By Roy Mathur, on 2026-08-10, at 02:42:35 to 04:11:51 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
American and Russian snipers guard opposite sides of secret chasm, wherein something lurks that must not escape in this 2025 horror film, co-starring Anya Taylor-Joy.
There's romance, monsters, world-saving, and a nasty end for evil bureaucrats. It's action-packed and well-acted, but I can't get behind cheering on a couple of largely, or at least until this point, conscienceless killers.
In this 2026 horror film, an American girl is abducted from her home in Egypt and lost for many years, until one day the Egyptian police calls the parents in the US and tell them she has been found. What is returned to them is terrifying and malevolent.
I enjoyed it and occasionally it actually gave me the collywobbles. The basement and the witch are properly frightening. Poe's The Premature Burial springs to mind, though this is apparently, inspired by The Evil Dead, most evident in between-the-walls scenes. Other than that, the film reminds more more if The Exorcist. Katie is very Regan-like and, of course, there are the desert locations. What scared me most is that the premise for the initial crime isn't even personal. With it's spoken Arabic and a prominent role for an Egyptian, this is a refreshing blast to the mummy genre.
Wait, doesn't Kravitz's dad, Lenny, live on an exclusive island?
2026 vanlife horror about two new vanlifers attracting the interest something demonic, after stopping to help it's last victim.
Vanlife, hobo signs; an absorbing little road horror, with a message that vanlife isn't a lifestyle choice for yuppies, it's an economic necessity. I was hoping for something more The Hitcher meets Scooby-Doo, but the silly, abrupt ending spoils it.
iBBC iPlayer currently has all modern Spider-Man films (Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, etc.) and I rewatched from Garfield on onwards, the linked Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as well as the above 2023 film for the first time.
This is part I of two movies, in which Miles fights off his ridiculous self-proclaimed nemesis, the dimensionally unstable Hole, reconnects with Gwen and past and new variants, including cool Londoner Spider-Punk, and tangles with the multiversal protecting Spider-Society (like Loki's Time Variance Authority).
Like Into the Spider-Verse (pod 608), I found it colourful and trippy, but unlike that, not quite as compelling.
2026 SF horror based on creepypasta photo of empty rooms, later developed into a web series by someone else, who also made this movie. The IP was later claimed by the production company A24, then rescinded after protests. That makes me wonder about the copyright, if the original photo-poster comes forward and makes a rightful claim.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is a failed, divorced architect recently running a failing, tacky, bargain furniture warehouse as piratey persona Captain Clark. One day, he finds a set of never-ending rooms accessible only via a matter-permeable wall in the basement. Stupidly, he goes through, and has to confront his own madness. Don't do this unless you are Doctor Who.
About halfway through, well before the big reveal, the tension cranks up so unbearably that even I, largely immune to horror, was scared enough need a break. There's your endorsement. I was reminded of Cube, Triangle, Mister X, etc. However, the film takes a dive towards the end. I don't mind purposefully unresolved endings, but the writer wrote himself into a corner, then threw his hands up in the air. Additionally, the closing scene makes no sense. If those research geeks were okay, why not whatsherface?
2026 SF comedy He-Man reimagined origin story, with the child Adam hidden on earth when Eternia is devastated by Skeletor.
Dolph Lungren, the He-Man of the 1987 film, has a gym cameo and says (breaking the 3.5 wall?), "You're in my spot." to his replacement. Englishman, Nicholas Galitzine, is great as Adam/He-Man and Mr Problematic, Jared Leto (see Beeb doc), is unfortunately, excellent as campy Skeletor.
Queen's Princes of the Universe, originally written for Highlander, works, but I've always felt, on the nose as it is, Hawkwind's Master Of The Universe (1972) would have been epic.
