Soccer, Bloody Soccer!

So, the World Cup started the other night. I saw about 15 minutes of the opening ceremony and I was confused the entire time. It sorta didn't make any sense, but whatever. Those wacky Europeans didn't exactly make the Greek Opening Ceremony of the Olympics make sense either. Anyway. So, tonight Australia plays it's first World Cup soccer match in something like 30 years. Because, you see, Australia sucks at soccer, but somehow this year they didn't and they made it in. They play Japan. I can only hope that this means everyone will be watching it and nobody will be at work because I have to be by myself from 8.30-10 (closing time) and if it's busy I'm sorta screwed. Anyway. Incase you wanted to know, the above picture is from Australia vs er, Liechtenstein (Are there any Leichtenstein...ians(?) out there?)

I, personally, can't stand watching soccer. It's so boring, but it's awesome having Australia in there. I hope they win. I love the picture below of Liechtenstein protecting their goal from John Aloisi. Those two guys are striking a Michael Jackson pose. lol, they look really scared.



Oh well, in honour of the World Cup, here are:

GLENN'S TOP 5 SPORT MOVIES
1. Best in Show (2000, Dog Shows)
2. Hoop Dreams (1994, Basketball)
3. Bring It On (2000, Cheerleading)
4. Field of Dreams (1989, Baseball)
5. Raging Bull (1980, Boxing)
5.5 The Sandlot Kids (1993, Baseball)

Best in Show is totally a sport movie. Dog shows are competitive, y'all. Hoop Dreams. *sigh*. Hoop Dreams. From my viewing, Dreams is the finest documentary ever made. Just brilliant. Cheerleading is officially a sport, so Bring it On classifies. Field of Dreams was so great. I was very surprised by that one. Raging Bull isn't a movie I would ever find myself wanting to go back to watch multiple times, but it was a great flick. And I put The Sandlot Kids in there cause I loved that movie as a kid.

If any of you guys are actually watching the World Cup, I hope your team does well! Now, I'm hungry.

Nat's Top 100 Actors of the Aughts

So, the Top 20 of Nat's Top 100 Actors of the Aughts continued tonight. Now we got Matt Damon (17) and Colin Farrell (18). I had thought of Farrell but just figured he hadn't had enough good roles (although I did love him in The New World and thought he was great in Intermission) and Matt Damon I had suspected. But with both of them I just didn't think they'd place that highly so I didn't include them. Updated predix below. I'm actually getting worried Geoffrey Rush isn't gonna place. Whether you love him to hate him, you gotta admit he deserves to be somewhere on a list of 100 actors of this decade. Just check out the IMDb and see the amount of stuff he's done (sorta helps that by some wacky coincidence I've seen every single one of them)


1. Jude Law
2. Gael Garcia Bernal
3. George Clooney
4. Johnny Depp
5. Peter Sarsgaard
6. Christian Bale
7. Ewan McGregor
8. Tony Leung
9. Bill Murray
10. Ian McKellen
11. Jake Gyllenhaal
12. Jim Broadbent
13. Viggo Mortensen
14. Ralph Fiennes
15. Clive Owen
16. Geoffrey Rush
17. Matt Damon
18. Colin Farrell
19. Paul Bettany
20. Mark Ruffalo

American Customs is Dumb

Just so y'all know. This woman, M.I.A. - one of the greatest new musical talents to arrive this millenium - has been banned from entering the United States. Apparently she's too outspoken or something. What a crock.

Random Web Link

I was scrounging around google images today looking for (wouldncha guess) images. I'm planning on doing some retrospective Uma awards and was searching for some Mulholland Drive stuff (which you just know will show up in droves) and came across Lost on Mulholland Drive. It was created by Rotten Tomatoes posters of all people. But, seriously. This is the best site I have seen for this movie. There are so many theories and conspiricies and all that stuff. The movie itself is addictive enough but this site was as well. Man, so much fun.

My favourite theory that I had never even considered can be found here, concerning the mysterious house-swapping neighbour DaRosa. It's the fourth theory down and you can tell which one it is because it's got the picture below right next to it. It's fascinating stuff. I love David Lynch. Even if he doesn't mean to, he's mindfucking us like nobody else. God, he's brilliant. And so is the movie.



Did i mention this movie was brilliant?

The Fog (2006, dir. Mother Nature)

Holy hell. Geelong has been swallowed by a fog! Okay, as I type this the fog has sort of gone, but for all of yesterday and this morning (until at least 1pm that I could see) the fog was there. Omnipresent. I was sorta happy this fog wasn't filled with devilish things such as pirates, murderers and all that jazz. Although, I was a bit shattered when I realised there was no Tom Welling running around trying to rescue me the townsfolk. *sigh* dems da breaks I 'spose.


(I can forgive the backwards cap because he's so handsome)

The scoop of Scoop

JoBlo reports Woody Allen's latest British escapade Scoop is to be released much sooner than everyone would have anticipated. The date of release is July 28. Yes, just over a month and a half away! They already had a trailer, but now it's Focus' task to actually get people to see the trailer by attaching it to movies.

I don't know of they're going the Match Point route or what, but they're opening it opposite Miami Vice and The Any Bully (and some other movie called John Tucker Must Die which I hate by default because i think Jonathan Tucker (the actor) is adorable and don't want him to die plz. Anyway, so I don't really know what Focus are doing with Scoop. They're giving themselves a mere month and a half to get the film out there while also opening it up opposite a very adult-skewing Vice.

One wonders though if Focus thinks it can strike while the Allen-iron is hot after (UMA award-winning and Top 10 placer) Match Point's Oscar nod and reserge in Woody Allen talk. Or, are they striking while the Hugh Jackman-iron is hot after the success of X3?

hmmm, we'll see. I'm hella excited though after watching the brilliance that was Match Point and the fact that the cast includes two of my current favourites (Scarlett and Hugh, and of course Woody himself, plus Ian McShane). But of course, a July 28 release for a Woody Allen movie may indeed mean we'll see it down here in, oh, maybe March 2007? Although Match Point did turn out to be Woody Allen's HIGHEST GROSSING MOVIE OF ALL TIME down here (they touted it in all the ads. "The highest grossing film of Woody Allen's career!") so maybe they'll actually get a clue this time? Oh well.

Nat's Top 20 Actors of the Aughts

So, the Top 20 of Nat's Top 100 Actors of the Aughts continued tonight. Now we got Matt Damon (17) and Colin Farrell (18). I had thought of Farrell but just figured he hadn't had enough good roles (although I did love him in The New World and thought he was great in Intermission) and Matt Damon I had suspected. But with both of them I just didn't think they'd place that highly so I didn't include them. Updated predix below. I'm actually getting worried Geoffrey Rush isn't gonna place. Whether you love him to hate him, you gotta admit he deserves to be somewhere on a list of 100 actors of this decade. Just check out the IMDb and see the amount of stuff he's done (sorta helps that by some wacky coincidence I've seen every single one of them)


1. Jude Law
2. Gael Garcia Bernal
3. George Clooney
4. Johnny Depp
5. Peter Sarsgaard
6. Christian Bale
7. Ewan McGregor
8. Tony Leung
9. Bill Murray
10. Ian McKellen
11. Jake Gyllenhaal
12. Jim Broadbent
13. Viggo Mortensen
14. Ralph Fiennes
15. Clive Owen
16. Geoffrey Rush
17. Matt Damon
18. Colin Farrell
19. Paul Bettany
20. Mark Ruffalo

Baz + Nicole - Russell - Heath + Hugh = OMG!

So, after this entry was debunked it seemed that Baz' historic Australian romance epic would be leading man-less for much longer than it turned out to be.


While I am at odds to actually believe anything IMDb throws at us (particular in their people news section), I would be neglegent and remiss to not mention what they are reporting today that, yes indeed, HUGH JACKMAN IS TO STAR.

This makes me much happier than Heath Ledger or Russell Crowe to be honest. Heath just didn't seem like he fit once I got to thinking about it (anything to do with Baz and Nicole results in constant thinking from moi), but Hugh makes more sense. Plus, he's closer in age. Baz (apparently) tells the Hollywood Reporter "'He just continues to astound in terms of his range, whether it's The Boy From Oz or Wolverine. He's always been a leading man, but he is moving toward being an iconic leading man, which is perfect for the story we're doing.'"

So, what do y'all think about this latest development? Yeah, I'm happy! Plus, the fact that it's set in Australia's far-north means Hugh Jackman will have ample opportunity to take his confining heat-trapping clothes off and parade around in as little as possible. :p

Plus, the movie's probably gonna be good too.

This Week in Australian Cinemas

WOW! This week Australia get's three current US releases, including 1 day-and-date release and one that's actually a day early. How about that? We also get a french arthouse flick and Stanley Kubrick's return!



