Love & Mercy

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 4/5 Biographical films require a certain delicacy but, since someone’s life cannot easily and wholly fit into a chunk of two hours, they often fall into the potholes of inaccuracy and over-dramatisation in favour of entertainment value. Bill Pohlad’s artistic approach to Brian Read more...

Terminator Genisys

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3/5 Like many Terminator fans, I believe that the franchise should have ended it all after Terminator 2 but, with a new instalment added to the classic franchise, I couldn’t help but have a mix of high hopes and low expectations for Terminator Genisys. Set in 2029, the film Read more...

Far from the Madding Crowd

Posted 1:43pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Simon Kingsley-Holmes

Rating: 2/5 The success of Nicolas Winding Refn’s operatic kick in the teeth with Bronson and Tomas Alfredson’s hushed, emotionally muzzled Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has given audiences high expectations when it comes to Scandinavian directors and the films they are tied Read more...

The Last Five Years

Posted 1:29pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 3/5 Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years is a musical that is literally all singing and no dialogue; it isn’t the first theatre production that comes to my mind when adapting a stage play into a film. However, the storyline of The Last Five Years creates a raw and genuine Read more...

Jurassic World

Posted 1:32pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3/5 Like many of us, I was looking forward to a triumphant revival of the franchise that pretty much defined my childhood, but, deep down, I knew I was probably setting myself up for disappointment. My eventual reaction fell somewhere between those poles. Jurassic World Read more...

Man Up

Posted 1:37pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Jaxon Langley

Rating: 3/5 Unfortunately, the title is not ironic. But don’t let this be off-putting: Man Up is an entirely self-aware film and doesn’t set out to subvert genre tropes but, instead, fully embraces them. For the most part, Man Up entertains due to its sharp script delivered by strong Read more...

Inside Out

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Rachael Hodge

Rating: 5/5 In an interview, Peter Docter once said “when people go to a movie, they want to see some experience of themselves on the screen”, but when I watch a film where the target audience is under the age of twelve, I don’t have high expectations. However, Walt Disney and Read more...

Paper Planes

Posted 1:21pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating 1/5 Why do I care about Dylan’s paper plane quest? After 96 minutes, this question has not been answered. Paper Planes is about an average 12-year-old Australian boy called Dylan (Ed Oxenbould), whose dead mother imparted to him the gift of folding the perfect paper airplane. His Read more...

Pitch Perfect 2

Posted 1:12pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating 3/5 As a general rule, I don’t laugh in cinemas. I don’t cry, I don’t text and I don’t put my feet on the seats. While I do this out of respect for other cinema-goers, the main reason for my self-control is undeniably fear. It’s also judgment. Therefore, Read more...

The Ground We Won

Posted 1:15pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Harlan Jones

Rating 5/5 Films that grapple with issues fundamental to our concept of national identity are always going to be controversial. The Ground We Won is a documentary that delves into the New Zealand mythology made strong by the likes of Barry Crump’s A Good Keen Man and Greg McGee’s Read more...