Cinema Effect

Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 sequel to The Godfather is considered by many to not only be one of the greatest films of all-time, but superior to its predecessor. The Godfather: Part II continues the story of Michael Corleone as he heads his crime family's aggressive expansion in the late 50's. But of course the film's secondary plot line follows the rise of a young Vito from the original, played by...

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a long-running animated series set in the prequel era of the galaxy far, far away. The show was revived on Disney+ earlier this year for one final season after its initial cancellation in 2014. We're so glad the team at Lucasfilm Animation finally had the opportunity to complete their vision and provide a fitting end to the story George Lucas created himself. Throughou...

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire is a 2019 French film from Celine Sciamma. It sees a high born lady fall in love with the woman tasked with painting her, back in the olden days when people somehow survived without such basic human needs as electricity and social media. The movie is shot in 8K which provides a stunning range of colours, enhancing the stellar visuals. Listen to our review, along with our...

Following his Best Picture win with Birdman, The Revenant is a vastly different film from director Alejandro G. Iñárritu. It sees frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) fight for his survival after a bear attack, and eventually seek out revenge on his son's killer Fitzpatrick (Tom Hardy). The filmmakers do a spectacular job at capturing the scale and realism of this gruelling journey of survi...

Beginning in 1990, Twin Peaks is a cult classic TV Show that has been infinitely influential. From the... let's say intriguing, mind of David Lynch, the show is packed with personality and quirky characters. But most importantly, it presents the now age old question - who killed Laura Palmer? Let's try and figure it out in our discussion of the first season.

This week's review is all about Francis Ford Coppola's legendary film, The Godfather. Marlon Brando plays Vito Corleone, the head of one of New York's top crime families. The story spans the waning years of Vito's career, as the family faces conflict with rivals, and his initially reluctant son Michael (Al Pacino) prepares to succeed him. The movie, which holds up spectacularly, is packed with now...

Sharknado is a god awful movie which premiered on SyFy channel in 2013. Follow a group of painfully dull characters as they deal with, and eventually put a stop to, the fishiest natural disaster ever conceived. Littered with terrible performances, editing, writing, and practically everything, we don't envy anyone who suffered through this one. Listen to us discuss Sharknado's many issues and the l...

Brand new Netflix film, I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, comes to you from writer/director Charlie Kaufman, who gets the opportunity to go all in on his abstract style this time around. I guess the story could be best described as a young woman visiting her boyfriend's parents house, before madness inevitably ensues. Listen to us try and decipher the movie's true meaning and what's actually going on...

PTA's There Will Be Blood is a story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business (I had to use that amazing synopsis). Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Daniel Plainview in this critically beloved historical drama. Some may even argue it was robbed of Best Picture in 2007. Damn you No Country For Old Men!

In 2003 indie film The Station Agent, Peter Dinklage stars as Fin, who moves into an abandoned rural New Jersey train station. It is there he forms new connections, learns the power of friendship, and all that. Plus, we chat about all of the trailers revealed at DC FanDome!

Released 35 years after the original, Blade Runner 2049 once again immerses us in dystopian L.A., but this time through the eyes of Replicant Blade Runner K (Ryan Gosling). His investigation takes him on a journey of personal discovery which leads him to Rick Deckard. Rounded out with some dope Roger Deakins Cinematography and Hans Zimmer music, this movie is pretty incredible. Listen to us try (a...

Steve McQueen made an impactful theatrical debut with his 2008 film Hunger. Set amongst the backdrop of the Northern Ireland conflict, Bobby Sands leads a hunger strike in an attempt to gain political status for his fellow Irish nationalist inmates. Let's chat about THAT scene, Michael Fassbender's physical transformation, and whether Stan will still sponsor us after the issues we had streaming th...

For our first Tarantino review on the show, we chose to discuss The Hateful Eight. Infamously the movie's script leaked during pre-production, leading to the film almost never being made. Thankfully for us, we're able to enjoy this mystery western's colourful cast of characters, coupled with the director's signature dialogue and flair.

