The End of Oak Street

Image credit: Rotten Tomatoes

It’s not always the case, but more often than not it totally is the case that going to see a movie based on nothing other than a mild understanding of the plot and its featuring actors that you like, can end up being the best cinematic experience you’ve had in a while. We sometimes forget that getting pre-emptively excited about a film can curdle the experience of watching it because (often) it’s not as good as what you excitedly imagined it would be.

A couple of weeks ago, Partner and I decided to have a spur-of-the-moment date night and go see a movie. Being based in the country, our ‘local’ cinema doesn’t hold as many options as the main chains that we’ve been used to having in the city so our options were limited. But as luck would have it, the cinema was showing The End of Oak Street: a thriller-y sounding flick that turned out to be an absolute prehistoric romp!

In the quaint, suburban community of Oak Street lives a picture-perfect family. But there is trouble in paradise. Denise Platt (Anne Hathaway) is unsatisfied with her marriage and writes basement novels about leaving her family and starting a new life. Greg Platt (Ewan McGregor) has been laid off and is trying to make ends meet and keep the family together. Their daughter Audry is thinking about life after high school, and their son Brian is both the perpetrator and victim of bullying. But when a wholly unbelievable cosmic event transports their entire neighbourhood back to a prehistoric age, their troubles start to look pretty small in comparison.

I walked into The End of Oak Street thinking that this will be a silly and fun dino-survival movie. And I was delightfully surprised to find that it’s so much more. For a start, it’s a film that travels a different road to the main, generic highway that most monster movies do. Regardless of species, zombies in Night of the Living Dead, the shark in Jaws, or the alien in, well, Alien, most monsters work as a narrative catalyst to spark dissension in the ranks, the breakdown of society, and horrific truths that humans are the really just the worst. But in The End of Oak Street the breakdown of the civility and the strain of human relationships is already happening from the first reel. Producer J. J Abrams’ love of Stephen Speilberg bulldozes its way to the front with the overly nostalgic 1980s suburban setting: an idealistic Golden Age that houses a crumbling nuclear family and frayed relations within the community. The ‘work’ of the monsters is already underway so when the dinos actually turn up, they become a catalyst for people banding together rather than breaking apart. And as the protagonists start to piece together some theories as to why their manicured backyard is suddenly overrun with prehistoric flora, completely unexpected plot twists bubble up to alter the audience’s ideas about where the story is headed.

Image credit: Village Cinema

While the characters are a dime-a-dozen dissatisfied suburban types, the central cast delivers performances that are relatable and down-to-earth that make you feel interested in them and their welfare instead of immediately loving or hating them. This is another way in which the film differs from other monster survival movies, as it gently convinces you to ride along with these people rather than sit back and eagerly anticipate the good ones getting saved and the bad ones getting eaten. And before you know it, you’re caring about them on some level, so when something happens to them the shock is real.

Filled with drama, action, and even a few humorous scenes, The End of Oak Street is a delight. It’s an unexpected romp that gently rearranges the building blocks of genre to make something recognisable, but subtly different to what we’ve seen before in other monster movies.

Director: David Robert Mitchell, 2026

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, Christian Convery, Jordan Alexa Davies, P. J Byrne, Anne Gee Byrd, & Emily Kuroda

The Devil's Mouth

Image credit: Wikipedia

While it’s not always the case, we know that there is an allegorical element to monster movies. In many horror films, the monster is a metaphor for something, be it war, global warming, generational trauma, whatever. While curling up with Partner for another bad shark movie on Friday night, it occurred to me that sharks have become a bit of a metaphor for that exciting but uncertain time between adolescence and adulthood. Think about it, so many of these film centre around a group of high-school or university graduates celebrating a bout of absolute freedom before entering the future grind of civilised maturity: the future is both exciting and scary and the severity of dumb actions and dumb decisions hasn’t sunk in yet. I had this realisation recently, while watching The Devil’s Mouth. 

For Sara and her friends, a holiday in Thailand before embarking on the next chapter of their lives seems like the perfect way to unwind after college. Beautiful beaches, scenic boat tours, and magnificent marine wildlife, what could possibly go wrong? The group finds out during a scuba exploration of the labyrinthine network of caves known as the Devil’s Mouth, where they discover that a massive shark has been brought in with the floods. As a series of incidents leave them stranded, lost, injured, hunted, and panicky, old grievances start coming to the surface and the fight for survival becomes even more fraught with danger. 

 At this stage there is not a lot to say about these types of small, under-the-radar shark movies that has not already been said before. The Devil’s Mouth ticks all the boxes of the coming-of-age eco horror subgenre, but I guess where it pulls ahead from other films such as Maneater is in its exploration of the resilience or fragility of relationships when put under pressure. That, and one of the characters’ deaths is not by being chomped. 

While there’s about as much narrative as you can squeeze from a group-of-people-being-hunted-by-shark movie, the film does manage to succeed in creating an ebb and flow of suspense, despair, and hope. Of course, there are a lot of instances where you’re openly telling the TV, ‘well that’s a dumb idea’, but more often than not there are pivotal story moments that you don’t see coming and I think this is what brings the film ahead of others like it, as it subtly forces you to become (ever so slightly) emotionally invested in these otherwise predictable and generic characters. 

Image credit: Pedestrian TV

There are ample amounts of gloomy, underwater shots with something large drifting in the shadows, as well as jump scares, and believable but not realistic shark behaviour that bring a good level of suspense, and the performances are solid enough to make them memorable for at least a couple of weeks after watching the film. If you’re looking for a mindless shark movie to watch, you could do worse that The Devil’s Mouth. 

Director: Jeff Wadlow, 2026 

Cast: Kathryn Newton, Lana Condor, Nico Hiraga, Gavin Casalegno, Tommi Rose, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Tayme Thapthimthong, & Harrison Luna

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Image credit: IMDb

It’s a shame when work, geography, social commitments, and life in general works to dampen your love of something and thus diminish the amount of time you spend doing/enjoying said passion. It’s also a funny and ironic quirk of life that if you have a job tied to a passion of yours, you inevitably end up not putting in any recreational time to enjoy it. Case in point, I love movies: talking about them, watching them, and going to the cinema. I have worked in a segment of the film industry for the last 3 years and the amount of new movies that I have watched has decreased DRAMATICALLY. I was consuming more movies when I worked at a Blockbuster! A sad, sad truth.

