Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 16 May 2025

Is this finally it?  After 8 movies and countless world-saving missions, is this the last roll of the dice for our hero Ethan Hunt?  You’d think so given star Tom Cruise is now 62 years old, the title refers to a “final” reckoning, and clips from prior movies are spread throughout which gives it a nostalgic, let’s-wrap-it-all up vibe.  The budget is a whopping $300-400 million USD which makes it one of the most expensive films of all time.  The producers are going out with the biggest bang possible!

The Final Reckoning serves as the second half of the 2023 release, Dead Reckoning (it will help considerably if you’ve seen it).  A self-aware computer virus known as “The Entity” has taken control of machinery across the globe.  It’s shutting down systems and spreading misinformation but worst of all, it has the capability of launching nuclear weapons which will obliterate the planet.  Hunt and his savvy Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team have roughly three days to stop the virus or else it’s the end of humankind.

Directed by Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie, who made the last three movies, The Final Reckoning is to be lauded for its action.  There are two set pieces which stand out – one involving a sunken submarine, and a finale itself featuring two biplanes.  McQuarrie developed a knack for the genre given these scenes aren’t overcooked with heavy CGI and fast-paced editing.  Yeah, the situations are farcical, but we clearly understand what’s going on and the stakes involved.

I was less enamoured by the storyline.  Esai Morales (Ozark) returns as the central villain but he’s not particularly menacing nor clear with his taking-over-the-world plans.  I was similarly underwhelmed by the monotone U.S. Government cronies who have zero faith in Hunt (despite his success in the past) and are boringly one-sided with their opinions.  The film also leans a too heavily into the source material with stereotypical moments involving bombs, countdown clocks, and wire cutting.  Ethan Hunt takes considerable risks… any chance the screenwriters could do the same?

It’s rare to see a blockbuster released on a Saturday here in Australia (Thursday is standard) but the delay is due to the film’s gala screening slot at the Cannes Film Festival, currently underway on the French Riviera.  Clocking in at a too-long 170 minutes, The Final Reckoning is slow to start but ultimately finds it feet and develops into an engaging final chapter.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 May 2025

The title isn’t a metaphor.  This is a straightforward horror flick where yes, there’s a clown and yes, they’re in a cornfield.  The premise is centred on a teenager, Quinn (Douglas), and her father who have moved from the big city to a small industrial town following a family tragedy.  It’s the kind of place time has forgotten about.  The mobile reception is garbage, the buildings are rundown, and the residents are old-fashioned.

On the first day at her new school, Quinn becomes friends with a mischievous bunch who enjoy making scary clown films on their mobile phones and posting to social media.  It’s an odd hobby but it keeps them busy and brings out their creative sides.  With the stage set, it’s now time for the horror to kick in.  Another clown, unconnected to the teenagers, comes after them with murderous intentions.  Who will survive and who’s behind the nasty-looking mask?

The clown-theme will have audiences drawing parallels with Stephen King’s It but this isn’t as intricate or flashy.  It’s a more “routine” slasher movie that provides shock value through gruesome deaths (lots of fake blood) and a moderately interesting whodunit.  I went along for the ride but wasn’t convinced by the finale where instigators and motivations are revealed.  I understand the intention/themes of screenwriters Eli Craig and Carter Blanchard, who have drawn from a 2020 novel authored by Adam Cesare, but the more you think about it, the less sense it all makes.

As strange as it sounds, Clown in a Cornfield works best when trying to be comedy.  It’s not a full spoof (à la Shaun of the Dead) but when characters aren’t being murdered, they find time to playfully mock each other, joke about the absurdity of the situation, and offer memorable one-liners (like when trying to use an old rotary telephone).  The cast, headlined by young Canadian actors Katie Douglas (Ginny & Georgia) and Carson MacCormac (Shazam!), have the right tone and timing in selling the comedic elements.  They’re funny… without trying too hard to be funny.

It’s a shame the film culminates with a contrived, hard-to-believe finale but if you’re a horror fan in search of a simple entertainment, there are enough positives within Clown in a Cornfield to justify the 96-minute watch.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 May 2025

Born in London, Marianne Elliott is one of the great theatre directors of the modern age.  I had the chance to see War Horse at the Lincoln Centre Theatre in New York in 2011, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time when it came to Brisbane in 2018.  Both won Elliott a Tony Award for best director and, in addition to many other honours, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2018.

It’s stunning that despite a successful 30-year theatre career, she has never made a movie before now.  In an interview with Deadline at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, Elliott explained she was often approached by studios, but they’d disappear when she expressed a desire to make a film centred on an older woman.  That changed during COVID-19 when read the popular memoir The Salt Path and realised it would be the ideal source material for her feature film directorial debut.

The narrative is centred on the true story of a 50-something-year-old couple, Raynor and Moth Winn, who turned heartache into inspiration in 2013.  They were left homeless after the bank took their farm in Wales following an investment-gone-bad, and Moth had been diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease that was starting to affect his movement and memory.  Unable to get public housing, the pair made the impulsive decision to hike the 1,000 km South West Coast Path in England.  By day, they could enjoy the beautiful British landscapes and by night, they could cook up cheap noodles and sleep in a small tent.

