Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says that #1 Sam Raimi's Send Help, with Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien, the tale of a work couple being stranded on a desert island, seems overfamiliar. Blending comedy and thrills, he enjoyed it in a schlocky way. #19 is 100 Nights of Hero, a bonkers movie based on a graphic novel with Richard E. Grant and Felicity Jones. Set in a parallel, colour-blind world it's about storytelling and the empowering of women. It does have a distinctive look but is all too flat and needs a stronger director and style. Far more impressive is Anniversary on Netflix. It stars Diane Lane as the matriarch of a close-knit family and is a state-of-the-nation epic with a frighteningly prescient script. There's so much going on, James had to watch it again. Very credible, often tense and with a strong cast, it's a really brilliant movie he discovered completely by accident.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says the bump up of Hamnet to #1 in the charts shows the important of award nominations. The latest Jason Statham thriller, Shelter, is #3. He's a recluse living in a lighthouse whose past comes back to bite him when he rescues a girl from the sea. It's the same old, same old, but done slightly better than usual. #10 Is This Thing On, about a stand-up comic's marriage with Will Arnett and Laura Dern, is inspired by Liverpool comedian John Bishop. But Bradley Cooper's annoying directorial style obscures and confuses the story. James recommends #38, docu-drama The Voice of Hind Rajab, which is one of the most traumatising war films he has ever sat through. He also discusses the current awards season and the London Film Critics Circle awards last weekend.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson can't recall another week where the top six UK films are all holdovers, with The Housemaid returning to #1. #9 is the ironically-titled Mercy with Chris Pratt a man who has 90 minutes to convince an AI judge that he didn't kill his wife. Set in real time, it is mechanical but James was drawn in by its moral arguments. #13 is the adaptation of best-seller H is for Hawk with a brilliant Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson. It is a beautifully-crafted film but doesn't have a strong storyline or conflict. While not bored, James did get impatient at times. On Netflix is the Taiwanese-set Left-Handed Girl, written by Anora's Sean Baker. The tale of a mother and two daughters moving to Taipei is filmed entirely on an iphone. With great performances, this guerilla style of filmmaking gives it an immediacy and the movie is a real gem.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says that #1 28 Years Later – The Bone Temple deserves its 18 certificate as you will need a strong constitution. Starring Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell, it’s hard to watch but is a gripping horror film with style, beauty and terrific dialogue. #7 Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser, is set in Japan and directed by the Japanese Hikari. It’s an odd but enthralling story with a light touch about an actor rented out as a family member. On Netflix, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck star in The Rip, a generic, often confusing but hard-hitting action thriller. It seems far-fetched but is based on a true story so outlandish, it had to be scaled back.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson is impressed that The Housemaid has risen to the top spot. #2 is the quintessentially British movie Hamnet, despite Irish leads (Paul Mescal & Jessie Buckley) and Chinese writer-director Chloé Zhao. It's a slow burn but builds to a highly emotional climax. James loved it to within an inch of its brocade. On Amazon Prime, he was impressed by The Tank, a German film about a Tiger crew on a secret mission against the Russians after Stalingrad. It's tense and excellent until the final, infuriating twist. He is a fan of Kate Winslet's directorial debut, Goodbye June on Netflix. Written by her son Joe Anders, the cast includes Helen Mirren and Timothy Spall. It has great humanity, humour and wisdom, despite its sentimental ending. He watched The Family Plan 2 on Apple TV+ to see why Mark Wahlberg's online movies are so popular. It has some good action and one-liners but the plot is incredibly familiar.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson reports that 2025 was the best box office year for movies since the pandemic. With the new Avatar still #1, #2 is The Housemaid, a psychological thriller with Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried which is thoroughly entertaining, as long as you don't think too carefully about the plot. #3 is Marty Supreme, loosely based on a true story. Timothée Chalamet is a supremely-confident hustler turned table tennis player in a movie that, despite being two and a half hours long, flies by, helped by a great supporting cast of non-actors. Not so #6, Anaconda, in which Paul Rudd and Jack Black want to remake the forgettable 1997 monster movie of the same name. It's hard to combine comedy and horror successfully. This film fails. #7 is Song Sung Blue, based on a documentary, with Hugh Jackman as an unsympathetic Neil Diamond interpreter. In a film about second chances, Kate Hudson has never been better.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
After a quick rundown of what's leading the UK box office in the run-up to Christmas, James Cameron-Wilson takes Simon Rose through the films that made the most at the country's cinemas in 2025. A Minecraft Movie topped the chart, followed by Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Wicked For Good, Lilo & Stitch and Jurassic World Rebirth. Very different was James's own top ten. 1: Ocean. 2: Flow. 3: Superman. 4: Christy. 5: Materialists. 6: I Swear. 7: Alpha. 8: The Ballad of Wallis Island. 9: Brides. 10: We Live in Time. James explains why you'd want to catch up with each every one of these.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says that box office is down 40% again, even though #1 Zootropolis 2 has become the biggest film of the year worldwide. #18 Ella McCay is from James L. Brooks, who brought us such movies as Broadcast News. It stars Emma Mackey as an aspiring politician, backed by a raft of great actors such as Jamie Lee Curtis and Albert Brooks. Full of terrific dialogue, it reminds James of the great screwball comedies of old. He loved every minute. He was also impressed by Netflix’s Train Dreams, with Joel Edgerton as a logger and railroad worker. This is film as art and does require a degree of patience. He was bewitched by a film which reminded him of Days of Heaven. Also on Netflix is the third Knives Out movie, Dead Man Wake Up. Despite a great cast supporting Daniel Craig, James thought the murder plot was forced and, while there were some great moments, he was ultimately disappointed.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says that box office, despite a WoW drop of 17%, is still very healthy. #5 Eternity depicts an afterlife where souls must pick their preferred eternity. Although a comic parable where a woman must choose with which man to spend the afterlife, it fails to work on several levels. James, disappointed by the ending, was not moved. He found the Blu-Ray release of 1954's Apache, directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Burt Lancaster to be a fascinating insight into attitudes of the time. Although at the forefront of those films more sympathetically depicting Native Americans, Lancaster is an unpleasant and hugely misogynistic character while the movie is highly patronising by current standards. James was much keener on Netflix's Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach's film of a film actor not hugely dissimilar to George Clooney, played by George Clooney, only more unpleasant and egotistical. It has many wonderful scenes, should resonate with many and James loved it.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
For this episode, James Cameron-Wilson is joined by Chad Kennerk, our occasional American correspondent, to discuss the news that Netflix has made an agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Following the separation of Discovery Global for a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion (equity value $72 billion). James covers Disney’s 64th animated feature, 'Zootropolis 2', an entertaining sprint through a world of zoological delights. He raves about awards contender 'Christy', the extraordinary true story of a female boxer in 1990s’ America starring Sydney Sweeney. James was also pleased with the Disney+ release of 'Swiped', in which a tech entrepreneur played by Lily James has her idea for the dating app Tinder swiped.
Guests: Chad Kennerk,James Cameron-Wilson
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