Having said that, my lack of interest in going to the cinema at the moment (aside from geography) could really stem from my current opinion that mainstream cinema, which is mostly what I have access to, just isn’t putting forward any tempting fruit. I can’t remember the last time I got excited about a new release.

Regardless, as Marvel-goers, Partner and I did make our way into the cinema on opening weekend to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Forgotten but not gone, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) lives life alone as a full-time Spider-Man. Putting all his energy into fighting crime and being the friendly, neighbourhood superhero, his devotion to the job starts to take an unexpected turn when alarming changes to his senses and powers start to occur. And since drama loves company, a new and incredibly dangerous mind-hopping threat has emerged with plans to teach humanity some hard truths about what (or who) makes monsters.

Considering that the Spider-Man story arc is all about growing up, changing, evolving, and whatnot, Spider-Man: BND is a film that leaves behind that teen-spirited, coming-of-age, fun atmosphere of its predecessors and opts for a more dramatic and self-reflective dive into Peter’s identity as an adult. We all go through that stage in our twenties where we really start to think about, and take note of, our identities and how we’re going to function as an adult. BND is a superhero exploration of that: exploring new freedoms, new barriers, new coping mechanisms, and identifying the things in our lives that are the biggest identity shapers.

Image credit: IMDb

While growing from adolescence into adulthood is a prevalent and very meaningful theme in the film, like with any story where the hero decides to ‘go it alone’, it does feel like some of the filling has been taken away. I think of BND as a jam doughnut that’s only been filled halfway: while the fluffy, airy, sugary pastry is still perfectly lovely to eat, I was hoping for more jam. While Tom Holland delivers another great performance and does efficiently carry the film, still injecting little pops of humour for flavour and texture, at the end of it BND is the angsty filler movie in a coming-of-age series. There’s always one and it’s not particularly bad, but it’s a phase that we won’t mind seeing the end of.

Filled with action, self-reflection, drama, and comedy, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is another perfectly entertaining movie in the MCU.

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton, 2026

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Jacob Batalon, Sadie Sink, Florence Pugh, Liza Colon-Zayas, & Mark Ruffalo

Dark Age

Image credit: Wikipedia

When we think about B-grade movies, in particular B-grade horror movies, we often think about those hokey black and white films of the 1930s made on a shoestring budget with party-plate UFOs on fishing rods. I adore these types of movies because while there is a sincerity and a love behind them, the budget often didn’t support it and it’s really adorable to watch a film where everyone gives it a red-hot go with whatever gear they’ve got.

In the 1980’s Australian cinema added a solid number of horror flicks into the B-grade galaxy thanks to the 10BA Era. For those who don’t know, the 10BA Era refers to movies made during a boom in Australia’s film industry that was fueled by Section 10BA of the Income Tax Assessment Act, which basically offered insane tax deductions for investors of Australian cinema. Basically, Australia was making ridiculous films because we bloody could and while a lot of them became global hits like Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max, most were relegated to the realm of B-movie cult classics. Films such as Dark Age: Australia’s answer to Jaws with a giant croc.

The film follows protagonist Steve Harris (John Jarratt) a park ranger working to protect and maintain the crocodile population. When an unfeasibly huge croc appears and kills a number of people, the pressure is put on Steve by his boss to rid the waters of the beast once and for all. However, the local Aboriginal tribe have a spiritual connection with the croc and with Steve’s help they try to persuade the authorities to let them capture it and bring it back to its original home. But as Steve and his higher ups butt heads, a group of irate poachers are out for the croc’s blood, as a few of their number were among those it killed.

In a nutshell the film is more or less Jaws but set in the outback with a giant saltwater croc. The same frustrating authority figures are more concerned with overseas investors and tourism rather than the at-home cultural degradation that their actions cause, and the same amount of testosterone-fueled idiots (albeit more violent and drunk) are set on decimating an entire species in the hopes of bagging the right beast for the bounty. Running alongside the central narrative of man vs beast, we have the spiritual and far more interesting glimpse into Aboriginal culture and their relationship to the native fauna. While this depiction of indigenous culture is a little dated and culturally appropriated/stereotyped, it nevertheless brings a breath of fresh air to the bloody and beer-stained boat ride that is this film.

Image credit: Morbidly Beautiful

While the last two eco-horror movies I watched had characters that lacked any personality, it’s very easy to immediately hate a bunch of the characters in this film and thus get a sick enjoyment from the crunching sound their bones make when they get snapped in half. The performances are all solid, inspiring you to root for the good guys and really look forward to the villains getting chomped.

Filled with drama, romance, suspense, and action, Dark Age is a sturdy b-grade horror film from Australia’s cinematic repertoire.

Director: Arch Nicholson, 1987

Cast: John Jarratt, Nikki Coghill, Max Phipps, Burnham Burnham, Ray Meagher, Jeff Ashby, Paul Bertram, Ron Blanchard, Gerry Duggan & David Gulpilil

Prey

Image credit: Wikipedia

In my last post I talked about the rise of the dumb eco-horror movie that we watch if we want something to joyfully yell at. Having watched a movie last night, anticipating that it would be a similar type of romp, I now have to add a disclaimer to my previous mention of this subgenre. The happy-anger we feel at watching these sorts of movies comes, in part, from the feeling that the filmmakers (hopefully) did not set out to make a serious horror flick thus, through bad writing, predictability, and mediocre characters it feels like the level of joy-ranting is justified, even encouraged.

Then there are films like Prey which were clearly made to be taken seriously, explore serious themes about society and its inevitable breakdown in stressful situations, but are just so bad you even get mad that you streamed it and lost over an hour of your life.

