Film Guide

Set in Sydney in the 1920s, Underbelly: Razor follows the razor gangs of the 1920s and focusses on the battle for the underworld between vice queens Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh. It is visually a treat, as the Underbelly series always has been, and as violent as anything you’re likely to see on television, especially because we’re talking about razor gangs. And of course it’s got sex. Lots and lots of sex because, well one of the key characters owns a series of brothels and another major character is a prostitute who discovers that she’s actually quite good at her profession and enjoys it to boot.

BUt what does this stylised re-telling of Aussie criminal history really offer that previous seasons havn’t already given us other than a new era to explore.

Not much really.

In fact the show seems to be loosing a little of it’s soul with each subsequent incarnation, to the extent where we find ourselves watching Underbelly: Razor and desperately wondering who’s side we’re supposed to be on.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a ‘Western’ Jim, but not as we know it.

A vérité western focusing on the stories of women travelling in a wagon train – who’d have thought? Taking a time honoured genre, completely deconstructing it, then turning it into an altogether different beast director Kelly Reichardt reinforces her growing reputation as an auteur of note with this meditative yet intense period piece. Based upon actual trail journals, Meek’s Cutoff eschews typical guns’n’glory genre trappings, redefining the western myth by drawing the dramatic from the everyday. The perils in this film are the very real dangers of the lack of fresh drinking water and breakdown of essential equipment with no easy way to fix it.

The story consists of three family groups (each with their own wagon) being led along the Oregon trail by the titular Stephen Meek (a convincingly rough-shod performance from Bruce Greenwood). The travellers are off track, off schedule, and increasingly becoming out-of-sorts with their guide. As the water starts to run dry, tensions rise and newish couple Soloman (Will Patton) and Emily Tetherow (a flinty eyed Michelle Williams) are given de facto leadership of the wagon train to try and steer them back onto the right course.

In the film’s opening, as we observe a wagon in the midst of an attempt to ford a fairly serious river, the director instantly makes two things (perhaps subconsciously) apparent: 1. Having joined these sojourners mid-journey we are only seeing a section of an immediately larger tale, and 2. We have been placed in the role of observer rather than that of ‘participant’. This is a tale that unfolds while we watch, not one that is trying to drag us into the midst of it. Yet I was transfixed by the stark other-worldliness of the visuals – the cruel majesty of a landscape much unchanged – as well as by the realistic feel of the characters and action occurring therein. Read the rest of this entry »

Playing with an intriguing premise, The Reluctant Infidel follows Mahmud Nasir, a British Muslim geezer who discovers, to his shame and horror, that he was in fact born to Jewish parents and adopted by Muslim parents as a baby. Adding to his identity crisis is the need to prove his commitment to the Muslim faith to his son’s potential father-in-law, a radical cleric who must give his approval before the impending nuptials. What develops is a light and charming farce that gently pokes fun at both religions, while delicately touching on some deeper issues surrounding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Read the rest of this entry »

I was intrigued with the concept of Erasing David – could someone living in the world’s third most surveilled country, just disappear and survive for a month without being found? It’s a concept that film maker (and star of the documentary) David Bond investigates in Erasing David. He starts off by employing private investigators Cerberus Investigations Limited to attempt to locate him, giving them a month to do so, then attempts to drop off the grid. Fortunately the documentary is a little more than just this, as the first thing Cerberus do is grab David’s garbage and discover his initial travel documents.

Spliced in with his life on the run from Cerberus, are a few different aspects of living in our modern, invasive society. David decided to enact the privacy act, requiring businesses to send him all the information he has on them. The amount of information he receives back from some companies is staggering to say the least.

David also interviews a couple of people who have been arrested for crimes they didn’t commit but have been linked to through identity theft, and proves the point that mud certainly does stick.

But the main focus, and the reason most people will be watching Erasing David is to see how long a clued up guy can evade two private investigators. Luckily Cerberus don’t have access to Britain’s massive array of CCTV cameras or facial recognition scanning, if they did, David would have been toast.  Read the rest of this entry »

Despite opening with every cliché under the sun, The Veteran shows promise in the early scenes as Miller (Toby Kebbell), a soldier freshly back from active duty in Afghanistan (and showing several signs of PTSD) finds himself out of place in a world which seemingly has no use for a man with his particular skill set. After falling into some kind of clandestine operation run by the shady brother of his friend, Miller finds himself tracking a terrorist operation, utilising the services of informant Alayna (Adi Bielski). While it’s not exactly new territory, there is enough there to craft a suitably interesting story, yet The Veteran is hampered by a secondary story involving Fahad (Ivanno Jeremiah), an old friend of Miller’s, who is having troubles with the local gang.  Read the rest of this entry »

