Meg 2: The Trench ★★½ AS FAR as shark films go, 2018’s The Meg was a disappointment. Plenty of people obviously enjoyed it, but I felt it lacked the expected tension and thrills you’d expect from a genre film with a decent budget. The same goes for the sequel, Meg […]

Meg 2 another disappointment

Sisu ★★★★ IT’S probably not hard to claim that Sisu is the best action film to come out of Finland this year. But, along with John Wick 4 and The Good Mother from Poland, it’s also one of the best action films of the year full stop. Brutal, inventive and, […]

Sisu one of year’s best action releases

Mad Heidi ★★★ ONCE upon a time there was a young woman called Heidi who lived in a Swiss village with her kindly grandfather. Heidi loved their farm and also a local boy named Goat Peter whom she sometimes spent time in the barn with. One day Peter Was selling […]

Twisted tale of Mad Heidi

Outpost ★★★ FOR some reason the combination of Nazis and zombies works well on screen. This murderous double-threat also enables story-lines that focus on experimentation gone wrong and some more interesting explanations as to why the zombies may exist. Or maybe it’s just the uniforms? Who really knows. The 2008 […]

Nazi zombies on the march

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2  ★½ THE Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the best horror films ever made. Unfortunately it’s immediate 1986 sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, may be among the worst. It’s certainly a major disappointment for pure horror fans, with the same director Tobe Hooper, opting […]

Horror classic’s sequel a waste

Black Box ★★★½ THE role of sound in films can be underestimated. Its main importance is of course to ensure you can properly hear what is being said by the characters. But, in a film like the French thriller Black Box, sound becomes integral to the story in another way. As […]

Sound integral to Black Box

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One  ★★★½ IF THEY had their time again, Chris McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen should have spent a little more time on their script for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. It’s the one aspect that stops this seventh instalment from matching the last […]

Seventh mission falls just short

The Nun II  ★★½ SINCE when did nuns become scary? I can’t recall the exact time or circumstances, but The Conjuring franchise has created a pretty good one. The demonic sister Valak made such an impact when she played a small role in one entry that she gained her own […]

Damn those demonic nuns

The New Boy ★★★½ WARWICK Thornton’s voice is a powerful and important one in Australian cinema. He has made three quite shattering films about the indigenous experience in Australia’s past and present, starting with Samson and Delilah in 2009 followed by 2017’s Sweet Country. His latest, The New Boy, is […]

Thornton’s voice a powerful one

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny  ★★★★ FRANCHISES typically don’t end to the satisfaction of most. Part of that is the film-makers having run out of energy and/or ideas, but also it’s partly due to the audience not wanting to acknowledge the end of their association with the characters. […]

Fitting sign-off for screen legend

My Name is Vendetta ★★★ ITS A halcyon period for film fans with streaming services offering a wealth of international genre films. Netflix, for example, is full of crime action and thriller films from across Europe, many of which wouldn’t have seen the darkness of an Australian cinema years ago. […]

Action heaven on streaming

The Covenant ★★★ IF YOU accept the saying ‘you’re only as good as your last film’ Guy Ritchie would be in trouble. Last year’s Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre was very average. But if you take his last three films – adding Wrath of Man and The Gentlemen – Richie […]

Richie attempting new tricks