Modern Family: Series One: DVD Review

Modern Family: Series One: DVD Review

Modern Family Season One
Rating: PG
Released by Roadshow Entertainment
It's rare for a comedy to show up these days which amuses on a consistent scale.
However, Emmy award winning Modern Family is that comedy series - it appeared last year and became a firm favourite with critics as well as punters.
A faux documentary style show, it centres on three portions of the modern family - a father (Married With Children's Ed O'Neill) and his younger Colombian wife (Sofia Vergara) and her son Manny; his daughter (Julie Bowen) and her family of 2 girls and one boy - she's married to the ineptly loveable Phil - and the final generation is his gay son Mitchell and partner, the ever flamboyant Cam.
It sounds as if it would be terrible but the tone's set with an excellent first episode which brilliantly introduces all the characters and sets the high level for the funny script - for example Dad Phil is trying to show how in touch he is with his kids' slang and misunderstands WTF, believing it stands for Why The Face.
Modern Family is blessed by a great ensemble cast, fantastically funny scripts and heart and humour throughout - it's difficult to pick out a stand out moment when there's so many to pick from. Trust me, this show won't disappoint - and for once it's a family comedy which has universal appeal.
Extras: Extended, deleted scenes, gag reels, family interviews which were cut from the show - a good solid bunch for a great series which will entertain time and time again.

Rating: 9/10

OSS117: Lost In Rio: DVD Review

OSS117: Lost In Rio: DVD Review

OSS 117 Lost In Rio

Rating: M
Released by Madman Entertainment
Sure the spy spoof genre's been done to death but OSS117, the latest entry-sacre bleu, a Frenchie- is pretty damn good.

Actor Jean Dujardin is Hubert de la Bath, a post war spy, who's part racist, part sexist and all funny - he even resembles a French version of Sean Connery- it's 1967 and despatched to Brazil to retrieve a microfilm, de la Bath ends up in a series of (mis)adventures which appear to channel Clouseau at times and which show he's a relic of a world gone by. However, whereas this could lapse so far into parody, it consciously stays away from that and lets the sheer nincompoopery of its agent showcase the comedy.

It's a bucketload of fun, complete with Brazilian bikini babes, a blistering Bossanova soundtrack, devilish Chinamen (as he calls them) Saul Bass style film-making and a stellar performance from dujardin.

I hope pretty soon we get to spend more time with Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath - because the whole film is a joyous spoofy romp -and far superior to Austin Powers

Extras: Outtakes, Deleted scenes, Making of, Trailer

Rating: 7/10

Donnie Darko: Blu Ray Review

Donnie Darko: Blu Ray Review

Donnie Darko Ultimate 2 Disc Blu Ray collection
Rating: M
Released by Madman
So another release for the excellent Donnie Darko - this time on Blu Ray Disc and with a heap of extras.
One disc has the original cut of the film and the second has the director's cut - for those who've not seen the film which had a breakthrough performance from Jake Gyllenhaal and a career best from Patrick Swayze, you really need to take a look.
Gyllenhaal is Donnie Darko, a troubled teen who becomes delusional and paranoid that the world will end in 28 days. But that's not the half of it - when he starts seeing a large rabbit his actions become more irrational as the end of the world nears.
Donnie Darko was director Richard Kelly's debut and what a scorching film to have graced celluloid - dark, moody and magnificent mixing scifi, horror and time travel, it still remains one of the best films ever. The transfer to Blu Ray gives it a superior look and really, you should take the time to view it - if only to see what the fuss is all about.
Extras: Commentaries, two cuts of the film, galleries, additional scenes - there's a lot to get your teeth into here.

Rating: 8/10

The Social Network: Movie Review

The Social Network: Movie Review

The Social Network
Rating: 9/10
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara
Director: David Fincher
Facebook - Like or dislike, it's part of our daily lives now on a massive scale.
So perhaps it was inevitable that Hollywood would turn its attention to this phenom, and now here it is.
The great Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg as we dive back to the heady days of the 2003 Harvard scene - as the film opens the obnoxious and arrogant Zuckerberg is being dumped by his girlfriend (Rooney Mara - soon to be seen in the Millennium Trilogy remakes as Lisbeth Salander).
Angered by his treatment, he heads back to his college room and starts to use the internet to vent his spleen, before deciding on hacking into the Harvard mainframe so that he can set up a Harvard college-based 'Hot or Not' website to get back at the campus women.
Pretty soon, his site goes viral and causes the campus to crash - and this brings him to the attention of not only security and the admin board on campus, but also to the attention of a pair of Harvard twins, the Winkelvosses, who are working on a site idea called The Harvard Connection.
While Zuckerberg initially seems keen on the idea, he soon apparently uses the basis of that proposal to found a site, thefacebook, with business partner and long-term friend Eduardo Saverin (Spiderman's new webslinger Andrew Garfield).
However, when thefacebook gets bigger and the co-founder of Napster Sean Parker (a great turn by Justin Timberlake) gets on board to try and help spread the word, it all begins to go wrong for Zuckerberg, as blind ambition clouds his judgement.
The Social Network is written by the West Wing scribe Aaron Sorkin - and you know it from the moment the film opens.
With a sensationally wordy and intelligent opening, every character flaw of Zuckerberg is laid bare - his snobbishness, his petulance, his arrogance (as his ex tells him, "People will hate you but it's not because you're a nerd, it's because you're an asshole") are there for all to witness.
The whole film's framed around two legal cases - one brought by Saverin and the other brought by the Winklevoss Twins - and the narrative zips back and forth to both cases and the founding of Facebook.
Director David Fincher does a great job of pulling the various threads together and a blistering soundtrack from Trent Reznor keeps the whole thing pumping.

Sure, there are a couple of lulls in energy here and there (after some two hours you'd expect some kind of dip), but with a excellently written and tautly pulled together (and occasionally witty) script combined with an absolutely mesmerising turn from Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network is simply unmissable and the film for the web generation.

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