A Swedish Australian musical drama directed by Lasse Hallström.
A Radio host follows an ABBA tour, trying to get an interview with the band. There are also ABBA performances and music videos.
I had honestly not heard this music before watching the film. From a technical view, the audio and video were great. It was filmed in Panavision, so the colors and contrast all looked right. The audio was recorded very well. The radio DJ has such trouble finding a way to interview the band and his segments were filmed and edited wonderfully as well. I just don't like ABBA. Their music and image seem engineered and manufactured to me. Like someone said "wear these costumes and play major chords. You can't lose.". The white guitar (image) is pretty cool though. I rate this o.k. because it was made so excellently about music I don't like.
An Australian drama directed by Sophie Hyde.
A teen girl's mother is having gender re-assignment to become a man. The girl also makes new friends with whom she experiments with sex.
This seemed longer than it was. The plot was all about relationships between people: family and friends. The characters were developed very well and most of them changed over the duration. Video was newer Hollywood style, but included "found footage" pieces which the main character filmed. Audio was good. I could hear the dialogue, music stayed out of the way and there were good subtitles. A quick note on subject matter: The transgender agenda is really big in the news now for a reason. It's not that so many people want to be the other gender. The real reason is part of a larger depopulation agenda. Trans folks are not going to reproduce. Everyone can see that the world can not handle more people with the way things are. Instead of changing anything to make our society more "sustainable", the globalist elite decided many decades ago that we should just have less people. Check the Georgia Guidestones if you doubt this. I rate this adequate because it was interesting. You might want to check it out.
An Australian American science fiction directed by The Wachowskis, starring Channing Tatum and Sean Bean.
A young woman finds out that she is the heir of a galactic estate which includes the Earth and people are trying to take it. A young man from space falls into the role of saving her at the last second.
This is what happens when special effects become a higher priority than writing or acting. It all looked great because it was made in a computer. Actors and sets were a minor element in the visual landscape. The plot was tired before it started. When the hero was closing in on saving the female lead the second time, I found it funny. It seems like it was written by copying and pasting from other science fiction scripts. Characters? who cares about them when we've got these alien monsters and explosions? Dialogue and delivery were stale and overplayed. How many times can films repeat the same old science fiction cliches with new video technology before folks stop watching it? Apparently, not enough yet because I watched this. I rate it bad because it's a polished turd. Don't watch it.
A British Australian American mystery thriller directed by Jane Campion, starring Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
A teacher gets involved with a detective after he thinks she might be a witness to a murder. She thinks that he might be the murderer because of a tattoo on his wrist.
This was not so great. The plot was really muddy and not clearly presented, but what was there was not very interesting. The characters were a little shallow, but the detective showed more depth than I thought he would as the plot progressed. There was a variety of camera-work going on as well as editing. My favorite was a dream sequence involving the main character's parents ice skating. There was far too much whisper acting going on. The sister was using "eigh" vowel replacements constantly and most of her dialogue was slurred gibberish. It wasn't really bad, but it sure wasn't good. I rate this poor. You probably should not watch it.
A Canadian Australian British mystery directed by Stephan Elliott, starring Ewan McGregor and Genevieve Bujold.
A man who has an imaginary daughter is trying to follow a woman. He video calls another woman at some type of office frequently.
The real mystery here was the plot. It seemed like just a jumbled series of scenes, rather than a coherent story. The female lead was always dressing differently and wearing different wigs, so I had real trouble identifying her. There was some whisper acting... At least the camera-work was good. When that's all I can say in praise of a film, you know it's really bad. I rate this shit because I spent the entire duration wishing I was not watching it. DO NOT WATCH!!!
An Australian mystery drama directed by Peter Weir, starring Jacki Weaver.
A large group of girls at a British school in Australia go for a picnic near a unique mountain. Four of them climb the mountain, but one comes back. The teacher has also left to climb the mountain and the girls return to school. A young man and his friend see the girls on their way to the mountain and find out they are missing. The pair return to the mountain to search for the girls, but only find one. One of the girls at the school has missing parents and money, so she is about to be transferred to an orphanage.
