After 14 years, the horror franchise that made a generation afraid to drive behind logging trucks is back. Up until now, I’d call most of these movies guilty pleasures, but Final Destination: Bloodlines delivers all the gnarly deaths you’d expect, pairing them with a far more interesting story and characters. This is undoubtedly the best instalment yet, and some of the most fun I’ve had at the theatre this year. These movies are built to fuel our twisted morbid curiosities in the most entertaining ways possible. Bloodlines delivers some of the franchise’s most elaborate deaths yet, with plenty of clever fake-outs to keep audiences guessing how and when these characters will kick the bucket. The writing and performances from the cast ensure this group is likeable, but not so likeable that we don’t enjoy see them killed off in wild ways. Because we care about their plight, it gives the movie a sense of stakes that we can actually invest in, even if we know many of the charact...
Like Spaghetti sauce made without seasoning or love, Nonnas is inoffensively bland. Netflix’s new original goes through the motions, telling a heartwarming and passionate true story in a way that lacks any real heart or passion. Listen - this is a cute story. A small Italian restaurant where all of the food is cooked by real Nonnas, rather than trained chefs. It’s really sweet, actually, but it’s not grounds for a feature-length movie. This is like a ten minute fluff piece your local station covers on a slow news day. There’s barely enough narrative meat here for an appetizer, let alone a full course, and Nonna’s clocks in at a whopping hour and 51 minutes. It goes through the standard beats you’d expect from this kind of movie, adding a dash of embellishment here and there to spice things up. It’s all just too predicable though, and maybe if the individual ingredients had a little more flavour, the end result would be less forgettable. Vince Vaughn plays the restaurant’s f...