The Venom films have had a rocky time. So has the entire Sony Spiderman universe.

But now Venom is synonymous with Tom Hardy. And whether you love or hate his portrayal of Eddie Brock and Venom – you have to admit he carries these films.

Venom: The Last Dance follows in the footsteps of its priors. An undercooked script with many-a-plot-hole. But it still has that Eddie-Venom banter to make you enjoy whatever is dished up.

Taking off after the events of the second film, Eddie is pinned as the killer of Detective Mulligan. But he’s not just on the run from the police. Oh yes, he has also caught the eye of a secret government operation and … more aliens.

The pure number of antagonistic forces set upon the two from the very beginning makes it clear they might not both survive this.

Reminiscent of a buddy road trip movie, Eddie and Venom have a lot of alone time. Tom Hardy does an immaculate job of bringing the two personalities to life. He injects their scenes with comical banter that could keep me entertained for hours.

There are a lot of new faces to take in with this film. It bit off more than it could chew – trying to introduce key new characters with not much time to fully delve into them.

Our new ‘big bad’ doesn’t get much screentime. Instead, he sends a hoard of his practically indestructible knulls after Eddie and Venom.

Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple) – a symbiote researcher, is another character set up that feels half-assed. We get to see one tragic backstory flashback that becomes her reason for everything she does the entire film. I was more emotionally invested in Sadie, her loveable coworker.

In place of developing these evident ‘teeing up for the next film’ characters we’re simply given even more characters.

With the Michelle Williams hole to fill, the film had to find a new emotional centre. And this came in the way of the alien-loving couple and their kids. And they, of course, are conveniently placed to be the physical representation of the world Eddie and Venom are trying to save.

While the film lacks in overall cohesion and story, it does make up for it with its final battle. This film is definitely the most goriest instalment of the Venom films. The knulls have a wood chipper-esque function that turns anything they consume into a mist of blood. These creatures are a legitimate threat, which makes for an epic bloodbath.

But in the end, we know only one of our much-loved bonded duo can survive if they wish to save the universe. (It’s not spoilers if the movie is literally called ‘ The Last Dance’)

The tragedy is wrapped up in a some-what romantic montage to the backdrop of Maroon 5s memories. And I have to say, this was brilliant.

Was the whole movie brilliant? Hell no. Did I have a lot of fun? Hell yes.

The post Venom: The Last Dance (Sony Pictures – 2024) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Crunchyroll, in collaboration with Sony Pictures just announced that it will be bringing Detective Conan: The Million-dollar Pentagram, the latest film instalment in the fan-favourite Detective Conan franchise, to cinemas on August 29, 2024.

The film will be available in Japanese with English subtitles.

Detective Conan follows Shinichi Kudo, a talented high school detective who was forcibly turned into a child by the Black Organization. Now going by the identity of Conan Edogawa, he strives to hunt down the Black Organization while solving the most difficult of cases using his brilliant wits and power of reason.

In this new adventure, Detective Conan will join the hunt for the ‘Merchant of Death’, a Japanese-American Arms Dealer in order to unearth a mysterious treasure that could change the course of a war.

The film is directed by Chika Nagasoka (Detective Conan The Movie: The Scarlet Bullet) with animation production from TMS Entertainment and music by Yugo Kanno (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure). Original story is by Gosho Aoyama.

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After the hell-fun rollercoaster that was Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a true reboot of the series, comes a watered down Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.

Single mum, Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon) has more than teamed up with her kids teacher, Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd).

It’s a family affair with themselves and the two kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace) along with Trevor’s sort of girlfriend, Lucky Domingo (Celeste O’Connor) all in to chase spiritual entities around New York City.

Things have gotten high tech as well.

Original Ghostbuster, now philanthropist Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) has poured money in to advanced ghost trapping, catching and identifying technology.

But it is a strange sphere that comes in to Ray Stanz’s occult bookstore that sets off a motion of freezing carnage.

Selling a family heirloom to make a quick buck, Razmaadi (Kumal Nanjiani) had no idea what he had.

Neither do the Ghostbusters until it’s too late and a trapped spectral vengeful God is released.

What plays out is a light hearted comedy supernatural based chapter in the series, with too many one-liners, the humour tries too hard and while there are a lot of throwbacks to the original Ghostbusters, mostly welcomed, I felt that the writing on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire went a bit flat and when the big action finally happens it was all over before I knew it.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is an enjoyable watch, but it is for me a watch once only (I have seen Frozen Empire many times over).

Good, but not memorable like the other Ghostbusters films.

The post Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Sony Pictures) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Thanksgiving will never be the same holiday as we know it, with Eli Roth’s slasher horror blood staining the holiday with creative ways to die.

