MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Join Luke McWilliams and Marisa Martin as they review some of their favourite Christmas movies;
Have a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year's Eve!
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Special Guest: Local actor and comic-book reviewer, Mr Big Tim Stiles from Giant Fire Breathing Robot joins the club to discuss the Australian premiere of the Australian Sci-Fi Thriller, Crawlspace!
Katy reviews an assassin action favourite, The Assassin!
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The Amazing Spider-man; and
Ted
Special Guest: Fadia Aboud, Co-Director of the 2012 Arab Film Festival.
Katy also reviews the classic gothic-horror, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Urgh!
ACTION SPECIAL!!!!!
Join Luke McWilliams and Katy Haynes as they review new to cinema releases;
Katy also reviews an action cult-classic favourite, The Karate Kid!
Special Guests:
Plot
We met Irene Adler (played by Rachel McAdams) of the first film in 1891, who is to deliver a letter to her nefarious employer, a Professor Moriarty (played by Mad Men’s Jared Harris) only to have Holmes (played by Robert Downey Jr.) spoil her plans.
Flash to our dynamic duo where Holmes is explaining to Watson (played by Jude Law) that he is currently investigating a series of seemingly unrelated crimes and business deals that is connected to Moriarty. Holmes chooses to meet with the letter’s original recipient, the gypsy Simza (played by the original girl with the dragon tattoo Noomi Rapace) during Watson’s stag night where wackiness ensues!
Review
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is darker than the original in look and tone, with a relatively more realistic, if not plausible, plot. Where the first Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes was an adventure movie with comic-book staging and effects, Shadows is a touch more menacing, especially in its depictions of violence.
That being said it is still a great piece of fun. The action sequences are great, aided by brilliant cinematography which uses an evolution of ‘bullet-time’ and Ritchie's modus-operandi from his Lock-Stock days, to speed up and slow down the action in beautifully framed scenes with magnificent detail. It is also fantastic to ‘see’ Holmes’ detection method. Here, Holmes is constantly observing his surroundings and weighing up the pros-and cons of possible future actions, playing his hand in his head on the fly, referencing lessons from Sun Tzu’su’s The Art of War as opposed to his literary arm-chair detective counterpart. Here is a man who is both blessed and cursed with the ability of this method, never being able to turn it off. It is also interesting to see that this ‘talent’, or mental illness, is starting to rub off onto his partner in crime-solving, Watson.
The Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes series is one for those who grew up with Sherlock and already has a back-catalogue of Holmes’ ways. This current film series deals with the relationship of Holmes and Watson in its fading days as opposed from the origins of the pair or their hey-day. If you are fresh to the mix, and yes, there may be many, you may wonder why and how Sherlock can get away with what he does, much like last week’s Tintin. Originally, Holmes was an amateur crime solver, with police coming to meet with him to explain the case that had them puzzled. For a price, Holmes would solve the crime with his method, and the police would get the credit. Only when a crime needed more details would Sherlock even leave his apartment at 21 Baker Street to gather more clues, something that thrilled him! This relationship with the police lead to him being a controversial figure, but one that had a certain leeway and agreement with the local police force.
Shadows’ plot is based on the Sherlock Holmes story, The Final Problem, but a lot of creative latitude has been used. As with Tintin, the script borrows here-and-there from the original text to create something new. Although this may irritate purists, it also gives them a new adventure to enjoy too, instead of re-treading years of books, movies and television series plots.
Robert Downy Jrs Sherlock is an absolute: a committed bachelor, much like James Bond circa 1800, whose only real purpose in life is to solve crimes with his almost scientific method. RDJ plays Sherlock intelligently with wit, great humour and a hint of parody, although his scenes with Moriaty are rightly laced with fear and caution.
