Reviews

Is David Spade Netflix comedy The Wrong Missy worth watching?

The latest film to be trotted out onto Netflix’s new rotation is The Wrong Missy. Straight up, you should know that this project comes courtesy of Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions team, so that might immediately throw up some questionable flags to begin with. Bankrolled by the streaming giant, predominantly set in Hawaii (presumably as…

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Caliphate Netflix

Is Netflix’s Caliphate worth watching?

Streaming on Netflix now, Caliphate is an eight-episode thriller shot between Sweden and Jordan, following a planned ISIS terror plot in Stockholm while at the same time examining the much deeper issue of radicalisation. With a long-running show like Homeland wrapping up (rather well, might I add) after eight seasons, it’s expected that some fans…

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Review: HBO’s new film Bad Education is “the most Australian movie about Long Island ever made”

The newest feature film for us to enjoy from the company of our own homes during isolation is one that was never acquired for big screen distribution. Coming from HBO Films (following the largest acquisition deal of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival), Bad Education is the dramatised telling of a true story of corruption…

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First Impressions: Netflix’s second season of Dead To Me continues to complement its comedic personality with a wealth of emotion

*This review will contain spoilers pertaining to Dead To Me’s first season* It goes without saying that if you haven’t finished season one of Netflix’s deliciously comedic Dead To Me (or watched it all, shame on you if so), this second season is not for you to play catch up.  And after the unexpected note…

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Is Alex Garland’s high concept sci-fi thriller Devs worth watching?

Devs is the sort of television mini-series that demands your full attention. This is for a couple of reasons. The first being that the subject matter of deterministic universes and philosophical questions of free will are topics that will leave you in deep thought long after the show ends. The second being that this show…

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TV Review: Amazon Prime Video’s Upload is a thought-provoking comedy on the realities of the afterlife

As easy as it is to compare Upload to a program such as The Good Place – given that both series’ deal with the afterlife – Greg Daniels‘ romantic-comedy-cum-mystery is more a commentary on capitalism, a topic it tackles as successfully as it does ineffectually. Set in the not-too distant future (2033, to be exact),…

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TV Review: The Chosen is a faith-based series that deepens with interest the further it goes along

I’ll admit that faith-based material isn’t always the most attractive prospect for me.  Sure, you have your Last Temptation of Christ‘s and your Passion of the Christ‘s, but His story is one that doesn’t particularly entice me; most likely born from my personal relation to religion as a whole. That being said I certainly won’t…

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First Impressions: Shudder’s Cursed Films should satisfy those that appreciate horror as both a genre and a temperament

As horrific as some things are on screen, behind the cameras can be even worse.  Supernatural forces at bay have proven to be more than just fictional fodder if the lore of horror set stories are anything to go by, and Shudder’s own Cursed Films docu-series sets out to prove whether it’s fact or fiction…

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SXSW Episodic Pilot Program Review: Everyone Together (Episode 1) hones a snappy, dark-leaning sense of humour

*The AU Review will continue with its planned SXSW 2020 coverage.  We have been in contact with the respective representatives for available films in order to give them the coverage they intended. The description outlined for the comedy series Everyone Together sounds rather typical.  Dysfunctional families from two very different cultural backgrounds subsequently bond and…

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Altered Carbon

Netflix Review: How does Altered Carbon Season 2 compare to the first?

Back in February 2018 Netflix launched the streaming series adaptation of Richard K Morgan’s novel of the same name, Altered Carbon. We called it a nuanced and detailed Blade Runner for the small screen. The series sees humanity’s evolution into a digitised age, where memories and human consciousness can be backed up onto a digital…

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Star Trek: Picard

First Impressions: Star Trek: Picard strikes a tentative but intriguing balance between the old and the new

Star Trek as a franchise has been going for more than fifty years and its fans are definitely known for their passion and devotion to the characters and stories. One such character is Captain Jean-Luc Picard, portrayed by Sir Patrick Stewart. A new series from CBS All Access, created by Alex Kurtzman, and distributed by Amazon Prime…

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Sex Education

Netflix’s Sex Education Season 2 matures but remains wildly fun and refreshingly honest

Sex Education was a sleeper hit for Netflix in 2019. The show starring Asa Butterfield, Ncuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey and Gillian Anderson and a whole bunch more, finally brought some real world teenage angst about relationships to the small screen. Otis (Butterfield) whose mother Jean (Anderson) is a sex therapist, decides to team up with…

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Netflix’s The Witcher falls short of a phenomenon, but there’s still fun to be had

With the conclusion of Game of Thrones, it was inevitable that mythical, semi-medieval source material with an established following would be pushed by networks and studios alike, hoping to be adopted by its worldwide fanbase hungry for more. The Witcher ticked all those boxes; this time being both a successful book series, and a much…

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Film Review: 6 Underground is what you get when Michael Bay ups his own Bayhem

When director Michael Bay gets handed $150 million from Netflix to make a movie you can be guaranteed that he’s going to make something pretty insane. Where in the past he has felt a little hamstrung by studio expectations or interference, his latest effort feels like a return to form. For Netflix, 6 Underground is…

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First impressions of The Mandalorian and the Disney + launch original series on iOS

Next week, Disney’s hotly anticipated steaming platform Disney+ finally launches in Australia, with close to a dozen original series, a couple of original films, and a ridiculous amount of archived content from Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar And Nat Geo brands. We went to town on the new platform on our iOS device, coinciding with…

