Reviews

Had been keen to see this since release, so I could learn about this amazing story and also see Daniel Craig and Liev Screiber talk in a German accent for 2 hours.

"Defiance" is the amazing true story of 3 brothers who aim to provide protection for fellow Jews from the Nazis trying to capture them and force them into concentration camps. The group starts small in the forest but eventually word spreads and they soon have a small army in their hands. Eventually they become a community and form tight bonds, but the cold, uncertainty and frequent struggles just to feed people causes plenty of struggles. As time passes on, the challenges mount and their leader (Craig) faces leadership challenges and excruciating decisions.

An inspiring, amazing story of one of the greatest stories of the second world war. Not overly gripping as a movie, but obviously not too much creative license was taken.

This is the movie you end up getting when you say to wifey "pick something you like tonight, I'll probably just potter around anyway". I ended up getting bored and sat down to watch it.

"The Secret Life Of Bees" is not really about bees at all, more about a young girl called Lily (Dakota Fanning, which i didn't realise until about half way in) who has lived through adversity. As a young child she accidentally shot her own mother, who was in the midst of domestic dispute with her father. Her father raises her, but not very well and causes her heaps of psychological issues. As a teen she one day leaves home with her nanny (played by Jennifer Hudson) and looks to start a new life. She stumbles across a bee farmer called August and her family and is allowed to stay and work with them. They all soon form a lovely bond until more tragedy occurs and many are forced to face up to their fears.

Pretty girly, but an OK story with a decent cast. Covers family issues, racism and facing up to your fears.

Finally found a copy of this in my local video store, about 2 years after it's release.

"The Hammer" stars Adam Carolla as Jerry, a boxing instructor who gets a chance at appearing in the Olympics after he is seen holding his own against a pro at the local gym. Jerry had promise as a young fighter but never gave his all. Now 40, he gets another shot at boxing glory. It's supposed to be a story of a down-and -outer who gets "one more shot at life" and therefore plays out reasonably predictably.

A bit of a strange choice for Carolla, who obviously didn't have to act his brains out in the movie but the mildness of the content and attempt at pulling the heartstrings seemed weird for a guy who's built his career out of being a loudmouth, sexist, racist funny guy. Some good one liners and a pleasant enough story but just seemed like a strange script for what you would have expected.

Generally if Ricky Gervais is in something I'll give it a go, even if it looks like a really average ro-co. Here's my review.

"Ghost Town" as based around Bertram Pincus (Gervais) a dentist who briefly dies during a standard procedure and consequently can now see dead people, whom are strangely just wandering around with the living. The hilarity lies in the fact he's seemingly the only living human who can, meaning a stack of dead people start bothering him asking him to bring closure on some issues that resulted from their death. The main pest to Bertram is Frank (Greg Kinnear, in his finest work since "Stuck On You"), who wants Bertram to get his wife (played by Tea Leoni) to break up with her new love interest. The plan ends up being to get her to fall for Bertram, which seems crazy because Bertram is a real jerk who has no charm at all. Will their crazy plan work? See it to find out.

A strange movie, in that there's some OK jokes but neither the characters or the story contain one ounce of warmth, unusual for a romantic comedy. The cast is strange and the chemistry was non-existent between Gervais and Leoni, although it's his first go at something like this so I guess we should cut him some slack, unless you consider he's not really a proper actor. Some OK jokes but a bit of a let down and a strange choice as a vehicle for Gervais to try to launch into a movie career.

Took one for the team last night and hired one wifey was really keen to see. Here's my review.

"He's Just Not That Into you" is something a bit different based upon the hugely popular book. It's basically supposed to be like a little guide for girls to work out if the guy they are with is really keen on them or not.

The movie follows a bunch of different people in very different relationships and opens them up to see what real love is. The main character is Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin, who is relatively new and has only appeared in one movie to poke fun at- "Mona Lisa Smile"), a girl who is clueless when it comes to guys and comes across as way to desperate. She seeks guidance from a few of her friends (played by Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Connelly), whose relationships we also delve into. Eventually she meets a much better source of counsel, bar owner Alex (played by the Mac guy), who tells her all the signals guys give off and helps her understand men better. There's a bunch of other stories featuring Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson and others who feature in story lines about a girl who just meets guys online, a guy who cheats on his wife, a man who won't commit and more. Rather than spell it out, the movie throws up a bunch of situations and leaves us to decide what love is.

Pretty ho-hum, helped by the quality of the cast (except Drew Barrymore, who's storyline was pathetic). Something a bit different with a few OK gags but overall a bit boring for me without any clear message.

Stumbled across this is the comedy section at "Video Busters" the other week, a section i thought I'd exhausted.

"For Your Consideration" is the latest offering from Christopher Guest and co, this time the movie is about a seemingly ordinary movie that out of nowhere gets some Hollywood buzz and greatly excites the crew of newcomers and veterans. That's pretty much the story, but it's not done in their normal mocumentary style, it's more of a movie. The cast is the same, featuring Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, Jennifer Coolidge, Fred Willard etc. There's also a cameo from Ricky Gervais, albeit it for just a few scenes.

