Last week I had the privilege to attend the Brisbane premiere of new Aussie flick 'Mystery Road' with the director, Ivan Sen, and lead actor, Aaron Pederson, in attendance. While the boys didn't seem to have prepared their speeches, the off the cuff introductions gave us the indication that this was a 'campfire' story. And so it was. And it's a film that should be seen.
Mystery Road is very well named, as it follows Jay Swan (Pederson), an Aboriginal man from an unnamed outback town who has just returned home a qualified detective, as he tries to unravel the mystery of the murder of a young Aboriginal girl. The girl is a teenager, and one that Jay actually knows as she is a friend of his daughter. Despite Jay's desire to launch a major investigation, the sergeant advises that there are not enough resources available and Jay will have to look into it himself. There's too many drug busts and other crimes to deal with (the film is set in the present day). This leads to a great amount of good old fashioned detective work, building up slowly to a white knuckle suspenseful ending.
The film has attracted an absolute top shelf Aussie cast which is a lot of fun as you play "hey that's X". Aaron Pederson gives a very powerful performance as the dogged detective, as he runs up against a lot of people accusing him of betraying his Aboriginal heritage as a cop (from white and black people alike) and has a few run-ins with his ex-wife (Tasma Walton) and tries to connect with his estranged daughter and protect her. His previous appearances on police procedurals such as Wildside, Water Rats and City Homicide) have given him the necessary experience to pull off the lone wolf detective. I didn't realise it at the time, but he is in virtually every scene of the film which keeps the focus nice and tight as we work through the 'who' and 'how' of the murder. Unlike other films which show the action from different points of view, by staying with the detective we only know as much as he knows at any point in time and are trying to figure it out along with him. It's an understated but undeniably strong performance.
Pederson is ably backed by the rest of the cast including Tony Barry as the police sergeant who is suspiciously relaxed about the murder, Hugo Weaving as "Johnno" who leads the drug squad and is acting suspiciously, David Field as the owner of a farm near where the girl is found who acts suspiciously when questioned, Damian Walshe-Howling as the local drug dealer who acts suspiciously, Ryan Kwanten as a suspicious kangaroo hunter living on the aforementioned farm, small cameos from Bruce Spence, Jack Thompson and Ray Billing etc etc. You get my drift here I think: everyone is acting suspiciously. Red herrings galore! The mystery will have you thinking, but the next day I had pieced it all together and found it very satisfactory.
Ivan Sen, the Aussie director still best known for "Beneath Clouds", has done an amazing job with the film. It looks absolutely beautiful, filmed on location in Winton (outback town in Queensland) where you can get rundown homes in suburbia, grassy farms and red desert and some of the most beautiful lighting in the morning and evening. As well as directing, he was also the writer, composer of the music, cinematographer and editor. Wow! The film is a triumph of well paced storytelling, strong acting and stunning visuals. I really recommend you give this your time.
Friday 18 October 2013
Saturday 12 October 2013
Movie #29 - 3D Metallica: Through the Never
Attention rock fans: you have 1 week to get yourself to the cinema to witness Metallica's new concept. A live concert mixed with a short film. I have never seen anything quite like this before and I give massive kudos to the guys (who wrote the film together with director Nimrod Antal) for coming up with what could have been a complete disaster but is a unique and very cool experience.
The film is basically a Metallica concert filmed in Canada using their stunning "in the round" stage show which in my honest opinion would have to be the most ambitious and amazing stage show since, well, pretty much ever. Props, lights, projected images, fire, lasers are all part of this mind-blowing show. After a short introduction where we meet low level roadie Trip (played by actor Dane de Haan) as he delivers some burgers to the crew, we follow him into the arena as Metallica take the stage and kick off their show with "Creeping Death" - woo hoo! Trip's enjoyment of the concert is interrupted as he is sent off on a mission to take some gas to a stranded truck that contains something Very Important. The rest of the movie is then the concert spliced with a short film that becomes increasingly surrealistic as Trip's adventure takes some very strange turns, with events outside seeming to affect events inside the stadium.
