RED NOTICE (M)THE ONE WHERE THE MONEY IS WASTED**NETFLIXNetflix stumped up an estimated 250 million bucks – their biggest single-movie buy ever – for an action flick starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. What should have been a guaranteed hit turns out to be a disposable dud. While the star trio do bring chemistry to this globetrotting crime caper, all three of them neglected to pack any energy or effort for the journey. This inelegantly paced pic rarely makes sense nor holds attention for long. For the record, Johnson is a cagey FBI profiler, Reynolds is a crack art thief, and Gadot is a crafty criminal mastermind running rings around them both.A QUIET PLACE PART II (M)THE ONE JAM-PACKED WITH GRATUITOUS SILENCE****RENT ONLYThe original A Quiet Place was an inventive and forcefully compelling thriller rightly ranked as one of the best films of 2018. The follow-up is almost as great, picking up the action just days after the unforgettable ending of the original. As before, what remains of humanity must abide by the one rule: make the slightest noise, and you will die the swiftest death. With father Lee now gone, mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt), son Marcus (Noah Jupe), daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and Evelyn’s newborn baby are forced to leave their home in search of a safer haven. Without giving too much away, it will be the crossing of paths with a fellow survivor, Emmett (Cillian Murphy), with whom the Abbotts have a shared history, that could keep everyone alive another day. An expanded role for the hearing-impaired Simmonds elicits a performance that is as compelling as it is emotionally raw, and her scenes with the well-cast Murphy give the movie the gravity it needed to hold our attention the second time around.THE NEST (MA15+)THE ONE WITH THE LOWDOWN ON THE HIGH LIFE***1/2FOXTEL or RENTThis faintly haunting, consistently unsettling drama squeezes and releases its audience like a concertina. This addling effect at work throughout the movie is executed with the greatest of (un)ease thanks to two unfailingly precise lead performances. Jude Law plays Rory, a former high-flyer in British finance whose career in America has recently crashed and burned. Now he’s back home, trying to bluff his way back into the big time by passing himself off as the greatest deal-making dynamo of them all. Carrie Coon is Allison, who has seen, heard and inhaled all of her husband’s bulldust many times before. Even though he’s wholly financed her new horse-training business, plonked the kids in the poshest schools and moved the family into a country mansion, she can sense the whole charade could end any day now. That’s why Allison is secretly keeping a stash of cash in the attic, and seeking work as a labourer on a neighbouring estate. On it goes, with Rory rapidly talking the emptiest talk to anyone who’ll let him buy them dinner, and Allison dolefully walking the loneliest walk towards seemingly inevitable ruin. A disturbing study of a couple too slow to realise that living fast is not for them.FINCH (PG)THE ONE THAT HANKS YOU VERY MUCH***APPLE TV+Tom Hanks has carried many a movie on his own, so throwing him into an end-of-the-world scenario where he has just a dog and a robot for company should be no biggie for the versatile everyman actor. As usual, Hanks’ hits it out of the park in the title role here, playing a resourceful inventor who just happens to be one of the last human beings alive after a solar event has turned the planet to toast. Fretting that his trusty dog Goodyear won’t be able to fend for himself when his master is gone, Finch builds a ‘bot named Jeff (voiced by Caleb Landry Jones) to protect the pooch. It is an appealing enough set up, and Hanks sells it at full value. However, the movie as a whole can still feel like a slog at times. Particularly when in so many scenes, mood prevails over mirth or mayhem. Overall, a worthy and endearing work to be casually liked, rather than totally loved.MYSTIFY: MICHAEL HUTCHENCE (M)THE ONE PRESERVING A LEGACY NEVER TO BE TORN APART****ABC IVIEWA moving, revealing and refreshingly heartfelt documentary chronicle of the short life and complicated times of the late Australian singer Michael Hutchence. In the 22 years since his passing, the INXS frontman has copped some shabby treatment from those who have helped themselves to his story in print and on screen. However, Mystify does more than just set the record straight. The true calling card of this impeccably made film is its ability to put Hutchence as a person ahead of Hutchence as a persona. There was a distinct difference between the two, and Mystify marks the first time they have been properly separated, thereby presenting Hutchence in a whole new light. There are no talking heads to be seen. Just a non-stop flow of footage shot while the subject was still alive (a surprising amount of it filmed by Hutchence). Family, friends, lovers and collaborators can all be heard adding context to the vision. However, the last word and lingering memories are handed back to their rightful owner: the man himself.MALIGNANT (R18+)THE ONE WITH A TWIST THAT TURNS ON YOU***PREMIUM RENTALA new horror movie from director James Wan (Insidious, Saw, The Conjuring) is always cause for celebration among fright-night enthusiasts. However, to begin with at least, even the staunchest fans of his output could be nonplussed by the business-as-ooze-ual nature of proceedings here. Annabelle Wallis stars as Madison, a woman experiencing graphically detailed visions of terrifying murders. All that be can be said to any doubters – without giving too much away – is that you must stick around for the major twist due to arrive in the second half of the picture. It is a whopper. It is a doozy. It is just so audaciously left-field and genuinely unexpected, you have to land in favour of the movie simply for going there.OUR FRIEND (M)THE ONE THAT BRINGS ON THE TEARS***1/2AMAZONA beautiful document of a simple, yet profound gesture. Though it looks and feels like a run-of-the-mill Hollywood weepie, shrewd casting and scripting lifts everything to a higher place. This is the true story of Nicole Teague (Dakota Johnson) and her journalist husband Matthew (Casey Affleck). Reeling from a devastating cancer diagnosis for Nicole, the couple turn to a longtime pal for solace. Remarkably, Dane Faucheux (Jason Sigel) drops everything to re-enter his old friends’ lives, making a subtle, yet stirring difference in a trying time. Deceptively great stuff on offer here.
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