| Date | Movie | Rating | Summary | Average |
|---|
| Mon 12 Sep 2005 | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) | 8 | Whipplesumptuous.
Like pretty much everyone in the English-speaking world who grew up in the 1970s and '80s, I am a huge... (more) | 8.50 (2 ratings) |
| Wed 10 Aug 2005 | Spellbound (2002) | 8 | T double-E double-R double-R double-I double-F double-I double-C, C, C.
I'm sure most people, when they saw the trailers for Spellbound, said ‘What the hell? A documentary about spelling bee... (more) | 8.33 (3 ratings) |
| Thu 16 Jun 2005 | Clara (2005) | 8 | Unexpectedly moving
Clara, the Cannes-Jury-Special-Mention-winning short film by Australian director Van Sowerwine and animator Isobel Knowles, is a pretty amazing piece of... (more) | 8.00 (3 ratings) |
| Thu 14 Apr 2005 | Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004) | 6 | A good argument, poorly made
Outfoxed is a documentary which attempts to build a case proving that Fox News, Rupert Murdoch's cable-news counterpart to CNN... (more) | 7.00 (2 ratings) |
| Thu 31 Mar 2005 | Finding Neverland (2004) | 8 | Heeeeeere's Johnny (again!)
Finding Neverland has Johnny Depp in it. I'm not sure if that's all you need to know to know if... (more) | 8.00 (3 ratings) |
| Tue 1 Feb 2005 | Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) | 9 | Delightfully wicked (or wickedly delightful)
I confess I really didn't know whether to be looking forward to Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events (Snicket... (more) | 8.50 (2 ratings) |
| Wed 19 Jan 2005 | Quills (2000) | 9 | Ink and Incapability
Quills, a movie tackling a semi-imaginary account of the life of everyone's favourite deviate, the Marquis de Sade (the man... (more) | 9.00 (2 ratings) |
| Tue 18 Jan 2005 | This is Spinal Tap (1984) | 9 | Just plain FUNNY.
This Is Spinal Tap is a movie which can best be described with one word: funny. It's not often that... (more) | 9.00 (1 rating) |
| Wed 12 Jan 2005 | End of Days (1999) | 3 | Not exactly a Revelation
Ahh, the ‘apocalypse movie’. It's a fine genre, and one that always promises a treat of crappy special effects, crappy... (more) | 3.00 (1 rating) |
| Tue 4 Jan 2005 | The Triplets of Belleville (2003) | 7 | It's not the music that's slightly off-key
Les Triplettes de Belleville is the kind of movie I should love. It's a quirky, fun, at-least-partially-family-friendly animated film with... (more) | 8.00 (2 ratings) |
| Thu 25 Nov 2004 | A Civil Action (1998) | 6 | Shut up and drink your trichloroethylene!
I don't know what it is, but of late I've seen quite a few ‘courtroom dramas’. It's not really a... (more) | 6.00 (1 rating) |
| Tue 28 Sep 2004 | The Little Mermaid (1989) | 6 | A great era brought about by an OK film
As someone who has long been a big fan of the magic that can be made from a high-quality animated... (more) | 6.00 (1 rating) |
| Fri 24 Sep 2004 | Raising Arizona (1987) | 6 | Better than if the Coens hadn't made it, but…
What amazes me about the films of Ethan Coen and Joel Coen — and I know I've mentioned this before,... (more) | 6.00 (1 rating) |
| Fri 24 Sep 2004 | Japanese Story (2003) | 8 | Oh-so-beautiful, in more ways than one
Japanese Story is the sort of film that Australians can make very well — well-thought-out character-driven ‘thinkies’ sustained by top-quality... (more) | 8.67 (3 ratings) |
| Tue 14 Sep 2004 | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) | 7 | Plenty of yo-ho-ho, but too much yo-ho-hum.
