When Mary finds herself at the center of a public scandal and the family faces financial trouble, the entire household grapples with the threat of social disgrace.

The Crawleys must embrace change as the staff prepares for a new chapter with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale will be released in cinemas September 11!
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU/

As the beloved cast of characters navigates how to lead Downton Abbey into the future, they must embrace change and welcome a new chapter.

Starring Simon Russell Beale, Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Raquel Cassidy, Brendan Coyle, Michelle Dockery, Kevin Doyle, Michael Fox, Joanne Froggatt, Paul Giamatti, Harry Hadden-Paton, Robert James-Collier, Allen Leech, Phyllis Logan, Elizabeth McGovern, Sophie McShera, Lesley Nicol, Alessandro Nivola, Dominic West, Penelope Wilton, Arty Froushan, Joely Richardson, Paul Copley and Douglas Reith, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is coming to cinemas this September!
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU/

Unpopular with both students and faculty, teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is just such a man. Prickly to the extreme, his solitary life gives him little joy but he knows no better. Even being an accomplished teacher at a known college gives him little respite from the chip on his shoulder.

When circumstances align he is forced to spend time with Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) a very bright student with an equal chip. The film’s main sense of direction is the result of these two’s budding friendship. This emergence is handled with humour, taste and no calculated outlandishness. It’s a joy to see Giamatti riff with Sessa and the newcomer hold his own with the consummate professional.

Sideways alumni Alexander Payne and Giamatti have reunited for all the right reasons for a deep-cut journey through the early seventies with The Holdovers. This slice of life is so believably funny, that it aims for the absurd comedy that exists in normal life and hits a direct bullseye.
Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU/

Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

The Holdovers will be released in Australian cinemas January 11!
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU/

With previous film adaptations like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the park ride only provides a mere suggestion of storyline and here they have taken it to the extremes. It has given Mr. Johnson the chance to really ham it up and Ms. Blunt an opportunity to be one badass señorita. Their interpersonal relationship is played mostly for laughs.

The storyline revolves around a secret flower pedal that could help save mankind from illness and a curse that has entrapped a group of conquistadors for hundreds of years. It also gives Jesse Plemons the chance to unveil the worst accent ever as the German aristocrat Prince Joachim. Paul Giamatti doesn’t hold back in the bad accent wars as well.

It’s disappointing that after building up Emily Blunt’s character Dr. Lily Houghton as a self-contained, self-confident superwoman they felt the need to couple her up with Johnson’s Captain Frank “Skipper” Wolff in the final scenes. It would have played out so much better if she had kept her independence. That aside Jungle Cruise is a fun bit of escapism that could have entertained and provided a signpost of female self-determination.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/DisneyAUNZ

Also starring in the film are Edgar Ramirez, Jack Whitehall, with Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti.

Jaume Collet-Serra is the director and John Davis, John Fox, Dwayne Johnson, Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia and Beau Flynn are the producers, with Doug
Merrifield serving as executive producer.

Jungle Cruise will be released in Australian cinemas later this year!
www.facebook.com/DisneyAUNZ

Adapted from Flaubert’s classic novel, Madame Bovary tells the tragic story of Emma, a young beauty who impulsively marries a small-town doctor to leave her father’s pig farm behind.  But after being introduced to the glamorous world of high society, she soon becomes bored with her stodgy mate and seeks excitement and status outside the bonds of marriage.

This sumptuous period drama features a superb cast including Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre, Tracks), Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill), Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin), Paul Giamatti (Sideways, Cinderella Man), Laura Carmichael (TVsDownton Abbey) and Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Anna Karenina).
www.transmissionfilms.com.au

Competition will be drawn 08 July 2015, winners will be notified by mail.

Why are there never any people that spill out of the buildings that get completely destroyed? They were warned this time by Paul Giamatti to get the hell out of Dodge.

Why is it always the daughter that steps up to be the hero and not the son? Boys don’t look as good in wet t-shirts.

Why is it almost always California that gets destroyed in disaster films? It’s halfway there already.

What would it be like to hang ten on a giant tsunami? Good in a small emergency craft, not so good in a giant container ship.

What would San Francisco look like as a themed water park? Don’t forget your floaties.

Are epic natural disasters good for the traditional family unit? Yes as a matter of fact they are.

In the world of film making, the answers don’t come quite so easily.

Why can’t any scriptwriter come up with the goods to highlight all that is good in the world of The Rock including his innate sense of humour?

How many more big budget films will get made where the action far outweighs the actors?

How in the world does a string of such banal clichés pass as a screenplay in Hollywood these days?

How wild would the investor’s parties have to be to help raise the kind of funding needed to get projects like this off the ground?

Would they be as wild as the parties that happen during the screening of the dailies?

Rob Hudson
www.sanandreasmovie.com