TL;DR – This is an
interesting take on the End-Of-The-World genre
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Review –
When I say to you Zombie Apocalypse, I think for many people the first thing
you would do is suppress a sigh. As a genre, it has been used multiple times
and these days one could say that it has been done to death as long as they immediately
followed it up immediately with ‘pun not attended’. However, every now and again,
a new show will use the setting to explore something new and today we get to
look at just such a show.
So to set the scene, we open in on Day 42 with Jack Sullivan (Nick Wolfhard)
the only known survivor in his town. 42 Days ago portals opened up over his
town and monsters and zombies came flooding out attacking the town. Some escaped,
some were rescued, but more still were turned into zombies to roam the streets.
Abandoned by his foster family, Jack survives by hiding in his foster brother’s
treehouse and using that as a base of operation. He is trying to find his best
buddy Quint (Garland Whitt) and rescue his flame June (Montse Hernandez), but
first he needs to survive being hunted by a monster angry because Jack poked
its eye out.
While I was not alone here, I know when I walked out of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom I was greatly disappointed at all the talent that went into what felt like a missed opportunity. It was a film that had an end goal in mind but not how to get to that goal in an organic way. Well, today a little surprise was dropped on the internet with a short film showing the aftermath and if anything it shows just how good the goal they were shooting for was.
The setup is really simple, you have family with a Father (Andre Holland) and Mother (Natalie Martinez) cooking food from their three children (Melody Hurd, Pierson Salvador, Noah Cole & Ethan Cole). There is the usual bickering with a little extra edge because this is still a family coming together when the father notices that nobody is outside anymore and that is when you hear the first rumble.
TL;DR – An ambitious series
drawing inspiration from multiple religious and mystical frameworks that while
pioneering in many respects, completely fails to stick the landing
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
Today I get to finally explore the third pillar of 1990s sci-fi anime with the
massively influential Neon Genesis
Evangelion. For me, this was almost a form of closure given how much I have
watched the other two pillars Cowboy
Bebop and Ghost in the Shell but
I never got to see Evangelion. It was
also interesting to see a show that has been massively influential to the genre
but watching it with 20 years of extra context on top of it. Well if nothing
else, the ending stinger to last year’s Desert Bus now makes sense. With
that in mind, let’s dive in and explore Hideaki Anno’s work of gods, and
angels, and science, and man.
So to set the scene, in the year 2000 a great calamity arouse across the world
when the second impact occurred in Antarctica blasting the icy continent to
ruin and melting all its ice causing extensive flooding across the world. The
UN authority declared that the cause was a giant meteorite impact, hence common
term of it being ‘the second impact’ (okay sort of, but also sort of not, it
gets complicated). However, this is all a cover, because what really happened
is that a creature of great power was discovered under the ice, this Angel was
called Adam and something the researchers did trigger him destroying
everything. 15 years later, Shinji Ikari (Megumi Ogata/ Spike Spencer/ Casey
Mongillo) is running through deserted streets to a pick-up location. The whole
area has gone into emergency lockdown for some unknown reason, and that reason
turns out to be a second angel that everyone kind of expected was coming. Just
before he is crushed, Shinji is rescued by Captain Misato Katsuragi (Kotono
Mitsuishi/ Allison Keith/ Carrie Keranen) and taken to Tokyo-3 where a
secretive organisation Nerv has their headquarters. The leader of Nerv is
Shinji’s father Gendo Ikari (Fumihiko Tachiki/ Tristan MacAvery/ Ray Chase) who
is at best distant, but a more fair description would be icy or even abusive.
However, Shinji does not have time to process that because he is announced to
be the Third Child, and one of only a few people that can pilot an Evangelion
which he has to do like now.
TL;DR – There is an interesting concept here, but the film goes out of its way to make its characters come off as bland and one-note
Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene
Review –
It has been an interesting couple of years for the Alien Invasion
genre after being almost abandoned in the years since September 11. Long gone
were the triumphant speeches and bold proclamations and in were gritty scenes
of dirt and muck. However, then there was a resurgence with different countries
taking a look with Attack the Block in
the UK and Occupation
in Australia to name just two. Well, today we get to see China’s take on the
global destruction masterpiece. But will it soar or will fall, only time will
tell.
So to set the scene, in the not too distant future the first manned Chinese
space ship brought back a new energy source Xianteng that revolutionised the
world. Everything was great but the energy source was like a beacon drawing the
aliens to Earth. Starting with Rio de Janeiro the mothership moved across the
planet, destroying city after city. In a last-ditch effort, the United Nations
and what was left of the world’s government set up base in the last major
centre Shanghai. Here they hope to make a last stand and maybe just maybe fight
back and take back the planet before more cities like Los Angeles and New Delhi
are turned to ash.
TL;DR – This is really a slow
burn but then it grabs you as all the different parts start to merge together
and you discover what is behind The Island and the number 39.
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
One of my great joys is watching the TV Show Survivor where they throw a bunch of random people on an island and
subject them to the elements and every puzzle under the Sun. It is such an
interesting scenario, that I am surprised that we don’t see more people take
advantage of it narratively. Well, today we get to look at a show that does
just that, exploring a world where you can trust nothing and no one, not even
what you can see with your own two eyes.
