Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Official Australian release date: 23/5/24. Viewed: 25/5/24.
Director: George Miller
Actors: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Lachy Hulme
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: MA

‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ is the prequel to ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’, which only seems recent, but actually came out 9 years ago! This film does a great job of adding useful backstory to Furiosa (Alyla Brown when young; Taylor-Joy when a bit older), Immortan Joe (Hulme), his sons Rictus (Jones) & Scrotus (Helman) and how the Wastelands (i.e. western New South Wales) are controlled by three “outposts” - the Citadel, the Bullet-farm, and Gastown. We’re shown how Furiosa is captured by motorbike marauders when young and ends up a slave of Dementus (Hemsworth).

Some good Aussie cameos – David Collins (half of The Umbilical Brothers) as Smeg, Dementus’ grovelling sidekick, Angus Sampson as the “Organic Mechanic”, Tim Rogers as one of Dementus’ goons and John Howard back as the “People Eater”. The film sets up well where Furiosa is from, why she’s so stoic and why she wants to escape the Citadel. It’s also good to see Hemsworth having fun and playing a semi-goofball bad guy, but with a bit of nuance (& a bit of prosthetic nose). Praetorian Jack (Burke) as the war rig driver is also good and has an important part in the final act.  

The main star though, is the car chases/stunts/explosions across the desert backdrop, with lots of motorbikes and cars as always, as well as the introduction of the war rig/semi-trailer and some inventive parachuting. Pretty crazy that this film comes 45 years after the original ‘Mad Max’ and while some if it is of an extreme scale, it’s still quite grounded and simple at it’s core, with not too much noticeable CGI. The pacing and score are good and the ending is fitting.

Overall: Another fun, action-packed outback drive

Gav's Rating: 4 stars

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Official Australian release date: 9/5/24. Viewed: 12/5/24.
Director: Wes Ball
Actors: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Peter Macon, Kevin Durand
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ is about ‘Planet of the Apes’ #10, and the 4^th prequel, following the recent 2011-2017 films. This film is set a couple of hundred years after Caesar and introduces new antagonist Noa (Teague) a chimp from a clan that raises eagles to fish with. His friends Laika (Berry) and Anaya (Jeffrey) set the scene of the new world well, undertaking an initiation climb to claim eggs. When their village is attacked by some bad apes, Noa sets out to free his clan.

It's easy to forget this is a post-apocalyptic film, as the CGI is so good and the apes facial expressions so human-like, but there’s some good reminders throughout, with a telescope, ships and the bones of skyscrapers now covered in plants. On his journey, Noa meets Raka (Macon), a wise orangutan that opens his eye’s to Caesar’s philosophy, and they both encounter Mae (Allan), a by-now rare talking human. The “bad” apes are being led by Proximus (Durand) and his gorilla-offsider Sylva (Darville), but suitably arrogant delusional.

Always good to have the tension as a viewer of “which side am I cheering for?” when it’s humans vs apes. Mae’s character starts off as a bit of a caricature, but evolves into something meaningful, setting up future films. Lots obviously filmed in Australia, with gum trees noticeable and lots of bushland recognisably Aussie. Final act is exciting, but a bit predictable. Noa’s character arc holds it all together nicely.

Overall: Solid start to what I assume will be a new trilogy

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars

The Fall Guy

Official Australian release date: 26/4/24. Viewed: 5/5/24.
Director: David Leitch
Actors: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham
Genre: Action / Comedy
Rating: M

‘The Fall Guy’ is loosely based on a 1980s TV show that starred Lee Majors, that I haven’t seen, so I can’t compare. This film works as a tribute to stunt people that make action films exciting, while also being a fun action movie like we used to get in the late 80s/early 90s, with plenty of it’s own excellent stunts. It’s directed by Leitch, who has already proven himself with ‘Deadpool 2’, ‘John Wick’ and ‘Bullet Train’. In the film, the director is Jody (Blunt) who has a relationship with the stunt guy Colt (Gosling). Colt is the stunt man for up-and-coming actor Tom Ryder (Taylor-Johnson), perhaps a parallel of Gosling 15 years ago. Something goes wrong, and Colt ends up trying to find where Tom’s gone, while attempting to fix his relationship with Jody.

Good support cast – stunt coordinator Dan (Duke), Tom’s agent Gail (Waddingham) – and nice to see Sydney looking great as a location, even if you know the route they take on the garbage truck chase isn’t possible. I wonder if that’s what LA/Atlanta locals always feel watching films set there? Also fun to see some part of the fictional film they’re making – ‘Metal Storm’ which has nods to ‘Mad Max’ and Dune’ – at the end. The storyline is paced quite well, there’s plenty of laughs and a nice ending.

Both Blunt and Gosling are great leads and have lots of nice moments and plenty of screentime. However, the film never gets too serious or dramatic and makes sure it pays adequate homage to the stunt teams of Hollywood by having an excellent car chase, good fight scenes, exciting boar chase, superb beach-based car rollover and a great final 15min which have about 20 stunts crammed in, including a crazy car jump. The bar’s been raised for the next ‘Mission: Impossible’!

Overall: Fun, classic, enjoyable action-comedy

Gav's Rating: 4 stars

Late Night with the Devil

Official Australian release date: 11/4/24. Viewed: 21/4/24.
Directors: Colin Cairnes & Cameron Cairnes
Actors: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Rhys Auteri
Genre: Horror
Rating: MA

‘Late Night with the Devil’ is almost a “bottle episode”, taking place on a TV set of a fictional late night talk show called “Night Owls” on Halloween 1977, where host Jack Delroy (Dastmalchian) and his offsider Gus (Auteri) compete for ratings against Johnny Carson. The film makes great use of grainy 4:3 footage to show that it’s the 70s, and a brief intro sets up what’s happened to Jack and his wife Maddie (Haig) over the past few years.

