gavinp9 Reviews

The Fall Guy (2024)

Fun, classic, enjoyable action-comedy

[8/10 · 5 May 2024]

'The Fall Guy' is loosely based on a 1980s TV show that starred Lee Majors, that I haven't seen, so I can't compare. This film works as a tribute to stunt people that make action films exciting, while also being a fun action movie like we used to get in the late 80s/early 90s, with plenty of it's own excellent stunts. It's directed by Leitch, who has already proven himself with 'Deadpool 2', 'John Wick' and 'Bullet Train'. In the film, the director is Jody (Blunt) who has a relationship with the stunt guy Colt (Gosling). Colt is the stunt man for up-and-coming actor Tom Ryder (Taylor-Johnson), perhaps a parallel of Gosling 15 years ago. Something goes wrong, and Colt ends up trying to find where Tom's gone, while attempting to fix his relationship with Jody.

Good support cast - stunt coordinator Dan (Duke), Tom's agent Gail (Waddingham) - and nice to see Sydney looking great as a location, even if you know the route they take on the garbage truck chase isn't possible. I wonder if that's what LA/Atlanta locals always feel watching films set there? Also fun to see some part of the fictional film they're making - 'Metal Storm' which has nods to 'Mad Max' and Dune' - at the end. The storyline is paced quite well, there's plenty of laughs and a nice ending.

Both Blunt and Gosling are great leads and have lots of nice moments and plenty of screentime. However, the film never gets too serious or dramatic and makes sure it pays adequate homage to the stunt teams of Hollywood by having an excellent car chase, good fight scenes, exciting boar chase, superb beach-based car rollover and a great final 15min which have about 20 stunts crammed in, including a crazy car jump. The bar's been raised for the next 'Mission: Impossible'!

Late Night with the Devil (2023)

Unique and enjoyable horror premise

[8/10 · 21 April 2024]

'Late Night with the Devil' is almost a "bottle episode", taking place on a TV set of a fictional late night talk show called "Night Owls" on Halloween 1977, where host Jack Delroy (Dastmalchian) and his offsider Gus (Auteri) compete for ratings against Johnny Carson. The film makes great use of grainy 4:3 footage to show that it's the 70s, and a brief intro sets up what's happened to Jack and his wife Maddie (Haig) over the past few years.

Given it's Halloween, the show's guests are a psychic, Christou (Bazzi), a former magician and now-sceptic, Carmichael (Bliss), a parapsychologist, June (Gordon) and her teenage, potentially-possessed subject, Lilly (Torelli). The way the film follows the making of the TV show is a great concept and having the screen widen and change to black-and-white for the behind-the-scenes sections during ad-breaks is a great story-telling device. It also keeps the momentum up, as things don't go horribly wrong all at once, but gradually get weirder/stranger...

It all moves fast at only 90min long, and is great to see Australian directors doing well (this is better than '100 Bloody Acres' - filmed in Melbourne, with a majority-Aussie cast. The set design and fashion is spot on and the tone, with moments of humour an suspense well executed and balanced. Dastmalchian is great and all the cast is strong. Last 15min or so is pretty crazy and not at all predictable!

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Once again, not bad, but nothing special

[6/10 · 20 April 2024]

'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' is technically 'Ghostbusters' 5, and a direct sequel to 2021'2 'Afterlife', which introduced us to the new Ghostbusters team of Callie (Coon), Egon Spengler's daughter, and her kids Phoebe (Grace) & Trevor (Wolfhard), plus step-dad Gary (Rudd). This new team seems to have taken on the mantle well, and Nadeem (Nanjiani) introduces a new relic that obviously contains the "big bad ghost" that will appear at the end.

The film finds a way to bring back Ray (Aykroyd), Winston (Hudson), Janine (Potts) & Venkman (Murray), but only for minimum screentime, and not much of it together. Seems to be more of a focus on Phoebe being a teenager and not able to ghostbust and a near-pointless friendship with a ghost. There's a few laughs throughout - Slimer's back for a cameo, Patton Oswalt has a good exposition scene - but most laughs come from Kumail as the unwitting "fire-master".

The main problem seems to be too much ensemble cast, so no-one gets chance to shine. After the first 15min, you almost forget Paul Rudd & Carrie Coon are even in it! And for even with the fan-service Murray, Aykroyd & Hudson provide, they're barely used and have minimal impact in the final act. The big bad ghost is quite scary and formidable (would be even more-so to anyone under 10), and it all wraps up as expected.

