Father Geek here with Latauro's newest edition of our column from Ol' Australia, soooooo sit back relax and dig in...
Second rule, don't write anything down.
AICN-DOWNUNDER
AICN-DOWNUNDER
So we saw the last episode of the most recent season of “Angel”. Then “Buffy” ended. Then we saw the last Sorkin “West Wing”. Then “Gilmore Girls” disappeared without explanation. Then “Sopranos” finished its season. In fact, the only cool thing to come of this (with the exception that I can go back to, y’know, having a life) is that “Sopranos” was immediately replaced with “Six Feet Under”.
So with all this ridiculously high-quality TV gone until the new year, what do we have? Except for the occasionally random “Simpsons” or “Futurama”, I mean. What could possibly be brought out to satisfy the needs of fanboys? (Not those needs, dirty mind.)
The ABC has just begun playing “Doctor Who”. In its entirety. I’m talking ‘Unearthly Child’ right through to ‘Survivor’. I’m talking Hartnell to McCoy, by way of Troughton, Pertwee, Baker, Davidson, and another Baker. All of them. Well, not all. Obviously the long-lost episodes that were destroyed by the BBC back in the day aren’t there. Which sucks donkeys, but it doesn’t damped my spirits. Because the Doctor is back.
“Doctor Who” was my first foray into the annuls of fandom. It got me to my first convention. Then my second. Then I joined a couple of local clubs. Then I started my own fanzine. Yes, at age fifteen I had a fanzine devoted to the glories of telefantasy and SF.
And it was cool. I mean, it wasn’t cool by any *accurate* definition of the word, but I loved it. I was having a ball. And we were getting great reviews (yeah, as if the zines weren’t self-referential enough, there were people who reviewed them). In fact, my swansong was a one-off zine that tore apart the ugly aspects of fandom and almost got me in legal trouble.
But that’s beside the point.
In the few years I was heavily into fandom, there was a constant campaign for Auntie to replay “Doctor Who”. And they never did. The rights were too much, we were told. There are no plans in the immediate future, they said. And after a while we gave up. (Okay, *I* gave up.) It was never going to happen.
So this is a good time. I’m rarely home at the 6pm timeslot, but my current plans are to spend my Sunday afternoons watching the previous week’s adventures. If you’re somewhere near a signal giving you access to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, I suggest you go back to the show that was doing interstellar adventure before Captain Pike took command of the Enterprise.
Enjoy.
NEWS
* There’s talk that Heath Ledger, who should really know to stay away from period films at this point, will star in Brian Helgeland’s remake of MOBY DICK. If the success of FOUR FEATHERS is anything to go by, expect very few punters to be calling him Ishmael next holiday season.
* If you loved John Polson in M:I-2, then there’s something wrong with your brain. On the other hand, if you loved his directorial foray SWIMF@N, then there’s still something wrong with your brain. Regardless... Polson, who is already poised to direct STRAW DOGS remake FEAR ITSELF, will first shout “action!” at Bobby De Niro for psychological thriller HIDE AND SEEK for 20th Century Fox.
AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
IF AWARDS
If you want to vote in the Inside Film Awards, you’ve got until midnight on October the 3rd. Check out www.ifawards.com for details.
BOX OFFICE
Geoffrey Rush knocked himself off the top spot as pirates came back into cool. The LEGALLY BLONDE sequel (which dropped two subtitles before release) is doing okay business, but nothing mind-blowing. HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE disappeared down to sixth spot pretty quickly, and will likely vanish within a couple of weeks. AMERICAN SPLENDOR debuted at tenth spot... not horrible considering the number of screens it’s playing on, but I think this will jump up a notch or two in the coming weeks.
Here are this week's winners...
- 1. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL
- 2. FINDING NEMO
- 3. LEGALLY BLONDE 2
- 4. THE ITALIAN JOB
- 5. 28 DAYS LATER
RELEASED THIS WEEK
Malcolm goes Bond-alike franchise, Michael Bay refuses to keep the godamn camera still for a second, Jamie Lee Curtis gets some *really* effective cosmetic surgery, Stephanie Black exposes the real Jamaica, tiny tots get the Nickelodeon equivalent of GENERATIONS, Zhang Yimou finds something harder than making films, and Tasmania gets the treatment on screens that are generally bigger than Launceston as a whole.
Annnnnd here they are...
- AGENT CODY BANKS
- BAD BOYS II
- FREAKY FRIDAY
- LIFE AND DEBT
- RUGRATS GO WILD
- THE TURANDOT PROJECT
- WILDNESS
REVIEWS
First up, I take a look at Ridley Scott’s MATCHSTICK MEN. Did I like it? Did I hate it? What’s with the need for a one sentence summary?! Read the review! Following it is AICN-D Queensland correspondent The Incredible Kitster with his review of INSPECTOR GADGET 2. You guys were so appreciative of the IG2 news I printed last week, I thought I’d give you some more!
