The Wolfpack is back in the third and final installment of The Hangover franchise. You would think after the last two films that there would be not much more in the way of shenanigans these guys could partake in, but clearly director/writer Tom Phillips had other ideas.
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Iron Man 3 is the third film in the Tony Stark story arc and promises more action and intensity than the previous two incarnations. Considering its box office success and it hasn’t even had a full week on screens in Australia yet; clearly the Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are flocking to watch it.
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JJ Abrams helms an explosive larger than life sequel in Star Trek: Into Darkness but does it live up to the hype and fanfare? And furthermore, can it survive the nitpicky Trekkies? As somebody who is definitely NOT a Trekkie and unfamiliar with the universe aside from a very basic knowledge of who Kirk and…
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Larry Heath talks to Sara Paxton, one of the stars of the SXSW Buzz Film Cheap Thrills – a ‘black comedy thriller’ – about seeing the film for the first time at the festival, reuniting with Pat Healy, playing the reasonably deranged character Violet and working with the hilarious David Koechner and more… Part Two:…
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The genre of the Grindhouse film usually involves a short narrative, one set and some cheap prothetics thanks to a low budget. The narrative is generally put together by posing a simple question: what would happen if a bunch of rich kids went camping and a guy with a chainsaw showed up? What would happen…
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There aren’t many straightforward, non-Romantic Comedies these days. At least not ones that get a big advertising budget. And generally, when they do, they suffer from juvenile humour, a disappointing, predictable script and scenarios that illicit little more than the occasional giggle. The sorts of movies that cause geniune, belly aching laughter – at least…
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From one brief look at its poster, you very much know what to expect from Safe Haven, the latest film from Dear John director Lasse Hallström, based on a novel from the author of The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks. Even that sentence will tell you all you need to know, let alone the loving embrace of…
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It’s all fun and games until you enrage a pair of witch hunters.
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Every now and then a romantic film comes along that avoids a vast amount of the clichés that plague the majority of the genre (especially from the US). It’s usually a refreshing, entertaining, well produced take on the concept. The latest film to tick these boxes and save us from the romantic tripe that the…
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As we return to Middle Earth, exactly 9 years after Peter Jackson delivered the Academy Award winning climax of his Lord of the Rings trilogy, it goes without saying that a fair few things have changed. We begin in The Shire, Hobbiton, with the familiar Sir Ian Holm as the elderly Bilbo Baggins, telling a…
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Set in the beautiful surrounds of Centennial Park in Sydney, the Moonlight Cinema has very much become a part of the essential annual filmgoers calendar in Sydney, with a relaxed family atmosphere, a string of anticipated movie previews along with a host of the past year’s favourites (and a couple of classics along the way)….
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The short film that won the 2012 Bondi Short Film Festival “The Maker”. The 12th annual Bondi Film Festival took place at Bondi Pavilion on Saturday. The brainchild of Francis Coady, It is an annual event in which documentary makers from around the country are invited to submit their works to the panel to win…
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The live action adaptation of popular manga series Rurouni Kenshin (aka Samurai X) has proven itself a box office hit in Japan and it seems news travels fast, with original and encore sessions at the 16th Japanese Film Festival screenings selling out. A 45 minute delay caused by technical issues did little to deter an eager crowd, who lined…
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The Japanese Film Festival turns sweet 16 this year, and is screening the latest and greatest Japanese films on offer to celebrate. Slotting into the program is the beautifully crafted anime adventure, Friends: Naki on the Monster Island directed by Takashi Yamazaki and Ryūichi Yagi. Takeichi a naïve boy from a poor village goes in search of an infamous Monster…
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Skyfall lives up to all the expectations I had for the next Bond film courtesy of a clever script, exceptional acting and casting. Plus an even balance of explosive action VS visually stunning cinematography.