Prey follows a group of Americans in Africa who become stranded in the Ngala Reserve after a plane crash. Tension is already rife amongst the group which is made up a pilot who’s a smuggler, a married couple from a Christian missionary who have been threatened by an extremist military gang, a spoilt rich boy on holiday, and his hired guide whom he treats as a servant. With painful death threatening them from every corner, can they work together to survive or will the true, chaotic nature of man break down civility?

Nothing but bad things to say about this movie I’m afraid. It tried to take itself seriously as an eco-thriller, following the tropes of the classic zombie movie except in this case it’s lions. Unfortunately, the script is terribly written, there is no real chance for audiences to become attached to any of the characters, plus an acute lack of backstory which makes them even more unfathomable, oh and it completely flumps the Bechdel Test as both female characters get killed off before they even have the chance to have a conversation.

Like all films Prey had a budget, which clearly went towards securing a couple of celebrity names in the cast. The leftover change went to the predator effects, which is seriously footage of various nature documentaries spliced together (albeit sort of smoothly). The film could definitely have benefited from some form of consultant on the hunting behaviour of lions or the right way to try keep a man conscious after being bitten by a venomous snake. The seismic lack of any authentic predator interaction with the characters pretty much eradicates any suspense or horror that comes from being stalked and threatened with a violent death. To make matters worse, at one point it is clear that the writers lost the thread of the film and just added in more stuff in the hope that it would get everything back on track. Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

Image credit: Filmaffinity

Even if you’re after a dumb predator film to yell at, I would not recommend Prey.

Director: Mukunda Michael Dewil, 2024

Cast: Ryan Phillippe, Mena Survari, Jeremy Tardy, Dylan Flashner, Tristan Thompson, Michaela Sasner, Godwin Asamoah Obeng, Alpha Miknas, Theo Bongani Ndyalvane & Emile Hirsch

Anaconda

Image credit: Fandango

When you want to get out of the house on Boxing Day but can’t stand the idea of being crushed in a Lion King reenactment during the Boxing Day sales, where do you go? The movies. What could be better than going to see a dumb popcorn movie in the wake of the Christmas aftermath? Honestly, a lot of things but regardless, a dumb comedy-horror hit cinemas on Boxing Day so Partner and I braved the stampedes of the shopping mall and went to see Anaconda.

Griff (Paul Rudd) is a struggling actor pining for the old days when he and his childhood friends would make movies together. Thankfully, his friends are also going through similar mid-life crises so when he proposes remaking their favourite horror film, Anaconda, they are immediately on board. With Doug (Jack Black) directing and Griff and Claire (Thandiwe Newton) starring as the leads, the group heads into the jungle full of hope and excitement. But their dream quickly turns into a nightmare when they find themselves being stalked by an enormous anaconda.

While the poster gives off Jumanji vibes, the film is definitely more like Tropic Thunder: a bloody, rough, and brutal comedy flavoured with not-so-subtle social commentary about the state of cinema and the genre’s penchant for metafiction. The twist of the plot is also very similar in that it’s a group of filmmakers who inadvertently land in the middle of the story they are trying to tell.

The film is very much about the funny, filmmakers-living-the-film plot but there are some thinner narratives about friendship, growing-up, and never giving up on your dreams peppered throughout. A reasonably funny script combined with eco-horror and the gross-out humour that can accompany it does not put Anaconda in the realm of comedy genius, but certainly delivers laughs and cringes.

The performances are all solid, there is definitely a fun and friendly vibe or chemistry that flows through the central cast. It really does feel like a bunch of friends and cinephiles making a movie.

Image credit: Decider

While it’s nothing to write home about, Anaconda is a fun and mindless popcorn movie that delivers respite from the year that has been. Filled with action, suspense, a couple of predictable plot twists, and plenty of comedy, it’s a perfectly adequate way to kill some time.

Director: Tom Gormican, 2025

Cast: Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Thandiwe Newton, Steve Zahn, Selton Mello, Ione Skye, Sebastian Sero, Daniela Melchior, Rui Ricardo Diaz, & Ice Cube

Thunderbolts

Image credit: IMDb

Reluctant, unexpected, and antiheroes are characters that always add a bit of fun and spice to a genre that can be stifled and restricted by its narrative binaries of good vs. evil. While the superhero genre works similarly to fantasy, with magic being replaced by science-fiction explanation, it ventures further into the unexplored frontier of the human condition than the former, examining the swings between anticipated and contradictory behaviours in people in tandem with their personalities and their social, mental, economical, and geographical environments. The narrative aspect of the antihero or unexpected hero is a popular one in the superhero genre, as it explores the dichotomy of good and evil by truncating and localising it to within the personal parameters of the individual. It then grows from there, case in point: Batman.

What station did this train of thought come from? I recently sat down and watched Marvel’s Thunderbolts.

A group of mercenaries are sent on an assignment by CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fonataine to eradicate some loose ends that tie the director to the O.X.E Group’s ‘Sentry’ project to create a new ultimate superhuman. But upon arrival they realise that the assignment is a trap and they are the ‘loose ends’. Working together to fight their way out, the group then make it their mission to ensure that Valentina is impeached for her crimes, but things take a turn when one of their number is revealed to be a successful patient of the ‘Sentry’ procedure. Unfortunately, the procedure also empowered the dark alter-ego of Bob, the amnesiac patient, and suddenly a quest of revenge turns into one of saving the world from The Void.

Thunderbolts has been loosely labelled as Marvel’s Suicide Squad, but the similarities between the two films really do stop at the fact that the superhero group is made up of not-superheroes. While Suicide Squad was about villains being put into a position where they have to save the day, Thunderbolts is made up of a rag-tag team of impressive people who are remorseful about their past actions. The line-up includes former Black Widow Yelena Bolova, Red Guardian Alexei Shostakov, Captain America understudy John Walker, Ghost Ava Starr, and the Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes.

