Thriller
Fall 2 (12A)
Review: Don’t look down. High-altitude thrills and spills stay in the family in a nimble sequel to the 2022 action thriller, which replaces Scott Mann in the director’s chair with brothers Peter and Michael Spierig. Filmed on location in Thailand from a script co-written by Mann and Jonathan Frank, Fall 2 contrives another knife-edge battle for survival at death-defying heights that expands the backstory of characters from the original film.
Jax Hunter (Harriet Slater) is tormented by the final words she spat in anger at her adrenaline-junkie younger sister, Shiloh (Virginia Gardner), shortly before her sibling fell to her death during a daredevil climb to the top of an abandoned 2,000 feet TV tower in the middle of the desert. Shiloh’s passing inspires an outpouring of grief from online followers and Jax struggles to deal with strangers’ interest in her sister’s life. She prepares to give away Shiloh’s belongings to someone she can trust, her sister’s good friend Luce (Arsema Thomas).
When Luce sees that Jax is in deep psychological pain and scared to move forward, she suggests a life-changing trip to Thailand to tick off the next climb off Shiloh’s thrill-seeking bucket list: a plank walk around Mount Kwan including breathtaking views from an outcrop dubbed the Devil’s Elbow. Jax decides to face her fears and accompanies Luce to Thailand where they hire a guide, Jon Platt (Tom Brittney), to lead the illegal climb. He explains the route they will be taking “has been closed to the public for over three decades”. The women ignore the obvious red flags and during the ascent, a cataclysmic rockslide separates Jon from his inexperienced climbers, stranding Jax and Luce on rickety planks with no obvious route down.
Fall 2 demands a greater suspension of disbelief than the first film to accept two novice climbers would willingly place themselves in peril, thousands of metres up an unstable mountainside, as a memorial to someone with considerably more experience. Slater and Thomas are well-matched as the foolhardy heroines, who discover courage and resilience in stomach-churning adversity, balancing physical demands of their roles with quieter moments when they can let tears plummet as characters unload grief and guilt. Brittney’s impact is limited by screen time.
A sprightly running time trims 10 minutes off the original and sustains tension and in the second hour, Mann and Frank’s script engineers some satisfyingly gnarly twists including one gasp-inducing surprise, putting clear narrative distance between the Spierigs’ picture and its predecessor. The brothers choreograph action set pieces with gusto, with thunderous accompaniment from Tim Despic’s overly enthusiastic score. A clunky coda brings the plot full circle and baits the hook of a third instalment, which will be written and directed by Mann. Fall 2 defies gravity, not expectations.
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Documentary
Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger (15)
Review: On July 4 2025, Liam and Noel Gallagher kicked off a 41-date world tour dubbed Oasis Live ’25 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. It was the first time the brothers had performed together since they split after an argument in the dressing room at the 2009 Rock en Seine festival near Paris. Mobile phone footage of an on-stage announcement (“The band doesn’t exist anymore…”) cues the only chorus of jeers and boos you’ll hear in Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace’s rhapsodic documentary.
The remaining two hours of Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger is an unabashed valentine to the rabble-rousing Manchester siblings and their bandmates, juxtaposing electrifying on-stage performances with crowd shots, backstage material and the first joint interview of Noel and Liam in over 20 years. The pair trade playful banter and casually drop c- and f-bombs into sentences with the same ease and frequency as commas and full stops.
Stationary cameras capture rehearsals. Liam is absent on day one. “Obviously I’ll have to sing,” quips Noel, and after a few minutes of blowing off cobwebs, guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs observes that he’s been put “in the middle of a Gallagher sandwich” with Liam and Noel due to stand either side of him. On day two, Liam walks in, performs for the day and leaves without saying a word. Six weeks of rehearsals pay dividends, and after opening night in Cardiff, Noel confesses that he is taken aback “by the intensity of what it meant to people”.
