Author Archives: tldrmoviereviews

The Life of Chuck – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A profoundly weird film, steeped in sadness, leaving you disconnected, right up until the moment you find yourself captured by the story.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Chuck with hands on either side of his head.

The Life of Chuck Review –

When I walked into the cinema last night, I had no idea what I was expecting. I knew that Tom Hiddleston was in the film because that was the only thing of note on the posters. But I was not prepared for what I was going to see, a feeling that was confirmed the second the ‘Act 3’ appeared in the opening moment.   

So, to set the scene, we open as Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is desperately trying to get his students interested in Walt Whitman. However, the class is disrupted by the news that an earthquake has struck Los Angeles and California is slipping into the ocean, which is when the internet fails for the final time. In the past 14 months, the world has degraded after wave after wave of disasters have stretched everything to breaking. But amongst all the disasters, something odd is happening. Throughout the town, signs bearing “Charles Krantz: 39 Great Years! Thanks, Chuck!” begin appearing in honour of Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston). But no one knows who Chuck is.   

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Weapons – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is one of the most ‘messed’ up films that I have seen, the kind of film where you cross your arms in a vain attempt to put a barrier between you and the screen.  

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

2:17 on a clock.

Weapons Review –

Sometimes you sit down and realise you were fundamentally unprepared for the film you were about to see. That you were prepared for the horror that was coming, well, you thought you were prepared. You crossed your arms, hoping to shield yourself from what was on screen, but nothing could prepare you for Weapons.

So, to set the scene, in a small leafy town in the countryside of America, you can find Maybrook and its elementary school. It is a quaint place where nothing much ever happens, that is, until one day Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) walked into her third-year class to find it empty of every student bar one, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher). One month later, the police are no closer to finding what happened to those seventeen children, and the town is tearing itself apart looking for them. There must be a focus on all that rage, guilt, and sorrow, and unfortunately for Justine, she is that focus. So, as the town focuses their rage on her, the question remains: What happened to the kids at 2:17 in the morning on that fateful day?

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The Naked Gun (2025) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While not every joke lands, and runs too long, it is still one of the funniest films I have seen this year.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Police Squad Headquarters.

The Naked Gun Review –

Some films are called iconic for a good reason, whether that is because of the time, the cast, the writing, directing, or more than likely a combination of all of them. Which is why reboots decades later rarely work, they are trying to recreate something that does not exist anymore. But every now and again, someone finds a way to recreate that magic. Today, we look at a film that just might have pulled that off.

So, to set the scene, we open as criminals start tearing a bank apart looking for money, gems, and a P.L.O.T. Device. The police have the bank surrounded when a little girl breaches the barricade and runs into the bank. The criminals think this is a joke, but in reality, it is Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) in disguise. Drebin’s overzealous tactics land several people in the hospital, thus he and his partner, Capt. Ed Hocken Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser) are reassigned to a car crash in the mountains by Chief Davis (CCH Pounder). But after meeting with Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), sister of the deceased, Drebin discovers that there may be more going on.

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Freakier Friday – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A delightful film full of silly shenanigans.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There are mid-credit scenes.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

The whole family realising they were swapped.

Freakier Friday Review –

There is a lot of choice in the body change genre of comedy. You can take an older person and make them young again, or make a young person old. You can even swap some twins around if you want to change things up. However, sometimes you want to get more bang for your buck, and that is where we enter body swap territory. In today’s entry, we look at the film that might be the queen of the body swap genre, and it is time for a sequel to do it all over again.

So, to set the scene, back in the 2000s, calamity came to the lives of Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her daughter Anna (Lindsay Lohan) when they read a fortune cookie at the same time and swapped bodies, living each other’s lives until an act of selfishness broke the spell. It has now been twenty-two years since that fateful time. But with Anna about to marry her new fiancée, Eric Davies (Manny Jacinto), there is a significant change in the lives of her daughter Harper (Julia Butters) and new stepdaughter Lily (Sophia Hammons) coming. Well, it seems like it is the perfect time for another switch-up.   

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – A Space Adventure Hour [S3E4] – TV Review

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TL;DR – Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Adventure. Its episode-long mission: to make meta commentary; try and outdo Lower Decks with a Riker reference; and serve shade on William Shatner like never before!

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ streaming service that viewed this episode. 

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Maxwell Saint

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review –

Today, I might have watched one of the profoundly odd episodes of Star Trek that has ever Star Treked across the universe. That is, on one hand, a deep love letter to the Original Series in all its camp glory. But it is also a strong critique of the era, while it skirted the edge of canon. It is an episode where you spend most of the runtime wondering: just what did I watch?

So, to set the scene, while the USS Enterprise is at station watching a pulsar starting to collapse, the admiralty thought that this would be the perfect time to test the new holodeck, because if ships are going to be away from base for more than five years, they will need more entertainment opportunities. Thinking of the best candidate to test the holodeck to the limits, there was only one candidate, La’An Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong). So, she decides to base it on the Amelia Moon novels that she loved as a child. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Murderbot: Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – While this was a ridiculous romp of a show, beneath that exterior lies a fascinating character piece about identity, free will, and community.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the AppleTV+ service that viewed this show.

Murderbot standing outside of the habitat.

Murderbot Review –

Well, we have come to the end of what was an exciting, if odd series. I love my Sci-fi in almost every flavour, and sometimes you want a lighter, silly flair to it. Today’s series that we are exploring has that, indeed, it has that in spades. However, what it also has is an honest heart, which was the bigger surprise, and one that I deeply love to discover.