Whereas one may have expected Sherlock’s arch-enemy to stick to the shadows until a later outing, much like Emperor Palpatine of the Star Wars series, he is completely revealed in the opening of Shadows, and is played chillingly by Jared Harris. It is pleasing that rumours of a bigger star were not correct (Brad Pitt’s name was thrown around), as Jared encompasses the role well, playing Moriaty as an evil academic, as interested in defeating Holmes as Holmes is in the same. A perpetual chess game, much like the X-men’s Magneto and Professor Xavier, serves as an apt metaphor of these men’s relationship to each other, and also of their methods of deduction.
Shadows is a great action movie, with very big stakes, much like the original. Where Nooni Rapace has very little to do, Jude Law was born to play Watson, and who else would you get to play Sherlock’s know-it-all brother than Stephen Fry of QI fame. However I am more of a fan of the current Sherlock television series which encompasses the character, and his adventures, more authentically, albeit in a modern context. A simple murder (or two) is all that is required for Sherlock and his hetero-life partner to spring into action, all with the local police vying for, and profiting from, his actions.
Unfairly, I may be too entrenched with the Basil Rathbone archetypical Sherlock performance to ever believe RDJ’s and Ritchies Bohemiam Sherlock to be the real deal, no matter how well it is played. That being said, like Batman Begins and Casino Royale, it is fantastic that such an original interpretation made its way into a blockbuster, especially in the increasingly risk-adverse Hollywood environment, where the bottom dollar is king over art and originality.
Rating
Undoubtedly you will enjoy this new outing of Sherlock. Its exciting, bombastic and the leads are doing something which is quite rare in movies nowadays: having fun! I’m looking forward to the many adventures sure to come! 4.5 out of 5 whodunnits!
Luke McWilliams, January 2012
Join Luke McWilliams and Katy Haynes as they review new to cinema holiday season releases;
Puss in Boots; and
Luke also shares a cult-classic Christmas favourite, Gremlins.
Special Guest: Writer, producer and director of the Australian feature film, Birthday.
Plot
We meet successful banker Johnny (played by Tommy Wiseau), as he comes home to his beautiful San Francisco townhouse apartment to give his fiancée Lisa (played by Juliette Danielle) a red dress. Johnny has a fantastic life: he loves his fiancée Lisa, he has adopted and protects Denny, a neighbouring college student, and has a plethora of friends, Peter a psychologist, some random guy and, most notably his best friend Mark. Lisa however soon confesses to her mother Claudette that, apart from the financial security that Tommy gives her, she finds him incredibly boring. Soon, Lisa seduces Tommy’s best friend Mark, where wackiness ensues!
Review
I have known about the Room for some time now, however I was ill-prepared for the massive turn-out at a late-night showing on a Saturday no less! Lining up amongst a crowd wearing black wigs and sporting footballs, I went into the cinema with my friends, collected a fistful of plastic knives and spoons, a brochure of things to yell at the screen and settled in for a quite a unique experience.
The Room is known as the worst movie ever-made and it is quite obvious to see why. What is an obvious vanity project from the movie’s director Tommy Wiseau, Tommy has micro-mismanaged every aspect of the movie while also giving himself all the credit!
Originally written as a play, Tommy Wiseau.developed and raised funds for the film version of the Room himself over a period of 5 years, raising 6 million dollars that went to the film’s production and marketing, and also for the rotating cast and crew. Buying a ‘complete beginning director package’ the movie is similar to Rebecca Black’s Friday: a packaged, ready to go product available for anyone who can afford it.
Unlike the super-low budget The Evil Dead which had its Director fundraise on nothing more than his perseverance and obvious talent, Tommy had millions at his disposal, which in better hands could have gone quite far. Drive for example was produced on a budget of 13 million.
The movie limits itself in terms of locations around the rented soundstage and of course, the Room. Characters spend time outside throwing a football around, upstairs having a chat and walking into Tommy’s apartment quite freely, one couple even coming in inexplicably to have sex.
Where The Evil Dead lost many of its cast during its overlong production, Sam Raimi had ‘Shemps’step into place, albeit under layers of prosthetic make-up. The Room made no allowances for actors leaving. Instead, the dialogue would be given to a new character without bothering to introduce them!
