Jim Schembri Movie Reviews & Previews

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Jim Schembri

Agrees with the Tomatometer 61% of the time.

Publications:: 3AW , Sydney Morning Herald , The Age (Australia) , The Canberra Times (Australia)

Total Reviews:: 554

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Showing 1 - 50 of 554

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
1/5	60%	Drift (2013)	" This lazy, over-long, poorly directed surf drama is the latest exhibit to suggest that 2013 is turning out to be a dud year for Australian film...it raises the age-old issue of whether local screenplays are properly developed before going into production." — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
2.5/5	8%	The Big Wedding (2013)	" It's not a bad film by any means, and there is some fizz seeing Sarandon, Keaton and De Niro bounce off each other, verbally and physically. Yet the film seems stuck in first gear, seemingly reluctant to dial up its screwball potential." — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
3.5/5	78%	Iron Man 3 (2013)	" The film's army of digital artists deliver big servings of neuron-numbing spectacle. Anyone who thinks that's not important should avoid this film." — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
4/5	79%	The Other Son (2012)	" This moving, emotionally concise human drama is easily one of the most remarkable films about the unending conflict in the Middle East." — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
1/5	64%	Antiviral (2013)	" As pretentious as it is boring." — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
3/5	73%	Unfinished Song (Song for Marion) (2013)	" A modest joy to behold, the film also clicks into the recent high-quality spate of movies aimed at and starring seniors, such as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Quartet, Performance, Amour and Hitchcock. Here's to more." — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
2/5	67%	Haute Cuisine (2013)	" Heaven help us. More food porn." — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
3.5/5	48%	Olympus Has Fallen (2013)	" Provided you can handle such deliberate over-kill in the chaotic swirl that goes on here, Olympus Has Fallen offers a super-sized serving of grit-tinged fantasy action guaranteed to satisfy those who don't mind splatter over style. " — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
3.5/5	54%	The Company You Keep (2013)	" [Director Robert Redford] deftly articulates the moral morass that can arise when idealism gives way to reality; he also has some very definite things to say about the way today's sensation-hungry, click-addicted media operates." — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
2/5	92%	No (2013)	" Shooting the entire film on video equipment of the era gives No some visual snap but it is very much a pedestrian, by-the-numbers docu-drama tale, with the emphasis on the former rather than the latter. " — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
4/5	92%	Jurassic Park: An IMAX 3D Experience (2013)	" Some things have dated - Sam Jackson wouldn't be allowed to smoke in the office; everyone would have mobiles; Google Earth would have kept the island from being kept a secret - but the power of the film's pioneering CGI remain strangely undiminished." — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
2/5	4%	Scary Movie 5 (2013)	" Enough. Please." — 3AW Posted May 4, 2013
3.5/5	56%	Oblivion (2013)	" Directed with pace-driven efficiency by Joseph Kosinski (who did Tron: Legacy, but don't hold that against him), the film does indulge some sci-fi movie standards but is lifted well above the pack by its "what the?" plot turns." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5	80%	Warm Bodies (2013)	" A fun mashing of genres that joins the spate of recent films that recasts traditional movie ghouls as misunderstood outsiders. Seems that even the Undead need love." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
2.5/5	76%	Kon Tiki (2013)	" The historic trans-Pacific boat trip undertaken in 1947 by Norwegian hero Thor Heyerdahl and his crew of fellow adventurers is here presented as a daring sea-faring adventure with angry weather and sharks." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
1/5	78%	Thérèse Desqueyroux (2013)	" A boring French film about boring French people...sadly the final film by veteran director Claude Miller. " — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
1.5/5	68%	Trance (2013)	" Director Danny Boyle goes off the boil with this meandering Inception wannabe... far from being a clever, tense heist-film-with-a-twist Trance is a laboured, over-stylised slice of pseudo-psychological babble. And it's kind of dull. " — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
2.5/5	20%	Identity Thief (2013)	" Formulaic multiplex mulch, way over-long, often feels strained...That said, Identity Thief is the latest example of the disconnect that often exists between critical opinion and popular appeal. Slammed by critics the low-budget film has been a huge hit." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5	85%	Sleepwalk With Me (2012)	" Though the sleep-walking episodes are funny, it's the way Mike Birbiglia captures the pains of performing comedy to tiny rooms that really fly. " — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5	——	Return To Nim's Island (2013)	" This message-driven film is perfectly fine for kids around 10, though it is a little light on humour. Adults accompanying said kids, though, are strongly advised not to think too hard as the predictable tale unfolds." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3.5/5	28%	G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)	" Dizzyingly entertaining celebration of fireballs, wire-assisted martial arts and high-calibre firepower has more grace and poise than Die Hard 5...will surely make up for those disappointed with the so-so 2009 film. " — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3.5/5	69%	The Croods (2013)	" As well as being pacy, energetically animated and stuffed full of modern-day references, The Croods also casts off any lingering doubt that DreamWorks is moving into the character-driven domain normally dominated by Pixar." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
