The Patriarch of the family, Fritz Von Erich was a wrestler with a successful career, but it never reached the heights he thought due. This caused him to over-invest in his children’s lives and forced them to be myopic in seeing their future. This led to self-induced tragedy as well as accidental.

As horrific as the happenings in the film are, they are downplayed and the actual truth is even more sad. This kind of work places large demands on its actors and Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson and Zac Efron are fully invested. Efron is startling in his transformation and the rest of the cast put in exemplary work.

Equal parts powerful and devastating, The Iron Claw shines a light on the dynamics of parental overreach. In this case, the boys didn’t have a chance. The Von Erich family have been described as professional wrestling royalty but their lives still spun out of control and those events form a cautionary tale of incredible tragedy and sadness.
Rob Hudson
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The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s.

Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports.

Starring Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Stanley Simons, with Holt McCallany and Lily James. Only in cinemas from January 18.
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It never seems to find its comfort zone with its attempt to mix cheesy horror from a distant time and a modern ethos that favours arresting visual effects. What we get is underwhelming imagery that more singes than burns and actors that are left out in the cold.

TV actor Ryan Kiera Armstrong reprises Barrymore’s role of Charlie McGee, the girl with flames at her fingertips with some effectiveness. She starts the innocent but things quickly get out of hand as her and father Andy (Zac Efron) go on the run from evil government forces.

With so many projects hitting the big screen, the folks at Blumhouse seem to be riding on the coattails of earlier successes like Get Out and Creep 1 and 2. It’s a great idea to give new directors the chance to say something fresh but they need to ensure the scripts and budgets will allow them the opportunity to shine.

Rob Hudson
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For more than a decade, parents Andy (Zac Efron; Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile; The Greatest Showman) and Vicky (Sydney Lemmon; Fear the Walking Dead, Succession) have been on the run, desperate to hide their daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong; American Horror Story: Double Feature, The Tomorrow War) from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her unprecedented gift for creating fire into a weapon of mass destruction.

Andy has taught Charlie how to defuse her power, which is triggered by anger or pain. But as Charlie turns 11, the fire becomes harder and harder to control. After an incident reveals the family’s location, a mysterious operative (Michael Greyeyes; Wild Indian, Rutherford Falls) is deployed to hunt down the family and seize Charlie once and for all. Charlie has other plans.

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They hatch a plan to protect and excavate the gold, with one man leaving to secure the necessary equipment. The other man remains and must endure the harsh desert elements while battling suspicion he has been abandoned to his own fate

Two-way radios keep them in contact, and with hours and eventually days of dead airtime in between each communication the stranded man begins to run out of supplies. Water is scarce, food even more so. His plans to protect the gold are interrupted by two strangers who may change the course of the men’s plans.

Set in an unforgiving landscape, GOLD is a film about what motivates greed and the lengths people will go to in order to secure themselves.
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Getting the mixture of a cringe comedy just right is not an easy task as one person’s comic meal is another’s awful offal but Baywatch more than tickles the funny bone. It plays out just like bad American television, thin plot, thinner actors and The Rock. Mr Johnson gives good comedy and he and the cast look like they were having a right good time with the material.

Fans of bad cinema are out there and when you base a bad film comedy on a bad American television show and let’s be frank, Baywatch was a horrible TV series (in so so many ways) it’s bound to reach the heights, or actually scale the depths. Classic bad film comedy? Only time will tell but few films this years will sets their sights so low and succeed so well.

Having a good laugh in public will never lose its appeal and Baywatch links the audience with their inner child. You will cringe but you will also laugh.

Rob Hudson
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“SCOOB!” reveals how lifelong friends Scoobyand Shaggy first met and how they joined with young detectives Fred, Velma and Daphne to form the famous Mystery Inc. Now, with hundreds of cases solved and adventures shared, Scoobyand the gang face their biggest, most challenging mystery ever: a plot to unleash the ghost dog Cerberus upon the world.

As they race to stop this global “dogpocalypse,” the gang discovers that Scoobyhas a secret legacy and an epic destiny greater than anyone imagined.

SCOOB will be realeased later this year.
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Now using one of the most unintentionally funny films of all time as fodder for a film about a film has yielded comic gold. James Franco nails the role of The Room’s creator Tommy Wiseau (minus the middle age creepiness) and has never been more fearless or funny. It’s also a family affair and features his brother Dave as a co-lead actor.

The Room was beyond bad and feels as if it was alien in origin while The Disaster Artist feels Hollywood through and through. From its star laden cameos to the Franco brothers act, they both originated from different worlds but both generate huge laughs. The film also never devolves into snide commentary and treats Tommy Wiseau fairly.

Don’t worry if you are yet to see The Room as at film’s end there are some side by side scene comparison that put the current crazy in context to the fractured past. The Disaster Artist is a blast and should not be missed.

Rob Hudson
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Starring Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson and Zendaya – – IN CINEMAS BOXING DAY!
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WithTHE DISASTER ARTIST, James Franco transforms the tragicomic true-story of aspiring filmmaker and infamous Hollywood outsider Tommy Wiseau—an artist whose passion was as sincere as his methods were questionable—into a celebration of friendship, artistic expression, and dreams pursued against insurmountable odds.

THE DISASTER ARTIST is directed by James Franco and stars James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Josh Hutcherson, Zac Efron, Hannibal Buress, Melanie Griffith, Sharon Stone, Jacki Weaver.

THE DISASTER ARTIST releases in Australian cinemas on November 30th, 2017.

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