The Banshees of Inisherin

Official Australian release date: 26/12/22.
Viewed: 31/12/22.
Director: Martin McDonagh
Actors: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan
Genre: Drama / Comedy
Rating: M

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ is from director McDonagh, he of ‘In Bruges’, ‘Seven Psychopaths’ & ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ fame. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it as good as any of his previous films. It’s good to see Farrell & Gleeson back together again, as well as a predominately Irish cast playing Irish characters. The plot is simple – Colm (Gleeson) decides he doesn’t have time to be friends with Padraic (Farrell) anymore, so Padraic, his sister Siobhan (Condon) and another friend, Dominic (Keoghan), try to find out why.

Part of the problem is their isolation, living on the (fictional) island of Inisherin off the west coast of Ireland in the 1920s – there’s not much else to do or many other people to interact with! There are plenty of chuckles as the news spreads (via refreshing accents not often heard in Hollywood films) and Padraic tries to comprehend what his long-time friend is doing to him. The 1920s era means there’s no cars, electricity or large buildings, so the scenery (real-life islands of Inishmore, off the coast of Galway) and sunsets are stunning, almost their own character.

The acting’s great, particularly Condon, with Keoghan purposefully annoying, Farrell often bewildered and Gleeson adroit. While it’s a comedy, it’s very dark and bleak – definitely more of a black comedy or “dramedy” than anything laugh-out-loud. Definitely lots to enjoy, but the ending and overall plot left me gloomy, when I was hoping for a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

Overall: Great-looking bleak comedy.

Gav’s Rating: 3 stars.

Top Gun: Maverick

Official Australian release date: 26/05/22.
Viewed: 13/12/22.
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Actors: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Monica Barbaro
Genre: Action / Drama
Rating: M

Whoops, forgot to do my ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ review! I didn’t particularly love or hate the original Top Gun and wasn’t sure it warranted a sequel, especially 36 years later, but this is pretty fun. The plot’s purposefully minimal – the U.S. Navy needs Pete/Maverick (Cruise) to train some new pilots to fight some unnamed foreign bad guys. Obviously, this requires him to sit in a cockpit and show them how it’s done.

The new pilots are Bradley/Rooster (Teller – the ‘Whiplash’ guy), Natasha/Phoenix (Barbaro), Jake/Hangman (Powell), Reuben/Payback (Ellis) and Bob (Pullman). The drama comes from Rooster being Goose’s son and the animosity that Maverick has created between them. There’s also solid cameos from love interest Penny (Connelly), Iceman (Kilmer) in one scene, and Warlock (Parnell) & Cyclone (Hamm) as the Navy bosses.

Cruise is as charismatic as ever, with lots of jaw-clenching and trying to do the right thing, his way. The “new recruits” are good and provide some energy to the plot, but the interplay between Rooster and Maverick drives everything. However, as with the original, the stars of the show are the aerial aerobatics performed by the F18s and other planes and the stunts/editing that makes it so fun to watch. Predictable, if a bit dumb ending, and it feels a lot quicker than 2 hours.

Overall: Enjoyable, plot-less joy-ride

Gav’s Rating: 4 stars.

 

Avatar: The Way of Water

Official Australian release date: 15/12/22.
Viewed: 20/12/22.
Director: James Cameron
Actors: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

 

‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ (or Avatar 2) comes almost exactly 13 years after the original broke all box-office records. The film does well to simultaneously make it feel like you’ve never left Pandora, but also to remind you of the characters and catch you up on the new ones, including Jake Sully (Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldana)’s four kids – eldest son Neteyam (Flatters), Loak (Dalton), Kiri (Weaver) & little Tuk (Bliss). The explanation for Kiri being Grace (Weaver’s original character)’s daughter is not clear at all, but Colonel Quaritch (Lang) is back, with a far simpler explanation – he and his marine team were cloned on Earth and sent back in Navi Avatars.

