Change Your Image
Shakamaker
Reviews
Gettin' Square (2003)
Wenham keeps this alive
There's nothing special about the story; it's a predictable crime/drama about a lad trying to go straight, despite the attentions of the soily company he used to keep.
It's believability stretched in places, the movie is saved by the performance of David Wenham (Faramir, in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy) who plays a lovably tragic junkie crim, with a penchant for finding trouble, but a strong sense of mateship. Wenham steals the show, and is especially hilarious in a particular court room scene.
Predictable, but some good writing, and Wenham's brilliance, make it enjoyable.
Bad Eggs (2003)
Bad Eggs - goes down well!
Bad Eggs is great debut from writer/director Tony Martin, starring well-known local talent.
We Aussies tend to enjoy our heroes portrayed as average-looking and bumbling, yet honest, lovable, and deceptively smart. On the flip side, we enjoy seeing our authorities and celebrities portrayed as dodgy, shady, corrupt, and fallible. (The tall-poppy syndrome.) This is a typical tale of a bumbling cop duo (Mick Molloy and Bob Franklin) who trip onto a trail of corruption, which goes a long way. In too deep and on the run, they must outsmart their hunters, and work out how to uncover the ring of corruption. Dragged into the mess is a local-rag reporter (the excellent Judith Lucy), who happens to be Molloy's ex-girlfriend, and a shy, conservative systems engineer (a very funny Alan Brough).
In what's essentially a p*ss-take of the local police, it's a 'serious' comedy, with most of the dialogue delivered in a overly-dramatic, dead-pan style. This fits in with the general style of the film, shot in a slightly pale, ghostly grading, with a score that helps the film keep it's faux-mystique.
Molloy and Lucy are fantastic together, and the sub-plot of their characters finding themselves helplessly thrown together again, after a less-than-amicable break-up, works very well. Bob Franklin is the real scene-stealer, though, as Molloy's slightly under-noticed partner.
Martin uses Franklin's brilliant straight-faced delivery, to help keep things from getting too serious. The debutant also livens things up with the use two truly excellent sight-gags, one of which is a hilarious narrated recollection by Franklin's character.
This film is good enough to even forgive the increasingly embarrassing number of times (four I think!) that the top of the boom mike can be seen in a couple of scenes. I don't think Mr. Martin will skip any more editing sessions for future projects! His raw talent, however, is plain to see. That, and the intelligence displayed in not trying to turn his debut film into more than it should be, has me looking forward to his next project.
Hopefully Bad Eggs will see the light of day overseas, as it's as darkly charming as other recent successful local films, The Castle, The Dish, and Crackerjack, are uplifting. A comeback of sorts, to the charming Aussie films of the seventies and early eighties? Please!
Xiao cai feng (2002)
Sijie Dai, where's the weight?!
I think another commentator made the point that the film doesn't deliver the levels of triumph, nor tragedy, so deserved for a such a portrayal of love, and freedom, amid such life-altering times, as that of Mao's Cultural Revolution in 1970's China. I agree.
I can't factually comment on whether the film is an historically or culturally inaccurate or misleading portrayal of the 're-education' of two young bourgoisie lads. Whatever the case, such a re-education took
a back-seat to the education of a young prolitariat woman, the development of her relationships with the two lads, and their rites of passage into adulthood.
That was until certain key issues revolving around love and choice were trifled over a little too subtly and tritely, at a time where such freedoms were obviously dangerous to exhibit. It seemed as though the entire plot, so full of potential, then seemed at once pedestrian, and it's ironic message of progress but at what cost, was exposed as under-developed. The film took a wrong turn and couldn't recover.
Visually spectacular, and often sprinkled with gentle humour, it's still well worth watching.