Tag Archives: Movie Review

The Stolen Valley (Alta Valley) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it starts strong, it unfortunately runs out of gas after the first act as the storyline becomes convoluted.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film

The Utah Countryside.

The Stolen Valley Review –

Today, we are looking at a film that is wearing its influences on its sleeves. That is not a bad thing. In fact, just last week, we watched Monkey Man do just that, and it was grand. But there is danger in this approach because if people are constantly thinking about other movies and not your own work, well, something has gone badly wrong. Today, we look at where The Stolen Valley lands on this spectrum. 

So to set the scene, Lupe (Briza Covarrubias) struggles to find her place in the world. Trying to connect with her mother, Lizette (Paulette Lamori), learn her native language, Diné, or just get ahead in a world where everyone is taking from her. But when her mother becomes sick, and there are only experimental and expensive options left, Lupe is forced to find her father, who she thought was dead. But a run-in with Maddy (Allee Sutton Hethcoat) after she just crossed local crime lord Antonio (Ricardo Herranz) leads to a dangerous gun-filled chase.

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The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la Peur) (2024) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While there is a solid narrative framework for the action, we end up with a film that has more missed opportunities than times they cut to jiggling nitro canisters.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

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

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

A oil pump explores.

The Wages of Fear Review –

Today, we are looking at a remake of a classic novel and a classic film. I have not watched or read the original, but even then, their legacy looms large. Getting a second or third but at the apple can be an advantage because you have seen where things have not worked before, but then, when you are walking on the same ground as a classic, you might be lurking in dangerous territory.

So to set the scene, we open in the middle of the North African desert as pursuers ambush two cars from World Wide Heath and are just able to get into a local village before getting overrun. But a single stray bullet was enough to take out the local gas well. If the fire spreads, it will take out the entire village. They have only 24 hours to get enough nitro-glycerine to explode the gas pocket. Fred (Franck Gastambide) does not want to risk the ride through occupied territory; good thing the head of the oil company, Anne (Astrid Whettnall), had the perfect leverage, Eric (Alban Lenoir), Fred’s brother stuck in jail for a crime, Fred committed.   

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The Moon Thieves (The Moon Thi4v3s, Dao yue zhe, 盜月者) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While the plot will not be a great surprise to anyone who has watched a heist film before, the cast makes it a fun ride.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

The interior of a watch.

The Moon Thieves Review –

Long-time readers will know that I love a good heist film, the set-up, the mission when it all goes to pot. However, I have seen how many Western filmmakers have explored the genre, and that is just a tiny section of the filmmaking community. Today, we will start fixing this by looking at a film out of Hong Kong about the surprising world of counterfeit watches.

So, to set the scene, Vincent Ma (Edan Lui) is known in the counterfeit business as someone who creates frankenwatches. These are watches made from original parts but cobbled together for many different watches. This is a lucrative, if dangerous business, even more so when he is called upon by the local crime lord Uncle (Keung To), who is the son of the original Uncle but kept the name. Uncle needs Vincent and Chief (Louis Cheung) to put a group together to replace and steal three precious Picasso watches that have been found in Tokyo. Vincent does not want to do this, but he has no choice. But then, this introduction to a broader criminal world might be just what he needs for his ultimate goal: to find the lost Moon Watch, the first watch worn on the Moon by Buzz Aldrin.

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Force of Nature: The Dry 2 – Movie Review

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TL;DR – There is a solid film in here; you just need to find it through all the messiness.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

The Victorian bush.

Force of Nature: The Dry 2 Review –

Back in 2020, there was a great moment when, thanks to the current circumstances, The Dry, Penguin Bloom, and High Ground were the top films in Australia, the first time in an age that three Australian films had managed that. Of those, there was one that was primed for a sequel, and that is what we are looking at today.

So to set the scene, it is a wet and cold morning as four women crash through the bush of the Giralang Ranges to the sound of a coming car. Jill Bailey (Deborra-Lee Furness), Beth (Sisi Stringer), Bree (Lucy Ansell) & Lauren (Robin McLeavy) are cold, wet, and hurt, but all the more importantly, they are missing one of their group, Alice (Anna Torv). It is a dense forest, and searching it will be difficult, but as we discover, Alice is an informant, and her last phone call to Aaron Falk (Eric Bana) was profoundly concerning, making people wonder just what happened up on that mountain.    

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Ashes (Kül) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A film that does a fantastic job of setting up a world and mystery that unfortunately can’t sustain itself all the way to the end.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

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

Warning – Some scenes may cause distress.

The manuscript Kül.

Ashes Review –

Today, we dive back into the world of romance but with a side of danger as we explore Turkish cinema for the first time properly on the site. Romance films can be fascinating because they can meld and merge into so many different genres and take on a broad scope of tone. In today’s film, we dive into the harder edge of the genre, where danger awaits.

So to set the scene, from all appearances, Gökçe (Funda Eryigit) is living her best life. She is a successful publisher with a talent for picking good manuscripts, something that has made her husband Kenan (Mehmet Günsür) fabulously wealthy. But her life feels like it is missing something, missing a lot of things. But when a manuscript called Kül arrives, she is immediately transported into its prose. Being captured by its narrative, it awakens a joy that she had not realised was missing. But when she discovers the bakery in the book is real, and more of the book is real, she hunts down the mysterious man.

