Belkin Stage PowerGrip: Review

In an ideal world, technology should be either life-altering or an aid to make life easier.

Many gadgets shoot for this, but either end up feeling like they've missed the mark or don't quite match the spec of what's needed.

Initially, the Belkin Stage PowerGrip makes you wonder what on earth - and who - it's aiming for. Is it a power bank to charge your phone? Is it a phone stand? After careful consideration, Belkin's decided this latest is actually all of those things - and is aimed at the content creator market, given it also offers a tripod stand to complete the range.

Straight out of the box, the Belkin Stage PowerGrip is a fairly light piece of kit, albeit one that feels chunky enough to do everything it offers and endure plentiful use. 

But for those millennials who've never known the thrill of activating a camera shutter or holding a camera to take a snap, rather than lifting a phone aloft at an angle and sticking your tongue out, the Belkin Stage PowerGrip will be a revelation to them. 

A button atop the PowerGrip allows you to take snaps or video after you've connected via the Bluetooth. It's a fairly simple process once you know what you're doing and while it takes a bit of a mental adjustment, the benefits after are relatively good.

Primarily aimed at the vlogging and creation market, this tool does work if you just want a stand to hold up your phone and video away - though, in fairness, the lack of any real flexibility of the stand in terms of how you'd model it may be a source of frustration to some. Given it's a fixed stand and one that can't be moulded to filming desires, it may irritate some who're looking for a little more flexibility.

Working primarily for the iPhone users and compatibility with the Galaxy S26 does also mean a sizeable market is shut out of using this particular piece of kit, which seems a touch narrow-minded given there are as many Android users as there are iPhone users. Hopefully, Belkin will look to adjust that.

With the ability to charge up to three devices, USB-C output ports, a retractable USB-C charging cable and LED screen for battery percentage, as well as the option to work as a phone stand, the somewhat bulky Belkin Stage PowerGrip certainly has enough going for it - and those who use tools like this regularly will be compelled to buy it to make their life easier.

With just a little more market insight, this could be an essential tool for all - as it stands currently, it covers its niche market exceptionally well.

Tech specs for the package:

●       Portable, convenient, ergonomic camera grip design

●       Long-lasting 9.3K mAh* power bank charges phone up to 1.6x

●       15W to charge up to three devices wirelessly at the same time

●       Capture photos with Bluetooth connection

●       Doubles as a phone stand in portrait and landscape modes†

●       Retractable 0.75m/29.5in USB-C cable

●       Additional in/out USB-C port

●       Secured magnetic phone attachment

●       Lanyard loop for easy transport

●       LCD screen shows battery level

●       Tripod-ready with ¼-inch screw thread

●       100% plastic-free packaging

●       2-year warranty

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Williams, Chi Lewis-Parry, Erin Kellyman
Director: Nia Da Costa

After the surprisingly tender and poignant 28 Years Later revitalized the franchise last year, the speed in which its sequel was announced and released was welcome, but unexpected news.

But this latest has a lot to live up to, thanks to its absolutely bonkers ending of 28 Years Later that evoked the ghost of Jimmy Saville.

Suffice to say, this is something quite special. By turns vicious, menacing, theological, philosophical, insane and incredibly moving and yet still, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple begins with Alfie Williams' Spike being captured by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (O'Connell, terrifying and terrific) and his cult of white-haired minions.

From the opening sequence in which Crystal sits in a Jim'll Fix It-style chair as he presides over violence and warped cruelty to the crowd-pleasing finale, everything in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is not what you may be expecting. At all.

Ruminating on what happens when the tenets of faith crumble as science or anyone ichallenges them, as well as offering an insight into Samson's life (one of the standout moments of the sequel mixes both memory and violence with aplomb), the whole film is anchored on manipulating a meeting between Fiennes Dr Ian Kelson and O'Connell's Crystal.

But along the way, with unexpected needle drops, philosophical edges, examinations of what it is to be human and selfless, as well as tender moments from Fiennes, there's plenty of pathos and humanity to explore in a civilisation that's teetering on memories of before and living among the brutalities of now.