Civil War (2024)

Interesting concept, not fully realised

[6/10 · 15 April 2024]

'Civil War' is a "what if" scenario of a in-the-near-future of where the USA could be headed if their divisive politics continue as they have over the past decade. It starts off with the president (Offerman) practising a speech and sets up what we assume is going to be a "the people vs Trump" allegory. But then we get introduced to war photographer Lee (Dunst) and semi-protégée Jessie (Spaney) at a rally that turns violent.

We then follow a road trip of Lee, Lee's journalist partner Joel (Moura), their older colleague Sammy (McKinley Henderson) as they show Jessie the ropes of capturing the action while trying not to get hurt or effected by it, as they travel from New York to Washington DC past some sporadic battles. Intentionally, rather than full-on action and violence, there's lots of introspective moments and quietness, interspersed with their view of a firefight. The four main actors are all good, with Dunst not actually having many lines. Good cameos from Nelson Lee and Jesse Plemons.

We don't see any footage of the president again or the leaders of the "Western Front", and no backstory is given for why/how this 21st-century civil war was started. While I appreciate that's a different angle taken on purpose, it does leave the whole film feeling a bit pointless, as we're left to fill in lots of blanks and the plot leans on the generic "war is bad". There's some good moments, especially the last 20min of action, but you're probably better off watching the 'The Patriot' do justice to the actual 19th-centiry civil war.

Force of Nature: The Dry 2 (2024)

Enjoyable Aussie bush mystery

[7/10 · 1 April 2024]

'Force of Nature: The Dry 2' comes 3 years after 'The Dry', and retains Detective Aaron Falk (Bana) as the lead and the flashbacks to fill in story gaps, but is otherwise a standalone film - it's certainly not dry this time, set in the rainy Dandenong ranges of eastern Victoria. The plot this time sounds simple - 5 women on a work retreat get lost in the bush. When 4 of them are rescued, Falk and Cooper (McKenzie) set out to find the missing Alice (Torv).

As the backstory unfolds - told via each of the 4 women: Alice's boss Jill (Furness), sister Lauren (McLeavy) and co-workers Bree (Ansell) & Beth (Stringer), we're able to piece together that there's more going on than anyone is initially letting on and start drawing our own conclusions. There's also the added layer of flashback's to Falk's own childhood when he and his parents were camping in the same national park and had their own situation...

Probably not as good as the first film, but still a well-made Aussie drama, with lots of tension, hope, great scenery and enough storyline to keep you interested and guessing. Good cameos from Richard Roxburgh and Tony Briggs, but the film's carried by Bana and the interaction of the 5 women and the ticking clock to find Alice before it's too late. Not too long at just under 2 hours, solid score.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Still fun monster battles

[6/10 · 29 March 2024]

'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire' is the 5th film in Warners Bros. "MonsterVerse", and like all of them does a solid job of making giant Titans/Kaiju fight, with a bit of a storyline holding it together. Returning are Dr Andrews (Hall), head of the Titan-watch company, her adopted daughter Jia (Hottle) and Bernie (Henry), the comedic relief. The new addition is Trapper (Stevens), the vet. The plot is mostly Kong-centric, now that he lives in "hollow Earth" and Godzilla's on the surface.

Kong finds another part of "hollow Earth" (best not to ask too many questions, as physics went out the window a long time ago in these films) that has other apes and Titans, setting in motion a big battle with the 'Scar King', a giant Orangutan. This necessitates a semi-forced team-up with Godzilla, with the help of an unexpected Titan. There's some time spent on Jia's journey, but not too much that you get bored of the humans!

As always, the CGI is pretty good, and Kong has more empathy than some human actors. Godzilla still looks great - and gets his "pink plates" upgrade. When they're fighting each other or different Titans, it's always pretty impressive to see. Nothing crazily spectacular here, but nor is it boring or excessively dumb. Good se of KISS' "I Was Made For Loving You"!

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Epic that delivers

[8/10 · 2 March 2024]

'Dune: Part Two' comes 2.5 years after the first film, and hopefully a final film to make it a trilogy in 3-4 years. It picks up pretty much straight after the first film, with Paul (Chalamet) and his mum Jessica (Ferguson) being shown how to live in the Arrakis desert by the Fremen, particularly Chani (Zendaya) and Stilgar (Bardem). There they continue to fight a guerrilla war against the Harkonnen.

