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 

Review: Spider-Man: Brand New Day

What puts Peter Parker, your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, ahead of the pack when it comes to super-heroics, is angst. He doesn't just have to deal with villainy in all its super-powered forms, he's got a crushing burden of guilt weighing him down. He knows that with great power comes great risks to those around him - which is where the latest Spider-Man film begins.

Having wiped the world's memory of who he is at the end of the last film, and with Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) now six feet under, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is very much on his own. Fortunately, he still has his secret identity as Spider-Man to keep him going, and for the last three or so years fighting crime has been his whole, entire, kind of depressing life.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is more episodic than usual, and the early scenes are pretty much an extended opening montage showing the new status quo. Spidey fights crime, Spidey is lauded as a hero (New York really loves this guy), Spidey puts flowers on Aunt May's grave, Spidey lives in a bit of a dump, and Spidey's connection on the force - Jean DeWolff (Liza Colon-Zayas) - appreciates his commitment but maybe he could take a break once in a while.

It's the lack of former besties MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) in his life that's really getting him down, and watching their dopey social media content as they climb the rungs at MIT isn't really helping. The plan was for Parker to reveal his identity to MJ after the spell, but that never happened; now he just hangs onto the note he was going to use to get her back. 

It's not until a runaway tank and an encounter with Frank Castle, aka The Punisher (Jon Burnthal) that the story finds its feet. There's a new bad guy in town, one who has the ability to possess a person - and then jump from one mind to the next, moving from body to body. What they want is a bit of a mystery, but they seem to be targeting Damage Control, the organisation that cleans up after superhero battles and tries to turn bad guy technology (and the bad guys themselves) into a force for good.

Things start to come together when the face of the mysterious psychic jumper (Sadie Sink) is revealed and the threat becomes more focused on Parker himself. Meanwhile, he's starting to notice some weird side effects from his spider-DNA: maybe he's finally becoming a man... well, a spider-man.

This is very much a MCU movie featuring Spider-Man; other cameos that aren't spoilers include the new Black Widow (Florence Pugh) and Dr Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), while The Punisher steps up to the role of sidekick in the second half of the film. It's what you expect from Marvel (well, a Marvel / Sony co-production) - it's not like previous films didn't have big casts - but it does leave this feeling a little like a film of two halves.

The MCU stuff is consistently solid, if rarely inspired. The action scenes are varied and well-constructed (though the CGI does leave some fights a little weightless), the many scenes with Spidey swinging across NYC are at times exhilarating, and who doesn't love cameos? The double act that develops between Spider-Man and The Punisher is especially well handled: looks like Parker's finally got himself a big brother, even if he is a gun-toting maniac.

It's the personal side of things that stands out, thanks in large part to a thoughtful and nuanced performance from Holland and some much-needed emotional grounding from Zendaya . Parker's plight is a typical young adult's writ large: he's left school, his school friends have moved on without him, and while he's committed to his job he's otherwise feeling lost. And he's also going through some physical changes, so better late than never there.

These two halves eventually overlap when MJ gets involved, but they still largely run parallel instead of merging into one. What ties them together is Parker, but it still feels like he has problems at work and then also problems at home: just because they're both happening at the same time to the same guy doesn't make them the same story.

With the sheer size of the MCU, and Spider-Man now one of the franchise's old stalwarts, it's hardly surprising there's a lot packed in here. What is surprising is that it works as well as it does. The previous installment may have done a better job of juggling an over-stuffed cast, but this still keeps it together. It's a film of memorable moments rather than a coherent whole, like a bunch of fun scenes suspended in a web.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: The Odyessy

Since the days of Memento, Christopher Nolan hasn't been much of a fan of linear storytelling. That works in his favour here: most of us know the broad strokes of Homer's Odyessy, and right from the beginning - where a storyteller begins to tell the story of the ten year Trojan War, only to be told we've already heard that one - he leans into the fractured timeline of the original and shuffles the cards. The first time we even see Odysseus (Matt Damon), his story is almost over... well, apart from one important bit.

So there are a few timelines here. In one, Odysseus' wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and her not-quite-of-age son Telemachus (Tom Holland) have to endure a hall full of rowdy freeloading suitors, each there to claim her hand once she finishes weaving her grandfather's shroud and admits her husband is never coming home. Sleazy Antinous (Robert Patterson) is first amongst equals here, though his decent facade crumbles the more we see of him and the more his desire to claim the throne and dispose of Telemachus comes to the surface.

In another, it's the dying days of the Trojan War, with a big wooden horse left behind on a seemingly abandoned beach. This feels like the kind of thing we could probably gloss over, but we keep returning to it - often at the prompting of various veterans of the war. There's a deeper meaning behind all this recollection, though it does also provide some thrilling action sequences.

Occasionally we check in with an aged Odysseus, wandering a beach collecting driftwood while a mysterious woman (Charlize Theron) watches on. He's trying to remember his past, and she's both helpful and fearful of what he may learn. Maybe have a bit more lotus and we'll check back in the morning.

And then there's the younger Odysseus and his crew trying to get home after the war is won. When everyone else strikes out along the established trade routes, Odyessus thinks he knows better (and after figuring out how to win the war,  he's clearly got a bit of hubris going on). Soon they're lost, raiding coastal towns where the residents are increasingly worried about lawless "sea people" and landing on islands where you probably have a pretty good idea what awaits.

As far as Gods and magic goes: no to the former, aside from the occasional cameo from Athena (Zendaya), and yes to the latter. People believe in the Gods or they don't, and their workings are through nature and the hearts of men. But there are giants, monsters, and witches in this version of the story - and no version of The Odyessy would be complete without a trip to Hades.

The afterlife here is - as in the original - a bleak, dour place, and while the idea of any kind of faithful version of The Odyessy is silly at best (even in the original Greek, Homer didn't write a screenplay) this largely stays close to the broad strokes of the classic. So much so that at times it almost feels like the story is forcing Nolan to be more overtly entertaining than he's recently been: a lot of the crowd-pleasing stuff is in here, and it works just like it has for the last three thousand years.

That said, Nolan does work in his own take on what it's all about, though he merely adds new angles rather than outright rewriting the classic. Odysseus here has an extra new-ish reason for maybe not rushing directly home; people talk about the end of their "civilisation" as if the Trojan War has shattered its very foundations. There's even a callback (call forward?) to The Lord of the Rings if you want to see it.

But anyone looking for links to today (specifically, the USA and its military culture post 9/11) won't have to look hard; there's an awful lot of veterans wandering around in this story, using your wealth to get out of military service isn't a good look, and once you value results over the basic rules of society that society is in serious trouble. 