Once we re-establish that humans are the worst and still trying to colonise Pandora and exploit it’s resources, Sully & Neytiri take their family away from the fighting to the coral atolls/islands of the Metkayina tribe, led by Tonowari (Curtis) & Ronal (Winslet). This creates some interesting dynamics, but also introduces a whole new underwater ecosystem for the camera to explore. Probably the most impressive thing about these films is how Cameron makes everything seem so real and all the creatures plausible – all seeming like slightly different evolutionary branches of Earth’s creatures. The ‘whales’ are particularly remarkable.

It's good to see a little comedy thrown in (& Aussies/Kiwis), with Jermaine Clement & Brendan Cowell. However, just when the film seems like it might be a repeat of the first, the second act turns it on it’s head and focus on the inter- and intra-family dynamics and has a narrower focus on how the ocean-dwelling Navi interact with their environment. This serves the film well, as rather than try to fight every human colonist and machine, it is more intimate and you get to care for the main characters by the end. Bring on the next 3!

Overall: Still visually stunning, with a good story

Gav’s Rating: 4 stars.

The Menu

Official Australian release date: 24/11/22.
Viewed: 4/12/22.
Director: Mark Mylod
Actors: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau
Genre: Thriller / Comedy
Rating: MA

 

 

‘The Menu’ is a biting satire on the modern infatuation with food fetishisation. The premise is simple – Tyler (Hoult), Margot (Taylor-Joy) and an exclusive group – including food critics Lillian (McTeer) & Ted (Adelstein) + actor Leguizamo & partner Felicity (Carrero) + millionaire Richard (Birney) & Anne (Light) + 3 frat-boys – pay an exorbitant fee to get a boat to a secluded island (off the coast of Georgia) where a famous chef (Fiennes), maître de Elsa (Chau) and their team cook them a degustation dinner.

After 30min of getting to know the characters and wondering how similar this was going to be to ‘The Trip’, it takes a left-turn and almost does a ‘Get Out’. It’s funny to see how each character reacts to the events, and while they’re often absurd, you wonder what you would do in the same situation…

It’s definitely not a full-on horror film, or an outright comedy, but strikes a nice black-comedy balance, carried primarily by Fiennes & Taylor-Joy, with all the others adding something to the mix. Each twist is not quite what you expect and the ending is great fun. Lots of “why?”s, but also – why not? The less you know going in, the better!

Overall: Fun, sly and engaging

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Official Australian release date: 10/11/22.
Viewed: 10/11/22.
Director: Ryan Coogler
Actors: Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Tenoch Huerta, Danai Gurira
Genre: Action / Drama
Rating: M

 

‘Wakanda Forever’ was always going to have a tough job, needing to replace star Chadwick Boseman who passed away from cancer in 2020. Rather than try to do a ‘Rise of Skywalker’ and use some archive footage/CGI, Coogler chooses to have T’Challa killed off immediately. This sets the scene for a sombre outing, with Wakanda dealing with new challenges now they’ve shown the world their vibranium resources.

It's good that T’Challa’s mum, Ramonda (Bassett), gets more screentime, but sister Shuri (Wright) is the star here. Okoye (Gurira), Ayo (Kasumba), Aneka (Coel), M’Baku (Duke), Ross (Freeman) and Nakia (Nyong’o) are all back again, but it feels like a lot has happened in the four years since the first film – mostly because of ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’. Namor (Huerta) is the villain in this film, and while he’s similar to the comics character, here he’s of Mayan descent, with the under-water kingdom seemingly in the Gulf of Mexico – called “Talokan”, not Atlantis.

Some of the decisions made by the characters and by the director don’t make a lot of sense, with it sometime feeling like a lot has tied to be shoehorned in to make a film, rather than a linear storyline. Riri (Thorne)’s character seems pointless; Nakia is wasted until the end; and I’m not sure it needed to go for 2 hours 40min. It’s by no means bad, with a solid ending, but doesn’t really feel like a Marvel epic and probably has too much death and not enough fun. FYI, there’s no end credits scene, just the one after the titles.

Overall: Different style of Marvel film.

Gav’s Rating: 3 stars.

