Since last month I've joined Cineworld's Unlimited membership as I decided to check out more films on the big screen than per usual. Not every film will be able to screen at the York location, so I'll have to rely on Picturehouse for any foreign and niche films (for example No Other Choice and The Secret Agent). Anime Limited outside of the big ones won't make it to my area either.
I wanted to highlight a brief look at my thoughts on each one.
2025's list in my opinion were (1 being my favourite):
- Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- 28 Years Later
- KPop Demon Hunters
- The Long Walk
- Sinners
- Wake Up Dead Man
- Frankenstein
- The Phoenician Scheme
- Weapons
- Warfare
- Superman
- Thunderbolts*
- F1
For 2026 so far, here are my current rankings.
#1: Project Hail Mary
The new film by the directors of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and writers of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, this epic sci-fi journey is based on a book written by the author of The Martian. I've not seen The Martian but I have heard it was pretty good, and so with that in mind as well as the team involved plus Ryan Gosling in the lead role I was pretty excited to check this one out especially as the trailers were promising.
I can confirm this film was amazing. This is a perfect film to watch in IMAX because the visuals looked stunning in that format. What they have done is that all of the space sequences are in the IMAX format whilst the scenes on Earth were regular widescreen so it helps with the timeline. Ryan Gosling nailed the role and is really likeable throughout the whole journey, plus it wouldn't surprise me if he manages to get a nomination for Best Actor in next year's Oscars. The standout overall has been the music and visuals because they were beautiful, reminded me a lot of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. The film is fairly long but I think the pacing was spot on and the ending was wonderful. Technically the film isn't supposed to be out until 18th March but there were advanced screenings this past weekend.
Upon first viewing I'm giving this a 5/5, may shift down to 4.5/5 but it's currently the contender for my favourite 2026 film of the year so far.
#2: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
The second instalment in the new 28 Years Later trilogy goes for a pretty bold move of having a different director take over Danny Boyle with this one. Nia DaCosta's track record has been rocky but this film was really good. Alex Garland is one of my favourites in Hollywood and the stories told here were great. The standout here is Ralph Fiennes going all-out with his performance and his storyline focused on Samson was amazing but also unique to the zombie genre because I've never seen this concept come up beforehand. Alfie William's character does take a backseat compared to the previous film and is rather noticeable but Jack O'Connell also smashed it as the antagonist here. Their storyline was not perfect and could have been better, but the final act makes up for it which was completely bonkers in a good way. Regardless I am very much looking forward to the next instalment.
Upon first viewing I gave the film a 4/5.
#3: Hoppers
It has been a long time since I've seen an original non-sequel Pixar film, like we're talking Wall-E, Up and Brave era here. I fell off the Pixar train a while back but I decided to give them another shot with this intriguing film Hoppers. Hoppers was a wonderful trip and surprisingly entertaining throughout. The animation was stunning and very anime-esque in a way which was interesting (looked similar to Studio Ghibli's Pom Poko in a sense with how they handled the perspectives between humans and animals). The humour was very fun and the direction of the plot was great. There's a lot of pretty big themes here related to responsibility and nature, and I think it was done well. Ending was great too.
Upon first viewing I gave the film a 4/5.
#4: Crime 101
A niche choice here in my opinion since not a lot of people will talk or care about this one. Bart Layton's Crime 101 was a pretty neat crime noir thriller focused on different characters that intertwine over the course of a series of robberies. Both Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo were fantastic with their roles as the thief and police agent, and loved their storylines all the way through. The camera work was also really cool and the vibe was solid. What sets the film back from being perfect is that Barry Keoghan's character is one-dimensional though it works in the scenes he's in, and Halle Berry's storyline is not as interesting but also works fine as the story progresses. I also liked the ending of the film too, and the film as a whole reminded me of Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive but without the retro music.
Upon first viewing I gave the film a 4/5, though many may consider this a 3.5/5.
