Film Guide

Pushing Daisies is a quirky, light-hearted romantic comedy slash detective series, featuring a lead character who has the power to give, and then take, life.

It’s the (very fictional) story of Ned the pie maker who discovers he has a gift, the ability to touch something dead and give it life again.  The only problem being that if he touches that something again, it dies forever.  Worse still is that if he doesn’t touch the dead something again within sixty seconds, something of a similar life form in close proximity will die instead.

So what use I a gift like this?  Well, if you team up with a private investigator, bring victims of foul play back to life (for only sixty seconds) and ask them who killed them, you can then us the information to solve the crime and collect the reward.

Sounds like the perfect partnership, and it was until Ned comes face to face with his childhood sweetheart, dead in a coffin.  He touches her to find out who killer her, but then can’t bring himself to touch her again.  And so the fun begins.

To say that Pushing Daisies was an original TV series would be a huge understatement.  It’s this originality and quirkiness that makes the show so endearing and watchable.  Everything else about the show is run of the mill, what you’d expect from a TV show, not that this is in any way a bad thing, because as a complete package it works well and elevates itself above just about every other sitcom currently screening on TV.

Reviewed by: Jonathan Read.
Rating: M – Contains violence and sexual references.
Release Date: November 12th, 2008
Stars: Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, Jim Dale, Ellen Greene
Media Format: DVD
Languages: English
Supported Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
Director: Various
Studio: Warner Bros

Chuck is a looser.  He works in an electronics store, lives with his sister and would rather play on his X-Box than date girls.  Ok, so he’d love to date girls but because of his loser-nerd personality, he just doesn’t connect.  But then his ex-friend who got him kicked out of college sends him an email with a very important file attached, which upon opening sends Chuck into a deep trance as it downloads the governments most secret of secret files into his brain.  Now the NSA and the CIA want Chuck dead, that is until they realise they need him to access the information that he now has locked in his randomly accessible brain.

Now Chuck along with his NSA and (Hot, blond, female) CIA agent/body guards must try and find a way to retrieve the information whilst running covert mission, with Chuck in tow.

It all sounds like a cheesy, Low budget TV show, really, but then you throw in Firefly’s Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin) as the NSA babysitter, who keeps getting put in his place by the CIA girl and you realise cheesy isn’t all that bad.

You see, Chuck doesn’t take its self too seriously; it has plenty of action, improbable situations and sexual innuendos but most importantly is breaths a laidback, funny breath into the whole spy genre.  Think Get Smart meets 24 and you’ll be on the right track.

Light hearted and fun, with characters you’ll instantly fall in love with, Chuck Season 1 is an addictively enjoyable if somewhat aimless TV show that will consistently put a smile on your face.

Reviewed by: Jonathan Read.
Rating: M – Contains violence and sexual references.
Release Date: November 12th, 2008
Stars: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin
Media Format: DVD
Languages: English
Supported Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
Director: Various
Studio: Warner Bros

Sony hit on a big thing when they launched SingStar, a karaoke party game for the masses.  With numerous different versions now released, it seems only logical for someone else to step up and combine their successful franchise with Sony’s winning formula.  Who better to be that somebody else than Disney with High School Musical?  It’s a match made in heaven.  So Disney’s Sing It: High School Musical 3 looks, feels and plays the same as SingStar, but contains songs for the three hit High School Musical movies.

If you’re new to the SingStar world, it’s a basic concept; popular songs play accompanied by onscreen lyrics and a pitch detection bar.  Sing along and hit the right pitch to score points, which in a two player game dictates who wins, and who loses.

It’s a perfect game if you have tween girls, and makes for a great birthday party or mother and daughter night in.

Tracklisting:
Start of Something New
Get’cha Head in the Game
Bop to the Top
Stick to the Status Quo
When There Was Me and You
Breaking Free
We’re All in this Together
What Time Is It
Fabulous
You Are the Music in Me
Gotta Go My Own Way
Everyday
All For One
I Want It All
Can I Have This Dance
Just Wanna Be With You
A Night To Remember
The Boys Are Back
Walk Away
High School Musical

Along the exact same lines as Sing It: High School Musical 3 is Disney’s Sing It,  a game suited to tween girls who want a little more than just High School Musical tracks, featuring 35 songs from Hannah Montana, Camp Rock as well as the first two High School Musical films and others.  Both Disney Sing It games work with the SingStar microphones.