Fargo is a 1996 film by the Coen brothers starring William H. Macey, Frances McDormand, and Steve Buscemi. Set in the U.S. state of Minnesota, old mate Jerry is having a few financial woes. He establishes a plan to orchestrate the kidnapping of his own wife and split the ransom paid for her release. Naturally, circumstances complicate this endeavour. Plus, we have another Tenet release update to c...

1982's Blade Runner is a cult classic in cinema. Based on a Phillip K. Dick novel, Ridley Scott's film is set in a dystopian depiction of 2019 Los Angeles, which thankfully isn't reality quite yet. A bunch of robot human-lookalikes known as replicants are set on having a friendly chat with their master. It's up to the most boring protagonist in fiction, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), to hunt them d...

Underappreciated 1971 Australian classic Wake In Fright sees school teacher, John Grant, having just a lovely vacation in the Outback. After gambling his last cash away and becoming stranded in a remote town, John endures an onslaught of horrific experiences in his struggle to escape the isolation. The film was almost lost to time over a decade ago, so we are very happy it was found and restored f...

Spike Lee has collaborated with Netflix for the first time to deliver us Da 5 Bloods, a war drama centred on a group of war veterans returning to Vietnam 50 years later, in hopes of retrieving their friend's remains and a stack of gold. As you may expect, the film explores social issues concerning black lives in the U.S. through Lee's signature visual/editing style. This is always admirable and in...

Based on a bunch of books apparently, Disney's Artemis Fowl went through a lot of production issues and fell victim to the pandemic, leading to its launch on Disney+. I guess the movie is about a genius Irish kid who is trying to save Colin Farrell by finding some acorn thing, which was already in his house the entire time. Also Josh Gad takes a dump on the camera. If only we had been able to expe...

The Matrix Revolutions (it's the third one if you're confused) marks the end of our Matrix franchise reviews. In this film, it's finally time for Neo to save the city of Zion once and for all. Listen to us chat about the conclusion to The Matrix Trilogy, try and figure out what on God's green Earth the fourth movie could be about, and reveal well-regarded films we dislike in our Question of the Sh...

With his final film before his untimely passing, legendary director Stanley Kubrick crafted a visually stunning and thematically deep movie that is frankly quite hard to describe. Eyes Wide Shut has Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's relationship challenged by sexual fantasies and other abnormal scenarios that occur in one night.

As the "civilised" world is hell-bent on the destruction of Samurai culture in 19th century Japan, The Last Samurai has Tom Cruise experiencing great personal growth in order to put a stop to it. This 2003 war epic was certainly contentious amongst us, leading to a fun discussion. And in News Chat, we get what could be the last update in the Tenet release date saga. Hopefully.

Sporting a very specific kind of equally silly and vulgar humour, 2007's Superbad is a comedy which follows two high school students and their mishaps in trying to get to a dope ass party. One thing's for certain... if you like a plentiful quantity of dick jokes, this movie is for you. Plus, we read your submissions for best film soundtrack, and sooooooooooo much more!

Released in 2003, The Matrix Reloaded is the follow up to the iconic first Matrix film. Continuing the story of Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity, the movie sees our heroes fight to secure the survival of the last real human civilisation, Zion. Not to spoil this episode's discussion, but unfortunately Reloaded disappoints in just about every way. Perhaps it could have been good, if the Wachowskis had wan...

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. And that's exactly what Henry Hill became. As we get a glimpse at Henry's three decades in the mob life, we're introduced to a group of colourful gangsters prior to their collective downfall. Boasting a terrific screenplay, performances, and style, we totally understand why Goodfellas is a Martin Scorsese classic that's been adored b...

Pixar's latest movie, Onward, follows two brothers on their quest to be reunited with their father for one day, in a hybrid-fantasy world. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to chat about a brand new film for the first time. And who doesn't love a bit of Pixar. We also go totally off the rails this week, with a riveting Spy Kids discussion. Sorry not sorry.