Tag Archives: Erik Thomson

C*A*U*G*H*T: Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – While it never truly commits to its absurdist premise, there are moments when it shines.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

The Hostages.

C*A*U*G*H*T Review –

There is a version of Australian comedy that takes a very irreverential look at power structures. Where no one is immune from the castigation, it is within this space that we find ourselves today, delving into a geo-political quagmire that only Australia could do.   

So to set the scene, we open on a hostage video in progress as four captured Australian soldiers, Rowdy Gaines (Ben O’Toole), Albhanis Mouawad (Lincon Younes), Phil Choi (Alexander England), and Dylan Fox (Kick Gurry), on the island nation of Behati-Prinsloo plead for their lives. It is heartbreaking as the prisoners are attacked on camera when they don’t follow the script, even more so for the Australian government, which officially states that it has no armed forces in the region. It is a simple call for help … help to survive … help not to be murdered … until the cameras cut, and the four celebrate how good the take was. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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How to Please a Woman – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A story that explores a part of life that rarely gets to make it to the cinema, even if it does take some wild turns and does not quite come together in places.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

Swimming in the open ocean.

How to Please a Woman Review –

I am not quite sure what I expected when I sat down to watch How to Please a Woman. I had not seen any of the trailers, and there was only the poster to go on that, at best, gives off a ‘Cougar Town after they worked out what Cougar Town was and regretted calling it Cougar Town’ energy. However, no matter what I would have thought, I am not sure I was ready for the wild turns this film takes.

So to set the scene, Gina (Sally Phillips) spends her mornings swimming in the ocean off the West Australian coast with her friends, which is the one part of her life that gives her purpose. Her marriage with Adrian (Cameron Daddo) is loveless, and her boss Gary (Ben Mortley), is more interested in his staff’s physical attributes than how good they are at their jobs. Knowing she is in a bad place, her friends buy her a stripper called Tom (Alexander England) for her birthday. They just didn’t realise that the ‘premium package’ meant they had actually paid for a prostitute and not a stripper. Not wanting to cheat on her husband, Gina takes his ‘I can do anything you want for two hours’ to instead clean her house, which is the point that she has an idea for a new business.

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Movie Review – Storm Boy (2019)

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TL;DR – A movie that has good moments, but is hamstrung by its narrative framing device that was unhelpful and unneeded     

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene but not one you need to stay back for

Storm Boy. Image Credit: Sony.

Review –

When you grow up there are these touchstone moments as you discover the world of cinema. For me, and I would say a lot of people in my generation that grew up in Australia, the original Storm Boy movie was one of those moments (well until you have to write an essay on it for English, which was the worst. Well, it has been many years since I have watched the original, so I was really interested when I heard they were remaking it, well that was until I saw it.

So to set the scene, we do not start with the story of the pelicans, but instead, we begin many years later when Storm Boy has grown into being an old man (Geoffrey Rush). He is back in Australia because his son-in-law (Erik Thomson) is holding a vote to allow mining on his company’s pastoral land. The old man’s granddaughter Madeline (Morgana Davies) is very much opposed to it, but he is all just a bit ambivalent to it because it is not really his business anymore. But before the vote could be cast a storm damages the building and we get a day’s pause. It is during this time that he decided to tell his granddaughter the story of when he was a child (Finn Little) and he and Fingerbone Bill (Trevor Jamieson) found some baby pelicans, orphaned after hunters killed their parents.

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