Happy new(ish) year! Geeky Brummie takes a bit of a hiatus in January, but there are so many good films out that I’m dragging myself out of hibernation a couple of days early. This week’s Film Roundup will be a very quick run-through of both the highlights of January’s cinema releases so far and the new movies hitting the big screen this weekend.
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.
Best of 2026 so far…
The year started off strong with Hamnet, one of the big awards contenders this season. Chloe Zhao’s beautiful film tells the story of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) meeting his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) and having three children, only for one of them to pass away. As Bill the Bard struggles to express his feelings in the real world, Agnes comes to realise that his outlet was in the creation of one of his most iconic plays – one whose title bears a striking resemblance to the name of their son, Hamnet. It’s gorgeously shot and perfectly fine-tuned to bring a tear to your eye by the end, and Buckley has to be the well-deserved front runner for the Best Actress Oscar this year.
The following week had a couple of highlights. The big blockbuster was 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which picked up where last year’s 28 Years Later left off (making it the first direct sequel in the franchise). The plot was split between the still-excellent Alfie Williams’ Spike, trying to survive among the sadistic Jimmies, and Ralph Fiennes’ Dr Kelson, who had a weirdly beautiful bromance with massive naked alpha zombie Samson. There is surprisingly little zombie horror, but the Jimmies more than make up for it with one gruesome scene in particular. When the two main plotlines come together at the end, it’s utterly ridiculous but sold so spectacularly that you can’t help but grin through it. And the final scene sets up an exciting prospect of a sequel. Out the same week was The Voice Of Hind Rajab, which is set in a Red Crescent call centre in Ramallah, Palestine. Volunteers receive an emergency call from a little girl trapped in a car in the crossfire of the fighting in Gaza, and try desperately to get an ambulance to her through the tanks and gunfire. I haven’t managed to see this yet, but the trailer alone is heart-breaking enough. This has been nominated for Best International Feature at the Oscars (as well as the Golden Globes, where it lost out to The Secret Agent, and the BAFTAs).
Then last week, we had No Other Choice but to watch legendary Korean director Park Chan-wook’s masterpiece about a specialist paper factory supervisor (Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun) and his distinctly amateur killing spree to eliminate his competition for a new job. Full of the very darkest of dark humour and just enough pathos to make you feel sad for everyone involved, No Other Choice is a hugely entertaining couple of hours. It also has a charmingly simple solution if you’re struggling to think of a name for your kid’s new dog.
That brings us up to date for the plethora of pictures coming to the cinema this week…
Primate
Remember how the scariest bits in the alien horror film Nope were the flashbacks to Gordy the Chimp’s bloodthirsty rampage on the set of his sitcom Gordy’s Home? Imagine that, crossed with Bodies Bodies Bodies, and you won’t be far off Primate. A group of teens stay over at a beautiful Hawaiian home and meet Ben, the family’s pet chimp – but something’s wrong with Ben, and he decides to educate them on why wild animals don’t make good pets. This looks genuinely quite chilling, but in a schlocky sort of way that should be a lot of fun to watch.
- Primate on IMDB
- Primate on Rotten Tomatoes
Shelter
If you like your films to have Jason Statham in, then this is a film for you. Statham plays Mason, a former elite assassin living a quiet life on a remote Scottish island. But when his former employers start hunting him down, he’s forced out of retirement to go on a bloody rampage and face the mistakes of his past. The trailer makes it look like he’s dragging a young girl along with him for no reason at all, but presumably the film will explain why he couldn’t leave her somewhere safe. It’s John Wick or Jason Bourne, starring Jason Statham – nothing original but sometimes that’s exactly what you’re in the mood for, and few can scratch that itch like the Stath can.
- Shelter on IMDB
- Shelter on Rotten Tomatoes
Is This Thing On?
Loosely based on the life of comedian John Bishop, but shifting the characters and story over to America, Is This Thing On? stars Will Arnett as Alex Novak – a down-on-his-luck father going through a divorce. When the prospect of free entry to a bar drives him onto the stage in an open mic night, he discovers comedy as a way of dealing with his issues and finding some purpose in his life. Will it be enough to win back his wife (Laura Dern)? With Bradley Cooper in the director’s chair, this looks like quite a charming exploration of the ups and downs of a relationship, and it’s getting some great reviews. And you can finally cross ‘Rocket Racoon directing a John Bishop biopic’ off your cinema bingo card.
- Is This Thing On? on IMDB
- Is This Thing On? on Rotten Tomatoes
Rabbit Trap
Continuing a solid run of British arthouse folk-horror flicks (see also: Men, Starve Acre), Rabbit Trap stars Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen as a young couple who move to the country for artistic inspiration. But when they hear some strange music coming from a fairy circle that they accidentally disturbed, they are visited by a strange child and things start getting weird. Rabbit Trap looks trippy and unpleasant in places (the trailer has a flash of someone about to put on some headphones with rather large nails sticking out…), although the early reviews seem to be saying that it is heavy on mood-setting and light on plot. Still, Dev Patel is usually the sign of something good.
- Rabbit Trap on IMDB
- Rabbit Trap on Rotten Tomatoes
Kangaroo
Possibly the most Australian film to ever Australia, Kangaroo follows a young girl (Lily Whiteley) and a disgraced TV weatherman (Ryan Corr) who rescue a little orphaned Joey and raise her in the Outback. This has all the ingredients of a perfect family film – cute animals, silly humour and sentimental life lessons for both the young and old lead characters. Warning: you will want a pet kangaroo.
- Kangaroo on IMDB
- Kangaroo on Rotten Tomatoes
Melania
Directed by Brett Ratner and reportedly the most expensive documentary ever made, this barely-concealed attempt by Jeff Bezos to curry favour with the US President follows the First Lady in the run-up to Trump’s second inauguration. If you don’t feel like you’ve seen enough of the Trump family on your screens then maybe you’ll find this insight into Melania’s life interesting. I try very hard with these roundups to find something to recommend about all the films coming out – even if they’ve had terrible reviews, I’d always advocate seeing them for yourself and making up your own mind. The best I can say for this one is that it might be quite funny to see how detached the Trumps are from reality. But honestly, I think it is probably better for the cinema industry as a whole if this one flops hard. Production companies have better things to spend their money on than massaging an already over-inflated ego.
- Melania on IMDB
- Melania on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
For me it’s a battle between a psychotic Primate and a cute baby Kangaroo, and call me a softie but I think the Joey gets it.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
(See above…)
- No Other Choice
- 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
- Hamnet
Trailer of the Week
One of the TV highlights of last year was Daredevil: Born Again – Disney+’s reinvention of the Netflix series which brought Charlie Cox’s Man Without Fear and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin back to our screens. Capturing the dark, gritty tone of the original series and framing it as a political satire as Kingpin became Mayor of New York City (his anti-mask task force serving as a grimly prescient template for some of the stories coming from Minneapolis about Trump’s ICE agents), Born Again advanced and elevated the story without toning down the violence for its new Disney home. One character’s Oberyn-esque fate in particular was one of the most unsettling moments of violence I’ve seen on screen in a long time. So I am very much looking forward to season two, which also promises to bring back the other great Netflix Defender, Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter). The new trailer dropped this week and it has everything I was hoping for without giving too much of the plot away. Daredevil will be swinging back to our screens in March.
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