Reviews

Jason Segel's depressed post-death-of-his-wife shrink goes maverick, and Harrison Ford's gruff supervisor is barely able to hold on to the reins in Apple's latest, surprisingly thoughtful, comedy show.  

Laying down fewer threads in its opening moments than its predecessor, the second season of The White Lotus still lands plenty of clean hits in its first episode. And it still looks incredible. *UPDATED FOR FULL SEASON*  

A densely layered and carefully constructed satire with a thorn in its heart, White Noise asks you to try and guess what it’s really about and then, when you guess right, it slow claps you as it walks away with over two hours of your life.  

Train to Busan’s Yeon Sang-ho moves into the distant future where families are coerced into signing away the personalities and likenesses of their dead loved ones so they can be mass produced as service robots…and the movie can’t quite decide whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.  

Numbers never lie. And the stats for this brutal South Korean action-horror are very impressive: a body count of 57 litters its run time and over 2.5 tonnes of fake blood are gleefully splashed over, well, everything. As if you needed to know anything else...  

The great Rega upgrade program reaches the Elex. Is this latest price increment the sweetest spot on the ladder yet?  

While everybody waits to see if Murphy can pull off a decent return to Beverly Hills Cop's Axel Foley, his streaming comeback continues courtesy of an unexpectedly good Jonah Hill flick.  

Hollwood's most beloved director removes whatever veil of mystery there was about his life and sensibilities in a barely fictionalised account of his own childhood. As sincere, as moving and as crowd-pleasing as you might expect, so why does it feel like something's missing?  

Gerard Butler attempts something a little more low key and a little more grounded than his usual action fare and together with a dash of the unlikeliest Tom Hanks inspiration, almost admirably succeeds…  

J-Lo and J-Duh share ZERO chemistry in one of the worst ideas for a romantic comedy action flick smash up captured on film.  

Parasound can be regarded as the pinnacle of home theatre power amplifier performance. Put a couple of these New Classic blocks in your AV rack and just watch your house slowly fall apart from the force. But does the Model 2250 v.2 UK price tag still reside in that sweet spot of which the company is so proud?  

Jon Hamm finds his home with the martini dry sense of humour of Fletch, stumbling into a murder mystery he decides he probably ought to try solving.  

How do you follow the insanely epic saving of Earth from plunging into the fiery hellscape of Jupiter? If you’re Chinese mega-director Frant Gwo and his team of six writers (SIX!) you somehow go even bigger in this insanely overblown and overwrought prequel to the 2019 sci-fi blockbuster that manages to be both better and so much worse than its predecessor…  

Oscar winning Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty writer Mark Boal's latest project, Echo 3, lands on Apple as a complex kidnap-and-rescue thriller set against an 'authentic' South American political backdrop - updated for full season review.  

The forty-year journey of horror icon Laurie Strode and the original bogeyman Michael Myers ended in cinemas last autumn with a terrifying whimper instead of the bang fans everywhere wanted and demanded. As the dust settles on David Gordon Green’s franchise trilogy, is it time for a reappraisal of the possibly misunderstood and hugely divisive final entry on 4K UHD disc?  

Grado, maker of trad looking headphones, has been dabbling in wireless products of which the GW100x is the latest. Is it any good though?  

A blisteringly energetic coming of age frolic through the punk scene in Salt Lake City, James Merendino’s bolt of high-octane energy also brings unsuspecting smarts and hearts on another winner of a 4K disc from Grandmasters Sony.  

The Al Pacino-starring, gonzo Nazi-hunting romp rolls to its preposterous conclusion in unsurprisingly OTT fashion, somehow roping Pacino back in to tie up a bunch of ends that were far from loose, whilst getting Udo Kier's villain to afford it an epic conclusion.  

Luca "Bones and All" Guadagnino's first collaboration with Timothée "Dune" Chalamet marked the actor's breakthrough role, and completed the director's thematic Desire Trilogy, following the preceding I Am Love and A Bigger Splash.  

Pioneer’s VSX-LX505 brings Dirac to the masses, along with all the modern convenience one could ask for. But does it live up to the promise of its feature set?  

The latest version of the 700 Series keeps the fundamentals of its predecessor but tweaks the recipe with some ingredients from the 800 Series - is this where the high end begins?  

Ruben Östlund’s second Palme d’Or winning film arrives on digital platforms to buy and rent but, despite the accolades, is anyone really clamouring for yet another on-the-nose ‘eat the rich’ social satire?  

Guillermo Del Toro’s sublime Spanish Civil War-set chiller now dazzles even more on this ravishing 4K release as part of the Sony Classics 30th Anniversary 4K Collection from Sony in the US.  

As the guitar strums across the opening sequence of Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann's adaptation it's as if the show is making a promise to fans of the acclaimed survival videogame. Can it deliver?  

Boundlessly stylish, but infinitely navel-gazing, Nicolas Winding Refn's latest TV run is a tolerably pretentious 80 minute Danish flick about nothing stretched out to an unbearable 300 minutes courtesy of a seemingly limitless supply of slow 360 degree pans.  

Another decade and Hollywood take another stab at the killer doll movie. Only this time Chucky has been sent packing and, in his place, comes M3GAN...  

After an extended hiatus, Dave Filoni’s continuation of his Clone Wars saga returns to Disney+ settling right back into that groove of being a bit hit and miss.  

A month of truly eclectic renowned international film makers – from John Hughes to Terry Gilliam to Lukas Moodysson – and some young up starts making their cinematic debuts give us our January release blu-ray schedule and as ever, there’s some wonderful films and releases coming our way that are worthy of your consideration… UPDATED WITH NINE COMPETITIONS  

Almost certain to earn star Cate Blanchett at least an Oscar nod, the initially dense and overtly dry Tár tests your patience with its protracted build-up but eventually delivers the goods.  

As the active speaker revolution continues its march, lesser-known Danish brand System Audio offers up a powered bookshelf speaker pair to challenge the competition. In an increasingly crowded market, does the SA Air 9 deserve to be heard above the noise?  

Paramount's core Yellowstone saga attempts to recover from its anticlimactic fourth season with a more confident fifth season, even if we have to wait for Part 2 to see if it's a complete success.  

Nicolas Cage's first foray into Westerns may be modestly budgeted and limited in originality, but it has a decent vibe to its low key thrills that leaves it a solid enough revenge flick.  

Charlie "Eternal Sunshine" Kaufman's ambitious directorial debut is a magnum opus within a magnum opus, with Philip Seymour Hoffman never better.  

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s fantasy steampunk masterpiece finally comes to disc in a manner that does justice to its sublime art and award-winning production design.  

Following the generally well-received Out of the Furnace and Hostiles, Christian Bale again teams up with director Scott Cooper for a gloomy bit of period drama which, for all its mythologising, is a surprisingly fine detective story.  

Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland's heartbreaking 2014 drama draws a painfully poignant portrait of early onset Alzheimer's, with an Oscar winning powerhouse performance from Julianne Moore.  

Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run is a propulsively scored experimental thriller, with a blistering lead performance by Franka Potente, earning pride of place in the Sony Pictures Classics 11-film 30th Anniversary 4K Collection.  

The Sony Pictures Classics 11-film 30th Anniversary 4K Collection kick-starts with Sally Potter's lavish period fantasy Orlando, starring a marvellously dynamic Tilda Swinton.  

iFi Audio delivers a one box streamer for the first time - and being iFi - it’s laden with features that set it apart from the pack. Is it any good though?  

If you're still in the mood for something festive, this David Harbour Santa meets Die Hard romp is breezily, bloodily entertaining, but probably would have better suited a streaming service over the season.