A feel good Aussie comedy with dramatic undertones, Astroman really comes into its own in the second act. Set in 1984, the play centres on a 13-year-old indigenous kid, Jiembra Djalu (Kamil Ellis), who loves video games. He and his sporty twin, Sonny (Calen Tassone), their 16-year-old sister Natalie (Tahlee Fereday) and mother Michelle (Elaine…
A flawed but sometimes amusing animated feature, Charming is a delightful twist on damsels-in-distress. As an infant, Prince Philippe Charming (the voice of Wilmer Valderrama) was maliciously “over-blessed” with “charm” as the result of a curse. So, through no fault of his own, he attracts women like a magnet. Every woman he meets falls madly…
Book Week is the comedic tale of a complete screw-up who never seems to learn. And, believe it or not, he’s a high school English teacher who, of course, should know he is setting the worst possible example. Budding author, Nicholas Cutler (Alan Dukes), has been waiting 44 years for his life to start. Well,…
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween is a romp in which an innocent act of cleaning rubbish leads to a whole lot of trouble. The first Goosebumps movie was a great box office success in 2015, so a sequel was inevitable. Goosebumps 2 follows the Quinn family – high school senior Sarah (Madison Iseman), her middle school…
Two women of a certain age do what women of a certain age don’t usually do – and love it – in One and the Other. We’re talking about circus acts. The show has a decidedly feminist slant and before the final act rolled around the #metoo movement was at the forefront of my mind….
Life isn’t straightforward for Palestinians living in Israel. There’s no place like home. The bond between father and son remains strong even if they often don’t see eye to eye. These are just some of the takeaways from Wajib. This slice-of-life drama features a real-life father and son playing a father and son. The plot…
You’re in for a treat of subversive circus at its finest when you see Lexicon at a specially constructed tent in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens (opposite the Shrine of Remembrance). Twelve accomplished performers produce the unexpected … and I couldn’t be more pleased. This isn’t the stuff of tired circus acts that have been done…
The phrase “a Kevin Hart comedy” is oxymoronic. Hart is one of the unfunniest comics making movies in Hollywood, and his grating, shrill, over the top and unsubtle shtick wears thin very fast. At the preview of his latest effort Night School, we were told Hart’s films have grossed something like $124 million at the…
It’s been 15 years since comedian Rowan Atkinson grabbed his licence to kill as bumbling secret agent Johnny English. The character is a cross between James Bond, Maxwell Smart, Inspector Clouseau and Inspector Gadget. Now Atkinson reprises the role in this third film in the series. Johnny English Strikes Again is also the strongest film…
The House with A Clock in its Walls presents as a magic-carpet ride that goes from charming silly to just plain silly. Ten-year-old Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) moves in with his Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) after being orphaned. He discovers a hidden world of mystery in the curious mansion filled with clocks that is his new…
