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Reviews
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
a tangled web
Sam Raimi set the bar sky-high with his exceptional pair of Spider-Man films - the hype, fan-boy in-fighting and expectations of box-office records meant a lot of scrutiny would be inevitable when the 3rd installment finally hit the screens. Whilst Spider-Man 3 delivers the requisite thrills and goosebumps, Raimi has also given detractors plenty of ammunition - For every inspired moment there's a disappointing scene.
The ridiculously-hyped appearance of Venom was always going to disappoint the rabid fan-boys, and in that respect it didn't disappoint - the origin of the alien symbiote was weakly contrived.
Having never seen him in anything previously, I thought Topher Grace, did a reasonable job despite being lumped with a couple of dud lines and one really bad piece of expositional dialogue. The Venom character itself was amazing and probably the most satisfyingly rendered bad-guy in the trilogy; complaints have arisen due to the alleged lack of Venom's screen time, but some folks are just greedy; Venom/Eddie Brock's arc was handled pretty neatly and streamlined in that pleasing, popcorn-munching way that the Spider-Man films does so well .. but alas, that flimsy backstory !!
Bryce Howard was perfectly charming but completely wasted in her thin role as Gwen Stacey - the inclusion of a character named Gwen Stacey was a rare mis-step for Raimi when it comes to re-inventing Spider-Man's history; where Raimi's decree that Spidey's web-fluid was to be an organic substance was a clever change from the comic, there was really no need to bring the Gwen Stacey character into the movie cannon - the original Gwen Stacey storyline in the comic books was great (Peter Parker's girlfriend Gwen dies at the hands of the Green Goblin, further re-inforcing Parker's commitment to his responsibilities in tragic circumstances) and the weak character development in the movie actually surprised me when I half-expected something more substantial from such a potentially rich character source ..
Thomas Haden Church took up where Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin and Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus left off; he was great as Flint Marko/Sandman. However the CGI Sandman himself was underwhelming.
The character arcs of Kirsten Dunst's MJ and James Franco's Harry Osborn became unnecessarily convoluted and not altogether satisfyingly resolved; the scene where Harry learns of the true fate of his father was awkwardly resolved and has already copped plenty of criticism; rightly so. Nonetheless I particularly enjoyed Franco's performance in all three films.
OK, enough of the mixed reviewin', onto the really juicy stuff, the stuff I loved.
* J.K. Simmons is still a blast as blow-hard Daily Bugle Editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson
* 'the New Goblin' has been somewhat overlooked in the wake of the Venom/Sandman combination - however I thought the first fight scene between the Goblin and Spider-Man was the best action sequence in the film - that glider thingy was really cool !
* Rosemary Harris as Aunt May and Cliff Robertson in the smaller role of Uncle Ben were both serviceable once again; their characters always have the potential to become cloying, yet both actors invest great dignity into their roles as Peter Parker's guardians.
* Bruce Campbell. That's all I need to say, the guy is a legend.
* Elya Baskin and Mageina Tovah, playing the parts of Peter Parker's landlord and his daughter, were great again and had some fun scenes.
* the balls of Raimi to include two extended sequences of high quirkiness : Peter Parker, under the influence of the evil alien symbiote (disguised as a slick black Spider-Man outfit), begins to behave decidedly un-hero like - a scene involving Tobey Maguire strutting down the streets of New York bustin' some decidedly un-funky moves in order to impress the ladies is both hilarious and a clever way to portray Peter Parker's altered psyche. Later, a stylish dance sequence further illustrates Peter's ugly transformation. These scenes play out kinda like an inverted take on the equally unexpected 'Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head' scene from Spider-Man 2 - it's moments like that which made the Spider-Man trilogy special imo. A flawed but very entertaining film.
Fat Albert (2004)
Flat Albert
What a disappointment this movie was ... one of the most original and brightest cartoons of it's time deserved a lot more than this poorly-written, unimaginative effort - the characters were more two-dimensional than their original cartoon counterparts!