Image credit: IMDb

The film is an exploration into the mental minefield of anxiety and depression and the ways we can get through it. Imposter syndrome rans rampant throughout the team, but it’s through external support as well as internal fortitude that they can overcome their mental humps and help other people. While subtlety is not necessarily at the forefront of the film, with the Big Bad being a literal bipolar opposite to the Sentry, the nods to and explorations of various mental illnesses as well as everyday anxiety and depression bring the heroes down to earth and delivers a very encouraging message about exceptional people going through the same shit we do.

Like its predecessors, the film is a good balance of action, narrative exposition, character development, and comedy, with a refreshing take on the Avengers origin story of a group of exceptional people brought together to become something more.

Director: Jake Schreier, 2025

Cast: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, Geraldine Viswanathan, & Wendell Pierce

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Image credit: Disney

Leaving the shores of black and white for a jaunt into the more modern age, this weekend saw me diving back into the MCU with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. I’ll admit there was some trepidation, after all there hasn’t yet been a Fantastic Four movie that has been particularly good: the one from the Naughties I recall with a bit of embarrassed nostalgia and honestly, I never bothered seeing the remake in the 2010s. But of course, there have been too many hints that the cosmic-hero quartet were muscling into the MCU, so I had to go see it. I’m glad to say that I was pleased with the experience.

Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Susan and Johnny Storm have been the protectors of the world since venturing to space and coming back with superpowers. Now they are about to voyage to a whole new frontier: parenthood. Shortly after announcing Sue and Reed’s pregnancy, a mysterious silver surfer comes to Earth heralding its destruction. The four heroes suit up and follow the herald into space where they discover a monstrous, consuming entity named Galactus, who agrees to spare their world in exchange for Reed and Sue’s baby.

What’s nice about Fantastic Four: First Steps is that it works as another standalone Marvel movie. Despite taking place within the multiverse, no prior knowledge of the various other universes and timelines is really required. Like the later Thor movies or Multiverse of Madness, First Steps is another enjoyable genre piece, paying homage to the comics’ Silver Age in the 1960s. Set in a campy, retro, yet somehow also space age NY, it’s got the feel of a classic ‘60s sitcom or cartoon – the predominant vibe is The Jetsons -  with a refreshing edge of not being over dramatized.

Where a slight bit of discombobulation comes in is from the scenes that take place in outer space, in which the modern computer wizards have free reign to remind us that this is an MCU movie. The special effects of Galactus and Shalla-Bal are visually very impressive and the battle sequences that take place both in space and NY are reminiscent of The Avengers, Thor, or Guardians of the Galaxy. But the jarring contrast between the ’60s futuristic sets and the great beyond is fleeting and doesn’t really dampen any of the fun cinematic experience of the film.

Image credit: Space

With great performances, funky set designs, and classic Marvel special effects, Fantastic Four: First Steps is a fun instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Director: Matt Shakman, 2025

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Mark Gatiss, Sarah Niles, Matthew Wood, Paul Walter Hauser & Natasha Lyonne

Ghost Rider

Image credit: Wikipedia

It’s funny to think that there are so many great stories and characters and narrative ideas out there in the world and many of them get picked up and turned into bad or mediocre movies. Indeed, it’s a funny industry that allows for terrible pieces to be created, distributed, and then left to age and (sometimes) outlive us all. For every groundbreaking masterpiece or commercial blockbuster that breaks the Box Office, there are dozens, hundreds even of mehs and megaflops. It’s a delightful world of content that we live in.

This train of through is partly influenced by a very interesting book that I am currently reading about a century of Hollywood flops and partly inspired by a dumb foray into a lesser celebrated Marvel movie that I saw for the first time recently: Ghost Rider.

When he discovers that his father has cancer, motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) sells his soul to Mephistopheles to save him. But a deal with the Devil never goes the way as planned and now, years later Johnny is forced to serve as Mephistopheles’ ‘Ghost Rider’ – an agent of vengeance. His task: eradicate a group of rebellious demons that seek an ancient and powerful scroll that would bring about the end of the world.

Falling into the category of Marvel antiheroes, Ghost Rider seems to be a movie that was made because a) Marvel characters had never really left our cinematic consciousness and it was about to have a real resurgence, and b) the idea is metal as Hell. Director Mark Steven Johnson definitely went in for a camp, metal, romp with a simple story that allowed for computer wizards to have fun with making demons, devils, and leather-clad, flame-wreathed skeletons. It’s a stupid and fun lone-gunman type metal western that rides on its silliness, which is made even more enjoyably ridiculous by the special effects. I mean, we’ve got a leather-clad, chain-wielding, skeleton who is on fire riding a motorcycle directly up the side of a skyscraper!

Having said this, the now-dated and janky special effects are completely what carries this movie. The story is simple and ‘eh’, but the characters are as boring as unseasoned rice water with both Nicholas Cage and Eva Mendes delivering performances that felt like they had no idea who their characters were. Johnny Blaze and his love interest are like that film that covers soup when it’s left to cool: a flimsy coating that you have to mash with your spoon to get at the good stuff.

Image credit: Fangoria

Ghost Rider is not a good movie, but it is a dumb fun movie and sometimes that’s the vibe you want on a Friday night.

Director: Mark Steven Johnson, 2007

Cast: Nicholas Cage, Eva Mendes, Matt Long, Sam Elliott, Raquel Alessi, Brett Cullen, Donal Logue, Wes Bentley & Peter Fonda

Jurassic World: Rebirth

Image credit: Wikipedia

There is something to be said for genre or franchise films that are ‘tried and true’. Of course, when you know a formula works, why would you mess with it? If you’ve seen one Alien movie, you’ve seen them all. The same can more or less be said for Scream, Predator, and of course Jurassic Park. Despite the Jurassic World movies being rather garbage all around, it seems that Universal are going to ironically try to pump as much life into this T-Rex skeleton as they can. Can you tell, I went and saw Jurassic World: Rebirth recently.

The novelty of dinosaurs has officially run its course, with many species dying out all over again. But it seems man is not quite done with them yet. A pharmaceutical company hires a team of mercenaries to lead an expedition into isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three specific prehistoric creatures in order to make groundbreaking advances in medical science.

