Watching - October 2025

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Not as funny and irreverent as I remember, but still great fun - the opening title sequence with Groot dancing to ELO is surely one of Marvel's best. The crew meet a "celestial", who can manifest anything into being but chooses to represent himself as a paunchy, aging Kurt Russell for some reason (come on, he could have looked like David Hasselhoff!) and there's some silly sentimental family stuff which doesn't quite hit for me (and I like sentimental), but the film never stops being amazing to watch.

The Trip to Italy (2014)

Another sequel and another example of something that perhaps wasn't quite the equal of the first instalment. The faint elements of plot seem at odds with the overall feel of the series, although it's nice to have characters other than "Rob" and "Steve" to look at. Funny in places but either I'm missing something (there's a number of film references I am not familiar with) or it's just a bit rambling. 

Good Will Hunting (1997)

For a long time, about the only thing I knew about Good Will Hunting is that William Goldman jokingly claimed to have written the whole thing (he was only asked to provide some feedback, as he confirms in his book). The persistent rumour that he did is probably because Matt Damon and Ben Affleck rose without trace to win an Oscar for their first screenplay (Affleck remains the youngest winner of the Best Original Screenplay award) but haven't since really repeated it, becoming film stars instead. Which in fairness is probably more lucrative. Anyway, the film is all right. I felt that the progression through the plot was uneven, some of the dramatic breakdown scenes came somewhat out of nowhere and Matt Damon was decent in the lead role, no more. Robin Williams deserves the accolades for his performance, though, which was (unsurprisingly) more mature and complete.

Oppenheimer (2023)

Impressive but a bit too full of its own importance. See full review.

The Thursday Murder Club (2025)

An enjoyable Sunday afternoon murder mystery, with plenty of opportunity to guess whodunnit (C, watching with me for a change, guessed most of it) and also copious chances to spot the stars in larger or smaller roles. Some of the casting was a bit odd (Pierce Brosnan is not really plausible as a trade unionist - surely Ray Winstone would have been perfect here) but perhaps intended more for entertainment rather than to be taken seriously (I assume that's why Richard E. Grant appeared briefly). Of course the plot was simplified, which made it a little less plausible to my mind. And Bogdan was arrested, which makes you wonder about future films, since he's a big part of the next books.

Love At First Sight (2023)

Fifth time of watching! Still moving and lovely. Special mention this time (which I should have before) for Sally Phillips and Dexter Fletcher, who are both superb.

Paddington in Peru (2024)

It's unfortunate that the film's last words (apart from a brief and pointless end credit scene) are "that's disappointing", as they pretty much sum up the film. It's just trying too hard to capture what was so successful in the previous instalments in the series. We kept watching until the end for some reason, although I am not sure why now.

I Used to be Famous (2022)

Chosen purely on the basis that it was broadly based around music, this turned out to be a sweet coming of age/journey of self-realisation film. I enjoyed the fact that it was mostly set in and around London (although I'm also reading Taxtopia, which makes you wonder how much the decision to base it here was for the tax breaks), for including an autistic main character (played by a neurodivergent actor too) but not overplaying it as a part of the story, and that they used Portishead's fantastic "The Rip" for one of the scenes. The ending was a bit ambiguous though, as we don't find out whether Vince actually turns away from empty success and chooses his new-found community instead.

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

Implausible, but plausibly so, if that makes any sense. And super stylish - Pierce Brosnan is very good here. Mention this time for the excellent music throughout, culminating with the final scene in the music being sound-tracked by Nina Simone's incredible "Sinnerman". Shame it ended with Sting's so-so cover of "Windmills of your Mind", which didn't match the rest of soundtrack at all.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 5, 2017)

The first thing I have to say is that Gina is absent for the first half of the series, and I honestly didn't even notice until she came back. You could say that's a sign of good writing, but I think it shows that the series doesn't actually need her at all - she's the only main character that is so one-dimensional. Everything else is as good as usual: the Backstreet Boys cold open (episode 17) is an absolute classic, Jake and Amy's relationship develops nicely (spoiler: they get married in the last episode) and Rosa coming out as bisexual is handled nicely, albeit a little heavy-handedly initially. Great stuff.

Knight and Day (2010)

Preposterous nonsense, but Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise are likeable enough together to carry it. Honestly not sure what made me pick it.