All that aside, this is a thrilling story skillfully told. By it's very nature the story is episodic, but each strand is equally compelling and the almost three-hour run time flies by. Some scenes are a little wordy (the modern-ish dialogue works fine), but there's plenty of near-silent action, and Ludwig Goransson's soundtrack is blunt and powerful.

Not every big name in the star-stuffed cast (including Samantha Morton, Elliot Page, John Leguizamo, Lupita Nyong'o and John Burnthal) gets a lot to work with, but pretty much everyone gets a moment to shine bright - well, maybe Theron is a little short changed. And Damon acquits himself well, though his version of Odysseus isn't so much cunning as annoyed everyone else doesn't realise he's right.

Whether you're here for stunning visuals, exciting monster action, creepy witchcraft, a thoughtful meditation on the importance of rules or just the original payback warrior taking out the trash, The Odyessy brings it all home.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Evil Dead Burn

What separates the Evil Dead movies from the rest of the unholy possession / unstoppable zombie pack is that they usually try to be a little funny. What makes the goings on more than just a gore fest is that the Deadites aren't afraid to go way over the top when it comes to treating their possessed bodies badly. To quote another zombie movie, "they're all messed up".

But while Evil Dead Burn has a few jokes, for the most part it takes itself a little too seriously. Which has been a bit of a problem with the movie franchise since it was revived sans Bruce Campbell a decade or so ago. The previous film, Evil Dead Rise, seemed to suggest the series was finding its way back to the cartoony gore gags that made the whole thing work back when Sam Raimi was directing; that direction does not continue here under co-writers and co-directors Sebastien Vanicek and Florent Bernard. 

Still, the whole thing has a solid foundation. After her abusive - hey, he's under a lot of pressure, okay - husband Will (George Pullar) dies in a car crash, French ex-pat Alice (Souheila Yacoub) has to attend a funeral where his parents - Susan (Tandi Wright) and Edgar (Erroll Shand) - don't quite openly despise her, but it's close.

Her brother-in-law Joseph (Hunter Doohan) and his girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan) are a bit more sympathetic, but once everyone's back at the decaying old mansion Joseph's been given (and is struggling to repair), tensions are rapidly on the rise. Oh, and Will was killed by a Deadite who infected Edgar and the demons are looking for a magical dagger Joseph's nutty grandfather stashed somewhere in the house. Carnage ensues.

The gore is both excessive and inventive, which is good because the story itself struggles to get into second gear. There's plenty of conflict between the characters, both living and dead; being a bit of a self-serving dick when the Deadites attack might save you at first, but when the person you left behind comes back they're going to give you a serve. But nobody here is all that interesting, which makes the "family reunion from hell" angle a bit of a fizzle.

(it probably doesn't help that The Invite is also out this week, a more successful film that's also about a small group of connected characters getting on each others nerves. If they'd started turning into Deadites halfway through, then we'd really have something)

Putting technical proficiency ahead of character is something pretty much every Evil Dead movie has in common. But where the Raimi-directed films had the crazy charisma of Campbell to cover it, the later films just take for granted that we're not here to connect with anyone on a human level. That's not to say there aren't decent performances here, but the focus is on the blood and guts rather than the characters its spilling out of.

It seems a little foolish to be complaining about a lack of humanity in an Evil Dead movie. But with nobody to care about and only a handful of decent jokes to break up the mood, all that's left to offer is a whole lot of gore. Which isn't nothing, and some of the kills are fun (in an ewwww way). It's just that in the end, that's not enough to fully animate this particular corpse.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Jackass: Best and Last

The final ever Jackass movie - don't laugh, Johnny Knoxville gets all serious about it in the movie - is basically a retrospective with a bunch of new stunts mixed in; it's one last lap around the bull ring rather than anything that'll drag you into cinemas on its own merits. 

Despite the new cast members, 2022's Jackass Forever was the real farewell; this is making bank off the odds and ends - which is totally appropriate considering the way the franchise has constantly reworked itself from TV to film to .5 versions to spin offs and so on. Jackass wouldn't be Jackass without a "new" installment where you spend half the time wondering if you've seen a particular clip before, and this is your chance to enjoy that feeling one last time.

If you're invested in the cast you'll be glad to know that pretty much everyone still alive is here. The estranged Bam Margera shows up a bunch in old pranks; the deceased Ryan Dunn's "classic" toy car in the rectum X-ray prank gets a re-run. As far as the new footage goes, sadly not everyone gets to shit themselves or stick their hand up someone's butt. 

There's no real thematic link between the old stunts shown here - it really is just the greatest hits - but there's a bit more variety when it comes to both suffering and just plain inventiveness in the old material, including a never-before-seen early prank where Knoxville dressed up as an escaped convict and tried to get a hacksaw from a hardware store (things took a turn when the LAPD arrived).

Then again, there's also the classic portapotty slingshot ("Poo Cocktail Supreme") which will haunt everyone who ever sees it until the grave, so thanks for that.

Johnny Knoxville continues to demonstrate that without him as a kind of demented carnival barker all we'd have is a bunch of slightly off-putting people hurting each other (though an honourable second place goes to Steve-O). It's no surprise he's largely watching on during the new stunts; in case you've forgotten what he put himself through, his near suicidal rocket ride and the legitimately scary scene where he gets tossed hard by a bull from Jackass Forever both show up here.

We also get to see the first ever Jackass stunt, where Knoxville shoots himself in the chest while wearing a bulletproof vest (and a few porno mags), which seems almost innocent compared with what followed. Bored teens with access to guns and (hopefully) bulletproof vests were almost certainly shooting at each other well before Knoxville and his friends - they just had the technology to film it and the idea that other people would want to see it.

The appeal of Jackass has always been as much about watching everyone else wet themselves with laughter as it is seeing just how much abuse a human can take. There's a definite touch of sadness here as everyone realises that they won't get together to do this kind of thing any more. 

Then again, "this kind of thing" is pretty gross. Bodily waste, rectal examinations, people getting electrocuted; at least they'll have something they can look back on with pride.

- Anthony Morris 

 

Review: Supergirl

An important part of what makes superheroes work is setting. Without a well defined backdrop, it's hard for a superhero to define themselves; being able to do more than mortal man doesn't count for much if we don't know what mortal man is doing. Batman has Gotham City, Superman has Metropolis. Supergirl has... 

Well, she has a bunch of seedy bars in outer space, where she, AKA Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) is currently enjoying a planetary pub crawl to celebrate her upcoming birthday. Despite the presence of her dog Krypto, it seems a bit lonely; having grown to almost adulthood on a chunk of Krypton that survived the planet's destruction (for a while), she doesn't really see Earth as home, nor her cousin Clark (David Corenswet) as much more than an annoying nerd.

