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Jake Wilson is a film critic for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Summer holidays movie special: Our critics’ picks of the flicks
Series
Review

Summer holidays movie special: Our critics’ picks of the flicks

Already seen Wicked? Want a film that will please the family? Our reviewers have you covered from Boxing Day and beyond.

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Latest

This is a film you can drift through, enchanted and sceptical at once
★★★
Review

This is a film you can drift through, enchanted and sceptical at once

Starring Celeste Dalla Porta and Gary Oldman, Parthenope takes place in the kind of that world high-end advertising conjures up.

  • by Jake Wilson
Jim Carrey’s showboating double-act can’t save Sonic the Hedgehog 3
★★
Review

Jim Carrey’s showboating double-act can’t save Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The comedian takes on a second role as Dr Robotnik’s lookalike grandpa, which doubles the number of movie characters he’s played this decade.

  • by Jake Wilson
Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg collide in this entertaining double act
★★★½
Review

Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg collide in this entertaining double act

A Real Pain follows two bickering cousins as they travel to Poland to honour their grandmother.

  • by Jake Wilson
Russell Crowe stuck between credibility and camp in blockbuster shocker
★½
Review

Russell Crowe stuck between credibility and camp in blockbuster shocker

Crowe plays a Russian gangster in Kraven the Hunter, which alternates between entertainingly awful and just terrible.

  • by Jake Wilson
Where Kevin Costner’s vanity Western failed, Viggo Mortensen’s succeeds
★★★
Review

Where Kevin Costner’s vanity Western failed, Viggo Mortensen’s succeeds

The Dead Don’t Hurt taps into the gentler, more lyrical side of the genre, in the spirit of classic Hollywood directors.

  • by Jake Wilson
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Hugh Grant is seriously scary in his first horror film
★★★½
Review

Hugh Grant is seriously scary in his first horror film

At first, Grant doesn’t look like a monster in Heretic, then he pushes his familiar mannerisms into grotesque caricature.

  • by Jake Wilson
Michael Keaton returns to his Mr Mom roots in this old-fashioned slice of life
★★★
Review

Michael Keaton returns to his Mr Mom roots in this old-fashioned slice of life

In Goodrich, he plays a gallery owner who must look after his nine-year-old twins when their mother leaves to go to rehab.

  • by Jake Wilson
Confused? That seems to be the whole point of this movie
★★★½
Review

Confused? That seems to be the whole point of this movie

The plot is familiar in Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, but it comes with a subtle twist.

  • by Jake Wilson
Mescal is the star of Gladiator II, but Denzel Washington steals the show
★★★
Review

Mescal is the star of Gladiator II, but Denzel Washington steals the show

As the gladiator Lucius, Paul Mescal wisely doesn’t try to emulate Russell Crowe’s swagger in the original film.

  • by Jake Wilson
The Rock’s Christmas comedy is neither naughty nor nice
★★
Review

The Rock’s Christmas comedy is neither naughty nor nice

As seasonal cash-grabs go, Red One is relatively benign – and it never transcends its status as a family-friendly product.

  • by Jake Wilson

Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/by/jake-wilson-hvex8