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James Mottram

James Mottram

SCMP Contributor
James Mottram is a film critic and journalist based in London. As well as writing for the SCMP for over 10 years, he’s also written a number of books on cinema including The Sundance Kids, The Making of Memento and Die Hard: The Ultimate Visual History.
James Mottram is a film critic and journalist based in London. As well as writing for the SCMP for over 10 years, he’s also written a number of books on cinema including The Sundance Kids, The Making of Memento and Die Hard: The Ultimate Visual History.

A vivacious cast lifts this live-action remake of DreamWorks fantasy cartoon about Vikings battling dragons, but the film is much too long.

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Jackie Chan shows he still has it, Ben Wang makes a charming lead, but despite Ralph Macchio’s return the Miyagi-LaRusso dynamic is missing.

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Star-studded but with no stand-out films to contend for Oscars, Cannes 2025 still had a lot to offer, including The Mastermind and Eddington.

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Kyoko Saito plays a J-pop star sued for having a boyfriend in a film that questions how young women are treated by a male-dominated industry.

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As Soderbergh returns with spy thriller Black Bag, starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, we count down his 10 best films to date.

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Films such as All We Imagine as Light, Sister Midnight and Santosh are showing a different side to Indian cinema and attracting global fans.

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Flow, directed by Gints Zilbalodis, is part of a wave of non-Hollywood animated films telling hard-hitting stories aimed at adult audiences.

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Alex Garland teams up with his military supervisor from Civil War for this survival tale based on the latter’s experience of the war in Iraq.

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After 2 Avengers films that were the 2nd and 7th highest grossing of all time, the Russos’ output has been disappointing in recent years.

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Director drew from his own experiences for Queerpanorama, about a man meeting foreign men for sex in Hong Kong. It’s got Berlin buzzing.

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Robert Pattinson plays the titular Mickey, a loser sent into space, where he is cloned with hilarious results in this cult-novel adaptation.

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Mackie does not have big expectations of his new Marvel outing, co-starring Harrison Ford – he just wants his children to think it is cool.

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