Glorious (2022) - Movie Review

A man comes face-to-face with a demigod. Well, as face-to-face as you can get to a being whose mere presence would drive the man mad. What seemed like a chance encounter was in fact ordained by fate, for the demigod has a tremendous favour to ask of the man. A favour that could mean saving the entire universe, or dooming it at the hands of an even greater God. Now, have all of this take place in a disgusting truck stop restroom, and have the man (Ryan Kwanten) be a viciously hungover man depressed over a recent break-up, and you have the plot for this absolute gem of a film.

Loveland (Expired) (2022) - Movie Review

Independent Aussie sci-fi films are quite the rarity, which is quite a shame as an Australian filmgoer who loves sci-fi and also loves supporting (good) local product. As such, respect is due for this film existing in the first place, as a lack of budget and, in a lot of cases, a lack of production ambition often get in the way of such things. But when looking at this film specifically, again with that minimum respect in mind, there’s a fair amount that I like about this, and just as much, if not more, that I have questions about.

Not Suitable For Children (2012) - Movie Review

We’re dipping into the Sarah Snook pool again, and since looking at her American productions last time didn’t turn out so well, I figure we should head back to the home land this time around. And since we’re already talking about an Aussie actor that I sincerely hope gets more work internationally, it looks like we’re heading for a trifecta with today’s subject. Alongside Snook, we also have Ryan Corr who long(er)-time readers will remember as having tremendously impressed in Holding The Man and emerging from the muddied Water Diviner as the best part of the entire film. And then there’s Ryan Kwanten, whom I’ve also discussed before but not exactly in the most prime circumstances. I mean, I seem to be in the minority when it comes to Blinky Bill: The Movie, and Kidnapping Mr. Heineken didn’t seem to do anyone any favours on either side of the screen. Another minority opinion though, but I thought he was alright in Dead Silence, so we’re three-for-three in terms of people I want to succeed. But when they’re all together, do they actually succeed?

Kidnapping Mr. Heineken (2015) - Movie Review

One of the main pledges I made when it comes to what gets watched/reviewed on this blog, aside from anything new I watch that was released from 2012-onwards gets reviewed without question, is that I watch everyone that gets released at my local. For the sake of sincerity, this would be the Hoyts cinema in Westfield Warringah, a place I have probably more time in than I ever did at school. Given the frequent grammar/spelling errors in these reviews, it shows. However, at some point down the road earlier in the year, I became slack. There was a string of new releases that, out of laziness, I didn’t end up checking out before they stop screening.  As we approach the end of the year and I am doing my usual round-up of the films I didn’t get a chance to check out before, it would only be logical to right old wrongs and get to those films I missed. However, given both the exceptionally brief cinematic run it had coupled with the woeful approval ratings it has garnered, maybe this was one of those that I should be glad that I missed first time around.

Blinky Bill: The Movie (2015) - Movie Review

In the canon of iconic Australian children’s television, there’s a lot more to us than Skippy the Kangaroo; hell, I still haven’t seen an episode of that show and I’ve lived here all my life. You’ve got the surreal and boundary-pushing morality tales of Round The Twist, the endlessly imitated artistry of Mr. Squiggle and the latest addition to the CGI hostile takeover Bananas In Pyjamas, just to name a few. Amongst this collection of oddities is the hallmark animation franchise Blinky Bill, a series of adaptations of the Dorothy Wall book series about a mischievous koala bear and his friends; yeah, it turns some stereotypes surrounding Australia ended up being true.

Brought to the big and small screens by the Aussie Don Bluth Yoram Gross, it made for a very environmentally-vivid part of many a childhood including my own. I still remember a competition at my primary school where I won a stuffed kangaroo because I knew one of the character’s names off-by-heart. Of course, considering the aforementioned decline of the dressed bananas, is this character capable of surviving in today’s Cartoon Network-influenced market? Time to find out with this latest cinematic iteration of the series.