How to Change the World – DVD review
A lot of environmental documentaries are earnest and well intentioned, but they also tend to be a little dull and are often preaching to the converted. Which makes this fascinating, revealing and provocative warts and-all look at the origins of the environmentalist activist group Greenpeace all the more interesting when compared to most other environmental…
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation – DVD review
The deep cover spy agency known as the IMF faces total disbandment in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, the fifth installment of the action thriller movie series. From its start as a TV show in 1966, Mission: Impossible has always centred on the extreme pressure of the ticking clock – the urgent deadline to stop…
Win BBC Shakespeare Collection Vol. 5 on DVD
– BBC Shakespeare Collection Vol. 5 – On DVD now We have 5 Blu-ray copies thanks to Via Vision Entertainment. *(Valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE In 1978, the BBC set itself the task of filming all of William Shakespeare’s plays for television. The resulting productions, renowned for their loyalty to the…
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence – movie review
This is theatre of the absurd, where you can try in vain to make sense of what you are seeing. Suffice to say that it is commentary on man’s inhumanity to man, on selfishness and tragedy and loss. It is the brainchild of director and screenwriter Roy Andersson, a Swede who with it…
The Longest Week – DVD review
For Conrad Valmont (Jason Bateman) this was apparently the longest and most painful week. For me this was the longest and most painful movie experience. Anyway I have a strong dislike for a voice-over that begins with “This is …” followed by the name of the main character. This is usually already a bad omen….
Frackman: The Movie – movie review
Frackman sounds like he should be a new addition to the Marvel stable of superheroes. But Dayne Pratzky is no superhero – rather he is just an average farmer from Queensland with little interest in politics or geopolitics until he became an accidental activist through his campaign against global energy companies who wanted to sink…
VICE (King St Theatre) – theatre review
In the present fetid political climate, maybe, overheated by the media in its rush to find ‘villains’ and ‘victims’, to entertain our appetites for the moral humiliation of others, with the official exposure and investigation of child abuse in Australian schools and institutions, Melvyn Morrow’s new play, VICE – Private School Scandal, attempts to bring…
Unfriended – movie review
Slick and digitally savvy, this is a horror thriller for the social media generation. Unfriended follows what happens when a seemingly innocent online prank spirals out of control. The film unfolds over a teenager’s computer screen as she and her friends are stalked by an unseen figure. This entity seeks vengeance for a shaming video…
One Eyed Girl – movie review
Psychiatry and religion are two crutches that people turn to in times of trouble, seeking help, spiritual guidance and comfort. But these twin sources of help are also double-edged swords and have often been exploited for darker purposes. With religion, the dark side is often the suicide cults with their brainwashing, manipulation and the ability…