I think, in the grand scheme of things, we have reached the end of what can possibly be achieved with a movie about horse racing. We have Seabiscuit for the classic underdog tale, we have Phar Lap for delving into the seedy underbelly of the business and now we have Secretariat for overcoming obstacles that have little to do with actually racing horses. Added bonus? They’re all true stories. Or [...]

Rango may just be the first animated Western/comedy with a cast of characters made up entirely of animals. In fact, I’m sure of it. But does it stand out from the recent deluge of computer animation on the big screen? You can breathe a sigh of relief, because it certainly does. And you won’t be made to wrap a crappy pair of 3-D glasses around your face to enjoy it [...]

I’m beginning to suspect that the Catholic Church has Hollywood producers under some sort of contractual obligation, the particulars stating that they must release one exorcist movie a year in which a doubtful priest reasserts his faith and confirms the existence of demons. Otherwise, I’m at a loss to explain why movies such as Mikael Håfström’s The Rite exist. Here is a film so ponderously pious, I half expected to [...]

As Leon Ford’s mild-mannered Aussie superhero flick Griff the Invisible points out, it’s highly improbable that a masked vigilante by night is a charismatic playboy millionaire like Bruce Wayne by day. No, it takes a ‘special’ kind of person to profess to having superpowers and fight crime wearing a rubber suit. You know, someone who is… missing a few screws.  Not the sharpest tool in the shed. One banana short [...]

What do you do when your man checks out other women whenever you’re out with him? How do you respond to a guy who has romantic sessions – by himself – in the car after you turn out the light? Put him on a leash? Cut your losses and move on? No – you give him a hall pass. And if you’re not sure he knows what to do with [...]

Last year’s Up in the Air was about a guy who fired people for a living. We watched scene after uncomfortable scene of former employees reacting with shock, disbelief and indignation when they are bluntly told that their years of service and sacrifice have reached a premature end. Since the main character, played by charismatic star George Clooney, held all the power, there was [...]

In a world where retaliation is king many cruel things abound – from those believing they have all the power and from those trying to teach them otherwise. Conflicting opinions of what is right and wrong often create cause for argument, and when put into context under extreme circumstances you create a much stronger story. That’s what In A Better World gives us – a somewhat subtle confrontation of mindsets [...]

Compared to emotionally intelligent 3D animated features such as Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon, live-action kids movies tend to degenerate into a study of how many blows a man’s gonads can take before he is rendered infertile.

So imagine my surprise when Gulliver’s Travels, a modern rehash of Jonathan Swift’s [...]