My Review of Pretty Lethal (2026)

 

Written by Kate Freund

Directed by Vicki Jewson

Bones: "These guys are drunk and out of shape, and we're prima fucking ballerinas."

Was anyone in the mood for a ballet meets Hostel (sort of) themed movie? Well, Amazon Prime recently served up something in that regard and it's kind of a mixed bag. Partly entertaining and very much ridiculous but here we are.

You've got a ballet troupe comprising of Bones (Maddie Ziegler), Zoe (Iris Apatow) and her sister, Chloe (Millicent Simmonds), Grace (Avantika) and Princess (Lana Condor). For the most part, they're a troupe that were largely at odds with one another until the movie needed them to step up or get killed.

They're mostly kept in line by their dance instructor Thorna Davenport (Lydia Leonard) but upon entering the wrong hotel owned by Devora Kasimer (Uma Thurman). Let's just say that it didn't take long for all hell to break loose or for Thorna to be shot in the head. From this point onwards, it just got more and more violent.

Every man in this movie, including characters such as Pasha (Tamás Szabó Sipos), Lothar (Michael Culkin), Doktor (Gábor Nagypál) and Yuri (Julian Krenn) etc would be revealed to be a violent would be rapist and general misogynist. Because of this, the ballerinas had to put their many differences to one side and work together to make it out of the movie alive.

I'll admit the characters themselves are likable enough if not the most well drawn out. Bones somewhat became the defacto leader of the group and almost lost her leg when it turned out that Devora was a former ballerina missing a leg. Much as I love Uma Thurman as an actor, her European accent tended to verge on parody at times here.

The movie itself though did have some fun in the way the girls used their ballet skills to actually fight back against their oppressors. I'll give the movie points for some incentive enough scenes there before Devora's act of extremism took care of a bigger threat. 

- The film was originally titled Ballerina Overdrive. Lena Headey was attached at one point to star in it.

- Kate Freund played Sona, a character who ended switching sides by the third act.

- Standout music: Snap! Rhythm Is A Dancer (Ballerina Remix).

- Chronology: Present day Los Angeles at the start with the majority of the movie set in Budapest. 

As I said at the start of this review, I found Pretty Lethal to be mostly entertaining but it's also a bit messy too. Overall, it's decent enough with a few incentive moments of violence and team work. It won't be the best thing you watch this year but neither will it be the worst either.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

DCU Blog - March 2026 Edition: Supergirl Promo, Lanterns Trailer And More

We're a quarter into 2026 and the DC news has been a little sparse but we did get some good bits this month.

Later today will see the release of a new trailer for Supergirl (June 26th). David Corenswet's Superman is confirmed to feature in it. Claudia Sarne is now the composer.

Filming for Man Of Tomorrow (July 9th) will begin in three weeks in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Aaron Pierre will reprise his role as John Stewart in Man Of Tomorrow. An actress has also been rumoured to play Maxima in the movie. Eva de Dominic is the rumoured actress.

Paramount's deal to acquire Warner Brothers will be decided next month. It might not even happen.

Robert Pattinson has talked about The Batman - Part II (October 1st 2027) taking some big swings. Filming will start during the end of May in the UK.

Ruby Sear has been cast in an undisclosed role for Clayface (October 23rd). A trailer is likely to appear at CinemaCon next month. The WB panel will be on April 14th from 4.30pm to 6.30pm.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller have written a movie for The Flash for the DCU but it hasn't been picked up.

Peacemaker won Best Superhero TV Series at the Saturn Awards.

The first trailer for HBO's Lanterns was released. The show will air from August on the cable channel.

Fans of the Absolute Batman series will be seeing Two Face in an upcoming issue while Absolute Wonder Woman will debut a new Cheetah in the next arc.

David Jenkins has confirmed once again that he's still the show runner for the upcoming Booster Gold show.

Superman worldwide collection now stands at $624.3 million.

A casting announcement for the Mister Miracle animated show from Tom King is on the way. It'll air on HBO Max.

The Jimmy Olsen show will be a crime mystery comedy according to co-showrunner Dan Perrault.

Freddie Stroma has confirmed that he doesn't know when he'll return as Vigilante in the DCU.

The 2026 DC Pride will be released in June and will factor in a Justice League: Dream Girls event. June will also see the release of the Dark Knights Of Steel sequel series.

That's your lot for this month. Bigger things on the way for DC no doubt.

My Review of Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010)

 

Written by Tab Murphy

Directed by Lauren Montgomery 

Kara: "Little nervous, I guess. It's just, you have this life. You can be Clark, or Kal-El, or Superman. Even a son. Who am I going to be?"

Clark: "I can't answer that, Kara. Only you can. Whatever you decide, I'll be there for you. I promise."

Yesterday I reviewed Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, so of course the follow up was going to be next. Though I should say this movie was more focused on Supergirl (Summer Glau) and that's not a bad thing.

