Matthew Modine Top Ten

 Classy Top Ten (features)

1) Married to the Mob (1988)

2) Full Metal Jacket (1987)

3) Birdy (1986)

4) Streamers (1984)

5) Short Cuts (1993)

6) And the Band Played On (1993)

7) Any Given Sunday (1999)

8) Memphis Belle (1990)

9)  Mrs Soffel (1984)

10) Baby It's You (1983)

Craptacular top five

1)  Private School (1983)

2) Vision Quest (1985)

3) Wind (1992)

4) Cutthroat Island (1995)

5) Gross Anatomy (1989) 

Book review - "I'll be in My Trailer" by John Badham and Craid Modderno (2006)

 I don't think of Badham as an actors' director but his films tend to be well acted. Full of good advice, some of it common sense but even that it's ideal to hear again. A lot of testimonies from people who are now cancelled or cancelled ish eg Frank Langella, James Woods, Stephen Collins, Mel Gibson. I liked the stuff about bad behaviour the most.

Book review - "Heaven and Mel" by Joe Eszterhas (2012) (re-reading)

 Gave this another read. Eszterhas comes out of it even worse than I remembered. Utterly without backbone. Working for Gibson despite his alleged bad behaviour, then ranting, then anger, putting his on in harm's way, only going after him after Gibson didn't like his script. Urgh. Very compulsive reading though.

Movie review - "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" (1985) ***

 I'm never quite sure where this film stands with fans. It remains well known but doesn't seem to be as beloved.

It is a lot more Hollywood, with more gags, a lighter feel. Angry Anderson's bodyguard is cartoony. Tina Turner rock plays on the opening soundtrack, not booming Brian May. There's lots more saxophone - mind you Mad max's wife played that in the first film.

It reprises stuff from the earlier films: Bruce Spence in a plane (different character, has a kid, but still in a plane), some of the outfits, feral kids, man with Down Syndrome.

But it also does try to deepen the mythology: there's Bartertown (fabulous), run by Tina Turner (great) in conjunction with Master-Blaster. The Thunderdome sequence is electric. (Though are we went to have that much sympathy for Blaster who has been killing people and tried to smash Max's head off like ten seconds earlier?)

There's some marvellous hams on display, notably Frank Thring, little person Angelo Rossitto and Ted Hodgeman as the MC of Thunderdome. Hodgemen is heaps of fun - he should've been used more in Oz cinema.

A lot of familiar TV faces like Mark Kounnas, Mark Spain, Justine Clarke, Adam Wilits, Rod Zuanic, Rebekah Elmaloglou, Tom Jennings. The kids make it seem like a Steven Spielberg film - there's more wacky gags, Angry Anderson as Will-e-Coyote, Max is kinder and less selfish. And there's actually not much wrong with that. At least it's different.

The big flaw is structural. After Max is sent to gulag he just sort of stumbles along, finds these kids, some kids run away and Max goes to get them. Then they sort of stumble into Bartertown and decide to capture Master and it leads to a chase, but they have no idea of where they're going, they just head on the train tracks til it runs out and they're only saved via luck (running into Bruce Spence).

I think this could've easily been fixed. After seeing Max free Auntie could have chased after him to kill him, so when the kids find Max she finds them and goes "great a new slave population" so now Max has to lead all the kids to safety and he figures "the only way to do that is grab Master" so he heads back to Bartertown... which actually isn't that different to Mad Max Fury Road. Anyway, that's my two cents.

Movie review - "Mad Max" (1979) ****

 A marvellous movie. There's not much fresh I can eye. It saw the feature debut of a magnificent director who swept people up in his operatic vision.

It's wonderfully cast - the high pitched operatic work of Hugh Keays Byrne and Vincent Gil, the likeability of Mel Gibson and Joanne Samuel, the blonde friend Geoff Parry, the muscly camp of Roger Ward, the ockerism of Steve Bisley, the cop who gets a "saucepan in the throat", Tim Burns' psycho Johnny the Boy

As in Mad Max 2 the action sequences are superb  and less famously it's also marvelously suspenseful. There's a lot of fake outs eg Goose getting up the next day, falling over, then getting killed... ditto with the attack on Jesse.

There's a lot of humour and heart too. Would it have worked with James Healey in the lead and not Gibson? Yes but not as well because Gibson bought vulnerability.

