The Brown Note Movie Review

Maybe only Tom Cruise himself goes as far in earning a paycheck as an outstanding and, no doubt, severely bruised Chalize Theron does in this near great genre thriller. Think the hunting humans as sport genre via Cliffhanger via Wolf Creek.

Abba themselves would be proud of the path fellow Swede Robyn has blazed through melancholic-euphoric pop(TM) this century, but this is more an EP than one of her defining albums.

The legend that is James Cameron, hasn't made a decent film in thirty-years, instead obsessing over the minutiae of the dead-on-arrival universe of Avatar: Smurfs In Space(Balls). At least this punishingly unending third installment is a fraction better than the last film.

The "IT" SciFi of the year so far is made of other film's parts but reverently and is surprisingly epic (and overlong) but thoughtful and intelligent.

If you have ever wanted to jump on the beloved troubadour Bill Callahan's train, now is the time. Always great but this time more so in every direction. Already a contender for my album of the year.

This much maligned entry into the Chris Pratt is everywhere genre, just about limps over the line to watchable - thanks mostly to its star. Despite an intriguing - if obvious - AI premise it's a better film the more it hews towards standard whodunit fare but consequently less and less interesting as a result.

Finally a review of the Table Tennis movie. The two things that stand out, this is one Safdie brother going solo on this film after the mighty one-two of Good Times and Uncut Gems, and I've not been kind to the "Marlon Brando" of our age, Timothy "Baby-Cham" Chamalet. He does actually give a very good performance here, and it's a fine film - but it's not in the same league as Uncut Gems and could easily have been an hour shorter. The Ron Howard of Safdie movies.

The Danny Boyle/Alex Garland Zombie train keeps running and in pretty fine style. Wildly over-violent at times but with great work from a demonic Jack O'Connell and a soulful Ralph Fiennes. At its best when expanding both the human and zombie world's and with a truly gonzo final third.

Where the industry led push for Timothy "Baby-cham" Chamalet to win continues and a good but not great film breaks the record for most nominations ever in a pretty average year for movies.

In the worst year of movies I've actually watched since I started doing these reviews. The year in which mediocrity reigned supreme. Featuring Superman, One Battle After Another, Warcraft, Sinners, Weapons and many more.

Director Zach Cregger, follows his (overrated) "IT" horror, Barbarian, with a film that is better in near every way than its messy predecessor. Though good rather than great and far more cohesive film-making, its still guilty of throwing ideas up in the air without delving any deeper.

I felt bad for the last film in this venerable (near 30 year!) franchise. It not only got Barbenheimered at the box office but it was also the first real step backwards in quality. Sadly I would say that's the case once again, as pretty much everything was better even in Dead Reckoning. It's still ultra high quality in most film making areas but the story, people and screenplay are lesser.

Following on from the outstanding debut album, Madres, a lesser EP from the Berlin based Peruvian DJ. Two fantastic tracks but also a bit of filler.