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Safe (Review) | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-05-20 22:31:37
Safe is like a poor man’s Mercury Rising – a film I never thought I’d reference, let alone compare favourably to anything. Ugly in both sentiment and style, it stars the undiscerning Jason Statham (The Bank Job) as an ex-cop, hit-man, cage-fighter, hobo and – why not – trash collector who’s forced to take on a cocktail of Manhattan’s scummiest scumbags in order to protect the life of an eleven-year [...] > read more
Interview: IRON SKY director Timo Vuorensola | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-05-16 00:06:01
When someone asks whether you’d be interested in interviewing the chap who made a movie about moon Nazis, you’d be mad to say “nein”. His name is Timo Vuorensola and his movie is Iron Sky, a wonderfully absurd sci-fi comedy that ponders what might have happened had the Nazis retreated to the dark side of the moon to regroup. It also ponders what might happen [...] > read more
Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy (Review) | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-05-14 00:19:03
Comparisons between Trainspotting and Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy are inevitable, appropriate and a total disservice to the former. Both films are set in the Scottish narcotics scene. Both are based on novels by Irwine Welsh. Both open with self-reflective narration from a thickly-accented protagonist, and both see him searching for drugs in his own faeces before the first twenty minutes are up. And yet everything that was fresh and exciting about Trainspotting [...] > read more
Top Five: Tim Burton Films | By Ella Wardlaw
Published on 2012-05-13 22:46:17
You know a Tim Burton movie the moment you see one. His films have become so unmistakably recognisable – twisty and dark, yet quirky and fun — that the term ‘Burtonesque’ is now a part of our everyday lingo. Few directors can juxtapose gothic horror with social satire the way Burton can. Sure, most of his films spring from recycled fairytales, horror films, comics and TV sitcoms, but this doesn’t [...] > read more
Dark Shadows (Video Review) | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-05-11 23:26:24
Every few years on Halloween’s eve, somewhere between a sharp crack of thunder and a wolf’s longing howl, Tim Burton phones Johnny Depp to ominously announce: “It is time.” “Right,” Depp sombrely replies, “I’ll start applying the makeup.” This is the unofficial story of how Burton and Depp’s eight collaborations have come to pass, the first being the broodingly brilliant Edward Scissorhands, and the latest being the broodingly not-so-brilliant-but-still-entertaining Dark Shad [..] > read more
Funny: DARK SHADOWS bloopers with Johnny Depp | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-05-10 08:20:03
When you're Johnny Depp, remembering which eccentric, creepy character you're playing this week can be a little confusing. (This is a parody video, just in case you thought these were actual bloopers.) > read more
Win GET THE GRINGO Tickets & DVD Action Pack! | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-05-10 01:31:47
To celebrate the May 31st release of GET THE GRINGO, the new action/thriller starring Mel Gibson, Icon Films are giving Moviedex readers the chance to win an in-season double pass to the film as well as a DVD Action pack valued at over $135! Five runners-up will also receive an double pass to see Get the Gringo in cinemas. To be in the draw, simply fill out the entry form below. > read more
Rebellion [L’orde et la morale] (Review) | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-05-10 01:00:33
After a couple of serious Hollywood misfires in the form of Gothika and Babylon A.D., Matthieu Kassovitz’s first French language film is over a decade is a tense, troubling and highly politicized return to form. Set during a guerrilla uprising in the French colony of New Caledonia that took place the late nineteen eighties, Rebellion [L’orde et la morale] stars Kassovitz himself as an experienced hostage negotiator and Special [...] > read more
The Five-Year Engagement (Review) | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-05-06 10:24:41
Super-producer Judd Apatow and his creative minions have given the romantic comedy a much needed shakeup in recent years, embracing humour of a more raunchy and irreverent variety while also pasteurising the classic formula with a welcome degree of sincerity. Still, if last year’s Bridesmaids is any indication, Apatow’s rom-com recipe has yet to be perfected, the film’s serious and silly elements struggling to meld into [...] > read more
Act of Valor (Review) | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-05-03 21:38:43