The movie has a number of plot-inconsistencies, continuity errors, bad dialogue and horrendous acting, mostly from Tommy himself. It is a vanity project in every way. Tommy’s on screen character is selfless: he has adopted a child, treats his ‘future wife’ as a princess, and helps his many friends out in any way he can, even grabbing a drug dealer and giving him over to police. Like the Mark Zuckerberg character in The Social Network, it is Tommy then who seems so out of place in this world that he created: amongst a roomful of young, flawed characters he is the sore thumb, with his acting being easily the worst amongst them.
Rating
The Room deserves the ire of an audience throwing cutlery and insults at the screen!
0 out of 5 spoons!
Luke McWilliams, December 2011
Drive is a crime drama directed by Danish film director, screenwriter and producer, Nicolas Winding Refn, adapted from the novel by James Sallis. The movie won the best director award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
We meet the Driver (played by Ryan Gosling) as he goes about his everyday life as a mechanic and movie stunt driver managed by his boss Shannon (played by Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston). We soon see him at his moonlighting job however, where he provides a service to criminals as a getaway driver, promising them that he will do anything for them in the time limit of 5 minutes. Things get complicated when he becomes involved with his beautiful neighbour Irene (played by Never Let ME Go’s Carey Mulligan) whose husband has just come back from prison. Owing protection money he asks the Driver for his help, lest his family receives the wrath of the mob, where wackiness ensues!
Review
Drive actually begins at a smacking pace. We are introduced to the main character’s lifestyle which is palpable with texture and atmosphere. He lives a comfortable day-to-day life working with cars as a mechanic, stunt driver, possible racing driver and get-away driver. The first time we actually see him in action is fantastic: we are in the passenger seat, experiencing the tension of the burglar-passengers in the backseat. We also feel firsthand the Driver’s anticipation of the surrounding police force. There is no CGI present at all in such a scene, nor are there any ridiculous stunts: its pure street racing, filmed in an uncomfortably intimate setting.
The tone of the movie is quite interesting: the music, fashion and title font and colour scream retro 80’s for no real reason. One could be forgiven thinking that the movie is set in that time-frame if not for a character referencing his past ‘in the 80’s. There are even subtle surreal moments typical of 80’s films at the time: slo-mo in accordance to synthesizer music, dimming of lights to enhance the attraction of two characters while eliminating the background. This is all done to have the audience view the film from the Driver’s point of view: how he views the streets in LA as noir, and how he is a knight in shining armour, relying on his nature to help others, symbolized as a scorpion on his shiny white jacket.
The movie unexpectedly turns ultra-violent however, betraying the sleek, unattached and unaffected set-up. Where the Driver gets more involved with those around him, conflict arises and he becomes a Terminator, doing everything he can, his way, to resolve the conflict. Such is the tonal shift that a viewer has famously sued her theatre for misleading her into believing that Drive would be more akin to the The Fast and the Furious film series
Wheras the Driver is simply a man-with-no-name, existentially coasting along until love-led circumstances call him into action, the antagonist mobsters led by Bernie (played by Albert Brooks) and Nino (played by Hell-Boy’s Ron Perlman) exhibit well-rounded characters: mobsters who do not enjoy killing, but find it their only means-to-an end. There are background linking them all with real emotion and feelings as opposed to the Driver, a man with very little words and a mysterious past.
The two leads, Carey Mulligan and Ryan Gosling do share a very sweet and tender chemistry, with restraint and heavy subtext showing, not telling us, their every thought and feelings. It is great seeing Christina Hendricks in a feature, although she is heart-breakingly underused.
Rating
Drive is a relatively small budget movie with a lot of research behind it that actually serves up a solid movie that we actually have seen many of times in the late 70’s and early 80’s: a hard-boild neo-noir pulp-fiction, complete with a synth soundtrack. The plus is, like Robert Rodriguez’s, and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse, such movies where never made with such focus and expertise that hindsight can afford.
4 kilometres out of 5
See what Margaret and David have to say, and check out the trailer!
Luke McWilliams, December 2011