Review: Coyote vs Acme

Notorious for being one of a handful of films originally buried by Warner Brothers for tax reasons (if nobody ever saw it, they could write off all the costs), Coyote vs Acme became an internet cause despite being seen by next to no-one. Propelled by hype unrelated to comedy, it eventually made its way to cinemas, where finally audiences can judge for themselves. Is this a modern day classic, or did it deserve its original, ignoble fate?

If you're a fan of the original Looney Tunes, this is a bit of a mixed bag. The basic premise - the Coyote, having figured out that the one element that links all his failures to catch the Roadrunner is the faulty products he's been buying from Acme, decides to sue - isn't really enough to build an entire movie on, and every new element added takes us one step further away from the elegant simplicity that made the original cartoons so memorable.

But a feature-length Roadrunner movie (even one based on a New Yorker short story) was always going to have to throw a few more items into the pot, and for the most part this chooses wisely. As the Coyote's bottom-feeding lawyer (more due to being crushed by the world than by choice) Kevin Avery, Will Forte manages to make a constantly exasperated and defeated character likable, while John Cena as his courtroom rival - he's defending Acme, which is headed by a blustering big business bird in the shape of Foghorn Leghorn - does what he can with a supporting role.

The legal drama itself has some twists and turns, including one very funny reveal that goes a long way towards redeeming the whole idea of a Looney Tunes courtroom drama, while the sinister conspiracy that's gradually uncovered works mostly as an excuse to bring in a whole bunch of other Looney Tunes characters. Which again, is a good thing, and the cameos are both smart and amusing.

If this overall isn't quite as funny as the recent The Day the Earth Blew Up, that's because the live-action side of things here - while smoothly integrated with the animation - tends to impose a limit or two on the wackiness, while the doors it opens for comedy mostly lead to comparisons to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

It does also require the story to have some kind of emotional climax, which... look, it's the Roadrunner and Coyote. Do we need any kind of heartfelt connection between these two eternal foes? For this movie to work, yes we do. For the characters as we've known and loved them via the classic Chuck Jones animated shorts? Not so much.

The result is a highly entertaining and often very funny movie that will possibly leave long-time fans of the characters scratching their heads a little. You could argue that's what it should do: times have changed, and this is aimed at a new audience.  If we stop moving forward, we're likely to look down and see there's nothing beneath us but a very long drop.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Resident Evil

There's something to be said for an action hero who finds himself in over his head. When we first meet Bryan (Austin Abrams), he's a semi-competent medical courier with a possibly pregnant girlfriend on the phone and a missing signature on a deliver form. Trying to find someone to sign it keeps him around the snowed-in hospital just long enough to be offered a job delivering a mystery package to Racoon City. Who can say no to overtime pay?

Everybody watching this knows that a trip to Racoon City is a one-way ticket to mutant zombie hell; even if you've never played the (very successful) games, you've probably seen one of the numerous (slightly less successful) films based on those games, many of which starred Milla Jovovich. The fun thing about this very fun movie is that director and co-writer Zach Cregger  (Weapons) knows what his audience is anticipating. Does he deliver? He does - just not in the way you might expect.

Slipping and sliding on the icy roads in the middle of the night, Bryan hits a woman who walks right out in front of him. We know what that means: zombie time! Bryan, on the other hand, does not know it's probably not the best idea to go after her and see if she's okay. This will not be the last bad decision he makes this night.

What follows is a slow build up to a wild ride that revels in horror cliches and video game mechanics when its not busy subverting them. Memorable images, startling moments, nail-biting sequences, and big moments that mange to be both ridiculous and terrifying; this has it all.

It doesn't forget the franchise's video game roots either. Bryan constantly levels up the weapons he has, while inventory management is also surprisingly important. That said, he's not a great shot, doesn't really know how guns work and experience doesn't help him get any better. Also, padlocks; they're all over the place.

Being a bit of a doofus makes Bryan both charming (kind of) and relatable, even as he goes from being freaked out by what he's facing to showing some decent puzzle-solving skills in the face of mutated hordes of ravenous killers. Especially as almost everyone else he meets - and he spends a lot of time on his own here - is even less competent. Not that being competent helps matters, as a couple of short-lived characters make very clear.

Nobody is safe from the horror that is unfolding, but at least there's a bunch of good laughs along the way. The comedy here ranges from the extremely dark to, well, there's an electric fence gag you'll see coming from a mile away. It's also got plenty of jump scares and some fairly inventive monster designs, plus a lot of gore that's more unsettling (or darkly funny) than disgusting. And Bryan's relentless drive forward means he keeps on pushing himself into and through some pretty rough situations; in a city full of cannibal zombies, choosing to drop down into the sewers requires a very specific mindset.

