|
2/5
|
4%
|
Scary Movie 5 (2013) |
"
This is the first Scary Movie in seven years, but the formula remains unchanged, with a thin storyline linking spoofs of Hollywood hits."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 11, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
94%
|
Amour (2012) |
"
Ultimately, the title of the film demands to be taken as a question: is this truly what love looks like? A little smugly, Haneke refuses to answer. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Feb 22, 2013
|
|
1.5/5
|
63%
|
Anna Karenina (2012) |
"
Trying to one-up Tolstoy was always going to be a bad idea, though I wouldn't object to seeing a Bond movie, or Les Miserables, staged in the same way. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
1/5
|
46%
|
The Sweeney (2013) |
"
Winstone attempts to bluster his way through, but remains the least credible action star this side of Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
2/5
|
13%
|
Safe Haven (2013) |
"
Will there ever be a good movie based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks? "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
52%
|
Trouble with the Curve (2012) |
"
The narrative feels almost intentionally hokey and diagrammatic, a framework that gives the actors freedom to display their best-known qualities. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
49%
|
The Man With the Iron Fists (2012) |
"
Predictably, this kind of gleeful fanboy excess yields diminishing returns. RZA hasn't much sense of storytelling rhythm, and lacks Tarantino's gift for turning adolescent obsessions into something uniquely personal. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
1.5/5
|
——
|
Love Story () |
"
Sheltering behind his harmlessly dorky persona, Habicht never shows us anything painful enough to seem real; the film is far more an exercise in self-promotion than a study of the ups and downs of love. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
1.5/5
|
85%
|
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) |
"
Even making allowances for a certain amount of Hollywood gloss, there's something wrong with a film about misfits where everyone is this good-looking and poised. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 29, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
74%
|
Sound of My Voice (2012) |
"
Either Maggie is the real deal, or she's lying, or we never find out. In any case, anticlimax seems inevitable."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 22, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
92%
|
Skyfall (2012) |
"
Skyfall is not, of course, ''darker'' or more serious than previous Bond films, but it's more knowing about its own conventions."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 22, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
94%
|
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel (2012) |
"
There's something marvellously comic about her, an effect reinforced by her refined yet raucous baritone voice. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 22, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
88%
|
The Angels' Share (2013) |
"
[Loach's] latest collaboration with screenwriter Paul Laverty proves the pair can pull off a genre entertainment with aplomb when in the mood. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 15, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
87%
|
Robot & Frank (2012) |
"
The final twist is a little forced, but otherwise the actors ensure that the fanciful plot stays grounded in recognisable emotions -- and Langella and Sarandon have more romantic chemistry than most screen couples at any age. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 15, 2012
|
|
1.5/5
|
68%
|
God Bless America (2012) |
"
Gory, unfunny satire that deserves a prize for the most strained provocation of the year. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 15, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
43%
|
Two Little Boys () |
"
This is a weak film but an endearing one, a would-be black comedy undermined by the amiability of all concerned. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 15, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
48%
|
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012) |
"
After nearly two hours of padding, there's a laughable climactic battle sequence with heads shattering bloodlessly. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 14, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
67%
|
Dead Europe () |
"
The film might have felt truer to its source if it were either pulpier or more avant-garde. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 14, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
82%
|
Shadow Dancer (2013) |
"
The film hardly seems like more than an exercise: the plot wraps up neatly but the emotional significance of a key revelation is barely explored. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 12, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
61%
|
Secret of the Wings (2012) |
"
The usual warning applies: adults should steer clear. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 8, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
21%
|
Taken 2 (2012) |
"
Neeson's soft-spoken Angry Dad routine has been flattened into burlesque, giving him little to do but alternate between bumbling dork and efficient killer. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 4, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
47%
|
Bait (2012) |
"
Much of Bait is frankly awful, though not unenjoyably so."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 20, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
97%
|
Monsieur Lazhar (2012) |
"
Lazhar is something of a puzzle, and much of the pleasure of Philippe Falardeau's film lies in the gradual unfolding of his reserved yet impulsive personality. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 6, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
48%
|
Hit & Run (2012) |
"
Hit and Run sets out to be crass and compassionate by turns, but Shepard's inexperience as a writer is obvious throughout: the structure is as wobbly as the tone. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 6, 2012
|
|
1/5
|
57%
|
Love (2011) |
"
Eubank may well have a future as a cinematographer, or in the special effects business. But a filmmaker he ain't. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Aug 30, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
31%
|
Total Recall (2012) |
"