To go along with the 'big bad bald' Baron (Skarsgard), we get his two nephews - the angry Beast (Bautista) and the psychotic Feyd-Rautha (Butler), who has a big role to play in the final act. We also get introduced to those pulling galactic strings from another planet, the Emperor (Walken) and his daughter, Princess Irulan (Pugh). There's a few chess pieces in play, but even though it goes for 2 hour 40min, the pacing is generally quite fast and everything really comes together at the end, with Paul embracing his "messiah" role.

I'll need to rewatch this, but it's certainly up there with some of the best sci-fi films - better than the first film, and certainly an excellent sequel, similar to 'The Empire Strikes Back'. The cinematography, costumes, score (or lack of in the final fight), set-design and CGI are all superb. It certainly makes it feel like you've witnessed something special and want to see what comes next.

Next Goal Wins (2023)

Simple, uplifting soccer story

[8/10 · 4 January 2024]

'Next Goal Wins' is Taika Waititi's 8th film as director, and is another heartfelt little comedy gem, much more similar to 'Boy' and 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' than his other films. It's based on a true story, after the Socceroos beat American Samoa 31-0 in a World Cup Qualifier in 2001. The 'boss' of American Samoa Football, Tavita (Kightley) then hires semi-disgraced coach Thomas Rongen (Fassbender) to try to help them to score just one goal.

Thomas doesn't necessarily want to be there and the reasons for his anger are slowly revealed over the course of the film. The other main character who has a nice journey is Jaiyah (Kaimana), which is portrayed very well. Sadly it was filmed in Hawaii - not American Samoa or Tonga, but still looks great and gives it a tropical Polynesian vibe. Most of the film follows common misfits-to-sporting-heroes tropes, but is still based in reality - i.e. The team doesn't go on to win the World Cup or anything! Good support cast, with Waititi favourites Rachel House & Rhys Daby present and small roles for Will Arnett & Elizabeth Moss, and the over-zealous Australians, Angus Sampson & Luke Hemsworth.

The soundtrack is good, and the portrayal of American Samoan culture is done well, particularly the pre-match war dances. The pacing is also good, with it not being too long, and there's a nice balance between jokes and some of the touching/character-building moments. It's nice to see Thomas come around and the positivity and happiness all the American Samoans show him and each other. The final game is well-edited and exciting, a fitting finish.

Migration (I) (2023)

Nice, fun family film

[7/10 · 3 January 2024]

'Migration' is a really well-made family film. It's a simple premise about anthropomorphic ducks - the father duck, Mack (Nanjiani), wants to protect his children/chicks, Dax (Jennings) and Gwen (Gazal), and the mother duck, Pam (Banks), wants them to experience the world and gain some experience. They meet some other ducks migrating south for the winter - they're presumably in North-Eastern USA - so they decide to do the same, with quirky uncle Dan (DeVito) in tow.

What follows is both a semi-familiar road-trip comedy, as well as a refreshing take on family, trying new things and helping others. There's a great support cast, as the duck family passes through New York City and meets Chump the pigeon (Awkwafina), Delroy the macaw (Key), as well as Erin the heron (Kane) and GooGoo (Mitchell) - either a goose or a white duck. There's a nice jail-break sequence for Delroy, which sets up the human antagonist, the Chef.

For some reason the Chef also has a Chinook and hunts them down, leading to Dax and Gwen having to step-up. The animation is a nice mix of cartoonish and realistic, and it looks excellent, especially at the end. There's no overly-scary moments, some teachable themes, the voice cast is all good and there's consistent laughs throughout. There's also 'Mooned', the 9-min 'Despicable Me' tie-in at the start of the film, which kids seemed to love.

Dream Scenario (2023)

Interesting "what if" scenario

[6/10 · 2 January 2024]

'Dream Scenario' is a unique concept, with thousands of people seeing Paul (Cage) in their dreams, just walking through, not really participating in the dream. This then turns him into a celebrity, something Paul, his wife Janet (Nicholson), daughters Hannah (Clement) and Sophie (Bird), and boss Brett (Meadows) aren't prepared for, especially as he has no control over what's happening. The film does well to purposefully not explore the how/why it's happening and focuses on the impacts on Paul.

