Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) (2026)

Over the past two decades, James Cameron has directed three movies about tall blue alien dudes...and this, a concert film/documentary featuring 24-year-old, 10-time Grammy winner Billie Eilish during the final leg of her 2025 tour. It's a dynamic performance full of spectacle and boundless energy, as the pop singer-songwriter bounds up and down the 360° stage with a swollen ankle. No matter what you think of her music, you have to respect the gumption and raw talent it takes to command a stage like that, while we observe glimpses of her working hard behind the scenes. It's the very definition of a vanity piece, but it's made with the fans in mind, so you know you're going to get a lot of footage of teen girls crying in the rafters. It's the closest approximation to a live concert experience I've probably ever had sitting in a movie theater.

Regardless of whether you're a fan or not, this is what true power looks like.

3½ bad guys out of 5 (duh)

Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)

Avatar has a new skin. While the first two films introduced us to the forest and the sea clans, we now have the ash clan. All that's missing is the air element...

James Cameron does it again. By creating a rich, fully inhabited world that you would rather live in, you forgive all the flaws in this epic sprawling picture, filled with warring clans and transparent allusions to racism. Visually, it's a 10/10 movie; like your desktop wallpaper come to life. Cameron has masterful command over the material and takes us to dazzling, staggering heights filled with beauty, wonder and imagination. Individual moments shine, but most of it feels like CGI on overdrive with things exploding in the background, which overshadows the drama and emotional stakes. The new villain Varang (Oona Chaplin) oozes with sensuality, while the most interesting character remains the teenage Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), but there are too many storylines and the whole thing loses focus quickly. The fundamental flaw of these movies is that they're way too fucking long. And it's starting to feel repetitive at this point. I enjoyed it, but I also breathed a sigh of relief when it was finally over.

3½ breathing devices out of 5

Note: Luckily, this film does feature a conclusive enough ending if Cameron chooses not to continue with his planned sequels. We'll see what happens.

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Let's get this out of the way first: This movie is gorgeous. But that's all it is. It wades in shallow waters, but the colors pop and it's a world you achingly long to escape to. You want to watch this on the biggest screen you can find. 

It only took James Cameron 13 or so years to get back in the director's chair to follow up the visually arresting Avatar. He doesn't make too many changes to the formula here, but he swaps the Na'vi forests for its deep oceans (one of Cameron's own vested interests) in order to introduce the audience to new types of dazzling flora and alluring fauna. Like the original, people cynically bemoan it as a dearth of cinema, but it's only meant to be a simple good time at the movies. Get the stick out of your ass and flip the switch on your brain to "off" to get the maximum enjoyment. There's only going to be about 20 more of these damn movies.

3½ swims with whales out of 5

Avatar (2009)

This film is a visual marvel and most people tend to cynically look back on it as derivative of other films (Dances with Wolves or FernGully), but you have to appreciate it for what it was at the time: a technological spectacle that brought about remarkable advances in cinematic achievement. At once an environmental morality tale and a love story for the ages, Jake Sully is a paraplegic war veteran who is given a new lease on life when he gets the chance to try out a new, enhanced engineered body and infiltrate the mysterious Na'vi creatures of an alien planet called Pandora. It's enjoyable primarily because it manages to do what movies do best: take you on an adventure of imagination that is unbound by this world's stringent limits. Still manages to move this viewer and stir the withered heartstrings after all this time. I See You.

4½ hair jobs out of 5

Note: At the time of posting, this is still the highest-grossing film of all time, but it is neck and neck with Avengers: Endgame. It is still remarkable to me that James Cameron is responsible for three of the top four biggest box office returns. Not too shabby for a director who has made less than 10 feature films.

Ghosts of the Abyss (2003)

Dir. James Cameron descends to the bottom of the North Atlantic ocean to explore the actual RMS Titanic that still lies on the seabed. The filmmaker appears onscreen from time to time, but mostly it falls to actor Bill Paxton to provide narration and observations, tasks for which he’s not particularly well-suited. And even though an archaeologist, microbiologist, and historian were present there's not much scientific input from any of them.
The newly-captured footage of the wreckage, the aspect of the film that is arguably its most amazing feature, is presented in small boxes, like Picture-in-Picture, for reasons that I don't understand. Ultimately, the many poor decisions regarding the construction of the film itself mean a potentially interesting venture is instead an expensive missed opportunity.

