Feast of Film

The last ride of the Italian Stallion seems more of an attempt to recapture the thrill of his first run around the track. While it doesn't succeed, it was worth it just to make this the last volume of the series. The plot: Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) is 60, running a restaurant named after his late wife Adrian, and stuck in the past. He visits Adrian's grave so regularly that he keeps a folding chair in the tree near her headstone. The old neighbourhood has run down, the store where she used to work is empty and the ice rink where they first skated and kissed has been demolished. Then along comes a TV show that runs a computer simulation that claims that the young Rocky would beat the crap out of the current champ, now more than 30 years his junior. The current champ (can't remember his name and won't bother to look it up) isn't impressed by this and his manager convinces him to agree to an exhibition fight with Rocky in order to boost his image. Apparently he is s...

Not so wild, but worth $7.60. The plot: Four 40-something friends hit the road to recover a bit of adventure in their unexciting lives. Doug Madsen ( Tim Allen ), Woody Stevens ( John Travolta ), Bobby Davis ( Martin Lawrence ) and Dudley Frank ( William H. Macy ) are bored, crashing, hen-pecked or geeky (respectively) and decide to head of on a week-long road trip on their bikes - hogs. They fancy themselves to be bikers and in their 'Wild Hogs' jackets (sown by Doug's wife, Kelly ( Jill Hennessey )) they ride off on adventure. There are a couple of minor incidents involving camping, a gay motorcycle cop and skinny-dipping. But the real trouble starts when the Wild Hogs decide to stop in and get a drink at a real biker bar run by the Del Fuegos, whose leader, Jack ( Ray Liotta ), takes an instant dislike to them. After a bit of an altercation that results in the biker bar being blown up, the Del Fuegos set their sites on the Hogs, who stop in the inoffensive and ill-prote...

The latest in the Bond line-up, Casino Royale is yet another of the prequels that are set in today's world. While I'm generally not a fan of rewriting a character to make him seem brand new - see for example the attempt to set up Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan in the film of Tom Clancy's novel Sum of All Fears - this attempt succeeds masterfully in allowing Daniel Craig to re-engineer Bond as much closer to that Fleming character seen so fleetingly in Sean Connery's original performance as Bond in Dr. No . This film certainly shouldn't be confused with the 1967 comedy starring David Niven. Daniel Crag crafts a nasty yet vulnerable Bond - almost a sheep in wolf's clothing, perhaps more like a ram. The plot: Fresh out on the streets, Bond is out to make a name for himself. Apparently it takes 2 kills to get the much revered '00' - and we see Bond rack his 2 up in the first few minutes. The rest of the film substantially increased the body count - if they had...

Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves star in this enchanting romance across time, but not too much time. The plot: We begin as Kate Forster (Bullock) is just moving out of the lake house, an interesting glass house built on the shore of a lake north of Chicago. The film then cuts to Alex Wyler (Reeves), who is moving in. On checking the mailbox he finds a welcome note from Kate with the usual request to forward mail to her new address. She also apologises for the paw prints on the decking and floor. What paw prints, Alex wonders, just before a dog runs past him right in the middle of staining the decking leading up the house - thus are set the paw prints. How did she know? Alex writes to Kate asking her this and through a bit of to and fro, and seeing the mailbox magically raise and lower its flag by itself, they figure out what is going on. You see, Kate lived in the lake house after Alex, not before. They are corresponding across time - between 2004 and 2006. Needless to say, they fall...

The most implausible plot I have seen in a long time - and that includes Sci-Fi. Flightplan is a Jodie Foster vehicle, which is not normally a bad thing for a film to aspire to, but they usually at least have a decent plot line. It should be noted that the previous Foster effort I reviewed - Inside Man - was stronger in plot but still provided a fairly thin Foster character. The plot: Kyle Pratt (Foster) is travelling home to the US with her daughter after her husband mysterious dies by falling from the roof of their apartment building (suicide is implied). Kyle is some sort of aircraft engineer, specialising in the engines, but works for an incredibly stingy company (they stick her in economy class). She boards the newest passenger megajumbojet - an A474 (think Airbus A380 but bigger) - for the trip home. It's a plane so big your child could get lost. Needless to say she goes to sleep and wakes up to find that her daughter is missing. What follows is a frantic search of the pla...

