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A Few Best Men ★★★

May 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A little too simple minded for its own good – but still a few laughs

Website: afewbestmenthemovie.com
Director: Stephan Elliott
Lead: Xavier Samuel
Co-Star: Laura Brent
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 97mins
Rating: PG
Stars: ★★★

Brit David (the cute Xavier Samuel) meets Aussie Mia (Laura Brent) on a holiday in Tuvalu (of all places) and they impulsively decide to get married. When he arrives home to London his mates are aghast (not only at the fact he walks into his own surprise welcome home party naked). He, along with Tom (Kris Marshall), Graham (Kevin Bishop and Luke (Tim Draxl, head to the Blue Mountains (although the airport in the film doesn’t look anything like Sydney Airport) for the wedding.

The film itself doesn’t take a lot of brain power and the jokes are a probably aimed more at stereotyping Australians in the minds of the British audience than would be ideal – but there are some laughs hidden in amongst this. The most laughs come from the haphazard antics of Tom and Graham including a sheep in drag and the interaction between the the two of them and the local drug dealer with whom they have some misfortune.

The funniest characters for me are Mia’s parents – Senator Jim (Jonathan Biggins and his wife (Olivia Newton-John). Imagine Olivia turning into a coke snorting party girl all while her Senator husband is trying to impress half the Australian parliament at the wedding. The other standout is Rebel Wilson who I actually enjoyed for once.

The film seems to be a bit of a showcase for past and present Sydney Theatre Company actors – with Steve Le Marquand making an appearance as the drug dealer.

A Few Best Men will make you smile without making you think too much about it – a key feature of many Australian comedies.

IMDb

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MGFF: Break My Fall ★★

February 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The only great thing about this is the post-punk soundtrack

Website: imdb.com
Director: Kanchi Wichmann
Lead: Kat Redstone
Co-Star: Sophie Anderson
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 107mins
Rating: NR
Stars: ★★

Why is it that filmmakers these days want to focus so much on how bad relationships can be. For a love story to work on screen – we must also fall in love – be part of the relationship. This is clearly not the case in Break My Fall where we spend the first half of the film watching Liza (Kat Redstone) and Sally (Sophie Anderson) sulking around their flat, through rehearsals and being generally miserable in their relationship.

There are moments of fun. I particularly enjoyed Liza’s meeting up with a older lesbian who has just been jilted by her girlfriend who has actually been married to a man for their entire relationship. The best line in the film is an encounter with a waitress who wants to charge them for an extra fork – ‘you’ve got a cutlery disorder’.

This is an interesting look at the twilight world of London’s East End. There is loads of cocaine, one of the friends is a rent boy and angsty emoish conversations on rooftops at 4am. There are plenty of issues to be emoish about too – casual sex, barebacking, drug abuse, alcoholism and eating disorders.

Reportedly the film was made for about £40,000 – so it achieves a lot for the money. But unfortunately I didn’t really find myself liking any of these characters – and this really detracted for me. The film had the chance to appeal to that kind of modern drama fan – but it just doesn’t push the boundaries far enough to work.

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Straw Dogs ★★

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Not a lot of fresh ideas from the original – so why bother?

Website: strawdogsmovie.com
Director: Rod Lurie
Lead: James Marsden
Co-Star: Kate Bosworth
Genre: Thriller
Runtime: 110mins
Rating: MA
Stars: ★★

The original Straw Dogs was made in the early 1970s and caused plenty of controversy. It was the story of a young American and his English wife who move to rural England and come under increasingly vicious harassment by the locals. There was much debate at the time about whether it glorified bloodshed or just explored what people are like in their various forms. Violence against women was a particular point of argument.

These days such violence is no longer rare – indeed is now the norm. So one could ask why Rod Lurie decided to make a modern day remake of Straw Dogs. It no longer has the shock value and doesn’t bring anything new to the table.

Here we have David (James Marsden in the role played by Dustin Hoffman previously). This time both characters are American and with David his wife Amy (Kate Bosworth) end up in Louisiana. This David is even more prissier than Hoffman’s – but he is equally as inactive when the local starts to drool over his wife. The most realised character in the film is Amy’s ex Charlie (Alexander Skarsgård) the alpha dog of the film.

All in all this is a serviceable thriller that doesn’t stray too far from the required formula – but there is nothing new here.

