Beast review – down-and-out MMA fighter film is predictable but still lands punches

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Directed by Tyler Atkins and co-written by Russell Crowe, this Australian feature follows a familiar playbook – but you’ll find yourself surprisingly invested Ah, yes: the promising fighter who could’ve been a contender, could’ve been a champion. But then life intervened: bad decisions were made, promises broken, the wrong paths taken. But what if the past came knocking on his door? What if our long-in-the-tooth hero could have another crack, set things right, get in the ring one more time? To say that Tyler Atkins’ Australian martial arts drama Beast plucks moves from a well-worn playbook is putting it lightly. This is one of those genre films in which nothing surprises in broad terms; it’s the small pivots and deviations that matter. Given the ring of familiarity surrounding everything, I was surprised to find myself as invested in the film as I was, particularly because so many chest-thumping sports movies are already out there, many of which I find about as intellectually engaging ...
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Family Switch review – Netflix yuletide body-swap comedy is overstuffed

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Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms can’t save a lukewarm family comedy that’s over-reliant on potty humor and eye-rolling contrivances

There comes a time, in just about any modern family, when the youngest member of the household is old enough to warrant the commencement of “movie night”. About midway through the pandemic, when our daughter’s tastes graduated from Australian mermaid dramas to more palatable fare like The Baby-Sitters Club and Gilmore Girls, my husband and I celebrated by screening Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock films for our kids, who loved them as much as we did! But then the world opened back up, and personal preferences splintered off. Our son now likes watching football games, and football dramas, and while I can stand the latter, it’s hard to imagine subjecting his little sister to Friday Night Lights’ tequila shots and threesomes. Besides, she’d much rather hide away in her room and watch some Netflix show about cake.

That same streamer’s Family Switch, out in time for the holidays, is an arrow that was unapologetically calibrated to hit straight at the heart of the multi-gen-viewing dilemma. Directed by McG and starring Jennifer Garner (who also produced, and is as plucky and puckered as ever), the yuletide drama takes a more-the-merrier approach to the trading-places trope, offering a smorgasbord of stock characters for couch-bound viewers to relate to: the Walker family has something for everyone – Sporty, Techy, Wistful and Work-Obsessed. And like so many family units who are no longer living in lockdown, the once tight-knit household is unraveling, everyone drifting off into their own private directions. Might some old-fashioned living in other people’s shoes be the portal back to together time?

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