Barbarian

Official Australian release date: 20/10/22.
Viewed: 30/10/22.
Director: Zach Cregger
Actors: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgard, Justin Long, Richard Brake        
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Rating: MA

‘Barbarian’ is both a straightforward thriller/horror, but also a bit unique and unconventional. The set-up is simple – Tess (Campbell) is staying at an AirBnB in Detroit, which happens to be double-booked by Keith (Skarsgard). Seems straightforward what might happen next… AJ (Long) comes along as the landlord and there’s a few flashbacks of Frank (Drake). Other than that, a very light on cast, carried by each of the stars.

Even though it’s a horror film, the tone is often light, but allows for tension to be built, mostly thanks to the good score. I did like the turn it took after the first act. Always good to see Justin Long in a horror film – this is up there with one of my favourites, ‘Drag Me To Hell’, and is better than ‘Jeepers Creepers’ and ‘Tusk’.

It’s fun and fast – only 100min – and Campbell does a convincing job of being empathetic and not the stereotypical victim. See it to find out what happens! Great directorial debut from Cregger.

Overall: Fun, different horror tale.
 
Gav’s Rating: 4 stars.

Moonage Daydream

Official Australian release date: 15/9/22.
Viewed: 17/9/22.
Director: Brett Morgen
Actors: David Bowie        
Genre: Biopic / Documentary
Rating: M

 

‘Moonage Daydream’ is a not-really-documentary about David Bowie, as it doesn’t follow the traditional talking heads of friends, family and colleagues. It’s also not a concert film, although it does have some live concert footage, apparently much of it previously unseen. Directed by Brett Morgen (who did ‘Montage of Heck’ about Kurt Cobain and ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ about The Rolling Stones), it’s also not wall-to-wall songs – I’d say there were only ~10 songs played in full, with lots of others used as transitions.

The film does well to show his impact on his fans, with bits and pieces from outside shows and plenty of crowd closeups during the live bits. There’s plenty of archival Bowie interviews, much of it overlaid with other visuals of him or with the psychedelic “screensaver”-type CGI. It’s edited well, so it feels like he’s talking directly to you, rather than an interviewer. Lots of his other art – paintings, video-snippets, dance – edited in too.

It’s sort-of chronological, starting in ~’72 and the Ziggy Stardust era, covering up to the early ‘90s, but some of the interviews jump to an older Bowie, so he can juxtapose himself and some of the comments/views from his younger self. He was certainly a bit of a mystery and for a lot of the film comes across as someone just trying to find his place in the world. Good to see some of his reasoning around certain things and his genius definitely shines through. Hard to believe he’s already been gone almost 7 years.

Overall: Different, but fitting, overview of one of the greats.
 
Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars.

 

Nope

Official Australian release date: 11/8/22.
Viewed: 11/8/22.
Director: Jordan Peele
Actors: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott           
Genre: Sci-Fi / Horror
Rating: M

 

‘Nope’ is Jordan Peele’s 3^rd film and another unique take on the thriller film. It follows OJ (Kaluuya), his sister, Em (Palmer) & father Otis (David) as they try to run their Californian horse-training ranch. When some strange happenings occur, they bring in Angel (Perea) & Holst (Wincott) for help. Ricky (Yeun) is the neighbour trying to run a theme park. The mystery is revealed after ~45min and then the stakes are raised.

No spoilers here, other than to say it’s probably both what you might expect and also completely unexpected in parts. The film has a pretty good score and soundtrack, with a great use of light. There’s a few good laughs and jumps, but nothing overly horrific.

The three main actors are all good, but not exceptional – the character development wasn’t really there. It could’ve been called ‘Don’t Look Up’, but Adam McKay beat Peele to it! It’s hard to put a finger on it, but there’s just something missing which would’ve elevated this to another level. It’s a good concept, but not flawlessly executed.

Overall: Different take on the sci-fi/thriller concept.
 
Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars.

Thor: Love and Thunder

Official Australian release date: 6/7/22.
Viewed: 6/7/22.
Director: Taika Waititi
Actors: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Christian Bale           
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

 

‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ (or Thor 4) is a bridge between ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3’ and is not really linked to any of the other recent MCU films/TV shows, but it does a really good job of building on ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and the spirit of that film, including making Valkyrie (Thompson) and Korg (Waititi) the two main sidekicks of Thor (Hemsworth), who both ground him and add humour.

