Gamebox 1.0

Gamebox 1.0 is a sci-fi action/thriller set in the virtual game world of video games, complete with high pitched music, fake sets and graphics.

Our hero is a 20 something guy,  a game tester depressed since his girlfriend was killed by a crooked cop. Along comes a mysterious package containing a new game…

He lives his nine lives and meets characters who look like the crooked cop, his dead girlfriend and his best friend on his virtual travels as the game climbs into his brain.

Soon the game is intruding on his ‘real-life’, even when he’s sleeping- he plays! His past makes him a perfect pawn for a game that won’t let you quit till you’ve either won or dead.

Its a plot rip-off of ‘Existenz’ with a slightly predictable ending and low-budget feel, but this didn’t stop it from being enjoyable.

It happily chewed through a few hours.

3.5/5

-Kaplan

The Descent

Exploring an uncharted cave deep in the forest starts off as an adventure for a group of experienced female cavers. 

A blocked exit, hysteria and claustrophobia are only the beginning of their troubles as deformed predators start to tail them.  Lots of unexpected jumps in this one but there are lots of dark scenes, so you mainly have to imagine the bloodshed.

Usually once a couple are killed in horrors, the base group band together, not so here. They individually declare war on the cave, their deformed mountain men-looking predators and also turn on each other, which is a nice twist.

Balanced with battles, knives and hatred- who will make it out alive?

3.5/5

-Beth

Rest Stop

Girl finds herself abandoned at a lone rest stop which she can’t seem to get away from in this B-grade horror.

Taunted by crazy guy in yellow pickup truck, she uses the resources at her disposal – a gross toilet block and empty rangers shed. Her boyfriend and a hapless ranger are dragged into her plight and suffer the consequences.

Haunted by a previous victim and the strangest family on the planet, this plot goes nowhere, where can she run to? Certainly not away from this isolated spot or the mysterious stalker.

There is the usual torture chamber which we see in flashback, this time inside an ex-school bus which amps up the gore factor. A lost finger scene is particularly sickening without even seeing it.

Quite liked the alternative endings on the DVD, especially the killing of the weird family in a camping van.

Tried to take this seriously, there are couple of good jumps but nothing much else. Pure trash.

2/5

-Nicole Carrow

He’s just not that into you

Based on the successful dating rules book, Hollywood has translated the ‘rules’ into a digestible candy floss rom-com.

Its modern Baltimore, so your typical friends, spouses, partners and parents are people like Justin Long, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore and Ben Affleck. Pondering love and relationships while getting tangled up with each other.

Typical chick flick material, the ‘rules’ seem half common sense or just assumptions padded out by eye candy actors. Waiting for the predictable main storyline to develop is like watching paint dry but is like chocolate to a swooning women-only audience.

Fluff that won’t stretch the braincells.

2.5/5

-Beth Bartlett

The Forsaken

Vampires like to hunt at night, for these ones the desert is the perfect venue. The hapless victims are an unlikely trio of skeptic, hunter and infected. Desperate to escape, their only option is to kill.

Lots of desert motels, gas stations, old cars and accidental bites later, the trio are still fighting to survive the night right to the bitter end.

Horror is a bit dated and predictable especially the final battle but good story none the less. Not a whole lot of gore though.

Keeps you entertained and on-your-seat, check it out.

3.5/5

-Ina Hamm

Happy-Go-Lucky

Poppy is a happy-go-lucky primary school teacher determined to ignore the grim realities of life.  Positive to a fault, she bounces weekly on trampolines, learns the flamengo and takes driving lessons.

A few don’t take kindly to her approach, particularly her driving teacher Scott. Its a battle of wills every week between the polar opposites with a rather explosive shouting match to end the tension.

Sometimes Poppy is fun but most of the time she acts like a 10-year-old stuck in an adult’s body. There are small breaks of violence in the otherwise floaty storyline, its almost like real life intruding on a daydream.

Festival film fans will like it, its quirky and different (check out her wardrobe).

3/5

-Poppy

The Messengers

Pre-Twlight Kristen Stewart and her family move into an abandoned farmhouse in the middle of nowhere to farm sunflowers. Shame the house is evil and is trying to drive Kristen Stewart crazy. Her little mute brother finds the ghosts funny.

It’s all a bit girl-cried-wolf with plenty of jumps but no real teeth. Family members and a potential boyfriend are either disposable/desperate or gullible, so there isn’t much character development.

Crows on the rooftop/flying into windows/playing dead seem the most menacing but only punish one. Plenty of ‘horror’ scenes look like recycled ’The Ring’ and ‘The Grudge’ creatures. 

Look out for the swampy cellar, that’s quite a funny scene. Great for wasting a couple of hours with luke-warm horror, just don’t expect an unpredictable ending!

2/5

- Colby Price

*Bickfords Cool Ideas*

Bickfords cool ideas.

This is the story about the inner strength that one has to make life their own. It starts with bickfords book, which gets taken by sarah who reads it and falls in love with what he has been written only to give it to her bf of the time who reads it and throws it in the trash. Then we have the space man who pick thru said trash and takes the book for his own purposes. Meanwhile bickford realizes that his precious book has been stolen and decides that it leaves him no choice but to leave school and go home he feels that he has failed the world and his father.
From here on out it’s a journey to find the book and to restore bickfords faith in the world but he learns more than he bargained for and even falls in love along the way.

2/5

-Spaceman

*Napolean Dynamite*

Where did napoleon come from? Whats up with his hair and his freakish eyes that seem to like constantly stare even when he is talking. This is a film about a geeky soul who is lost in the way of the world and seems to be just generally lost. He gets picked on, he eats alone, he draws mythical creatures and even speaks in a weird tone for the entire movie. He eventually finds a new kid in school to be his friend and takes him under his wing. He lives with his grandmother and brother who is 32 and lives at home, they are constantly bickering. His brother is an ultra geek and spends a good part of his day in cyber world chatting up his internet girlfriend. Napoleon is just the weirdest guy, he seems to like not know what he is doing but rather does what he wants.

This movie was funny to a point where you just think OMG. Worth watching for the funny scenes where he pulls his brother behind his bike on rollerblades… and when he does this dance for his friend pedro’ s skit. Its definitely worth a watch for those.

3/5

-Pedro

Transporter 3

After a car smashes through his lounge room wall, Frank gets tangled up with another group of gangsters in the third installment of the Transporter series. We all know the drill now, fast cars and punches, 1 against 50 thugs.

With a killer bracelet and a seemingly mute Ukrainian woman as his passenger, Transporter Frank has to drive across Europe on the whim of the gang leader in his prized car.

Toxic waste on a boat is the back story, but who cares? we are all here for the action.  An attempt at romance with Valentina, his silent passenger is slightly taxing but makes him appear half-human.

After going for an unplanned swim in the lake, he is helped out by mail bags and the air in his tyres. All in the name of his car and his life!

Comic relief continues in the form of Inspector Tarconi, a mad french cop who has gradually become his friend during the series.

Fight pick has to be the train sequence, he definitely uses his car to its best advantage.

Transporter 3 rounds off the series well, will they continue? we hope!

3.5/5

-Johnson