MATCHSTICK MEN
Reviewed by Latauro
After recovering from what I’m sure was at least three different strains of the flu, I found myself with a bit of an eye infection. This was strange; not only for the fact that I never get sick, but because I couldn’t keep my eyes open in direct sunlight. They’d either shut involuntarily, or just force everything out of focus. It was getting quite irritating.
Then I turn up to a press screening of MATCHSTICK MEN, and my name isn’t on the door like it usually is (my name is ‘EXIT’... thank you, I’m here all week). This is odd. Maybe my confirmation email didn’t get through... I didn’t get a response, like I usually do. So I’d gone all the way up to the city for nothing. Only thing was, the girl on the door was a friend of mine, so let me in anyway. I’d scammed an entry to a screening I was meant to be at anyway. A minor con, but a con nonetheless.
So when I sat down to watch a film about a conman who can’t look at direct sunlight, I felt somewhat able to identify. For a while. After the first few minutes I forgot about that and just got into the film.
It’s got an interesting pedigree. Nicolas Cage has made a welcome return to respectable since his brilliant turn in ADAPTATION; thanks to CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, the public are finally starting to work out who Sam Rockwell is; Alison Lohman got raves for her debut in WHITE OLEANDER. So sure, the acting thing is covered. But the real question mark is over the key crew...
Ridley Scott is the definition of hit-and-miss. For every BLADE RUNNER, there’s a WHITE SQUALL. Lately, though, he’s been on a bit of a roll... of sorts. I debated with a friend for months on end about whether GLADIATOR was epic or not (I felt it was). Finally, I was able to identify why it had felt epic to me: the direction. The script was where it fell short, but the direction was superb. It was the same with HANNIBAL. I couldn’t believe that such an awful film could be so brilliantly directed. Surely the two are inextricable? Ridley’s a great director, but his script-choosing abilities are so bad they nearly rival Old Harrison Ford.
So is the script any good? One of the two writers is Ted Griffin, whose recent kudos came in the form of OCEAN’S 11. About a year ago, I spent an hour in the AICN chat room arguing its merits with Harry (check out his review: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=11025). Harry’s biggest problem with O11 is that there was never any danger, that there was no moment of catastrophe that made you think, “They might not make it!”. In a sense, that’s what I loved about it. I’ve seen far too many instances of contrived danger, of writers who can’t write a scene without some sort of intense threat. Absolutely I agree that there’s no drama without conflict... but you can have conflict without making up some sort of big danger. O11 is a very easy film to watch, mostly because Griffin was able to show a massive heist coming off without a hitch and still keep it interesting. I’m never bored, yet these characters are never under any real threat. That’s what impressed me most about the film, and about Griffin’s script.
In adapting Eric Garcia’s book, Ted Griffin (and his brother Nicholas) have a lot of conflict to work with. Genuine conflict. And when the characters are in danger, you feel it. It’s not like Peter Coyote is pointing a gun at Stallone and you know Stallone will definitely survive; these characters might not.
Much as I loved the heist elements, this film is primarily about Cage and his daughter. What happens to a recluse when he suddenly finds he has a fourteen-year-old daughter? It’s the heart of the film, and it’s treated with a precise balance. Lohman (all of 24 years) nails the character ten years her junior. The film would be somewhat monotonous if not her eager innocence, countering the cynicism of Rockwell and the guilt of Cage.
That last ten minutes, the moments you’ve been told to avoid (again, http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=15990)? Honest-to-God, I don’t know what I think of them. Had I seen them as a DVD extra, I think I’d dislike it... but it’s not an extra. It’s part of the film. It’s there. I’d love to throw my two cents in, but I just can’t push my opinion either way. And I don’t want to discuss it, because at least half of this column’s readers won’t have seen it. (Please refrain from spoilers in talkbacks... cheers.)
It’s a masterful film, and if you’re after a heist film, then it’s the best one you’re likely to see this year. But if you’re after something more, a film that treats the father-daughter relationship with more maturity than, say, THREE MEN AND A BABY, then you’ll get that too.
INSPECTOR GADGET 2
Reviewed by The Incredible Kitster
Utter shite, although a lot better than the first one...
NEXT WEEK
- Eli Roth to direct a remake of John Carpenter’s upcoming HALLOWEEN remake
- Gus Van Sant to direct Anne Heche in shot-for-shot remake of RUSSIAN ARK
