A dystopian fever dream that pulls few punches, this outlandish revenge thriller follows one man’s quest to avenge his family and incite a wrath of carnage that will leave few standing by the closing frames.

Skarsgård stars as “Boy” who avows revenge after his family is murdered by Hilda Van Der Koy, the deranged matriarch of a corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty that left the boy orphaned, deaf and voiceless. Driven by his inner voice, one which he co-opted from his favourite childhood video game, Boy trains with a mysterious shaman to become an instrument of death and is set loose on the eve of the annual culling of dissidents.

Boy Kills World – Blood Red Carpet Preview
Dendy Cinemas Coorparoo
26 April 2024
www.coorparoo.dendy.com.au

The action, while extremely violent in its nature is almost subtle in the way it is presented. The blood flows but the closely shot action scenes keep the energy high and confronting visuals somewhat discrete. There is very little gun play and the confrontations remain mostly in the hand-to-hand combat and knife play arena.

The story of revenge runs parallel with an examination of the plight of the poor and disenfranchised in India and the folklore surrounding Hanuman. This ape or monkey-like deity in Hinduism is considered immortal and is celebrated for his wisdom, strength, courage, and self-discipline. Patel’s character Kid shares most of these traits and virtues.

Patel has delivered a film crackling with energy and violence. This film feels like the Indian version of the John Wick saga, with our hero every bit the lethal weapon that is Wick. It does however have its own feel and sense of pace and visual presentation. This is a strong first film from Dev and makes one look towards his future with eager anticipation.
Rob Hudson
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Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash.

After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.

Packed with thrilling and spectacular fight and chase scenes, Monkey Man is directed by Dev Patel from his original story and his screenplay with Paul Angunawela and John Collee (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World).

The film’s international cast includes Sharlto Copley (District 9), Sobhita Dhulipala (Made in Heaven), Pitobash (Million Dollar Arm), Vipin Sharma (Hotel Mumbai), Ashwini Kalsekar (Ek Tha Hero), Adithi Kalkunte (Hotel Mumbai), Sikandar Kher (Aarya) and Makarand Deshpande (RRR).

Monkey Man is produced by Dev Patel, Jomon Thomas (Hotel Mumbai, The Man Who Knew Infinity), Oscar® winner Jordan Peele (Nope, Get Out), Win Rosenfeld (Candyman, Hunters series), Ian Cooper (Nope, Us), Basil Iwanyk (John Wick franchise, Sicario films), Erica Lee (John Wick franchise, Silent Night), Christine Haebler (Shut In, Bones of Crows) and Anjay Nagpal (executive producer of Bombshell, Greyhound).

Serving as executive producers are Jonathan Fuhrman, Natalya Pavchinskya, Aaron L. Gilbert, Andria Spring, Alison-Jane Roney and Steven Thibault.

Universal Pictures presents a Bron Studios production, a Thunder Road film, a Monkeypaw production, a Minor Realm/S’Ya Concept production, in association with WME Independent and Creative Wealth Media.
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After its entire pride is decimated by a group of marauding poachers, a lion goes rogue and became the beast of the film’s title. He sweeps through the area surrounding his den disposing of almost all of its human inhabitants. This massive creature is relentless in its aggression and ferociousness.

Into this cauldron steps Dr Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) and his two young daughters Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries). The Samuels are joined on this journey by long-time friend Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley). The family is there to visit the homeland of the doctor’s late wife.

When humans have the hubris to think they control nature, things often go astray and this allegory makes that clear. We are never as in control as we think we are. Tense and exciting during its compact running time, Beast turns the table on the human excursion in the wilds of Africa. The action is explicit and relentless.

Rob Hudson
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Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll series, Maleficent), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.

Iyana Halley (The Hate U Give, This is Us series) plays Daniels’ 18-year-old daughter, Meredith, and Leah Sava Jeffries (Rel series, Empire series) plays his 13-year-old, Norah.

