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During a family picnic that takes an unexpected turn, young Mohsen finds himself deep in the jungle, far from home and even further from his usual world of comics and homework. What he doesn't expect is to meet Tigy, a rare tiger who talks, cracks jokes, and is currently hiding from a group of animal traffickers. The poachers aren't exactly slick, but they're persistent, and the danger is real.
What begins as a strange, slightly surreal encounter quickly turns into a full-on jungle mission. Mohsen and Tigy have to work together to stay one step ahead of their clumsy pursuers. In between daring escapes and sudden scrapes, they end up building a bond that's stronger than either of them expected. It's fast, it's funny, and it doesn't slow down for long.
Jungle Trouble is packed with colourful animation, quick gags and a story that manages to sneak in a bit of heart without getting too soppy. It's about bravery, friendship and stepping outside your comfort zone, with plenty of energy and a solid sense of fun.
Dazzler Media brings Jungle Trouble to cinemas across the UK and Ireland from 4 July.
The Amateur opens with the kind of clean, deliberate setup that promises something more personal than the average revenge thriller. It gives us Charlie Heller, played by Rami Malek, a quiet, awkward CIA cryptographer whose world is shattered when his wife Sarah is killed in a terrorist attack. From the start, Malek plays Charlie like a man out of place, someone used to hiding behind code and routine rather than dealing with grief or violence. But that's what makes the early part of the film interesting. The guy who works in the basement is suddenly the one digging through classified files, finding patterns no one else has seen, and going head-to-head with his own agency.
The first act pulls you in quickly. Charlie's discovery that the CIA covered up drone strikes, and that his own boss might be responsible, adds a weight that feels different to the usual lone-agent storyline. When he demands to be trained so he can go after the killers himself, you feel like you're watching something slightly unhinged but believable. He's not slick or confident, and he's definitely not ready for the field, but that's the point. It's uncomfortable watching him learn how to make bombs or try to pull a gun on someone. His grief turns him into someone you're not sure can actually do what he's set out to do, which keeps you curious for a while.
The tension builds nicely as he travels through Europe, tracking down the people involved. The allergy clinic scene in Paris, where he traps one of the suspects in a hypobaric chamber, is the kind of low-tech, strange set piece that sticks with you. Same with the rooftop pool in Madrid, where he uses pressure to send a target plummeting through glass. There's creativity in how Charlie operates. He's not fighting like a field agent. He's thinking like someone who sees the world through equations and loopholes. It makes these encounters feel less about brute force and more about smarts, which suits the character.
But somewhere in the second half, the film starts to lose its grip. At two hours, it feels stretched well past its limit. Pacing becomes a problem. The urgency dips. Scenes linger longer than they need to, and what once felt tightly wound starts to unravel. There's too much time spent watching Charlie stew or wander. Instead of the tension rising, it starts to flatline.
The ending also doesn't deliver the punch it needs. Charlie finally confronts Schiller, the man responsible for Sarah's death, and what should be a cathartic, explosive moment plays out with a kind of cold detachment. Maybe the film wants to say something about restraint or control. But after two hours of build-up, it just doesn't land, the emotional release the film's been hinting at never really comes.
Malek is believable as someone who would rather talk to a machine than a person, but that also becomes a limitation. His version of Charlie is so inward that it's hard to stay fully connected. He grieves silently, acts alone, and rarely lets anything break the surface. You want more emotion from him, especially by the end. The people around him, including Caitríona Balfe as the mysterious Inquiline and Laurence Fishburne as his reluctant mentor, bring some spark to the film, but it's not quite enough.
There's a lot to like in the concept. Watching a non-combatant turn himself into a threat through sheer willpower has its appeal. The idea that intelligence can be more dangerous than violence is a good one. And the personal stakes are clear. But The Amateur doesn't quite know when to cut, when to push harder, or when to let go.
It starts strong, then drifts. What could have been something memorable settles into something forgettable. A tighter runtime and a more honest final act would have made all the difference.
As it stands, it's a decent thriller that plays things a little too safe. A 6 out of 10 feels fair.
