06 | June | 2021 | Movie Reviews 101

Director: Sandra Sciberras

Writer: Sandra Sciberras (Screenplay)

Starring: Jolene Anderson, Stef Dawson, Richard Davies, Cassandra Magrath, Talina Naviede, Harry Greenwood

Plot: One by one the residents of a small, isolated town become infected by an insidious bug that turns them into violent, indiscriminate killing machines.

Runtime: 1 Hour 35 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Alien Parasite starts when a small, isolated town sees the satellite broken suddenly overnight, Sheriff Joanne Sharp (Anderson) is looking for the reason behind what happened, which starts leading her down the path of a string of unusual events.

The residents of the town have become infected by an alien bug, which will turn them into a blood hunger parasite, which Joanne will need to solve to save the residents, including her sister Samantha (Dawson) and nephew.

Thoughts on Alien Parasite

Characters & Performances – Joanne is the sheriff of a small-town in the middle of nowhere, she is looking for a simple day before she is leaving to start a new life. This final day takes a twist when an alien species ends up invading the area, feeding on the residents, leaving her to lead the fight back to save the resident. Jolene Anderson is strong in the leading role, showing us a character that is looking to make the change to save the day. Samantha is the sister of Joanne who is remaining in the town, a teacher that must look protect the children during the attack. Luke is the man that will help Joanne in the fight back against the new invasion. We do meet plenty of other members of the town that have their own theories of what is happening, which will see the soldi enough performance throughout the film.

Story – The story here follows a group of people that see their small town infected by an alien parasite, which infects the locals turning them dangerous as they look to hunt down the living members of the town. This does give us a mix of ‘The Crazies’ and the slowly building tension behind the invasion happening, as not everyone is targeted, with the infected mostly stalking around the town. We get to look at the mystery around what is happening, along with the residence to kill friends and family that have become infected. We could have had more answers to what is behind the invasion and the sudden impact.

Themes – Alien Parasite is a sci-fi horror that involves an alien infection that will leave the isolated town needing to fight to survive, the remote town shows us just how united the people are in their fight to save each other, but the aliens don’t look as smooth as they should, looking like the CGI creations they are.

Alien Parasite is an easy to watch sci-fi horror movie that will have plenty of tension to cover up the lack of horror involved.

Director: Matthew Saville

Writer: Joel Edgerton (Screenplay)

Starring: Tom Wilkinson, Joel Edgerton, Jai Courtney, Melissa George

Plot: An accident involving a young child sets off a chain of events that brings an Australian police officer’s world crashing down.

Tagline – There are two sides to every alibi.

Runtime: 1 Hour 45 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Felony starts after hero cop Detective Malcolm Toohey (Egderton) celebrates his latest success and is driving home after a few drinks, leading to him being involved in an accident where a child is knocked off their bike.

Rookie detective Jim Melic (Courtney) and his experienced partner Detective Carl Summer (Wilkinson) arrive on the scene as they are looking to deal with their pursuit of a paedophile, giving Jim the first hand look at how the cops look after their own.

Thoughts on Felony

Characters & Performances – Detective Malcolm Toohey is a hero cop after his latest capture, taking a bullet to the vest, getting a heroes celebration, only his drive home sees him involved in what looks like a minor knock, leaving a child seriously injured on the road, asked to cover up the story for the benefit of the force, not just himself, he becomes conflicted with what to do as he sees just how serious the situation becomes. Joel Edgerton is great here showing the confliction he is going through after an incident. Detective Jim Melic is the young rookie just on the force, he wants to do everything by the book and starts question both his partners motivations and Malcolm’s story, as he looks to expose the truth, being pushed into trying to do right. Jai Courtney showed us why he is doing well in his career, he brings this character to life with ease, working well with the rest of the cast. Detective Carl Summer is the veteran of the three, he has Jim under his wing, trying to teach him the way the forces act when it comes to dealing with criminals, he has been hunting one down for years and looks to use his experience to help cover Malcolm’s mistake. Tom Wilkinson brings the much needed experience to this role, where he will show us just how important his character is to this world.

Story – The story here follows a hero detective that is involved in a car accident after a few drinks which will see a young child injured and a rookie detective that is looking to do the right thing, but being shown the force by an experienced detective. This story does dive into the world that will leave us asking questions about what is morally right, each detective has their own problems to get through, each one will offer up bigger questions, be it taking down a known criminal or dealing with an accident which could ruin a career. We are left to see the battle to keep everything together, which will keep us see the bigger questions being asked throughout the film. It is nice to see an engaging drama that will offer the bigger questions, instead of everything be completely cut and dry.

Themes – Felony is a crime thriller that will look at how three detectives will look to decide the outcome of an incident, it will look at the work they have achieved compared to the incident which could have caused more damage to the department. We might get a flashy action chase at the start, we don’t get anymore through the film, focusing more on the discussion going on.