Hello and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we take you through the biggest new cinema releases and why you should be excited for them. This week: zombies, beasts, unruly children and common people…
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.
Resident Evil
In this latest adaptation of the videogame directed by Zach Cregger, Bryan (Austin Abrams) is a courier tasked with delivering a vital organ to a hospital. But the hospital is in Raccoon City, where a virus has infected the population and turned them into terrifying mutant zombies. He’ll need to fight his way out to survive…
Between this, last week’s Runner, and the upcoming Whalefall, it’s a bad time to be either a donor organ courier or Austin Abrams at the cinema. He had a pretty rough time of it in Cregger’s last film, the excellent Weapons, but he seems even more put upon here. The zombies are impressively disturbing, whether they’re spider-crawling out of a doorway, leaping off buildings, running through fields or sitting bloated in the middle of a sewer pipe. Cregger has a good track record of making fun original horror films, but this is his first turn with an established franchise and it will be interesting to see what he does with it.
The reviews have been very positive, with a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a general consensus that Cregger has nailed the tone of the games, making this the best Resident Evil movie to date (which is admittedly not the highest of bars). There are plenty of nods to the film’s videogame roots, from the content to the gameplay itself (such as POV shots and upgrading weapons), but it doesn’t tie itself too closely to the plot of the games or earlier films so there should still be some capacity for surprises. This looks like great fun for fans of the Resident Evil games or of horror movies generally.
- Resident Evil on IMDB
- Resident Evil on Rotten Tomatoes
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom
After his introduction as a minor side character in Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave, Shaun the Sheep has become a pretty big deal in his own right. As well as his spin-off TV series, this is his third cinematic outing. The Beast of Mossy Bottom sees a wild beast appear in the woods when the Farmer ruins the pumpkin patch just before Halloween. The human and animal residents of Mossy Bottom decide to capture the beast before it causes any damage.
One of the great joys of Wallace & Gromit and its spin-offs is that despite often having more personality than their human counterparts, none of the animals really talk (unless their DNA is swapped with Wallace, but we won’t go into that here…). In Wallace & Gromit that makes a perfect double-act, with Gromit silently saying far more with a raised eyebrow or a drooping ear than Wallace’s cheese-obsessed ramblings really say in a whole film. Shaun the Sheep extends that approach to almost all of its characters, relying on clever visual comedy and show-don’t-tell storytelling that rewards paying attention to every bit of the screen. In a world where TV and cinema is increasingly pandering to audiences who would rather stare at their phones, it’s a refreshing stance for a film to take. And given the amount of work that goes into creating a stop motion feature, Aardman have earned the right to demand that attention.
This currently has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the warm tone of the story and detail of the animation. Like all Aardman films, expect quirky British humour, gleeful silliness and jokes that will please all ages.
- Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom on IMDB
- Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom on Rotten Tomatoes
Bad Apples
Maria (Saoirse Ronan) is a primary school teacher who struggles to maintain control of her class, especially the unruly Danny (Eddie Waller). When she catches him in an act of vandalism, a series of mishaps results in her kidnapping Danny and imprisoning him in her basement. The one on one time gives her an opportunity to improve his studying, while the rest of the class also improves dramatically without his constant disruptions. But as the search for Danny intensifies, Maria’s lies can’t go on forever.
Although the four-time Oscar nominated Ronan is best known for dramas like Brooklyn and Atonement, she has proven in the likes of Lady Bird and the Grand Budapest Hotel that she has a good knack for deadpan comedy. Bad Apples is probably her best opportunity yet to show those skills off. This is very much a dark comedy, where neither of the central pair can be said to be entirely in the right and yet both deserve some sympathy. It only works on the strength of their performances – there’s no suggestion here that chaining a child up in your basement is ever the right thing to do, but Maria has to be so likeable and Danny such a little git that it’s almost enough to keep the audience on her side anyway.
This looks like a fun, original concept with a lot to say about the education system and the relationships between different generations in modern Britain.
- Bad Apples on IMDB
- Bad Apples on Rotten Tomatoes
Pulp: What Do You Do For An Encore?
Last week saw the much-vaunted release of a documentary about Oasis, by the same directors who had previously made a documentary about Blur. The rivalry between those two bands is legendary, and the debate over which is better (it’s Blur) continues to this day. But anyone who was really paying attention to the Britpop movement knows that there was a third band calmly sitting in the shadow of the Gallaghers’ and Albarn’s egos, releasing a series of bangers that outclassed the lot of them. And sure enough, with characteristically less fanfare than Don’t Look Back In Anger, Pulp’s documentary film is out hot on Noel and Liam’s heels.
What Do You Do For An Encore is directed by Garth Jennings, who started out making music videos for Pulp (Help the Aged and A Little Soul) as well as Blur, Radiohead, Fatboy Slim, Robbie Williams and many more. It captures footage from Pulp’s tour promoting their chart-topping 2025 album More and mixes it with archive material charting their earlier successes. Together with a couple of my past and present fellow Geeky Brummie hosts, I saw Pulp performing a few weeks ago in Manchester and last year when their More tour came to Birmingham – both were incredible shows, featuring new songs and classics, and if those are anything to go by this film will be well worth watching. They are a phenomenal live band, and Jarvis Cocker still has more than enough stage presence to entertain 20,000 people standing in a field (or 200 people sitting in a cinema).
- Pulp: What Do You Do For An Encore? on IMDB
- Pulp: What Do You Do For An Encore? on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Get your teeth into some Bad Apples.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Pressure – With incredible acting from Andrew Scott, this is an intense and beautiful film that deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. The stakes and the tension are as high as they come, churned up in a room full of big egos and frayed tempers, and yet somehow it finds space for a heartbreaking character-driven story in the middle of it all as Scott’s Stagg frets about his pregnant wife. You’ll never be so relieved to see the rain.
- Fall 2: Deadpoint – Not quite as fun as the first movie, but there are still more than enough bum-curling moments to make it an entertaining ride. I still don’t think 4,000ft up a cliffside is as cinematic or as terrifying as the top of a 2,000ft TV tower, but that doesn’t stop my palms from sweating when someone is balancing on ancient rusty poles with a sheer drop below them. There is a slightly unnecessary sub-plot that adds a little extra drama at the end but I would have preferred more time on the ledge.
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Trailer of the Week
Wife and Dog is the upcoming film from Guy Ritchie, which has just released its first trailer. Starring an incredible central trio of Benedict Cumberbatch, Rosamund Pike and Anthony Hopkins, the trailer doesn’t give too much away but it seems to be a Succession-like tale of familial betrayal – and maybe Hopkins is the devil…? The cast also includes James Norton, Paddy Considine and Cosmo Jarvis. It also has plenty of guns and violence, because, you know, it’s a Guy Ritchie film.
Leave a Reply