Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come: Disney+ Movie Review

Cast: Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Elijah Wood, Nestor Carbonell
Director: Tyler Gillett, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin

The 2019 original Ready Or Not was a bloody blast.

A fresh idea on the horror genre that also satirised the idea of in-laws and marriage, it offered a wave of originality and gore while delivering a complete story about Samara Weaving's Grace and her descent into hell.

So a second film faced a problem from the start - with everything wrapped up, there was only the lore to expand and the gore quotient to be upped to ensure that this feels like something different from the first.

Unfortunately, despite an extremely strong performance from Weaving as the clearly traumatised Grace, Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come never quite gains the pace of the first film - or the smarts.

Picking up just moments after Grace has burnt down her past encounter and survived the game of hide and seek until dawn, she's reunited with her sister Faith (Newton) whom she abandoned seven years ago. Bitter about each other's treatment, the pair is kidnapped by a group of Satanists who want to seize the power vacuum left by Grace's murderously protective spree and take control of the High Seat, which Grace's in-laws previously controlled.

It's all a McGuffin really for six new families to try and hunt Grace and Faith down, while the two sisters bicker and quarrel their way through their issues.

The problem with Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come is that after the first 30 minutes or so, the movie loses steam and becomes repetitive, hitting the same beats and delivering the same human blood-sack explosions that the first did. But this becomes a case of diminishing returns, given how predictable the story devolves and how tiresome it gets.

One sole sequence that shines involves a wronged bride, a wedding reception and pepper spray. That, coupled with Bonnie Tyler's anthem, marks the film's only moment of originality - a brutal, funny and cleverly executed set-piece in among a sea of indifference.

And there's an incredible amount of uncomfortable brutality against the women in this film. Every punch they receive, every kick they're given - they all land with painful edges and feel a little like the filmmakers are overegging their desire to inflict pain. Netwon alone receives such a beating at one point that it feels like a flashback to Maddie Palmer's death in Twin Peaks in its nastiness.

None of this is to detract from Weaving's performance throughout. Despite the sisters-reunited subplot never really hanging together, she's fierce, frightened, broken and occasionally hopeful as she wearily accepts what's going on and how to survive it.

A lack of real villains in the piece - other than Gellar and Hatosy's twins, most of the menace feels like an amorphous blob waiting to be punctuated by a bloody self-explosion - also cripples proceedings with the well-defined antagonists of the first film feeling like an afterthought.

When it comes down to it, Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come struggles for a true raison d'etre. Viewed simply as a sequel that's become necessary because of the cult success of the first, it struggles to get out of its own circle of hell - and because of that, at times, this feels like an unwelcome visit to cinematic hell.

Doctor Who: The Collection: Season 21: Blu Ray Review

Released by BBC Studios
Published by Madman

A generous 10-disc collection, the 21st season of Doctor Who: The Collection sees Peter Davison's softer avuncular Doctor bowing out in style before the brash Colin Baker incarnation kicks in. 

Packing in a range of quality of stories which go from the ludicrous in Warriors of the Deep (famous for its pantomime beast The Myrka) to the sublime in his farewell Caves of Androzani, the set manages to cover the entire gamut of 1980s Doctor Who.

Central to it all, and as is usual with these Collections, is the wealth of extras that come packed within - and once again, the 21st season doesn't disappoint - even if some of the AI upscaling causes a few viewing issues here and there.

A new commentary for two-parter The Awakening and special editions of other stories are included, as is three new In Conversations with companions Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson and Matthew Waterhouse. Docos include Look Who's Boating as Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton head to the waters for another outing and Toby Hadoke spending 48 hours with Janet Fielding.

For fans, these sets represent the pinnacle of what's on offer - even if the AI upscaling that impacted Doctor Who The Collection Season 13 makes it feel at times like it's a step too far in preservation.

With seven classic stories and hours of deep dive documentaries and insights, this really is unmissable TV fare presented in largely the best quality available.

Good Boy: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Indy the dog, Shane Jensen
Director: Ben Leonberg

Pushing a concept as far as it can go works wonders for indie horror Good Boy.

But if you're averse to open-ended films that are reliant on your own interpretation, perhaps this won't be the film for you.

Told from a dog's-eye level (not a point of view or perspective), it follows a dog who accompanies his owner to a cabin in the woods after his owner's unspecified medical issues and an apparent rift in his owner's relationship.

However, once the pair arrives at the cabin, the pup begins to see and hear things, and fears his owner's life is in danger from something other than illness.

Good Boy is an incredible piece of film-making thanks to its lead performance of Indy. For a creature that can have no direct understanding that it's in a movie, the work done by the dog is just second to none, and utterly intuitive.

