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, we’re defying gravity and also Russians…
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.
Wicked: For Good
Kicking off some time after the events of the first film, Wicked: For Good (the sequel to the film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the prequel book to the classic film adaptation of the original book by L Frank Baum) follows Glinda (Ariana Grande), now a celebrity in the land of Oz, and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a one-woman rebel against the talking-animal-hating establishment. This is based on the second act of the stage show, which takes the story up to (and overlaps with) Dorothy’s arrival in Oz, reframing the events of the 1939 film to show how maybe the Wicked Witch wasn’t so bad after all.
I have never actually seen the Wicked stage show, but I loved the first film a lot more than I expected to. Ariana Grande is a surprisingly good actress, and Cynthia Erivo is an excellent one – and both of them can sing in a way that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. The final shot of Erivo’s Elphaba with all her witchy regalia present and correct, belting out the climax of Defying Gravity against an autumnal sunset, was one of the most powerfully cinematic moments of 2024. So there is a lot that I’m looking forward to going into this one, although with the show’s biggest tune already out the way, it will be interesting to see whether For Good manages to hit the same heights.
I am also intrigued to see how the plot connects the two movies. There are origin stories for Dorothy’s companions on the Yellow Brick Road (the legendary Colman Domingo is set to play the Cowardly Lion), and presumably an explanation for where the other witch came from before she got flattened by a wayward Kansas house. When does Elphaba get an army of chanting guards and take control of the flying monkeys? Why does Glinda start floating around in a big pink bubble? Are there roads in other colours or are they all yellow? All of these questions may or may not be answered…
The rest of the cast is back too, including Jeff Goldblum’s Wizard, Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible, Jonathan Bailey’s Fiyero and Ethan Slater’s Boq (which will be weird to watch after Slater’s villainous turn in Gen V recently). Jeff Goldblum will make anything watchable – well, almost. We seem to have been spared his incredibly awkward Cineworld ad this year (“Get your wicked Christmas gifts at Cineworld, online, or in the fwah-yay”). And Yeoh is slightly mis-cast but looks very happy to be there.
Whether it lives up to the original or not, this will be well worth catching on a big screen where the sensory overload of colour and music will have the strongest effect.
- Wicked: For Good on IMDB
- Wicked: For Good on Rotten Tomatoes
Sisu: Road to Revenge
If brightly coloured singing fairies and witches aren’t your thing, Sisu: Road to Revenge is about as far removed from Wicked as it’s possible to get. The first Sisu movie followed the largely mute Finnish prospector Aatami (Jorma Tommila) as he travelled across the Scandinavian countryside to transport his new-found gold to the bank. Unfortunately, he was doing so during the Lapland war of 1944 when Finland, following a peace deal with Soviet Russia, agreed to end their alliance with Germany and kick the Nazis out of the country. In revenge, the Nazis took a scorched earth policy on their way out, leaving a path of destruction that happens to cross with Aatami’s route. This ended spectacularly badly for all Nazis concerned, as Aatami is in fact a retired legendary commando of the Finnish army known to his enemies as the Immortal – a name he definitely lives up to as the film goes on. He became a one-man death squad after his family was killed by the Soviets, before seeking out a quieter life with his horse and his dog.
To give you an idea of just how hard-as-nails Aatami is, there is a scene where he sets himself on fire to avoid being mauled by dogs, dives in a river to put out the fire, and then outlasts the Nazis waiting for him to emerge by dragging them under the water one by one, slitting their throats, and breathing in the air that escapes from their lungs through the new holes in their necks. As a revenge-driven retired killer with a sinister nickname and a beloved pet dog, you could draw a lot of parallels between Aatami and John Wick – but I know who my money would be on in a fight. Aatami would sneer with contempt at Wick’s bulletproof suit and fancy guns before knocking him out with a swift headbutt.
The new film promises more of the same, but instead of Nazis Aatami is back to fighting the Soviets. When Russia annexes the part of Finland where Aatami used to live with his family, he decides to journey back to his old house, dismantle it, and rebuild it back in Finland. But when they hear that he has crossed into their territory, the Russians release the brilliantly-named Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang) – the commander responsible for Aatami’s family’s deaths – to hunt him down. Cue more inventive kills, extreme survival techniques, and the indefinable gritty determination that the film is named for. If you like your action movies bloody and violent, you absolutely have to catch this one.
- Sisu: Road to Revenge on IMDB
- Sisu: Road to Revenge on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Follow the yellow brick road to watch Wicked: For Good.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- The Running Man
- Predator: Badlands
- Nuremberg
Trailer of the Week
Another prequel movie has just released it’s first trailer, exactly one year before the film’s official release date. Based on the recent book by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping follows a young Haymitch Abernathy (played in the original Hunger Games films by Woody Harrelson and here by Joseph Zada) as he takes on the Games’ second Quarter Quell. Fans of the first films will have a lot to enjoy here. The format goes back to focusing on the titular battle royale style games themselves – something that has been absent from the franchise since the second film. And there is an incredible cast playing younger versions of many key characters, including Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, Ralph Fiennes as Coriolanus Snow, Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Maya Hawke as Wiress and Kelvin Harrison Jr as Beetee. Plus the likes of Glenn Close, McKenna Grace, Ben Wang and Billy Porter as new characters (although, given the nature of the Hunger Games, maybe don’t get too attached to any names you don’t recognise from the third Quarter Quell…). Sunrise on the Reaping will light up our screens on 20 November 2026.
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