Tag Archives: movies

The Magic Faraway Tree – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While the story has little depth, you can’t help but get caught up in the wonder of this fantastic world.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene, and an end-credit sting, but you don’t need to stay for the end.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

The family coming over a rise.

The Magic Faraway Tree Review Introduction

Today, we look at a very peculiar film. In talking with people, it’s clear that the original Enid Blyton stories hold a special nostalgic place in many childhoods. I didn’t read it as a child, so I’m not coming into this film with those baked-in feelings. On the plus side, I don’t have those years of built-in wonder that could be devastated by changes in the story, but then I don’t have that connection built in, ready to engage that suspension of belief from the outset. That history is what frames my experience with the film today.   

So, to set the scene, Tim (Andrew Garfield) and Polly Thompson (Claire Foy) are trying to raise their family, Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy), Fran (Billie Gadsdon) & Joe (Phoenix Laroche), in a modern world that fosters disconnection. When Polly gets fired from her job, because she discovered her Fridge (Judi Dench) project was being used nefariously, the family comes to a crossroads. Taking a gamble, they dive into the wilderness of the English countryside, to the village of Netherbridge, to live out one of their dreams in their dream journal. The kids are not a fan of their new barn house, which does not have electricity, let alone wi-fi. But when Fran gets an invitation to visit the enchanted woods, which everyone says is dangerous, well, she can’t help but see what is there to discover.

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Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat – Onboarding [S2:E1] – TV Review

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TL;DR – This opening episode shows that lightning just might be able to strike twice.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that streamed this series.

Oak Canyon Ranch Retreat.

Company Retreat Review Introduction

Back in 2023, something very odd happened: television created a prank show that ended up uplifting its target rather than beating them down. Jury Duty was a wild experiment that frankly should not have worked. Seriously, when you think about all the different elements that needed to come together to make it work, it is astonishing. However, once you have pulled that off, there is no way you could go in for a second bite at the apple … right? …

So, to set the scene, Anthony Norman (Anthony Norman) is working as a temp when he applied for a position at Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce company. You see, hot sauce is having a glow up at the moment, and there is a celebratory feel to the company. Well, Anthony has been brought on by the head of HR, Kevin Gomez (Ryan Perez), to assist him in running the company retreat. The only weird thing is that there is a documentary crew following them around because the CEO of the company, Doug (Jerry Hauck), is retiring and is about to hand the reins to his son Dougy Jr. (Alex Bonifer). Oh, and did I mention that everyone in the show is an actor, except Anthony Norman. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.      

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Frontier Crucible – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While the scenery is delightful, not much more can be said to recommend this film.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

Monument Valley.

Frontier Crucible Review Introduction –

Have you ever started a film and gotten an immediate odd vibe, wait, why isn’t there a credited writer … wait, they cast who in this film … in 2024 … oh, that not great. But it is so long since I have seen a good Western, I persisted. I am not sure I should have.  

So, to set the scene, in the Arizona Territory of 1872, A man alone by a campfire realises he is surrounded, and it soon becomes clear that they do not have friendly intent as blood is spilt. Two years later, Major O’Rourke (William H. Macy) is trying with Merrick Beckford (Myles Clohessy) to work out how to get much-needed medical supplies past the Apache to a town full of an epidemic. On that mission, he runs into Mule (Thomas Jane), an outlaw in disguise, whose luck ran out with some Apache people. Beckford takes mercy on them because they have a wounded man (Eli Brown) and his wife, Valerie (Mary Stickley). But he will regret this choice.        

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Cold Storage – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While filled with fascinating concepts, it becomes a film that is less than the sum of its parts.

Rating: 3 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.

Masked troops drive away from a town being bombed in fire.

Cold Storage Review Introduction –

If you have been on our site before, you know that we are here for an interesting new Zombie work. While the genre can be overstuffed at times, the good films use the zombies as a reflection on society and have interesting things to say. Today, we are looking at a film that is filled to the brim with interesting concepts, but struggles to make a great film out of it, despite all the building blocks being there.  

So, to set the scene, when Skylab crashed into Western Australia in 1979, NASA thought it had collected all the debris, but it missed one. It housed a fungus they were experimenting on, but what went up was not what came down. Luckily, the canister landed in the barren Australian desert, though unlucky for the small township that needed to be napalmed to contain the spread. A small sample was kept in the top-secret Atchison Storage Facility in Kansas. But time is a fool to us all, and decades later, what was stored on sub-level 4 was forgotten, the facility was sold off to a self-storage company, and life went on. Well, it did right up until an internal warning system that has not been activated since the Cold War started blaring in Washington.  

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Hoppers – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A perfectly charming if conceptually muddied film.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid- and end-credit scene.

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

All the animals imitating a sound.

Hoppers Review Introduction –

There was a time when Pixar could do no wrong, when every film they dropped was gold, and they were adored at the box office. We are no longer living in that era, with several of Pixar’s recent films being dropped straight to Disney+, which is never a good sign. But we are now jumping back to the cinemas with an original story, and that is worthy of checking out.  

So, to set the scene, Mable (Piper Curda) always grew up with a special connection with her grandmother (Karen Huie). She would take Mable down to a local glade where she could find her calm, watching the animals go about their lives. Well, Mable is now 19, her grandmother is now gone, and the spiteful mayor of Beaverton, Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm), is trying to destroy the glade to put up an expressway. Mable is fighting with all her energy, but no one else seems to care, which is when she spots a lone beaver doing something odd. She follows it back to Beaverton University when she discovers her professor, Samantha “Sam” Fairfax (Kathy Najimy), has created Avatar technology allowing you to enter a robot animal and understand the world around you. Well, Mable just needs one beaver to move back into the glade, and she can stop the construction … So maybe it is time to download herself into a robot and try to find that one beaver who can make a difference.