If you see this at the movies, you will experience the most beautiful sound you have probably ever heard - I take my hat off to the sound guys on this. My current short-term hearing problem just got a lot worse, but gee I'm happy about it! The camera work has been carefully crafted and designed so that every image is exactly what you want to be seeing at that particular moment, whether it is Lars' feet on the double kick in "One", Kirk's classic guitar solos, Robert's crab walk or James' vocals when he is pulling the best faces. You absolutely will not have better access to the band than in this film. And the visual effects on the fiction side of things are pretty good. The music is well matched to the action outside as well.
The film is not without flaws though. One is frustration at the ending (do not leave until the credits have finished rolling although that still doesn't stop the frustration) which was pretty widespread in the cinema we were in. Another is that the 3D is a bit wobbly in parts, especially at the beginning. It's not in your face but it does provide a super immersive experience as though you are at the concert at times. There are some pretty full-on images and concepts as well, so it's not for young kids if any old metalheads out there have brought up your kids to love Metallica as well.
Any Metallica fans should see this at the cinema. Non Metallica fans who still like rock music and fantasy films would really like it too. Non metal fans are probably not even reading this review!
For those who have seen the movie and want to discuss it (including some of the flaws I've mentioned briefly) , please go to my new page I have set up separately which is where you can write whatever you want about it because only people who have seen the movie should click on it! I've labelled it "Spoilers" so that people don't click on it by mistake: http://melocracy.blogspot.com.au/p/discussions-and-spoilers.html
The film is basically a Metallica concert filmed in Canada using their stunning "in the round" stage show which in my honest opinion would have to be the most ambitious and amazing stage show since, well, pretty much ever. Props, lights, projected images, fire, lasers are all part of this mind-blowing show. After a short introduction where we meet low level roadie Trip (played by actor Dane de Haan) as he delivers some burgers to the crew, we follow him into the arena as Metallica take the stage and kick off their show with "Creeping Death" - woo hoo! Trip's enjoyment of the concert is interrupted as he is sent off on a mission to take some gas to a stranded truck that contains something Very Important. The rest of the movie is then the concert spliced with a short film that becomes increasingly surrealistic as Trip's adventure takes some very strange turns, with events outside seeming to affect events inside the stadium.
If you see this at the movies, you will experience the most beautiful sound you have probably ever heard - I take my hat off to the sound guys on this. My current short-term hearing problem just got a lot worse, but gee I'm happy about it! The camera work has been carefully crafted and designed so that every image is exactly what you want to be seeing at that particular moment, whether it is Lars' feet on the double kick in "One", Kirk's classic guitar solos, Robert's crab walk or James' vocals when he is pulling the best faces. You absolutely will not have better access to the band than in this film. And the visual effects on the fiction side of things are pretty good. The music is well matched to the action outside as well.
The film is not without flaws though. One is frustration at the ending (do not leave until the credits have finished rolling although that still doesn't stop the frustration) which was pretty widespread in the cinema we were in. Another is that the 3D is a bit wobbly in parts, especially at the beginning. It's not in your face but it does provide a super immersive experience as though you are at the concert at times. There are some pretty full-on images and concepts as well, so it's not for young kids if any old metalheads out there have brought up your kids to love Metallica as well.
Any Metallica fans should see this at the cinema. Non Metallica fans who still like rock music and fantasy films would really like it too. Non metal fans are probably not even reading this review!
For those who have seen the movie and want to discuss it (including some of the flaws I've mentioned briefly) , please go to my new page I have set up separately which is where you can write whatever you want about it because only people who have seen the movie should click on it! I've labelled it "Spoilers" so that people don't click on it by mistake: http://melocracy.blogspot.com.au/p/discussions-and-spoilers.html
Monday 7 October 2013
MARVEL's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
So, who caught the new television show "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" this week? Last Wednesday night we got the first and second episodes and are apparently now caught up to where the show is in the United States. I watched both but am now torn about whether to continue watching.
