Send Help (2026) | REVIEW

Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle in 20th Century Studios’ SEND HELP — PHOTO: 20th Century Studios (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Sam Raimi — Screenplay by Mark Swift and Damian Shannon.

As I like to remind my readers, my dad had an open mind when it came to what movies my sister and I were ready to watch at a young age. So, as it turned out, when I was a kid, one of my favorite movie characters was Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams from Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films (I even dressed up as Ash for Halloween recently). Of those Evil Dead films, Army of Darkness, especially, holds a special place in my heart. As Sam Raimi then transitioned from indie horror to superhero spectacle with his Spider-Man films, which were released as I was growing up, Sam Raimi quickly became one of my favorite filmmakers. Therefore, I was especially excited when I found out that Raimi was going to have an R-Rated original horror-comedy come out in early 2026. Send Help, in which Rachel McAdams re-teams with her Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness director, is that film, and it is so exciting to be able to say that Raimi’s film not only works but is a strong reminder of what made so many of us fall for his brand of cinema in the first place.

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28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) | REVIEW

Ralph Fiennes (foreground) and Jack O’Connell (background) in Nia DaCosta’s 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE — PHOTO: Sony Pictures Releasing (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman) — Screenplay by Alex Garland (Annihilation; Civil War).

Just seven months after the release of Danny Boyle’s long-awaited 28 Years Later, we already have a direct sequel. This second part in a proposed three-part follow-up to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later is, notably, not directed by Danny Boyle, despite Alex Garland still having penned the screenplay. Instead, the director of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is Nia DaCosta, the Candyman (2021) and The Marvels director, who now must try to recapture the spirit of one of the most iconic zombie, or zombie-adjacent, film series ever made. Having been shot back-to-back, but by different filmmakers, it is only natural that some would be concerned about whether or not they could pull it off successfully. But, thankfully, Nia DaCosta has turned in what is easily her best franchise film. Despite its January release date (a release window most known for being filled with less-than-pleasing films), 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is not only a worthy follow-up to Boyle’s sequel, but it is also the first great film of the year.

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Oscar Nominations – Reaction | 98th Oscars

The nominations for the 98th Academy Awards have been announced! There were surprises, headscratchers, shocks, and snubs, as is always the case. Below, I’ve assembled bullet points and explanations of the biggest headliners, in my opinion, from this year’s nomination group. Let’s get to them.

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Who Will Be Nominated? – Final Predictions | 98th Oscars

AMPAS is announcing its list of nominees for the upcoming 98th Academy Awards on the 22nd. So, yes, now is the time to fill in your final Oscars nominations predictions. This is exactly what I’ve done here. Below you’ll see what I’m predicting. The choices are ranked from one to five or one to ten, based on how confident I am that something is getting nominated, with 1 being the most confident. One thing of note: I am predicting that Sinners will break the record for most Oscar nominations (by getting 15).

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The Rip (2026) | REVIEW

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in THE RIP — PHOTO: NETFLIX (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Joe Carnahan — Screenplay by Joe Carnahan.

We’re only a few weeks into the new year, and we already have a freshly made and relatively high-profile action thriller to feast on. That high-profile feature is Netflix’s The Rip, which brings together famous friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in a film built around drug money, dirty cops, and snitches. The Rip, from The Grey-filmmaker Joe Carnahan (who, in recent years, has been making plenty of B-movie action films), is the first 2026 film that I am reviewing, and it also happens to be the first 2026 film that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s not high art, but it is exactly the kind of straight-to-streaming action thriller star-vehicle that you would want to chew on in January. 

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Top 26 Most Anticipated Movies of 2026

Original Photo: Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides in Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros.).

Here are my picks for the most anticipated upcoming movies of 2026, ranked by my own personal anticipation rather than any other metric like box office or hype. Normally, I’d go with 25 selections, but because it’s 2026, I decided to go with just one additional selection. But, frankly, this could’ve easily been a top 40 list. If you’re at all interested in a longer list, then check the honorable mentions at the bottom of the list, or click here for my Letterboxd list that contains quite a few more films. But, yeah, let’s get to it!

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Bugonia (2025) | REVIEW

Emma Stone in Yorgos Lanthimos’ BUGONIA — PHOTO: Focus Features (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things; Kinds of Kindness) — Screenplay by Will Tracy (The Menu).

Bugonia marks the 4th collaboration between multiple Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone and the most famous filmmaker of the so-called ‘Greek Weird Wave’ (and in a row, no less). Their latest film together is an English-language remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s black comedy titled Save the Green Planet!, a South Korean film released in 2003. Though initially conceived as an opportunity for Jang, the original filmmaker, to direct the English-language remake of his own film for an international audience (not unlike what Ole Bornedal did with his English-language Nightwatch remake in the 1990s), it is now, instead, a fascinating instance in which a European auteur is adapting an Asian original story though in a North American setting. In a way, that almost intercontinental approach is fitting for a film about people who may or may not come from different worlds in more ways than one. It’s also, frankly, a really effective film.

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Stranger Things – Season Five (2025) | TV REVIEW

Gaten Matarazzo as ‘Dustin’ in Stranger Things: Season Five — PHOTO: Netflix (Still image from trailers).

Regardless of what you think about the show or this season, I think you have to admire the gusto of the release strategy for the final season of Stranger Things, of which the first volume (episodes one to four) was released early in December, the second volume on Christmas, and the series finale on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day (depending on your region). Stranger Things really took over a huge chunk of the online entertainment focus in December, despite the fact that massive trailers for huge films were released alongside a new Avatar film in theaters around the world. They really made the three-part release of the show into events. But did the series finale of the most popular US-based Netflix original series, or the season as a whole, live up to the hype it created for itself? Well, let’s talk about it, because it’s not a straightforward answer. 

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The 10 Most-Read Articles and Reviews of 2025

Would you look at that? We’re now in 2026. Granted, it’s only the first day of the new year, but, hey, we have to accept that 2025 is now in our collective rearview mirror. Like has become tradition on this website, I start every year by listing the ten articles or reviews written in 2025 that were the most popular based on views. At the very end of the article, I’ll also reveal what non-2025 written output (i.e., an article or review that wasn’t written in 2025) was the most popular in the year to which we have now all said goodbye. Well, let’s get to it!

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Goodbye 2025

We’re back at the end of another year, but we’re also on the precipice of the beginning of a new one. As is always the case, I like to say farewell to the year that we have lived through on the final day of the year, and today is no different. Tonight, we say farewell to 2025. At the end of 2024, I expressed concern about the US Presidential Election result, the return of a Commander-in-Chief in America who is synonymous with the post-factual era, and all the scary elements attributed to it. I was also nervous about the armed conflicts that continued to dominate the world. But I desperately tried to hold onto a hope that it wouldn’t be as bad as it looked like it could be, that the US election result and the rhetoric that immediately followed it weren’t as destructive as they had seemed, and that we could still find a way. I tried to remind my readers just how important it was to speak truth to power, to hold your leaders accountable, and to fight for justice. So, how were those fears and that hope reflected in the year that we actually got in 2025?

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