Tag Archives: Phoebe Tonkin

Two Years Later: Season 1 – TV Review

Posted on by
1

TL;DR – I was surprised just how quickly this series got its claws into me as I watched all the dates pan out.  

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service used to view this series.

A bus driving across a bridge.

Two Years Later Review Introduction

Today, we look at a series that hits maybe a touch closer than I was expecting. There is nothing quite like a show that dives into situation that I live each day, set in the city I live in. I mean, not the romance thing, but the same bus each day, on the cusp of COVID in the city of Brisbane. This is a feeling that I found myself in when I loaded up that first date and was transported kilometres rather than continents.  

So, to set the scene, in early 2020, Emily Wright (Phoebe Tonkin) and Ryan Wright (Brenton Thwaites), no relations, are busmates in Brisbane, who take the same bus every day. They are good friends, well as good as you can have in just a bus situation. However, with the growing tide of masks and threats of lockdown, you never know when you will see someone again. Two years later. They find themselves on the same bus again for the first time. Taking a gamble, Ryan asks Emily out on a date or maybe eight, and for the first time, they share something as intimate as a phone number. But did they just destroy their bus-thing, or start something new?  

Continue reading →

Kid Snow – Movie Review

Posted on by
1

TL;DR – While it is an interesting scenario, and the cast is giving their all, you just can’t quite shake the feeling that the movie never finds its feet.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Warning – contains scenes that include multiple flashing lights.

Kid Snow and Lizard run up a hill.

Kid Snow Review –

There are a lot of factors that go into making a good film: the cast, the story, the idea, the production, or even the budget. While you don’t have to get all of them right, it does help because just one of these factors can hold a film back from its full potential. Today, we look at a movie that excels in many of these points, but the one that holds it back is like an anchor dragging along the ocean shore.

So, to set the scene, it is 1971, and in the small towns across the deep Outback of Australia, there is a rolling fair that comes to town, including a boxing ring. Run by Rory (Tom Bateman) and headlined by his brother Kid Snow (Billy Howle), along with a motley of other performers, they charge money to get the locals to fight them. If they win, there are riches, but let’s be honest: no one ever wins. This was going well, okay, at least they were surviving, but when Hammer (Tristan Gorey), a ghost from Kid Snow’s past and current Australian champion, returns to challenge him to a boxing match for real money, there is a chance of him reclaiming his past. But it might be the arrival of Sunny (Phoebe Tonkin) into their lives on the same night that will have more of an impact on their futures.     

Continue reading →

Transfusion – Movie Review

Posted on by
11

TL;DR – It is a film trying to explore some essential issues. However, it felt like we only got a surface-level analysis.    

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

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

Blood in the sink.

Transfusion Review –

It is one of modern society’s great tragedies, actually no, not a tragedy, embarrassments, that we send people off to war and wars with dubious pretensions, and then we ignore them when they return home. We give lip service to trying to do something about it, but the damage remains. Today’s film shines a light on that trauma and how it can have generational effects.     

So to set the scene, an Australian special forces team in The Middle East infiltrates a secured compound at night. The mission was a success until a surprise combatant sneaks up on the team, and Ryan Logan (Sam Worthington) is shot protecting his team. Back home, Ryan must adjust back to life with his wife Justine (Phoebe Tonkin) and son Billy (Gilbert Bradman), but where the trauma of the past still lingers. But when tragedy strikes, the bond between a father and a son is stretched to breaking point.     

Continue reading →

TV Review – Bloom: Season One

Posted on by
2

TL;DR – This series explores the temptation and addiction that we can have with capturing the past. However, while it introduces a lot of important themes, it does not really have the space to digest them all.   

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Bloom. Image Credit: Stan.

Review –

If you could be young again for a day or so, would you take that opportunity, would you try to fix some part of your life? However, what would you do to keep staying young, would you hurt people, would you kill, what if going back meant losing who you were? These are all really deep questions and I don’t know how I myself would answer, but today we are looking at a show that posits these exact questions and more.

Continue reading →