Author: Peter Gray

Luna Park Sydney officially unveiled its new, highly-anticipated immersive attraction, Squid Game: The Experience, at the grand opening last night, marking a significant milestone in the Park’s transformation into a world-class experience destination. Among the attendees were prominent figures, including the Minister for Arts, Nighttime Economy, Music and Minister for Jobs and Tourism, John Graham….

Following their collaboration on 2019’s Cold Pursuit, director Hans Petter Moland and star Liam Neeson are reuniting for the crime drama, Absolution, which tells of an aging ex-boxer working as muscle for a Boston crime boss who receives an upsetting diagnosis. Despite a faltering memory, he attempts to rectify the sins of his past and…

Much like fellow Johnson, Dakota, Aaron Taylor-Johnson has his heroic potential thwarted (and how!) in the long-delayed Kraven the Hunter, a misguided actioner that ends Sony’s Spider-Man Cinematic Universe with the type of whimper we’ve come to expect from this poor Marvel offshoot that wasn’t even allowed to feature the very character it based itself…

Today, the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the 87 feature films and six episodic projects selected for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, revealing a lineup full of bold independent storytelling. The Festival will take place from January 23–February 2, 2025, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, with all of the competition films…

The original anime feature The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim returns audiences to the epic world brought to life in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, based on the revered books by J.R.R. Tolkien. Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films, The Lord of the…

The original anime feature The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim returns audiences to the epic world brought to life in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, based on the revered books by J.R.R. Tolkien. Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films, The Lord of the…

It goes without saying that The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is one that left an impressionable in-print on cinema.  Many other films have tried their best to emulate its epic nature in the years since – even director Peter Jackson himself with the shaky Hobbit series – but few have captured correctly, so…

Kraven the Hunter is the visceral, action-packed origin story of how and why one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only…

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) has announced the nominees for the 2025 AACTA Awards, presented by Foxtel Group. Returning to the Gold Coast, the awards will celebrate the finest achievements in Australian film, television, documentary, and online content as part of the AACTA Festival, which will run for 5 days from…

Beloved Australian singer-songwriter Danielle Spencer has returned to the Australian music scene with her long-awaited new single, “Regenerate”, the first from her anticipated third album, due for release next year, which signals a bold and deeply personal evolution in her artistry, blending her signature haunting melodies with a modern sonic edge. An eclectic blend of…

Thanks to Warner Bros. Pictures Australia, we have 5 double digital in-season passes (Admit 2) to return to Middle Earth with the original anime feature The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, in Australian cinemas from December 12th, 2024. Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films,…

Thanks to Sony Pictures Australia we have 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the visceral, action-packed origin story of how and why one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be in Kraven the Hunter, exclusively in Australian theatres from December 12th, 2024. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose…

Arriving just in time for Christmas – though the holiday setting ultimately has no bearing on the show’s intrigue-heavy plotting – Netflix’s British action-thriller series Black Doves has all the surface-level expectation of a classic government conspiracy narrative, before revealing itself as something far deeper, darker, poignant and, surprisingly, humorous. Toplined by Keira Knightley –…

Over a decade has passed since a pathway called a “gate” which connects this world and another dimension suddenly appeared, and people with superhuman powers called “hunters” have been awakened. Hunters use their superhuman powers to conquer dungeons inside the gates to make a living, and Sung Jinwoo, a hunter of the lowest rank, is…

Piece by Piece is a unique cinematic experience that invites audiences on a vibrant journey through the life of cultural icon Pharrell Williams. Told through the lens of LEGO animation, documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville turns up the volume on imagination as he displays the evolution of one of music’s most innovative minds. As the feature…

Over the years LEGO has extended beyond physical building and constructed itself a cinematic universe that includes such figures as Batman, Scooby-Doo, and the Ninjago range.  But what about a musical documentary about a multi-faceted performer who’s had his unique hands over everything from hard rock and nu metal to mainstream pop and the Despicable…

A murder case that remains unsolved some near-three decades on, the slaying of 6-year-old beauty pageant phenomenon JonBenét Ramsey still can’t but help earn speculative interest today.  And it’s through Joe Berlinger‘s three-part docuseries, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, that new theories, old wounds and investigative frustrations come to light, resulting in an enveloping, oft-unsettling…

Battling an illness and dumped by the love of her life, struggling actress Laura Franco returns to her childhood home to recover. To her horror, she discovers a monster living in her bedroom closet. Turns out he’s quite the charmer. Over time, they forge an unlikely connection as Monster helps Laura stand up to her…

It’s not an uncommon trope for a female character to be introduced to her audience at her lowest moment.  She indulges in a sense of self-loathing (we’ve all been there) and through either her friends, her career or a fresh male presence, she builds herself back up and becomes the best version of herself. In…

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ epic animated musical Moana 2 reunites Moana (voice of Auli‘i Cravalho) and Maui (voice of Dwayne Johnson) three years later for an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything…

The fact that Moana 2 was originally envisioned as a long-form television series for Disney+ (Moana: The Series, for those playing at home) perhaps explains why this sequel – which was only announced as a reworked theatrical effort at the beginning of the year – never quite reaches the emotional heights of its predecessor, and…

In the last few years Hugh Grant has truly taken pleasure in playing against the grain of expectation he laid upon himself after a career of inhabiting predominantly likeable characters.  Arguably starting with his wonderfully committed camp turn as the villainous Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2 in 2017, Grant has been on an incline of…

The Dead Don’t Hurt is a story of star-crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s. Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) is a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationships with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen). After meeting with Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees to travel with him to his…

Thanks to Universal Pictures Australia, we have 5 double digital in-season passes (Admit 2) to see Pharrell Williams‘ LEGO-inspired biopic Piece By Piece, screening in Australian theatres from December 5th, 2024. Featuring a star-studded cast of music super stars like Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, and Justin Timberlake, PIECE BY PIECE is an inspiring autobiographical story…

Director John Swab, a gritty aesthetic and the gruff likeability of Frank Grillo have proven a welcome parcel over the last few years, and following on from both Body Brokers and Ida Red is Little Dixie, a formulaic but no-less investing thriller that exists in a rough, dirty reality. Though there’s plenty of genre tropes…

Who’s badder than The Bad Guys? The Bad Girls. In the new chapter from DreamWorks Animation’s acclaimed 2022 action-comedy hit about a crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws, The Bad Guys are struggling to find trust and acceptance in their newly minted lives as Good Guys, when they are pulled out of retirement and forced…

When first introduced to the story of CNN war cameraperson, Margaret Moth, Lucy Lawless immediately jumped at the chance. In local lore, Moth was a rockstar and an enigma. Having long eschewed directing, finally here was a story that Lawless could not resist. “It felt like destiny that I should be asked to tell the…

Given her career achievements, and that name alone, it’s quite a surprise that Margaret Moth isn’t more of a well known figure.  Working as a full-time camera operator in 1970s New Zealand at a time when no other women held such a position in her homeland, nor Australia, Moth – born Margaret Wilson (she was…

At 2 hours and 40 minutes, there’s a lot of Wicked. And this is only the first part of the story.  Yes, despite the advertisements simply marketing this as “Wicked”, the opening credits inform us that this is the first half of the mammoth Broadway adaptation that expanded the wonderful world of Oz by letting…

Two estranged brothers are forced back into each others lives when they’re tasked with scattering the ashes of their recently deceased mother in the country town where she grew up. Such is the logline for Australian director Henry Boffin’s directorial debut, Strange Creatures, starring Riley Nottingham and Johnny Carr as the aforementioned brothers who reevaluate…