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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 September 2008

Ray (Farrell) and Ken (Gleeson) are two hit-men who are have fled London after a botched job.  Their boss has put them up in a hotel in Bruges, a small city in Belgium.  He’s booked the room for two weeks and has told them to sit tight.  He’ll call them shortly with further instructions.

To pass the time, these two guys go sightseeing.  Bruges is a beautiful city and there are a lot of old-style buildings to see.  In the centre of town you can find the Church of Our Lady.  It was a built in the 13^th Century and has a 122m high tower that visitors can climb.  The views are amazing.

Wait a minute.  Is this a movie we’re watching or is it a travel show?  These thoughts were running through my mind during the first half of the film.  Don’t worry.  There is a purpose to these early scenes.  By following Ray and Ken around the streets of Bruges, we learn a lot about them.  They’re polar opposites and you’ll have a few laughs over their differing opinions on the city of Bruges.

The film moves in a different direction when their boss finally calls from London.  He has instructions that will have a significant impact on their “holiday”.  I won’t say anything else because that’s unfair on writer-director Martin McDonagh.  Whilst his film is a little rough around the edges, I like how McDonagh keeps a few details from the audience.  These characters are not as straight forward as you might think and you’ll have to keep watching to find out more.

Both Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson give strong performances.  They share some great scenes and their long, argumentative conversations were certainly a highlight.  In contrast, the plot is pretty thin.  I was looking for more substance and there were elements to the plot (which I can’t go into) which felt over-the-top.  The final scene is worth hanging around for though.

In Bruges is rated MA and deserves that rating for its strong violence.  For the most part, the film is a crowd pleaser but there are a few brief moments which will bother some moviegoers.  Heed the warning.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 21 August 2008

Not Quite Hollywood will bring back memories for some and create new memories for others.  It’s a documentary which reflects back on the crazy Australian movies that were made in the 1970s and 1980s.  These films contained heaps of sex, nudity, violence and horror.  They were perfect for drive-in movie theatres and they helped put the Australian film industry on the international map.

Mark Hartley’s documentary contains an array of clips from these “Ozploitation” movies.  Titles you might be familiar with include Alvin Purple, The Adventures Of Barry McKenzie, Razorback and Mad Max.  The scenes shown are intermingled with current day interviews with the directors, writers and stars.  Some are proud of what they did whilst others a little regretful.

Their insights are fascinating and it opened my eyes to a host of Aussie films that I never knew existed.  I’d guess that a large percentage of these movies aren’t even available on DVD.  They weren’t made to win awards – they were made to make money.  They did so by creating controversy.  Who’d have thought that our movies from the 1970s contained more nudity than our films today?  It’s hard to believe.

Offering his thoughts throughout the documentary is high-profile director Quentin Tarantino.  Tarantino is a huge fan of Ozploitation cinema and you can see from movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Ficton that they helped shape his own style of filmmaking.  When Hartley interviewed Tarantino, they spoke for over 3 hours.  That’s a testament to how passionate Tarantino is about the subject.

The film is broken up into several chapters which look at the different types of movies which fall under the Ozploitation umbrella.  I was most impressed with the section on action films.  Stuntmen risked their lives with every major stunt they did.  They didn’t have all the safety measures that we have today.  Knowing the risks that they took makes these action films feel more suspenseful than the computer generated action sequences we see in the current era.

Documentaries are one of my favourite genres because you can be entertained and learn something at the same time.  Not Quite Hollywood is a perfect example and I hope it finds success at the local box-office.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 September 2008

Son Of Rambow is an English film set in the 1980s.  It centres on two young boys who come from very different families.

Will Proudfoot (Milner) has been raised solely by his mother.  They’re part of the Plymouth Brethren and their religion prohibits them enjoying “evil” influences such as movies, music and television.  His unusual upbringing has made Will an outsider at school.  There’s a scene early in the film where Will’s classmates watch a documentary as part of their studies.  Will is forced to sit outside in the corridor in accordance with his mother’s wishes.

Lee Carter (Poulter) has two parents but they never seem to be around.  They’re off travelling the world.  His older brother (Westwick) is supposed to take care of him but he’s more of a bully than a brother.  Lee takes out his frustrations at school by bossing other kids around.  He’s definitely a troublemaker.

