A Family Man is a film about an ambitious, corporate-type who is forced to reassess his priorities. Sound familiar? It’s because this road to redemption is a well-trodden one. A Family Man continues along this journey of clichés without offering anything particularly original or endearing through the process. Gerard Butler (300) stars as Dane Jensen […]
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Returning to the genre that arguably brought him to fruition, Gore Verbinski’s (The Ring) A Cure For Wellness is a decidedly morbid slice of cinema that revels in its own jarring weirdness. Here’s a film that has considerable monetary backing (something of a surprise for a particularly eerie horror experiment) yet comes off more like […]
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The Confirmation plays out like a Sherlock Holmes tale set in a scarce stretch of rural America, with weekend dad Walt (Clive Owen) and his precocious son Anthony (Jaeden Lieberher) spending a murky 24 hours chasing down a stolen tool kit. In the directorial debut from Nebraska writer Bob Nelson, the role of Sherlock and […]
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Take Down (aka Billionaire Ransom) is what you would get if you made cardboard cut-outs characters and put them in a world that was like Brat Camp-meets-The Hunger Games. The film is a thriller that is short on character development and suspense. It means that what ensues feels rather slow, tedious and contrived. The story […]
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Rosehaven is a comedy show that finds the funny in lots of things. It’s a fish-out-of-water comedy, a buddy comedy and a sitcom set in rural Australia. This eight-part series debuted on the ABC in 2016 and it was a hit with audiences. This is because it’s a funny show about two rather unlikely friends […]
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Despite a strong (albeit utterly unhinged) performance from Kevin Costner, Criminal‘s convoluted and underdeveloped plot make for what can only be described as an incredibly boring, yet more importantly, disappointing film to watch. Best known for his mildly received 2012 biographical crime thriller The Iceman, Ariel Vroman’s Criminal sees Kevin Costner star as Jericho Stewart, an […]
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Believe it or not, this isn’t a film about Simone Biles latent fifth gold medal that became a bronze. Aside from the scenes of gymnastics, this film is about as far from the grace of the American superstar as any film could possibly be, but unabashedly so. The Bronze is what happens when The Big […]
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Green Room is one of those movies that isn’t at all hesitant about sneaking up on you and showing you exactly what you’re in for, be it through taboo subject matter (white supremacy) ultra violence or a range of truly sadistic characters. And once you accept what your next hour and half is going to […]
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Apparently we live in a world where members of boybands decide that writing and starring in a post-apocalyptic zombie filled cowboy shoot-em-up Western is a good idea. Initially when I saw the trailer for this film I had a little optimism that it could be one of those “so bad it’s almost good” type of […]
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In 1988, a year after Tim Burton, Micheal Keaton and Jack Nicholson tried their hand at interpreting the Batman mythos, Alan Moore and Brian Bolland released a 48-page graphic novel that explored the Jokers origin, the extent of his lunacy and Batman and Jokers relationship far better than anyone had done at that point. That […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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. […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Given the combined creative genius of writers (Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein, Dana Fox) who co-wrote this screenplay, one would have expected to strap themselves in for a solid, heart wrenching, feel good romp with How to be Single. However not all rom-coms are created equal and this would be sure fire winner, boosted by the […]
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When we were first introduced to the inmates of Litchfield Penitentiary in the 2013 debut season of Orange is the New Black, it was quite clear that we were supposed to be introduced to this new environment through the show’s protagonist, Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling). The upper-class NYC dweller’s transportation to a world completely different to the […]
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The Hateful Eight is (fittingly) iconic auteur Quentin Tarantino‘s eighth film, which this week opened in Australian cinemas for a limited 70mm Ultra Panavision release – the first film to do so since 1966’s Khartoum and the first Western since The Hallelujah Trail (1965). For cinephiles around the world, the day couldn’t have come soon enough, […]
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The Goosebumps novel series was one I read religiously as a child growing up – in fact I don’t know many 90’s children who weren’t invested in this wonderfully ghoulish series – so the idea of a (long overdue) cinematic adaptation of R.L. Stine’s classic tales was one I embraced wholeheartedly. The type of subject matter […]
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What an incredibly frustrating film Regression turned out to be. It’s competently made, well-acted, and contains interesting ideas that are suitably unnerving; ingredients that make it all the more disappointing when its ultimate culmination results in a resounding whimper rather than a wow. Director Alejandro Amenabar knows his way around dark material, and for a […]
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Though Stretch is a rather kinetic film – think an episode of Entourage on crack – and would’ve most likely come and gone in cinemas without much notice, there’s such an infectious energy to it all that you can’t help but feel disappointed that it wasn’t granted a larger release. The DVD market seems tailor […]
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Sometimes a film comes along that challenges your thinking and opinions and leaves you with an emotional suckerpunch. Spotlight is one of those films where the sum of all of its parts results in a perfect film, a balance between emotional drama, gripping suspense, challenging subject matter and all based on a true story. There […]
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Once named “the director of the decade” from the late, iconic film critic Roger Ebert (who, in turn, has this film dedicated to him), Ramin Bahrani’s new film 99 Homes is a self-described “humanist thriller”, which takes us into the realities of the American housing crisis, out of which tragedy and corruption has emerged. Set […]
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Fans of Downton Abbey shouldn’t be disappointed with the end of the series. After all, it ended on a high note. Now you can add the DVD to your collection and have an elegant marathon. The complete sixth and final season begins in 1925. Life continues to change at Downton with servants including the ones […]
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A film that manages to be both reserved yet personal, Youth is a realistically surreal film experience existing on its own plane thanks to the brave direction from Paolo Sorrentino. Gorgeous imagery and a restful pulse compliment the stunning, oft self-indulgent performances from an excellent cast of performers all masters at their craft. Set in […]
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If nothing else, Victor Frankenstein succeeds in its efforts to retell the story of the titular figure, and not the monster he’s so often conflated with. This re-imagining of the horror classic sees Frankenstein and his assistant Igor take center stage over the pair’s iconic creation, playing less a horror flick and more of a character-driven period […]
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Given both our own and the upcoming American elections, Our Brand is Crisis feels maybe a little too topical for its own good. Based on the documentary of the same name, the film follows Jane (Sandra Bullock), a talented political strategist who is coaxed out of early-retirement to help revive the election hopes of a Bolivian presidential candidate […]
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