The Salt Path is a wonderful movie to reflect upon.  It’s a reminder that life is about people as opposed to material possessions.  It serves as motivation to get out of one’s comfort zone and experience new things.  It shines the spotlight on poverty and the challenges homeless folk face in obtaining government support.  It asks us to look kindly on the downtrodden and help whenever we can.  So many scenes will put a smile on your face – from a young café attendant providing them with free food through to Moth becoming a makeshift busker.

The two leads, Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) and Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus), offer beautifully authentic performances.  They portray Raynor and Moth as loving, strong-willed individuals who won’t be defeated despite the odds.  They’re so easy to like!  French cinematographer Hélène Louvart (Pina) deserves praise for her work in capturing everything from the broad, desolate landscapes through to the simplicity of life in small coastal towns.  There’s also a chance the film will encourage others to take the same walk.

See it and spread the word.  The Salt Path sticks with you.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 May 2025

In 1993, upcoming director Ang Lee made The Wedding Banquet, a Taiwanese comedy about a semi-closeted gay man living in New York City who orchestrates a sham marriage with a Chinese woman to appease his conservative parents.  The film grossed $7m USD in the United States, won the lucrative Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film.  It kickstarted the career of Lee who then made a slew of great movies of which, two won him the Oscar for best director – Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi.

For Californian-born filmmaker Andrew Ahn (Fire Island), The Wedding Banquet was the first gay-themed movie he ever watched.  It’s stuck with him ever since and it led him to this English-language “reimagining” of the material.  I wouldn’t call it a remake as many details have been changed to reflect today’s 21^st Century society but its intent is the same.  Blending comedy, drama and romance, this new adaptation is designed to provide entertainment while also shining the spotlight on gay and Asian cultures.

The film is centred on two couples who live together in Seattle.  Angela (Tran) is a long-term relationship with Lee (Gladstone) and the pair are trying to have a child together utilising in vitro fertilisation (IVF).  It’s an expensive procedure and with both struggling to stay on top of their personal finances, the process starts to take a strain on their relationship.  Adding to the tension is Angela’s reluctance about whether she’s ready to be a mum.

The other couple is Chris (Yang) and Min (Gi-chan).  Min is the wealthy heir of a lucrative Korean business empire, and having just finished his studies in the United States, his grandmother (Yuh-jung) wants him to return home and help run the company.  Min envisages a different life for himself and when an insecure Chris rejects his marriage proposal, he asks Angela for a “marriage of convenience” so that he can stay in the country and appease his family in Korea.  Grandma senses something is amiss and so she jumps on the first plane to the United States…

Not every joke works but The Wedding Banquet is still a fun ride.  77-year-old Korean actress Youn Yuh-jung, who won the supporting actress Oscar in 2021 for Minari, steals every scene as the inquisitive grandmother.  She’s the most “normal” person in the film – unafraid to ask curly questions while also being a kind-hearted confidante and a shoulder to cry on.  The lead characters are a touch too over exaggerated (borderline insane at times), but the four actors infuse them with distinctive, interesting personalities. 

If looking for an off-beat romantic comedy, The Wedding Banquet should do the job.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 12 May 2025

Final Destination premiered in 2000 with a novel idea.  A high school student foresees his death in a plane crash and so just before take-off, he freaks out and is removed from the aircraft along with his friends.  Lo and behold, the plane explodes into a fireball seconds after take-off. The kids are incredibly lucky but since the afterlife doesn’t like it when you “cheat the system”, Death comes after them one-by-one in a grizzly manner.  It may not have been the best inflight movie choice, but it spawned four sequels released between 2003 and 2011.

The characters continue to be killed in alarming fashion but the only thing that won’t die is the franchise itself.       After a 14-year hiatus, the creatives are back with Final Destination: Bloodlines.  I enjoyed the original but future instalments have disappointed by rehashing the same idea.  It’s reminiscent of the Saw franchise.  Instead of developing characters and creating interesting new plot points, it’s devolved into a series where the main talking points are the gruesome deaths.  Warped shock value will have it fans, particularly those into the horror genre, but it’s not enough for me.

There’s an early glimmer of hope that Final Destination: Bloodlines might be sufficiently different.  We start in the year 1968 when a young woman saves dozens of people at a rooftop restaurant when she accurately predicts a deadly disaster will take place.  The restaurant is evacuated and closed without a single fatality.  We then slip ahead to the current day and, yeah, Death has come knocking again but because of a particular event (which I won’t spoil), it’s also after the children of the survivors.  The narrative is centred on the Campbell family and their efforts to avoid Death’s grasp.

Try as it might, Final Destination: Bloodlines ultimately succumbs to its history and feels like a “same old, same old” cash grab taking next-to-no chances.  The characters aren’t worth caring about and their actions lack logic.  The writers concoct a series of increasingly bizarre deaths and, as if to pad the film’s running time, drag them out as long as possible with obvious visual clues in the lead-up.  The final half hour is contrived and there’s nothing to suggest you’ll remember much about the movie, except a few nasty beheadings, in the weeks to follow.

The 2020s have been a strong decade for the horror genre with releases including Talk to Me, Titane, The Substance, and Barbarian.  I wish studios spent more time finding these rich, original scripts instead of clinging to tired franchises which have been milked for all their worth.