Cinema Effect

As preparation for the long-anticipated sequel, we thought we'd go back 36 years (!) to the original Top Gun. Tom Cruise stars as Maverick, an arrogant but charming fighter pilot who wants to prove himself to be the best in the world. But to do that he must win the Top Gun school's trophy by defeating his classmates with equally dope callsigns, including Val Kilmer's Iceman. Despite being a very s...

The newly released and Best Picture nominated Nightmare Alley is the latest film from the mind of Mr. Del Toro. An insane cast plays a bunch of quirky characters who all come to meet Bradley Cooper's Stan over a two year period. Stan has a dark past, and is more than willing to work his way to the top in the mentalism profession through whatever deception necessary. Featuring some top notch cinema...

Alien Resurrection is the fourth film in the franchise, and arguably the last in the era of Fox wanting to just keep developing sequels as Box Office bait. 200 years after Ellen Ripley's death in Alien 3 (spoilers!), our hero is revived, or more accurately cloned, as part of a corporation experiment. But shockingly, there's also a bunch of Xenomorphs on the ship which all inevitably break free. Ri...

Wes Anderson's remarkably impressive 2018 stop motion feature, Isle Of Dogs, marks the famed director's debut on our show. In a fictional Japan, an evil mayor with a grudge against doggies plots to eliminate the species once and for all. All while his nephew travels to dog island to find his best friend Spots. We meet a colourful cast of dog and human characters along the way, played by an absolut...

Windfall is Netflix's latest "shot during COVID and only has a couple of characters" film. It should be an officially listed genre on there at this point. The movie is a surprising watch filled with mystery and a notable style. But in essence, Jason Segel does a really dodgy job of breaking into Jesse Plemons' holiday house. And Lilly Collins is there too. Then the boys jump into all of the weekly...

It's the dawn of a new era for Cinema Effect. And there's no better way to get it started than by reviewing the incredible, The Incredible Hulk. Sarcasm aside, this film sits awkwardly amongst its MCU counterparts. Edward Norton delivers his one and only (and uninteresting) performance as Bruce Banner. Needless to say, we're glad this bloke magically turned into Mark Ruffalo. Then... I think the U...

We live in a twilight world... because somehow we've made it to our hundredth episode of Cinema Effect. That's 100 films reviewed over 100 Monday nights, and way too many hours of our conversations now archived on the internet until the end of time. So to celebrate, we thought why not get together in-person for the very first time and discuss one of our favourite films of the last few years, Chris...

We're now half-way through the rocky road that is the Alien franchise, as we sit down to review the third film. Once again following directly from the events of its predecessor, the story begins with Ripley crash landing on a prison planet, with her mates from Aliens being killed in the process. After being rescued, she and the other prisoners have to take on a Xenomorph running loose on a murder...

It is officially the two year anniversary of this here Cinema Effect podcast. Can you believe it?! For the occasion, we thought it would be fitting to go back to where it all began. And that is with a filmmaker (and friend of the show) by the name of Michael Mann. This time around, we review what many believe to be one of the great films released in the last 30 years and Mann's magnum opus, the 19...

Released in the very special year of 2001, Donnie Darko (which initially bombed) has found new life as a cult-classic and gained many new fans in the past twenty years. So what is the story actually about? Jake Gyllenhaal and Seth Rogen had no idea. But I guess you follow Donnie, a troubled, awkward, and mysteriously powerful teenager, in the lead up to what the film presents as the end of the wor...

We got you! We got you! Matt Reeves' The Batman has been one of the most highly anticipated films in years, and it is finally playing in your local cinema. Thus, it would be kinda silly if we didn't review it (sorry Hulk). Robert Pattinson stars as Bruce Wayne, a millionaire living in a city called Gotham, who dresses up as a Bat and beats the crap out of criminals at night. Quite an interesting o...

One of the most beloved sequels of all-time, and the film which is often credited as saving Twentieth Century Fox in the 80s, is Aliens. James Cameron strikes back after his success on The Terminator with another sci-fi action blockbuster. Upon waking from cryosleep, Ripley is tasked to return to the system she escaped in Ridley Scott's original to investigate a disturbance with the local colony....

