Film Guide

US Box Office: Romantic comedy “Four Christmases” offered a gift to moviegoers in its debut over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, taking in $46.7 million in five-day ticket sales and landing atop weekend box offices, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

The movie, in which Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon play a couple who learn about love during unexpected Christmas visits to their four divorced parents, brought in an estimated $31.7 million for the three days ending November 30, according to Warner Bros., which released the film.

“In tough times, people are looking for comic relief and that’s what we gave them,” said Dan Fellman, who heads domestic distribution for Warner Bros, a unit of Time Warner Inc. [thr]

Kung Fu Panda is a delightful animated story about Po, a good natured but clumsy Panda with an eating problem, who dreams of becoming a Kung Fu master like his heroes the Furious Five. Destiny puts Po on the road to fulfilling that dream, but it’s a road that is long and hard, and Po will have to overcome numerous obstacles to achieve the dream.

Fortunately for us, Jack Black voices Po, and the animators have done an excellent job of transferring Black’s mannerisms to the CGI hero. Black is in his element in Kung Fu Panda, the slapstick nature of the humour lends itself to Black’s comedic abilities and well as providing a stable of easy laughs for the audience, both young and old.

Kung Fu Panda is a great movie for the whole family with some great themes about destiny and discovering your inner strengths.

Positive Elements:
Po wants to honour his father despite not wanting to work in the family business.

Doing your best and believing in yourself are strong themes.

Negative Elements:
Plenty of cartoon violence, but nothing to be wary of.

Reviewed by: Jonathan Read.
Rating: PG – Contains violence
Release Date: December 3rd, 2008
Stars: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Dan Fogler, Michael Clarke Duncan
Length (Minutes): 88
Media Format: DVD
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Languages: English
Supported Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
Director: Various
Studio: Paramount Pictures

Synopsis: When a couple tries to fly away from their family for Christmas, as they do every year, their fun turns around when all flights have been canceled. Now they have to go to four houses to celebrate Christmas while going through memories they don’t want to go into and suprises they can’t handle while they have to use a safe word to get out of situation. [imdb]

Selected Reviews:
Four Christmases is refreshingly tart and lean, forgoing the usual schmaltz and syrup of the season. – A.O. Scott, New York Times

In this egregious Christmas movie, Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon each demonstrate the classic “Hollywood romcom” face: waxy as a corpse, dead-eyed with self-loathing. –
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

I think that there has not been so much hype for a Playstation 3 game before release as there has been for “Little Big Planet”. However, I also think that there has never been a game the likes of “Little Big Planet” available before. This is definitely a game like no other for many reasons.

The first reason being that this is actually a game that any age group could play (Over the age of around 5 at a guess) and on the other side it is a game that the under 5’s would still love just to watch due to its brilliant and fun animation and style. It is narrated by English comedian Stephen Fry, who for those with children under the age of 10 will know has most recently been heard narrating the clever kids animated show “Pokoyo”.

The tasks that you have to do when following the story range from straight jumping through to dragging things into place in order to jump on top of other things while exploring the surroundings in order to collect lots of “Goodies”. Now these goodies range from awesome costume pieces through to crazy stickers. Yes that’s right stickers! And tell me this, who doesn’t like stickers?

This leads perfectly into the second reason that this game stands out from the rest, the high level of personality that you can put into it. For example everyone starts with their “Sack Boy” or “Sack Girl”, at any stage you can change their outfit, hair, facial features etc… Perhaps you want to look like a pirate or a hipster from the 70’s with an afro, the choice is yours. Of course you don’t start with all of the accessories, you have to collect them as you go through the story. Then of course there are the stickers that you collect along the way. You can use these at strategic places in order to gain even more bonus “Goodies” or even to decorate your pod (home base)

Now when my seven year old daughter realised that you got stickers and you could put them all over the place it became mayhem. But a good kind of mayhem because I didn’t have to peel them off or find ways to cover them up.

The third aspect of this game that brings it to the forefront is the high level of interactibility (Yes I might have just made up a word) that it contains via the Playstation Network. You can check your rankings online, build your own levels and invite people and their characters from all over the world to join you in your crazy personalised level. >From what I have seen, there really is no limit to what you can do within “Little Bid Planet”

My final thought on “Little Big Planet” is the built in safety measures in order to protect the innocence level of this game. At any stage you can report naughty behaviour to the “Playstation Network” moderators and of course as with all Playstation 3 titles you can set the level of interaction that you want yourself or children to have within this game. Oh and did I tell you that you can play multiplayer on any of the levels. Why not explore “Little Big Planet” with your kids or your partner.

While you’re there keep an eye out for me… I’ll be the one dressed as a pirate.

More material than ever was classified by the Office of Film and Literature Classification in the past year, up 9 percent from last year’s record.