A Wachowski brothers film (written, not directed), this is based on the DC Comics character, but infused with modern political commentary. "V" ( Hugo Weaving ) is the brave terrorist fighting against an authoritarian British Government led by Chancellor Adam Sutler (played rather nastily by John Hurt - who to those 'too young to remember' played Winston Smith in the 1984 film version of George Orwell's 1984 , starring alongside Richard Burton). The plot: Young woman Evey Hammond ( Natalie Portman ) is out to see a friend one night and gets caught by some 'finger men', who seem to be an English version of Hitler's SA, but without the brown shirts. They're just thugs and want to rape her - enter "V", who saves her and brings her to a roof-top to watch him blow up a government building. The story then begins of V's plan to undermine and bring down the '1984'-like government. He is acting out the infamous gunpowder plot of 16...

This well-directed ( Richard Donner ), gritty, action thriller stars Bruce Willis and Mos Def as a cop and a petty crim turned witness who have to survive a journey of 16 Blocks from the lock-up to the court house. The plot: Jack Mosley (Willis) is an aging, usually drunken and decrepit cop just trying to make it to the end of his life. One day, because the assigned cop is stuck elsewhere, his lieutenant makes him take a last job - for overtime: he has to get small-time and somewhat simple crook Eddie Bunker (Def) 16 blocks to testify to a grand jury. The trip is obviously not going to be as simple as it sounds, but could have been so much easier if Mosley just hadn't decided to stop and buy that bottle of booze. Coming out of the liquor shop he sees and shoots a guy trying to kill Bunker. Then all hell breaks loose as he and Bunker flee a torrent of lead from corrupt cops trying to stop the testimony that will unravel their decades of crime. In summary: This film isn't exac...

New actors: Brandon Routh (Superman), Kate Bosworth (Lois Lane), Kevin Spacey (Lex Luthor) and Frank Langella (Perry White). Same story, very same story. The plot: Well, um, Superman returns. Okay, it's a bit more complicated than that, but not much. It has been five years since astronomers found what they believed were the remains of Krypton - Kalel's home planet. So he set off to see if anyone is still there. Turns out it was a wild goose chase, but the Man of Steel forgot the first rule before you set of on a long jounery - tell someone where you're going. He left Lois Lane wondering where the hell he had gone. She had a child and moved on and met another guy who could fly (a plane) - Perry White's nephew Richard. Lex Luthor is released on parole from a double life sentence in prison because Superman didn't show up at the parole board hearing? What sort of country is this that even considers parole for a psychopath on a double life sentence? Is it some alte...

Adam Sandler has hit his eighth straight No. 1 weekend opening in the US with Click . Sandler's formula is hard to fault - nice guy who's rough around the edges with gorgeous wife or girlfriend has an adventure and learns that family matters most. If we define this plotline as the 'Sandler genre', then Click is its ultimate form. The adventure is lots of fun, the family moments are heartwarming, funny and at times emotionally very touching (with Henry Winkler as his father, it's hard not to get teary - the Fonz got old), and gorgeous wife - Kate Beckinsale . The plot: Adam Sandler plays Michael Newman, married to Donna (Beckinsale), with 2 children - Ben and Samantha. He's focused on advancing his career (to better provide for his family) and sees pretty much everything else as a distraction and wants a simple way to control his complex life. In walks Morty ( Christopher Walken ), who Michael finds working away in the 'Beyond' section of a Bed, Bath ...

Not your conventional romantic comedy, both Vince Vaughan and Jennifer Aniston give The Break-Up a stirring sense of reality amongst all the humour. The plot: Brooke (Aniston) and Gary (Vaughan) are a couple wildly in love. The only problem is that he has a chip on his shoulder and increasingly takes the relationship for granted. Eventually, they have a fight that causes her to break up with him in what becomes an increasingly bitter battle. This isn't helped by neither of them wanting to move out of their shared condo. There is a bit more to the plot, but not much. Suffice it to say that the ending isn't conventional for a romantic comedy. In summary: For a romantic comedy, there isn't much romance (maybe the first 5 minutes). The comedy is very good and can be quite painful at times. The ending is clearly where Vaughan (Producer and Co-writer) has tried to stand this film out from the crowd, though I don't see this as its strength. The characters develop very well a...