Tracklisting
Aly & AJ – Like Whoa
Aly & AJ – Potential Break-Up Song
Aly & AJ – Chemicals React
Billy Ray Cyrus – Ready, Set, Don’t Go
Camp Rock – We Rock
Camp Rock – Start The Party
Camp Rock – This is Me
Camp Rock – Gotta Find You
Camp Rock – Play My Music
Camp Rock – Hasta La Vista
Camp Rock – Here I Am
Cheetah Girls 3 – One World
Cheetah Girls 2 – Dance With Me
Cheetah Girls 2 – The Party’s Just Begun
Corbin Bleu – Push It To The Limit
Everlife – Find Yourself In You
Everlife – Real Wild Child
Hannah Montana – Best Of Both Worlds
Hannah Montana – Life is What You Make It
Hannah Montana – Nobody’s Perfect
Hannah Montana – Rock Star
High School Musical 1 – Breaking Free
High School Musical 1 – Get’cha Head in the Game
High School Musical 1 – Start of Something New
High School Musical 2 – Bet On It
High School Musical 2 – Fabulous
High School Musical 2 – What Time Is It?
High School Musical 2 – You Are the Music in Me
Jesse McCartney – She’s No You
Jordan Pruitt – Jump to the Rhythm
Jordan Pruitt – Outside Looking In
Miley Cyrus – Girls Night Out (GNO)
Miley Cyrus – See You Again
Miley Cyrus – Start All Over
Vanessa Hudgens – Say OK

If singing isn’t your thing, but you’re a fan of Disney films and love quiz shows then Think Fast: The Family Quiz Game will give your family plenty of evenings of fun.  Utalising Sony’s Buzz! Buzzers, this game of general knowledge and fast fingers has over 5,000 Disney movie related questions and 15 different game types.  It is geared more towards the kids and uses a lot of visual clues, though does require a basic level of reading ability to play.  Hosted by Disney’s Genie it’s a quiz game with a definite focus on fun and laughter with a healthy does of competitiveness.

Eagle Eye is a guilty little pleasure. It’s like indulging yourself in Pizza and Coke for dinner when you really know you should have cooked something with vegetables in it. It’s the kind of movie that satisfies your cravings for some escapism, but at the same time forces you to suspend your brain activity. You see, if you sat down and thought about what you were watching, then Eagle Eye would disappoint. It’s a movie with so many impossible moments, wrapped up in a glossy action and special effects covering that is designed to entertain you, not to make you think.

It’s cheesy, predictable and best of all, a Juggernaut of fun and action that will keep you on the edge of your seat for the best part of it’s almost two hour runtime. It conjures up our modern fears of an Orwellian government aided by modern technology that can keep track of our every move by throwing two seemingly ordinary people together and forcing them to become America’s most wanted. Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) is the lead character and once again suits the cheesy action blockbuster role (only time will tell if he can actually handle a serious role) in this modern parable of self discovery where he must come to the realisation that only one person can control his destiny, and that is him self.

If Eagle Eye has anything serious to say, it is that our actions always have consequences, and that it is up to us to think seriously about the choices we make everyday of our lives.

Reviewed by: Jonathan Read.
Rating: M – Suitable for mature audiences 16 years and over.
Release Date: January 21st, 2009
Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Anthony Mackie, Ethan Embry, Billy Bob Thornton, Madylin Sweeten, Anthony Azizi, Cameron Boyce, Lynn Cohen, Bill Smitrovich, Charles Carroll, William Sadler, Deborah Strang, Dariush Kashani
Length (Minutes): 113
Media Format: DVD
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Languages: English
Supported Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
Director: Caruso, D.J.
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Year of Original Release: 2008

When Thomas and his family move to a new home and he has to start a new school, all he wants is to fit in. But when his pregnant mother has to be admitted to hospital for some enforced rest, his father leaves him in charge of Charlie, his autistic brother.

The Black Balloon weaves a story around many themes, at its heart is the hardships endured by all members of a family with an autistic sibling, and the love and commitment that bonds us together.