I can't see why this film was such a critical success or why it has 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. It seemed disjointed, unfocused, inconclusive, lacked a main character and the audio was bad. ... Unless that's what people want. Murky, disjointed plots and whisper acting films get made all the time, so someone must like that. The only positive thing that I saw was camera-work and editing. It looked pretty good. Not even just "good for 1975", but good for any time. The shot which stuck in my mind was one of the women at the school walking up the front steps toward the building as the camera tilted up to follow her. Another memorable set of shots was images of the mountain in which the rock formations suggest faces. I rate this poor because it wasn't painful, just not any good at all.
A German British American French Canadian Australian action film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, starring Milla Jovovich.
Alice finds that she has a time limit to reach the origin of the zombie apocalypse and release an antivirus.
Total fucking shit. This is competing with Ben-Hur and Some Kind of Monster for worst movie ever made (self-reference cliche). It starts out alright with a recap of the story and into a fight with a giant bat or moth type monster. Then you realize that the editing is too fast for your eyes to follow. I'm talking like single frame cuts at 60fps here! Once you realize that you will never be able to process what is happening, you also realize that the plot is almost vacant. Hero woman has to get somewhere in a time limit and stuff is in her way. That's all there is. I rate this shit because I want the past 1:38:04 of my life back. I really wish that I could sue these horrible filmmakers for time. I would be immortal with all the crap I've seen.
An Australian science fiction by Matt Drummond.
A boy follows his friends into a forest where a UFO supposedly landed. While there, his other friend picks up a foreign substance and later delivers it to his house with her science kit. The boy's brother spills a drink on the whole deal and a dinosaur emerges. The boy tries to hide it, but a military group steals it from him. With the help of his friends, he must rescue the dinosaur.
The only thing less convincing than the special effects was the writing. The plot was stale and recycled, characters shallow and badly acted. It just sucked. The CG was so clearly fake that I doubt a child would believe it. There was "gunfire" that never showed any bullets, which was the worst. I rate this bad. Do not watch!
An Australian American thriller directed by Ted Kotcheff, starring Donald Pleasence.
A school teacher plans to spend his Christmas vacation in Sydney, but loses all of his money by gambling on the way. Stuck in a small town, he is taken in by a rough group of locals.
I think this film deserves special mention because I consider it to be one of the "unsimulated nasties". Other films in this category include Severed Ways (2007 unsimulated defecation) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980 genuine animal slayings). This film depicts a real kangaroo hunt. Although the hunters were licensed and legal, the kangaroos really did get shot and killed on camera. I'm used to watching some nasty stuff, but actually killing kangaroos pushes my boundary. The plot generally depicts a vacation gone wrong and this character's descent from upstanding school teacher to low-life vagabond. The audio was a little bit on the rough side, with too much dynamic range causing some lost dialogue. The video was grainy (what do you expect from 1971 cameras), but exposure and composition were good. I thought that the film's depiction of alcoholism was quite accurate. The main character re-encountering the sheriff was well written. In the beginning, John was just passing through town and the sheriff gets him started with drinking and gambling. In the end, he's worn out from these things and the sheriff buys him beer to cure a hangover. I would recommend this for those who can see past the nastier elements to the good film within or who enjoy those crude bits. I rate it awesome. Watch it!
An Australian British American drama biography directed by Garth Davis, starring David Wenham, Nicole Kidman, Deepti Naval and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
A boy from a rural village in India follows his older brother, who is looking for work. The older brother walks off and the younger wanders onto a train, which departs from the station. After a few days, the boy is deposited in Calcutta. From there, he is picked up by an orphanage and adopted by an Australian family, who also adopt a mentally ill boy from Calcutta. 20 years later, the main character is attending college and decides to find the small village which he came from.
