Lethal Weapon  ★★★★ THERE is a strong argument that Mel Gibson is Australia’s greatest film star. Not any more of course. For the past 20 years he has been fighting to get out of Hollywood’s black book due to some of his personal issues and opinions. But from Mad Max […]

When Mel was mad…and good

God is a Bullet ★★★½ AROUND 20 years ago I read a terrific book called God Is a Bullet by Boston Teran. It was the American author’s first novel, a brutal and nihilistic thriller about a father searching for the people who killed his wife and kidnapped his daughter. Apart […]

God is a Bullet a brutal affair

How To Blow up a Pipeline ★★★½  IN 2021 a non-fiction book by Andreas Malm caused a stir. The book is a call to arms for environmentalists willing to commit crimes to get their message across. It’s called called How to Blow Up a Pipeline and has now been adapted […]

Call to action in taut thriller

Memories of Murder ★★★★ SIXTEEN years before he won the Oscar for Parasite, South Korean director Bong Joon-ho announced himself as a talent to watch with just his second feature. Memories of Murder is a fascinating crime thriller that examines the causes of evil, humanity’s flawed response and the random […]

Korean master’s brilliant debut

Sound of Freedom ★★ SOUND of Freedom doesn’t warrant the controversy or success it has enjoyed to date. After an interesting first act it becomes very much a run-of-the-mill crime drama with uneven acting and script and slowly shuffles to its climax. The marketing machine was in over-drive for this […]

Hype fails to deliver

Talk To Me ★★★½ A LOT of people probably don’t realise, or maybe care, that 2023 sleeper hit Talk to Me is an Australian film. They should because we have always had a good pedigree in horror, as evidenced today by the continued influence of Saw franchise co-creator James Wan. […]

Aussie frightfest a sleeper hit

Malum ★★★ IT’S rare that a director remakes their own film. Michael Haneke’s Funny Games is the only one that springs immediately to mind. A recent example is the 2023 American horror film Malum, directed and co-written by Anthony DiBlasi, who made basically the same film in 2014, then called […]

Malum worth doing twice

The Communion Girl ★★½ THE Communion Girl is a solidly-made horror in the vein of the Annabelle spin-offs from the Conjuring franchise. This 2022 Spanish film isn’t outstanding in any way but it does the job of providing some tension and jump scares for those whose staple is the horror genre. […]

Spanish version of Annabelle

The Flood ★★ LET’S assume you’ve never seen an alligator nudge open a door by the handle. Apparently, the makers of action thriller The Flood seem to think this is possible in just one of the film’s many ridiculous moments. A jail break during a Louisiana hurricane is interrupted by […]

Smart gators enter through doors

Zero Dark Thirty ★★★★½ THERE are many different ways film-makers have chosen to depict the horrific events surrounding the 2011 terrorist attack on New York. You might have thought the most controversial path would have been taken by Oliver Stone, as he has done with other treatments of historic events. […]

Bigelow embraces the controversy

Champions ★★★ WOODY Harrelson is perfectly cast in the 2023 American comedy Champions. It’s a remake of a 2018 Spanish film about a temperamental minor-league basketball coach who learns about himself through having to coach a group of young people with intellectual disabilities. Yes, I know, talk about cliched. But […]

Woody and the champions

The Expendables 4 ★★½ THE highlight of the fourth film in The Expendables franchise is a motorcycle chase on a container ship. That is something I haven’t seen before, as opposed to 99 percent of The Expendables 4 which repeats story and elements of not just the last three films […]

Expendables becoming expendable