I know you're thinking, what does this have to do with movies and why are you writing about it? However, the thing that makes me want to watch it is the way that it expands on the Marvel universe and builds on the movies that we are all loving so much of late - Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America. As a casual comic book fan during my life rather than a devoted regular buyer and reader, I have a reasonable awareness of the Marvel characters but the run of movies we've had since Marvel Comics decided to build their own movie studio and control the output has really turned me into much more of a fan. You get the comic book action and themes but so far most of the movies have had great heart and scripts to back it all up.
So a new TV show from Marvel Studios is an exciting prospect. It should, in theory, be able to expand on the universe they have created to give us a better understanding of the motivations of different races and organisations (especially the ultra mysterious S.H.I.E.L.D which has barely been scratched in the films to date) and introduce a wider range of exciting characters with different superpowers. And from watching two episodes, I did get that. The casual references thrown in to things like "Hydra" (aka the German Nazi research program headed by the Red Skull that Cap'n America fought in his first film) and "the best combat results since Romanov" (Natasha Romanov aka The Black Widow who was played by Scarlett Johanssen in the Avengers) or "Tesseract" (the power source that Loki was using to try and bring the Chitauri to Earth from Asgard) are gold to a geek trainspotter.
The problem I had though is that for a movie studio with seemingly never-ending resources to pump out multi-million dollar budgeted blockbusters that make billions of dollars, the budget for the TV show seems to be incredibly low. The action scenes were pretty pathetic when compared to one of my favourite shows at the moment, Hawaii Five 0. They have very little gloss and there seems to be a lot of low-quality CGI being used. It's really distracting for someone who has been spoiled by the high production values of so many action based TV shows these days e.g. Lost, Heroes, Hawaii Five 0, even recent stuff like Sleepy Hollow and Once Upon a Time seem to have better effects. The script is also layered with more cheese than a triple cheese pizza. I groaned a few times in two episodes. The lack of major characters crossing over to TV will also disappoint many people but honestly, Robert Downey Jr is probably not going to appear is he? I was cheered up a fair bit though by a cameo from the man, Samuel L Jackson, as S.H.I.E.L.D commander Nick Fury, towards the end of episode 2. I mean, how can he not be in it!
Will I keep watching? Probably. There is the little matter of the mystery about how Agent Coulson is now actually alive after being killed by Loki in the first Avengers movie. It looks like they have a very good explanation for this up their sleeve which is going to be unveiled extremely slowly over the course of a season. And will the new recruit in the team come over to the 'right' side or will they discover the rat in the ranks? I do love a good mystery. And in the end, any TV series that is not a sitcom is going to work if it keeps you guessing what is going to happen next. It seems I will just have to get over my expectation of high quality production!
If anyone else is watching, please feel free to post here about the in-jokes and references and what they mean.
I know you're thinking, what does this have to do with movies and why are you writing about it? However, the thing that makes me want to watch it is the way that it expands on the Marvel universe and builds on the movies that we are all loving so much of late - Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America. As a casual comic book fan during my life rather than a devoted regular buyer and reader, I have a reasonable awareness of the Marvel characters but the run of movies we've had since Marvel Comics decided to build their own movie studio and control the output has really turned me into much more of a fan. You get the comic book action and themes but so far most of the movies have had great heart and scripts to back it all up.
So a new TV show from Marvel Studios is an exciting prospect. It should, in theory, be able to expand on the universe they have created to give us a better understanding of the motivations of different races and organisations (especially the ultra mysterious S.H.I.E.L.D which has barely been scratched in the films to date) and introduce a wider range of exciting characters with different superpowers. And from watching two episodes, I did get that. The casual references thrown in to things like "Hydra" (aka the German Nazi research program headed by the Red Skull that Cap'n America fought in his first film) and "the best combat results since Romanov" (Natasha Romanov aka The Black Widow who was played by Scarlett Johanssen in the Avengers) or "Tesseract" (the power source that Loki was using to try and bring the Chitauri to Earth from Asgard) are gold to a geek trainspotter.
