The King's Man is a prequel to the successful Kingsman movie series revolving around quirky spies defending the United Kingdom against all sorts of extraordinary criminals. This film here takes place around the First World War and includes numerous infamous historical characters from Gavrilo Princip over Grigori Rasputin to Adolf Hitler.

The story is all over the place and could have been written by a hyperactive teenager with a fascination for European history. The movie revolves around a weird secret organization that attempts to wreak havoc all around the world for obscure reasons. A series of elegant, noble and rich spies from the United Kingdom attempt to intervene and track down the mysterious leader of that organization.

Despite the shallow plot, this movie offers popcorn cinema at its very best and entertains from start to finish. The lush locations vary from England over Bosnia and Russia to India. Viewers will discover beautiful castles, historical downtown districts, wild oceans, bloody battlefields and isolated mountainous landscapes.

The special effects and action sequences are quite intriguing as well. The reimagining of Franz Ferdinand's assassination is certainly a highlight. The duel between a submarine and a regular ship during an ocean storm is extremely captivating. The final duel on a rugged mountain peak ends the movie on a high note.

The filmmakers attempted to add a few characters to the movie that viewers should be able to empathize with such as little family consisting of a courageous mother who dies a tragic death, a careful and caring father and a rebellious son who wants to test his own limits. Sadly, those characters remain rather flat and their actions are quite predictable. The efforts at character development deserve a shoutout but could have been executed much better.

At the end of the day, The King's Man is a humorous action-thriller with intriguing historical fiction elements that entertains from start to finish. The locations and special effects are the shining highlights. The plot is however almost ridiculously shallow and the character development is rather poor as well. My best suggestion is to watch this movie for the sake of instant entertainment only as it won't leave a lasting impression and can't compete with its two strong predecessors.

Colour me surprised! For years, movies have been inspired by witty scripts, intriguing novels or even great video games but this is the first time I know of that a film has been inspired by a riverboat amusement ride. While the idea might sound puzzling on paper, the final result is actually a decent adventure film for the entire family.

Jungle Cruise manages to work for different reasons. First of all, the locations look absolutely astonishing. It's obvious that most of these locations have been produced in a studio but instead of looking fake, they transmit a magical atmosphere recalling fantasy milestones such as Avatar. The special effects in this film would even deserve an Academy Award.

Up next, the story is simple but comes around with a few interesting twists and turns, involving the son of a German emperor, a mysterious indigenous tribe and a horde of undead conquistadores. These elements make the film entertaining from start to finish and provide a pace that will even keep viewers intrigued who have a short attention span.

The acting performances are decent and quite sympathetic as well. Emily Blunt for instance shines as independent, resilient and strong woman who knows exactly what she wants and is willing to take enormous risks to make her ambitions come true. Her brother is played by Jack Whitehall who seems a little bit arrogant, naive and fearful at the beginning but who ends up becoming more complex and profound as he turns out to be courageous, loyal and supportive. Jesse Plemons finds an excellent balance between danger and satire when incarnating the son of a German emperor with megalomaniac eccentricities. Every single actress and actor does a very convincing job and manages to make a good movie great.

Jungle Cruise is an interesting adventure film for the entire family. The movie is intense but not brutal. The story is creative but not too complex. The length is neither too short nor too long. It's the kind of movie that could equally please a grand-father who fondly remembers the Indiana Jones movies, a young mother who has grown up playing Tomb Raider video games and a young daughter who admires acting super star Dwayne Johnson. It might not be the most experimental, groundbreaking or intellectual movie but it offers two hours of welcome escapism to the whole family.

Free Guy is an imaginative science-fiction adventure movie in the key of Ready Player One that should appeal to kids, teenagers and young adults who enjoy playing video games.

The movie revolves around two parallel stories. In our real world, developers Walter McKey and his estranged partner Millie Rusk try to prove that selfish head developer Antwan Hovachelik has illegally used their source code to create a highly successful open-world video game. In said game, a non-player character named Guy develops an artificial intelligence when encountering a character named Molotov Girl who is actually Millie Rusk's game character. The two characters start working together in the game to find traces of the hidden source code that could benefit Millie Rusk and Walter McKey in real life.

