Companion ★★★ ARTIFICIAL Intelligence has been a Hollywood villain since the ‘60s when Stanley Kubrick gave us Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Since then, we’ve had hundreds of films, from The Terminator to the most recent Mission Impossible instalment, telling us how bad things can get when technology turns […]

Beware of Companion spoilers

Escape ★★½ SOUTH Korean action thriller Escape is a little lacklustre compared to other genre output from this growing film power. Pacing is the main problem with which takes too long and starring Lee Je-hoon, Koo Kyo-hwan and Hong Xa-bin. The film depicts the life-threatening defection and chase of Lim […]

Escape has pacing problem

The Order ★★★½ AUSTRALIAN director Justin Kurzel delivers another exciting and thought-provoking crime thriller in 2024’s The Order. The director of Snowtown and Nitram is no stranger to bringing powerful depictions of violence and divisive characters to the screen. His latest, which unfortunately didn’t get a cinema release in Australia, […]

Kurzel’s latest a top-flight thriller

Emilia Perez ★★★½   CRIME musical films are few and far between. There’s Chicago, I guess. And Bugsy Malone of course. And then…well, that might be it. One of the reasons probably lies in the vastly mixed reception for Spanish-language film Emilia Perez. Adapted for the screen and directed by Frenchman […]

Audiard pushes the boundaries

Oddity ★★★ KEEP an eye out for Irish horror director and writer Damian McCarthy. His first two films, Caveat in 2020 and Oddity (2024), were universally praised and his third, Hokum, is in production. Recent Irish horror films have tended to focus on a single location and psychological mind games […]

When Irish eyes are scaring

The Verdict ★★★★ THREE of the most significant figures in American cinema history – Paul Newman, Sidney Lumet and David Mamet – combine for 1982’s The Verdict. The result is a powerful merger of courtroom drama and character study featuring one of the best performances of Newman’s later career. Like […]

Guilty of being great

Syriana ★★★★ LABYRINTHIAN is a term thrown around to describe a multi-layered story that becomes increasingly complex. While not always apt, it is a perfect description of Stephen Gaghan’s 2005 thriller Syriana which examines the murky world of international economics and geo-politics. If that sounds a little boring, nothing could […]

Enter the labyrinth

Red Rooms ★★★★ IF I had managed to see Red Rooms last year it would have been in my top films of 2024. This Canadian film was first released in 2023 and worked its way slowly to the attention of critics and limited audiences via the international festival circuit. In […]

Into the Deep ★★ APPARENTLY Into the Deep is the first shark film that Richard Dreyfuss has appeared in since Jaws in 1975. Why he chose after 50 years to appear in such a lacklustre effort is unclear. It may be due to the fact they let him make an […]

In too deep with Dreyfuss

A Complete Unknown ★★★★ WHETHER you’re a fan of Bob Dylan’s music or not, his impact on a generation of people can’t be denied. Watching the new biopic A Complete Unknown you realise the days of musicians who changed the world for the better are few and far between. Dylan, Springsteen, […]

Dylan biopic as much about music as man

The Island of Dr Moreau ★★★ I’VE been trying to find the infamous 1996 version of H.G. wells’ classic novel The Island of Dr Moreau. It’s almost impossible to get hold of and is apparently unavailable on any streaming service in Australia. Yes, I know there are other ways to […]

Waiting for Wells to be done well

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera ★★★ APPARENTLY there were plenty of people wanting a sequel to the action/thriller Den of Thieves. While I wasn’t one of them, a recent re-watch of the 2018 film reinforced that it was a pretty decent effort with lively characters and some good action set […]

The sequel you didn’t know you needed