The acting was OK, it was the script that was the real disaster - where was Fat Albert to help out with *that* particular problem ?
the 'plight' of Doris and her sister barely raised enough concern in the audience to sustain a half-hour cartoon, let alone a feature film - with the long list of issues and concerns facing adolescents these days, the producers chose the softest possible interpretation of what Fat Albert was all about - kids sticking together and helping each out when problems arise - the 'problems' facing Doris were barely worth addressing - even the problems in the cartoon-within-the-movie ('Danielle' running away and leaving school) where more pressing ...
The whole 'cartoon's come to life' scenario was pretty lame - either do a full feature cartoon or make a movie about the characters as if they were real people - combining the cartoon world with the real world just didn't work in the hands of these writers - they could barely muster a single gag in what was supposedly a light-hearted comedy ffs ...
the characters were tampered with in a most displeasing way - Rudy was robbed of his original personality to be made more 'P.C.' - the makers of the original cartoon gave Rudy a cocky, smart-ass attitude to balance out the saccharine righteousness of Fat Albert and Bill Cosby - the gang didn't need anymore 'nice guys', and there could have been a lot of fun to be had with Rudy's character had he retained his original 'edge'. Russell's non-appearance in physical form was puzzling and uneccessary ... where the hell was Mudfoot ?!? ... only the tiniest reference was made to the Brown Hornet - surely something more imaginative could have been written with such an integral and fun character ?
Fat Albert the Movie was a by-the-numbers waste of celluloid and cellulite ...
Paris, Texas (1984)
a place without language ...
in 1984, Wim Wenders brought his European eyes to America's Los Angeles, and a modern masterpiece of a film was conjured from his many-nuanced observations. Through the character of Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) and his haunting tale of redemption, Wenders subtley explores themes of obsession, possesiveness, familial bonds and the ability of people to adapt to their circumstances and surroundings. Essentially a 'road movie', Travis's travels allow the audience a sense of the vast expanses of Los Angeles, captured and enhanced by the stunning cinematography and Ry Cooder's beautiful-but-minimal soundtrack. Wenders contrasts the cultures of the Spaniards, who once owned Los Angeles, with that of the European settlers in a poignant and sublime way; Travis's half-learnt Spanish heritage is no more apparent in his character than the obsessiveness he obviously inherited from his white father, the angst Walt and Anne develop concerning Hunter's future with Travis differs greatly from the practical advice a Spanish maid gives to Travis to 'fix' the problem - Wenders doesn't make a direct statement on the co-existence of these different cultures, but he certainly identifies and explores those differences. The entire cast is uniformly superb, Dean Stockwell and Harry Dean Stanton are a treat as always, but they shine no brighter than Kinski, Clement or Hunter Carson. And I haven't even really touched upon the mysterious story of the iconic Travis !
Dead Man (1995)
Some are born to endless night ..
Despite being mortally wounded around half an hour in, accountant William Blake is in many ways already a 'dead man' at the beginning of the film - during a bizarre train ride (to HELL ! as Crispin Glover's intense Train Fireman explains it) that gets wilder the further it goes west, William Blake reveals that his parents are both dead and that he'd once had a fiancé, but she'd 'changed her mind'. Upon arriving in the rathole town of Machine (where people engaging in oral sex on the streets barely raises an eyebrow)it's further revealed that Blake is penniless after spending the last of his inheritance travelling to this wretched place in hope of taking up a new position as the Dickinson Metals accountant ... the job however, has already been filled. Alone and bereft, a stranger in a strange place, Blake befriends an ex-prostitute who promptly seduces him. The romantic interlude is interrupted when an ex lover of the woman's enters the room and interupts the coitus ... gunplay eventually ensues, the woman and her old flame are killed and Blake is shot in the heart ... he flees on a stolen horse and heads into the forest. William Blake awakes in the forest and discovers an Indian man (actor Gary Farmer) attending to his bullet wound - but the bullet cannot be removed ...
Once the Indian man (who goes by the name 'Nobody' in preference to the derisive name those in his village had given him) finds out that the wounded white man he has found goes by the name of 'William Blake', fate intervenes on both mens lives. Nobody believes Blake to be the reincarnation of the famous poet/painter of the same name, whom Nobody feels a special affinity with for reasons which are later revealed ..