Pretty average, and very few laughs. The style didn't work and the characters had little to work with. The last few from these writers has dropped off quite a bit, with "Best in Show" being the last real decent one, largely thanks to Fred Willard. Give it a miss.

"Fame" is the latest Ricky Gervais stand up offering, joining the stable that includes "Animal" and "Politics".

In "Fame" Ricky talks at first about being famous, then gets onto his pet topics of homosexual men, God and Adolf Hitler. It's pretty much more of the same and amazingly I've gotta say it was full of yawns. A couple of OK jokes, but most of it was rubbish and stuff we've sort of heard before. He really mailed this one in. I then tried out the special features, but again more of the same old stuff ie annoying Robin. He's pretty much a one trick pony and his act is getting a bit worn out. he's been doing it for 8 years now and needs to come up with something fresh to avoid becoming Eddie Murphy.

Disappointing.

For the first time in recent memory, I was overwhelmed with choices when I popped into "Video Busters" last night. There was plenty for me, but also a decent range left that wifey might be interested in too. Being a long weekend, I got a stack of videos and for the overnighters grabbed this and "Revoltionary Road".

"Valkyrie" is based upon a remarkable true story of a group of brave men who attempted to assassinate Hitler and seize power of Germany during WW2. That has to rank as one of the gutsiest things to attempt ever. Heading this group is decorated war hero Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (played by Tom Cruise, in his finest work since "Top Gun"),perhaps the most important Colonel ever behind Colonel Sanders. The plan is reasonably complicated, but if they can pull it off, they will see Hitler and a bunch of his key men killed and a coup occur where the SS will be shutdown and the country can be placed in safe hands and will consequently surrender to the Allies. It won't be easy though. The plan relies on being able to get key army people to be willing to commit treason and to get Hitler to unwittingly sign a document that will essentially enable the coup to occur should he be killed. Tricky. Will The Colonel pull it off? See it to find out.

Reasonably well done, except for the fact everyone spoke English and without a hint of a German accent. That made it seem a bit weird. Cruise was OK at The Colonel, but there would have been about 50 better actors they could have used eg Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks or Sean William Scott. Amazing story and well worth seeing.

"Death At A Funeral" is the story of a bunch of family and friends coming together for a funeral. The funeral gets off to a rocky start due to some feuding between brothers, the accidental drugging of one of the guests and a midget with an agenda. Yep. Soon all of these wacky circumstances become entwined when the midget threatens to expose the secret life of the deceased unless he gets some money. Before you know it someone gets knocked out, the drugged guest strips down and threatens to jump off a roof.....hilarity ensues.

A quirky Britsih comedy which takes a while to get going but the last 20mins are right up there with the best dark comedy around. A solid cast and great storyline make this one of the better "laugh out loud" movies I've seen in the last few years. Well worth a look.

Running out of "overnight" options, I decided to look for some weekly's I never got round to seeing. Man is that hard work. Settled on 2 movies for the kids, and 2 for me and wifey. The first we got around to seeing was "The Majestic".

"The Majestic" is set in the US in the 1950's where the Government is extremely fearful of the threat of communism spreading on it's shores. The Feds are on a witch-hunt, looking for any possible people who may be spreading the communism message and even those showing interest in it. Upcoming Hollywood writer Peter Appleton (Carrey, in his finest work since "Dumb and Dumber") is one such suspect, and when his career looks shot due to a pending enquiry, Peter one night drives out of town to deal with his frustrations. Due to a strange sequence of events, Peter falls into a river, bumps his head and gets amnesia. He is awoken by a local the next day, who takes him into town for some breakfast and time to work out what happened. Peter can't remember what happened in the accident, let alone the last 30+ years of his life, so stays and tries to work it out. Very quickly though an old man notices him and is sure Peter is his son Luke, who was believed to have died in WW2. He looks the same and seems to have several similar characteristics, so everyone goes along with it, even though Peter (who doesn't know who he is don't forget) isn't so sure. Before long Peter has embraced who everyone thinks he is and starts to relax into his surroundings. Is Peter really Luke? Is Luke really Peter? Does Peter really exist? Does Peter just look like Luke? Is Peter dreaming? See it to find out! I really enjoyed it because it kept me guessing, was set it a nice little town and it had a nice little story. Carrey does a nice job and is backed up by a solid cast, especially the dad, and more "hey it's that guy" guys than you could poke a stick at.

Stumbled across "Armageddon" the other night on Foxtel, and with little to do and my brain reasonably empty, decided to rewatch it. When I first saw this at the cinema back in 1998, I remember thinking it was one of the dumbest films ever plus I was completely fed up with the "natural disaster" genre that was drowning society. Would time change my perception? "Armageddon" deals with the question "what would happen if a meteor bigger than earth hit earth?". For some reason the US discovered this threat and decided they alone could come up with the answer. Their solution was to send a bunch of misfits who drill for oil into a spaceship to land on the meteor, drill a huge hole in it, then send a nuclear bomb inside it and blow it up from the inside. Genius.

