It is so refreshing to see the legend of Batman being given the respect it deserves because The Dark Knight has surpassed and transcended simply being called a ’superhero’ film. There’s a whole lot more on offer here than just plain ole super-heroics. What we have here is a stellar cast delivering real and poignant acting roles that make each and every unbelievable character - believable.
Heath Ledger pulls in a stunning performance - turning the Joker into a maniacal, psychopathic, anarchist - tinged with ‘Clockwork Orange’ inspired merciless, senseless brutality and schism. You simply cannot take your eyes of him as he possesses the screen and steals each and every scene he is in. There are some genuinely frightful moments accompanied by Hitchcock-like music soundscapes as the Joker proceeds to tell the story of his ’scars’ to his victims. This is evil incarnate. Pure evil. Ledger flinches and stutters as if a sadistic lost, insane soul has completely taken him over, spitting out his lines with venom, satirical, sarcastic jest. What a final curtain call for this talented young man. Take a bow Mr. Ledger.
The Joker appears in the film with a stunning opening bank robbery that is ingenious in its execution and methodology. There is no back-story for the Joker. There is no origin. The Joker exists as the other side of the Batman coin. Where the caped-crusader is a symbol of justice the Joker represents chaos in its purest form.
But there are always three sides to every story. Enter Harvey Dent. Gotham City’s ‘white knight’ District Attorney who finds himself in the middle of the Batman V Joker struggle. Comic book fans will know all about Harvey Dent and his role in the Batman universe, so I won’t spoil it here for others.
The Dark Knight is one of the most amazing movie-going experiences I have seen in a long, long time and already - I want to see this one again. The bar has been raised…
Its been a pretty hit and miss affair for Marvel Studios when it comes to superhero movies. They scored big with the Spiderman and X-Men franchises but also delivered dross like Daredevil, The Hulk (who is undergoing a reboot with Ed Norton in the lead-role as we speak) and the godawful utter crap that was the two Fantastic Four movies.
So where does Iron Man slot in? Well, its definitely in the hit department I can assure you! I was lucky enough to score a couple of tickets to the Melbourne Premiere and was very much looking forward to seeing this flick. I’ve always had a soft spot for Robert Downey Jnr. and have followed with interest director John Favreau’s fanboy passion on creating this movie.
Alongside Downey Jnr comes a stellar cast featuring Terence Howard, Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow but it is really Robert’s movie. Full of charm and wit and a downright rascally attitude that steals nearly every scene within and without the amazing Iron Man suit, this is a welcome return to form to one of Hollywood’s fallen stars and he nails the Tony Stark character perfectly.
It will be interesting to see if future Iron Man movies (trust me, there’s gonna be at least another couple more going on the strength of this one alone) will tackle Tony Stark’s vulnerability and ultimate demise into acute alcoholism and other personal difficulties.
But for now and as expected, this movie deals with Iron Man’s origin which has been updated to tie in with Bush’s ‘War On Terror’. (ahem!) It’s based in Afghanistan where Stark is critically injured and captured by terrorists. In the comic books Iron Man’s origins have been re-written several times. In the original 1963 story it was Vietnam. In the 90’s it was the Gulf War and now in the movie, Afghanistan.
There’s plenty of action and some wicked gadgets to get every geek, nerd and fanboy salivating at the bit. This is a true blockbuster in every sense of the word and a highly entertaining romp into superhero geekdom! I loved every single minute of it!
Oh, and word to the wise… don’t leave till the credits finish ok?
Continue reading ‘Iron Man’
From the opening blips and squeaks spewing forth from the retro game machines to your first viewing of the movie’s villain Billy Mitchell and his ego-maniacal delusions of grandeur - the first words that will come to mind are… “Are these people for real?” ‘King of Kong’ is the true story (honest!) of the battle to attain the world-record Donkey Kong high-score. You heard right. There’s people out there who really, really care about this stuff to the point where absolutely nothing else matters. God damn, we are witnessing the decline of Western Civilization before our very eyes and boy is it funny!
So what’s it all about then? Well, back in the 80’s, the aforementioned Billy Mitchell - who looks like a cross between Kenny Loggins and Nick Cave had set the world-record score for Donkey Kong. This record remained uncontested for years and years but in 2006 the film’s hero Steve Weibe breaks the high-score but his submission is denied by the official gaming commission (yeah, you read that right!) because Weibe racked up the points on a home based console. The only way the score can stand is that if it is completed inside a ‘Funland’ location. Yet, they commission quite easily accepts Mitchell’s video-taped record.
