Movie review - Fast#9 - "F9" (2019) ***

 Slick, fast, Justin Ling directed. This is the one where they go into outerspace. That's sort of tossed away - it's very easy. Lucas Black is back, briefly. Er... yay? I do like the continuity.

The key plot has Vin Diesel clashing with brother John Cena. This does give it some emotional undercurrent. They do try to give Jordana Breswter something to do. They do try.

Big and loud. Feels tired. Han coming back is... um, yeah, yay? Natalie Emmanuel is given stuff to do but isn't much. Michelle Rodriguez and Charlize Theron needed to be given more to do. Helen Mirren is fun.

Look, there's a lot going on. 

Movie review - Fast#10 -"Fast X" (2023) ***

 So... now Charlize Theron is good (or at least an ally), John Cena is good, Vin Diesel looks out of shape and bored, Michelle Rodgriguez looks bored, Ludacris and Tyrese look old, as does Sung Kang, Nathalie Emmanuel is... there, Jordana Brewster pops in. They have a return from Helen Mirren and Brie Larson comes along in as a bad ass female. Oh Scott Eastwood is in it briefly. Oh and Daniela Melchor is hot girl racer.

Film is saved and stolen by Jason Mamoa in a fabulously over the top, campy villain performance. It starts off slowly with too much Vin Diesel but gets better as it goes along. The film has a Mad Mad Mad Mad World quality about it with its sprawling cast, some funny lines and clever choreography. Total lack of realism.

It loses points fot being the first of a two parter. I think that hurt word of mouth.

Movie review - "Addams Family 2" (2021) **

 Not very good. Some decent animation but lazy gags, dumb story ideas (Wednesday's biological father), too much reliance on pop culture.

Movie review - "Bombshell" (2019) ***1/2

 A box office disappointment but I think this sort of movie just belongs on streaming now. It's an engrossing story, the exposition is well handled, and it has fun star performances - Charlize Theron, Nicole K, Margot Robbie. Very strong support cast including Kate McKinnon.

Movie review - "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015) ****1/2

The title could be Mad Max: Cover Girl Models and the character of Max could actually be cut out of the movie and not that much lost story wise (everything important he does could be done by Charlize Theron or Nicholas Hoult's characters), which is never a good sign... But what fantastic big screen entertainment!

It's basically one long chase with a few pauses, and very little character development apart from "burnt out person finding humanity" which is given to three people - there's tough bitter Max who finds his again (for the third movie in a row), female warrior Theron who finds hers (with a connecting-with-the-sisterhood slant), and brainwashed fanatic Hoult who finds his (rather like a deprogrammed ISIS fighter). I guess there's also Abbey Lee Kershaw who starts as an angry cover girl model/wife and becomes nicer after befriending Melissa Jaffer.

But all that's primeval and completely works as drama. And what a fantastic chase - tremendous stunts, some of which literally take your breath away. I felt a pang it couldn't have been shot in Australia but the Namidian desert looks gorgeous and most of the supporting cast speak in Australian accents. Art department, costumes, etc are fantastic.

I also really enjoyed the cast - Tom Hardy made a very good new Max (so glad they didn't go with Sam Worthington), Theron is a first rate kick arse heroine, Rosie Hungtinton Whiteley is a spectacularly good looking Queen Bee, Hoult excellent in perhaps the film's best role, Megan Gale a believable Valkyrie. I loved how these grand dames of Australian tv and theatre like Melissa Jaffer and Jennifer Hagan finally get the chance to play action heroines, and the nod to series heritage by having Hugh Keays Byrne back.

The film is jammed full of great touches - like John Howard as a book keeper type figure with massive feet, Quentin as a genius (was he meant to be like Master from Beyond Thunderdome?), the rock guitarist leading the baddies into battle (like a piper for Highland regiments), the ISIS parallels, the whole world.

I get the feeling the original concept of the film had Max in Charlie Therzon's role - i..e the person who is bad but then changes their mind and helps the wives get to safety - then George Miller and co realised that had unpleasant men-owning-women overtones so added Therzon's character... with the result that Max's got a little sidelined. (This is only guessing I could be wrong).

Incidentally I can see why men's rights groups got upset with this because Hugh Keays Byrne, the villain, is after sole custody of his kids and the movie takes a pro-mothers-should-have-custody-over-their children line.

Movie review - "Prometheus" (2012) ** (warning: spoilers)

In space, no one seems to have heard of quarantine - at least not until the mid point. Until then you've got people on a strange planet taking off their helmets because they can breathe air, not caring about anything, bringing back to the ship willy-nilly. Two workers don't want to be around creatures but then later one of them reaches out to touch a creature. No one seems excited at the prospect of going to a planet to discover life. After they discover aliens the captain and his crew seems bored. People knock out others, run around the ship, and no one seems to notice or care. There are lots of pop culture references to things like Lawrence of Arabia and Stephen Stills (because you know people today make pop culture references all the time about the 1880s).

