No, not them. These guys: Jess Lomas, Richard Haridy, Andrew Williams, Glenn Dunks, and myself (Simon Miraudo) will be spending the next three weeks frantically scouring thesauruses for new words to replace all the ones we used up in 2013. Panic not: Your Quickflix service won’t be interrupted over the Christmas break, and our regular […]
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Archive | December, 2013
Name game – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug review
December 19, 2013 
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By Simon Miraudo December 19, 2013 We’re now 343 minutes deep into the saga of The Hobbit, and I’m still having trouble keeping the names of Bilbo Baggins’ thirteen (thirteen!) dwarvish companions straight in my head. There’s Two Beards, of course, the hunky one, James Nesbitt, and, erm, the rest. I’m not the biggest fan […]
Continue readingThe Top 10 Films of 2013
December 18, 2013 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo December 18, 2013 December: for avid list-makers, it’s the cinematic equivalent of Thunderdome. (Hundreds of movies go in. Only one comes out.) We’ve spent the past eleven months reviewing 2013′s releases as fairly and thoughtfully as possible, but that veneer of considerate criticism will be dropped in favour of sweet, sweet chart-making. […]
Continue readingThe 10 Worst Films of 2013
December 18, 2013 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo December 18, 2013 December: for avid list-makers, it’s the cinematic equivalent of Thunderdome. (Hundreds of movies go in. Only one comes out.) We’ve spent the past eleven months reviewing 2013′s releases as fairly and thoughtfully as possible, but that veneer of considerate criticism will be dropped in favour of sweet, sweet chart-making. […]
Continue readingThe Top 10 TV Episodes of 2013
December 18, 2013 0 Comments
By Andrew Williams December 18, 2013 December: for avid list-makers, it’s the cinematic equivalent of Thunderdome. (Hundreds of movies go in. Only one comes out.) We’ve spent the past eleven months reviewing 2013′s releases as fairly and thoughtfully as possible, but that veneer of considerate criticism will be dropped in favour of sweet, sweet chart-making. […]
Continue readingPlay It Again – United 93
December 18, 2013 0 Comments
By Jess Lomas December 18, 2013 Play It Again is a weekly feature in which our classic-film connoisseurs revisit a revered motion picture from the annals of movie history, to see if it holds up… or if it has aged terribly. And yes, it takes its name from a famously misquoted Casablanca line. (Hey, whatever. […]
Continue readingDreamed a dream – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty review
December 17, 2013 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo December 17, 2013 “We’re going through!” is how James Thurber’s beloved short story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, begins. Producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. was possibly stirred by that same declaration in his twenty-year-long battle to bring it back to the big screen. Ron Howard, Chuck Russell, Steven Spielberg, Mark Waters, and […]
Continue readingDinner theatre – August: Osage County review
December 17, 2013 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo December 17, 2013 Tracy Letts is doing the Lord’s work. Or is it the Devil’s? (Which one is responsible for all the fun stuff again?) He adapts his Pulitzer Prize winning play, August: Osage County, for the big screen, just in time for the holidays, administering the perfect antidote for all the […]
Continue readingFeel everything – Short Term 12 review
December 17, 2013 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo December 17, 2013 Teenagers – like eternal adolescents Fiona Apple and Cameron Crowe – just feel so much, and Destin Daniel Cretton channels that emotional intensity into his alternately sorrowful and euphoric Short Term 12. Taking place over a tumultuous few weeks, it tracks the trials and tribulations of the staff at […]
Continue readingR.I.P. Peter O’Toole
December 16, 2013 0 Comments
One of the greats is gone. Peter O’Toole, the eight-time Oscar nominee who starred in Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter, Goodbye Mr. Chips, and a host of other fine films, has passed away. According to his agent, Steve Kenis, he succumbed in a London hospital on Saturday, following a battle with a long […]
Continue readingEmilia Clarke cast as Sarah Connor in ‘Terminator: Genesis’