NASA enlists the "world's best driller", luckily also American Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) to come and help select the best drill and a plan to get the bomb into the meteor. Harry thinks it will be easier to use his crew who he's used to working with, rather than professional astronauts and scientists. Reluctantly NASA agrees and starts training the crew for the most important job ever in the world. During and after the tests it's clear the team isn't up to it, but they go anyways. Will this cast of misfits save the world? Take a wild guess.

Worth watching for the pure comedy factor, if you can overcome the normal US arrogance and ridiculous storyline. A solid cast, given little to work with, covers a multitude of flaws, most noticeably the crappy Aerosmith theme song. Gets bonus points for Pete Stormare who plays the Russian astronaut.

"Deatb To Smoochy" is the story of the meteoric rise to fame of lovable kid's character "Smoochy" (played By Shedlon Mopes, who is really Edward Norton). "Smoochy" gets his break when "Rainbow Randolph" (Robin Williams) is busted taking bribes for kids to appear on his show. Overnight Randolph becomes a disgrace and the network ,headed by Nora (Catherine Keener), sets out to find the next TV star. "Smoochy" becomes an overnight hit, and consequently everyone now wants a piece of him. Randolph wants to kill him, slimy agent Burke Bennett (Danny Devito) wants to get in on the action, powerful people want to get on his show, charities want money.....things needless to say get out of control. Sheldon, a man of integrity and values has to work out if he'll go along for the ride or, as Marcia Hines would suggest, stay true to himself. Will he sell out? See it to find out.

Different, not that great in my view, but at least it was interesting. A pretty strong cast, which was good as the film probably needed it.

"The Queen" is a story about the Queen. More specifically, it focuses around how she and Buckingham Palace handled the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana.

The film begins with the introduction of the new Prime Minister Tony Blair (well played by Michael Sheen) to Her Majesty (brilliantly played by Helen Mirren, in her finest work since "Teaching Mrs Tingle"). In a surprise to me, this occurred just before Princess Di was killed, bringing the two figureheads into close relationship very quickly. The two have differing opinions on how to handle the aftermath of the tragedy and Blair soon finds himself needing to be very forceful to avoid the Royal Family becoming a target of scorn. Blair manages to convince the Queen, reluctantly, to make an appearance and a speech in order to save their reputation.

The film cleverly intertwines real-life footage of the events, most notably where the actors are "CGI'd" into original footage. The insight into the Royal Family is fascinating, and more so to the Queen (eg she drives a little jeep around the property). The cast is great, most notably the fore-mentioned plus James Cromwell as Prince Philip and Helen McCrory as Cherie Blair. I wasn't expecting much of the film, but really enjoyed the way it was done plus the walk down memory lane. It brought up lots of surprises eg that Diana was only 36 when she died and that the Queen knew how to drive a jeep and use a mobile phone.

Well worth seeing.

Another wifey pick, another African movie. If I had a dollar for............

"Shooting Dogs" is not a movie about people that go around shooting dogs but the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994. The film is set around a small Catholic school that becomes a shelter for many seeking refuge. Based at the school are a British teacher (Hugh Dancy, in his most powerful role since "Basic Instinct 2"), a priest (John Hurt, in his finest work since "Mr Forbrush And The Penguins"), some European tourists, the Rwandans and a small team of UN soldiers. The reason for the war is the desire of the Hutus to rid the land of Tutsis. The situation across the land becomes horrific with thousands being killed daily. The group at the school has their hope taken away bit by bit, beginning with the news the UN will not attack oncoming soldiers unless in their own self defense and the evacuation of any Westerner who might be of some help to their cause. Will they escape? See it to find out.

I didn't go in with much expectation but this was a really powerful film. John Hurt as the priest was excellent and the glue for the film. The story was strong but besides Hurt the cast was pretty weak, especially Darcy with his annoying little head shakes and all. A remarkable story of a people that were tragically deserted by the larger world. In all 800,000 were killed in just 100 days. Well worth seeing and one of the people films on an African story you'll see.

This week we started another "Quickflix" trial, and Tara loaded up our want list. The first DVD to arrive was "Knocked Up". Here's my IMDb.com review.

"Knocked Up" starts Seth Rogen (in his best work since a guest appearance in "Dawson's Creek") and Katherine Heigl (in her finest role since she played Sarah in "Under Siege 2) as Ben and Alsion, two people who hook up in a night club and have a one night stand. Ben is a loser stoner, Sarah an up and coming entertainment reporter. The next morning Sarah realises what a loser Ben is and quickly tries to end it quickly....until she discovers she's pregnant. Sarah then decides to track Ben down and get him to be a part of this unexpected surprise. She soon learns although he's a complete loser who spends his time hitting the pipe and watching movies with ladies with no clothes on, he's sweet too. Sarah has to work out though if she wants to shack up with him and become a family or to have the child and try to continue on her career path and hopefully meet someone fancier.

It's pretty rude and crude, with lots of sweet "ohhhhhh" moments to balance it out.... sorta. Some potential jokes were left hanging, while others where done to death. Ben's housemates provided plenty of laughs and really stole most of the great scenes. Jason Segel as Jason was probably my favourite character in the movie. Pretty funny overall, but plenty of awkward, uncomfortable moments.