#SUMMER-BINGE-FEST - Fighting Season

First and foremost happy New Year's gang! It's been a wild year, lot's of great movies (seeing Aquaman in 4D today, YASS) and some great TV along the way.

I was slightly hooked to the six episode run of Foxtel's latest Aussie drama Fighting Season, featuring a number of familiar faces and a topic not often covered in Aussie drams PTSD.

It's a tough topic and the cast did well. These short run Aussie series, such as this Secret City (hopefully returning in the new year for a second run), Safe Harbour, The Principal and On the Ropes have showcased some great Aussie tales in short, sharp runs.

Fighting Season is currently screening on your Foxtel application of choice to stream this Summer.

One last short, sharp TV review to conclude a BIG old year of TV. I am currently knee deep in Jack Ryan which I hope to post about in the new year. Incoming on Foxtel is the final season of Gotham fast tracked from the US so Foxtel have a lot going on despite the summer of dull sports, AKA cricket and tennis.

See y'all in 2019, be safe tonight please.

Movie Matinee Madness - Vice

Okay straight up, Vice is an OUTSTANDING film, period.

Christian Bale is phenomenal as Dick Cheney, he has gained weight, shaved his head and learnt from a medical professional how to have a heartache, on the scale of one I have a sore chest to call 9-1-FUCKING-1.

Yes Vice is the film of the holiday season, although I am yet to experience Aquaman which I really hope to in the next few days.



Vice has a strong cast, a relevant subject matter and a tale about a man I am now 100% appalled by.

Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Lily Rabe and Alison Pill all add to Bale's greatness in this bleak tale of US history in the Bush years. Rockwell as Bush actually doesn't look so bad as the man behind all the madness appears to have been his Vice, good name for the film by the way. Veep is already taken!

This movie stays with you and if I was an American I would 100% be a Democrat voter, so to see a Republican be a monster is nothing I didn't already know, look at Mike Pence, Ted Cruz or that Orange thing America has as their fearful leader.

America is going through some rough shit, so is Australia if I am frank 22 Thai Baht to the Aussie dollar What The Actual Fuck.

This is a great film, so see it, racists and Trump voters will hate it, Obama lovers will love it, so really the world will still be divided after this film and this film will also divide audiences.

I posted my best of the list too early as this would have somewhere been in it, 5 Stars, really great work Adam McKay, YASS.

#SUMMER-BINGE-FEST - Tidelands

Released just before Christmas hello #SUMMER-BINGE-FEST series number one, Tidelands...



Aussie's love Netflix and chilling so it's our first offical outing together as a pair, Netflix PLUS Hoodlum Entertainment. From Stephen M. Irwin (Secrets & Lies - Aussie plus US edition) comes Tidelands.

It's like Home and Away with sex and swearing. Oh and graphic violence from time to time, sort of like on True Blood when there was a lot of sex, oh hello let's add blood and gore to the mix. Sexy.

Tidelands is sexy, strange and a Netflix first. Will it suffer such fates as Baz Luhrmann's The Get Down? Or all the Marvel shows of late?

If Tidelands gets a second series, I am in for the ride. I enjoyed it, I binged it (eight episodes in around one week) and I loved all the Aussie flesh.

Plus Australia looks great in this series.

Tidelands landed on Netflix December 14, 2018, so if you have caught up with your Netflix list, give this a go.

Best Movies of 2018

BEST hyped films of 2018 - Black Panther // Crazy Rich Asians

BEST jump out of the seat films - Halloween // The Nun

BEST Teen drama/coming of age/comedy blah - Love, Simon

BEST films of 2018 - Black Panther // Crazy Rich Asians // Widows

BEST small (budget) film - Unsane

BEST 3D movie - Actually 4DX, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

BEST Aussie Movie - Ladies in Black

BEST Music film - A Star is Born

BEST controversial film of 2018 - Boy Erased

BEST Drama - Adrift

*** A few ties this year, however the standouts were clearly Black Panther & Crazy Rich Asians. If you haven't seen them, check them out over the Summer Slack period....

Movie Matinee Madness - Mortal Engines

There were several books, however with this film being a monster flop at the box office, I would safely say this will be a solo Peter Jackson effort, Mortal Engines, or maybe just Mortal Engine.

Starring a few Aussies and featuring a score from Junkie XL, this film has all the right ingredients, it's just maybe after multiple Maze Runner, Hunger Games, Twilight and every other teenage franchise before it, maybe the kids are just not that into cinema?



Recently I read an article, that the movie business would start to move away from films aged at the teen market.

Recently it's been big business for the baby boomers, Queen's music featured on the big screen with Bohemian Rhapsody, nostalgia for fans of the original Star is Born films, more nostalgia for Rocky fans with Creed II, Widows targeting the smarter movie go-er and Halloween showing Jamie Lee Curtis still has it!

Mortal Engines looks a million bucks (or $150 million including marketing budget) but the characters are all a little uninteresting. I also think it's too crowded in parts, characters come in thick and fast and give you very little chance to get to know them.

It's also described as a post-apocalyptic adventure film, do we really need this genre on the big screen with a certain president in power who makes everyday feel post-apocalyptic.

Hugo Weaving was a good bad guy and nice to see NIDA grad Andrew Lees pick up a bigger role than his brief appearance in Legends of Tomorrow.

This is not one of the best films of the year, nor the best, it's just average, so 2.5 stars coming your way...

Movie Matinee Madness - Bumblebee

I can't remember if I even bothered to watch the last Transformers film. The Transformers series by Michael Bay seemed to be destined to die a long, slow death. With the films durations along with receptive action scenes staying on the screens for way TOO long.

With the previous Transformers films all clocking in at over 2 hours 30 minutes, Bumblebee is the first film to be serious about an under 2 hour action film.



With humans at the centre of the film, giving the movie a much more appealing feel. With strong characters, a great female lead (Hailee Steinfeld) and a pumping 80's soundtrack, this has the Transformers films back on track.

This is perfect Summer viewing, leave your Christmas and family woes at the door, sit back and let the action take you there. Jorge Lendeborg Jr is also incredible handsome as the nerd love interest for lead Steinfeld.

Following my last Transformers film experiences I never thought I would enjoy another film again, and then Bumblebee came along.

A fun ride in an old Beatle car, 3 Stars.

Movie Matinee Madness - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

I'm just going to hit 200 posts on this BLOG this year, one of my lowest number of posts in years, however I have seen a load of movies and this week has been one of my biggest movie weeks in a while.

First Second Act, below, now Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and tomorrow or the next day Bumblebee.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the first animated film I have seen at the cinema in a very long time, VERY long time.



However the soundtrack featuring one of the years biggest acts Post Malone, getting some help from Swae Lee. This song has gone onto become a massive smash hit as well as becoming a major theme throughout this film.

Now after Venom I was turned off the comic book genre, however this is a vast improvement.

In 2019,  Spider-Man: Far From Home a new live action film will be released following the revamp of the franchise with the  Spider-Man: Homecoming film in 2017.

So Spider-Man could not be more in demand in present.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is visually wonderful, the music is dope and the voices behind the characters, AMAZING.

This is actually a perfect film to check out to escape the Christmas madness. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, is actually good, 3 Stars.