28 Days Later
Stars: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris
Director: Danny Boyle
Titbits: This is probably the only time you will ever see London
streets uninhabited by people or cars. The exterior shots of the
streets were done during the early hours of the morning on weekends.
The crew only had a couple of minutes each day and crew members had to
politely ask clubbers not to walk onto the streets. Classic!
Get this though, Stephen King, veteran of many books and films of this
ilk booked out an entire cinema screening of 28 Days Later for himself.
Genius! |
28 Days Later tells the story of Jim, who wakes up in
hospital this one day to find the place completely empty. Nobody
anywhere. Even outside the city streets are completely void of human
activity...or is it? He meets up with Selena, and then Mr Bridges and
his daughter, and they band together to find the answers. The first scene spells it out for us, a group of activists unwittingly
release a deadly virus (referred to as Rage) into the population when all
they wanted to do was liberate the monkeys. Damn that pesky disease.
Scene 2 is our hero waking up in an empty hospital with the caption "28 days
later...". Its a brilliant concept and something you'd think would
come from the mind of Stephen King (see Titbits), a world turned upside down
with the few remaining people left to rebuild (a la The Stand) but then this
throws in less hope than the Stand gave its characters. Struth, they
had engineers and doctors and all sorts, here we've got a cycle courier with
a head injury and a "qualified" chemist.
Anyway, so the premise is great and I immediately got all empathetic
toward these characters and their quest. Taking into account they've
only been dealing for 28 days however, they seem overly competent, the
unexplained explosives expert who takes out a couple of city blocks takes
some of the early cake here. Then came the Night of the Living Dead
isms when the new age zombies - affectionately known as 'the infected' -
grace us with their presence. But where NotLD didn't take itself so
seriously, this one sets out to prove that should this actually happen, well
this is how it'll play out. The morals interspersed with gore really
didn't cut it for mine.
Yet, I soldiered on like all good (movie watching) soldiers do. The
movie went in some good directions including leaving a love interest to wait
until the logical point of contact - the old adage of a relationship forged
out of a bad experience won't last could probably apply here - and also
explored realisms like the old food and water issue, and going to the toilet. There was a
little bit of humour chucked in here and there as well, a sign that even in
this cataclysmic scenario, the human spirit will shine through.
But then they meet salvation in the form of a cabin-fever raged army unit
who have set themselves up in some country manor full of mine fields and
flood lights and trip wires. So where the human spirit thrives in our
forlorn foursome, the army dudes get portrayed as the ugly side of that
spirit showing through. A delusional Major leading an equally screwed
up bunch of well trained but out of their mind soldiers added a pretty awful
tangent to the once promising story and I found my mind wandering toward
what I really should be doing with my time.
Towards the end I think the storytellers are trying to get me to see that
despite our hero being uninfected, he was still capable of the rage this
disease would do to its hosts. People chasing people down corridors
looked like something out of a Benny Hill special and all of a sudden some
of those "inventive" death scenes were upon us also, I think the writer was
just bored and though some formulaic crap would wrap this up better than he
ever could.
Starts nicely, the desolate London scenes are fantastic, but mystery
gives way to schlock and the premise is lost.
2 stars |
The 24th Day
Stars: Scott Speedman, James Marseden
Director: Tony Piccirillo
Titbits: This was originally staged as a play, |
This is the tale of two men who get together under the
seemingly innocuous guise of a one-night stand, only for it to turn a little
bit nasty. James is the freewheeling, free loving boy about town whose only
aim is to get into Tom’s pants. Tom on the other hand appears willing but
shy, yet deeply troubled. When Tom finally makes his intentions clear, it’s
too late for Dan, and the two must now stand-off against one another until
all is revealed in a tense finale.
I really enjoyed this, its one of those films where you take everything
that’s going on in front of you very seriously. Scott Speedman and James
Marsden compliment one another nicely and played the parts well, and the
writing comes across as that of experience.
Very character driven, very sparse and well drawn.