Odd that a lot of places are billing this as a comedy - I'd say it's a drama, with a few little laughs, which then diverts into mild horror at the end, as the dreams inevitability turn into nightmares. Cage is good, and not totally manic, but plays a Professor and normal dad well, who ends up at his wits end. The ending is not as dark as it could've been, but nor is it a nice comedy ending either.

There's some existential questions and a you obviously get to ask "what would I do in this situation?" But mostly it's probably an indictment on modern society, especially the penultimate scene. The support cast is good - should also mention Molly (Gelula) & Trent (Cera) from the PR company who play significant parts. And always good to have a Talking Heads song to wrap things up!

Poor Things (2023)

Unique, odd, sex-filled journey

[6/10 · 22 December 2023]

'Poor Things' is... weird and hard to fully explain. It has elements of sci-fi, Frankenstein, romance, comedy and drama, as well as oddly framed camera angles, lots of fish-eye lens and keyhole shots. It follows Bella (Stone) and her "father"/creator, Godwin (Dafoe, who does well to still be able to act in his mask), Bella's fiancée Max (Youssef) and fling Duncan (Ruffalo). The films technically set in the 19th century, but in a fictional world.

We follow Bella as she grows and learns what the world's about, through 6 distinct acts - London, Lisbon, Alexandria, Paris and London again. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Godwin is a faux Frankenstein/Geppetto, w with Bella his Frankenstein's Monster/Pinocchio. While the first 40min is all black & white, it establishes that we're in a fantastical/un-real world and enables what follows to not be too jarring. Once Bella gains independence, her and Duncan go on a trip and we're back in colour and there's lots of nods to Wes Anderson.

There is a lot of sex and nudity from Stone, as Bella explores her sexuality. It often adds to the story, but not always. Stone is excellent as Bella, giving her a peculiar gait and way of talking to always make sure you know the character is not a normal adult. Ruffalo has some fun moments, and Dafoe's always good, making Godwin into an empathetic character. I didn't love the score and some of the cinematography, although the sky when they're on the boat is captivating. At 140min, it's probably 30min too long and while different, it with sometimes feels like odd things are thrown in just for oddness' sake.

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Bigger = better?

[6/10 · 11 December 2023]

'Godzilla Minus One' (or 'Gorjira -1.0') is probably the 35th Godzilla film overall, but the first Japanese language one I've seen in a while. It's definitely a little different to the last 3 Hollywood versions of Godzilla we've seen over the past 10 years, and not just his actual less-bulky design. The CGI's not bad - just different. This film is set in Japan during 1945-1947, so there's plenty of post-WWII trauma and themes at play.

We follow failed Kamikaze pilot Koichi (Kamiki) as he comes to terms with the devastation of Tokyo, his family and his survivors guilt. He's then joined by Noriko (Hamabe) and daughter Akiko (Nagatani) and the film spends a lot of time with this complicated relationship. Koichi eventually gets a job clearing sea mines with Captain Yoji (Sasaki) and Dr Noda (Yoshioka). They just survive their first encounter with Godzilla.

As with all monster movies, I find it's a very fine line between seeing too little of the monster/creature and not enough. There's probably an hour in the middle of this film where we needed to see more Godzilla. That being said, the film's don't work if there's absolutely no plot or sympathy for the lead characters - which there is here. But it's sometimes a bit too melodramatic. It also makes it confusing - am I cheering for Godzilla to kill all these people? Or are we cheering for the humans to kill Godzilla? Bittersweet either way. Some great large-scale set pieces here, but a little too long.

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Interesting animated other-realm adventure

[7/10 · 10 December 2023]

'The Boy and the Heron' is Miyazaki's 12th film, and while not his best, it's still exceptional animation with a nice story and a bit of weirdness thrown in to make it interesting. This time, we follow the titular boy, Mahito (Padovan) as his father (Bale) moves them from Tokyo to the Japanese countryside during World War II, after the death of his mother. There he has to deal with his new step-mother, Natsuko (Chan) and new environment.

There's a bit of effort that goes into the set-up - and the fire scene in Tokyo is excellently animated - then a lull as Mahito tries to find his place in his new circumstances. This is where he encounters the Heron (Pattinson) - with a cool face-swap trick - who leads him to an abandoned tower, which transports them to a hidden world, a we're on a bit of an 'Alice in Wonderland' trip. Kiriko (Pugh), Himi (Fukuhara) and Grand-Uncle (Hamill) are (mostly) helpful to Mahito here, as he has to figure-out how to save Natsuko and get back to his world.