At a tight 90 minutes and with a plot that runs on rails - he's got to deliver a package, no more no less - this doesn't mess around. Bryan finds himself in a bad situation, and by the time he realises how bad it is, it's gotten worse; a living nightmare for some, a fun night at the movies for others.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Practical Magic 2

Practical Magic 2 is a bit of an unusual cinema release in 2026. The 1998 original was a (somewhat) lightweight hangout movie - plus a crime drama, plus a bunch of other things. These days those films tend to exist on streaming platforms, unless there's a good reason to get fans up off the couch. Maybe fans of the original will bring their daughters along to pass on the torch of midnight dance-drinking?

At the end of the first film it was hoped that the curse hanging over the Owens family - that if any of them fell in love, the object of that love would die - had been broken. Aiden Quinn is not back for this film, so that's a nope.

Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) remains opposed to the family's magical heritage and has managed to keep her daughters - Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams) - from the dark(ish) arts, even as their aunts Francis (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest) have been using their powers to help out the local community on the small Massachusetts island where they live.

As for Sally's sister Gilly (Nicole Kidman), she's still a free spirit, out for a good time because falling in love will just plant another body in the local graveyard. Unfortunately nobody told Kylie this, and when her boyfriend Gideon (Xolo Mariduena) turns up for Jet's birthday party, bad news is not far behind. 

Thanks to a magic book and some extra family turmoil, Kylie is soon heading over to the UK to try and reverse the family curse. Sally and Gilly (and Gilly's luggage) are soon in hot pursuit (Antonia, a medical student, gets stuck watching Gideon's comatose body). But is Professor Ian Wright (Lee Pace) all he seems? Well, he is naked when they find him so he's got nothing to hide there.

It's rare to say a movie's big problem is that it has too much story, but even pushing past two hours this feels like it's skimming over things at more than one point. We should be getting to spend time with some fun characters, not checking off plot points; while Gilly does fairly well as the (mostly) comedy sidekick, Sally rarely gets time to come out of her shell, even once Professor Wright starts to warm things up. 

While the three generations of sisters all have magic powers to some extent, the power of sisterhood - you know, hanging out and laughing and dancing and so on - gets at least as much screentime as magically slamming cupboards and shooting force beams out of your hands. Which is to say, not as much as it should.

The older aunts do their best with their limited screen time (Wiest is especially strong), while it's hard not to feel a little sorry for the largely sidelined Antonia - hopefully they're planning a medical-themed magical spin off (why hasn't someone tried to make a medical drama where the doctor has magical powers? Seems like a winner). 

It's too drawn out to be a fun hang, and Kidman's bubbly performance overshadows Bullock's more angsty turn, but it doesn't disgrace the original. Which is a pretty low bar, let's be honest, and this does replicate many of the original's problems: a messy story, a haphazard approach to magic (do you need to cast spells? Not really), stop-start pacing, and a lack of awareness of the strengths of the material.

The real magic here is good vibes; no wonder the grumpy bummer bad guy, who keeps prattling on about revenge (so much so that at one stage his big victory monologue is actually faded out so the women can talk) comes off as a real loser.

- Anthony Morris 

 

Review: The Dog Stars

It's reassuring to see a movie that reminds us that, even after the apocalypse, there's always going to be poor people wanting to steal our stuff. So ingrained are these fears that in The Dog Stars they outlast America itself: society has vanished in every way, and yet crime gangs wanting something for nothing remain.

A few years on from a flu pandemic that pretty much wiped out humanity, Hig (Jacob Elordi) has a pretty sweet deal going. Living on an airfield with his gruff hetrosexual life partner Bangley (Josh Brolin), he flies his plane into depopulated Denver to collect supplies, occasionally hangs out with a isolated religious community that take in surviving children - nothing dodgy there - and then comes home to chill out, have a beer, play cards, and occasionally shoot intruders before they have a chance to speak.

While Bangley is digging the survivalist vibes of their way of life, Hig is still depressed over the death of his wife and is hoping there's other survivors out there. The occasional radio message from Grand Junction, combined with a crime gang attack that hits a little too close to home, sends him flying off on a one-way trip to try and reconnect with someone.

One of the few strengths of this film is that it (often) sticks to an aggressively low-key approach to things. Yes, there are roving bands of kill-crazy lunatics; later on there's what is basically an Indian (as in, Cowboys & Indians) war party, and if you're wondering if any survivors have gone insane and turned into cannibals, that is also a box that is eventually ticked.

(none of which makes much sense, as we're repeatedly shown that almost everyone died pretty quickly, leaving behind everything a roving band of killers could want without having to bother with the killing part) 

But this also features a lengthy period where the main drama is "will Hig be able to pull up a bunch of tree stumps?". No spoilers, but we're so used to these stories ending in some kind of climactic battle that when this instead focuses on re-establishing a new status quo its almost unsettling in its refusal to put lives on the line.

