Show Me Shorts: Film Festival Review

Show Me Shorts: Film Festival Review

Show Me Shorts Festival
Back for another year and as the tag line this year goes : Back for a good time, not a long time, the Show Me Shorts Festival is in rude health once again.
With a plethora of shorts and genres to choose from, there's something for everyone again this year.
Here's a handful of reviews of what's on offer at the nationwide festival:
Oscar's First Kiss - a sweet short tale of mistaken identity on an Aussie bus. Flighty and flirtatious, this piece is all about the close ups and the problem of dodging someone you don't want to know on a bus-even if they claim they know you. Stolen coy glances are mixed up with someone channeling their inner Mick Jagger.
Double Happy - a tale of innocence lost and shocking moments, Double Happy is the story of Rory and how hanging out with friends and a potential love interest changes his life forever. With some affecting dialogue and some nice touches (and a novel use for a Polaroid camera) this mini drama easily shocks by the end.
The North Pole Deception sees the workshop conditions of the elves at the North Pole blown apart. Filmed in a doco and interview style, the crude plasticine animation may lack aesthetically but a clever script certainly brings the cruelty into the yuletide season. And the final shot and use of candy canes is perhaps one of the cleverest I've seen in a while.
This Is Her - quite simply, this tale from writer Kate McDermott is one of the best short films I've seen for a long, long time. Beginning with our protagonist Evie giving birth, the voiceover wrong foots you from the moment it starts. Clever, witty and genius in scope, this intriguing film catches you right from the get go. Simply brilliant - and without wanting to be mean, I wouldn't want to tell you anything about it so you can marvel at the surprise that smacks you straight across the face within seconds. Highly recommended.

Show Me Shorts Film Festival continues nationwide.

Nightmare on Elm Street: DVD Review

Nightmare on Elm Street: DVD Review

Nightmare on Elm Street

Rating: R16
Released by Warner Home Video
Freddy's back for a new generation.

In this reimagining of the once popular Elm Street series, the teens of a small American town are dozing off - and being plagued by visions of a man in a red and black striped jumper and with a burned face.

After a series of deaths, one of them, Nancy (Rooney Mara) along with her friend Quentin (Kyle Gallner) try to work out why they're being tormented - and how to stop Freddy (Watchmen's Jackie Earle Haley) from killing them all.

It's always going to be difficult to redo the iconic 1984 film A Nightmare on Elm Street - that was always one which defined a generation of horrors and had a major impact on the genre.

So it's not that the team behind this one doesn't try - they do and the successful updating finds Freddy Krueger given more of a sinister backstory which is more relevant and shocking to our times and sensitivities.

The cast do okay with their roles; they're all fairly disposable and the relative lack of big names (outside of genre TV shows) means you're not quite sure who's going to make it to the end.

I'm not sure though that this Freddy has power to sustain a series of sequels which the original did.

Extras: Go behind the scenes of how the team reinvented Freddy Krueger for a new generation

Rating: 5/10

Micmacs: DVD Review

Micmacs: DVD Review

Micmacs

Released by Roadshow Home Entertainment
Rating: M

For those who know their French films will be familiar with director Jean Pierre Jeunet; he brought us the wonderful Delicatessen and the nightmarish City of Lost Children.

In French film, Micmacs, Danny Boon plays Bazil, who, as a boy lost his father to a landmine explosion - and who in later life, is shot in the head while witnessing a robbery and minding his own business.

After recovering, Bazil finds himself homeless and (understandably) bearing somewhat of a grudge against the weapons manufacturers who had a hand in these key moments of his life

So when he's taken in by a bunch of homeless people, and galvanised into action, Bazil sets about manufacturing the downfall of those who've wronged him.

MicMacs is a slight premise strung together by some wonderfully whimsical moments - but it's a seriously loveable surreal collection of cinematic images. Jeunet's always had the eye towards a What The? moment and this latest film doesn't disappoint.

Rating: 7/10 

I Love You Too: DVD Review

I Love You Too: DVD Review

I Love You Too
Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Entertainment
Rove sidekick Peter Helliar heads to the big screen with this rom com about Brendan Cowell's Jim who after three and a half years is unable to tell his girlfriend Alice (Chuck's Yvonne Strahovski) that he loves her.
You see Jim's a manchild - he lives in a granny flat at the back of his sister's place and works as a driver at a miniature railway. He's not exactly adult material.
But when Alice decides enough's enough and that it's time to head back to the UK, Jim's dumped - and it's at that point he realizes he has to do something.
And here's where his path crosses with Peter Dinklage's Charlie who tries to help him get her back.
I Love You Too is a fairly amiable buddy movie - it's not wildly original in terms of story (in fact the manchild act's been mined a fair bit this year) but it's actually quite touching and funny in places.
A lot of that is down to Peter Helliar's larrikin ways and deadpan humour - as writer and coproducer he's given his character Blake some of the best lines and moments in the film.
Mind you the whole ensemble work well together and while the plot's not original, this is the kind of film you can put on and find some unexpected laughs.
Extras: commentaries with all the teams - both directing and acting talent, deleted scenes and a behind the scenes doco. Not a bad bunch overall.

