October 2017 saw the release of five creature features centred around the most common of household pests; packaged together on Blu-ray under the eye-catching title of The Fly Ultimate Collection, from Australian distributor Via Vision Entertainment. Being today is the ominous Friday the 13th, one of only two such occurrences for 2018, the time could […]
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Whether the late Harry Dean Stanton intended Lucky to be his last film, he and audiences alike could not have been given a better send off to an all-time great character actor. This thoughtful drama from first-time director John Carroll Lynch, bids us to ponder life’s ultimate questions and the fate that is bestowed upon
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Tim Burton was sent several scripts following the success of his directorial debut feature Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, but quickly became disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality; then came a script from novelist and screenwriter Michal McDowell, whom Stephen King had once called “the finest writer of paperback originals in America today”. Delighted by what McDowell had
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Films like Wake in Fright, Picnic at Hanging Rock or Pricilla Queen of the Desert are the “masterpieces” off Australia cinema that usually get thrown around when the topic of conversation arises. However, while recognized as such in its own right, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith isn’t as well known to mainstream audiences. Hopefully that
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It’s always interesting when a director known for a particular genre suddenly deviates or changes from their usual style and subject matter. However, there’s the risk of these ambitious projects becoming overlooked. I feel this is the case for George A. Romero’s Knightriders, a unique and personal drama nestled between Dawn of the Dead and
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Daniel Radcliffe returns to the wilderness, not as the versatile dead body we saw in 2016’s Swiss Army Man, but as young Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg in the biographical drama Jungle from Australian director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek). This survivalist feature was subject to a limited theatrical run following its premier at the Melbourne International
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Upon the opening credits it feels as though you’re being whisked away to a romanticised version of the past, where courage and sacrifice stood firm against those who wished to do us harm. Set in London 1943, a fateful entanglement between brave American bomber pilot Lt. David Halloran (Harrison Ford) and British nurse Margaret Sellinger
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Six months after playing with an Ouija board, Madrid teenager Estafania Gutierrez Lazaro died suddenly and inexplicably in August of 1991. Known as the “Vallecas” case, the series of events which allegedly took place have often been likened to the controversial Enfield Poltergeist case in Britain. Spanish director Paco Plaza, creator of the popular [REC]
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During the four devastating years of World War I, aerial combat was a daring new means of inflicting damage on the enemy, but was a fragile state of existence for those who took to the skies. New to DVD from Umbrella Entertainment, the action/drama Aces High shows the enormous strain placed upon a squadron of
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As the second month of 2018 comes to an end, you may be surprised to know that Alex Proyas’ Dark City turned twenty-years-old, one of a number of films I was exposed to as a teenager and aspiring film buff by Foxtel’s annoyingly repetitive schedule. Like many films that’ve gone to achieve widespread acclaim, this
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