Much like 28 Years Later, The Bone Temple is best enjoyed unspoiled as it unspools out. It's a singular experience that's anchored by a deeply memorable performance from both Fiennes and O'Connell - but also from Williams and Kellyman (a Jimmy cult inductee), whose characters suffer their own existential crises. 

For a film that's about a virus that turns its victims into raging monsters, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has an unfeasible amount of quiet silence and magnificence among some of the malevolence. It's evocative, sadistic, compelling, dark, brooding and thoughtful - it's everything a great film should be and a sign that Alex Garland and Danny Boyle's world has massively, cleverly and cerebrally evolved.

At its core, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is 2026's first unmissable film.

Laser 14" Portable Screen: Review

Extra screens come in all shapes and sizes - especially in these work from home times.

But what generally they lack is portability. However, Laser's launched a new portable screen to deal with that very problem. 

At 14 inches, perhaps the first concern is that it barely matches the same size as most laptops. However, rather than simply going for a 16x9 monitor, Laser's delivered a 16x10 experience that adds an extra bit of height to its display.

Simplicity is the key here.

Taking it out of the box, it's obvious what the drawcard is here - weighing in at around just 560 grams, this is the kind of screen that will slide nicely into your laptop bag or under your arm. It's not weighed down by overly unnecessary buttons and with a simple plug in and go mentality, there's no real need to fiddle around - unless you want a second screen to extend.

Inside the box, there's just the screen and the USB-C and HDMI cables, meaning your setup is a simple one, and there's no need to raid that box of cables that you leave lying around. Perhaps the fiddliest part of the setup is the extender arm on the back of the device.

That's mainly because the LED screen is light, there's a feeling that applying any kind of pressure on the front could permanently damage the display. There's also the option to mount this too, should you so desire - though given the real plus of this device is its portability, that would be a little pointless. (And it's worth noting the mount doesn't come as part of the package, which is priced at around $179.)

Straight off the bat, the screen impresses with its display. Its crystal-clear imagery more than does what's needed for a second screen in the office. The brightness may very occasionally work better as a darker room piece of kit, rather than a fully sun-drenched room. It's a bit more of an intriguing proposition as a standalone device, but with HDMI cables, it can be used to attach to a gaming device to avoid a big screen experience.

As a presentation tool though, it's better than connecting to an office bigscreen monitor - and the more close-quarters workers will relish the fact the device can effectively and quickly display any propositions.

If anything, the sound pumped out by the screen's speakers is nothing more than fine - any audiophile who's looking for a more impressive sound experience won't really be investing in a portable monitor anyway, but given the portability is key here, the fact it pumps out sound better than a non-Bluetooth-connected laptop does gives it bonus points anyway. There's a jack on the side to plug in speakers, but when you start adding more tech to this, then it becomes less about portability. However, headphones work fine.

For the price you're paying and given how easy it is to simply set up and get on with what's needed without any fuss, the Laser 14" Portable Screen more than delivers on its promise and premise with ease. 

Marvel MaXimum Collection: PS5 Review

Developed by Limited Run Games
Published by Limited Run Games
Platform: PS5

The Marvel Universe is somewhat of a large beast.

From countless movies to endless TV shows, the Marvel tentacles spread far and wide. So, it's no surprise that there are a series of games for the fans to get their hands on - and this collection of a slew of the Marvel genre is more than a match for any serious gamer and fan - even if some of the gameplay is somewhat repetitive.

Originally released from the 1990s, these five games prove to be as difficult as any arcade game can be - from the movement-based gameplay of Silver Surfer (which is punishingly difficult to the point of irritation) through to the Street Fighter-esque beat'em'up of the Spider-Man games, there's more than enough to keep fans of the button-mashing gameplay busy.

Even with rewind capabilities (as the Ghosts'n'Goblins arcade game did when it came to console), there's no walk in the park for these titles - certainly Silver Surfer, where the slightest touch of anyone can send you back to the start of the game, is one of the toughest games out there and included in this collection.

