James Brolin

Weapons

15/08/25

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Yes, I know it’s the Fringe and I do appreciate that cinema is supposed to be taking a back seat this month, but anyone who caught Zach Creggar’s debut movie, Barbarian, back in 2022, will doubtless be as fired up for his sophomore feature as I am. Like its predecessor, Weapons is a wild ride, one that has more twists and turns than a passenger could ever anticipate. I sit spellbound as I am thrown this way and that, sometimes mystified, occasionally terrified, but never ever bored.

The story begins with an inexplicable event. In the little town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) arrives at school, ready to teach her class – to find only one pupil waiting for her. He’s Alex (Cary Christopher) and he’s the only kid left because, earlier that same morning (at 2.17am precisely), all his classmates woke up, got out of their beds and ran off into the night with their arms held out at their sides.

Now, nearly a month after that event, the children still haven’t been located. Archer Graff (James Brolin), the father of one of the pupils, wants to know why Justine hasn’t been arrested. After all, it’s only her class that has vanished; she must know more than she’s letting on!

Archer wants an explanation and so does the film’s audience, but, just as he did in Barbarian, writer/director Creggar refuses point blank to offer a straightforward, linear narrative. Instead, he gives us seven different points of view, allowing us to gradually piece the events together as we are flung back and forth in time.

As well as Justine’s and Archer’s observations, there’s the story of what happens to mild-mannered school principal, Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong); the misadventures of Justine’s old squeeze, police officer, Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich); there’s Paul’s clash with vagrant drug addict, James (Austin Abrams); and, of course, Alex’s account. Dare I mention a propitious visit by Alex’s Great Aunt Gladys (a bone-chilling performance by veteran actor, Amy Madigan), who provides the final piece in the puzzle?

I really can’t say any more about the plot without giving too much away; suffice to say, Weapons is an absolute smorgasbord of delights, by turns poignant, tense, bloody and, in its later stretches, darkly comic. It keeps me enthralled from start to finish and, happily, my initial fears that the central premise would remain unexplained prove to be completely unfounded. The explanation might be as mad as the proverbial box of frogs, but it’s right there, waiting to punch you in the kisser, then run gleefully away with its arms held out at its sides.

If Barbarian was a promising debut, Weapons is proof that horror has a brilliant new exponent. Creggar has created one of the most downright unmissable films of 2025 and I’m already hyped to see whatever he comes up with next.

5 stars

Philip Caveney

Lightyear

21/06/22

Cineworld, Edinburgh

After the recent disappointment of watching Pixar’s latest releases on the small screen, it’s great to see one back in its natural home – but my delight is somewhat dulled by the fact that this is a prequel to their super-successful Toy Story franchise. What’s more, what’s happened to the practice of showing a new short film before every feature? I hope that returns.

The film begins with a title card reminding us that, in the original story, Buzz Lightyear was an action-figure inspired by a movie, and we are about to watch that movie.

Here, Buzz (voiced by Chris Evans, replacing Tim Allen for no explicable reason) is a Space Ranger in Star Command, who, when we first encounter him, is exploring habitable planet T’kani Prime with his commander, Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba) – but his miscalculation while trying to escape the hostile life-forms that live there leaves him marooned, along with the huge crew aboard his ship. The only possible method of escape requires Buzz to fly at hyperspeed, something he repeatedly tries to do, but each trip he makes means that, though he remains the same age, everybody else ages by years.

The film’s early stages are expertly piloted, alternating suspenseful skirmishes and cliffhangers with moments of real poignancy and, needless to say, the animation throughout is sumptuous. As ever there are some wonderful characterisations here. ‘Empathy feline robot’ Sox (Peter Sohn) is a particular delight, and the fact that Alisha is gay and that she and her partner have a child is so perfectly handled, I start to think that we’re on a perfect trajectory for another Pixar triumph.

But around the halfway stage, a mysterious villain called The Emporer Zurg (James Brolin) arrives on T’kani with battalions of Zyclops robots under his command, while Buzz finds himself reluctantly teaming up with Alisha’s daughter, Izzy (Keke Palmer). Suddenly everything starts to feel much more generic and, it must be said, far too complicated for its own good. If I struggle with the labyrinthine twists of the timey-wimey adventures that ensue, God only knows what the battalions of school kids occupying the front row seats make of them.

There’s an interesting reveal towards the film’s conclusion but, by this time, too much impetus has been lost to save the project. This is a shame, because that first half demonstrates that the team at Pixar can make the most inauspicious vehicle fly, even if – as in this case – they can’t make it stay the distance.

3.4 stars

Philip Caveney

Only the Brave

13/11/17

The poster for Only the Brave suggests we are in for a good old-fashioned disaster movie, but director Joseph Kosinski is clearly more interested in the characters who made up the real life Granite Mountain Hot Shots – a bunch of hard-as-nails firefighters based in Prescott, Arizona. While this is no doubt an admirable attempt to flesh out some genuine heroes, it fatally flaws the story arc of the film, which keeps breaking off from the action to regale us with some macho prank the boys have indulged in. The result is that the story only occasionally generates enough heat to keep an audience fully hooked.

Things begin well enough with Supervisor Eric Marsh (James Brolin) champing at the bit as he tries to obtain ‘hot shot’ status for his crew of municipal firefighters. (Without that tag they will always be relegated to a support role whenever there’s a major fire). Meanwhile, young hothead and general drug abuser, Brendan McCulloch (Miles Teller) gets his girlfriend pregnant and, in a desperate attempt to clean up his act, decides to put himself forward as a candidate for the fire team. Marsh, recognising something of himself in Brendan, decides to give him a chance and before very much longer, the Granite Mountain boys have their hot shot status and are working around the clock in a series of extremely dangerous situations. Meanwhile, their long suffering wives and girlfriends must endure the knowledge that their partners might never survive the latest disaster…

There’s clearly a fascinating (and it must be said, tragic) real life story at the heart of this, but with over twenty firefighters on the team, it’s hard for us to differentiate between more than just a few of them. And, if you’re blessed with Jeff Bridges in your cast, it might be a good idea to give him something to do. The female characters, mind you,  barely get a look in. Jennifer Connelly as Marsh’s wife, Amanda, has something approaching a decent role but poor Andie McDowell is left to sit around, looking glum.

The ending when we get to it, is admittedly devastating – but by then, most of our goodwill for the film has gone up in smoke as the script cuts back and forth, recounting details that we really didn’t need to know about. Also, there’s a tendency here to assume we understand the principals of firefighting. Scenes where the team are actually setting fire to areas of forest in order to prevent the spread of an approaching conflagration might have needed a little more explanation. As it is, we’re just left to assume.

Ultimately, Only the Brave is a powerful story, awkwardly told. While it generates the occasional spark, it never really fully ignites.

3 stars

Philip Caveney