Ron's Gone Wrong (2021) - Movie Review

A new contender has entered the ring for family-friendly animated films… kind of. This is the first feature release from UK-based Locksmith Animation, although the actual animation is courtesy of Double Negative, the rendering wizards behind a lot of Christopher Nolan’s bendiest works like Inception and Interstellar. They don’t usually dip into full-on animated works, usually just accompanying live-action films, but this shows them in pretty solid territory as far as visuals go. The animation quality is up to the mainstream standard as far as lighting and the like, the character designs are just goofy enough to work on the kiddie level without being distractingly stylistic, and the design for the titular robot is simplified in a way an actual tech company would engineer, and he's quite adorable the longer he stays in-frame.

Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019) - Movie Review

Y’know, after how the last review turned out… I need something light. Something simple. Something to pick me up from this unexpected haze of self-loathing I’ve found myself in. So how about a film version of a popular Funny Or Die web series?

Missing Link (2019) - Movie Review

I’m starting to get worried about Laika’s foreseeable future in mainstream cinema. Not out of a fear that their work is going to start taking a serious decline any time soon, but out of a worry that there might not be enough people willing to see it. This film came out roughly a month ago, but because of an embarrassingly sparse release schedule over here, I’ve only just now gotten around to it. I know that Kubo And The Two Strings didn’t exactly set the box office on fire, but the reputation the company has garnered as doing far better with critics than general audiences could mean trouble. At any rate, we’re here to look at their latest, and needless to say, it’s another fine entry into their healthy artistic canon.

A Wrinkle In Time (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: After the unsolved disappearance of their father Alex (Chris Pine), Meg (Storm Reid), her adopted brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and their mother Kate (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) are trying to carry on with their day-to-day lives. However, when Meg, Charles Wallace and Meg's friend Calvin (Levi Miller) are contacted by the mysterious Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), they discover that not only is their father still alive, but that they have a chance to rescue him. They set off on an extradimensional voyage to rescue their father, while the IT prepares to stretch its dark tendrils across the universe.

The LEGO Batman Movie (2017) - Movie Review

Even though it’s only a little over three years old now, it is quite possible to understate the impact that The LEGO Movie had when it first came out. Aside from being one of the two biggest surprises of 2014, the other being Guardians Of The Galaxy, it also latched directly onto the audience mindset like very few films before it have managed. Starting out as a project where audiences had no real idea what the film would even be like, it resulted in an incredibly astute satire of the Hollywood blockbuster formula as well as being a very entertaining action-adventure in its own right, complete with an acknowledgement of the creativity that made LEGO the household name that it is.

 

Me personally, while I did enjoy it immensely, I was somewhat off-put by the quite literal and jarringly realistic turn it took during the final reel which ended up souring it a bit for me overall. Naturally, when news hit of a spin-off film coming out, this time helmed by LEGO Movie head animator and Adult Swim legend Chris McKay, all the petty misgivings in the world couldn’t stop me from watching it. Computer batteries to power, keyboard to speed.

Keeping Up With The Joneses (2016) - Movie Review

Wow, I have not been looking forward to this one, more so than possibly any other film this year aside from God’s Not Dead 2. The reason why is down to two simple words: Isla Fisher. To the rest of the world, Isla is the woman married to Sacha Baron Cohen and one of the few Australian actresses that has all but completely assimilated into the Hollywood food chain. To us here in Australia, she’s the amazingly annoying redhead who flooded our screens with ads for ING. No joke, she had a “turn your phones off” bit that was a) irritating beyond all human reason and b) shown in front of about 90-95% of the films I saw last year. That’s close to 200 times that I had to hear her screech about how her phone ringing ruined her “perfect” take. Needless to say, I now have an irreparable hatred for Isla Fisher and, as a result, I am really not looking forward to seeing her on-screen again in any capacity.

Masterminds (2016) - Movie Review

Zach Galifianakis, for as varied and kind of inconsistent as his filmography is, might be the quintessential modern comedian. He embodies our still-growing fascination with random and rather annoying occurrences, working with some of the biggest suppliers of that style of humour like Funny Or Die and Tim & Eric, yet he has enough common sense to not let the actual humour of those occurrences just get washed away. Hell, his breakout role in The Hangover was a serious lightning-in-a-bottle scenario that even that film’s sequels weren’t able to replicate. Not only that, he’s managed to move into more down-to-earth fare with Birdman and did a damn good job keeping up with the already stellar cast. He has two theatrical films out in cinemas right now, and even though this film’s poster has been lingering and instilling a form of dread in me for many months now, this is the one that I’m looking forward to by comparison.

Birdman (2015) - Movie Review

We all have moments in our lives when we doubt ourselves. Whether it's out of fear of what may result of our actions or just as a backlash from what others expect from us, no-one can be entirely sure that they are doing the right thing. This way of thinking gets even more muddled when it delves into the creative world, where the entire reason for doing anything is out of a need for an outlet for creativity but still being required to adhere to what the higher-ups ask of you. Today's film tells the story of one man who tries to make something out of his creative endeavours while still fighting with his environment, his peers and himself.