Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 14 December 2000

To Torrance Shipman (Dunst), cheerleading is everything.  In her final year at Rancho Carne High School, San Diego, she’s been elected captain of the school squad (known as the Toros).  Cheerleading is more than just playing second fiddle at football matches.  Every good cheerleader wants a chance to compete at the national titles and take on the best American has to offer.

The Toros are a renowned team and Torrance aspires to lead them to their 6th consecutive national title.  Things change quickly though when it is discovered the previous captain had been stealing cheers from the East Compton school in Los Angeles (known as the Clovers).  It’s either take a chance and show up with the copied routine or come up with a completely new routine in a matter of weeks.  Neither option looks particularly attractive.

Every teen film is black and white with no grey in between.  From the outset, Bring It On has spark, originality, fair and plenty of grey.  The characters are tough to gauge with emphasis going to Eliza Dushku and Jesse Bradforde (as Missy and Cliff), a brother and sister who don’t hate each other (for once) but rather show a fun, light-hearted look at such a relationship.  Other teen moulds are thrown out the window including a lack of parental interference.

Before getting carried away, Bring It On does have its fair share of corny scenes and tacky characters to keep my eyes rolling.  Still, the grand finale at the national finals was extremely well put together with the final result unknown to the very end - both teams deserved to win and I actually felt it was a shame there had to be a loser (i.e. grey area).

Everyone loves dancing - it’s the most popular form of creative expression.  Just take a look at the dance floor of a nightclub at 1am on a Saturday morning and see if people are having a good time (try to look beyond the alcohol).  There are some weird looking people with some weird looking moves but how many times have you felt yourself clicking your fingers or swinging those hips when even watching.  In a darkened movie theatre, that feeling still resonates.  So as for the future of dance on screen, given my adoration for them, I say Bring It On.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 30 November 2000

“There are two reasons why I am looking at you like this.  One, because it seems in a few minutes you will be the only survivor of this train wreck.  And two, you don’t have a single broken bone or a scratch on you.” 

After a discouraging job interview in New York, security officer David Dunn (Willis) is returning home on train 177 to Philadelphia.  The next minute he finds himself waking up on a hospital bed talking to a doctor and asking what happened.  The train derailed, 131 people were killed and Dunn is the sole survivor.

At a memorial service for those killed, an envelope is left on Dunn’s windshield asking the question “How many times have you been sick?”  Dunn can’t seem to remember so does some searching.  He asks his wife, he asks his boss but no one can seem to remember a cold, a sore throat, anything.  The only injury of any kind came from a car accident in college that wrecked his football career.

The envelope was left by Elijah Price (Jackson), an obsessed comic book collector with his own art gallery, Limited Edition.  Elijah suffers from a rare medical condition - a severe brittleness of the bone and has spent a third of his life in hospital.  It has occurred to Elijah that if there is someone like him, there must be someone who is the exact opposite?  Every day he has scoured newspapers looking for the elusive phrase “there was a sole survivor”.  Has the riddle been solved in the discovery of David Dunn?  Is he truly unbreakable?  Just what does Elijah want with Dunn now that he has been found?

M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) will make you wait for the answers.  Like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable is deliberate and pieces of the puzzle are revealed ever so slowly.  There was a moment midway through the movie where I knew he had me.  The film had turned in a way I didn’t expect and there was no way of predicting where next it would go.  Attention should also be given to Shyamalan’s use of colour - the movie is very grim but colours on certain characters do stand out.

Roles are purposely underplayed but the cast could be better with emphasis on the role of Dunn’s son played by Spencer Treat Clark (he sure ain’t no Haley Joel Osment).  It is the story that makes the film however and can best be described as creatively brilliant with only a few minor qualms.

Once again I was fooled by the twist ending which doesn’t quite have the impact of The Sixth Sense.  Be prepared but don’t expect a revelation that puts everything preceding it in a new light.  Rather, prepare for an ending that will foretell the future.  It is not a well-publicised fact that Unbreakable is rumoured to be the first in a trilogy.  This will make more sense after you see it.

Craftily told and directed, Unbreakable will again make you sit up straight and pay attention.  Part of the new breed of filmmakers, Academy Award nominated Shyamalan will have us all awaiting the next instalment.  Are you ready to take that first step?  Are you ready for the truth?

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 07 December 2000

When the spacecraft encounters a meteor shower on entry, the mission collapses.  Team commander Kate Bowman (Moss) is left aboard the depleting ship as her five crew members take the emergency launch vehicle to the surface.  Chantlias (Stamp) is fatally injured in the decent leaving just four survivors.  They have just 8 hours of oxygen to find the colony and then there’ll be the matter of finding a way back to the ship and there’s no guarantee that it survived the shower unharmed.

I am so very tired of reviewing films like this on a weekly basis.  I need to create a template where I just enter the name of the film and the actors and let the computer do the rest.  The words I’m looking for are formulaic, predictable and uninteresting.