Set five years after the events of Jurassic World: Dominion, which I have not bothered to watch at this point in time, Rebirth does breathe a little bit of life back into the franchise, by taking the screenplay back to basics: a group of people suddenly find themselves in a very dangerous situation where survival becomes the only goal. Pretty much all the standard plot twists make their way onto the screen at some point, resulting in the expected amount of emotional payoff and smug comeuppance.

While the opening scene has us holding our heads in disbelief at the bad decisions and even worse security measures of a dangerous facility, the film still manages to provide a reasonably enjoyable movie experience thanks to a cast of relatively interesting and likeable characters, fairly measured action sequences that balance the gore and suspense, and of course that wonderful, recognisable soundtrack.

The film is definitely carried by Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, the leading lowlifes with strong senses of duty and honour. Johannson is strong with that classic flirty aloofness, and Ali is the one you would definitely help to the best of your abilities: a man doing questionable things but for the right reasons.

Image credit: Los Angeles Times

There isn’t much to say about a Jurassic Park/World movie that has not already been said. After the cringe of previous trilogy, Rebirth is a somewhat self-aware resurrection of an exciting franchise. It works perfectly well as a standalone movie and while it’s not a tremendous cinematic experience, it still proves to be a nice night out.

Director: Gareth Edwards, 2025

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda, Philippine Velge, Bechir Sylvain & Ed Skrein

Maneater

Image credit: themoviedb.org

Continuing on in our pursuit of delightfully dumb eco horror movies to watch on a Friday night, the film of choice last Friday was a perfectly predictable and boring large shark movie called Maneater. No relation to the videogame of the same name, which honestly might have made the film better. B-grade horror films are fun, but I’m starting to see that there is a fine line between the overly enjoyable dumb ones and the ones that are just boring and bland. These ones are probably the worst because you can’t even enjoy making fun of them. I think this boils down to a lack of sincerity; you can’t feel the fun or love or want that made this movie come into existence and thus, can only talk about it coldly.

Recently broken up with, Jess (Nicky Whelan) spends her would-be honeymoon with a bunch of friends at a beachside resort. Eager to get her mind off her melancholy, her friends organise an ocean tour that takes them to a beautiful little island where they plan to camp. But the idyllic getaway turns nightmarish with the arrival of a great white shark that starts to pick off the campers one by one.

Narratively, it’s clear that the waters for good shark movie plots are shallow indeed. Jaws worked because it didn’t necessarily villainise the shark, but the greed of people and our own sense of status within the pecking order. Deep Blue Sea added a science fiction element into the story that at least made the sharks’ behaviour interesting. Even The Shallows made a point of using believable shark behaviour to heighten the terror of being caught between teeth and a wet place. But Maneater is a movie that just says, ‘by the way, shark’.

A bland and boring film that narratively treads the path of Jaws with a revenge story mixed in, this film could have been fun but suffered from burnout very quickly. It felt as though everyone in it stopped caring even before shooting began. The story is predictable, basic, and (most annoyingly) unfulfilling, as characters establish that there’s something odd about this shark’s behaviour but they don’t bother exploring it beyond, ‘this shark isn’t killing for food, it’s killing for fun’.

Image credit: Rakuten.tv

There is zero character development, thus absolutely zero emotional reaction when they get chomped. Even the vengeful hunter character is boring A F so the only thing there is to enjoy about this film is wondering why the shark looks like it’s been through a shredder.

Despite its name, which instantly gets the Hall and Oates song stuck in one’s head, Maneater is a boring and mediocre shark movie that’s fine for a mindless night it but don’t expect any real enjoyment to come from it.

Director: Justin Lee, 2022

Cast: Trace Adkins, Nicky Whelan, Shane West, Porscha Coleman, Ed Morrone, Kelly Lynn Reiter, Alex Farnham, Zoe Cipres, Branscombe Richmond, Jeff Fahey, & Kim DeLonghi

The Flood

Image credit: Rotten Tomatoes

The world is made up of varying tastes and conflicting preferences, and while it’s tempting to upgrade one’s opinions to a status of fact due to the amount of emotional clout you put behind it, we must remember we are here on this planet to enjoy ourselves and shape our own characters. Thus, when I badmouth a movie, it’s not an act of judgement, rebellion, or conversion: merely the thoughts of one person of no real consequence being sent into the wider world.

Friday night is becoming Dumb Eco Horror Movie Night in our household: we are finding that cuddling up on the couch with dinner and horror films starring natural predators as the villains is just a nice way to spend the evening. While we appreciate good eco horror, we also enjoy the terrible b-movie monster flicks that can be found clogging our streaming platforms. We discovered one such on Friday night: The Flood.

Louisiana is in the grips of an insane hurricane, during which a transport van filled with dangerous criminals is forced to make a stopover at the local police station to wait out the storm. Following the van is a team of crims intent on breaking out one of their men but the jailbreak takes a turn when it’s discovered that a group of large alligators have infiltrated the police station, brought in with the storm.

Con Air with gators, but nowhere near as good. That’s probably the nicest thing we can say about this hilariously dumb film. The story itself could have been quite interesting, but it seems that the (most likely) scant budget was spent on actors and computer wizardry(?). To be fair, the performances are the best part of this film. Leading lady Nickey Whelan as the sheriff that can hold her own against the ceaseless waves of toxic masculinity is very compelling to watch and Casper Van Dien as the stoic silent crim who is maybe really not a bad guy, is fascinating (however this could also be due to the forced narrative cliché of the character). He’s sort of like the Steven Buscemi in Con Air – hyped up to be super dangerous that even the other aggressively loud criminals give him a wide berth, and so of course we want to know what his deal is!

Image credit: IGN

Absolutely everything else about this movie is garbage. The story had a lot of potential but was given up on with no thought beyond ‘jailbreak gets interrupted by unbelievably persistent gators’. We don’t even get the fun of wondering what’s causing the disappearances because the villains are introduced before the story even kicks off. So, no real suspense, a completely unbelievable depiction of natural predator behaviour without even any hand-wavey science fiction to paint it with, and the gators themselves are soooo janky, shiny, and overly obviously computer generated – making them the scariest things in the film, but not for the right reasons. The flinches and winces of pain and unease that this movie does manage to inspire are not empathetic from the gore or jump scares, they’re a product of bad CGI, a plethora of cliched and pointless director’s decisions, and a script that feels like the writers just went for lunch and did not come back.