I think this may be the best "based on a true story" film I've seen. I enjoyed the adventure element most, as this little boy travels such a long distance. There were some plot gaps, but not necessarily holes. Text like "20 years later" appearing on the screen did not leave loose ends or contradictions. The audio begins in a language from India and moves into English when the boy enters Australia. I could hear all of the dialogue and the subtitles that I found matched the video file. The camerawork was generally good, showing clearly what was happening. It often did this in creative ways, with pull-outs, tracking shots and deep focal lengths. There was a little bit too much hand held camera for my taste, but it did not detract from the film. My main point in writing this is to mark a good film. The viewer will see how lost the little boy is, how he grows up to be a good person and the ending which I won't spoil. I rate this good and would recommend it for fans of the adventure, drama and biography genres.
An Australian adventure directed by Zak Hilditch.
The end of the world is drawing near and a man leaves his girlfriend to go to a party. He encounters obstacles on the way and ends up saving a little girl from being tortured. Together, they look for her parents.
With all of the post-apocalyptic cinema of late, pre-apocalyptic stories should be told as well. The dynamic pacing of this really helped. It sped up during action and slowed down to allow thought. The 2 main characters were a good team and their stories gave the supporting cast something to latch onto, like puzzle pieces fit together. The dialogue and acting were very emotional. Even the tough hero showed lots of emotional sensitivity. The only real "set piece" in this was the bunker at the party. Everything else was just well-chosen locations. Camera-work and editing looked good. Most scenes had a warm, bright "summer in the desert" look to the color balance. I won't spoil the only special effect at the end. Audio was not bad, but of the style of the time. IMDb rates it 6.7/10, metacritic has a METASCORE of 61% and Rotten Tomatoes rates it 82% TOMATOMETER and 64% AUDIENCE SCORE for an average of 68.5%. I would say that a D is grading slightly low for this. For the 2 main characters and the spot-on pacing, I rate this adequate. You might want to check it out.
An Australian adventure directed by David Michod, starring Guy Pearce and Scoot McNairy.
A man's car is stolen by 3 men. He finds the brother of one of them, who leads him to them and his car.
Pointless! The slow pacing made this seem to take forever to tell no story. The characters were all rough guys, even the woman doctor was tough. There was a definite lack of dialogue and what was said was lost between modern audio practices and thick Aussie accents. Australia has a whole outback full of desert and dirty clothes are easy, so that covers sets and costumes. If I have anything good to say about this it's the camera-work. Everything looks like it was shot professionally. In audio, I already covered dialogue. Loud music and sound effects almost go without saying. This won 10 of 31 awards it was nominated for. 9/10 of those were for best sound! IMDb rates it 6.4/10, metacritic has a METASCORE of 64% and Rotten Tomatoes rates it 66% TOMATOMETER and 51% AUDIENCE SCORE (I shit you not, those are the letter cases from their websites) for an average of 61.25%. I agree completely and give it an F too for Fucking pointless award-winning trash. I rate this bad. DO NOT WATCH!!!
An Australian science fiction directed by Shane Abbess, starring Temuera Morrison.
A fighter pilot has left his daughter at home when a crisis breaks out. His aircraft crashes after an aerial battle and he must find his way to rescue his daughter.
Definitely entertaining. I'm not mentioning duration anymore unless it strays from the hour and a half norm. This did not. The pacing was amazingly fast for a non-Hollywood film, but I guess that would be a sign of the times (pun intended). There was always something happening and the editing cuts were usually very quick. The plot held my interest all the way through, although some elements were a little stale. I did care what happened to the characters, but some of them seemed marked for death from the start. I thought the writing and dialogue were done very well. The little girl's narration really sold it to me. Some people don't like narration, but I think it can be beneficial. The acting was good as well. Sets and costumes looked very convincing. The city looked like a city, jail like a jail and desert outposts were sincere. What I really liked were the monsters. I don't know if it was costume or special effects, but it worked. Besides fast editing, the camera-work looked good. I could see everything that was going on and exposures were excellent. There were lots of digital special effects: spaceship battles, explosions, views of impossible places... and it all looked real enough for my tastes. audio was not too shabby. I could hear dialogue, the music was a little low and sound effects were a little loud. The future desert theme will always remind me of Tank Girl (1995). IMDB has this rated at 5.6/10, Rotten Tomatoes has 63% tomatometer with 45% audience score and metacritic has 55% METASCORE for an average of 54.75%. That is called a failing grade where I come from, but I saw no failure when I watched it. What I saw was a film that fits the standard for modern science fiction. I rate this good because it was entertaining, full of action and I liked the monsters.
