Its timeline starts from the beginning of time and quickly accelerates to the swinging sixties and as such makes for some very funny history lessons. It also rewards those looking for popular culture references with a wide range of improbable moments. The soundtrack is also fantastically period appropriate and the filmmakers spared no expense in securing the original songs by the original artists. The licensing fees must have been through the roof.

The core of the action eventually settles in London and takes full advantage of the Royal family, British culture and the liberal and conservative attitudes of the time. The set design is colourful in the way a lollie shop is colourful and focusing the film on just the trio of minions, Kevin, Stuart, and Bob makes their individual characters stand out.

Getting the mix of adult and children friendly humour just right is never easy and in this regard Minions excels. This is a film that the whole family can enjoy together and one that will lead to very few embarrassing questions for the parental units on the drive home.

Rob Hudson
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The film also provides further proof (if any more is actually needed) on how fine an actor Jake Gyllenhaal has become. His take on the lead role, that of boxer Billy Hope is absolutely mesmeric. His time in the gym and time spent training to learn the techniques of boxing have paid real dividends.

Gyllenhaal fills the screen with electricity and menace and he makes the most out of what is a rather pedestrian screenplay. Sutter’s ability to plumb the depths of emotion is slight in this instance but as populist entertainment it hits most of the right marks.

This isn’t a story that challenges the viewer but one that can be completely enjoyed by the transformative nature of the performances. Don’t miss this film even if you are not that much of a fan of boxing. As an insight into the human will as told through superlative acting it is throughly engaging.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/roadshow

The always-outstanding British actor Christian Bale lays to rest the man in black for the new man in fat. His visual transformation is just one element of his transcendent performance. He has to act his butt off just to transcend that hairdo of his. Jennifer Lawrence adds to her building resume of great performances as Bale’s on screen wife who is both hilarious and clueless.
Bradley Cooper’s manic drug fuelled performance is also outstanding. Now no discussion of great roles in this film would be complete without discussing the part the wardrobe plays in this film. The seventies hair and fashion defies gravity and the specter of soft-core porn with some wicked comb overs, hair curlers and well placed double sided adhesive tape.

Thankfully the saying ‘if you remember the seventies, you weren’t actually alive in the seventies’ is proven untrue as both the director and actors get the nuances just right. See this film for the humour and spectacle, remember it for the human pathos and misguided sense of right and wrong.

Rob Hudson
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In 1982 a French graphic novel (that’s the adult term for a comic) postulated a world thrown into an ice age where the remnants of humanity are trapped on a train that never stops. Thirty years later we have an international film (Korean director Bong Joon Ho and ensemble cast) to take us on that ride.

If you thought peak hour trains were bad, wait until you see Snowpiercer. At the back of the train (1001 cars long according to the comic) are the underclass, given barely enough food to survive and used as breeders for the upper-class, who live in luxury at the front of the train, enjoying fresh food and entertainment.

The film details a revolution, where valiant souls from the rear fight their way through the train to find the engineer and the perpetual motion machine that runs the train through the lifeless world.

As viewers, we are inundated with science fiction that goes for effects (Pacific Rim) and/or style (Transcendence) over substance. The best science fiction challenges humanity by placing people in situations out of the normal. The best science fiction is not about the science, or fancy special effects, it is about people.

Snowpiercer does this by creating a post-apocalyptic dystopian future where the train is a microcosm of today’s world. It’s a ride worth taking, but remember to ignore the parts that make no sense (just like you do in the real world). I look forward to The Asylum’s inevitable mockbuster.

Fabulous Sebastian
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They only met once, but it changed their lives forever. Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal (Paul Gleason).

The disparate group includes rebel John (Judd Nelson), princess Claire (Molly Ringwald), outcast Allison (Ally Sheedy), brainy Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) and Andrew (Emilio Estevez), the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently — and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.

Retro screening of The Breakfast Club
Dendy Coorparoo
Monday, 30 April at 6:30pm
www.dendy.com.au or www.facebook.com/TheBreakfastClubMovie