THE KILLER (full article at The Guardian Australia)

The 1989 Hong Kong thriller established Woo as one of the greats, with its explosive gun fights, high-speed car chases and an incorruptible hero

All of your favourite action movies from the last 30 years would look very different without the impact of John Woo. They’d be far more dull for a start.

The film-maker’s style of explosive, highly choreographed gunfights in films such as The Killer and his 1992 film Hard Boiled coined the term “gun fu” and, combined with his ethically incorruptible protagonists, set the template for the heroic bloodshed subgenre, influencing everything from John Wick to The Matrix to Kill Bill.

In the 1989 film The Killer, Chow Yun-fat plays Ah Jong (or Jeffrey, if you prefer the English dub), a contract killer with a conscience who accidentally blinds a young singer, Jennie (Sally Yeh), while on assignment. Stricken with remorse, Ah Jong decides to retire after one last job, pledging to use the proceeds to help her.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jul/29/the-killer-john-woo-gun-fu-classic

IMDB: The Killer

MIRACLE MILE (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Miracle Mile is the result of an 80s romcom getting a severe bout of nuclear fear. It’s a uniquely chilling thriller, combining the disparate elements of screwball romance with a paranoid conspiracy to create a beat-the-clock urgency that defies categorisation and expectations.

Jazz musician Harry (Anthony Edwards) meets and falls in love with Julie (Mare Winningham) while visiting Los Angeles, having spent an idyllic afternoon together. Julie rushes off to work and Harry returns to his hotel, with the pair arranging to meet that night.

But thanks to a bizarre proto-Final Destination cause-and-effect, Harry blows out the building’s electricity while napping, causing him to be hours late for their rendezvous. He leaves an answering machine message for Julie, before picking up a ringing call from a nearby phone booth. On the other end is an agitated man who warns of impending nuclear war scheduled in 50 minutes.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/apr/14/miracle-mile-romcom-meets-nuclear-war

IMDB: Miracle Mile

COBRA (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Crime is a disease. Meet the cure.” With one of the funniest taglines in cinema history, how can you possibly resist revisiting Sylvester Stallone’s violent, ultra-earnest cult action movie Cobra, which turns 40 this year?

Marion “Cobra” Cobretti (Stallone) is a tough LA cop who plays by his own rules. Sporting aviator shades, a matchstick in the corner of his mouth and a gun emblazoned with a cobra, he takes on criminals with a steely dedication to violence and wisecracks, and an aversion to due process that would make Charles Bronson blush.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/feb/04/sylvester-stallone-cop-movie-cobra

IMDB: Cobra

HORROR EXPRESS (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Every day is a good day to reacquaint ourselves with Horror Express, the 1972 Spanish-British co-production that sees scream kings Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing battling an ancient evil on board a choo-choo train. Need I say more?

Prof Saxton (Christopher Lee) unearths a 2 million-year-old iceman while on an expedition to the Manchurian wilderness. It’s a nightmare trying to transport it back to the UK: his reservation on the Trans-Siberian Express gets messed up and he has to suffer the indignity of sharing a cabin with his professional rival Dr Wells (Peter Cushing). And to top it off, the iceman thaws out and starts melting passengers’ eyeballs.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/29/celebrate-halloween-watching-1972-film-horror-express-christopher-lee-peter-cushing

IMDB: Horror Express

SOCIETY (full article at The Guardian Australia)

The Substance, Together, Titane, Sick of Myself: body horror is having a bit of a resurgence lately. So what better time to revisit Brian Yuzna’s slimy obscenity Society? It’s a movie that definitely thinks we should be taxing billionaires, and to make its point, Society throws an ending at you that you will never – ever – forget.