This film convinces on many levels. First of all, the movie has a vibrant mixture of multiple genres such as action, adventure, comedy, drama, romance and science-fiction. The special effects are outstanding and bring a video game to life in an imaginative way with numerous creative details and breathtaking settings. The two story lines are cleverly interwoven and deliver poignant messages against greed and for love. The acting performances are solid and especially Ryan Reynolds manages to give the lead character a sympathetic, quirky and funny personality.

At the end of the day, Free Guy is an entertaining action-adventure movie on the pulse of time that can be enjoyed by children, teenagers and young adults as it teaches valuable life lessons. If you don't appreciate video games or if you were looking for a movie with more thrilling twists, you might however end up finding the movie too modern or too childish. There are also too many similarities between this film and Ready Player One in my opinion. While this film is certainly entertaining and memorable as there aren't too many of its kind yet, the under-appreciated Serenity is even more creative, mature and profound in the same genre.

Ice Road is yet another action-thriller starring Liam Neeson in a typecast role he has played over and over again throughout the past two decades and counting. And this is perfectly fine.

In this particular film, Liam Neeson plays a tough, resilient and generous truck driver who accepts the nearly impossible mission to deliver wellheads to a collapsed mine in northern Manitoba where workers are trapped and fighting for their lives. In addition to inclement weather and rapidly melting ice, parts of the mining company intend to sabotage the rescue mission by any means necessary. The truck driver needs to cooperate with his brother suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, a rebellious indigenous woman in constant conflict with the law and his severe but fair boss to save the workers under the most challenging circumstances.

Even though the movie offers nothing new, it has been executed with great care which makes it one of the greatest genre entries in recent memory. It's very positive that an indigenous character is portrayed by an actual actress with indigenous heritage in form of the very convincing youngster Amber Midthunder. The idea to include a character suffering from multiple mental disorders adds a psychological depth that spreads the positive message that even people who are suffering from such illnesses are able to be clever, empathic and reliable heroes. The settings are excellent for this movie as it was shot in Manitoba and actually takes place in the Canadian province itself. Nothing is worse than movies that are shot in Toronto for monetary reasons but make you believe that the plot takes place in New York City. The movie convinces with excellent pace from start to finish without feeling rushed. The special effects are employed with care and feature truck chases, fist fights and explosions among many other elements. The light and sound effects blend in very well and are best enjoyed at your local cinema.

Action-thriller genre fans should certainly appreciate Ice Road for its characters, pace and settings. The movie is great at what it is without trying to add anything new to the genre. Grab some drinks and snacks, sit down with a few friends and enjoy this entertaining escapism on a slow evening.

The Paper Tigers is an intriguing action-comedy movie that convinces with its interesting characters and their dynamic relations. The story revolves around three middle-aged men who were trained by a martial arts master three decades ago. Now that their former master has died under mysterious circumstances, they get together again to find out what has happened.

The film convinces with its intriguing characters. The former master is a generous, knowledgeable and severe man who has been taken advantage of which has led to his tragic demise. Danny has been going through a difficult divorce, is overloaded by his job and progressively alienates from his beloved son. Hing has suffered from a work injury and has trouble moving around despite keeping a positive attitude and inspiring his friends. Jim has continued a career in martial arts but holds a profound grudge against his former friends. The three friends must sort out their challenges, demons and differences in order to avenge their former master.

The Paper Tigers features some energetic martial arts choreography. Some parts are humorous, others are fast and some even have a brutal twist. This mixture keeps the film very entertaining. The final fight can be seen as the movie's climax and greatest accomplishment as it also spreads an inspiring message.

Despite the serious plot, this film includes lots of comic relief. The three main characters are clumsy in hilarious moments offering some excellent situation comedy. Some side characters such as an arrogant former rival and three clueless thugs spice things up as well.

The movie's weakest part is the plot that remains rather superficial. The story is very predictable and the motives of the villain turn out to be quite shallow.

If you plan on watching a martial arts comedy that doesn't invent anything new but that is crafted with genuine passion for the genre, you will be in for a treat with The Paper Tigers. This movie might not be creative, groundbreaking or memorable but it entertains from start to finish and offers some welcome escapism in difficult times. If you like this kind of film, I can also warmly recommend the similar Enter the Fat Dragon.