As you can see below, there's some dissent in the nofreelist ranks as to how good, exactly, Pirates of the... (more) | 7.50 (4 ratings) |
| Fri 10 Sep 2004 | On the Waterfront (1954) | 9 | Brando brilliance
On The Waterfront is regarded as one of the true classics of cinema, and rightly so. It's a great story,... (more) | 9.00 (2 ratings) |
| Tue 7 Sep 2004 | Along Came Polly (2004) | 5 | BS BS (but PSH is A-OK)
Look, I'll happily go on record as saying I don't get Ben Stiller. He's not particularly endearing, he's not particularly... (more) | 5.00 (1 rating) |
| Mon 6 Sep 2004 | Crazy/Beautiful | 6 | Promising/Disappointing
Look: if you don't know by now that I'm a sucker for a quality teen flick, then you haven't been... (more) | 6.00 (1 rating) |
| Wed 25 Aug 2004 | One Missed Call (2003) | 8 | Ringu, Ringu, why don't you give me a call…
Normally, I'm not a great fan of your horror/thriller type movie. Too often, they're just an excuse for pissweak filmmaking... (more) | 8.00 (1 rating) |
| Tue 24 Aug 2004 | Young Adam (2003) | 3 | Well, at least it finished… eventually.
Young Adam is the story of Joe (not Adam), a young man who ends up working as a bargeman in... (more) | 3.00 (2 ratings) |
| Tue 24 Aug 2004 | Love Tricycle (2003) | 8 | Come along for the ride
Love Tricycle is an Australian computer-animated short which tells the story of a bicycle in love. It's set in the... (more) | 8.00 (4 ratings) |
| Fri 20 Aug 2004 | Cowards Bend The Knee (2003) | 4 | Convention: what is it good for?
Here we are then. I've taken care of the three Guy Maddin short films I saw before a screening of... (more) | 4.00 (1 rating) |
| Thu 12 Aug 2004 | The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) | 9 | 9 out of 10! (not counting the mezzanine)
Another day, another Joel Coen and Ethan Coen film review. This is the life, no?
Of all the films the Coens... (more) | 9.00 (1 rating) |
| Wed 11 Aug 2004 | Barton Fink (1991) | 7 | Sure leaves you finking!
For such a freaky-looking man — and one who has spent most of his filmmaking career playing idiots, the deformed,... (more) | 7.00 (1 rating) |
| Tue 10 Aug 2004 | A Trip to the Orphanage (2004) | 2 | 43 beans in every short
A Trip to the Orphanage was the third and final Guy Maddin short I saw before a screening of Cowards... (more) | 3.00 (3 ratings) |
| Tue 10 Aug 2004 | Bring It On Again (2004) | 4 | Not as bad as you'd think, not as good as it could be
I'm sure a bunch of you reading this have seen Bring It On (2000). And I'm sure a bunch of... (more) | 4.00 (1 rating) |
| Mon 9 Aug 2004 | The Closet (2001) | 8 | A gay old time
The Closet is the next film from Francis Veber, the writer/director of The Dinner Game (1998) — which should be... (more) | 8.00 (1 rating) |
| Mon 9 Aug 2004 | Sombra Dolorosa (2004) | 5 | One foreign object, that's for sure.
Sombra Dolorosa, or Sorrowful Shadow, is the second of three Guy Maddin shorts I saw before Cowards Bend The Knee... (more) | 6.00 (3 ratings) |
| Mon 9 Aug 2004 | The Stepford Wives (2004) | 3 | Three movies in one — and they all suck
I'll start off by saying that I've never seen the original The Stepford Wives (1975). I'm not sure whether that... (more) | 3.00 (1 rating) |
| Sat 7 Aug 2004 | Sissy Boy Slap Party (1995) | 5 | Well, it's one of the more accurate titles ever.
I saw Sissy Boy Slap Party as part of a trio of short films directed by Canadian Guy Maddin, prior... (more) | 3.33 (3 ratings) |
| Thu 5 Aug 2004 | Sextasy (2004) | 3 | Predictably disastrous
Sextasy is a German short film about a young girl who, after hemming and hawing about whether the time's right... (more) | 3.50 (2 ratings) |
| Thu 5 Aug 2004 | Shrek 2 (2004) | 6 | I don't think I get it
Look. I want to go on record right now: I wasn't a big fan of Shrek (2001), OK? Yeah, yeah,... (more) | 5.50 (2 ratings) |
| Wed 4 Aug 2004 | The Party's Over (2001) | 7 | Michael Moore Lite: Half the calories, nearly as filling
Philip Seymour Hoffman as political agitator and agent provocateur, Michael Moore-style? Yep, sounds weird. But that's more or less what... (more) | 7.50 (2 ratings) |
| Wed 4 Aug 2004 | Disposable (2003) | 4 | Well, it's certainly not a keeper!
