Film 26

Every new-to-me film I watch in 2026, by @stuarthoughton.bsky.social

Project Hail Mary (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, 2026)⭐⭐⭐⭐

The follow-up to Andy Weir's Science-em-up The Martian offers more of the same clever problem solving and scientific extrapolations, but this time with much bigger stakes at play.

Stuart Houghton|June 11, 2026

In The Grey (Guy Ritchie, 2026)⭐

This was an odd duck. Ostensibly a turbo-charged action vehicle, some serious pacing problems make it feel meandering and stodgy when it needs to be nimble and hard-hitting.

Stuart Houghton|June 08, 2026

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (BenDavid Grabinski, 2026)⭐⭐⭐

The blurb for this made it sound like a standard gangster comedy affair but it has a sci-fi twist that becomes apparent as loan shark Nick (Vince Vaughan) calls Mike (James Marsden) away from an adulterous rendezvous with his wife, Alice (Eiza Gonzalez). Mike is understandable worried he is about to get whacked for the affair but is confused when he is told to chloroform... Nick. But a different, identical Nick who is in Nick's house.

Stuart Houghton|June 05, 2026

Normal (Ben Wheatley, 2026)⭐⭐⭐

"Bob Odenkirk as an unlikely action hero" is a snack jar that Hollywood has double-dipped already via Nobody (Ilya Naishuller, 2021) and its sequel Nobody 2 (Timo Tjajanto, 2025). Normal is co-written by Nobody writer Derek Kolstad and Odenkirk himself so you have to hope this is them refining the formula, right?

Stuart Houghton|May 26, 2026

Climax (Gaspar Noe, 2018)⭐⭐⭐

More light-hearted, transgressive fun from cinema's Monsieur Chuckles. Climax is a largely improvised film supposedly based on the true story of a French dance troupe who had their after-party drinks spiked with LSD.

Stuart Houghton|May 05, 2026

They Will Kill You (Kirill Sokolov, 2026)⭐⭐

This would have been a lot more impressive if I hadn't recently seen Ready Or Not 2 (or, indeed, Ready Or Not 1) as the two films have a quite similar premise. In this, ex-convict Asia (Zazie Beetz) arrives late one night to start her new job as a live-in maid at The Virgil, an exclusive apartment building in New York, under her boss Lilith (Patricia Arquette).

Stuart Houghton|May 05, 2026

Touch Me (Addison Heimann, 2026)⭐⭐⭐

This extremely odd, occasionally very funny horror/sex comedy begins with Joey (Olivia Taylor Dudley) in her therapist's office, talking about a brief and intense affair she had with this random guy she met at a coffee shop. The tale quickly takes a turn as she reveals that 'Brian' was in fact an alien, on a mission to save the world from climate change. Oh, and his touch brings both indescribable ecstasy and cures Joey's crippling anxiety.

Stuart Houghton|April 29, 2026

Apex (Baltasar Kormákur, 2026)⭐⭐

Stop me if you have heard this one before, but what if, MAN was THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME OF ALL? Eh? Makes you think!

Stuart Houghton|April 28, 2026

Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, 2026)⭐⭐

2019's Ready Or Not was a gleefully nasty action/horror/comedy in which newlywed Grace (Samara Weaving) was ritually hunted in a game of hide & seek by her new husband's family. The final act twist was that the ritual was genuinely supernatural and their failure to kill Grace meant the entire bloodline exploded in a fountain of gore at the displeasure of 'Mr Le Bail', who was implied to be Satan Himself.

Stuart Houghton|April 27, 2026

Thrash (Tommy Wirkola, 2026)⭐⭐

A fun creature feature/disaster flick from the director of the awesome Dead Snow (2009), the incredible The Trip (2021) and the also-a-film Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) among others.

Stuart Houghton|April 24, 2026

Crime 101 (Bart Layton, 2026)⭐⭐⭐

A solid attempt at a slow-burn, grown-up crime drama in the Heat vein that never quite clicks into the high gear it needs to.

Stuart Houghton|April 24, 2026

Sisu: Road To Revenge (Jalmari Helander, 2025)⭐⭐

Double-hard Finnish Bastard, Aatami (Jorma Tommila) returns for another killing spree. This time, with the War over and no further Nazis requiring murder, Aatami decides to dismantle his family home (where his wife and children were murdered during his long absence) in Soviet-occupied Karella and drive it on a truck across the border to free Finland.

Stuart Houghton|April 11, 2026

We Bury The Dead (Zak Hilditch, 2026)⭐⭐

Fast zombies, slow zombies, zombies that aren't actually zombies but 'infected'? Sure, but have you ever seen SAD zombies?

Stuart Houghton|March 31, 2026

Whistle (Corin Hardy, 2025)⭐⭐

Final Destination-esque hokum as Dafne Keen and friends discover an Aztec Death Whistle (google it) that when blown can summon your actual Death.

