Off The Record - 4 - 2026

Stewart, Rastislav and Ken brave the summer heat to bring you their June 2026 (reboot-heavy) picks; Stewart and Ken lead off with their takes on Masters of the Universe, this summer’s big budget reboot of the Mattel toy property. They both enjoyed the Travis Knight-directed film more than the 1987 film (even though they liked Dolph’s cameo!) and would be happy to watch a sequel if it can overcome its lacklustre box office earnings. They had some misgivings about the overabundance of jokey dialogue but the action, music and special effects kept them amused.

Rastislav follows with his greater pick, the 2022-2025 Netflix series The Recruit; he enjoyed this story of a CIA lawyer dealing with attempts to expose classified information and being thrown in at the deep end. He praises stars Noah Centineo and Vondie Curtis-Hall, noting that Centineo has progressed from his earlier, youth-oriented projects. He also enjoyed that it felt less like a conventional spy thriller and more like a chaotic legal drama/comedy.

Moving on to lesser picks, Ken gives his still-favourable view on another 80s reboot, specifically 2025’s Canadian production Deathstalker. Starring Daniel Bernhardt and Patton Oswalt, it has a much lower budget than MOTU but that is part of its video store era charm. There isn’t as much female nudity as in earlier genre efforts, which may disappoint aficionados; the practical effects-driven approach makes it worth a watch nonetheless.

Stewart’s lesser pick is M3GAN 2.0; he was not amused by its hard left babyface turn, making M3GAN into a Terminator-like hero fighting a government conspiracy and internet memes. He calls it an AI slopfest and says “AV01D!”

Rastislav’s lesser but still worthwhile pick is the 2018-2020 AT&T series Condor starring Max Irons, Leem Lubany and the late William Hurt. It is an update of the classic Robert Redford thriller Three Days of the Condor. He felt that the current state of surveillance technology is well-suited for a modern retelling. He also enjoyed Irons and Lubany as substitutes for the adversaries originally played by Redford and Max von Sydow.

Stewart ends this edition with a dishonourable mention for 2025’s Nuremberg; he suggests watching the original Judgment of Nuremberg instead as he questions the accuracy of this version. More picks to come as summer rolls on!

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