It becomes apparent that in many ways Nobody is also a 'dead man' - he later tells William Blake that his mixed-blood is not looked upon with 'respect' by his people. Nobody goes on to tell Blake of his capture by white men as a child, men who had caged him and exhibited him around America - Nobody's enslavement had eventually taken him all the way across the ocean to Europe, where he was eventually forced to attend the white man's schools.
Upon escaping his captors and making the great journey home to his people, he found himself labelled a liar and a big mouth by his fellow villagers ('he who talks loud, say nothing !') - and he finishes his story by telling William Blake that he is 'alone to wander the Earth'
Nobody also explains that during captivity in Europe he had discovered the poetry of William Blake, and that the words had 'spoken to him', inspiring him to escape his imprisonment. Nobody believes that William Blake *the accountant from Cleveland* must now embrace his destiny as a 'killer of white men', and Nobody's people with violence in the same way that the words of William Blake the poet had given Nobody courage and strength ...
As William Blake begins to play out the role fate has given him, he seems to become more alive and vital, despite his deteriorating physical state ...
Director Jim Jarmusch has given us a poetic, visually stunning film with much subtlety and spirituality - the Western genre is subverted as the 'hero' is drawn into the world of the native American Indian's and in the process becomes a post-civil-war hero for the oppressed Indians : with his Indian guide Nobody helping him realise his destiny, William Blake's sacrifice ultimately serves as a Legend that gives the Indian villagers some hope that they may be able resist/co-exist with the white settlers.
superb performances all round (Alfred Molina's cameo is great, Billy Bob Thornton's hilarious ..), an amazing soundtrack almost on par with Ry Cooder's 'Paris, Texas' masterpiece, and above all a thought-provoking and beautifully presented story from masterful director Jarmusch ...
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
Powdered Rouge ?!?
This is a brooding, atmospheric film focusing on ancient cultures striving to survive in the modern world. Forest Whitaker is Ghost Dog, an unlikely, 'big-boned' African-American man who follows the ancient Japanese code of the Samurai ... Rescued as a young man from a beating and possible death by an old Mafia guy, Louie, Ghost Dog carries out contract hits for Louie (and by extension the Mafia) in his role as Louie's 'Retainer'.
Whitaker is exceptional as Ghost Dog, his bulky frame carried stealthily throughout, the serious spirituality of his character worn sublimely ...
When one of Ghost Dog's hits is inadvertently blown, things become complicated, and the aging, almost comical branch of the Mafia that Louie runs with decide to whack Ghost Dog ...
This is a beautiful film that examines culture, friendship and understanding - loner Ghost Dog's best friend is an Ice Cream salesman who only speaks French, Ghost Dog speaks only English - yet through subtitles the audience finds that they are remarkably on the same wavelength and are often talking about the same thing - also, Ghost Dog develops a friendship with serious young reader Pearline, which hints at the possibility of her following his Samurai ways in the future ...
The clash of the coarse, cartoonish Mafioso culture with Ghost Dog's way of the Samurai is the key to the movie, but it really has a lot to say with little dialogue uttered ...
the soundtrack, provided by Wu-Tang clans' RZA, is unbelievable, he later went on to do the Kill Bill soundtracks - the stuff in Ghost Dog is more minimalistic, yet no less arresting, and compliments the visuals brilliantly ...
A very philosophical movie, if you look at the cover and think you're in for a chop sockey shoot 'em up you'll be very disappointed, whilst there is some violence it is generally a very sombre, thoughtful film ....
some nice touches :
Ghost Dog appears to be 'invisible' when he wears his hood, although it is only subtley suggested
Louie and Ghost Dog have differing memories of the day Louie rescued Ghost Dog, Ghost Dog remembers a man pulling a gun on him, Louie recalls the gun being pointed at him
the Mafia are always seen to be watching old cartoons
aging gangster Sonny Valerio's rendition of Public Enemy's tongue-twisting rap 'Cold Lampin with Flavour' is a fricken classic
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
You scurvy shyster bastard, I'm a doctor of journalism, man !!
