Category Archives: Movie Reviews

The Mandalorian and Grogu (Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A generally solid, if only occasionally ambitious Star Wars film, but can’t quite escape the feeling that they took a season of television and smashed it into a film.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

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

Grogu and The Mandalorian look over a sand dune.

The Mandalorian and Grogu Review Introduction

Today, we have an interesting film, as it has so many competing factors needed for it to work as a film. The Mandalorian and Grogu have to be a conclusion to a whole range of Disney+ television series, it has to be a tent-pole production bringing the cinematic glam back to the Star Wars Universe, and it has to be a good film in its own right. That is a lot of different tasks, all with their own baggage being brought to the table. Add to this a rapidly changing cinematic landscape in general, Disney+’s hit-and-miss aspect to its stories, and their profound inability to confront the toxic aspect of their own community. So yes, I’m concerned. But let’s see if they’ve managed to stick the landing.
 
So, to set the scene, since retiring from pulling bounties for more despicable people, The Mandalorian Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal/Brendan Wayne/Lateef Crowder) and his apprentice Grogu (Himself) have begun working bounties for the New Republic. Capturing those of the Imperial Remnant before they can cause more harm. But Colonel Ward gives Din Djarin a new mission deep in the territory of the Hutts. He needs to rescue Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White), but that might mean making deals with the exact people he has tried to stop working for.

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Finding Emily – Movie Review

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TL;DR – An oddly charming film that transcends some of the potential limitations by grounding the characters in a clear sense of time and place.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

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

A poster with "Missing, A Digit of Emily's Number!, you gave me 10/11th's of your number on MONDAY you were a FAIRY I was the guy with no bottle opener who'd really like to see you again Meet ME Where you found me ANY NIGHT 7pm"

Finding Emily Review Introduction

When you have been writing reviews for a while, one of the issues that comes up is that you tend to have seen everything under the sun already. It is like that friend who always knows who the murderer is five minutes into a murder mystery. However, every now and again, a film will catch you off guard, and that is what we are looking at today.   

So, to set the scene, Owen (Spike Fearn) is a caring guy trying to make a life as a sound engineer when one night at a club he is working in, he runs into Emily (Sadie Soverall). They immediately hit it off with an almost electric chemistry. To the point he almost loses his job from having a good time. But late at night, before the clock struck 12, Emily had to run off with her friends to another party, but since they were having such fun, she put her number in Owen’s phone. The next morning, Owen’s brother, Matt (Jack Riddiford) and his partner, Freya (Isabella Laughland), did find a bit of glee when Owen discovered Emily had only given her 10 of the 11 digits of her phone number. But Owen was determined, and Manchester is a university town, so someone must know who she is, right? His first attempt was a failure, but Emily Raine (Angourie Rice) was nice enough to help him on his mission, but her motives might not be all that altruistic.

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Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A wild, chaotic, Canadian ride from start to finish, where you will not know where the film will pivot to next.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Bird erupt as two men push a wheelbarrow through the city.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie Review Introduction

There is one film this year that has been recommended by every single person who has watched it. I tried to catch it in cinemas, but the times never lined up. However, it is finally out on digital I have a roast cooking in the oven, and winter has hit so you want to be inside watching something wild. It is the perfect combination to see if my friends were right about this film or not.
  
So, to set the scene, 17 years after trying to play a gig by their band Nirvanna the Band at the Rivoli, Matt Johnson (Matt Johnson) and Jay McCarrol (Jay McCarrol) have finally come up with a plan to get the gig. It might involve jumping off the CN Tower to advertise their band to a baseball stadium, and they might not have told anyone about it, and no one at the CN Tower knows what is about to happen, or that they are filming a movie.

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The Sheep Detectives – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Who knew if you smashed Knives Out into Chicken Run, you would create something so profoundly charming.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit audio sting, but you don’t need to stay for it.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

A sheep swings in a tire.

