Travis Johnson
Tomatometer-approved critic
Travis Johnson is an award-winning film critic based in Sydney, Australia. He likes genre cinema and has a chip on his shoulder about class issues.
Australia
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) |
John Wick: Chapter 4 is not just the magnum opus of the series, it actually corrects a problem that the series has had for a while, a question we haven’t had an answer for over the last couple of films.
What does John Wick want? - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2023
|
|
|
|
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) |
It’s not terrible, mind you; it’s just a little too ironic and self-conscious to be dramatically engaging, and yet too mindful of its source material (and mooted IP value) to really go for broke in the laughs department. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Mar 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Blood of Heroes (1989) |
A lean, muscular action movie that eschews melodrama and padding for sheer narrative drive, propelling our ragtag team from the bottom of the ladder to a championship bout at breakneck pace, just as any good sports flick should. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Mar 01, 2023
|
|
|
|
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) |
But the film, for all its scale and excess, for all its lovingly detailed environments, feels bloated and less than the sum of its parts. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Feb 26, 2023
|
|
|
|
Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre (2023) |
If you’ve ever had an unfunny friend with a tendency to nudge you in the ribs until you grudgingly chuckle at their non-jokes, the experience of watching Operation Fortune will recreate the feeling of hanging out with that person with uncanny accuracy. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jan 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
Blueback (2022) |
Blueback’s particular triumph of specificity is the way it treats its water sequences both above and below the surface - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Dec 22, 2022
|
|
|
|
Poker Face (2022) |
Perhaps, on a metatextual, conceptual level, the idea was to bluff on an empty hand, in which case: bravo. But that doesn’t add up to a film worth watching. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Nov 23, 2022
|
|
|
|
Werewolf by Night (2022) |
Werewolf by Night is a solid effort and a fun little detour into less well-trod genre territory for Marvel. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Nov 06, 2022
|
|
|
|
Barbarian (2022) |
Anyone who has sung enthusiastically to Dead Kennedys' “Let’s Lynch the Landlord” or simply fumed over a tardy rental repair (20 months and counting for my busted intercom) will get a kick out of Barbarian. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Oct 31, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Stranger (2022) |
A film of nigh-unparalleled tension. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Oct 20, 2022
|
|
|
|
Project Wolf Hunting (2022) |
Project Wolf Hunting is one of the gnarliest action movies to come down the pike in a good long while. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Oct 15, 2022
|
|
|
|
Amsterdam (2022) |
It’s a shaggy dog story in the classic sense, only the dog in question is a bit of a mutt. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Oct 10, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Black Phone (2021) |
The Black Phone is a solid, classical horror flick by a team who love the genre and excel at their craft — what more could you ask for? - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2022
|
|
|
|
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) |
Where the Crawdads Sing isn’t terrible because it’s a romantic drama — it’s terrible because it’s terrible. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2022
|
|
|
|
You Won't Be Alone (2022) |
If revered Terrence Malick turned his hand to making a horror movie for indie darlings A24, it might look a lot like You Won’t Be Alone - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) |
It’s a handsome, robust, old-fashioned adventure yarn, packed with spectacle and action, and populated with colourful characters—the kind of solid, entertaining programmer we used to make dozens of every year. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Aug 30, 2022
|
|
|
|
Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) |
But what’s it all about? Love, of course, and loneliness, and the way we build little prisons for ourselves. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Aug 30, 2022
|
|
|
|
Last Night in Soho (2021) |
Wright makes a good fist of this sort of psychogeographic ghost story, reaching deep into his bag of visual tricks to bring ‘60s Soho to life. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Aug 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) |
Here’s the thing about Thor: Love and Thunder, the fourth solo outing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s God of Thunder: pretty much every individual element works on its own, and almost none of it works taken as a whole. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Aug 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
Prey (2022) |
Prey succeeds on every level. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Aug 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
Dredd (2012) |
A great sci-fi action film, one that hints at a broader, weirder world while maintaining a tight focus on the matter at hand. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Aug 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
Hansan: Rising Dragon (2022) |
In terms of scope and sweep, the climactic action is the best we’ve seen since Master and Commander: Far Side of the World. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Aug 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
Bullet Train (2022) |
The twisty, more-smug-than-clever plot doesn’t really matter, the fun and the guns and the odd celebrity cameo and gruesome death do. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Aug 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Art of Incarceration (2021) |
Its value lies in the way it puts a human face on men who are often completely depersonalised in the public eye, while at the same time forcing us to wonder if a cultural rather than criminal approach might yield more lasting results. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Gray Man (2022) |
