School holidays have arrived around Australia – and that means lots of kids saying “I’m bored!”. Kid-friendly movies make a great outing though, and with that in mind, here are our quick reviews of three. They all opened on 19 September 2019. Dora and the Lost City of Gold (PG) The cartoon TV series Dora…
Good Boys is Superbad with 11 year-olds. The film follows the misadventures of Max (fresh-faced Jacob Tremblay), a sixth-grader on the cusp of adolescence. He’s best friends with Thor (Brady Noon) and Lucas (Keith L Williams), who refer to themselves as “the beanbag boys” because they like sitting in bean bags. Max has been invited…
If you are in the camp that our recent history rapid technological advancements all stemmed from scientists in a secret US government agency retro engineering what crashed down from the skies at Roswell – you are absolutely in good company with UFOs – The Lost Evidence. Season Two is here to put to the viewer…
Set at the height of The Troubles in Belfast, The Beautiful Game is a powerful and affecting musical that reveals the impact of the turmoil on members of an Under 21 soccer team and their partners. We’re talking the years 1969 through to the early ‘70s when political and religious violence has engulfed the community….
Dark Pines, the debut novel for Will Dean, is set in Gavrik, a small town in the county of Värmland in Western Sweden. Tuva Moodyson, the main character, is the chief reporter for its weekly newspaper, the Gavrik Posten. Although she grew up in Sweden Tuva has spent a number of years abroad and has…
Head First Acrobats have taken the adage “boys will be boys” to new heights in the cheeky and cheery Railed. The quartet – AJ Saltalamacchia, Callan Harris, Adam O’Connor- McMahon and Harley Timmermans – are born entertainers who know how to rev up a crowd. Through feats of strength, skill and balance they perform their…
Fangirls begins with a couple of criminals on the run. The scene is one of 14-year-old smart, scholarship-girl Edna’s (Yve Blake, who is also responsible for the world premiere musical comedy’s book, musical and lyrics) imagining; she is the Beyoncé of fan fiction according to her online friend Saltypringl (James Majoos), specifically that written in…
Scheming and gossip abound in the lavish big-screen version of Downton Abbey, where opulence is the byword. First an admission, I only heard wonderful things about the TV series but I haven’t seen one episode. As a result, it took me some time to work out who was who in the zoo, namely who the…
In the animated comedy The Angry Birds Movie 2, three flightless angry birds and the scheming green piggies take their beef to the next level as both Bird Island and Piggy Island are in danger. So, Red (Jason Sudeikis), Chuck (Josh Gad), Bomb (Danny McBride) and Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage) recruit Chuck’s sister Silver (Rachel…
Bill Bateman, author of the Vince Hanrahan series, was a rural based GP himself, and that shows. Both in his affection for the town, the people and the depiction of the day to day life of the slightly harried GP, but mostly in the way that some presentations are never quite what they seem and…