Screenwriters Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin have borrowed from many other science-fiction films to create the standard story.  The dialogue is dreadful and the many impossible situations they find themselves in before miraculously escaping are done to overkill.

No money was spent on extras and there are just the six crew members making up the entire cast.  You think they’d have spent the savings on better effects.  First time director Antony Hoffman makes nothing of his opportunity in the director’s chair nor does all the cast.

Filmed in Australia, there was a major fallout between Tom Sizemore and Val Kilmer during shooting which became public.  Both never want to work together again and their lack of interest in the product shows through in their performances - these characters are so boring.

Red Planet is the second film this year to base its story on man’s first landing on Mars (following Mission To Mars) and this raises several questions.  Why in both movies does the mission go wrong - is this what we really hope will happen?  Why in both movies do they find life on Mars without any previous indications?  I loved The Dish because of its compelling yarn and the numbing feeling I was left with watching mankind accomplish the unthinkable - putting a man on the moon.  In Red Planet, I couldn’t care less.  It’s just trashy science-fiction garbage.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 30 November 2000

Theodore Seuss Geisel (aka Dr. Suess) was a brilliant writer responsible for many books and poems read, remembered and loved by kids around the world.  The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and The Cat In The Hat are perhaps his best-known works and who can honestly say they’ve never read them?

The town of Who-ville treasures each Christmas as a time to celebrate and give gifts.  Legend has it that an old “grinch” lives high in the mountains and hasn’t been seen since spoiling Christmas many years ago.  When it’s time to present Mayor May Who’s annual Christmas award to the person most in need of Christmas cheer, young Cindy Lou Who nominates none other than the Grinch.

Cindy climbs high in the mountains to bring Christmas cheer but the Grinch is unmoved and has plans to spend the holiday wallowing in his own misery.  But the thought of an award grabs his attention - if he’s the winner than that means there must be losers.  Perhaps Christmas may not be so bad after all.  Returning to the town proves a bad idea and the Grinch is ridiculed and left grinchier than ever.  There’s only one way of making sure something like this never happens again - to steal Christmas.

I was stunned by the beauty Ron Howard (Apollo 13) has drawn from Dr Seuss’s writings.  The costumes, sets and cinematography are unrivalled on screen this year.  Head make-up artist Rick Baker has won 5 Academy Awards and will be a 100-1 on favourite next year - it’s amazing the detail he has gone to.  Baker has signed on to Tim Burton’s new Planet Of The Apes remake in 2001 - he sure likes picking tough challenges.  No cast member is recognisable and more time must have been spent in chairs rather than filming this production. 

It cannot be denied that Jim Carrey has the broadest range of any current actor.  If you told me that Ace Ventura, The Cable Guy, The Truman Show, Man On The Moon and The Grinch all starred the same actor, I say you were a Liar, Liar.  Every time I review a Jim Carrey movie I say that I couldn’t see any other actor playing the role and not to reiterate myself but ditto again for The Grinch.  Just how does he do it?

With Christmas just weeks away, it’s the perfect movie to take the kids and spread some Christmas cheer.  It’s not a dark film by any means and children will love The Grinch as he is won over and changed by young Cindy and her message that Christmas is not just about giving presents.

As the best family movie in years, don't pass up a chance to see The Grinch.  Just take the kids, it’ll be a cinch.  Beautifully narrated by Anthony Hopkins and filled with lyrical rhyme, for the first time this season I felt in festive chime.  So take the opportunity and answer the call.  To end, I wish a Merry Christmas to all.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 07 December 2000

Welcome to Mr and Mrs Tweedy’s chicken farm in 1950s England.  It’s a tough lifestyle for the poor chickens - either lay eggs or get the chop.  As leader of the chickens, Ginger has orchestrated many escape plans from the pen but all have backfired and hope seems lost.  That is until Rocky Rhodes the Rhode Island Red Rooster comes flying through the air landing in the chicken pen.

Under the impression that he can fly, Rocky is taken in by the “chicks” and seems the answer to their prayers - he can teach them all the secret to flying.  Time is fading fast though with Mrs. Tweedy purchasing a new pie making machine and intending to use it as soon as possible.

This is a rare film that is impossible to dislike.  Rotten Tomatoes is a popular website that takes all the leading critics from across America and gives the film an approval percentage based on the number that liked the film compared with those that did not.  Chicken Run scored 100% from all 55 critics - the only film to do so this year.

Its jokes are very witty, including everything uttered from the mouth of Babs.  There’s plenty for both adults and kids to be entertained and it all wraps up in quick time.  It’s amazing to see such creativity in animation - just when you think you’ve seen it all, along comes something new.  Animation is clearly the wave of the future.

Featuring voices of Mel Gibson, Jane Horrocks and Miranda Richardson, Chicken Run is the must-see kids film of the year.  Prepare to be left with a smile on your face.