I don't think this lives up to 'Princess Mononoke' or 'Spirited Away', but is similar to 'Ponyo' or 'The Wind Rises'. Possibly a bit long at 2 hours, but it does have plenty of weird creatures, a great voice cast (including Dafoe as a pelican and Bautista as a parakeet!), some beautifully painted backdrops, a great score and a nice little moral about looking out for others and choosing your own path.

Napoleon (2023)

Well-made story of one of history's most famous characters

[7/10 · 26 November 2023]

'Napoleon' is another grand historical epic from the masterful Ridley Scott, and while it's hard to compare all his films, this would rank below 'Gladiator', 'Black Hawk Down' and 'The Martian', but better than 'The Last Duel', 'Robin Hood' and 'Kingdom of Heaven'. The film starts during the French Revolution in the 1790s, when Napoleon Bonaparte (Phoenix) is already in his 20s and an up-and-comer in the French army. There's not a whole lot of back-story, as there's a lot of his life to fit into the 2.5 hours. We then see a few pivotal battles and meet his soon-to-be wife, Josephine (Kirby) and politician/advocate Paul Barras (Rahim), as Napoleon becomes Counsul.

While Kirby is good, the film probably spends more time than is needed establishing the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine and their trying to conceive an heir. While more background to the French revolution, the mechanisms of how Napoleon become Emperor and why he was going to war with some of the other countries would've been nice, it's already hard to keep up with the amount of characters - other army generals, governors, politicians, foreign kings, etc.

What grounds the whole film is Phoenix - as usual, he's a great mix of serious, eccentric and captivating. I assume he'll be Oscar-nominated again. The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 is impressive and superbly staged and looks done mostly without CGI. The Duke of Wellington (Everett) only comes into the film in the final 40min or so, but is a good counter-point to Napoleon. While never getting bogged down and it's certainly a good film, it feels like there's something missing that would've made this great. Maybe the 4-hour cut will remedy it!

The Marvels (2023)

Good standalone buddy adventure

[7/10 · 11 November 2023]

'The Marvels' is the sequel to 'Captain Marvel' and the first time we've seen Carol Danvers (Larson) since 'Avengers: Endgame'. The difference this time is that this time, fate brings her, Monica Rambeau (Parris, introduced in 'WandaVision') and Kamala Khan (Vellani, introduced in 'Ms Marvel') together to stop the new Kree threat this time, Dar-Benn (Ashton). Tying it all together, like he's done so many times, in Nick Fury (Jackson) - but he has a lot more levity here than in 'Secret Invasion', thankfully.

There's a bit of background to the Kree/Skull war, but not too much - but the best aliens are still the cats/Flerken, who have a nice mini-role to play. Special mention to the singing/choreography-dancing aliens on the water planet too. Besides stopping the Kree from destroying more worlds, the main plot point is the three lead characters finding out how to use their light-powers together and complement heach other. This is helped by Kamala enthusiasm and teenage idealism - like the show, this is a real breath of fresh air and balances well with Carol and Monica.

We also get Kamala's mum, dad and brother, who also add some nice heart and humour, including with Fury and during the initial place-swapping scenes. There's some middling battle scenes, but some nice CGI and planets throughout. The ending is mostly satisfying, with a good mid-credits scene.

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Excellent story of human greed

[8/10 · 22 October 2023]

'Killers of the Flower Moon' is Scorsese's 3rd 3-hour-plus film in the past 10 years, and the 10th film directed by him starring Robert De Niro, and 6th film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. This film proves a case of "if it isn't broke, don't fix it". While not necessarily an "epic", it is a very well put together story, set just in the 1920s in Oklahoma, where Ernest (DiCaprio) is returning from WWI to live with his uncle, Hale (De Niro) and brother Byron (Shepherd). They're the white folk trying to cash in on the Native Americans who have found oil and are becoming rich - the Osage people.

Rather than focusing solely on white men subjugating the native population, the film does well to establish a few key characters to follow over a number of years and watch their (unfortunately true) stories unfold. Critical to this is Mollie (Gladstone), an Osage woman, who Ernest falls in love with and marries. What happens to her and her extended family over the course of the film is both tragic and hard-to-believe, but also sadly within the realms of human evil.