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Supanova Adelaide 2019 Round Up: John Travolta, Deborah Ann Woll, Jason Isaacs and more brought the star power

Every year, in November, the Adelaide Showground springs to life with colourful characters when the Supanova Comic Con & Gaming Expo rolls in and offers a chance for Adelaide’s creative community to come together, show their art or cosplay and meet some of the biggest Film & TV stars out there. Sunday morning began with Julie Benz of Buffy the Vampire…

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Film Review: The King is exhaustingly long but has moments of medieval greatness

There have been many adaptations of Shakespeare’s work to the big screen with varying results. Twice before Australians have tackled the Bard’s work with Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet and Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth both hitting the silver screen with positive critical response. Once again it seems the combination of Australian director David Michôd, with fellow…

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First Impressions: Netflix’s Unbelievable is a consistently engaging drama that stays true to the sensitivity of the case at its core

Despite prominent billing, Toni Collette and Merritt Wever are both absent for the first hour-long episode of Unbelievable, Netflix’s latest limited series that centres itself around a serial rapist and the duo of hardened detectives that investigate.  Instead, Kaitlyn Dever, as arguably the series’ most sympathetic character, earns our attention as Marie, a troubled teen…

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First Impressions: Amazon Prime’s Good Omens is a black comedy doomsday romp

In these current dark and tumultuous times it can often seem like we’re rushing faster towards an impending apocalyptic like end. But fear not, the world continues to turn and we can rest assured that in the meantime watching Amazon Prime’s new series Good Omens will alleviate some of that tension. The show is based…

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Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 2 Review: Final Preparations, Final Goodbyes

Season 8’s premiere, “Winterfell”, was a surprisingly disappointing and robotic brush of box-ticking. Reunions and moments of levity took up the most of it, appealing to the masses with schlocky CGI dragon-riding and destined-for-meme Bran stare-downs. The only thing remotely impressive about the episode was John Bradley’s acting. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” was…

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First Impressions: STAN’s Miracle Workers is a weirdly relatable existential workplace comedy

What do you get when you take a reluctant easily distracted God, a bunch of overworked angels and a bet that has the continued existence of Earth on the line? The new 7 episode mini-series on STAN called Miracle Workers, based on the novel “What In God’s Name” by series creator Simon Rich gives us…

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First Impressions: The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel makes a triumphant return to Amazon Prime

Walking away from both the Primetime Emmys and the Golden Globes with awards galore, including accolades for lead Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has been a runaway hit for creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and streaming service Amazon Prime. Set in the late 1950’s, Brosnahan stars as Upper West Side housewife Midge Maisel, who discovers she…

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Netflix Review: Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina conjures a dark edgy twist to high school drama

Back in the mid 1990’s Sabrina The Teenage Witch took the original Archie Comics character and gave her a more kitschy comedic vibe. With Sabrina often having to learn deep moral lessons after her attempts at magic go awry. But if you ever did read those original comics, you’d be aware that Sabrina and co…

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Netflix Review: Maniac is entertaining and well done but less mind blowing than intended

Last Friday, Netflix released a new series called Maniac. Following up on Black Mirror and Stranger Things binges, Maniac has already flickered across many TV-lovers’ screens. The format is limited to ten episodes and based on the, four years older, Norwegian series with the same name. This genre-bending sci-fi drama is written by Patrick Somerville and directed…

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First Impressions: Netflix’s mind-bending Maniac starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill from True Detective Director

With series like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, Netflix has cemented themselves as a platform that regularly delivers exciting original formats to binge watch. Well known for giving their writers and directors plenty of creative space to develop new material, series like like Black Mirror and Stranger Things have flourished. And now we have the thrilling Maniac, which playfully exhausts…

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First Impressions: Jim Carrey shines in Kidding (USA, 2018), but the show hides in darkness

Showtime’s new comedy-drama Kidding sees Jim Carrey return to our screens in a show that makes it very clear that life isn’t all glitter and rainbows. Carrey is one of those actors whose presence alone can fill up the whole screen, either as the most energetic leading man (The Mask) or the average, everyday man…

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Netflix Review: BoJack Horseman (USA, 2018) keeps its stride in its fifth season

When any television show enters its fifth season, they can begin to suffer with the fear of repeating old storylines or struggle with finding new, compelling ones to keep audiences engaged. Luckily, this isn’t the case for BoJack Horseman. Saddle up, because the anticipated fifth season proves that the popular Netflix animated show hasn’t run…

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First Review: Is Netflix’s Insatiable harmful, or was the controversy premature?

The 12-episode first season of Insatiable comes to Netflix early August, but it will not air quietly. Within ten days of its release date, over 200,000 signatories have joined a Change.org petition seeking to have the show cancelled before it screens. The petitioners have rallied against the new series, intimating that the show objectifies women and…

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Netflix Review: Matt Groening’s Disenchantment brings the laughs and an engaging story

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening is back with Disenchantment, his first new animated series since Futurama dropped way back in 1999. Disenchantment is a medieval fantasy which follows the adventures of rebellious princess and self-proclaimed alcoholic Bean (Abbi Jacobson), her elf sidekick Elfo (Nat Faxon), and her trusty personal demon Luci (Eric Andre) through the kingdom…

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TV Review: Season 2 of Netflix’s Luke Cage packs quite a punch

After the success of his first season and his recent stint in The Defenders late last year, Luke Cage (Mike Coulter) returns to protect the people of Harlem caught in the middle of an explosive gang war between the nefarious Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard) and the new kid on the block, Bushmaster (Mustafa Shakir). Luke…

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