Before they were world famous, Aussies Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe starred alongside NAME REDACTED in Curtis Hanson's LA Confidential. Exploring the inner workings (and deep seeded corruption) of the Los Angeles police department in the 1950's, the film is an excellent period piece which almost completely holds up in 2022. Not to mention features awesome performances and memorable moments all the...

There's certainly been some quite captivating media originating in South Korea over the last few years (ever heard of Squid Game??), and Train To Busan is one such example. The film follows a dickhead dad and his daughter as they navigate a zombie outbreak on a train ride. It's a simple premise, but executed surprisingly effectively. After the review, we have a meaty News Chat for you, filled with...

Dan Stevens stars in new Friend of the Show Adam Wingard's 2014 film, The Guest, which sees him play a veteran who returns home to visit the family of his fallen mate. But to put it simply, this dude's clearly a weird unit. Now we desperately tried not to discuss Dan Stevens and his beautiful eyes for this entire episode, so hopefully you enjoy our thoughts on the fun moments, action shot on a bud...

In 1979, Sir Ridley Scott actually made a quality film you may have heard of called Alien (thank god they didn't go with 'Star Beast'). The premise is pretty simple really. The crew of The Nostromo spacecraft investigate an unknown signal, leading to a deadly xenomorph invading their ship and killing them off one by one. Where the film shines, and undoubtedly holds up over 40 years later, is the w...

In 2008 legendary and innovative animation studio Pixar struck gold once again with their sci-fi adventure film, Wall-E. In the future, planet Earth is screwed thanks to a climate disaster (luckily that will never happen in real-life RIGHT?!) meaning the remaining humans must retreat into space, and leave behind cute Wall-E robots to pick up their rubbish. But after our hero meets EVE and evidence...

Cinema Effect is back for our third season! And there's no better way to kick off 2022 than by returning to the first franchise we ever reviewed, and discussing the brand new Matrix film, The Matrix Resurrections (NOT Reloaded). It's time to go back to The Matrix, and once again feel really confused about what's happening in the first act. Is Neo still alive? Was the original trilogy just a series...

This is the best Christmas present you'll get this year. We know you're all just dying to know what the Cinema Effect crew thought about that new indie Spider film. Let's break it down with full spoilers!

As the second season of Cinema Effect comes to an end, it is time to reflect on the year that was for film and TV, as well as our our own podcast. 2021 saw a number of high profile and quality releases. Listen to Liam, Zac, and Jayden each give their top recommendations for 2021, go over your comments and picks, before finally giving out the prestigious awards based on every movie reviewed on the...

It is the final review of the year, and it seems only feels fitting for Zac and Liam to discuss what was one of their most anticipated movies, Sopranos prequel The Many Saints Of Newark. There were plenty of reasons to look forward to the film. For the first time in 15 years there is finally new content based on the show. It comes to us from The Sopranos' creator David Chase. We get to witness the...

Denis Villeneuve's long anticipated adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel Dune is finally here... and we've actually seen it! The film's scale is huge, both visually and in plot. But essentially Paul Atreides and his cool family move to the desert planet Arrakis, one of the most deadly and valuable worlds in the universe. It is there they face many threats including the emperor of the...

Witness the end of the legendary Raimi trilogy! Tobey Maguire delivers his final (for now) and most absurd performance as Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3. This time around Spidey must deal with new threats in the Sandman, and an alien Symbiote which landed on Earth coincidentally two feet away from him. Also, James Franco randomly gets amnesia. Needless to say there's a lot going on in this movie. We...

Whether we like it or not, Doug Liman has now become a friend of the show as we review his 2014 sci-fi blockbuster Edge Of Tomorrow. Tom Cruise tries to convince us he's not an action badass as he plays Cage, a regular dude thrust into the front lines of an alien invasion and inadvertently gifted the ability to reset the day upon death. From there he must enlist the help of Emily Blunt to video ga...

It's about time we review a Christopher Nolan movie and talk about some REAL cinema on this podcast! Nolan is one of the most influential filmmakers working in Hollywood today, and the scale of his often time-bending films has evolved dramatically alongside his career. And in this progression, The Prestige essentially finds itself right in the middle of his transition from indie projects to summer...