I'm struck how low the death toll is in this. The night rider dies in the original chase and his girl but not pursuing cops. Goose still lives. So does Max's wife. (It's grim for both but not death.) The couple that are attacked at the beginning still live - he seems to have been raped and she was but they are still alive. And the initial bikies just come off the bridge. The kid is killed. And the later bikies.

Great movie.

Movie review - "Mad Max 2" (1981) ***** (rewatching)

 Gosh this film is so good. Music, direction, mood, everything.

Part of the strength is the depth of the support characters. There's the Gyro Captain of course, and Mike Preston's charismatic leader, and Vernon Wells' Wez with his boyfriend, and Humungous (who has clearly suffered major trauma)... but also Arkie Whitley's sweet girl (you need that character with this bleakness), the wry smart mechanic who figures out Max's car is booby trapped (Steven Spears) and his dopey assistant, the Warrior Woman (Virginia Hey), the fairweather friend Syd Heylen, the grey haired woman whose boyfriend/family member is killed early on, the wide eyed guy whose girlfriend is killed early on, the dog, the PR guy Max Phipps who is sort of like a News Ltd columnist.

It's scary. Tense. A great action movie yes but it's also the terror of the threat outside the base. The harsh landscape.

The humour is beautifully mixed too. Spence, Heylen, Phipps.

Such a good movie.

Movie review - "The Professor and the Madman" (2019) **1/2

Probably as good a film as could have been made from this book although I understand production was troubled. Mel Gibson plays the professor even though you think he'd be obvious casting for the madman - Sean Penn is very good, don't get me wrong, but Gibson's got that glint.

It's tricky material to adapt because there's a lot of talk about dictionaries and the two main characters mostly correspond via letters.

The film makes attempts to include women - Natalie Dormer as the wife of the man killed by Penn and Jennifer Ehle gets a big moment as Gibson's wife but she's basically just Gibson's wife and Dormer's basically someone's wife.

Eddie Marsan is excellent as a guard ditto Stephen Dillane and Steve Coogan. It looks great - there's a fantastic library where Gibson's character does work. Sometimes it gets movie-ish but I'm sympathetic as to why they did that.

Movie review - "The Bounty" (1984) ***

No one seems to remember or care much for this version in part I think because it flopped but also because it was going to be made by David Lean in two parts and has a bit of "oh if only" aura about it.

It's intelligent, looks great, has location shooting in Tahiti, and a real life Bounty replica. The film is full of people about to become big stars - Mel Gibson (a kind of star, the hottest thing in Hollywood at the time), Tony Hopkins (famous but pre Silence of the Lambs), Daniel Day Lewis (quite a big role), Liam Neeson (quite a big role).

The movie never really comes alive. The local Tahitans are either noble savages or nubile women - the character of Fletcher Christian's wife has never been anything in movies other than a doe eyed topless smiling ninny.

Maybe it was a mistake to do it in flashback. The stuff on the boat is good. It suffers from the anti climax factor most Bounty stories have. 

It looks fantastic. It's smart. It lacks a little X factor but this probably should be better remembered. It's very well cast.

Movie review - "Attack Force Z" (1981) **1/2

Some random thoughts:
* always good to rewatch but it's never as good as you want it to be
* great opening with the foreword and troops climbing out of the sub and canoeing to the island
* action sequences are perfunctory rather than well done and I really wish Phil Noyce had done it instead of Tim Burstall - Burstall was excellent on casting and story choices but Noyce was the better director
* the cast are extremely good and deliver strong performances - Mel Gibson does well in a relatively thankless role (his one thing is being bullied into letting the Japanese diplomat live by that diplomat), but he definitely feels very Z Force
* the ending rips off The Wild Geese and is a needless bummer - the whole ending has fashionable 70s nihilism with pretty much all the goodies dead for absolutely no reason which actually is kind of more true of the typical Z Special Unit mission (those were the locals didn't betray them) but makes you feel depressed watching it and might be responsible for the film underperforming at the box office
* disappointingly little is made of Jon Phillip Law being Dutch - a great idea (could have explored the colonial issues etc), thrown away
* it's really distracting that everyone is Chinese when it should be Malaya/Indonesia/New Guinea - they just should have said "island off the coast of Taiwan"
* best role: Sam Neill - the ruthless operative who shoots John Waters but who then points out the locals will be killed if they rise up
* the Japanese are really stupid for believing that kid
* there's a lack of pace and energy - too much ambling when they get on the island when it should be fast paced
* production values are very good.