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Human Meat Factory is a stop animation short created by Korean born director Anna Han. Aimed at engaging audiences by providing an animal’s perspective of the slaughter industry, the short will be screened as part of the 4th Seoul International Extreme-Short Image & Film Festival in Korea and the 6th Sydney Underground Film Festival. At a touch…
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Originally titled El Infierno (aka Hell), Luis Estrada’s black comedy El Narco is a brutally twisted, yet darkly humorous perspective on the political, social and economic impacts of drug trafficking in Mexico. Released on the bicentennial of Mexican Independence Day 2010, the controversial film has found commercial and critical success in its home country despite attempts to stop its…
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Madman Entertainment once again hosted the Reel Anime festival this September, showcasing four upcoming Japanese animated releases. Screenings at Dendy Newtown included the launch of the highly anticipated adaptation of part one of Kentaro Miura’s best-selling Berserk Golden Age Arc trilogy, ‘The Egg of the King’ as directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka (Lunar games). Set in…
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Madman Entertainment once again hosted the Reel Anime Festival this September, showcasing four of the latest and highly anticipated Japanese animated releases. Screenings at Dendy Newtown included Wolf Children, a film directed by Mamoru Hosada (Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), which follows the story of a young lady and her relationship with a wolf man. Nineteen year-old…
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Jack (Mark Duplass) is mourning the loss of his brother. After a mild implosion at a memorial ceremony, his best friend, also his brother’s ex, Iris (Emily Blunt) orders him to some alone time in her father’s cabin in the wintery woods on an Island off Washington State. But Iris’ sister, Hannah (Rosemarie Dewitt), has…
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Kerouac’s classic Beat-generation manifesto On The Road transforms to the big screen in all its pulsing, joyful free-wheeling madness, complete with crazy cats, hustlers, junkies, and poets. Brazilian director Walter Salles (Central Station) and screenwriter Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries) deliver a pitch-perfect manifestation of the cult classic, transporting the viewer to the time and…
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The horror of war is painted with devastating clarity in Flowers of War, a historical fiction drama by director Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers). Set during the 1937 Japanese massacre in Nanjing, under imminent occupation, the city is reduced to dusty rubble and the last remaining citizens are fleeing for their lives amid…
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An Australian-German collaboration by director Cate Shortland (Somersault) and based on Rachel Seiffert’s 2001 Booker Prize short-listed novel ‘The Dark Room’, Lore follows the journey of Lore (Saskia Rosendahl), the daughter of an SS officer at the fall of the Third Reich, forced to flee her home with her four young brothers and sisters when…
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A noir thriller set in grey, low-lit London and based on the Elsa Lewin’s 1990 novel of the same name, I, Anna is the directorial debut of Barnaby Southcomb. Beginning with a series of narrative threads woven together through a mosaic of flashbacks, the film draws on the classic murder mystery genre, with Anna (Charlotte…
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Set in South Africa, Beauty is a sombre meditation on masculinity and sexuality. François (Deon Lotz) is an Afrikaanner family man, who, at the film’s opening is celebrating his daughter’s wedding. He is affluent, ordinary, respected and liked. But, as suggested by the film’s opening shot – a long-angle zoom, ever so slowly drawing in…
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Winner of the Cannes Grand Prix, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia follows the overnight and early morning journey through the wind-swept Anatolian steppes of a group of forensic and law enforcement officers along with two murder suspects in search of a body they buried, but can’t remember where. It’s a long night, and as…
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Set on the eve of the French Revolution (and based on the novel of the same name by Chantal Thomas, winner of French literary award the Prix Femina in 2002), Farewell My Queen, follows a fictional account of the early stages of the monarchy’s epic downfall through the eyes of the court’s peons – specifically…
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Big Easy Express isn’t so much a concert film. It isn’t so much a road movie. It isn’t so much a rock bio. It’s both none and all of the above. I think the best way to desribe it is as a musical odyssey. Big Easy Express beautifully captures the “Railroad Revival Tour”, a 7…
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A family struggling with the accidental death of their daughter head out to their secluded holiday home, insert some creepy neighbours… what could possibly go wrong? Opening with some sort of reimagining of the music video for “Karma Police”, Replicas is a film that lives up to its name, borrowing concepts and elements from the…
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In the first part of my Sydney Film Festival review series last week, I looked at four of the films I saw during the festival, and gave you my impressions of the festival as a whole. In short, I thought they nailed it. This week I conclude my review series with another four films I…
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