The plot is based around Gorr (Bale) having a sword that can kill gods, set-up well in the first 10min, and at the same time, Jane (Portman) being back as “The Mighty Thor” and being able to wield Mjolnir. A lot of this is explained in nice quirky montages, courtesy of Korg. There’s plenty of great cameos – from a lot of Aussies too, since it was filmed here – but the biggest (not a spoiler) is Russell Crowe as Zeus, who has a semi-important role, and is great.

Love & Thunder is very fast-paced, using the soundtrack excellently – especially four Guns N Roses songs – and it’s amazing the difference of “the vibe” during/after ‘Thor: The Dark World’ and 9 years later compared to this film. The black and white scene is excellent, there’s plenty of battles and whenever it starts to get too serious, there’s some well-placed jokes. The ending seems fitting and leaves you happy to see where Thor’s journey takes him.

Overall: Another enjoyable MCU action/comedy.
 
Gav’s Rating: 4 stars.

Jurassic World Dominion

Official Australian release date: 9/6/22.
Viewed: 12/6/22.
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Actors: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Isabella Sermon, DeWanda Wise
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

 

‘Jurassic World Dominion’ (or Jurassic Park 6) is the presumed end of this second trilogy. It primarily follows Owen (Pratt), Claire (Howard) & their adopted daughter Maisie (Sermon), as she’s hunted/kidnapped by bad guys that think she’s a clone. Then they throw in the original team of Ellie (Dern), Alan (Neill, struggling to find his accent from the original film) and Ian (Goldblum) who are working to bring down Biosyn Corp and their GE locusts, led by Dodgson (Scott). They have help from Kayla (Wise), Ramsay (Athie) and Barry (Sy), and BD Wong is also back as Dr Wu.

While the premise of dinosaurs roaming wild is an interesting concept, it’s not fully explored and only hinted at in parts. Where it is shown, such as Owen wrangling the Parasaurolophus, there’s more questions as to the potential realness of it, i.e. reptiles living in the snow, horses being as fast as them, their calmness. There’s a lot of “really?!” moments in this film. There’s some funny moments and some good action scenes, but it all seems to have too many chefs and lacks focus/seems rushed.

This is nowhere near the quality of the original film – probably slightly better than ‘Jurassic Park III’ and ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’, not that that means much. Oddly, while we see a few dinosaurs, including some new ones, but mostly the tried & tested favourites – there seems to be not that many scenes where dinosaurs are the main focus. While not horribly slow, it doesn’t feel like it all comes together and starts working until the final 40min, which isn’t much of the 2 hour 20min running time.

Overall: Average attempt to wrap up the dinos-gone-wild story.
 
Gav’s Rating: 3 stars.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Official Australian release date: 5/5/22.
Viewed: 5/5/22.
Director: Sam Raimi
Actors: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams
Genre: Sci-Fi / Fantasy
Rating: M

 

‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ (Dr Strange 2) feels odd in a few ways, as it’s been six years since the first film, but we’ve seen so much of Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch) recently, in the last two Avengers films and ‘Spider-Man No Way Home’, where he was almost the co-lead. This is also a bit different, as it dips slightly into horror territory, with demons, monsters and zombies – it is directed by Sam Raimi, from the original Spider-Man films, but also ‘Evil Dead’ fame.

The plot follows new character America (Gomez) and her teleporting power and what that has to do with Strange, Wong (Wong) and Wanda (Olsen). This film follows along the lines of what happened in ‘WandaVision’, ‘Loki’ and ‘No Way Home’, so it should be no surprise to viewers with all the interdimensional hopping, magic and psychedelic “other worlds” in this film. It’s good to see some of the alternate Strange’s and the other characters they chose to show us.

