Film

The USA is well into their summer, so blockbuster after blockbuster have been trotted out, both here and internationally, while Australian audiences delight in getting great content as we freeze our butts off. Matt Damon‘s new action-venture, Jason Bourne, has just made it through its first weekend in Australia and it’s already done well over the previous week’s newest release, Star Trek Beyond (making…

The DC Comics Extended Universe (aka DCEU) has a bit of catching up to do if it wants to level up to its competitor Marvel. Even though DC has some of the more renowned superheroes in its deck of cards – Superman and Batman being two aces – it hasn’t had as much luck with…

It’s not very often a film will change my perspective on life, but after viewing Taryn Brumfitt’s documentary Embrace it was a completely different story. The roots of this inspiring documentary stem from a post of Brumfitt’s that went viral in 2013, depicting Taryn in an unconventional before and after photo – from having a…

Biographical films, especially ones that revolve around triumphs of the human spirit, can range from the truly inspirational The Pursuit of Happiness to award-bait films like the dull and manipulative The Blind Side to unmitigated disasters like the agonizing Patch Adams. However, very few of those films show the comedic side of life and this is where Eddie the Eagle…

The all-female reboot of Ghostbusters spent one week at the top, with Star Trek: Beyond taking the throne this week. Beyond had the lowest opening of the trilogy domestically, but that didn’t stop it from taking its place on top. The third film in the rebooted series earned AU$4 million dollars in its opening weekend…

Amongst the tales of historical power couples – Cleopatra and Caesar, Kahlo and Rivera, Boleyn and King Henry – none have dragged society to their feet in sheer anticipation as the reunion of Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon. We know the name, and despite their absence in the fourth installment, Damon and Greengrass return to…

Lights Out was, initially, an extremely well made and creepy short film. Created for the ‘Who’s There Film Challenge 2013’, it was directed by David Sandberg and starred Lotta Losten. Check out the original short: If you’re still breathing, you can then check out the film’s trailer here: When a mother, Sophie (Maria Bello), comes to…

Well, the people have spoken. The all female Ghostbusters reboot managed to weather all its bad press and come out on top. The film opened with US$46 million in the states and hit top spot in Australia, earning AU$4.7 million. Not a bad start at all and our own review certainly paints it in a…

We’ve now reached the third installment in what’s known as the ‘Kelvin Universe’ of the Star Trek film franchise. In Star Trek Beyond director/writer JJ Abrams ops to take a backseat this time switching gears and letting one of the stars, Simon Pegg, co-write and director of Fast And The Furious Justin Lin to steer….

At first glance, it seems a little odd to see Batman headlining the follow up to 2013’s Man of Steel. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is an undeniably clunky title but, having seen it, it feels surprisingly fitting. It’s far more of a Batman film than it is a Superman one. There’s a lot going on here and while…

The Adderall Diaries comes across as an incomplete and incoherent collision of storylines. While an interesting concept to discover the faults in our memory and recollections, the unfocused execution of the film ultimately leaves you confused and bewildered more than it does captivated. Based on the true crime memoir of the same name, The Adderall…

The 2016 return of Ghostbusters has been copping almost non-stop criticism from the moment it was announced, from its first trailer drop, right up to its theatrical release. Because of this, it’s hard to escape any negative or foreshadowing thought going into this. But upon stepping out of the cinema after the screening finished, I…

Despite The Legend of Tarzan barrelling into cinemas with a tonne of marketing, Finding Dory still managed to come out on top in this weeks box office figures. Dory racked up another AU$5 million but the real story is that in the U.S, it became the highest grossing domestic release of 2016, currently sitting on…

There’s something an uncanny quality to Our Kind of Traitor. It looks like cold war thriller, sounds like a cold war thriller but, when you get down to it, it’s not. Not really. It wears the trappings of the genre with pride but, by taking place in modern times, fails to do much beyond wear them….

