Shelter (2026)

The Stath is still out there...making 'uplifting' Stath movies, with no signs of decrepitude and decline. And so all is well with the world.

The Stath is a tried and tested formula, and Ric Roman Waugh (Greenland, Angel has fallen...) has successfully carried forward what he must have gleaned from those preparations of the Gerard Butler recipe.

The dish has to be immediately unmistakeable as an authentic variant of the archetype, nothing too groomed or gourmet, like a cheeseburger at Claridges, or beyond the paradigm, like Jamie Oliver's 'take' on ceviche.

And what we get here is in fact a proper lesson in how 'derivative' can act as a spur to very pleasant sensations, chuckles even, rather than yawns.

One can practically play a form of Bingo as this entertaining pattern of checked genre boxes plays out.

It's been a while since I've visited Canary Wharf, so maybe they do now have one of those louche underground night clubs where an underworld boss lounges on sofa on a dais beside the dance floor. This scene was the kind that more usually appears in movies set in Paris, but the precursor which spontaneoulsy appeared in my mind's eye was the club fight in Lethal Weapon. (Having the 'crack squad' all self-identifying with the same bold fashion statement was a nice added touch here though.)

I was also reminded of my one and only brush with the British security services, which began right there in Cabot Square one evening when we were calling Guatemala from a Mercury payphone on the north side of this open area. According to media reports the next day what happened that evening was that a group of IRA terrorists appeared with intent to place an explosive device and were chased off by brave private sector security guards. That is not in fact what happened, but anyway the next day the person we had been speaking to here in Guatemala had a follow up call from the anti-terror bods. It's nice to know that they dot their Is and cross their Ts.

One last major selling point for Shelter: William Francis 'Bill' Nighy gets to give us the dark artist at the summit (though a bit off piste) of MI6 that we was surely born to play.