Stuart Houghton|March 23, 2026

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (Gore Verbinski, 2026)⭐⭐⭐

A solid attempt at a Terry Gilliam-style sci-fi movie that has something to say about the rise of AI and social media in general that mostly works and only occasionally feels like an old person tediously going on about 'screens'.

Stuart Houghton|March 23, 2026

Primate (Johannes Roberts, 2026)⭐⭐⭐

A cheap, cheerful and fairly well done creature feature about a pet chimp that goes ape crazy after contracting rabies.

Stuart Houghton|March 16, 2026

War Machine (Patrick Hughes, 2026)⭐⭐

What if Predator, but exploding and not as good? is the question asked and answered by this Alan Ritchson vehicle.

Stuart Houghton|March 10, 2026

Shelter (Ric Roman Waugh, 2026)⭐⭐

Groundbreaking action thriller in which Jason Statham plays against type as a taciturn ex-special forces operator who is trying to escape his past but ends up back in the game when he is forced to defend an innocent. Honestly, where do they get these crazy ideas?

Stuart Houghton|March 06, 2026

Mercy (Timur Bekmambetov, 2026)

A strong contender for the most aggressively stupid film I have seen since The Room, Mercy is a dystopian AI fable that, among its many other faults, somehow manages to mangle its message such that it ends up as pro-dystopia.

Stuart Houghton|February 25, 2026

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Nia DaCosta, 2026)⭐⭐⭐⭐

The first part of the intended 28 Days Later sequel trilogy, directed by Danny Boyle, ended on an almighty WTF of a cliffhanger with young survivor Spike being rescued from a horde of infected by... a team of ninja Jimmy Savile cosplayers? Nia DaCosta picks up the reins to let you know that, no, in fact you really did see that and you were not hallucinating. In so doing, she has crafted, with series writer Alex Garland, arguably the best and most moving entry yet.

Stuart Houghton|February 24, 2026

Send Help (Sam Raimi, 2026)⭐⭐⭐

This was a fun ride that does an interesting trick of subverting the formulaic thriller you think it will be, by cramming in about two film's worth of reversals, while still kind of being that formulaic thriller.

Stuart Houghton|February 09, 2026

The Wrecking Crew (Ángel Manuel Soto,2025)⭐

This is an absolutely by the number buddy action movie that is only slightly elevated by the presence of Dave Bautista and Jason Mamoa, both of whom are far better than this material. Bautista in particular seems to have gotten all the 'I am an acTOR, actually' stuff out of his system with his excellent work in Blade Runner 2049 and Knock on the Cabin Door and realised he can make bank by just doing... well, this.

Stuart Houghton|February 02, 2026

Odyssey (Gerard Johnson, 2025)⭐⭐

A film doomed to be ungoogleable thanks to Christopher Nolan's Homeric hyperbole, Odyssey is a micro-budget thriller of sorts that focuses on Natasha (Polly Maberly), an estate agent in financial trouble who owes money to 'the wrong people'.

Stuart Houghton|January 30, 2026

Tron:Ares (Joachim Rønning, 2025)⭐⭐⭐

As a third installment to a franchise that almost nobody is invested in - some 15 years after Tron:Legacy and 43(!) years after the original Tron - Tron:Ares is... not bad? It might even be good if you can overlook a few major flaws.

Stuart Houghton|January 22, 2026

The Rip (Joe Carnahan, 2026)⭐

Matt Damon & Ben Affleck team up again to play narcotics cops who have recently lost one of their team to murder.

Stuart Houghton|January 21, 2026

Dust Bunny (Brian Fuller, 2025)⭐⭐⭐⭐

Anyone hoping for a retread or continuation of Hannibal - Brian Fuller's previous collaboration with Mads Mikkelsen - will be disappointed at the dearth of artfully-flayed corpses and Turner Prize-baiting murder scenes, but Dust Bunny does share Fuller's distinctive eye for a captivating image and the subject matter is, on the face if it, quite grim.

Stuart Houghton|January 17, 2026

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (Rian Johnson 2025)⭐⭐

Benoit, I say, MISTAH Ben-wah Blanc does make his ree-turn to cogitate upon a most intriguing... oh sod it I'll just do it normally. It's Knives Out 3, this time set in a small parish in upstate New York (actually, High Beach in Epping Forest, Essex) where a local preacher (Josh Brolin, somehow more sinister here than as Thanos) has been puzzlingly murdered during one of his fire and brimstone services and his younger would-be replacement (Josh O'Connor) is the chief suspect.

Stuart Houghton|January 14, 2026

She Rides Shotgun (Nick Rowland, 2025)⭐⭐⭐

Fairly formulaic but smart thriller in which ex-con Nate (Taron Egerton) either kidnaps or rescues his estranged daughter Polly (a brilliant turn by 11-year-old Ana Sophia Heger) in order to protect her from a kill order from the Aryan Nation-style gang he was forced to join, then betray while in the joint.

Stuart Houghton|January 13, 2026

What is this?

This is my 2026 film log.

Stuart Houghton|January 13, 2026

Film 26