It's got two of the least believable characters in science fiction films in recent years - Holloway, played by a Billy Zane imitation, who is meant to be an archeologist but seems to have wandered in from a media studies course, doesn't seem remotely interested in the discovery of alien life (because they're dead, as if it wasn't enough); and the captain, who doesn't seem interested in what's going on either, then at the end we're meant to believe he's going to make this big sacrifice on nothing more than a hunch (and his two other pilots, about whom we know practically nothing).

The characters in the first three Alien films all felt real - they were doing their jobs, worried about overtime and their health, bitched about their boss, wanted promotions, defended their surrogate daughters; they were cowards and/or stoic, gung ho, some were in over their heads, others got religion. No one seems real here. No one. No one worries about quarantine, or health, or the fact they've discovered an alien civilisation. No one's particularly professional or good at their jobs. It's a bad script, with lousy character work, and the sort of confusion that comes from far too much talking about it.

The spaceship in the first three movies all felt realistic - cramped, dirty, battered. Prometheus here is like a flying hotel with massive corridors and rooms. Who is the crew? What are they doing? Do they have an attitude to the incredible events taking place? Where is the emotion?

The movie is also disastrously undercast. Noomi Rapace is one of the least memorable female leads in recent years - it's a great role but she does nothing with it. Logan Marshall-Green and Idris Elba do what they can with their roles, which are awful. Charlize Theron isn't that great either although at least she does push ups in her underwear. Michael Fassbender comes off best as the android - but wouldn't he look at a more recent film than Lawrence of Arabia in 2093?

Some positives - the murder scenes are exciting and well done, the storm is terrific, it looks amazing. The variation of the chest bursting scene with Rapace perforing an abortion on herself is gripping if not very logical. If Ridley Scott had gotten his head out of his backside and realised he was making a "discover nasty alien"movie and just concentrated on making the best one he good then he was in with a chance. But I think they waffled too much about what sort of film they were doing, shying away from being too Alien-like, and so instead of giving pulpy material A-grade treatment, they gave waffly material pulp treatment, with swishy visuals and effects. Did Walter Hill or David Giler have anything to do with this? If not, it's a bit cheeky for them to be credited as producers.

Movie review - "Young Adult" (2011) ***1/2

Those explaining Chekov to younger audiences could do worse than pointing to this as an example of the Russian's style: funny but not really, sad but not gentle, low key story telling, characters hung up on the past, people in love with others who don't love them back, worries about social status and money. It took me a while to get into Charlize Theron - I thought maybe they could have gotten a more expressive interest - but after a while I got it: she plays it like the school bitch, never asking for sympathy or patting the dog, a scowl on the face. Like her the movie refuses to take sides or offer easy answers: the husband is a drip but happy, his wife seems to be nice but is she, small town life isn't demonised or deified, Theron ignores her parents who don't seem to care that she thinks she's an alcoholic, the little sister who asks to go with her is knocked back. It's a brave Hollywood movie that surely could not have been made without the success of Juno.

Excellent performances, including Patton Oswald in the best role (fat, tormented, funny, geeky) - and pretty much everyone else. A very grown up, mature film about immaturity.

Script review - "Young Adult" by Diablo Cody

Like Juno, Cody takes a very familiar, simple story - woman comes back to town to win back an ex - and handles it with freshness and verge. The look at small town life is more cynical and jaundiced here - her ex is happy, chubby, a father and bland, the locals have low horizons, there is a lot of smugness. And the lead is a mess - near alcoholic, bitchy, selfish, egotistical. It works, though, especially the stuff with her old chubby former school mate with a horrific injury (really horrific - he has trouble masturbating) and his sister. It's going to be interesting to see how the public take to this.

Movie review - "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" (2002) ***1/2

Sellers was a fascinating guy and Geoffrey Rush delivers a bravaura performance. Rush doesn't look like him, but is probably the only actor in the world who could have done such a fine job. Sellers is correctly portrayed as a fair nutcase, a very talented nutcase.
The little additions like Sellars talking to the camera is OK - the swooping camerawork at the beginning is annoying but this calms down. Mariam Margoyles plays Sellars' mum - listen to the wonderful elocution of her and rush in their scenes together.
John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci are fine as Blake Edwards and Stanley Kubrick respectively. Charlize Therzon is pretty and shows a bit of skin as Britt Ekland.

Movie review - "Aeon Flux" (2006) **

Charlize Therzon is very attractive and a good actor but she isn't charismatic enough to hold a full film without a real character. It doesn't help that this story is glum and played out by a glum cast - aren't there any jokes in the future? Highlights include some scenes of Charlize in skimpy underwear (the film would have benefited by being trashier), a vicious blade of grass, and a shoot out at the end. But it is a bit silly. And spoilt - why does she have to blow up the ship at the end? What's the hurry?