Movie review - "After the Ball" (1957) **

 Biopic about Vesta Tilley who I've never heard of and starring Pat Kirkwood who I've never heard of but both were big deals in England. It's very stock biopic, with bald exposition and musical numbers.  Tilley's life lacked drama -a lot of shows, a bit of World War One drama. She retires.

Romulus wanted to made it because it was a vehicle for Kirkwood and also Laurence Harvey who seems hamstrung in a hamstrung part as the husband/manager. No death, no reversal, no illness (they pump up an allergic reaction).

Some colour and. songs. Peter Rogers produced and it feels thrifty.  I mean it's period, and in colour but there's a lot of tight shots.

Movie review - "Fresh Air" (1999) ***

 Not much of a story, but interesting visuals, a bright cast, likeable characters. I enjoyed the scenes with the guy and his sick dad (Tony Barry) and it was authenticity. The director likes women.

Opportunities for drama thrown away like  Bridie Carter seemingly interested in the guy - why not have her flirt with him? Or Nadine Garner?

Still, hard to dislike.

Movie review - "The Custodian" (1993) **1/2

 John Dingwall may have written a great script for Sunday Too Far Away but he wasn't flawness and he's not the best argument for writer-directors. This is an intense, florid, corruption tale with Anthony La Paglia as a cop who decides to dob in mates including Hugo Weaving to journo Kelly Dingwall.

Famel characters consistently bland - Essie Davis' perfect coffee girl who just wants to be there for La Paglia and invites him home and is basically nothing, Naomi Watts also nothing to play as Dingwall's girlfriend, and there's also La Paglia's trashy wife Joy Smithers, and Barry Otto's nothing wife who is murdered (the only kick of this piece), Weaving's got a wife who's just there too. Nothing wrong with actors, just nothing to play.

La Paglia is meant to be a top cop but we don't see him do anything except dob. It's actually not that much of a role. Weaving goes full scenery chewing. Barry Otto is the best in the cast.

I don't think there's been a film with so many female characters that are nothing - you could cut all out of the movie except Otto's wife and she only makes it because she gets murdered.

Just put a dead body in it and have an investigation.

Movie review - "Flesh and Blood" (1985) **1/2

 The original idea was meant to be about two old comrades, Rutger Hauer and Jack Thompson, clashing. Orion pushed for more of a lovestory. Because it's Paul Verhoeven that means rape. 

Hauer is ideally cast although he and Verhoeven clashed on the film. Jennifer Jason Leigh has a perm, a sexual curiosity, gets gang raped, then is into Hauer.

The other casting is a real grab bag. Hauer's team include Bruno Kirby (!), Susan Tyrell (terrific), Brion James. Tom Burlinson is fresh faced as the prince betrothed to Leigh. Jack Thompson is a mercenary. 

The baddies are diverse - include several women, a kid, a gay couple.

Solid story. But no emotional links between characters. We forget Thompson and Hauer fought together. Burlinson is a stranger basically to Leigh and Hauer. Leigh and Hauer knew her.

Better if Leigh was Thompson's daughter and knew Hauer/Burlinson a long time.

Leigh goes naked a lot.  To a point where it's like "is this really necessary for the script?"

Movie review - "Mad Dog Morgan" (1976) *** (re-watching)

 I want to like it more than I do. I love the photography, sets, period detail, cast, Dennis Hopper, violence, madness, boldness.

Not a great script - a series of encounters. No core relationships other than Hopper and Gulpilil which seems like two odd bods. Frank Thring is evil. Jack Thompson is a pursuing cop but his role is small - he's undermined in a way too by Michael Pate's pursuing cop.

Great visuals. Consistently interesting. Phillipe Mora can't quite hook in the viewer via narrative. But he had a go.

Movie review - "The Journalist" (1979) *

 This got made because Michael Thornhill was on the board of the NSWFC and so had an "in", Roadshow made money on Petersen and so loved Jack Thompson, I think funding bodies thought "it's time we made a light comedy and here's one" and it sounded fun - "Jack Thompson as a rapscallion".

It's terrible.

This feels like a first draft, a vomit draft. The sort of thing entered in the Monte Millers.

Why didn't they get David Williamson to give it a pass?

You sense it'll be bad from the opening credits -played over scenes of Sydney Harbour, but the water isn't blue and the credits go on and on. They can't even get the credits right. I mean, just have pretty pictures of Sydney and keep it short. But all these people get their own card eg Stewart Wagstaff.

The story is dumb and confusing. 

Thompson is bad.  

Okay what I liked

- Elizabeth Alexander is beautiful and tries

- I like Candy Raymond who pops in at the end

- Don McAlpine is a good cinematographer

- Sam Neill does well

- there is camp in seeing Jack Thompson at the disco

- it shows the sexual desires of elder women eg Carol Raye, Margot Lee

What doesn't work

- the film keeps changing what it's about - he goes to Hong Kong,  then he's a journalist, then he's doing a government job then he's a journalist

- he's a bad journalist writes lousy copy can't type and doesn't investigate

- it's unclear what his relationship is like with Liz Alexander - they're together, she's pregnant, but she never seems that intohim

- the references to other movies and films eg Shampoo, Annie Hall - just make me angry at Thornhill's ineptness

- no sense of theme, of character

- no sexy, no nudity, no jokes, Thompson can't even get it up for two women (why include this)

- it was a scandal this was made

Movie review -"Spank!" (1999) *1/2

 Shot in Adelaide which is a point of difference - there are lots of scenes of Rundle Mall and some nice houses. Robert Mammone nicely underplays the lead who got out of a monastery which is interesting.

The story is about some Italian Australians who want to open a cafe. There's a lot of broad playing - a lot. Some guy who I kept thinking was Sal Coco mugs ruthlessly, gyrating and talking about woman. Vince from Heartbreak High mugs relentlessly, There's lots of mugging. It's exhausting. Maybe this would've worked on stage. I wondered why Mammone kept hanging out with them.

Many of the characters wear black and and have black hair and I had trouble telling them apart.  Especially has everyone acted like a maniac.

There was potential here - the story of young people opening up a cafe, colourful characters, a man out of a monastery having his first romantic relationship. That last subplot could have propped up the whole film if just played relatively straight with a bit of colour. (Even if there's some very unconvincing kissing - there's a great final shot of a conga line and everyone partying but 

 Rolf de Heer was executive producer.