The stardom of Jack Thompson

In 1975 Ken G Hall wrote that the one proper star of the Australian film revival in box office terms was Jack Thompson. And he was right - Graeme Blundell and Bruce Spence had been in hits, but they felt "one off". Thompson had star all over him - handsome, charismatic, acting ability, fantastic voice, swagger. And a definite star persona and successful films - the heroic ocker, successful with the ladies, loyal to his mates, great in a fight etc etc. It really started with Spyforce and was developed through Libido, Petersen and Sunday Too Far Away. Scobie Malone was a major stumble but those things happen - and he had a choice support role in Caddie; although not the lead the film was a bit hit and the role very much within the Thompson persona.

But how did he follow it up? The villain in Mad Dog Morgan, then two years off then he played a reverend in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and a support role in Because He's My Friend. Then The Journalist, Breaker Morant and The Club - then The Earthling, Bad Blood and The Man from Snowy River.

He kind of stopped being a star. The only of these roles that was recogniseably "Jack Thompson was The Journalist and I guess Snowy - the latter was a glorified cameo.

I can make a case for the films he did - Mad Dog, Because His My Friend and Earthling had him support American actors, which would've increased his exposure to Hollywood. Chant was going to be a major movie - there was no typical "Jack Thompson" part in it.

But it is odd he would be the one star in Australian cinema in 1975, then leap into character roles.

I think basically the Australian industry didn't know how to exploit him as a star - and neither did Thompson.

Compare it with Mel Gibson. His career got cracking with Tim and Mad Max in 1979 - then he followed it up with Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously and he was off to the races.

Now I'm not sure Thompson would've suited any of these roles - too old, too worldly. Gibson specialised in young innocents for a long time. He would've been weird in My Brilliant Career.

And also the films weren't really there. What else could Thompson have been in in 1976? Don't Party would've been good - an ensemble piece. In 1977 the films that would've suited the Thompson persona were poor - Raw Deal, High Rolling. He would've been miscast in say The Last Wave. They wanted him for Newsfront as Bill Hunter's brother but it was a support role. He would've been fantastic in Money Movers and The Last of the Knucklemen - but both flopped.

He turned down the Mike Preston role in Maybe This Time. Presumably also Duet for Four... (every Mike Preston role of this time feels like it was meant for Jack Thompson including Mad Max 2.)

I heard he auditioned for Flash Gordon. That would've been interesting. I'm not sure he would've matched with the view they had of Flash in that movie - naive, opened faced. Thompson always felt cocky.

The man with the career most analogous to Thompson, apart from Mike Preston who looked like him, would be Bryan Brown. You can imagine Thompson in every role Brown played - which at first were support parts but from Stir onwards were leads. Thompson would've been incredible in A Town Like Alice, Far East, Thorn Birds. Mind you, Brown was pretty good.

And Thompson had some good moments in the 80s. He did TV overseas in the early 80s. Had the lead in Waterfront and Burke and Wills.

But he got fat. By the early 80s he ceased to become sexy Jack Thompson - he became chubby Jack Thompson. So he drifted to character roles.

Anyway, so Jack Thompson has had a great career. But still you feel his value as a star was never quite exploited. In particular that period in the late 70s where he played no star roles fo ra number of years. A massive asset for the industry and it was not used.

Movie review - "Pocahontas" (1995) **

This doesn't age well - or maybe it wasn't go great the first time around. The quality of animation made me feel like it was a straight to video sequel rather than the original.

Good on Disney for having a go at Indian culture - the film is progressive, the lead is a woman of colour. But it's not very good - Pocahontas is more more a hot princess interested in a guy because she's out of town, and as a result sells out her people. She doesn't do anything cool like Mulan or Moana she just kind of hangs around and sings and moons over a guy.

It's not particularly well made or exciting - Mel Gibson's singing voice isn't great. The biggest problem for me was the visual look hasn't aged well.

I think this is best appreciated as a teen girl romance. Go in with low expectations you might be okay.

Movie review - "Hacksaw Ridge" (2016) ***1/2

Mel Gibson very much in his comfort zone - blood, guts and God. It's an amazing true story of Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector who still wanted to serve on the front line and wound up winning the Medal of Honor.

Andrew Garfield is ideal casting as Doss - reminds me of a young Anthony Perkins, a cracker, full of idealism with a touch of fanaticism, but likeable. The film makes the smart decision of letting us spend time with Doss and his fellow soldiers - the action is delayed until the last half.