While not actually horrific or scary – even though there’s a few minor-shocks – it’s certainly quite dark and tragic, with the Scarlet Witch storyline being quite well-done, even if it leaves little room for humour or fun. It’s good to have McAdams back and she gets some screentime. Cumberbatch is good, but Olsen practically carries the film. The score is good, the CGI top-notch as always and the plot not too indecipherable. As always, there’s two end credit scenes.

Overall: Dark, brooding dive into the dark & mystic arts.
 
Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Official Australian release date: 21/4/22.
Viewed: 3/5/22.
Director: Tom Gormican
Actors: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Tiffany Haddish
Genre: Comedy / Action
Rating: M

‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ starts off like a biopic, but with Nic Cage playing “Nick Cage”, a slightly-nuanced version of himself and almost veers into dramatic territory when it involves his daughter, Addy (Sheen). But his ex-wife Olivia (Horgan), agent Fink (Patrick Harris), Vivian (Haddish) & Martin (Barinholtz), as well as Javier (Pascal) help keep it on track as a mostly-comedy.

Cage is forced to take a gig going to super-fan Javier’s party in Majorca, Spain, where it’s quite funny to see The Mandalorian in dick-togs and fawning over Cage! Then a bit of plot is introduced with Vivian & Martin being CIA agents who recruit Cage to spy on Javier & Lucas (Leon). When his family gets endangered, it becomes a full-on action film.

While maybe trying to be too meta for it’s own good, it’s certainly fun for almost the whole time and Cage certainly gets a few good moments to shine. He does well to both play up his action chops – and only a little of crazy-Cage is on show. The setting is lovely (although apparently Croatia, not Spain), soundtrack good, over quite quickly (~100min) and supporting cast excellent.

Overall: Fun twist on the action-comedy.
 
Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars.

The Northman

Official Australian release date: 21/4/22.
Viewed: 21/4/22.
Director: Robert Eggers
Actors: Alexander Skarsgard, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman
Genre: Action / Drama
Rating: MA

‘The Northman’ is a viking film with a hint of Shakespeare thrown in. It follows the journey of Amleth (Skarsgard), his mother Gudrun (Kidman), his father King Aurvandil (Hawke) and uncle Fjolnir (Bang). Olga (Taylor-Joy) comes along later as the love interest. When the king is killed, Amleth vows to avenge him, setting up the plot. I wish there was more of Hawke & Dafoe, but they have fun with the screentime they get.

Skarsgard’s traps almost outshine some of his acting, with him being extremely buff for this role. The scenery of Iceland (and lots of Ireland standing in for other Nordic regions) looks amazing, but isn’t always used as much as it could be. The score’s OK – lots of guttural chanting and drumming. Trying to be somewhat faithful to the period, being set in ~900AD, there’s plenty of violence and gore, but it’s not incessant and there’s no large battles. Still, some is pretty graphic.

At it’s heart, it’s that age old tale of love or hate – you can only ever really choose one. This is an easy answer for Amleth for most of the film, being driven purely by revenge – until it’s not. I really liked the night scenes when Eggers make it a silver-ish black & white, but I just felt there was something missing to make this a great film.
 
Overall: Good viking revenge action film, if not quite perfect
 
Gav’s Rating: 3 stars.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Official Australian release date: 14/4/22.
Viewed: 16/4/22.
Directors: Dan Kwan & Daniel Schinert
Actors: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis
Genre: Action / Comedy
Rating: MA

‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is a simple story about a family’s search for meaning. It also happens to be a mind-bending, multiple-universe, kung-fu, sci-fi epic! Evelyn (Yeoh) and her husband Waymond (Quan – Short Round from ‘Temple of Doom’!) run a laundromat and have some issues with their marriage, their daughter Joy (Hsu) and Evelyn’s father, Gong Gong (Hong). What starts out as a family drama doesn’t take long to turn into a fight to save the multiverse when another Waymond shows up to enlist Evelyn’s help.

From the directors of ‘Swiss Army Man’, “the Daniels” sure know how to do surreal well, but make sure there’s plenty of laughs and idiosyncratic comedy. The alternate realities are explained quickly and simply – no time is wasted and the plot and action is always moving along. Yeoh, Hsu and Quan are all great, as is Jamie Lee Curtis in her role(s). Yeoh should get extra credit both for the stunts/fights at her age (it is 20 years since ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’!), as well as pulling off both a martial arts expert and boring housewife at once.

