The Out-Laws (2023) - Movie Review

Dammit, I knew that getting lucky with Murder Mystery 2 being kind of decent wasn’t going to last. Although honestly, I have some morbid appreciation for this because I didn’t even think they made American comedies like this any more. Both here and for my FilmInk work, I find myself regularly bringing up how modern US comedies seem to spend a lot of time just ad-libbing and riffing instead of actually moving the plot forward or doing anything interesting with the characters. Nowadays, most filmmakers have gotten it into their heads that comedy can help advance a story instead of just grinding it to a halt for little to no reason, but there are some brave little soldiers who are doing their best to keep that style alive.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) - Movie Review

After their last film in Game Night, with its story all about role-playing games and how revealing they can be for the personalities of those playing them, writer/directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are now going after the biggest name when it comes to RPGs: Dungeons & Dragons. The extent to which these guys have advanced since the days of Horrible Bosses and Vacation only grows more staggering with each passing release (even if our last check-in with the duo, Vacation Friends, was not that great), and since I’ve actually gotten into a bit of dice-rolling recently, I was doubly excited to see what they had cooked up (all while trying not to let D&D owner Wizards Of The Coast themselves become cooked over the Open Game License fiasco that would’ve caused trouble for a lot of content creators and fans alike).

Now, my own experience with D&D is rather limited; I only have a handful of actual game sessions to my name, and quite a few character sheets and backstories that likely won’t get used, but never say never (the story must be told of Hughal Dughal, the Dwarven pro-wrestler monk). But between those sessions, the nights spent brainstorming backstories, my general interest in video game RPGs like the Elder Scrolls series, and from watching liveplays of groups like Critical Role, I’d like to think I have a good enough idea of what makes this specific IP, and indeed tabletop RPGs in general, appealing. And it looks like Goldstein and Daley have nailed it.

Ambulance (2022) - Movie Review

Something weird has happened concerning Michael Bay’s reputation in recent years. After spending most of his career as a memetic punchline, the release of his last film 6 Underground seemed to spark a re-examination of his career against the larger Hollywood system. From what I’ve been able to gander, it seems that, in the wake of so much mainstream homogenisation of stories and even filmmakers, to the point where a lot of product can feel like grey mush shoved next to more grey mush, Michael Bay now feels like a breath of fresh air. There’s no mistaking his films for the work of anyone else, for better and for worse, and as an admitted auteurist, it is quite fascinating looking at this man’s body of work and seeing just how… fucking weird a lot of it is.

And I’ll admit it: I’ve taken part in that re-examination as well. After Pain & Gain showed flashes of a genuine talent underneath all the sensory extremes and bone-headed characterisation, and 6 Underground proving to be the most entertaining he’s been in ­years, I feel like I’ve also come around on the guy after spending quite a bit of my own time clowning on him. Some of that clowning is still justified, though, and the man is still on probation for his work on 2021’s crowning dumpster fire Songbird, but all the same, I found myself… looking forward to this movie?

The Bad Guys (2022) - Movie Review

Time for another unorthodox heist film, so soon after the anti-heist of The Duke, and I was quite torn initially going into this. On one hand, it’s the latest DreamWorks animated release, and if nothing else, they also manage to provide interesting material to dig into, even if it doesn’t always hold up alongside its competition. But on the other hand, we have writer Etan Cohen, whose rather inconsistent track record reached a serious nadir a few years back with his work on the unbearably smug Holmes & Watson. As much as I love heist films, this really could go either way and… well, it kinda goes for both of them?

The Duke (2022) - Movie Review

A little over a year ago, I found myself in the midst of quarantine brain and, in a desperate attempt to return things to what can charitably be called ‘normality’ as we know it around here, decided to pick out a random film that was showing at the time and just… get the hell out of the house for a bit. Said film was Blackbird, an ensemble film that, while I honestly haven’t thought much about it since publishing my initial review of it, I can at least look back on with some fondness for not totally wasting my time.

And here I am again, in need of getting myself out of a static rut I have found myself in of late, and once again deciding to essentially throw a dart at the Now Showing list as an excuse to get back to work and (more importantly) get back into a stable routine. And once again, I find myself looking at a film by Roger Michell, who also made Blackbird, and… well, let’s just say that my previous criticisms about not feeling as strongly about the material don’t apply here. Hell, if I’m being honest, there’s a lot about this that I like.

The Misfits (2021) - Movie Review

This production is something of a meeting-of-the-minds for two creatives attached to some of the first films I ever reviewed on here. There’s director Renny Harlin, who gave us the raw forgettability of The Legend Of Hercules (and is also the guy who helped kill pirate cinema as a mainstream genre until Jack Sparrow showed up), and then there’s co-writer Kurt Wimmer, who managed to make the Point Break remake even more dated than the original, and who specialises in aggressively style-over-substance action flicks. This review is more a matter of curiosity than anything else, but even knowing their respective histories in the business, I still wasn’t prepared for just how atrocious this team-up would turn out.

