The Movie Mull

Happy New Year… 2026 has arrived and with it the promise of great cinematic potential.  Neil, Richard, Darren and Justin are putting the finishing touches to their Top Ten lists of favourite movies from 2025 in readiness for the annual review of the year podcast (coming out in a couple of weeks). While you wait for that episode, the gang got together to look ahead, rather than back, to consider the best movies heading our way in 2026. From their most highly anticipated to those they feel have the biggest box office potential; the upcoming films which intrigue or baffle them.  Listen in and then get in touch to let us know what movies you’re most excited about in 2026. 

Here on the mull, we're huge fans of the first two murder mysteries featuring the self-proclaimed "world's greatest detective" - Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). And so, with the latest and third film of the series dropping on Netflix just before Christmas, we couldn't resist getting together to watch and talk all about it.  As it's a mystery, the less you know going in the better - so we'd recommend watching the film first and then tuning into the episode to hear all about our thoughts.  

For our Christmas special episode this year, we thought you might not need to hear us talk about how amazing Die Hard is again... or how wonderful Muppets Christmas Carol is.  You know this stuff already, right? Instead, in the grand tradition of UK TV seasonal specials, we're bringing you a quiz!!  That's right, it's mulls versus mulls, with special guest quiz master, Amy Clayton, coming in to test their movie acuity and find out who reigns supreme in film geekdom.   Listen in and don't judge us too harshly!! :) Happy Christmas everyone - have a great one however and with whoever you celebrate and keep an eye on your podcast feed. We'll be back very soon with a look ahead to the great films coming out in 2026, and then in a few weeks time we'll have our full review of our favourite cinematic achievements of 2025.  

This week, our host Neil invites us to consider the role of the robot in movies. Whether loyal droids, menacing cyborgs, sentient AI or giant mechs, whether comedy relief or terrifying villain, we talk about our favourite - and least favourite - movies featuring robotic characters from recent cinema releases to 20th century classics.  As always, there was more to discuss than we could squeeze into one episode - so if you have a favourite robot character on screen that didn't get enough of a mention (or was missed out completely!), do let us know. We'd love to hear from you.

This week, the mulls are back with four more reviews to help you make those tricky decisions about what to watch next. First up, Justin reviews the serial killer sequel - Black Phone 2.  Does it live up to the original which many of the mulls enjoyed back in 2021?  Then, Richard catches up with Jake Johnson's directorial debut, the comedy thriller Self Reliance.  Originally out in 2023, it's now available to watch on Netflix. Neil tell us all about the brand new comedy-tinged horror, Coyotes, starring Justin Long, which screened at FrightFest earlier this year and will be more widely available soon. And, finally, Darren manages to see the highly acclaimed comedy-drama from Eva Victor - Sorry, Baby. Will it live up to the hype? (Spoiler: it's quickly become one of his films of the year!) Listen in - and don't forget to get in touch and let us know what you've been watching recently.