This movie is a strange beast and kinda difficult to describe - sorta based on true events, sorta fabricated, I doubt the story's original author would know himself what was real and what wasn't ...
Director Terry Gilliam (former Monty Python animator, director of such films as Brazil and 12 Monkeys) adapted a great screenplay from the writings of famed 60's San Francisco 'gonzo' journalist Hunter S. Thompson (who goes by the pseudonym Raoul Duke in the film, for reasons I'm only partially sure of), a quirky, cynical drug-fiend who's character is brilliantly interpreted by Johnny Depp (whose balding appearance, muttered speech and trippy hand movements are a hoot).
Set in 1971, with the hippy age of enlightenment nearly dead, we pick up the action on a highway in the middle of the Nevada desert - Depp/Thompson/Duke's narration eventually reveals in it's convoluted way that he and his ever-present attorney, Dr. Gonzo (more on him in a moment) are on their way to Las Vegas to cover a car race for Rolling Stone magazine ...
However, secondary to that concern is the copious amounts of drugs the two have brought with them and intend on consuming ...
A minute into the film, Duke's LSD-induced hallucinations of large Bats are brought to life in Gilliams distinctive style (indeed he handles all the drug/hallucination scenes brilliantly) - dark, threatening creatures swoop and gather in the sky as Duke warns Dr. Gonzo "We can't stop here, this is bat country !!" The trip quickly dissolves into a frenzy of drug-taking and misadventure, Benecio Del Toro (who gained 40 pounds for the role of the 'fat Samoan' Dr. Gonzo) steals half the movie with some downright scary portrayals of bad acid trips, aided by Gilliams incredible visual touches ...
having recently read a little bit about 'Dr. Gonzo', he sounds like an even more larger-than-life figure than Hunter S. Thompson himself - Dr. Gonzo's real name was Oscar Zeta Acosta, and he was known as 'the Brown Buffalo' - apparently he defended the rights of countless Mexicans and latino's during the 60's, and his work is still required reading in Mexican schools - *however*, he also had a legendary appetite for mind-altering drugs, and eventually disappeared "off the coast of Mazatlan sometimes in 1974" never to be seen again ...
Thompson somehow manages to avoids overdosing, being stabbed by his paranoid attorney and paying his ridiculously high hotel bill, and eventually produces the paper that would go on to form the basis for this film ...
man, one helluva film, incredibly funny and scarily surreal.
Obviously not for everybody.
True Stories (1986)
like the song says, It's a scientific lifestyle ...
When rock's 'renaissance man' (as he was once heralded by Time magazine ..) David Byrne got the go-ahead to direct and co-write his debut feature film, fans of the quirky Talking Heads front man were naturally curious as to what oddness Mr. Byrne would produce ...
With True Stories, Byrne delivered the kind of ambiguous messages and intellectual stimulate fans had come to associate from his musical offerings - a simple enough tale, centering on fictional Texan town Virgil's quirky inhabitants and their preparations for it's 'Sesquecentenial celebration of special-ness' ... a nice backdrop for some kooky comedy, but is Byrne laughing with, or at Virgil's southern population - is he poking gentle fun at the new-age frontiersmen that constitute the towns occupants, or mercilessly taking the p*ss out of the Virgilians and their barren, pre-fab factory dotted landscape ? Some of the characters on display are fools, yet harmless-enough; 'the Lying Woman' with her outrageously tall tales, 'the Cute Woman' with her love of all things pink, 'the Lazy Woman', so rich that she never *needs* to leave her bed (Byrne : 'Well, wouldn't you ?") and fashion-concussed 'Dancing Fool' Louis Fine, who serves as the movie's main character (sympathetically handled by an amiable John Goodman ). Other characters are slightly edgier, conspiracy theorist/Preacher character, Pops Staples mystical love doctor, and the late Spalding Gray's wonderful town patriach ... Overall the films light feel leads one to believe Byrne's intentions were harmless enough - in fact his character in the film, an out-of-towner narrator dressed in ill-judged cowboy suits, is a nice metaphor for Byrne himself; an odd outsider (Byrne was a Scottish immigrant to the USA as a child) observing an even odder, new environment - the narration itself is often amusing but less often illuminating as to the Byrne's own opinions on what he sees...
