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Superman

Well, it looks like I'm on the wrong side of recent film history with this one. Quite a few early signs are that this iteration of Superman isn't finding favour with the critics. I have to say, I thought it was a lot of fun. Not a world beater but certainly an improvement over the previous Snyder editions ( Man of Steel , Justice League , etc). One highlight is the editing, by Craig Halpert and William Hoy. It's snappy and witty, and some of the transitions are fantastic - Hawkgirl dropping a wrong'un cuts to a soluble tablet dropping into a glass of water, for example. The fight sequences aren't too ' Transformer -ised' either, that is, it's possible to tell what's going on. Writer/director James Gunn imbues the film with a lightness of touch and the humour, mostly from Nathan Fillion's Green Lantern, works most of the time. The casting is pretty spot on, too. In David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan, it's almost as though Gunn scoured the C...

El Jockey

This Argentinian film (also known as Kill the Jockey ) about a troubled rider in Buenos Aries, promises a lot but doesn't quite deliver. It starts like a rocket but pretty soon loses the run of itself, like a 1000m sprinter in the Melbourne Cup. I could see it fading about halfway through, but the punter can't help the jockey or the horse (or the film). Nahuel Pérez Biscayart plays the jockey, Remo, who seems to have a death wish, for reasons only alluded to. At the beginning of the film, he's found by his gangster boss's henchmen zonked out in a bar, and then returned to the track, where he spectacularly fucks up in the barriers. His pregnant girlfriend Abril (Úrsula Corberó) is worried but also occasionally amused by his erratic behaviour. When his boss brings over a Japanese horse for the big race, the pressure is on Remo to win, and cleanly as well. Considering he's been using horse medicine to get off, this isn't the easiest task. The race doesn't go to...

Jurassic World: Rebirth

It's hard to keep track but this is the SEVENTH film in the Jurassic Park/World franchise and, aside from new characters and a couple of nice lines, it's pretty much the same as the others. The first film in 1993 has earnt its reputation as a high water mark in effects cinema (though I've never been a huge fan). To say returns have diminished since would be an understatement. This film jettisons the 'new' cast (Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard) and the original cast (Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum), who returned on and off, for a fresh bunch of potential dino-feed, led by Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali. They play mercenaries who are hired to extract samples from three of the biggest free-roaming dinosaurs left in the equatorial region. The reason? Big Pharma believe these blood samples will help the fight against heart disease, and the trillions in returns won't hurt either. There are quite a few exciting sequences and the film's structure is ...

The Shrouds

Well, this is an odd film, and considering all the body horror David Cronenberg had delivered in the past, The Shrouds might just be his most inaccessible film. Straight up, Cronenberg is a great, important director. His style is much imitated and he's become a touchstone for a certain way of filmmaking in the industry. But he is capable of turning out some duds (see, or don't see, the awful Maps to the Stars ). This one has its moments but it feels like a personal project that, while he has earnt the right to make it, perhaps doesn't resonate as much with the wider public. Certainly not yours truly. It's a convoluted story involving graveyard technology, medical amputation, international espionage, conspiracy theories, artificial intelligence and dangerous sex. I realise this all sounds fantastic but a couple of these themes don't really go anywhere. Vincent Cassell plays Karsh, an entrepreneur who runs a tech company specialising in 3D imaging of people's rem...

28 Years Later

23 years after 28 Days Later , and 18 years after 28 Weeks Later , comes this third in the trilogy. If it really can be called a trilogy, considering the biggest disappointment about it is that 28 Years Later is actually the first of another proposed trilogy. Like so many recent films, this has to be seen as big screen TV, leaving story elements to stretch out over further 'episodes'. Structurally, this is composed of two longish acts and then a third act of about 10 minutes, if that. So, yeah, not a lot of space for a resolution. Luckily, the end of the film offers some tasty possibilities for 28 Years and 28 Days Later (sounds shash but the third act starts with that time stamp). If this wasn't from the minds of writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle, there might be cause for concern. The story starts on an island off the coast of north-east England. The folk here have managed to stay mostly safe since the rage virus decimated the British Isles. There's a nar...

Revelation Film Festival 2025

The Revelation Perth International Film Festival 2025 is almost upon us and there are some promising looking films on offer again this year. Rev Program Director, Jack Sargeant picks 5 of the films he's excited about: Lesbian Space Princess [Australia/87min Directed by Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese] Pavements [United States/128min Directed by Alex Ross Perry] Alice in the Cities [Germany/113min Directed by Wim Wenders] Pater Noster and the Mission of Light [United States/96min Directed by Christopher Bickel] September Says [Ireland, UK, France, USA, Germany/100min Directed by Ariane Labed] Aside from these, I'm also looking forward to the following: Of Caravan and the Dogs [Germany/89min Directed by Anonymous, Askold Kurov] The Thinking Game [United States/84min Directed by Greg Kohs] U are the Universe [Ukraine/101min Directed by Pavlo Ostrikov] Eddington [United States/148min Directed by Ari Aster] 1978 [Argentina/76min Directed by Luciano Onetti & Nicol...