The office examined and classified 2821 publications, according to its 2008 annual report, released today.

Sexual exploitation of children again topped the list of banned material, making up 49 percent of banned publications.

The office banned 16 percent of the publications it classified, restricted 72 percent and classified 12 percent as unrestricted.

Chief censor Bill Hastings said there was a large increase in submissions from the police of computer moving and non-moving images, and twice as many publications of this nature were classified objectionable as last year.

The office also carried out research with the Broadcasting Standards Authority of audience perceptions of violent content in films, DVDS, TV, the internet and mobile phones.

Mr Hastings said the research findings underlined the importance of the present classification system in assisting the public to make informed viewing choices.

The Classification Act requires that the Office of Film and Literature Classification minimises the risk to New Zealand society caused by the unrestricted availability of publications depicting matters such as sex, horror, crime, cruelty and violence.

The publications of most interest to members of the public and the media during the year were the feature film Hostel II, the digital game Grand Theft Auto IV, and book The Peaceful Pill Handbook (New Revised International Edition). [stuff]

Who says a picture is worth a thousand words? Sometimes you’d be surprised by how much is conveyed in a movie just through sound alone. Of course, the whole “moving picture” thing is kind of what makes a movie a movie, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who sometimes puts on a movie just for a little background noise. Now, with the website ListenToAMovie.com, you can listen to over 1400 different movies and 300 different TV episodes… absolutely free!

As their tagline states, the site is aimed at “The Cubicle Workers of the World”, and although it’s not intended as a service for experiencing movies you’ve never seen before, it’s an easy way to throw on an old classic while you work. The cool part is that apparently they also have a lot of audio commentary tracks included as well, which can be even more suitable for listening without the accompanying visuals. Is this all legal? Something tells me it’s not, however, I’m guessing the MPAA probably has bigger fish to fry at this point. So if you’re interested in listening to a movie online, click on the link below and take this site for a test drive. [/film]

A few days ago the motion poster premiered for Terminator: Salvation. The final scene from that becomes the new standard poster for the film.

Partially deaf girl, Hanna (the luminous Sarah Polley - Dawn of the Dead, Go), lives a life of monotonous and comforting routine. She works at a local plastic wrap factory, she lives alone, she never takes a day of leave, and most of all she never really connects with anyone. Regularly turning down the volume on her hearing aids she causes the unheeded world around her to fade away into the background. Into this muted realm of detachment director Isabel Coixet takes us; tentative intruders looking through a one way mirror and not understanding the beautiful and disparate elements before us. A slow-burn, bittersweet story with an aesthetic depth to easily immerse oneself in, Isabel Coixet’s The Secret Life of Words is one of my sleeper picks from this year’s DVD releases.

Forced by her employer to take a month’s leave Hanna foregoes the suggested sand and palm trees for the mundane simplicity of a nondescript seaside motel. On the first day of her solo holiday, through a twist of circumstance, she ends up taking a temporary post as a nurse on a nearby, offshore oil rig. Closeted in close proximity with a few other solitary souls Hanna slowly emerges out from her interior world and begins to find connection as part of this unlikely group. Her key counterpoint is the patient she has been seconded to treat, Josef, a sociable and forward American rig worker temporarily blinded and suffering major burns from an accident – portrayed by an authentically jaded feeling Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption, Mystic River). In each other they discover a source of understanding where they can begin to be released from the tight grip of their deepest shame and hurts.

The Secret Life of Words could have been two different films, using the same actors and characters, thatched together into a contrasting mellifluous whole. During the first half the mood of the movie is as hazy as the mist and clouds that permeate the screen; as mysterious as its quietly solemn subject. Coixet gives virtually no background information about her tight-lipped protagonist; begrudgingly letting small titbits go as the dialogue requires it. Enjoying the mystery, I thought the film might centre around the exploration of Hanna’s interior existence as she tenuously moved through the concrete world of the oil rig, reminiscent, in ways, of Lodge Kerrigan’s Keane (2004). However this was not to be. The Secret Life of Words’ back end funnels the plot through a sharply focused narrative which highlights Hanna’s previously ambiguous behaviour and motivations. Yet this is no Shyamalanesque serpentine thriller, designed to impress us with its cleverness. Rather the interplay of relationships is what counts here; specific plot details serve only to give these interactions context and weight without overtaking them. The movie centres on the hope of rediscovery when life has buried, beyond sight, your very person.

