Warfare

Official Australian release date: 17/4/25. Viewed: 26/4/25.
Directors: Ray Mendoza & Alex Garland
Actors: D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, Cosmo Jarvis
Genre: Action / Drama
Rating: MA

‘Warfare’ is based on a true story and follows a squad of US Navy Seals in Iraq in 2006. The film takes place over a short period, <12 hours, and after a funny intro, we get introduced to the characters – primarily Ray (Woo-A-Tai, from ‘Reservation Dogs’), Elliot (Jarvis, from ‘Shogun’), Sam (Quinn, from ‘Stranger Things’), Frank (John Smith, from ‘Sharp Objects’) and Erik (Poulter, from ‘We’re The Millers) – as they hole up in a house in an Iraqi town in support of a larger operation. Nothing happens for 30min, so we get to learn something about most of them.

Then things start to escalate, and holding position quickly turns to trying to evacuate. This is all close-quarters, tightly filmed fight scenes, with no real respite. When things explode, we hear the ringing in the ears/semi-silence, and stay with the squad as they deal with the aftermath – there’s no edits to later on, just the reality of the moment. Some interesting war tactics I’d not seen before, including the “show of force” from the planes and how they use the tanks.

This is a tight 95min – lean and nothing wasted. It’s not a typical war film – there’s no central protagonist, no hero’s journey, no glorification. It’s all just dirt, explosions, and pinging bullets. Closest film I can think of to this is ‘Black Hawk Down’. The ending is good, as the entire battle is effectively pointless – which is the point, as arguably all war is. Good performances from the cast, who come across as both young and out-of-place – like that entire war was.

Overall: Gritty and realistic war day-in-the-life

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars   

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Official Australian release date: 27/3/25. Viewed: 20/4/25.
Director: Peter Browngardt
Actors: Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol, Fred Tatasciore
Genre: Comedy / Sci-Fi
Rating: PG

‘The Day the Earth Blew Up’ is apparently the first fully-animated Looney Tunes theatrically-released film ever (i.e. no live action Michael Jordan or Brendan Fraser here), which is hard to believe seeing as Looney Tunes have been around for 95 years! This is a kids film, but very much aimed at adults who grew up watching Looney Tunes too. We follow Porky Pig (Bauza) and Daffy Duck (also Bauza) as they try to get jobs, then try to stop a zombie outbreak, then try to stop an asteroid – yep!

The film mashes together a lot of inspirations – ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, ‘Dawn of the Dead’, ‘Armageddon’ – as it effectively has 3 distinct acts to make it to the 90min runtime, a lot different to 6min shorts! The montage of baby Daffy & baby Porky being adopted by Farmer Jim (Tatasciore) is funny and heart-warming and grounds the film – “sticking together” becoming a theme, figuratively and literally. The zombies are kid-friendly, being turned by chewing gum and say “chew”, not “brains”. Petunia (Milo) comes in to help them with the gum issue. A preposterous premise, even more so when we find out the purpose behind it!

The animation is great – very nice to see traditional 2D animation – the jokes are sometimes juvenile and faux extreme violence, as is standard for Looney Tunes, with the exaggerated situations, emotions and explosions all part of the charm. We took ages 3, 5, 7 and 9, so it wasn’t too scary, even though the advisory is: “mild crude humour, science fiction themes and animated violence” – fair. Daffy & Porky work well together, but I was hoping for a Marvin the Martian and Bugs Bunny cameo. Hopefully for the next one! Lots of laughs, with the best joke being Daffy’s “do you have any idea how hard it is for male ducks to lay eggs?”

Overall: Fun, absurd, alien Daffy & Porky adventure

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars   

Sinners

Official Australian release date: 17/4/25. Viewed: 17/4/25.
Director: Ryan Coogler
Actors: Miles Caton, Michael B. Jordan, Delroy Lindo, Jack O’Connell
Genre: Horror / Drama
Rating: MA

‘Sinners’ starts in a church, but doesn’t spend too long explicitly focusing on religion, god and the devil – but does explore these themes in the semi-segregated world of 1932 Mississippi. We start with Sammie/“Preachers Boy” (Caton) and then are introduced to his notorious cousins who have just returned from Chicago – twins Smoke & Stack, both played by Jordan, who clearly relishes the run he gets to have. He plays them both subtly different enough that you can tell who’s who.

It all occurs in one day, with the first hour setting the scene well, as we’re introduced to ex-girlfriends – Mary (Steinfeld) and Annie (Mosaku) – plus Slim (Lindo) and Cornbread (Miller), who are brought in to help Smoke & Stack open up their “Juke” bar. Key to everything is Sammie, his guitar and the blues. We’re then introduced to Remmick (O’Connell), who is a charming Irishman, hiding a sinister secret.

I won’t spoil the twist, but it doesn’t take long for the film to turn to a horror, and does well to start off with a bit of tension and suspense and then go full blown bloody action/fight/gore. Holding it together is the great soundtrack and score, with the music great throughout. Just over 2 hours, but never boring - solidly wrapped up, some great scenes. Stay after the initial credits, as there’s a ~5min final scene.

Overall: Different take on a standard horror trope

Gav's Rating: 4 stars   

Novocaine

Official Australian release date: 3/4/25. Viewed: 15/4/25.
Directors: Dan Berk & Robert Olsen
Actors: Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel
Genre: Action / Comedy
Rating: MA

‘Novocaine’ is a fun take on the “one-man-fighting-lots-of-baddies” genre, with Nate (Quaid) having a “genetic disorder” which means he can’t feel pain (but he can still bleed a lot!). The film has a nice first act, establishing Nate Cain (hence the nickname) and his unique existence as an assistant bank manager, his gaming friend Roscoe (Batalon) and romantic interest Sherry (Midthunder).