Every time I think American action films can’t get any more ludicrously jingoistic, Hollywood goes and proves me wrong. Act of Valor, a production over which the US Navy had final cut, made me yearn for the nuanced screenwriting of Battleship, the moderate politics of Transformers 3 and the versatility and range of Sam Worthington and Taylor Kitsch. A twelve million-dollar military recruitment ad tailor-made for the videogame [...] > read more
The Avengers (Review) | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-04-29 05:29:08
After years of development and no less than five quasi-prequels later – Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America – Marvel’s superhero slumber party The Avengers arrives with expectations no mere mortal could possibly meet. But writer/director Joss Whedon is no mere mortal; he’s the geek deity responsible for TV’s Buffy and Firefly, and not only does his Avengers satisfy expectations, it [...] > read more
Wish You Were Here (Review) | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-04-23 20:40:06
A montage of colour and sound, of wide smiles, street vendors and beach parties that stretch long in to the night, Wish You Were Here’s opening credit sequence captures exactly why it is that Australian tourists go to South East Asia to lose themselves. Sometimes, however, it’s a more literal disappearance than others. Centred around four friends on holiday in Cambodia who return home one man short, the first film [...] > read more
Win tickets to see the Jason Statham thriller SAFE! | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-04-22 22:34:19
To celebrate the May 10 release of SAFE, the new action/thriller staring Jason Statham, Icon Films have 10 in-season double passes to give away to Moviedex readers! To be in the draw, simply fill out the entry form below. Synopsis: Jason Statham plays Luke Wright, an ex-special forces operative who saves a young Chinese girl. The girl, Mei, is a mathematical genius who has memorised the combination to a safe that contains [...] > read more
Top Five: Female Stars of Tomorrow | By Ella Wardlaw
Published on 2012-04-22 22:16:25
In the cutthroat world of Hollywood, it can be hard to make an impression as an aspiring actor, especially when it comes to escaping the range-limiting teen roles that often kick-start young careers. As a result, many fresh-faced stars fail to make the time-limited transition from child star to mature actor, struggling to deal with the scrutiny that comes with any breakout success. The following five female actors, however, have [...] > read more
The Lucky One (Review) | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-04-19 04:20:42
There’s scarcely enough substance to Scott Hicks’ cloying romantic drama The Lucky One to pad out a short poem, let alone a feature film. As a stock-standard story of love and loss, it’s of little surprise that the film is a product of the fluff factory known as Nicholas Sparks, the prolific yet formulaic novelist of swoon-fiction hits like The Notebook and A Walk To Remember. Technically, The Lucky One [...] > read more
Win tickets to the AUDI Festival of German Films in Adelaide! | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-04-18 21:32:30
To celebrate the arrival of the 11th annual Audi Festival of German Films in Adelaide, which runs from April 26th to May 1st, Moviedex has 5 double passes to give away to a festival session of your choice! To be in the draw to win, simply fill out the entry form below! The festival will screen 37 of the most compelling features and documentaries to emerge from [...] > read more
Battleship (Video Review) | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-04-18 07:30:48
If you can look past the fact that Peter Berg’s Battleship is based on a board game, well, you’re doing better than me. It’s just so ridiculous! I mean, at what point when playing with a bunch of white and red pegs do you stop and think: “Wait a minute, there’s a bazillion-dollar movie in this! Quick, get Liam Neeson on the line!” But instead of trying to look past the [...] > read more
Battleship (Review) | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-04-12 07:22:58
Based very, very loosely on the Hasbro board-game, Battleship (as in, “you sunk my…”) is the latest, loudest and stupidest example of the hyper-jingoistic, military-fetishising, intellect-lowering alien invasion movie of which Hollywood has recently become so fond. Directed by Peter Berg of Hancock fame, the film boasts a budget and firepower roughly akin to that of the entire US armed forces. But as with an increasing number of blockbuster action [...] > read more
The Deep Blue Sea (Review) | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-04-11 20:32:00
Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea is a miserable slog of a movie. Adapted from the 1952 award winning play by Terence Rattigan, the film is set in depressive post-war England, and recounts — with all the formality of a “Dear John” letter — the romantic turbulence that culminates in the attempted suicide of Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz; The Whistleblower). Of a time and place where emotional outbursts are [...] > read more
