Reviews

I haven't read the book, but I loved this series. Thrilling, heartwarming, and heartbreaking in so many ways. The casting is fabulous, loved all the Australian-isms, soundtrack was on point, and the acting is superb particularly by the two young brothers. At first, I thought Phoebe Tonkin might have been a bit young to portray the boys mum, but after a quick Google found she is in her mid 30s!

The show had me hooked with the first actors portrayals, however the older Eli and last few episodes were equally as fabulous. Hard to believe this is based on the authors life.

Would absolutely recommend! I binged the whole series in a day.

I watched this last night with my husband. I don't know much about Motley Crue having grown up a child of the 90s, but I certainly want to read The Dirt now I've seen the film. It's a little bit cheesy in some scenes, but overall is an enjoyable film detailing the debaucherous and crazy antics of the band. Worth a watch!

When a friend told me about this film she kind of raved about it without going into too much detail about the plot, and from what she told me I thought it sounded really cool. She was saying how it was about a stunt driver who moonlights as a driver for heists, but its not a car movie and its "really really good". The last piece of information about it not being a car movie made me happy. So I have now watched it and I did still really like it but it definitely was not what I had expected from my friends fairly vague review of it.

The basic plot line is about a stunt driver, with no real history, who gets caught up in a heist gone wrong involving a girl he is into and then he and the people around him are in trouble. Thats the gist of it.

Everything I liked about it:

1. The acting performances. Fantastic. Ryan Gosling is a man of little words in this film and it makes the mystery of who he is, how he became so great at driving and his history all the more effective. There are times when we see him nearly crying which shows that he cares about the ones around him but how he can suddenly turn so violently is a shocking aspect to his character and he pulled it off amazingly. The relationship and on-screen chemistry between Gosling and Carey Mulligan is quite stunning. It is focused on staring, mood and emotion rather than dialogue. Bryan Cranston is great as always, and the other actors are all really suited to the characters.

2. The music and dramatic tension. It often felt like there was music that was ill fitting but it still worked. Then there was the use of noise to build up tension. Many of the tracks sounded like they were from the 80s and I questioned whether the film was set then until one of the characters said "I used to do ________ back in the 80s" (I can't exactly remember what the line was but it answered my question). So it is set in present time.

3. I guess what else I liked about this film is that it seemed to have a country Western style, shoot n draw, but with cars. Gosling is a cowboy as are the other gangsters. I think another really interesting and compelling factor that I mentioned previously is that Gosling's character is given no back story, he is who he is in this moment and no one can really know where he has come from and how he got there.

I am now going to try to be critical, so the things I didn't like:

1. maybe a little too long, or felt too long because a lot of the scenes are filmed in slow motion to intensify tension, so it felt like it dragged a bit.

2. I'm not exactly partial to as much violence as this film had, but I understand why it was included in such a gory way and suited the film. I'm just not a fan of such a lot violence. This is just a personal opinion.

I have read a few bad reviews about the film but I'm still glad to see it has an IMDb rating of 8.1 because it definitely deserves it. I guess if you're expecting something like Fast and the Furious or some crappy Vin Diesel garbage you would probably be disappointed but watch the film with old school western's in mind and you may be able to see a modern interpretation of that genre.

It is overall a really well executed film, has a storyline that has definitely been done before but has been done in a new and original way and stellar acting performances without being another piece of Hollywood action trash.

As an Australian, you don't get much better than this. I really don't know many Australian's that don't enjoy this film, or use the colloquials in everyday life ('tell him he's dreamin'). Each time I watch this film I laugh at the irony at the absurd simpleton family that find the smallest things amazing (like when they go on holiday to Boonie Doon. That cracks me up, as it is probably one of the ugliest places Australia has to offer), yet the wholesome and loving family values that shine through the family.

In honesty, we could all take a leaf out of the Kerrigan family's book and appreciate the simpler things in life, as much as they do.

If you watch this Australian classic film with an open mind to Australian humor, I truly believe that anybody could enjoy it. It has so many great one-liners and all of the characters have been cast so perfectly. Stephen Curry is going quite well in cinema these days, taking on much more serious roles! Give the Castle a go. It's a ripper!

Okay, so maybe I gave this film a 10 because I loved the book so much when I read it for the first time 2 years ago. When I saw the ad for this film 6 months ago sitting in the cinema for The King's Speech my heart kind of skipped a beat, and for good reason.