1/5	9%	The Host (2013)	" This limply directed, solidly boring slice of sci-fi twaddle features humanoid aliens who spend much of their screen time staring blankly into the middle distance with glazed eyes. About 10 minutes into this dross, you'll know what that feels like." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5	82%	Rust and Bone (2012)	" The notion of strings-free sex gets a good working over from director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet), who takes as much pride in exploring the workings of Stephanie's troubled mind as he does in digitally removing her legs. " — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3.5/5	27%	Escape From Planet Earth 3D (2013)	" A ripper sci-fi comedy adventure guaranteed to galvanize the attention of the red-cordial crowd...delightful, pastel-coloured, busy piece of bubble-gum kids' cinema has fun playing up all the alien conspiracy theories." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5	38%	Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)	" It's been a long time since Lost in Translation (2003), which is the last time Bill Murray did anything of real note in a film. Here he partially redeems the latter phase of his film career playing pre-war US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. " — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5	17%	Zambezia (2013)	" The splendid Madagascar films might have spolied us somewhat when it comes to African cartoon animals, but there is enough action and heart in the story to keep things aloft, especially during the big battle climax." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5	15%	A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)	" Undeniably entertaining action-movie franchise fodder [but] had the producers [made] Mary Elizabeth Winstead the film's other action hero rather than going with the convention of casting yet another male, Die Hard 5 would have been awesome." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5	52%	Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)	" Thanks to the marvel of digital visual effects and the clear influence of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, [director Bryan] Singer does a terrific job showing us just how realistic a battle set in a fantasy world can look." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5	70%	The Loneliest Planet (2012)	" Writer/director Julia Loktev, a New York filmmaker born in Russia, skilfully uses stillness and the vastness of the Caucasus Mountains to frame her trio of characters in psychological quicksand. " — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5	100%	Flight of the Butterflies (2012)	" At the preview...the 3D effect had scores of kids reaching out to touch the butterflies. It was as gorgeous a sight to behold as anything on the giant Imax screen." — 3AW Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5	75%	Goddess ()	" This bright, locally made, rice cracker-thin musical comedy is a pleasant, diverting way to kill two hours..Some thoughtful scenes about the dilemma women too-often face between personal and professional success help ground the film's breezy, joyful tone." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
2.5/5	26%	21 And Over (2013)	" It's crude, gross, tasteless and made with an almost alarming degree of drive and conviction...the film is undeniably lewd, but can't be faulted for being boring or politically correct...And you have to somehow admire that." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
3/5	89%	Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir ()	" Polanski sure knows how to spin a yarn, whether it's with words or film." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
3/5	47%	Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away 3D (2012)	" Designed as pure confection for the eyes, this largely wordless fare is perfect for kids (how many G-rated films are there around?) and for any stressed-out office worker eager for something to unwind to. " — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
2.5/5	93%	Amour (2012)	" While [director Michael] Haneke's love of long takes invite you to stare into the corrugated faces of Georges and Anne as their worlds change, there is a leaden quality to many stretches of the film that assume a profundity that simply isn't there." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
3/5	59%	The Last Stand (2013)	" Arnie lurches through the film with a kind of defiant dignity, his signature mixture of self-effacing humour and good ol' tough talk allowing us to buy into the kind of big-screen hero he made us fall in love with all those decades ago." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
1/5	45%	Beautiful Creatures (2013)	" Any hope of tapping into the Twilight vibe is pretty much neutered by the film's haphazard storyline, stuttering pace and inordinate length." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
4/5	38%	Save Your Legs ()	" Fantastic, fabulously funny, feel-good Aussie comedy... a near-perfect blend of broad comedy and travelogue." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
3/5	44%	The Paperboy (2012)	" Judging by her edgier scenes [Nicole] Kidman is clearly uninterested in currying any favour at the multiplex. And all credit to her. " — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
3.5/5	85%	Side Effects (2013)	" Ripper psychological mystery-thriller...prime, sharply directed guessing game stuff full of plot surprises and great left turns. " — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
4/5	68%	Cloud Atlas (2012)	" An epic, genre-hopping, unique adventure that effectively shoe-horns six films into one...Cloud Atlas achieves that rarest of all things for a film this big: it is engaging and consistently entertaining as well as providing brain food." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
3/5	63%	I Give It a Year (2013)	" As with Bridesmaids, Rose Byrne proves herself to be naturally funny, and the film is definitely cliche-averse: there is no way the story's final act would have survived the American test screening process." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
2/5	0%	Blinder ()	" Director Richard Gray (Summer Coda) has his hands full trying to do justice to the story's moral minefield while putting in enough slo-mo footy action...Regrettably, this results in a well-meaning muddle of a film. " — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
3.5/5	68%	Great Expectations (2013)	" Helena Bonham Carter does something with Miss Havisham that Martita Hunt couldn't quite manage in the brilliant 1946 David Lean film; namely, make it feel as though she never changed out of that damned wedding dress. " — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
3/5	30%	Broken City (2013)	" It is predictable procedural fodder - you can see the "twists" coming a mile away - but done with enough conviction to paper over the plot holes and cliches." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
4/5	60%	Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)	" [Director Sam] Raimi fills every square centimetre of the frame with aggressively attractive images...Simply put, Oz is simply beautiful to behold." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
3/5	79%	A Late Quartet (2012)	" The ever-impressive [Philip Seymour] Hoffman - as effortlessly good an ensemble player as he is a leading man - stands out as the flawed violinist who has trouble controlling his id." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013
2/5	38%	The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)	" What a wash-out this film is...Sadly, and in yet another example supporting the Theory of Comedy Negation, the great casting mysteriously works against itself to produce far-from-great comedy." — 3AW Posted Mar 17, 2013

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