2 Best Movies to Watch by Cain Aiden

Rye Lane knows it’s treading familiar ground by having its charming leads fall in love as they walk and talk their way through a beautiful city. So instead of experimenting on a tried-and-tested setup, it smartly focuses on specificity. It hones in on the characters’ Gen Z woes and cranks up the British references, giving itself character and charm for days. It also finds other ways to be inventive as it trades plot twists for bold editing and camerawork. Rye Lane is a refreshing entry into romcom cinema, but it is also obviously a big fan of it as it holds plenty of homages and subversions of the genre. This one is made for and by romcom fans, and it's always nice to see a modern love story set during our times.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Alice Hewkin, Benjamin Sarpong-Broni, Cain Aiden, Charlotte Melia, Colin Firth, David Jonsson, Delroy Brown, Esme Molly, Gary Beadle, George Taylor, Karene Peter, Levi Roots, Llewella Gideon, Malcolm Atobrah, Marva Alexander, Michael Dapaah, Munya Chawawa, Omari Douglas, Poppy Allen-Quarmby, Raine Allen-Miller, Sandra Daley, Simon Manyonda, Vivian Oparah, Yasmin Al-Khudhairi

Director: Raine Allen-Miller

Rating: R

The plot of the Union feels insultingly childish. An undercover agency has to retrieve an important device before it falls into the “wrong” (i.e. non-Western) hands, and to achieve that, they absolutely must have Mike (Wahlberg) on their team. That nothing here seems plausible shouldn’t be the point--it’s an action movie anyway. But even the action isn’t thrilling. There’s no tension or buildup, no satisfying hits and falls. There’s nothing in here that you haven’t seen before. The potential saving grace lies in its A-lister leads, Wahlberg and Berry. They’re supposed to be lovers here but the chemistry they create is closer to “colleagues who have an unexplored spark” more than anything. The Union works as a mid-tier nostalgia-filled film. It’s a perfectly okay movie, neither bad nor good, which seems par for the course for streaming anyway.

Genre: Action, Comedy

Actor: Adam Collins, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alex Brightman, Alice Lee, Cain Aiden, Christian Yeung, Daniel Joseph Woolf, Fahim Fazli, Guy Robbins, Halle Berry, J.K. Simmons, Jackie Earle Haley, Jen Jacob, Jessica De Gouw, Julianna Kurokawa, Lorraine Bracco, Lucy Cork, Mark Wahlberg, Obie Matthew, Patch Darragh, Robert Ryan, Stephane Fichet, Susan Fordham, Tommy Bayiokos

Director: Julian Farino

Rating: PG-13