Movies with Rhianna

You guys asked for it, you guys deserve it. Yes, after many, many polite requests for a return to reviews on this here podcast, Ali is back with a monster-sized review-a-palooza of all the biggest movies out this year so far. Shang-Chi is in cinemas this weekend as well, so there's a review of that as well at the end, but ultimately this is Ali and friend of the show Clarisse Loughrey digging through the summer's most sizeable releases and telling you fine folk what we thought about them.

It's the new Three Amigos! Selena Gomez, Martin Short and Steve Martin, that is, who join forces for a new Disney+ / Star murder-mystery true-crime podcast show - you know the type - called Only Murders In The Building. They also, very generously, agreed to talk to Ali about making the show (amongst other things) in this anarchic and all-too-brief chat in which you may well be able to hear Ali actively losing his mind with happiness.

No Ali Plumb's Film Club this week - yep, we went there - as Ace stops by to get extra nerdy in this super geeky newsy edition of Radio 1's Screen Time that's almost entirely about the new record-breaking trailer for Spider-Man No Way Home. 355.5 million views in just 24 hours. Mind-boggling really. Ali's film club will return next week, but for now, listen to this - but maybe only after you've seen said trailer, eh?

Henry Golding - star of A Simple Favor, Crazy Rich Asians and Last Christmas - is now an action hero thanks to his starring role in Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins. Here he talks to Ali about his sword skills, ninja skills, nunchuck skills and all sorts of other skills - as well as how to best backflip off a moving truck and fight someone in very wet weather - and comes across, as you'd expect, like an absolute dreamboat.

Ali is kinda-sorta still on holiday this week, but that doesn't mean you're going without a new 'Ali Plumb's Film Club', now does it? Stepping up is Jon Croker - screenwriter, raconteur and bon vivant - who you may remember from the Film Club on Raiders Of The Lost Ark, talking all sorts of nonsense about Martin Scorsese's gangster classic Goodfellas.

Jodie Comer stars alongside Ryan Reynolds in the new sci-fi action adventure Free Guy, and as she was in town talking about it, Ali jumped at the opportunity to actually speak to her, actually face to face. Actually. Look forward to some thoroughly silly nonsense about her favourite go-to dance moves and advert jungles she'll never forget - as well as, you know, her career. We promise that actually comes up as well.

Shaun Of The Dead! In Ali Plumb's Film Club! Finally! Desert Island Discworld host Al Kennedy stops by to point out that Ali's got red on him in this close-to-one-hour love letter to Edgar Wright's cult classic.

Stillwater is the latest from director Tom McCarthy, the man behind the likes of The Station Agent, Win Win and the Oscar Best Picture winner Spotlight. It stars Matt Damon - who you'll hear from, don't you worry - as well as Camille Cottin (of Call My Agent fame) and Abigail Breslin (who you know and love from Zombieland and Little Miss Sunshine). On this particular interview special you'll hear from all of them, talking about shooting in the south of France and being upstaged by a total newcomer. Hey, it happens.

This week's Ali Plumb's Film Club is all about a modern action classic, Casino Royale. Yes, the 2006 one, not the David Niven one. Phew. Joining Ali to grill Bond is massive 007 superfan Neil Alcock, a man who really knows his Ms and Qs. Also as a little treat for you die-hard Screen Time fans is a return of the news section - remember that? - where Ali tries to briefly explain some seriously complicated studio legal wrangling. Sounds fun, right? Oh. Well... it is. Promise.

Ali speaks to friend of the podcast Kim Taylor Foster, who has literally written the book about The Matrix, all about the game-changing film franchise. Also, he has a hilarious interview with Emily Blunt, Dwayne Johnson and Jack Whitehall, who all star in the new Jungle Cruise movie.

The Suicide Squad comes a whole five years after the original Suicide Squad, bringing a couple of veterans along for the ride, and a whole host of newbies too. Here in this particular Screen Time interview special, you'll hear from Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, David Dastmalchian, Joel Kinnaman and our writer/director James Gunn.