And this is where the lunacy really kicks off where we see a middle-school science teacher (Weibe) and a hot sauce mogul and (Mitchell) vie for the Guinness World Record on the arcade classic, Donkey Kong.
Insane! Stupid! Moronic! But friggn hilarious at the same time! This is… the doco of the year! No contest!
Check out the trailer here.
(Thank you to Penny Modra and all at Threethousand for the passes)
I love David Lynch. Unashamedly. I love his eccentricity, his symbolism, his outright geeky quirkiness. I love his films. The ambience he creates. The music… ah the music! Heck, I’m a fan. Have been for a long, long time so it was with great anticipation that I wanted to catch his latest offering ‘Inland Empire’ on the big screen. And what better theatre to see it at than the classic Astor?
Where did it all go so horribly wrong? We were there for close to four hours (intermission and a dud projector) - let alone loud, yawning hecklers which made the whole experience tinged with more inspired David Lynch moments off the screen rather than on.
I’m sorry to say, I found ‘Inland Empire’ to be an arduous movie experience. I hated it. With a passion. Boring. Mundane. Tedious. Devoid of any fuckn edits whatsoever. A gratuitous, self-indulgent wank.
And there’s that question of four hours of my life, that I will never, ever get back. I’ll have to remember that when I am on my deathbed…
This Is England’ is one of the most amazing movie experiences you are likely to see all year. Set in Thatcher’s England with the country at war in the Falkland Islands, the dreary desolation and despair of midlands, England permeates throughout the film. Young and naive Shaun (magnificently played by newcomer Thomas Turgoose) - is 12 years old and mourning the death of his father killed in the Falkland war. He seeks friendship and an end to the bullying he receives at school. so he finds solace with the local skinheads. They quickly take him under their wing and introduce him to the world of Doc Martens, suspenders and obligatory crew-cut! At this point in time, the film cruises along with tinges of genuine humor and innocence, but the life of Shaun changes drastically when the volatile and incendiary Combo (Snatch star - Stephen Graham) is released from prison. The mood and frivolity takes a backseat to the underlying sinister tones of violence and mayhem that Combo has now brought to the lives of these ‘fun’ skinheads. Each and every scene with Combo is laced with an ominous undertone. He is so viciously aggressive and head-strong in his misguided views of racism and nationalism. You literally view the innocence of young Shaun stripped away from him piece by piece.
An incredibly confrontational and stark film that has to be seen by all and sundry. Movie of the year folks!
With a much-needed day off from work, I decided to go and see the opening of ‘Die Hard 4′. Corrr! It rocked! Sure the plot is totally unbelievable (you know, cyber-criminals who can hack this, that and everything at the speed of light) but who friggn cares when you got cars, choppers, bridges, people, and jet-fighters been blown to itsy, bitsy smithereens in pure, unadulterated violence and mayhem! Could this be the greatest action movie of all time? Could it just! It looks slick! It sounds like you’re in the middle of Baghdad and you’ve got Bruce Willis at his best stony-faced self as a one-man-army against the forces of evil. Magnificently played by Deadwood’s Timothy Olyphant and he does the bad-guy/sunnavabitch role with aplomb coolness and malevolent ease! The hacker-wonderboy role is played by Justin Long (who us Mac zealots will know as the “I’m a Mac” guy in the Apple ads). Great cameo by Kevin Smith who has the nerdiest and geekiest room I have ever seen! Go see this one folks. It has to be experienced on a big screen with big sound and an even bigger serving of pop-corn and coke! FUN!
The one sad aspect about Sacha Baron Cohen’s character Borat, is that now with his new found popularity and celebrity - every knows who and what he is which in effect - kills the character from any future misadventures. Spawned from a character from the hit UK comedy show “Da Ali-G Show”, Borat was always my fave from that show so it was with great anticipation that I waited to see this flick. The publicity campaign for the movie has been a resounding success with the movie generating millions on its opening weekend worldwide due to a meticulous promotional campaign that hyped this movie to fever pitch. I was curious to see how Cohen would translate his Borat creation onto the big screen as his previous cinema effort based on his Ali G persona was a diabolical disaster. Having been a big fan of the Ali G show (both UK and HBO versions) - I was counting down the days till I got to see this film. The movie’s vignettes are intertwined with a storyline of Borat heading to the USA to record a documentary. Seeing Borat interact with rednecks, Christian loonies, and upper class snobs who actually believe he is a foreign reporter - is damn funny. Cohen’s ability to go with the flow and create interesting and often ridiculous premises’ that his unsuspecting victims swallow hook, line and sinker is comedically brilliant. It’s all as lowbrow as you can get and there are some disturbing scenes featuring male nudity(!) that one will find hard to forget. It’s a fun flick and if you enjoy it - do check out some of the Ali G DVD’s as some of the material presented there is a little stronger than what is ultimately featured in the movie.
