Film & TV

It’s hard to believe that after a decade of false starts, postponements and trilogy-stretching, Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy is coming to a close in three months time. The first two films in the trilogy were met with general enthusiasm but have not reached the same levels of popularity as Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Regardless, The Hobbit looks set to…

A group of relatively unknown young male actors were able to defend themselves against one of the most consistently bankable Hollywood actors over the past weekend, as Young Adult adaptation The Maze Runner fought off stiff competition from Denzel Washington’s latest action pic The Equalizer. The Maze Runner took just over $3 million in its second weekend, likely helped by…

Andy and Lana Wachowski have never achieved the same level of success as they did in 1999 when they unleashed The Matrix on the world. This is fair enough, given the fact that very few directors would ever be able to repeat the originality and mind-blowing innovation of a film as good the The Matrix. The Wachowskis…

By Kimberley Veart Monday The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, ABC 2, 7:40 pm AEST Chris Pratt is a guest on this episode, so it’s going to be a fantastic and funny show. Pratt and Fallon play a hilarious game of ‘Word Sneak’, and later Fallon is joined by the elegant and witty Rosamund Pike,…

Not with a fizzle, but with a bang, Bones is back! In a darker turn than usual for a show that usually blends comedy with its morbid premise, a shocking twist emerges, and I warn you, it ends in tears. Picking up three months after the blistering finale, Booth (David Boreanaz) is in prison and…

David Ayer’s WWII drama Fury is released in cinemas next month, and it looks set to be a fascinating and thrilling look at a particular mission of one small group of soldiers near the end of the war. The film boasts a great cast led by Brad Pitt, including Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead), Shia LaBeouf (Transformers), Michael…

Director Kevin Smith has enjoyed a bit of a career resurgence in the past few years, seemingly trading his comedies (Clerks, Dogma, Cop Out etc) for horror. His 2011 film Red State was a disturbing look at religious extremism, horrifying not because of any supernatural threat, but because of the fact that it portrayed terrifying people who could…

Some of cinemas most celebrated titles are set to return to the big screen at Event Cinemas George Street, with the launch of the In The House Cinema Series next month. Featuring landmark films at their finest, the series will herald the return to the big screen of some of the greatest movie titles of…

A loose remake of the French action film District 13, Brick Mansions is likely to be known as nothing more than the last completed film of Paul Walker. With his work in the Fast and Furious franchise, and lesser known features like Running Scared, Walker was arguably proving himself as a charismatic action star and something…

While not exactly a superhero film, The Equalizer plays close to common caricatures which have made these genre movies some of the most loved forms of escapism in cinema history. Denzel Washington’s character Robert McCall is a man of seemingly modest living by day, and by night (the majority of the film takes place after…

La Petite Mort translated as The Little Death, is a French euphemism for orgasm, referring to the post-orgasmic state of consciousness some people go through after a sexual experience. Josh Lawson’s (Any Questions for Ben?, Anchorman 2) low budget directorial debut based on this intriguing concept, is an extension of a short film he’d put…

Ah, the parental-significant other meet-and-greet – something that can be a nightmare for even the most solid of couples. It’s also a classic well of sitcom humour, and that definitely hasn’t slipped past Mindy Kaling and co., as in this week’s episode we finally meet Annette Castellano. Played by Rhea Perlman, Annette Castellano is a…

Thursday Black Swan, Eleven, 9:30 pm AEST Starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, Darren Aronfosky’s Black Swan tells the tale of a delicate ballet dancer (Portman) whose world begins to unravel as she prepares for her leading role in Swan Lake. From the fantastic acting to the surreal editing, Black Swan is an innovative and…

The first season of HBO’s hit series True Detective, which screened earlier this year, brought critical acclaim for its stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Being an anthology series, each season takes place in a different location, with a different plot and characters. After months of speculation, we finally have an official announcement regarding the…

If there were ever a rag-tag bunch of seemingly crazy cops to serve and protect the streets, then Andy Samberg and his squad from Brooklyn Nine-Nine would be the folks for the job. Season 1 began in July on SBS and instantly, people found their favourite character, be it man-child Jake Peralta (Samberg), loveable loser-ish…