Army Of Thieves (2021) - Movie Review

Well, after our last look at the story of a charming lead teaming up with one of Interpol’s most wanted on a quest for three mythic items in the world of international thievery, let’s see if someone else can do it better. No, this actually wasn’t planned out in advance; this just happens to have a reasonably comparable story to Red Notice. It is also the second step in Zack Snyder’s planned franchise surrounding Army Of The Dead, serving as an origin story for that film’s breakout character Ludwig Dieter. And it turns out to be just the exposure actor Matthias Schweighöfer needed, and not just as a lead actor.

Army Of The Dead (2021) - Movie Review

Now that Zack Snyder seems to be in a better place creatively, I think it’s time to check out his other feature that came out this year. But while the build-up to Justice League involved years of socially-driven momentum right up to the release of the Snyder Cut, part of me has always been more interested in this effort of his. As much as I love just about anything to do with superheroes, combining two other genres that I adore (heist flicks and zombie flicks) was bound to grab my attention, regardless of who was behind it. And after how much ZSJL genuinely impressed me, I’m actually excited to see if he can deliver on what might be the single most tempting feature-length release that has taken place since I started this blog. No pressure, Zack.

Locked Down (2021) - Movie Review

I was raring up to like this movie quite a bit just from genre association alone. A rom-com/heist flick made and set during COVID lockdown, after films like Host proved that there’s pathos to be wrung out of the timeliness, with a plentiful cast of actors I’ve grown to love over the last few years; what could possibly go wrong? Well, in short, just about everything, but I’m not exactly in the mood to show this thing the mercy of brevity.

The Sleepover (2020) - Movie Review

Sometimes, a follow-up to a given filmmaker’s previous work helps make sense of what came before. And with director Trish Sie’s last film, the glaringly disinterested Pitch Perfect 3, there was a prevailing feeling that Sie really wanted to step outside her comfort zone of music and dance choreography when it comes to feature films. Why else would a film about an a cappella group suddenly turn into a Spy-lite action flick? It’s with her latest that that switch-up feels like it was leading into something, and while this is still a bit rocky, I’d say it’s a switch-up worth taking.

Cut Throat City (2020) - Movie Review

The RZA earned his stripes as a cinematic storyteller long before he ever picked up the camera. That’s what made the first wave of Wu-Tang albums so fucking good: They all felt like mini-movies devoted to a single sense. The hard-body kung-fu of 36 Chambers, the stoner horror of Tical, the outsider comedy of ODB’s solo debut, the Godfather-tier Mafioso yarn of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, the thinking man’s chambara of Liquid Swords, the blaxploitation of Ironman, even the panoramic victory lap of Wu-Tang Forever; the RZA did what any director does and surrounded himself with capable writers and actors who wound up influencing the entire genre around them in one fell swoop.

Which is why the RZA’s first step into visual cinema with The Man With The Iron Fists, as fire as the soundtrack was, felt like a misstep. It was too raw (read: unrefined) and felt more like fan worship of the genre it sits in than him putting his own boot print on it. And when he followed that up with a directing spot on Iron Fist (AKA the worst of the Netflix Marvel series), him being in that chair just felt like a bad idea. Maybe his own ability to control the maestro stayed in the vocal booth. But I decided to relent and give his latest a try, and man, am I glad I did.

Ashens And The Polybius Heist (2020) - Movie Review

A few years ago, I made it a thing where I’d take time out in April to highlight my critical influences, namely YouTubers I obsessed over in my teens that got me interested in the work that I have spent the last six years populating this blog with. In lieu of a long-winded and likely painful detailing of why I don’t do that around here anymore (and from the looks of things never will again), let’s just say that I don’t have the same raging fanboy adoration for my influences that I used to have, and I try and stay away from discussing them here as best I can. But in all honesty, I’m willing to dip into that pool once again to discuss a YouTuber movie that is a nice breath of fresh air from the norm.

The Last Days Of American Crime (2020) - Movie Review

It’s been a while since I engaged in some cinemasochism, so let’s take another dip into that hallowed hall of hogwash that is the Rotten Tomatoes 0% club. And I’ll be honest, I wasn’t even expecting to hate this all that much. I’ve been more than charitable with Olivier Megaton’s movies in the past, walking away from stuff like the Taken sequels with far less disdain than a lot of other critics out there. Yeah, they weren’t all that great, or even decent, but maybe there’s something in me that’s got a soft spot for his frenzied overload style of action. I even hunted down the original comic book this is based on, and again, it didn’t blow me away or anything, but it’s a pretty solid crime yarn. Maybe these two worlds will collide into something that I’ll see some merit in that most others didn’t.

Or maybe I’ll walk away thinking that even the film’s biggest detractors were far too lenient with what is undoubtedly one of the worst films of the year. Like, everything about this, from the Impact font-ass opening credits, to Depeche Mode getting dragged into the cesspit over the end credits, is wrong.

