Thriller

Monkey Man Review

The much-anticipated Monkey Man hits cinemas this week, seeing actor Dev Patel (The Green Knight) sitting in the Director’s chair for the first time ever. After receiving a standing ovation during its premiere at SXSW Film & TV Festival, this adrenaline-fueled feature is set to elevate the action genre to new heights. Before going into this film, all I really knew about it was the on-set news ...

Love Lies Bleeding Review

Love Lies Bleeding is a movie that we’ve all seen before – a drama that’s sexy, gorey, dark and so incredibly visceral that you feel like you need a shower afterwards – but far bigger, better and gayer. Dramatic and psychotic at times, director Rose Glass hasn’t journeyed far from her breakout horror Saint Maud, giving 80s gym culture a dark twist.  The story is centered around the see...

Baghead Review

February is spoken about as the cinematic dumping ground. With studios releasing films they have little confidence in during this period. Enter Baghead. A cookie cutter horror flick which brings nothing exciting or original to the genre. Directed by Alberto Corredor and based on his own short film from 2017, Baghead tells the story of Iris (Freya Allan, The Witcher). A downtrodden young artist who...

Cat Person Review

In cinemas from today (23rd), Cat Person is part cautionary tale and part mirror for participants in the modern dating scene. A serviceable psychological thriller and drama that sticks with you after viewing. It’s not shocking or surprising, the events playing out on screen are mostly predictable as they are humorous. It is the pondering and attempting to understand individual character motivation...

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Review

Francis Lawrence (Catching Fire, Mockingjay films) continues to realise Suzanne Collin’s Panem and the aristocratic machinations of that fictional, dystopian future. Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes acts as a prequel to the much loved Hunger Games saga, following an adolescent Corolianas Snow (Tom Blyth- Billy the Kid) as he comes into this world an already downtrodden and bitter individual, with mu...

Saltburn Review

Universal Pictures and Warner Bros present Saltburn; the latest feature from Writer/Director and Academy Award winner Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman). After receiving critical acclaim from film festivals all around the globe, Saltburn is hoping to shock audiences with its gothic thrills and twisted chills. Set against the backdrop of the mid-2000s, Saltburn tells the tale of Oliver (Barry ...

The Dive Review

In Australian cinemas from today, The Dive poses the question; How far would you push yourself to save another life? Pretty far, as it turns out. Directed by Maximillian Erlenwein on a low budget of $15 million, The Dive is a curious flick. A German/English remake of a Norwegian diving flick sporting the same premise. A pair of somewhat estranged sisters meet up for their ritual dive, a passion in...

The Exorcist: Believer Review

October fifth heralds the return of the legendary Exorcist. Can David Gordon Green and Danny McBride deliver an installment that lives up to the intensity of Exorcist and Exorcist III?? Or, are we stuck with another dreary entry in the hit and miss nature of this franchise? Unfortunately, it’s the latter. Some spoiler information will follow, so please skip to the last paragraph if you wish to rem...

Retribution Review

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&...

The Equalizer 3 Review

Finishing off The Equalizer trilogy is the appropriately titled The Equalizer 3. With all the best talent behind the camera returning, including director Antoine Fuqua and writer Richard Wenk, as well as the franchise’s iconic lead – Denzel Washington – Sony Pictures is hoping to conclude this franchise with the series best and go out with a bang! After leaving his past as a government...

Talk to Me Review

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...

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Review

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...