The Sheep Detectives Review Introduction

It has been a long time since a film charmed me to the core. However, that is just what happened today. Look, if you told me at the start of the year that a Hugh Jackman sheep film would be scoring high on my end-of-the-year list, I would have called you foolish. But the only fool would have been past-me, and present-me is already quite annoyed at past-me, so we can just add this to the list.  

So, to set the scene, in the charming little English town of Denbrook, lives a farmer called George (Hugh Jackman) and his flock of sheep. George loves all his sheep equally and gave them all names, because they are all special. But he also feels that Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) are the most special. Everything was going swimmingly at the farm, bar all these weird grudges that seemed to have come out of nowhere. However, one night, after reading the sheep their nighttime story, Lily woke to find George lying in the field dead … murdered. Was it the besmirched innkeeper Beth Pennock (Hong Chau), the failed shepherd Caleb (Tosin Cole), the duplicitous priest Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), the grumpy butcher Ham Gilyard (Conleth Hill), or the mysterious Rebecca Hampstead (Molly Gordon)? Whatever the case, the sheep can’t leave the case to local police officer Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), because he is plainly useless. No, if someone is going to step up and solve this murder, it is going to be someone with four hooves, copious wool, and a penchant for baaing.   

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Mortal Kombat II (2026) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A bloody fun time, if you don’t think about the plot at any point during the runtime.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

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

Johnny Cage at a con booth.

Mortal Kombat II Review Introduction

I think it is safe to say that video game adaptations can be fraught. Indeed, even when we get a solid first entry, the follow-up can often flounder. Back during the height of COVID, we got this bombastic first entry in the Mortal Kombat series. However, it was missing something very important to the game: A Tournament. Well, they are back for round two, and they are ready to fix that omission.   

So, to set the scene, in the days since the first film, everyone realised that they are down one champion after Shao Kahn’s (Martyn Ford) pre-emptive strike. This somehow did not break the rules of the tournament. There are 8 billion humans in Earthrealm, and for some reason, the Gods chose washed-up Hollywood actor Johnny Cage (Karl Urban). He thinks he’s having an aneurysm, but reality hits hard when Johnny is zapped off Earth to face Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), Shao Kahn’s adopted daughter, whose blades cut deep.

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Apex – Movie Review

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TL;DR – An interesting, if very convoluted, survival-horror film.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

Sasha hiding in the water.

Apex Review Introduction

As horror still comes in leaps and bounds in 2026, there has been an uptick in the survival-horror space. Today’s film is absolutely playing in that space as it pits two of Hollywood’s biggest stars in a fight across the Australian landscape. And well look, as far as pitches for a film go, that is a solid one.  

So, to set the scene, deep in the grand mountains of the Troll Way of Norway, Sasha (Charlize Theron) and Tommy (Taron Egerton) are making their ascent to the summit. They are the sort of people who find it exhilarating to sleep on the side of a cliff. When the weather turns, they decide, with some reluctance, to head back down, but it is too late, and in the calamity, Tommy does not make it. Months later, Sasha is trying to move on from the tragedy in Australia, out where the terrain is tough, and the satellite signal is poor. Stopping off for supplies, a local, Ben (Taron Egerton), recommends a secluded camping spot, not as secluded as advertised. But worse, as Sasha goes deeper into the bush, she quickly realises that help might not be friendly, and there is something sinister hiding in the bush, something that will give her to the end of a song to run, and then the hunt is on.      

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Touch Me – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While this is a profoundly weird and visually interesting film, the subject matter almost became a walking red flag, undercutting any progress the film could make.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

The four main cast illuminated in red light.

Touch Me Review Introduction

I will always prefer a film that takes risks rather than playing it safe, like having one man battle Hundreds of Beavers or piercing the veil of nostalgic memory through old videos in Aftersun. However, when you make a big swing at doing something profoundly odd, sometimes you miss, and I feel that is the sort of film we are looking at today.
 