Meanwhile elsewhere in space, a bunch of brigands led by Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthais Schoenaerts) have murdered a family - but not their youngest member, Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who has sworn vengeance. She may be (too) young, but she has a sword and a serious demeanor, which makes an impression on Kara when their paths cross. Just not enough of an impression to offer her any help, as clearly she's never seen either version of True Grit.

Then, in a space version of a carpark fight, Krem poison Krypto, and without the antidote he'll be dead in three days. Now both Kara and Ruthye are after him, only Kara thinks it's a bad idea for someone so young to be burdened by the weight of a man's death so if you're considering a drinking game you could do worse than take a swig every time a fight scene starts with Kara telling Ruthye to "stay here" (and then another drink every time she immediately moves off).

Supergirl is relatively short and small scale for a superhero movie, which works to its advantage. It's strengths largely lie around the edges of the meandering story its telling: we also get Kara's backstory, which adds a lot to her character, and around the halfway point burly bounty hunter Lobo (Jason Momoa) arrives to give proceedings a jolt with his good natured badassery. 

There's also Alcock's performance, which keeps Kara on the right side of likable early on and builds to some emotional growth that's actually earned by the end. Not everything here feels as fresh as it should - after two decades of superhero movies, unless you're really willing to mix things up you're going to be hitting a lot of notes we've heard before - but Alcock makes Supergirl a hero you want to see more of.

As for Supergirl, it never quite soars. There are enough high points to get it across the line, but the comedy is more about smirks than big laughs, the action is competent rather than memorable (guess when you have heat vision you don't really have to try too hard), the big climax is a fight on board a huge flying thing that's falling out of the sky - something that multiple Marvel movies were doing a decade ago - and while Schoenaerts does his best, the bad guys are kind of bland for people who are basically evil space vikings.

You wouldn't want to bet against superheroes, but after twenty years of domination they're no longer the new kid on the block who can pull a crowd simply by showing up. Supergirl isn't exactly more of the same, but it's not all that fresh either; as a smaller, scrappier version of something we saw a year ago, it's got a fight ahead of it.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: The Death of Robin Hood

The idea of a revisionist take on a classic hero has been around for almost as long as the heroes themselves. The Death of Robin Hood doesn't bring a lot that's new to the table; even the focus on storytelling - the role of legend in shaping and warping real people's lives - was a pretty large part of Unforgiven a generation ago. But even with this kind of revisionist take, the point is that the story continues. Every new film gives Robin Hood a chance to live on.

On the side of a bleak and barren hill, Robin Hood (Hugh Jackman) lives, waiting for people seeking revenge for his countless crimes to show up and (try to) kill him. It seems that being a bandit was a license to rob and kill without pity; his good deeds (and Maid Marion) were all made up, while his brutal decades-long murder spree was wiped from the legend.

One thing that wasn't fictional was Little John (Bill Skarsgard), who turns up with a problem. A decade or so ago, he murdered a man, stole his identity, and took his farm and wife. It all worked out fine - the wife loved him, they had a daughter - but the locals finally cottoned on, threw him out, and claimed it all for themselves. Now he wants it back, and he needs Robin's help.

Robin says sure - he's basically just hoping to find someone tough enough to kill him anyway - and a series of extremely violent and somewhat horrifying murders take place. Robin isn't killed but he comes pretty close, and Little John ships him off to an island priory, where the woman in charge (Jodie Comer) is a renowned healer with a tragic past of her own.

Things progress from there, though not in the way you might expect. Robin does heal and becomes the protector of the island in a fashion, but his method of staving off the expected carnage shows him gradually growing in a way unrelated to his (already pretty impressive) skills with the bow and knife. Even on the island, he can't escape his past; his only way forward is to embrace it, for good or ill.

Jackman has form in this area, with Logan being a somewhat similar take on Wolverine. Visually his Hood is a scruffier, shaggier character; Jackman's performance suggests someone forced down a path he'd rather have not chosen, his killing skills an asset in a way that his other talents (he's a natural storyteller; in the few scenes where he gets to use that talent Jackman dials up the warmth) could never be in a violent world driven by revenge.

Unsurprisingly the tone is dour and brooding, especially early on, set in a bleak and windswept landscape that has little to do with Sherwood Forest. This grim setting undercuts the drama somewhat; this isn't a place where the thrilling tales of Robin Hood would seem even remotely plausible to the struggling inhabitants. A stirring tale of adventure this is not.

Strong performances all round (including Australian actor Murray Bartlett as the island's leprous orchard keeper) do eventually pay off, and thanks to a story that slowly struggles towards the light this becomes more than the one note slaughterfest it initially promises to be. Jackman's take is about as far from the swashbuckling hero as you can get, but a connection of sorts to the legend eventually surfaces; a good story always wins out in the end.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Toy Story 5

Does the world need another Toy Story movie? It's a bit of an odd question, as you'd be hard pressed to name any movies the world actually needs (well, aside from safety ones from the 70s about not putting your hand in a blender). But with the Toy Story story having pretty much wrapped up with the third film, and the fourth being generally seen as a tolerable but pointless extension, what hope is there for number five?

While your mileage may vary, Toy Story 5 does make a reasonable case for its existence, thanks largely to two things: Jessie (Joan Cusack) steps up into the lead role, with Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) now the sidekick and Woody (Tom Hanks) as Special Guest Star, and the story is about something shiny and new.

That new thing being the world of screens, which we're informed fairly early on has led to the end of the Age of Toys. Well, not Jesse and the rest of the supporting cast (who this time are barely more than cameos), thanks to their current owner Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) being built different from the average screen-addled pre-teen.

This does have a downside when it comes to connecting with the other kids (fans of the classic Pixar approach to emotional devastation will be glad to know this gets in early and hard with Bonnie sadly asking her parents why nobody will be friends with her). Her parents have the solution; a kid friendly tablet named Lilypad (Greta Lee), on which she can play games with the kids from her dance class via "the pond".

Jesse is horrified at the idea of Bonnie just randomly fishing for friends. The cool kids will eat her alive; Jesse's own unresolved trauma at being cast aside by her first owner has, of course, nothing to do with it. Lilypad's sassy attitude doesn't help matters much, and soon the war is on - and in war, the newest technology always has an edge.

Jesse calls in Buzz, who's out in the world working alongside Bo Peep (Annie Potts) rescuing discards tossed aside as screens re-order toy society. Plans go awry, toys get lost, Jesse ends up back on her old farm teaming up with a bunch of obsolete electronic toys in need of a recharge, and are screens really the problem or is it just that little kids can be jerks?

