Back To The Outback (2021) - Movie Review

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the talking animal set. I know that this sub-genre is something of a regular punching bag on this blog, but something I feel the need to point out is that that reputation doesn’t come from any real disdain for the sub-genre itself, or kids’ entertainment, or animals in general. It’s just that there are a lot of films that come out every year that feature talking animals, and most of them are made quickly and on-the-cheap to create disposable fluff because anthropomorphic animals are easy for kids and kids-at-heart to latch onto. I mean, I grew up in the era of PS2 platform mascots; I get the appeal. And yeah, this latest iteration is as light as light entertainment, but… something feels different about this one.

The Grudge (2020) - Movie Review

Time for some 2000’s nostalgia, although we’re not gonna be looking at any of the fun things about that decade. Instead, we’ll be having a good, long gander at the 2000’s J-horror remake trend. It was one of the weirder bits of cultural exchange this side of the new millennium, with Western filmmakers (primarily Sam Raimi and Gore Verbinski, among others) remaking classic Japanese horror films, the results of which were mostly utter garbage. While Verbinski’s The Ring was an okay geographical shift, the rest of the mass including Pulse, One Missed Call, The Eye, Mirrors, and even the Raimi-produced Grudge remake brings down the median. Like, really brings it down. And with this latest, decidedly-American revival of one of the main pillars in that trend, I can’t help but question whatever point this was meant to serve.

Poms (2019) - Movie Review

As someone who frequently watches and reviews all manner of films on this blog, the first question in response to most if not all of them is fairly straight-forward: Who was this made for? Whether it was made with my suburban early-20’s demographic in mind or otherwise, who is a given film meant to appeal to? More to the point, is it any good at doing the appealing? Today’s film is a relatively simple answer to that, the older demographic, but that question nonetheless persists because, frankly, I’m not even sure if the filmmakers themselves knew who they were aiming for.

Bird Box (2018) - Movie Review

  

It’s a little too easy to just cut to the chase and see this as an attempt to cash in on A Quiet Place. Atmospheric horror tied directly to one of the human senses, with heavy emphasis on parenthood through the characters; the ties exist, is all I’m saying. But more so than that, this concept feels like someone looked at The Happening and went “Okay, there has to be a way to do this story without it being completely stupid.” A mysterious force is making the human population commit suicide, and the few that remain have to try and survive without getting exposed to that force. It’s an idea that honestly is worth trying to make palatable, and the attempt made here ain’t half bad.

Life Of The Party (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: After being told that her husband (Matt Walsh) is leaving her for another woman, Deanna (Melissa McCarthy) decides to take her life back into her own hands and do the one thing that she always wanted to do: Get her archeology degree. She enrols herself at the same college her daughter Maddie (Molly Gordon) is attending, and as she adjusts to college life as an older student, she discovers just how much she missed out on the first time round.

The Polka King (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: Polish-born Jan Lewan (Jack Black) is a polka bandleader with quite the following in his home of Pennsylvania. In fact, his fans believe in him so much that they are willing to invest thousands of dollars into his numerous business, not the least of which being his music. However, it seems that his business dealings aren’t entirely on the up-and-up, as he soon finds himself under investigation for financial fraud. Will Jan have to face his actions or will he go on to take the stage once again?

Small Crimes (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: After spending six years in prison, crooked cop Joe (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has been released. Wanting to make a fresh start, separate from the mob-facilitated jobs he was doing way back when, a favour from his former partner Dan Pleasant (Gary Cole) forces him back into that life. He is tasked with “taking care of” Manny Vassey (Shawn Lawrence), a mob boss who is considering turning informant and unearthing his dealings with the police, including both Joe and Pleasant. However, as he weighs up his options, it seems that his old life has only just begun to come back and haunt him.

The Disaster Artist (2017) - Movie Review

Some films go down as the greatest of their era. Some go down as the greatest of any era. Some go down as the worst of their era, and then trickle down into being the worst of any era. But some films, a rare few, manage to find a middle ground: Something that by all rationality should go down as one of the worst but is instead remembered as something great.

 

There’s been quite a few examples of this in my lifetime alone. The all-round shoddy production values of the Birdemic films have kept coathangers in everyone’s hands since the first one’s release in 2010. M. Night Shyamalan, for many years, was regarded as one of the absolute worst, with such crowning jewels of hilariously awful as The Happening and After Earth under his belt. Hell, depending on who you ask, even the Twilight series enters into this realm of reputation. But for my money, no singular bad film has given me more joy than Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 magnum opus The Room.

 

And apparently, I’m not the only one, seeing as the film’s reputation has grown so much over the last few years that we now have a Hollywood production all about the making of the infamous classic. But how does it hold up?

Last Cab To Darwin (2015) - Movie Review

Maya The Bee Movie (2014) - Movie Review

Starting this habit of seeing every movie available to me has been simultaneously the best and worst idea I’ve ever had. Best because it’s given me a chance to see movies I wouldn’t normally check out and broadening my cinematic horizons; Worst because it frequently puts me into weird positions of being incredibly out of place amongst the audiences for some movies. Today’s film represents one of those situations, where I’m the only guy in the cinema who doesn’t have a child watching the movie with him.