The Break-Up, dir. Reed
Peyton Reed. Peyton Reed. What exactly is his jive? First the supremely excellent Bring It On and then the accomplished but hackneyed Down With Love and now Vince Vaughn and Rachel Green going head-to-head in a battle of the screenwriter-enduced fittest. While I'm not entirely sold on the project I actually wanna see this. I really honestly like Jennifer Aniston (probably left over will from "Friends"), and Vince Vaughn is good sometimes (I'm not a big fan though). But look at the rest of the cast! Judy David, Vincent D'onofrio, Ann-Margaret, Joey Lauren Adams, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Ivan Sergie, Justin Long and last but not least, John Michael Higgins. Plus, some of the clips I've seen are quite amusing. Colour me unashamed.

Cars, dir. Lasseter
Now, what do we make of this? Firstly, it's brand new Pixar. PIXAR! And it's directed by John Lasseter (a god amongst animation). But... ever since this project began there has been an ever-present whiff of "not as good" about it. I brushed it off as "Coming after The Incredibles can you BLAME them?" (note, The Incredibles = their second greatest film ever after Toy Story 2). But as I saw the ads and I read the reviews it really does appear to not be great. The best I'm expecting right now is that it's their worst film (which, considering their worst is A Bug's Life and I give that a B+, is still excellent). Talking cars just don't have the same zest to them. We don't secretly imagine as a child that cars talk. We do imagine (well, some do) that our toys do, and that the animals do, but cars? Oh well. The proof will be in the pudding. Colour me skeptical.

The Omen, dir. Moore
I've already discussed this movie. It's been getting average reviews, and it looks average and, well, it looks like an average DVD movie, which is where I'll most likely see it (unless I somehow get roped into it) (awesome poster though). Colour me whatever.

L'enfer [Hell], dir. Tanovic
The director of the Oscar-winning No Man's Land (still inseen by me. I'm still devastated it beat Amelie for the Oscar, okay!?) takes a stab at Krzysztof Kieslowski after Tom Tykwer made Heaven in 2002. The second film of Kieslowski's hereto unproduced trilogy (after his ground-breaking Blue, White, Red trilogy) is about three sisters who join forces to heal old wounds. Sounds pretentiously European of course (which i am not adverse to like a lot of others) and it stars Emmanuelle Beart, Karis Viard and Marie Gillain as the sisters. Colour me intrigued.

Colour me Kubrick, dir. Cook
This British comedy finally reaches our shores. John Malkovich stars as a man who pretended to be director famously reclusive Stanley Kubrick in London as the real Kubrick filmed (the excellent) Eyes Wide Shut (which would become a notoriously famous shoot for several reasons). It's hard to get a proper reading on this. It's IMDb rating is 5.7, which doesn't inspire much and it received on 1 star (out of 5) from Leigh Paatsch. But then David Stratton gave it 4/5 and though Malkovich was brilliant. I might try and see this one, it's at least intriguing and original and it comes from men who worked with Kubrick on several pictures. Colour my Kubrick, indeed.

AUSTRALIAN BOX-OFFICE
1. X-Men: The Last Stand (2)
2. The Da Vinci Code (3)
3. Poseidon (1)
4. Take the Lead (2)
5. RV (1)
6. Mission Impossible 3 (5)
7. Candy (2)
8. Benchwarmers (4)
9. Seperate Lives (2)
10. Warren Miller's Higher Ground (2)

X-Men and Da Vinci continue on their way. X-Men's numbers aren't that flash, but good enough. Da Vinci on the other hand is looking like it could make $30mil, which is pretty big. Poseidon manages to become the second word debut on 300 screens or more (after Scooby Doo 2: Monster's Unleashed in 2004). Lol, WAY TO GO!

Take the Lead continues to amaze in Australia for no apparent reason, dropping a scant 21% (second best hold in the top 10) and passing $3. Amazingly, it's per screen average is the highest in the top 10 apart from Higher Ground (obviously). RV doesn't make $1mil and makes me happy. MI3 barely crosses still hasn't reached $11mil and I laugh in the face of that movie. THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR THINKING PHILLIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN IS A BIG STAR, IDIOTS.

Aussie feature Candy drops a tiny 10% and near's $1mil. Who knows how high it could go. If word of mouth is good then it coule reach $2mil, which seems to be a good benchmark lately for Aussie dramas. Last week's other mid-range debut, the British Seperate Lives does one of the rarest box-office things you're ever gonna see and actually increased it's takings despite no rise in cinemas. Still on 36 screens, it improved 5% as I guess word-of-mouth tells people to see it theatrically and not on DVD (which is what I said I'd do. hmmm). Benchwarmers finally takes a bit hit, too. I rejoice. Rounding out the Top 10 is Warren Miller's Higher Ground on 3 screens and an average of $47,190, up 32% from last weekend.

Outside of the top 10, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada falls a tiny 5% and Hidden inches down 3% in it's fifth week, approaching $800,000 - an excellent end for a foreign film of this type. The World's Fastest Indian falls out of the top 10 and is now over $6mil. To put it simply, that is one of the biggest box office surprises of the year. The one-week-wonder Bollywood entry Fanaa tumbles down as does the ludicrously performing Last Holiday, which hasn't even reached $200,000 yet (comparable to $2mil in the states). Deep Sea 3D is down 3%, March of the Penguins down 5%, Kokoda down 29% and Ballet Russes is up 5%, making it a big hit doco for Hopscotch.

Happy Birthday Nathaniel

So, let's face it. Without this man none of us would even be here (don't deny y'all). So for once in my life I'm actually taking the attention off of moi (take advantage while you can, it's RARE baby) and focusing on Nathaniel, whose birthday is sort of happening right now.

I think I told Nat this story recently when I had the supremely awesome opportunity to meet the man in person (and attend a Broadway show doncha know), but I'll say it again. I happened upon Nat's site nigh on 5 years ago. I had seen Moulin Rouge! in the cinema (the first of six such times thank you very much) and absolutely died in love with it. I went on the internet to read reviews and happened across several Oscar prediction sites. I wasn't too much into the Oscars at that time (I watched them with glee but not to the extent that I do now) and was shocked to find that Moulin Rouge! was considered an Oscar movie. As the year progressed I followed one of my (as it has come to be known) all-time favourite movie years.

At some point in the season I came upon a website called The Film Experience and instantly fell in love. I think over the span of a few nights I read every single word on that website. Every. Single. Word. 'twas devotion y'all. I chuckled as Nat joked about how he may as well call his site "The Moulin Rouge Experience."


Over the years I think we've all enjoyed reading his movie reviews, his Film Bitch Awards, his countdowns and so forth. And as of last year we got given the gift of THE FILM EXPERIENCE BLOG. I even remember him, at the very start, saying he didn't think the whole blog thing was going to catch on (as in relation to his website, not in general - that'd be poor judgement ey?), but catch on it did. And soon enough he had created his own little community. There are the regulars over there, constantly replying to his entries and following his every word as if they are messages from some holy homo goddess (lord knows there's enough of them already though!).

I thank Nathaniel for being the most welcoming of Internet hosts, constantly reaching out to his readers. He's a champ! I also thank him for helping me meet many wonderful people (and subsequent blogs) who make the time I spend on the Internet feel less time-wasting and more... time...useful... ???

Hey, this entry DID end up being mostly about ne. But, really. What sort of attention seeker would I be if I didn't relate everything back to me? Cheers, Nat. Happy birthday and all that that entails for you. :P I give you an A+

Love, Glenn.

!

OH.
MY.
FREAKIN'.
GOD.
!!!.

666

YAY! Today is the day of the devil. The sixth of the sixth, two-thousand-and-six. Holla, Satan! Opening today in cinemas is the oh-so-fortuitous remake of The Omen all specially gift-wrapped for your devil-worshipping goodness. For some reason the distributers have decided "Hey, let's NOT market this movie! I'm sure people will just assume a movie is being released on a TUESDAY that we don't need to waste our money and actually tell people!" Idiots. They got one of the prime release dates ever and what? ...

The original Omen from 1976 was released on the less satan-stirring June 25. They got a couple of sixes in their release date (June, 1976). I personally like the fact that in Australia way back in 1976, the film was released two days for Christmas Day! But 06/06/06? That's gold.

If you can't go to the cinema today (or, lets face it, you really don't want to see the remake in the slightest) you could watch some devilish movies. In the mood for comedy? How about Bedazzled or The Witches of Eastwick (starring the HOLY TRINITY of actresses Michelle Pfeiffer, Cher and Susan Sarandon + Jack Nicholson as the devil) or, hell, even Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry. That one has Woody's character taking his son and a hooker to a college ceremony. All very Wild Strawberries. Harry is a bit cockeyed for my liking, but Billy Crystal makes a good devil incarnate. The Devil and Max Devlin is unseen by me, but... i dunno. You could check it out? There's also the sequel to Oh, God! (a mildly interesting comedy) in the form of Oh, God! You Devil! (what looks to be dreadfuly). Lastly, there's the South Park movie. I'm pretty certain it's the only film in existance where you can see Satan and Suddam Hussein be homosexual lovers (just a hunch of mine)

If you're in the mood for action there's Arnold Schwarzenegger doing battle with CGI demons in End of Days or Keanu Reeves doing battle with CGI demons in Constantine. They may very well be the exact same movie, but Constantine also has the added bonus of Tilda Swinton and Rachel Weisz so if that's ur bag go with Constantine!