So, to set the scene, we open on the Mining Station Aratake in the Corporation Rim. Here, all the miners are celebrating the end of the mining expedition 115-24TTX. The one person not celebrating is the Security Unit, which has to follow human orders and tries to keep them safe. But as he is sitting there, he is able to hack the Governor Module in his head, thus Security Unit 238776431 did not have the right ring to it, so it became Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård). He was a free bot, but given the corporation would kill him the moment they discovered he was rogue, which is how he ended up on Mining Survey 0Q17Z4Y, with more humans, ones who just might care about him, because they were weird. Now, from here, we will be looking at the series as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Shuttle to Kenfori [S3E3] – TV Review

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TL;DR – It is time to get our Horror on as something creeps in the dark, waiting to strike. Oh, and the Klingons are here too. 

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ streaming service that viewed this episode. 

The USS Enterprise approaches Kenfori.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review –

One thing you need to know about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is that it is not afraid to take wild swings in tone and also go “how about we do an ‘insert x’ episode? The sort of episode that makes no sense being in a Star Trek show, but goodness, do they pull it off more times than not. Sometimes this can be a musical episode, but today it is time to dip our toes in some straight-up horror.  

So, to set the scene, back in Hegemony Part II, Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano) caught a bad case of Gorn larvae, and while they thought they had cured the infection, unfortunately, the Gorn are resilient. She didn’t have much hope left, save for one Hail Mary, a Chimera flower only found in Kenfori. There was once a Federation research base on the planet, but it was evacuated during the Klingon-Federation War. Now, it is in the Restricted Zone drawn up after the war. Which means they must undertake a black ops mission, and Pike (Anson Mount) and M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) take a shuttle down to the surface. The research station is still there, and so is the flower. But why is there no animal life on the planet? And why is there a Klingon beacon blasting a warning above the planet? Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Dune: Awakening – Video Game Review

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TL;DR – This game has usurped my life, even when Harold killed me over and over again …. And over again.  

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for this game.

Looking out over the Hagga Basin.

Dune: Awakening Review –

Every now and again, a game captures me in a way that I cannot quite understand. It’s what I think about at work, what I ponder on the bus, and sometimes even what pops up in my dreams. Today I get to do a deep dive into one such game that has taken over my life in the last couple of weeks. For you see, the spice must flow.

So, to set the scene, we have entered the world of Dune, but not the world you might be familiar with. For this is one of Paul Atreides’ spice dreams, where he explores a world of what would have happened if his mother Lady Jessica had been loyal to the Bene Gesserit and had a daughter instead of a son, as they wanted. Thus, House Atreides was not wiped out in the Arrakis coup, and the planet has been thrust into a war between them and House Harkonnen. You play an off-worlder from one of several factions that have found themselves on a slave transport. Your life has minimal promise, that is, until a masked figure shoots down your transport and you find yourself out on the sands of Dune, not prepared for the world you are about to enter.

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps – Movie Review

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TL;DR – The best Fantastic Four film by a country mile.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

The Fantastic Four in a row.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps Review –

Well, it is time for another try at bringing the Fantastic Four to life. This would make it the third reboot of the franchise in my time. To catch you up, I liked the camp fun of Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, but it has been decades since I watched them, so I am not sure how well they have aged. But also, 2016’s Fantastic Four was an amazingly cast failure at almost every level. Which gives us a wide range to be working with even before we take into consideration the current rocky ground the MCU is standing on. But there is always time to find your feet, and I hope that today is that time as we dive headfirst into Phase 6. 


So, to set the scene, we are on Earth, but not as we know it because this is Earth-828, and four years ago, a tragic accident in space created heroes by cosmically changing their DNA. Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) who can stretch his body, his wife Sue Storm / Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) who can manipulate light, her brother Johnny Storm / Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) who can turn into flames, and good friend Ben Grimm / The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) has turned into rock. Their emergence has changed the world, but for their family, the only thing that matters is that Sue is pregnant. It is a moment that brings them all together, which is when a harbinger of doom arrives in the sky. The Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) announces to the world that it has been chosen for destruction at the hands of Galactus (Ralph Ineson). The Fantastic Four want to save Earth, but what happens when the price of salvation is too high?

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Foundation: A Song for the End of Everything [S3E1] – TV Review

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TL;DR – A solid introduction that promises a lot, but is more about the vibes than detail.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this episode.

Exposition in a garden.

Foundation Review –

Well, it is time to jump back into the world of Foundation, a series I am fascinated by for how it adapts a classical work for a modern audience. The original series is one of its time, and it chopped and changed as Isaac Asimov charted a more serialised work. But this new adaptation has found ways to run through that narrative to give it a connection. Some of these have worked, and others have been failures. As we shift into the next phase of the series, it will be interesting to see where we land.   

So to set the scene, it has been 152 years since the Second Crisis, and while The Empire continues to collapse, The Foundation grows, expanding further out of the outer reach. Now both the Empire and The Foundation are fighting to control Kalgan, a pleasure planet, and the key to controlling The Middle Band. But there may be a third player out there, ready to tear everything up. For after much prediction, or perhaps, not enough prediction, The Mule (Pilou Asbæk) is on the move, and both sides should fear him. Now, from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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