Wiseman's style is superficially grittier, reliant on desaturated colours, whip pans and lens flare. Yet the film's dystopian setting is blatantly derivative of sci-fi classics from Metropolis to Blade Runner."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Aug 23, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
78%
|
Brave (2012) |
"
None of this virtuosity makes the story any less dull."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jun 21, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
86%
|
Careless Love () |
"
Realism is not a primary concern: an element of unlikely melodrama is planted early on but not detonated until the final minute, boldly allowing the narrative to jump to a different track."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted May 18, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
57%
|
The Dictator (2012) |
"
Nothing here is sustained, neither the feel-good redemption narrative nor the insistence that the jolly hero is a genuinely fearsome monster."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted May 16, 2012
|
|
3.5/5
|
92%
|
Marvel's The Avengers (2012) |
"
Whedon can deconstruct the myth of heroism in his sleep, and probably does, but on this occasion he's here to redeem the cliches, not to bury them. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 26, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
49%
|
Mirror Mirror (2012) |
"
The actors are all at sea, especially the miscast Roberts, whose arch manner never suggests even a pantomime version of evil. Conversely, Lily Collins makes an overly knowing Snow White, smirking demurely as if she'd just stepped off the Gossip Girl set. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Mar 30, 2012
|
|
1.5/5
|
75%
|
In Search of Haydn (2012) |
"
Though assorted experts do their best to sound excited about Haydn, some seem to be fighting the sense that from a post-Romantic perspective his output, like his life, lacks a certain wow factor."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Mar 15, 2012
|
|
4.5/5
|
98%
|
This Is Not a Film (2012) |
"
Far less transparent than it first appears, This Is Not a Film is a prime example of what Panahi's mentor, Abbas Kiarostami, has termed the ''half-finished'' film, for which part of the meaning must be supplied by the viewer. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 10, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
100%
|
Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard () |
"
At best Autoluminescent is that rare thing, a tribute to an artist that comes close to being a work of art in its own right."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 28, 2011
|
|
1.5/5
|
36%
|
In Time (2011) |
"
In Time is unusually pointed, but Niccoll is such a laborious filmmaker that it hardly matters. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 27, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
85%
|
George Harrison: Living In The Material World () |
"
The film fits easily into Scorsese's body of work, as a study of a complex, sometimes angry figure struggling with his contradictions. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 20, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
85%
|
Contagion (2011) |
"
The film addresses its grim subject in a cool, matter-of-fact way. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 20, 2011
|
|
2.5/5
|
23%
|
What's Your Number? (2011) |
"
Still, it's hard to dislike any vehicle for Faris -- the slob's Marilyn Monroe -- with her gift for dejection and her pliable face, which is like a hastily drawn cartoon. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 12, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
98%
|
Project Nim (2011) |
"
The film teases us with a paradox: arguably Nim's keepers were wrong to try to endow their protege with human attributes, but can we empathise with his suffering without making the same mistake?"
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 30, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
72%
|
Fright Night (2011) |
"
Fright Night 3D qualifies as a successful entry in a tricky genre - blending flip humour and emotional intensity in a way that feels true after its fashion to the facts of teenage life."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 16, 2011
|
|
1.5/5
|
38%
|
Johnny English Reborn (2011) |
"
Few things could be sadder than this unfunny vehicle for a clown long past his prime."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 16, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
58%
|
The Eye of the Storm (2012) |
"
It's fascinating to see Schepisi, who made his name with period pieces, return to the 1970s as an era that deserves examination in its own right."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 9, 2011
|
|
2.5/5
|
81%
|
Red Dog (2012) |
"
The screenplay by Daniel Taplitz lays on the nostalgic populism with a trowel. A big speech celebrating Red Dog as an emblem of Dampier's pioneering spirit feels out of keeping with the laconic Aussie idiom."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Aug 3, 2011
|
|
4.5/5
|
84%
|
The Tree of Life (2011) |
"
An extraordinary vision of first contact, not between two cultures but between a soul and the universe. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jul 7, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
75%
|
Stake Land (2011) |
"
Like Romero, Mickle has a pragmatic attitude to genre convention: even the corniest stereotypes can be turned to new purposes. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jun 22, 2011
|
|
2.5/5
|
38%
|
Cars 2 (2011) |
"
A great deal of know-how has been poured into Cars 2 but there's no way this cutesy scenario can work on multiple levels. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jun 22, 2011
|
|
1.5/5
|
37%
|
Mars Needs Moms (2011) |
"
The credited director is Simon Wells (The Time Machine), but the grotesque characters and dark action bear the Zemeckis stamp."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 13, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
79%
|
How I Ended This Summer (2010) |
"
Though billed as a psychological thriller, How I Ended This Summer is basically a solemn art movie, leaving ample room for interpretation."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 8, 2011
|
|
2.5/5
|
23%
|
Sucker Punch (2011) |
"
To the degree that Baby Doll and her pals are forced into becoming fetish objects, Sucker Punch contains its own critique -- though Joss Whedon's fascinating TV series Dollhouse explored similar themes with far more wit and skill."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 6, 2011
|
75%
80%
62%
52%
26%
4%