However, if you're looking for horror goodness then this is where Satan outdoes himself. Apart from the original Omen there's Mia Farrow discovering her pregnancy is all part of some wicked cultish devil thing. I personally haven't seen this one (I want to desperately) but I do know it has one of the creepiest posters OF.All.TIME. (you can see it below, folks).



On the lame side of proceedings are two god-awful movies that I regret even mentioning but I feel like I must. The atrocious Denzel Washington-John Goodman (yeah, I KNOW!) Fallen is out there for all of the world to see (and realise it sucks). It's all about how the devil can pass through you by touch or some bullshit like that. i hated that movie and wish it would die a thousand Satanic deaths. There's also Patricia Arquette going all bloody-palmed on us in the really quite ridiculous Stigmata. In that one you can see Patricia go all, well, stigmatic (is that the word?) while one of the dullest actors ever stands around in a Priest outfit (I speak of Gabriel Byrne). Or, better yet, you could not and live happily ever after!

Now of course, I leave the best til last. The Exorcist. One of the rare moments when the Academy actually clued in and nominated a horror film. This one, as we all know, as the head-spinning-pea-soup-vomiting Linda Blair as a little girl possessed by the devil. Ellen Burstyn stars as her mother and Max von Sydow and Jason Miller star as the two priests who come to banish the wicked one. Do not go to the video store and accidentally pick up the prequel Exorcist: The Beginning (the poor grammar of the title should tip you off) because that one is vile crap - although apparently Paul Schrader's original prequel (y'all remember how Paul was dumped and they made a completely new version) is quite good. Anyway, the original 1973 version is the best, and features one of the scariest frames of film ever. You can see what I speak of here. The first time I saw that face in the kitched was frightening to say the least.

Other random titles you could also watch are The Devil's Advocate (with Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino and Charlize Theron), The Ninth Gate (Roman Polanski directing Johnny Depp).

Oh, if you're not in the mood to watch a movie, read The Devil Wear's Prada! I know it's not about the actual devil, but whatever. You can prep for the movie that's out in 5 weeks, starring Meryl Streep as the titular Prada-wearing Devil and Ann Hathway (fresh from her Brokeback Mountain breakthrough).

Anyway, enjoy this most devlish of days. Don't get drawn over to the dark side or anything cause... ya know, that's be bad (by "dark side" I obviously mean Scientology)

:(

So, I don't think Blogger likes me today.

Oscar Question #49207

So, I was thinking about Cate Blanchett tonight and how she's making Elizabeth - The Golden Years, obviously a sequel to the film that bestowed upon us Cate's greatest performence (so far), Elizabeth.

Now, here's my question. How many times has an actor received an Academy Award nomination for a sequel when they were also nominated for the original.

I can think of Al Pacino, but his role in The Godfather: Part II was much different to what it was when he was nominated for the original Godfather two years prior (for Part I he was Supporting, Part II he was Lead).

Other than that, I'm drawing a blank. I'm sure there are some in the early years when a lot of Oscar voting was based purely on who they liked the most. I'm trying to think of sequels that hit even remotely well with Oscar (of which there are very few I believe).

So that leaves me to ponder whether Cate Blanchett getting an Oscar nomination for The Golden Years is as slam dunk as people think. Of course the Elizabeth sequel won't be in play until next year's Oscar season, and Cate has chances for glory this year first. But it's still a puzzling little intrigue.

Anyway, because I can:

Glenn's Top 5 Great Cate Performances
1. As 'Queen Elizabeth I' in Elizabeth (1998)
2. As 'Meredith Logue' in The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)
3. As 'Katherine Hepburn' in The Aviator (2004)
4. As 'Tracy Heart' in Little Fish (2005)
5. As 'Lizzie' in Thank God He Met Lizzie (1997)

All you Cate fans should definitely check out Thank God He Met Lizzie, a great little Aussie rom-com with Richard Roxburgh and Frances O'Connor. Apparently it's called The Wedding Party in the US, which is just revolting. She won both the AFI and the FCCA award for Best Supporting Actress and she wasn't even CATE BLANCHETT at that stage. Anyway, I'm off now. Ciao.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

The MTV Awards continue to be more relevant than the Oscars. Wedding Crashers won three including Best Film, Breakthrough (Isla Fisher) and On-Screen Team. Way to go ISLA! You rock.

But the real brilliance comes in the form of Brokeback Mountain! It won two. Jake Gyllenhaal won for Best Performance (inclusive of males and females) so way to go Jake! And Jake and Heath both won for Best Kiss, which is sort of hilarious. The MTV awards always include a same-sex kiss in their nominees (even when they're laughably stupid as Jennifer Garner and that other chick from Elektra) but I don't think they ever win. So... yay!

And while I'm not a fan of Jessica Alba on screen, I actually find her immensely likable off screen and when accepting her award for sexiest performance (for Sin City) she thanked "all the perverts who voted for me," nice one. Colin Farrell also got in a jibe about Brangelina when they won for best action scene. My man Christian Bale also got a tub of popcorn for Best Hero. Way to go Steve Carell as well for winning for Best Comedy Performance. Totally earned. Spike Lee picked up an award for Do The Right Thing (as The Breakfast Club did last year) representing a film that is still relevant today or something. Jim Carrey got a Lifetime Achievment doviewhacker.

Now, I just wish I had been able to see the bloody show *scowls that Channel 10*

Answered by Fire

Answered by Fire (2006, dir. Hobbs)

How fortuitous that Answered by Fire, Jessica Hobbs' miniseries about the East Timor vote for independence, should have aired over the last two Sundays. It's also slightly scary because last Sunday when it premiered it had been only a few days since East Timor made, quite literally, an SOS call to the world as political unrest had caused the return of murderous riots throughout the country.

This miniseries about the United Nations' efforts (slack jawed as the bigwigs may have appeared) to create an orderly vote in the former Indonesian island of Timor. This happened a mere 7 years ago and as a character in the movie says "they voted for their deaths as well as their independence." As the vote was passed, Pro-Indonesian militia rampaged the country and murdered thousands, torched entire villages and so on and so on.

The film features David Wenham and many others as the United Nations officials. And follows them from the voting process to after it as the country descends into madness and they leave and their subsequent return. The performances are mostly excellent. David Wenham is supurb as always (considering he's one of the greatest actors around atm I wouldn't expect any less), as are Jared Robinsen, Linda Cropper, Tara Morice and Sri Sacdprascuth in smaller roles. The Canadian actress Alex Tilman on the other hand just didn't do it for me. Throughout the film I thought she must've been an Australian actress simply putting on a Canadian accent but I later found out she IS Canadian so I don't really know what to make of that.

The film is quite harrowing at times, especially scenes depicting the violence that took place and a very Hotel Rwanda-esque scene involving residents storming the UN building for safety. Technically it's all ace and the writing is good when it doesn't turn into cliche like it did towards the end.

Overall though it was a powerful view of an event that, again like the events depicted in Hotel Rwanda went criminally unrepresented. And now as East Timor goes even further into an uncontrollable mess it feels very timely. B

MAJOR FUCKIN' UPDATE!

The cake turned out to be delicious. I think I'm pretty much set for life.

Leave October 13 free (+ Donna Summer Funness)

Not only is October, Friday the 13th MY BIRTHDAY, it is also the release date for two of my most (and certainly yours too) anticipated movies. I speak of Marie-Antoinette and now JoBlo Reports that Darren Aronofsky's latest venture The Fountain is to be released that day also. Alas, there was bound to be a bad movie opening that day as well and unluckily it is The Grudge 2 which is vile by default. The original (both the American and Japanese, but especially the American one) were AWWWFUL.


Is this the movie that Heath Ledger said "no!" to Baz Luhrmann for? Sounds like it could be interesting. I think it's Australian, as it stars Heath, is directed by Phillip Noyce and will be made here (is the story Australian? I don't know). But I was actually really pumped to see Heath and Nicole on screen with Baz behind the camera. Oh well. As long as Baz hires an Australian for the part then I'm sure he'll get the job done.

In non-related matters.

I'm baking a cake! Right now! As I type this! It's in the oven (like a bun, of sorts)! Alas, I am not going to take a leaf out of Donna Summer's "Macarthur Park" book and leave it out in the rain (I couldn't take it, cause it took so long to bake it, and I'll never have that recipe AGAAAIIIIN!)

Wow. I just quoted Donna Summer. How many leagues of gayness did I just leap? How does a Macarthur Park melt in the night and why would anyone leave a cake out in the rain?

e-mail freakiness.

I just received the following e-mail. What. The. Fuck. ???.