Disposable is a nine-minute short from Spain, about a seemingly self-obsessed and insular lady who unknowingly runs over a pedestrian.... (more) | 4.33 (3 ratings) |
| Tue 3 Aug 2004 | Clue (1985) | 8 | Really tickles my funnybone
Clue is not a very good movie. But, at the same time, it's bloody fantastic. Confused? Well you might be... (more) | 8.00 (1 rating) |
| Mon 2 Aug 2004 | Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) | 5 | A nice try, but… no.
I've mentioned before (in my review of A Time To Kill (1996), among other places) how easy it is to... (more) | 5.00 (1 rating) |
| Fri 30 Jul 2004 | The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) | 7 | Calm down, everyone
Normally, I try not to let the hype surrounding films affect me. Any number of massively-hyped films turn out to... (more) | 7.00 (1 rating) |
| Tue 27 Jul 2004 | Best in Show (2000) | 9 | It's no pooch
It's hard to say anything in a review of Best in Show that I haven't already said in my reviews... (more) | 8.50 (2 ratings) |
| Mon 26 Jul 2004 | Darkness of the Skeleton (2003) | 8 | Fast, furious, fun and fabulous
Darkness of the Skeleton is a rollicking adventure which packs an awful lot into its four-and-a-half minute runtime. The brainchild... (more) | 8.33 (3 ratings) |
| Wed 21 Jul 2004 | Punch-Drunk Love (2002) | 7 | Not bad, but not great
It's pretty rare that an Adam Sandler film makes it on to my ‘must-see list’. I don't hate Sandler, but... (more) | 8.50 (2 ratings) |
| Tue 20 Jul 2004 | The Flying Car (2002) | 8 | Everyone's favourite clerks
The Flying Car is a made-for-TV short film by Kevin Smith, director of such classics as Clerks (1994) and Dogma... (more) | 8.00 (1 rating) |
| Fri 16 Jul 2004 | Frankenweenie (1984) | 7 | Less creepy than it sounds (and more fun)
Like Vincent (1982), Frankenweenie is a rather dark and twisted short from the early career of the equally dark and... (more) | 7.00 (1 rating) |
| Thu 15 Jul 2004 | Vincent (1982) | 9 | Short and bitter
Vincent is a sick, funny, twisted, morbid, and basically brilliant short from Tim Burton, from back in the earliest days... (more) | 9.00 (1 rating) |
| Wed 14 Jul 2004 | The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) | 8 | Spooktacular!
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Tim Burton is one of the greatest filmmakers of the modern era,... (more) | 8.00 (1 rating) |
| Mon 12 Jul 2004 | A Bug's Life (1998) | 8 | Showing Disney how
In a way, the recent news that Disney is basically closing down its traditional 2-D animation department was, for those... (more) | 8.00 (2 ratings) |
| Thu 8 Jul 2004 | Stiff (2004) | 6 | Too much caper, not enough crime
Normally, the words ‘Australian’ and ‘telemovie’, when combined, are enough to not only make me run away in the other... (more) | 6.00 (1 rating) |
| Wed 7 Jul 2004 | The Club (1980) | 7 | Dodgy politics and drop punts
Playwright David Williamson is something of a legend in Australia. Given that he's a playwright, and Australians are normally a... (more) | 7.00 (1 rating) |
| Mon 5 Jul 2004 | A Time To Kill (1996) | 6 | Solid, but more of the same
The ‘legal drama’ genre is the fish-in-a-barrel of filmmaking, as far as I'm concerned. While I'm no Eddie Expert in... (more) | 6.00 (1 rating) |
| Thu 1 Jul 2004 | Van Helsing (2004) | 3 | Wenham Hoggs the good bits
Sometimes, it's hard to tell if a movie is a tongue-in-cheek parody of everything that's wrong with a certain genre,... (more) | 3.00 (1 rating) |
| Sun 27 Jun 2004 | Boomerang (2002) | 3 | Shitty.
Boomerang is a comedic short film won the 3rd-place prize in the 2002 Tropfest short film festival.
Apparently, 2002 was a... (more) | 3.00 (1 rating) |