Society’s entire reputation rests upon this finale and there is no discussion to be had without addressing the queasy and lurid final act. So please take this as both spoiler and content warning, and don’t blame me if you feel like your eyeballs need cleaning after seeing it.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/sep/24/eat-the-rich-before-they-eat-you-in-praise-of-body-horror-classic-society

IMDB: Society

LANGUAGE LESSONS (full article at The Guardian Australia)

During Covid lockdowns, while many of us were glugging wine, projecting our insecurities on to our pets and pretending to read a lot, Natalie Morales and Mark Duplass were putting their time to much better use, collaborating on the excellent film Language Lessons. Morales’s 2021 directorial debut is a story of platonic friendship, adversity and mutual support, told entirely through video calls and messages.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/05/language-lessons-a-film-about-video-calls-sounds-like-covid-revisited-but-it-will-grab-you-by-the-feels

IMDB: Language Lessons

UNDERWATER (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Underwater’s charms are simple: sea beasts attack an ocean drill site, people try to escape, everyone has a bad day. It’s not complicated, and nor does it need to be, because this 2020 film is an overlooked genre treat that’s lean, mean and submarine.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/08/lean-mean-and-submarine-underwater-is-an-overlooked-genre-treat

IMDB: Underwater

HELL OR HIGH WATER (full article at The Guardian Australia)

David Mackenzie’s film Hell or High Water is, by turns, exciting, ambiguous and downbeat. Transcending the simplicity of its cops and robbers setup, this tale of last resorts, capitalist injustice and moral grey areas leaves you constantly unsure whom to root for – if you’re even supposed to root for anyone in it at all.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/feb/21/so-good-its-criminal-the-ambiguous-brilliance-of-hell-or-high-water

IMDB: Hell Or High Water

(alternate poster below, by Ignacio RC)

THE GUEST (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Having made their director-writer team mark with the home invasion thriller You’re Next, Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett followed it up with the frantic action-sci-fi hybrid, The Guest. Kicking off as a mysterious thriller, The Guest feels like a movie you forgot to rent during the early 90s, a glorious throwback to medium-budget action flicks that, in another lifetime, could have been made by Cannon Films.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/nov/09/the-guest-is-a-glorious-throwback-to-medium-budget-action-flicks

IMDB: The Guest

IT FOLLOWS (full article at The Guardian Australia)

The central idea of It Follows is simplicity itself: a creature stalking you slowly, relentlessly, with no obvious motive other than to ‘get’ you. It feels like the basis of a playground game. Yet combined with the deadly consequences, and executed to heart racing perfection by writer / director David Robert Mitchell, It Follows is one hundred minutes of heebie-jeebie inducing tension. 

Jay (Maika Monroe) goes on a seemingly pleasant date with her new boyfriend, Hugh (Jake Weary), but after having sex discovers she is being stalked by a terrifying and homicidal entity. There are a set of rules imparted to Jay, that if she can follow, might just keep her alive. 

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/oct/26/the-best-horror-films-of-the-21st-century-you-cant-go-past-it-follows

IMDB: It Follows

BUNNY AND THE BULL (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Director Paul King and writer and actor Simon Farnaby are bringing us a new look at Roald Dahl’s beloved confectioner in Wonka next year, having already delighted the entire world with their stewardship of the Paddington Cinematic Universe. But there’s another movie in their catalogue that’s worth watching: 2009’s Bunny and the Bull, a bittersweet travelogue told with imaginative visual flair and a lot of heart.

Stephen (Edward Hogg) lives alone in his London flat, unable to venture outside due to a past traumatic experience. He spends his days meticulously cataloguing and hoarding his possessions. After ordering a takeaway one night, Stephen’s memory is jogged and he recalls a trip to Europe with his best friend, Bunny, played by Farnaby.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/oct/12/bunny-and-the-bull-an-underrated-comedy-from-the-minds-behind-the-mighty-boosh-and-paddington

IMDB: Bunny And The Bull

THE UNTAMED (La Región Salvaje) (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Amat Escalante’s The Untamed, aka La Región Salvaje (The Wild Region), is an unusual blend of social realism and Lovecraftian tentacle horror that sounds almost absurd when surmised aloud. Yet it is a unique movie, both original and compelling, which you certainly won’t forget it in a hurry.

Alejandra (Ruth Ramos) is trapped in an unhappy marriage to Ángel (Jesús Meza), who is angry and bad tempered and, as it turns out, having an affair with her brother Fabián (Eden Villavicencio). Fabián is wracked with guilt for betraying his sister, while Ángel’s self-loathing boils over with increasingly nasty displays of homophobia and aggression.

