Phil Jeng Kane
Phil has written for magazines, corporate videos, online ads, and even an app. He writes with one eye on the future, one eye on the past and a third eye on the Lotto numbers. His social bits are here.
Argo
A dramatization of the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran. The Iranian Hostage Crisis dominated news in the western world in 1979. The militants who occupied the US Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage committed an act that was particularly newsworthy because it was unprecedented. The concept of embass...
Mental Review
When Shirley Moochmore, the mother of five girls is committed to a mental institution, her husband Barry picks up Shaz, an eccentric and inspiring hitchhiker, who becomes the girls’ nanny and transforms their lives. When MURIEL’S WEDDING hit Australian screens 17 years ago it made an impact. Australians paid to see it in droves. It won AFI awards. It spawned the catchphrase, “you’re terrible, Muri...
Monsieur Lazhar Review
At a Montréal public grade school, an Algerian immigrant is hired to replace a popular teacher who committed suicide in her classroom. While helping his students deal with their grief, his own recent loss is revealed. MONSIEUR LAZHAR begins with the discovery of the suicide of teacher Martine Lachance. This is shown in a subtle yet disturbing way. The setting is a school and the first person that ...
The Campaign Review
In order to gain influence over their North Carolina district, two CEOs seize an opportunity to oust long-term congressman Cam Brady by putting up a rival candidate. Their man: naive Marty Huggins, director of the local Tourism Centre. THE CAMPAIGN is a two-hander comedy starring the bankable Zach Galifianakis and the even more bankable Will Ferrell as political rivals in a race for a congressiona...
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Review
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, discovers vampires are planning to take over the United States. He makes it his mission to eliminate them. There are some titles that brilliantly encapsulate the premise of the accompanying story. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER is one of these. The gut-punching sell is there front and centre; one of the most popular US presidents also Hun...
Not Suitable For Children Review
A young man who learns he has one month until he becomes infertile sets out to find a woman with whom to have a child. NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN in the first feature from Western Australian director Peter Templeman. Ryan Kwanten (TRUE BLOOD) plays 20-something Jonah who has a pretty good life sharing a house with his friends Stevie (Sarah Snook) and Gus (Ryan Corr). They bring money into the hou...
Rampart Review
Set in 1999 Los Angeles, veteran police officer Dave Brown, the last of the renegade cops, works to take care of his family, and struggles for his own survival. Because you and I are culturally savvy and get our information from Wikipedia, we know that the new movie RAMPART, starring Woody Harrelson, is named for the Rampart scandal that rocked the LAPD in the late 1990s. Knowing this, you might t...
Men In Black 3 Review
Agent J travels back in time to the 1960s, to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history. Once upon a time, the Men In Black were an urban myth, a popular conspiracy theory; according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, from 1947 onwards reports of the mysterious black clad men were associated with UFO sightings and other unexplained phenomena. The idea went that the MIBs w...
Safe Review
Mei, a young girl whose memory holds a priceless numerical code, finds herself pursued by the Triads, the Russian mob, and corrupt NYC cops. Coming to her aid is an ex-cage fighter whose life was destroyed by the gangsters on Mei’s trail. You know what to expect with most action pictures starring Jason Statham. He will play a cop, a soldier, a transporter, an agent or if he’s a badass assas...
Iron Sky Review
The Nazis set up a secret base on the Moon in 1945 where they hide out planning to return to power. In 2018, the United States sends two astronauts there to search for deposits of the energy source Helium 3. Their presence is discovered by the Moon Nazis. They capture one of the astronauts and decide to move faster on their plans for world domination. There are many kinds of movie Nazis. The two...
Delicacy Review
A French woman mourning the death of her husband three years prior is courted by a Swedish co-worker. DELICACY (La Délicatesse) follows the story of Nathalie (Tatou) from her happily married state through to the first stages of her widowhood. This may suggest a certain path to the drama, but these moments are artfully chosen. In the hands of other filmmakers this could have been could be predictab...
Wish You Were Here Review
Four friends lose themselves in a carefree South-East Asian holiday. Only three come back. Dave and Alice return home desperate for answers about Jeremy’s mysterious disappearance. When Alice’s sister Steph returns to Australia, a nasty secret is revealed about the night her boyfriend went missing. In the first minutes of WISH YOU WERE HERE the audience is plunged into the story of two...