|
3/5
|
46%
|
Beautiful Creatures (2013) |
"
The problem is tone. LaGravenese lets the English have their heads, while the young Americans moon and kiss and frown like they mean it. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Feb 22, 2013
|
|
4/5
|
48%
|
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012) |
"
The final film restores order and balance, with a firm grasp of what made the series exceptional in the first place. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Nov 14, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
93%
|
Lore (2013) |
"
This is an intense and thoughtful film, with a long arc. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Sep 20, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
97%
|
Monsieur Lazhar (2012) |
"
Very few films offer a moral grandeur, as well as a political foundation; very few films have such poised and brilliant performances from unknown actors. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Sep 6, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
89%
|
Chinese Take-Away (Un Cuento Chino) () |
"
This is a superb human comedy."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Aug 30, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
65%
|
The Expendables 2 (2012) |
"
The film thunders through its paces, under the energetic direction of Simon West. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Aug 30, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
56%
|
The Bourne Legacy (2012) |
"
The Bourne Legacy is quieter, slower, more sobering. The conspiracy is bigger and darker than we thought. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Aug 16, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
65%
|
The Campaign (2012) |
"
Although it's way beyond credible, the film hits a few fat targets. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Aug 10, 2012
|
|
3.5/5
|
64%
|
Cosmopolis (2012) |
"
The film is obtuse, talky, remote and sometimes baffling, but it is also full of ideas and Cronenberg's uncompromising belief in the art of cinema. Imagine that."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Aug 6, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
87%
|
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) |
"
Nolan is a much better director than the character has had before, and the trilogy fits together as a whole, but this final instalment is flabby, and some might wonder at the sensitivity of its metaphors. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Jul 18, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
74%
|
Prometheus (2012) |
"
The list of the film's bad choices is as long as it was short in the original. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Jun 6, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
98%
|
Silent Souls (2011) |
"
If Silent Souls is slow and cryptic, with long takes and mysterious metaphors, it achieves a great sense of poetic realism "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted May 16, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
38%
|
Dark Shadows (2012) |
"
When Burton is going through the motions, his films are as involving as a school play. He directs this film on autopilot. Ed Wood would have done it better. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted May 10, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
95%
|
L'ordre et la morale (Rebellion) () |
"
There are few French films about France's role in her colonies, almost none set in this part of the world. This one makes some trenchant claims, in a powerfully direct story. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Apr 11, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
86%
|
The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012) |
"
It has a very English kind of daffy humour, absurd but good-hearted, and it is pitched at adults as much as children."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Apr 4, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
88%
|
Titanic (2012) |
"
Turns out hubris and greed float, like sorrow. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Mar 28, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
24%
|
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011) |
"
Condon is directing Breaking Dawn -- Part 2. Let's hope he realises it is broken and that he does fix it."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Nov 17, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
58%
|
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011) |
"
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is horror by-the-numbers. Parts of it are effectively chilling, and the performances are fine, but there's no sense of reality."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Nov 3, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
100%
|
Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard () |
"
Lowenstein and Milburn are not just making a film about a guitarist but a whole movement and moments in time...The film is spectacularly successful at evoking those periods and at locating Howard in his times. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Oct 26, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
85%
|
Contagion (2011) |
"
Contagion is what happens when a disaster movie gets sent to the headmaster for bad behaviour. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Oct 20, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
93%
|
Take Shelter (2011) |
"
Shannon's performance is exceptional and the character is terribly moving. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Oct 13, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
36%
|
The Thing (2011) |
"
Watching this made me want to revisit both of the predecessors, which is a indeed a compliment. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Oct 12, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
60%
|
Real Steel (2011) |
"
Frankly, Real Steel is an appalling movie: cliched, corny, sentimental, hectoring and pitched so low that the term B-movie seems like praise. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Oct 5, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
96%
|
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011) |
"
This is what 3-D was made for, puncturing the proscenium and taking us somewhere ''not yet offended''. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Sep 21, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
96%
|
13 Assassins (2011) |
"