The film is helped by Gladstone delivering an excellent performance that holds everything together and acts as a benchmark for the other characters. DiCaprio is also good, but this is arguably De Niro's best performance in the last 15 years, as he plays a subtle hand as the seemingly benevolent Hale, as his true intentions are slowly revealed. The supporting cast are good, including Millie's sisters and the FBI/lawyers when they finally come into play in the final third. It's well-paced, with a good wrap-up and at no point did I feel bored. Probably not Scorsese's best ever, but up there with 'Casino', 'Raging Bull' and 'Gangs of New York'.

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

Still a good mystery, but not my favourite of the 3

[6/10 · 14 October 2023]

'A Haunting in Venice' is the third (and maybe final?) film in the Agatha Christie series directed by Kenneth Branagh, and starring him as genius detective Hercule Poirot, after 'Murder on the Orient Express' and 'Death on the Nile'. This time, 1947 Venice is the setting, with the Italian canals and rooftops adding to the overall vibe. Poirot is coxed out of retirement by Ariadne (Fey) to come to a Halloween party and séance to disprove a medium, Reynolds (Yeoh).

Obviously, someone is murdered and Poirot is back on the case. The plot is thickened, as Rowena (Reilly)'s daughter mysteriously died in the past year, and we're not sure how it's connected. There's a fine-line tread between ghosts/spirits here and Poirot's scepticism/logic. All is eventually revealed. Once the murder occurs, there are 10 suspects left in the palazzo - including a Doctor (Dornan), bodyguard (Portfoglio), ex-boyfriend Maxim (Allen) and housekeeper (Cottin) - and Poirot goes about collecting their stories and alibis.

This film is shorter than previous two films, but does seem a bit scattershot for the first 30min, with lots of odd cuts and camera angles, mostly trying to put us of the scent of what's actually happening. But I did feel that Poirot felt a little tired and lacked some verve. Might just be that Branagh is now in his 60s! Since it's set in the early hours of Halloween in an old building in the 40s, there's a lot of darkness/candle-lighting, so it's sometimes hard to see what's going on. The culprit is a bit of a surprise, and the reasoning just makes sense.

The Creator (2023)

Good addition to the humans v robots record

[7/10 · 27 September 2023]

'The Creator' is a new take on a trusted sci-fi trope of humanity vs "the other". In this case, we have an almost Skynet-like rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots - set 50 years in the future - but then the film takes a bit of a turn, as we predominantly follow Joshua (Washington), Maya (Chan) and Alphie (Voyles) and their struggle between survival and doing the right thing. Probably Edwards' best film since 'Monsters'.

This is definitely not an outright sci-fi war film, like 'Edge of Tomorrow', and is not a Star Wars rip-off, but does take elements of both. There's also elements of 'Chappie', 'Elysium', 'Westworld', but it's all very focused on the humans vs AI struggle and the greyness of what's right/best for the future, and that age-old sci-fi question: what does it mean to be human?

The cinematography is excellent, Washington and Voyles are great, Janney as the Colonel plays well against type, we get Watanabe as a wise robot and the final set-piece is pretty impressive, based around the NOMAD ship. Sometimes the tone/pace is a little off, and none of the reveals are particularly shocking, but it does add up to a pretty coherent, plausible and satisfying whole.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Fun new take on everyone's favourite green brothers!

[8/10 · 3 September 2023]

'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem' may be the 8th TMNT film, but it's clearly the best so far - even better than the 1990 original that most of us grew up with! While this is a predominantly-animated reboot, it doesn't diss or tarnish anything from the original films of the 1990s cartoon, but rather remain faithful to them, while building a new interesting world with accurate takes on the teenagers. Here brothers Leonardo (Cantu), Michelangelo (Brown Jr), Raphael (Noon) and Donatello (Abbey) are likeable outcasts who yearn to be normal teenagers in the human world.

That all changes when a new villain emerges, who was created by the same radioactive ooze: Superfly (Ice Cube). The brothers find an ally in April O'Neil (Edebiri), who helps them set out to take down Superfly without Master Splinter (Chan) finding out. While there's some obvious plot points, there's also a lot of levity and self-aware jokes made. The banter between the boys is genuinely funny and realistic throughout, especially Donny.