Hi,
I just found your The Good, the Bad and the Ugly blog entry: http://kamikazecamel.blogspot.com/2006/05/this-week-on-tv_24.html
and I think you may be of some help to me. I'm reaching out to you on
behalf of M80 & FOX regarding Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Collector's
Edition. Experience this Academy Award winning masterpiece like never before…
featuring two hours of never before seen footage and exclusive new interviews
with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Since you mentioned The Good, the Bad and
the Ugly, I thought that you might be interested in posting the press release or
post a review of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Collector's Edition on
your blog? You seem like a reputable influencer, so I think you'd be a big help to
us. Please let me know if you're interested!
Thanks!
Brandon, M80
brandon@m80im.com
www.m80im.com / www.m80teams.com

If this guy is reading... what the? I'm so confused. Why on earth would this website want me to review the Butch Cassidy DVD?

Does posting this e-mail classify as "posting the press release"? I'm so confused.

Bite Sized Portions

The Last of the Mohicans (1992, dir. Mann) - Strangely uninvolving, yet wonderful to look at and the performances are great (particularly Daniel Day-Lewis (as always) and Wes Studi). If the whole film were like the last half an hour it would've been much greater. All throughout the movie though all I could think of was if Daniel Day-Lewis had played the Colin Farrell role in The New World OMG. B-

My Own Private Idaho (1991, dir. Van Sant) - I love Gus Van Sant. I love River Phoenix. This movie is great. First half is better than the second though. A-

Dead Man Walking (1995, dir. Robbins) - Moving. Touching. Stellar perfect performances. How strange that it only got four Oscar nominations. A

It's about time!

The world's longest pregnency is over! Rachel Weisz finally gave birth. I swear she looked 9 months pregnant through the entire awards season. So how many celebrity babies is that since the Academy Awards? Like, 20 bajillion, i think.

edit: Look who's preggers now?!


Hopefully this doesn't put a dent in her ability to make movies at a regular pace.

Hey Look! It's a LIST!

I haven't done one of these in a while, so I present to you a list with an ungodly title!:

The Top 10 People I Constantly Forget Have Academy Award Nominations:
(This list is ordered in terms of how much it still surprises me, not how much I like the person and only goes back to 1980)

10. Gary Sinise (1995, Best Supporting Actor, Forrest Gump)
9. Jennifer Tilly (1995, Best Supporting Actress, Bullets Over Broadway)
8. David Paymer (1993, Best Supporting Actor, Mr Saturday Night)
7. Janet Jackson (1994, Best Original Song "Again", Poetic Justice)
6. Pat Morita (1985, Best Supporting Actor, The Karate Kid)
5. Jon Bon Jovi (1991, Best Original Song "Blaze of Glory", Young Guns II)
4. Jeff Goldblum (1996, Best Live Action Short, Little Surprises)
3. Sean Astin (1995, Best Live Action Short, Kangaroo Court)
2. Huey Lewis (1986, Best Original Song "The Power of Love", Back to the Future)
1. Owen Wilson (2002, Best Original Screenplay, The Royal Tenenbaums)

Seriously. Owen Wilson. It's never mentioned. Ever. Anyway, it's 3.46am... maybe I should go to bed? I dunno.

Don't mind me...

This is me chucking a hissy fit about something y'all won't have a clue about. SBS are planning to put commercial breaks in their programming. This doesn't bother me so much if movies were going to be exempt but apparently they're not! Aagh. SBS and the ABC are the only networks that show movies ad free.

Ugh. Can you imagine watching Dancer in the Dark and having a commercial break after "I've Seen It All" or whenever.

Grrr.

This Week in Australian Cinemas

Ya know, if it weren't for the abyssmal looking "BIG" movies being released this weekend (aka, the movies that all the cinemas will be getting) this frame would be quite appealing. This week we have new Petersen and Sonnenfeld (for better or worse) as well as new Zhang Yimou, a new Aussie film and some interesting-sounded arthouse fare.


It's neck and neck - which is worse?

Poseidon, dir. Petersen
I'm sort of glad I have never seen Wolfgang Peterson's Das Boot as if I had I would feel even sadder about this sad sorry state of affairs. So, as it is, Petersen is just a really bad director what with A Perfect Storm and Troy unfortunately on my have-seen list (although to be honest, Storm wasn't that bad). And now with Poseidon? Well... I feel sorry for the cast.

RV, dir. Sonnenfeld
Yet another director who has gone off the deepend after showing so juch potential (in the Addams Family films, Men In Black (Not MiB2!) and Get Shorty). I don't even want to discuss this movie except that in Australia on all the promotional stuff (tv commercials, posters, etc) the film is being called R.V.: Runaway Vacation... really! Do they think Australians are so stupid as to not know what an RV is? God, and it just links this movie to the National Lampoon Vacation movies even more. I HATE THE FACT THAT THIS MOVIE EXISTS. It stars Robin Williams and Cheryl Hines. How sad. It also stars "JoJo" lol. I hate her.

The Chumscrubber, dir. Posin
I don't really know much about this movie, but it was an excuse to post a picture of my boyfriend, Jamie Bell. This movie has a great cast (other than Jamie of course) including Glenn Close, Ralph Fiennes, Rory Culkin, Rita Wilson, Carrie-Ann Moss, John Heard, Lauren Holly and William Fitchner. Despite the ever-luring presense of Bell I think I'll skip this and wait for DVD.

The Ax, dir. Costa-Gavras
This Costa-Gavras man (that's all his name is - Costa-Gavras) had a brief sojourn in Hollywood with the all-over-the-place Mad City. With The Ax he returns to France with a very dark comedy. The plot? A man loses his job and must, quite literally, elimate the competition to guarantee he gets another job. He goes around murdering all the other applicants! Sounds wickedly fun, but again... a DVD movie for me I think. It sounds like a French Fun With Dick and Jane with a much darker violent streak. Was nominated for Best Actor and Best Writing at France's Cesar Awards.

Riding Alone for a Thousand Miles, dir. Yimou
Zhang Yimou has a new movie! I don't think people knew that. I surely didn't until I saw the poster recently at the cinema. In fact, upon a little double-clicking I just realised it's US release isn't for a few more months so that would explain it. Riding Alone is apparently a return to Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern type of film and is most definitely NOT another House of Flying Daggers or Hero. The film's mid-September release date makes much more sense if they're wanting an awards campaign for this film. I might try and see this if I can. It's only screening at one cinema in Melbourne so it'll probably be there for at least a month or so.

The Caterpillar Wish, dir. Sciberras
The Caterpillar Wish is a new Australian film from newcomer Sandra Sciberras. It's been getting quite a bit of press for an unknown Australian film, and it's getting some really good reviews. It stars the gorgeous Victoria Thaine as a 17-year-old girl in a small seaside town dealing with life, belonging and loss. Yes, it sounds cliched (especially in Australia) but apparently this one has some tricks up it's sleeves. To quote Leigh Paatsch:

"One of the stranger new trends in Australian cinema is what I like to call the Abbie Cornish genre: films where achingly beautiful young women oh-so-poetically crash and burn, and we all feel a little better for having danced on their ashes.
Early on, the new Australian drama The Caterpillar Wish shapes as more of the same.
The claustrophobic rural setting, a pretty teenage heroine who doesn't smile much and frame after frame of perpetually overcast skies are enough to have you slumping back in your seat in trepidation of the self-destructing slog to follow.
What a relief, then, that The Caterpillar Wish detours from this proven path to doom and gloom and goes looking for something else to fulfil, frustrate and flesh out its interesting main character."

Sound very interesting and it has a great cast. Apart from the previously mentioned Thaine, we have Susie Porter (always guaranteed to provide a good perf, here she plays a topless waitress!), Nicholas Bell, Robert Mammone and, in a surprising return to films, Wendy Hughes. In a strange coincidence as I was typing this Caterpillar stuff I opened MSN today and up came an article about the film! I'm definitely gonna try and catch this one I think. It sounds very interesting.


BOX-OFFICE
1. X-Men: The Last Stand (1)
2. The Da Vinci Code (2)
3. Take the Lead (1)
4. Mission Impossible 3 (4)
5. The Benchwarmers (3)
6. Candy (1)
7. Seperate Lies (1)
8. Ice Age 2: The Meldown (8)
9. The World's Fastest Indian (8)
10. Fanaa (1)

What an interesting week on our charts. X-Men typcially opens to #1 but with smaller numbers than last week's Da Vinci debut. Still, impressive nonetheless. However, the most interesting stuff is the rest of the chart from #3 down. Take the Lead and near-unadvertised flick debuts at #3 with an astonishing $1.4mil. That may not sound a lot but it's only on 128 screens, which puts it's per screen average at a whopping $10,982! To compare, it had the third best average of the Top 10 after X-Men's $16,396 and Fanaa's $13,890. This debut can be put squarely on the shoulders of "Dancing With the Stars", which is absolutely huge in Australia. How else could this movie get such a great opening?

Mission Impossible 3 barely scrapes past the $10mil point this week as Ice Age 2 nears $25mil after 8 weeks. Sitting at numbers 6 and 7 respectively are the Aussie Candy and British Seperate Lies. Both did extremely well to make such high spots considering they're playing on 38 and 36 screens respectively. The Heath Ledger starrer made $267,000 and Lies took in $159,000. Just under that is The World's Fastest Indian as it continues to aim for $6mil+ total, it currently sits at $5,983,579 to be precise and will get there by the weekend.