Aiming for nostalgic adults, made the tongue-in-cheek mildly funny, but the jarringly anti-woke jokes and double entendre weared thin. It's in an uneasy middle-ground. They didn't really go for it, like the amazingly campy Flash Gordon (1980), but made it uneasily less wholesome than the TV show or 1987 film, so, while it is funny, it's sadly not for either original fans or today's children. In any case, I was already in my early teens when Masters of the Universe came out in 1981, so I don't have childhood nostalgia for the franchise. Adora (She-Ra) has a post-credit scene, but I'm not confident of the continuation of the franchise because, while it's mildly amusing, it's not something I'd care to revisit.
It took me from early March 2025, with a large break in from Spring 2025 to Summer 2026, to early July 2026 to conclude it. I deliberately left out as much of the Doggett and Reyes seasons and watched all the films, even the utterly irrelevant I Want to Believe, just because.
There was lots to enjoy in the rewatch, though I enjoyed the journey more than the conclusion. Anything involving The Lone Gunmen was particurlaly eenjoyable. However, special mention must be made to the utterly barmey character of Dr They (Stuart Margolin---Angel from the Rockford Files) in the even more crazy conspiracy-filled than usual, The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat (S11E04). It was filmed where I kite-hoisted my bicycle in Vancouver. None of that statement is a metaphor, so enjoy parsing it.
At the end of season 2, Kingpin agrees to leave New York after he and the AVTF are defeated by Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Angela, psycho psych Dr Heather Glenn becomes Muse, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage are back together, and... Daredevil is arrested! Season 3 is scheduled for 2027.
Enjoyable, but should have had more Swordsman
Cosmonaut turned M6 apparatchik, Leonid Polivanov, switches allegiances and burns the control room and some of the bad guys alive. Kelly discovers life on Titan. A ceasefire is declared. Mars becomes independent. Fast-forward to 2020, when the systems of the dead Russian Mars-94 ship, stranded in space, spring to life.
I'm not interested in the Star City spinoff, and though I'm still watching this eagerly (except the wigs), I hope the next season is the last.
2026, season 5 finale: kapow-splat! Homelander's dead and so is Bill and that's it. I enjoyed the ride and I'm glad it's over. Like FAMK, there are spinoffs; animated Seven of 7 (2021), Diabolical (2022), Genc V (2023), and Vought Rising (2027); the mere conception of which bores me to tears
May years ago, I read a large chunk of the collected Garth Ennis Wildstorm and Dynamite comics; at least the first 14, I believe, and would recommend you try that if you miss the series.
2026. No, not quite Peter Parker from the Spider-Noir comics, or sulky clone, Ben Reilly, but an alt universe and back-in-time Ben Reilley, created when a WWI sergeant is bittten by a mutant man-spider in a German lab in occupied France. Later operating as a downbeat NY PI, the ex-fedora'd noir pulp masked vigilante is forced back into action to bring to heel this universe's versions of classic Spidey villains (Sandman, Lizard, Electro, and Kingpin?)
Entertaining, and actually available in BW, but I don't know what the hell kind of accent Nicolas Cage is attempting through his dentures and why he's hamming it up all the time. Apparently, there was friction on set until he got his own way. He should have taken direction.
2026 Netflix SF one season wonder, cancelled, but one season suffices to tell the story.
Alfred Molina plays a recent widower and new and reluctant resident of a desert retirement community. He is soon embroiled in a mystery as something starts picking off his fellow residents.
It's absorbing, enjoyable, comedic, heartfelt, a powerful metaphor for scrap-heaped and preyed-upon aged, but not as to-the-point and witty as Bubba Ho-Tep (2002).
BBC1 2026 miniseries, starring RTD regular (DW, TWBTLATS), Ruth Madeley, who I didn't think I'd like, but I do in this.
Appropriately enough, it's a Whoish story about a psychologist connecting with an alarmingly prescient patient, during catastrophic increased global warming, proscription of climate activists, big bad oil greenwashing, etc.
It's very on-the-nose, but gripping, with echoes of The Day the Earth Caught Fire and The Medusa Touch. Though what should have been a miniseries, ends awaiting another season. Groan.