Tags: blog, film, animation, fantasy, recommended, 2026
Author: KickingK
Date: Saturday February 21st, 2026
I'll have a 屁 please Bob
Blimey. I had a lot of issues with the first film but I'm pleased to say that this film fixes pretty much all of them whilst retaining what worked.
The amount of exposition has been toned down. There's still a fair bit of explaining to be done, especially at the start, but it's paced more evenly throughout the film and gives way to the action when it needs to.
The Dreamworks/Disney template is mostly discarded, aside from a few residual characters and comedy scenes, and instead leans heavily into the genre of fantasy epic. And it is, indeed, epic.
Within the first fifteen minutes it's already made the battle of Helm's Deep look like waiting for Godot, by the end it's eclipsed Avenger's Endgame by a comfortable margin. It's no exaggeration to say that I've never seen a film so heavy on scale or spectacle before. I described the first film as 'jaw dropping', which I now recognise as a somewhat premature exclamation as I have no idea what body part 'dropping' would accurately describe the sequel.
This would all be worthless if this were all fur coat and no knickers. If the story doesn't hold up then it's just boring flashing lights. Thankfully, the excellent plotting is kept from the first film. Yes it's all contrived fantasy nonsense1 but it puts all the characters in difficult situations with difficult moral choices. Everybody behaves in ways that are believable, even if the magic and the physics aren't. And as a result when it comes to the important emotional scenes, they hit hard. One scene involving a curse and a death had me wincing in horror and sobbing in sympathy, both at the same time.
I'm not a huge fan this type of sweeping fantasy/historical action usually. I prefer films about characters, or ones with more intricate plots. But I'm happy to oblige when a film shows this much ambition and commitment.
There's probably a lot to be said about the importance of Ne Zha to Chinese cinema. With American soft power on the wane, and Chinese economic and cultural visibility on the rise, it's tempting to think of whether we're witnessing a shift in who's able to make the biggest blockbuster movies. I'm not remotely qualified to give my thoughts on that subject, but watching Ne Zha 2 definitely feels like a bar has been raised somewhere.
This is the most blockbusting of blockbusters I've ever seen.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
1. I know Ne Zha is based on ancient Chinese mythology but to this westerners ears it doesn't make any logical sense. But then it doesn't have to, I'm not watching a fantasy film for it's water tight internal logic. It feels right and that's what works.
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Tags: blog, film, animation, fantasy, 2026
Author: KickingK
Date: Tuesday February 17th, 2026
Nature vs Nurture vs a giant bloody Dragon
A heavenly decree is made that the Chaos Pearl is split into two and born as living embodiments of it's two halves, the Spirit Pearl and the Demon Orb, with the Demon Orb having a curse on it such that it will be destroyed by lightening in three years time. But a devious mishap means that the Spirit Pearl half is stolen and the Demon Orb half is born to kind and decent noble parents. Which means they have to try to help their son live as good a life as possible, trying to nuture the good in him over his demonic nature, before fate ends his life in three years time.
The plot may be a bit clunky, leaning on prophecy to make sense, but the way it pushes it's characters to make difficult moral decisions is superb. The weight on each character from the decisions they've made and the decisions they are going to have to make feel heavy and important. This extends to the antagonists as well who are believably characterised and motivated.
Unfortunately, the way most of this is communicated is by huge chunks of exposition. Almost the entire plot is explained by one character standing around and explaining it to another character. It's tolerable at the start when it's used to set everything in motion, but when it's still being used deep into the ending of the film it gets a bit wearing.
It's a real shame as when it stops telling and starts showing, it shows real heart. The best, most important scene of the film being a silent game of hacky sack on the beach. We don't need to be told what's happening, we can see it.
The animation is a curious mixture. On the one hand the amount of money and colour that is thrown at the screen is incredible. For anyone who wants to show off a large, high-end TV, this is one hell of a way to do it. But there's an odd lack of artistry. All the characters have that Dreamworks face that makes it look like they've been workshopped to deter as few people as possible. The environments have a stunning level of fidelity but no distinct artistic direction. The animation is vibrant and constantly in dynamic motion but lacks the subtle touches of the best animators.
