All great mystery movies have two things in common: they galvanize your attention from the opening scene, then keep you wondering for the next two hours what on earth is happening.
Weapons is such a film, offering a first-class head-scratcher with a finale that’s likely to be unlike anything you’ve seen before.
At a small-town primary school teacher (Julia Garner) turns up to find all but one of her pupils are absent.
It quickly emerges that at 2.17am that morning they all got out of bed and ran off into the night. Nobody knows why, but fingers all point to the teacher.
Though this is an original work from writer/director Zach Cregger, the film has all the hallmarks of a fine Stephen King shocker, with all the twists and surprises that entails. Enjoy.
This neatly brings us to The Life of Chuck, a highly entertaining, highly unusual film based on a series of Stephen King short stories.
This delightfully odd tale recounts in reverse order the life of Chuck (Tom Hiddleston), a dance-loving accountant who we first meet via ubiquitous street signage as civilisation starts crumbling.
With a spiritual element fading into the story, we then go back to Chuck’s traumatic childhood to witness how his love of dance, and of life, took root.
Full of surprises, it’s magical rather than macabre, with wonder taking the place horror usually occupies in most King tales.
Some might find a special kind of horror with Freakier Friday, a belated Disney sequel to the hit 2003 comedy Freaky Friday in which a mother and daughter (Jamie Lee Curtis & Lindsay Lohan) swap bodies and experience life from the other’s perspective.
This time things aren’t so straightforward, with Lindsay swapping bodies with her bratty daughter and Jamie Lee switching with the equally bratty daughter of her daughter’s fiancé. Got that?
It’s all slickly slapped together and reasonably funny, but oldies and fans of the 1976 Freaky Friday original with Jodie Foster (available on Disney+ along with the remake) might find it too predictable and a tad tedious.
To be honest, it’s even a bit scary watching how much effort has been put into squeezing a sequel out of the first film. Really, couldn’t they just come up with something new? Definitely one for the teens, this.
Definitely for adults is Eddington, a remarkable, slow-burn comedy-drama that features performances that are sure to feature at the next Oscars soiree.
Set in a dusty small New Mexico town gripped by Covid fears it tells of a rule-defying, mask mandate- hating sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) who decides to run for mayor against a popular incumbent (Pedro Pascal).
There’s paranoia in the air and a lot of resentment about an election campaign that questions the limits of free speech and whether a huge data centre should be allowed to set up in town.
Phoenix turns in another magnetic central performance as an increasingly unbalanced lawman who battles with social media and protesters causing discord on his patch.
At 150 minutes it’s a long sit but definitely one worth avoiding black coffee for. Check it out. Opens 21 August.
And now for a home viewing recommendation that’s admittedly warped.
We all know how every now and again a bad film comes along that ironically becomes entertaining. Well, the latest version of the classic HG Wells The War of the Worlds is one such item.
To say the story strays from the original would be an understatement. We still have giant three-legged alien machines laying waste to Earthly civilisation – only what they’re hungry for isn’t our living space, it’s our data!
With former rapper-turned-respectable actor Ice Cube in the lead, the film is very poorly directed, has terrible dialogue, weak performances and a story that just gets sillier and sillier.
Told totally via device screens (computers, phones, iPads etc), some good visual effects play against obvious stock footage and laughable amounts of product placement for Amazon.
It’s a glorious, amateurish mess. Catch it (unsurprisingly) on Prime – if you dare. (Cue maniacal laughter)
For more visit jimschembri.com with updates on X at @jimschembri