December 16, 2013 1 Comment
Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke has been cast as Sarah Connor in the upcoming Terminator: Genesis, Deadline reports. Clarke beat out Brie Larson to the role. (Paramount had both actresses on hold while they toyed with their decision.) She’ll potentially join Jason Clarke (no relation), who is in negotiations to play John Connor, the revolution-leading son […]
Continue readingTeaser Debut: Christopher Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’
December 16, 2013 0 Comments
The teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar has arrived online, sending the internet into a tizzy, despite it mostly being a teary-eyed Matthew McConaughey driving a ute. Much of the teaser is made up of real-life footage from NASA expeditions, with a voice over from McConaughey lamenting the end of humanity’s willingness to explore the cosmos. Amongst […]
Continue readingWhine club – Red Obsession review
December 16, 2013 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo December 16, 2013 Imagine a world without alcohol; where wine barrels decay and the French are forced to choke down carbonated pop with their cheese platters. No, this is not the premise of the latest dystopian sci-fi flick, but the very real future posited by directors Warwick Ross and David Roach in […]
Continue reading’12 Years A Slave’ and ‘American Hustle’ lead the Golden Globe nominees
December 13, 2013 0 Comments
12 Years A Slave and American Hustle will go into the 71st Golden Globe Awards as the hot favourites to beat in their respective categories of Drama and Comedy. Olivia Wilde, Aziz Ansari, and Zoe Saldana announced the nominees in Los Angeles ahead of the upcoming 2014 broadcast, set to be hosted by Tina Fey […]
Continue readingDon Cheadle’s War Machine will appear in ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’
December 13, 2013 0 Comments
Though Don Cheadle’s Col. Rhodes (friends call him Rhodey) wasn’t even mentioned in The Avengers, Hitfix has confirmed he will have a key part in the upcoming sequel, Age of Ultron. Cheadle took over from Terrence Howard in Iron Man 2, though it wasn’t until Iron Man 3 that the character became an integral cog in the Marvel universe, evolving into the […]
Continue readingTrailer Debut: Jupiter Ascending
December 12, 2013 0 Comments
The Wachowskis are back with Jupiter Ascending, their latest sci-fi mind-bender. This one stars Channing Tatum as Caine, a bleach-blonde warrior from another planet, tasked by “the Queen of the Universe” to kill Earthling Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), whose DNA has her marked for future greatness. Obviously, Caine falls for Jupiter, because they are played by Channing […]
Continue readingSony luring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence back for Bad Boys 3
December 12, 2013 0 Comments
Sony Pictures is in talks with David Guggenheim to pen the script for a third Bad Boys movie, Deadline reports. It’s just one of new production co-president Michael De Luca’s ploys to improve the studio’s tentpoles. That strategy, as Deadline puts it, is “spending money on hot writers,” and Safe House scribe Guggenheim is certainly that. Sony wants Will […]
Continue readingTrailer Debut: Edge of Tomorrow
December 12, 2013 0 Comments
Tom Cruise heads back to the future in Edge of Tomorrow, Doug Liman’s adaptation of the Manga All You Need is Kill. Cruise plays an officer who keeps getting killed in combat, only to be continually resurrected to relive the battle over and over again, Groundhog Day style. Emily Blunt plays a Special Forces fighter who trains […]
Continue readingCon hair – American Hustle review
December 11, 2013 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo December 11, 2013 Lying is an ugly, grubby business, which is why hair maintenance amongst con artists is so important. David O. Russell’s well-coiffed, supremely enjoyable American Hustle opens with a rotund Christian Bale intricately applying a wig to his scalp, disguising it beneath the few strands of heavily lacquered hair he […]
Continue readingTelevision Revision: The Walking Dead – Season 1
December 11, 2013 0 Comments
By Andrew Williams December 11, 2013 Television Revision is a weekly feature in which our tuned in TV critic trawls through the best the box has to offer, giving you a primer on some of history’s finest shows (and warning you away from the specific episodes – or even seasons! – that might have ruined […]
