good old reliable Star Trek space exploration, action, humour and philosophy — the franchise doesn't need too many tweaks or new skins or tricks, as its fifty year anniversary this year clearly demonstrates.

★★★★☆

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Obsessed (2009)

A not very tightly scripted, low-grade suspense thriller in the vein of Disclosure and Fatal Attraction (a decent, upwardly-mobile corporate go-getting man has his life upended by a manipulative woman) is tolerable due to the good performances of future James Bond, Idris Elba as the beset man and Ali Larter, effective as the single-minded femme fatale.

★★☆☆☆

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Prometheus (2012)

This sci-fi horror on an epic scale has in its relatively short runtime way too many lofty themes and too many character story arcs - the one about Charlize Theron's family tree is the most clanging and underdeveloped - and so it all feels rushed, and in place of satisfying conclusions, there is an almost completely unnecessary - or, at least, unexplained - tie-in with Ridley Scott's Alien; nonetheless, this succeeds in being thought-provoking and entertaining.

★★★☆☆

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