Phil, a down-on-his-luck professor of economics, lives his life well lubricated by drink and charged by dreams of a better life—a life that remains elusively just out of reach. He might be astute or just shy of a full deck, and Dinklage is so charming in the role that you don’t really care which description is an accurate fit.

When he becomes aware of an opportunity that might actually be real, he empties his retirement fund, sells almost all his belongings and buys into it in full. This opportunity brings him into the orbit of Astrid (Shirley MacLaine). MacLaine is wonderful as the eccentric old lady who lives in a large mansion that forms part of the deal.

By the film’s end, every character in the film will be redefined time and time again and its comments on wealth, family privilege and the university system will be rewritten over and over as well. It’s this ebb and flow and ever-changing perspective that shows American Dreamer to be an unexpected and wonderful work not to be missed.

American Dreamer is available now on Prime Video, Apple TV, Google TV and YouTube!
Rob Hudson
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When an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity comes his way, Phil strikes a deal with Astrid (Shirley MacLaine), a lonely, Childress, near-death widow who offers her sprawling estate for pennies.

But Phil quickly learns the deal is too good to be true and the American dream is not quite what it used to be.

American Dreamer will be available on DVD & Digital, including APPLE TV, PRIME VIDEO, & GOOGLE PLAY from JANUARY 15TH, 2025 in Australia & New Zealand!
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The film easily divides into two halves, with the less impactful opening stanza setting up essential the same storyline as the films that have come before but with a minor tweak that doesn’t really pay off. They add two new characters into game play, Eddie (Danny DeVito) and Milo (Danny Glover) and when Eddie is cast into the Dwayne Johnson character, the Rock just can’t do justice to the DeVito voice and his mannerisms.

Later in the film when Awkwafina takes over that role, the results are much more satisfactory. The second half is full stop better, with some very effective set pieces. A fun couple of fight sequences and a battle on a set of moving bridges with some vicious primates that is the hight point of the film. They also switch character’s voices back to the original lineup and this is much more compelling.

With this chapter, the concept feels like it’s getting a little bit long in the tooth. The script also needed more humour to give the actors more to do. Next time out the studio needs to advance the story with some major revisions and a stronger screenplay. As it is now, the film’s first half slows things down until you reach the payoff of the second half.

Rob Hudson
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The players will have to brave parts unknown and unexplored, from the arid deserts to the snowy mountains, in order to escape the world’s most dangerous game.

Jumanji: The Next Level stars  Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Awkwafina, Ser’Darius Blain, Madison Iseman, Morgan Turner, Alex Wolff with Danny Glover and Danny DeVito, and will be released in Australian cinemas Boxing Day!
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Who will come out on top of the battle for best dry line delivery in the business? In this corner the reigning champion, William James Murray and in this corner the new leader pretend, Adam Douglas Driver. With lines so dry you can practically see the dust in the air, the two go head to head. And the winner is? Sorry you’ll just have to see the film.

Set in a small town, Centerville, population 738. The pace of life in this minuscule American town is what you might call relaxed. As in nothing really ever happens but when Big Oil fracks the earth’s poles, both North and South, it changes the planet’s axis and sets off the impending zombie apocalypse.

Jarmusch doesn’t even attempt to make a current Zombie flick, in most ways this is some real old school s@#$, even to the point of using one of the best croaks in the business to narrate, yes Tom Waits channels his best wooly mammoth look and keeps things moving, sort of. Those looking for modern day thrills might be disappointed but for this scribe, the leisurely pace and toned down dialogue and action was utterly charming.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU/

In Jumanji: The Next Level, the gang is back but the game has changed. As they return to Jumanji to rescue one of their own, they discover that nothing is as they expect. The players will have to brave parts unknown and unexplored, from the arid deserts to the snowy mountains, in order to escape the world’s most dangerous game.

Jumanji: The Next Level stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Awkwafina, Ser’Darius Blain, Madison Iseman, Morgan Turner, Alex Wolff with Danny Glover and , and is in Australian cinemas Boxing Day!
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In the sleepy small town of Centerville, something is not quite right. The moon hangs large and low in the sky, the hours of daylight are becoming unpredictable and animals are beginning to exhibit unusual behaviors. No one quite knows why. News reports are scary and scientists are concerned.

But no one foresees the strangest and most dangerous repercussion that will soon start plaguing Centerville: THE DEAD DON’T DIE — they rise from their graves and savagely attack and feast on the living — and the citizens of the town must battle for their survival.

The independent filmmaker’s newest foray into genre film (after the western with Dead Man, Samurai/crime film with Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and his vampire film, Only Lovers Left Alive) promises to be “the greatest cast ever disassembled”: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, Selena Gomez, RZA, Sara Driver, Austin Butler, Luka Sabbat, Eszter Balint, Carol Kane and Tom Waits.

The Dead Don’t Die also reunites Jarmusch with many of his frequent collaborators including Director of Photography Frederick Elmes (Night on Earth, Paterson, Broken Flowers) and Editor Affonso Gonçalves (Only Lovers Left Alive, Paterson). The Dead Don’t Die is Jim Jarmusch’s thirteenth feature film and stands as not just a humorous and sometimes scary subversion of the genre (with a nod to George Romero’s seminal film, Night of the Living Dead) but also a tribute to cinema itself.

The Dead Don’t Die is in Australian cinemas October 24.
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Per the film’s logline, Mary’s life “is completely turned around when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes bad.”

The cast for the Sony Pictures Entertainment film also includes Billy Brown, Jahi Di’Allo Winston and Danny Glover. Najafi directs from a screenplay by John Stuart Newman & Christian Swegal and Steven Antin, based on a story by Newman & Swegal. Producers are Paul Schiff and Tai Duncan. In Cinemas February 1 2018.
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