Retribution is an ordinary action movie that takes no risk, offering little reward. The film is produced by Studio Canal, directed by Nimród Antal, starring Liam Neeson. This review will be short, thankfully, much like the one hour and thirty-minute runtime of this flick. Retribution isn’t the worst action movie, but it’s safe to say it’s the second-worst action movie of 2023. I&...
Other young and aspiring horror film directors would be forgiven for wanting to pack it in on viewing Danny & Michael Philippou’s Talk to Me. It’s a masterclass in contemporary horror cinema featuring fresh, visceral storytelling and inspiring cinematography. Talk to Me is going to be tough to top in a year that’s already seen the hugely successful Evil Dead Rise. The RackaRacka lads trade the...
Tom Cruise is back on screen seeking the improbable – convincing an audience that he’s still top of his game at an over ripe sixty-one years old. In cinemas from today, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One (sheesh what a handful) proves just that, putting other action hero franchise films from this year in the corner. Mi7.1 has thrilling action sequences, but is bogged down by long-win...
Hitting Australian cinemas a couple months shy of another anticipated Meg movie, The Black Demon falls short of mediocrity with a blend of pulpy mythological horror and environmental awareness. Directed by Adrian Grünberg (Rambo: Last Blood) and starring Josh Lucas (trading Red Dog for a Megalodon shark) The Black Demon tells the story of Paul Sturges (Lucas), who brings his family along for a wor...
Universal Pictures and director Chris McKay, (The LEGO Batman Movie), invite you to suck on Renfield. A modern kind of sequel to 1931’s Dracula, yes, that one with Bela Lugosi. In short, it’s pretty fun, it doesn’t suck! Renfield stars Nicholas Hoult as the titular ghoul and Nicholas Cage as the infamous count, both of whom need no introduction. The film acts as a situation comedy first, action ho...
Vin Diesel seems to be the only one taking himself and this franchise way too seriously in the latest instalment of GI JOE cross xXx meets We’re The Millers. So strap in wheel heads, Vinny Diesel (Babylon AD) and his urban fashion conscious team of international intrigue and espionage are back with Fast X, the latest instalment of the aforementioned man’s tedious vanity project. To say that ...
2013 saw the release of Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead. At its time, a welcome remake of Sam Raimi’s original college film affair. With Raimi producing, Evil Dead 2013 dumped the playful, schlocky camp horror of the original beloved cult trilogy (or duology) of films in favour of a more intense horror experience and delivered in spades. This Thursday Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Robert Tapert along wit...
Julius Avery and Russell Crowe invite us to the mouth of hell to witness a bipolar cinematic spectacle. With 2018’s Overlord, Avery proved his talent for directing pulpy action horror films. The Pope’s Exorcist is more of the same, without the full metal jacket and with a few doses of comedy. The film as a whole can’t decide exactly what it is supposed to be, but as a piece of entertaining popcorn...
Michael B Jordan, everybody’s favourite Killmonger (Black Panther), stars in and directs what seems likely to be the final chapter in a Creed trilogy (at least, the final of the franchise to centre on Adonis, more on that later). For a directorial debut, it’s a good one! From a narrative and character development perspective, much like Creed II, part III in the Adonis Creed story doesn’t necessari...
On the big screen since February 2nd, Universal Pictures and M. Night Shyamalan (Signs, The Village) invites you to witness the apocalypse. Knock at the Cabin demands an hour and forty minutes of your time, perhaps as the credits roll you may wish it really was the end of the world. Based on Paul Tremblay’s 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World, the film takes a few liberties, becoming some...
Risking comparison to murderous doll flicks of yesteryear, M3gan swings gracefully on screen in January 2023 with mechanical grace and manic sass. Based on the promo material alone, one can be forgiven for passing the film off as a gender bent Chucky riff. This is a disservice. On viewing it is clear, director Gerard Johnstone, screenwriter Akela Cooper, producers James Wan and Jason Blum have cra...