Continue readingTalk Hard – Adam McKay (Anchorman 2)
December 11, 2013 0 Comments
Pull out the jazz flute and comb your moustaches: we’re chatting to Anchorman 2 director Adam McKay. A review of that long-awaited Will Ferrell comedy follows. It arrives in Australian and New Zealand cinemas December 19, 2013. Show Notes: Well, that was the last episode of Talk Hard for 2013. (Saying that, should another interview […]
Continue readingThe Top 10 Male Performances of 2013
December 10, 2013 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo December 10, 2013 Spoiler alert: James Franco will top this list. Question is, for what? The divisive overachiever appeared in – and I am not sh***ing you – at least 13 movies this past year, not including his stint on The Mindy Project, his Comedy Central Roast, and that Kanye West spoof […]
Continue readingThe Top 10 Female Performances of 2013
December 10, 2013 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo December 10, 2013 The performance that enraptured audiences most in 2013 was Jennifer Lawrence as ‘Regular Human Woman’ – an ambitious gambit that paid off spectacularly. So novel was the humanity emanating from this Hollywood actress, gifs of her playfully flipping off photographers and spilling all her mints during a press conference […]
Continue readingSerial offender – The Frozen Ground review
December 10, 2013 0 Comments
By Richard Haridy December 10, 2013 After years of running a successful advertising agency in New Zealand, Scott Walker decided he wanted to become a film director and began researching the case of Alaskan serial killer Robert Hansen, who raped and murdered at least 17 women throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Now Walker offers […]
Continue readingPlay It Again – Lost in Translation
December 10, 2013 0 Comments
By Jess Lomas December 10, 2013 Play It Again is a weekly feature in which our classic-film connoisseurs revisit a revered motion picture from the annals of movie history, to see if it holds up… or if it has aged terribly. And yes, it takes its name from a famously misquoted Casablanca line. (Hey, whatever. […]
Continue readingAmanda Seyfried thinks ‘He’s F***ing Perfect’
December 10, 2013 0 Comments
Amanda Seyfried is set to flex her funny bone again in the comedy He’s F***ing Perfect, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film will be produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the man behind Ferrell’s Step Brothers and Anchorman films. The screenplay was written by McKay’s former assistant Lauryn Kahn and was picked up […]
Continue readingEddie Murphy and Brett Ratner on board for ‘Beverly Hills Cop 4’ (again)
December 10, 2013 1 Comment
After years of being almost greenlit, it seems like we will finally be getting that fourth Beverly Hills Cop film we’re all incredibly nervous about. According to Deadline, super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer has moved from to Disney to Paramount and Beverly Hills Cop 4 is a top priority. Rush Hour director Brett Ratner, who’s been attached […]
Continue readingLive with it – What Richard Did review
December 10, 2013 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo December 10, 2013 Newcomer Jack Reynor gives a startling, star-making performance in the slow-burn Irish drama What Richard Did. It’s no surprise he’s since been snapped up for a big gig like Transformers 4 (though it does suggest Michael Bay has seen this little flick, and liked it, despite it not featuring […]
Continue readingThe rights stuff – Saving Mr. Banks review
December 10, 2013 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo December 10, 2013 There’s nothing quite as “inside baseball” as movies about the movie-making process (except, I suppose, movies about the intricacies of baseball). John Lee Hancock‘s Saving Mr. Banks takes us behind the scenes and into the Walt Disney sausage factory, where P.L. Travers’ beloved novel Mary Poppins was adapted into a Hollywood […]
Continue readingTalk Hard – Father Bob Maguire (In Bob We Trust)
December 9, 2013 0 Comments
We say a little prayer and speak to Father Bob Maguire, rabble-rousing priest and subject of the new documentary In Bob We Trust. It’s now showing in select Australian cinemas. Show Notes: Please subscribe to us on iTunes and leave a review. Or, follow our RSS feed. Remember to send all thoughts, comments, feedback, and general well-wishes to talkhard@quickflix.com.au […]
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