#FF23 Blackberry is a dramatisation of the rise and fall of RIM, and the Blackberry phone.

Baruchel is good, but Howerton has never been than as the sociopathic executive who gets them early success. The film drags a little towards the end, but is very solid up until then.

Good

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 30, 2023

#FF23 Fool's Paradise is about Hollywood and stardom.

While Charlie Day's physical performance is good, there's not enough of a plot or decent characterisation to make the film work. It feels cobbled together from a bunch of worse drafts. For a comedy there are few laughs.

Skip

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 30, 2023

#FF23 Smoking Causes Coughing is an odd, French comedy.

It treats it's over-the-top premise (a Power Rangers like group on a team bonding camping session), with seriousness, even as things get weirder. It slides from this into a bunch of side stories that are a mixed bunch

Odd.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 30, 2023

#FF23 Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is the kind of big action we like to see in theatres

Bloated by having to explain the unusual (and eye-rolling) villain, when the set pieces kick off it's worth the wait. Cruise shows his trademark commitment to the stunts.

Good

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 30, 2023

#FF23 The Flash has a handful of good ideas and fun action, squandered in a mess of a flabby film.

Keaton is great, but ultimately just in the movie as fan service (though not the most egregious). The visual effects are often terrible: like a bad Unreal engine demo.

Skip.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 30, 2023

#FF23 How To Blow Up A Pipeline is a smart, focussed, methodical film about... well, blowing up a pipeline.

The structure, going back and forth between character's back stories, works well; the pacing is tight without being frantic; and the story pans out nicely.

Very good.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 30, 2023

#FF23 Oppenheimer is a surprisingly intimate film for Nolan, focussing more on the man himself than the wider action around him.

Murphy puts in a career-best performance, shining in an absolutely stacked cast. Downey Jr too. At three hours, it moves quickly.

Excellent.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 30, 2023

#FF23 The Out-Laws is a fairly flimsy comedy about in-laws who are bank robbers.

There's a bunch of flab in the middle here, but it's fun if forgettable and lightweight. Brosnan seems to be having some fun at least.

Fine.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 30, 2023

#FF23 They Cloned Tyrone is an odd mix: at times a broad, goofy adventure, at others a little darker, with clear nods to blaxploitation films, and an underlying message around race in America.

Boyega, Foxx, and Parris all put in good performances that make it work.

Very good.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 30, 2023

#FF23 The Artifice Girl is an excellent sci-fi indie about AI and trauma.

The second act is a little expositional, but the first and last acts of the three act structure are fantastic. Weighty ideas from which the director/write/star doesn't flinch.

An excellent feature debut.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 30, 2023

#FF23 Barbie is an outrageously big take on the franchise.

Robbie and Gosling are perfectly cast with their completely bought-in performances; it could've been goofy in less capable hands. Funny, knowing, with a good message. Doesn't know how to end but has fun on the way

Great

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 30, 2023

#FF23 Alice, Darling looks at abusive relationships in a more complex way than most.

Kendrick is excellent as the lead, but the whole cast shines. The script drips out what's been happening, while showing how decent people can get trapped by abusers.

Excellent but difficult.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) June 25, 2023

#FF23 Extraction 2 is an excellent follow-up to the original.

It once again focusses on one massive action set-piece shot to look like a oner. It's ridiculous, but fun. The back-end of the film drags, but there's enough silly action to get through it.

Good fun.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) June 25, 2023

#FF23 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a disappointment.

It's visually interesting but not much else works. It's far too long, with shoe-horned character arcs, and a bunch of fan service. As it's the first of two parts, it doesn't have a conclusion.

Fairly boring.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) June 25, 2023

#FF23 No Hard Feelings will hardly make you feel.

It has some amusing moments throughout, but is mostly a little flat. The premise doesn't work well enough to setup the various incidents, and the emotional moments simply don't work.

It's not awful, but it's not great.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) June 25, 2023

#FF23 Asteroid City is the usual mixture of things you expect from Wes Anderson.

Precise framing, pastel colours, dry but funny dialogue, a weird story with some interesting narrative choices, fun contrivances, and a self-seriousness undercut by low stakes.

His best in a while.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 1, 2023

#FF23 Missing is a thriller about a missing mother, seen through the lens of technology.

While there is some silliness in the tech, it's not awful for once. Predictable in the end, but tense enough to be enjoyable. Good performances.

Surprisingly solid.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) May 8, 2023

#FF23 Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 3 is, as with everything Marvel these days, entirely what you expect.

It's big, silly, loud. There's some decent action and some that is a CG mess. Rocket's backstory is great, but sad. The film is at its worst when Pratt takes the lead.

