2025 ST. ALi Italian Film Festival – Diamonds Movie Review
They are surrounded by a staff of colourful and idiosyncratic women. Each of these ladies have private lives that vary from good to the truly awful. As the film fills in the blanks and you get to know them, you also get invested in their plight and come to understand their actions.
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When a large movie costume job arrives, it pushes the staff to their limit and the effects their private lives have on their ability to work. We find the sisters harbouring a tragic ...
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues Movie Review
While the first film riffed on the dysfunction that exists in almost every rock band ever, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues zeroes in on the added particulars of the band members now being four decades older. The three core band members have all settled down into farcical jobs. Guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) sells cheese, second guitarist David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) is in a mariachi band, and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) runs a glue museum.
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One Battle After Another Movie Review
The story that underlies One Battle After Another is the extreme actions that governments (and the clandestine groups behind them) will resort to to ensure that their vision for the world is the dominant one. The overview is of the firebrands that fuelled opposition to the status quo and were unafraid to use any means necessary to restore their version of a fair and equal society.
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There are a few things to consider with the amazing performances by lead actors Sean ...
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Movie Review
David (Colin Farrell) presents himself as a solitary being, suffering in quiet solitude while going it alone. Through the strangest of circumstances, he finds himself driving solo to a wedding in a rented Saturn automobile (an American brand that only lasted twenty-five years before becoming defunct). At the wedding, he meets Sarah (Margot Robbie), an outwardly bold person with hidden damage of her own.
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Through another outlandish circumstance, the two end up ...
The Bad Guys 2 Movie Review
All the main voice actors and their characters have returned, and we get three new additions. The Bad Girls, made up of Doom (AKA Susan), voiced by Natasha Lyonne, Pigtail Petrova (Maria Bakalova) and the ring leader Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks). The arrival of the three happens mid-film and deprives the audience of an in-depth backstory.
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The Bad Guys have now gone good, and with job prospects being nonexistent for ex-criminals, they are struggling to make ends meet. ...
Chosen Family Movie Review
Ann (Heather Graham) is a successful yoga teacher who has a penchant for bad boyfriends and putting other people’s happiness before her own. Her home life includes a wayward sister, Clio (Julia Stiles), a bible bashing father, Alfred (Michael Gross) and a passive/aggressive mother, Dorothy (Julie Halston). The three do their best to manipulate Ann to their own benefit.
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When Ann finally seems to have found a suitable boyfriend in construction ace Steve (John Brothe...
The Roses Movie Review
Their coming together was storybook and instantaneous, their tip into separation and animosities slow and grinding. Theo, through a building project disaster, loses his job and reputation and retires to raise their two children. At the same time, Ivy scales the heights, running a restaurant that becomes wildly successful and expands to become a thriving chain of locations.
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The animosity that builds between the couple is played mostly for laughs, but the vitriol that ...
Fight or Flight Movie Review
Ex-Secret Service agent Lucas Reyes (Josh Hartnett) is having a very bad day. He’s been on the run for over two years after being cast aside by the agency for going rogue, and now the person who caused his exit, Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackhoff), has contacted him for a chance at redemption.
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While this set-up isn’t the most unique scenario, the way it plays out is anything but normal. The film’s sense of humour will challenge you to put aside your aversions to ...
Caught Stealing Movie Review
Hank Thompson (Austin Butler) is just a dude tasked with looking after his neighbour’s cat, Bud. Said resident, Russ (Doctor Who's Matt Smith), is a mohawked punk rocker who has to travel back to England to visit his ailing father. Hank is completely unprepared for the shite show that is coming his way from this bit of neighbourly assistance.
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Thrown into a world inhabited by crazy Russian Mobsters, coke-snorting barkeeps and two absolutely bonkers Hasidic ...
The Naked Gun Movie Review
The new Frank Drebin (this time the son), played by Liam Neeson, gets almost all the nuances correct, even the deadpan look when a joke bombs (intentionally or not). The Priscilla Presley character is played by Pamela Anderson this time, and she gets the mix of naivety and gumption right as well. Paul Walter Hauser also successfully stars as the old Police Chief’s son
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All that is needed now is a silly plot to contain all the shenanigans, and this one is cobbled ...