Graphically, they're faithful to the 2D scroller originals, but lack some of the finesse of the next gen console's abilities to be frank. There's no fidelity upgrade here and while the games don't suffer from frame-rate drop out or the like, they're certainly not something to write home about visually. Except that in many ways, that's not the point - these are extremely faithful adaptations of the 90s titles, 8-bits and all - and on that front, they easily deliver.

This is a nice little collection, perhaps in some ways, it's a little niche - and certainly the repetition of gameplay leaves a fair bit of beat-em-up desirability to go. There's much to be said for nostalgia and given this collects together a wide raft of titles that only had Sega, Nintendo and Game Gear playability, getting them onto the next gen consoles is an X-cellent idea.

The collected games are: Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage, Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety, X-Men: The Arcade Game, Captain America and The Avengers, Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, and Silver Surfer. 

Screamer: PS5 Review

Developed by Milestone
Published by Milestone
Platform: PS5

Sometimes, arcade games can push you to the absolute edge.

Whether it's their addictive nature, their "just one more go" mentality or their ease of play, the genre is one that's always held sway with gamers - and so much so that fiddling with what's on offer can lead to a feeling of why mess with it if it's not broken.

Fortunately, arcade racer Screamer offers something of a halfway house for racing games, mixing both long anime-style cut scenes and cartoon-level racing in an update of the game that was first unleashed back in 1995.

With anime graphics and chapter-led storytelling, this latest from Milestone offers something a little different as it pulls you in with its story of street racing, different gangs and competitive edges. Digging into a dystopian-style future world and sci-fi trappings, it tells the story of rival gangs who thrash it all out on the track, pushing their racing to divulge their tale in a bitesize way that'll keep you engaged throughout.

With cars that feel just a little day-after-tomorrow stylings, and tracks that are like Blade Runner but on speed, the neon-soaked racing will see you needing to concentrate and learn mechanics as you drift around courses and take on other racers.

It's not an easy game to master and there are times when it distinctly feels like the levelling up process has happened to everyone else on the track but you. With its twin-stick system, the game does require concentration and a level head for blatting around courses - one wrong move and you're back to the dredges of the racing pack, destined not to catch up.

There's a kind of lunacy that works here as you battle other racers and take part in a plethora of other race options - and while the cut scenes can occasionally become annoying, skipping them leaves you missing out on some of the game's finer details.

Stripped of the seriousness of other racing sims and meshing anime with Forza Horizon and Wipeout works well here - just don't be surprised if you find yourself caught up in the fact you think you can beat others with just one more race.

The Devil Wears Prada 2: Movie Review

Cast: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux, Simone Ashley, Kenneth Branagh, BJ Novak
Director: David Frankel

Twenty years ago, The Devil Wears Prada provided a sharp and satirical look at the world of fashion and the behaviour of toxic bosses. But the sequel is as shallow as fashion can be - all sheen and no substance below, a mannequin dressed in haute couture, yet shapeless and without form underneath.

Sure, there are the trademark barbs and bitter remarks tossed about by both Streep's beastly Runway fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly (although she's warned by HR what she can and can't say, a la Scrubs 2026 reboot), but in a tale about the media landscape changing, this feels less insightful and as disposable as fast fashion itself.

Two decades on, Andy Sachs (Hathaway, solid and good at the more comedic elements of the script) has been working as a journalist and is about to receive an award when she's informed that her entire publication is being shut down after a buy-out. Meanwhile, Runway editor Miranda Priestly (Streep, haughty and indignant) is on the cusp of getting a prestigious promotion when an article promoting a brand using a sweatshop goes viral. 

However, when the owner of Runway magazine contacts Andy to head up their features department and tidy up the mess, it puts Andy and her former nemesis Miranda back on a collision path...

There are some things to admire in The Devil Wears Prada 2, a film that initially has ambition before squandering it all for a series of promo shoots, fashion darlings walking in montages and continual location changes that look ripped from a travel magazine's video pages before an antagonising sentimental ending that threatens to drown itself in syrup..