BUT, if you do enjoy watching terrible movies because that are terrible and require no real brain function to follow, then you could do worse than The Flood.

Director: Brandon Slagle, 2023

Cast: Nickey Whelan, Casper Van Dien, Louis Mandylor, Ryan Francis, Eoin O’Brien, Bear Williams, Randall J. Bacon, Alexander Winters, Alex Farnham, Kim DeLonghi, Randy Wayne, Mike Ferguson & Jonathan Samson

Deep Blue Sea

Image credit: Wikipedia

Can the weight of words ever really cease to be a surprise to anyone? We know that words have the power to wound, support, inspire, and confuse; but they can’t do these things alone. The real weight of words comes from the people who say them and the relationships that these people have with the people they are saying them to. This philosophical train of thought was inspired by the latest film that I have added to my cinematic history.

Deep Blue Sea is not a film that I particularly had much interest in watching until the coagulation of a content creator I enjoy praised it on a particularly entertaining videogame stream and the fact that my partner and I have enjoyed many a cosy night on the couch with dumb eco horror films. But this was the film that broke Partner and my cinematic drought over the weekend.

In an isolated research facility in the middle of the ocean, a group of scientists are trying to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Their test subjects: sharks. Success is just within reach until a disastrous turn of events that sees the sharks, now made smarter and vengeful thanks to the scientific process, escape from captivity and viciously attack with the aim to drag the entire facility and all its workers down into the deep blue sea.

Of course, this movie is no Jaws: no fresh and groundbreaking piece of cinema that boosts the genre of eco horror up a couple of notches. It is merely a fun sci-fi eco horror with a hunter/prey survival narrative that takes minimal brain power to follow and promises an hour+ of mindless enjoyment. Think Alien, but with a trio of sharks and nowhere near as good.

Within the narrative and environmental confines of a survival story in a rapidly sinking ‘ship’ we have a relatively enjoyable motley crew of characters experiencing the terror of being hunted by something that promises to deliver a gruesome and painful death as well as the breakdown of professional and social relationships under pressure. The performances are all fine, but nothing to write home about: with the characters only being minutely established, thus eradicating any real audience relationships being formed with them and putting the pressure and payoff into the lingering, hunter shots, POV sequences, and jump-scares.

Image credit: IMDb

The real fun of the movie comes in the form of trying to guess who’s going to be eaten next, but there are a number of fun and original ways in which the characters attempt to fight back. Deep Blue Sea is a just a rather enjoyable shark movie.

Director: Renny Harlin, 1999

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Jacqueline McKenzie, Michael Rapaport, Aida Turturro, Stellan Skarsgard, & LL Cool J

Captain America: Brave New World

Image credit: socalcitykids.com

So after the epic bout of finality that was Infinity War plus a few movies to test the waters of new characters and see how best to further the tales of those characters who’s stories hadn’t quite finished, the Avengers cycle feels like it’s starting anew with Captain America: Brave New World – a mirror film that I think audiences were a bit dubious about, but honestly stands as a solid instalment in the MCU saga.

The film follows Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) doing his best to follow Steve Rogers’ footsteps as the new Captain America. Saving the world one international threat at a time, Sam comes up against his biggest challenge when President Ross (Harrison Ford) asks him to recreate The Avengers Objective. Sam’s conflicting thoughts on the job are put on hold when an assassination attempt on Ross sends him on a hunt for a villain whose schemes of revenge against Ross are so grand that they could even spark war.

This movie has been only warmly received as far as I’m aware, which is a fair response as it really is a generic Marvel movie. All films adhere to the unspoken/unwritten codes of their genre to deliver a certain type of cinematic experience to its audiences – you go to a Marvel or superhero movie with the expectation of a mixture of action, comedy, and a little drama. Brave New World delivers all this, but does not go above and beyond, making it a safe film that people can’t be mad about because it’s what they expected to see in the cinema.

What I personally liked about this movie was that it was a return to bare bones narrative conflict and action. There is no multiverse mayhem to muddy the waters, no aliens, no space travel, no Lovecraftian horror that could open a third or fourth eye – it’s just an exceptional man trying to find the truth and save his country. Even the arrival of Red Hulk – not a spoiler, he’s literally on the posters - doesn’t come until the third act and isn’t even really made that a big a deal of. This movie was really just about Sam finding his feet as a great hero’s replacement and learning how to make the job his own.

Image credit: comicbook.com

In a very sweet dramatic scene, made better with a metafictive gag after the emotional talk, Bucky Barnes says to Sam, “Steve inspired hope in people, you inspire ambition”, which really sums up the film and Mackie’s performance. His Captain America is also an everyman, but an everyman that has gone through trauma and is determined to see the bright side. Where Steve Rogers’ overcoming adversity schtick was physical, Sam’s is emotional and manifests in an attractive, almost magnetic, emotional pull to the man once you meet him.

Harrison Ford replaces William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross and I really enjoyed his performance because, even though we’re primed to not like Ross due to his past actions in other Marvel films, in Brave New World he is a man shooting for redemption and there is something about Ford’s face that houses this amazing internal conflict between being absolutely enraged and desperately heartbroken. Ford can flit between the two emotional states with superhuman speed and because of that natural softness he has in his features, he turns Ross from a loathed character into a liked character.

There have been hints of Disney’s plan for the MCU in a lot of the films that have come out since Infinity War: a bunch of Doctor Strange escapades across the multiverse, the Fantastic four are coming, the X-Men are coming, and even an Avengers Junior team, oh and let’s not forget about the Eternals. Whether all of these ideas come through is anyone’s guess, but Captain America: Brave New World seems to have really raised a torch to light the path we’re set to follow.