The film’s set list includes venue-specific performances of Some Might Say (Manchester’s Heaton Park), Roll With It (Dublin’s Croke Park) and Wonderwall (Buenos Aires’ Estadio Mas Monumental). Liam dedicates Live Forever to the late Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield. Snapshots of fans gushing about the reunion (“It’s like the rebirth of Christ!”) add flecks of colour and humour. By contrast, a survivor of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombings hears “Don’t Look Back In Anger” live for the first time. The song became an anthem for a city in mourning and, too neatly, underlines the Gallaghers’ reunion after 15 years of embittered silence.
Any potential potholes in the road to reconciliation are swerved. There’s no mention of the furore surrounding ticketing for the tour and, curiously, the film doesn’t address why the brothers decided to heal old wounds. “I was born with one fatal flaw in my character. I will not forgive people,” explains Noel in archive footage. By the end of these two hours, he’s changed his tune, sharing public displays of affection with Liam on stage as Jackie DeShannon trills What The World Needs Now Is Love. Fans will certainly love Southern and Lovelace’s film; the rest of us can just roll with it.
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Comedy
Practical Magic 2 (12A)
Review: If witches exist and spellcasting is real, surely one wand could have been casually waved in the direction of Practical Magic 2 to hocus pocus the hokum out of Susanne Bier’s eagerly anticipated sequel? The original 1998 romantic comedy based on Alice Hoffman’s novel is one of those rare films that cultivated a passionate fanbase after a disappointing cinema release. Alas, no amount of midnight margaritas can wash away the lingering aftertaste of disappointment in a fantastical sequel that welcomes a new generation of Owens women to the cosy coven.
Sisterly white witches Sally and Gillian Owens (Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman) have accepted the family curse, which kills any man they dare to openly love. Living in an enchanting – and enchanted – Victorian house with eccentric aunts Bridget (Dianne Wiest) and Frances (Stockard Channing), Sally has turned her back on magic and erased the memories of daughters Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams) in the forlorn hope her girls might enjoy normal lives. Completing the transformation into quiet domesticity, Sally works in silence as a librarian.
Despite these well-intentioned plans, Kylie falls in love with boyfriend Gideon (Xolo Mariduena) and declares her feelings. Within hours, Gideon is involved in a traffic accident and languishes in a coma, seemingly bound for the land of the dead. Sally confirms the family curse to Kylie and the younger Owen secretly heads to England, armed with an ancient book from aunt Bridget’s bedroom. Sally and Gillian sense impending danger and collaborate with London-based academic Ian Wright (Lee Pace) to prevent fresh misery poisoning the Owens family bloodline. Meanwhile, Kylie learns about her family’s dark history from a kind villager named Tom (Solly McLeod).
Practical Magic 2 is a sequel by numbers that panders unapologetically to fans by revisiting iconography, including tequila-heavy tipples and rooftop reverie with umbrellas. A flimsy plot is heavily weighted towards Sally and her brood, reducing Kidman’s open-hearted free spirit to sidekick duties as the fleeting comic relief or sage counsel. Bullock’s penchant for physical humour and pratfalls continues to serve her well while King confidently conveys her daughter’s rage, despair and betrayal. She allows that maelstrom of emotions to consume Kylie during her jaunt around merry ole England to explain some questionable lapses in judgment that neatly set up the spooky finale.
Pace catalyses simmering chemistry with Bullock (he’s completely naked for their initial meet cute and careful positioning of the camera spares everyone’s blushes). Williams is largely redundant. Her character’s job as a doctor allows Antonia to stand guard over comatose Gideon while the rest of the clan actively break the curse. If Bier’s sequel was plugged into a heart monitor, it would register a steady but thready pulse.
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Thriller
Pressure (12A)
Review: The weather controls our daily life. It can destroy us. Those words, softly spoken by Scottish meteorologist James Stagg (Andrew Scott) as the clock ticks down to the D-Day landings in Anthony Maras’s nerve-racking wartime thriller, resonate just as powerfully today with devastating global headlines about wildfires and flash floods. Adapted for the screen by the director and David Haig from the latter’s stage play, Pressure is an unbearably tense battle of egos and nerves, anchored by a tour-de-force lead performance from Scott as the emotionally buttoned weatherman who can never trade in absolute certainties.