With a combination of autism and ADHD, Charlie is a handful, and what’s worse, at least in Thomas’ eyes is that he takes all the attention and Thomas has to take the back seat. You see Thomas is almost sixteen and in the words of his parents should be old enough to be responsible. But there’s a lot going on in Thomas’ life too, one thing being Jackie. Fortunately Jackie has a heart of gold and sees something magical in Thomas’ family and accepts Charlie with no reservations, slowly teaching Thomas how to appreciate his brother.

Of course, nothing in this movie goes to plan, it’s an emotional roller coaster where we get to witness attitudes and prejudice from neighbours, strangers and school kids, but also love and acceptance from a select few.

Luke Ford who plays Charlie absolutely nails the role with an Oscar worthy performance and is supported by a stand out cast that ably shows the reality of the daily struggles facing this family.

It’s a movie that should be eye opening to anyone who has never known someone with Autism, and should hopefully make you think twice before judging the misbehaviour of kids who look old enough to know better, yet whose parents seem to struggle with controlling them.

The Black Balloon is probably the best Australian movie that I have seen, and would rank in my best DVDs of 2008 list, if I ever get round to writing it!

Reviewed by: Jonathan Read.
Rating: M – Suitable for mature audiences 16 years and over.
Release Date: December 1st, 2008
Stars: Rhys Wakefield, Luke Ford, Toni Collette, Erik Thomson, Gemma Ward, Lloyd Allison-Young, Nathin Butler, Lisa Kowalski, Firass Dirani, Aaron Glennane, Andy Meritakis, Henry Nixon
Length (Minutes): 92
Media Format: DVD
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Supported Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
Director: Down, Elissa
Studio: ICON

When I sat down to watch Redacted I was expecting big things. Directed by Brian De Palma, who is known for such films as Scarface, Carrie, The Untouchables and Mission: Impossible. With these films in mind, I expected an excellent film.

Redacted is supposed to be a companion film to De Palma’s 1989 war drama, Casualties of War. I haven’t seen Casualties so have no idea how this rates compared to that, but I had heard good things about the 1989 dramatization of actual events.

As with Casulaties, Redacted is a fictional drama based loosely on an actual event. This time the event is a killing in Iraq known as the Mahmudiyah killings. The actual killings took place on March 12, 2006. The actual event saw a 14 year old girl gang raped in her home by a group soldiers after her family was murdered. After the rape, she was murdered as well.

The film fictionally approaches this central event and the lead up to it by employing different types of media. The film primarily utilizes the angle of a soldier creating a video diary of events in Iraq as he serves there. It also uses other mediums such as a documentary about U.S checkpoints in Iraq, internet video and official security footage. All of it is fictional, there is no real footage.

I think the concept is brilliant, looking at an event and everything leading up to that event by employing different types of modern media that currently do give us a lense into modern events. The means we employ to construct stories around events are vast and diverse. The film does well to capture that.

The film also does a good job of capturing the moral tensions at play and it raises some important questions. It forces us to ask how much of the brutality of the soldiers is a product of their context? Is it necessary for a soldier to be somewhat socially disruptive for their survival? How much of the insurgency in Iraq is a reaction to people feeling wronged by actions undertaken by the U.S military? How much of the “terrorism” is a reaction?Are events such as the central one in this film, the rape and killing, inevitable in such a context and if so, how justifiable is the context? What moral responsibility do bystanders have when their colleagues are engaging in brutality? How should a victim respond to a bully?

These are all very valuable questions and my hope is that anything who watches the film is able to walk away asking them.

Whilst I think the concept is brilliant and I value the questions raised, I have to admit to thinking the execution was poor and the acting, amatuer.

There were some convincing portrayals in the film, but it did not have the feel of soldiers in front of a home camera – it felt like amatuer actors trying to look like they were natural. It didn’t convince me. The “bad guys” were far too stereotypical and played their roles poorly – the oversized grunt with little between his ears who simply bullies his colleagues and is led around by animal instincts and the slightly more intelligent, but ultimately psychotic and skinnier yokle who feeds the bigger grunt all his ideas and whom the bigger grunt eagerly follows.

The more morally ambiguous characters were played poorly as well. Their frustrations felt acted.

There isn’t much more to say than that. A good concept with lots of good questions, but executed poorly. I expected more from Brian De Palma.

