But for all that Hawke gives a chilling, compelling performance, The Black Phone really belongs to young performers Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw. Much of the marketing for Scott Derrickson’s horror comeback understandably centred on Ethan Hawke’s masked menace The Grabber – a nightmarish, psychopathic child killer who bundles local kids into his black van and locks them in his stark basement. Read the Empire review of Thor: Love And Thunder All that, and Love And Thunder still gives you giant comic book splash-panel action sequences, warring biker-chickens, Guns N ‘Roses needle-drops, and a gorgeous closing reel that changes the God Of Thunder for good. Chris Hemsworth has a blast continuing the comedic trajectory of his recent Thor outings, but it’s the return of Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster, now wielding Mjolnir as The Mighty Thor, that really ups the stakes – sparking some crackling chemistry and delivering some of the most emotional moments in the entire MCU as they team up to fight Christian Bale’s Gorr The God Butcher.
HAUNTED HOTEL 14 PERSONAL NIGHTMARE MOVIE
True to its title, this is a movie about love – about how vital and life-affirming it is, and how even the most powerful among us might need to reassess our relationship with that most vulnerable of emotions.
Love And Thunder is a weird, wild, and wonderful movie – one that pushes the irreverent comedy even further than its cosmic-freakout predecessor (giant screaming goats anyone?), but balances it out with surprising sincerity too. When Taika Waititi said he wasn’t going to play it safe after Thor: Ragnarok, he wasn’t kidding.
The result is both oddly captivating and frequently confrontational (Annie’s character is a COVID denier, anti-masker, and all-round arsehole), daring the viewer to remain invested while upping the supernatural stakes with lashings of gory shocks and gonzo gags. Playing a heightened version of herself, she causes carnage in locked-down Britain, boosting her friend’s car and picking up elderly woman Angela (Angela Enahoro) who’s not all she seems. It’s all anchored by Annie Hardy, the real-life musician whose real-life streaming show Band Car (in which she drives around and spools off vulgar improvised raps) forms the backbone of the movie. Wild, abrasive, and splattered with all manner of bodily fluids, DASHCAM_ is a seatbelts-on ride through a crazy night of stolen vehicles, crass rhymes and demonic activity. With a troll-ish sense of humour and a Sam Raimi-esque propensity for kinetic chaos, the second film from Host team Rob Savage, Jed Shepherd and Gemma Hurley proves their lockdown debut was no fluke. Dive into the top 20 below – and, as ever, remember that films had to be released in the UK since in 1 January 2022 to be eligible. To mark the midway point of the year, Team Empire gathered to vote on the best movies of 2022 so far – and the list that emerged showed a remarkable breadth of filmmakers, stories, genres, and mediums that prove what a rich cinematic landscape we’re living in right now. It’s clearer than ever that the big-screen experience has so much to offer, transporting us to brand new worlds – or taking us deeper into our own – and connecting us with bold, brilliant characters along the way.Īlready, 2022 has delivered fresh works from acclaimed filmmakers, astonishing debuts from vibrant new voices, follow-ups that outmatched the originals, and works of such sheer imaginative power that they’re destined to go down as all-timers. After two years of delayed releases, closed picturehouses and halted productions, cinema has fought back – the first half of this year has brought with it a flood of excellent exercises in movie mastery, from spectacular blockbusters and scuzzy delights, to tender character dramas and genre-busting game-changers. Make no mistake: in 2022, movies are back, back, back.