Sisu: Road to Revenge

Official Australian release date: 20/11/25. Viewed: 23/11/25.
Director: Jalmari Helander
Actors: Jorma Tommila, Stephen Lang, Richard Brake, Kasper Velberg
Genre: Action / War
Rating: MA

‘Sisu: Road to Revenge’ is the somewhat-unexpected sequel to 2022’s ‘Sisu’, the Finnish one-man war film, following Aatami (Tommila). This time, it’s post-WWII, and he goes into the former-Finland part of the USSR to take the beams back to rebuild in Finland. The bad KGB guy (Brake) sends Dragunov (Lang) to kill Aatami – even though that didn’t go well last time. That’s pretty much the plot – and after a semi-peaceful first 10min, it’s all action!

The only other character who has more than 2min screentime would be one of the pilots (Velberg), everyone else is pretty much there to make up the body count. Must’ve got to at least at least 100! It’s a solid mix of ‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ and ‘John Wick’. If you want inventive deaths and violence, with a bit of wry humour, this is for you.

Still amazing Aatami gets away without speaking at all. Lang is great as a bad guy (arguably worse than his ‘Avatar’ character). It has a nice foreboding score, and a rapid pace – all over in 90min – with the “chapters” to keep it moving. While not filmed in Russia or Finland, Estonia is a pretty solid double. Ridiculous ending, but what more can you expect?

Overall: Fun and crazy death-defying action.

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars

 

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t

Official Australian release date: 13/11/25. Viewed: 17/11/25.
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Actors: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dominic Sessa                     
Genre: Thriller / Mystery
Rating: M

‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ is the third entry in the “lets-make-magic-cool” series, coming 9 years after the 2^nd film, and reuniting Daniel (Eisenberg), Merritt (Harrelson), Henley (Fisher) & Jack (Franco) – “the Horsemen”, as well as a nice cameo from Thaddeus (Freeman). Pretty good to get so many of an ensemble back together after 12 years! The intro/set-up to get them together also introduces the next-gen of Bosco (Sessa), June (Greenblatt) & Charlie (Smith) and is done well.

The plot this time is the original Horsemen and the new 3 being tasked with taking down the corrupt South African diamond company, led by Veronika Vanderberg (Pike), who has a lot of fun with the role and plays it with the right amount of deranged, including the accent. There’s a few good heists, fights, escapes and car chases, as well as some Bond-like country-hopping – France, Belgium, UAE. The scenes with Freeman at the historical magician chateau are pretty fun.

Feels like a lower-stakes ‘Mission: Impossible’. It definitely helped that I watched the first 2 movies a day before seeing this, so it was pretty fresh. Although, I’m sure it still works if you only have vague recollections of the original. It’s pretty quick (110min), not too serious, semi-predictable, with a minor-twist-ending.

Overall: Fun, familiar and enjoyable

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars

The Running Man

Official Australian release date: 13/11/25. Viewed: 13/11/25.
Director: Edgar Wright
Actors: Glen Powell, Jayme Lawson, Michael Cera, Colman Domingo
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: MA

‘The Running Man’ is a remake of the Arnie film from 1987. Is it needed? Probably not. Is it better than that film? Yes. The premise is the same – and still silly – with a ‘Purge’-like survival reality show where the runner can win money while being hunted by everyone. This time, it’s Ben Richards (Powell) trying to win the prize money for his wife Shiela (Lawson) and sick daughter Cathy (Benn). He’s up against ‘The Network’ and the producer of the show, Killian (Brolin) – subtle name – and Bobby T (Domingo), as well as the hunters, led by McCone (Pace). Ben gets his 12 hour head start, then has to try to survive for 4 weeks.

Powell is cementing himself as the new Brad Pitt/Tom Cruise of the 2020s, and is quite likeable here. He gets help from Molie (H Macy), Elton (Cera) & Bradley (Ezra), showing there’s still some humanity in this ‘1984’ type future. The score and soundtrack are just OK, and there’s some funny moments, but no real laughs – both a bit odd, since this is directed by Wright. Brolin, Domingo & Pace seem to relish their bad guy/dick characters

It’s another Stephen King adaption from this year (after ‘The Life of Chuck’ and ‘The Long Walk’), and while not spooky, definitely has dark and dystopian undertones. But in general, it’s a pretty straight-forward action film, with plenty of explosions and violence, but nothing too graphic. There’s some down time between all the escaping, and the ending is OK, if not perfect. Probably 20min too long, at 2 hours 10min.

Overall: Solid futuristic action

Gav’s Rating: 3 stars

Predator: Badlands

Official Australian release date: 6/11/25. Viewed: 6/11/25.
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Actors: Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Elle Fanning, Cameron Brown, Ruben de Jong
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

‘Predator: Badlands’ is the 6^th ‘Predator’ film, and while not a direct sequel to the excellent ‘Prey’, it fits well in the Predator (and ‘Alien’) universe, with a new take – following Dek (Schuster-Koloamatangi) as a young Predator and the film’s protagonist, out to prove himself on his first hunt on an inhospitable planet. This is great to watch, and the tables are turned from the usual premise of these films. It’s also fun to see Predators on their home planet – including Dek’s brother Kwei (Homik) and father (de Jong), as well as some new tech/weaponry.

