Movie Review – Jasper Jones

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TL;DR – It is an uncomfortable snapshot of Australian society, and it is a movie I highly recommend you watch.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Jasper Jones. Image Credit: Madman.

Review –

So to set the scene, it is 1960s Australia, the war is raging on in Vietnam, and we are dropped into the town of Corrigan a small town in Western Australia. It is the end of summer and Charlie (Levi Miller) and his friend Jeffrey (Kevin Long) are debating whether or not Batman is a ‘super’ hero or not whilst eating watermelon and spitting the seeds at everything they can, this could be any street in suburban Australia at any time. However, that night Jasper Jones (Aaron L. McGrath) appears at Charlie’s window and leads him across town to find Laura Wishart, the daughter of the local Shire President hanging from a tree. Jasper is the only Indigenous person in town and fears that the police will blame him for the murder, and thus the story is propelled into motion, as Jasper has to find the killer, which is complicated by Laura’s sister Eliza (Angourie Rice) becoming friendly all of a sudden.

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The X-Men Movies Ranked from Best to Last

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So Logan came out this weekend and it was fantastic, oh spoiler alert for the list. But it had me thinking, one of the big issues with the X-Men films is how scattershot they are in terms of their quality, from fantastic to utter trash and everywhere in between. So I thought I would work out for me at least, where I place all the films on that spectrum, and why I put them there.

With these lists, I don’t rank them 1-10 as I feel that does not adequately reflect my feeling about each of the films and where they fit in relation to each other. What we do is the group the films into categories Fantastic, Great Good, Ok, and Trash. Fantastic are those films which get as close to perfect as we can on this side of Heaven, with compelling characters stories and visuals. Great are those films which I thoroughly enjoyed but they did not move me emotionally. Good are solid films that while they have some issues they still work and are still enjoyable. Ok are films that work, they have some good moments, but you can start to see some of the flaws that almost scuttle the film. Trash are those films which just don’t work, whether it is the story, the characters, the visuals, or a combination of all three, they are simply letdowns. Also within those categories, I have listed the films not in a ranked order but in chronological order.

Now for me personally I’ll always be comparing the X-Men films to the X-Men Animated Series, because for me we didn’t get the comics where I lived so this was my first and best experience with the franchise, also it has the best theme of the series. Which led to it becoming my yard post to compare anything X-Men related to. So this, and the fact that personal preference is subjective means that I might have a different order than you, but that is the good thing about reviews because this is where discussion lies. Now there may be some spoilers for you in the list below, but then most of these have been out for a while, so it should not be much of a problem.

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Streaming Round Up – Trip for Biscuits, Ultimate Beastmaster, & White Rabbit Project

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Trip for Biscuits

TL;DR – This was a lovely bunch of fun zany episodes, which are wisely only 10 minutes long each, so they never really outstay their welcome

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Trip for Biscuits

Review –

So what would you do if when you were young your parents left in the back of a burrito track in mysterious circumstances abandoning you in a playground … and they didn’t even like burritos, well it might be searching for them your whole life until you decide to find a detective agency to help you, a detective agency that deals with aliens and one of its members has their brain in a jar.

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Movie Review – Logan

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TL;DR – There was a lot of hype for Logan, and it mostly lives up to it, Logan is violent, gory, but also really emotional at times. At the very least this may be the best X-Men universe film they have made so far.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

P.S. There is no after credit scene

Logan. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

Review –

The X-Men films have been a real scattershot, from great to trash and everything in between, but after Apocalypse fell flat I came into Logan with a bit of trepidation. As well as being the next X-Men film, Logan is also Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart’s last outing, that was a lot of weight to put on a film, and yet they nailed it. Of course one of the things you need to know before going to see Logan is that this is an incredibly violent film, as a movie about a man with knives in his hands probably should be, but unlike previous instalments Logan shows the violence in graphic detail i.e. what would actually happen if you were attacked with someone knives protruding from his hands. One would think the rating would be enough to warn people about this, but from the people around me in the cinema it was a surprise to many, so this is probably not a film to take your kids too. Now I have not read the source comics (Old Man Logan) so I can’t tell you if this is a good adaptation, but what I can tell you is that this is a great film.

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How well did they create Australia in Civilization VI?

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TL;DR – So how well does Civilization 6 capture Australia with its new entry? Struth, it’s a ripper of a new Civ.

