Shaw Writes Reviews, Rugby (2026)

02/09/2026

THE DOG STARS 🐶 - 5/10

The Dog Stars grabbed my interest not for what it told you in the trailer, but more because of what it didn't say. A post-apocalypse film set many, many years after the end of the world had struck, it had hints of potential laden throughout but never really reached it's proper peak. It's unfitting to call this a post-apocalypse thriller/action, as most of it's action is built up to but not really delivered upon. I would more accurately say this is a romance drama with a post-apocalypse setting, and if you're planning to see it yourself, make sure you set the bar low and clear up any expectations you currently have for it. The Dog Stars wasn't terrible, I will say that straight away, but what the trailer promised and what the film delivered are two very different things, and one of them unfortunately doesn't quite meet the mark.

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Read my FULL review right here 👉 https://boxd.it/g9aKN3

25/08/2026

SPA WEEKEND 🍸 - 3/10

Ah yes, my favourite genre of film, The Hangover but flanderised and intensely boring. Spa Weekend pulls no punches as a wacky girl-power comedy in the same way a drunk tries to fight a pigeon in the street. It's a messy, unfunny film with a ton of bad jokes and flat comedy made all the worse by its one dimensional characters, terrible writing and all round unappealing concept, but at least it has Anna Faris in it. For real though, Spa Weekend does comedy the same way your mum sends you memes, plastered with minions and w**e jokes. At some points Spa Weekend might as well just scream "S*X" in your face as that seems to be the general idea of it all. It's a shame too as I'm a staunch believer that women should be written better in cinema, not just as the most low-hanging fruit available.

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Read my FULL review right here 👉 https://boxd.it/g19QNz

21/08/2026

ICE CREAM MAN 🍦 - 1/10

At best, Ice Cream Man is a terrible horror comedy about killer kids and an Art the Clown style serial killer who is as charming as he is horribly written. At worst, Ice Cream Man is utterly and completely insulting to cinema as a medium. The absolutely disgusting amount of generative AI used in all areas of production for this film is infuriatingly lazy, at some points bafflingly unnecessary, and at times genuinely worrying. It becomes pervasive at points, seeping into every aspect of the movie and eventually simply becoming the movie itself. Even if you discount how badly written the film is, how terrible most of the child actors actually are, and how derivative the entire premise of the movie is, nothing can redeem this after you realise the creative and environmental cost of simply making this movie. Eli Roth deserves to be blacklisted from every future project for his crimes against the industry here, and if it were me I'd have him hung, drawn and quartered for even trying to justify this as legitimate cinema.

DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM. Do not hate watch it, do not meme it, do not even acknowledge it, this s**t needs to fade into the background and die forgotten as one of the biggest failures of all time. I'm not even gonna grace it with an actual detailed review because it just simply does not deserve it.

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18/08/2026

THE END OF OAK STREET 🦖 - 5/10

I wouldn't say The End of Oak Street was a disappointing film, however I will admit my expectations were higher. I'm not sure what set the bar so high, whether it be just how good the trailer was in selling you a semi-Jurassic-Park family movie or just simply because of how many 5 star Blockbusters we have had so far this year, but my expectations were indeed up there. I see now that The End of Oak Street didn't exactly market itself as much more than a sci-fi family adventure film with some dinosaurs to boot, so it was somewhat silly of me to expect Gold from a rock seller, but elements of this movie definitely felt like they could've excelled if the stars had aligned, and there were definitely other points where nothing truly could've been done better in a bad way.

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My full review is available in the link right here 👉 https://boxd.it/fTOQnr

10/08/2026

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY 🕷 - 7/10

Spider-Man: Brand New Day didn't entirely disappoint, nor did it really astound in any meaningful way. Whether or not anyone wanted it to be, the fourth outing of Holland's iteration was saddled with the dubious purpose of drumming up some kind of hype for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday while also being a coherent and fitting follow-up to the trilogy-ender that was Spider-Man: No Way Home. While I think in it's own right it is a fun film and an interesting new direction for the story to go in, it suffers from a classic case of Marvel non-commitment both in it's treatment of Spider-Man as a character and in the way it uses newly introduced characters. Spoiler Warning in play.