2 choppy waters out of 5

Piranha II: The Spawning (1981)

Every big name director has to cut their teeth somewhere. In the case of James Cameron, Piranha II, a B-movie sequel about ferocious flying fish was his directorial debut. Behind the scenes nightmares plague the film, as rookie Cameron was demoted a week into shooting by producer Ovidio G. Assonitis. While Cameron still shot the footage, he was not involved in the editing. Nevertheless there are instances of JC's future style within certain components of the film, especially the quirky, full-of-spunk characters who tend to populate his films. But many of the small yet humorous setups fall by the wayside as the main storyline deservedly takes up most of the screen time. Besides allusions to a secret government project to genetically alter piranha, this sequel has very little to do with the first film. Despite giving them wings and a slew of advantageous abilities, they somehow have a convenient aversion to daylight. Had Cameron been given a chance, this one could have made a splash instead of a flop. 

2 bad places to fuck out of 5

Aliens - Special Edition (1986)

Cameron's Aliens (plural because there's more than one xenomorph - it's the law of sequels) occasionally references the cold isolation and horror that helped make the first Alien (1979) film work, but his style is very different to Scott's; it's still reliant on subtleties, but is much more action driven.
The SE reinstates to the theatrical cut 17 minutes of previously excised footage, including important details of Ripley's personal journey, slowing the pace of the first half to even more of a crawl than it was before.
If you're not a fan of the Heinlein-esque colonial marines and their big guns (I'm not), then it's a slow advance to the good stuff; i.e the last half hour. Even though it's action-heavy then too, it stays relevant by having an interesting subtext present, made more poignant by those initially troublesome extra minutes. So in the end it balances out and I feel that the SE is the more developed and enjoyable option for that reason.

3½ real monsters out of 5

The Terminator (1984)

Cameron's sci-fi actioner sits comfortably as the archetype for movies about murderous humanoid machines from the future that travel back in time to kill someone important, thus changing their own present in a favourable way.
Linda Hamilton is the target. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the instrument.
Playing to the big man's strengths (i.e. he hardly speaks), the role is largely responsible for his career taking off as much as it did. It's clear to see why. He's perfect. His natural ability to be indelibly domineering helped the character seem totally inhuman. His physicality was translated successfully into a show of almost unstoppable force - his unwavering attitude arguably even more memorable than his iconic coat and glasses.
It's not a flawless movie, but by 1984 standards it was a damn good one and is still mostly deserving of the accolades it continues to receive.

4 unwritten past tenses out of 5

Galaxy of Terror (1981)

Though Roger Corman had grown weary of directing by this point, this film is overflowing with his style. In an obvious Alien knock-off, a spaceship crew is bombarded by their own fears made real by a strange planet's curious chemistry. The cast is B-movie heaven as Robert Englund, Sid Haig, Grace Zabriskie and Ray Walston fill up the roles. In usual Corman fashion, many young faces were given a chance to work on his film. Most notably James Cameron as production designer. Though cheaply made, his sets are heavily influenced by H.R. Giger. The sci-fi effects are very 70s light show, but it being such a low-budget and lowbrow production, it all fits in quite nicely. Any fan of sci-fi cinema will have a good time pointing out the literal and literary holes in this campy production.

3 rape worms out of 5

SIDE BY SIDE [2012]

Side By Side is probably one of the most fascinating documentaries for die-hard film junkies and most definitely one of the dullest for the casual popcorn muncher.
Actor dude Keanu Reeves interviews a slew of modern directors, editors & cinematographers about the pros & cons of digital and celluloid film.  Reeves makes for a wonderful interviewer, asking all the right questions with an impressive knowledge of the subject, aided by a quiet charm and wit about him.  The film itself never picks sides (it's not shot on film by the way) and with all the arguments made from each side I found myself rooting for both by the end.  Either way, as it so firmly exclaims, as long as the heart of the film is in the right place, it shouldn't matter how it's made.

3½ M.I.A. Tarantinos out of 5

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

I wasn't a big fan of T2 at release and revisiting it now after not seeing it for about 15 years hasn't changed that. The kid, the awkward action-mom role, the softening of Arnie’s Terminator and the lack of menace from the pursuing T1000 are even more apparent to me now than they were back in the day.
Most of the additional scenes in the 'Ultimate Edition,' thankfully documented in the accompanying booklet, aren't very interesting.
In its favour, Arnie’s shotgun reloading technique is excellent and the percussion heavy music is as effective as it always was.
It was surprising to see the surrogate father figure aspect not overplayed, because, as we all surely know, Cameron isn't known for his restraint.

3 speeding trucks out of 5