Unhinged (2020) - Movie Review

A B-movie thriller all about how little of an excuse some people need to completely go off the deep end and hurt others. Not sure who exactly thought this was the ideal feature to bring out in the middle of epidemic lockdown, a time when the distinction between selfishness and actually giving a fuck about other people is getting sharper by the day, but… have to admit, I’m a bit torn on whether this was the best idea or the worst idea in cinemas right now.

True History Of The Kelly Gang (2019) - Movie Review

After bringing Shakespeare to the big screen with Macbeth, and delivering a much-maligned but still admirable attempt at video game adaptation with Assassin’s Creed, director Justin Kurzel has reunited with screenwriter Shaun Grant to once again step into Australia’s dark history to bring us a film about the quintessential Aussie legend: The outlaw Ned Kelly. The two have already proven their salt as a team with Snowtown, and Shaun Grant’s writing did a great service to the cultural hiding featured in Jasper Jones, and true to form, their efforts here make for a powerful piece of cinema.

Boy Erased (2018) - Movie Review

Gay conversion therapy is a tough thing to write about. Partly because it is an extremely harrowing subject that doesn’t lend itself to easy composition, but mainly because I don’t want this review to devolve into me just ranting about the practice. At any rate, it’s something that continues to be administered in far too much of the Western world, and it serves as the main focus of the latest from Australian cinematic titan Joel Edgerton. Adapted from the memoir of Garrard Conley, which goes into the horrifying things that take place within ex-gay therapy centres, Edgerton finds himself in prime form, delivering a story that seriously needed to be told.

The Mummy (2017) - Movie Review

With Marvel sweeping in box office hit after box office hit, it seems that everyone and their backyard sound stage want to get in on this ‘shared film universe’ trend. Sure, Marvel didn’t exactly invent the idea; filmmakers like John Hughes and Kevin Smith both filled in their films with little threads that tied them together for those willing to pay attention. However, those guys did it more in passing than anything else, whereas Marvel has officially turned it into a new blossoming branch of the Hollywood franchise system. From DC’s attempts to match their graphic novel rivals to Legendary Studio’s increasingly-promising big monster franchise, even individuals like M. Night Shyamalan who seems to be setting up his own comic book-inspired world off the back of Split, this is basically the big new thing in Hollywood right now.

 

So, naturally, it seems that Universal Pictures wants to get in on this trend as well, using today’s film as a springboard for a shared universe based on their classic cavalcade of movie monsters. Of course, if the rest of the entries in the Dark Universe series are anything resembling this, we may be in for a very bumpy ride over the next several years because this film is something truly special.

The Nice Guys (2016) - Movie Review

The weirdest aspect when it comes to actors decide to become filmmakers is when they go back to their acting gigs. This is especially true when the films that they made aren’t all that good. I’ve gone on at great length about the many issues concerning Russell Crowe’s The Water Diviner, which everyone else seems to be unwilling to acknowledge, and while I give Ryan Gosling’s Lost River its fair due, that’s only after the many weeks of Fridge Analysis I undertook to understand what the hell it was on about. I may like being overtly critical but a message about Detroit’s already well-publicised housing issues shouldn’t be this obtuse. Sure, they’ve been in films since, but those were definitely two of their wider-known products of late. So, with those still fresh in my mind, let’s see how they do when they are under the helm of the guy who most recently gave us the oft-maligned Iron Man 3.

The Water Diviner (2014) - Movie Review

Every so often, an actor will step forward and decide that they want to become a director and make their own movie. This can sometimes lead to great things: Clint Eastwood has had a very prolific and critically-praised track record of directorial efforts over the last decade or so and Ben Affleck made a major comeback in Hollywood with films like The Town and Argo. However, it can also lead to rather disastrous things: William Shatner made a dog’s breakfast out of Star Trek V, Eddie Murphy’s Harlem Nights is one of his many cinematic punchlines, and the less said about the brain-melting confusion that is Crispin Glover’s What Is It?, the better. Today’s film is the directorial debut of love-him-or-hate-him actor Russell Crowe.