War, or more specifically, the Great War of 1914-1918 has cost Mallee farmer Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe) a great deal. In the space of one gruelling, horrifyingly bloody war at Gallipoli in 1915, at which the enduring ANZAC legend was born, he loses all three sons to enemy Turkish Continue Reading
Dinosaurs in Pawnee! The hilarious mash-up of Jurassic World and Parks and Recreation
There’s no denying that Chris Pratt’s star is in the ascendancy. After many years of playing loveable goofball Andy on Parks and Recreation, and adding his own piece of just-played-right comic genius to what is in anyone’s books a shining ensemble cast, he’s now finding increasing success in Hollywood, Continue Reading
Movie review: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
“And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.” (Raymond Carver, A New Path to the Waterfall) It is a rare thing indeed in this shout-everything-from-the-rooftop age that Continue Reading
Oh so tiny and wonderful: Ant-Man debuts poster and full trailer
SNAPSHOT The next evolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings a founding member of The Avengers to the big screen for the first time with Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man. Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, master thief Scott Lang must embrace his inner-hero Continue Reading
Thunderbirds are go … again!
One of the fondest pop culture memories of my childhood, of which there are many – even then I was juggling my time between books, TV shows, movies and music so what maketh the boy very much maketh the man – was getting up just before 6am when we Continue Reading
Can’t wait to see: Ex Machina
SNAPSHOT Alex Garland, writer of 28 Days Later and Sunshine, makes his directorial debut with the stylish and cerebral thriller, Ex Machina. Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a programmer at an internet-search giant, wins a competition to spend a week at the private mountain estate of the company’s brilliant and Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: Classic movie posters + DC superheroes = iconic images re-imagined
It’s always refreshing to see the work of people willing to think outside the box. It’s even better when it’s a venerable company like DC Comics, with a slew of much-loved characters to their name and a well-esteblished way of bringing to their fans. It would be very easy with Continue Reading
Can’t wait to go Looking some more: Season 2 trailer
It is eminently possible for life to be a many-splendoured thing. But if you’re Patrick (Jonathan Groff), Agustín (Frankie J. Álvarez) or Dom (Murray Bartlett), three friends living in San Francisco, juggling careers and busy social lives with what often feels like the endless search for Mr. Right, it can Continue Reading
My but what Big Eyes you have Tim Burton!
SNAPSHOT Directed and produced by Tim Burton, Big Eyes is based on the true story of Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), who was one of the most successful painters 1950s and early 1960s. The artist earned staggering notoriety by revolutionizing the commercialisation and accessibility of popular art with his enigmatic Continue Reading
Movie review: The Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies
If you were to take note solely of the more vociferous members of the critical chorus arraying themselves around Peter L. Jackson’s latest Middle Earth saga, The Hobbit, you could be forgiven for thinking that the three action-filled films he has formed out of Tolkien’s 1937 children’s novel and events Continue Reading