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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 14 July 2025

The film was not particularly well received but I’ve always stood by The Cable Guy, released in 1996.  It was an excellent dark comedy starring Jim Carrey as a socially awkward cable TV installer who desperately tried to become best buddies with a customer played by Matthew Broderick.  There were many uncomfortable moments (in a good way) that tapped into something we can relate to – a non-reciprocal friendship.

That same concept is at the heart of this new movie from writer-director Andrew DeYoung (PEN15) which premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival.  It stars Tim Robinson (Saturday Night Live) as Craig Waterman, a run-of-the-mill guy with a wife (Mara) and teenage son (Grazer).  The film’s early scenes portray him as a dorky individual who struggles to build close connections with others.  His work colleagues steer clear, and his wife prefers the company of others.  Most evenings are spent sitting on the couch with zero plans.

Upon dropping misdirected mail to his new next-door neighbour, Craig strikes up a friendship with Austin Carmichael (Rudd) who has moved to town and taken up a lucrative role as a news weatherman.  They hang out for a bit, go on a few adventures, and it’s not long because Austin is inviting Craig to regular hangouts with other mates.  Craig obsessively relishes their time together but when Austin abruptly cuts the cord on their interactions, a confused Craig can’t take the “hint” and does whatever he can to remain part of Austin’s orbit.

Friendship gets the job done as a cringe-inducing comedy.  Robinson has created a weird, amusing protagonist who has good intentions but commits one social faux pas after the other.  From the way he speaks of Marvel movies, through to his oversharing at inappropriate times… Craig struggles to fit in.  Seeing his daily habits and mannerisms reminds me of the saying – “I dare not look and yet I cannot turn away.”  The film offers a plethora of unexpected gags which generate anxious laughter (at least based on the screening I attended).

I’ll concede DeYoung’s movie is a little “one note”.  It’s intended to be comedic, which it thrives at, but it’s hard to believe how Craig is so oblivious to his strange nature, how he’s so successful at work, and why his wife has stuck with him for so long.  A pinch more background information or a dash more nuance to Craig’s character could have enhanced the material further.  Awkward conversations are great but that’s not quite enough for the full 101-minute duration.

Worth seeing for Tim Robinson’s performance alone, Friendship is both dark and fun.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 July 2025

We’re up to the 7^th film in the successful Jurassic Park franchise and, as expected, the filmmakers are low on ideas.  Ironically, the opening act of Jurassic World Rebirth tries to convince us that public interest in dinosaurs is waning.  The theme parks no longer exist (guess there were a few too many fatalities) and patronage of dinosaur exhibits in museums is at record lows.  It’s an odd plot point given reality is the exact opposite.

The characters in this instalment are all new but the storyline is not.  Once again, we have a loathsome pharmaceutical guy, Martin (Friend), who wants to make big bucks by using dinosaur DNA to cure human diseases.  He must travel to a remote island guarded by government agencies, take blood samples from the three largest categories of dinosaurs, put them in a silver briefcase, and escape without being killed.  It sounds like the premise of a video game where you collect points along the way.

Martin can’t do it alone and so he recruits a team headlined by three savvy individuals.  Henry (Bailey) is a struggling palaeontologist who can identify the dinosaurs they seek.  Zora (Johansson) is a jack-of-all-trades mercenary who orchestrates the dangerous mission in return for a $10 million pay cheque.  Duncan (Ali) is an experienced boat captain who can get them to the island undetected.  Also in the mix are a father (Garcia-Rulfo) and three youngsters who have weirdly decided to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a small sailboat despite limited skills.

You’ll know where Jurassic World Rebirth is heading after the first 30 minutes.  It’s a simplistic action piece with one-dimensional heroes and villains making head-scratching decisions.  David Koepp, who co-wrote the original Jurassic Park screenplay, makes it clear who we need to cheer for and who is dispensable.  Further, character arcs lack credibility.  The Zora we’re introduced to is a money hungry felon but considering she’s played by the likeable Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation), the film quickly transforms her into a “quality person” who cares deeply about the boat family and the world’s free access to medical research.  Go figure?

English director Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) can’t make the film stand out from its predecessors.  It lacks genuine performances like we’ve seen in the past from a scene-stealing Jeff Goldblum or a crafty Sam Neill.  Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel) is an accomplished composer, but he leans too heavily on riffs of John Williams’ iconic theme as opposed to creating something new.  There’s a splash of suspense in a several action pieces but not enough to hold one’s attention for a lengthy 133 minutes.

How many more Jurassic Park movies are we going to see using this predictable template?  The title refers to a “rebirth”, but this is best described as an underwhelming “rehash”.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 09 July 2025

Tina Turner said it best with her famous song lyric from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome - “we don’t need another hero.”  That sentiment has grown in popularity given an over-saturation of the superhero genre on film and television across the past two decades.  Interest is waning, at least based on box-office figures, so how many more times can risk-averse Hollywood studios roll out the same familiar characters and cliched ideas (power, sacrifice, good vs evil) before their investments become unprofitable?

Hold on though!  Despite my jaded outlook, I’m happy to report this new Superman is very good. In the same vein as Top Gun: Maverick, the premise isn’t wildly original, but it makes a bunch of great artistic choices which, when blended, add up to a worthwhile movie.  The person worthy of the most credit is writer-director James Gunn who has a proven track record having made all three Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

Let’s start the cast.  I applaud the idea of casting a lesser-known actor in the title role as he doesn’t come with baggage or preconceptions.  David Corenswet (Pearl) provides the character with physicality but also a softer, vulnerable side that makes him easier to connect with.  Emmy winner Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) adds spark to Lois Lane and, as we see from an early scene in her apartment, she’s as much a valuable muse as a love interest.  A bald Nicolas Hoult (The Great) impresses as a psychotic villain with credible plans and keeps-you-guessing motives.  His henchmen must be well paid as they seemed to enjoy the destruction too much.

