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Jim Schembri

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Jim Schembri has been a professional film critic since 1980, chiefly for Cinema Papers magazine, The Age newspaper and radio station 3AW. He now operates independently at jimschembri.com. Jim fell in love with the power of film as a young child after seeing The Lord of the Flies on TV, which he thought was real, and The Love Bug at the cinema, which he saw three times. He was six. Jim’s personal film collection contains more than 30,000 titles, including rare VHS tapes of such lost classics as Android (1982) and Weekend at Bernie's II (1993). He also owns many Beta tapes and two working Beta machines, which he refuses to sell on eBay. His second favourite movie quote is from the 1967 classic The Graduate: “Plastics”. His favourite movie quote comes from Steve Martin in the 1991 film Grand Canyon: “All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.” For Jim this is more than just a great line; it is a philosophy of life.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Man Vs Baby: Season 1 (2025) 72% 3.5 EDIT “Those who were taken aback with how poor Man vs Bee was will delight in how Atkinson and co-creator Will Davies stage the gentle slapstick mayhem against a pretty strong story...Just the thing for a pleasant post-festive wind-down.” – jimschembri.com Jan 1, 2026 Full Review Adolescence: Season 1 (2025) 97% 3/5 EDIT “A distinctive series in a streaming firmament defined by sameness, most notable for addressing how the internet can exert its destructive influence upon kids right under the noses of their parents...Regrettably, the performance quality varies wildly. ” – jimschembri.com Apr 11, 2025 Full Review The Office: Season 1 (2024) 71% 3.5/5 EDIT “Overall, the show honours the tone and intent of The Office ethos. A tough job, well done…Frankly, it came as a relief to see how it’s as understated, inventive and funny as it is.” – jimschembri.com Oct 16, 2024 Full Review The Tattooist of Auschwitz: Season 1 (2024) 77% 4/5 EDIT “A compelling six-part Holocaust drama...Easily one of the best shows we’ve seen in the stream in years... the story blends a host of conflicting themes – guilt, regret, love, hatred, loss, violence – into a romantic tragedy that reaches a state of grace. ” – jimschembri.com May 10, 2024 Full Review Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV: Season 1 (2024) 100% 3.5/5 EDIT “Explores in extensive, disturbing detail the abuses that took place – often infront of cameras – during the heyday of Nickelodeon, the one Hollywood studio to rival Disney’s dominance of childrens TV.” – jimschembri.com Apr 11, 2024 Full Review The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin: Season 1 (2024) 84% 4/5 EDIT “Wonderfully funny, decidedly loopy...The show is consistently strong across all six episodes, brimming with splendidly anachronistic gags, references and comic asides. The bit where Turpin does an alteration on an over-long cape is frigging hilarious.” – jimschembri.com Mar 1, 2024 Full Review Boy Swallows Universe: Season 1 (2024) 87% 2/5 EDIT “Unspools as a patchy, overlong crime melodrama that ultimately loses its bearings...The show seems to be at war with itself, its discursive narrative resulting in grinding tonal gear shifts that go from realism to comedy to pulpy action and schmaltz.” – jimschembri.com Jan 18, 2024 Full Review Beckham: Season 1 (2023) 88% 3.5/5 EDIT “The stellar sporting career and bumpy family life of mega-star David Beckham turns out to be surprisingly compelling, even to those who have little interest in him or the sport...maintains a careful dual focus on him as an athlete and as a celebrity.” – jimschembri.com Nov 2, 2023 Full Review C*A*U*G*H*T: Season 1 (2023) 0.5/5 EDIT “C*R*U*D.” – jimschembri.com Oct 13, 2023 Full Review C*A*U*G*H*T: Season 1, Episode 1 (2023) 0.5/5 EDIT “C*R*U*D” – jimschembri.com Oct 13, 2023 Full Review Painkiller: Season 1 (2023) 51% 3.5/5 EDIT “There’s no love for Big Pharma here, a fast-paced, factually inspired drama that takes a deep dive into the opioid crisis...big-screen veteran Peter Berg does an excellent job maintaining focus on the many story threads without ever letting the pace sag.” – jimschembri.com Sep 7, 2023 Full Review The Consultant: Season 1 (2023) 80% 4/5 EDIT “What a ripper