There's something about the way Paul Greengrass handles tension. It's never just noise and chaos. He gives it shape. He lets it build. With The Lost Bus, he's channelling all of that into a rescue drama that already feels like it's going to hit harder than most. Inspired by real events and adapted from Lizzie Johnson's book Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire, this one's set to land in select cinemas and on Apple TV+ in autumn 2025.
At the centre of it all is Matthew McConaughey, playing a school bus driver who's anything but conventional. Alongside him, America Ferrera takes on the role of a teacher who refuses to back down. Between them, they're responsible for twenty-two kids and one of the most harrowing journeys imaginable. It's not subtle, not polished, just raw survival in the middle of one of America's most catastrophic wildfires. And with Greengrass steering, it's unlikely to pull any emotional punches.
The script comes from Greengrass and Brad Inglesby, which already suggests a certain weight to it. Inglesby's name tends to be tied to grounded, often bruising storytelling. Add to that the fact that Jamie Lee Curtis brought this to Blumhouse after hearing Johnson on NPR, and it's clear the whole thing's been built from a place of conviction. There's no whiff of glossy disaster movie theatrics here. Just people trying to get out alive.
Yul Vazquez, Ashlie Atkinson and Spencer Watson round out the cast, though it's McConaughey and Ferrera who'll be carrying most of the emotional load. Both have a knack for quiet intensity. They don't need to shout to make it count. That'll matter in a story like this, where so much of the drama sits in the decisions made moment to moment. Do you turn back? Do you wait? How do you lead when everything's on fire?
Greengrass has called the film "a story of quiet heroism." That fits. This isn't about perfect heroes or big speeches. It's about people pushed to their limits, forced to act. The kind of thing that only feels more intense because you know it actually happened. Not exactly beat-for-beat, sure, but enough to make it sting.
Behind the camera, the production team includes Inglesby, Gregory Goodman, Jason Blum and Curtis for Comet Pictures, with Lizzie Johnson herself on board as executive producer. That connection to the source feels important. The story's not being reshaped from a distance. It's coming from someone who was already trying to make sense of it on the page.
In the end, The Lost Bus sounds like it's going to walk that narrow line between disaster film and human drama. Not easy to do. But with this team, and a story rooted in something that left real scars, it's got all the makings of a film that'll leave a mark. One to watch.
Locked is a tense, stripped-back thriller that thrives almost entirely on the performances of its two leads. Directed by David Yarovesky and produced by Sam Raimi, it's a film that doesn't waste time with backstory or world-building. Instead, it dumps you straight into a desperate situation and dares you to look away. With Bill Skarsgård locked in a luxury SUV and Anthony Hopkins pulling the strings from afar, the film squeezes every ounce of tension from its simple premise. Whether or not it does enough to justify its feature-length runtime is another question.
Skarsgård plays Eddie Barrish, a down-on-his-luck father who makes one bad decision too many. His plan to rob a seemingly abandoned SUV spirals into a waking nightmare when the vehicle locks him inside. He soon learns it's all part of an elaborate trap designed by William, played with icy calculation by Hopkins. William, a terminally ill doctor turned vigilante, uses his wealth and technology to administer his own brand of justice, punishing petty criminals who cross his path.
The set-up is both intriguing and disturbing. The film rarely leaves the confines of the SUV, and Yarovesky leans into that claustrophobia hard. It's grimy and visceral, with a real-time feel that pushes the tension up as the hours tick by. Watching Eddie deteriorate physically and emotionally becomes the heart of the film, and Skarsgård does some remarkable work here. His expressions, body language, and increasingly frantic attempts to escape carry the weight of the story. Without his full commitment to the role, Locked wouldn't work. Hopkins, on the other hand, is more reserved, largely heard over the phone or through the car's speakers. But even in voice alone, he brings a chilling authority to the character, swinging between paternal calm and clinical menace with ease.