The structure is also a winner.  Gunn doesn’t want this to be another “origin story” and he gets straight into battle with the opening sequence.  The Superman we meet is already part of society and his identity is known to Lois (they’ve been dating for several months).  We therefore avoid unnecessary guff, and the 2-hour runtime moves quickly.  Gunn, working with editors William Roy and Craig Alpert, finds the right balance in blending humour with drama.  The tone skews more towards the heavy side but there’s moments of levity, such as a romantic subplot involving a Daily Planet photographer (Gisondo), that fit nicely within the broader narrative.

The action scenes are well choreographed.  The camera often moves at a rapid pace (very quick pans) but you always have a clear sense of what’s going on.  Composers John Murphy and David Fleming have used John Williams’ distinctive music from the 1978 Superman and crafted a slower, gentler remix which adds weight during the film’s emotional sections.

The themes are a touch heavy handed (misinformation and “fake news” is a drummed home repeatedly) and a few supporting players are comedically over-the-top (Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern) but Superman is still an entertaining jaunt.  Maybe we do need another hero?

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 30 June 2025

If you’ve seen Naked Lunch, Crash, eXistenZ and Videodrome, you’ll known Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg is someone who gets audiences’ eyebrows raising.  A quick artificial intelligence search on the internet comes back with the following adjectives to describe his works – visceral, unsettling, disturbing, erotic, and psychological.  They’re all accurate and appropriate.

The Shrouds is his latest film and it’s based on a messed-up premise.  A savvy entrepreneur, Karsh (Cassel), has developed a unique business – a cemetery where cameras are placed inside buried coffins.  Loved ones can tap into the surveillance on their phones and watch the bodies decompose over time.  It’s a warped way to “stay in touch” with a deceased family member and Karsh crafted the idea when his wife passed away four years ago.  He’s now looking to roll out the niche idea out across the globe.

As you might expect, not everyone is a fan, and his cemetery is desecrated by vandals one evening who smash tombstones and uproot technology.  To make matters worse, they’ve hacked the cameras and locked clients out.  Are they after ransom money?  Is it intended to be a protest?  Do they perversely want to look at the dead bodies themselves?  Karsh doesn’t want to engage the local police and so he enlists his tech-savvy brother-in-law, Maury (Pearce), to obtain answers.  As this transpires, Karsh experiences a series of hallucinations involving his late wife which results in even more questions.  Weird and perverse enough for you?

I like the concept more than the narrative.  This idea of voyeuristic, 21^st Century cemeteries is thought-provoking and will generate a range of views depending on your personal perspectives and ideologies.  Could something like this be constructed today?  The film’s whodunit elements are less compelling.  Cronenberg throws in red herrings (that’s a plus) but when it’s all wrapped up and the closing credits roll, I wasn’t fully satisfied by Karsh’s character arc and the mystery’s resolution.

It has taken over a year for The Shrouds to reach Australian cinemas after it premiered in competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.  It’s interesting but not fully satisfying.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 08 July 2025

The way things weave their way into popular culture – it’s as much luck as it is skill.  The Smurfs were the creation of artist Pierre Culliford and first appeared in a Belgian comic book in 1958.  It wasn’t until the late 1970s that they randomly attracted the attention of several influential American TV folk and in 1981, an English-language cartoon series premiered on NBC as part of its Saturday morning kids programming.  There would be over 250 episodes in total, and the show can still be watched today in syndication.

Two live-action, Sony-produced Smurf movies were released in 2011 and 2013 but after the later underperformed at the box-office, relative to the original, the franchise was rebooted with a fully animated feature in 2017.  The rights were then transferred to Paramount Pictures in 2022 who are now having their first crack at the material.  It’s simply titled Smurfs and while it’s described as an “animated musical”, the number of keynote songs is low.  Story is given more prominence over the music.

Don’t get too excited though as the plot isn’t much.  The central character, voiced by Tony Award winner James Corden, is referred to as No Name Smurf.  While all other Smurfs have a designation based on their respective skillset, or lack thereof, No Name can’t work out his place within the community.  The obvious titles are taken (Brainy, Grouchy, Lazy) and even the obscure ones (Sound Effects Smurf) have been ticked off the list.  Guess it was bound to happen given the growing population as there’s only so many adjectives in the English language and jobs to be performed.  It’s an odd crux to build a film around.

No Name’s services will be called upon however when Papa Smurf (Goodman) is kidnapped by the villainous Razamel (Karliak), brother of the well-known Gargamel, and taken to another dimension.  He wants Papa Smurf to spill the beans about the location of a magic book which provides the holder with unlimited power.  We can’t have that… and so the Smurfs must team up to rescue their beloved patriarch before it’s too late.

I enjoyed the television cartoon series growing up but haven’t connected with any of the film adaptations.  You can therefore take my opinions with a grain of salt.  Perhaps it’s because I’m too old or perhaps it’s because the storylines are so uninteresting.  It’s a weird, chaotic narrative with a sci-fi, magic focus that struggles to generate humour and emotion.  We barely get to know the characters.  You can cast all the celebrities you want, such as Rihanna as Smurfette, but unless you’ve giving them something interesting to do, the movie won’t work.

Take the kids but don’t expect much.