The Tomorrow War (2021)
Chris Pratt is drafted into a war three decades from now against an enemy that eats armies whole. The premise is sharper than the script, but the spectacle and the creatures earn their keep. 7.5/10.
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Nobody (2021)
The team behind John Wick hand Bob Odenkirk a body count and a bus full of thugs, and he runs with it. Lean, brutal and very funny, it is the most fun ninety minutes the genre has produced in a while. 8/10.
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A Quiet Place Part II (2021)
John Krasinski opens up the silent world without breaking the rule that made the first film work. Leaner, faster and just as tense, it is a sequel that knows exactly what it is for. 8/10.
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The Mauritanian (2021)
Kevin Macdonald turns the Guantanamo Diary into a procedural about evidence and conscience, anchored by Tahar Rahim and Jodie Foster. The structure plays safe; the central performance does not. 7.5/10.
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Greenland (2020)
Gerard Butler swaps saving the president for saving his family as a comet comes apart over a panicking Earth. A disaster film with the spectacle turned down and the human stakes turned up, and it is much the better for it. 8/10.
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Tenet (2020)
Christopher Nolan builds a spy thriller that runs forwards and backwards at once. It is colder than Inception and twice as demanding, and on craft and sheer ambition it is hard to look away. 8.5/10.
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The Old Guard (2020)
A comic-book premise about immortal mercenaries that Charlize Theron and Gina Prince-Bythewood turn into something with weight as well as weaponry. Familiar in shape, but unusually well made and very rewatchable. 8/10.
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Greyhound (2020)
Tom Hanks writes himself a lean, ninety-minute Atlantic crossing and spends almost all of it on the bridge. No subplots, no flab, just the hunt. 8/10.
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Extraction (2020)
A stunt coordinator steps up to direct and hands Chris Hemsworth one long, brutal day in Dhaka. The story is thin, the action is not, and as a piece of staging it is one of the best things Netflix has put its name to. 8/10.
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Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
J. J. Abrams returns to wrap up a trilogy that lost its way, and delivers a gorgeous, breathless, slightly panicked finale that leans hard on nostalgia. Spectacular to look at, frustrating to think about. 7.5/10.
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