The film plays out in a small town, Plymouth, Massachusetts, US with one department store. While it has made the owner wealthy, it becomes an annual ritual for town locals to stampede the store for the Black Friday sales.

And this is where events take a darker path.

After a badly organized weekend sale that resulted in customer deaths, a mysterious killer wearing a John Carver mask enacts revenge on all of those involved, one year later.

A group of teenagers, one the daughter of the store owner, Jessica Wright (Nell Verlaque) and her friends are hunted down one by one, they must figure out who is taking them out one by one, setting up a grisly Thanksgiving ‘dinner’ as the conclusion to their revenge plans.

What plays out is entertaining gore but not much else.

Thanksgiving takes the 90’s slasher teen flick genre and brings it in to the 2020’s, but I think we horror fans have become so sanitised to the macabre that this film has the scare factor of a Saturday morning cartoon.

Don’t expect an indepth narrative or even a half decent horror as Thanksgiving relies solely on cliches and themes we have all seen before.

The post Thanksgiving (TriStar Pictures – 2023) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

NOW CLOSED – In cinemas now, Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a mixed animation film of full on action that you need to see.

In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar®-winning Spider-Verse saga, an epic adventure that will transport Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man across the Multiverse to join forces with Gwen Stacy and a new team of Spider-People to face off with a villain more powerful than anything they have ever encountered.

We’ve seen the film and it is so far the best watch of 2023. You can read our review here.

Thanks to our mates at Sony Pictures NZ we have TEN Double Passes up for grabs for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse!

To enter in the draw for a Double Pass, you need to answer this question correctly:

Spider-Man has crossed many multiverses, character variations and platforms. Tell us your fav Spider-Man moment. This can be from films, comics, series or video gaming. There is no wrong or right answer, but keep it brief.

You can give us your answer by placing a comment below, hitting us up on Facebook, Tweet to us, or Email.

Important stuff: Winner(s) will be randomly selected from those that Comment below / Facebook Comment / DM / Email in accordance to the above Question. Winner(s) will receive a single Double Pass for the film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is age rated PG in New Zealand. Competition ends on the 6th of June 2023. Only New Zealand entries are accepted for this promotion.

The post Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Double Pass Giveaway! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the second animated super hero film from Sony Pictures.

It pays homage to all Spider-Man character variations and encompasses multiple animation styles (and a wee bit of live action).

We see things kick off around a year after we were first introduced to teenager Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), who, in his dimension, was bitten by a radioactive spider that gave him web slinging abilities.

Across the Spider-Verse explores the near endless multi-dimensions that Spider-Man exists in and the keepers of said dimensions.

When a new foe called The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) emerges and wreaks havoc within the multiverse, everything gets mixed up… and was Miles even meant to be bitten by that spider in the first place, or was his descent in to the Spider-Verse a random mistake?

As we see Spider-Man from differing realities (and throughout history) begin to take on each other, try and take down Miles and restore order to the fabric of time and realities, Miles still has to grapple with family drama’s and the sudden re-emergence of Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), who herself also has emotional trials to deal with, all the while helping Miles to literally survive… or is she working against him?

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is one epic animated fun filled ride of a film.

I loved the first film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. A fresh take on the Spider-Man franchise, and usually sequels are never as good as the first. Across the Spider-Verse bucks that trend and shadows its predecessor.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a film that’s an explosive artwork of classic animation, comic-book styles, stop motion, CGI and more.

The best Spider-Man flick yet and the best film I’ve seen so far in 2023.

The post Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures – 2023) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Evil through the ages.

Father Gabriele Amorth (Russell Crowe) has performed thousands of exorcists, ordained by the highest power, the Pope.

His peers and seniors view his role as dubious at best and while the majority of said ‘possessions’ were related to mental health, a small percentage were of demonic origin.

Based on Father Gabriele Amorth’s recounts via his books this film is based on true events and centres around an American family who has recently had a tragedy.

Julia (Alex Essoe) lost her husband due to a vehicle accident and has two kids, a teenage girl and young pre-teen son who has not spoken a word since the crash.

The year is 1987 and the family travel to Spain to renovate an old Abbey that was left to Julia by her husband upon his death.

As the construction crew are refitting the decrepit Abbey they find a hidden section behind a crumbling wall.

After one of their workers is hurt badly the crew become superstitious and cancel the contract.

At the same time Julia’s young son, seemingly becomes ill and medical doctors cannot find the cause.

As his illness deepens strange things also begin happening around the Abbey.

Eventually a Catholic Priest is called in and instantly he recognises the possibility of a possession.

Father Gabriele Amorth is commissioned to visit the family and what plays out is a deep story in to the dark past of the Catholic Church.

