SUPER (full article at The Guardian Australia)

With James Gunn directing the new Superman flick, perhaps now is a good time to revisit Super, his dark take on the crime-fighting genre. Released in 2010 – four years before Gunn made Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel – Super is gritty, weird and considerably less wholesome.

Frank (Rainn Wilson) is a diner chef who, by his own estimation, has very little going for him except his marriage to Sarah (Liv Tyler). So
when Sarah, a recovering addict, relapses and leaves him for local drug kingpin Jacques (Kevin Bacon), Frank’s life completely falls apart.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/feb/12/super-is-this-the-anti-marvel-comic-book-film

IMDB: Super

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

THE DETECTORISTS (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Who would have thought a sitcom about a metal detecting club would be one of the most heart-warming shows on TV? On paper it does, admittedly, sound like a bit of a hard sell. But scratch the surface of idiosyncratically framed comedy The Detectorists and you’ll find warmth and a wonderful cast of characters that elevate it to something quite special.

Written and directed by Mackenzie Crook, probably best known as the gormless Gareth in the UK Office or as wooden eyed cutthroat, Ragetti, in Pirates of the Caribbean, The Detectorists ran on BBC 4 from 2014 to 2017. It won a BAFTA and is certainly popular, but it didn’t really catch on outside the UK and it truly deserves to. Each short season, and indeed each episode, is an utterly joyful, perfectly calibrated good mood.

Read the full review at The Guardian Australia:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/jan/28/detectorists-a-sitcom-about-amateur-archaeologists-thats-a-bonafide-heartwarming-joy

IMDB: The Detectorists

COME TO DADDY (full review at Screen Realm)

Come to Daddy is the debut feature from Ant Timpson, best known for founding New Zealand’s 48Hours film competition and producing Turbo Kid, The ABCs Of Death, and celebrated cinematic irritant The Greasy Strangler. It screened as part of the 2019 Melbourne International Film Festival.

Come to Daddy begins as a classic estranged father story. We meet Norval Greenwood (Elijah Wood) as he arrives on the doorstep of his father’s remote (and architecturally bold) clifftop pad. Norval is responding to a letter received from his father, suggesting a reconciliation, and pays a visit to the man he has not seen since he was three years old… to say they don’t hit it off is something of an understatement.

His father (Stephen McHattie) is annoyed, belligerent and frequently drunk. Norval is understandably uncomfortable and matters are compounded when he is caught in a lie, trying to impress his Dad. It doesn’t take long for events to come to a head

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/come-to-daddy-movie-review-elijah-wood/
IMDB: Come To Daddy

THE LEISURE SEEKER (full review at Screen Realm)

Will and Jane Spencer arrive at their family home one morning to find their parents, John and Ella (Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren) have absconded in the family Winnebago, the Leisure Seeker. They want to hit the road one last time, to have a final vacation in the trusty vehicle of their family holidays, and to allow John, a retired English professor, to finally visit the house of his idol Ernest Hemingway.

Paolo Virzi’s, The Leisure Seeker, is a road movie which forgoes the usual odd-couple conflict, in favour of a couple who know each other very well. Long married and embarking on what they both know is likely their last holiday, because Ella is sick, and John is battling dementia. Which leaves an underlying sense of sadness to The Leisure Seeker, as we get to know John and Ella, we share the sorrow of their mutual deterioration.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/the-leisure-seeker-movie-review/

IMDB: The Leisure Seeker

FUTURE MAN (full review at Screen Realm)

Future Man is a sci-fi comedy written by Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir, (Sausage Party), and produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, this review is for the first three episode of the debut series. 

Underachieving janitor Josh Futturman (Josh Hutcherson) lives at home with his parents (Ed Begley Jr and Glenne Headly) and works shifts at a local science lab run by Dr Kronish (Keith David). In his spare time he plays videogames and battles the feeling he was destined for greater things. One day, Josh completes a seemingly unbeatable game, Biotic Wars, which turns out to be used as a recruiting tool by time travellers, exactly like the plot of The Last Starfighter, as the show is keen to point out. Two soldiers from the future, Tiger (Eliza Coupe) and Wolf (Derek Wilson) travel to the present day to enlist josh and prevent the downfall of humanity.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/future-man-review-season-one-episodes-1-2-3/

IMDB: Future Man

KIKI, LOVE TO LOVE a.k.a. KIKI, EL AMOR SE HACE (full review at The Reel Word)

Kiki, Love to Love is a Spanish comedy / drama based on Australian director Josh Lawson’s 2014 film The Little Death. It follows the lives and unusual sexual preferences of a selection of Madrid residents.