3 and a half stars |
50 First Dates
Stars: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore
Director: Peter Segal
Titbits: More than one little homage is paid to Director
Segal's and Sandler's respective pasts. See if you can pick them out. |
Adam Sandler, oh dear, what am I doing watching
Adam Sandler??? I hate Adam Sandler, "The Waterboy" anyone? All
those flaky performances in Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, ugh...ok enough
of that, but what am I doing watching this? Well I'm glad I did.
This comes very close behind Cheaper By The Dozen as romantic comedy of the
year so far. I tell you what's completely unusual about this movie
(for me anyway), and that's the way it starts out so completely crap (in
typical Sandler style), but then improves through the movie until we get one
of the best endings in romantic comedy history. Cor, I was just
bristling with butterflies. I am getting clucky and stuff hey!?!
Henry Roth (Sandler) plays a womanising (how???) marine biologist
(what???) whose goal is to get rid of last night's one-night stand with the
least trouble possible. He runs into Lucy (Barrymore) and he finds
himself falling for her in a serious way. Trouble is, Lucy can't
maintain her short term memory while she sleeps, so anything she does during
the day is lost by the time she wakes up the next day. Can Henry win
Lucy's heart every day?
This is a great little premise, I mean think about being with someone you
love and how you wooed them in the first place. Now imagine you have
to do that every single day. Where Ground Hog Day only touched on the
love aspect and actually concentrated on the self-improvement thing, this
movie goes for the love. Some great sequences involving Sandler's
character doing something, anything, just to get the girl's attention, its
brilliant. See thing is, she falls for his charms on day one before he
finds out about her condition, and then he struggles every time after that,
its great.
Sandler is in very refrained form, I think he's finally realising that
making your voice sound like a 4-year-old is only barely appealing to
4-year-olds themselves these days, so he's actually talking normally.
Its a good thing, and in fact is something Jim Carrey realised years ago
when he toned down his unique slapstick to be something akin to normal, and
it worked wonders for him. But in saying that, they both share that
same instinct: Jim can't help but pull a face or do an impersonation of some
sort no matter how serious the flick he's in, and Sandler can't help pull
out his whiny-baby voice every now and then. Hey Adam, we thought a
rich kid floating drunk in his pool blowing fart bubbles and talking to
shampoo was funny ONCE, lets move along.
Between Sandler's "real" acting and Barrymore's outstanding modern-woman
portrayal as the impaired yet sharp Lucy, this comes up trumps big time.
I got the impression that these guys were just being themselves on camera
more than anything else, its very natural and very watchable, you get sucked
in big time. I would've loved to see them explore a few more
scenarios, however what we've been given, especially the ending, I was well
pleased anyway.
Super annoying bit: you'll know it when you see it, but you'll
probably say like me "Gee, is this filmed in Hawaii...?" Hawaii is
rammed down your through as if Elle McPherson is about to walk onto the
screen and go "come on holiday now". Concentrate on the characters and
you'll be right.
4 stars |
Underworld
Director: Len Wiseman
Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman
Titbits: Kate Beckinsale and director Len Wiseman got engaged whilst in
post-production for Underworld and married 6 months later in January of this
year. Work has started on the sequel, due 2005, wahoo! |
Small Spoilers contained... When I grow up, I wanna be a
vampire. Vampires rock however they haven't been given much cred on
the big screen for some years now. "Dracula 2000" gave it a decent
shot, "John Carpenter's Vampires" also put a nice spin on it all, but yeah
we haven't seen a really good gritty bloody vampire flick for a while.
Underworld promised something special for me. A movie with loads of
gun play, and a movie with vampires. I read a synapsis and watched a
preview very early on last year that had me salivating for it. The
plot was going to be the only stumbling block that I could see...
Vampires and Werewolves have been battling for years for supremacy of the
races. Leaving the humans out of course, they're just food.
Selene (Beckinsale) is a vampire warrior whose job is to hunt down
werewolves and is passionate about what she does, but perhaps her passion is
being misguided by those around her and she begins to doubt herself and her
cause.
The real blurb, no matter where you read it, goes along the lines of
"Selene hunts werewolves until she meets and falls in love with one".
