Tag: Hollywood
Amsterdam
Saturday, October 8th, 2022 Film Reviews,It’s hard to pinpoint where Amsterdam starts to go wrong, but once that sinking feeling sets in, it never leaves. I’ve come to think of David O. Russell as one of the very best contemporary American directors, but this film swiftly leaves the shining path and wanders off into the wilderness. It’s 1930, and we […]
Don’t Worry Darling
Friday, September 30th, 2022 Film Reviews,Don’t worry darling, you can look it up when you get home. This is the best advice I can offer to those who walk out of Olivia Wilde’s much-discussed movie, wondering what on earth it was all about. No film this year has been more thoroughly picked over by the gossip columnists, following reports of […]
Thor: Love and Thunder
Saturday, July 9th, 2022 Film Reviews,The Thunder God went for a ride Upon his favourite filly I’m Thor! he cried The horse replied: You forgot your thaddle, thilly! This little rhyme has remained lodged in my mind from the day I read it in a Marvel comic, when I was still in primary school This was decades before the […]
Elvis
Friday, June 24th, 2022 Film Reviews,There’s no mystery about a film by Baz Luhrmann. We know it’s going to be big and brassy, fast-moving, wilfully superficial, and packed with over-the-top theatrics. As a result, I go along to each new Baz film with a sense of diminished expectations. For me, everything started to go wrong with Moulin Rouge! (2001), which […]
Jurassic World Dominion
Friday, June 17th, 2022 Film Reviews,If Top Gun: Maverick took formula film-making into the stratosphere, Jurassic World Dominion has returned it to the primordial swamp. Whatever the shortcomings of the previous installment in this seemingly endless series, it feels like a classic alongside this new effort. In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) Spanish director, J.A.Bayona managed a few clever twists […]
Top Gun: Maverick
Friday, May 20th, 2022 Film Reviews,Top Gun: Maverick is a dangerous film. When the lights went up I swaggered out of the cinema and leapt into my car. Installing myself in the driver’s seat was like sitting in the cockpit of a fighter plane. I hit the ignition, slammed into gear and crawled out of the carpark. On Anzac Parade […]
Dog
Friday, April 1st, 2022 Film Reviews,Dog is a title that tells us a lot about the world today. Even the dumbest movie-goer will immediately think: “Ah-ha! That must be a film about a dog!” We seem to love dogs more as we love each other less. They are so loyal, so non-judgemental. They don’t vote Liberal or Labor, Democrat or […]
Academy Awards 2022
Friday, March 25th, 2022 Film Reviews,Every year we hear the Oscars’ days are numbered. The awards ceremony is too long and boring, the short-lists not reflective of mainstream tastes. TV audiences can’t be bothered waiting around for hours to find out who receives the only awards that count: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Director. And yet the […]
CODA & Don’t Look Up
Friday, March 18th, 2022 Film Reviews,Completing my trawl through the contenders for Best Picture at the 2022 Academy Awards, this week I’m looking at CODA and Don’t Look Up. It’s a little surprising that either of these titles is shortisted for the award, although they both have their qualities, with Don’t Look Up, in particular, being touted by some as […]
The Batman
Friday, March 11th, 2022 Film Reviews,Many readers will have been introduced to Batman through that incredibly camp afternoon TV program of the late 1960s in which Adam West played Bruce Wayne (Batman), with Burt Ward as his ward, Dick Grayson (Robin). Has anybody ever heard of these two actors since? The supporting cast was more high-profile: Cesar Romero as the […]