Credit has to go to both Polley and Robbins who show restraint, communicate ably, and share a palpable onscreen chemistry. Polley’s slow and painful character solidification is particularly arresting to observe. Production closely supports this with light, sound, setting, weather – the complete visual and aural tone of the film – mirroring this shift of interior/exterior balance. At first I was a little disappointed by this transition, but Coixet resists the temptation to over dramatise – even the most emotive scene, in which all scars are bared, is relatively pared back from what it could have been. With the exception, perhaps, of the film’s resolution. Finding a relational re-entry point into life will by no means remove the scars this life has left. Coixet and editors might have been better advised to opt against this high level of resolution by cutting the last few scenes. Regardless, they do manage to maintain a certain level of ambiguity in which we find room to ask questions and explore the thematic matter on our own terms.

A thoughtful and enjoyable viewing experience, Coixet’s The Secret Life of Words deserves to find a wider audience and hopefully the DVD release will bring this film into many more homes.

DVD Info
A vanilla* release this DVD includes only the feature, the theatrical trailer, and other Madman release trailers. Despite this the DVD transfer is good with a nice anamorphic 16:9 picture that is clear and evenly toned. Likewise the sound comes with the choice of a 5.1 or 2.0 Dolby Digital making the viewing experience as pleasant as can be on the equipment that you have available.

» Region 4 PAL
» Anamorphic Widescreen 16:9
» Language: English (5.1 or 2.0 – Dolby Digital)
» Subtitles: English, Spanish

» Feature
» Theatrical Trailer

* vanilla = basic version with no extra features or add-ons.

Reviewed by: Jacob Powell
Rating: M – Content may disturb
Duration: 115 min
Genre: Drama
Director: Isabel Coixet (2005)
Actors: Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins, and Julie Christie.
Country: Spain
Distributor: Madman Films

NOTE: The film portion of this review (with a few editorial changes) was first published on The Lumière Reader website as part of the 2007 NZ International Film Festival coverage.

Suddenly is one of those movies that is visually stunning in a slow cinematographic way, with a thought provoking undercurrent created by the dialogue and the music.

A family of four – 2 parents & 2 sons – the teenager and the younger sibling, a reasonably well off successful family with parents that are in love with each other. “What would you do without me” are one of the few phrases that are spoken by the mother before they set off on their journey.

The moody teenage and the little brother, who have been bickering over insignificant issues since breakfast challenge each other to a kerbside “paper, scissors or rock” to see who will sit in the front seat before they set off to drive to a family celebration at the grandparents, only to end in tragedy.

The accident scene depicts the road kill and how the surviving son sees the remnants of his family at the scene from his position on the edge of the roadside. He has a prime view of his father removing his younger brother from the wreckage and his heart rendering cry of grief.

The father, Lasse’s deepening period of grief escalates without any consideration for his surviving son, Jonas, who is not only coping with his feelings of guilt, loss and grief, but also coming to grips with a physical impairment as well.

Their lives spiral downwards to tragic proportions, this then leads them back to their family seaside holiday home. One would hope that in this beautiful environment they would rekindle their relationship.

The local people that have known them for years do not acknowledge their losses. The concerned grandparents come out, uninvited, to join them for the midsummer celebrations (with their own sheets so as not to be a nuisance!). Whilst there is a glimmer of some memories & traditional celebrations bringing normality, things do not go to plan.

There is a lovely development for Jonas as his unexpected and uncomplicated relationship with Helena evolves.

Things hit rock bottom for Lasse and Jonas is there at the right moment.

Reviewed by: Linda McGlynn
Directed by: Johan Brisinger
Starring: Michael Nyqvist, Anastasios Soulis, Moa Gammel, Catherine Hansson
Releases: 4th December, 2008

Sarah Jessica Parker says shooting on the Sex and the City: The Movie sequel will start next summer.

The 43-year-old actress – who reprised her role as sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw in the big-screen version of the hit US TV show earlier this year – has revealed plans are already in motion for the follow-up.

She said: “I think shooting next summer is a realistic timetable. That’s when we’d start shooting to be out in 2010. But that means we need to figure this out in the next couple of months.”

Parker also revealed the main “hurdle” in getting the movie off the ground is finding a realistic premise for the plot.

She added: “We’ve had very general conversations about the idea. That’s the big hurdle: the idea. The studio is very enthusiastic, which is lovely and seductive.

“We’re at the place where the writer and director, Michael Patrick King, has a wealth of stories so now it’s, ‘We think we have this story and how do we put this together and are we completely sure that it’s the right thing to do?’”

Parker – who is expected to be joined by co-stars Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis in the sequel – said her character Carrie, who married her boyfriend in the last movie, is unlikely to have children in the next film.

She told MTV: “It doesn’t seem as if that’s going to be a choice she’ll make. I don’t know. Michael and I never talk about it. That doesn’t mean that won’t be part of the story. We just haven’t figured it out.

“It feels a little bit manipulative to toss that into the mix, because she seems so pointed in a different direction.” [stuff]