Given it’s Halloween, the show’s guests are a psychic, Christou (Bazzi), a former magician and now-sceptic, Carmichael (Bliss), a parapsychologist, June (Gordon) and her teenage, potentially-possessed subject, Lilly (Torelli). The way the film follows the making of the TV show is a great concept and having the screen widen and change to black-and-white for the behind-the-scenes sections during ad-breaks is a great story-telling device. It also keeps the momentum up, as things don’t go horribly wrong all at once, but gradually get weirder/stranger…

It all moves fast at only 90min long, and is great to see Australian directors doing well (this is better than ‘100 Bloody Acres’ – filmed in Melbourne, with a majority-Aussie cast. The set design and fashion is spot on and the tone, with moments of humour an suspense well executed and balanced. Dastmalchian is great and all the cast is strong. Last 15min or so is pretty crazy and not at all predictable!

Overall: Unique and enjoyable horror premise

Gav's Rating: 4 stars

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Official Australian release date: 21/3/24. Viewed: 19/4/24.
Director: Gil Kenan
Actors: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, McKenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard
Genre: Sci-Fi / Comedy
Rating: PG

‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ is technically ‘Ghostbusters’ 5, and a direct sequel to 2021’s ‘Afterlife’, which introduced us to the new Ghostbusters team of Callie (Coon), Egon Spengler’s daughter, and her kids Phoebe (Grace) & Trevor (Wolfhard), plus step-dad Gary (Rudd). This new team seems to have taken on the mantle well, and Nadeem (Nanjiani) introduces a new relic that obviously contains the “big bad ghost” that will appear at the end.

The film finds a way to bring back Ray (Aykroyd), Winston (Hudson), Janine (Potts) & Venkman (Murray), but only for minimum screentime, and not much of it together. Seems to be more of a focus on Phoebe being a teenager and not able to ghostbust and a near-pointless friendship with a ghost. There’s a few laughs throughout – Slimer’s back for a cameo, Patton Oswalt has a good exposition scene – but most laughs come from Kumail as the unwitting “fire-master”.

The main problem seems to be too much ensemble cast, so no-one gets chance to shine. After the first 15min, you almost forget Paul Rudd & Carrie Coon are even in it! And for even with the fan-service Murray, Aykroyd & Hudson provide, they’re barely used and have minimal impact in the final act. The big bad ghost is quite scary and formidable (would be even more-so to anyone under 10), and it all wraps up as expected.

Overall: Once again, not bad, but nothing special

Gav's Rating: 3 stars

Civil War

Official Australian release date: 11/4/24. Viewed: 15/4/24.
Director: Alex Garland
Actors: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaney, Stephen McKinley Henderson
Genre: War / Drama
Rating: MA

‘Civil War’ is a “what if” scenario of a in-the-near-future of where the USA could be headed if their divisive politics continue as they have over the past decade. It starts off with the president (Offerman) practising a speech and sets up what we assume is going to be a “the people vs Trump” allegory. But then we get introduced to war photographer Lee (Dunst) and semi-protégée Jessie (Spaney) at a rally that turns violent.

We then follow a road trip of Lee, Lee’s journalist partner Joel (Moura), their older colleague Sammy (McKinley Henderson) as they show Jessie the ropes of capturing the action while trying not to get hurt or effected by it, as they travel from New York to Washington DC past some sporadic battles. Intentionally, rather than full-on action and violence, there’s lots of introspective moments and quietness, interspersed with their view of a firefight. The four main actors are all good, with Dunst not actually having many lines. Good cameos from Nelson Lee and Jesse Plemons.

We don’t see any footage of the president again or the leaders of the “Western Front”, and no backstory is given for why/how this 21^st-century civil war was started. While I appreciate that’s a different angle taken on purpose, it does leave the whole film feeling a bit pointless, as we’re left to fill in lots of blanks and the plot leans on the generic “war is bad”. There’s some good moments, especially the last 20min of action, but you’re probably better off watching the ‘The Patriot’ do justice to the actual 19^th-centiry civil war.

Overall: Interesting concept, not fully realised

Gav's Rating: 3 stars

Force of Nature: The Dry 2

Official Australian release date: 8/2/24. Viewed: 30/3/24.
Director: Robert Connolly
Actors: Eric Bana, Anna Torv, Deborra-Lee Furness, Robin McLeavy
Genre: Drama / Mystery
Rating: M

‘Force of Nature: The Dry 2’ comes 3 years after ‘The Dry’, and retains Detective Aaron Falk (Bana) as the lead and the flashbacks to fill in story gaps, but is otherwise a standalone film – it’s certainly not dry this time, set in the rainy Dandenong ranges of eastern Victoria. The plot this time sounds simple – 5 women on a work retreat get lost in the bush. When 4 of them are rescued, Falk and Cooper (McKenzie) set out to find the missing Alice (Torv).

As the backstory unfolds – told via each of the 4 women: Alice’s boss Jill (Furness), sister Lauren (McLeavy) and co-workers Bree (Ansell) & Beth (Stringer), we’re able to piece together that there’s more going on than anyone is initially letting on and start drawing our own conclusions. There’s also the added layer of flashback’s to Falk’s own childhood when he and his parents were camping in the same national park and had their own situation…

Probably not as good as the first film, but still a well-made Aussie drama, with lots of tension, hope, great scenery and enough storyline to keep you interested and guessing. Good cameos from Richard Roxburgh and Tony Briggs, but the film’s carried by Bana and the interaction of the 5 women and the ticking clock to find Alice before it’s too late. Not too long at just under 2 hours, solid score.

Overall: Enjoyable Aussie bush mystery.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars