Elvis' Women

If you're into Elvis fans you should check out this excellent website about the women in Elvis films. Two overwhelming things lept out at me (a) too many of them died young (b) so many of them have their own websites.

Watching late night TV

It's 12:45 am and channels seven, nine and ten have late night phone in quiz shows. This is no ad for free to air TV. What happened to out of copyright movies?

Book review - The Onion Annual 2001

Another hilarious installment from the brilliant paper. They do struggle to quite the get post Sept 11 tone. My favourite bit was about the Rolling Stones fans rioting because the band don't play 'Harlem Shuffle'.

Movie review - "Superman Returns" (2006) ***

Most of the publicity on this film was negative - budget overruns, shooting overruns - but in the end it was pretty good. The story is strong, the special effects amazing. That it doesn't quite work simply comes down to good old fashioned misacting.
When the film started I thought it was going to be fantastic - using John Williams' wonderful score, Marlon Brando's voice (the film is a sequel to the Christopher Reeve movies). Then it got going and I thought "uh oh". Not the fact that it starts a bit gay - the first ten minutes have a nude Superman, Kevin Spacey as a gigolo, Spacey and Parker Posey and corgis - that disappears.

The main problem lies in the leads. Brandon Routh tries, at least has the physique - but tries to evoke Christopher Reeve and it only makes you recall how much better Reeve was. The killer is Kate Bosworth - Lois Lane is a terrific role, torn between two men, a brave gutsy woman - but she has a blank expression, the lights are on but no one's home.

Then as the film goes along it starts to improve. Kevin Spacey stops phoning in his performance and starts to cut loose a little, the kid playing Lois Lane's film is pretty good, the sfx of the raised island are incredible (this segment is really well done - but who is going to pay to live on rock? And also they never satisfactorily explain why New York isn't destroyed), and most of all the story has genuine emotional pull because of the love triangle thing.

With decent actors in the lead roles this could have been excellent; thinking over it a bit more it's not really Routh's fault, Bryan Singer had a limited pool of actors to pick from because of the Superman curse, but he needed a strong Lois Lane.

Some moments are magical - Superman taking Lois for a ride, Superman's moments of solitude, the crash of the plane. Lex Luthor needed some better henchmen (they have no personality, he needs a Ned Beatty - Ian Roberts has a decent role, no lines but he's always holding a video camera, something which you keep expecting to pay off but it never does). Richard Branson is in the cast. And two actors from the Old Fitzroy Theatre in Sydney - David Webb and Ansuya Nathan.

Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson was a goose with what he did - I mean, drink driving - but it has to count that he didn't injure anyone and he apologised. Fair cop for the police to scrap it from the record, it was a decent use of discretion. But the matter won't go away for the while - people love to get self righteous and they love to hate, and Gibson is an easy target at the moment. I don't think it will affect Gibson's career, that's entirely due to his movies. Remember Hugh Grant? That was a bigger story than this.

Movie review - "The Miracle" (2005) ***

I love a good inspirational sports movie and this Disney effort hits all the right buttons. It's the story of the US ice hockey Winter Olympics gold medal victory in 1980 (I remember watching the Karl Malden TV version). Yes, I know it's got the "US is great" thing (apparently the event saw the emergence of the "USA! USA!" chant), but the film puts it in historical context with the US getting its arse kicked constantly through the 70s so you can't begrudge them a triumph. The film is well made, particularly well directed in its hockey scene and benefits from the fact that the coach (Kurt Russell, good accent, good hair work) is shown to be a prick. The most featured hockey player is played by Eddie Cahill, who they were pushing as a star a while back - he had solid guest roles on Friends and Sex in the City but he never quite made it. It does hit the cliches - "you're mad! it can't be done", "you're pushing these boys too hard" "why are you never home?" "i know you can give me more" - but they all hit the spot!

Movie review - "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" (2006) **

One of the best ideads for a comedy in the last decade: a man finds out his girlfriend is a super hero, dumps her, and has to deal with her rage. Main problem - they make it Luke Wilson's story, and while it's funny to have him run from a mad woman, Uma Thurman plays a super hero so she's inherently sympathetic, so he's a prick. I mean, she just wants to find a nice guy and she really likes him, it can't be easy, she has to spend all her spare time fighting crime. And he decides it's too much and goes off for his pretty co-worker. 

The character of Uma is so strong - it's out of whack not to have her at the centre. And why didn't they use Eddie Izzard more, have him plan some evil scheme? Do something evil? They could have adjusted the script, kept the gags - have Uma as the main character, and she mistakenly thinks Luke is cheating on her and goes a bit crazy, then turns good. 

Maybe they were keen not to go with the obvious - but what they have instead isn't satisfying. Another alternative would be to make Uma's character evil, then we mightn't hate Luke Wilson as much when he sells her out. Or have Luke be a bit more of a prick. 

Also irritating are the subplots at Luke's work - the lecherous best friend and the boss worried about sexual harrassment. These go nowhere. 

Two fantastic scenes: one where Uma doesn't want to leave Luke Wilson alone with his friend from work even though there is an emergency (it makes Uma so sympathetic - see what I mean?), and the one where she throws a shark through his window. That is brilliant.