Great set-pieces like the ghastly Mall fashion show, Byrne's rather surreal dinner appointment at businessman Mr. Culver's family home, a wonderful detour to a gospel church and the assorted whacky acts performed by Virgil's finest during the parade and evening performance make the film easy to watch, as does the cinematography that successfully captures the vast isolated state of Texas and it's people's often kitsch attempts to tame it. Byrne and his band Talking Heads successfully weave musical numbers throughout the film naturally, without contrivance - the actors sing most of the tunes, Byrne only saves the last number, over the closing credits, for himself... Strangely David Byrne has never directed another film. I believe that if this film had been made 10 years after its initial release, it and Byrne would have been swept up in Indie movie fever; True Stories was a slightly odd film when it first screened, and it's ambiguity puzzled some. A bit like David Byrne himself ... Well worth re-visiting if you've seen it before too ...
Brazil (1985)
a vision of NOW !
This film seems more and more scarily prescient as the years go by - at the time it was released it was almost a little baffling and far-fetched, it now seems a frighteningly accurate vision of the 'future' not very far removed from our own present.
Monty Python illustrator Terry Gilliam takes the audience into a frightening world, where terrorism is omniprescent - the terrorists are never shown, but things are blowing up left right and centre ... posters on street walls saying 'Watch that Parcel' - others offering 'high security holiday resorts' - the society depicted stoicly marches on, stunted and weighed down by endless red tape and petty beuracracy, and paranoid of each other ...
The plot follows a beuracratic cock-up that precipitates the death of an innocent family man ... Drawn into this snowballing catastrophe is happily inconspicuous day-dreamer Sam Lowry (an excellent Johnathon Pryce), who over-steps his authority in order to help his inept boss. Lowry is hardly a hero, more of a petty pen-pusher, but when his outrageous daydreams of rescuing a blonde damsel in distress threaten to become reality after an encounter with a hard-nosed but sexy truck driver, he becomes obsessed and sets down a dangerous path.
A great (and surprisingly) small role from Robert DeNiro as renegade heating engineer and Lowry's sometime ally, Harry Tuttle (the man that should have been eliminated by a government department, but for an administrative mistake), an insidious, creepy turn by Michael Palin as Sam's old friend Jack Lint and a simpering performance from Ian Holm as Sam's pathetic boss all combine to add plenty more layers of enjoyment to the film.
Some of the effects are a bit dodgy, but some are great, and the movie has an almost 'Bladerunner' look to it at it's best. Gilliam has created a film here that's both very original and incredibly astute.
some other clever bits
* in the shoot-out finale/fantasy, a man is seen blowing up one of Tuttle's renegade squade via remote control in an unseen office by a man in a suit, foreshadowing warfare techniques decades away
* Sam's plastic surgery addicted mother actually looks younger than her son by the end of the film !!
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
I'm just as sorry as you are Dmitri ...
After having the pleasure of viewing Dr.Strangelove for the first time, I felt compelled to comment on the sheer cleverness of it ...
I knew going in that I was in for a cold war satire, but little else -
The contrast between the serious, documentary-style direction with the at times over-the-top characters and dialogue works brilliantly to keep the movie in motion, and the sense of impending disaster is palpable, whilst still allowing the mostly subtle humour to play out.
Fairly early in the film, we're given a close up shot of General Ripper's brooding face from an unusual angle, the camera looking up at his visage as if his face were a huge, insurmountable rock - as soon as this superb shot revealed itself I had the uneasy feeling that Ripper might be a bit 'funny in the head' as President Muffley later explains.
In his apparent insanity, army base commander Ripper concocts a 'plan' to wipe out the threat of Communist invasion once and for all; unfortunately it involves nothing cleverer than tricking his men into nuking the unsuspecting Ruskies ...
