The novelty of Tom Clancy’s CIA analyst character Jack Ryan is that as a Phd he’s not just a gun-toting assassin but a highly educated man who uses his intellect to combat villains. It’s only after the bad guys prove themselves to be sufficiently non-compliant with American values that he administers an ass-kicking. Jack Ryan has had nearly as many
Read moreBig Ass Spider should be an hilarious and gloriously stupid straight to DVD trash-fest. Like Sharknado and Snakes On A Plane, however, Big Ass Spider suffers from the fact that it tries to have a bet each way, it plays with the tropes and clichés of b-movies and “creature features” but also tries to be a straight up action film.
Read moreThis week on Built For Speed we play a selection of music from the film The Wolf of Wall Street as well as some tracks that should have appeared in the JJJ top 100. There’ll be plenty of fine Australian music and some selections from overseas. We also take a look at two current genre films screening in our cinemas: old
Read moreNew Australian low-budget film Convict is a very familiar tale of an almost innocent guy locked up in prison where he has to battle murderous inmates, sadistic guards and a corrupt warden. The film’s writer and co-director George Basha stars as Ray, a decorated soldier recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq who, in a scene suspiciously reminiscent
Read moreWith the exception of Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese hasn’t made a completely convincing film since Casino; The Departed was miscast and Hugo was only half great. For the first hour of the Wolf of Wall Street, an adaptation of the biography of disgraced stockbroker Jordan Belfort, though, it seems as if Marty has returned to peak form. His intense and
Read moreOnly a viewer with ice in their veins could fail to be moved by low-budget US indie drama Short Term 12. Based on writer/ director Destin Cretton’s 2008 short film, Short Term 12 is set in a foster care facility for troubled and abused teenagers and focuses on social worker Grace (United States of Tara’s Brie Larsen) who supervises the
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