The problem I had though is that for a movie studio with seemingly never-ending resources to pump out multi-million dollar budgeted blockbusters that make billions of dollars, the budget for the TV show seems to be incredibly low. The action scenes were pretty pathetic when compared to one of my favourite shows at the moment, Hawaii Five 0. They have very little gloss and there seems to be a lot of low-quality CGI being used. It's really distracting for someone who has been spoiled by the high production values of so many action based TV shows these days e.g. Lost, Heroes, Hawaii Five 0, even recent stuff like Sleepy Hollow and Once Upon a Time seem to have better effects. The script is also layered with more cheese than a triple cheese pizza. I groaned a few times in two episodes. The lack of major characters crossing over to TV will also disappoint many people but honestly, Robert Downey Jr is probably not going to appear is he? I was cheered up a fair bit though by a cameo from the man, Samuel L Jackson, as S.H.I.E.L.D commander Nick Fury, towards the end of episode 2. I mean, how can he not be in it!
Will I keep watching? Probably. There is the little matter of the mystery about how Agent Coulson is now actually alive after being killed by Loki in the first Avengers movie. It looks like they have a very good explanation for this up their sleeve which is going to be unveiled extremely slowly over the course of a season. And will the new recruit in the team come over to the 'right' side or will they discover the rat in the ranks? I do love a good mystery. And in the end, any TV series that is not a sitcom is going to work if it keeps you guessing what is going to happen next. It seems I will just have to get over my expectation of high quality production!
If anyone else is watching, please feel free to post here about the in-jokes and references and what they mean.
Movie # 27 - Gravity 3D
I know I have skipped Movie #26 but it is no longer on at the movies so I thought I'd go straight to movie #27 and I'll get back to Kick-Ass 2 later.
Gravity is a new movie which has hit our screens with very little build up or fanfare. It's a small movie that I suspect is going to be a 'big' movie that features on many people's "Movie of the Year" lists come December/January. The less you know about it going in, I think the better off you will be so I won't give you any spoilers.
The movie kicks off with a group of 3 astronauts working on the Hubble telescope being monitored by NASA on the ground and their crew in the space shuttle. One of the astronauts is a veteran on his last mission to space, while one is on her first mission since she is actually a doctor and not an astronaut. They are installing a system she has developed to monitor astronaut's health and has had only 6 months of training. All 3 are actually out in space, tethered to the telescope or using a jetpack. All is going swimmingly until NASA advises that a Russian rocket launch has accidentally hit a satellite and created a fast moving swarm of space debris. The mission has to be aborted so the astronauts can return to safety inside their ship. But things don't quite go to plan, and Dr Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are soon floating free in space and trying to find a way to get back to Earth despite being cut off from communication with Earth. Will they make it?
All of the above happens in the first 20 minutes of the movie, with the remainder being a tremendously tense adventure as we follow Ryan and Matt in their desperate battle for survival. The power of this movie comes from two main sources: the immersiveness and the performances.
The movie is so immersive because the scripter and director, Alfonso Cuaron (best known for either Children of Men or Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) has taken an excellent decision to limit the film to the characters in space and not, as so many others do, cut to NASA control or the families on the ground or potential rescuers or some other perspective. By staying with the two characters the whole time, you really feel like you are there with them and on the journey, there is no distraction and no let up in the tension. The other immersive aspect comes with the impressively rendered space shots and 3D. This would have to be the best use of 3D since Avatar for making you feel like you are really there. The shots of earth from space are stunning, and there are some of the most technically amazing shots I've seen included in here, especially as they were dealing with the depiction of zero gravity. A shot of tears falling in zero gravity is one of the most beautiful I've seen and will definitely stay with me.