At its heart, the film appears to be an exploration of the impact of illness, dressed up in a supernatural elements story. As his owner is consumed by sickness, the house becomes more active and the supernatural jolts more pronounced. And while some will complain there are only so many times you can show a dog upset by a bump in the night, with a lean 72 minute run time, director Leonberg more than delivers.

Wtih themes of loyalty and friendship, and some genuinely terrifying moments thanks to a carefully constructed delve into fear (at one point, the dog wets itself), Good Boy has an interesting trajectory at heart - what if the person you care most about can't be saved?

It's perhaps pertinent that by setting the film at a dog level and also by hearing things that humans can't, the film gets more out of the haunted house premise than a simple fright-night flick may have done. Plus, making the hero a dog immediately brings audiences on side and emotionally invested.

However, director Ben Leonberg isn't interested in throwing that care and commitment away with just easy and cheap thrills. There's a real heart here that's given beating life by Indy's performance and a human story that cries out for exploration.

If you buy into the premise and the exploration of an animal's loyalty, plus the very real fear of losing that, Good Boy is an utterly compelling and original film that demands to be seen. It's a singular experience given life by its main actor - a very, very good boy.

Good Boy is now streaming on Shudder

Echoes of Aincrad new trailer 

With the launch of Echoes of Aincrad just around the corner on 10 July 2026, a new story trailer comes to shed some light on how the 10 000 players reacted to end of the “BETA test” in the virtual world of SWORD ART ONLINE. It also reveals familiar faces that fans of the series will recognise!

 

This trailer shows the characters facing the reality of their situation and coming to terms with the truth: everyone is now trapped inside the floating castle of Aincrad, and dying in the game means death in the real world. Amid confusion, despair and accusations, players of Echoes of Aincrad will take on the role of the hero uniting others, taking up the sword to survive, beat the game and set the others free.

While players will be living their own adventure of survival in Aincrad, they will be able to team up with partners leveling up by their side, some of them famous characters from the franchise like Asuna, Agil, Lisbeth and more, each with their Special Skill. It will be up to the player to choose what role they should assume in combat; thanks to the Switch System they can alternate between autonomous fighting and support behaviour, to cover them and split damage.

Echoes of Aincrad launches on 10 July 2026, and pre-orders are available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

For more information about Echoes of Aincrad or other titles from Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe please visit https://www.bandainamcoent.eu, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok.  

Lee Cronin's The Mummy streams exclusively on HBO Max from Friday 3 July

Warner Bros. Pictures’ Lee Cronin's The Mummy will make its global streaming debut on Friday 3 July, only on HBO Max. 

Lee Cronin's The Mummy stars Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace, with Veronica Falcón.  

The young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace—eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare.

The film is written and directed by Lee Cronin, and produced by James Wan, Jason Blum and John Keville. The executive producers are Michael Clear, Judson Scott, Macdara Kelleher and Lee Cronin.

Lee Cronin's The Mummy debuts Friday 3 July, only on HBO Max.

JBL Endurance Zone: Review

Open ear earbuds are not the most auspicious of pieces of kit in the wearables market.

Granted, there are plenty of options out there, but most users, if pressed would no doubt proclaim that they'd prefer to have options that sit in the ear and are subtle, rather than ones which are obtrusive, sit on the ear and stand out.

It's this kind of snobbery perhaps that JBL's decided to tackle with these Open Ear Design IP68 secure fit ear pieces. And it's a joy to report that they largely work better than you'd be expecting.

Comfort is perhaps the first thing you notice about these. Once you've adjusted to their design, they do fit securely over the ears, and while the IP68 waterproof and dustproof rating hints at them being durable, the idea of getting water into the ears and into the speakers feels like it sits at odds with how the best earbuds work.

In terms of fit, they can mould to your ear and sit snugly over the ear canal - but as with all fits, they're personal in terms of how it feels for each individual. So for an over-the-ear piece of kit, they offer an impressive volley against the stigma of something not fitting inside the ears.

They come with a charging case and while it's not most the light of cases and feels chunkier in comparison to most other models out there, it holds around 24 hours of charge for the buds, which is nothing to be sneezed out. (The Zone ear pieces last around 8 hours on a single charge).

And while the sounds inevitably not as custom-fitting as other earbuds offer, you'd have to be a prude to sniff at what they actually give out in terms of audio quality. Perhaps call quality is the biggest surprise with the buds not dropping out at all and providing a stability that impresses.

Perhaps the weakest part of this little bit of kit is the need to tap them to get responses and to adjust volumes and so on. Overly responsive and annoyingly fiddly, the tap controls remain the weakest part of this offering. 

With app customisation and the chance to retrofit these to your own personal tastes, it has to be said that the JBL Endurance Zones surprise and offer a stronger case for over-the-ear technology than perhaps you'd first expect. With minimal outside noise affecting the audio, all they need is an adjustment of attitude and you're away laughing.