Somehow, Will and Lee become friends.  They may sound different but they each have a creative vision.  Lee wants to make short film.  He loves movies and hopes to win a prize by entering it in a competition.  He has “borrowed” a camera from his brother and is looking to start shooting.  Will brings imagination to the project.  He has a sketch book filled with cool drawings and has plenty of ideas when it comes to scripts, stunts and costumes.  Inspired by Sylvester Stallone, their film will be called “Son Of Rambow”.

It doesn’t take long for others at the school to learn about the movie.  Soon, our budding filmmakers find themselves inundated with people looking for a role.  It’s great to have the help but at the same time, the project looks to be slipping off the rails.  Will and Lee start arguing over “creative differences”.  The fate of both their movie and their friendship is in doubt.

Son of Rambow was the 3^rd most popular film at the recent Brisbane International Film Festival and it’s not hard to see why.  Stars Will Poulter and Bill Milner are terrific.  They have an innocence and charm that will put a smile on your face.  It's a little too sweet at times but the youthful exuberance of the cast combined with the light-hearted screenplay make this a fun movie.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 19 August 2008

Let me start with a piece of advice – if you’re going to see this movie, make sure you aren’t late.  The film opens with three fake movie trailers which introduce us to the characters of Tugg Speedman (Stiller), Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr) and Jeff Portnoy (Black).  They set the tone for what is a very funny movie.

When the “real” film begins, we find that these three Hollywood stars are shooting a war movie in Vietnam.  It is based on the book written by Four Leaf Tayback (Nolte) and tells of his brave escape from the Viet Cong.  The director, Damien Cockburn (Coogan), is struggling to keep his film on track.  The shooting is behind schedule and he’s having trouble with his leading actors.

Cockburn realises that the only way he can save the movie is by changing the attitude of the cast.  He arranges for a helicopter to drop the stars into a remote part of the Vietnam jungle.  He gives them a map and a shooting script and says that it’s up to them to find their way home.  They will be secretly filmed the whole time.  Cockburn’s new directorial approach is meant to give the film a realistic, gritty feel.

Within minutes of landing, Speedman, Lazarus and Portnoy find themselves under attack from a local militia group.  They think it is all part of the movie and start fighting back.  What they don’t realise is that their attackers are real!  They are guarding a nearby drug crop and are heavily armed.  When will they wise up to the fact that their adventure is no longer a movie?

There are a few holes in the story but the humour more than compensates.  Writers Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen have come up with a politically incorrect comedy which pokes fun at the heavyweights within Hollywood.  I speak of actors, writers, directors, producers and even agents.

The film also targets a number of minority groups and I’m sure this will offend some viewers.  I didn’t mind the jokes though.  There’s an undercurrent to the whole movie which hints at something deeper.  It may look like an insanely silly comedy but it paints an interesting picture as to how the industry really works.  I’d love to know what the heavyweights in Hollywood think of it.

The strongest quality of the film is the stellar acting from the cast.  Robert Downey Jr, Ben Stiller and Jack Black are all brilliant.  Their characters all have psychological issues and they make the most of the problems for comedic effect.  There are also some well-timed cameos.  I won’t mention names but there’s one big-name star who pops up a few times in the film and I think it’s the best thing he’s done in years.

2008 has been a good year for comedy so far with films such as Pineapple Express, Kung Fu Panda, Lars & The Real Girl, Charlie Wilson’s War and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  Tropic Thunder is another to add to that list.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 27 August 2008

I didn’t really like this film but don’t let that stop you from seeing it.  When the producers got together and gave this film the green light, they didn’t have people like me in mind.  The plot description on the Internet Movie Database sums it up – “three women take a road to trip to Santa Barbara in order to deliver the ashes of one of their dead husbands to his resentful daughter”.  Yep, it’s a “chick flick”.

If you’re still interested in seeing it, I should tell you a little more.  It has a fairly strong cast.  There’s Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen.  All are accomplished actors and they do their best to brighten up this clichéd story.

These three ladies have a variety of adventures en route to their final destination.  They meet some interesting people and have fun in the process.  The trip brings them together and they all take something away from it.  There were quite a few laughs at the screening I attended and this leads me to believe that it will strike a cord with some audiences.

That’s all I have to say and this will go down as one of my shortest ever reviews.  I can’t hide my apathy.  I might have watched a few bits of this if I saw it on television but it wasn’t worth the effort of a trip to the cinema.