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James Cameron-Wilson celebrates UK box office climbing for the 5th week running. #1 is Ridley Scott's Gladiator II which, if anything, is even better than the first film, with smart storytelling and visual spectacle to take the breath away. It is incredibly violent, though, despite its 15 certificate. On Netflix, James adored French-made, Mexico-set musical Emilia Pérez which, like Gladiator, has lots of Oscar buzz. Stylised but gritty and intelligent, it's unlike anything you'll have seen for ages. In a positive week, James also raved about the 50th anniversary Blu-Ray of the British disaster-era film Juggernaut. With Richard Harris leading a great cast directed by Richard Lester, it stands up incredibly well and is a masterclass in popular entertainment with amazing extras.

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James Cameron-Wilson looks at the UK box office chart, with takings up 53% thanks to 2 films. #1 is Paddington in Peru but the third in the series suffers from inane dialogue, an obvious plot and little basis in reality. James was no more impressed by #2 Red One with Dwayne Johnson in a movie about Father Christmas being kidnapped. It's nonsensical, silly and cynical. Simon caught Steve McQueen's Blitz, an impressive recreation of life on the home front during nightly bombings, starring Saoirse Ronan, which he recommends. And James caught up with Demi Moore in The Substance, an astonishly original and very stylish horror film about an actress's attempt to stay young.

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James Cameron-Wilson says box office is up 12%, with Heretic at #3 a horror film starring Hugh Grant. While the first half is a blast in the vein of Sleuth, it then descends into full-out nasty horror. Although #6 Anora, starring Mike Madison, won the Palme D'Or, and has a great central performance, James was disappointed, perhaps because expectations were so high. He found #10 Clint Eastwood's 40th film as director, Juror #2, with Nicholas Hoult, totally gripping. It's a great story with multi-layered characters. James also celebrated a 75th anniversary restoration of The Third Man, one of the UK's greatest movies. The Blu-Ray and 4K disc of this riveting noir classic is also packed with great extras.

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James Cameron-Wilson says that box office is up a mere 3% with new #1 Venom: The Last Dance, the third in the franchise with Tom Hardy. Full of British actors, it is dark and violent. The antithesis is #2 The Wild Robot, a delightful animated feature about a robot learning from the animals on an uninhabited island. It's a genuine original and looks terrific. James was moved and entertained. On Sky/Netflix is Woman of the Hour, starring and directed by Anna Kendrick. Although based on a true story about a serial killer on a TV dating show, James found it only mildly diverting. He did recommend, though, that people search out the 2011 version of Jane Eyre online, starring Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska.

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James Cameron-Wilson reports that box office takings are up 23%. #1 is the animated The Wild Robot from the creator of How To Train Your Dragon. #3 is The Apprentice, about the property-developing years of Donald Trump. Despite two excellent central performances, it's a dreary and underwhelming affair, which isn't particularly entertaining. The Crime is Mine from the versatile and prolific film director François Ozon is a farcical trifle set in 1930s Paris which is sweet but no Muscatel. On Sky Cinema, The Radleys is a vampire drama set in Whitby with Kelly Macdonald and Damien Lewis. But with an uncertain tone and no link to real life, it most resembles an episode of Grange Hill.

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James Cameron-Wilson explains that box office is down 17%, with a big dropoff for the new Joker movie. He couldn't get excited by new #1 Transformers One. Being animated, it negates the wow factor and he was bored rigid. For the first time in his career, he thinks a film should not have gone on general release. #3 Terrifier 3 is a Christmas horror movie so strong some patrons have been made ill. James says it would have been banned in the 80s. Again he recommends people to catch Beetlejuice Beetlejuice or The Outrun, both still in the charts. On AppleTV+ he enjoyed Wolfs with George Clooney and Brad Pitt playing well off each other as rival fixers, even if it does get increasingly silly.

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James Cameron-Wilson says the box office is up 44% thanks to #1 Joker: Folie à Deux, with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. Essentially a jukebox musical contemplating the human condition, it sadly lacks a narrative drive and is often downright boring. At #10, A Different Man is an accomplished and original drama which is moving, challenging and entertaining. Never sure where it's going, it's remarkable and highly recommended. Out on excellently restored home discs is the 1954 JB Priestley An Inspector Calls with Alastair Sim, directed by future Bond director Guy Hamilton. Despite its age, it still casts quite a spell.

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James Cameron-Wilson reorts on box office down 9%, the third downturn in a row. He thought #3 The Outrun, a searing drama based on a memoir starring Saoirse Ronan, a terrific film. A work of arthouse cinema, it's a beautiful and emotional expedition with great acting. Francis Ford Coppola's long-cherished dream project Megalopolis reaches the screen at #7 but it is preposterous, self-indulgent and incomprehensible and had the audience leaving in droves. #10 Never Let Go with Halle Berre is a boring cabin-in-the-woods horror. But James was unexpectedly delighted by Ronan's first film from 2007, I Could Never Be Your Woman, which is available to view free online. He found Netflix's family drama His Three Daughters unduly theatrical and disappointing.

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Box office is down 27%, says James Cameron-Wilson with new entry The Substance, a feminist body horror starring Demi Moore, entering only at #3. Although #12, Jodie Comer's Prima Facie has now taken £7.6m, the highest ever for an event movie and it is still screening. James waxed lyrical about the extras-laden Blu-Ray Michael Powell: Early Works, giving umpteen insights into the development of one of the UK's greatest directors. He was also positive about Netflix's Rebel Ridge, a thriller about corruption and racism in America's South with Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson, even if the drama ebbs away when it begins to resemble First Blood.

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James Cameron-Wilson tells Simon Rose that box office is down 21%, with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice still #1. #2 is the James McAvoy thriller of manners Speak No Evil which James praised highly while advising cinemagoers to avoid the trailer. Kate Winslet stars in passion project Lee (#3) about WW2 photojournalist Lee Miller. While she is brilliant and the film looks amazing, the story is so slow paced and conventionally told James had trouble keeping his eyes open. And while he enjoyed Ian McKellen's performance in the 1930s-set The Critic (#7), he found it improbable, flat, leaden and lacking in humour as well, as too often these days, much too dark.

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