The result is a kind of blandness which is compensated by a level of commitment to spectacle that is frequently jaw dropping.
The Dreamworks similarities doesn't end there. The side and background characters are pulled directly from the Dreamworks/Disney school of 'comedy sidekicks'. But they lack any kind of warmth or invention, one villager only existing to provide a disappointingly homophobic running joke. Despite the freshness (at least to my western eyes) of it's Chinese mythology settings, the template seems very familiar.
This is entertaining enough and I suspect the sheer velocity of it's action scenes will enthral any kids that watch it. But the amount of exposition got in the way of the story for me. I understood everything but didn't feel enough of it.
I've heard good things about the sequel though, so we'll be giving that a try soon enough.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, tv, fantasy, comedy, essential, 2026
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday February 15th, 2026
As the actress said to the alchemist
British pagan folklore rarely gets to feature prominently in British media, at least outside of the Arthurian knights and their derivatives. It sometimes finds a home in horror (like the films of Ben Wheatley or the pages of 2000AD) where the low budget, grimey nature and askew weirdness work well together.
Which means MacKenzie Crook is working, figuratively and literally, in a field of his own, making tv that is steeped in old English folklore. Sitcom the Detectorists was set in the ghosts and echoes of British peasant history. Family comedy/drama Worzel Gummidge positively dives into the ancient magic and superstitions of the British countryside. And now Crook is back with Small Prophets, set in English suburbia which, as anyone who's paid time and attention in such places will have noticed, has never quite managed to remove itself from the ancient pagan culture that birthed it.
Pierce Quigley, finally and deservedly getting a leading role, plays Michael Sleep, a man who's partner disappeared seven years ago and has effectively put his life on pause ever since. Waiting for her to come home, unable to grieve, unwilling to give up hope. Lauren Patel is Kacey, his younger work colleague who forms a bond with him over their shared dislike of their DIY store boss, played by Mackenzie Crook.
On the instructions of Michael's dad (Michael Palin at his jovial best) the pair set out to grow Homunculi in a garden shed, for the purpose of divinating the whereabouts of Michaels missing love.
The way the two of them form a friendship is beautifully drawn. His grief and her thwarted dreams are dealt with in two completely different ways, which it turns out is exactly what the other needs.
In fact, the entire cast of characters are superbly written and acted, each of them being represented as whole human beings with loves and flaws. Only Clive, Michael's neighbour, is portrayed as a complete arse. Never has bedroom decor been employed as such a devastating indictment on someone's character.
Having worked in retail management, I can attest that Crook's depiction of store manager Gordon is eerily accurate. That awkward juxtaposition between being in a position of authority and having almost no actual power is mined for comedy gold. Hopefully I wasn't quite such a dick about it but it was an enjoyably uncomfortable watch to see my profession portrayed so deftly.
Where it really starts to shine is with the introduction of the Homunculi themselves. They are weird, creepy, magisterial and etherial. Nothing like what you would expect and never fully explained, their presence asks profound moral questions. Is it right to grow them, to keep them, to use them? The characters are so wrapped up in their own problems that these questions are barely asked, let alone answered, so there's a deep sense of moral doubt that hangs over the show. A darkness and sadness that maybe the characters are digging themselves into a much deeper hole and an act of self preservation in the final episode could have some dark consequences in the next series. A series I am very eagerly awaiting.
Brilliantly funny, profoundly melancholic and unlike anything else being made right now. A wonder.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, thriller, 2026
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday February 12th, 2026
The Banality of Banality
The soundtrack to Cloud is the soundtrack to capitalism. The hum of a computer monitor, the drone of a motorway, the background growl of machines. It's constant and grinding and once you notice it, it becomes unsettling. Even scenes that take place in the woods have the endless swoosh of leafless trees as the wind slips off the lake onto shore.