The only person in a position to get through to Ripper through his apparent madness is Captain Mandrake (an English officer stationed via the 'officer exchange program'), one of the three characters to appear in the film to be portrayed by Peter Sellers. At one stage Ripper confides in Mandrake as to the extent of the conspiracy theory that led him to his drastic course of action : the Commies are contaminating our 'precious body fluids', most likely through fluoridation of the water supply. How had he come by this umm, interesting theory, Mandrake quite reasonably asks at one point ? - Here, I believe, one of the films key themes and elements are revealed - Ripper tells Mandrake that he first became aware of the Communist 'conspiricy' "during the physical act of love" - Ripper goes on to explain (in rather cryptic terms) that after failing to become aroused, or perhaps losing his erection, he came to 'realise' that his bodily fluids were being taken or contaminated. He then goes to some pains to make it clear that the problem had *not* happened again, and that women still found him 'powerful'.
In essence, Ripper's failure to cope with his own compromised masculinity led to his insanity and subsequent order to attack the dreaded Ruskies !!
So a madman has potentially started world war 3. No real surprise there, as the focus turns to larger-than-life character General Buck Turgidson - the General is at first unconcerned over a phone call from a base commander, accepted by his bathing-beauty 'secretary', and continues his business in the 'powder room' for a painfully long time before finally deigning to speak to the worried base commander himself.
Turgidson decides the situation is serious enough to warrant leaving his young, barely-clad lady friend in their hotel room whilst he puts in a little overtime in the War Room. In a later scene, Ms. Scott, his secretary, thoughtlessly rings Turgidson in the War Room - before hanging-up, Turgidson ever-so-briefly reflects upon the precarious situation at hand and thoughtfully advises Ms. Scott not to forget to 'say her prayers' ...
Hilarity and double-speak ensues throughout the entire first War Room scene, Turgidson's zealousness to turn the accidental encroachment on soviet airspace into a full scale strike is demented logic at its finest. Somewhat fortunately, the President, once again played by Peter Sellers, is less of a war-monger than the General, and he enlists the aid of the reluctant and shifty Russian ambassador to contact the Russian Premier, the apparently drunk Dimitri Kissoff. Sellers one-sided conversation with Kissoff is a side-splitter, desperate not to offend the Premier whilst still trying to gently break the news of the impending air strikes. The Russians go one-up on the Yanks though, when it comes to light that they have constructed a 'Doomsday device', which is deadly enough to pretty much f*ck up the world - if the rogue B-52's commissioned by Ripper accomplish their illicit mission, they will unwittingly be activating the Doomsday device ! This is when Sellers' third, and most bizarre, character is introduced, the titular Dr. Strangelove. As he 'helpfully' points out, a Doomsday device is an excellent deterrent for Nuclear War - er, provided the rest of the World is aware of the *threat* first ! However, as the Russian Ambassador points out, the existence of the Doomsday device hadn't been announced to the world at that stage as the Premier had planned to announce it at an upcoming conference, due to his love of 'suprises' hehehe. And so it's all set-up for a tense finale, as Mandrake tries to obtain vital codes from General Ripper to recall the B-52's, President Muffley and his cohorts try to work with the Russian government to blow their own men out of the sky to avoid mass destruction, and a B-52 flown by Major 'King' Kong attempts to deliver it's mother lode upon it's intended target before they're shot out of the sky.
I could go on and on about how much I enjoyed this film, it's sharp humour, it's psychological profiles of the egomaniacs that would end the world, their sexual insecurity, the petty bickering over relatively insignificant matters while the fate of the world is being decided - but I'll wind it up here and just urge anyone who enjoys movies that encourage you to think to seek out Dr Strangelove : or How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb.
Chopper (2000)
Just a normal bloke who likes a bit of torture
Easily the best film produced in Australia for years, Chopper is superbly served by a talented cast and an assured debut from writer/director Andrew Dominik. Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read is a well-known, larger-than-life criminal/author who's roots in Melbourne's underworld scene go back to the 70's. Read's notoriety has long been legend in Australia, while his unlikely success as a best-selling author irks some who feel he has profited from the pain of others and the crimes he's committed. Yet his pithy crime-tales still sell like hot cakes. Read himself has often countered that the type of people he has inflicted his psychotic tendencies on in the past are the very people that the 'average' man and woman fear and loathe in the first place, fellow criminals, particularly drug dealers...
