Monthly Archives: April 2025

The Last of Us: Through the Valley – TV Review

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TL;DR – It shows the strength of the production team that even when you know how the narrative will go, yet you are still sitting on the edge of your chair.    

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Max service that viewed this show.

End Credit Scene – There is a trailer and behind-the-scenes making off.

Abby looks out over the town of Jackson.

The Last of Us Review –

Look, I have to speak very vaguely here because we are on the wrong side of the spoiler zone, but when I said during our review of Future Days that I came into this season with a bit of apprehension, today’s episode was at the forefront of my mind. Could this adaptation pull off multiple story points that will echo not just throughout the show but out into general pop culture? Well, let’s have a look.  

So, to set the scene, while the New Year Party was meant to be a fount of joy for the community of Jackson, Wyoming, it ended in a confrontation that confirmed the fault lines that have grown between Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in the five years since Season One. Ellie might not know what Joel lied about, but that lie has slowly soured their relationship. But things are difficult for Jackson at the moment. It is the deep of winter, but the Infected have also been acting in different ways, and now you don’t know if you should be more concerned with things walking above or crawling below the snowline. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Sinners – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Soulful, Sanguine, Sensual, and more than a little Scandalous. It is the kind of film that one second will seduce you with the nectar of the Blues as your whole body moves along with the music but then horrify you with its brutality in the next instant.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

People dance in ecstasy as fire whips around them.

Sinners Review –

Sometimes in life, you discover, ‘Ryan Coogler is making a vampire film set in 1930s Mississippi,’ and the moment you hear it, you know that you want to see it. Few directors have had such a remarkable track record as Ryan Coogler, and that alone would make this a must-see film. But add in a cast list like this and all the world and themes you know are going to be fascinating. Goodness, what a film this could be.

So, to set the scene, Smoke (Michael B. Jordan) and Stack (Michael B. Jordan) are two legendary twins from the Mississippi Delta who left to make their names in Chicago nine years ago. But they are back with a truck full of assorted booze and enough money to make even the most racist guy in the town still want to sell them the old mill. They have a plan to create a club/bar/gambling den/music hall for the people of the plantations. Part of that was getting the best food from Grace Chow (Li Jun Li) and her family, cooked by the one person all can trust, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), with some of the best music around headlines by their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton). It was a glorious night, but sometimes music can be so good that it can pierce the veil, and not all that is good can flow from it.   

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The Last of Us: Future Days – TV Review

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TL;DR – This first episode lets us catch up with the cast and world and catch our breath before the world turns.  

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Max service that viewed this show.

End Credit Scene – There is a trailer and behind-the-scenes making off.

A group standing around some newly dug graves.

The Last of Us Review –

While the First Season of The Last of Us was a triumph, not just for Video Game adaptations but for adaptations in general, it was one of the rare works that fundamentally understood the source material, sometimes down to a shot-for-shot recreation. But also knew when some aspects needed to be refreshed or, in the case of Long Long Time, completely rewritten from the ground up. Yet, still, I came into Season Two with more than a bit of trepidation. The adaptation of the source material is going to require some hard choices, which is not going to be popular. I was there when it was released the first time and lived through that moment of ‘less than stellar’ online discourse. Yet still, I knew I had to sit down and watch, and here we are today.   

So, to set the scene, it has been five years since Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) walked away from the Firefly facility in Salt Lake City to return to Jackson. But the legacies of what Joel did, and very much lied about, live large in those who made it out of the massacre. Jackson is one of the rare places in the old America that has survived the Cordyceps Apocalypse without being under the thumb of FEDRA. But there are more than a few stragglers out there, and there are more people than construction can keep up with. Tensions remain everywhere, and the echoes of the lies we tell have started to reverberate. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Daniel’s Gotta Die – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is an amusing and chaotic film that does hold back a bit when it should embrace its premise.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

The family at a funeral.

Daniel’s Gotta Die Review –

Today, we are looking at a fundamentally odd film out of Canada. One that leans into chaos at almost every turn but never truly embraces it. Full of character actors playing right into their caricatures but finding them quite two-dimensional. It’s quite engaging, but it always holds you at arm’s length.   

So, to set the scene, one evening, Daniel Powell (Joel David Moore) woke up feeling something was off like someone was in his room. He wonders who is out there, but just when he resigns himself to it being nothing, he is attacked from behind. The Powell family is incredibly dysfunctional, more dysfunctional than anyone should be. Not that Daniel really knows his siblings because they were gone to boarding school most of the time. But they were all untied after the patriarch Edward Powell (Iggy Pop) died suddenly. All the kids need to get along for a weekend to get their inheritance, but we know that does not go well.  

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Drop – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Drop is uncomfortable and unsettling but also deeply compelling. It’s one of those thrillers that has you on the edge of your seat, wondering if anyone will make it out alive.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

A phone message to check your security cameras.

Drop Review –

Even though film is an old visual medium, it is always trying to connect with and incorporate modern technology. While some films like Searching take that concept to the extreme, others sit back and pick the lazy option and just show a message pop up on a screen. It takes a lot to have modern technology fit naturally into your movie. But today, we look at an entry that just might pull that off.

So, to set the scene, Violet Gates (Meghann Fahy) is a single mother to Toby (Jacob Robinson), and that and her work supporting victims of spousal abuse and coercive control have meant that she has not gone on a date for a very long time. But today is different; her sister Jen (Violett Beane) is coming over to babysit, and tonight, she is going out on a date with what seems like a perfect gentleman who has been chatting to her for months and has not asked for a feet pic once. Her date, Henry Campbell (Brandon Sklenar), is taking her out to a fancy restaurant called Palate, with a view right over the Chicago cityscape. It could be a perfect date, right up until she starts getting obnoxious messages on her ‘Digi-Drops’ app. They are annoying, and she is about to turn the app off when it tells her to look at her home security cameras and do whatever they ask her to do, or her sister and son are dead.

