Category Archives: Movie Reviews

The Nun II – Movie Review

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TL;DR – We get a film that terrifies in its opening and reigns with a bombast at the end. You just have to get between these two points.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

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

The Nun appears in a magazine.

The Nun II Review –

In 2023, I set myself a goal of dipping my toe more into the Horror genre, and while I am not sure how successful I have been on that front, I have continued with some interesting new entries in that genre. Today’s entry is another film in the Conjuring Universe, of which I have only seen The Conjuring 3, and neither of the three other films the main character appears in before now. With that in mind, can you follow a sequel when you missed everything leading up to it?     

So to set the scene, it is 1956 in Tarascon, France, where a young alter boy is going about his daily routine to prepare for evening mass, not knowing that an evil presence lurks in the dark. Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) is now working in a quiet monastery mentoring young nuns like Sister Debra (Storm Reid) when she is told that The Nun (Bonnie Aarons) is back and carving a swath of destruction across Europe. But the potential victims dramatically increase when The Nun homes in on a school.

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Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It never reaches the heights it is aiming for, but it is deeply entertaining in parts.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

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

A car chase.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre Review –

I love spy films. I like it when they play them seriously and when they are more whimsical. When it comes to Guy Ritchie, you could get either or both. Add a cast you know can deliver and even a comeback or two, and you have a premise I want to see.

So to set the scene, it is a lovely Sunday morning when Nathan (Cary Elwes) is summoned to the intelligence headquarters in London by Knighton (Eddie Marsan). For you see, something just got robbed from a facility in Odessa. What no one knows, but the wrong people are interested in it, so that makes it a top target. Knowing traditional intelligence apparatuses would be too slow, they bring in the team that you need for cases like this, led by Orson Fortune (Jason Statham), who is now rudely having his Moroccan holiday interrupted, and worse, they will need the famous movie star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to pull it off.

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The Great Seduction (La Gran Seducción) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While you will know the story from the opening moments, it was still a fun ride.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Santa María

The Great Seduction Review –

I know it is seen as almost a bad form to re-make films in different countries in the modern discourse. However, I am always fascinated to watch adaptations to see how a familiar story gets reinterpreted in a new context. Today, we get an excellent example of this as we visit an island off the coast of Mexico.  

So to set the scene, Santa María is a small town of 120 living on an island, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in heart. But when a neighbouring village opens a fishing factory, the town loses all their jobs, and soon, people fall away. Germán (Memo Villegas) wants to stay in his home, but that is becoming increasingly difficult each month. But if they can get a doctor to live on the island, maybe a new packing plant might follow. It feels like a lost cause until Dr Mateo Suárez (Pierre Louis) gets passed over at the local hospital and drinks just enough to cause a scandal. Well, the town has one month to make him want to stay and seduce him to stay.    

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Star Wars: Ahsoka – Part Three: Time to Fly – TV Review

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TL;DR – It is a smaller episode, but it still packs a punch.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

The Senate.

Ahsoka Review –

After our double-act opening look at Ahsoka with Master and Apprentice and Toil and Trouble, I wondered what direction it would take from there. We had a lot of unanswered questions and a map, and you know I like maps. We got a tight action sequence, some politics, and one clear homage in our third episode.

So to set the scene, after finding out that Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) still had production facilities working, and Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) was able to sneak a tracker onto a shipment to discover something is going wrong in the Deneb system. It is time to call in the cavalry, but will Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) be left hanging? Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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Outpost – Movie Review

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TL;DR – There is an interesting story here, but the strong-handed visuals overwhelm the narrative and don’t give it any space to land.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.
The Outpost.

Outpost Review –

There are many ways that you can intrigue me to watch your film. It could be the premise, the director, the actor, or a scenario that just asks you to watch it. Today’s film had the latter when I was asked if I wanted to see the horror directing debut of Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor Joe Lo Truglio? The answer to that question is yes, yes I do. Partly because of that premise, I also like watching debut works to see what new ideas they can bring to the medium.   

So to set the scene, we open with Kate (Beth Dover) being attacked by an assailant. She keeps getting flashbacks to the event, seeing violence at every turn. Struggling, she turns to her friend Nickie (Ta’Rea Campbell) to get her brother Earl (Ato Essandoh) to let her stay in one of the fire outposts. Away from society, where she can recover, because the police have not found Mike (Tim Neff) yet. The walk to the top is rickety, but you can see for hundreds of miles. It is secluded, but maybe not secluded enough.  

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Jurassic Park Review (1993) – Exploring the Past

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TL;DR – A masterpiece in cinema that still moves you thirty years later.    

Rating: 5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

the entry gate to Jurassic Park.

Jurassic Park Review –

Some films captivated you the first time you watched them, getting your claws into you and never letting go. As a kid, one of those films was Jurassic Park. It delighted and terrified in equal measure. But even though it is in my Top 10 Films of All Time, it is a film I never watched on the big screen because I was far too young when it was released. But on the 30th anniversary of its release, it was back in cinemas, and it was time to rectify that.