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Badland Hunters (Hwang-ya/황야) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While some moments hit hard, it felt like we had a world that was only ankle-deep deep, and you really wished you could dive in.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

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

The destruction of Seoul.

Badland Hunters Review –

The thing that makes the post-apocalypse setting such an excellent world to explore is that you can explore human stories without the frameworks that hold everything in place. But if you are going to dive into that world, you need to bring something to the table.

So to set the scene, a scientist, Yang Gi-su (Lee Hee-joon), was involved in many unethical experiments in an attempt to bring back his daughter. However, just as the authorities reach him, Seoul is struck with an earthquake so severe that it destroys most buildings and leaves much of the Korean Peninsular a barren wasteland. If you are lucky, you will find a place to barter on what food and water is left. If you are unlucky, you will see yourself set upon by cannibals. Nam-san (Ma Dong-seok) and Choi Ji-wan (Lee Jun-young) work as hunters bringing food to the local settlement, but when people kidnap Han Su-na (Roh Jeong-eui) with a bad habit of not dying, well, that is not on.   

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The Kitchen – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A thoughtful meditation on identity, community, and family.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

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

Izi pears out from behind the slit in his door.

The Kitchen Review –

I am always fascinated by the techniques that filmmakers use to hit you with emotions. Sometimes, it can be pretty forceful, like a slap in the face. Other times, it is like a tide coming in, almost imperceptible, until you realise that you have been engulfed. Today’s film skews closer to the latter and is just as powerful for it.  

So to set the scene, in the not-to-distant future, Izi (Kane Robinson) lives in The Kitchen. A large, dense residential area on the outskirts of London’s centre. It is a difficult life because the police are trying to move people out of the slum, but most have nowhere to go. Izi works for Life After Life, a company that repurposes the remains of people who have died to become the support network for a new tree to be planted in a reclamation project. It is here when he discovers one of the names is someone deeply familiar to him from his past. A woman whose only griever is her son Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman).

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Sixty Minutes (60 Minuten) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While the narrative needed some strength, we got a quality action film with some stand-out brawls.

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.

Octavio runs while time counts down.

Sixty Minutes Review –

It is Action Friday because after finishing off the final episode of Reacher’s second season, it is time to take a trip to Berlin to check out a German action film. While we have seen a lot of action films, I realised that I have never seen one out of Germany before. Well, today is the day I will fix that.

So to set the scene, Octavio Bergmann (Emilio Sakraya) is an MMA fighter who is stuck in a dilemma. He is facing the biggest and most prosperous fight in his life. But it is also his daughter Leonie’s (Morîk Maya Heydo) birthday, and the fighter Benko (Aristo Luis) is late, very late. He is stuck between a rock and a hard. But when his ex and mother of Leonie, Mina (Livia Matthes), gives him an ultimatum: see his daughter by 6 pm (one hour away) or be cut out of her life, well, that decision becomes clear for Octavio. Just maybe not for all the shady people who put bets on the fight. Oh, and it is rush hour in Berlin.

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Lift – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It may not be original, but it needs to be said that Lift failed to launch.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

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

A literal ton of gold.

Lift Review –

Historically, I have tended to have a better time with the sort of films that Netflix has been championing as of late because even if they are not high art, they still have amusing moments. Or at least bank their blandness of stars with personalities that can shine through. Well, today, we have a film that flounders when it should soar.

So to set the scene, we open on an art auction in Venice that is happening in tandem with London. Cyrus (Kevin Hart), a world-renowned art thief, is there, as is Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the Interpol agent out to capture him. When an NFT for N8 (Jacob Batalon) sale goes wrong, it is time for a chase through the canals. It is a scene of chaos, but it is all a distraction. But when Abby’s boss, Huxley (Jean Reno), discovers a terrorist plot and needs something heisted from a plane in mid-air, well, it looks like Abby will need Cyrus and his team.   

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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it does not quite hit the heights of the first film, it is still a fun time.  

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 many faces of Mrs Tweedy.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget Review –

Well, if there has been something I have been waiting for an age for, it is a dive back into the world of Chicken Run. The original film was such a delight that it still sits in my Top 10 Animation Films of All Time list. However, after some understandable voice cast changes and some less understandable changes, some concerns did slip in. Thus, it is time to see if lighting can strike twice in the world of clay animation.

So to set the scene, it has been some time since Ginger (Thandiwe Newton), Rocky (Zachary Levi), Bunty (Imelda Staunton), Mac (Lynn Ferguson), Babs (Jane Horrocks), and Fowler (David Bradley) escaped from Mrs Tweedy’s (Miranda Richardson) farm and landed in the bird sanctuary. Since then, they have founded a new society, built houses, planted all sorts of crops, and started having chicks. Well, Ginger and Rocky’s daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey) is at that age where she wants to understand the world outside of their little island, with all the drive of her mother. But when a new road is built, and the danger of humans reappears, the chickens decide to hide rather than fight, which is when Molly decides to sneak out in the middle of the night.

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