The main takeaway from this one is that while the Russo brothers are excellent technicians, they’re not auteurs. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Princess (2022) |
Basically, anyone who doesn't love this film bottles their own farts for posterity. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Jul 09, 2022
|
|
|
|
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) |
Starring 80s poster boy John Cusack and featuring a blistering soundtrack curated by Joe Strummer, ‘Grosse Pointe Blank’ is like John Hughes directed The Killer. - Blunt Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jul 04, 2022
|
|
|
|
Elvis (2022) |
Luhrmann’s “subtlety is for cowards” approach still impresses, and it’s appropriate we got a new film from him at a time when many pundits are pontificating on the nature of “maximalist” (aka as subtle as a brick to the face) cinema. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2022
|
|
|
|
Spiderhead (2022) |
Between this and Bad Times at the El Royale its clear Hemsworth has fun being the bad guy—and we’d probably have fun if he did it more often. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 20, 2022
|
|
|
|
Conan the Barbarian (1982) |
This is a film that lives in moments: the attack on Conan’s village; the “crush your enemies” scene; Conan practicing his swordsmanship on a windswept steppe; all enveloped in Basil Poledouris’ stirring, stentorian, never-bettered score. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 07, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021) |
The plot of The Drover’s Wife proceeds steadily and rather unsurprisingly, truth be told, but that simplicity allows Purcell to weave themes and questions of identity, gender, and colonialism around its straight-forward story spine. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 07, 2022
|
|
|
|
365 Days: This Day (2022) |
Nobody’s watching 365 Days for any reason than to see Anna-Maria Sieklucka’s Polish ingenue, Laura, get railed by Michele Morrone’s alpha-roid mafioso, Massimo. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 07, 2022
|
|
|
|
After Yang (2021) |
Painterly and meditative, After Yang offers us a vision of a uniquely comfortable consumer dystopia. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 07, 2022
|
|
|
|
Little Tornadoes (2021) |
Yet another timid Australian drama that is so afraid to state anything plainly that it almost forgets to say anything at all. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 07, 2022
|
|
|
|
Ablaze (2021) |
What really impresses is how full Ablaze feels, as though the film can barely contain the sheer wealth of stories that Onus’ life encompassed. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 07, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Fifth Element (1997) |
A sci-fi film a million aesthetic miles away from the industrial dystopias, dusty wastelands, and sterile starships of most screen SF of the time. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 07, 2022
|
|
|
|
Expired (2022) |
If Loveland never fits squarely into any one of the several genres in play here, it’s because Sen is far more interested in subverting their tropes for his own purposes. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted May 29, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) |
We’re not here to plumb the depths of Cage’s neuroses or interrogate the relationship between image and reality or any of that stuff. We are here to celebrate Nic Cage, though, in all his manic glory. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted May 25, 2022
|
|
|
|
Top Gun: Maverick (2022) |
It’s impossible to overstate how dramatically inert Top Gun: Maverick is. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted May 20, 2022
|
|
|
|
Father Stu (2022) |
It doesn’t feel like an explication of Wahlberg’s own beliefs, and it treats Long’s actual journey so carefully and reverently that it robs it of any narrative power. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted May 17, 2022
|
|
|
|
Ambulance (2022) |
Ambulance, with all its explosions, gunfire, and the inclusion of a low rider with a minigun mounted on the passenger seat, is apparently what passes for “smaller and more intimate” in Bay’s mind. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted May 09, 2022
|
|
|
|
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) |
The aesthetic vibe here is definitely Raimi, and even the demands of Marvel’s style of shared-world filmmaking don’t dilute his style to any great degree. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted May 09, 2022
|
|
|
|
Fresh (2022) |
If you want to see a pretty good rom-com starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan turn into a pretty great satirical horror movie about the commodification of the self through social media and dating apps, point your browser to Disney+ and hit play. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Apr 25, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Adam Project (2022) |
At most, the screen equivalent of a really good Big Mac, and as much as you might like McDonalds, theres a reason those restaurants dont get Michelin stars. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Apr 25, 2022
|
|
|
|
Occupation: Rainfall (2020) |
If Occupation was Red Dawn but Strayan, Occupation: Rainfall is Independence Day and the post-apocalyptic bits of The Terminator, but Strayan. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
Read More
| Posted Mar 25, 2022
|
|
|
|
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) |
Is there a massacre? With a chainsaw? Does it happen in Texas? Cool, three stars everything else is gravy. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Mar 04, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Batman (2022) |
Here, Batmans default state is pure misery, and while that may be something many viewers can empathise with, this is a Batman few would want to be. - AccessReel
Read More
| Posted Mar 01, 2022
|
|
|
|
Uncharted (2022) |
It's not the worst film you'll ever see, but you will forget you've seen it pretty quickly. - Celluloid and Whiskey
Read More
| Posted Feb 16, 2022
|
|
|
|
Moonfall (2022) |
A lot of the joy in Moonfall is seeing the kind of high weirdness you find on the dustier shelves of your stranger class of second-hand bookshop up on the big screen, and Im here for it. - Mr. Movie's Film Blog
Read More
| Posted Feb 15, 2022
|
|
|
|
Pig (2021) |
A profound and nuanced meditation on grief, Pig is simply one of the best movies of 2021. - Celluloid and Whiskey
Read More
| Posted Feb 01, 2022
|