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Sydney Morning Herald

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
3.5/5
The Sheep Detectives (2026) Sandra Hall You couldn’t say that events move at a cracking pace, and the unveiling of the final revelation, which involves Reggie and Ronnie in a major butting incident, is pretty clunky. But it’s a sweet-natured film, and the sheep do have star power.
Posted May 07, 2026  Edit critic review
3/5
Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) (2026) Jake Wilson The film is conceived as a massive, overpowering spectacle, shot in 3D by blockbuster supremo James Cameron (co-directing with Eilish herself). But it’s also meant to be raw, intimate, even minimal.
Posted May 07, 2026  Edit critic review
1.5/5
Mortal Kombat II (2026) Jake Wilson ...while the plot is too absurd to take seriously, the film isn’t an outright spoof; nor is there any effort to keep the tone consistent from scene to scene.
Posted May 07, 2026  Edit critic review
Top Gun (1986) Paul Byrnes Top Gun attempts to mythologies the navy pilots, and the brass probably saw it as a great recruiting film. That is what is stupid, because the movie is just the opposite.
Posted May 06, 2026  Edit critic review
Alien Resurrection (1997) Bernard Zuel The plot lines are way too familiar and the ending is merely an invitation for Alien 5.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Outbreak (1995) Malcolm Knox This film could have learnt one lesson from Ron Howard's excellent Apollo 13: you don't need baddies to generate suspense. And you don't need miraculous coincidences -- stretching credulity tighter than Homer Simpson's underpants -- to save the day.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Malcolm Knox Moving, absorbing and a grand platform for the less-is-more talents of Robbins and Freeman, two of the best going around.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
A Hard Day's Night (1964) Bernard Zuel The movie itself manages to be both sweet and subversive.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Primary Colors (1998) Bernard Zuel John Travolta could have not have pulled it off any better.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Street Fighter (1994) Malcolm Knox The only highlights here are in Jean-Claud Van Damme's hair.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995) Malcolm Knox There some good lines, inventive kills, and lots of cash handed over the counter.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
GoldenEye (1995) Bernard Zuel The difficult for Brosnan and director Martin Campbell is that we are looking for more from the thrills and spills genre now than when Dr No could survive on a smile and a nod.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Heat (1995) Sacha Molitorisz Heat remains an oft-sizzling thriller.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Grease (1978) Bernard Zuel Yes, it's a stupid film and not one to overly praise but, gee, it's often a lot of fun.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Space Jam (1996) Sacha Molitorisz It you hate basketball, you'll hate Space Jam. If you don't, it's bubblegum the whole family should enjoy.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1995) Sacha Molitorisz It's puerile, disgusting, sexist, stupid and boring.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) Malcolm Knox A patch spoof, which despite being cosily referential, has its brow set lower than an orang-out-ang.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Apollo 13 (1995) Sacha Molitorisz The effects are suitably grand and slick and Howard does a good job communicating the silence of space.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Dumb & Dumber (1994) Bernard Zuel I counted two sniggers and a laugh during the whole film.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Help! (1965) Bernard Zuel The Goonish humour beloved by the Liverpudlians is mixed with a greater degree of the Marx Brothers quasi-slapstick and more willingness to lair about.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Jumanji (1995) Bernard Zuel Well, the special effects are impressive but what wins you here is a theme-park ride, twisting and turning, making you laugh one minutes and duck the next.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Mars Attacks! (1996) Bernard Zuel You watch this understanding that the ready irony and lampooning of American mores here is exactly what the makers of Independence Day forgot.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Hamlet (1996) Bernard Zuel This is not a Hamlet to redefine the play for this generation. It is flawed. But it also gives us more than the essence of one of the great plays.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
The Lion King (1994) Bernard Zuel The beauty and precision of the animation in this Disney film is its most obvious feature. You find yourself praising the lighting and cinematography before realising it's all in the drawings.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Lost Highway (1997) Kelly Burke More mood than matter, Lost Highway is nevertheless worth experiencing. Just don't expect to make sense of it.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Killing Zoe (1994) Bernard Zuel The final shootout almost recovers it for Avary. Its excess and deliberate stupidity -- in slow-mo would you believe? -- make for an almost Peckinpah moment. Almost.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Jackie Brown (1997) Bernard Zuel Quentin Tarantino wisely decidedly not top Pulp Fiction's film gymnastic, choosing instead a quieter, more considered and, yes, more mature film.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Reservoir Dogs (1992) Bernard Zuel It's a funny, nasty, brutal, tense and invigorating film.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
2.5/5
Seven Snipers (2026) Sandra Hall Sciberras’ direction keeps you in the picture, enabling you to keep track of the damage and effecting a rise in your pulse rate. The script even finds time for some human interest...but none of it is enough to eclipse the plot’s basic implausibility.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Wolfram (2025) Jake Wilson [Wolfram] remains interestingly at odds with itself, functioning to a degree as a traditional melodrama with goodies and baddies, while signalling an awareness that these categories won’t suffice.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
4/5
The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) Sandra Hall The script is an artful blending of the new and the old, the serious and the silly, and the production is even more sumptuous than the original.