this quickly turns out to be, developing both as an engrossing head-scratcher and a cutting look at business ethics as Patoff pushes his underlings, keen to see what they will sacrifice and who they will compromise to get what they want.” – jimschembri.com Jul 27, 2023 Full Review Black Mirror: Season 6 (2023) 78% 3.5/5 EDIT “They’re all very good, though there are signs of concept fatigue, with some eps being a tad off-the-boil relative to the excellence that preceded them. [Still,] Black Mirror [remains] the most inventive & unpredictable offering on any streaming platform.” – jimschembri.com Jun 23, 2023 Full Review Colin from Accounts: Season 1 (2022) 100% 3.5/5 EDIT “Very well-done, surprisingly insightful and well-rounded Australian romantic dramedy...Some lovely dashes of Zoomer-vs-Boomer humour add spice to a very satisfying comedy about the prickly side of modern-day coupledom. ” – jimschembri.com Feb 23, 2023 Full Review Cunk on Earth: Season 1 (2022) 100% 3/5 EDIT “Delightfully daffy.” – jimschembri.com Feb 23, 2023 Full Review Blockbuster: Season 1 (2022) 23% 2/5 EDIT “Mildly likeable, ultra-light and eminently forgettable...A workplace comedy that spends far too much time with the employees and nowhere near enough dealing with customers.” – jimschembri.com Nov 17, 2022 Full Review Cabinet of Curiosities: Season 1 (2022) 93% 1.5/5 EDIT “Cabinet of Curiosities? Cabinet of Mediocrities more like...Guillermo del Toro, a sporadically interesting gent, is now firmly established as one of the most overrated directors working today.” – jimschembri.com Nov 17, 2022 Full Review The Watcher: Season 1 (2022) 54% 1/5 EDIT “An exceedingly bad, boring, overlong serving of D-grade mystery “thriller” that suffers from terrible direction and some pretty soggy performances....For much of its inordinate length The Watcher plays like a failed comedy.” – jimschembri.com Oct 19, 2022 Full Review Monster: Season 1 (2022) 57% 4/5 EDIT “Riveting, meticulously researched...In humanizing Dahmer through drama, the show seeks to offer some understanding of his character, not to excuse or empathize with it. There are no appeals for sympathy among the many insights baked into the narrative.” – jimschembri.com Oct 13, 2022 Full Review The Resort: Season 1 (2022) 88% 3.5/5 EDIT “Tapping into the convention of fusing our journey of discovery with those of the main characters, it respects genre formula while going off-road, taking the story in exquisitely odd directions via flashbacks, backstories and plenty of well-judged twists.” – jimschembri.com Sep 30, 2022 Full Review The Bear: Season 1 (2022) 100% 3.5/5 EDIT “The Bear is such an engrossing, entertaining show, yet the final 20 minutes are baffling: all of a sudden the real-world atmosphere gives way to quick fixes and easy answers. It’s the only sore point in an otherwise excellent endeavour.” – jimschembri.com Sep 15, 2022 Full Review House of the Dragon: Season 1, Episode 1 (2022) 3/5 EDIT “Splendid to behold on a giant home theatre screen, the rich visuals are testament to how the franchise – along with other great event series (Band of Brothers; Lost; The Wire, etc) - has helped redefine what the term made-for-TV now means.” – jimschembri.com Sep 2, 2022 Full Review Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies & the Internet: Season 1 (2022) 86% 3.5/5 EDIT “Another extremely well-made, well-resourced cautionary tale about the downside of life online...The warning that underlies the series is that these problems will persist so long as people can create online accounts without verifying who they really are.” – jimschembri.com Aug 23, 2022 Full Review Trainwreck: Woodstock '99: Season 1 (2022) 88% 3.5/5 EDIT “Provides startling illustrations of mob mentality and how hundreds of thousands of people can appear to act as a single organism. It also shows how the anonymity of a crowd can vapourize inhibitions, leading to violence, destruction and sexual assault.” – jimschembri.com Aug 10, 2022 Full Review The Most Hated Man on the Internet: Season 1 (2022) 88% 3.5/5 EDIT “The series serves as an all-too-timely reminder to always think first before hitting send and, most emphatically, to keep any private, intimate photos of yourself to yourself. Because you never know who’s looking.” – jimschembri.com Aug 6, 2022 Full Review
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