Meanwhile, a shipping container of all-new Buzz Lightyear toys has been washed up (and broken open) on a tropical isle. They come to life, break out of their packaging, get busy surviving, and find meaning in their lives: find Star Command. But what does their quest have to do with the rest of the story? 

It's a solid mix of heart-wrenching emotional drama for toys and kids (tears will be shed) alongside some well-crafted physical action, each amplifying the other while it all moves along at a bouncy pace. Bumping Woody to a supporting character (the running joke is that he's now seen as past it, with a bald patch repeatedly deployed for humorous effect) helps to avoid the feeling of fan service, while Buzz (the original) is largely fumbling around trying to figure out a way to propose to Jesse.

The verdict on screen time is surprisingly nuanced - there's no bad way to play, just bad people to play with - and using your imagination is prized no matter what. There's a number of sequences animated in a looser style showing the stories the kids have come up with for their toys that are entertainingly bonkers; fancy costume balls and extravagant weddings are mashed up with bomb plots and murder in a way that makes playtime seem a lot of fun.

The series hammers home hard the idea that toys should be passed on when the owners grow tired of them, which feels like a counter to the argument that the Toy Story series should have ended a decade ago. And - as the film almost but not quite acknowledges - the idea of living toys that watch over kids and know what's best for them is moving ever closer to high-tech reality. Enjoy your imagination while you can.

- Anthony Morris 

 

Review: Disclosure Day

Disclosure Day is a movie about aliens in much the same way as your average Mission: Impossible movie was about whatever was on the USB everyone was rushing around trying to grab. Aliens are what drives the story, but they're not what the story is about. Unfortunately, while the M:I movies eventually figured out that what they were about were insane stunts that were fun to watch, Disclosure Day is often about running around a lot while only moving forward a little.

That said, being directed by Steven Spielberg does mean that much of that running around is firmly entertaining, and every now and again he throws in a quality action sequence to perk things up. But for much of the running time this falls between two (or more) stools, as the plot never quite comes together while never really using its slipshod nature to throw in some entertaining curveballs.

Half the story is about whistleblower Daniel (Josh O'Connor, taking it seriously), on the run with a treasure trove of data covering decades of alien encounters. With him is Jane (Eve Hewson), his girlfriend who proves to be both asset and liability; pursuing him is a corporate entity known as Wardex, led by a very hands-on Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), who aside from running a giant organisation and having dismissive meetings with military top brass is also the only one who can successfully use the alien tech they have stashed away.

The other half of the story is about weatherwoman Margaret (Emily Blunt, keeping it light), who is hoping to move up to real reporting but who seems a little frazzled for that kind of responsibility. Then she becomes multi-lingual, develops the ability to sense - and solve - other people's issues, starts speaking a weird alien language live on air, and ends up in the sights of Wardex. Fortunately her new psychic skills turn out to be an advantage in these situations.

They run around a lot across rural America before their paths cross, and there's even more running after that. Being on the run does get a little repetitive, though the bursts of action spice things up and keep the tension relatively high. More of a problem is the lack of any real menace from Wardex, though Scanlon does get one pretty creepy scene of long-distance psychic manipulation, which suggests a much scarier and more paranoid film then the one we get.

There's also the occasional discussion as to whether revealing the truth about aliens is a good idea. This is largely couched in religious terms, where the big question is "what happens if aliens replace God in human society?" Even the characters in the film don't really take this seriously as a proposition, though some aliens are tortured and die off-camera for our sins. 

It's not a problem that this ends up being much more about the characters than the aliens. It is a problem that it ends up being about these characters, as for plot reasons their backgrounds are largely hidden for much of the film in a way that makes them feel a little thinly sketched. The performances are all good (Blunt is often in comedy mode, and is the better for it), but for a character-based drama as this turns out to largely be, these characters are lacking.

With the alien side of things being surprisingly traditional, the most interesting material here is on the fringes. The world is moving to the brink of war but it's only glimpsed here and there; the alien encounters are dream-like and fragmentary; Margaret's boyfriend Jackson (Wyatt Russell) is the most likable character here but his role diminishes as things progress. 

Oh, and the big ending is the one point where this film takes a big swing; it's also something you could cut out (or just end the film right before it happens) and not really change the story we've just been told.

President Nixon getting drunk and wanting to impress a 50s TV star with a freezer full of alien corpses is pretty funny though.

- Anthony Morris 

 

Review: Scary Movie

You know what you're going to get with a Scary Movie. That's not to say they can't fail at what they do - it's more that at least part of the joke is that the bar is set pretty low. There's a gag early on that a character stops texting someone and calls them because the audience for these films can't read. Seems a bit harsh, but it did get a laugh.

Loosely wrapped around a "somehow, Ghostface returned" plot lifted from pretty much any one of the Scream movies (their recent revival goes some way towards explaining why this series is back) are a bunch of references to other horror movies, some of which are actually funny. A fatality-packed Final Destination amusement park, a line that a situation would be just like the one in It Follows only nobody saw that movie and the premise didn't really make sense, a riff on The Substance; you get the idea.

The plot barely hangs together - the people who are brutally murdered tend to stay dead, but that's about it for continuity - but it does organise itself around a recent trend in legacy horror: there's the original cast (in this case Marlon and Shawn Wayans are back, plus Anna Farris, Regina Hall, and Dave Sheridan as Deputy Doofy), and there's the new generation, which includes Wednesday Adams parody Tuesday (Savannah LeeNassif), Sara (Olivia Rose Keegan) and the not at all suspicious Jack (Cameron Scott Roberts).

The parodies here reach beyond horror - there's an animated K-Pop Demon Hunters sequence and a decent send-up of Michael focusing on another member of the Jackson family, to name two - and they vary from barely a reminder that the original exists to occasionally insightful. 

There's also a lot of stoner jokes, gay jokes, Black jokes, Covid jokes, DEI hire jokes, and so on, none of which are all that shocking or offensive. Plus there's a trans character who is treated - for a Scary Movie - with a surprising amount of respect (the only joke is how, after transitioning, he is more of a dude than the other dudes). Men with micropenises do not receive the same level of support.

But the whole deal here is quantity over quality, and with a run time barely over 80 minutes before the credits (there are scenes during the end credits, but nothing at the end of the end credits) this packs in enough that you can't really complain about the size of the portions. 

So is it any good? Not really, but that's beside the point. This is designed to be seen with a large audience that's committed to reacting to what's on the screen. Groans, boos, shocked gasps, befuddlement, it's all good. The occasional laugh? Yeah, you might get a couple of those too.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Masters of the Universe

There's not a lot to work with in the Masters of the Universe, uh, universe. There are good guys and bad guys, a handful of locations - one good, one evil, one they can fight over - and pretty much the closest any of them get to having a character is a rip-off from superhero comics where a nerdy guy turns into the hero by saying some magic words. So this is a movie we can safely sit out? Not so fast.