IMDb

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Abduction ★★

January 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The only thing going for this is Lautner’s sex appeal

Website: abductionthefilm.com
Director: John Singleton
Lead: Taylor Lautner
Co-Star: Lily Collins
Genre: Action | Drama | Mystery
Runtime: 106mins
Rating: M
Stars: ★★

This latest vehicle for Taylor Lautner proves yet again that this boy had enormous sex appeal but not a large range of emotion. There are so many moment in this film which would normally call for some reaction behind the stony faced Lautner’s range – but he just doesn’t have it. That aside – he is hot and likeable – so he is one of the good things about the film too.

Abduction follows Nathan Harper (Lautner) who was already feeling like he didn’t fit in his family. He confesses as much to his shrink (Sigourney Weaver). But when trained killers invade his home there are a load more questions that need to be answered.

This all happens when Nathan and potential girlfriend Karen (Lily Collins) find Nathan as a 3 year old on a missing persons website. He contacts the site to notify them that he has seen ‘Stephen Price’ but the questions they ask immediately get him concerned. Juvenile Justice – as they have called themselves – arrives at the door not very much later and kill his parents and destroy the house. Nathan has gotten himself into a real mess.

We find out that Nathan’s picture was inserted on the site by a rogue black ops agent named Kozlow (Michael Nyqvist) who is hoping to use Nathan as a bargaining chip for a top secret list of double agents that the CIA is also trying to obtain. It is in the possession of Martin – the undercover CIA agent who is Nathan’s real father.

I’m going to leave the description of the plot there – lest you want to actually watch this thing – but lets say – this is where the action begins. One big chase scene until the final showdown between Nathan and Kozlow. Along the way he also has to contend with the CIA chasing him – headed up by Frank Burton (Alfred Molina).

Lautner clearly enjoyed the role – doing many of his stunts himself. There is plenty of appalling dialogue to laugh along with (even if it is unintended).

Give this one a miss.

IMDb

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The Cup ★★

January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Great story but not necessarily a great film

Website: cupmovie.com.au
Director: Simon Wincer
Lead: Stephen Curry
Co-Star: Brendan Gleeson
Genre: Drama | Sport
Runtime: 106mins
Rating: M
Stars: ★★

The story of Damien Oliver (Stephen Curry) and his preparation for the 2002 Melbourne Cup is a pretty amazing story in and of itself. Damien has just been announced as Australian jockey of the year – again – and he was being asked to ride outside chance Media Puzzle but these were the last of his worried in what was a tumultuous time. Unfortunately for The Cup – while this is a gripping story – it really doesn’t translate in this film.

Damien came from a family of jockeys. His father was a champion Western Australian jockey who had tragically been killed in a riding fall 27 years earlier. This drove Damien and his older brother Jason to achieve in what is one of the most dangerous sports in the world.

in the lead up to 2002, there were two major threats to an Australian horse winning the cup – the horses from the stable of Dermot Weld (Brendan Gleason) to which Damien had been aligned and the Godolphin horses from the Middle East including one of the favourites Pugin. The film follows the time between Damien being asked to ride for the Weld stable and actually winning the Cup (I’m not spoiling anything – the outcome is well known).

About a month before the Melbourne Cup in 2002 – the Bali bombings occurred and this set the stage for a tough time for Damien. Only a week before the race Damien’s older brother Jason (Daniel MacPherson) was killed in a fall which had eerily similar circumstances to that of his father. Damien was left in the agonising position of having to decide whether he rode or not – not assisted by Jason’s girlfriend who describes the riding deaths in the family as the ‘Oliver curse’.

Of course we know he did ride an we know what the outcome was – but the film does give some insight into what might have been going on in Damien’s head. It definitely gives a sense of how much the country was behind him at the time.

The film could have been a gripping tale – and Curry is brilliant as Damien. He had to make massive changes to his body to play the jockey and the hard work is visible to all. Gleeson gives the film gravitas as well; as does Bill Hunter as Bart Cummings.

The problem with this film is that is seems too low budget and too clunky. The film engages in the second half but after we have struggled through the first half which is less than engaging – the climax of a result we already know left me a little uninspired.

It is safe and predictable – and you can safely predict it will be on Australian TV before long.

IMDb

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