CinemaUS Reviews

Ignoring the odd, erm, pot hole, the Yellow Brick Road has never looked so gloriously eyegasmic as it has in cinema’s latest return to Oz. Sam Raimi’s “Oz : The Great & Powerful” adds unyielding sunlit tar to the ‘Wizard of Oz’ legacy with a beautifully-looking, majestically entrancing and effortlessly-transporting escape that maximizes the full [...]

The first thing I did when I walked out of “21 and Over” was go double check the movie poster in the lobby. No, I hadn’t misread it. In big letters it proclaimed that “21 and Over” was “FROM THE WRITERS OF ‘THE HANGOVER’” I thought for a few minutes…maybe it’s the writers of the [...]

I’m perhaps amongst the rare few who was actually looking forward to seeing ‘A Good Day To Die Hard’. Also known as ‘Die Hard 5’, the fifth instalment of the once acclaimed ‘Die Hard’ franchise had many a journalist and fan-boy alike both cringe with concern (due to the wayward fourth venture ‘Live Free or [...]

If you’ve ever flown you’ve heard the great words of advice that greet you through the airport loudspeaker: “Don’t offer to carry something in your bag for someone else.” Thanks to the new film “Snitch” you can add this tip: “Don’t let your friend ship you a package, no matter how much they beg.” Jason [...]

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. One of the pleasures of this job is getting the chance to take a look at some of the first work a filmmaker does, especially when it’s done well. This week it was my pleasure to watch the first feature from writer/director Justin Chambers, a [...]

I can only imagine what it was like to go to a movie during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Long before television, home video and the internet you could go, uninformed, to see a movie and every now and then leave the theatre realizing you had just witnessed the birth of a star. I felt [...]

An empty room. On the floor, a set of bloody footprints. Fade to black. Martin (Channing Tatum) has just been released from prison where he did time for insider trading. His wife, Emily (Rooney Mara), appears to be happy that he’s home though the combination of a husband in prison and an uprooted life has [...]

My deep dive into music began when I picked up a copy of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” during my senior year of High School. Before then, I had only ever been a casual listener of music, but it was in that span between “Smells Like Teen Spirit” & “Something In The Way” that my appreciation of music [...]

Of course, like me, you remember the story of Hansel and Gretel. Two kids lost in the forest find a house made of candy, go inside and eventually kill the witch that hoped to eat them. The End. Or so you thought. Apparently there’s a little bit more to the story. Gorily rendered in pretty [...]

There must be something in the water in California. In 1967, actor Ronald Reagan began the first of two terms as Governor. In 2003, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger did the same. But the similarities don’t end there. Both were succeeded in office by Jerry Brown (ironically, Reagan succeeded Jerry Brown’s father). After leaving office both went [...]

Small-town America isn’t what it used to be. With farms shutting down and the big stores coming in the thing most people end up with is the land under their feet. But what if someone told you they would like to pay you thousands of dollars for the chance to find natural gas? Would you [...]

For me, a Quentin Tarantino movie is like ordering a Ham sandwich in the states. Here in Australia, you order a Ham sandwich, you get just that – a Ham sandwich. Order the same thing in the U.S, you’ll get the sandwich plus a side-serve of potato chips (on most occasions). Tarantino makes his movies [...]

“This is 40”, a sequel of sorts from Judd Apatow’s “Knocked Up” focusing on Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd) and their two daughters (played by Apatow and Mann’s real life daughters Maude and Iris). That’s about the entire plot including the spoiler in the film’s title: Debbie and Pete turn 40. This is [...]

You don’t celebrate a remarkable film like “Zero Dark Thirty”, you absorb, admire and bloody applaud it. You absorb it’s engaging, occasionally nail-biting register of the hound for Osama Bin Laden, you admire it’s braveness to inject villainy into both sides of the warring coin, and you bloody applaud it’s masterful configuration – its likely [...]

I apologize in advance if these first paragraphs seem “preachy.” But I feel strong enough about what I’m going to write that I must include it. Sometimes things in life tragically coincide with things in Hollywood, with Hollywood always getting the blame for exploiting a tragedy. On July 22, 1991, the world first learned of [...]