However, the most intriguing debut is the one at #10. The Bollywood entry Fanaa takes the cake as it debuts on 9 screens and a day late (instead of the traditional Thursday), and it took in $125,000 for that previously mentioned $13,890 average. And right below that at #11 is Warren Miller's Higher Ground which produced the 8th highest per screen average in Australian history - $53,739. Of course, the Top 10 Averages of All Time features about 6 Warren Miller documentaries, so...

Other new entries in the Top 20 are The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada at #11 and Last Holiday at #13. Estrada did an okay average of $3324 on 36 screens, but Holiday could only get an average of $1760 on 60. Eep. Hidden continued it's stellar run falling to #14 after brief Top 10 exposure.

That's your weekly Australian film exposure right there. Bye y'all.

Happy Birthday Marilyn!!!

Today is the day that is most believed to be Marilyn Monroe's birthday. Now, as we all know, the real birthdays of old-Hollywood stars is up to debate and the stars themselves, but as Marilyn is unfortunately not around to tell us that she's not turning 80 we must celebrate it on the day that it (apparently) is.

I love me some Marilyn and I continue to watch her movies. I sadly haven't seen the picture in which she is reported to give her greatest performance - Bus Stop. I have however seen her strut her stuff in a whole bunch of others.

To celebrate the life of Marilyn - arguably the greatest SUPERSTAR to ever live - watch one of her fine movies, they're all available on DVD. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is my personal fave, but the best performance of her's I have seen was in the romantic thriller (of sorts) Niagara. There's also (obviously) classics such as Some Like it Hot, The Seven Year Itch and, in a small role, All About Eve.

While she has been immatated many times, she will never be bested. She did die too young (how odd that three of my all-time favourites died tragically and young - the others being James Dead and Natalie Wood). I personally think she looked best when she was her most candid and was laughing it up instead of being MARILYN, but she was beautiful any way. Cheers Darl'.

Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?

:) Look what I bought?


I realised I had way more in my account than I thought I did... so naturally I spent $30 of it!

I also went to the video store today and hired out a bunch of weekly titles that I'm excited about seeing for the first time. They are:
-Dead Man Walking (1995)
-Bad Boy Bubby (1993)
-The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
-My Own Private Idaho (1991)
-Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
-Mrs Miniver (1942)
-The Philadelphia Story (1940)

So that should be good. Umm... that's all.

Quick Movie Grabs

Watched some movies tonight:

The Man Without a Past (2002, dir. Kaurismäki) - Very odd. Unique. Perplexing. I had such a bizarre experience watching this movie (the second film in Kaurismaki's Finland Trilogy, althought I don't think I needed to see the first film of the trilogy to get this) because the film is made in such a strange manner. The dialogue is very "Hi." "Hi." "I will go now." "Yes." (make sense?) It's just very to-the-point and straight forward. And the way the actors recite these lines was reminiscent of an amatueur stage play - they stand awkwardly, say their lines with no emotion and walk away. However, it sort of works. Not completely, I think the film was a bit too dry for me. However, there are some moments of great humour (this is definitely one of my droll comedies I've seen in a while, if ever) and the performance from Kati Outenin was absolutely supurb, unfortunately the lead man of the title (Markku Peltola) wasn't so good. His one facial expression (literally) wore thin fast. Still, for my first Finnish film experience, it was pretty good. B-

The Card (1952, dir. Neame) - This is a very delightful comedy from the early '50s with Alec Guiness playing a cheeky young upstart. If you need a smile-enducing happy movie then this is a great choice. I loved Alec in this film, and the supporting players (which includes Petula Clark?!) were also great fun. Not really much more to say about this. I had a blast with this film. A-

Baz + Nicole - Russell + HEATH LEDGER?!

The New York Post is reporting that Russell is out and Heath is in on Baz Luhrmann's epic Australian-set romance film. Russell apparently did the exact same thing that he did for Jocelyn Moorehouse' Eucalyptus which was to star Nicole and Russell. He apparently demanded script changes which ultimately destroyed the project (just like that - it doesn't even have an IMDb page anymore). And since Russ and Nic were so desperate to work together they teamed with Baz to make a film set in Darwin during WWII. So now Russell is out (despite apparently wanting to come back on board) and Baz has subsequently hired Ennis Del Mar himself, Heath Ledger.

Heath is most definitely having one of the greatest career reneisances I can think of and he's not even 30! First Brokeback Mountain for which he, as we all know, was robbed of the Oscar for. He currently has Candy in Australian cinemas which is going great (debuted at #6 on 38 screens - more on that tomorrow with the box-office roundup) and for which he has gotten (after Brokeback of course) career-best reviews. And now he's portraying Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' I'm Not There and after that will most likely move onto Baz' latest magnum opus. Way to go Heath!

--

And in news that will surely dampen Nathaniel's April Fools' numbers word has it that The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford will be moved to, ahem, first quarter of 2007. So it appears it won't be getting any Oscar nominations this year, next year or any other year. Shame, really. I don't exactly know where this information has come from but various people are mentioning it on Dave Poland's blog with a matter-of-factly voice. ??? Hmmm.

This Week on Australian TV

Stale week for tv this week, which I suppose it alright considering I find it impossible to watch any of the movies I intend to. There are a few could-be gems scattered about though!

Thursday:
SBS airs a 2002 French film titled The Devils from Christophe Ruggia, which sounds like it could be interesting. But I'm neither here nor there about it frankly. Before that there is one of those Asian horror movies that are so popular. Nightmare (2000) by Byeong-ki Ahn has the following plot: "Seven friends will die one by one for protecting a terrible secret. Can a vengeful spirit be stopped?" Yawn. I bet one or two survive and the rest die in gross situations - one of which will involve eyes being guaged, poked or completely ripped out. How about The Mod Squad (1999), which is today's Midday Movie on channel 7. No? Good choice.

Friday:
The only movie on today that I've even heard about is The Banger Sisters (2002) from director Bob Dolman. It stars Susan Sarandon, Goldie Hawn (who snagged a Golden Globe nomination for this), Geoffrey Rush, Erika Christensen and Eva Amurri (Sarandon's daughter who i loved in Saved!) so it could be a mild curiosity. But really... who am I kidding? It looks crap.

Saturday:

Nathaniel's recent History of Tarzan actually makes me interested in watching the 1943 Wilhelm Thiele directed Tarzan's Desert Mystery. It has a 7.6 IMDb score, which is mightily impressive and it's from the Johnny Weismuller years. Hmmm.

I've mentioned many times how few Katherine Hepburn films I have seen in my years. So the sight of George Cukor's Pat and Mike (1952) starring the Hep (lol, STD jokes be gone) and Spencer Tracy immediately piques my interest. It was nominated for an Academy Award (Screenplay), BAFTA (Best Actress), Golden Globe (Best Actress and Newcomer for Aldo Ray) as well as the WGA and DGA prizes so it's got some credit! Plus any chance to expand my viewing of Katherine, Spencer and George Cukor is a good thing.

On Saturday night we have Mrs Doubtfire of which I am an unashamed fan (don't EVEN start ragging on Mrs Doubtfire y'all), Hot Shots! Part Deux and the Sandy Bullock thriller Murder by Numbers (or Murd3r 8y Num8ers as the ridiculous promotions would have us believe it's called).

Oh, and look! Another british inspirational movie! Purely Belter from Mark Herman. Blah.

Sunday:
The only thing on today that I want to watch is the second half of Answered by Fire. Part 1 was really good so here's hoping the conclusion is to! Also on is Tarsem's The Cell (2000) of which I am a huge fan (shut up!). But I own it on DVD so why would I watch it on tv when it's sure to be edited from it's original R18+ rating?

And one of the purely dumbest movies of the new millenium gets an airing! Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003). Everything about that movie was horrible and this is coming from me, someone who loves the original. This was truly awful and the only positive thing I can think of in relation to this movie is specimen that you see below. What does he have this movie? An eight-pack? ten-pack? Whatever it was, colour me impressed (as if I wasn't already. I love me some Justin)



Monday:
I've never heard of anything on today.

Tuesday:

The Legend. The Master. Jacques Tourneur. Cat People (1942) is, in my eyes, a masterpiece. One of the greatest horror films of all time (if you can call it that) and a brilliant piece of cinema. My favourite movie in a movie filled with many possibilities, is the scene Jane Randolph's character is walking home beside the large zoo wall fearing somebody (or something, naturally) is following her. Roger Ebert informs us in his Great Movies write-up of the film that this scene is actually filmed over the very same stretch of street, but edited so it appears longer. Nice work. I consider the cinematography by Nicholas Masuraca to be some of the finest I've ever seen. So dark, so fearful, so mysterious. And Simone Simon is great.