To begin with, the film seems to want to launch barbs at the industry itself, how media has turned on itself, how traditional media has given way to chasing page impressions, a rage against consolidation of media, and how there's no escaping from how one person can make you feel and act, no matter how far in your past they are.

But it throws all that to one side in a truly formulaic movie whose plot twists are ludicrously telegraphed and which has absolutely no consequences are felt. Characters appear and then disappear when their arc appears to be done, and most of what transpires is neatly wrapped up in a feel-good bow that belies some of the tart nature of the dialogue early on.

A Lady Gaga cameo appears to be nothing more than a promo for a song of her own catalogue; there's a Last Supper allegory that becomes literal and there's a railing at one point by Priestly about the dangers of AI. It all feels very timely, but it also somehow doesn't make the film timeless.

What's most criminal about The Devil Wears Prada 2 is how much it's abandoned the comedy elements of the story, in favour of something a little more piecemeal. It feels like the dramatic scenes have been bolted together in a myriad of ways (and don't even let's start on the Coke can product placement within) that all feel as slight and trivial as what Priestly's raging against.

Yet within the thinly sketched movie, there are some stand-out moments.

Some truly delicious one-liners are espoused, Tucci has real warmth and heart as Nigel, the perennially put-upon assistant, and both Hathaway and a slightly defanged Streep step back into their original iconic characters with ease. Some of the best scenes are in the cold interactions they have early on and the later thawing of that relationship. Emily Blunt steals the show once again as the vengeful former assistant now working for Dior. Fans of the original will be happy with it, everyone else may find their patience sorely tested in parts.

Early on, Tucci's Nigel delivers the verdict that "villains are always the most interesting" but in the case of this sequel, the devil's not quite in the details. 

As the iconic Madonna song Vogue (which makes its reappearance here) goes: "Strike a pose, there's nothing to it." It's just a shame The Devil Wears Prada 2 used that as a mantra for its own execution.

The Sheep Detectives: Movie Review

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Bryan Cranston, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Emma Thompson, Nicholas Galitzine, Patrick Stewart, Hong Chau
Director: Kyle Balda

Imagine a film that takes the talking animal genius of Babe and fuses it with the kind of chocolate box cosy crime dramas, such as The Thursday Murder Club, that have become the norm in this day and age.

In a nutshell, that's what the charmingly wholesome The Sheep Detectives is, a bucolic slice of simplicity that follows shepherd George, who carries two bottles of milk in a holster belt and lives alone in a field on the outskirts of the idyllic English village of Denbrook.

Each night, at the end of his day tending to his flock, George (Messiah-like and gruff with humans, but soft with his animals) reads detective novels to the wooly masses and unbeknownst to him, has a thrilled and captivated audience. When the sheep awake one day to find George slumped in a field, they suspect he has been murdered and raised on a diet of grass and crime stories, Lily (Louis-Dreyfus) sets out to solve the crime.

Chernobyl screenwriter Craig Mazin wastes no time setting up a whole ewe-niverse within Denbrook as he adapts German crime author Leonie Swann's 2022 book Three Bags Full. From the nosey shopkeeper to the malevolent-looking butcher, everyone's a suspect and in the style of Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz, even the local law enforcement (Succession's Nicholas Braun) is clueless.

This is a story that very much conforms to the norms of the cosy crime world, raising the tropes and acknowledging them without subverting them, before ploughing it all through a wooly prism.

And yet, there's some darkness within the sentimental message of never forgetting those that are left behind. From outcast animals to the sheep's desire to simply stop remembering anything they don't like, along with ideologies on death and the negation of the horrors of farm life, this is a film that teeters on nightmarish moments - even if its key one is ripped directly from the most horrifying moment of George Miller's Babe.

Dame Emma Thomson delivers a perfectly pitched performance as a lawyer brought in to execute George's estate, but the real star of the film is the dialogue which has no qualms or compunction about mixing both silly word play with feel-good heartfelt sentiment.

It's perhaps a little too wooly in its duration, but this tale of a field full of Baa-Gatha Christie animals inspired to see their shepherd's killer put behind baa-rs is perhaps the sweetest intentioned film you'll see all year.