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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Caught Inside (Film)

by Erin Free | October 04, 2011 15:03 | Edited October 04, 2011 16:20

It’s a solid effort all round, but this really belongs to Ben Oxenbould whose brilliantly unhinged performance makes this a truly thrilling experience.

There's nothing quite like playing a bad guy to allow an actor to well and truly jump off the leash (think Eric Bana in Chopper, Willem Dafoe in Wild At Heart, Robert De Niro in Cape Fear...the list is practically endless), and in the taut-as-piano-wire Australian thriller, Caught Inside, familiar face Ben Oxenbould rips and tears like nobody's business. First making an impression in 1980 as the cheeky hero of the kids' flick, Fatty Finn, and then finding fame on television with the (now decidedly tarnished) sitcom Hey Dad..!, Oxenbould's most recent high profile work has been on the sketch show, Comedy Inc. It's hardly the kind of resume that would suggest an innate ability to play it hard and mean, but as bullying surfer and all around bad boy, Bull, Ben Oxenbould does just that, and does it brilliantly. Almost swallowing the rest of the film around him, Oxenbould dares to go right out there with his performance, and it makes Caught Inside a thrilling experience indeed.

 

In this claustrophobic tale of a boating/surfing trip gone bad, Bull tips the action off when he gets the hots for the tasty Sam (Daisy Betts), but finds competition in the form of nice guy, Rob (Sam Lyndon), whose charms are decidedly more obvious. When Daisy unsurprisingly opts for Rob, Bull loses it, first getting a bit too close while she's sunbathing on a secluded beach, and then terrorising everyone on the trip - including Harry Cook's fumbling youngster, and Simon Lyndon and Leeanna Walsman's doting couple - with a bit of Dead Calm via Funny Games nastiness.        

 

Though highly promising debut director Adam Blaiklock expertly and imaginatively works his limited budget and claustrophobic set up to nail-grinding effect, and all of the supporting performances are rock-solid, Caught Inside really belongs to Ben Oxenbould, whose brutish tour de force is a perverse joy to behold.