Also on tonight is an intriguing feature that some of you may be minutely aware of. During last year's Oscar season, Fiji submitted it's first entrant into the Best Foreign Language Film ring, called The Land Has Eyes (2004) from director Vilsoni Hereniko. It didn't make the shortlist, but it's getting an airing tonight on SBS and, if nothing else, it should at least be gorgeous to look at as Fiji is indeed one of the most beautiful places. The film's title (Pear ta ma 'on maf) apparently comes from an old saying "The land has eyes and teeth and knows the truth" and the film is about a young girl becoming a warrior or something. The film is the first ever made by a Fijian native, so I'll definitely try and watch it as it seems like an important piece of film.

Wednesday:
When I sat down originally to watch the sequel to Cat People, entitled The Curse of the Cat People (1944), I was excited. It had Simone Simon again along with Kent Smith and Jane Randolph. It was directed by Robert Wise (!!!) and Gunther von Fritsch (Robert Wise as we all know was a famous editor, Curse was his first directors job I believe) and, well, it was the sequel to CAT PEOPLE!!! However... I didn't like this much at all. Simone Simon, despite getting first billing, is barely in it at all, and compared to the original, it's as dull as dishwater (and, to be honest, the original isn't exactly thrills a minute). This one has a young girl having visions of a woman with a tortured past. I wont explain any more if people haven't seen Cat People.

Now The Leopard Man (1943) I'm excited for! It's another Jacques Tourneur RKO horror film and considering Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie are classics, I sort of want to believe this will be as well. You gotta love the idea of a movie starring someone called simply Margo playing a character called Clo-Clo. How bizarre. But, really, Jacques Tourneur! Master.

Also on tonight is SBS' Wednesday night Europe film. Tonight is a real treat for me, Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher. After Hidden I'm very interested in Haneke and I heard great things about this film and especially Isabelle Huppert's performance way back in 2001 when it was released. Will definitely try to catch this, it's been on my DVD queue for a while now. And SBS is all about widescreen and no adverts.

"Dreams? I'm having nightmares in CINEMASCOPE!"

Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955, dir. Sale)


Shamelessly stealing it's title from the classic Hawks film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), this movie is just... well, not good. I kind of don't understand this movie. It has no relation to Blondes other than it's star Jane Russell (who is subsequently the best thing about it) and the general plot (two singing stars, one smart the other apparently quite dim) go on a boat to some place and sing songs except without the hilarious levels of camp). This time they head to Paris and the city is obviously very beautiful, as are the costumes that the two ladies wear (Jeanne Crain being the second lovely lass).

But everything here is just so second grade. The songs are performed with about as much gusto as a dying puppy (have there ever been two leading men with such dull singing abilities?) and the setpieces are bland. The one-liners are lame except for one or two (such as the one in the title, which i LOVED!).

But overall I sort of just didn't get this movie. I think it was bi-polar or something. Schitzophrenic? It would be one thing one minute and then completely change the next. Characters were hypocritical. And quite frankly they don't make sense. For such a simple movie, it didn't really make much sense while watching it. Ugh. It was annoying. What a way to rob the grave of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes? C-

So...?

What is everyone getting all antsy at X-Men 3 for? Seriously, I think people who seem to have a big grudge against it were never going to like it. What is it exactly about the third one that is so WILDLY DIFFERENT as to say it's horrible? I don't get it.

And if I hear one more person say Bryan Singer really understood these characters I'm gonna punch someone. Give me a break. He cared as much about these characters as he does about Superman.

Yes, Brett Ratner isn't the best director around but what was so much different in this one than the second film? How did Ratner show contempt towards these characters? How was the dialogue here any worse than in the other two ("what happens to a toad struck my lightning? Same as everything else" <-anyone?!), how are the performances any less, how are the action scenes that worse than the other two?

Don't get me wrong, I didn't like this more than X2, but found it about on par with the original. From where I stand, it's not significantly better or worse than the others. It's perfectly fine.

Seriously, I can't pinpoint exactly why it's so bad. I can understand comic book fans getting upset because the Phoenix story is so big, but seriously y'all - i KNOW not every single person out there reads the comics. So the only conclusion I can come up with is that people just don't like Brett Ratner and can't see through their obvious bias. In fact, the only major annoyance for me was that the character of Mystique was given short change. But some people out there are annoyed that secondary characters like Jugganaut didn't get enough time. Well, shucks, considering he's not a main character, i wonder why that would be. Blah. Whatever, I'm over discussing this moot point. Some people are just overly melodramatic idiots. B

DVD Madness

I was bored in town today waiting to head off to school so naturally I went and shopped. I bought two DVDs.

How much do I love this movie? A whole freakin' lot, that's how much! *sigh* all so good. It probably helps that I saw this when I was 16 and it just affected me. Loves it! Every edition of this movie has no special features and I saw it today for $12 so I got it. I need this in my collection.

David Lynch's most misunderstood movie? Perhaps. I adore this flick. It's a raw beast of a movie and I love every second. It's sick and twisted and FUCKED UP. My favourite moment? Diane Ladd getting a little too appliable with the red lipstick! This edition has a whole bunch of extra features as opposed to the edition I already had. It was only $20 so that's cheap.

And a few weeks ago I purchased these:
Er... do I really need to explain this one? No. No I do not. (plus, it was $15. CHEAP)

Aww, this movie is great. Not as good as Amelie or City of Lost Children and possible Delicatesson (er, all Jean-Pierre Jeunet films) but still wonderful. I occasionally find myself wanting to watch this movie and it was $15 so I got it. Bargain, bitches.

I saw this for $40 and that seems pretty cheap for three movies, two of which i loved and another i found moderally entertaining. Shakespeare is classic, y'all. Some haters can't accept that the Academy don't always feel like giving the gold to a war movie and for once thought the entertaining literary romantic comedy was better. Fact. It was! Pride & Prejudice found surprising Oscar-love althought it didn't win (it should've won at least two) it was great! I loved this way more than I expected to. Phantom? Well, it's pretty! Love the costumes (how did they not get nominated for Oscar?) and the sets and I like a couple of the tunes (well, they're Andrew Lloyd Webber, are the actually tunes?) and set-pieces. More of a "I feel like watching that scene" movie than a "I feel like sitting down for two hours and watching that entire movie" movie. Ya know? Yeah, I know you.

Now, I'm outta here. Ciao, bellas.

Holla From the Other Side: Paul Gleason!

Paul Gleason, aka the Principal in The Breakfast Club, has passed on. He died of a rare form of lung cancer related to asbestos, which is slightly scary.

Anyway, he'll be missed. He was choice!

Dear Diary...

I hate homework and wish it would die.

Love always, Glenn

Sometimes I'm so stupid

How come I never got around to listening to the A Sky of Honey CD from Kate Bush's Aerial? For some reason I neglected it. I feel stupid because it's positively brilliant. "Sunset" and "Prologue" in particular are just phenomenal.
Anyway, carry on my pretties.

New York City Stories...

By pure accident, I watched two movies last night that were predominantly NEW YORK. They would be Prime and Heights. Both 2005 leftovers (granted, Heights only went straight-to-dvd in March here)

Prime (2005, dir. Younger) - The word that I keep coming back to to describe this movie is... pleasant. There's nothing particularly WRONG about this movie (except for the Bryan Greenberg character. Why doesn't every character in this movie think he's funny?) but it doesn't really hit any big marks at all. It simply glides along at it's own pleasant pace all the while being pleasantly pleasant. Occasionally there are a few nice one-liners (almost exclusively from Meryl although Uma does get in a choice quote about circumsized men and crochet) and the film is GORGEOUS to look at - it is in love with New York City, non? I sensed a bit of low-grade Woody Allen in Prime's writer/director Ben Younger.

However, the whole thing could've been so much better if the character of David (Bryan Greenberg) was better written (maybe actually make him funny instead of just having every character say "You're so funny!") and given to a better actor. Sorry but this Bryan guy whoever he is just wasn't good. Good looking, yes. Great body, yes. The rest? er...

The movie just didn't have an edge that it needed to get it out of second gear. But for what it was it was pleasant. I'm having trouble getting a grasp of what Ben Younger is all about (the other movie of his that I have seen was another second-gear film Boiler Room). Does he want to be the next Woody Allen? Hmmm. That ending was silly as well. Silly 'One Year Later' codas are annoying. The film would have been better to end of the rather beautiful shot of New York at night that we see as it fades to black (and then randomly jumps to one year later). B-/Pleasant.

Fact - Prime has the distinction of being awarded IMP's Worst Poster of 2005 award. I couldn't agree more. That poster is atrocious. Seriously one of the worst posters I've ever seen for a non-indie film. ack.

Heights (2005, dir. Terrio) - The second film is another story about New Yorkers being New Yorkers in New York. A wonderful film from the 'take a bunch of connected characters and have them do stuff' sub-sub-sub-genre. This one has the advantage of being more of a destinctive entry due to it's cast. This could've easily fallen through the cracks and been relegated to being filmed on digital with a no-name cast. Instead we get the stand-out Glenn Close continuing her recent output. Add to that more surprisingly great stuff from people such as Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden and Jesse Bradford as well as, in smaller roles, Rufus Wainwright, Isabella Rossellini and George Segal.

