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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 09 May 2008

Jack Fuller (Kutcher) is a womanising slob who can’t hold down a job.  Joy McNally (Diaz) is a superficial control-freak who has been dumped by her fiancé.  They don’t know each other but both are in Las Vegas on a whirlwind holiday looking to escape their troubles.

They will meet in bizarre circumstances.  I won’t say how because it’s too hard to explain and quite frankly, I couldn’t be bothered.  What ends up happening is the two go on an all-night alcohol fuelled bender.  When Joy wakes up the next morning, she is horrified to find a wedding ring on her finger.  That’s right – in all the carnage from the night before, this drunken duo somehow found the time to get married in a Vegas chapel.  Oops.

Over breakfast the next morning, Jack and Joy realise that it was all a terrible mistake.  They have nothing in common and after a few feisty arguments, they agree to get a quick annulment.  That all changes when Jack slips a coin into a poker machine and wins a $3,000,000 jackpot.  Joy thinks she should be entitled to half because it was her coin and because she’s married to Jack.

They take it to the courts and in a Judge Judy like decision, the judge sentences them to “six months hard marriage”.  He is tired of young people wanting quick divorces and he plans on making an example of them.  He freezes the $3 million and says they won’t see a dime unless they try to make their marriage work.  He also states that they must see a marriage counsellor once a week.

Look, what can I say?  I hated this film.  The storyline is ludicrous.  I have nothing against silly comedies but they still have to have an element of realism.  Jack and Joy do some cruel things to each other and we are expected to laugh.  Then in the later stages of the film, they start realising the errors of their ways and we are expected to feel sympathetic and happy for them.  Give me a break!

Jack and Joy are self-centred phonies.  I can’t think of anyone who would want to be friends with them in real life.  They are horrible people and Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher only make them more dislikeable with their overacting.  The fact that Jack and Joy start falling for each other once they get to know each other makes very little sense to me.  Don’t fret if you think I’ve just given away the ending.  It’s blatantly obvious from the very start and it’s given away in the film’s trailer.

I saw this film at an advance screening and I overheard positive comments from some of the patrons on leaving the cinema.  I am prepared to acknowledge that there are moviegoers out there who will like this film.  They will see it as a fun and relaxed 90 minutes.  I saw it as an insulting waste of 90 minutes.  To each their own.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 28 April 2008

A creative serial killer is on the loose.  He kidnaps people, ties them up and then shows them live on a website called killwithme.com.  The “mechanism” that will ultimately kill the victim is linked to the webpage counter.  In other words, the more people that visit the website, the quicker the poor person will die.  It’s all very nasty.

Would you visit the website if it happened in real life?  The writers of the film think that a lot of people would.  More kidnappings take place and the killings start getting faster and faster.  He is preying on the curiosity of the general public.  He knows they can’t help themselves and in a way, they are all accomplices and witnesses to each death.

Helping investigate the case is FBI Agent Jennifer Marsh (Lane).  She’s part of their cyber division and her usual day job is to investigate fraudsters who are trying to rip people off over the internet.  She’s never come anything like killwithme.com before.  All her usual tricks to try to shut down the website don’t work.  The guy who came up with this knows what he’s doing and is always one step ahead of the authorities.

I won’t talk too much more about the plot.  I’d hate to give anything away before you’ve had the chance to see it.  It may sound interesting but for the most part, it’s very disappointing.  Nothing happens at all in the opening half hour – there’s too much time wasted on character development and pointless scenes.  When the serial killer enters the picture, the film makes the strange decision to show who he is.  That took out a lot of the intrigue as far as I was concerned.

With each passing minute, the movie becomes less believable.  There are some perplexing twists that are too silly to believe.  It made me realise that this isn’t an intelligent thriller but rather a dumb popcorn movie where you have to leave your brain at home.  Further, what’s up the quasi-romance element with Diane Lane and Billy Burke (who plays a fellow detective)?  Did we really need this?  What point did it serve?