Teresa Palmer has perfect 1940s looks. Rachel Griffiths and Hugo Weaver are surprisingly poor as Doss' parents and I have to admit I never got used to Vince Vaughan as the sergeant - nothing wrong with his performance it was just weird. Fine work from Sam Worthington and Luke Bracey (playing a bit of a bastard - he's more comfortably cast in such roles), and the familiar faces who pop up as soldiers such as Ryan Corr.

Occasionally the script fell into World War Two movie cliches - such as a GI introducing Doss to characters ("this guy, he's Smitty, he XYZ") and every now and then it felt weird - would the ridge be SO isolated down bottom? But the power of the story and the good moments carry you through and I was very moved.

Australian Film Stars

It's my contention that one of the big problems of the Australian film industry is too many people don't understand what constitutes a film star. The term "star" gets flung about with great abandon and winds up over-used and distorted. Entire books have been written on the concept of movie stardom but I think Ken G Hall had it best when he referred to movie stars being people who were actually worth something at the box office, i.e. actors who helped draw a significant number of people into theatres by virtue of their presence alone.

The Australian film industry is so small that the most successful movie stars are ones who have made their names in other mediums - usually theatre, radio, and/or TV. They develop popularity there, transfer to film, and their public follows them. It is possible to be a film-only star, it is just extremely difficult. I thought I'd run through a list of some actors who I consider to have been genuine stars - plus a few others who sometimes described as such, but aren't, really.

Silent Era

Definite box office draws:

* Nellie Stewart - she's little remembered today but in her day was an internationally famous stage actor and singer. Her most popular role was the title part in Sweet Nell of Old Drury and repeating it on screen helped turn that film into a monster hit.

*Snowy Baker - one of the most renowned sportsman of his era, Baker represented his country in swimming, boxing, rugby, diving, etc etc before trying his hand at the movies. He stuck to action/adventure tales (five in all) most of which appear to have been greeted with public enthusiasm. Baker has a clear claim on the title of Australia's first action movie star.

See him in "The Man from Kangaroo" here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ht1lwY2Nk

Maybes:

* Lotte Lyell - she was often described as Australia's first film star and certainly played the lead role in a number of popular movies: The Fatal Wedding, Margaret Catchpole, The Sentimental Bloke, etc. Her contribution to Australian cinema was immense, as an actor, director, writer, editor and producer. However I would hesitate to classify her as an out-an-out star - she lacked a defined screen persona, she was too versatile, too under publicised. She didn't have a great stage reputation, her name was given respectful but not prominent billing in advertisements; even her death was not overly publicised, which you assume it would be for someone so young. I don't get the impression from reading about this time that Lotte Lyell was a genuine box office draw. Maybe if she'd specialised in more of the one kind of role or genre, eg the squatter's daughter - but she didn't. I feel Lyell was more a respected leading lady and filmmaker. Still a giant our industry.

* Arthur Tauchert - a vaudevillian who became nationally famous after being cast in the role of a lifetime, The Sentimental Bloke. This led to Tauchert playing the lead in a number of other movies which put him in similar parts, kind of Australia's Wallace Beery. One contemporary account described him as the biggest box office star in Australia in the 1920s. I think he has more claim to being a genuine draw than Lyell, if only because he tended to play the same kind of role - a lovable knockabout - so audiences knew what they were getting with him. A modern day equivalent would be Michael Caton.

You can see Lyell and Taucher in The Sentimental Bloke here - https://archive.org/details/Sentimental_bloke

Not Reallys:

*Alfred Rolfe and Lily Dampier - a married couple who played opposite each other on stage many times, usually in support of Alfred Dampier, Lily's father. They recreated their stage roles in several movies, including Captain Midnight and Captain Starlight, and thus received prominent billing - especially Lily - but I would not count them as stars.

Sound Era Until the Revival

Definite box office draws:

*George Wallace -  one of the most popular theatre performers of his day, Wallace brought his audience with him to the cinemas for several movies in the thirties. The first ones, by FW Thring, weren't very good but still made money; the later ones from Ken G Hall, were better and also lucrative. Eventually Wallace grew old, and his later appearances in Rats of Tobruk and Wherever She Goes are sad rather than funny, but in his heyday he was the biggest thing in Australian films.