So, to set the scene, we open with Joey (Olivia Taylor Dudley) engaging in some immersion therapy, recounting the story of the time she met and then ‘met’ an ‘alien’ called Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci). Joey has been trying to move on with her life, but she keeps getting brought back to that night, bringing with it many conflicting memories. But when her and her roommate Craig’s (Jordan Gavaris) house floods from a non-water plumbing issue and becomes uninhabitable, she has only one choice left, to go back to Brian.  

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Biker (బైకర్) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – There is an interesting story here, if you are willing to sit through some of the more convoluted parts of the narrative.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service to view this film.

Live to Ride, on the side of a motorbike.

Biker Review Introduction

It has been a while, but it is time to jump back into the world of Indian Cinema, with an interesting period sports film out of Tollywood. One of the things that I love about world cinema is seeing how different countries adapt themes that I have experienced in my local cinematic world. The differences and similarities, and it is that space that we work in today.

So, to set the scene, it’s 2003, in Hyderabad, India. Vikas “Vicky” Narayan (Sharwanand) is living with his wife Ananya (Malvika Nair) and son Ishaan (Shourya Chelemella). It is not a perfect life, as his son struggles in school, but it is one he loves. However, when the duplicitous Chairman of IGN, Indraneel Chirag (Atul Kulkarni), comes after Vicky’s estranged father Sunil Narayan (Rajasekhar/ P. Sai Kumar), Vicky must decide if he wants to save his father by jumping back into a world he had left behind: Motocross GP.  

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Michael – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A complicated film about a complicated person that stops just short of having to draw any lines in the sand by creating an interesting framing device for its narrative.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

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

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

Warning – Contains scenes with flashing lights.

The crowd cheers for Michael.

Michael Review Introduction

Ever since the onslaught that was Bohemian Rhapsody, the cinema space has been full of other musical biopics trying to recreate that lightning in a bottle, assuming you rate Bohemian Rhapsody highly in the first place. We had the fascinating Kneecap, the historically revisionist  The Greatest Showman, and the shameless Oscar grab of A Complete Unknown, to name a few. However, there are always new musicians out there ready for their musical biopic, and today’s entry takes us to the complicated world of Michael Jackson. Now, given this is a movie about a real person’s life, someone who lived not that long ago, we won’t be as stringent with spoilers in this review as we would for a fictional work.

So, to set the scene, throughout the history of 20th-century music, few people have had the same reach and popularity as Michael Jackson (Jaafar Jackson). Even as a child, Michael’s (Juliano Krue Valdi) talent was clear to anyone who could see or hear. But talent can be a gift, and it can be a burden. It can lift a family from obscurity into the lounge rooms of every house in America and the world, and it can also rip that family apart.

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Scrubs: Season 10 – TV Review

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TL;DR – It found its charm at times, but whether it was the short episode order or the passage of time, I just came away feeling a bit hollow about it all.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that aired this episode.

The Hospital entrance.

Scrubs Review –

I came into the first episode of this new spin-off, My Return, with a touch of trepidation. Could a show like Scrubs find that same formula among the cast that worked for almost all its runtime? Can a show both reinvent itself for a modern audience without losing that pull of nostalgia and vibe that made it good in the first place? These are the questions I asked myself this season.  


So, to set the scene, it has been a long time since JD (Zach Braff) worked at Sacred Heart hospital [which was not torn down, I do not know how that rumour got started]. However, while he spends his days being a concierge doctor for the wealthy, it is not exactly a stimulating profession. But as fate would have it, today he is back at his old stomping grounds, because one of his patients got admitted. It is a place of joy with old friends, Turk (Donald Faison) and Carla (Judy Reyes), old mentors, Dr Cox (John C. McGinley), and more recent ex-wives, Elliot (Sarah Chalke). But when JD gets an offer he can’t refuse, his life is about to do a complete U-turn. Now, from here, we will be looking at the season, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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