Nuremberg (2025) – Movie Review

TL;DR – A fascinating film that inevitably feels flawed in its very focus.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

The Tribunal.

Nuremberg Review Introduction

Today, in the last film we will be looking at for 2025, we have come across one that has given me pause as to how conflicted I am towards it. On the surface, we have a film that could not be timelier as a reminder to a lot of people out there that their time will come and “I was only following orders” will not stand. But it also feels like a film that found the wrong anchor to focus on, and that is an issue for me.  

So, to set the scene, Adolf Hitler is dead. It is in the closing days of WW2 and Nazi Germany is falling apart. The remaining members of the regime are working out whether to run, hide, turn themselves in, or follow Hitler. On May 7th, 1945, the last day of the war in Europe, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) surrendered himself in Austria. In Bad Mondorf, Luxembourg, Dr Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) and his translator, Sgt. Howie Triest (Leo Woodall) had been tasked with a secret mission to look after the mental health of the German regime as they prepared to put them on trial. Kelley sees this as an excellent money-making exercise, but is he truly prepared to investigate the awfully benign face of evil incarnate?

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – Movie Review

TL;DR – While you can feel some tension in the script at times, this is still a solid entry into the franchise with characters you care about and a world you want to explore.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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

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

Noa rides through the ruins of the old world.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Review

Without a doubt, I have loved the Planet of the Apes reboot films. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a great foundation, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was this sad meditation on the legacy of trauma, all before ending the trilogy with this grand biblical epic of War of the Planet of the Apes that hit the big 5 out of 5 stars. So, there was a bit of hesitance to come back to this world after such a long time and a new creative team, but thankfully, I had nothing to worry about.

So to set the scene, we open with the final funeral of Caeser, a leader who brought his people out of danger and into a new promised land but was unable to enter himself. Led by Maurice (Karin Konoval), it is a solemn event, but it is the start of something, and you see that in the world several generations later. It is here where Noa (Owen Teague) and his friends Soona (Lydia Peckham) and Anaya (Travis Jeffery) climb up through the ruins of the old world to find eagle eggs. They are a village of eagle trainers, and Noa’s dad, Koro (Neil Sandilands), is the leader who sings to the new eggs. However, when Noa sees an Echo (human), little does he know the carnage that is following in their wake and how his world is about to change forever.

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Movie Review – Hibiscus and Ruthless

TL;DR – A beautiful, funny film of charting family expectations

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit sequence as the credits roll

Hibiscus & Ruthless. Image Credit: M2S1 Films.

Review

Families are complicated’, I think that is a phrase that just about anyone in the world can relate to. There is pressure to conform to your parents wants, and there is pressure to try and help the next generation succeed more than you did, and sometimes those two drives crash into each other in explosive fashion. Today we will be looking at a film that deals with just this very issue, as we explore this fascinating film from New Zealand from the same creative team behind Three Wise Cousins. There will be laughter, there will be tears, and there will be bread rolls on people’s heads for some reason.

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