While there’s plenty of bonkers thing going on – Hsu’s costumes are excellent, some hilarious sex jokes, great/unexpected use of “Absolutely (Story of a Girl)”– the heart of the film is the relationship between Evelyn & Joy and Evelyn & Waymond. There’s some sad moments and some beautiful ones, especially the quiet desert scenes, but we’re left with a great underlying message of love and kindness giving the world meaning.
 
Overall: Poignant, unique, fun, interesting, heartfelt – a must-see!
 
Gav’s Rating: 4 stars.

The Batman

Official Australian release date: 3/3/22.
Viewed 2/3/22.
Director: Matt Reeves
Actors: Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright
Genre: Action / Drama
Rating: M

 

‘The Batman’ gives us 6^th film-version of Bruce Wayne in Robert Pattinson and a lot of people are asking “do we need another Batman film?” After watching this, the answer is “yes”. From the director of the last two (great) ‘Planet of the Apes’ films, this is a brooding and dark, true-to-form Batman film, much closer to Tim Burton’s films than the Snyder & Schumacher films. It has some aspects in similar with the Nolan trilogy, but is different enough to stand alone.
 
This is a younger Batman/Bruce, and does well to not re-tell the story of his parents’ deaths. Essential to any good Batman film is a good Alfred and Serkis is great. The entire cast is really good – Selina (Kravitz), Lieutenant Gordon (Wright), the Riddler (Dano), Falcone (Turturro) and Oswald/Penguin (Farrell) – who is literally unrecognisable in his make-up. Dano brings a great energy to the Riddler and makes him seem realistic in the world we live in – definitely no trace of Jim Carey here! The scenes with Bruce & Selina work really well.

While this is very dark, both visually and thematically – including the repeated use of Nirvana’s ‘Something in the Way’ – it really suits the noir vibe of the mystery that has Bruce & Gordon trying to solve the Riddler’s puzzles/murders. They make Gotham very believable – always raining – and there’s a great car chase scene, as well as plenty of realistic hand-to-hand combat. While it’s long – almost 3 hours – it doesn’t drag and the pacing is good, with the non-action components being as exciting as the fight scenes. By the end, I was certainly convinced by the validity of Pattinson, the suit and this film.
 
Overall: Well-made, gritty, low-tech noir mystery/thriller.
 
Gav’s Rating: 4 stars.

Studio 666

Official Australian release date: 24/2/22.
Viewed 26/2/22.
Director: BJ McDonnell
Actors: Dave Ghohl, Pat Smear, Nate Mendel, Whitney Cummings
Genre: Horror / Comedy
Rating: R
 

‘Studio 666’ is a Foo Fighters pet project, poking fun at themselves, rockstar excess and horror all in a fun film. The plot is simple – Dave (singer/songwriter), Nate (bass), Chris (guitar), Pat (guitar), Taylor (drums) & Rami (keyboards) are wanting to do something different for their 10^th album, so end up recording in a haunted house. The rest is mostly an ‘Evil Dead’ rip-off!
 
Most of the fun comes from watching the band, who are clearly not actors, have fun with the absurdness/silliness. There are some good cameos from actual actors – Samantha (Cummings) the neighbour, Jeremy (Garlin) the manager and Darren (Forte) the delivery guy. And while it’s semi-funny, it’s definitely very gory and I think the death-count got to 9. Just not sure it needed to be 1 hour 45min – might’ve been a good 30min TV episode.
 
If you’re a Foo fan and appreciate the humour in their video clips, you should enjoy this. Lots of little inside jokes and they play against their nice-guy personas on purpose. Still, they’re definitely not actors! Only one actual Foo Fighters song from ‘Medicine At Midnight’ is used, during the credits – the song they play during the film is actually pretty good, even though it’s in “L” key.
 
Overall: Silly, gory, dumb rock’n’roll.
 
Gav’s Rating: 2.5 stars.