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Project Hail Mary – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Project Hail Mary is everything a sci-fi film should be: bold, evocative, immersive, and wonderous.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Warning – Some scenes contain flashing lights.

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

The Hail Mary floating next to a much larger alien ship.

Project Hail Mary Review Introduction –

As I sit down to write this review, I feel like I am floating a touch on air, as if I had just witnessed something glorious to behold. Something I hoped would be good, but which delivered in ways not even I was expecting. It’s a rare film that not only meets expectations but exceeds them.   

So, to set the scene, a man wakes up sealed in a bag, not able to talk, and is accosted by some persistent medical device. He does not know who he is. He does not know where he is. He does not know why there are two dead bodies with him. And you better believe he does not know why he is on a spaceship, or why the star he is looking at is not Sol. There are flashes of memory, of a dying Sun, a Petrova line to Venus, and microbes called Astrophage eating it away. But the man whom the computer says is Dr Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) doesn’t have much time to think about things when the computer alerts him to Blip-A, and he realises he is not the only spaceship out here.     

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Reminders of Him – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While conceptually interesting, I never bought the romance and the heart of the film, which is a problem when your film is all about the romance.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

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

An orange truck drives into the sunset.

Reminders of Him Review Introduction –

Having decided, probably wisely, to steer clear of everything to do with It Ends with Us, my first dive into the world of Colleen Hoover came last year with the very interesting Regretting You. It was a film that I fundamentally liked with interesting characters, so I was interested to see what other worlds she could create.

So, to set the scene, Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) is making a trip back to her hometown, but this is not a celebratory return. She has just been released from prison after serving 5–7 years for vehicular homicide. She is also not just returning to her hometown to reminisce, because the homicide was her former lover Scotty (Rudy Pankow), and their child Diem (Zoe Kosovic) now lives with their grandparents, Grace (Lauren Graham) and Patrick (Bradley Whitford). Kenna had her parental rights stripped from her, and now needs to reunite with her daughter. First step, finding a place to live, and a hotel aptly named Paradise is the place for that. The second step is finding a job, and that is where she runs into Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers), Scottie’s old best friend.

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War Machine – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A solid military/sci-fi action romp.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service to view this film.

A military car driving with explosions behind it.

War Machine Review Introduction –

Back in 2025, I didn’t get to see enough Australian films to put together a best of at the end of the year. As an Australian-based reviewer, that felt a little embarrassing, well, I am not going to let that happen in 2026, and today we start with our first entry with a military/sci-fi romp where many pine trees do not survive first contact.

So, to set the scene, we open with a convoy of Humvees leaving the protection of their home base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. They are off to provide support to another convoy broken down in a communications‑dead zone. Where a Staff Sergeant (Alan Ritchson) catches up with his younger brother (Jai Courtney) in the other convoy, it was all going well until an ambush takes them all out. Two years later, that same staff sergeant is in Colorado for Ranger training like he promised his brother. But here he has no name, just a number 81. Here it is time for eight weeks of the most gruelling training known, and this is his last chance before he ages out. But as they finish the end of their training with the famous ‘Death March’, the extra-solar asteroid RX-505-Polemas heading towards Earth makes its closest approach and starts breaking up for no reason.       

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OBEX – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A wildly imaginative, if slow burn look at the blurred lines between the real world and a video game.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Warning – This film contains scenes which may cause distress.

Have you plugged your computer in today mug.

OBEX Review Introduction –

This year, Iron Lung taught me one very important lesson. That is, some of the most interesting work in the cinematic landscape is coming out of the work of small teams. Working on bringing a very niche thing to life can be rewarding when you take some big risks. Today’s entry OBEX looks to be doing just that as they mix horror and nostalgia together in a retro landscape.

So, to set the scene, it’s 1987, and Conor Marsh (Albert Birney) is an agoraphobic who lives alone, making a living out of creating ascii art, and spending much of his time playing these new-fangled video games on his computer. He would have been a complete recluse had it not been for Sandy (Dorothy), his dog, who is his one joy in life. However, when he opens the new video game OBEX, the line between reality and fiction starts to blur as technology starts going awry and thinking for itself.   

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Anemone – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While the scenery is stunning, the cast is giving their all, and the themes they are exploring are quite important. Unfortunately, Anemone is a victim of the whole not being as good as the sum of its parts.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

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

Warning – This film contains scenes which may cause distress.

A man looking out to a storm coming in over the ocean.

Anemone Review Introduction –

Let’s be honest, there is a lot I could say here in my opening paragraph as to what made me want to watch this film. However, we all know why you are immediately captivated by this slightly odd film; it is because Daniel Day-Lewis came out of retirement to star in one more movie. No matter what else is happening, that makes it a must-watch.

So, to set the scene, we open with Jem Stoker (Sean Bean) making the long trek into the wilderness of England looking for his brother Ray Stoker (Daniel Day-Lewis). Twenty years ago, Ray left his house and his pregnant wife Nessa Stoker (Samantha Morton) to build a life in isolation. Well, now his son Brian Stoker (Samuel Bottomley) is in trouble because the absence of his father has followed him around wherever he goes, and Jem hopes that bringing Ray back to speak with Brian will stop the boy from going down a dark path.  

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