That doesn't make it a good film though. The action scenes are competent until you notice that they're gleefully dehumanising the attackers in a way that's more than a little problematic. It's the story of a group of people who have a lot, shooting anyone who comes on their property and burning their bodies (yeah, that smoke isn't going to be a giveaway either). Early on it feels like it's going to question that dynamic, but then Hig just flies off.

The Dog Stars ends up a strange and not exactly satisfying mix of post-apocalyptic genres. For long stretches it wants to be about people trying to figure out how to keep going when everyone they loved is dead, then those same people make a bunch of other people dead because that's just what you do after the world ends.  

There's a more interesting and impactful film inside this one, buried just a little too deep for any dog to dig out.

- Anthony Morris 

 

Review: Spa Weekend

Spa Weekend is a bit of a throwback - well, every comedy that makes it to the big screen these days is a throwback, the golden age of big screen comedy now being firmly a decade or more in the rear view. But it's the kind of "we got a bunch of comedians together and let them improv scenes" comedy that once ruled the roost... and then wore out its welcome. Have lessons been learnt? 

Well, kind of. After a premise-establishing prologue in which all four main characters are set in stone as kids, we jump forward to today to see how they're coping with adulthood. Short answer: not well.

Jane (Leslie Mann) is a high powered lawyer so snowed under with work and single motherhood that when a cute lawyer hits on her she can't schedule a date for the next three months. Sophie (Anna Farris) works for a controlling boss who is basically a man-baby, Coco (Michelle Buteau) has anger issues that destroyed her relationship to her nice guy ex, and Mel (Ilsa Fisher) is... seemingly in France, which is where everyone would like her to stay because she's a maniac.

With Jane's birthday coming up, Coco and Sophie gently nudge her towards the idea of a spa weekend. Nobody really wants Mel to ruin the vibe, so she's out. The resort is luxe (it was filmed on the Gold Coast), the vibe is chill, and is the hot yoga teacher (Adam Demos) checking Jane out?

Isla Fisher is first in the credits so no surprise she turns up. Sophie felt bad for not inviting her and who thought she'd fly in from France? Now it's a real party, in that every single relaxation session they're booked in for dissolves into chaos. Not that "goat yoga" could really have gone any other way.

Written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (The Hangover), this is a wobbly mix of luxury resort porn and wacky comedy that never fully invests in either. Somewhat surprisingly, this is a good thing: the comedy remains at least slightly grounded, and the fancy settings are occasionally worth checking out when the laughs falter. Which they do on a regular basis.

The best thing here is the performances, which are likable across the board and (mostly) restrained enough to avoid being painful when the jokes fall flat. None of these characters have more than the one dimension, but there's just enough going on to make their predictable plights slightly engaging.

If that all sounds like damning with faint praise, that's because it is. This is a comedy that's as beige as the resort surroundings - presumably as the result of some heavy editing, as there's the occasional hint that originally things might have been a bit more out there (there's one reference to Mel bringing a lot of cocaine with her, but aside from a party montage it's never shown).

This is a film that knows its audience: middle aged people who in theory like to laugh but in practice just want to be distracted from the real world for 90 minutes or so. It's a low bar to clear, but it just about manages it. Hopefully every single person in this film got to take a break afterwards, because after this they all deserve a real holiday.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Insidious: Out of the Further

One of the fun things about the Insidious franchise is that none of the lore matters in any way. There's a place where all the evil dead people go and they like messing with the living: now you're all caught up. 

In fact, remembering the previous five films only gets in the way of the spooky thrills here - you don't want to be wondering what happened to Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell's low-rent Ghostbusters when you should be scanning every inch of the screen for creepy figures in the background that shouldn't be there.

After a prologue that makes it very clear she had a very messed-up childhood, we meet the adult Gemma (Amelia Eve), who is making a whole lot of very basic life mistakes when it comes to living in a world where evil ghosts are real. 

Not only is she still living in the house where her crazy mother killed herself, she has all her mum's stuff boxed up in the garage, refusing to either deal with it or throw it out. Even worse, she's a dental nurse; if you're at all squeamish about teeth, there are multiple scenes here that are not for you.

Despite that, everything seems to be going smoothly for her and her daughter Maya (Island Austin) on the streets of suburban Melbourne (pretending to be Pittsburgh) until a very odd-looking trio of weirdos move into the neighbourhood and start grinning at her. Suddenly she's having the kind of nightmares that blend seamlessly with reality, Maya is starting to freak out at the way her mother is falling apart, and is history about to repeat itself? 