Andrew Dominik has brought key events and moments from Read's 'career' to life in a stylish and entertaining way. The script is more 'case study' than a cohesive plot, but Dominik's understanding of the material allow's him to stitch together a series of scenes focusing on a genuinely psychologically complex person to produce a well-rounded view of Chopper, the man and the myth.
Eric Bana has rightly been praised for his work in this film, and I honestly don't think he's done anything better subsequently, but to overlook the contributions of the support players would be to sell them way short; Vincent Colosimo is hilarious as high-rolling drug dealer Neville Bartos, Simon Lyndon excellent as shifty Jimmy Loughnan and Kenny Graham comes across oddly chilling as Read's father, with his humourless laugh. Skye Wansey steals all her scenes as heavily-pregnant and heavily dosed Mandy, she is the very definition of 'Bogan Moll' in her small but hilariously observed role.
Dominik's stylistic touches are clever and not overdone, sickly colour washes dominate the Pentridge Prison scenes, whilst garish neons and orange filtered light permeate the nightclub scenes - Jimmy Loughnan's flat is a nightmare, lit with a nasty fluroescence... A number of IMDb reviewers have noted and appreciated the fact that the use of amphetimines was visually augmented with time-lapse photography, another neat trick ...
Dominik's dialogue sparkles and is dead-on; his use of Prison Slang, Bogan-talk, Aussie colloquialisms and pitch black humour is clever and avoids cheap parody.
Examples of the p iss funny dialogue :
Chopper : "Beethoven had his critics too Keith, see if you can name three of them"
Examples of pitch black humour :
Choppers slightly over-ambitious plan to 'ice-pick the spines' of every inmate in his H division
Chopper head-butts his girlfriend Tanya's Mother, then chastises Tanya "Have a look at what *you've* gone and done" without a hint of irony
Jimmy Loughnan asking smacked-out 'fiance' Mandy to put her little girl Shazzy to bed, and a half-unconscious Mandy irritably snaps "but I don't wanna go to bed !" - Not *you* Tanya !!
Chopper's nonchalant comment to the Prison Guards that "Keithy seems to have done himself a bit of a mischief" after they arrive to find inmate Keith George lying in a biiiig pool of blood.
A reporter asks Chopper what exactly he 'likes' about cutting people's toes off - Choppers reply : 'oh, I dunno, I just like the way they pop off' ....
Funny stuff ...
The Big Lebowski (1998)
I can die with a smile on my face without feeling like the Good Lord gypped me
Without a doubt the funniest film I've ever had the privilege of watching. A magical brew concocted from a script over-flowing with multi-nuanced humour, masterful directing and a cast with the skill and understanding to pull it off.
The plot is a loosely-rendered updating of Raymond Chandler's convoluted detective tales; in this film, the Coen brothers have replaced the genre's traditional anti-hero detective with a drug-addled aging Hippie, and if that makes any sense then all else flows from there ...
Ruminations abound on the ultimate ineffectuality of both the militant and pacifistic factions of America's people, the story is played out in front of the backdrop of the Gulf War (which took place 7 year before the movie was made ..), giving the character's generally incompetent actions a resonance of futility - 'the people' are not only too ineffectual to change the world they live in, they also seem quite content to inhabit their garish world... the fact that the characters barely mention the War itself (besides Walter, an ex-Vietnam vet who's fascination with the killing fields knows no bounds)reflects on their general apathy - the Dude, the 'detective' (who is really a lazy hippie searching for his ratty-assed rug)in this tale, is from the flower-power generation, yet is completely unconcerned with the state of conflict his country finds itself in ... And yet this theme is not over-played, and the laughs come thick and fast, intellectual gags, observational humour, physical comedy, running jokes, character-based funny stuff - the strength of the actual comedy content lies in the sheer variety of absurdity the Coens manage to address in one film ... The two lead characters, the Dude (Jeff Bridges) and Walter (John Goodman) are wonderfully written and brilliantly performed. The support cast are just as wonderful, with Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro and Sam Elliott all playing their part in keeping the laughs coming ...