In the countryside, just outside of town, an older couple is keeping an extra-terrestrial creature in their barn. Verónica (Simone Bucio) visits the barn to have sex with the creature (yes, you read that correctly, I said you won’t forget this film). However, the alien becomes increasingly violent and in their most recent encounter Verónica is badly injured.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/sep/28/alien-tentacle-sex-meets-social-realism-the-untamed-is-truly-original

IMDB: The Untamed

THE FLY (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Throw a rock at David Cronenberg’s back catalogue and you’re going to hit something dark, nauseating and probably a bit deviant. His latest movie, Crimes of the Future, is just the same, arriving in Australian cinemas almost exactly 36 years after the release of his icky body horror classic The Fly.

Proving itself an exception to the commonly held belief that all remakes are inferior, The Fly is a tight 96 minutes of vomit-soaked bedlam, as Jeff Goldblum inadvertently mutates himself into an ill-tempered insect. On its deeper level, you might want to ponder The Fly as a disease allegory, or perhaps a stern warning against scientific hubris – or maybe you’re just a sick puppy who wants to see a bloke’s hand dissolve in acidic fly puke. They’re all fine reasons to revisit the film which, for my money, is Cronenberg’s best.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/aug/31/the-fly-96-minutes-of-grotesque-vomit-soaked-bedlam-and-david-cronenbergs-best-film

IMDB: The Fly

EX MACHINA (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Alex Garland’s new movie, Men, is due for release in June and if you’re intrigued by the mysterious
trailer, or you enjoyed either his acclaimed TV series Devs, or the sci-fi horror of Annihilation, then Garland’s directorial debut Ex Machina is well worth investigating. 

Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a competition at his workplace to visit the home of the company’s reclusive CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Caleb travels to his vast and remote Norwegian estate and upon arrival discovers the contest was a smokescreen.

Identified as a gifted employee, Caleb has been summoned to work on Nathan’s latest project: an artificial intelligence named Ava (Alicia Vikander). It is Caleb’s job to administer the Turing Test (named after its creator, mathematician Alan Turing), to determine whether Ava has consciousness. If the tester cannot determine if the subject is machine or human, then the test is passed. 

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/03/ex-machina-when-you-see-this-sci-fi-thriller-youll-never-stop-thinking-about-it

IMDB: Ex Machina

THE WITCH (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Robert Eggers’ new movie, The Northman, arrives in Australian cinemas this week. In order to get prepped for this bloody tale of Viking vengeance, check out his unsettling horror debut The Witch: a folk horror movie that does not rely on gore to terrify the audience, but instead gradually worms its way under your skin to slowly unnerve you. It’s not the plunge from the top of the rollercoaster but a slow drive down a dark, country lane.

Set in 1630, a Puritan settler family are banished from their New England village after a heated religious argument in the colony. Isolated theologically and physically, patriarch William (Ralph Ineson) moves to the edge of a vast, dense forest with his family: wife Katherine (Kate Dickie) and their children Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), twins Mercy and Jonas (Ellie Grainger and Lucas Dawson), and infant Samuel. But nature is unforgiving and the family’s crops fail. Suddenly, while under Thomasin’s care, baby Samuel disappears, stolen by a witch who dwells within the forest.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/20/the-witch-robert-eggers-folk-horror-debut-worms-its-way-under-your-skin

IMDB: The Witch

GOOD TIME (full article at The Guardian Australia)

With Robert Pattinson’s Batman currently impressing on the big screen, what better reason to look back at the role which The Batman director Matt Reeves credits as the catalyst for his casting. The Safdie brothers’ 2017 film Good Time is a tense, nervy, caffeine jolt of a crime thriller, which sees Pattinson in top form as a small-time crook, trying to save his brother over the course of 24 agonising hours.

Connie Nikas (Pattinson) and his developmentally disabled brother Nick (co-director, Benny Safdie) rob a bank in New York but bungle the getaway. Nick is arrested while Connie manages to flee the scene. In a darkly amusing piece of irony, Connie attempts to bail his brother using the very same robbery proceeds they just stole. It’s not enough to spring Nick, so Connie scrambles to find $10,000 in a single night, as events spiral rapidly out of his control.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/06/youll-have-a-bad-time-watching-good-time-but-youll-never-feel-so-alive

IMDB: Good Time

PALM SPRINGS (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Palm Springs, in the words of Andy Samberg’s character, Nyles, is “one of those infinite time loop situations you might’ve heard about”. Which serves as the baseline for a hugely enjoyable, feel-good romantic comedy that incorporates a compelling science fiction element and a nice bit of existential dread to stop things getting too sentimental.