Finding Dory just keeps swimming. Excuse me and my ridiculous cliche but the sequel to 2003’s animated smash is still making big money, earning AU$5.5 million over the last week. Pixar’s maritime flick has surpassed Finding Nemo’s domestic figure of US$339 million, currently sitting on a cool US$389 million. Time is the only obstacle keeping…

Reported by Variety, it’s been announced that Jackie Chan will be joining the voice cast for upcoming animated sequel film The Nut Job 2.  The film will be directed by Carl Brunker with the script written by Scott Bindley, Bob Barlen and Brunker himself. The Nut Job 2′s anticipated U.S release will be on May 19,…

Tarzan is a character that I have enjoyed over the years. I’m far from a fanatic, but I did like the concept of a man living in the jungle, residing with its inhabitants to become one of them, as well as its fish-out-of-water plot. I grew up watching Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the…

American nationalism is back on-screen once again in full display in the action sequel to Olympus Has Fallen. On a minor note, Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett and others from the previous film are back as well. But seriously, the first film, by director Antoine Fuqua of Training Day fame, was a…

When it comes to modern crime thrillers, film sometimes has trouble competing with television. Each year sees dozens of TV series – prime-time, cable and otherwise – tackle the genre and for a film to really stand out against this herd and compete with stuff like True Detective or Luther, it has to go big or go home….

There’s an ancient proverb: when you place two of the most charismatic actors in Hollywood in the same room together, they’re either going to carry the movie or destroy it. Or at least, that’s roughly how it goes. In the case of Central Intelligence, placing comedy’s new golden boy Kevin Hart in a suit alongside…

Like many people in the world, Roald Dahl has been one of my favourite authors during my childhood. His twisted sense of humour, his unique whimsical touch and its warm-hearted tone have delighted kids as well as adults all around the world and even the film adaptations of his works have all been well-regarded by…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that when Hollywood is on to a good thing, they will milk the shit out of it and exploit it until audiences are sick of it and then move on to the next “cool” thing. Right now that thing is very much zombies, so don’t be surprised to see…

James Gunn, director of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films has posted a video on his Facebook page, celebrating Chris Pratt’s work as his time on the set of the sequel comes to an end. Gunn also announced via his video that he, Pratt and more of the cast will be at this years San…

There’s an extended sequence in Independence Day: Resurgence where an all-powerful queen-bee alien is chasing a Jeff Goldblum-driven school bus across the desert, somehow finding itself unable to keep up with his wild driving skills despite swatting down fighter-jets only moments earlier with unspoiled precision. It’s one of the many moments this large, loud sequel…

Viggo Mortensen is no stranger to portraying a damaged father in a journey to protect his children à la The Road, but Matt Ross’ quirky tale has a lot more than just Aragon to draw in audiences. A quick glance at Ross’ resume won’t inspire confidence because of its relative shortness, however, Captain Fantastic flew…

Homegrown science fiction adventure film Arrowhead brings a lot of ambition to the table but little else. For fans of the genre, it’s a bold step forward into disappointingly familiar territory. Directed and written by Jesse O’Brien, the film follows Kye (Dan Mor), a prisoner of war between two interstellar factions locked in political conflict. Kye is…

Dubbed the “spiritual predecessor” to his classic film Dazed and Confused, Richard Linklater’s new film Everybody Wants Some!! takes us from the 70s to the 80s, and from the last days of high school to the first days of college in Texas. Much like in Dazed, we meet a group of young people about to…

A journey following little more than what the title suggests, director Liza Johnson takes on her biggest task yet with Elvis & Nixon. It’s not easy to be trusted with the reigns of puppeteering acting powerhouses Kevin Spacey and Michael Shannon. It’s an even tougher responsibility to direct them embodying two of the Twentieth Century’s…

Loosely-based around Japan’s real life (and really terrifying) ‘suicide forest’, The Forest is a pretty underwhelming and generic horror flick. There’s an enormous gulf in how evocative and eerie the subject material can be and how compelling this film is. There are so many different ways to deploy and explore the premise of this film. Unfortunately, it seems very few of those…

One part coming of age tale, one part family drama and two parts fish out of water story, Morris from America is the third feature film from Indie Writer/Director Chad Hartigan, which had its Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival. The film stars comedian Craig Robinson alongside newcomer Markees Christmas, as Curtis Gentry and 13 year…