Taking not so much a leaf as a whole entire tree grown from the Barbie playbook, this take on the toy franchise is not only a solid (if a touch generic) action-adventure tale, but a story that interrogates exactly what the popularity of the toys means to the audience. Is a muscle-bound, scantily-clad sword-wielder a real role model? Is his nerdy, sensitive alter-ego more the way to go? Why not both?

Our story begins on He-Man's homeworld, where the eight year-old Prince Adam (Artie Wilkinson-Hunt) is failing at being trained to be a deadly warrior by Man-at-Arms (Idris Elba), much to the displeasure of his father (James Purefoy). Why all the pressure? The answer soon arrives in the form of Skeletor (Jared Leto) and his army of freaks and thugs - plus magic user Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie). 

When Castle Greyskull is breached, only the quick work of the Sorceress (Morena Baccarin) sends Adam and the Sword of Power through a portal to Earth and safety. Only he loses the sword, and spends the next fifteen-odd years growing up to be a sensitive HR manager (complete with He/Him pronouns) who's also kind of a creepy weirdo obsessed with swords and living in a room covered with drawings of action figures (it's his way of remembering the people from his past).

All the Earth stuff is really just to establish that the adult Adam (Nicolas Galitzine) is a bit of a dork. So when he finally finds the sword, and touching it alerts everyone to where it is, he's far from ready to deal with what happens next. It's only when his now grown-up classmate Teela (Carmila Mendes) arrives to bring him home that he starts to get a grip on things beyond his sword - and even then he's far from ready to deal with a home planet now ruled by Skeletor.

Chances are if anyone's thought of a He-Man joke in the last few decades, it'll turn up here (memes included). It turns out the embarrassing names of all the classic toys - Fisto and Ram Man, to name two - were given to them by Adam as a child on Earth; he didn't know their real names, and they're not pleased to hear what he now calls them, even if he is their biggest fan. 

On the evil side of the street, Skeletor is both menacing and extremely camp, an actual threat that gives the movie real stakes while also being a preening egomaniac constantly frustrated by his loser underlings. Most of all, he's fun; we might not see Leto's face, but this is his best performance in ages. Though he's a first amongst equals here, with strong performances across the board bringing this collection of action figures to life.

None of the individual elements here are a stand-out, but taken as a whole this is an enormously entertaining and wildly satisfying romp that respects the original IP while also treating it as a comedy goldmine. It's a film for all ages (parents might want to come up with an explanation for the multiple 'Fisto' jokes) that's big on both action and comedy while still managing to have a few things to say about growing up obsessed with action figures.

It also makes Trap Jaw an actual threat, which is pretty impressive in and of itself. C'mon, he's named Trap Jaw!

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Backrooms

 

As a viral YouTube hit with multiple videos and a growing amount of lore, “The Backrooms” was an obvious candidate for the big screen. Well, obvious until you stopped to think about it. How are you going to make a successful movie out of creeping people out by slowly wandering around a bizarre maze that’s mostly just a weird take on the service areas hidden from the public at stadiums and hotels?

“Add characters” is the obvious answer, even if it threatens to defuse the atmosphere the series relies on. Fortunately, Clarke (Chiweltel Ejiofor) has a lot going on even before things get spooky. A former architect now running a half empty furniture warehouse (where he also lives), his sessions with therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) reveal a man filled with anger who sees being alone as his natural state.

After a spate of strange electrical issues at the store, he discovers a… weak spot in the wall, which he can pass through and enter a sodium-lit mirror of the real world, filled with items sinking into the floor and walls that don’t make sense. It’s strange, but nothing more than that, right?

Oh wait, right at the start of the film we saw a found footage sequence involving someone in a biohazard suit hurrying through the same creepy location, only he was scared out of his wits that something bad was going to happen. And then it did. There’s something roaming the backrooms and it doesn’t seem friendly.

The horror here is balanced between a bunch of jump scares and chase sequences in the backrooms - all effectively handled by first time director Kane Parsons (creator of the original YouTube shorts) - and the wider mystery of what might be going on in an endless space that seems to clumsily mimic the memories of those who stumble into it.

The unsettling vibe of endless bland corridors and rooms is what makes the concept work, and this fits enough of that in to keep things faithful while building on the concept just enough to make it satisfying as a stand alone film. Are the backrooms a reflection of the recesses of our mind? Or some place trying to copy and replace reality itself? Maybe it’s neither, or both, or something else.

For those who have been following the YouTube saga, you’re not left out.  This is pretty much a parallel tale - this is happening here, the YouTube stuff is over there, and the Backrooms are endless so there’s plenty of room for both. You don’t need to be up with the mythos to get what’s happening on the occasions when it does intrude, but it’s a nice little Easter egg if you are.

This is the kind of story where less (explanation) is more, and Parsons knows we’re here to be creeped out, not learn a lesson or be handed an extended metaphor for AI generated content. It’s basically a two hander set in a terrifyingly alien yet superficially mundane location where curiosity is just one of the things that’ll get you killed. You'll never look at a service corridor the same way again.

 

- Anthony Morris 

Review: The Mandalorian and Grogu

You don't have to be a box office expert to know that the only movies people are currently leaving their homes to see are the movies that offer them something they can't get at home. Which is not great news for The Mandalorian and Grogu, a movie that's literally just an extended episode of a television series that already looks like a halfway decent movie.

The flip side, of course, is that it's the return of the Star Wars franchise to the big screen after seven or so years of struggle on television. And it really does feel like Star Wars, in that it's a fairly episodic string of adventures featuring loads of creatures and decent action tied together by an overarching plot that leads to a big "good versus evil" climax. There's even X-Wing fighters!

So while it's hardly a must see (though it does look good in IMAX if that's an option), it is a fun time at the movies. There's no real backstory required either if you're coming in cold: Mando (the voice and sometimes body of Pedro Pascal) and baby yoda Grogu are badasses for hire who are currently working with the now-victorious rebels (this is set after Return of the Jedi) cleaning up the galaxy by bringing in Imperial holdouts.

After a solid all-action opening that establishes their kick-arse credentials, they're given a mission by their boss and paymaster Ward (Sigourney Weaver) that's a little more complicated than most. To track down an extra evil former Imperial officer (important point: nobody knows what he looks like), they have to get his location from a pair of Hutts (as in Jabba the Hutt) who will only help out if their nephew Rotta is rescued and brought back to them.