Director: Julius Onah, 2024

Cast: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbley, Giancarlo Esposito, Xosha Roquemore, Tim Blake Nelson, Takehiro Hira & Liv Tyler

Borderlands

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Cinema is supported by a number of foundations: the sturdiest being the adaptation. Most of cinema’s bulk, and shape, and heft is made up of adaptations. They have started and sometimes ended entire careers. Heck, they have even spawned and reared major motion picture studios! And like any core pillar, the phenomenon of adaptations has splintered into beams that help support and widen the reach of cinema, adding to its mighty girth.

Obviously, adaptations of books and traditional oral stories have been inspiring and reshaping cinema for over a century, but as humanity has concocted new ways to tell stories and entertain itself, new subgenres of adaptations have appeared. The subject of today’s film review falls into one such subgenre: the videogame adaptation.

Videogame adaptations are not necessarily new, but they are certainly rising to prominence in a rather quick and feverish fashion. Within the last 5 years alone we have seen a solid number of movies and TV shows spawned from the videogame genre: Fallout, The Last of Us, The SuperMario Bros Movie, Five Nights At Freddy’s, and it has been confirmed that Alien: Romulus has been inspired by the videogame Alien: Isolation. This week, I treated myself to a solo night out for dinner and a movie and went and saw the newest addition to this list: Borderlands.

On the wasteland planet of Pandora there is a vault that is said to contain technologies from an alien race known as the Eridians. Vault hunters have been after this treasure for years, but no one has ever gotten close to finding it, let alone opening it. Until now. When the CEO of the Atlas Corporation hires cynical and bad-tempered bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett) to rescue his kidnapped daughter, it seems like an easy cheque. Until Lilith discovers that Atlas’ ‘daughter’ is actually a clone that he engineered to be the key to opening the Eridian Vault and her return to Atlas would very likely be her end. Lilith joins the ragtag team protecting Tiny Tina from Atlas, aiming to get to the Vault first and give Tina the upper hand against him.

This movie has been universally panned by critics and gamers alike, apparently hosting a myriad of ailments including being a mashup of various game narratives, an oppressive lack of narrative and character development, a terrible botching of beloved characters, and an overall attempt to be like Mad Max meets Guardians of the Galaxy and failing miserably. I agree that the movie suffers from all these things. I also agree with Jamie Tram in their ABC review of the film: “Borderlands is competent enough to simply be forgettable.”

Let me clarify that I do not consider myself a gamer, though I do play videogames, and I have never played any of the Borderlands games or knew anything about them when entering the cinema on Wednesday night. I review this movie simply as a movie. I walked in expecting garbage, but I was pleasantly presented with hot garbage -thanks to the ethereal luminescence of Cate Blanchett- and I honestly had a fun time by myself watching this film.

I agree that the writing is definitely where the film falls flat on its face, but honestly I’m inclined to chalk that to the fact that this film was in Development Hell since 2015 so by the time actual filming and production rolled around, everyone had already given up. Do you remember that trick of removing a stick of gum from the wrapper and then folding the wrapper again so that it still looked like it contained gum? That’s this movie. It’s got a very shiny and enticing wrapper that holds the promise of sweetness or minty freshness within, but it’s just empty. The story is very predictable, even for people who wander in completely oblivious to the source material, and there is no real camaraderie between the characters so it’s very hard to form any sort of emotional investment in them. At one point there is a semi-interesting theme of maternalism that gets minutely explored, but it doesn’t really go anywhere so that fascination is short-lived.

Image credit: gamespot.com

All the cast did a fine job. I could honestly watch Cate Blanchett all day and, to be fair, it did look like she was having a rather fun time so I can get behind that. Jack black as the robot Claptrap was cutely sarcastic, Jamie Lee Curtis as researcher Tannis was quite entertaining to watch, Ariana Greenblatt, while no Ashley Birch, did a solid job of Tiny Tina, and Kevin Hart is there too.

Visually, the film is kinda cool. The dystopian wasteland of Pandora, while nothing we haven’t already seen, is still a good setting for the various forms of violence that flavour the film, and the space-age trinkets and technologies still provide some fun novelty.

Can Borderlands be considered cinematic art? Absolutely not. Could things have been better? 100%. But at the end of the day, I still had a nice time out watching this movie: I chuckled a few times, my mind did not wander to other things, and I left the cinema feeling that I had not wasted my time.

Director: Eli Roth, 2024

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, Jack Black, Florian Munteanu, Janina Gavankar, Gina Hershon, Hayley Bennett, Edgar Ramirez, & Jamie Lee Curtis.

Deadpool & Wolverine

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It’s always wonderful to go and see a movie that you have been looking forward to for ages and have it absolutely live up to your expectations. That feeling is just, mwuh, chef’s kiss. I got to experience the deliciousness of it last weekend when partner and I took ourselves to the cinema and saw Deadpool & Wolverine.

Wade Wilson’s (aka Deadpool) world is in peril. Serious peril. After a visit from the TVA, Wade learns that the sole person anchoring his timeline to reality is gone and without them, the whole timeline is doomed to crumble and disappear completely. Not so jazzed about this, Wade travels through multiple timelines to find a replacement for the anchor that his timeline has lost: Wolverine. Bringing back a Wolverine who has failed his own timeline, Wade is convinced that he has saved the world and earned his place amongst its mightiest heroes, only to discover that the TVA division who visited him have their own agenda. Sent with Wolverine to The Void, Wade must find a way back home, inspire a drunk and violent Wolverine to become a hero, and stop Charles Xavier’s psychotic sister from engulfing not just his timeline, but every timeline.

I was so excited for this movie and it did not disappoint. From the opening credits, the entire film is a blood-soaked, foul-mouthed, meta-stuffed joyride that had partner and I laughing from the first minute.