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22/07/2026

THE ODYSSEY 🗡 - 10/10

You ever watch a film so good you're sort of stuck for words about it? That was, and still is, The Odyssey for me. I've never had a film so visually impressive and narratively engaging just absolutely stump me for words afterwards, and even after giving it a few days I'm struggling to really express how much I love this film. One thing I can say with honesty is that it isn't Nolan's best in my opinion, I do think other films of his exceed The Odyssey by a country mile, but damn does that man know how to make art. From set design, to shot composition, to acting direction, The Odyssey is a through and through gem of it's time, possibly an all-timer, and to try and break down every little significance feels like a needless act. If you haven't already, give this film the grace of seeing it in IMAX, trust me when I say you're going to want to see every detail, and while you're there just try and simply count the number of A-list names attached to this film, because I was seeing faces I never expected throughout, and everyone brought their absolute A-game. Truly gonna go down in history as one of the greats, you can tell just by watching.

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17/07/2026

READY PLAYER ONE 🎮 - 4/10

There's something really crazy to the fact this is a Steven Spielberg film, maybe it's because at times it is in fact absolute dogs**t, but also it's just feels so outside Spielberg's realm of expertise. Ready Player One feels like a film made by a person who's not familiar with the topic in question, as if Spielberg had to be begged by someone to make it, and the result is that many elements of the "game" world that are adapted from the source material feel clunky, inaccurate, and stuck in the past (more on that later). The romance story isn't really all that better, with Hollywood pulling the classic "character is outcast by society due to deformity/injury but said deformity/injury is not translated properly to the screen". It feel inauthentic and disingenuous about gaming, and it all leaves a sour taste in your mouth when the moral of the story isn't "corporations overtaking gaming spaces is a bad thing" but is instead "gaming is bad go outside".

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05/07/2026

JACKASS: BEST AND LAST ☠️ - 6/10

What can you really expect from a Jackass movie? It's a franchise built of unpredictability, but also reliant on consistency. You know for a fact you're not about to experience high culture or a life-changing event, but you can expect to laugh a bit and feel a bit sick by the end. Jackass: Best and Last did what it needed to do, it was a reminiscent movie that highlighted some of the best skits and stunts to core cast has ever done to compensate for the fact they couldn't really go anymore, and while they did do that, this film is rife with things that don't really make sense to me. It was sweet to see Johnny Knoxville tear up at the thought of his life's purpose coming to an end, but it was sort of overshadowed but the fact this movie is meandering, bloated, and in some way just not as funny as he thinks.

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15/06/2026

DISCLOSURE DAY 👽 - 9/10

Genuinely have not leaned further forward in my chair during a movie in YEARS. Disclosure Day had me absolutely locked in throughout, and it's no surprise given the names attached to this movie. Written by David Koepp, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Colin Firth, Emily Blunt and Colman Domingo, and the score was composed by John Williams? Disclosure Day is arguably not a film solely made by it's story, because while it is just a fantastic story the team behind it were simply S Tier from the start. There's so much still left to talk about after seeing it too, with Koepp hiding just enough from the canon to allow theory crafters to go wild, and being that kind of person I'm really eating it up. Truly stacked to the brim and given a really big headstart in public opinion, but in my opinion Disclosure Day holds up and is one you won't wanna miss this year.

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Want to read my FULL review? Click the link right here 👉 https://boxd.it/eNNKcj

13/06/2026

DEAD GRANDMA 👵 - 8/10

Almost too wowed to review this one. DEAD GRANDMA is the most "what it says on the tin" short film I've ever seen, literally 80 short seconds of exactly what you'd expect but basically the most perfect story from start to finish. It almost feels like a PSA with how short it is, and I'm astounded with just how blunt and dark it is. I may sound like I'm glazing here as the film is literally 80 seconds long but this is what short film and experimental filmmaking is all about. Less than 2 minutes but more effective in its delivery than most. An argument can be made it's bait for shock value, and thus uninspired in it's creation, but in reality if it works it works. DEAD GRANDMA is, as a matter of fact, award winning, thus there's no argument to its legitimacy, so if you have a spare 5 minutes, it's available right now on YouTube.

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Shaw Writes Reviews

02/09/2026

25/08/2026

21/08/2026

18/08/2026

10/08/2026

22/07/2026

17/07/2026

05/07/2026

15/06/2026

13/06/2026

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