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Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution – TV Review

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TL;DR – An odd opening episode that is equally interesting, odd, and also a bit frustrating.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Belinda arrives at Miss Belinda Chandra I.

Doctor Who Review –

Well, we’re back, and the series that keeps on truckin’ is back with the second season of its third era. Doctor Who has always been a bit of an odd duck because there are times when it soars in the sky and other times when it flounders around with its but hanging in the air. Last season was a bit of both, where interesting characters and scenarios got lost at times due to a lack of focus. Will this second season work on some of those issues? Well, since it was filmed before the first episodes came out, I am not holding my breath, but I am always happy to be proven wrong.   

So, to set the scene, Miss Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) is a nurse working in a local hospital and lives a generally unremarkable life bar the time one day that an old flame bought one of those silly ‘name a star’ certificates. But the one people who did not think the certificate was ridiculous was the new robot overlords of Miss Belinda Chandra I. Who capture her and take her back to the planet, now named after her, to marry their AI overlord, who is the new royal queen of the planet. The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) is there to help, but it looks like time is in flux. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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G20 – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Much like the action films of the 1990s, which were a clear inspiration, G20 may hit just about every cliché in its runtime, yet it still gets to be a fun blast.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There are mid-credit scenes.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.

All the world leaders standing together for the group G20 photo.

G20 Review –

My background is in International Relations, and one of the many facets it explores is the strength and use of international organisations. These tend to be contextually quite dull from a Hollywood story perspective, but every now and again, my two worlds collide. Sometimes, these are pretty fascinating choices, like in The Hitman’s Bodyguard, and other times, they can be a confusing mess, like with Rumours. However, today, we are upgrading from the G7 to the G20, and calamity is afoot.  

So, to set the scene, something is very wrong in Washington DC. It is so bad that they must wake Madam President Danielle Sutton (Viola Davis) in the middle of the night. Because her daughter Serena (Marsai Martin) found a new way to get around the Secret Service and escaped the White House to go to a party. Now on her first international trip, President Sutton is on the backfoot domestically and internationally as she arrives in Cape Town, South Africa, to sell the G20 on her plan for a digital currency for farmers. The hotel was meant to be a fortress, but a fortress only protects from external threats. One surgical strike later, and the security becomes terrorists, and now twenty world leaders are hostages.     

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Dead Sea (Flycatcher) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Today, we look at a film that may have foundered at the start and end. It also found itself in the centre when it truly shined.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

A trawler on the ocean.

Dead Sea Review –

Today, we are looking at slightly odd film because usually, when films fall about, it is in the middle. But today’s outing is where the movie shines. This is such an odd juxtaposition, yet it also led to a compelling outing at times.  

So, to set the scene, Kaya Adams (Isabel Gravitt) lives in the Florida Keys, and she has to spend a lot of time looking after her family after her mother passes away. Afraid that Kaya is becoming a recluse, her best friend Tessa Miles (Genneya Walton) sets her up on a double date with Xander (Koa Tom) & Julian (Garrett Wareing) jet skiing all the way to the Bahamas. It was a delightful day until tragedy struck, and Kaya and Tessa were left alone in the ocean with a badly injured Xander. The sea is deep and full of predators, and all help is lost until they see a boat on the horizon. But little did they know that they may have been safer in the water.  

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Creature Commandos: Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – It was always going to be difficult being the vanguard of this new era, but for all its strengths, I am not sure this was the foundation that they needed.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Binge service that viewed this series.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Rick Flag, The Bride and Nina.

Creature Commandos Review –

Well, I don’t think you need to look hard to see the issues that the current DC slate of products has had in recent years. The DCEU never quite got on its feet and then floundered when choice after choice held back even well-performing films. Even their Elseworlds experiment has had issues with Joker: Folie à Deux floundering while The Penguin thrived. However, we are at an official turning point in the comic world. But can this new era thrive? And is this the best first start they can bring to the table?

So, to set the scene, the Belle Reve Correction Center is many things, including the Non-Human Internment Division. It is here where Waller (Viola Davis) and Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) watch as the Sons of Themyscira, led by Circe (Anya Chalotra), cross into the country of Pokolistan and start causing trouble. Waller cannot let that happen because America needs their oil, so it is time to activate the Creature Commandos, including The Bride (Indira Varma), GI Robot (Sean Gunn), Weasel (Sean Gunn), Dr. Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), Nina Mazursky (Zoe Chao), to lend Princess Ilana (Maria Bakalova) a hand. Now, from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Flow (Straume) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A stunning work of animation that conveys so much without saying a word. You are brought into this story in the opening moments, and it captivates you until the final frame.  

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is an end-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

Cat looks up to a big sculpture of a cat.

Flow Review –

There was one film that I wanted to catch last year, but no matter how much I tried, the film festival screenings never lined up for me. Well, since then, Flow has won the Oscars for Best Animated Film and we have finally gotten a full realise here in Australia. That meant that I had to dive in and give it a watch, and I am so glad that I did.

So, to set the scene, one day, Cat (Miut) was going about its usual day, stretching and sleeping in the old sculpture studio that it calls home and then lazily dropping down to the river to catch some dinner and get something to drink. But this day, a pack of dogs were hounding everyone by the river, and Cat had to make a run for it. But just when they thought they were safe, a cacophony of noise explodes from down the river as a deer horde races away from a flood. Cat manages to escape back to their house, but the next day, the water starts lapping against the house, and for the first time, they realise that home might no longer be safe.  

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