Bottom Row: Mortal Kombat II (Warner Bros. Pictures); The Devil Wears Prada 2 (20th Century Studios); Propeller One-Way Night Coach (Apple TV).
In this edition of Bite-Sized Reviews, I want to share my thoughts on six films released this year. This time around, I want to talk about 1) an underseen zombie-adjacent film with a surprisingly strong cast, 2) a political drama about Putin’s rise to power, 3) a genre-blend from the director of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, 4) Mortal Kombat II, 5) the long-awaited sequel to a beloved fashion-focused film, and 6) John Travolta’s directorial debut. If you follow me on Letterboxd, do know that some of these bite-sized reviews have previously been posted on my Letterboxd profile (either partially or entirely). Should you wish to get a sneak peek at what films I see, I advise you to follow me on that social media platform.
Cold Storage | Film | Directed by Jonny Campbell | Release Year: 2026 | Recommended?: Sure.
You know, I had a pretty good time with this. It doesn’t take itself too seriously at all, as it is this B-movie zombie-adjacent outbreak flick that knows when to poke fun at itself. It’s slightly similar to Zombieland in tone and style, though definitely not as good. It’s not a genre-blend classic, but it is a reasonably good film to watch if you’re into this kind of thing.
What works against it is that it isn’t laugh-out-loud funny or original, and it doesn’t have the deepest characters either. Plus, the visual effects aren’t super convincing. For instance, the infected animals in the film would look more at home in a video game. That doesn’t fully ruin the CG-heavy sequences, though. There’s a sequence built around a cockroach’s journey to spread the infection that I thought was pretty fun.
I will say that the film is helped quite a bit by its cast. Not only does it feature Joe Keery and Georgina Campbell, both of whom I always like to see, but the film also has more established actors such as Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville, who both get their moments. And, as if that wasn’t enough, Vanessa Redgrave also makes an appearance! Anyway, that cast helps to elevate this B-film (that, importantly, doesn’t outstay its welcome) from merely watchable to quite entertaining.
The Wizard of the Kremlin | Film | Directed by Olivier Assayas | Release Year: 2026 | Recommended?: It depends.
This was a project that, from the moment I first heard about it, was immediately something I was looking forward to seeing. It is based on Giuliano da Empoli’s novel of the same name that, as far as I understand it, was written to be partially fictional and partially real, with the lead character being the primary fictional element. It essentially tells the story of Vladimir Putin’s actual rise to power in Russia from the perspective of a right-hand man of sorts.
I normally really enjoy watching these kinds of ‘history lesson’ type films, and I will say that I did have a fine time with this. But I also found it to be surprisingly dull and monotonous for a political drama or satire. It’s a cliché to say this, but it is true that it partially feels like a Wikipedia page in movie form. A good film can overcome that feeling; whether this film does that will vary from person to person. For me, I don’t think this aspect is its biggest issue; rather, the tone of the film is.
I was really surprised by the mode that Paul Dano is constantly in here. I think Dano is a great actor, but he’s playing this right-hand man type with a wearisome and almost above-it-all speaking pattern that I think is the wrong choice for the film. I kept thinking that the film needed more of a forceful Iago-esque figure because some of the film’s flashback scenes seriously needed to be livened up. This is definitely more a House of Cards-adjacent picture than a Veep or The Death of Stalin type of political satire, but it doesn’t have that colorful Francis Underwood performance that makes you want to lean forward.
I do think that Jude Law is relatively convincing here in the role of Vladimir Putin, but I think the film is at its best when it is focused on the film’s framing device, which is essentially this conversation between Dano’s character and this American interviewer played by Jeffrey Wright. But you don’t get to dive deep into the concepts they’re discussing here, and the lead character isn’t challenged enough in these scenes.
On the whole, I think this is overlong and somewhat dull, but I do find these types of films to be fascinating, so I did have an OK time with this film.
Over Your Dead Body | Film | Directed by Jorma Taccone | Release Year: 2026 | Recommended?: Sure.
I had a pretty good time with this violent genre-blend of a film, even though the character and narrative arcs are very predictable. A large part of the joy in watching this is seeing Samara Weaving and Jason Segel act across from each other in this R-rated action-comedy thriller. They’re both performers I quite enjoy, and they get to do some fun things in this one. It does, however, peak early on, when Segel is secretly setting up his plan and when Weaving gets to interrogate him.
There’s an inelegant insert shot that telegraphs the eventual appearance of another group of characters, including Timothy Olyphant, who livens up the film for a short while (right when it was starting to get old). However, I felt it quickly started to lose steam again. Had it not been for the ‘dad-reveal’ in the second half of the film, I probably wouldn’t have been as satisfied as I ultimately am with this film, but that reveal (and flashback) was really fun. So yeah, while it could’ve been paced better, certain reveals keep it from going stale. As a side note, I did not know, as I sat down to watch it, that this was a remake of a Norwegian Tommy Wirkola film, which I am now very interested in seeing.
Mortal Kombat II | Film | Directed by Simon McQuoid | Release Year: 2026 | Recommended?: It depends.
I have mixed feelings about this sequel. I think it is an improvement conceptually, given the fact that it actually has a tournament format, which makes it somewhat entertaining to watch. I also think the Kitana prologue was really solid, and that Karl Urban is relatively fun to watch as Johnny Cage.
At the same time, though, it looks really bad. Some of those backgrounds and environments are really rough in an unconvincing, video-gamey way. I also just don’t think the main returning actors are particularly good here (not including Hiroyuki Sanada, who it was nice to see for a few scenes), and I wasn’t particularly invested in their characters, which made the fights kind of dull, even though they each have some highlights.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 | Film | Directed by David Frankel | Release Year: 2026 | Recommended?: It depends.
Given how popular the original film was, it was only a matter of time before the legacy sequel would come out. Here we are, and there’s initially a lot to like. It’s good fun seeing Stanley Tucci, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Emily Blunt back on-screen together. They fall back into their characters relatively well, and I thought Tucci was especially good. I also think the focus on modern challenges in journalism and the corporate trends that hurt several industries was a smart choice.
But it doesn’t really have anything new to say in that regard. This is a bit of a spoiler, but it ultimately just comes down to whether or not you can convince obscenely wealthy people to enter into bidding wars with the intention of controlling legacy media companies while respecting the way things used to be. It would’ve been nice if the solution to the major problem in the film wasn’t just about finding someone willing to outbid Justin Theroux’s strangely cartoonish character. I felt the conclusion was too easy or simple, at the end of the day.
Furthermore, it is overlong and overplotted. I jotted down in my notes that it could possibly rival The Return of the King for the number of endings in the film. I literally wrote down “how is this still going?” In addition to this, I thought the love interest subplot in this felt so unnecessary and like an afterthought. So, the script could’ve used some tightening, and I don’t think it gets enough out of its modern focus.
Propeller One-Way Night Coach | Film | Directed by John Travolta | Release Year: 2026 | Recommended?: No.
It looks pretty good, and there are a couple of charming or cute scenes here and there, but this is just a seriously overinflated short film that would’ve worked much better at a length of 10-20 minutes. It also doesn’t help that John Travolta’s near-constant narration sounds dull. It shouldn’t just sound like he’s reading something to you.
If this had a runtime of 10-20 minutes and then, perhaps, if Travolta’s voice-over was only used to open and close the thing, then maybe this could’ve really worked.
– Reviews written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