So our heroes have to head off to a very cyberpunk-ish city on a small moon, where crime rules the streets and the Hutt they're looking for is being held by a local crime boss who runs a death sport operation. After some entertaining information gathering involving a bar fight and an offer Mando can refuse, they find Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White). Twist number one: he's fighting of his own free will (and getting swole doing it) as a way to renounce his family's criminal heritage - he's the son of Jabba, and his relatives want him dead to claim the family business.

Things only get more complicated from there, mostly in ways that involve fighting monsters, stormtroopers, and droids. There's nothing here that's truly stand-out - the action is good and well thought out but not amazing, while the story keeps the pace up and the stakes relatively low - but it does all flow together well to create a satisfying, if never outstanding, whole.

Pascal does some great voice acting here, and his affection for Grogu really comes through. Grogu is a puppet most of the time, but a cute one (and the way most of his Force-jumping scenes are clearly just someone throwing a doll around is fun). Considering they're a guy in an expressionless helmet and a muppet with maybe three expressions, they're a great team to watch. 

It's very much a kid-friendly space western, which is what 85% of all Star Wars movies and series should be. As far as human drama goes, for long stretches of this film there aren't even human faces on the screen. It's in no way essential viewing: it feels like exactly the kind of film parents take their half interested kids to, and then spend the next week explaining that no, they're not going to go see it again. 

A long time ago, the Star Wars brand was strong enough to sell pretty much anything. Now it has to earn an audience just like everyone else. This feels like a back-to-basics acknowledgement of that reality. But in a world where you can get this kind of thing at home, a trip to the cinema might as well be a galaxy far, far away.

- Anthony Morris 

 

Review: Finding Emily

It's a tale as old as time: a young man, convinced that a woman he hardly knows and can't currently contact, is the love of his life. Another young woman aids him in his quest for her own reasons; long before the man realises it, everyone else can see that his real love is standing right beside him.

Finding Emily does a lot with this premise, not all of it successful. A big part of the story is that the quest goes viral, which raises a lot of questions that the film doesn't exactly ignore, but that don't quite fit the breezy vibe the story is going for. You need an angle if your rom-com idea is going to cut through, but sometimes sticking to the basics is your best move.

Those basics being: Owen (Spike Fearn) works at a Manchester university as a sound technician. Don't worry, he's student-aged, and as he's in a non-teaching role he's able to date students... if any of them were interested.

One night at the noisy club where his job is mostly to keep the music under the legal limit, he meets a girl and they hit it off. One problem: when she gives him her number, she leaves a digit out. Owen is sure it's a legitimate mistake and not an attempt to fob him off, and so begins his quest.

With only a name to go on, his first fumbling attempts lead him to Emily (Angourie Rice), a psych student who really, really needs a hook to hang her final project on. Her thesis is that love is basically rubbish; Owen's clearly doomed flailings seem the perfect example - now all she has to do is keep him searching. Fingers crossed he doesn't find out the whole basis for their friendship was built on a lie!

Things rapidly escalate when an attempt to use the university's mailing list to hit up every Emily exposes his scheme to all of them (pro tip; BCC is your friend), turning his quest into an online trending topic. It's a case of two steps forward, one step back as the public struggles to decide whether he's a creep or a nice guy looking for love; turns out being good on the guitar still counts for a lot in today's romance economy.

There's a lot going on here, maybe a little too much. There's a large cast of characters, some of which don't earn their keep; Owen's backstory includes a dead mother and a brother looking to sell the family home out from under him; Emily has a years-long doomed obsession with a guy clearly not that interested in her. His being an online sensation adds a few jokes but doesn't seem essential, though it is tied in to Emily spurring him on.

The real problem with the overly cluttered storyline is that the relationship between Owen and Emily is a good enough reason to keep watching in and of itself - so much so that the other hijinx eventually start to feel like a distraction. Fearn is consistently likable as an aimless drifter seeking salvation in love (while also not wanting to be creepy about it), while Rice is even better as the often-flustered Emily, who is rapidly in over her head in a number of ways.

Finding Emily has other strengths - the jokes are pretty good for starters - but the central relationship is both endearingly earnest and sweetly authentic, and the scenes where they're just spending time together are easily the strongest. The world around them might be chaotic, but what they have between them is real; they're a fun couple and it's hard not to want them to make it work.

Which, when you boil it down, is all you want from a film like this.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Mortal Kombat II

A rare Hollywood sequel that delivers on what the first film set up, Mortal Kombat II is packed with, well, combat of the mortal variety. It's a film where someone delivers a heart-rending monologue to a fallen adversary while the massive circular saw blade they were power-slammed onto is still spinning through their torso, spraying blood everywhere. So the real question is: why isn't this more awesome?

The first film ran right up to the edge of the promised tournament for the fate of "Earth Realm" then stopped. So we start with a bit of backstory here: after her father failed to defeat the evil Shao Khan (Martyn Ford), dooming her realm to his brutal leadership, Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) has become one of the tyrant's most potent weapons. Together with her bodyguard Jade (Tati Gabrielle), she's at the forefront of his latest battle - conquering Earth.

Meanwhile,  for reasons best known to the gods, Earth's final champion has been chosen: washed up 90s action star Johnny Cage (Karl Urban). Despite the best efforts of Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and the rest, he refuses the call. But the gods care not for his desires.

Both of these storylines are a solid basis for a film. Unfortunately, they're surrounded by lore, surplus characters, a story that probably has too much going on - Shao Khan is also after an amulet that will make him immortal, and therefore impossible to defeat in combat - and a bunch of other characters coming back from the dead. Though as one of them is Kano (Josh Lawson), easily the comedy highlight of this and the previous film, the loss of dramatic stakes is probably worth it.

Returning director Simon McQuoid does a solid job with the fights, of which there are many, and the often insanely gory finishing moves are much appreciated. Urban does his best to milk the comedy from his blowhard character, though his Cage works best when he's actually trying to do the right thing. Kitana's story is where the real drama lies; a tighter focus on the two leads might have sidelined some of the fan favourite fighters, but would have made for a stronger film.

There's one brief flashback to explain a side character's backstory, but if you don't have strong memories of where the previous film ended you're largely on your own. It's not a big problem, even when towards the end a conflict that seemed pretty much definitively concluded in the first film is dug up because the characters involved are cool and it's cool to have them fight again. Mortal Kombat II: cool fights are cool.

If only they could figure out a way to have the very first second of the film be the cry of "Mortal Kombat!!!" from Techno Syndrome like the first 90s one did. 

- Anthony Morris 

Review: The Devil Wears Prada 2

The first Devil Wears Prada was, amongst other things, aspirational. If you worked hard and put up with a lot of crap, your dreams could come true; the comedy part was that Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) wanted to be a serious journalist but was stuck in the world of fashion - a world she came to realise was in its own way as serious and worthy of respect as any other.