Coloured by the signature metafiction, fourth-wall breaks, and not-so-subtle digs at Disney’s cinematic history that made the first movie so effing hilarious, Deadpool & Wolverine carries a weighty story of emotional growth and character development underneath the waves of sarcasm and crudity. Wade is on a journey of self-importance and discovery, beginning the film unsure of his own importance without the mask and trying to find a way to make his life and his talents have meaning. In true Deadpool fashion, he achieves this in a really violent, verbal, and round-about way that even he’s not sure will pay off.

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Hugh Jackman is back as a sulky, dispirited, and short-fused Wolverine who also goes on a trip to discover his self-importance and become a hero. The relationship forged between the two is delightfully standoffish, aggressive, awkward, competitive and makes for a very fun time: mostly laugh-out-loud funny, but with a very subtle sweetness underlying it.

Without a doubt though, the star of the show are the writers who have managed to cram so much meta and social commentary comedy into the mix that it runs the risk of exploding. Between the resurgence of characters that the Marvel universe forgot and the broken Fox Studios sign that reminds us of the final scene of Planet of the Apes, this film is a gut-buster: a complete, shambolic, chaotic, insane, gut-buster. And I loved every minute of it! If there’s one movie you see in cinemas this year, make it this one!

Director: Shawn Levy, 2024

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfayden, Dafne Keen, Jon Favreau, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Chris Evans, Aaron Stanford, Wunmi Mosaku, Karan Soni, Tyler Mane, Channing Tatum, & Henry Cavill

Madame Web

Image credit: cine.com

It should come as no surprise that studios are still scrabbling to get a piece of the Marvel multiverse action. Marvel is now a label that instantly draws an audience, even when the trailers and marketing of the project is not particularly interesting. It’s a real shame then when a character or comic series from the Marvelverse gets picked up excitedly by a crew and then through the filmic process becomes something far below the initial expectations. This is the case with a film I went and saw last night (thank goodness I had free tickets): Madame Web.

Cassie Web (Dakota Johnson) is a paramedic who, after technically dying on the job, comes the realisation that she has the power of foresight. Unsure how to control or what even to do with this power, Cassie sees a vision in which three girls are attached by a man that can crawl, spider-like, on the ceiling. Suddenly Cassie finds herself in charge of protecting these girls who will one day have powers like her and use them to save the world.

This could have been good. The characters are interesting enough to root for, the story is just different enough of a superhero origin story to pique interest, and there are some cool moments for special effects to take the wheel. Let us have a moment of silence for what could have been.

The film looks fine. There are some fun bits where we get to see Cassie’s powers at work, although if you’re unfamiliar with the comic or character in general, it can take a little bit of time to work out what’s actually going on. Ultimately what really brought this film low was the script. I saw this with a friend and they turned to me during the credits and said, ‘I think that script was written by AI’. It’s a very boring and generic script with no flavour to speak of: no salt, sweetness, or even tang. And then there are the ham-fisted references to Spider-Man, which are really, really on the nose. 

And because the script was boring, the performances were boring too. Fair play to the central cast for trying to inject some life into a dead spider, but sometimes there’s just no coming back from lifelessness. I think everyone gave up midway through. Johnson as a reluctant heroine is fine and there is some chemistry between her and the three girls that’s sweet and heartwarming. The villain is a real letdown, quite possibly the most uninteresting villain that I have seen in a superhero movie.

Image credit: imdb

If you have any interest in seeing Madame Web, I would recommend waiting until it comes to a streaming service, it’s certainly not worth the price of a ticket.

Director: S.J Clarkson, 2024

Cast: Dakota Johnson, Adam Scott, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Tahar Rahim, Jose Maria Yazpik, & Emma Roberts

Renfield

Image credit: dvdreleasedates.com

It was Buffy the Vampire Slayer who famously said to Dracula, ‘don’t you think I watch your movies, you always come back’ and no truer words have been said when it comes to cinematic appearances from the Prince of Darkness. Indeed the story of the vampiric Count Dracula and the band of heroes who set out to destroy him is one of the most retold tales in cinematic history, and we’ve had a number of piggyback films and character spinoffs that feature many of the characters: Van Helsing in Van Helsing, Mina Harker in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for example. But that’s the heroes, what about the villainous sidekicks?

Enter Nicholas Hoult and Nicholas Cage in a charming and very funny modern exploration into the timeless characters in Chris McKay’s spoof comedy, Renfield, which is the first film that Partner and I chose to ring in the new year with.

Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) has been the dutiful servant of Count Dracula (Nicholas Cage) for decades, but has recently begun thinking about what a life away from the Count could be. Attending support meetings for people in toxic relationships, initially as a means of getting victims for his master, Renfield discovers that his and Dracula’s relationship is one of the most toxic there is and he determines to take back his power and break his dependency once and for all. But this becomes a little tricky as a zealous cop starts to follow Renfield’s hunting trail.

The premise of the film alone is very funny, fresh, and just delightful. A simple and silly modern B-movie that exists to remind us that movies don’t always have to be serious or artistic masterworks; some people make them purely for the fun. And that’s what Renfield is, it’s just fun. The story is sweet and uplifting with the added quirk of the hero being a celebrated literary villain’s henchman. While there is a fair amount of violence, it’s not particularly realistic and this plays further into the idea that this movie was made purely for the fun, achieving a number of grossed out giggles.

But it’s the performances that make the film so lovely. Nicholas Hoult is an absolute delight: charming, endearing, and sweet with a brilliant sense of comedic timing that carries the movie perfectly. Nicholas Cage, you could tell, was having a ball as Dracula; opting for the grandiose gestures and dramatic melancholy that many of his vampiric predecessors favoured. Awkwafina, in a fun twist, brings bite and a bit of seriousness to the otherwise hilarious cast as the zealous cop with something to prove.

Image credit: nme.com

Filled with inspiring messages about self-worth, schlock violence and ridiculous fight sequences, a clever and fun script, and a cast that were absolutely having a ball, Renfield is a delightful modern B-movie that’s perfect for a mindless night in.

Director: Chris McKay, 2023

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Nicholas Cage, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Brandon Scott Jones, Adrian Martinez, James Moses Black, & Camille Chen

Accessibility: At time of writing, Renfield is available on Netflix (AU)