Cinema Effect

Obviously we here at Cinema Effect love the films of Denis Villeneuve. At this point we've reviewed the majority of the director's Hollywood productions on the show! So we now clearly have great expertise in analysing his work. This week his movie in question is Arrival, a modern look at what the sudden appearance of alien spacecraft on Earth may look like, along with the impact the event could ha...

Netflix Animation presents The Sea Beast. An original animated feature set in a world where crews of hunters man pirate ships aimed at killing the wild and gargantuan creatures of the ocean. But of course, the moral implications of this are a bit dodgy. Even complete with a cute pet sidekick, this picture ticks all the boxes of a quality family movie. And who doesn’t want to listen to Karl Urban r...

Believe it or not we have now completed our trilogy of Magic Mike reviews after taking a trip to the cinema for undoubtedly the most anticipated film release of the year, Magic Mike's Last Dance! Channing Tatum is back, and this time he gets an invite from Salma Hayek to assemble a crew of the best dancers in the world and put on a revolutionary stage production in London (no points for guessing i...

Welcome to the lawless world of Lawless. The 2012 film takes place in prohibition era Virginia where three brothers run a bootlegging operation while avoiding the law, city gangs, and Guy Pearce's non-existent eyebrows. The problem is that it sounds significantly more interesting than it actually is. At least Tom Hardy was preparing for his role as Bane with his vocal performance, as well as beati...

Robert De Niro plays perhaps one of his most memorable and eccentric characters in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy. Rupert Pupkin is a super annoying man obsessed with becoming a famous stand-up comic. So much so that he begins to stalk successful TV talk show host Jerry Langford (played marvellously by Jerry Lewis) in an attempt to get on his show. Join us as we discuss the film's exploratio...

Arguably the best movie franchise of all-time (you can tell Zac writes these) returns with its second outing. Magic Mike XXL sees Channing Tatum's titular character desperately wanting to get back on-stage and bust out his... dance moves, once again. So it only makes sense to get back with his crew of fellow male entertainers, and put on the biggest show of their lives. Featuring a much larger and...

Super Ultra Best Friend of the Show David Fincher returns. And this time we're checking out his 2011 iteration of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which happens to be a remake of the Swedish film, which itself is an adaptation of the acclaimed book series. But instead of receiving its logical sequels, this movie was left totally alone until the series received a disastrous reboot in 2018 based on...

No need to panic loyal listeners. The wait is over. The greatest film podcast of all-time has returned for 2023. And we kick things off with a trip to the local cinema for a viewing of the critically acclaimed picture, The Fabelmans. Steven Spielberg is back in the director's chair. And this time has the audacity to think people are interested in watching a movie about his own childhood. But god d...

Welcome to the season finale of Cinema Effect’s third year! As has become tradition, this week we present an evening ceremony with undisputedly the most prestigious awards in all of podcasting up for grabs. First of all, we breakdown the top films and TV shows of 2022, before coming to a definitive combined verdict. But that’s only a warm up for the awards categories which celebrate the very best...

See How They Run is a brand new whodunnit set in glorious 1950s London. The film brings the setting to life in vivid colour and an understated sense of humour, not dissimilar to the stylings you might expect from a Wes Anderson joint. Plus, every cast member involved gets to perform with a very charming accent! There's certainly a lot to like here. But perhaps it all doesn't quite amount to a cert...

Don't even bother trying to count the amount of abs in this picture, because it's time to talk about Magic Mike. The film features almost thirty minutes of pure cinema, in the form of its extended dance/strip sequences. Their pretty much the reason anyone would watch Magic Mike, in which all of the actors perform their own choreography in long takes. It's actually pretty dang impressive. But what...

From the director of the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy comes The Mexican. A film starring Brad Pitt in which he gives an incredibly goofy performance as a hapless dumbass named Jerry, who embarks on an adventure in Mexico in search of a famed pistol/MacGuffin. Julia Roberts plays his girlfriend who feels like she exists in a completely different movie within this movie. Her storyline w...

Tom Hanks returns to the show, and he brought the goods as Captain Phillips. Based on the true story of a cargo ship raided by Somali pirates in 2009, Hanks portrays a more subdued and raw character (who is of course a real person) than we've ever seen before. But then of course you have Paul Greengrass behind the camera doing his thing. The film is full of the director's trademark documentary sty...