It looks like Fox have another solid franchise on their hands, as new Young Adult adaptation The Maze Runner has opened in first place in Australia over the past weekend with almost $3.6 million, not to mention a first place opening in the US as well. The film is based on James Dashner’s novel, which is the…

Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd star in the zany They Came Together, a romantic-comedy parody where, of course, “New York is like a third character.” The film was made by the same writer/director team, David Wain and Michael Showalter,that created Wet Hot American Summer and features many of the same actors,yet it doesn’t quite reach…

The Chaser team are back this year, with their upcoming 8-part series The Chaser’s Media Circus starting on Wednesday October 15 on the ABC. The ABC has pre-emptively apologised for the series by releasing a statement to the press. Below are some of the highlights: “Looking forward a few weeks, we’ll definitely have to admit that in…

Season nine’s blistering finale showed that Bones is still at the top of its game. The episode ended on a dramatic cliff-hanger with agent Booth (David Boreanaz) in hospital and under arrest, while a devastated Brennan (Emily Deschanel) was dragged away screaming. You can expect that action to continue into season ten as early sneak…

You know what to expect from The Green Inferno the minute you find out that it comes from the gloriously twisted mind of Eli Roth. This is a man who brought us – among others – the hyper-violent Hostel franchise (at least the first two films; the third was a garbage rip off) and the…

Much like the books which the film is based upon, Wes Ball’s adaptation of The Maze Runner attempts to unwind an ambitious idea into a blockbuster entertaining enough to put itself forth as the next The Hunger Games. While it isn’t near enough as clever or impressive as it’s immediate comparison, the film places itself…

Express from the U.S, “On the Run” will be premiering exclusively on Fox 8 this Tuesday. Following the immense collaborative tour of husband-wife power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z, the concert has been a consistently hot topic since it began in late June this year. The music megastars have produced “On the Run” for HBO, pairing…

Monday Men in Black 3, Ch. 7, 8.30pm AEST A time-travelling action film, Men in Black 3 (2012) features Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin and is a good fun way to spend a Monday night. The third instalment of the popular MIB series has Agent J (Smith) travelling back in time to…

Alright, straight up, no word of a lie, Land of the Bears has got to be the cutest, most heart-warming, most excellent display of bears on screen outside an 87-point Buzzfeed post about cutesy bears. Why? Because it’s a beautifully shot documentary – that you can watch in 3D, thanks very much – about a…

  That’s right. Set to join the Burr Steers’ directed horror comedy is British actor Matt Smith. Playing Mr. Collins, Smith joins a cast which includes Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) and Sam Riley (Control), The Hollywood Reporter has announced. The film, which is based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s mash-up comedy take on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, sees the traditional heroine Lizzie Bennett (to be played by…

Director Jason Reitman burst onto the scene back in 2005 with his satirical comedy Thankyou For Smoking, which he followed up with Oscar-nominated indie darling Juno. His next film, 2009’s Up in the Air, was again nominated for a slew of Oscars. Reitman’s next two films, 2011’s Young Adult and 2013’s Labor Day failed to live up to the expectations placed upon them. One thing that…

Won’t somebody think of the children? This may be Helen Lovejoy’s catchphrase from The Simpsons but it could also be used to sum up the documentary, InRealLife. The film could have asked a series of timely and important questions about the Internet but instead it feels like heavy-handed and judgemental scare-mongering. The film is written…

If you’re a fan of amazing CGI effects, a rollicking soundtrack and Hollywood superstars lending their voices to bring a story to life, then The House of Magic, produced and directed by Ben Stassen, is probably not going to sit well with you.  If you’re after a simply story to help while away 80 odd…

Brilliant Creatures is a two-part television series that celebrates four iconic Australians. Feminist and libertarian, Germaine Greer; writer/broadcaster/memoirist and poet, Clive James; the late firebrand, art critic, Robert Hughes; and savage satirist Barry Humphries all share things in common. The most important thing is that they left Australian in the fifties and sixties in order…

While at Oz Comic-Con in Sydney, The Iris’ Chris Singh caught up with Buffy star Emma Caufield to talk about her roles, the event and more… ———- This content has recently been ported from its original home on The Iris and may have formatting errors – images may not be showing up, or duplicated, and…