Dan Brown's much read (though not by me) book comes to the big screen . Big stars (Hanks, McKellen, Prochnow, Reno, Tautou); big name director (Howard) and screenwriter (Goldsman); controversey (the descedants of Jesus and the Catholic Church); big budget - how could anything go wrong? In a way, this could be seen as Hollywood's response to Mel Gibson's hugely successful Passion of the Christ . The secular Hollywood producers take on the devoutly religious Gibson with a 'bible' of their own. I'll leave that in the air for consideration, as the film itself is rather pedestrian and does make efforts to distance the Church itself from the actions of its constituent shadowy parts. The plot: Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is a professor of religious symbolism currently in Paris to promote his book on the feminine representations in religion. Summoned to the Louvre to see the gruesome self-defaced corpse of a curator, Langdon joins forces with French cryptologist, Sophie...

One's tempted to say Tom cruises through another movie, but clearly he has made every effort in this third instalment of the Mission Impossible film franchise to make sure we understand that he suffered, really suffered for us. The plot: Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has retired from active field duty with the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) - he now trains agents. He has found a beautiful woman (who looks oddly like Katie Holmes) and is settling down to a life of domesticity. The movie opens with his engagement party where we find out that his cover story is that he works at the Motor Vehicle Department studying traffic patterns and can lip read. But just when Ethan thinks he's out, they drag him back in. One of his bosses tells him that his star pupil has been kidnapped and the information she has is so important that they want to rescue her - normally killed or captured IMF agents are "disavowed". His paternal instincts kick in and he assembles a team to rescue her. I...

Rule 1 - never use the word "failure" in the title of a project. Starring Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker , both favoured actors for my wife and myself, I thought this would be a bright and funny film. Sadly, it was overly predictable and completely failed to get off the ground. The plot: McConaughey's character, Tripp, is a thirtysomething guy still living at home with his parents. Apparently, he had a trauma - fiance died - and every since has gone from one shallow relationship to another. When he's ready to break up he just brings them home and surprises them with the horrific secret - he stills lives with his parents. Paula, played by a plastic version of Sarah Jessica Parker, is a motivational coach. She dates guys who live at home to give them the confidence to move out. Tripp's parents hire her. Needless to say, you'll be able to guess the rest so it's no secret to say that she falls for him, he falls for her - but panics and tries t...

Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Jodie Foster and Spike Lee. Wow, what a cast and director! Wow, what an average movie. The plot: Denzel Washington is the lead, playing hostage negotiator Detective Keith Frazier on the outer, accused of misappropriating funds. Clive Owen is the robber - Dalton Russell, ostensibly robbing a bank but with a secret plan of his own. Christopher Plummer is Arthur Case, the bank's chairman with his own, dark secret to hide. Jodie Foster is the tough, hired gun Madeleine White. Plummer's character brings her in 'take care' of his interests. Spike Lee is the director. Although I think well cast, Jodie Foster's part is both unbelievable and one-dimentional. You can actually tell how poor the part is by the fact that Spike Lee felt it necessary to have the slimy mayor of NY tell Foster, "You're a perfect cunt." How pathetic. Willem Dafoe's character could and should have been played by an ex...

Aeon Flux is the big screen live action version of the MTV animated series created by Peter Chung. Although it is always dangerous to make anime into live action, director Karyn Kusama places just the right amount of emphasis on the homage to the genre. The set place action scenes invoke the cartoon origins of the story well. Charlize Theron plays Aeon, the sexy resistance fighter, with a good balance between the cartoon and human character. The plot: Aeon Flux is a resistance fighter, or Monican as they are known in this city of 15 million people living 400 years in the future. With the human race almost wiped out by a plague, the survivors live in the wall ed city of Bregna, under the rule of the Goodchild dynasty (descended from the scientist who found the cure that saved the remnants of humanity). The Monicans (is this word play on Mohican?) fight to overthrow the Goodchilds, which is more of an autocracy - the ruler is Chairman Trevor Goodchild, deputy is his brother Oren and th...