Reviewed by: Frank Ritchie.
Also reviewed by: Jonathan Read.
Rating: R16 – Violence, Offensive Language, Sex Scenes and Content That May Offend.
Release Date: December 4th, 2008
Length (Minutes): 90
Media Format: DVD
Languages: English
Director: De Palma, Brian
Studio: Directors Suite/Madman

The judge presiding over Fox’s suit against Warners over the latter’s “Watchmen” release has issued a ruling that Fox has a copyright stake in the Zack Snyder action pic.

“Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture,” judge Gary Feess said in the ruling.

The preliminary ruling throws a monkey wrench into Warners’ planned March release of the Legendary Pictures-produced movie. Fox and Warners had been prepping for a Jan. 20 trial date, but the ruling could force Warners to settle — likely in the form of payment — if it hopes to go ahead with the release.

Fox developed the project but eventually passed; “Watchmen also moved around to other studios before Warners picked it up and greenlit it. The tale is based on Alan Moore’s serial about a band of heroes.

A more detailed order clarifying the status of a potential release is expected to be issued shortly.

Bolt is a story about a Dog (named Bolt!) who is the star of a hit TV show. In the TV show Bolt has super powers and saves the world time and time again, with his trusty sidekick (and owner) Penny. To keep the show ‘real’ the producers create elaborate ways to keep Bolt ignorant of the fact that he’s on a TV show – he actually thinks he has superpowers. This is great for TV and makes working with a dog a lot easier. But then the inevitable happens, one day when Bolt is being pout to bed in his trailer, he sees Penny arguing with the show producer and take this as a hostile action. Believing he has to escape to save his friend, Bolt devises a plan to escape and finds himself in the outside work, lost and alone, and without his super powers.

Bolt is on a journey of discovery and along the way picks up a couple of friends, one a huge fan and one a cynic. Together they help Bolt discover who he really is and find his way home to a predictable but lovely ending where Bolt discovers that a true hero is formed in the heart and not through super powers.

Seeing Bolt in 3D was fantastic. It wasn’t over the top, but a rather subtle approach to 3D and I think this worked well. 3D seems to be the emerging technology of choice, especially for animations and kids movies, however, if overused (as in Journey to the Centre of the Earth) it just creates an eye bleeding mess. Bolt’s use of 3D was careful and well constructed, adding depth without trying to be too clever.

Bolt is a worthy start to the 2009 movie year, one that the whole family can enjoy. It’s fun, action packed and has a great message wrapped in the age old story of self discovery.

Reviewed by: Jonathan Read.
Rating: TBC.
Duration: 96 mins.
Genre: Family, Animated, Adventure.
Director: Byron Howard & Chris Williams.
Voice Talent: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Chloe Moretz, Susie Essman.
Release Date: 1st January 2009.

We’ve been hearing for a while now that the blockbuster film may be on the verge of extinction. While such claims may have seemed silly in the wake of one of the strongest box office years ever, the current economic crisis in the U.S. could indeed mean that the days of massive multi-million dollar productions are numbered. This week it was announced that Disney has decided to pull out of the next installment in the popular Narnia series for “budgetary and logistical reasons”. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was scheduled to start production this spring with a projected release date of May 2010. Michael Apted (The World is Not Enough, The Up Series) was slated to direct.

It is unclear what exactly this means for the future of the franchise, but it seems odd considering that the last film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian made almost $420 million worldwide. Prince Caspian was definitely not a failure, although it didn’t do as well as the first film (The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe made $745 million). Are they expecting the third installment to drop off even further, or are the budgets for these films simply getting too high? Prince Caspian cost approximately $200 million to make, and in the current climate, that’s a lot of cash to front. You’d think another Narnia flick would be a surefire hit, but on the other hand, people didn’t seem as excited about Prince Caspian and the buzz for this series seems to have died down (personally, I thought it was a much better film than the first). There is still a chance that Fox or another studio may step in to co-finance and co-produce, but if they can’t find a partner to replace Disney, the Narnia series will be finished. [filmjunk]

Plot: A post-apocalyptic nightmare in which all of humanity is threatened.

Not much to go on, but the trailer alone, with Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov producing it, has got me excited enough.