#5: Send Help
Sam Raimi's Send Help is a very intriguing film. What happens when you take a bossy young dude and a well experienced but humiliated employee and then flip the tables when they're stranded on a remote island - you get this film. Rachel McAdams no doubt steals the film and does an amazing job. Dylan O'Brien also provided the funniest and best evil laugh in cinema. The story was also pretty good, but I felt let down by the lack of horror you would expect from Sam Raimi's style especially considering the plane scene at the start was amazing. The final act was pretty decent and the ending did throw me off considering the journey but it may require a rewatch to make sure it made more sense to me.
Upon first viewing I gave the film a 4/5, may shift down to 3.5/5.
#6: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
A film about AI being bad and how to stop it from happening. Gore Verbinski returned to answer just that. This was a very original film and I loved how we see the characters experience the dangers of AI and technology. The film overall was very good but I do have a few issues with some portions of it. I felt the structure of the film was a bit inconsistent, as we had characters who go over their experiences with AI as I mentioned and yet they never talk about it during the scenes with Sam Rockwell's character. Sam Rockwell's character was also a bit overkill with the performance. He definitely acted well and is clearly loving it but it did get a bit too jarring in a lot of the scenes upon first viewing. That said, the ending was very good, the writing (outside of the issues I mentioned) was otherwise fairly solid, the scenes looked great and Haley Lu Richardson was the standout for me as her character arc was pretty good.
Upon first viewing I gave the film a 4/5, may shift down to 3.5/5.
Also watched:
The Bride!
A bold and original take on the Bride of Frankenstein story was a pretty messy experience. Despite its solid aesthetic and very good performances, especially from Christian Bale as the Frankenstein monster himself, the film has this weird concept that just didn't go well for me and ruined the film's direction. There's also a subplot that didn't have enough development and some messaging that barely gets mentioned afterwards. It's a rough time and while I watched it in IMAX I would say it's not worth the theatrical experience.
Upon first viewing I gave the film a 2.5/5.
GOAT
Sony Animation returns with a pretty cool premise that annoying should have been longer runtime wise. I liked what GOAT had to offer and the team players were great fun and the villain was pretty cool, but my problem is that the main lead didn't do enough to make me interested despite the first act pretty much being spot on. There's some conflict that felt off-putting in the half-way point and the final act was super rushed. The animation is fantastic though and I wish the film had an extra 20-30 minutes, but the issue there is that this is also aimed for a younger audience so they had to make it short. There were some pretty fun jokes as well that I liked. I also watched the film in Real 3-D but it doesn't make much of a difference.
Upon first viewing I gave the film a 3/5.
How to Make a Killing
This film has a great premise on paper that doesn't quite hit the mark for me in its execution. Glen Powell was pretty likeable as our protagonist and the way he narratively explains the ordeal from start to finish was pretty good, and while there were some fun humour here and there the film didn't do much for me unfortunately. The direction that the story ends up is best described as playing a dating sim visual novel where you end up with the chaotic bad ending and a frustrating one as well. Is the film worth a watch? I would say at least once but I probably wouldn't rewatch it especially after knowing the direction that it ends up on.
Upon first viewing I gave the film a 3/5, may shift down to 2.5/5.
Iron Lung
Mark Fischbach aka Markiplier made a film based on the indie horror game Iron Lung and it's surprisingly interesting. While Mark himself has to put all of the weight on his shoulders for being the main lead of the film, his performance is fairly rough at first, but somehow after the 45 minute mark the film magically clicked for me and got even better. What's also interesting for me is that this is not a direct adaptation of the video game so if you're familiar with the ending it's different here. The lore is not perfectly explained and pacing is not perfect, but the practical work here is solid and overall was a pretty good attempt for what was supposed to be limited to just a few theatrical screens in the US.
Upon first viewing I gave the film a 3.5/5, though many may consider this a 2.5-3/5.
No Other Choice &
The Secret Agent I watched this year but don't qualify for any rankings because they were both 2025 films that screened late in the UK. Both were excellent films and are also worth watching (I gave No Other Choice a 4/5 and The Secret Agent a 4.5/5 upon first viewings).