Fine

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) May 8, 2023

#FF23 Scream VI manages to bring some fresh air to the creaking franchise.

Moving from a small town to a big city works surprisingly well. The opening rug pull is a neat change to the formula. Ortega is underutilised, and doesn't seem to want to be there.

Good.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) May 8, 2023

#FF23 The Mother is a dour, lower budget action film.

The action itself is edited to pieces, poorly hiding a lot of nonsense in the cuts. Given the plot isn't up to much either, this was a slot.

Skip.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) May 14, 2023

#FF23 Beau Is Afraid is a mixed bag.

Aster shows his control of the camera and mood remains masterful in its uneasy precision. The plot is entertaining and perplexing; at times demanding your attention, and at others boring. Overlong, but arresting.

Hard to love, easy to like.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) May 21, 2023

#FF23 Dead Shot has promise as both as serious drama and a more action film, but it squanders both.

There are so many moments of cliched dialogue it's hard not to roll your eyes. The film looks fine, and the performances are okay, but nothing really rises up here.

Passable.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) May 29, 2023

#FF23 Hypnotic is a conundrum. One one hand it's trying to be a solid, Nolan-esque, mindbender. One the other, it's plain silly.

You'll see a bunch of the twists coming but, as pure popcorn fodder, it doesn't matter too much. Some good ideas, that become goofy by the end.

Fun.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) May 29, 2023

#FF23 Tetris is a decent, if somewhat compressed take, on the legal drama and backstabbing to get the rights for the game.

The cast are fine and the direction functional enough, without being interesting. It's a little too neat in places, but a perfectly fine watch.

Okay.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) April 10, 2023

#FF23 Air tells the story of the marketing drama behind getting Michael Jordan to sign with Nike.

The cast are fine, but everyone is well within their comfort zone. Similarly, Affleck as director turns in a solid enough movie, with nothing particularly flashy on camera.

Fine.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) April 10, 2023

#FF23 Operation Fortune is a silly, slightly under budget action film.

There are some decent sequences and big, silly performances (and some that don't quite work). The plotting is a bit of a mess to get between set pieces, but that's fine.

Forgettable but fun.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) April 10, 2023

#FF23 Shazam: Fury Of The Gods is a weaker continuation of the original.

There's no subtext (Billy's feelings are regularly stated), uneven pacing, and an eye-rolling ending made of pure fan service.

The action is fun enough, there are a few funny moments. Popcorn fodder.

Meh.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) April 16, 2023

#FF23 Assassin Club is a slog of a film.

The dialogue is absolutely leaden, the action is badly cut so as to be illegible, and the plot makes no sense. Noomi Rapace appears to be in a different movie. Sam Neill deserves better.

An action film with bad action is one to skip.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) April 16, 2023

#FF23 Ghosted is a light-hearted spy film, with a nonsense plot that is pretty poorly cobbled together.

There are repeated jokes about the tension between the two leads, but there is none. The music cues are genuinely terrible

There are worse things to watch but it's meh to bad

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) May 8, 2023

#FF23 Creed 3 is typical of the franchise: the ups and downs of fighting someone stronger, rising to the challenge, and succeeding in some way.

The cast are all solid, the plot is predictable, and everything is watchable. The visual flair in the last act is cringeworthy.

Fine.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) March 12, 2023

#FF23 65 treats it's somewhat ridiculous premise (space man crash lands on a dinosaur filled Earth) with an even tone: serious without being dour, not as a gag.

The runtime feels right, and Driver holds it together well enough. You'll see every twist coming but won't mind.

Okay

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) March 12, 2023

#FF23 The Boston Strangler is a reasonable enough take on the reporting around the eponymous killer.

Both Knightley and Coon are solid as the journalists tracking down leads. It looks fine, but very generic: tealy/orange-tinged period drama.

Nothing special, but decent enough.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) March 19, 2023

#FF23 John Wick: Chapter 4 is exactly what you want in an action film.

It's a little too long, but is otherwise excellent: some of the best action and stunts in cinema, shot clearly and inventively, with a bunch of performers showing off what they can do.

Really good fun.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) April 2, 2023

#FF23 Infinity Pool is creeping body horror with something to say about predatorial tourism.

Goth and Skarsgård are both fully committed to their weird roles, delivering an unease that slowly ramps up. The pacing is a bit off and it doesn't get as weird as it might.

Pretty good

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) April 2, 2023

#FF23 Women Talking is disarmingly calm, for the most part, despite the horrific impetus.

A quiet conversation for 90 or so minutes, with some excellent performances from the entire cast. Despite the one major location, it remains grounded and never feels stagey.

Very good.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) April 2, 2023