Netflix
The Rip
Film, US, 2026 – out 16 January
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have been working together since their first crowd-pleasing partnership in Good Will Hunting. Their new crime thriller, inspired by true events, pivots on a familiar dilemma, at least when it comes to movie plots: to take, or not to take, a whole heap of money that randomly comes your way? After raiding a safe house, a team of Miami cops – including Affleck’s JD Byrne and Damon’s Dane Dumars – discover $24m stashed away. Legally required to count the money before leaving (cool law … what could possibly go wrong?), tensions build, distrust flares and outside forces – most notably an ominous voice on the telephone – begin to close in.
The film comes from Joe Carnahan, a solid if unexceptional action director with one masterpiece in his oeuvre: the 2011 Liam Neeson survival drama The Grey.
Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials
TV, UK, 2026 – out 15 January
You’ve no doubt heard of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple – but you might not be familiar with Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent, the confident, quick-witted aristocrat who appeared in two Agatha Christie novels and serves as the central detective in The Seven Dials Mystery, the latest Christie yarn to be adapted for the screen. In this three-part series written by Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall, she is played by Mia McKenna-Bruce, alongside co-stars including Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman. The story is set in 1925 and involves (to quote the official synopsis) “a practical joke [that] appears to have gone horribly, murderously wrong”.
Kangaroo Island
Film, Australia, 2025 – out 16 January
I didn’t love this family drama set on the titular island located off the coast of South Australia. But maybe you’ll appreciate more than I did the story of a struggling actor (Rebecca Breeds) who returns home to Australia to discover hard-hitting news about her father (Erik Thomson) and their old family home. As I wrote in my…