Alex B Cann Film Column - 13th Feb

Ahead of the huge releases this weekend of Bridget Jones : Mad About The Boy and Captain America : Brave New World, I've got three movies you might want to catch on the big screen.

In order of preference, September 5 would be top of the tree. The tension never lets up, as the ABC Sports team is thrust into the limelight following a terrorist attack on the Israeli Olympic Team during the 1972 Munich Games, just yards from where they are broadcasting. It's a very early example of rolling news, and apparently over 900 million people were watching, including the terrorists. Standout performances include Leonie Benesch as the unflappable German translator, and Peter Saarsgaard as Roone.

I was fascinated by all of the old technology, but it's the moral and ethical questions that you'll be thinking about most afterwards. It's a tightly wound, nerve shredding, fast moving procedural that doesn't waste a frame, and expertly weaves footage from the 1972 incident with this modern day reenactment. I'm ashamed to say I had no knowledge of these events before watching September 5, but it was so good I've now seen it twice on the big screen.

Heart Eyes puts a comedy, rom com, horror mash-up spin on Valentine's Day, as a merciless serial killer targets loved up couples and bumps them off in various gory ways. If that's not your bag, then fair dos, but I rather enjoyed its Screamesque vibes. Some of the jokes were less than subtle (including the police officers being called Hobbs and Shaw), but I liked the main characters and found it all rather entertaining. The romance is quite hot, too, and there's even a dash to the airport towards the end. Better than I expected it to be.

And Love Hurts also crowbars in a Valentine's theme, but with less successful results. This felt a little like a supermarket ready meal that looks appealing enough as you pierce the film lid, but soon turns to grey slop once you pour it out onto your plate. Described in the Guardian as a "gloatingly gory mob romcom", it stars Ke Huy Quan from Everything Everywhere All At Once as a retired hitman, whose face now adorns real estate billboards in his new career as a realtor.

He's dragged back into his old life, a little like the main character in Nobody (loved the bus fight scene in that film), and there are some excellent close combat fight sequences. They certainly haven't stinted on the gore, but the plot plays second fiddle, and it's hard to care about what's actually happening. Strong John Wick vibes too, and that figures, given the director has been a stunt co-ordinator for over two decades. Not terrible, but definitely not one to rush to see on your Valentine's Day cinema date. To return to the ready meal metaphor, much like a microwaved lasagne, the whole thing went cold disappointly quickly. At least it was short. The Valentine's equivalent of cut price carnations.