Not if Elise Rayne (Lin Shaye) has anything to do with it. Being dead hasn't stopped the psychic from stepping up in previous installments - she's the only real link to the other films here - and when she shows up in one of Gemma's dreams it's clear that what the single mother's experiencing isn't just the result of a too-spicy late night snack. 

Not only is she being pulled into The Further (the place where evil ghosts hang out), but the malevolent yet snazzily-dressed spirits have a serious reason for their interest in her. Now if she doesn't figure out a way to stop them, they just might be able to use her as a way back into the real world. Which would be bad for just about everyone, especially as it seems some ghosts come with working shotguns (are the guns also dead?). 

None of this is especially fresh or though-provoking, but it does hold together as a story. That bumps it a notch above the usual "ghosts are real and / or people are being possessed" Blumhouse thriller. The random jumpscare sequences early on have a point to them, the bad guy has an actual plan beyond "be scary", and there's just enough twists to get you moderately invested in the outcome.

In a great year for inventive horror, this competent but overly familiar thriller only occasionally rises to the challenge. There are a few memorable sequences (getting lost in a seemingly endless couch cushion fort, some squirmy dental horror) and exactly one decent joke. There's also a lot of tattoo'd fruit, which makes less sense the more you think about it, even if Elise's conduit to the land of the living is a psychic tattoo artist (Maisie Richardson-Sellars).

As it's gone on, the Insidious series has lost the giddy edge that made the initial installments stand out. Now the scares are merely solid, the characters basic and rote; even if you don't remember the previous films, you'll feel like you've seen it all before. It's a nightmare where even the living are trapped in an eternal repetitious loop.

- Anthony Morris 

 

Review: One Night Only

One Night Only is a film about two very different things, and there are a lot of good reasons why they don't go well together. It's possible to see why someone might have thought the idea of bringing these two things together could have resulted in a winning film, but this particular take on the concept never commits one way or the other. It's too much but not enough, which is never a good start to a relationship.

The more charitable reading here is this: at a moment where the pressure is on the have sex, and in a world that seemingly values the physical act above all else, two young people gradually realise they want to build a relationship on something more than just a physical act. Sounds like a winner? Hang on a second.

To judge this film purely based on that reading - we'll get to the problems in a minute - it's a moderately entertaining take on the timeworn "one crazy night" genre. Our two leads - pizza store proprietor Owen (Callum Turner), and advertising jingle singer with slightly bigger dreams Allie (Monica Barbaro) - both start the night with firm romantic plans, only to have things repeatedly thrown into disarray even as they keep running into each other.

The jokes are good (not great) and the pair have decent chemistry without ever being overwhelmingly convincing as lovers. Which works for the story - it's meant to be something of a slow burn. If it didn't have a completely insane hook it would be the kind of film that vanishes without trace, a slightly sweet, occasionally silly take on two people falling in like.

Problem is, this film has a hook that is, as previously mentioned, completely insane: in a near-future US that looks identical to today, the government has made premarital sex illegal. But don't worry - to keep all the unmarried fornicators on board, the law is lifted once a year for 12 hours. Hurrah?

The idea is that while everyone else is rutting like rabbits, Owen and Allie discover a deeper connection through being forced by various wacky situations to wait. Turns out it's harder to get laid on a night when everyone is looking to get laid than you might think; Allie keeps meeting creeps, Owen keeps getting interrupted, it seems premarital sex is only allowed with a condom and they now cost a hundred bucks each.

The trouble is that "being forced to wait" is exactly the thinking behind this horrifically repressive situation. Which means the film ends up suggesting that a law that prevents people from doing what they want with their own bodies is... good? It's Keep it in Your Pants: The Movie.

If this was just explained in an opening crawl and never mentioned again, it's possible One Night Only could have worked as just a slightly weird rom-com. But it's constantly mentioned throughout the film in ways that are impossible to ignore. We even learn how it's enforced: everyone is implanted with a sex chip that turns green when it's legal to have sex and reports you to the cops if you try to get it on at any other time. Wow, how romantic.

This is such a bleakly repressive situation that the fact people aren't constantly rioting in the streets becomes a plot hole. There is a lot of anti "mandate" graffiti around the place, but we're told this Sex Purge has been going on for three years now and it doesn't seem like sex-starved youth have been assassinating high level government officials on a regular basis, which feels a little implausible.

It's possible all this is a very dark joke at people's ability to adapt to and accept nightmarish political situations. But this never really spells it out in a way that suggests there's more going on here than what it seems. That is to say, it seems to be a romantic comedy built around a premise that sounds entertainingly silly until you start to think about it. 

Which means One Night Only's big problem is one that's ruined a lot of casual sex: overthinking it.

- Anthony Morris