Reviews 1033 results

Kung Fu Panda 4 Movie Review

This time the main subject is not being afraid of change and overcoming a comfortable existence to find your better self. Visually the film contains almost everything the ever-advancing craft is capable of with fantastic use of colour and wonderful set design. Being based in the East adds another element of the exotic and this is used to the fullest.   //   This is the most character-based outing of the series and relies heavily on the appeal of its two main voice actors ...

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Movie Review

The much-maligned attempt at a reboot in 2016 featured an all-female cast consisting of Saturday Night Live alumni and was very unfairly treated by the press and public, it wasn’t great but was more fun than it was given credit for. A lot of that was a gender bias. Then the brains behind the series handed it off to Paul Feig for 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It told a story outside the original but was still set in the same world. It made $204 million worldwide against a budget of $75 ...

Alliance Française French Film Festival – The Three Musketeers – Part I: D’Artagnan Movie Review

The Three Musketeers touches on the timeless themes of integrity, a sense of duty and brotherhood but also includes kick-ass sword fights and more than its fair share of damsels in distress. With this new (2023) take on the classic, The Three Musketeers - Part I: D’Artagnan and Part 2: Milady, it’s fitting to be shepherded by French director and second-generation movie man Martin Bourboulon.   //   These two films were major productions in France and as such feature ...

Alliance Française French Film Festival – The President’s Wife Movie Review

Based ever so slightly on real life, National Treasure Catherine Deneuve plays Bernadette Chirac, wife of France’s 22nd President Jacques Chirac. After years of servitude to her husband’s career, when the time arrives for her to take residency in the Elysée, she doesn’t take kindly to the marginal position she is expected to live in.   //   Her emergence from the shadows cast by Jacques underlines most of the film’s humour. It’s marvellous to see Deneuve in a ...

Alliance Française French Film Festival – The Animal Kingdom Movie Review

It also explores the Marindaze family, Father François (Romain Duris) and Son Émile (Paul Kircher). François has lost his wife and Émile’s mother to the mutations and she has to reside in a facility that keeps these beings from the public view. When this facility has a breakout of its residents, it puts things into overdrive. If Son Émile didn’t have enough teen problems to deal with, like talking to girls and fitting in with cool kid members of his new school, he must now face ...

One Perfect Match Movie Review

Intentional or not, this film’s use of local scenery is hilarious. This romance film makes some very odd choices to play for an American audience and as a result of that has created some very funny moments. Ostensibly setting the film in Florida provokes many internal laughs as you go from an office view of the Brisbane River to stock footage of the high-rise buildings of that sunny American state.   //   The storyline of having one of the character’s family owning a ...

Dune: Part Two Movie Review

Substitute oil for spice and the fiefdoms in the books are not that far thematically from the ones that dot the Middle East in current days. The military aggression in that part of the world to keep American cars filled with dead dinosaur juice is also somewhat of a parallel. Herbert who died in 1986 was on to something.   //   Adding Director Denis Villeneuve to the cinematic versions of the books was an astute choice. No one in Hollywood can create more arresting ...

The Zone of Interest Movie Review

During his tenure there, an estimated 3,000,000 victims were executed or succumbed to starvation and disease. The truly chilling aspect of the film is the focus on his home and family life and how mundane that life was outside his work. The almost complete lack of a soundtrack score (other than some electronic noise design to create unease) never lets you hide in the anonymity of a wall of sound either.   //   Höss and his family lived in an idyllic setting of a home ...

Drive-Away Dolls Movie Review

Early example, their usual approach to violence, where it is used almost as a summation of the randomness of fate is sidestepped by having one of the most graphic scenes of maleficence in their canon open the film. It is shocking and arriving so early on acts as a bit of a red herring as underlining all that happens afterward is a simple love story.   //   Actor Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood) in a real star turn plays Jamie, a young woman looking for ...

Madame Web Movie Review

As the story continues and adds players Sydney Sweeney as Julia Cornwall, Isabela Merced as Anya Corazon and Celeste O'Connor as Mattie Franklin, it becomes more conventual and far less edgy. Keeping the theatregoer off balance is a solid technique and should have been used longer.   //     As the conventions collect and become dominant, so too does the reliance on special effects. With this much girl power, it seems they should have given these ladies a bigger ...