Much like Prime, Heights is in love with New York (in fact, aren't most movies set in that big city?). Constantly filming the city from rooftops and distances that give us beautiful sights of this city. I'll definitely be on the lookout for the next Chris Terrio project - here's hoping his promise with Heights continues.

And seriously, someone give Glenn Close a role that could win her an Oscar. She deserves it.

Holy Freakin' X-Cow!

Have you seen the Friday numbers of X3: The Last Stand? It made $44.5mil on Friday alone. It'll definitely pass $100mil on Sunday (three days is FAST!) and it could go as high as $150mil by the end of Monday (it's a public holiday, right?!). Of course it could collapse after Friday but I doubt it could fall so bad as to not reach $100mil. Box Office Prophets are making an estimation of $142.4mil for the four-day weekend which is ridiculously high. X3's $44.5mil is actually the largest Friday number in history, beating out the two Spiderman movies and Shrek 2.

The Da Vinci Code fell a typically large number but will be rescued by your Memorial Day or whatever it is. Over the Hedge could theoretically outgross it's opening number if it has a good Saturday and Sunday. After that it's a dead-zone as MI3 will most likely fall under the $10mil barrier. Crikies that's bad. Australia's worse for MI3 though, which i LOVE.

Georgie and I watched Prime and Heights last night, and I'll post about them later.

My Personal Canon

The last couple of days in my downtime I have been rejiggering and altogether recompiling my Favourite of All-Time list (it doesn't just stop at 100 y'all). Emphasis on FAVOURITE. There were plenty of new entries and and some unfortunate casualties.

I love all these films and I feel saddened that I'd have to lump them all into a Top 100 countdown. Maybe a Top 200? lol. Who knows. I might do that soon. One thing I did do with this list was forget all concern about whether the titles I chose were "acceptable" in film lovers terms. I sorta don't care anymore if I have something like Scream 2 in the Top 25. Or if Showgirls makes a ceremonious entry.

The movies that, in my brain, have gained the most (and thus, got a much higher placing on this edition of the list) were:
Cat People, 1942, dir. Tourneur
The Magnificent Ambersons, 1942, dir. Welles
Cabaret, 1972, dir. Fosse
My Beautiful Laundrette, 1985, dir. Frears
Husbands & Wives, 1992, dir. Allen
Sleepless in Seattle, 1993, dir. Ephron
The Cell, 2000, dir. Singh
Birth, 2004, dir. Glazer
The Incredibles, 2004, dir. Bird

(note - none of them are necessarily in my Top 100)

Unfortunately, movies that despite my intense love, got pushed further down the chart that I would have anticipated (mostly due to tonnes of new entries more than anything) were:
Gilda, 1946, dir. Vidor
JFK, 1991, dir. Stone
To Die For, 1995, dir. Van Sant
Contact, 1997, dir. Zemeckis
Donnie Darko, 2001, dir. Kelly
City of God, 2003, dir. Meirelles

(note - this doesn't mean they're NOT in the Top 100. Just that they took a hit)

Hmmm. It's fun but also torturous trying to sort out a list that I am happy with. There are certain titles I feel deserve to be in the 100 but then I put them in and it bumps out another title I think should be there. It's a vicious cycle, really.

I Got Nothin...

Well, I do have stuff but nothing of much interest.

This extract from Fay Dunaway's biography is Gold! The link is to a Fug Yourself article about the Faye and her disgusting Cannes gown. "Working with Polanski was difficult in some ways, but I loved working with Jack. I also love fried chicken. But I never got to eat it when I was on set. Anyway, I don't want to talk about Roman anymore."

My favourite person whose blog URL almost looks like it says "slut" (aka, Javier - i love you) posted the following poster... so now I've saved it on my computer and am posting it too. But check out Javier's blog. He's awesome. I didn't think this movie could get any more enigmatic than it already is (a sci-fi love story set over 1000 years?) but the poster (albiet a fan poster) goes and does it with that haunting image of a woman (Rachel Wiesz?) walking through the snow. I would love for them to actually use this poster as a real one (i doubt it tho) because it looks very beautiful.



Well, well, well... it appears Roger Ebert sets the record straight about that disastrous Marie-Antoinette screenings over here. Roger too seems to have had the film grow on him since he wrote about it a couple of days prior.

...yeah, whatever.

Hugh's Hugh

More Hugh Jackman ogling over at My New Plaid Pants.

(Sorry about the obsessing, but I know you love it too so don't deny)

This Week in Australian Cinemas

It's time to find out how poorly distributers treat us. And look, it's really poorly! Although we do get another big blockbuster at the same time as America. We got MI3, Da Vinci Code and now X3 on time, but where is Poseidon though?

LOL, i know.


X-Men: The Last Stand, dir. Ratner
While everybody out there is getting angry at Brett Ratner for making this movie, I choose a different tactic. I choose to get angry at the greedy dimwit Bryan Singer. Everybody goes on about how much affection he had for these characters and all that bullshit, well, he didn't care about them enough to finish the franchise but instead jumped ship to another superhero altogether. So don't blame Ratner (entirely) if the third X-Men movie isn't as good. It doesn't help that everyone praises Singer something chronic but what has he done other than X-Men? The Usual Suspects? Yeah, that was alright. But, Apt Pupil anyone?

Anyway, so now we have the third and final film in the X-Men series, barring the Wolverine spin-off, which I actually sorta hope is a porno but still stars Hugh Jackman (just sayin'). It looks pretty good. I intend to see it. ...that's all I have to say really.

Take the Lead, dir. Friedlander
Hey look! They've mixed the inspirational teacher genre, the ghetto inspiration genre AND the urban-music genre into one big colossal blob and somebody chucked Antonio Banderes and Alfre Woodard in there for extra cringeness. I admit I will see it on DVD (for Woodard and the dancing) but Holy Cliche, Batman! The fact that it's based on a true story (supposedly) is scary too. Question - why is Alfre Woodard's character's name Augustine James. Like... wtf?

Seperate Lies, dir. Fellows
The Academy Award winning screenwriter of The Pianist turns his hand to directing in this British thriller-of-words (you know the type). This one actually looks quite intriguing but was, for some reason, met with zero interest upon it's American release. Stars Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson and Rupert Everett (as a straight man!) Most likely a DVD film.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, dir. Jones
I find it very odd that this film was never written about in terms of box-office. To me it looked like a surprise hit, but nobody else thought so. er, I don't really have anything to say about this movie. Again, it's another DVD movie for me (if at all). Something tells me this movie would be a slog to sit through. I'm very 50/50 on westerns.

Last Holiday, dir. Wang
Question - why is Wayne Wang directing this? I've only seen The Center of the World and the fantastic Joy Luck Club of his, but this just doesn't seem like his jive, if you know what I mean. Yet again, I'll see this on DVD purely for Queen Latifah. Ms Latifah is the only African American who can launch a film in Australia that relies on the "urban" market. Movies like Diary of a Man Black Woman, Soul Food, Barbershop etc rarely get theatrical releases and when they do they do very poorly. Australia just doesn't respond to them I suppose (I, however, LOVED Soul Food and thought Barbershop was quite cute). Latifah seems to be able to get her films to open here and to do... moderately. I can't say this movie sounds exciting, but watching the Queen live it up in expensive Europe surrounded by Gerard Depardieu, Timothy Hutton, LL Cool J, Alicia Witt, Giancarlo Esposito and Jane Adams does sound mildly amusing. Plus... all that food.

That's all for this week. Candy moves into national release. On "At the Movies" Margaret Pomeranz gave it 4.5/5 and while David wasn't as enthusiastic he did give it 3.5/5. I did personally love the moment when David was praising Heath Ledger and said (i quote) "I think Heath Ledger, if anybody still thinks Heath Ledger is a lightweight actor, they'd better think again, because after this and Brokeback Mountain he's an extraordinary young actor."

BOX-OFFICE
1. The Da Vinci Code (1)
2. Mission Impossible III (3)
3. The Benchwarmers (2)
4. Ice Age 2: The Meldown (7)
5. Slither (1)
6. Eight Below (5)
7. The World's Fastest Indian (7)
8. Kokoda (5)
9. Final Destination 3 (4)
10. Hidden (3)

Not much to mention. Da Vinci vaccuums out the entire chart. Comparison. Da Vinci made $8.6mil and Hidden made $124,000. That's... wow. Way to go Hidden though. Taking advantage of the lack of good arthouse work out there, managed to climb a few spots and claim a Top 10 spot despite falling 19% in takings. This and Water are two of the biggest foreign titles in a while.

Benchwarmers somehow manages to fall only 14%, while Ice Age 2, World's Fastest Indian and Kokoda all fall between 30-40%. Kokoda should make $3mil in a couple of weeks, which is good news. Unmitigated flops? They would be Two For the Money falling 65% with a current grand total of $466,000, and Slither which makes #5 on the back of a whopping $229,000.

That's all for this week.

