Tag Archives: Sydney

NCIS: Sydney – Fire in the Hole – TV Review

Posted on by
Reply

TL;DR – Conceptionally, it was one of their stronger episodes, even if it was a bit silly.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this series.

A Tall Ahip on Sydney Harbour with the Bridge in the background.

Historically, this series does its best when it makes the most of its dual nature of being designed for both Australian and American audiences. It creates friction and conflict where good stories lie. Today’s episode might be one of the better examples of this.  

So, to set the scene, two significant moments are happening for the crew of NCIS: Sydney. On the harbour, Jackson (Sean Sagar), Doc (William McInnes), and Evie (Tuuli Narkle) are exploring why a former navy officer has washed up on the shoreline in old-timey naval garb. Meanwhile, JD (Todd Lasance) and Mack (Olivia Swann) are organising the Force Protection Detail for the USS Perez. It should be a typical day, bar from the fact that the dead navy officer just showed up for work. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

Continue reading →

The Fall Guy – Movie Review

Posted on by
3

TL;DR – It’s a wonderful romp, full of pomp and circumstance, and a desperate need for an extra edit.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a sequence in the credits and a mid-credit scene.

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

Filming a car chase.

The Fall Guy Review –

Today, I am looking at a film that is genuinely quite odd. It is an Action-Adventure, Romantic-Comedy, Mystery, Adaption of an Old TV Show, that is also making a meta-commentary on how Hollywood treats people who work on the stunt team. Yet with all of that, they made it work, and a blast of fun at that.

So to set the scene, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is a suave and super-confident stuntman who knows how to take a fall while on fire and thrown into a rock. When he is not being blown up, he is flirting with the very professional camera operator, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). However, when his incompetent actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who could not do his own stunts in his dreams, wanted a stunt done again because they saw ‘too much face’. But the stunt goes wrong, and Colt breaks his back. Eighteen months later, Tom’s Producer, Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), calls Colt, who is now a valet. She needs him to come back to Sydney because Jody has her first director role, and they need his stunt prowess. But did anyone ask Jody?

Continue reading →

Anyone But You – Movie Review

Posted on by
4

TL;DR – This is a film that is based entirely on the chemistry of the two leading cast members. Thank goodness they have some.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Sydney.

Anyone But You Review –

There is a considerable risk when you base the entire foundation of your film on the charisma of your two leads. There are multiple examples, like Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, where that mistake has caused the film to fall flat on its face. It is a dangerous proposition … but what happens when you get it right?

So to set the scene, it is a typical day in a coffee shop when Bea (Sydney Sweeney) runs into Ben (Glen Powell) while trying to get the key to the bathroom. Some shenanigans occur but sparks fly, and soon they are spending the night together. But the following day contrives a situation where both parties think the other was in the wrong, and they part ways with an odd story of a creep to tell their respective friend groups. Until we discover that those respective friend groups are the same because Bea’s sister Claudia (Alexandra Shipp) is the new finance of Halle (Hadley Robinson), whose brother Pete (GaTa) is best friends with Ben. That animosity gets heightened when both of them end up on a plane to Sydney, Australia, to attend the wedding, only to find both of their exes are there. So they fake being in a relationship. What is the worst that could happen?

Continue reading →

NCIS: Sydney – Bunker Down – TV Review

Posted on by
1

TL;DR – This is the first episode where everything came together to make a profoundly entertaining episode.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this series.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge with Indegenous Flag flying.

NCIS: Sydney Review –

As we have gone through this first season, it has been interesting to see the strengths and weaknesses of bringing a media brand like NCIS and transporting it to Australia. On the whole, we have gotten a lot of fish-out-of-water comedy around Australian animals and locations around Sydney. However, we have yet to get an episode that worked entirely as a whole, well, that is until today.

So to set the scene, one day, a cleaner is doing her rounds at The Audley Hotel in Sydney. The Royle Suit is the first on her route, but as she goes to clean, she hears water running in the bathroom, then a trail of blood, and the body of a dead man, followed by a scream. The team is getting ready to go to a secret Gaiametric presentation after an invitation from the DoD. The only problem is the dead scientist also had an invitation that is now missing, and no one knows where the event is or how to contact Mackey (Olivia Swann), Cooper (Tuuli Narkle), and Blue (Mavournee Hazel) because mobile phones can’t reach down in the bunker. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

Continue reading →

NCIS: Sydney – Extraction– TV Review

Posted on by
1

TL;DR – An incredibly contrived episode, but with some surprising moments of fun.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this series.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge.

NCIS: Sydney Review –

While this season of NCIS Sydney has been chiefly okay so far, last week’s Doggieccino Day Afternoon was the first time I was very concerned that they might not be able to pull this off. Thus, it is with some trepidation that start this episode about gym-bros and the things they keep in their back rooms.

