Film Roundup 10/09/2026

Hello, and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we run through the biggest new cinema releases and why you should be excited for them. This week: a witches’ ball, somewhere tall, rainfall and a Wonderwall…

Usual disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, I haven’t seen these movies yet so all of my opinions are based on trailers, early reviews and other rumours and buzz.

Practical Magic 2

In this sequel to the 1998 film, witches Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) have raised their daughters Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams) on stories of the family curse – that any man they fall in love with will suffer a horrible death. Initially sceptical, the girls are persuaded when Kylie’s boyfriend is hit by a car, and they run off to find a way to break the curse. With help from their aunts Franny (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest), as well as witchcraft expert Ian Wright (Lee Pace), Sally and Gillian set out to keep their daughters safe.

Bullock and Kidman’s careers have come on a long way since the first film was released, both winning Best Actress Oscars (for The Blind Side and The Hours respectively) and cementing themselves as household names through a range of movie roles. Like many legacy sequels, there is a sense here that they and their characters are passing the torch to a new generation, although I would question whether Practical Magic had enough of a cultural impact for that to mean much. What this does seem to capture well is the importance of the bonds of sisterhood, both as witches and as women, with Bullock and Kidman having a nice comfortable chemistry. It’s good to see Arya in a big screen role too, while Lee Pace seems to be reprising his character from Bodies Bodies Bodies.

If you’re a fan of the first film then you’ll definitely want to see whether this one captures the same magic.

• Practical Magic 2 on IMDB
• Practical Magic 2 on Rotten Tomatoes

Pressure

With the outcome of World War 2 in the balance, General Dwight D Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) is faced with a critical decision: whether or not to give the order to launch Operation Overlord and assault the German-occupied Normandy coast to establish a foothold in mainland Europe. Poor weather for the crossing would put a sizeable portion of the allied forces at risk, make landing on the shore near impossible, and potentially alert the German army of their intentions. So he enlists Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) to make one of the most important weather forecasts in history.

Even though we all know how it turns out, this looks like a fantastically tense and exciting story. Everyone loves Brendan Fraser, who is surprisingly well-cast as Eisenhower – a man with a big weight on his shoulders. But this is really Andrew Scott’s time to shine. He’s always been an actor to watch out for, but most of his roles have been either minor ones in big films (Spectre, 1917) or major roles in indie films or TV series (All of Us Strangers, Fleabag). This feels like the sort of role that could earn him a deserved Oscar nomination if Pressure is still remembered in a few months’ time. The cast also includes Kerry Condon as Eisenhower’s assistant and Damian Lewis as General Bernard Montgomery.

If you’re a fan of war movies, there is plenty of screentime dedicated to the D-Day Landings, which look suitably thrilling. But it actually looks like the most exciting scenes will be those featuring a bunch of men in a room arguing about the weather.

• Pressure on IMDB
• Pressure on Rotten Tomatoes

Fall 2: Deadpoint

The first Fall movie, in which climbers Becky and Hunter found themselves stuck at the top of a 2,000ft TV tower, came out at the tail end of lockdown and was a big sleeper hit thanks to its palm-sweat inducing simplicity. In this sequel, Hunter’s sister Jax (Harriet Slater) and best friend Luce (Arsema Thomas) decide to climb Mount Kwan in Thailand. But a rockslide leaves them trapped on a narrow wooden platform, twice as high off the ground as Becky and Hunter were in the original film. Can they find a way back to solid ground?

I was a big fan of Fall so I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. There was something about the almost alien imagery of the TV tower spearing the sky in the middle of an open expanse of desert that emphasised its height and made the idea of falling from it all the more terrifying. Although the heroes of Fall 2 are even higher, the mountainside setting somehow feels less intimidating – the fact that the mountain carries on above them makes it harder to appreciate the sense of scale. It’s still more than high enough to make your bottom curl when their footholds start to get increasingly precarious though, and on a big screen that drop is going to look massive.

The reviews for this haven’t been all that impressive (currently a very average 54% on Rotten Tomatoes), but I will still be watching it and will still be unravelling the knot in my stomach for several days afterwards.

• Fall 2: Deadpoint on IMDB
• Fall 2: Deadpoint on Rotten Tomatoes

Don’t Look Back in Anger

Don’t Look Back in Anger is a documentary charting the rise of Oasis to international stardom, culminating in their 2025 arena comeback tour.

This is directed by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, who gave a similar treatment to LCD Soundsystem (Shut Up and Play the Hits) and Oasis’s long-time rivals Blur (No Distance Left To Run). Given the Gallagher Brothers’ famously tumultuous relationship, the choice of title seems apt – their reunion required the burying of some very big hatchets. But the resulting gigs were by all accounts a huge success, and there are some big names in cinematography (including The Brutalist’s Lol Crawley and Moonlight’s James Laxton) enlisted to capture the magic and scale of those concerts. Like them or not, the Gallaghers have some big personalities that should make for some entertaining behind the scenes moments, and their reflections on their careers should be of interest to any Oasis fans.

• Don’t Look Back in Anger on IMDB
• Don’t Look Back in Anger on Rotten Tomatoes

Runner

In Runner, Alan Ritchson plays former soldier Hank Malone, now working as a courier for hire. He’s enlisted to help Ben Bishop (Owen Wilson) transport a liver to a hospital where it might save a little girl’s life. But a usable liver fetches a high price on the black market (apparently), and they are soon accosted by a criminal gang led by Damián Zaldívar (Rodrigo Santoro) intent on taking their cargo.

Ritchson is a ridiculously large man who looks extremely miscast as a courier, but very well suited for an action movie. This one looks pretty basic – nothing remotely original, but if you want to switch your brain off and watch some big muscular fight scenes, it ticks all the boxes. The baddies are condemning a little girl to death for their own financial gain, and the goodies include Owen Wilson, so it’s never been clearer who to root for. Cars are crashed in half, henchmen are punched, etc. I haven’t heard too much about this before, but it looks like it could be entertaining.

• Runner on IMDB
• Runner on Rotten Tomatoes

If you only see one film this week…

With some great central performances and an intense story, it has to be Pressure.

Still in cinemas and worth a watch

• The Death of Robin Hood – Brilliantly acted by Hugh Jackman but very intense and thoroughly depressing by the end.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day
• The Odyssey

Trailer of the Week

Godzilla Minus One was a huge hit, winning an Oscar for its impressively weighty big lizard, created on a shoestring budget. So a sequel was bound to be on the cards, and judging by this latest trailer Godzilla Minus Zero looks every bit as exciting as its predecessor. And there are strong hints that a certain three-headed dragon might be joining the fray. As well as showing off what they can do with what is likely a much higher special effects budget after the success of the first film, the trailer makes a big point of showcasing the fact that this is Japan’s first film shot for IMAX screens. All the more pixels for the titans to do battle on. Godzilla will be stomping back onto screens on November 6th.