To Broadband or Not to Broadband

So, I have to pay the bill for my dial-up internet access in a few days. It's $110 for 6 months of unlimited. However, I only have to pay $70 cause they are still paying me back from all the hassles we had when we moved house and got given a long distance dial-up number instead of a local and hence got a phone bill much over the usual number.

Anyway, so I rang them up to pay via my credit card but when I was hold they suckered me in with the "why not ask our staff about our great broadband options"... so i did. Turns out it's $49.95 per month for unlimited downloads on 256kb (or whatever that number is) and if I go on a 24 month contract I don't have to pay the $120 set up fee or the $90 modem fee.

...$50 a month is pretty good I think. Plus, now that I have my minor second job (writing music reviews for a street press. $10 per 500 words) I should have an extra $50 odd dollars per month.

...I think I'm gonna do it. Or maybe not. eep. I dunno. It's totally a big commitment.

uh-oh...

Those notoriously fickle audiences at Cannes have apparently given a big giant diamond-encrusted thumbs down to Sofia Coppola's Marie-Antoinette. After Lost in Translation became one of the greatest movies ever (uh-huh) I was expecting something at least on par with The Virgin Suicides.

However, for some reason (lol, take a guess) it doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother me that Cannes didn't like a highly stylised reinterpretation of French history. I am also delighted at what co-star Steve Coogan had to say

'"When you make something that's personal and specific it's inevitable that there will be some naysayers, and it's better to have that than just have a bland uniform response. I think it shows that Sofia is true to her voice. I've seen the film and it's consistent with all the qualities that make her films great in the past. People who like Sofia Coppola will love this film. People who don't won't but then they're not really under her radar anyway."'

Boredom

I'm bored. So here's a photo of me!


Ain't I just the sort you'd like to take home to your (shocked) mother. I just watched Funny Girl (1968, dir. Wyler). I... didn't expect to like a Barbra Streisand movie THAT much. It was awesome! Loved it. I'm not at all a Babs fan but I am in this. Great songs too.

Mischa

Whether you like Mischa Barton or not, you gotta admit she has a point. Yay for Mischa. The last quote is choice. YOU HEAR HER OC PRODUCERS!

(that is all)

This Week on TV

I didn't end up watching any of the films from last week, but I taped Gentlemen Marry Brunettes and The Card and thought I taped The Good Girl but it didn't start until an hour later (for a random "Prison Break" repeat AT 10:30 AT NIGHT!) so I missed it. And I think I'll watch The Man on the Train when it airs tonight.

This week has the regular assortment.

Friday:
Peppermint Candy (or Bakha Satang. 2000) from Korean director Chang-dong Lee. I've heard good things about this movie and it's IMDb rating is 8.2! I might try and record this as I wouldn't be able to watch it at the time. This has been on before though so if I miss it it's not like I won't get to see it in 6 months.

Not many movies use parentheses in their titles (like i'm using now). They're frequent in song titles but movies it's rare because, well, they're pointless. One movie that bucks the trend is the, ahem, classic 2004 TV movie starring Denise Richards and Dean Cain I Do (But I Don't). Yes, that is indeed it's title (and HELLO Lifetime!). I know! I don't know what they were thinking either. Crazy. I personally love the fact that third billed to the movie is an actress by the name of KAREN CLICHE (no joke!) and the plot of the movie is thus: "Denise Richards plays Lauren, a divorced wedding-planner who falls for the groom-to-be". Get it? Her name is Karen CLICHE and the plot is lame and cliched! The only movie with this Karen Cliche woman that I have seen is Steal which was truly abysmal. Way to go KAREN CLICHE (I love your name).

Also in the realm of horrible titles is What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001) starring Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito and directed by Sam Weisman (who doesn't live up to his name, i guess). The only reason I even know about this movie is that is opened on the same weekend as Moulin Rouge! in the US and I was watching THAT box-office weekend very carefully (having seen it the week prior to the US release and immediately falling for it). Lol, see how I've already changed the topic to something different (and better). Exactly my point. What's the worst that could happen? Watching this movie.

Saturday:
Jet Lag (2002) is a romantic comedy from France starring Juliette Binoche, Jean Reno and an airport. Could be fun fluffy stuff. It should at least be better than The Terminal!

Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More (1965) airs tonight. I didn't too much like A Fistful of Dollars but I might check this out as a means of connecting it to The Good, The Bad and the Ugly which I actually do want to see and I'd feel odd having seen the first and third parts of the trilogy.

Hollywood legend Robert Towne (whose wrote Shampoo which I watched just last week) directs Tequila Sunrise (1988) starring Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer (My Pfeiffer Blogathon entry here if you missed it), Kurt Russell, Raul Julia, JT Walsh and Arliss Howard. With that cast I'll definitely try to sneak a peak!

Prior to Tequila Sunrise channel 9 is airing the unholy combo of Look Who's Talking Too (1990) and Collateral Damage (2002). Their IMDb ratings of 3.7 and 5.1 respectively speak for themselves, really, don't they? Why on earth did they drudge out Look Who's Talking Too to torture us with?

Sunday:
The German The Miracle of Bern (2003) airs tonight as soccer fever hits peak levels here in Australia and (I'm assuming) around the world as countries prepare for the World Cup. I couldn't really give three hoots about soccer but sometimes sports I dislike can be turned into decent movies.

The big movie tonight though is the world premier of Answered by Fire (2006), an Australian mini-series directed by Jessica Hobbs (director of various episodes of various Aussie tv shows such as "Love My Way") and starring David Wenham as a Peace Keeper in 1999's East Timor as the vote for indipendence draws closer, yet more violent. Tonight is part 1 and part 2 airs next Sunday in the same timeslot. It has been getting astonishing reviews and hopefully I won't forget this mini-series as the commercials made it look wonderful.

Even though I already own The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on DVD I always love seeing it appear on TV as it makes me wanna watch it again. Who DOESN'T love this movie? Are you saying this is an ABBA turd?

Also airing today is Can't Hardly Wait (1998) - that teen movie that came out when so many others were yet was one of the few to try and harken back to the John Hughes classics of the '80s. Unfortunately, it failed. But it was still mildly entertaining if extremely "whatever" inducing.

Monday:
Minnie Driver's career officially died some time around High Heels and Low Lives (as well as, the poster indicates, her weight). Will she make a return? I thought her small but delightful role in Phantom of the Opera may have helped but I don't think it did. Her lookalike Ashley Judd at least seems to have given up her crime thrillers for a while.

Wednesday:

The Oscar-nominated Foreign film from Aki Kaurismaki The Man Without a Past airs tonight in the traditional SBS Wednesday night European spot. Is apparently quite great and it won three awards at Cannes as well as a swag of others. I've never seen anything by Aki Kaurismaki so maybe this is a great place to start...?

Links Make the World Go Around

German's ask WHY DOES EUROPE HATE US?? And it's a valid question in the context. They are asking because of their very poor showing at Eurovision. In my liveblogging of Eurovision (scroll down the page of click "Eurovision" in the last sentence) I bemoaned the lack of Germany receiving votes for their wonderful song "No No Never" performed by Texas Lightning. Sigh. People are just stupid is all.

A new aussie movie called Shiver has a big budget and people want stars, dammit.

Madonna continues to make me mad while at the same time making me love her even more. She's a lying disrespectful bitch but, man, I suppose she can get away with it.

Guess Who

Whose bicep is this?


*sigh*

It's The Jackman.


Let's ogle.

In other Hugh news, The Gilded Moose is hilarious

Cannes Report

The Australians have started their mini-assault on Cannes. Nick Cave used the festival to announce his next movie as screenwriter. I wasn't too fond of his last collaboration with director John Hillcoat (the recent US release The Proposition) so I can't say Death of a Ladies Man is something I will get extremely excited about but I always try to have an open mind about Aussie films.

This one will be filmed in England and star The Proposition's Ray Winstone. Although it doesn't really tickle my fancy thinking of Winstone as a sex addict who beds women as he goes around selling life insurance (or whatever if it is).

In other Oz-Cannes news, Australian legend Rolf de Heer premiered his latest film Ten Canoes. The film is the first film ever to be spoken in traditional Aboriginal dialect. Megan Lehmann in the Hollywood Reporter was tres enthusiastic about de Heer's latest, as was GreenCine in their daily Cannes blog.

In other non-Oz-Cannes news, apparently Southland Tales is not good. Apart from this guy I've heard other mixed receptions of the film but there's also news of raves. This guy however also didn't too much lile Donnie Darko from the sounds of it, likes Hudson Hawk and didn't think Kings & Queen was any good (which seems to be the opposite to most people). I still can't wait for it though! This guy is also not sold on Linklater's Fast Food Nation.

One thing I've been reading everywhere though is that Pedro Almodovar's hotly anticipated (by me and everyone else with a brain) Volver is right now the favourite. "[T]he film seems like a lock for the Screenplay award, assuming it doesn't score something more prestigious." That's good press y'all. I hope this movie gets him back into Oscar's good graces after the sublime brilliance of Bad Education (with it's horny priests, transvestites and ) was brushed aside.

This dude is also not a fan of Bug I don't think. God, this guy doesn't seem to like much.