Oh boy.
It's usually actually a bit fun to blog about a film that's terrible but to be honest, it always hurts a little to do it to an Australian film.
This film is Australian. And it's pretty terrible.
Written by and starring comedian Carl Barron, you'd think there'd be a bunch of laughs but sadly, there's not much of that.
It's meant to be a "feel-good quest for love" for Barron's Manny Lewis but the character spends the vast majority of the film being depressed and you know what it's like to watch a film where the lead character is depressed? Depressing. And not very funny.
I'd tell you to give this a miss but I suspect this is the first you will have heard of it and given there was only four people in the session I was in on the weekend and it only came out a week ago, it'll be gone before you'd even thought seriously about seeing it. Another sad day for the Australian film industry.
If this film is in any way biographical, I think Barron ought to see a therapist instead of making a film next time he feels the urge.
Never one to mince words, News Ltd's Leigh Paatsch called it "one of the most truly terrible Australian films in living memory".
Trailer here.
This is a drama about a British soldier caught behind enemy lines in Belfast in 1971, during what's known as 'the troubles' - the violent conflict in Northern Ireland.
The film is fantastic. The tension is just so real, I could feel it physically in my body as it built. The soldier is accidentally left behind by his unit when they're caught up in a riot and the story follows his dramatic attempt to escape to safety.
Highly recommend this one and for what it's worth, it doesn't skew particularly to either gender - a general crowd pleaser I think.
For more on the story, check out this four star review in The Guardian.
Trailer here.
I wanted to love this. I really did. A comedy written and directed by a world-famous comedian should be amazing, right?! (I'd also read this rave review in the LA Times so went in with really high expectations which seldom works out well...)
Alas, this film from Chris Rock, also starring Chris Rock, is a liked-but-not-loved kind of scenario for me.
He plays stand-up comedian Andre Allen in this film and Andre is trying to break the mould he finds himself in after appearing as Hammy the bear in a trilogy of action comedy movies. He's also in a loveless relationship with a reality TV star - think Kardashian.
It's hard to escape the fact that the storyline is just so predictable. I did laugh a bit (the scenes where Andre goes back to hang out with his family who don't cop his 'rich & famous guy' thing are very funny and Chris Rock/Andre Allen doing stand-up was also great) but nowhere near as much as I hoped I would in a film from someone with this comedy pedigree.
In the interests of fairness though, I present this very positive review in Rolling Stone magazine, also good if you'd like to read more on the story.
Here's the trailer.
I'll declare from the outset that fantasy films aren't really my taste so Seventh Son, an 'epic fantasy' was always going to struggle to please me.
But to my mind even if you like fantasy, you won't like this pile of excrement. Honestly, I just found it a total bore.
It stars Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore so I guess I hoped that even though it wasn't really my genre that it would still be ok. I mean, Julianne Moore just won the Oscar for best actress for crying out loud! Alas, she is let down by a terrible script. And as for Jeff Bridges, his character speaks like he has a mouth full of marbles, with an affectation fit for a leading man in a suburban theatre company Shakespeare production. (The kind of guy who can't quite work out why he isn't starring opposite Cate Blanchett in an Melbourne Theatre Company production... you know the type.)
Anyway, give this one a wide berth I reckon. DVD/digital at home, at best.
This review of it in Variety is pretty funny, if you're interested in reading more about the story and what a proper critic thinks. (eg. "Here, it’s downright uncomfortable to watch an actor as good as Bridges fumbling lame one-liners")
Trailer here.