See a copy of His Royal Highness here - https://archive.org/details/HisRoyalHighness

*Bert Bailey -his films were even more popular than Wallace's, though his range was more narrow - people were only interested in Bailey if he played Dad Rudd. The result were four highly popular films which cashed in on the years Bailey spent playing Rudd on stage around the country. Bailey did have a stab at a non-Dad Rudd role in South West Pacific but it was still pretty Rudd-esque. He was a genuine box office draw, in the way no other actor who played the role (and there's been a few) have been.

See On Our Selection here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1SjeWCuyDk

*Cecil Kellaway - Kellaway was a popular theatre star who appeared in three Australian films, two of which were specifically constructed as a vehicle for him: It Isn't Done and Mr Chedworth Steps Out. He was a little battler type, less broad than Wallace, quieter than Bailey, more dramatic. A minor star with a less strongly defined public persona it was still there (dim, decent, a father) and he appears to have been a box office draw.

A clip from It Isn't Done is here - https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/it-isnt-done/clip1/

*Pat Hanna - like Wallace, Bailey and Kellaway, Hanna spent years and years plugging away at his act on stage, which meant there was a ready made audience for his first features. Hanna's three movies were not massive successes but his popularity saw them perform well enough and he clearly constituted a genuine draw at the box office.

A clip from Diggers is at https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/diggers/clip1/

Maybes:

*Chips Rafferty - a gangly type who seemed destined for a career as comic relief support until thrust into the lead of The Overlanders, and he was put under contract to Ealing Studios. Any lasting box office pull this and Bush Christmas gave Rafferty was undermined by subsequent miscasting in Eureka Stockade and failure of Bitter Springs. Still, Rafferty had enough of a name to raise money to make his own movies in the 1950s which exploited his persona - The Phantom Stockman, King of the Coral Sea, Walk into Paradise - and were reasonably successful. He then stopped doing that and the films failed - in particular he should've played the lead in Dust in the Sun. Rafferty was unlikely to ever be a convincing romantic lead and he was hampered by opportunities at the time but you get the sense he could've been a bigger star if handled better - he would've been great as a comic lead, and an action hero. Still he was definitely the closest thing we had to a home-grown movie star in the fifties.

A clip of him and Grant Taylor is here - https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/forty-thousand-horsemen/clip1/

 *Roy Rene - his one film is regarded as a failure, Strike Me Lucky, but Rene's tremendous stage popularity initially brought in sizeable audiences. It was a shame Ken G Hall never had another go at making a Rene vehicle because I think he, of all filmmakers, could have eventually cracked it, and Rene's later success on radio proved his appeal had "legs". Admittedly this doesn't change the fact that Strike Me Lucky is hard to sit through.

A clip from Strike Me Lucky is here - https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/strike-me-lucky/clip3/

Not reallys:

*Shirley Ann Richards - she got a lot of publicity as a star, including being put under long term contract, but she wasn't. She almost always played the ingenue, rarely driving the plot and mostly being called upon the flirt with the leading man. Her best part, in Dad and Dave Come to Town, was a support role. She was delightful, charming, pretty and talented but she never got the chance to carry a movie. (NB This applied in Hollywood as well.) The One That Got Away for me was 100,000 Cobbers - a terrific short and it's a shame it wasn't expanded into a feature with Richards pairing marvelously with Grant Taylor.

100,000 Cobbers is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oalKwbuQDKI

*Grant Taylor - a dazzling star debut in Forty Thousand Horseman meant Taylor really should have inherited Snowy Baker's mantle as local action star. And war time meant his persona - the cocky, brave digger - should have been showcased in a number of films. But feature production almost ceased altogether and Taylor only starred in a few other movies.  He still had charisma in 100,000 Cobbers and Rats of Tobruk but he aged rapidly (he was fond of a drink) and his time as a cinematic leading man was really over by the 1940s. Taylor was really the forerunner of the tough Aussie star that would later be picked up by Rod Taylor, Mel, Bryan, etc and it's a real shame he didn't get to make as many star vehicles as say George Wallace because I think they would've done well.

*Peter Finch - an unusual case. During his Australian years I got the impression everyone respected Finch's talent as an actor, which saw him play numerous lead roles in radio, film and stage... but that he was never that popular with the public. He was a "prestige star", say like Cate Blanchett would be later. However when he began starring in British films in the 1950s, there was a period where he seemed to have genuine pull at the box office, making some popularity lists - in particular starring in some Australian themed works: A Town Like Alice, The Shiralee, Robbery Under Arms. So while he wasn't a genuine film star in Australia, he was playing Australian roles in Britain.