This is complete bollocks. What I'm about to mention doesn't tell you
what happens but is a twist that needs to be explained. Selene doesn't
meet a werewolf and fall in love with him, she is made aware of a human that
the werewolves are hunting, and through circumstances she saves his life,
but not before he is wounded by a wolf and begins the inevitable
transformation. And that, my friends, is where said romance begins to
blossom. Fucking blurb writers, fucking useless!
I really enjoyed this for two main reasons. Firstly, its a vampire
flick, that goes without saying. Secondly, its done what a lot of
vampire movies do but with little success, and that's come up with some new
spins on the vampire theory while maintaining the true isms that you can't
do without - like immortality (as a simple example). Things like
wooden steaks and garlic are old hat and over done. These guys are
awesome though, we've got silver cased bullets and high powered hand guns -
that rock! - and all sorts of serums and antidotes for whatever the
opposition is throwing at them. The wolves bullets, get this, have
ultra-violet light encased in them, tricky suckers eh. Then the
vampires even have their own Q (Bond gadget dude), and the werewolves have a
similar type dude but his job description is a little more involved.
With all this going for it, I'm afraid some of it did fall a little thin.
The ideas were great and the ultimate theme that drives the movie is a
keeper, but its acting and a few of the effects that let it down.
First of all, the big werewolf dude whose this tough as nails 7-foot tall
brick shithouse talks like he has permanent indigestion. Shane
Brolly's performance as the up-and-coming vampire leader Kraven is almost
laughable in its intensity. And most of the scenes involving a car
speeding away has mismatched sound to go along. First of all, the
spinning wheels and gear changing that you hear, you don't see the matching
image. In fact at one point Selene is driving up a driveway to a house
and you hear the car acting likes doing a world rally event, yet we see the
car just meander up the screen driving miss daisy. Silly!
What it does do well is make you choose a side, and the great part about
this is humans aren't one of them. Now that's tops. Great
performances from Beckinsale, Speedman and especially Michael Sheen as the
werewolf leader do save the flick, perhaps not to the point of making it
outstanding but they are class. And the flick looks the business too,
really nice deep-blue colouring throughout which while indicative of the
dark world we're in, it comes across all film-noir and cool. I also rated
the werewolf CGI, very impressive and well blended.
Vampire fans should pick this up.
3 and a half stars |
The Upside Of Anger
Stars: Joan Allen, Kevin Costner
Director: Mike Binder
Titbits: Singer-cum-actor Mandy Moore turned down the part
of youngest daughter Popeye for some music promotions. She's missed
out on getting taken seriously as an actor right there I reckon, bad
decision. |
It goes without saying that Kevin Costner's choices can be
speculative, and he also doesn't often travel outside of his frame. I say
that because this will be marketted as a Kevin Costner film. This is not a
Kevin Costner film, this is wholely and solely a Joan Allen film, and what a
performance!
Upside tells the story of Terry Wolfmeyer (Allen), a mother of four girls
whose husband doesn't come home one day. She suspects the worst of him and
his secretary and quickly slips into a self-imposed deep depression. Her
path crosses with contented neighbour, retired Major League Baseballer Denny
Davies - yes and before you groan what is it with Costner playing baseball
heros, he doesn't actually play any in this - and they form a comfortably
drunk bond with one another, both of them using the solice to hide from
their real lives.
Her girls on the other hand are moving swiftly on with life, apparently
neither here nor there about their father leaving them, but never really
feeling they can talk to their mother about it. Terry struggles to keep up
with their lives; Emily's wont for art school which is against Terry's
wishes, Andy has an affair with a man twice her age and Hadley marries a boy
Terry's never met. All the while Terry is moulding her own personality into
a new mother and partner, but still can't face speaking to the man who left
her without a word and drinking heavily.
It does take a few minutes to get going but once it did I was hooked.
Every character is thoroughly explored and I did feel like I knew them at
movie's end. Joan Allen is out-fucking-standing in the lead, Kevin is
remarkably sidelined in his refrain yet always around (takes a small leaf
out of his Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy), and the young women who play the daughters
are fabulous. Keri "Felicity" Russell borders on a breakout role but doesn’t
quite get there, Erika Christensen is just stunning-and-bubbly and Alicia
Witt has brought her Six Feet Under pants to the set. It’s superbly cast,
but even so Joan Allen shines above the glossy ensemble, I keep coming back
to it for just that reason.