If you still want to see this film, I’ll throw it one final warning – it is quite gruesome in places.  Watching the victims get killed in bizarre fashion reminded me a lot of the Saw movies.  It’s rated MA in Australia for its strong violence and themes.  Give it a miss.  

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 06 May 2008

Set near the end of World War II, Salomon Sorowitsch (Markovics) is a Jew imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp.  Most of the prisoners there will be killed in the gas chambers but Salomon and a few other inmates will be thrown a lifeline.  One of the officers at the camp, Friedrich Herzog (Striesow), knows that Salomon was once an expert counterfeiter.  Herzog arrested him many years ago for producing fraudulent bank notes.

The Nazis have come up with a cunning plan to attack both the English and Americans.  They intend to produce a mass of counterfeiter bank notes and then flood their economies with them.  It will allow the Germany army to buy weapons whilst creating massive inflation in both the England and the United States.

Salomon is considered crucial to their plans.  They know he has the expertise to create a perfectly forged bank note.  All those prisoners involved in the scheme are housed in a separate enclosure.  They are given fresh clothes, proper beds, decent food and running water.  It’s a paradise compared to what they’ve been subjected to in the past.  Most importantly, they’ll still alive.

Time passes and the team perfect their forgery of the English pound note.  Pressure is now on them to create an American dollar.  At this point, some of the men start questioning their own actions.  They’re keeping themselves alive but is it coming at a greater cost?  By producing the notes and helping the Germans, are they just prolonging the war and causing even more deaths?  Further, what’s going to happen when they produce the American dollar and the Germans no longer need them?  Will they be off to the gas chambers like their friends and family?

Lots of questions are asked and I love the way the film illustrates the ethical dilemmas that Salomon and his friends faced.  There’s a lot more than what I’ve described in my plot overview.  This is a really interesting story and to make it even more compelling, it’s based on a true story.  It’s described in the movie as the largest counterfeiting operation of all time.  That fact alone should grab the attention of some moviegoers.

Just as impressive as the story is the direction from Stefan Ruzowitzky.  This is a great looking film.  It’s pretty much entirely set within an enclosed shed.  The people inside have no idea what’s going on in the outside world and we share that feeling with them.  They have no sense of how the war is heading and what has become of their loved ones.

I also like the colouring of the movie.  It’s very grey and gloomy inside their building and there’s hardly any sunlight.  It again gives us an appreciation for what the situation was really like.  Let me not forget about the performances either.  Karl Markovics as Salomon Sorowitsch and Devid Striesow as Friedrich Herzog are excellent.  They may be enemies but they develop a very peculiar friendship as events unfold.

There was a lot of controversy at the Academy Awards this year when the favourite for best foreign language film, 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days, wasn’t even nominated.  The Oscar instead went to The Counterfeiters.  Whilst I’d like to have seen 4 Months score a nomination, I believe The Counterfeiters deserved the prize.  It may be a little depressing for some but I think you’re a fool if you don’t take the time to see it.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 April 2008

A 4-year-old girl has been abducted from her mother’s home in the middle of the night.  No one knows who took Amanda McCready or whether she is still alive.  The story has captured the attention of the Boston media who are giving it maximum coverage.  Journalists are camped outside her house and are impatiently waiting for any news.

Three days pass and Amanda’s aunt, Beatrice (Madigan), decides to bring in a private investigator.  She feels the police aren’t doing a good enough job.  Responding to an advertisement in the paper, Beatrice hires Patrick Kenzie (Affleck) and his girlfriend, Angie Gennaro (Monaghan).  Patrick and Angie are up front and admit that they don’t have the experience for such an important case.  Beatrice wants them anyway.  She feels that their friendships with locals in the area will help them sniff out information that the police have been unable to find.

Beatrice is right.  Within a day, Patrick and Angie start making breakthroughs.  They learn that Amanda’s mother, Helene (Ryan), has been trafficking drugs for some nasty individuals.  A couple of weeks ago, Helene and her boyfriend stole $130,000 from a powerful drug dealer named “Cheese”.  It looks like they’ve found a suspect and a motive.

