Crazy Rich Asians (2018 film)

Category: Romance drama with comedy elements.

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Maybe this movie should have instead been titled "Crazy Rich Singaporeans Of Chinese Descent" because, in reality, while the movie is titled Crazy Rich Asians, it focuses only on one type of Asian - Chinese - and only in one country - Sinagpore - as if there aren't also wealthy Asians of other ethnicities, be they Indians or Vietnamese or Japanese somewhere in Singapore, let alone the rest the world. Ah well.

To sum up Crazy Rich Asians, I'd call it a romance drama that borrows plot points from Chinese teledrama series. If you happen to be familiar with Chinese (or other Asian) teledrama series, you'll recognise the tropes right away.

The plot of this movie goes as such: Rachel (played by Constance Wu) is an economics professor who doesn't know that the man she is dating in New York, Nick (Henry Golding), is the son of the wealthiest real estate tycoon in Singapore . However, this secret is revealed when the two travel back to Singapore where Nick is the best man at his best friend's wedding.

Coming Up...

 Movie reviews coming up:

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Crazy Rich Asians - January 11th

Sicario 2 - January 25th

The Third Wife - February 8th

Hostel: Part 2 (2007 film)

Category: Torture horror with comedic elements

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The first Hostel movie was always going to be a tough act to follow. A shame that it didn't win any Oscars, but bloody hell, it was quite a fun, decent movie. But how do Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino fare second time around? Read on to find out.

Following on from the events of the first movie, this time we follow the (mis)adventures of three women - Beth, Whitney and Lorna, who befriend Axelle and end up in Slovakia after a train ride beforehand with some sleazy Italians. Wouldn’t you know it, they all end up in the same hostel from the previous movie where it now seems half the town is in on the act and the Elite Hunting Club have become a bigger and better operation that learned its lessons second time around - they now have a mobile-friendly bidding website and better locks on the doors.

Snowtown (2011 film)

Category: Violent murder/psychological drama/biopic

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Oh fucking hell. What a movie. 

Snowtown is as depressing as it is disturbing as it is hard-hitting as it is well-crafted as it is based on true events. And to me, it's made all the more impactful by the fact that I lived and worked only a handful of miles from where all this was happening!

In case you're not familiar, the name Snowtown refers to the small rural town approximately 100km north of the capital of the state of South Australia where four men, led by John Bunting, stored the remains of some of their murder victims in a former bank vault in the town at the time the four were arrested and their murder spree was ended in late 1999. Thus, Snowtown is synonymous with the string of murders committed by the four. 

Having said that, this movie is not a documentary - for all intents and purposes, this movie is a retelling of the Snowtown murders, but with details changed. For staters, the suburb where the perpetrators lived is changed, as well as some other things.

Candyman (2021 film)

Category: Supernatural horror/reboot of established IP with social commentary

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There's a fine balancing act that reboots/remakes and sequels need to walk - if they differ too much from established lore, then it's not really a sequel. But if the new story is too rooted in established lore, new audiences won't catch on because of stuff they never knew they needed to know about. And then you have the problem that if too much of the run-time is spent recapping or referencing established lore, this leaves less room to progress the actual story. Having said all that, I went in to this movie with absolutely no knowledge of the previous series - I didn't actually know this was a reboot until I read the IMDB page.

The premise behind Candyman plays on the urban legend that standing infront of a mirror and saying "Candyman" five times will make the Candyman himself appear and kill you, but now comes packaged with a sociopolitical twist. This isn't just a standard horror film - it's a commentary on racism by those nasty nasty wypipo and police brutality.

Saw X (2023 film)

Category: Torture/gore horror drama

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In the latest (but apparently not the last) instalment of this nearly 20-year old franchise, Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith team up again to help bad guys realise the errors of their ways via the inappropriate use of medical equipment in Saw X.

And while there is only so much wriggle room to come up with new material in a franchise with an already-established canon, I will say this entry is by no means the worst - and actually has some outstanding qualities.

The biggest plus is that Saw X is quite well written and paced - so much so that Saw X could well have been its own standalone film - there was a real refreshing feel about this movie. Or, conversely, if Saw X had been made before the other instalments (because why not make the 10th movie in the series and have it take place between the first two), it would at least have allowed for a better plot progression for the subsequent entries in the series. I wrote in my combined reviews for Saw 3 and Saw 5 that the only thing more convoluted than the traps was the plot, and that was because in those films we got this contrived back and forth between people with a mysterious connection, a corrupt FBI agent in a pool of stupid law enforcement officers, and a man attempting to extol the virtue of life while committing murder. Whereas here, the traps are convoluted, sure, but the plot is relatively straightforward and able to be understood.

Madame Web (2024 film)

Category: Superhero/Cinematic Universe movie

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I honestly went into this movie with an open a mind as possible. While I enjoyed The Critical Drinker's absolutely stinging barbs, as well as Nerdrotic's take, I made it a point to try enjoy this movie for what it was and as it was.

And I still couldn't.

This movie just doesn't work.

It's a mess. 

It's bad. 

It's not quite Ghostbusters 2016 bad - but it's still bad.

Before I get into my opinions and observations of the movie, I'll go into an outline of the plot:

In 1973, the heavily pregnant mother of Cassandra Webb (there's a name that foretells a story) is in the jungles of Peru looking for a species of spider that apparently has healing powers. But right after she finds an actual live specimen of this mysterious healing spider, her security man, Ezekiel, shoots everyone and steals said spider. Right after mother Webb is shot, she is taken into a cave by the mystic spider-people of the Peruvian jungle (who seemingly just watched the murders happen and have either no ability or desire to stop Ezekiel stealing their precious spider). In the cave, she gets bitten by a spider with healing powers…and then quickly dies.