The performances here are flawless, which is lucky when the success of the movie was always going to rely on the actors given the number of characters is so limited. Sandra Bullock is the key and she gives a performance which makes you totally forget about Sandy the comedic goofy chick and there is already talk of Oscar nomination here. She really gives her all and lends an emotional resonance to what could have been cheesy. George Clooney equals his best performances as the elder statesmen calming the rookie, and he adds the movie's very few moments of lightness. Totally charming.
Gravity is not a film to miss at the movies. The big screen and 3D is an absolute necessity to really facilitate the edge of your seat storyline. A must-see movie for 2013!
Gravity is a new movie which has hit our screens with very little build up or fanfare. It's a small movie that I suspect is going to be a 'big' movie that features on many people's "Movie of the Year" lists come December/January. The less you know about it going in, I think the better off you will be so I won't give you any spoilers.
The movie kicks off with a group of 3 astronauts working on the Hubble telescope being monitored by NASA on the ground and their crew in the space shuttle. One of the astronauts is a veteran on his last mission to space, while one is on her first mission since she is actually a doctor and not an astronaut. They are installing a system she has developed to monitor astronaut's health and has had only 6 months of training. All 3 are actually out in space, tethered to the telescope or using a jetpack. All is going swimmingly until NASA advises that a Russian rocket launch has accidentally hit a satellite and created a fast moving swarm of space debris. The mission has to be aborted so the astronauts can return to safety inside their ship. But things don't quite go to plan, and Dr Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are soon floating free in space and trying to find a way to get back to Earth despite being cut off from communication with Earth. Will they make it?
All of the above happens in the first 20 minutes of the movie, with the remainder being a tremendously tense adventure as we follow Ryan and Matt in their desperate battle for survival. The power of this movie comes from two main sources: the immersiveness and the performances.
The movie is so immersive because the scripter and director, Alfonso Cuaron (best known for either Children of Men or Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) has taken an excellent decision to limit the film to the characters in space and not, as so many others do, cut to NASA control or the families on the ground or potential rescuers or some other perspective. By staying with the two characters the whole time, you really feel like you are there with them and on the journey, there is no distraction and no let up in the tension. The other immersive aspect comes with the impressively rendered space shots and 3D. This would have to be the best use of 3D since Avatar for making you feel like you are really there. The shots of earth from space are stunning, and there are some of the most technically amazing shots I've seen included in here, especially as they were dealing with the depiction of zero gravity. A shot of tears falling in zero gravity is one of the most beautiful I've seen and will definitely stay with me.
The performances here are flawless, which is lucky when the success of the movie was always going to rely on the actors given the number of characters is so limited. Sandra Bullock is the key and she gives a performance which makes you totally forget about Sandy the comedic goofy chick and there is already talk of Oscar nomination here. She really gives her all and lends an emotional resonance to what could have been cheesy. George Clooney equals his best performances as the elder statesmen calming the rookie, and he adds the movie's very few moments of lightness. Totally charming.
Gravity is not a film to miss at the movies. The big screen and 3D is an absolute necessity to really facilitate the edge of your seat storyline. A must-see movie for 2013!
Tuesday 1 October 2013
Movie # 25 - Now You See Me
Egads, a whole month has gone by with no posts from me! Whoops. I'm back though!
Now You See Me is actually still showing in 1 or 2 cinemas, but be quick if you do decide to see it.
The latest offering from director Louis Leterrier (who directed Transporter 2, Clash of the Titans and what is often referred to as the good version of The Incredible Hulk) is an extremely slick tale of a group of four magicians brought together to pull off an audacious series of heists. The movie starts out by introducing us to this group of magicians who all have very different talents: sleight of hand, escapology, illusion, mind reading. They are brought together by a mysterious benefactor, with an invitation to an exclusive group if they can pull off his or her instructions. The first big setpiece is the robbing of a French bank by an audience member from a magic show in the US. This attracts the attention of Interpol, who send an agent (Melanie Laurent, best known for Inglourious Basterds) to work with an FBI Agent (Mark Ruffalo, who ironically now plays the Hulk in The Avengers series) to pin the crime on the magicians.