In 2026, who aspires to work in the media? The most considered part of this sequel - which mostly does everything right without ever doing anything interesting - is the way it tackles this problem head-on. We're reunited with Andy as she's about to collect an award for journalism; the real prize comes when she and everyone else at her table get fired by text.

So she needs a job. Meanwhile, her former employer Runway is in trouble, having accidentally run a glowing story about a fashion label that secretly uses sweatshop labor. Now they're being mocked on the internet; worse, the advertisers are using it as an excuse to screw them over. Editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) is less than impressed by the response imposed on her by the magazine's owner: Andy, icon of journalist legitimacy that she is, is now Runway's new features editor.

Nigel (Stanley Tucci) never left, so three-quarters of the old gang are back together, and former rival Emily (Emily Blunt) is now doing marketing at Dior so she's around as well. Andy struggles with the idea of putting together quality stories that also get clicks - Runway is now more of an online brand, with all the slashed budgets and dirty work that entails - but bigger financial problems are on the horizon.

Most of what passes for dramatic tension here comes from the tug-of-war between surviving in a barren media environment and continuing to peddle a very luxe image. It's not really surprising that it comes down to appeasing various members of the ultra-rich to allow them to exist; at least this has the honesty to wonder aloud if even the best possible option will still allow them editorial freedom.

None of this fits well with the glamourous escape promised by the world of high fashion, and the various character arcs are much more about surviving than thriving. Everyone is doing about as well as could be realistically expected, but this is not a film where you come out envious of anything beyond the outfits.

Those outfits are almost worth the price of admission on their own; it's an increasingly rare pleasure to see good-looking people dressed well on the big screen. It's also rare to see a cast list as overstuffed as this one. At a time when even big budget releases veer towards "two people, one room", this is packed with extraneous friends and lovers and assistants who turn up for a handful of scenes and leave no impact. 

Even Andy's new love interest (played by Australian Patrick Brammell) gets the bare minimum to create an arc (meet cute, first date, couch cuddle with ambiguous ending, reunited) in a subplot that might have been aspirational if their only topic of conversation wasn't rennovations.

Fortunately, the four leads are all fully focused, and the film makes sure we get plenty of hang time and snappy dialogue without being distracted by pointless drama. Andy is still an excitable puppy, Nigel is the caring mentor, Emily is quality comedy relief without going too broad, and ice-cold Miranda is as cutting as ever... just so long as you don't notice that the entire plot is driven by moments where her authority is undercut, or worked around, or simply ignored.

She's still got it, obviously; who doesn't love an icon that makes the case that keeping your emotions to yourself is how you succeed in life? But the promotion subplot that gives Miranda reason to care feels more like they're trying to kick her upstairs and out of the way; her vision remains big, it's just the screens that got small.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: The Deb

Much like weddings, debutante (or "deb") balls provide a rock solid structure for a film that wants to build up to a big finish. There's plenty to organise, people are under stress, there's the whole "find a date" angle, and the big night is an explosion of fancy outfits and dodgy dancing. So why not base a musical on the whole thing? Why not indeed.

When a feminist protest at her elite private school goes wrong - well, it doesn't go wrong exactly, it's just unclear how flashing the entire school was meant to achieve anything - the aggressively outspoken culture warrior Maeve Barker (Charlotte MacInnes) is sent out west to hide out with her country cousin Taylah Simpkins (Natalie Abbott) and her father Rick (Shane Jacobson) in the drought-stricken town of Dunburn.

Taylah is at the low end of the town's social ladder, constantly pranked by a trio of mean girls led by Annabelle (Stevie Jean), daughter of the town's beautician, Janette (Rebel Wilson, who also directs). Taylah's dreams of a date to the upcoming Deb ball have been dashed yet again; maybe her cool cousin will be able to help her out?

Maeve finds the whole thing a retrograde disaster with a big slice of sexism on top; the only way she can stand to be around any of the locals is by starting a podcast designed to mock and expose their backwards ways. This, of course, will not come back to bite her on the arse when she eventually warms to her cousin and her plight.

Based on a 2022 stage musical by Hannah Reilly and Meg Washington (Reilly also wrote the screenplay), parts of this are a reminder of just how quickly culture moves these days; the opening musical number 'FML' features bitchy teens with minor complaints about their pampered lives (never goes out of style) with what's best described as weaponised performative wokeness (which now feels very much like a 2022 thing).

The film is on steadier, if somewhat more well-trod, ground once it gets to the country. Reilly seems aware that audiences have seen this kind of thing before, and the story rushes through a number of familiar twists and turns (plus a few new ones) in a way that can feel a little breathless at times. 

Then again, there's a bunch of songs to fit in, and the numerous numbers are consistently catchy. Abbott and MacInnes are charismatic stand-outs both musically and as actors, keeping their characters relatable despite the occasional whiplash change in standing or situation. The tone is camp, except when it's not, and at times it's a little tricky to separate the comedy from the moments we're meant to care about.

Rebel Wilson is also in this, so you know what to expect there. Whatever comedic flair she displayed a decade or so ago has largely faded; even as the main antagonist she's miscast. Her directing (this is her debut behind the movie camera) is competent at best, and that's mostly during the musical numbers where the choreography is doing the hard work.

Dunburn is largely populated by stock stereotypes animated by ham-fisted performances (the local cop is played by Sam Simmons, which should give you an idea of what's being served up), which become even more jarring when things take a turn for the serious towards the end - so much so that a comedy cameo from the late Julian McMahon, while funny in isolation, simply doesn't work. 

High energy is always welcome in a comedy musical, but at times this feels like a film of two parts: the songs, the leads and a sweet subplot involving Rick make this an entertaining romp with heart, while Wilson and much of the supporting cast are going for the kind of broad strokes that often distinguishes Australian big screen comedy.  

Well, maybe "distinguishes" isn't quite the right word. 

- Anthony Morris 

Review: The Drama

Much of the early discussion around The Drama has been focused on spoiler culture. The film's plot involves a revelation around twenty minutes in that critics have been asked not to mention - so don't go looking for it here. 

That said, if critics hadn't been warned ahead of time, it's unlikely anyone would have considered it a spoiler. It's basically just what the movie is about, like trying to hide the fact that Star Wars takes place in a galaxy far, far away. What can be said at this stage is this: couple Charlie (Robert Patterson) and Emma (Zendaya) are hurtling towards their looming wedding when one of them reveals something that turns everything on its head.

It's the nature of what's revealed that's the big secret, which is a bit weird because as far as shocking revelations go it doesn't quite work. It's like writer / director Kristoffer Borgli tried to think of the most inflammatory thing he could (for a US audience at least) that was also politically neutral - it's something nobody on either side of that divided nation can support.

