Reviewed by Peter Gray

In another case of a major studio fast-tracking a sequel that isn’t entirely necessary, Despicable Me 2 arrives in cinemas in a perfectly acceptable, though pointless fashion. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the second outing of former super villain Gru (voiced wonderfully by Steve Carell), you can tell from the outset how much heart has been put into the film, it’s just that overall there isn’t anything new brought to the table, though I imagine the target audience won’t find that an issue as the filmmakers, Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, have packed the film to the brim with colourful physical comedy and an abundance of little Minions.

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

The publicity machine behind Marc Forster and Brad Pitt's apocalyptic zombie epic World War Z has been whipping us into a frenzy for months. We’ve been teased with footage of bodies ricocheting out of planes and cities greeting the end of days and it all reached a climax in the weeks leading up to the premiere with posters that featured major cities under attack. The promise seemed to be that director Marc Forster was going to deliver an exhilarating, visionary experience like no other. Word was there were difficulties on the set, there were budget problems, the ending was reshot, and there was tension between the director and his leading man but it all turned out to be for the greater good of this big budget spectacle that was literally shot on various continents. Not for Forster or Pitt would there be locations grafted in with the aid of CGI (well, not completely). Their number one objective was to guide us into the centre of the hero’s experiences, and they do.

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

 

1.  Gene Tierney in Leave Her To Heaven (1945): “Sometimes, she loves too much”, Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde), the object of Ellen Berent’s dangerously obsessive affection, is told. There was no grander understatement made on the silver screen in 1945. Like a python, Ellen coils herself around Richard and in one chilling scene, calmly and callously murders his disabled brother to secure his undivided attention, and later, engineers the miscarriage of their child. The exquisite Gene Tierney, having captured the public’s attention in Otto Preminger’s Laura the previous year, was nominated for an Academy Award for her chilling performance (she lost unfairly to Joan Crawford), and her immaculate Stepford wife look gets even more of a charge from the lurid Technicolour.

 

 

Reviewed by Melanie Saward

All readers know that every now and then, they’re going to pick up a book, start reading and find a story that stays with them for a long time after the final page is turned. Sometimes, it’s an unexpected discovery, but other times, you know you’ve got something special in your hands before you even start reading.

 

 

Reviewd by Jill Don

Rereading a book fifty years on is an interesting experience.  The adult eye senses a simple optimism, and convenience in the run of events.  It stumbles and cringes over archaic language.  It also detects themes the young reader might miss, or might never contemplate acting out.  And some attitudes – the norm for 1948 - are guaranteed to raise hackles today. They found a cave is escapist literature in every sense. Five children flee a troublesome domestic situation.  The replacement domicile is a snug, well-concealed cave.  Their new lives settle into an orderly pattern, complete with a troop of milking goats, a pet cat, and a birthday cake.  The weather, surprisingly for Tasmania, remains fair over many months.

By Julian Wagner

On Friday, 21st June 2013 you’ll be mesmerised with Louise Isackson’s chic seductive vocals at Brisbane’s Powerhouse as she sings her heart out for the much awaited performance launch of her album Red to Blue.

It seemed appropriate somehow, upon leaving the theatre and rushing back to Circular Quay Station that the night would gradually become lost in some of the thickest mist I have ever seen in Sydney. Appropriate in that The Maids is steeped in sweet obfuscation, in phantom identities emerging and receding like vapour, like the brief shapes seen huddled on station platforms as the train shunts by. Such is the psychological complexity of this performance that even at the close, with the stage lights cut and the cast awaiting applause in the dark, the audience seemed reluctant to clap; not unmoved, but perhaps unwilling to have this production end with so many questions of relationships and repercussions unanswered.

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

From the minute word got out that M. Night Shyamalan was to direct After Earth, a sci-fi “extravaganza”, and that he had cast Will Smith and his son Jaden, the critics and bloggers of the world were sharpening their keyboards in readiness. In this supreme exercise in nepotism, Shyamalan’s track record precedes him but is it really that bad? Unsurprisingly, the always honest Tomatometer commenced measurements in the low teens with slaps like “incredible boredom…abysmal acting”, “disappointing” and “lack of ambition”. The fact is, the only way this director, now a punchline, was going to shake off The Happening, Lady In The Water, and The Last Airbender was to deliver unto us a masterpiece. After Earth is neither a good film, nor a bad one. Furnished with primitive CGI, there are unintentionally funny moments, yet it remains an ordinary, formulaic adventure that often resembles a video game.

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

1.  Young and Innocent (1938): To fully appreciate where Alfred Hitchcock’s obsession with the innocent- man-on-the-run device began, this 1938 thriller is the best study. It opens with an argument between lovers, lightning strikes, thunder rumbles, and soon after on a lonely beach, a man discovers a corpse. Two witnesses misread his hasty retreat and the chase is on. Hitchcock isn’t as serious here as he was in The Wrong Man. He allows for light humour but his trademark set pieces are littered throughout. Young and Innocent has never enjoyed the reputation of North By Northwest, a film it shares much with, but it should. Hitchcock was working with limited resources in this pre-Rebecca era and the result is an exciting adventure alive with the promise of things to come.

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Reviewed by Michael Dalton

Could the new ecological horror film The Bay really by directed by Barry Levinson? The same Barry Levinson who won an Oscar for Rain Man and would like to forget all about What Just Happened? Yes indeed, but the best surprise here is how much he refreshes the overused genre of found footage and scares the bejesus out of us as he does it. Not only does he deliver an effective horror spectacle, he manages to weave a strong message about environmental impact into the action. The Bay is ripped-from-the-headlines stuff, and all the more chilling for it.