Category: Film review
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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
This barkingly brilliant reboot of the classic 1980’s action franchise brings the Road Warrior thundering back in a cacophonous cloud of craziness which cranks up the frontier stylings of the previous instalment, and puts full-throttle four-wheeled action to the fore. It’s dystopian action eco-thriller, a pulse-quickening extended motorised chase across a hostile apocalyptic desert with the future…
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Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Mel Gibson returned in 1985 for his third and final appearance as the eponymous road warrior in this lesser sequel which saw the Australian post-apocalypse action franchise drive in a new direction. Four years earlier Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior had amped up the thunderous four-wheeled mayhem of the high octane 1979 original while leaning…
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The Last Man (1826) by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein was not Shelley’s only sci-fi novel, but those who feel a vision of 21st century England ravaged by plague and aristocratic power struggles may be a little too close to home, may wish to avoid this apocalyptic dystopian disaster story. Written in the wake of Frankenstein this also features a hero tormented by isolation,…
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20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1916)
Breathtaking in its pioneering use of underwater photography, this silent two-hour feature is a globetrotting epic of action adventure, romance and comedy, and though contains some problematic elements, it’s an early high water mark in Hollywood spectacle, an impressive early entry into the canon of Jules Verne adaptations, and by far the biggest box office…
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Mysterious Island (1961)
A showcase for the sublime talent of stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen, this sci-fi fantasy family adventure sensibly swaps the plodding civilisation building of Jules Verne’s source novel for monster action and romance. Faithful to Verne’s novel, the story begins during the US Civil War where we see a handful of men escape the war in…
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When JUDY met JOKER: Mental health in Hollywood
I was invited to discuss the portrayal of mental health in movies by the lovely people of the No Really, I’m Fine Podcast, and thought I’d share my notes with you. It begins with recent films Joker and Judy, and ends with One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, taking in Changeling and Airplane! along the way.…
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Mysterious Island (1951)
Treating Jules Verne’s 1875 novel The Mysterious Island as a leaping off point, this black and white sci-fi adventure serial of 1951 is a throwback to two decades earlier and the days when Larry Buster Crabbe took to the skies as Flash Gordon. Yes it’s preposterous and silly, yet it’s also daftly enjoyable, due in…
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The Mysterious Island (1929)
This epic sci-fi melodrama feature is absolutely terrific fun due in no small part to its gleeful abandoning pretty much all of Jules Verne’s novel on which it’s based. Discarding fidelity for crazed creative ambition, it hits the creative sweet spot between the high-minded social consciousness and outrageous spectacle of Fritz Lang’s German expressionist classic,…
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The mythical James Bond, 007
In the 23rd James Bond thriller, Skyfall, director Sam Mendes sought to elevate super spy James Bond, from Hollywood action star to a timeless heroic symbol of England. By employing poetry, imagery and story elements of Arthurian legend, Mendes stretches an umbilical cord through time to connect Britain’s most modern fictitious national hero, Bond, with its…
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The Stolen Airship (1967)
A delirious fusion of live-action and animation very loosely based on Jules Verne’s 1875 novel, The Mysterious Island, this glorious fantasy is a heady kaleidoscope of boys’ own adventure, wild invention, political satire and knockabout action, with occasional moments of whimsy and a huge amount of humour. Verne’s novel is set during the US Civil…
Nemo's Fury 