It all kicks off when Nate’s bank is robbed by Simon (Nicholson) – a very dislikable villain, well done – and Sherry kidnapped, so Nate takes it upon himself to rescue her. Detectives Mincy (Gabriel) and Coltraine (Walsh) have nice cameos, but otherwise we pretty much follow Nate as he chases and gets beat up by 3 bad guys – and finds inventive ways to not die! The injuries start off plausible, and get progressively worse and worse.

It’s pretty fast-paced at 110min and the added love story is nice – we need more Midthunder ‘Predator’ films – and Quaid seems to be having lots of fun, although I’m sure most is stunt doubles, and his character isn’t too different from Hughie in ‘The Boys’. Good score and soundtrack – if you like ‘John Wick’ and ‘Nobody’, you’ll like this, but it has much more humour. I laughed quite a few times, but there’s still some pretty graphic/bloody moments too! Predictable ending, but solidly done.

Overall: Fun, bloody take on the action hero

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars   

  

Dog Man

Official Australian release date: 3/4/25. Viewed: 5/4/25.
Director: Peter Hastings
Actors: Pete Davidson, Isla Fisher, Lil Rey Howery, Ricky Gervais
Genre: Animation / Comedy
Rating: G

‘Dog Man’ is in the school holidays with the nephew and nieces – surprisingly better than I thought it would be! The other surprising bit – I didn’t realise it’s actually supposed to be a dog’s head on a man’s body! Very fast-paced start, as we’re introduced to the animation style, Dog Man (director Hastings puling double-duty and vocalising Dog Man’s barks/howls), his boss, the Police Chief (Howery), reporters Sarah (Fisher) & Seamus (Boyd) and the bad guy, Petey the cat (Davidson).

The plot is quite simple, similar to ‘Despicable Me’ in parts (and Godzilla!), as Petey creates Lil Petey and starts to develop a heart – but not before multiple attempts to hurt Dog Man, where he’s thwarted, in montage. There’s a fun little backstory to Flippy the fish (Gervais), before he becomes key to the final act – always good to hear Gevais’ voice! Lots of visual gags, not least the descriptions on the building – I assume these are borrowed from the books.

At a tight 85min (plus the 5min ‘Bad Guys’ short film at the start), it’s pretty vibrant and funny, with quite a few laugh-out-loud moments for the adults (I loved the “yippee-ki-yay-flippy” joke) and lots of silly jokes for the kids. Importantly, there’s plenty of heart thanks to Lil Petey and Dog Man and their “do-gooding”, and Petey’s arc. Not the best kids movie ever, but enjoyable.

Overall: Bumped up from a 3, as the kids said 4 stars.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars  

 

A Working Man

Official Australian release date: 27/3/25. Viewed: 31/3/25.
Director: David Ayer
Actors: Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng, Maximilian Osinski, Arianna Rivas
Genre: Action
Rating: MA

‘A Working Man’ is the second Statham-Ayer collaboration after last year’s ‘The Beekeeper’ and doesn’t adjust the formula too much – Levon Cade (Statham) is a former paratrooper and is now retired, working construction in Chicago this time, when the daughter of his boss, Jenny (Rivas) gets kidnapped. Even though he doesn’t want to get involved, he obviously does and thus begins his one-man-war against what turns out to be Russians.

Even though it’s all about Statham beating up bad guys, there’s a solid support cast – Joe (Pena) his boss, Gunny (Harbour) as his former army pal, Merry (Gie) as his daughter, Dutch (Ajufo) as the maybe-OK drug dealer, and the Russians – Dimi (Osinski), Yuri (Ninidze) and Wolo (Flemyng). All add enough to make this not one-dimensional. There’s a few breathers, but otherwise it’s Cade making his way through the ranks to find Jenny.

It feels quite quick, at just under 2 hours, and has plenty of good hand-to-hand fight scenes and the obligatory big shootout finale. It’s no ‘John Wick’, but Statham has his own style and charm, and Jenny helps by not being just a victim. Since it’s based on a series of books, not all the bad guys are killed, so I’m expecting sequels – which I’ll probably watch.

Overall: A good Statham-by-numbers

Gav's Rating: 3 stars  

Black Bag

Official Australian release date: 13/3/25. Viewed: 16/3/25.
Director: Steven Soderbergh  
Actors: Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Tom Burke, Regé-Jean Page
Genre: Thriller / Drama
Rating: M

‘Black Bag’ is a tight, mostly psychological spy thriller. We have George (Fassbender) & Kathryn (Blanchett) who are married, but both work for MI6 of some British Intelligence agency. We start with a seemingly benign dinner party where we meet the other key characters and their co-workers – Freddie (Burke), James (Page), Zoe (Harris) and Clarissa (Abela). All are on the same “side”, but each have their own secrets and agendas.

Fassbender plays a similar, semi-emotionless character to ‘The Killer’ – but he doesn’t have to do any assassin work here. Overall, there’s not much action, or ‘Mission: Impossible’ style spy tropes – has more in common with ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’, as it’s all about who’s manipulating who and why. We eventually get to a potential stolen weapon, with Arthur (Brosnan) making a small appearance.

The film’s score is mostly a catchy synth number and keeps things semi-light, as the stakes seem medium, but never quite end-of-the world. Things move pretty quickly – all done in 90min – and we get to the end of a week at another dinner party, where everything is resolved. Nothing revolutionary, but engaging performances from the 6 lead actors, great London/English scenery and a little twist.

Overall: Fast, psychological spy thriller

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars