Seasoned film critic. Gives a great interview. Penchant for horror. Unashamed fan of Michelle Pfeiffer and Jason Momoa.
To say society has a fascination with true crime would be putting it mildly. No longer just contained to a select audience who got their grisly fix on news-skewered programs, true crime – or, more specifically, murder – is now a multi-million dollar business in itself, cornering the market on books, podcasts, docuseries’ and the…
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The wants and needs of comic book fans is something of a tall order when it comes to successfully executing a story that has a certain level of lore attached to it. In terms of The Flash, there’s perhaps an even stronger necessity for the film to prove its worth off the back of certain…
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Despite being the third film in the respective Crime City series – preceded by The Outlaws (2017) and The Roundup (2022) – The Roundup: No Way Out very much operates on its own. Sure, it helps to have seen the other films, but Lee Sang-yong‘s enthusiastic actioner transmits a joy and an individuality that doesn’t…
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Whilst it’s fair to say that not every respective project of director Abel Ferrera and actor Shia LaBeouf is successful in their individual execution, you can’t deny the absolute dedication they both have regarding their craft. Ferrara, whose varied career has seen him helm such divisive works as King of New York, Harvey Keitel’s lauded…
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Expanding everything that made 2018’s revolutionary Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse work so wonderfully, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is bombastically ambitious, beautifully imaginative and emotionally rich. It’s also drastically complicated for anyone not (Spider)versed in the ways of its animated predecessor, so – like many comic book movies that are specifically intertwined with their own franchise…
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Thanks to Transmission Films we have 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the remarkable journey of Jim Broadbent in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, in cinemas from June 8th, 2023. Recently retired, Harold Fry is well into his 60s and content to fade quietly into the background of life. Harold’s life with…
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Bert Kreischer is not a personality I’m familiar with. And having no idea as to who he was in a professional capacity meant The Machine – a star vehicle centred around his most famous stand-up story – was a film I entered with zero expectations. Perhaps that was what ultimately got me over the line…
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Whilst, for the most part, there’s a certain unnecessary mentality that comes along with Disney and their incessant need to live-action-update their animated back catalogue, some of these efforts have given way to adaptations that are inherently interesting (Jon Favreau’s 2016 take on The Jungle Book), undeniably charming (Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella from 2015) or have…
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When you have a film led by such reliable talent as Richard Gere, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and William H. Macy, it’s understandable to believe that the hands you’re in will guide you to a safe destination. And perhaps that’s the problem. Maybe I Do is entirely too safe to make any lasting impression beyond…
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Thanks to Sony Pictures Australia we have 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to the new action comedy The Machine, starring Bert Kreischer and Mark Hamill, inspired by Kreischer’s viral story of his booze-soaked misadventures with the Russian mafia. Set 23 years after the original story which inspired it, The Machine finds Bert (Bert Kreischer) facing familial crisis and the arrival of…
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As we mentioned in our review of Renfield (which you can read here), Nicolas Cage is too perfect a casting addition as the legendary Count Dracula. And it would seem that was the enticing reason Ben Schwartz took on the film as well; “How in the world would I pass on a movie where Nic…
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If ever there was a role Nicolas Cage was going to sink his teeth into, it’s that of Dracula. And the eccentric character actor is undoubtedly Renfield‘s biggest asset, but, despite top billing, this isn’t the Count’s movie – though it’s not for a lack of trying. The titular Renfield is R.M. Renfield (the film’s…
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Now in its fifth year running, the First Nations Film Festival (Formally known at the Virtual Indigenous Film Festival) is returning with a new name and, once again, as part of National Reconciliation Week. The festival runs from the 30th of May to the 3rd of June, 2023, and features a selection of award-winning films,…
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Over 22 years and 10 films (thus far), the Fast & Furious franchise has defied all expectations – and physics – and driven its players to constant peril, but ultimate safety, all in the name of family. With Fast X now riding high in cinemas across the globe (you can read our review here), in…
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Thanks to Universal Pictures Australia we have 5 digital double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult in the vampiric new comedy Renfield, in cinemas from May 25th, 2023. Evil doesn’t span eternity without a little help. In this modern monster tale of Dracula’s loyal servant, Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury…
