Death of a Unicorn ★★½ THE comedic drama Death of a Unicorn doesn’t work in the way its creator and the studio may have envisioned. It’s hard to say with total confidence, but writer/director Alex Scharfman probably wanted to deliver a socially-relevant warning over our treatment of the natural world […]

Death of a Unicorn a confusing fantasy

G20 ★★½ VIOLA Davis is a wonderfully versatile actress, capable of making an impact in everything from powerful dramas to light comedy. In 2022’s The Woman King she took on the role of an action hero and also killed it (pardon the pun). In G20 she again enters the action […]

First Lady as action hero

A Purity of Vengeance ★★★½ THE fourth film in the Danish Department Q crime series starts in familiar style. Workmen are called in to help renovate a city apartment. They smash a hole in one of the walls and peer inside. What they find is a whole other room with […]

Fourth Department Q film a turning point

Novocaine ★★½ GREAT idea; average execution. That sums up the comic thriller Novocaine starring Jack Quaid (son of Dennis) as a man who cannot feel pain. The film starts promisingly with mild-mannered, slightly nerdy bank teller Nate becoming enamoured from afar by new employee Sherry. Eventually the pair start getting […]

Novocaine not without pain

Flight Risk ★★½ MEL Gibson has been ‘cancelled’ now for most of this century. The man who starred in Mad Max and Gallipoli and directed Braveheart and Apocalypto hasn’t been able to get a decent gig in Hollywood for a long time. Cue one of his mates, Mark Wahlberg, who […]

Flight Risk doesn’t reach any heights

A Conspiracy of Faith ★★★½ FANS of the Danish Department Q franchise all have their favourite of the six films released to date. The amazing thing, which speaks to the overall quality, is that three of the films are mentioned as being that favourite. Possibly the most often cited is […]

Conspiracies abound at Department Q

The Absent One ★★★★ THE second film in the Danish Department Q crime franchise is arguably the best. That’s a high bar considering the overall quality of the six films made to date. There are a few reasons why 2014’s The Absent One improves on the original film, The Keeper […]

Absent One may be best one

The Keeper of Lost Causes ★★★½ THE Danes must be a really fun bunch to be around. Considering the amount of crime thrillers they keep churning out, the main discussion at dinner parties in Copenhagen is probably how to get away with murdering someone. The quality is usually pretty good […]

Department Q of Danish thrillers

A Working Man ★★ CALL me naïve, but I didn’t think David Ayer and Jason Statham could make a more average film than 2024’s The Beekeeper. Was I wrong. A Working Man is about as average as actioners get, based on a novel but seemingly just trotting out the same old […]

Lazy effort from A Working Man

William Tell ★★★ THE makers of period action film William Tell do a pretty good job of making audiences think their subject actually did exist. In reality, there is apparently no evidence that Tell was anything more than a fictional hero of Swiss folklore who became a larger-than-life representation of the […]

Tale of Tell has you wondering

Who Dares Wins ★★★ WHY the British action thriller Who Dares Wins didn’t stick to its historical context is a bit of a mystery. Released in 1982, the film is ‘loosely’ based on the actions of the British Army’s Special Air Service that ended the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in central […]

SAS thriller a mixed bag

The Count of Monte Cristo ★★★½ Hot on the heels of the latest adaptations of The Three Musketeers comes another French retelling of a classic adventure story. The Count of Monte Cristo was the most expensive French production of 2024 and every euro can be seen on the screen. It’s a […]

French classic remakes keep coming