Tag Archives: Eagle Entertainment Australia

Movie review: The Jack in the Box: Awakening

19 Saturday Feb 2022

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Having established the rules within this world of the supposedly oldest jack in the box, containing the demon trapped inside, only to be released to gather six souls in order to replenish him.

Much like its predecessor this film doesn’t try to hide the fact that it is a low budget feature, relying on the strength of performance and the storyline itself. Both films are told in a secluded setting but this time around the narrative feels richer and more entrenched in the mythology surrounding it.

The prison-like setting takes place in a mansion with only an aisling mother, Olga Marsdale (Nicola Wright), her son Edgar (Matt McClure), the cook Frank (Jason Farries), and the maid, Janet (Michaela Longden). Joining them is Amy Proctor (Mollie Hindle) and providing our entry point into the estate as hired help. 

We learn early on who our antagonists are when Olga acquires the mysterious jack-in-the-box to aid her in her recovery. The ever-dutiful Edgar tuning into a Norman Bates-esque style performance…”Mother!”. McClure does a fine job here, showing a range of emotions from anxious and reserved, to unhinged anger and mania. It’s his portrayal that is the hook in this movie and keeps you wanting to know which way he will fall.

The Prognosis:

While the movie does walk the line of predictability and suffers under the restraints of the budget where it could do with a serving on the gore front to make Jack more threatening.
This can be forgiven due to Director Lawrence Fowler’s vision and attention to keeping the entertainment on the lust for power and the elixir of life. 

  • Saul Muerte

The Jack in the Box: Awakening is out now on DVD and VOD (Fetch TV, Telstra TV, Google Play, YouTube Store and iTunes) from Eagle Entertainment Australia.

Movie review: Queen of Spades (2021)

29 Sunday Aug 2021

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In a similar way to the recent Candyman feature, Queen of Spades tries to tap into a mythological and sinister presence that channels its energies through mirrors or reflected surfaces. Where the previous movie was strung together through depth and integrity, QoS unfortunately does so through superfluous means and never strikes at the heart as a result.

Both films falter on getting the villain to rise or be invoked to carry out their will, and seem only too happy to just get to the nitty gritty, but without that substance to generate real fear from the entity in question, we left without the grit and just the nit.

So, cue troubled teen Anna (Ava Preston) with her mother, Mary (Kaelen Ohm) who is struggling with the burden of being a single parent. Cue a trio of friends/victims; Katy (Jamie Bloch), Sebastian (Eric Osborne),  and Matthew (Nabil Rajo), who form the quartet of invokees, blindly following a path without fully being aware of the repercussions.

Cue the invoked spirit who welcomes the calling so that she can spread her curse and ruin the souls of those she encounters. 

Cue the knowledgeable character who bears the weight of understanding and the key to stopping the spirit in her tracks, Smirnov; a man who’s own son fell prey to the Queen of Spades.

Maybe I’m just a bi disheartened by the lack of originality on display. Newcomers to the genre may well get a kick out of it, but the performances aside, all of which are solid, there is nothing to grip onto to shake the kernels and add a little creativity outside of the tracks and into the realms of new ground. Same old stuff on display here.

The Diagnosis:

Despite some fairly decent performances, it’s not enough to shirk off the tired cliches that the film relies upon to keep you engaged.

Mediocre at best.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: Ravage (2019)

28 Saturday Aug 2021

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There are moments in this film that are painfully slow and arborous, which is a shame considering it’s a tale of survival against the odds.
And yet, there are moments that are peppered throughout the narrative that give rise to the piece and show signs of promise for Teddy Grennan in his directorial feature debut.

Chief among this is in his lead, Annabelle Dexter-Jones (Under The Silver Lake) delivering a powerful performance as Harper, a nature photographer who witnesses a brutal crime. Stranded in a remote woodland terrain, she is captured and tormented by the culprits. Against the odds, Harper escapes and must use her guile and knowledge of the wild to find her freedom and bring her assailants down.

Her moments of revenge are satisfying on MacGyver style proportions and Harper is truly alone in her fight for survival, as everywhere she turns, she is faced with conspiracy.

There is also a suitably strong performance from Bruce Dern (Silent Running) as a quirky hermit character, and due nods should go to Robert Longstreet (The Haunting of Hill House, and soon to be seen in Midnight Mass, and Halloween Kills) who taps into the darker psyche bringing the alpha villain Ravener the amount of depth needed to make the ordeal more intense.

So far, so middle of the road viewing which neither excites or disappoints,  but when the final reel comes around, it is so out of left field and out of keeping with the narrative thus far, that you have to question its placement other than for shock value. The trouble is that it comes across as a misbeat and sours the rest of the film. Not enough character development is put into place to give the shock factor the payoff that the director was aiming for.

The Diagnosis:

It’s a decent enough narrative around survival against the odds, packed with solid performances, but it can’t shake off the mediocrity and then suckerpunches with an incredibly disjointed ending. 

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: Breach (2020)

15 Monday Feb 2021

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Towards the end of 2020 a low-budget sci-fi, horror flick was released in selected theatres and across VOD and digital platforms with little or nor fanfare.

Perhaps this isn’t really a surprise as we currently go through the COVID age.

Yet it does star big action hitters in Bruce Willis and Thomas Jane, so what gives? Is Breach a dud or a hidden gem, list in the midst of a torrid climate?

For starters, the premise doesn’t offer anything new.
Earth is facing extinction, so a spaceship called The Ark is about to be launched with 300, 000 survivors bound for a quest to start a new colony on a livable planet called New Earth.

To prepare for the long journey the survivors must go into stasis and among them is a pregnant young girl, Hayley (Kassandra Climenti. The father of her child, Noah (Is that really the name choice they went for?? Talk about obvious!!!) is not one of the selected so chooses to stowaway in order to stay with his family.

Whilst on board, Noah takes on the role of a junior janitor as part of the maintenance crew that are charged with keeping the ship on course while the passengers are in safety. Part of this crew is Willis as a mechanic called Clay. He reluctantly takes Noah under his wing just as all hell goes loose when two of the crew become infected with a parasite.

Once the parasite takes hold of its host, the infected soon become walking zombies, shuffling around (or in some cases leaping) as they begin to wipe out the crew one by one.

The Prognosis:

The effects are cheap and in some cases are passable, but the final creature when revealed is so shonky and unnaturalistic that it really takes you out of the picture but that might be being too harsh on a film that doesn’t exactly shy away from its obvious faults. The film isn’t about the special effects, which is a little odd considering that its a sci-fi picture and these days that element is highly relied upon.

Instead, it relies on the camaraderie of its on screen talent to try and win you over.

In that sense, Willis does his usual gung-ho attitude and chews up the scenery whenever possible, chucking out quips that are obviously lifted from greater films of the genre, but nonetheless come across as humorous in this case.

And when Willis isn’t on scene, you can rely on Thomas Jane to chew up the scenery more as the hard-headed Admiral. A man who lives and breathes the Army and just so happens to be the father of the afore-mentioned Hayley.

If your in the mindset for a sci-fi action film that may not exactly set the world alight but is entertaining regardless, then this will provide enjoyable viewing.

If it’s full to the tilt, action-packed, high quality that you’re after however… you’ll be left disappointed.

  • Saul Muerte