Monday 9 November 2015

2001 Page Added


Best Movie-Viewing Experiences 23/10/15 - 9/11/15  

LANTANA (2001)
A   SECOND+ VIEWING
d: Ray Lawrence
CAST: Anthony LaPaglia; Geoffrey Rush; Barbara Hershey; Kerry Armstrong
> one of the most grown-up movies I know; acknowledges that we all expect trust, honesty and openness with each other, but we don't know how to get it or give it; deals with sex as emotional communication rather than just a physical act; only a couple of glaring too-coincidental-to-be-believed plot contrivances mar the experience...but only slightly; acting is superlative by all involved; images from the film (the choking lantana weed being the most pervasive) linger in the memory; an Australian beauty  
Award-Worthy Performances
Entire cast



SICARIO (2015)
A   FIRST VIEWING     IN-CINEMA
d: Denis Villeneuve
CAST: Emily Blunt; Benicio del Toro; Josh Brolin
> a horror movie impersonating an action film; an absolute journey into Hell; wasn't overly optimistic prior to viewing this (thought it was going to be very violent / gun-focussed / can't pick who the good guys are / typical US crime drama); I was right on all counts BUT it floored me; shocking, absorbing, repellent, very scary; makes the case for the legalisation of all drugs immediately; inexplicably isn't turning up on any of the Oscar-Prediction sites; exceptional film-making nonetheless
Award-Worthy Performances
Emily Blunt; Benicio del Toro



BRIDGE OF SPIES (2015)
A-   FIRST VIEWING     IN-CINEMA
d: Steven Spielberg
CAST: Tom Hanks; Mark Rylance; Amy Ryan; Alan Alda
> Hitchcock, Ford, Spielberg: the three greatest English-language directors with staying power who could produce celluloid art that was also popular; Steven is the most eclectic of them (only comedy seems to be beyond him), and with BoS, he has done it again, this time with a docu-drama about spies; flawless craftsmanship with a master's storytelling pace; engrossing from beginning to end; terrific performances; and it features that rarest of US movie scenes: people being shot which is meant to, and does, disturb you
Award-Worthy Performances
Tom Hanks; Mark Rylance



WHEN STRANGERS MARRY aka BETRAYED (1944)
A-   FIRST VIEWING
d: William Castle
CAST: Kim Hunter; Dean Jagger; Robert Mitchum
> fast, sheer entertainment storytelling; being a William Castle movie, you just know there has to be a gimmick or surprise twist of some sort (and I bet you figure it out as quickly as I did); William creates/chooses unusual and interesting shots; three strong actors in the lead roles helps proceedings along; loses a bit of steam about two-thirds of the way, but the nifty little ending repairs any minor damage; a shame that the director didn't end up using his powers for good rather than horror schlock - he could've been a noir master
Award-Worthy Performance
Dean Jagger




GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY  (2014)
A-  FIRST VIEWING
d: James Gunn
CAST: Chris Pratt; Zoe Saldana; Dave Bautista; Vin Diesel; Bradley Cooper
> who?; as everybody has already said, this is far, far better than what it should have been; usual complaints: too long (by about 20 minutes) / storytelling feels more like a franchise installment / fight scenes and staging are VERY familiar; saving grace is the nonstop humour and comedic stylings of Chris & Bradley; amazing how much oomph a pre-punk-pop soundtrack injects into the proceedings; looks fantastic of course with obvious nods to the comic books from whence it came; less complicated script than usual in these things helps enormously but, as always, once it's over, it's just over





DRAGONSLAYER (1981)
B+   SECOND VIEWING
d: Matthew Robbins
CAST: Peter MacNichol; Caitlin Clarke; Ralph Richardson
> I'm not much of a dungeons 'n' dragons fantasy kinda guy, but I thought this was pretty good; a cross between a Grimm's fairy tale and Polanski's Macbeth; heavy orchestral score is a bit much at times; Sir Ralph's reappearance is fairly spectacular, as is his grand final duel with the star of the show, the dragon; would've loved to have seen Sir Ralph's King Lear on stage; I wonder if this film was an influence on James Cameron's Aliens
Award-Worthy Performance
Ralph Richardson  