The throat-singing music at the start and end sets a great tone and is quite unique, adding atmosphere to the sometimes desolate landscape – filmed in New Zealand. The CGI of the creatures on the planet trying to kill Dek is great and pretty inventive. Things pick up when Dek encounters a crashed and injured android/synth, Thia (Fanning), who brings great energy and almost turns the middle act into a buddy-roadtrip film! There’s still plenty of action and battles, but not too much blood or gore. It’s fun to watch Dek communicate (via subtitles) with Thia (speaking English) and grow as a character. Dek & Thia also have some nice scenes with the monkey-like “Bud”.

The final act with the Weyland-Yutani androids (pretty much all played by Brown) and the main bad guy/creature, the Kalisk is all done well and it’s all over in 105min. The humour was definitely appreciated and done well, but didn’t overshadow the action or story. This was a nice change from the “single Predator slaughtering people” storyline, and does well to incorporate synths, especially after ‘Alien: Earth”. Not much I didn’t like here!

Overall: Really fun addition to the series

Gav’s Rating: 4.5 stars

Good Forunte

Official Australian release date: 30/10/25. Viewed: 2/11/25.

Director: Aziz Ansari
Actors: Aziz Ansari, Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Rating: M

‘Good Fortune’ is Ansari’s directorial debut and is a nice little comedy looking at themes of having hope and living your best life. It helps that it has a strong cast, with Arj (Ansari) being helped by the angel Gabriel (Reeves) and getting a job with Jeff (Rogen), and love interest Elena (Palmer). Arj is struggling in LA, and when things don’t go well for him, the ‘texting while driving’ angel decides to help him, and switches Arj’s life with rich tech-bro Jeff’s life to see if the grass is really greener.

It mostly goes as expected, with Arj taking full advantage of the situation, but then Jeff and Gabriel falling on bad times. It’s pretty similar to ‘Down To Earth’, ‘Life Stinks’ and ‘Trading Places’. There’s some good little gags, especially as Gabriel deals with being a human. Seth Rogen is good, and has some of his usual characteristics, but you can tell he didn’t write/produce/direct this, as he’s somewhat toned down.

Solid soundtrack (including The Go-Betweens!), only 90min, and tries to balance between being a superficial comedy and a commentary on modern life and the haves vs have nots. Probably needed a bit more chemistry between Ansari and Palmer. There’s definitely some laughs, but it’s not constant hilarity – which is fine – but just felt like it was a little lacking.

Overall: Good, not great, comedy about our humanity

Gav’s Rating: 3 stars

Frankenstein

Official Australian release date: 23/10/25. Viewed: 29/10/25.
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Actors: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz
Genre: Drama / Fantasy
Rating: MA

‘Frankenstein’ is probably the 20^th remake of the early-19^th century novel & 1931 film. While we all know the broad strokes of the story, this film does a great job of immersing us in Victor Frankenstein (Isaac)’s early history and motivations, including father (Dance), mother, and brother William (Kammerer) – as well as (literally) fleshing out the story of the Creature/monster (Elordi). Still set in the 1800s, mostly in Scotland, the cinematography is great and the semi-flashback narrative works well.

This ‘Frankenstein’ is definitely not a traditional horror film, with no jump scares – yes, some gore, blood and gross moments, but nothing too gratuitous or extreme. And while Victor gets more screen time, the Creature gets his fair share and the scenes with him trying to live alone are quite touching. The core of the film hinges on their infatuation with Elizabeth (Goth), William’s fiancé and niece of Harlander (Waltz), who has a pivotal role. All the actors are strong, with Isaac doing a great job of treading the line between confident and crazed, and Elordi giving the Creature a heart.

Good to see use of makeup and not just CGI throughout. The ship set and the castle set are both impressive. It’s maybe slightly long at 2 hours 20min, but it’s Del Toro’s best film since ‘The Shape of Water’ and shares a few themes. While there’s the obvious playing God and not opening Pandora’s box allegories, there’s also the relatable themes of what it means to be human and where our individual humanity comes from.

Overall: A very enjoyable human journey/tragedy

Gav’s Rating: 4 stars

Roofman

Official Australian release date: 16/10/25. Viewed: 26/10/25.
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Actors: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield
Genre: Crime / Drama
Rating: M

‘Roofman’ sounds like a bad superhero film, but is a true-story retelling of Jeffrey Manchester (Tatum) and his robberies, and subsequent escape from prison and hideout, defined by his charm and manners. It’s a mix of crime drama, dark comedy, with an almost rom-com in there. Set in ~2005 in North Carolina, we see Jeff rob a McDonalds via the roof, hence his nickname. His motivations are shown, but still seem a little weak.

Tatum is good and has a lot of screentime, especially when hiding out in a Toys R Us (lots of throwbacks in the film!), but love interest Leigh (Dunst) is strong too, as well as her kids Jade & Lindsay (Colias) & Dee (Moyer). There’s small roles for Mitch, the store manager (Dinklage), Steve (Stanfield) as old Army friend, and his girlfriend Michelle (Temple). There’s plenty of “why do that?” but also a bit of fun when he’s alone in the Toys R Us – what would you have done in same situation?

It ends as you would expect, and is a little longer than needed. Not as many laughs as I was hoping, and definitely not as upbeat as something like ‘Catch Me If You Can’, but still plenty of enjoyable scenes. Definitely reinforces the old adage of “life is stranger than fiction”!

Overall: Solid biopic

Gav’s Rating: 3 stars