So to set the scene, on a remote island off the coast of Costa Rica, an animal transfer at a new type of zoo goes terribly wrong. Investors start to panic, so John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) and his lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) bring in three experts: Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Dr Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to give the park their stamp of approval. But why would a zoo need palaeontologists? Cue the John Williams soundtrack.   

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Jay Ho (जय हो) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is a frustrating film because you can feel there is a good narrative in there, but it is held back by a love triangle that doesn’t work and production issues that pull you out of the film.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Photos in the mountains.

Jay Ho Review –

Today, I went to my local cinemas and decided to pick something I knew nothing about, and one of the films on offer came from Nepal. I have never reviewed a Nepalese film before, so this was my entry, which made it frustrating when the film was a bit of a mess at times.

So to set the scene, Sajina (Keki Adhikari) is struggling. Her now ex-boyfriend Ashok (Arpan Thapa) started showing off his new woman only two weeks after the breakup. Her parents are constantly fighting to the point when they don’t even realise that she has left the car they are in and some creepy guy was taking photos of her without her permission. This leads her to the bottom of several bottles, and Sajina tries to get a bus in the middle of the night. Taking pity on her, a couple on their way to Mustang for their wedding pick her up to make sure she is fine, where she discovers the other passenger is their photographer Jay (Salon Basnet), who was the dude with the camera and that getting away from the city might be the best thing for her.

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The Moon (더 문/Deo Mun) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A film that is fundamentally frustrating, but even with all that, you can’t help but get caught up in the emotion.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Warning – contains scenes that may cause distress.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Hwang Sun-woo on The Moon.

The Moon Review –

Today we have a fundamentally exciting film because it strikes two vast divides. On the one hand, it was a compelling work of fiction that captured my imagination and emotions. However, it was also an entirely frustrating endeavour at times. These two halves should not work in the same film, but today we see an example where it does.

So to set the scene, in 2029, five years after South Korea decided to strike out on their own in the space race that led to their first mission exploding and killing all three astronauts, they are back for a second attempt. Everything has gone well as the craft approaches the Moon until a large coronal explosion from the Sun fries everything onboard. Lee Sang-won (Kim Rae-won) and Cho Yoon-jong (Lee Yi-kyung) have exited to fix the ship when tragedy befalls them, and Hwang Sun-woo (Doh Kyung-soo) is left alone on a failing vessel where no one can help.   

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Jesus Revolution – Movie Review

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TL;DR – An interesting exploration of the founding of a movement, but for all its strengths, it did feel like a shallow experience.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I did not pay to see this film.

Chuck Smith gets surprise hugged by a hippie.

Jesus Revolution Review –

Those not living in America might not know that an entire independent-ish scene of Christian-themed films is being produced. While I often get requests for reviews, I tend not to go down that road because there is a whole cultural conflict component that you must wade through, and also, they just tend not to be any good. Much like animation for young children, quality is unnecessary when you can guarantee people will watch it through church networks. But today’s film caught my eye because it has some studio polish behind it, and it also was able to recruit Kelsey Grammer, which was enough to intrigue me.

So to set the scene, it is the 1970s in southern California, and the world is full of the generational divide, war, sex, drugs, and a touch of Rock and Roll. Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney) is in a Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps questioning the military mantra that is being fed to him when he sees a girl named Cathe (Anna Grace Barlow), who leads him into the world of counterculture through the medium of a Janis Joplin concert. Meanwhile, in Calvary Chapel, pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer) looks out at his dwindling congregation and laments that he struggles to reach the youth who he no longer understands. Well, one day, his daughter Janette (Ally Ioannides) fixes that problem when she gives a lift to Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), a hippie and a gateway to a world Chuck is not ready for.   

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The Monkey King – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While not all of this story works, it is like lighting striking when it does.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

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

The Monkey King poses in front of a setting sun.

The Monkey King Review –

Of the great works of human canon, few contenders have had the impact of the Journey to the West. It has had adaptions across every form of media and multiple interpretations worldwide. My first experience with it was watching Monkey Magic on SBS in the afternoon as a kid, so I enjoy seeing when they can reinterpret the story in new ways.


So to set the scene, the world was in balance for generations under the watchful eye of Budda (BD Wong) and the immortals under the leadership of the Jade Emperor (Hoon Lee). That is, until one day, a monkey is born from a rock that can shine light from his eyes. This is a world full of rules and order, but The Monkey King (Jimmy O. Yang) does not follow the rules. He is an entity of chaos, of recklessness, such as stealing the Grand Column from the Dragon King (Bowen Yang) and ignoring the advice of the elder Monkey (James Sie). He wants to be an immortal, so how do you do that? Well, you defeat 100 demons. Cue the montage scene. But on demon 100, things don’t go to plan.

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