The dynamic between Eddie and William is what keeps things interesting. William sees himself as a righteous force, a man wronged by the world and determined to set it right by making others suffer. But the film never tries to romanticise his actions. If anything, Locked leaves you sitting in the discomfort of that moral grey area. Eddie's no saint, but William's sadistic game pushes the idea of justice to its breaking point. The script does well to let that ambiguity linger without spelling everything out.
Visually, the film is surprisingly engaging despite its limited space. The use of camera angles, lighting, and close-ups creates a sense of movement and emotional flux even when Eddie is stuck in one place. There's a brutal inventiveness to the way the car becomes a prison, a weapon, even a torture chamber. The sound design also deserves credit, every mechanical click, every blast of music or freezing air, feels deliberately placed to keep Eddie and the audience on edge.
Still, there's no denying the film struggles with pacing. At just 90 minutes, it should feel tight, but there are stretches where it drags. Some scenes overstay their welcome, and a few late attempts to ramp up the stakes feel forced. The novelty of the premise wears thin around the halfway point, and while Skarsgård does his best to keep things emotionally charged, you can feel the strain of the runtime on a concept that might have been better served in a shorter format. It doesn't derail the film, but it does dull some of the impact.
There are moments where the social commentary feels like it's reaching for something deeper, touching on class resentment, fatherhood, and the failure of systems. But it never quite digs far enough to leave a lasting impression. The film works best when it stays grounded in the raw, psychological standoff between its two characters.
Locked is at its most effective when it's just two voices battling for moral high ground across a wall of glass and steel. It's a nasty little thriller with a mean streak and just enough humanity to keep you invested. Without Skarsgård and Hopkins, there really wouldn't be much here. But with them, it holds together just enough to be worth the ride.
John Cena and Idris Elba are back together, but this time they're not battling each other in a squad of supervillains. In Heads of State, premiering on Prime Video on 2 July 2025, they're leading the charge in a globe-trotting action comedy that throws diplomacy out the window and leans into mayhem with style. Elba plays UK Prime Minister Sam Clarke, Cena is U.S. President Will Derringer, and the two are stuck with each other whether they like it or not. The pair's frosty public rivalry ends up becoming a real problem when a powerful foreign threat targets both of them, forcing these two stubborn leaders to trust the only people they can rely on: each other.
Image Credit Prime Video
The setup is pure buddy-action nostalgia, soaked in all the energy of those big, brash 90s pair-ups. There's no shortage of explosions, wild stunts and high-stakes drama, but it's all underpinned by sharp, fast-moving comedy that plays off the personalities at the centre. Neither Clarke nor Derringer are particularly good at sharing the spotlight, but they're going to have to figure it out on the run if they want to stay alive. Priyanka Chopra Jonas plays MI6 agent Noel Bisset, joining the chaotic road trip as a much more competent counterbalance, while the supporting cast is full of familiar names including Carla Gugino, Jack Quaid, Stephen Root, Sarah Niles, Richard Coyle and Paddy Considine.
Image Credit Prime Video
Ilya Naishuller, who directed Hardcore Henry and Nobody, is behind the camera here, so expect a kinetic visual style that doesn't take itself too seriously. The film blends that gritty, action-heavy approach with the kind of quick-fire banter that drives buddy films when they're at their best. That mix of physical comedy and intense set pieces gives the whole thing a high-octane rhythm, never really letting the characters, or the audience, catch their breath.
Image Credit Prime Video
Cena and Elba bring a natural chemistry, picking up where they left off in The Suicide Squad, though this time they're not on opposing sides. Probably. They're both listed as executive producers too, so it's clear they're throwing themselves into the project with more than just the usual on-screen bravado. The screenplay is by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Harrison Query, based on a story by Query, and it's full of the kind of clever twists and big laughs that come with two oversized egos locked in a situation neither one can fully control.
Image Credit Prime Video
Heads of State looks like the kind of film that revels in its own chaos. It's a chase, a fight, and a buddy story all rolled into one, with plenty of snark and a good helping of tension between its leads. With a clear affection for the genre it's playing in, and a cast that knows how to walk the line between serious action and comic timing, it's set to bring a different kind of diplomacy to screens this summer.
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