Tom’s 20 Best (Unseen) Films of 2011 | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-04-09 20:58:39
In 2011, I made close to one hundred and fifty trips to the cinema. The films I viewed came in all shapes and sizes, genres and languages, and ranged from good to bad to just plain unbearable. It’s a feat I’m both pleased and slightly embarrassed by (and one I suspect I may top before this current year comes to a close). But even the biggest film buff (and I’m certainly [...] > read more
The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Review) | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-04-09 20:42:08
Forget the rum; it’s the fun that’s running dry in Aardman Animation’s The Pirates! Band of Misfits. While it’s pleasing to see the British animation studio return to their stop-motion roots after dabbling with CG in Flushed Away and Arthur Christmas, it would have been even more pleasing had this high-seas adventure been more memorable than middling. Aardman’s clay craftsmanship is still second-to-none, but the colourful array [...] > read more
Top Five: Modern Male Actors | By Ella Wardlaw
Published on 2012-04-09 00:30:29
For most actors, the prospects of a lucrative Hollywood career and the lure of superstardom are enough to stick to formula and never stray far from it. The best actors, however, don’t sell tickets solely because of their dashing good looks, or because they’re starring in the latest action epic. No, they sell tickets because they seldom rest on their laurels, challenging themselves with (almost) every film by steering clear [...] > read more
American Reunion (Review) | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-04-04 16:15:52
With the series largely driven out of pop-cultural consciousness by a combination of time and a slew of direct-to-DVD spinoffs, one might question the need for a fourth theatrical entry in the American Pie franchise. Surely such a sequel would be little more than a shameless cash-grab – an act of back-to-the-well laziness by a greedy studio and the prospect-less cast members alike. Well, you can hypothesize all you want [...] > read more
A Dangerous Method (Review) | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-04-04 11:14:54
Of all the words in my vocabulary, I never thought I’d use “bland” to describe a film by David Cronenberg. One of the pioneers of the so-called body horror genre in the seventies and eighties, the Canadian director’s fascination with corporeal corruption led to the creation of such cult favourites as The Brood, Videodrome and his oozing masterpiece, The Fly. Admittedly, the new millennium saw a certain restraint – what [...] > read more
The Death of the Cinematic Experience | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-04-04 04:27:57
Once upon a time, I would tell anyone who’d listen that the only way to truly experience a movie is in a cinema, plonked in front of a wall-to-wall screen and encased in a circle of sound. I would tell them, unless they can spot the flaws on the faces of the flawless, they haven’t truly seen a movie. And unless they can feel the bass trembling up their spine, [...] > read more
Win SNOW FLOWER & THE SECRET FAN on DVD! | By Anders Wotzke
Published on 2012-04-02 17:22:19
To celebrate the Australian DVD and Blu-ray release of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan on April 5th, Moviedex and Pinnacle Films are giving you the chance to win one of five DVD copies of the film! To be in the draw to win, simply fill out the entry form below! Movie synopsis: Inspired by the bestselling novel by Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan tells the story of seven-year-old [...] > read more
Wrath of the Titans (Review) | By Tom Clift
Published on 2012-03-30 22:36:30
It may have been beyond woeful, but a $500m box office return pretty much guaranteed that Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans was going to get a sequel. Picking up ten years later, the new story – if you want to call it that – follows Perseus, the mortal son of Zeus, as he is once again forced to do battle with mythological monsters to save humanity from annihilation. [...] > read more
Five fearless directors that changed my life | By Ella Wardlaw
Published on 2012-03-30 22:01:59
While we often remember key scenes or characters from the films we love, there is someone we don’t see on screen that shapes our experience the most: the director. Ron Howard once said, “One of the great things about being a director […] is that it can never be mastered. Every story is its own kind of expedition.” Only the ambitionless avoid making mistakes; the directors that aren’t [...] > read more
Win tickets to see FOOTNOTE in cinemas! - 5 double passes to give away!