That lifeless, listless, white noise perfectly encapsulates the emotional lives of both the main character, Ryosuke, an online reseller who buys from desperate sellers and sells at incredible mark-ups with incredulous descriptions, and the cast of characters around him. None of them have any real aspirations. Sure, they mostly want to make money, but for what purpose? None of them seem particularly clear on the matter.
At one point, Ryosuke and his girlfriend move into a large, lakeside house. He promptly moves his business in and turns the place into a warehouse. She spends her whole time wrestling with kitchen appliances. Neither talks about anything outside of making or spending money.
Eventually, Ryosuke's disinterest in ethics catches up with him as a loose cabal of former mentors, rivals and disgruntled customers attempt to settle their grudges with him. None of them seem to question the broken society that they're scrabbling around in. None of them think to take their anger out at the online platform owners who enable and richly profit from the misery they enable. Everyone's too busy fighting each other like rats in a sack to have anything approaching dreams or ambition.
For the most part, there's a grim fascination to be had from watching these dead eyed characters navigate their dead lives. The film has little sympathy for them and leaves it for the viewer to decide whether it's their environment that has dulled their souls, or if their lack of spark is why they've found such a dour existence.
Sadly, the ending gets increasingly preposterous and the plot stops making sense. Worse, and this may be due to my ignorance of Japanese culture, but I thought the film lost track of what it was trying to say. It ends on a moment of beauty but it's delivered with little more than a shrug.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, animation, comedy, recommended, 2026
Author: KickingK
Date: Saturday February 07th, 2026
Genocide in Busytown
The first Zootopia delighted by not only being funny and witty but having a story that you thought was going to be about one thing, and then pulls a fantastic bait and switch into something else. What looked like a fairly simple story of triumphing over sexism turns into a surprisingly deft exploration of systemic racism.
Zootopia 2 has no such narrative flair, sadly. But it's subject matter is arguably even darker, dealing with a genocide fuelled by a billionaire property developer. It manages to walk a careful line between making the subject palatable for youngsters whilst still making it's point very clear.
Where it falls down is that the world is not as clearly drawn or explored as it was in the first film. In trying to expand the boundaries (almost literally) it rattles through it's locations and inhabitants with out really getting to know them. It's something the first film excelled at so it's sorely missed here. Gary De'Snake, the character whose quest to find his homeland is the driving force of the story, is barely given a personality. We understand his purpose but never actually feel it.
And ultimately the resolution seemed a little glib. The idea that if people knew the truth behind an injustice they'd think differently about it seems like a liberal wet dream at the moment. I'm not going to criticise a kids film for trying to deal with a weighty subject, but the disconnect between the films ending and what's happening in the world right now means the ending doesn't really stick.
On the plus side, the pairing of Judy and Nick is given ample time to develop and their relationship never stops sparkling. They have a genuine connection and their tribulations are the one part of the story that feels consequential. That plus the sheer volume and quality of sight gags (some of the visual jokes are Wallace and Gromit levels of genius) propels the whole thing along at an entertaining pace.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, horror, essential, 2026
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday February 01st, 2026
Portrait of a Bin on Fire
Celine Sciamma can make a decent claim to be the greatest living film maker. The only other film makers whose work I anticipate as eagerly are Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou. Look back through Celine's back catalogue and it's wall to wall classics. Not just the ones she directs herself but the one's she writes and hands off to other people as well.
Here she co-writes alongside the star of A Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Noemie Merlant, who also directs and stars. Quite frankly I'm not sure who's showing off more.
Set in heat wave stricken Marseilles, three very different friends meet a good looking neighbour and party with him. It all goes horrifyingly wrong.
The Balconettes returns to themes of A Portrait... but whereas that film kept a very firm lid on it's anger, only letting it escape in a long pressurised scream at the very end, this film comes out howling and swinging from the very first shot.
That first shot being an extraordinary, sweeping, one-take crane shot of an entire Marseilles neighbourhood that settles onto a super tight close up of one of the greatest murders ever committed to screen.
