(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTIf you’re nice, you get presents from the Big Guy. If you’re naughty, you get justice. In 2022’s bare-knuckle holiday sensation, Violent Night, an embittered Santa, armed with lethal combat skills, took out a team of mercenaries to rescue a girl & her family. Now, not-so-jolly Saint Continue Reading
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds review: “Human Best Friend” (S3) and “A Case of Chiaroscuro” (S4)
(courtesy Memory-Alpha fandom) “Human Best Friend” (S4, E3) After the good but not great first two episodes of Strange New Worlds‘ fourth season, it was fun to see them come back playfully roaring with “Human Best Friend”. It had all the quirk and bounce of the best of the series’ Continue Reading
Movie review: The End of Oak Street
(courtesy IMP Awards) It’s likely one of the greatest tests any person can face – what do you do when your world changes, literally in an instant, and you have to confront and deal with a brand new set of circumstances with no time to prepare and no real understanding Continue Reading
Christmas preview: Joy to the World by Beth Moran
(courtesy official Beth Moran Facebook page) This Christmas, the nation’s favourite life coach is in desperate need of a little holiday magic. Alex Nixon has built a glittering TV career teaching clients how to win at life. But when a disastrous viral awards speech reveals that she has zero friends, Continue Reading
“We’re in more danger than I thought…” Star Wars: Ahsoka season 2 has a trailer full of portent and menace
(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTA spin-off from the series The Mandalorian, taking place in the same timeframe as that series set right after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983). Rosario Dawson stars as Ahsoka Tano. The character was first created for the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars Continue Reading
Movie review: A Light That Never Goes Out (Jossain on valo joka ei sammu)
(courtesy IMDb) When we are young and brimming with self confidence and optimistic expectation, it’s near impossible to think of a time when all the certainties of our youth might fall away in a kind of existential cataclysm that will make us wonder if there’s a future worth having at Continue Reading
One big angry family … The Angry Birds Movie 3 trailer
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTParenthood is a game-changer.” The birds are all back! This holiday season, one angry bird will face his greatest challenge yet, surviving fatherhood… while saving the world! The Angry Birds Movie 3 is once again directed by animation filmmaker John Rice, director of The Angry Birds 2 Continue Reading
ABBA’s Dancing Queen at 50: why we’ve spent half a century having the time of our lives (curated article)
(My original copy of the “Dancing Queen” single from 1976) Fifty years ago, Swedish pop sensation ABBA released their single “Dancing Queen”. It reached number one in 15 countries, from Australia to the US, to Norway and South Africa. Five decades later it’s still riding the airwaves, being belted out Continue Reading
New releases August book review: Algot, Anna Stina and the Water of Life by Jonas Jonasson
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) Reading has always been a great way to escape the world. When all around you things go from bad to worse, and the nothing seems to be make any kind of meaningful sense, having a written story to escape into can make all the difference. Continue Reading
A final season: Thoughts on Survival of the Thickest season three
(courtesy IMP Awards) Good lord but there such an infectious vibe to people who know and love themselves. In the nicest, least aggressive of ways (we’re not talking unreconstructed narcissists here), they own who they are, celebrate what they do and don’t feel the slightest need to begin to apologise Continue Reading