Published on 2012-03-27 16:44:47
To celebrate the release of the award-winning film Footnote on April 19, Moviedex and Rialto Distribution are giving our Australian readers the chance to win one of five in-season double pass to see Footnote in cinemas. To be in the draw to win, simply fill out the entry form below! Movie synopsis: Footnote is the story of a great rivalry between a father and son. Both eccentric professors, they have dedicated their lives [...] > read more
Café de Flore (Review) - Music be the food of love
Published on 2012-03-27 07:09:33
Jean-Marc Vallée’s Café de Flore arrives with considerable hype from Quebec, where it garnered thirteen nominations in the 2012 Genie Awards. In many ways, the praise is understandable. Masterfully shot, edited, sound-mixed and scored, and featuring several fantastic performances, the movie is, in its best moments, phenomenal. Intermingling two tales of love and loss separated by thousands of kilometres and decades in time, individual scenes unfold with such devastating beauty [...] > read more
Mirror Mirror (Review) - Fairy good
Published on 2012-03-26 23:13:08
It’s easy to roll your eyes at the endless fairy-tale “re-imaginings” Hollywood thrust upon us each year, but not even the credited authors of many of them, the Brothers Grimm, could claim them as original works. No, stories of lore are but a never-ending game of Chinese whispers, passed down through time from one raconteur to another, each adding their own personal flair to the fable. In Mirror Mirror, the [...] > read more
The Hunger Games (Review) - Battle Royale With Cheese
Published on 2012-03-25 19:18:43
Twenty-four teenagers enter an arena. Only one comes out. And millions of people watch, enraptured. The similarities between the fans of The Hunger Games and the fans within The Hunger Games are obvious; the fact that director Gary Ross and his co-writers completely fail to examine this similarity is one of many niggling problems with their otherwise satisfying adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ sensationally popular young-adult novels. Compared in equal measure to [...] > read more
The Raid (Review) - Thirty floors of non-stop action
Published on 2012-03-22 00:44:40
The Raid – inexplicably subtitled “Redemption” in some Western territories – opens on a watch and weapon. With one shot, director Gareth Evans has told you everything you need to know about the next 101 minutes. Unburdened by the convoluted narratives and romantic B-plots of so many Hollywood blockbusters, this brutal Indonesian martial arts picture is interested in one thing, and one thing only: bone-breaking, neck-snapping, jaw-shattering action. Despite some [...] > read more
17 Girls [17 filles] (Review) - Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?
Published on 2012-03-21 19:53:08
Once is a coincidence, twice is an anomaly. Seventeen times is definitely a trend. A troubling tale of teenage naivety, 17 Girls [17 filles] takes its premise from a real life occurrence in a Massachusetts high-school in 2008, where seventeen students conspired amongst themselves to become pregnant. In this fictional French retelling, the trouble begins with queen-bee Camille (Louise Grinberg) reveals that she is up the duff. Seeking the support [...] > read more
Cut Print Review is now Moviedex! - Same site, different smell
Published on 2012-03-20 07:13:49
A website begins with a name, and back in 2008, that name was Cut Print Review. Why? I have no idea, but I think it had something to do with how a director yells “Cut! Print!” after a good take. Slap on the word “Review”, since that’s my contribution to the process, and voilà! You have this very corner of the internet. Honestly though, it’s a pretty terrible name for a website; [...] > read more
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - One hell of a ride
Published on 2012-03-17 06:31:21
There are few filmmakers working in the action genre today who demonstrate the same wicked virtuosity as the double act that is Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Credited professionally as Neveldine/Taylor (an unconventional label that suits their unconventional style), the duo behind Gamer and the Crank movies are known for their hands-on approach to filmmaking that has seen them dangled off cliffs and dragged behind motorcycles on rollerblades, all in [...] > read more
Win tickets to the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival in Adelaide! - 5 double passes to give away!
Published on 2012-03-14 03:37:57
To celebrate the arrival of the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival in Adelaide, Moviedex have 5 double passes to give away to a screening of your choice! The festival, which takes place at Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas in the Adelaide CBD, begins on March 20th and ends April 8th. For ticket bookings and a complete programme, visit the festival’s website at affrenchfilmfestival.org. To be in the draw to win, follow [...] > read more
How to make an EPIC movie trailer! (Video) - The rise of the Angry Boat
Published on 2012-03-14 00:11:38
Have you ever watched a trailer for a new Hollywood action film and felt a sense of déjà vu? Like you’ve seen it all before? Well, you’re not alone. Movie trailers, particularly those for big-budget blockbusters like Inception and The Avengers, tend to follow a formula in their construction. Many of them feature the same array of images, sounds, edits and effects that results in a striking sense of grandeur and [...] > read more