The Coen's also introduce a host of eccentric bit-players into the mix; a gang of cricket-bat wielding German Nihlists, Knox Harrington 'the Video artist', the Dude's nervy landlord Marty, Porn King Jackie Treehorn, high school 'brat' Larry Sellers; these seemingly random characters help bring the Coen brothers' L.A. to vivid life ...
The plot itself is full of red-herrings, and after laughing one's way through an initial viewing a few questions will be left hanging; and indeed some of the characters actions remain unclear after the credits have rolled; i.e. *did* little Larry steal the Dude's car ? *who* kept/had/lost the millions dollars ? *was* there a million dollars ?? - the whole chain of events is initially precipitated by a case of mistaken identity, and no-one, the viewers, the characters, seems to know exactly what's going on, adding to the free-wheelin', rambling feel ...
The Coen's trademark razor-sharp dialogue has never been funnier than it is here, once you're hooked you'll never miss an opportunity to drop one of the endless hilarious quotes into conversation, and your friends won't mind as you'll have brain-washed them into loving this incredibly clever comedy film too ... Am I Wrong !?
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
Christ, what a story !
This relatively linear children's tale may be seen as light fare compared to it's Big Brother, the Lord of the Rings, but knowing the story as I did I was really looking forward to seeing some 'fun fantasy' on the big screen that would clock in under 11 hours running time ...
Knowing that I already liked the actual *story*, I hoped the film of course would stay faithful to the source material and bring to life what had been written on the page ... Happily the film succeeds on both those counts, the fairly straight-forward story is presented in all it's detail (and without any uneccessary embellishment) and, like the LOTR trilogy, has a happy knack of achieving a look that goes hand-in-hand with one's own imagination (how *do they do that* ??) - my 10 year old son made numerous remarks about how much everything looked like he thought it would. Having a basis for comparison, this is a real achievement in my eyes, as C.S. Lewis doesn't go into *quite* the same detail as Tolkien did in the descriptions of their respective fantasy landscapes - although Lewis's world is in some ways more vivid than Tolkiens ...
The Mr. Tumnus/Lucy scene has been criticised for having a 'creepy' feel to it, but having just read the book I was struck by a real sense of 'stranger danger' that I didn't pick up on upon reading the book as a child - Lucy going off to tea with a Faun of indeterminable intentions ? Mr. Tumnus putting the young girl to sleep with a coma-inducing lullaby ? - It was already a touch dark in the book as far as I'm concerned, and I thought it was good that the director didn't shy away from the slightly sinister tone of that particular scene ... The CGI Aslan was incredibly impressive, I went with a company of 4, one of whom was convinced the Lion was real and only the 'talking mouth' had been animated ... I was also very satisfied with the acting performances, those that had a chance to shine did (Lucy, Edmund and the White Witch), whilst the others, who were written somewhat one-dimensionally in the source book, did o.k. with their limited roles ... Young Georgie Henley was as cute as a button without being too precocious and put in a great performance as the youngest sibling Lucy. Skandar Keynes (!!) was also great as the brooding Edmund, my favourite character in the books (he's said to be a metaphor for Man in this allegorical re-telling of the story of Christ )
But by far the performance that appealed to the more cultured element of my taste was that of Tilda Swinton as Jadis the White Witch. Damn she was good, if you had no love for the story or the kiddies, she'd still be highly watchable. She was insidiously charming during her first meeting with Edmund, emitting a vaguely maternal promise, yet her cold fury scared the sh*t outta me once or twice, particularly the first time she raised her voice at Edmund - she was bad assss ! Ms. Swinton was also surprisingly imperious with two swords in either hand during the battle scenes, which were largely mayhemic apart from her coolly choreographed fightin' moves - this usually dead-serious thespian (I said thespian !) seemed to relish the chance to play a baddie, and didn't go for the ol' trick of camping it up either, she was as cold as ice just like the White Witch should be ... her performance during Aslans sacrifice, and indeed the whole set-up of that particular scene, brought to mind ye olde Pagan rituals ... Anyway, Tilda Swinton definitely earnt the movie an extra star in my eyes, she was awesome and actually exceeded my expectations of what the White Queen should be all about. Like the LOTR, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was shot in New Zealand.