ANNA KARENINA - film

I read some pretty ordinary reviews of Anna Karenina so went in with low expectations. It was a bit better than I’d expected but definitely didn’t love it. I already didn’t much like Keira Knightley and this cemented those feelings. Felt like it went for about five hours when in reality it was just over two. A DVD kind of film (at best), not worth the $19.50 for mine.

The ordinary experience was rounded out by having a young couple sitting behind me who appeared to be embroiled in some sort of emotional crisis that meant that they sniffed (she), talked (mainly he) and cuddled (both) most of the way through. You're not in your lounge room, people!

Trailer here

ZERO DARK THIRTY - film

This is a fantastic film, no surprises it’s getting so many accolades. It follows the ten year hunt for Osama Bin Laden following the September 11 attacks in America. If you’re anything like me you followed that hunt to a degree through the media coverage but this fascinating film fills in the details of how an operation like that would work. It’s really very eye-opening. One of the stars is Jason Clarke and I was occasionally distracted by the fact that sometimes in the film he reminded me of Nudge from Hey Dad! and then at other times I thought he was hot. HOW COULD HE BE BOTH? I hear you ask. Well, I’m afraid that remains a mystery. When I looked him up on IMDB I discovered he was born in Australia. Nudge’s long-lost cousin? Yes, I think so too.

I digress.

Other actors in the flick include Jennifer Ehle who played Elizabeth Bennett in the BBC Pride & Prejudice series and Joel Edgerton, one of my favourite Aussie actors. Also very happy to see the cinematographer is Grieg Fraser, a talent Aussie whose sister I used to work with!

Really enjoyed this one, catch it before someone declares it too highbrow and it winds up only on at the usually-inconveniently-located arthouse joints.

Trailer here.

DJANGO UNCHAINED - film

Not a big Tarantino fan but saw Django Unchained and the critics are bang on the money, this is a great film that I really enjoyed. It helps when you have virtually no expectations and I also had no idea what the film was about but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s an old school western with a big theme of slavery and whilst some scenes around that slavery were pretty disturbing it’s done well and all in a palatable context. There was one scene that I really hated, interestingly the one which Tarantino cast himself! He attempts an Australian accent but it just comes out as a weird mix of Australian, New Zealand, British and American. And when you combine that with John Jarratt playing a cringeful redneck Aussie, it really was pretty awful. But that was the only lowlight. The highlight for me was Leonardo DiCaprio as a plantation owner (& ‘owner’ of many slaves including the excellent Samuel L Jackson) who the main characters Django (Jamie Fox) and Dr King Schultz (Christoph Walz) find themselves negotiating with. It’s a spectacular delivery of a hideously slimey character & one that’s made me a much bigger fan of DiCaprio’s work. Also loved the performance of Christoph Walz who you might recognise from Water for Elephants – he won the best supporting actor at the Golden Globes for this performance when many expected it to go to DiCaprio).
 
 Warning for the sensitive… as is Tarantino’s custom, this is full of graphic violence. In a couple of places it’s so bad that you just have to laugh but it’s peppered throughout the movie and gets very gruesome though strangely it didn’t bother me as much as violence normally does and certainly didn’t bother me as much as Tarantino’s onscreen performance did.

A surprise winner for me and I add ‘me’ deliberately as this film has scored a couple of Golden Globes already & is likely to feature at the Oscars also so hardly a ‘surprise’ hit! A nice reminder that you can be well rewarded if you try a film that’s not what you’d usually go for.

Enjoyed the soundtrack too for what it’s worth.
Trailer here if you want some more detail on the storyline.

THE IMPOSSIBLE - film

This film is really well done. It's based on a true story about a family holidaying in Thailand in 2004 when the now infamous tsunami struck. Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor play parents of three sons and all the performances are great but Naomi's is a standout as the central character. The five of them, along with so many others, are literally swept away when the front of water storms toward their resort with no warning whatsoever. I won't spoil it by telling you who ends up where and in what state but it gives an amazing insight into what people really experienced in that natural disaster that seems like it happened only yesterday. I'm sure some creative licence has been taken but nonetheless, it's an incredible story.

The film was so compelling that I was totally engrossed and were I not fairly lazy, I'm sure I would have been on the edge of my seat. I enjoyed this film and think it's very good, but to be frank, not off-the-dial, 5 stars kind of good.

Trailer here

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK - film

All I knew about this film when I saw it in London back in November 2012 was that Jacki Weaver was in it. Enough to get me over the line since I was feeling patriotic seeing it with another Aussie on the other side of the world! Jacki was great but not the highlight I thought she'd be to be honest; I'd be surprised if she picks up an Oscar for it. Not because of her performance but just because of the size of the role. She plays the mother of the main character Pat, who is played by Bradley Cooper. (Hubba hubba! And as an aside, he speaks French... *swoon*)

Pat's trying to recover from an episode of mental illness and win back his wife Nikki, whom we discover has had an affair. I reckon it's probably a fairly realistic portrayal of a bloke in that situation (but hey, what would I know) but then Hollywood fantasy takes over and enter mysterious troubled woman, Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence. Jennifer's great and there's a good chemistry between she and Bradley, which helped make this film really enjoyable. The story is generally good fun with some poignant moments too. 

Part comedy, part drama, this film delivers. Go see!

Official trailer here

ARGO - film

Argo is based on a true story from 1979 when the American embassy in Iran was invaded. The film follows the journey of six Americans who escaped the building and then had to find safe passage back to the USA. It’s directed by Ben Affleck who also stars as CIA guy Tony Mendez leading the escape operation.

The excellent news is that Affleck’s come good since the disastrous Gigli days - he's great in this. In Argo he rocks a 70s beard and shaggy hair do that are somehow quite attractive.

Alan Arkin and John Goodman steal some of the limelight as Hollywood hot shots who help Mendez create a fake feature film as part of a very unusual plan to free the six Americans. They get most of the funny lines and indeed, there’s quite a few so it’s not all nail-biting serious stuff.

The story builds to a tense crescendo and, not knowing the story at all, I was totally engrossed and desperate for a happy ending.

This film opens Thursday 15 October. Loved it, go see it!

Official trailer here.

MENTAL - film

This Australian film was given a one star review by Leigh Paatsch (News Ltd) and a four star review by Margaret Pomeranz (At the Movies, ABC TV).

I'm with Leigh.

The mate I saw it with agreed. There was only two people in the cinema other than us and with the word of mouth I'm expecting this to attract, it won't be around for long. No great shame there for mine. 

And as for Margaret's four stars... well, I can't begin to explain that...

Trailer here.