Written & produced by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, with one of the directors of 'The Mitchells vs the Machines' this was always going to be handled with care and look unique - the animation and lighting throughout is superb for a cartoon, almost as good as the 'Spider-Verse' films. And what a voice cast - Jackie Chan, Maya Rudolph, Ice Cue, Paul Rudd, Rose Byrne, Seth Rogen, John Cena, Giancarlo Esposito, Hannibal Buress! The score is by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, outside their comfort zone, and the soundtrack is suitably modern with some old hip-hop and fun choices. All done in 100min!

BlackBerry (2023)

Somewhat bittersweet, but engaging story

[6/10 · 26 August 2023]

'BlackBerry' is another mostly-non-fiction cautionary business origin film, along the lines of 'The Founder' and 'The Social Network', as well as this year's 'Air' and 'Tetris'. We follow friends Mike (Baruchel), the tech whiz & Doug, the morale-booster (Johnson, also the director) who have formed start-up Research In Motion in Canada in the 90s, focusing on making modems and have a patent for a handheld email device. They come across ruthless businessman Jim (Howerton), who turns their idea into a reality.

The film probably sensationalises a lot of things, but does well to focus on some of the personal drama, especially the balancing act between Mike & Jim. But I would've liked to have seen more of the Mike/Doug dynamic and their early-RIM friends/employees doing the development. The acting is good all-round, with Baruchel playing someone different for him, Howerton is a great jerk and Johnson is fun, basically the TJ Miller character form 'Silicon Valley'. There's some laughs, but a lot more focus on the progress of the business.

BlackBerry had a good 6 years from 2002-2007, somewhat thanks to Mike becoming more like Jim, as well as hiring slave-driver Charles (Ironside) and the things that Jim has to do to fend off the takeover by Carl (Elwes) and Palm. BlackBerry was ultimately doomed to fail when Android OS became the standard for mobile phones, as well as the marketing behind the iPhone. Big shame for me, as I think I was one of the few in Australia who still owned a BlackBerry in 2010! Well-paced and under 2 hours, with an OK-digital-style score.

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

An exceptional film in all respects

[9/10 · 14 August 2023]

'Oppenheimer' sounds like it could be boring - a film about a theoretical physicist in the early 20th century. This could not be further from reality - I'd have to rate this up there with Nolan's best work, almost better than 'Inception' and 'The Prestige'. Time will tell. Cillian Murphy is excellent as Robert Oppenheimer, who leads America's "Manhattan Project" during 1942-1945 in the race to develop the atomic bomb before the Nazis and end World War II.

While some creative licence may have been taken at times, the film does well to capture enough of the history, players and importance of the what, why and how. While no other actor outshines Murphy, there's great support from wife Kitty (Blunt), his post-WWII boss Strauss (Downey Jr), first girlfriend Jean (Pugh), Einstein (Conti), Lawrence (Hartnett), Teller (Safdie), Rabi (Krumholz) and General Groves (Damon). There's about 30 other familiar faces who pop up, either in Los Alamos or the hearings afterwards. While mostly linear, the time-swaps and black-and-white footage interspersed in the final act add an element of suspense to the post-WWII years.

Even though the run-time is 3 hours, the first hour flies by at breakneck speed, setting the scene, then the detail and problem-solving of the Manhattan Project almost make you forget what's at stake - before the final act hammers home the moral and emotional toll the bomb had on Oppenheimer. The score is really great and adds plenty to the context - including the lack of score for the bomb test detonation, which has excellent practical special effects. There's personal drama for Oppenheimer and his colleagues, and the film does well not to turn into a war (or anti-war) film, but stay focused on the scientific achievements. The court-room-type scenes are superbly done. You feel justified, fulfilled and sombre by the end.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Can't wait until the next (final?) one!

[8/10 · 8 July 2023]

'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part I (M:I7) is another strong entry in the action/spy series, with Ethan (Cruise) looking slightly older, but not less determined to save the world. I believe the sequel to this film will be his last outing - but we'll see. This time, there's some Skynet-like sentient-AI that's manipulating nefarious types to take over the world, so the IMF team are out to get the two halves of key that can stop it.

Isla (Ferguson), Benji (Pegg) and Luther (Rhames) are back, as well as CIA boss Kittridge (Czerny), with Grace (Atwell), a thief, being the newcomer. The bad guys that keep thwarting them are Gabriel (Morales) from Ethan's past, and Paris (Klementieff). The consistency of having McQuarrie as director of the two previous films helps, with everything feeling assured and this working as a really solid follow-up to 'Fallout'.

