R.L. Stine has been recognised as one of the bestselling children’s authors of all time with his Goosebumps books selling more than 400 million copies in 32 languages since it first went into print in 1992. This movie adaptation features dozens of Stine’s creations, with Jack Black as the famed writer. Initially though, the filmmakers…
It was 1995 when Australia first produced the enchanting musical The Secret Garden starring Philip Quast, Anthony Warlow and Marina Prior. With book and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize-winner Marsha Norman and music by Lucy Simon, it was based upon the Victorian classic written by Frances Hodgson Burnett in the early 1900s. The Broadway production four…
The film series about Alvin and the Chipmunks, which kicked off in 2007, now has a third sequel (the fourth movie in total). The good news is that you need not have seen any of the others to make sense of this one – in other words, it stands up on its own. Combining live…
Just how bad was the global financial meltdown of 2008? Well … several top economists considered it to be the worst monetary crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Now the lead-up to it is captured in gripping detail and sensational form in The Big Short, one of the films of the year. When…
Looking For Grace is the fifth feature film from award winning Australian filmmaker Sue Brooks (Japanese Story, The Road To Nihill). The film tells the story of Grace (played by newcomer Odessa Young), a teenage girl who steals some money from her father’s safe and, with her best friend in tow, heads off on a…
The last time Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu took to the big screen, he carried the awards season with him as his wildly inventive Birdman swept all before it. Now he’s back with a more subdued but just as intriguing film in The Revenant. Where Birdman was style and movement, The Revenant is stillness and contemplation. And…
A road movie, but then on foot. A Walk in the Woods features two old-timers puffing like a steam locomotive while walking the Appalachian trail, a trip of approximately 3500 km in the USA. It’s a trip even young people fail to finish. But these two stubborn 70-year-olds won’t give in easily and are motivated to…
A 16-year-old girl, Grace (Odessa Young), disappears; as do several thousand dollars. Her parents Denise and Dan (Radha Mitchell and Richard Roxburgh) are naturally worried and call authorities. The story unfolds gradually through the perspectives of the various players – the girl, her parents, a truckie etc. – until, we, the audience piece together just…
It was October 2nd, 1950 when Charles M. Schulz introduced the characters of Charlie Brown, Shermy and Patty in just seven newspapers. That was the start of a 50-year journey for the cartoonist that forever changed the landscape of popular culture and humour. Schulz’s comic strip was hailed as one of the greatest of the…
It’s not altogether surprising that Good Charlotte’s song “Lifestyles of the rich and the famous” is in my head as I type this review. Harrison Young’s novel Nantucket describes a lifestyle most of us can only imagine – private jet planes, unlimited money, beautiful holiday houses on exclusive beaches … It’s a world where the stakes are…