So to set the scene, one morning you wake up, but you are not at home in your
bed, you are on a beach lying in the sand with waves crashing into you. To add
to this you cannot remember how you got there, or even who you are. As Chase (Natalie
Martinez) tries to get her bearings she stumbles across KC (Kate Bosworth) and
discovers that she is not alone. There are ten of them and no one can remember
anything bar waking up on the beach. As they try to find something of their
past lives, the reality of their situation dawns and soon the power politics
show their heads and worse. Now from here, we will be looking at the season
as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.
TL;DR – This is sort of the cinematic equivalent of sitting down under a doona in your PJs eating ice cream while vegging out on some TV. Perfectly pleasant and even enjoyable in places, but with not really any substance with it.
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
Well, I am going to get something out of the way right from the start, I have
not watched a single episode of Downton
Abbey before today. I, of course, know what it is and also thanks to the
internet and the enormous fan following it has, I know most of the main plot
points but it never interested me to hunt down the DVDs. I say this so if you
are a fan of the show you can put my critiques in context, however, I am mostly
writing this for those like me who have never seen it before and may get
brought along for what is billed as the cinematic event of the year.
So to set the scene, it has been two years since the series finished off and
life at Downton is moving on at its usual pace, but no one could be prepared
for the letter that is making its way through the Royal Mail system all the way
from London. For you see King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine
James) will be spending the night at Downton as part of their Yorkshire tour.
Suddenly everything is thrown into chaos as Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) and
Cora Crawley (Elizabeth McGovern) rush to get the house ready, but there are
more problems on the horizon and I am not just talking about the boiler kicking
it in.
TL;DR – A truly emotional work of film that affected me in ways film rarely does.
Score – 5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
Wow, just wow, I thought I had some handle on how this film was going to affect
me when I walked in, but I had no idea. I didn’t know I would be tearing up in
the first five minutes and that it would not stop until the credits rolled. It
is a film like this that shows the power of the medium to tell stories that can
affect us on our deepest human level.
So to set the scene, Billi (Awkwafina) is struggling to find her place in the
world after failing to get the fellowship that she was after. While at her
parents to use their washing machine she notices that her mother Jian (Diana
Lin) and father Haiyan (Tzi Ma) are acting odd. Wounding the worse, Billi
discovers that her beloved Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao) has been diagnosed with late-stage
cancer, but also that the family has decided not to tell her. Using a wedding
as an excuse the whole family is going over to China in part to say goodbye
without actually saying goodbye.
TL;DR – Adding aBattle Royale to a Civilization game
seems really counterintuitive, that is until you play it.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Review –
In 2019 if there was
ever a trend that could be considered the new hotness that every video game
company wants a chunk of, well that has to be the Battle Royale mode. For those
who may not know, a Battle Royale mode/game is where you have an ever-shrinking
map so you need to gear up, get to the safe zone, defeating any enemies you
come across, and be the last one standing. This is where you get your chicken
dinner, or in this case your escape from a dying planet. But most Battle Royale
games like PUBG, Fortnite, and Call of Duty:
Black Ops 4: Blackout are first/third-person shooters, surely it can’t work
in a strategy game, well I’ve been able to play a couple of rounds so far so
let’s see.
My experience with Battle Royale games is not as extensive as some people, however
I have played/watched enough of the genre to get a good sense of the common
aspects of the game. You have the same phases in a match, when you land you
have to roam around quickly to try and get resources, troops from ruined
cities, helicopters from raider camps, or even a coveted nuclear weapon. You
need to move quickly because everyone else is out there doing the same, so you
have to stretch your resources, but not so much that you overburden yourself.
Then you might pick off one of the players that were not quick enough while
keeping to the ever-shrinking safe zone until there are only one or more
players left and you battle it out head-to-head.
TL;DR – This is a film that on the surface is really crass, but they use that crassness as a cover to tell a story with real heart
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
Well, this might be one of the biggest surprises that I have seen so far this
year. To be honest, I was not really sure what I was going to see when I sat
down at my screening of Good Boys.
However, given it was being produced by Seth Rogan, and written by this guy who
wrote Year One there may have been
some subconscious preconceptions floating there. But what I could not expect
was a film with real heart.
So to set the scene, we open in on our main trio Max (Jacob Tremblay), Lucas (Keith
L. Williams), and Thor (Brady Noon) who are in the first weeks of Middle School
in year six. They have been friends forever and call themselves the Beanbag
Boys, but while they have been inseparable in life to this point things are
rapidly changing. Max is trying to get the courage to ask out Brixlee (Millie
Davis), Lucas is struggling with changing family life, and Thor is trying to
escape his past reputation and be accepted by the cool kids like Soren (Izaac
Wang). All of this comes to a head one day when Max is invited to a kissing
party setting off a chain of events that change everything.
TL;DR – An interesting experimental short film that unfortunately never graduates from allegory into something more.
Score – 3 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
Today we get to step back and look at something a little bit different with a
film that is less a narrative exercise and more an experimental experience.
This was a little bit of a new area for us so it was a nice change of pace and
an interesting twenty minutes.
The Flying Fish is a composition of a
number of short films by artist/filmmaker Murat Saygıner assembled into one
work of art. It is here where the strengths and weaknesses of the work come to
the surface. Because it is a collection of many different works, there is
always something new entering into the frame to switch things up. However,
because there are many different works being combined together there is not a
strong unifying force that makes it feel like this is one work.