There's some funny moments, some sincere ones, and some of Ethan running, as contractually-obliged. The whole final scene on the train is excellent, with so many things happening, but there's plenty of good set-pieces throughout, including a good car chase. However, the piece-de-resistance is the motorbike off the cliff into a BASE jump is something else. The fact Cruise did it for real, multiple times, is crazy and inspiring.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Solid farewell to an icon

[7/10 · 2 July 2023]

'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' (or Indiana Jones 5) comes 42 years after the original, and while not in the same league as 'Raiders' or 'Last Crusade', it is up there with 'Temple of Doom'. This film is directed by Mangold ('Logan' and 'Ford v Ferrari'), who knows how to film a car/train chase. This time, it's 1969 and we have an older Indy (Ford) trying to find the eponymous "dial" (more like an ancient ballerina box) with his goddaughter, Helena (Waller-Bridge).

She brings some good humour and a nice presence to balance Indy, as well as another pre-teen offsider, Teddy (Ididore), while Voller (Mikkelsen) and Klaber (Holbrook) are good as the modern-day Nazi bad guys. There's a few slow moments early on (aside from the opening train scene), but the film really hits it's stride in the 2nd & 3rd acts.

As with most Indiana Jones films, you have to suspend a bit of disbelief, but the plot-point for the final act is pretty dumb. There's a few cameos, the iconic score from John Williams, some good wise-cracks and a mostly-satisfying ending. Mostly though, it feels comfortable and a mostly-exciting adventure film, as it should be.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

Lacking in many ways, but fun enough

[6/10 · 26 June 2023]

'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' is maybe the 7th Transformers film and a reboot (also maybe) - I gave up watching them a while ago, but making this a film version of the great 1996-99 TV show 'Beast Wars' made it worth a watch. While we get Maximals, there's no Predacons - I assume they'll be the plot for the sequel. This is set in 1994 for some reason, so we get plenty of 90s hip-hop and two new human characters - Noah (Ramos) & Elena (Fishback). They find the power-stone-thing, which is a space/time portal, which brings the Autobots and the Terrorcons (not Decepticons).

The plot is then to either destroy the power-stone-thing, or the Autobots use it to get back to Cybertron. The Maximals got sent back in time to Earth 5,000 years ago, escaping Unicron (the Galactus of Transformers). They then go to Peru to try to stop Unicron coming to Earth. As with all alien films, too much time is spent on humans, as after the 5min prologue, there's probably 40min with mostly just Noah and Elena and giving them backstory. I know they think we relatable characters, but we're mostly here to see robots fight!

Which does pay-off solidly in the final act. It's good to see Optimus still voiced by Peter Cullen and Bumblee is still there, with Mirage (the Porche) voiced by Pete Davidson. There's also Arcee, Wheeljack, Optimus Primal, Air-razor, Rhinox and Cheetor. The main bad-guy, Unicron's right-hand-man, is a Ultron rip-off, Scourge (Dinklage). Ending is predictable, but obviously leaves open further films. Some solid jokes and action throughout. I think if you're a 7-14 year old kid, you'll love this.

The Flash (I) (2023)

Decent time-travel caper

[7/10 · 17 June 2023]

'The Flash' has been a long time coming, when you consider that Miller first played the character in 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' in 2016 and this version of the film starring Miller was announced in 2014! It's interesting that they still try to make him the "funny one" of the Justice League team, when DC have kind of done that with the two 'Shazam' films already, and at it's core, this film asks the serious question - if you could go back in time, would you save a loved one who died?

Due to the time-travel & parallel universe aspect of the film, we get to see many multiples - Barry/Flash (Miller), Batman (Keaton & Affleck) and Superman (no spoilers!). I'd say Keaton actually gets more screentime than Affleck and does really well, especially considering he's 71 and hasn't played Batman for over 30 years! The main plot is basically 'Back to the Future', which gets plenty of nods, with Batman and Kara (Calle) helping Barry to get back and overcome the changes of where he's ended up.

Some of the "speed-force" CGI is pretty bad and the main problem the film has is trying to tie together a decade of DC films that haven't had the same interconnectedness/planning as the Marvel films. This film uses Zod (Shannon) as the villain again, taking it back to 2013's 'Man of Steel'. While there's not a crazy amount that's new, there's some funny/nice/good moments, but probably not enough to elevate this to something special, and it's not quite as good as 'Wonder Woman' or 'Man of Steel'.