Nyles and Sarah (Cristin Milioti) meet at a wedding in Palm Springs. After an eventful reception, Sarah follows Nyles into a cave in the desert where she steps into a glowing red light, only to awake once again, on the morning of the ceremony. It becomes clear that an earthquake opened up a fissure in space/time, and in entering the cave the pair became caught in time loop, doomed to repeat the day of the wedding forever.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/feb/04/palm-springs-feel-good-infinite-time-loop-romcom-serves-side-order-of-existential-dread

IMDB:
Palm Springs

NINJA SHADOW OF A TEAR aka NINJA 2 (full article at The Guardian Australia)

If you’ve blitzed through Cobra Kai and it’s left you hankering for yet more fight-based, 80s throwback drama, consider checking out the work of prolific action movie star Scott Adkins in the truly excellent Ninja Shadow of a Tear (AKA Ninja 2).

Ninja Shadow of a Tear is the weirdly titled sequel to 2009’s rather more simplistic Ninja. But it works well as a self-contained entity, ditching any remaining story threads from the first film within the first 10 minutes so you can comfortably watch them in reverse order and kick your evening off with the better one.

Casey Bowman (Adkins) returns home one night to find his wife Namiko (Mika Hijii) has been brutally slain by an unknown assailant with a unique but deadly weapon. Casey accepts an offer from his friend Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) to stay at his dojo in Bangkok in an attempt to find peace. But Casey’s grief continues to manifest in self-destructive behaviour, losing his temper in a sparring session and drunkenly starting a massive bar fight.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/jan/31/ninja-shadow-of-a-tear-scott-adkins-kicks-butt-in-enjoyably-knuckleheaded-revenge-rampage

IMDB: Ninja Shadow Of A Tear

THE PROPOSITION (full article at The Guardian Australia)

The second feature film written by the musician Nick Cave is a grisly, sweat-stained tale of outback violence and colonial oppression that has lost none of its power in the 16 years since its release. Directed by John Hillcoat, The Proposition is awash with striking scenery and ugly truths about Australia.

After a fierce gunfight, outlaw Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) and his brother Mike (Richard Wilson) are captured by Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone). Although both brothers are former members of the notorious Burns gang, Stanley’s real target is their sadistic older sibling Arthur (Danny Huston), who is wanted for the brutal murder of a local family.

With no lead on Arthur, Stanley turns to more “inventive” methods, offering Charlie a proposition. He will release Charlie, while Mike will hang in nine days for the crimes of the Burns gang. But both will be pardoned if Charlie can locate and kill Arthur. Mike is naive and not able to mentally comprehend their situation, so Charlie feels he has no choice but to protect his younger brother and accept Stanley’s deal.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/dec/08/the-proposition-nick-caves-savage-outback-western-reveals-ugly-truths-about-australia

IMDB: The Proposition

FROM OZPLOITATION TO ICE-T, SQUID GAME IS JUST THE LATEST SPLATTER OF CLASS WARFARE ON SCREEN (full article at The Guardian Australia)

South Korean horror drama Squid Game has quickly become Netflix’s most watched show. For the few who haven’t seen it, the premise is simple: a group of contestants on the poverty line are pitted against each other in a series of deadly games, all for the entertainment of the super-rich.  At its core - and part of why it’s so compelling - is the class struggle. We’re living in a time where the gap between extreme wealth and extreme poverty has never been wider, so the concept of the rich exploiting the poor for sport, or simply to alleviate boredom, feels particularly deranged.

But this concept isn’t a new one, and there are a couple of stand-outs – an underrated action film and a cult Australian horror movie – waiting patiently for rediscovery. 

Read the full review at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/nov/10/from-ozploitation-to-ice-t-squid-game-is-just-the-latest-splatter-of-class-warfare-on-screen