How to make an EPIC movie trailer! (Video) - The rise of the Angry Boat
Published on 2012-03-14 00:11:38
Have you ever watched a trailer for a new Hollywood action film and felt a sense of déjà vu? Like you’ve seen it all before? Well, you’re not alone. Movie trailers, particularly those for big-budget blockbusters like Inception and The Avengers, tend to follow a formula in their construction. Many of them feature the same array of images, sounds, edits and effects that results in a striking sense of grandeur and [...] > read more
21 Jump Street (Review) - Comedy with a chance of Procedurals
Published on 2012-03-13 08:42:54
In an age where comedies needn’t actually contain any comedy – a loophole commonly referred to as Adam Sandler’s career – 21 Jump Street is breath of fresh nitrous oxide-infused air. No, it’s not an instant classic like Jonah Hill’s breakout comedy Superbad, nor is it as hilariously zany as directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller’s previous outing Cloudy with a [...] > read more
My Week with Marilyn (Review) - Seven days I can't get back
Published on 2012-03-12 20:32:19
Populated by paper thin characters and centred around a totally unconvincing love story, Simon Curtis’ My Week with Marilyn is a flat, bland and historically dubious biographical drama. Set during the shooting of Laurence Olivier’s The Prince and the Showgirl, the film recounts the story of an alleged romance between Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe and young Englishman Colin Clarke, who later went on to write the two books on which the [...] > read more
John Carter (Review) - Average alien adventure
Published on 2012-03-10 02:39:06
With a narrative as flat and barren as the red Martian landscape, Disney’s John Carter is a big-budget sci-fi spectacle that fails to excite or entertain. Adapted from the novels by Tarzan writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the film follows an American civil war soldier who is transported to the alien inhabited plains of Mars where another civil war is being fought. Although splendorous on a visual level, the film’s mediocre [...] > read more
Coriolanus (Review) - "Say I play the man I am"
Published on 2012-03-08 21:22:06
The directorial debut of actor Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter), Coriolanus is a ferocious modern day adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays. Headlined by Fiennes himself, and bolstered by a staggering cast of supporting players, this appropriately theatrical tale of wartime politics makes some questionably antiquated statements about class, but nevertheless captivates thanks to towering performances, gritty cinematography and – at the risk of stating the obvious – [...] > read more
Project X (Review) - Leave your faith in humanity at the door
Published on 2012-03-03 22:25:11
By the half-hour mark of Project X — a found footage flick about a teenage house party spiralling out of control — the film had achieved something neither A Serbian Film nor Human Centipede 2, with all their graphic depictions of rape and torture, could not. It offended me. A celebration of homophobia, misogyny, lawlessness, mindlessness and the total absence of empathy, decency, intellect and good taste, Project X is [...] > read more
Interview: The Varava Brothers, creators of TUMBLEWEED! - Short filmmakers, tumbleweed enthusiasts
Published on 2012-02-26 18:04:55
From an undermanned relay team searching desperately for a final runner, to a soft-core porn director taking on an ambitious new project, the story trajectories of the short films by the Los Angeles based Varava Brothers (director Jared and writer Justin) are nothing if not unpredictable. Their latest short, entitled Tumbleweed!, is certainly no exception. A nature mockumentary about the least vegetative form of vegetation and one such weed who [...] > read more
Tumbleweed! (Short Film Review) - The little tumbleweed that could
Published on 2012-02-26 17:58:03
A seven minute mockumentary short that looks as good as any feature length Western, Jared Varava’s Tumbleweed!, written by older brother Justin Varava, recounts the fictional history of the titular tumbleweed with perfect deadpan intelligence and timing. Droll voiceover narration sets the scene in the small town of Alacrity, North Texas, where in 1807 prospector J. Herbert Tumble was first entranced by the sight of dry plant-matter rolling [...] > read more
Safe House (Review) - Poorly built
Published on 2012-02-23 19:20:20
Even the combined charisma of Denzel Washington (The Taking of Pelham 123) and Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern) can’t make Safe House seem like anything other than the derivative and unengaging nonsense that it is. After being captured in Cape Town, traitorous CIA agent Tobin Frost (Washington) is transported to a local safe house operated by low-level agent Matt Weston (Reynolds), a man frustrated with the lack of career [...] > read more
Among Men – Gay In East Germany (Berlinale Review) - The Iron Closet
Published on 2012-02-23 19:13:58
On the night of November 9, 1989, the ground-breaking gay film Coming Out was set to premiere to an East German repressed, homosexual audience, but fatefully, another ground-breaking event occurred that night: the Berlin Wall came down. As co-director Ringo Rösener narrates in his and Markus Stein’s Panorama documentary Unter Männern — Schwul in der Ddr (Among Men — Gay In East Germany), the gay GDR community was robbed that [...] > read more