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As someone who is quite squeamish when it comes to blood, gore, bodily harm etc, would I be looking away or watching through my fingers too much for this to be worth my time? I read the notes regarding the '18' classification on the BBFC website a few days ago and decided that it wouldn't be for me, but the glowing reviews keep on coming so it has me intrigued and I'm getting a bit of FOMO.. Trying to think of comparisons, the level of violence/gore in 'Sinners' was pretty fine for me for instance, but that was rated '15' and I find it easier to cope when it's clearly not real (like vampires, or the CGI animal in 'Send Help')

I never go back to 'Euphoria' anymore (even though I'll admit it was my favourite back in 2012, just as it was for the majority), I feel like overplay has ruined it forever for me. I only really get into it if I hear it somewhere completely random, but if it's on a Eurovision night out, it just feels like too much of a basic choice. So even though it wasn't my favourite of 2023 and in the heat of the moment I believed that the juries had robbed 'Cha Cha Cha', I much prefer 'Tattoo' and quite happily re-visit it. The staging is iconic and I particularly love the 'when the stars align then I'll be there' lyric, because it really did feel like the stars aligned for her to become the second double winner.

Agree with @Dobbo that the winners have been getting better recently - the most recent four are my top four! 1. The Code 2. Bangaranga 3. Tattoo 4. Wasted Love 5. Arcade 6. Toy 7. Zitti i Buoni 8. Stefania 9. 1944 10. Amar pelos dois "The Code" was my favourite of 2024 (in a very tight battle with Baby Lasagna), and when things settle I think "Bangaranga" will be the entry from this year that I go back to the most. A few years ago I probably would've put "Toy" and "Arcade" the other way round, I was very happy with the former as a winner, and found the latter fine but overrated. But "Toy" does grate these days. Salvador and Jamala were awful back to back winners for me, they were down in the bottom 3 of their respective years personally.

Disappointing to see that Alcaraz is having to sit out of two consecutive Slams. For goodness sake, we need someone to prevent Sinner from winning every single tournament he's in!

What a bomb for "Mother Mary", the anticipation must've just been from a very small circle of online gays (or there was only room for one popstar this week)! Can't have helped that cinemas showing it + showtimes appeared to be limited. At least Anne Hathaway won't need to dwell on it for too long and will be looking at a MUCH higher opening next weekend In comparison, I'm surprised "Rose of Nevada" did as well as it managed. I'd only heard of it by seeing the trailer a couple of times at Curzon in the past couple of weeks and as a result I thought it would be mostly just playing at Curzon/Everyman/Picturehouse etc and get a small, niche audience.

So grateful that 'Marty Supreme' did bigger things than the bore that was 'A Complete Unknown' when it comes to the Timmy movies. 'F1' being Brad Pitt's highest grossing movie worldwide feels crazy to me considering the length of his career, but I guess he's never played a superhero 'Snow White' making the top 30 doesn't feel too awful considering all the controversy + hate directed towards it. I'm glad that Rachel Zegler has managed to rebound, at least in terms of UK popularity, thanks to her theatre ventures. I didn't realise that 'Weapons' was that much of a hit. I need to get around to checking it out on streaming at some point as it's one of only two movies that had nominations in the top 8 categories of the Oscars this year that I haven't seen (and quite a big one to be missing, given it scored an acting win)!

Finland is really good as a live performance and I'd be very happy to see them win, but I do feel like it could under-perform compared to the odds in the same way Erika did. Greece I've not been on board with, it veers too much into annoying territory. Going for the Kaarija/Joost/Tommy Cash kinda vote, but I've not seen anywhere near as much love. Though they all had stronger competition, so you never know... I think Delta could absolutely smash the jury vote for Australia, and it's just a case of whether she can manage at least 150 points from the televote and if that would be enough to win overall if the vote is spread out enough/we get a winning total similar to JJ. My heart will be in my mouth for the televote result if she happens to have won the jury. See, I think this is the worst Israel entry since 2024. It also feels like it's trying to play up to the conflict less compared to the past two years (but that could just be because I don't understand the lyrics and am not inclined to look up the translation). Not that I think song quality will have that much sway in the result they get, I'm worried that they could win by default just because of how open a year it feels and there doesn't seem to be a consensus for anything else, plus the boycott movement is stronger this year (not that an anti-vote could be cast). Personally I reckon people are falling asleep due to Czechia I think the juries will need to REALLY go for it for it to even qualify because I see it getting a handful of points from the televote at best, it's just such a bore, this is the year they could've done with a dance break shoe-horned in.