An Australian mystery thriller directed by Peter Weir, starring Richard Chamberlain.
A lawyer takes on the case of some aboriginal men accused of murder and finds that his dreams have something to do with their beliefs.
This was alright. The hour and 39 minute duration seemed sparsely populated because the content happened at a relatively slow pace. The plot was almost interesting, but fell just short of really holding my attention. I thought the characters seemed a little bit shallow or poorly written. The dialogue and acting seemed just short of being good too. The main character had a habit of reaching out and touching people he was talking to. costumes and locations seemed to fit and I liked the final set (not spoiling). Most of the special effects were "dream" editing like stuff appearing and disappearing, but the black rain looked a little fake. It seemed to only be raining black on the main character's car windshield. As with most audio, the music was too loud and the dialogue too quiet. I think that the style of this set the stage for films like The Omen (1976), Stigmata (1999) and The Ninth Gate (1999). It's not a bad genre, just not really what interests me. I rate this adequate.
An Australian science fiction thriller directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, starring Ethan Hawke.
A writer walks into a bar and tells their life story to the bartender. The bartender then produces a time travel device and the plot gets strange.
This was pretty interesting for a few reasons. The hour and a half duration seemed too short to me because it left me wanting more. Pacing was relatively quick, but probably slower for the time period. The plot held my interest throughout, but the ending was inconclusive. Hence, why I wanted it to be longer. There was some ambiguity in characters, but that made it more interesting and ending more frustratingly inconclusive. I cared what happened to the people/person in the film and their story was developed. The dialogue and acting seemed natural and there was some narration in scenes when the story was being told which benefited the plot. Sets and costumes fit the varying times depicted, but mostly by being generic. Those that were more stylized almost looked out of place in contrast. I really liked the camera-work. There was good focus and exposure, but the compositions tended to be more centralized than I would have liked. Color correction/grading was done artfully and most of the scenes had a warmer color balance. The special effects were minimal and only happened at time jumps. Audio was of the time, but had a relatively good mix. Although the music and sound effects were louder than dialogue, I could hear what everyone was saying. This won 11 awards out of 30 nominations. IMDB rates it 7.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes has 84% tomatometer with 75% audience score and Metacritic has a 69% metascore for an average of 75.75% C grade. I disagree, arguing that it deserves a B+ at least. The interesting plot, good camera-work and artful color grading lead me to rate it awesome despite the inconclusive ending. Watch it!
An Australian science fiction directed by Ben C. Lucas.
A woman runs a company that uses drugs and technology to give people memories. She has a brother in a coma and a father who doesn't believe in her work. Her boyfriend dies when he takes the wrong potion and she is sentenced to a year of imprisonment in her own technology.
Unoriginal. The hour and a half duration is pretty standard and it had dynamic pacing that changed with the plot. I thought the plot was inconclusive and that it was unclear to the viewer what was fantasy and reality. The characters were relatively shallow and secondary to the plot. Dialogue all sounded natural and the actors did fine. The laboratory sets looked good, but the fantasy experience sets and locations looked better. I think this was because of more creative camera usage and editing. The special effect of going into an experience was a kaleidoscope made with video from the upcoming shot. There were also some distortions based on variations of the same effect when an experience was glitching. Audio was standard of the time: low dialogue, medium music and loud sound effects. IMDB rates it 6.3/10 and Rotten Tomatoes has 62% audience score for a 62.5% average. I disagree. This was better than Midnight Special for visual effects and plot. I rate this adequate.