Civilization 6

Review –

Civilization is one of the pioneers of the strategy genre a series that has lasted six iterations, numerous expansions, and last year on its 25th anniversary launched the next entry into the franchise Civilization 6 (See Review). Since its release, there have been new Downloadable Content (DLC) released and this week it was announced that the next civilization to be added would be Australia. So Australia joins the large and expansive franchise as the 55th civilization¹ ² to be added, but the question remains: Is it any good? And then also is it a good representation of Australia? These are the question we will be looking at. Now there were three components of the Australia update The Australian civilisation, The Outback Tycoon scenario, and Uluru natural wonder, and we will be touching on all of these facets throughout this analysis.

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TV Review – Chef’s Table: Season 3

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TL;DR – Chef’s Table is at the pinnacle food documentaries, indeed it is one of the best documentary series I have ever watched and season 3 is no different.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Chef's Table

Review –

For those of you who read my review on the last season of Chef’s Table, their mini-season in France, then you should know that I really love Chef’s Table (for those who didn’t, just to catch you up, I really love Chef’s Table). From a filmmaking perspective, to the featured guests, to the spectacular food, it is a joy to watch. However, that means that I come to the next season with very high expectations, so bon appétit, 맛있게 드세요, прия́тного аппети́та, and mahlzeit, and welcome to Chef’s Table season 3.

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Movie Review – The Great Wall (Cháng Chéng, 长城)

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TL;DR – The action sequences are some of the best I have seen in a very long time, truly epic in scope, the only problem is you have to sit through a lot of rubbish in between it

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

The Great Wall (Cháng Chéng, 长城). Image Credit: Legendary.

Review –

The Great Wall is interesting just from its very existence, it is the most expensive movie ever made in China, and it is a real indicator of the continued rise of Chinese cinema and the continued push of Chinese soft power diplomacy. Like Kung Fu Yoga, this leads to some interesting features, but it also leads to some issues. The Great Wall ends up being a film that is dependent on its action sequences because there is not a lot else going for it.

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Movie Review – Hidden Figures

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TL;DR – Hidden Figures is an amazing film about our past and very much relevant in our present, that when you oppress people it holds everyone back.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Hidden Figures. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Review –

Straight from the start, I should say I love movies about space, the history, NASA, the satellites, probes, and rockets, I watched the Curiosity landing even though it was very early in the morning here. So what I am saying is Hidden Figures, much like The Martian & The Dish, is a film that automatically peaks my interest before I make it to the cinema. This means that I have to be really careful when reviewing these films to make sure I am being objective and not just getting caught up in my joy of the subject material, but even with a cautious approach Hidden Figures still knocks it out of the park, or knocks it into orbit, or, wait no I think I am starting to mix metaphors here.

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Movie Review – Manchester by the Sea

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TL;DR – Manchester by the Sea is a film about mess, our lives are messy, death is messy, life is messy, but in many respects this film is messy

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Manchester by the Sea. Image Credit: Amazon Studios.

Review –

To be honest straight out of the gate Manchester by the Sea is one of the more difficult films I have ever reviewed because there are some truly amazing moments and performances but it also is quite problematic in other regards, so even though I have given it a score I have gone back and forth on just where it sits. Now as well as this when putting together this review I found out I saw a cut-down version of the movie, so maybe some of the criticism that I have were explained away in the cut footage, I don’t know, but it the end I can only review what is in front of me. Before we delve into the review proper, because of the structure of the film and the nature of it being a snapshot of a family’s life, it is difficult to talk about the story without hitting [SPOILERS], so just a warning moving forward that we will be talking about the story in its entirety.

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Lego Batman, John Wick, and Game of Thrones oh my: factors that lead to increased Australian Piracy

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TL;DR – Staggered release dates, lack of competition, geoblocking and the Australia Tax, and lack of government want to fix.

John Wick. Image Credit: Lionsgate.

At some point this week because of either John Wick 2 or Lego Batman there will inevitably be a news story about the high rate of piracy. It is something you hear about every year like clockwork when the next Game of Thrones season starts, or when film companies stagger release dates like they are doing here. However, why is Australia such an outlier when it comes to piracy? We are a prosperous country, with a good economy comparatively speaking, we have laws against it, and our internet is not even that good making piracy that little bit harder than it is in many other countries, but inevitably any conversation about piracy generally ends up focusing on Australia. So today we are going to look at the factors unique to Australia, or at least not as prevalent in other markets, that have led to this high statistic. Now of course just to be on the safe side and to make sure there is no confusion when we talk about piracy we are not talking about the boarding and stealing of naval vessels for commercial gain, we are talking about the acquiring of copies of digital media (movies, TV shows, music, and video games) without purchasing the product, usually through peer-to-peer torrent networks.

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