THE PERFECT SPECIMEN (1937)
B+   FIRST VIEWING
d: Michael Curtiz
CAST: Errol Flynn; Joan Blondell; May Robson; Edward Everett Horton
> hell...even Michael Curtiz had a shot at a 1930's screwball comedy!; a generic storyline: rich & mollycoddled young man meets dizzy & strong-willed young woman, and an on-the-road misadventure ensues; switch the genders around and you've got It Happened One Night (just not as good, of course); Joan & Edward are experts at this kind of fluff, but Errol seems to be wearing a straitjacket, only losing it when he does something physical; loaded with the usual array of quirky supporting characters with familiar faces & voices; dawdles a bit too much, but still quite enjoyable




ENEMY AT THE GATES (2001)
B+   FIRST VIEWING
d: Jean-Jacques Annaud
CAST: Jude Law; Joseph Fiennes; Rachel Weisz; Ed Harris; Bob Hoskins
> set in 1942 Stalingrad, the capital of WWII; tense duel of sniper stalking sniper while the massacre of the city roars around it; outstanding depiction of war amongst the rubble; usual Russian tick-the-list cliches: vodka, dancing, balalaikas ringing out; some scenes are very moving (evacuation across the Volga; fighting around the Barmaley Fountain); ever-so British accents pretending to be Russian are jarring, especially Bob Hoskins as Khrushchev(!); the muffled sex scene belongs in a different movie; the tacked-on happy ending is dumb
Award-Worthy Performance
Ed Harris



STAR OF MIDNIGHT (1935)
B+  FIRST VIEWING
d: Stephen Roberts
CAST: William Powell; Ginger Rogers
> AKA The Thin Man Rides Again (With a Different Woman); complicated murder mystery plot which has a genuinely surprise-twist ending; awash with alcohol of course; while William is wonderful as usual in this kind of thing (so suave, so unflappable), Ginger needs more to do and certainly should've been fed some wisecracks to shoot back at; some funny one-liners and bits of business (love the musical toilet!); not enough quirky side-characters to stoke the humour; minor but still enjoyable
Award-Worthy Performance
William Powell




CADDIE (1976)
B+  SECOND VIEWING
d: Donald Crombie
CAST: Helen Morse; Jacki Weaver; Jack Thompson
> warming little film which has been overlooked; the Australian Experience of the Roaring Twenties collapsing into the Great Depression; Helen is superb as the struggling Mum who toughens before your eyes; so wonderful to have a film that blatantly overflows with Aussie slang and doesn't pander to the US market; two major mistakes: 1) midway departure of Jack and Jacki is a loss of charm and humour which the film never recovers from; 2) the suddenly-lopped ending doesn't satisfy; still, a bit of a joy (even if it does remind us of the infamous Six O'Clock Swill...which was our version of Prohibition)
Award-Worthy Performances
Helen Morse; Jacki Weaver 



Worst Movie-Viewing Experiences 23/10/15 - 9/11/15  

50/50 (2011)
B   FIRST VIEWING
d: Jonathan Levine
CAST: Joseph Gordon-Levitt; Seth Rogen; Anna Kendrick; Anjelica Huston
> AKA The Lighter Side of Cancer; film means well but really...; it brings well-worn traits to a difficult-to-laugh-at story; Seth is the obligatory comic relief / buffoonish best friend, and does his usual sex-joke, sex-joke, gross-out-vulgarity, sex-joke, fleeting-emotional-admission, sex-joke routine; Joseph does his version of Tom Hanks in Philadelphia and, of course, scores high on the likability scale; you just know that it's all going to turn out cuddly in the end; it's a nice-ish experience for sure, but the blending of ever-looming Death with tittering sex comedy is tricky to pull off; shoulda spoken to Alan Alda first



MAD DOG MORGAN (1976)
D   FIRST & LAST VIEWING
d: Phillipe Nora
CAST: Dennis Hopper; Jack Thompson; Bill Hunter
> told in a series of isolated clips, there is no flow to the storytelling; a jerking narrative which, at least, is in chronological order but that still doesn't help much; some ridiculous violence inserted for what seems to be purely gratuitous reasons; hard to tell if Dennis is wonderful or woeful in the title role because he keeps slipping into method mannerisms that don't always contribute to our understanding of the character; very much in the 70's Aussie exploitation style; ugly, amateurish, seedy film making; and I gotta ask: why did we need a Yank to play one of our iconic bushrangers? Next thing you know, they'll get Mick Jagger to play Ned Kelly! 




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