Sylvester Stallone has been playing Rocky Balboa for forty years. It’s a credit to the almost-70-year-old actor that he has found a way to breathe new life into the iconic character in Creed, the seventh film in the Rocky franchise. In fact, his efforts even earned him an Oscar nomination this year, the third of…
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In Frances Ha, co-writers (and real-life couple) Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig brought to the screen this generation’s twenty-something creative; simultaneously spoilt and burdened by choice. Their Frances, played adorably by Gerwig herself, was lively and resourceful, optimistic yet melancholic in her struggle to achieve some level of “success” and establishing a career post-college. Mistress America,…
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There is a moment in Heaven Knows What when a mobile phone is thrown up into the night sky and a surreal sparkle of fireworks cracks and fizzles from the point at which the phone disappears. This is the only moment of beauty and relief that the film offers. The rest of the time, it’s…
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Director Takashi Miike is a workaholic, with 98 credits to his name on IMDb since 1991. A genre master, he has a devoted fan base; a group to which I admit I don’t belong, not because I’m not a fan, but simply because I’ve only seen one other of his films, Ace Attorney (2012), which…
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The final episode of Danger 5 has all come down to this – the international super team has timewarped to a future world completely overrun by Hitler, called (what else?) Hitlerland. Danger 5’s first reaction is one of panic and horror. After a bloody display in the Hitler Hat fast food joint, Holly and the…
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At the end of the last episode, Danger 5 went back in time with the help of a putrid tasting cocktail, in order to follow Hitler Holly and catch her before she messes too much with the space-time continuum. This episode, they’ve landed back in Austria on a Christmas Eve during WWII. The team remembers…
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This episode takes Danger 5 to Ilsa’s homeland of Russia, where she and Nikita Kruschev finally sort out their differences. Firstly, though, celebrations are in order after the death of Hitler at the end of last episode. The team are partying at a rock show in Berlin, where a band called Dead Hitler play to the…
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The Danger 5 team have found themselves in the Vatican City, attempting to track down Hitler and the slimy lizard creature that escaped from Mengele’s body in the last episode. Lizard Mengele has gathered together a troop of his own like-minded Nazis who want to overthrow Hitler. Disguised as priests in red cloaks and various…
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The tables have turned and this time it’s Danger 5 who are being chased down by major law enforcement as they are wanted for the alleged kidnapping of Holly, last episode’s ditzy blonde high school student. In the shooting range, the cops are given a pep talk by their ‘Commy’ hating Captain, whilst being fed…
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Director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) is back for another awards season with part travelogue, part grief memoir, Wild. The film stars Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed (seems highly coincidental, but that is her real last name), who undertakes the personal challenge of hiking solo, 1,100 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to…
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WARNING: This review contains spoilers. “Hitler….Hitler…” was the name on the roll call rather than Bueller for this episode of Danger 5, which had the super team undercover at an American high school. Hitler’s disguise this time is a letterman jacket-wearing jock, who hopes to find a date and be crowned the King of Christmas…
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WARNING: This review contains spoilers. It’s your allied super team from all corners of the globe – Danger 5 is back! This time, they’ve fly-kicked their way out of the swinging sixties and landed in the dripping excess of the eighties. Just when you thought that dastardly Hitler was dead for good, the evil mastermind turns…
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Maps to the Stars is sickening, soulless, horrifying, and one of the most entertaining rides to be had in a cinema this year. David Cronenberg’s (The Fly, Eastern Promises, Videodrome) latest film is a no holds barred Hollywood satire, spitting venom at the vacuous, self-important microorganisms writhing around in the Petri dish that is Tinseltown….
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By Jessica Shields If anything can be said about Kevin Smith, it’s that he’s a man of his word. Smith and long-time collaborator Scott Mosier stoner-rambled their way through an episode of their podcast, Smodcast, in which they dissected a fake Gumtree ad about a rent-free room for let in Brighton, UK. The only conditions…
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There are two film genres that are notoriously hard to get just right – horror and comedy. So does that make a horror-comedy mash-up near impossible to perfect? Evidently not-so for Kiwi writer/director, Gerard Johnstone who nailed it on his first try with Housebound. The first horror film to (finally) present a practical reason for…
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The transitional space of the open road appears to be the setting most conducive to good storytelling for director, Alexander Payne. He gave us a disheveled Jack Nicholson on a mission to travel across the US to sabotage his daughter’s approaching wedding in About Schmidt (2002), a heartbroken Paul Giamatti taking a wine connoisseur’s tour…
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