If you think it’s a simple matter of “case closed” then think again.  There are a lot of twists to this tale.  Everything appears to be all wrapped up after about an hour but the story then goes off on a new tangent.  It’s a perfect film for people who are after some suspense and like to be kept guessing.

By major qualm with the movie is that I felt it too hard to believe (one of my most common criticisms).  Every time Patrick starts asking questions, people seem to open up and spill their guts.  Is it really that easy in real life to get information out of someone?  I also had issues with some of the big surprises at the very end.  Could this actually have happened?  I’ve got serious doubts.

My review probably won’t mean too much because Gone Baby Gone has been well reviewed by most other critics.  It also scores highly from the public on the Internet Movie Database.  I guess I just didn’t get it.  Amy Ryan picked up a number of major awards for her role as Amanda’s mother.  She also earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress but lost out to Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton).

It’s worth mentioning that the film marks the directorial debut of actor Ben Affleck (Good Will Hunting).  Affleck also wrote the screenplay with friend Aaron Stockard.  It’s based on a novel written by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River).  I think Affleck does an admirable job as first-time director.  His film will leave you asking questions of yourself.  Will you agree with the actions of certain characters?  Whilst I liked the ethical issues being explored, I can’t overlook my grievances with the story as a whole.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 03 May 2008

Iron Man is the first major blockbuster of the American summer.  After a few months of mediocre releases, we’re finally going to be treated to something big.  Let me point out that not all of these mass-marketed movies will be good.  I think some of them will stink.  Still, there’s something exciting about sitting in a packed cinema with a sense of anticipation.  It’s a better atmosphere than sitting alone in a movie theatre while watching a movie that no one cares about (and that’s happened to me a few times this year already).

Iron Man is based on the comic book of the same name.  I haven’t read it nor have I read any of the other 100,000 comics that have been adapted into a movie in the last decade.  Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with Iron Man – the first three-quarters of the film is spent developing his character.  I know that sounds like a long time but it’s not a bad thing.  The purpose of this movie is to show us how Iron Man was created. 

Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark.  He’s the owner of a weapons company called Stark Industries.  He makes the arms that are used by the U.S. military in their operations overseas.  There’s a scene where is grilled by a female news reporter on how he can live with himself, knowing that he is profiteering from wars and making missiles that kill thousands of people.  Tony doesn’t care.  There’s a market for his products and he is prepared to make money.

Stark’s attitude changes when he his kidnapped in Afghanistan whilst promoting his latest weapon, the Jericho.  He is taken to a bunker in an underground cave and is given an ultimatum.  He will be released but only if he can show them how to make a Jericho.  He agrees but has something else in mind.  Locked in a room with all the technology he wants, Starks makes a suit made of very strong iron.  He slips it on and breaks out of the cave.  When the guards try to shoot him down, the suit repels the bullets.  Ultimately, he finds his freedom and returns home to the United States.

At a press conference, Stark announces that he’ll be getting out of the weapons business.  He realises the gravity of what he has done over the years and the many innocent lives which have been lost.  Stark wants to help people instead of putting them in harms way.  This doesn’t sit well with the CEO of Stark Industries, Obadiah Stane (Bridges), who is worried about the ramifications of such a rash decision.  He knows that shareholders won’t be happy.  Stark doesn’t care however.  All he’s thinking about is designing an even better Iron Man suit – one that will allow him to fly around and help save those in trouble.

Yep, the film is worth recommending.  The highlight is the performance of Robert Downey Jr.  He gives the title character the right mix of seriousness and sarcasm.  He also gets all the laughs.  With a different actor in the role, I don’t think the film would have been as good.  Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow all have supporting roles but they don’t do a lot.

The action scenes are well put together and for the most part, the story was interesting.  There was easily enough material to keep my attention for 2 hours.  The better scenes are those where Downey Jr. develops his cool suit is his large basement.  The weaker scenes are those focusing on the bad guys and their evil doing.  When Robert Downey Jr. isn’t on screen, the film ain’t as good.