From the mind of musician Kid Cudi comes Entergalactic, a stylish animated Netflix special. With its well realised cast of characters, gorgeous Spider-Verse-esque art, and Cudi's own dope music to boot, there's a lot to get behind with this one. Whether these positives can overcome a pretty straightforward story you've no doubt seen before, is the main point that separates us. But with its short r...

It's time to return to Westworld... Oh wait sorry. HBO cancelled that show. I meant Westeros of course. Because the first Game of Thrones spin-off has arrived. House of the Dragon follows House Targaryen at the height of its power. But naturally during this window of time, it would probably be an understatement to say it looks like some cracks are beginning to emerge, as family beefing and other p...

We deserve a medal! Because the Cinema Effect crew has now watched and reviewed every film in the Ocean's Saga. To cap it all off is the franchise's 2018 reboot/sequel, Ocean's Eight. Can you believe Danny always had a long lost sister?! And her name is Debbie?!! I swear I'm not making this up. Well anyway, with Danny maybe or maybe not dead (most likely due to George Clooney's fee), Debbie exits...

Jaws is a film about a great white shark named Bruce. Bruce lives in the ocean and mins his own business. One day, Bruce thought he saw a juicy meal. Perhaps a yummy Sea Lion. After taking a few bites, he realised it was actually a human swimming in his territory. Following this honest mistake, the humans of the local island community decide to invade Bruce's home. They stop at nothing to hunt Bru...

This is Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder. It's a Vietnam War film. Except it's actually about the making of a Vietnam War film. Expect it's actually a hilarious satirical comedy about the making of a Vietnam War film. But you already know that of course. The movie works extraordinarily well not just because the jokes fit perfectly with the established subject matter and characters. But because the ste...

Jane Campion welcomes you to 1850s New Zealand in her acclaimed film, The Piano. Holly Hunter is Ada, a mute mother who travels with her daughter all the way to Kiwi Land to live with her new husband, Sam Neill. She just happens to be a very talented pianist, and insists on dragging the instrument across the world. Harvey Keitel is also there, and what follows is a bizarre love triangle that left...

This week's film is pretty ancient y'all. So ancient in fact, it was originally banned by the Nazis! Fritz Lang's M hit German theatres in 1931, and at the time of its release was revolutionary for its contributions to sound in cinema, as well as the noir genre. As a collection of spoilt Gen Zers, it's fair to say some of us weren't totally captivated by the experience in 2022. But there's no doub...

It's time to dive into yet another heist movie starring Danny Ocean and the famous cast we've come to enjoy watching despite still not knowing any of their character's names. This time around the crew's old pal Reuben (who had like four minutes screen time in the previous entries) gets absolutely wrecked by Al Pacino, and they all feel bad enough for him to target Pacino's brand new hotel. In an e...

This week we're taking on another Best Picture winner with Kathryn Bigelow's modern warfare drama, The Hurt Locker. War in the Middle East is something we have seen a lot less of in cinema compared to other conflicts, simply because it is ongoing. But this film is on a mission to make up for that by showcasing the hellish reality for soldiers on the ground in Baghdad. Right from the start the view...

Have you ever considered the possibility of children's cells being manipulated pre-birth to ensure certain characteristics. It's a complicated issue. And one that Gattaca deals with quite extensively. In this world, anyone who wasn't genetically engineered to be near physically perfect has formed part of the new underclass. But Ethan Hawke's Vincent won't stand for that, and is hell bent on becomi...

As a result of Hollywood studio MGM being gobbled up by Amazon, Ron Howard's latest film got shat out on Prime Video. It's called Ocean's Thirteen... whoops I mean Thirteen Lives. And it's a biographical drama all about the Thai caves rescue operation from 2018. A bunch of Thai boys got trapped deep in a cave system for a couple of weeks with no way out. Remember that?! If you're unfamiliar with e...

Mr. Daniel Ocean's gang of thieves is back. And this time they have to repay old mate Terry from the first film. Imagine pulling off the greatest heist of all-time, and then a couple years later being asked by the guy you robbed to pay it all back! With interest!! But luckily it turns out they do, in fact, have a plan. Prepare for quite a ride with this movie's often unclear plot, but still very e...