Even though it deals with the fetishes and uncommon sexual foibles, it’s not as bawdy or crass as its synopsis sounds. And although the film is most certainly a comedy, the central message of Kiki, Love to Love is one of positivity. We’re not laughing at the weirdness (well, okay, maybe we are to begin with), but rather celebrating it. We are invited to look at these characters and the uncommon things that arouse them and realise there really is no such thing as ‘normal’. That while these proclivities might make for some very funny circumstances, there’s no shame or derision for anyone involved.

Read the full review at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/kiki-love-to-love-movie-review-spain/

IMDB: Kiki, Love To Love

ROSALIE BLUM (full review at The Reel Word)

Vincent (Kyan Khojandi) is a perennial nice guy, living alone with his cat. He is unassuming, shy, and tied to his mother’s aprons stings. She lives in the apartment above him and he looks after her since his father passed away. A chance encounter leads to Vincent meeting grocery store proprietor, Rosalie (Noémie Lvovsky). Overwhelmed by a feeling of deja-vu, Vincent is compelled to follow Rosalie in an attempt to find out more about her.  But she quickly cottons on to Vincent’s crude attempts at espionage, and deploys the services of her unemployed niece, Aude (Alice Isaaz), to follow Vincent in return.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/rosalie-blum-movie-review/

IMDB: Rosalie Blum

CAFE SOCIETY (full review at The Reel Word)

Café Society, so called because of the term given to the bar and club hopping high life of the 1930s, is Woody Allen's 47th movie. Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) leaves behind his father’s jewellery business in New York City, to forge a new life for himself in Los Angeles. In search of employment he visits his uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a successful Hollywood agent who helps him out with a job. Taking him under his wing, Phil arranges for his secretary, Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), to show Bobby around town. Bobby immediately falls for her hook, line and sinker, but Vonnie is already involved with someone.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
http://www.thereelword.net/cafe-society-movie-review-woody-allen/

IMDB: Cafe Society

DEAD HEAT

Dead Heat is a criminally underrated horror comedy from 1988, which seems to have either flown under most folks' radar or been largely misunderstood for the past two and a half decades. Riding the wake of Lethal Weapon, it's part cop/buddy movie, part zombie flick.

Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo - who I knew of previously only from a couple of Simpsons references) and the magnificently monikered Roger Mortis (Treat Williams - the unlikely action hero of the underrated sequels in The Subsitute series) are a pair of classic play-by-their-own-rules detectives who stumble upon a criminal masterplan to achieve eternal life through the resurrection of the dead!

Thing's kick off nicely with an enjoyable cameo from the master of the '80s cameos, Robert Picardo (as a detective chief), when the two cops foil a jewellery store robbery by a couple of hoods, who take scores of bullets but refuse to die. Having resolved the situation via unconventional means, Doug and Roger get chewed out back at the station by the Chief, who does not approve of unconventional means but DOES approve of the results. They follow up on a lead, which takes them to a suspicious laboratory that has been working on a 'resurrection machine' to bring back the dead, and it's no spoiler to reveal that Roger is killed in the line of duty. He is subsequently reanimated, and it's up to the pair to track down Roger's murderer and uncover the truth behind the resurrection machine.

Dead Heat also features a sprightly appearance from Vincent Price in one of his final roles (behind only Edward Scissorhands and a couple of TV movies) as rich tycoon, Arthur P Laudermilk.

Dead Heat is total fun, and it's a complete mystery as to why this movie isn't better known or well loved. It's surprisingly violent in places, so perhaps this odd tone is what puts people off. If that is the case, then Dead Heat was certainly ahead of its time, as the same mix of broad comedy and zombie-based violence was put to expert use sixteen years later in Shaun of the Dead. If Dead Heat came out ten years later things might well be different - Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo would be huge! It's true that some of the dialogue is pretty corny in places, with some truly dreadful one-liners, but it works somehow. It's an ingenious concept and, despite appearing to operate within the boundaries of genre cliche, it actually does something fun and interesting with it.

The other star of the show are the excellent special effects. One of the unparalleled highlights is a gloriously inventive set piece in a butcher's shop, where Doug and Roger are attacked by the chopped up, reanimated meat products littering the counter.

So, let's recap - it's a violent, mad scientist, cop buddy horror comedy with reanimated, malevolent butcher's meat, a few surprises up its sleeve and Vincent Price. What more do you need? It's essential viewing.

Format note: The US Blu Ray version that I own is not much better than DVD quality, with nothing by way of extra features, whereas previous US DVD releases included deleted scenes, the script and director commentary. The DVD might be the option to go for if you're keen on tracking this down.

IMDB: Dead Heat