Great ending!
The moral of the story could be what doesn't kill you only makes you
stronger, and it could be "we wouldn't change anything we've done in our
past because that's what's made us the people we are today", or you could
ignore the morals and still enjoy a thoroughly engrossing tale of a family
whose crisis is someone else's bliss. Odd as that sounds, its a highlight.
The Upside of Anger is relatable, palatable and accessible, we likes it!
4 stars |
Veronica Guerin
Stars: Cate Blanchett
Director: Joel Schumacher
Titbits: Can't really add much here but the facts shown at the end
of the film seem to make a martyr of Guerin. I'm not sure that was her
intention as a person but she certainly did crusade that way. |
This is based on the true story of Veronica
Guerin, an Irish journalist who in the mid-90s, made a point of exposing the
drug underworld of Dublin. It was this exposure that lead to her
assassination in 1996. As with most true stories it depicts the era very
nicely, and its got that Brittish look and feel about it as well. Surprising
really, considering Joel Schumaker (A Time To Kill, The Client, Batman
Forever) is behind the camera, and Jerry Bruckheimer plays bank. But its a
great touch, gives it extra authenticity.
I wasn't aware of the person or her crusade and am a little perturbed
that it didn't make the news here in '96 that I can remember. Then again,
'96 was a bit of a blur for me anyway. Still, without knowing about any of
it, I felt well informed at the end of the film. I treat true stories more
like a history lesson than anything else which is why I won't make comment
on the film itself. Good story, worth watching.
3 and a half stars |
The Village
Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Titbits: Shyamalan's inspiration for this film came from
Wuthering Heights and King Kong. What the...? |
Cor, what a joke. Shyamalan is an
acquired taste, of that there is no doubt. But what was this?
Simply put, its the story of a fear campaign, run by a precious few, to keep
a community from leaving. What's changed in middle America these days
I wonder? This film wasn't meant to be a political statement I'm sure,
but I read one into it, and we left the cinema half way through. I don't
want to say too much, though I probably have already, but I'll concentrate
on what was in front of me in terms of movie and leave it at that.
Pace: S - L - O - W. Dialogue: infantile and achingly long-winded.
Cinematography: very unstunning.
I'd like to take this opportunity to warn you off wasting any money on
this tripe, makes me sick to the stomach thinking back to how I wasted mine.
1/2 a star - it gets half because maybe the second half of the movie gave
it some cred, I very much doubt it though. |
Walking Tall
Stars: The Rock, Johnny Knoxville
Director:
Titbits: |
A totally cheesy but entertaining take on the
true story of a US Army Special Forces soldier returning to his home town
after completing his service, only to find the place has turned into a
since-built Casino’s den of debauchery and lawlessness. He decides to fix
it.
I don’t think I could’ve taken this moderately seriously had it not been
for the true story aspect of it. Its like an adult version of Varsity Blues
crossed with Welcome To The Jungle. The Rock isn’t surprisingly very good in
the part, I like him, McDonough’s evil casino proprietor is also very good
but to include Jackass Johnny Knoxville takes the films credibility down a
few notches.
Also amateur was the filming, its not spliced very well but what saves it
are the action sequences. Again, this resonates from Welcome To The Jungle,
The Rock’s initial vehicle into Hollywood action star status with his
hands-on approach to the stunt work.
It’s a no-brainer-entertainer
3 stars |
War Of The Worlds
Stars: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning
Director: Steven Spielberg
Titbits: How's this for classic, Steven Spielberg played the
Jaws music on massive underwater speakers while Tom and Dakota filmed one of
the water scenes towards the end just to freak them out. How good's
that. That was Dakota's first stunt by the way, well done chicky. |
Wow! I'd been looking forward to this for
a while. We missed it at the movies and while I tried to duck away
from most of the publicity - most of it panning the movie by the way - I did
catch bits and pieces. But not enough to detract from what I witnessed
last night. Holy cow, it was only in my living room but it was big, it
was loud, it was very in your face! I think Stace summed it up nicely
when she leaned over after about half an hour or so into it and said "Man
there's a lot of holy crap in this!" Couldn't agree more. By the way
I've never seen the 1953 original so while I'd read some press as I
mentioned before, I had no idea of what I was about to see. Hit me
like a shovel hits a person when its swung really hard at them, and
connects...could I find a worse metaphor? I think that just about sums
up the kind of speechlessness I went through. At times I was holding
my breath.