So to set the scene, we open as a dude (Michael Jupp) is skulking around taking photos of chemical labels when he gets spooked. He tried to play it cool as he walked through the gym to the outside world, but he got rumbled and had to run. A couple of hits by a car and a slide down a hill later, he had almost escaped onto a bus when he falls to the floor dead, and we discover that the dude has an American Naval jacket. But more than that, it might be that one of the team knows our John Doe. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

Continue reading →

NCIS: Sydney – Ghosted – TV Review

Posted on by
2

TL;DR – Alas, it is a quite predictable affair that produces some oddly wooden performances.  

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this series.

The Syndey Harbour at night.

NCIS: Sydney Review –

As we continue through the season, we are starting to hit the episodes where people have had time to feel their characters and how they should be played. Here, you get to see actors start defining who they are. Just that is not always a good thing.

So to set the scene, it is the spooky season, and what else would you do during that time but take a late-night ghost tour of The Rocks in Sydney. In full costume, of course. We learn about all sorts of awful things, like the bakery that used unholy meat. But no one suspected a new ghost to be made in front of them as a body flew out a window, like the defenestration of Prague. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

Continue reading →

NCIS: Sydney – Gone Fission – TV Review

Posted on by
10

TL;DR – This is a clunky yet interesting start to NCIS Down Under.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this series.

The Sydney Opera House.

NCIS: Sydney Review –

Growing up in my era, it felt like everyone and their dog watched JAG and NCIS at the start. Since then, we have run to Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Hawai’i, but where will they go next? Australia? Well, as an Australian media reviewer with an international relations degree, and who taught Australian politics, it is a perfect time to see how they pull this off.

So to set the scene, at Fleet Base East, Woolloomooloo, the USS Navajo is standing by as a presentation about Operation Talisman Sabre is given. It symbolises unity between Australia and the United States of America. But when everyone is distracted by a protestor, they miss a sailor in distress before he falls into the ocean. It is a public relations disaster, so the AFP and NCIS are forced to team up for the optics, and it is time for Michelle Mackey, NCIS Special Agent-in-Charge (Olivia Swann) and Jim “JD” Dempsey, AFP (Todd Lasance), to play nice. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

Continue reading →

Mapping the War of 1996 [Independence Day] – Map-It

Posted on by
1

TL;DR – We map the carnage over four days of July in 1996 on Independence Day.

The Aliens arrive over New York.

Mapping Independence –

Well, I had been feeling off, and when that happens, one of the best remedies is to go back to one of your comfort films. While everyone has their own list of comfort films, mine include Ever After, 10 Things I Hate About You, and today’s focus Independence Day.     

As I was watching the film, I wondered what the global extent of the attack would be because the film’s focus is America, but it was an international event, given what we can see in snippets throughout the film. I went through the original movie with a fine-toothed comb and any references in Independence Day Resurgence to get the locations here. However, this only painted part of the picture, and the novel of the first film differs from the movie in places, so that is an issue.

Continue reading →

TV Review – Carpark Clubbing

Posted on by
1

TL;DR – This might be the most joyous, charming, and a little bit absurd series I have seen in a very long time.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Carpark Clubbing. Image Credit: ABC.

Review –

Comedy is one of those genres that is so difficult to get right. Sure it is not hard to make people laugh uncomfortably at gross-out jokes and the like. But for something to be truly funny you have to care about the characters involved. This is how shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place, Parks and Rec, and Futurama (to name but a few) work. Today I get to look at a show that did all of that and more, but it did it in only 8 minutes.

So to set the scene, we open in Western Sydney in a carpark of the local doughnut stand Double Dee’s. Bonita (Monica Kumar) and her friends are getting ready to go out to the city when a mixup at the shop leaves her doughnuts with Sokhey (Sophea Op). Hoping on over to her car to sort it all out she gets left behind by her friends and decides to wait there while her Uber is coming. Which is the point when Nashrah (Tasnim Hossain) gets kicked out of her learner driver lesson and then there was three.

Continue reading →

TV Review – Les Norton: You Wouldn’t Be Dead For Quids

Posted on by
5

TL;DR – This is one of those Australian TV shows that makes you sit back and marvel as to how it all works, cause it works really well.  

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Les Norton: You Wouldn't Be Dead For Quids. Image Credit: ABC TV.

Review –

There are many reasons to go sit down, turn on the TV, and watch something It could be your favourite show that you make time for each week, it could be you are bored and there is nothing else to do, or it could just be that you have heard good things about something and you need to go check it out for yourself. Today we review a show that falls into the latter column, though if this first episode is anything to go by, it might find its way into the first real soon.

So to set the scene, Les Norton (Alexander Bertrand) is a country boy from Dirranbandi in south-west Queensland. He’s hopped a ride down to the big smoke in Sydney to try out for some of the local footy teams. It is his first night in King’s Cross, so he takes some night work as a bouncer at a local club to pay his way. Which is where he meets his guide and new friend Billy Dunne (Hunter Page-Lochard). The first 22 minutes of his shift is boring, but we come in at minute 23 and the fists start flying. The head of the club Price Galese (David Wenham) likes what he sees and brings him into the fold and Les discovers a world hidden out of sight, protected by the powerful, and who run on very different rules where discretion is key.

Continue reading →