I don't really care what other people are thinking of this adaptation, I think it is stellar. Mia is fantastic as Jane, very reserved and Michael Fassbender.... well, lets just say I have a slight crush now.

I made a point of NOT reading any reviews on IMDb in case they were all bad. I was amazed at how much I loved it. Perhaps I'm talking this film up a bit but I just really enjoyed it, could feel the depression, anguish, love of the characters and was impressed so much by the performances by Judi Dench, Jamie Bell, Mia and Michael Fassbender.

Go see it!

I just finished watching this film online with poorly translated subtitles which made it difficult to decipher what the characters were saying some of the time, however I got the gist of what was going on.

A few of the reviews I've read have said they couldn't stand the main character and it dragged the film down. I think this film works because the main character is so bratty! He is absolutely wretched to his mother at some points and his mother perfectly nice back to him. One reviewer said they couldn't understand why he was so mean to his mother 'for no reason'. I actually related to Hubert's character getting annoyed at little things because when you're a teenager everything about your parent can annoy you! The first scene is stellar with the mother having cream cheese on her face and it annoying Hubert.

I also believe that him being a 'closeted' gay and wanting freedom from his mother would also have been contributing factors as to why he was such a brat to his mother. The constant struggle between wanting to be independent of your parents but also not being quite old enough to be completely alone and still depending on a parent is what is captured so well in this film. I like that you can see the angst between mother and son from the child's eyes, frustrated yet loving. Hubert is a tortured soul! Everything is a little exaggerated, but wasn't every little problem a big deal when you were 16?

This film was great in my eyes. I got a lot of entertainment from it and it's an amazing effort for the first directorial. It is definitely stylised and borrows from the likes of Wong Kar Wai (violins??) but it suits the film and contemporary setting and interests of young adults today.

I watched this one this afternoon after reading a mixture of good and very bad reviews on IMDb and I actually think there is more to this than face value. I'm not including any spoilers in this review either, I'm hoping to give an honest review of the film, rather than giving an opinionated one.

The fizzled relationship between these two people is something that I think a lot of people would be able to relate to. The trouble with the characters here is they got pregnant and married while still in that warm-and-fuzzy stage of their relationship, believing that the love would stay that way. It is clear that even though Gosling's character is the drunk who doesn't work but dotes on his daughter and wife is actually the one who wants the family to be held together and William's character is the one whose soul is not in the marriage.

I really believe that there are also so many visual metaphors within the film that are brilliantly mirrored in the relationship of this couple and their marriage woes, you just have to look out for them (I can't list many without spoiling). I give it a 7 because the script definitely wasn't the strongest point, but Gosling and Williams are brilliant. And any film that we see Gosling in a love-related role makes us imagine being with him (dream) :) Don't write this one off, and Grizzly Bear do a fab job on the soundtrack.

I wanted to watch this film for a long time but when I booked a trip to Europe last year (Paris being one of the destinations) I decided to wait til I came back to watch it.

Man I am so glad I did. The film is beautifully set in Montmartre (where I stayed) and watching the gorgeousness of the story unfold, I was also experiencing travellers remorse seeing all the spots that I had visited weeks before.

Even though the storyline is somewhat fantasy it still takes the story of Amelie and her loneliness seriously. It's such a well executed movie and I honestly put it up in one of my top 10 of all time. The soundtrack by Yann Tiersen is also noteworthy and beautiful.

Enjoy the small things in life, like Amelie Poulain.

This is by far an outstanding television show. Amidst a lot of other terrible TV this show stands out. The crux of this show is Walter White is a bored family man and incredibly smart science teacher who gets diagnosed with lung cancer. To pay for his treatment and to leave enough money for his family if he dies he teams up with an ex-student to start making meth. And so begins a web of lies to Walt's family and friends.

This show plays on so many emotions of the viewer. We know that what Walt is doing is wrong yet we sympathise with him because he loves his family and would do basically anything for them.

Bryan Cranston is outstanding as Walt. The thing that I love about this show is that when one episode finishes you just HAVE to watch the next one, and they have little links at the beginning of each episode that all make sense at the end of the season. There are so many little twists thrown in, I absolutely fell head over heels for this show. The characters all have their flaws but given all the circumstances it makes you question what you would do if you were put in that situation. Amazing.