Every year it is the same, it isn’t really a resolution but just a promise to myself to try and get to the cinema at least once a month. That promise starts well, but usually peters out after a few months, although to be fair, the quality of some of the recent cinema releases hasn’t been great.
Two films I did enjoy at the cinema last year were “Companion” starring Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid, and “Weapons” starring Josh Brolin, Julie Garner, Benedict Wong, and a great, creepy turn by Amy Madigan.
A film that I thought was okay was “Fantastic Four: First Steps”, another attempt at rebooting those characters after the awful 2015 version; with an obvious post-credits scene linking into the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday” movie.
On the small-screen, I still have to catch up with the second series of “Wednesday”, despite loving the first series, but on the streaming front I really enjoyed Netflix’s “Dept Q” which transplanted Jussi Adler Olsen’s series of books (which have also been made into films) from Denmark to Edinburgh. I also enjoyed Netflix’s “The Beast in Me” matching Clare Danes as a guilt-ridden, former best-selling writer against her new neighbour, a predatory, real-estate billionaire, and possible murderer, played by Matthew Rhys. It was one of those series where you end up shouting things like “Don’t go in there!”, “Get out!” and “Don’t send that text!” at the screen. Also, nice to see Jonathan Banks, better known as Mike from “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul”, making an appearance as Rhys’ father.
But now we are in 2026, and we’ve just finished watching the second series of “The Night Manager” and were pretty certain how it was going to pan out, but we got it so wrong, rather like some of the characters. Roll on series 3, hopefully without as big a gap as there was between the first two series. And the new year cinema-going resolution is holding up – just – with a trip to the cinema on the last day of January to see “The Housemaid”, based on the novel by Frieda McFadden, which my wife had read, but I hadn’t, so went into it cold, and it was probably all the more enjoyable because of that, with a few twists and turns and viewpoint changes. That was followed the very next day – the 1st of February – by catching the extended edition of “The Fellowship of the Ring” on its 25th anniversary outing. Before the film started Peter Jackson did an introduction explaining the politics of the production with Time wanting to get out of the Time-Warner deal, but who would replace them, and what effect might that have on the release of the movies, especially if the first one was a flop? He also explained why Viggo Mortensen isn’t shown full face-on in the fighting scenes in the Mines of Moria, thanks to a surfing accident when he tried to stop a surf board with the side of his face, ouch.