But the movie, the movie Benno, concentrate. Man the effects were
the best I've seen...probably ever. This flick's CGI was so real it
could have actually been happening. There were very few times where I
had to check reality because as far as this film's first 70 to 80 minutes or
so goes, I couldn't fault it. It gets very dark and sinister towards
the end and the actual end was rediculous for mine - I mean were they living
in a good part of Boston or something? The entire planet has just been
savaged by aliens and you've still got lockable doors, I mea come on.
Do we honestly believe aliens socially discriminate?
The end monologue preaching about human beings having earned the right to
live simply because we survived. Piffel, I've heard better speaches
from the PM. Ok maybe not, but just as rediculous! Cut out the
last ten to fifteen minutes and you've got a winner here, I really enjoyed
it, very nicely surprised.
4 stars |
Wedding Crashers
Stars: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson
Director: David Dobkin
Titbits: No prizes for guessing who cameos here... |
Vince Vaughn at his mercurial best, Owen Wilson
as his pleasurable self - the man doesn't act, lets face it. Crashers
centres on the leisure pleasure of choice for two of society's finest, John
and Jeremy. Its wedding season, and they're invited. Somehow
they get in, somehow they pull it off:
John: Hey, listen, what angle are you going to play here?
Jeremy: I am going to go with the balloon animal display. For
the kids. And then when she comes near, guess who is the broken man,
haunted past? How about you?
John: I am going to go dance with the little flower girl. oh,
and I might be a charter member of Oprah's book club.
Jeremy: Its all deadly.Far from just preying on the innocent,
these guys are a well oiled party machine with valid fictitious backgrounds
and outgoing personalities to pull it off. Somehow their lies are far
from disingenuous and we fall in love them despite it. Vaughn's one liners
are a movie by themselves and Owen's cutesy thing is in full swing.
Isla Fisher, ex Home And Away actress, may have just cracked the Hollywood B
list after her performance here, she's great. The rest of the ensemble
is also great, Christopher Walken as the Secretary of State surrounded by
his dysfunctional family gives the appearance of realism flying in the face
of his uptight upper class environment. Even he seems bamboozled by it
all. Its a hearty laugh, enjoy it with friends. 3 and a half stars |
The Whole Ten Yards
Stars: Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry
Director: Howard Deutch
Titbits: One of the better scenes sees Perry and Willis'
characters waking up in bed together. Willis was actually naked under
the covers and Perry has been to afraid to ask him why. LOL! |
Too many quadruple crosses and double
entrendres, tries way too hard to emulate what it did effortlessly the first
time around. The Chandler act is tired and Bruce was just out for some extra
pocket money for the kids I'm sure. To sum it up in a word, shit!
1 star |
Wolf Creek
Stars: John Jaratt, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi, Andy
McPhee
Director: Greg McLean
Titbits: The director of public prosecutions in the Northern
Territory asked that this film be delayed until the conclusion of the murder
trial of Bradley John Murdoch. That trial kicked off on October 17 but
I'm not sure that it has been concluded even now (25/11/2005), so I'm not
sure what the distributor had in mind by agreeing with that. |
Wolf Creek tells the harrowing tale of three
young people taking a road trip across the Northern Territory. What
starts out as the experience of a life-time turns out to be the nightmare
they'd all love to forget. Heavily rooted in the recent infamy of Ivan
Milat and Peter Falconio, Wolf Creek sets out to disturb and succeeds in
spades. Buyer beware, this will chill you to the bone! I was drawn
into this movie hook, line and sinker, and while it dragged me through its
muddy waters towards impending peril it took no shame in tearing through
every metaphoric piece of flesh from its entry point. Wow, I felt
completely shredded. We went to the flick as a group of four and none
of us could speak for a good thirty minutes as we wandered around Burwood
trying to decide whether we'd go get a beer or just run and hide from the
evil that men do. Cor!
