Head Count ★★ CREDIT to Australians Ben and Jacob Burkhart for making a neo-noir western. But unfortunately their debut feature Head Count isn’t that interesting. It starts in good fashion with a man on his knees with a gun at his head. It’s his own weapon and he starts trying […]

Click, click, click…

Dog Soldiers ★★★★ BEFORE he lost his way in Hollywood, Neil Marshall made three terrifically exciting films – Dog Soldiers in 2002, The Descent (2005) and Doomsday (2008). The English director’s first feature, Dog Soldiers, was released the same year as 28 Days Later which rightly garnered most of the […]

Who let the werewolves out

Retribution ★★½ GOOD news – Liam Neeson is in a good film. Bad news – it’s not the one I’m reviewing. In the Land of Saints and Sinners is an Irish crime drama coming in early 2024. I didn’t get to see it during the recent British Film Festival in […]

A good Neeson film (not this one) is coming

The Marsh King’s Daughter ★★★ WE haven’t seen “full Mendo” for a while. So, it’s great to have Ben Mendelsohn playing the bad guy in the film adaptation of The Marsh King’s Daughter. I’m not going to tell you much of the story here because there is an interesting twist […]

Daisy gets the full Mendo

Napoleon  ★★★½ VETERAN director Ridley Scott has a typically blunt answer to critics who have called out historical issues in his latest epic Napoleon. “Were you there? No, so shut the fuck up.” Similarly in answer to the complaints from many French critics in particular, the Brit has replied: “So […]

Napoleon according to Scott

Friday the 13th Part 2 ★★★ CONTRARY to what you might think, Friday the 13th killer Jason Voorhees did not start his decades-long cinematic reign of terror in the 1980 original film. Spoiler alert here for a 43-year-old film – Jason’s mum Pamela was the initial villain who tore her way through […]

Jason takes over from Mum

The Royal Hotel ★★★★ EVERY Australian has experienced a hotel like the one portrayed in the powerful The Royal Hotel. Basic, isolated and full of predominantly male clientele, it can become an alcohol-fuelled environment dangerous at times for anyone, let alone young, single women. Kitty Green’s film expertly and dispassionately […]

We’ve all been to a Royal Hotel

Bottoms ★★★½ SATIRE is one of the most difficult forms of comedy. And when it’s as disguised as is the case with the 2023 American release Bottoms, it can be missed or, worse still, misunderstood. The humour in Bottoms appears quite broad on the surface but, look underneath and there […]

Bottoms more than what it’s cracked up to be

The Wrath of Becky ★★ IN 2020 a vicious little movie called Becky garnered attention. It was a home invasion horror in which an inventive teenage girl with a mean streak fought against a bunch of neo-Nazis intent on finding something at her family’s holiday house in a forest. It […]

More comic Becky loses appeal

Thanksgiving ★★★ I’M HAPPY for Eli Roth. After 20 years of trying, the much-maligned horror director has another box-office hit. Roth first came to the attention with Cabin Fever in 2002 and then hit it big with 2005’s Hostel. In the ensuing years he has produced some decent stuff, such […]

Long wait since trailer mostly worth it

Saw ★★★★ THE best way to bring your idea for a film to the attention of studios is to film it yourself. You don’t need a million dollars and 90 minutes. But will need a few thousand to hire cameras, lights and a location and maybe a couple of committed, […]

Aussie ingenuity leads to franchise

Fingernails ★½ FINGERNAILS is one of the stupidest films I’ve seen in years. The premise of this 2023 American science fiction romantic drama is ridiculous. That would be fine if the film worked as a comedy or satire, but it’s not intended to be. I’m really not sure what Greek director […]

Like fingernails on a chalkboard