These Final Hours Review

Standard

It’s not often we get a film set and shot here in Perth, let alone one getting such a big, wide release. Every street, sight and location mentioned or seen in this film is instantly recognisable and it draws you in. You instantly relate. This isn’t some far off place; this is the world you live in. For a personal, character driven film like These Final Hours this pays off in spades. Thankfully, while seeing the Perth skyline burning or a giggle at a mention of Roleystone or a scene in Malaga is a fun novelty, this is a damn good film no matter the setting. It’s a truly wonderful debut feature for local filmmaker Zak Hilditch.

These-Final-Hours-3

The film takes place over the final hours on Earth as the looming apocalypse descends upon us. It’s a forgone conclusion and cannot be stopped. You have 12 hours left, what do you do with it? Rather than focus on the disaster itself and the efforts to stop it, These Final Hours narrows the scope down to one man, James, in the most isolated city on the planet and where he wants to be when it all ends. Instead of watching things happen from the outside you are pulled in close. When the world ends we won’t be on the rocket trying to save it all, we’ll be the insignificant nobody living our last moments as best we can.

Our protagonist wants nothing more than to get to the party to end all parties, lose himself until it’s over and not confront the inevitable end. After a couple of chance encounters he is suddenly responsible for a young girl and getting her back to her family before it’s over. A long the way he’s forced to confront everything he was trying to avoid; his family, his morality and his impending fatherhood that sadly will never have a chance to be. We see how the rest of the nearby humanity deals with the end. Some turn to religion, others go out on their own terms, some descend into depravity and others party, well, like the world is about to end.

these-final-hours-600x350

While Nathan Philips is our lead and plays the musclebound, idiotic average young Australian male rather well, the film anchors on the performance of young Angourie Rice as Rose. She delivers a mature, confident performance beyond her years. In a film so devastating, brutal and bleak this young revelation never looks out of her depth. Technically These Final Hours shines, especially considering the low budget at Hilditch’s disposal. Perth’s suburbia is suitably eerie and the cinematography is on point with the increasingly orange hue of impending doom (which comes to a spectacular budget burning head in the final scenes)

It’s desperately bleak and confronting. As the wave of destruction hits and the credit rolls the crowd in my screening sat in silence. Contemplating where they would be and what they would do in those final moments.

Neglected

Standard

Well, while I’ve been posting reviews to Enjoy Perth a whole lot I’ve neglected my home here on capey.net.

No longer! Let’s try and get things back up and running..

Capey’s Comic Convention Commission Etiquette

Standard

It’s 9am and freezing cold out the front of some convention centre. Geeks of all shapes and sizes are queued up, ready to pounce. For some it will be a mad dash to get a chance for a photo with their favourite celebrity, for others it’s to get that first bargain or rarity before someone else snaps it up. For me, it’s a sprint to artist’s alley to meet my artistic heroes of the comic world.

Continue reading

Burn Review

Standard
Burn is a compelling, thought provoking and emotionally engaging documentary about the brave men of the Detroit Fire Department. With over 80,000 abandoned homes in this once heavily populated city, the men of the DFD must deal with over 30 fires per day. Underfunded, underpaid and with equipment in bad need of repair they will risk their lives for their community against all odds.
(This is a repost of my initial review when Burn opened the Revelation Film Festival)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Standard

It’s almost Boxing Day so that means another trip to Middle Earth. This is a beloved tradition for most of the people I know and I suspect most of you will be seeing the latest instalment of The Hobbit regardless of what the reviews say. Nonetheless I am here to give you my thoughts.

Right off the bat I’ll say I enjoyed The Desolation of Smaug a fair bit more than I did Unexpected Journey..

Continue reading

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

Standard

Just a quick review here as I don’t have a huge amount to say on this one. The first Cloudy was an unexpectedly good and imaginative movie. To be honest I don’t often expect much from animated films not made by Pixar so it was a pleasant surprise.

Cloudy 2 picks up seconds after the first one. It recaps the first pretty well so no real need to dig out the old one. While it doesn’t quite reach the heights of the original it’s a fun, solid film. It’s colourful and gorgeous to look at and the voice cast is very on point. I think your appreciation may depend entirely on your love for bad animal and food puns as its chock full of them. I’ll admit to laughing heartily at some of the wordplay and portmanteau the litter the movie.

Good but not spectacular is the bottom line. Catch it with your wee ones and enjoy the bad puns. You won’t be bored.