What I found very interesting is the number of people that walked out as
the going got tough on the screen. It wasn't a packed theatre and I
reckon I counted no less than a dozen people make a bee-line for the exit,
shielding their eyes as they went. On the surface of it, it might be
easy to think that this film went out to shock for the sake of it, but there
is so much to connect to - especially if you've done a bit of outback travel
- that your darkest imagination will blur quite nicely with what we all know
happens and have no doubt that its happening right now.
Best Australian move I've seen in a few years at least.
4.5 stars |
Wonderland
Stars: Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth
Director: James Cox
Titbits: When John Holmes was king, making porn was actually considered
an illegal act in Los Angeles county. But where porn was making Holmes
a very rich and connected man, he was actually ratting out the film makers
to the cops when he wanted to. |
Wonderland tries to piece together the events of July 1,
1981; The Wonderland Murders, aka Four On The Floor. While we in
Australia may have been a bit screened of information like this back in the
day, the yanks hailed it as one of the worst crimes in Southern California's
history, and not only that, porn king John Holmes just happened to be
involved. What makes things interesting is of the five victims
involved, only one barely survived her testimony couldn't put anyone away
for the killings. The murder is, to this day, still officially
unsolved. Being based on a true story is always going to get me
interested. The fact its a true story about one of porn's legends, and
in reference to something I'd never heard before, well yeah I was glued to
the screen during the opening credits.
Wonderland jumped around a bit initially, almost Pulp Fiction style, but
it isn't lost on the audience. It time lines you nicely with blips
from newspapers showing dates and the like. Having said that you do
have to be prepared to take some backward and sideways steps to get to where
the movie wants you to go. Hardly a bad aspect in my opinion as a
movie that just does it all for you is pretty boring.
The material I found very thorough. The film makers only had the
information they were given in order to tell us the story and we're getting
all of that. Some of it is embellished and for the sake of a good
story it really wasn't necessary here. One thing of important note
that you all should know: this movie has nothing to do with John Holmes'
penis.
For those who don't know John, he was the first (and maybe last)
superstar in porn, and it was mostly because of his 13 inch erection that
was as thick as his wrist. Not only was the thing visible from space,
the guy could "stand at attention" and cum on cue for as long as a director
needed him to during any given shoot. He was an amazing cocksman.
But yes, this movie does not delve into the man's pornographic past with
the exception of one moment when one of his "mates" orders him to display it
for a couple of women. I think this gives the film way more cred than
I was expecting. The film makers have relied on the name "Holmes" to
carry the character beyond what you see during the film and to this end I
salute them. Too often we see the tawdry for-the-sake-of-it flesh
exposed just for a bit of titillation or shock value. Just look at
Boogie Knights - also loosely based on the life and times of Holmes' porn
career. So if you're worried its just an excuse to show some tits and
dicks and people shamelessly using them, then don't be, this one's all about
a whole 'nother thing.
Drugs! I have read one comment that says "If you're looking for a
movie that will put you off drugs for life, this is it". Meh, yeah nah
I don't reckon it has that impact, but it certainly leaves you feeling a
little bit dirty and a little bit greasy and not totally unaffected by
what's just happened.
The acting is superb, most of the characters are either strung out or
recovering from being strung out by taking the next shipment up their noses
- and lets not for one second think that these actors haven't been there in
real life for at least an instant - so it gives the film that extra piece of
authenticity. The sets are great and we feel like we've been beamed
back to the late 70s. What really surprised me were the names in the
ensemble. Obviously Kilmer is going to sell tickets, but Kate
Bosworth, Josh Lucas, Lisa Kudrow, Christina Appelgate, Janeane Garofalo and
even a cameo by Carrie Fisher and a totally unnecessary appearance by Paris Hilton. The pisser is Dylan
"The Practice" McDermott playing a junkie-bikie, he's a bit too type cast to
be doing roles like that. As soon as he said "inadmissible" during one
of rants it lost me on him a bit.
Still, not something you'd show the kids.
4 stars |