After that it goes a little off the rails. A lot off the rails. It pin wheels around between erotic thriller, body horror, feminist revenge, heist job, intimate friendship drama and slapstick comedy. It is ridiculous and knowingly so. It plays with it's ridiculousness, plays with the absurdities of life that put the characters into such ridiculous situations and is absolutely furious about it.
It never lets that fury overwhelm anything though, just uses it as fuel for whatever direction the film is heading in at that particular moment.
It's a difficult film to assess critically because it never settles on one particular genre long enough to be judged along side other similar films. But who cares about assessing a film critically when you're having this much fun, like being on a psychological, philosophical, fairground waltzer. There's nothing else quite like this and that is arguably its greatest strength.
So yet another belter from Celine Sciamma gets tossed on her pile of outright classics. A pile that's beginning to rival the likes of Powell & Pressburger for both depth and breadth.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, animation, sci-fi, 2026
Author: KickingK
Date: Tuesday January 27th, 2026
Emo's in Space
OK, let's start with a controversial opinion/hill I will die on: Luke Skywalker is a bland, boring, uninteresting and unlikeable character who only works because the rest of the movie(s) is so spectacular. It's not until Rian Johnson turns up that he actually gets a personality.
Sadly, Lesbian Space Princess steals Luke's personality traits for it's main character, Saira, and then proceeds to do absolutely nothing with it.
She is terminally dull. She starts the film with no personality beyond 'Sad she's been dumped' and ends with no personality beyond 'Is OK to have been dumped'.
The main villains of the piece though, the Straight White Malians, actually are kind of fun. They look out for each other, role play through their feelings, try to build for a better future. They're arseholes, obviously, but they're still more rounded, lively characters than Saira. They even have a multiplayer Daytona cabinet.
I really don't think that the film was aiming for a message that being a straight white male is more interesting and fun than being a lesbian, but it accidentally implies it all the same.
Does the film get away with such a dour character by making the surrounding world vibrant and interesting? No. There's less plot and less comedy here than a ten minute episode of Pinky and the Brain. Everything is so incredibly slow and obvious. The jokes are good but when you can see all of them coming round the corner they lose their shine.
If you want an hour and a half of knockabout screwball animated comedy, just go watch The Day the Earth Blew Up, it's great.
You could edit this down to a decent half hour episode of a tv series, especially if it took it's cues from the other great tv show about lesbian princesses in space1 instead of the film it's actually riffing off, what's it called? You know... the one about the space hairdresser and the cowboy… he’s got a tin foil pal and a pedal bin.
Spaceballs! That's the one. Just go watch Spaceballs again.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
1. The actual hill I will die on is that She-Ra and the Princesses of power is one of the truly great modern tv sagas. If it was a re-booted He-Man, N.D.Stephenson would be lauded alongside Genndy Tartakovsky as one of animated tv's current heroes.
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Tags: blog, film, drama, recommended, 2026
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday January 25th, 2026
Failing and succeeding at the same time.
The endlessly watchable Brendan Fraser stars as Philip, a struggling actor in Tokyo who falls into a job playing fictional parts in peoples real lives. And finds a lot more than he expects when asked to play the role of a father to a young girl applying for an elite school.
This is a film all about a friction. The friction between how we try to help the people around us and the lies we tell to them and ourselves in order to do so. Can a good deed ever be meaningful and lasting if it's built on a lie?
But the friction between dualities is everywhere you look in this film. It's both a Hollywood film set in Japan and a Japanese film starring an American. It's a crowd pleasing mainstream film with a clear theme and an art house film that leaves much to interpretation.
The problem is, that whilst the film clearly wants to explore that friction, it doesn't seem to know quite how to resolve it. It's an interesting area but the moment Philip lies to Mia, the young girl at the heart of the film, my brain noped out at the obvious ethical red line that's been stepped over.
Instead the film is at it's best in the final half hour. When everything starts going wrong and it shatters into a kaleidoscope of stories, each one following a different character, that's when the film suddenly bursts into life. Free from the awkward balancing act of the first part of the film it's able to let each story shine and finally get under the skin of the characters.
