The Despicable Me series, created by French filmmaker Pierre Coffin, has developed and expanded over the past 14 years, and the franchise has grossed over $4 billion worldwide. Given its success it’s no great surprise that we now have a fourth film in the series (not counting the two stand-alone Minions movies). Over the course…
You only have to watch commercial TV one evening to know that Australians love their dogs. I think it’s also fair to say Australians don’t mind a bit of ribald comedy. So Josh Greenbaum’s new comedy Strays should find a willing audience. Greenbaum recently directed the well-received Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar…
Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s film Force Majeure (2014) marked his arrival as a filmmaker of note. Americans Nat Faxon and Jim Rash wrote the screenplay for The Descendants (2011) and directed The Way Way Back (2013). But it seems the European sensitivities of Östlund’s film have been a little lost in translation in Faxon and…
My list of the worst films of 2018 has just had a late addition with Holmes & Watson, an execrable and terribly unfunny piece of nonsense that will have Sir Arthur Conan Doyle spinning in his grave. This dire comedy about the world’s greatest detective and his devoted assistant Dr John Watson reunites Will Ferrell…
Not only do recent Christmas movies tend to be more narky and mean spirited, but they also seem to be hitting cinemas earlier. Even though it is only November we have three Christmas themed films in our multiplexes. There’s Bad Moms 2, the home invasion black comedy Better Watch Out, and now we get Daddy’s…
One of the truisms of gambling says the house always wins. However, with The House – a supposed comedy about an ordinary family that set up an illegal underground casino in the leafy streets of suburbia – it’s the audience who are the losers. Let’s face it – when was the last time Will Ferrell made…