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Given how attached John Farnham is to the song “You’re The Voice”, it’s hard to believe that it almost didn’t make the cut for his 1986 signature record, “Whispering Jack”. His 12th album at the time, “Whispering Jack” reignited Farnham’s solo career, and off the back of the aforementioned single, it drove itself to 25…
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The Fast & Furious films live in the ridiculous – or, at least they have predominantly for the last decade or so – and, at this point, that’s practically a compliment to call so. Whether you think they have evolved or devolved over time from their humble 2001 beginnings of car-jackings and street races is…
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There’s a distinct lack of energy and unfortunate fizzle present throughout Neil Jordan‘s Marlowe. It’s stylish, has an impeccable cast, and certainly isn’t lost on narrative potential, but the titular character as played by Liam Neeson – based off Raymond Chandler‘s famous detective – feels like they’d much rather be sipping a cuppa than solving…
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A true success story out of ideas born from the lockdown, Brisbane-based mYmosa – the first classic mimosa in a can – has been awarded Bronze for taste and Silver for design at the 2023 World Drink Awards, judged in London, UK. Designed for convenience and a good time, the brainchild of founders Bec Pini…
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With Gerard Butler‘s name attached, and the most simplistic of titles on hand, you’d be right in thinking such a film as Plane is going to deliver on the bare minimum; It’ll be big, loud, non-sensical, heavy on testosterone and light on narrative. And whilst aspect of those expectations aren’t far off the mark, Jean-François…
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Watching Hypnotic and noting its mid-2000 mentality makes all the more sense when you know that Robert Rodriguez wrote the screenplay back in 2002, with the filmmaker calling it one of his favourite stories that he’s created. It may have been written in 2002 but the film very much lives in the shadow of Christopher…
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The wealthy whites and their easy skewering is a narrative mentality that we have been witness to in a variety of practices as of late. But unlike The White Lotus and The Menu, two of the most recent examples of such a temperament, Brandon Cronenberg‘s Infinity Pool pushes further past being just a little wicked…
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Thanks to Universal Pictures Australia we have 5 digital double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the Furious new action sequel Fast X, in cinemas from May 18th, 2023. The end of the road begins. Fast X, the tenth film in the Fast & Furious Saga, launches the final chapters of one of cinema’s most storied and popular global…
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“A film festival is a gathering of diverse perspectives that offers a collective snapshot of the global zeitgeist, allowing us to delve deeper into our present reality,” said Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley as he unveiled this year’s stellar line-up of programming, running from June 7th – 18th. “For 70 years, Sydney Film Festival has…
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Eldritch, USA wears its miniscule budget and make-shift mentality with a gleeful pride over the course of its 108 minutes. Its limitations are obvious, but there’s a certain scrappy charm to it all that you can’t help but be a little taken by its ambition and camp B-movie mindset; there’s a certain Little Shop of…
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When Bill Holderman and Erin Simms wrote the script for 2018’s Book Club they envisioned both Diane Keaton and Jane Fonda in their respective roles; now you know why Keaton’s character’s name is Diane! Such was the power of their own determination, both Keaton and Fonda signed on, with fellow industry titans Candice Bergen and…
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Only a few weeks after Jane Fonda navigated pedestrian, older-skewered comedy in 80 For Brady, the legendary actress is working with similar, though admittedly better material in Book Club: The Next Chapter, an unnecessary, but serviceable laugher that reunites Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen for another round of mostly safe, occasionally suggestive…
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Thanks to Madman Entertainment we have 10 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see Liam Neeson, in his 100th film, take on the underbelly of 1930’s Hollywood in Neil Jordan‘s mystery Marlowe. When private detective Phillip Marlowe (Liam Neeson) is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamourous heiress, it looks to be an open…
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Based on the 2012 New York Times best selling self-published novel by Jamie McGuire, Beautiful Disaster is a sexy, modern-day romance film from the director of Cruel Intentions and After We Collided, Roger Kumble. Detailing the “will they/won’t they” between Abby Abernathy (Virginia Gardner), a college freshman eager to focus on her studies and start…
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Even though the title of Johnny & Clyde may indicate that writer/director Tom DeNucci has gender-flipped the classic criminal couple of Bonnie & Clyde – which could actually be quite a fun, progressive angle – audiences are in for no such change; at least from a gender point of view. DeNucci, unfortunately adopting an “everything…
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