Maybe that's the message of the film, that you can only be yourself when your free from the lies. But it's not convincing and the resolution doesn't manage to square anything off.
A special mention has to go to the cinematography which is simple, basic even, but has an incredible eye for a good shot. It's interested in it's subjects and in turn you can't help but be drawn in. Keep an eye out for the range of fabulous sweaters worn throughout the film, the camera crew certainly did. And one scene involving the old man and a much older tree is just stunning, a genuine show stopper of a moment.
It's an odd film to recommend because I feel that, on it's own terms, it fails at what it's trying to do. But it succeeds at everything around it so spectacularly that everyone will get something meaningful from it.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, comedy, horror, 2026
Author: KickingK
Date: Saturday January 17th, 2026
When there's no room left in hell, there's an app for that
The party goers at a queer night club have to work together to defend themselves in the middle of a zombie outbreak. Drag queens, butch lesbians and everyone in between fighting the apocalypse.
The early word of mouth of this was pretty poor but I'm glad to say I had a pretty good time with this. Mostly because it "fixed" a couple of issues I often have with the zombie movie genre.
Problem One: People arguing with each other to create drama. Usually, this is just poor script writing. The characters are tense and scared, how do we show that? Just have them yell at each other for no reason. But when those characters are drag queens, it's a delight. "You don't look a day over 50... pounds over a weight". It just works.
Problem Two: Society goes to shit instantly as everyone selfishly fights everyone else for precious resources. This one never sits right with me. Watch any real life large scale disaster and you'll see communities mostly coming together to help each other. Humans are social, empathetic creatures designed to work best in small groups. This idea that as soon as the shit hits the fan, people turn on each other is usually nonsense.
Here, whilst everyone bickers and argues (see point one) there's never any question that the group are sticking up for each other. It may be a team of individuals but they're definitely a team.
And what individuals they are. The cast are uniformly excellent, with clearly defined and memorable characters. Margaret Cho in particular is fantastic, having a truly fantastic entrance and an equally dramatic exit.
Sadly, the main draw of the film for me, Katy O'Brian, is massively under-utilised. Despite being at the centre of the story she doesn't actually get to do anything.
Worse, the cinematography lets everyone down quite badly, everything looks flat and dull. I can't remember ever watching a film where there's such a contrast between the glamorous costumes and the unstylish way in which they are shot. I know this is a super-low budget film, but The Paragon has no budget and still looks far better than this.
Thankfully, the soundtrack manages to just about hold everything together. There are dirty, electro pop bangers dropping all over the place. Even when the script is de-flating, there's a tune to keep everything pumped up.
Ultimately this is far too thin a piece to truly recommend but it's still a fun entry into the low-budget zombie horror comedy genre.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, action, sci-fi, essential, 2026
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday January 11th, 2026
This one has legs
Oh what an absolute blast!
The plot is simple, the script is tight. There's a protagonist, there's an antagonist and that's it. No extra bells and whistles, no side plots or machinations and everything contains only what it needs to.
The action scenes are terrific. They start off merely ok, but get better and better as the film goes on. Whereas most action movies try to make everything look cool and amazing, P:B instead leans into it's weirdness. The focus is on action that is clever, inventive and funny. There's one fight scene that has Jackie Chan levels of wit and that's not a comparison I make lightly. It's goofy as hell and has fun with it.
Did I say there's 'a' (singular) protagonist, with no extra bells and whistles? That was a bit of a lie. Whilst, Dek's journey is clearly laid out, no such clear explanation is given for Thia. The film very intentionally hides the fact that she's actually the main plot driver of the film and that her character arc is just as important as Dek. The two dovetail together beautifully.
It's a nice little detail for those who want something to mentally chew on in their big, silly, dumb action movies.
But whilst P:B is certainly big and silly, it isn't dumb. It treats it's audience with respect and treats it's subjects with care. The number of great Predator movies stood at One before Dan Trachtenberg came along and now after Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers he's on a personal hat-trick.
Best popcorn action movie for years.