King Of Thieves (2019) - Movie Review

In some of my other reviews, I’ve bemoaned what feels like the status quo in regards to the treatment of older actors. The notion that, in order to get anything of worth out of folks like Robert De Niro or Morgan Freeman, they have to be stripped of their dignity and paraded around in stories where their age is part of the joke. Now, I get the underlying reason why people like De Niro accept those kind of roles (they want to put money away for their kids, so they’re not exactly picky with their scripts), but at the same time, essentially selling out doesn’t mean that one has to throw away any and all standards in the process.

Widows (2018) - Movie Review

The phrase "honour amongst thieves" pretty much serves as the underlying mood behind most if not all heist films. Most of their main drive comes portraying thievery as a competitive sport. And with the placement in the realms of sport comes the preceding fixation on technical skills and strategy, with all the intensive choreography and smooth-as-butter timing that goes with it. There’s also an underlying aspect of revenge, or at the very least retribution, attached to a lot of them, with the heist being the means to get even with someone who doesn’t play fair.

Ocean's 8 (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: After spending the last five years in prison, professional thief Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) has only one thing on her mind: Pulling off a high-profile heist at the upcoming Met Gala. As she recruits her team, including her partner Lou (Cate Blanchett), fashion designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter), jewellery maker Amita (Mindy Kaling), fence Tammy (Sarah Paulson), pickpocket Constance (Awkwafina), hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna) and the unwitting celebrity patsy Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway), Debbie plans to steal a highly-valuable piece of jewellery that, if they can pull it off, will have them set for life.

Logan Lucky (2017) - Movie Review

 

Retirement in the world of creative arts has always been a funny thing. As much as it is like any other profession in how some people can get sick of it after a while, the idea of actual retirement in this industry rarely if ever holds water. Here in Australia, one of the biggest running jokes I heard growing up was how singer John Farnham did a retirement concert tour pretty much every year. In terms of films, for as little stock as I hold in the idea of being involved in films flat-out calling it quits, it was still pretty heartbreaking to learn that Steven Soderbergh, one of my all-time favourite filmmakers, was hanging up his hat. Then it was announced that he was doing some TV work with The Knack; still no films, still let down. Then Magic Mike XXL came out, and while he wasn’t directing, he still had a real hand in making it. And then today’s film was announced, and it definitely clicked that a guy who is that passionate about the art form wasn’t likely to just leave the game entirely. But as a dramatic return to the director’s chair, how does this film actually turn out? Is it worth the wait or is it one of those occasions where it would’ve been better if Soderbergh actually did retire?

Baby Driver (2017) - Movie Review (+ Q&A with Director/Writer Edgar Wright)

I briefly got into this when I went over Ant-Man, but it bears repeating: Edgar Wright is made of stone-cold awesome. Making his name with a penchant for cross-breeding genres like a cinematic alchemist, from the zombie-horror/romantic-comedy Shaun Of The Dead to the social sci-fi/martial arts action/restyled Arthurian legend of The World’s End, Wright is easily one of my all-time favourite filmmakers. In fact, I almost feel bad for first mentioning him on this blog during Ant-Man, given the rather dubious circumstances in which he left the project; knowing how good this guy is, the last thing you should hear is him being dropped over “creative differences”. 

 

Nevertheless, the man is back with a vengeance with a film that has somehow managed to outdo Get Out in terms of explosive hype; the trailers for it over here boasted a full 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, something that has since changed because nothing is perfect, and barely any films even get to that point during the press lead-up. Since this is another occasion where, even if I never picked up this critical gig, I’d still be compelled to watch his latest effort. So, how good is it?

Going In Style (2017) - Movie Review

When actors get older, they usually end up as either characters related to the lead or mentor figures that are meant to guide the lead; senior lead actors aren’t exactly the most popular thing in the mainstream. Well, to a point, at least. I say that because, more recently, we’ve been seeing older respected actors getting lead parts in recent films… except it’s usually done to appeal to younger audiences. This means that we end up with these established names basically sacrificing their dignity at the altar of ‘It’s funny because it’s old people doing it”.

 

Ignoring how I just don’t get the automatic comedy that’s supposed to arise from such an idea, I can’t be the only one who thinks that it’d be a nice idea if this wasn’t the go-to characterisation that filmmakers go to for older actors. Like, at least some stable sense of variety in-between the hard-drinking and weed-smoking seniors would be appreciated. With these preconceptions in mind, is this film going to stick to the status quo or are we going to get something at least a little bit different? This is Going In Style.

The Walk (2015) - Movie Review

There are very few filmmakers whom possess such a stranglehold on pop culture history as Robert Zemeckis. Whether it’s his audience-pleasing favourites like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Back To The Future trilogy, his critical darlings like Forrest Gump and Cast Away or even his cult classics like Used Cars and Death Becomes Her, the man likely owns a decent part of the collective cinematic mindset. Through his willingness to adapt not only to newer filming techniques but also to the Hollywood system at large, he has more than earned his place in the pantheon of directing greats. That, and he will also hold a very near and dear place for me personally, since he’s also one of the only directors still working today that has a consistently good track record in terms of effects work; it’s kind of astounding just how well a lot of his films have visually held up. So, when news hit that the king of dual role casting was behind a new release, it became clear that this is something I would be watching even without the whole critical routine.