The Writers' Resource

It must be difficult to be Steve Martin re-creating the rôle that was cemented by the late great Peter Sellers.  It's such a no-win situation that one can't help but wondering why anyone would try.  However, Steve Martin did it and the result is somewhat clunky. Part ofthe problem is the appalling face-lift that Martin has had.  I mean, for heavens sake! He went prematurely grey many years ago in his thirties and everyone loved him for that and his rather appealing laugh lines.  But these have all been carefully botoxed away and now he has a characterless visage unable to refelct anything but 'quelle surprise!'.  Thus, the dead-pan and subtleties required for this part are complêtement zilch. 

Having said that, it has enough fun and games in it for a good school holiday flick.  My advice to parents is to drop the kids off at the Multiplex and go shopping while they relish the dopey gags which don't really come thick and fast enough for a grown-up. Most of the fun is already in the trailer (why do they do that????) and John Cleese reprises his Basil rôle yet again, the exasperation in his performance maybe matching the disappointment he felt when reading the script. Many good people in the cast including Andy Garcia, Aishwarya Rai, Jean Reno and Lily Tomlin (very watchable in this actually).

On general release. 

PS. Yaaay! I got through the entire review without using the word 'bumbling'!

The one thing you notice in a recession is that people just want to laugh and 'Paul Blart: Mall Cop' - Steve Carr's latest venture and starring Kevin James - had people rocking in the aisles last night.  What surprised me was the fatties who were also shrieking with laughter at the fattist gags (plentiful) and other derogatory lines.  For my comedy taste, it fell under the preferred 'one gag per 30 seconds' ratio and there wasn't enough to laugh at.  THe story was predictable.  But that's what people seemed to want and even though for the literati it was at least an hour too long, it was enough of a charming yoick to stop them, walking out. Notable though was the young girl who played Maya Blart, Raini Rodriguez.  She had all the good lines and played her part well. There's a new sit-com star brewing I believe.

It's making money faster than you can commandeer one of those Brookstone massage chairs. 

The film  opens on March 19 and kids will love it for its lapses into potty areas but it has a good heart and a couple of neat twists.  Just not enough of them for me.

General Exhibition.

When a Melbournite watches 'Knowing', (Dir.: Alex Proyas, 2009) there's a tendency to laugh in all the wrong places.  At least, this was the experience I had when I went to a packed session here in the city where it was filmed.  Signs of recognition or 'Knowing' the places it was filmed.  It looks pretty darn good, by the way.  The visual effects, although some are way too agonising and long, are also well-executed. However, some of Nick Cage's profundities also attracted laughter even though they were supposed to be serious.  The young boy in the film, Chandler Canterbury, with whom I share a birthday, can also be seen in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button playing the lead at age 8.  He demonstrates a focused and charming screen presence and lights up every scene with his pensive and sweet face. His character, Caleb, Nick Cage's son, is by far the most interesting in the film, the rest of the characters being somewhat one-dimensional. He has a future!  Let's hope that he also has good management and parental supervision with feet on the ground.

However, the story and action within are  good enough to warrant paying the admittance to see it on the big screen.  I can't really say much but watch for the first big vis effect.  A beauty!

The whispering is slightly cliche and the 'beings' that haunt the kids are also rather artificial. Rose Byrne is OK, but her part is not up to her acting ability.

There is a pretty awful scene starring Alan Hopogood and Playschool's Benita Collings as Nick Cage's folks, and every line in that scenecontains more corn than a family-sized packet of tacos.

In thinking about the overall plot, it was fine, if apocalyptic and dark, suited to Proyas'  view of the world, the universe and everything.  But the science of it all was unconvincing and left me cold.

But stagger along and see it if only for the Melbourne content.  It is always worth seeing one's own city on screen!

General Release.  Too darn scary for kids, frequent flyers or commuters.

How darn hard is it now to look at Michelle Williams on screen and not think of our Heath?  Well, in 'Wendy & Lucy' she so makes the part her own that gradually the tabloid chick melts away and the vulnerable, homeless girl on a dollar-a-day road trip with her dog moves in.  The story of "Wendy & Lucy' is quite slight but under the surface bubbles a myriad of issues that sometimes break through rise to the top.  Probably not often enough to sustain this as a feature film and I am thinking that another strand of story would have helped.  Performances are across the board natural and warm.  Wally Dalton, as the Security guard is an interesting character whose own life is only hinted at but there is a lot going on there.  Suffice to say that one of the enjoyable aspects of the story is the debate afterwards with other audience members about social conditions in this modern world.  When do 'handouts' differ from 'Mollycoddling' and how much does the sharing of one's assets through taxation or donation impact on the world as a whole?  One of the most moving aspects of the film was seeing the security guard's reaction to Wendy and her plight in the light of his own family tragedy.  but it needed more.  Kelly Reichardt wrote the screenplay, directed and edited this tale and, as such, would have been almost too familiar with the story , the back-story and her characters.  The story itself had its beginnings in a short fiction by Jonathan Raymond ('Train Music') and this is not the first collaboration with Reichardt.  'Old Joy', that puzzling tale of a walk into an Oregon national park to find a hot spring tub was their first effort together.  It was a terrible film, a wannabe Gus Van Sant minimalist tale but it was rendered ridiculous by the lack of content.

This is a lot better but is still more of a curiosity with its Jeffrey Smart types of locations - train yards, interesting walls, industrial sites etc..  ALl nicely shot but on crappy cam so it is terribly hard to see and work out exactly what is going on in the frame.

So it looks good and Michelle Williams and the cast are great but I am not sure that its 26th march opening here in Australia will garner much interest  without playing the old 'Heath's Ex' card which is a sad indictment.