Supergirl's ship crash landed in Gotham City River and she caused a commotion in the city until Batman (Kevin Conroy) managed to detain her and Superman (Tim Daly) made his presence known to her. Not surprising was Superman being nicer to his cousin than Batman himself.

In the first half of the movie, Kara struggled with controlling her powers, was at odds with both Batman and Krypto, embraced certain aspects of posing as a human girl and even was overwhelmed with how Superman was seen by the public. Then the Amazons led by Wonder Woman (Susan Eisenberg) felt she needed better training.

Sending Kara to Themyscira was the wisest move. She was starting to get her powers under control and even befriended Lyla/Harbinger (Rachel Quaintance). The latter had visions of Kara being in danger and sure enough, Darkseid (Andre Braugher) being interested in a new captain for his Furies made that clear.

The second half of this movie definitely was the highlight. We had Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman join up with Big Barda (Julianne Grossman) to rescue Kara from Apokolips. There's a great battle with Wonder Woman and Big Barda having to take on the likes of Granny Goodness (Ed Asner), Gilotina/Mad Harriet (Salli Saffioti), Stompa (Andrea Romano) and Lashina (Tara Strong). It's a rather brutal sequence.

Also brutal was Batman finding a way into manipulating Darkseid to relinquish his hols on Kara while the latter temporarily went against her cousin. Add a follow up battle with super cousins and Kara realised exactly what her destiny was supposed to be.

- Lex has officially been impeached and Gotham had security blimps flying over the city.

- Artemis went from being annoyed with Superman to having some respect for him during the fight with the Doomsday clones.

- We heard Vicki Vale, saw the Mister Miracle costume and Treasure was quickly defeated by the Furies.

- Chronology: Gotham City, Metropolis, Krypton, Apokolips, Themyscira and Smallville.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse was even better than the previous movie. The focus on Supergirl was a good move for this sequel and Darkseid/Furies were also used really well. I really enjoyed this sequel.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)

 

Written by Stan Berkowitz

Directed by Sam Liu

Superman: "Why is it that good villains never die?"

Batman: "Clark, what the hell are good villains?"

A while ago, I watched the Superman/Batman animated movies based on the comic of the same name. I went back to see them again just to review them for this blog. These are good movies.

Focusing a lot on Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown), this film saw the guy not only becoming president but he also seemed to have several superheroes under his thumb. Except for Superman (Tim Daly) and Batman (Kevin Conroy) but Lex had a plan for that.

With a meteor set to hit the Earth, Lex didn't want Superman saving the day and he also didn't take kindly to Amanda Waller (CCG Pounder) giving advice on using the superheroes he did have under his control. In fact, Lex was behaving erratically until it was revealed that he was injecting himself with Kryptonite.

Anyways Superman was made to look like he was responsible for the death of Metallo (John C. McGinley) but it was really Major Force (Ricardo Chavira) who did the deed. That reveal did manage to get the likes of Power Girl (Allison Mack), Captain Atom (Xander Berkeley), Starfire (Jennifer Hale) and Black Lightning (LeVar Burton) back on the good guys side.

Actually there's a lot of heroes and villains flying about the place as Lex put a billion dollar bounty on Superman. We even got both Hawkman (Michael Gough) and Shazam (Corey Burton) in fights with Superman and Batman before the tables were turned on Lex. Toyman (Calvin Tran) even tried to be a force for good before Led almost ruined everything.

There's a pretty big fight between Superman and Lex Luthor with the former having lost ant patience towards the latter while Batman nearly sacrificed himself to stop the meteor. As for Lex, well it's safe to say that his presidency came to an abrupt ending by the end of this movie.

- Villains that popped up included Killer Frost, Silver Banshee, Gorilla Grodd, Solomon Grundy, Mongul, Deadshot, Nightshade, Lady Shiva, Giganta and Captain Cold. There's a lot more in the mix.

- Both Lois Lane and Katana had brief appearances as well and Superman referenced already having a funeral.

- There's a follow up movie titled Superman/Batman: Apocalypse that'll be reviewed tomorrow.

- Chronology: Present day during a severe economic depression. Citizens were looting at one point in the movie.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies turned out to be a strong adaptation of the source with a few changes that worked in its favour. A strong team up with the title characters and a pretty despicable Lex Luthor to boot.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of How To Make A Killing (2026)

 

Written And Directed by John Patton Ford

Julia: "Whatever happened to the Redfellow family fortune?"

Beckett: "Oh, I'll inherit it someday."

Glen Powell does seem to be having something of a time with getting out a hit movie these days. Is he making the wrong choices? Is every movie he's chosen in recent times a bad one? Or do we live in an era where no actor has consistent hits these days?

I think with this particular movie, it might have been one of his more interesting roles. He's playing a man named Beckett Redfellow, who began this movie on death row talking to a priest (Adrian Lukis) about the events that led to his current situation.

It turned out that Beckett came from an incredibly wealthy background but his mother Mary (Nell Williams) was cut off of sorts by his grandfather, Whitelaw (Ed Harris) for being pregnant with him. Mary dying early in the movie however gave Beckett a sense of direction.