The funniest and most daring of the Monty Python screen adventures, Life of Brian represents the team of Chapman, Cleese et al taking on Christianity and Judaism after their excellent effort with The Holy Grail . The plot: Brian Cohen is born in the stable just down the lane from Jesus and, after initially being mistaken for the messiah by the 3 wise men, ends up with the same fate but less of the subsequent glory. The adult Brian interacts with several of the Jewish groups and Roman rulers of Judea, all of whom mimic the Python team's views of comparables in Middle East politics in the late 1970s (the movie was released in 1979). The Jews are subjugated and form various splinter terrorist groups; the Romans are the rulers and govern by threat of crucifixion. This all sounds rather harsh, but isn't really - most would totally miss the pseudo-political undercurrent. Brian becomes involved with the People's Front of Judea (or is it the Democratic Front? It's definitely ...

Not a film review, but since I haven't had the time this week, I thought I'd post this list that is being emailed around. 1. Large, loft-style apartments in New York City are well within the price range of most people - whether they are employed or not. 2. At least one of a pair of identical twins is born evil. 3. Should you decide to defuse a bomb, don't worry which wire to cut. You will always choose the right one. 4. Most laptop computers are powerful enough to override the communications system of any invading alien society. 5. It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts; your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors. 6. When you turn out the light to go to bed, everything in your bedroom will still be clearly visible, just slightly bluish. 7. If you are a blonde and pretty, it is possible to become a world expert on nuclear fission at...

Joss Whedon's film sequel to the axed Firefly TV series gives both fans of the show and newbies a chance to join the ship and its crew on their ultimate adventure. The plot: The crew of the Firefly class freighter Serenity are a mix of former rebels (Captain Mal Reynolds played by Nathan Fillion, and Zoe Alleyne played by Gina Torres), a gun for hire (Jayne Cobb played by Adam Baldwin), a priest (Shepherd Book played by Ron Glass), a sparky engineer (Kaylee played by Jewel Staite) and fugitives (Simon Tam played by Sean Maher and his sister River played by Summer Glau). Serenity stays in business by engaging in various types of nefarious activity, usually harming only the Alliance (think the Northern states of the Union, only malevolent) or bad guys. For the feature film, though, Whedon brings what I imagine are the core secrets he was holding for the TV series to climax on the big screen. The story centres on River Tam and the reasons why the Alliance is hunting her so unrelenti...

Walk the Line is a tremendously powerful and extremely well acted biopic of the life of Johnny Cash. The plot: The life of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, based on Cash's autobiographies. From his life as a young boy on an Arkansas cotton farm, scarred by the death of his older brother Jack, we see Johnny Cash grow up to become a troubled man, saved in the end by the love of a woman whose voice he loved from his earliest years. As a boy Johnny Cash listened intently to the girl June Carter signing on the radio. He tours with the greats like Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly, Elvis is handing out the pills and Waylon Jennings doesn't pay his phone bill one month. In summary: We see the key to why Cash was the man in black and, to a degree, why he struggled with the demons he did and grew into the powerful presence that he became. The Casablanca comparison: Pretend that Rick is married and when Ilsa and Victor come to Casablanca she falls in love with Rick, who has loved her...

Let me start by saying that Team America has generated some of the most laughable commentary from film reviewers that I have ever seen. I'll use David Stratton, formerly of SBS's Movie Show and now with the ABC, as the perfect example. He was appalled by the film, or more accurately, he was appalled by the film when it wasn't lampooning the Americans. His co-host, Margaret Pomeranz was more even-handed about it and liked the film. Stratton was incapable of seeing a genuine lampoon of both sides of politics - dirth of a sense of humour on the left. TA is one of the funniest films I have ever seen. I was laughing myself stupid for the entire film, almost without rest. The film mercilessly attacks Americans' lack of knowledge of the outside world, critiquing wanton destruction without any cultural sensitivity, and contrasts this with mindless repetition of talking points on the left and the incredible hubris of actors to think that just because they play the President on...