Russell Crowe as Father Gabriele Amorth is on point and I’ll admit, I raised an eyebrow or two when I’d heard he had taken this role. But no, he is brilliant.

The film was not as slow as I thought it would be either. The horror escalates quickly and is the dominant flavour throughout the film.

I couldn’t help but notice some similarities between The Pope’s Exorcist and 1973’s The Exorcist. Fans of the earlier film will notice this too.

In all The Pope’s Exorcist was enjoyable, failed to offer anything wholly new to the genre but has the right amount of jump scares, overall creepiness and dark story for any horror fan.

The post The Pope’s Exorcist (Sony Pictures – 2023) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Where the Crawdads Sing is the film adaption, based off best selling novel by Delia Owens.

The title comes from Kya Clark, the main character of the story’s interpretation of the phrase “where the crawdads sing”. It means far in the bush where critters are wild and still behaving like critters, or a place to embrace nature removed from people and society.

We first see Kya as a young girl, also known as The Marsh Girl by the residents of Barkley Cove. Living in a modest hut on her own after being abandoned by every member of her family. Torn apart by their drunken, abusive father.

Not only is she completely alone to fend for herself, she is also shunned from society for being a peculiar girl.

This is a story of triumph and strength. Kya’s way to survive the world is by finding sanctuary in a place free of discrimination, where nature’s laws rule and freedom means risking everything.

She is introduced to a new and starling world when she is drawn to two young men from town.

When one of them is found dead, it quickly turns into a murder trial with Kya being the main suspect. As the case unfolds, the verdict as to what happened becomes increasingly unclear, threatening to reveal many secrets.

Even though the way it answers its central mystery can be a little frustrating, Where the Crawdads Sing is still a really good drama that has performances and visuals strong enough to keep you engaged from beginning to end.

I must have really enjoyed watching this, as it left me wanting to read the book!

The post Where the Crawdads Sing (Sony Pictures – 2022) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Spider-Man is back at the big screen bringing old and new foes while dealing with multiverses and the fact that everyone knows his identity.

Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is being labeled by media as Public Enemy No. 1 from the events of the last film.

Himself, Mary Jane-Watson (Zendaya) and his best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) can no longer live a normal life, and school has become hell being under the public spotlight.

With media helicopters on a regular rotation around his Aunt May’s (Marisa Tomei) apartment the infamy and controversy begins to affect the trios academic future.

But in steps Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberpatch) who reluctantly offers up a solution to undo the past events, so that the public would forget who Peter Parker really is.

With Peter interfering with the spell, the gateways to all multiverses and more open and old foes, from differing realities spill through.

Spider-Man: No Way Home takes the Spider-Man lore and offers up a well put together narrative that explains differing Spider-Man universes and it’s here that we get to see, well, more than one Spider-Man.

As Peter and his friends joined with other Spider-Man’s try to quell these new threats and Peter in the belief that he can help new foes instead of fighting them, the film also in a way does a reset of the current variations we have experienced in the last couple of decades of Spider-Man on the silver screen.

But of course not all goes to plan and Peter must make the ultimate sacrifice, not only to save his Universe, but also his friends.

A twisty tale, Spider-Man: No Way Home is definitely one of the must see films of this holiday season.

The post Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures – 2021) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Over 30 years has passed since The Ghostbusters, Egon, Ray, Peter and Winston saved New York City.

Since those glory days the group has largely been forgotten, aged and moved on. Except for Egon, who suspected that things hadn’t been stopped, only temporarily silenced.

He moves out to a rural town, isolates himself and is known as the ‘Dirt Farmer’ and as being eccentric by the locals.

It’s his passing that initiates his only estranged daughter, Callie (Carrie Coon), who herself is down on her luck in the city, in to supernatural.

With her two kids, teenage Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and a young Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) they learn that their distant Grandfather has left them a house and land, in the middle of nowhere.

With nowhere else to go, Callie packs up with her kids and moves out of State.

After series’ of unexplained earthquakes that has rocked the town for decades, young Phoebe who is smart beyond her years and a middle school teacher, Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) begin investigating the source.

It’s not long in to the film that it’s realised there’s more to this direct old house and empty land – and that the events of 1984 aren’t over, only subdued.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a modern take for a new generation on the original film, grabbing some of the best bits of the original narrative and bringing them in to a whole new film that is definitely the third in the franchise.

Old faces, new characters, familiar enemies, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will make those of us that were around for the 80’s blockbuster feel like kids again.

With Jason Reitman in the Director chair, son of Ivan Reitman who made the two original films, this is as true Ghostbuster flavour as can be.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is one for the fans yet being a standalone for a new audience.

The post Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Sony Pictures – 2021) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.