M. Night Shyamalan is the writer-director behind the likes of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Glass, Signs, The Village, Split, The Visit and now the efficiently-named "Old", a horror-thriller that almost defies description. A group of holidaymakers are taken to a mysterious private beach where they soon start to notice that they're aging at an alarming rate: children become teenagers, then young adults, over the matter of hours. Horrifying, right? You bet. Listen here to Ali talking to the man himself about where the idea came from and the practicalities of shooting on a beach in the Dominican Republic for days on end...

Seen Black Widow? Well, boy is this the podcast recorded expressly with you in mind. Ali teams up with friend of the podcast Clarisse Loughrey to talk about the 24th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in spoilerific detail. Seriously, the spoiler siren has been well and truly sounded. So look forward to about an hour's worth of in-depth catsuit-related geekery as the pair discuss Russian accents, plot twists and, um, pigs. Again, you really should see the film and then all that will make a tonne more sense...

Vanessa Kirby is the star of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw, The Crown, the Oscar-nominated Pieces Of A Woman and now The World To Come (out July 23rd), a period drama / romance set in 19th century rural New York state where two women (Kirby and Katherine Waterston) fall for each other in a world full of hardships and obligations. In this interview, Kirby talks about shooting in Transylvania, having Jason Statham's number on her phone and the fine art of acting when you've seriously hurt your ankle. As the saying goes: you suffer for your art, and in this case, it's really really true.

At long last, the follow-up to the 2013 Dreamworks animation The Croods is finally in UK cinemas. Fans of the original hoped for a sequel much sooner, but with a pandemic and studio changes getting in the way, it's been a quite a while indeed. Speaking to its stars - Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone and Kelly Marie Tran - back in November 2020, Ali asks about the fine art of voice acting, pretending to be punched over and over (and over), working with the legend that is Nic Cage and their comfort food movies and TV shows. It turns out The Artist Also Known As Deadpool is also a Great British Bake Off fan. Now you know!

Swooping into Ali Plumb's Film Club, smashing a skylight as he does so, is 1989's Batman: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Tim Burton and a lot of facial prosthetics, just the way you like it. Comedian and member of double act 'The Pin', one Ben Ashenden, is the man with the Bat-plan this week, stopping by to lovingly take the mick out of the movie that gave us 'Batmania'. And as a special bonus treat, we've also got Zendaya talking about her role as Lola Bunny in Space Jam: A New Legacy - and why not?

As well as a bumper-sized trip to Ali Plumb's Film Club this week - where Starstruck's very own Emma Sidi stops by to talk about her love of 2014's The Lego Movie - we've also got Monsters At Work (and Monsters, Inc., of course) stars John Goodman and Billy Crystal round to talk about their new show, as well as their co-stars Ben Feldman and Mindy Kaling. And that's not forgetting the news section and a reminder of all that's worth watching in the cinemas these days.

Black Widow - at long, long last - is finally here, both in cinemas and on Disney+ Premier Access, which means we've also finally got a 'Becoming... Black Widow' interview to enjoy. So look forward to Scarlett Johansson herself opening up about how she got the role, what the character Natasha Romanoff means to her, mementos she's kept and much more. And as a bonus we've also got her Black Widow co-star O. T. Fagbenle also talking about his role, plus director Cate Shortland to boot! So what are you waiting for? Get busy listening, go on.

Out in cinemas - finally! - this weekend, Freaky is a body-swap horror comedy starring Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn and it is a lot of fun - as is this interview, where the two stars talk about their favourite 'kills', flicking back imaginary hair and an-all important secret handshake. Note: just to be extra, extra clear, this is a conversation about a gory horror comedy, so please note... it's got some red on it.

Sci-fi actioner The Tomorrow War has landed on Amazon Prime Video and - what are the chances!? - the stars of said film have been doing press around the movie, which has resulted in this here podcast episode. An incredible coincidence, we can all agree. Look forward to Chris Pratt and his crew - including Yvonne Strahovski, J. K. Simmons, Jasmine Mathews, Sam Richardson and Edwin Hodge - talking about battling aliens, the 'soccer' world cup and the perils of taking your top off for the benefit of time travel.