Rating: 7/10

Leap Year: DVD Review

Leap Year: DVD Review

Leap Year
Rating: PG
Released by Roadshow Home Entertainment
Amy Adams stars in this rom com about a girl Anna who's been with her boyfriend for some four years but still doesn't have the commitment she needs in the form of marriage.
So when she hears that he's off to Ireland for work and buoyed by the tale that on the leap year in Ireland women can propose to men, she decides to take the bull by the horns and seal the deal.
However, after a disastrous storm hits, she's diverted to the small Irish village of Dingle on the other side of the Emerald Isle - and enlisting the help of surly innkeeper Declan (Matthew Goode) she sets about achieving her dream.
Except wouldn't you know it, there's a spark between the two - which begins initially as antagonism and well, you can guess the rest.
Leap Year has been slammed by the Irish for its awful stereotyping of the island's villagers - here they're played as bumbling fools and surly characters so it's easy to see why the film got up their nose.
Also, it's not terribly funny - you can see the jokes (such as they are) coming a mile off and while it's not an original one, sometimes it's about the journey to the denouement.
And this one is about as much fun as pulling teeth. Goode mumbles a lot and Amy Adams just about rises out of the mire - but all in all, it's a real contender for the stinker of the year.
Extras: Trailer and deleted scenes.

Rating: 3/10

After The Waterfall: Movie Review

After The Waterfall: Movie Review

After The Waterfall
Rating: 7/10
Cast: Antony Starr, Sally Stockwell, Peter McCauley, Cohen Holloway
Director: Simone Horrocks
Written and directed by Horrocks and shot entirely around Piha, After the Waterfall stars Outrageous Fortune's Antony Starr as John, a forest ranger.
John's life is one of always being there for his job and his mates, and in his wife's eyes that means he puts home life at the bottom of the rung. That's not to say he doesn't love them, however.
Things fall apart dramatically for the family when one day, under John's watchful eye out in the bush, his four-year-old daughter, Pearl, disappears.
As the search intensifies for Pearl, the cracks form in John's life; his wife leaves him and he inadvertently burns down the family home.
Cue three years later and John's still wallowing and stuck in the past - can he escape and start to live again?
This is a good film, excellently crafted by Simone Horrocks and with a great central performance of Outrageous Fortune's Antony Starr (soon to be seen on TV ONE's Sunday Theatre production Spies and Lies) - his John is completely lost and in need of redemption. It's a character that so easily could be lost to simple moping, but Starr imbues the screen with a plausible presence.
Piha makes a great backdrop to the mental state of mind of Starr - and Horrocks mines the best of the landscape to set a good vibe for the film.
However, it's slightly let down by the portrayal of the best friend who betrays John - while his character's vulnerable, Cohen Holloway's not quite as strong as he should be and it detracts from the emotional impact. The film's also a little slow in terms of pacing - but the bubbling, underlying tension helps you delve deep into the characters' psyche and, if you're patient, you are rewarded.

After the Waterfall largely succeeds because of Starr's performance and the restraint shown by Horrocks - with a soundtrack that's so sparse it's all about the acting and atmosphere; but with a tremendous performance from Starr as the damaged man, it's something a little different in the cinema.

Jackass 3D: Movie Review

Jackass 3D: Movie Review

Jackass 3D
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve O, Wee Man, Chris Pontius
Director: Jeff Tremaine
There's a moment in Jackass 3D where one of the unlucky so and sos who subject themselves to all kinds of painful madness turns to the camera and says : "What are we doing here?" before the answer returns "Making a hit movie."
And that sort of sums up Jackass 3D - it's the same format as before; Johnny Knoxville and his gang of malicious miscreants inflict various forms of torture on each other for no other reason than it seemed a good idea at the time.
But, my goodness, in places, it's extremely funny.
There's no plot here - a series of skits, dares and moments are pushed together over the course of a 90 minute film. This time around the guys have gone for using a bit of 3D which serves only to demonstrate the pain level inflicted - and also to show facial contortions and how people's faces distort and jiggle when they're smacked about.
There's plenty of gross uses for the 3D in the film - and this isn't the forum to discuss various bodily functions and objects being used (not that I'm a prude I'll have you know) - but the best use of it comes right at the end when the gang is gathered together and a series of explosions ends the film. It's at this point the 3D really sings out and looks digitally stunning - rather than just stuff exploding and coming at you from the screen, the whole sequence springs vividly to life with depth and insanity sharing the celluloid brilliantly.
This film is frequently gross - think bums and air darts, portaloos and bungee ropes and you're starting to form an idea of how it'll all sit together. But yet, as I say in places, I just couldn't help laughing at the cojones (sometimes literally) on display and the minds that would come up with the various situations involved. From victims running a gauntlet of cattle prods and tasers to one annoying a ram with a horn and then running as the poor animal exacts its ramming revenge, there's all manner of bone crunching slow-mo replays and moments to enjoy. There's also plenty of dry retching involved when various parties are outgrossed by their own activities.
But the moment which works best for me is when one of the group finds the tables turned - however, I won't spoil that for you.
I guess what it comes down to with Jackass is how much you already like the format - and how much further you're willing to be grossed out.

This film's been a massive success in America - for certain sections of the audience, and with a few beers and a few of the lads, I reckon it's the perfect mixture of grossness, chutzpah from the team and impressive pranks which you're urged time and time again, not to try at home.