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Jim Schembri

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Jim Schembri has been a professional film critic since 1980, chiefly for Cinema Papers magazine, The Age newspaper and radio station 3AW. He now operates independently at jimschembri.com. Jim fell in love with the power of film as a young child after seeing The Lord of the Flies on TV, which he thought was real, and The Love Bug at the cinema, which he saw three times. He was six. Jim’s personal film collection contains more than 30,000 titles, including rare VHS tapes of such lost classics as Android (1982) and Weekend at Bernie's II (1993). He also owns many Beta tapes and two working Beta machines, which he refuses to sell on eBay. His second favourite movie quote is from the 1967 classic The Graduate: “Plastics”. His favourite movie quote comes from Steve Martin in the 1991 film Grand Canyon: “All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.” For Jim this is more than just a great line; it is a philosophy of life.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Air Shift (2025) 0.5/5 EDIT “A lame attempt at a horror-comedy, Air Shift is just plain awful.” – jimschembri.com Jan 24, 2026 Full Review Misfits (2025) 1/5 EDIT “There are hints throughout of potentially engaging themes...Unfortunately, they are squashed by sheer narrative sloppiness, waffling dialogue, overuse of f-bombs, poor continuity and, painful as it is to say, a pretty ordinary lead performance.” – jimschembri.com Jan 24, 2026 Full Review Vineyard Ablaze (2024) 3/5 EDIT “In a strong feature debut, Troy Blackman methodically unfolds his tense drama in a minimalist framework, with stately black-and-white cinematography evoking a subtly haunting domestic atmosphere that feels progressively constrained and threatening.” – jimschembri.com Jan 24, 2026 Full Review Primate (2025) 79% 1/5 EDIT “Think Cujo with a monkey and you’ve got the measure of this film, with one huge caveat – it ain’t scary...chalk this trash up as a date-night time killer for the easily spooked.” – jimschembri.com Jan 23, 2026 Full Review Marty Supreme (2025) 93% 3.5/5 EDIT “Breathlessly paced...Accompanying Chalamet’s outstanding performance are visuals and top-shelf production values that ooze with authenticity. ” – jimschembri.com Jan 23, 2026 Full Review David (2025) 76% 3/5 EDIT “The biblical yarn gets a rather good rendering here as a faith-based family film telling the tale of the boy-king with the help of high-quality animation and a clutch of catchy songs. Things do get dark, yet the film is fashioned for easy ingestion. ” – jimschembri.com Jan 16, 2026 Full Review 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) 93% 4/5 EDIT “Gosh, this is good stuff, a zombie-palooza with plenty of meat on the bone that delivers all the gratuitous gore and shrieking shenanigans you’d expect. The point of distinction this time around is the wily use of humour.” – jimschembri.com Jan 15, 2026 Full Review The Choral (2025) 67% 2/5 EDIT “Things just don’t gel in this try-hard attempt at a feel-good WW1 flag waver...Seems it’s OK to send men off to the killing fields so long as you get the choir right.” – jimschembri.com Jan 8, 2026 Full Review Nouvelle Vague (2025) 91% 3.5/5 EDIT “The making of the avant-garde classic Breathless is beautifully rendered in this lovingly made tribute to the French New Wave...Cineastes familiar with the film and the era are bound to swoon at how closely scenes from [the film] have been recreated.” – jimschembri.com Jan 8, 2026 Full Review Christy (2025) 67% 4/5 EDIT “Sweeney is totally convincing...her most impressive turn so far.” – jimschembri.com Jan 8, 2026 Full Review Rental Family (2025) 87% 3/5 EDIT “A heartwarming and funny premise laced with some well-honed dabs of drama, Rental Family delivers a sincere tale about family love along with another top performance from Fraser, clearly making good on his career’s second wind.” – jimschembri.com Jan 1, 2026 Full Review Sentimental Value (2025) 97% 2.5/5 EDIT “More a mildly engaging ramble than a searing domestic drama, Trier keeps things on simmer, never dialling up to boil. Some might interpret, or misinterpret, this approach as wily and profound while others could possibly regard it merely as long-winded. ” – jimschembri.com Jan 1, 2026 Full Review Song Sung Blue (2025) 78% 4/5 EDIT “Superb...what starts out as a giddy romance built around the mutual adoration of Diamond’s songlist morphs into a grounded domestic drama about blended families, financial strain, mental illness, alcoholism and life-changing injury. ” – jimschembri.com Jan 1, 2026 Full Review The Travellers (2025) 1/5 EDIT “Given what an accomplished movie storyteller Beresford is it is difficult to account for why the film is so dramatically weak, with story holes, stilted performances, implausible character arcs and flat dialogue running throughout the piece.” – jimschembri.com Dec 27, 2025 Full Review Anaconda (2025) 48% 3/5 EDIT “Good fun all round, no risk.” – jimschembri.com Dec 26, 2025 Full Review The Housemaid (2025) 74% 3.5/5 EDIT “A ripper psychological schlocker that looks and feels like it sprung out of that beautiful time in the 1980s and early-90s when thrillers emphasized excess and hammy style over restraint and good taste.” – jimschembri.com Dec 26, 2025 Full Review Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) 66% 3/5 EDIT “Lands with an overwhelming, earth-shattering sense of adequacy....a $400 million hood ornament for the 21st-century era of the Meh Blockbuster.” – jimschembri.com Dec 18, 2025 Full Review The Golden Spurtle (2025) 93% 3/5 EDIT “Full of charm and some lovely dashes of wit.” – jimschembri.com Dec 11, 2025 Full Review Ella McCay (2025) 22% 1/5 EDIT “A surprisingly spiritless and flustered stumblebum of a comedy.” – jimschembri.com Dec 11, 2025 Full Review Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025) 77% 3/5 EDIT “Catnip for horror fans. Bound to please.” – jimschembri.com Dec 11, 2025 Full Review The Terminator (1984) 90% EDIT “Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast as a "cyborg"... It is also a remarkable achievement that the film gets the audience to take its bizarre premise seriously.” – The Age (Australia) Dec 8, 2025 Full Review Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution (2025) 71% 2.5/5 EDIT “Another week, another incomprehensible, ultra-violent fantasy anime extravaganza that will bewilder normals but please the audience these strange films service. ” – jimschembri.com Dec 5, 2025 Full Review Twiggy (2024) 100% 3/5 EDIT “A wondrous serving of nostalgia, the highlight of which is her interview with a young, over-confident Woody Allen [whose] attempt to show what an airhead she is backfires spectacularly, proving early on that she wasn’t just a pretty face. ” – jimschembri.com Dec 5, 2025 Full Review Eternity (2025) 77% 3/5 EDIT “Offering a refreshing and funny fantasy twist on the ever-reliable romantic comedy form, Eternity lands as one of the surprising delights of the year. ” – jimschembri.com Dec 5, 2025 Full Review Nuremberg (2025) 72% 4/5 EDIT “Superb...a compelling, fact-based historical drama...Crowe deserves all the kudos he’s been receiving for his bravura performance.” – jimschembri.com Dec 5, 2025 Full Review
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