^ Don't forget Spider-Man, which I think will open higher than all of them judging from the views that the recent trailer has racked up. I'm thinking £12-£15m for Super Mario including all the previews? (I'm guessing there will be a 6 day total that includes Easter Monday) Hopefully The Drama does well as counter-programming. It has one of the biggest stars of current times, and what looks like generally positive reviews, just as long as it's in enough screens and there's not too much of a Mario takeover (my local Cineworld doesn't appear to be showing it annoyingly)

To anyone on the fence, I'd recommend to go. I might have held back due to the long runtime and finding other space movies to be just ok or meh, but was swayed by seeing a lot of positive reactions and this is EASILY the most I've enjoyed a movie with a space setting (thinking back to The Martian, Gravity, Interstellar). There were one or two points during some of the 'space action' where I zoned out a little, but on the whole there's just so much humour and emotion that made it a joy to watch. I'm glad that it has a non-linear narrative, rather than all the scenes on Earth and then all the scenes in space to follow, because I was fully locked in whenever Sandra Huller was on screen. I loved how deadpan she (mostly) was and that provided a lot of the humour for me, as well as Grace and Rocky bouncing off each other. I think that helped it to not feel like it dragged, despite being two and a half hours. I know we're only a third of the way through the year, but I don't think 2026 will find a character better than Rocky.

Brilliant to see two Brits into the quarters! (both former champions ofc) I feel like that win will have taken so much out of Jack, that he'll stand little chance over Medvedev who has had three straight forward wins, but a very respectable defence either way.

Yeah, I saw the trailer for Peaky Blinders today and it made me realise that it's Netflix, so I'd expect the cinema release to be really quite limited? (like how I don't think the big 3 chains had 'The Thursday Murder Club'). And they won't release the figures either? I hope Hoppers can do well for Pixar, with it being an original story. It looks really promising from the trailer.

Impressed with that opening for 'Wuthering Heights' as there was some online backlash from the trailer alone, and I'm happy for Emerald as hopefully she'll come up with another 'Saltburn' in the future (have heard great things about 'Promising Young Woman' too but haven't seen it), but it didn't live up to my expectations. Will be interested to see what the holds are like because I don't think word of mouth is going to be great... This coming weekend is SO packed with new releases that I view as essential (I hope you've already caught some at Unlimited screenings @Josh! ) - 'The Moment', 'The Secret Agent', 'Wasteman' and 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You' all interest me, and there are a couple more releases that haven't caught my attention personally. Maybe a crowded week is why 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You' doesn't seem to be showing at any Cineworld in London, nor is it playing at my local Vue, which really I think is a travesty considering it picked up a Golden Globe win, is up for an Oscar in a major category etc. These cinemas have all shown the trailer too which is the frustrating thing. ( @LewisGT do you have any intel on whether it's planned to expand more widely the week after, or are the locations this weekend going to be the best of what we're getting? )

I think heat 1 is still the weakest for me so far, the three songs that didn't progress aren't anything that I feel the need to go back and listen to again, then you had Greczula and Jacqline which for me, whilst both decent enough, both suffer from not being as good as their debut entries. A*Teens were by far and away the best. Heat 2, "My System" is obviously brilliant and what I think I'm going to be rooting for to win the contest (though I've recently had a horrible thought that we might get a 2014 situation, where Felicia ends up as the Ace Wilder of this year), and I'm happy to go back to both "Oxygen" and "Glitter" (which is such a step up on Arwin's entry from last year, very annoyed it couldn't get an AC spot). Brandsta City Slackers deliver a fun performance, but I don't think I'll be seeking out the studio version often. As for the latest heat, I think Korslagda were the worst so far, but I liked everything else. I've had "Selfish" on repeat, so glad that got to AC despite zero budget being put into the staging, would love if it somehow got through to the final. Medina's song is my least favourite from them so far, but still a bop. Out of the repeat entrants, Saga feels the most consistent so far in that it's hard to pick a preference out of her entries. Patrik Jean was much better than his 2021 entry and it was just funny to watch the early reviewers compare it to "The Code" and "Wasted Love", then it got released and those of us with better judgement realised it was more....."Dizzy"

Excited to see how high "Wuthering Heights" can go over Valentine's weekend! Hopefully big enough to overcome the previews-inflated 'Goat'. It feels like the hype is there, but I don't know if that's just my circle and it being one of my personal most anticipated movies of the year.

I found the first one to be extremely overrated (in terms of how much of a box office smash it was at least), and was disappointed not to enjoy it more as I've been a fan of the games for a couple of decades. But I'm hopeful that the presence of Yoshi will mean this one is better (Yoshi and the many colour variations is always one of my top choices during Mario Kart)