The thing is, the character (okay, its Emma) didn't actually go through with it, and it's fairly easy to imagine anyone hearing about it (it's revealed during a drunken session of "what's the worst thing you've ever done") just thinking that yeah, teens do tend to get a bit excessive, let's move on. 

For the story to properly hang together, this reveal needs to be earth-shattering and basically unforgivable, the kind of thing that would change how you see someone forever. Instead, the revelation is a bit wobbly, something that needs to be sold to us over and over rather than hitting like a hammer. 

Fortunately, much of this burden falls on Patterson, who is basically playing a Hugh Grant character from the 1990s. It's extremely plausible that he would obsess over even a minor revelation, so his gradual but growing commitment to the worst possible decisions - which drives a lot of the comedy here - works well.

He's not the only one obsessed, though Emma is largely focused on dredging up her past. Neither of them are in the right headspace heading into a big fancy wedding, and their constant stumbles over many of the decisions required only add to the growing sense of doom.

There's a long tradition of films where the selling point is the walk back to the car afterwards where couples get to ask "what would you do if that happened to us?". The question is as important as the resolution, and on that level, this succeeds - which again, is probably why critics have been asked not to reveal that side of things.

Aside from that, what's left? The romance is deftly established then slowly demolished, helped along by two likable (for the most part) performances. Weddings always make for great drama, and this takes full advantage. 

As cringe comedies go, this isn't all that cringe-worthy. The big laughs come from comedy juxtapositions and oblivious outsiders; Charlie's slow-motion car-crash approach to messing things up never quite hits the high notes. 

That's possibly because it's all in character for him: the movie begins with him retelling the story of how they met-cute, only it's based on him lying about having read a book then telling that lie into Emma's deaf ear, giving him a chance to get out but instead he doubles down (and later on, doubles down again). 

This is just how he rolls, and Emma loves him anyway. A feel good - or at least, not an aggressively feel-bad - ending is all but guaranteed, no matter how badly things go wrong. How badly, you ask? When it comes to the central dilemma, it's safe to reveal this: it involves a gun.

- Anthony Morris 

 

 

Review: They Will Kill You

The cheap joke currently doing the rounds is that They Will Kill You and Ready or Not 2 (out last week) are pretty much the same movie. And yeah, the basics - young woman is trapped in a deadly location by murderous wealthy Satanists and has to fight her way out while repairing her relationship with her estranged sister - are somewhat similar. Is there enough of a difference in their approaches to set them apart? Let's break it down.

They're both as much horror as action, but the angle of attack here is closer to a cartoony Sam Raimi-esque take than Ready or Not 2's slightly more grounded approach. Occasionally this will take the time to break out a memorable image, comic-book-style; likewise, the fondness for pulling back to show a tunnel crawl or corridor fight from an impossible angle gives this a nice visual flair.

The action (as with Ready or Not 2) does suffer a bit from the current Hollywood trend where the action is a big part of the story while never really being all that different from the action in any other story. It's very well done here, and there is the occasional moment of visual flair, but even when it's trying to be gritty it's really just people running through a set of poses - which can be impressive, but ever since John Wick made this style the mainstream we're all very much used to it.

Where this does step up is in the gore side of things. The twist here is that the rich Satanists have been granted immortality by their dark master, which means whatever you do to them - cut off limbs, blow off heads - it just grows back. Also, the severed parts have the ability to keep on keeping on, which comes in handy (as it were). 

Zazie Beetz (as Asia Reeves) does an excellent job in the lead, so much so that the film feels built around her - her mix of exasperation and annoyance perfectly suits the over-the-top nature of the challenges she faces, while the occasional moment of more realistic emotion comes off well. She also does a good job of selling the fight scenes, which definitely doesn't hurt.

Lilith (Patrica Arquette) leads the forces of darkness with a wandering Irish accent that makes sense for the character but is still a little distracting, while Sharon (Heather Graham) is the standout amongst the expendable rich - she's the only one that seems like a plausible person, the rest are basically little more than unkillable goons.

At just over 90 minutes this isn't messing around, and there's enough variety to the action to keep things exciting even when an individual scene doesn't quite land. There's even a few well-thought-out twists in the big climax to make sure everything ends in a satisfying fashion without having to break the previously-established rules.

There's definitely room enough in cinemas for two movies about stressed-out arse-kickers taking down the Satanic rich - just maybe next time, don't release the two of them only one week apart.

- Anthony Morris 

 

Review: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

The original Ready Or Not way back in 2019 was a comedy-horror twist on final girl tropes, the latest in an off-on line of movies where rich people hunted the poor because it was fun and they were evil. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come arrives at a time when killing the rich (on screen) is more popular than ever; good thing we know the hunted pretty much always become the hunter.

Kicking off roughly one second after the end of the previous film, we see Grace (Samara Weaving) stagger out of a burning mansion in a blood-soaked wedding dress then promptly collapse, leading to a lot of unanswered questions at the local hospital. Seems like she's in a lot of trouble, even before her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) shows up for some spiky banter.

But while the police are getting heavy, the real threat is getting ready to strike. Seems surviving her wedding has triggered an upheaval in the world of the Satanic Elite, and now the whole "ruling the world" thing is in play. 

Chester Danforth (David Cronenberg), the previous title holder, is too feeble to defend his title, so it's up to his children, evil twins Titus (Shawn Hatosy) and Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar), to step up. But there's a bunch of other rivals eligible to take the crown (well, ring), and so the stage is set for a much bigger hunt in a much bigger location. But is bigger better when it comes to this kind of thing?

The story zips along and there's enough twists and turns to keep the "they're all trying to kill you" drama at least somewhat fresh. Faith's stand-alone charm doesn't add a whole lot to proceedings - anything that takes screen time away from Grace is a bad thing, as her stressed-out desperation is a large part of the appeal here - and the snarky banter drags a little, but eventually this finds a new gear to grind.

A stronger addition is Elijah Woods as Satan's smirking lawyer, the man with the big book who explains all the rules and loopholes. The kills are often entertaining, the hunters are a varied lot united by pretty much all being clueless dorks (they're often not even that good at murder), and the joke that displeasing Satan will make you explode in a shower of blood never gets old.

There's a bunch of fun scenes and strong performances (largely from Weaving and Wood), but the connecting material often feels flimsy. Still, going from not bad gags to okay banter to decent action to gory deaths and back again isn't the worst way to spend 100-odd minutes. If they do make a third film - hopscotch in a minefield perhaps - here's hoping Satan lifts his game.

- Anthony Morris