From visceral, experiential filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur, the director of Everest and Universal Pictures’ 2 Guns and Contraband, Beast is produced by Will Packer, the blockbuster producer of Girls Trip, the Ride Along franchise, and ten movies that have opened No. 1 at the U.S. box office, including Night School, No Good Deed and Think Like a Man, by James Lopez, president of Will Packer Productions, and by Baltasar Kormákur. The film is written by Ryan Engle (Rampage, Non-Stop) from an original story by Jaime Primak Sullivan and is executive produced by Jaime Primak Sullivan and Bernard Bellew.
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The story revolves around a computer sciences geek Deon Wilson (played by Dev Patel, he of Slumdog Millionaire, The Newsroom and Best Exotic Marigold Hotel fame) who creates an Artificial Intelligence program to help his robots achieve a level of human consciousness. His place of employment has already used his technology to build robots that the police use to enforce the law in Johannesburg. Upper management is opposed to this, so he goes rogue to complete the task. This is when the story takes a rather large detour into ridiculousness.

Wilson is kidnapped by a group of hip-hop thugs lead by Ninja (Watkin Tudor Jones, a real life South African rapper, record producer and actor) who terrorizes Wilson but also helps him insert his AI program into a decommissioned robot. Once the program is installed, the robot essentially becomes a child and is taught the ways of life by both Wilson and the thugs. There are some interesting comments on nurture verses nature as the robot become more and more human.

The big finale borrows a bit too liberally from the film Robocop and the final end run takes science to unbelievable places. There are too many moments in the film that illustrate that working more diligently on the logic loop holes in the script would have helped immensely. The film errs on the side of big dumb entertainment, which is a bit of a shame as some of the ideas really showed promise. As it is, it’s entertaining but not much of a mental exercise. With Blomkamp’s stated intension of this being part one of a trilogy, here is hoping they work a little more believability into parts two and three.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/SonyPicturesAUS

Crossing the line from law-abiding citizen to wanted criminal, Harold battles to survive his increasingly dangerous situation in ways that raise the question: Is he out of his depth — or two steps ahead?

GRINGO is directed by Nash Edgerton and stars David Oyelowo, Joel Edgerton, Charlize Theron, Hernán Mendoza, Thandie Newton, Sharlto Copley, Amanda Seyfried & Harry Treadaway.

GRINGO releases in cinemas nationally on May 10, 2018.
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He soon crosses the line from citizen to criminal while tangling with shady colleagues, international mercenaries, drug lords and the DEA.

GRINGO is directed by Nash Edgerton and stars David Oyelowo, Joel Edgerton, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Thandie Newton, Yul Vazquez and Sharlto Copley.
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The cast is A-list, Brie Larson (following up her star turn in Room), Armie Hammer (unrecognisable under all that facial hair) and Cillian Murphy (effective as a shady dude with values), the film’s intent is decidedly not and in this case that is a good thing. No wildly improbable flights of CGI fancy or vanity visuals, just a gritty story with dire consequences.

Set primarily is one set, the film plays off the actors ability to drop in and out of view but still stay in one’s mind. Not as talky as QT’s take, this cautionary tale does none the less prove once again there are easier ways to make a living than braking the law.

With as solid of an effort as this, director/writer Ben Wheatley continues his unconventional climb up the Hollywood heap and remains one to keep an eye on. Future works include Freakshift a horror romp that will star Alicia Vikander.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/freefiremovie

The story revolves around a computer sciences geek Deon Wilson (played by Dev Patel, he of Slumdog Millionaire, The Newsroom and Best Exotic Marigold Hotel fame) who creates an Artificial Intelligence program to help his robots achieve a level of human consciousness. His place of employment has already used his technology to build robots that the police use to enforce the law in Johannesburg. Upper management is opposed to this, so he goes rogue to complete the task. This is when the story takes a rather large detour into ridiculousness.

Wilson is kidnapped by a group of hip-hop thugs lead by Ninja (Watkin Tudor Jones, a real life South African rapper, record producer and actor) who terrorizes Wilson but also helps him insert his AI program into a decommissioned robot. Once the program is installed, the robot essentially becomes a child and is taught the ways of life by both Wilson and the thugs. There are some interesting comments on nurture verses nature as the robot become more and more human.

The big finale borrows a bit too liberally from the film Robocop and the final end run takes science to unbelievable places. There are too many moments in the film that illustrate that working more diligently on the logic loop holes in the script would have helped immensely. The film errs on the side of big dumb entertainment, which is a bit of a shame as some of the ideas really showed promise. As it is, it’s entertaining but not much of a mental exercise. With Blomkamp’s stated intension of this being part one of a trilogy, here is hoping they work a little more believability into parts two and three.
Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/ChappieMovie