Posted Apr 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Total Recall (1990) Malcolm Knox Total Recall stands above most of its genre-mates by touching on the complex overlaps between various realities.
Posted Apr 28, 2026  Edit critic review
The Princess Bride (1987) Bernard Zuel taking parodic elements, but retaining too much affection to parody, The Princess Bride has everything you could ask for in a movie.
Posted Apr 28, 2026  Edit critic review
Eraserhead (1977) Bernard Zuel It feels like the very best of student film, but with more vivid imagination, more skill at the edges, more craft at the core.
Posted Apr 24, 2026  Edit critic review
Dave (1993) Bernard Zuel What saves the movie is [a] neatly balanced performances by Kevin Kline, who mixes the charm with restraint, the silliness with a believable core.
Posted Apr 24, 2026  Edit critic review
Leon the Pig Farmer (1992) Malcolm Knox Its humor seems crude, dated and targeted too neatly at people who roar with laughter at the sight of a man wearing a yarmulke on the same screen as a prawn cocktail.
Posted Apr 24, 2026  Edit critic review
The Mask (1994) Malcolm Knox This is two projects, one brilliant, the other mediocre.
Posted Apr 24, 2026  Edit critic review
Salem's Lot (1979) Malcolm Knox I don't know if things were just a little more sinister in the '70s, but I came out of this glancing uneasily over my shoulder.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
Re-Animator (1985) Bernard Zuel This is a grisly, bizarre and breathless jaunt.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
The Shining (1980) Bernard Zuel With the classic scenario of the corruption of good, director Stanley Kubrick doesn't rush the pace, nor the evolution of Nicholson's character.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
Blade Runner (1982) Sacha Molitorisz A dazzling cult classic that oozes ambience.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
Wolf (1994) Bernard Zuel The pop psychology in Wolf is much more interesting than the horror and bloodfest which struggles to get above B-grade, particularly in the final third when symbolism goes over the top.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Malcolm Knox This is a remarkable and deeply disturbing film.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
Night of the Creeps (1986) Bernard Zuel Very silly, very funny.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
Red Rock West (1993) Bernard Zuel John Dahl's seductive, sly thriller never takes a false step.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
3/5
Alphabet Lane (2025) Jake Wilson But Alphabet Lane, which has the shape of a literary short story, turns out to be an unusual miniature, a character study that veers gradually into something like magic realism.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Beast (2026) Sandra Hall It’s an old formula but a durable one and the fights are shot with a nervy alertness to the traumatic potential in every kick, punch and choke hold.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
3/5
Michael (2026) Jake Wilson This truncated version is bland and cautious, but never exactly dull.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Exit 8 (2025) Sandra Hall There are moments when the film recalls the old Saturday matinee serials of the 1950s, with their well-worn stock of crises, cliffhangers and creepy moments, but whether [Genki Kawamura has] made a film, a game or a puzzle, he does get you thinking.
Posted Apr 23, 2026  Edit critic review
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) Paul Byrnes Broderick's performance is a little too cute for my taste, but Alan Ruck does well with Cameron, the boy of many fears.
Posted Apr 22, 2026  Edit critic review
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