Movies & TV Archive

Guy Ritchie's In the Grey spends an hour building its plan, then lets Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill loose for a final half hour that rocks. Rating: 4/5.

Toy Story 5 takes a while to get going, then turns into the warmest Toy Story since Part 3. Stunning animation, no scary scenes. Rating: 4.5/5.

Common Sense Media says 10 and up for every Dragon Ball series, but the show looks like a children's cartoon and is often brutal. A dad's age guide to Dragon Ball, Z, Super and Daima.

Ten more episodes of noir Gotham, a reimagined rogues gallery, and a Joker who finally shows up in a two-part finale worth the two-year wait. 3.5/5.

Supergirl (2026) bombed in theaters, but Milly Alcock's fierce Kara Zor-El and Jason Momoa's scene-stealing Lobo make this space-western a real HBO Max find.

Pretty Woman turns 35 this year and it still works. A rewatch of the Julia Roberts/Richard Gere classic, even from someone who doesn't usually reach for rom-coms.

Neagley proves a Reacher spin-off can work without a Lee Child novel behind it. Maria Sten carries a tense, well-plotted case on her own, and the show earns its place next to the flagship series. Rating: 4.5/5.

A 24% score, an injunction from the original author, and one of the most watchable thrillers of the nineties. Judge it as its own thing and it delivers. 4.5/5.

Written off on release and better than that. Damon returns for a film about who owns the surveillance now, with the best crowd sequence in the series. 4/5.

Jeremy Renner takes over a franchise that does not contain him, playing an operative whose abilities come in a pill. Better than its reputation, then it stops. 3.5/5.

Season 4 adapts Lee Child's Gone Tomorrow and delivers the show's most even run yet — no dip episode, a tight subway-to-Philadelphia mystery, and Alan Ritchson turning in his most complete performance as Reacher so far.

Greengrass takes over, kills Marie in the first ten minutes and shakes the camera until the fights stop making sense. Still tense, still a step down. 3.5/5.

Three Oscars, a 92% score and the best surveillance sequence ever filmed — attached to a hero who can no longer lose. Brilliantly made, oddly weightless. 3.5/5.

Doug Liman took a title, an image and one idea from Ludlum and built the film that forced every other spy series to grow up. Still the best of the five. 4.5/5.

Contains one genuinely extraordinary sequence and gets the central character wrong. Recasting Ryan as a rookie removed the only thing that made him work. 3.5/5.

Only the first film is based on a novel, and even that loosely. The other four share a title and invent the story. Here is exactly what diverges, and why both work.

Washington starts a war it will never admit to, then abandons the soldiers fighting it. The most politically angry film in the franchise. 4/5.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1985 one-man-army classic still holds up today, especially if you grew up with it. 4/5 stars.

Jason Statham stars in this cargo-ship revenge thriller from Plane director Jean-Francois Richet - a reliable, entertaining watch. 4/5 stars.

Jason Statham does classic Statham in this revenge thriller — a solid, entertaining pick for movie night. 3.5/5 stars.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon anchor this tense Netflix cop thriller — intense, visually sharp, and never predictable. 4/5 stars.

Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh team up in this Cold War buddy comedy on Apple TV — a genuinely funny date-night pick. 4/5 stars.

Ford recasts Jack Ryan as a father with something to lose, and the film's best scene is a man in a chair watching a screen. A tight, mean thriller. 4/5.

A submarine thriller where almost nobody fires a weapon and the tension comes from men listening. Still the best Tom Clancy adaptation by a distance. 4/5.

A 49-minute LEGO retelling of all three Mandalorian seasons plus Boba Fett. Funny for adults, safe for six-year-olds, and it spoils nothing from the film. 5/5.

Six films, four Jack Ryans and a TV series across thirty-six years. Which adaptations understood what the books were actually about, and which just took the name.

Stranger Things is rated TV-14 from start to finish, but season one and season four are not remotely the same show. A dad's honest season-by-season age guide.

Six Star Wars films are PG and five are PG-13, but the rating is not the thing that scares a seven-year-old. A dad's honest age guide to every film and show.

The most shocking opening the show has ever staged, and then a season that gives its most annoying character the plot. Season 5 is very good and the weakest so far. 4/5.

They take Catherine Standish, and the show turns feral. Season 3 is the most propulsive Slow Horses yet, with a final act that puts the siege inside Slough House itself. 4.5/5.

A bombing, a spymaster losing his memory, and Hugo Weaving as the best villain the show has had. Season 4 makes the espionage a family matter — and takes another one of ours. 4.5/5.

Six episodes, no wasted minute, and Gary Oldman playing the most repellent man on television. Slow Horses Season 1 is the best spy show since Tinker Tailor. A perfect 5/5.

A dead man on a bus, a word nobody wants to hear, and Cold War sleeper agents waking up in the home counties. Slow Horses Season 2 also costs the team someone. 4.5/5.

Why a show about failed spies in a damp office beats every glossy espionage series going — plus all five seasons ranked and what Season 6 is bringing.

Gladiator II (2024) is a genuinely strong 4.5/5 legacy sequel. Denzel Washington dominates, the flooded arena battle stuns, only the finale holds it back.

Both Gladiator films are rated R and 16+ by Common Sense Media. Here's exactly what's in them, and why this saga means more to the parent than the kid.

Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000) is a flawless 5/5 historical epic and the film that made Russell Crowe a legend. Still untouchable 26 years later.

Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson lead Guy Ritchie's true-story WWII commando raid. Our honest take: this underrated 4/5 war movie deserved far more attention.

Why Alan Ritchson has quietly become the best pure physical action lead working today — and how a decade of near-misses got him here.

Ten essential 1980s and 1990s action classics, ranked and reviewed for dads who want to know where the genre's whole playbook came from.

Ten modern one-man-army action movies worth the 90-minute switch-off, ranked and reviewed for dads who miss the genre done right.

PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, watched as a family on Paramount+: superpowered pups, Adventure City chaos, and a movie night everyone actually enjoyed. 4/5.

Production I.G turns Visions' best short into an 8-episode anime series. Gorgeous, confidently non-canon, and one of the best-reviewed Star Wars projects yet. 4/5.

A tighter, more confident Season 2 that sends the team across three eras to face Apocalypse himself — and lands the hardest gut-punches the show has thrown yet.

Our son's first-ever cinema trip, and PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie earned it. Rescue dogs, dinosaurs, a volcano, and zero real scares. 4/5.

A 4.5/5 old-school action throwback. Alan Ritchson mows through an alien war machine in the woods, and it is exactly as fun as that sounds.

Deadpool 2 opens on a genuine gut-punch, then delivers the X-Force skydiving scene and Josh Brolin's Cable. A near-perfect 4.5/5 sequel.

Logan closes out Hugh Jackman's seventeen-year run with a bleak, deliberate neo-Western that trades spectacle for mortality. A respected but tough 3/5.

Deadpool corrects Origins: Wolverine's biggest mistake and proves an R-rated superhero film could be a massive hit. A perfect, no-notes 5/5.

Our 3/5 review of Greenland 2: Migration — Gerard Butler's family saga returns with real tension, but noticeably shakier logic than the original.