Having grown up on the Three Stooges and Warner Bros cartoons for most of my childhood and (ahem) adult life - I can truly appreciate the slapstick lowbrow humour of the Jackass crew. In fact, a few buddies of mine have even dabbled in some stunts and committed them to film… remind me to show you the video of 3 thirty-somethings and a shopping-trolley stunt of a few years ago. But I digress. The first Jackass movie was easily one of the funnest times I have ever had at a movie. Ever. My two buddies and I, planted our butts in the comfy seats of our local cinema-complex, stuffed our faces with over-salted pop-corn and laughed and laughed and laughed from the minute the opening titles hit, till the end credits. Best money I had ever spent at a flick. The only disappointing aspect of the first movie was that it seemed to mark an end to the Jackass franchise. The TV show wrapped up and spawned a number of spin-off shows - (Wild Boyz, Viva La Bam et al) and some copycats from across the pond (Dirty Sanchez, The Dudesons). When word filtered out that the crew would be back together for a new flick, you wouldn’t believe the amount of excitement that generated amongst my pals. How in God’s name would they ever top the first movie? There was some pretty extreme shenanigans in Jackass 1 and when all is said and done, the exploits and craziness of Number 2 totally surpass it all. I mean, glamour boy Bam Margera is reduced to tears in this flick… several times. Jackass Number 2 is fun. I left the theater exhausted and with a grin streched from ear-to-ear wondering when could I make the time to see it all again!
Let’s face it, Jack Black is a damn funny guy. He has the uncanny ability to make one laugh quite easily whether he be crooning out one of his tirades in the form of a tenacious ‘deedle-diddle-dee deedle-diddle-doo’ rock song - or by simply looking direct into the camera and twitching his eyebrow. He’s a riot! So you’d think that Black’s collaboration with two of the creators of cult classic ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ (Jared & Jaruda Hess) and the writer of ‘School of Rock’ (Mike White) would generate a hit comedy movie in ‘Nacho Libre’. Not so. I was left feeling bitterly disappointed and wondering just where ‘Nacho Libre’ ultimately fails. In places, it tries too hard to be like ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ but unlike ‘Napoleon’s’ morose absurdity and slow pacing which works well in its dry and subtle humor - it all goes horribly wrong in ‘Nacho Libre’. In places, it is embarrassingly stupid and not even a fart joke can save it. I feel ripped off in forking out a fortune for the import copy of this DVD but I had been so eagerly awaiting this movie from the moment the (awesome) trailer was doing the rounds earlier in the year. There are some genuinely funny moments and on a production level, the film looks absolutely stunning in its color and tone but that is just not enough to save it. Bummer!
It’s not very often that the opening of a movie gets me that excited that I just have to see it on its debut day. All the buzz for Scorsese’s ‘The Departed’ has been overwhelmingly positive with grandiose comparisions to his 1991 classic ‘Goodfellas’. Like the aforementioned ‘Goodfellas’, ‘The Departed’ chugs along at a blistering pace with vintage Scorcese direction and some damn fine cinematography setting the pace for this brutal crime drama. With an outstanding cast at his disposal (Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio et al), Scorcese brings forth a tale of contemporary crime fiction that will leave you spellbound and transfixed to the screen. Starring is Matt Damon as Colin, a Massachusetts Police officer with a hidden agenda. He’s a rat, working for Boston’s top gangster Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Colin’s a worker and he rises through the State Police ranks rapidly, tipping off Costello at every stop along the way. But there’s a problem. He’s not the only rat in the picture. The Cops have their own mole, an undercover officer working deep inside Costello’s organization. His name is William Costigan, (Leonardo DiCaprio). It’s not long before everyone figures out they’ve been compromised, and the shit hits the fan as both rats on either side of the law scramble to find and take out each other. Rivetting!
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