In June 1944 as German bombs rain down on the UK, General Dwight D Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser), supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, prepares to make one of the most important decisions of his distinguished military career. He must give the go-ahead for Operation Neptune, scheduled for the early hours of June 5. The top-secret Allied assault on Normandy will be the biggest invasion by sea in history and success will be crucial to liberating France from the vice-like grip of Hitler’s war machine.
Weather conditions could derail an Allied invasion. American meteorologist Colonel Irving P Krick (Chris Messina) has studied historical weather patterns and is convinced June 5 will be a sunny day. Churchill insists on bringing in his own adviser: Group Captain James Stagg (Scott). Stagg arrives at Allied headquarters at Southwick House in Hampshire to provide his analysis of predicted weather for the chosen date, assisted by Andrew Carter (Jojo Macari). Analysis of live data indicates two storm systems on June 5 and Stagg strongly advises Eisenhower to call off the military operation, publicly disagreeing with Krick’s assessment. “Churchill says he’s a genius,” Eisenhower confides to private secretary Captain Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon). “Men are too fond of that word,” she dryly responds.
Produced by the team responsible for Darkest Hour, Pressure elegantly condenses Haig’s 2014 stage play into a masterful dramatisation of stiff upper-lipped resolve that whitens knuckles because history teaches us how pivotal events on the Normandy beaches were to Allied fortunes. As one character correctly predicts “the fate of the war hinges on this”. Scott is mesmerising. A scene in which Stagg receives an important telephone call about his pregnant wife (Tamsin Topolski) demonstrates the actor’s ability to deliver a sledgehammer blow of emotion using only his eyes. He spars effectively with Fraser’s embattled leader and Messina’s cocky rival. Condon cuts through the machismo and chest-puffing with precision.
Damian Lewis deliberately stokes uncomfortable tension as Army Commander-in-Chief General Sir Bernard Montgomery, who asserts any delay to Operation Neptune will be fatal and his men are ready to deploy. “Get them onto the beaches, somehow, anyhow,” he barks. Stagg holds firm. History and hindsight sombrely conclude faint hearts never won a war.
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Action
Runner (15)
Review: When we think of action thrillers, we tend to picture kidnappings, high-stakes heists or terrorist attacks driving the plot. The practice of organ transportation, by contrast, feels like an unlikely hook for the genre. Yet this is precisely the premise of Scott Waugh’s Runner, not to be confused with Gal Gadot’s action thriller The Runner, which recently arrived on Prime Video.
Set in Brisbane, Australia, the film stars Alan Ritchson as Hank Malone, a very muscular ex-military man who has turned his back on a life of violence. Now celebrating one year of sobriety, he is carving out a new life as a delivery driver. For his latest job, Hank must escort Ben Bishop (Owen Wilson) and his precious medical cargo, a healthy liver, from a private jet to a hospital on the Gold Coast.
Unfortunately, a Colombian cartel led by Damian Zaldivar (Rodrigo Santoro) intends to hijack the delivery and steal the organ. With time running out for a young patient and her desperate mother (Leila George), Hank and Ben must dodge bullets as they race against the clock to deliver the transplant to the surgical team.
The film makes no attempt to ground its premise in reality, but there’s suspension of disbelief and then there’s Runner. How has a cartel ended up in Brisbane? How is Hank able to fight off seemingly endless waves of gang members single-handedly? We do find out the answer to the first question, and are treated to a number of telenovela-style plot twists along the way, only adding to the film’s far-fetched nature.
If you’re looking for action, Runner certainly delivers. There’s a never-ending Range Rover chase, several gunfights and a race against the clock as Hank and Ben desperately try to get the organ to its destination while it is still viable. Wilson provides plenty of comic relief, but Runner is far more heavily weighted towards action than comedy. He and Ritchson make for an unlikely double act, but their chemistry helps carry the film through its clunky plot. The action sequences towards the end start to feel relentless, but if you’re looking for brawn over plot, Runner is mildly entertaining.
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