A British Australian children's science fiction directed by Matt Drummond.
A boy from the present brings a crystal on an airplane and wakes up on a beach after a storm. Wandering in a nearby forest, he encounters dinosaurs and is saved by a girl from about 60 years in the past. Together, they are captured by a tribe of children and escape as the boy tries to find a way home.
Crappy. An hour and 20 minutes felt like forever and a half watching a flick made for kids. There was a definite lack of plot. It seemed like there were CG dinosaurs with a thin veil of plot carelessly draped them. The characters were annoying to no end because their dialogue was poorly written. Acting was even worse. Shit having been talked, it was a technical masterpiece. Sets and costumes looked convincing (mostly CG), camera-work and editing were beautifully done and obviously, special effects were the main attraction. The dinosaurs looked alive and featured an incredible level of detail. Audio brings us back to shit talk again. No matter how epic the symphonic string section gets, I won't buy this farce of a plot. It also included the voices of the 2 main characters. This has 3.4/10 on IMDB and 21% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. I agree completely with this 27.5% average grade. I have to rate it bad because I didn't turn it off. The only way to save it would be to edit out everything except CG dinosaurs.
An Australian science fiction written and directed by Jesse O'Brien.
A soldier is part of a prison break and joins his fellow ex-inmates in a long lasting rebellion. On a mission to transfer computer data and save his father, he is stranded on a desert moon.
Terrible. The hour and a half duration seemed to take forever because of lack of plot and characters. The plot was almost interesting at the beginning and end, but there was this giant gap in the middle when nothing happened. There were really only 2 characters: the soldier and the ship's computer. I didn't like either one of them. The dialogue and acting would have seemed about right in a Syfy channel movie, but I would expect better from an independent Australian flick. There were 2 sets/locations: inside the ship and a desert. The costumes seemed a little janky too. It looks like they ironed patches on tight shirts, but had some professional looking space helmets made. Camera-work suffered from a lack of variety and corner cutting to aid special effects. Why shoot something that looks good when you can make the CG department's job a thousand times easier by shooting crap? The special effects were obviously all CG. I saw 1 fire that I thought might have been real. At least they showed off the monster in a daylight scene. Audio seemed fine, was mixed well and included no annoying noises or poorly chosen music. This whole film really seemed like a Syfy channel production. Other critics give this an F grade at less than 50% and I agree. I rate this bad for being poorly written, poorly produced and uncreative.
An Australian American action directed by George Miller, starring Charlize Theron.
Max is captured by the thugs of a corrupt leader and forced into slavery. When a renegade driver goes off-route, he teams up with her.
Predictable, boring and stupid. It was all action and nothing else. The plot was threadbare and did not fit into the established story of the series. It seemed more like a stand-alone installment. The characters were so shallow that I could almost see through them. The video was done well, special effects, choreographed vehicle chases, explosions and all that crap. The audio wasn't bad. I could hear what people said and the music. Overall, an action-packed extravaganza full of violence with no plot and weak characters. Hey, if that's what you want, go for it. I want more out of a movie. I rate this poor for the reasons stated above. You should not watch it if you're looking for depth or thought.
An Australian animated drama directed by Adam Elliot, starring Toni Collette and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
An Australian girl becomes pen pals with a mentally ill man in New York City. They tell each other about the problems in their lives.
This was animated very well and looked really cool. The plot was very sad and tragic, but that seemed to be the goal. The characters were developed marvelously well because of them narrating the letters in which they describe their lives in detail. The stop motion claymation style was awesome because of the limited, almost black and white color palette. The audio was mostly dialogue and the music was mixed low to bring out the voices of the characters. Overall, it seemed to be planned and executed in a very exact manner. I rate this awesome. Watch it!!!