Beckett intended to get his family fortune and in order to do that, he was going to kill his way up to the top of the ladder. This resulted in some rather cool deaths for not so sympathetic Redfellows such as Taylor (Raff Law), Noah (Zach Woods), Steven (Topher Grace), Cassandra (Bianca Amato), and MacArthur (Alexander Hanson).

There was seven members to kill but Beckett had a hard time killing his uncle Warren (Bill Camp) but the latter had given him a job and showed genuine kindness to him. Fortunately for Beckett, a heart attack took Warren out of the mix but Beckett's killing spree was causing him a lot of problems.

It got in the way of his relationship with Ruth (Jessica Henwick) and it made him a blackmail target for former friend, Julia (Margaret Qualley). The way this movie ended did confirm that it was a tragedy but not quite the way that Beckett intended.

- The script had been on a Black List since 2014 under a different title before it got made.

- It's also loosely based on the 1949 film, Kind Hearts And Coronets.

- Standout music: Lincoln Chase's The Clapping Song.

- Chronology: Predominantly set in New York but Beckett also lived in New Jersey for most of his life.

I actually found myself enjoying How To Make A Killing. It might be one of the better choices that Glen Powell made and he's pretty good as a bumbling murderer. I definitely would recommend giving this one a chance.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Vicious (2025)

 

Written And Directed by Bryan Bertino

The Woman (to Polly): "You're going to die tonight."

I got to be honest, I just picked watching this movie at random. I didn't even know it existed prior to clicking into it. It was a random choice and something of an uneven experience.

I do like Dakota Fanning as an actor and here she's playing a directionless woman named Polly. She's stuck in a dead end job, appears to be rather miserable and an encounter from a strange old woman (Kathryn Hunter) only made things a lot worse.

The woman in question left Polly a box. This box had to be filled with the things or Polly would die. It took Polly a little moment to believe what the woman was telling her to be true. The things that needed to get in the box were something she hated, something she needed and something she loved.

Trying to get help from the neighbours was a bust because most of them ignored Polly and the only one who answered the door ended up dismissing Polly. Oh, did I mention the box had an entity that needed those things? That's kind of important to this story.

As the movie went along, the gore quotient escalated with Polly cutting off toes and fingers to appease the damn thing. Polly even was motivated into visiting her sister, Lainie (Rachel Blanchard) and niece, Aly (Emily Mitchell) to order to get a lock of the latter's hair for the box.

Things moved at a chaotic pace with this film. There was a neighbour named Tara (Devyn Nekoda) who kind of provided a solution to Polly's problem, although the latter felt guilty about it. Yup, that box will be dooming the whole neighbourhood.

- Polly received a creepy phone call from her dead mother (Mary McCormack) at one point in the movie.

- The movie was originally slated for a theatrical release before going to Paramount+ instead.

- Standout music: The Mamas And The Papas Dedicated To The One I Love.

- Chronology: Present day, Christmas setting in an American neighborhood.

Vicious (2025) had an interesting premise and suitable goes moments and even solid performances from Dakota Fanning and Kathryn Hunter but it's not a great movie. I wish it were but I'm not surprised it was pulled from theatres and went to Paramount+ instead. Not the worst I've seen but disappointing.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

HBO Max - UK & Ireland Launch Today

Today's the day. After nearly six years since it's initial launch in 2020, HBO Max has finally become available to the UK and Ireland and it's not a moment too soon.

In London there was a press launch with cast members from shows such The Pitt, Rooster, The Comeback, The Last Of Us, House Of The Dragon and A Kight Of The Seven Kingdoms to name but a few. The first show in particular will now finally and legally be accessible to UK and Irish audiences as the HBO Max app will be apart of the Sky and Now TV packages. I do think I'm overdue in watching this.

HBO Max offers a range of stuff including everything from HBO itself, classic WB TV shows such as Friends, TNT Sports and for my personal enjoyment, access to the DC Universe. Yes, that'll include various movies, including Zack Snyder's Justice League as well as shows such Peacemaker, The Penguin and the upcoming Lanterns. Sky/Now TV have aired these shows but they are now on the HBO Max app.

Then there's the biggest promotion for HBO Max itself. Yesterday saw the trailer for the Harry Potter TV show released. Titled Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, the first season of course will adapt the first book from JK Rowling's beloved books (it's what the trailer said). Of course there's controversy afoot. Many don't want to watch the show because JK's views on trans issues (spoiler alert: not gonna defend JK here) and others are more divided on the casting choices (particularly Snape) or feel it's too soon for a TV series when the movies are still fresh to a lot of audiences.

Now I do think these are important factors but at the same time, there's no getting away from the fact that the show was trending all day yesterday on social media, including positive responses among the mixed and negative ones. I think this show will end up being a huge hit for HBO and releasing it weekly from Christmas 2026 onwards is definitely smart, marketing wise. Also as we've seen in recent times, online boycotting rarely works and I don't think it will with this show either.

HBO Max is now available as an app or part of your Sky and Now TV packages.