There is such a large number of direct-to-video trash in the horror genre that floods video store shelves, and after five minutes of Stake Land, there was no reason to believe this was going to be anything different. Beginning as an almost carbon copy of Zombieland minus the humour, the film introduces us to a post-apocalyptic world overrun by an assortment of undead bloodsuckers, and our two heroes: orphaned teen Martin (Connor Paolo) and tough as nails vampire hunter Mister (Nick Damici). What unravels however is a surprisingly moving and unique road drama, scattered with some genuinely disturbing scenes, and ultimately one of the best horror movies these tired eyes have seen in quite some time.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s ironic that Ami James keeps claiming that he doesn’t want his new Reality TV show, NY Ink, to be like Jersey Shore, because, in reality it is more like the Shore than a serious attempt at following the success (or failure) of a new Tattoo Parlour.

Now to be honest, I’ve never watched Jersey Shore, but from what I’ve heard it’s about a group of bitchy kids living together, which is basically what NY Ink is, but rather it’s about a groups of bitchy young adults working together in a Tattoo Parlour.

I decided to give NY Ink a go, because I enjoyed LA Ink’s first season so much, but by the time LA Ink Collection 10 came around, Kat Von D seemed to have made the show all about her personal life, and the Tattoos were being given the back seat, and when Corey Miller walked out, so did I.

Ami James is no stranger to Reality TV, as he began with Miami Ink, and all male outfit that really didn’t interest me, purely because it was all male. But with NY Ink, Ami was bringing Megan Massacre on board, and she has talent and a whimsical style. The problem is, it’s not till her last tattoo of the season that she’s allowed to break out her unique style. Rather it’s likes she’s been placed in the Parlour to be a distraction to bad-boy artist Chris Torres. And distract him she does, to he detriment of everyone, including the viewer.  Read the rest of this entry »

Dr Who for me, started with the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, carried on with the fifth Doctor, Peter Davison and finished with the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker. Somewhere in the lat 80′s I grew out of Dr Who and moved onto other things. Dr Who would have stayed a forgotten memory if it were not for my 13 year old daughter discovering the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant, though a friend and their portable DVD player. All of a sudden she was wanting to save up money to buy Dr Who DVDs. So when the opportunity arose to review Doctor Who – Season 6 on DVD, I decided to give it a go.

However, my daughter was mortified when I bought it home. Her Doctor was David Tennant and this new, Eleventh Doctor played by Matt Smith just didn’t cut the mustard. Well, at least not for the first couple of episodes. Now that we’ve finished watching Season 6, my David Tennant loving daughter wants me to buy her Doctor Who: Series 5, because she’s in love with Matt Smith.  Read the rest of this entry »

Right, time to be brutally honest, and a little bit sarcastic. Horrible Bosses has pretty much failed in every department, even the name promises more than it delivers. In reality it should have just been called “Horrible.”

To be fair however, the bosses in Horrible Bosses are the only thing keeping this mess of a film afloat. Well, two of the bosses anyway. Kevin Spacey and Colin Farrell absolutely own the screen anytime they are on. Jennifer Aniston is just plain awkward and not as hot as people make her out to be. But for a film named Horrible Bosses, with three A-List actors taking the boss roles, you’d think that Spacey, Farrell and Aniston would get the most screen time. Sadly they are all bit parts and we’re left with having to deal with Bateman, Sudeikis and Day, stumbling through a plot that sees them scheming to kill their three very different, but definitely horrible, bosses.

There scheming brings them into contact with another highlight (and another underused A-List actor) when we get to see Jamie Foxx have a ball playing Motherfucker Jones. Yes it’s a repeating gag that plays out surprisingly funny in a film devoid of much entertainment.  Read the rest of this entry »

Given that New Zealand is such a small film market, at least in comparison with the wealth of content cinemas have available to them from abroad, the number of homegrown films which see a wide release is unfortunately small. It shouldn’t be a reflection on the quality of local film, just simply the reality of existing in a business so completely dominated by Hollywood. Which is why it’s so disappointing when one of the precious few slots allocated to NZ films is filled by something like The Devil’s Rock, a derivative, achingly slow horror masquerading as revisionist history. The concept is not essentially a bad one, yet it’s handled in such a clumsy fashion that it makes one despair for the state of our national cinema if this is among the best that our filmmakers can do.  Read the rest of this entry »