With no evidence to make the charges stick, the '4 Horsemen' are soon free and promoting their next big stunt. Their major financial backer is on board (a small role for Michael Caine) and the FBI and Interpol agents are soon consulting a guy who used to be a magician but now debunks magic for his own highly profitable TV series (played by Morgan Freeman). Will thinking about how the tricks are done help them catch the crooks in the act? Well that is the great mystery that you have to solve in this movie before the big reveal at the end.
Now You See Me is one big magic trick of a movie. You think it's going to be one thing (good) but then it turns out to be something else (average). The problem I think is that you just get so focused on solving the puzzle that you don't really enjoy the ride. At least that is what happened to me. But looking back, I think the major problem is that there are too many main characters in the film and you never really get to know any of them very well at all. So you just don't really end up caring very much once the master magician shows his hand (boom boom!). And thinking back over it, you're not really sure if all the tricks actually do work and whether the pieces of this particular puzzle do fit together.
One of my key reasons for looking forward to this movie was Jesse Eisenberg as one of the 4 magicians, along with Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco. All strong actors, they actually get very little time to reveal any personality or motivation, as they are merely in service to the script and the twist. So yes, I was more than a tad disappointed. Ruffalo and Laurent are great as the increasingly confused and frustrated detectives, but in the end it's all style but no substance.
I'd give this 2.5 out of 5.
Now You See Me is actually still showing in 1 or 2 cinemas, but be quick if you do decide to see it.
The latest offering from director Louis Leterrier (who directed Transporter 2, Clash of the Titans and what is often referred to as the good version of The Incredible Hulk) is an extremely slick tale of a group of four magicians brought together to pull off an audacious series of heists. The movie starts out by introducing us to this group of magicians who all have very different talents: sleight of hand, escapology, illusion, mind reading. They are brought together by a mysterious benefactor, with an invitation to an exclusive group if they can pull off his or her instructions. The first big setpiece is the robbing of a French bank by an audience member from a magic show in the US. This attracts the attention of Interpol, who send an agent (Melanie Laurent, best known for Inglourious Basterds) to work with an FBI Agent (Mark Ruffalo, who ironically now plays the Hulk in The Avengers series) to pin the crime on the magicians.
With no evidence to make the charges stick, the '4 Horsemen' are soon free and promoting their next big stunt. Their major financial backer is on board (a small role for Michael Caine) and the FBI and Interpol agents are soon consulting a guy who used to be a magician but now debunks magic for his own highly profitable TV series (played by Morgan Freeman). Will thinking about how the tricks are done help them catch the crooks in the act? Well that is the great mystery that you have to solve in this movie before the big reveal at the end.
Now You See Me is one big magic trick of a movie. You think it's going to be one thing (good) but then it turns out to be something else (average). The problem I think is that you just get so focused on solving the puzzle that you don't really enjoy the ride. At least that is what happened to me. But looking back, I think the major problem is that there are too many main characters in the film and you never really get to know any of them very well at all. So you just don't really end up caring very much once the master magician shows his hand (boom boom!). And thinking back over it, you're not really sure if all the tricks actually do work and whether the pieces of this particular puzzle do fit together.
One of my key reasons for looking forward to this movie was Jesse Eisenberg as one of the 4 magicians, along with Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco. All strong actors, they actually get very little time to reveal any personality or motivation, as they are merely in service to the script and the twist. So yes, I was more than a tad disappointed. Ruffalo and Laurent are great as the increasingly confused and frustrated detectives, but in the end it's all style but no substance.
I'd give this 2.5 out of 5.
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