#Float  ★½ TWO weeks removed from #Float and I can barely remember it. I better refresh myself and watch the trailer. OK, I’m back. Yep, I remember now, this film is a turkey. Directed and co-written by Zac Locke, it’s a budget horror film that features no scares, average to […]

#Float sinks to bottom

Django Unchained ★★★★½ PERHAPS only Quentin Tarantino could have turned Django Unchained into a triumph. His 2012 film blends historical drama, spaghetti western and black comedy to create a searing indictment of America’s dark period of slave trading and abuse. Other directors have created powerful dramas on the same subject, […]

How The West was re-told

Notre Dame on Fire  ★★★ THE fire that destroyed a large section of Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral provided significant challenges for the first responders. Not only did they face having to work in highly susceptible and restricted-entry areas, they also had to save as many important religious artefacts as possible. The […]

Tribute to historic rescue

Evil Dead Rise  ★★★½ THERE are horror movie fans and then there are Evil Dead fans. The former should thoroughly enjoy Evil Dead Rise, the fifth film in this loose franchise that started more than 40 years ago. Evil Dead fans, or ‘Deadites’, will also have fun debating how much […]

Evil Dead Rise – go get some

Scream VI  ★★½ DESPITE the talent behind the last Scream instalment, Scream VI adds little to the franchise reboot. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick have strong Hollywood reputations. Here the on-screen result is slickly-made and featuring some good, gory kills; but the […]

Scream VI: New location, same old tricks

65  ★★½ UNTIL now Adam Driver has had one of the most impressive acting resumes in recent years. Since 2019 he has appeared in The Report, The Dead Don’t Die, Marriage Story, two Star Wars entries, House of Gucci, The Last Duel, White Noise and Annette. But every streak has […]

Hot streak ends with 65

Kompromat ★★★½ THE French thriller Kompromat has been unfairly criticised for not paying enough respect to its source material. Director Jérome Salle did not manage to get the rights to the book by Yoann Barberau which tells the true story of Barberau’s arrest in Siberia on charges of paedophilia and then […]

True-life race for life

RRR  ★★★★ MOVIES these days don’t come much more entertaining than the Bollywood epic RRR. Part historical drama, action, comedy and musical, RRR is flat-out fun for its entire three hours. It centers around fictional versions of two Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju, played by Ram Charan, and Komaram Bheem […]

RRR is spectacular in every way

Rogue City  ★★★ YOU know a film is going to be brutal if they kill a dog in the first minute. Rogue City, also known as Bronx, is another of those criminal gang dramas that the French do so well. Set in Marseille – always a great location – it […]

The dog dies at the start

Brothers by Blood  ★★★ FEW actors do brooding, quiet menace as well as Matthias Schoenaerts. The Belgian shows us this talent again in the 2020 crime drama Brothers by Blood. Based on a 1991 novel, Brotherly Love by Pete Dexter, it tells the story of two cousins who are part […]

Brooding Belgian strikes again

Creed III ★★★ A ROCKY movie without Rocky? Creed III is the ninth instalment of the now extended franchise and also the first in 47 years not to feature Sylvester Stallone’s character in some form. But the impact of the original character still hangs over the new film which, despite […]

Actors do the heavy lifting

Till ★★★½ THE true story of Mamie Till Mobley’s pursuit of justice over the murder of her son is likely more familiar to American than Australian audiences. Till’s 14-year-old son Emmet was killed by a racist mob in 1955 while visiting his cousins in Mississippi. The smiling, outgoing teenager had […]

Till and the pursuit of justice