13 Assassins looks at honour from many angles, without becoming simplistic. Ichii hasn't lost his edge after all."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Sep 9, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
90%
|
Face to Face (2013) |
"
Rymer's adaptation is a mixed bag. The film is well cast and played and it eventually achieves a compelling emotional power, but it's laborious."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Sep 7, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
80%
|
Life in a Day (2011) |
"
It's a feel-good movie in that sense, affirmative without being sentimental or exploitative. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Sep 2, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
95%
|
The Guard (2011) |
"
Boyle is probably the first screen hero in a long time whose heroism comes out of boredom and ennui. He gives nihilism a good name."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Aug 25, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
71%
|
Friends With Benefits (2011) |
"
It's not in the Hepburn-Tracy league but it is way smarter than most entries in this field."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Aug 25, 2011
|
|
1/5
|
24%
|
Conan the Barbarian (2011) |
"
The brutality is enervating, unrelieved by the slightest notion of humour. The fantasy castles are painted in with computers, and the battles are shot in widescreen close-up, the worst possible combination."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Aug 17, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
92%
|
Senna (2011) |
"
In short, this is a brilliant, intimate, compelling film about Senna, but it's not the whole story."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Aug 10, 2011
|
|
2.5/5
|
26%
|
Green Lantern (2011) |
"
A certain tone is needed to carry off the script's manifold absurdities. It has to be tongue-in-cheek rather than foot-in-mouth and Reynolds' success rate is intermittent at best."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Aug 10, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
66%
|
Love Crime (2011) |
"
With actors as accomplished as Scott Thomas and Sagnier, the film could hardly be dull, and it isn't. Sagnier's performance is superb, and a tribute to Corneau's skill with two very fine actors."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Aug 3, 2011
|
|
2.5/5
|
71%
|
Hanna (2011) |
"
Wright is capable of much better, as is everyone in the cast. He's trying to make a silky Euro thriller with a frisson of controversy. It's more like a never-ending trailer."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Jul 27, 2011
|
|
4.5/5
|
84%
|
The Tree of Life (2011) |
"
The tone of the film is mesmeric, transcendent, awe-inspiring. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Jul 12, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
85%
|
Get Low (2010) |
"
Get Low is a handmade kind of film. Its ambitions are modest, but fully attained. I rarely use the words ''go see it'', but I hope a lot of people do."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted May 24, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
77%
|
Thor (2011) |
"
Branagh tries not to lose that connection but he's overwhelmed by design and technology, like many who would enter the arena of fantasy blockbuster movie-making. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted May 4, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
87%
|
Mad Bastards () |
"
This is poised and meaningful Australian cinema, however we classify it. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted May 4, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
57%
|
The Lost Bladesman (Guan yun chang) () |
"
Problems of scale limit the film's clarity and its emotional power. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Apr 27, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
78%
|
Fast Five (2011) |
"
Make no mistake, this is no masterpiece of the dramatic arts but it is probably the best since the original: lean, spectacular, funny and slightly less risible than its predecessors."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Apr 20, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
72%
|
Paul (2011) |
"
Paul isn't as riotous as the early Pegg and Frost movies, but it does have a certain sweetness. Everyone in it is sort of innocent, except Paul, the alien wisecracker. It's likeable, if uneven, rather than hilarious."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Apr 13, 2011
|
|
|
64%
|
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011) |
"
Just turning the camera on gives us a sense of the madness surrounding Bieber, who seems to have risen faster than anyone in pop music history."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Apr 8, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
84%
|
My Afternoons with Margueritte (2011) |
"
The danger is that it becomes sentimental, but there is a difference between sentiment imposed and sentiment earned. The film has only the latter."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Apr 6, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
77%
|
In A Better World (2011) |
"
This is a masterful, intense, thoughtful film and not to be missed."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Apr 1, 2011
|
|
4.5/5
|
71%
|
Never Let Me Go (2010) |
"
Real men will see this and weep, as I did. It is one of the most moving and profound films in a long time."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Mar 30, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
80%
|
Barney's Version (2011) |
"
The film offers a lovely mix of compassion and humour. We get a sprawling comic tableau, the arc of a full life."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Mar 23, 2011
|
|
1/5
|
35%
|
Battle: Los Angeles (2011) |
"
Like the aliens themselves, the cliches were coming too fast. Unlike the aliens, they are indestructible."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Mar 16, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
62%
|
Griff the Invisible (2011) |
"
Griff the Invisible is a charming and quirky romance with a strong sense of dramatic purpose."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Mar 11, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
54%
|
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2010) |
"
Seeing the first two films -- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire -- will make the third film more satisfying."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Feb 28, 2011
|
77%
23%
67%
85%
46%
40%