Peter Finch in Dad and Dave Come to Town is here - https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/dad-and-dave-come-to-town/clip1/

The early years of the revival (1970s-1990s)

Definite stars:

*Jack Thompson - In the late 1970s Ken H Hall declared that Thompson was the one actor whose name actually meant something at the box office in Australian cinema, and there was something to it, his hits including Petersen, and Sunday Too Far Away. These were star vehicles, as was the less popular Scobie Malone, pushing an image of Thompson - tough, ocker, sexy - that had been developed on TV in Spyforce, very much in the vein of Grant Taylor. Thompson did not follow this up though, and quickly went into character/support parts, though often in quality works - Caddie, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, Breaker Morant, The Man from Snowy River. The one film to be built around his persona, The Journalist, was a disaster. Was the Australian film industry of the 1970s capable of supporting "Jack Thompson, star"? Could a real impresario like, say , Ken G Hall made it work? Was Thompson even interested? His career and persona remains an under-studied topic in Australian cinema.

See him in The Journalist here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGw9iF7qf7o

*Mel Gibson - Gibson had "star" written all over him from the early days, on stage as well as the screen, and enjoyed one of the few guaranteed home grown franchises in Mad Max. He has one of the best Aussie CVs of all time: three classics (the first two Mad Max movies, Gallipoli), some damn fine movies (The Year of Living Dangerously, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome), an entirely decent weepie (Tim) and some cult faves (Summer City, Attack Force Z). Rare in that he is a film-only star too (although he appeared a lot on stage).

He's in Summer City  here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvdoQKiXDnc

*Paul Hogan - an incredibly popular comedian, whose appeal saw big audiences for not just the Crocodile Dundee flicks but also later, less well remembered films, such as Lightning Jack, Strange Bedfellows and Charlie and Boots. He's lost a lot of lustre but in the right role I think Hogan could still draw them in.

A trailer for Lightning Jack is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWkFm6FKLEY

*Yahoo Serious - unlike the other comics on this list, Serious came out of nowhere with Young Einstein but it was so successful (in part because of a massive marketing push) that for a time he was a genuine box office draw via Reckless Kelly and Mr Accident (the audiences weren't as large as for his first film but they did come). Not prolific enough to maintain his following.

The Reckless Kelly trailer is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIZ5xAXo-Y0

Maybes

*Russell Crowe - Russell Crowe had "next Mel Gibson" stamped on his forehead since The Crossing  and he eventually came good but it's useful to be reminded how many of his Aussie movies made little noise - The Crossing, Love in Limbo, Hammers over the Anvil, Heaven's Burning. He kept getting cast because everyone knew he was going to be a star, then he was one... just in Hollywood, not here. The Water Diviner however has shown there is a lot of appeal left among local audiences for Rusty in the right sort of role. He's made too many odd sort of movies for me to classify him as a definite local star though.

The trailer for The Crossing is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBfxerP68Ss

*Tom Burlinson - star of the two biggest hits in 80s Australian cinema, The Man from Snowy River and Phar Lap, showed that Aussie audiences adored Burlinson with a horse. When he strayed from this however - Windrider, The Time Guardian - they stayed away in droves and Man from Snowy River II seemed to kill off his career as an Australian leading man. To Burlinson's credit, he's revived his career as a singer. But still, one can't help thinking he might have had a few more hits in him if he'd been more carefully managed - he had a boyish earnestness and likeability that surely could've been better exploited. Moral of story - who cares if you're typecast if the projects are good?

The Time Guardian trailer is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN0InnC2POo

*Sigrid Thornton - there's few more iconic images of 80s Australian cinema than Siggie being feisty in period costume: Man from Snowy River, All the Rivers Run. Even at her peak however she was wasted in girlfriend roles - Street Hero, The Lighthorsemen - her career is a great argument that Australian cinema had even less idea what to do with female stars than male ones. It was different on TV where Siggie at least got some of the roles she deserved, especially in Sea Change. She's still around and remains a draw on stage and the small screen

All the Rivers Run trailer is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsstHWyC49s

*Graeme Blundell - Blundell's casting helped turn Alvin Purple into a box office phenomenon, turning into a temporary sex comedy star eg Pacific Banana, all those Alvin sequels. A very fine actor, he's remained in demand, but I don't think anyone wants to see him in a sex comedy any more.

Melvin the Son of Alvin's trailer is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qu5G0gGhqw

Not reallys

*Bryan Brown - in the 80s it was common to call Bryan Brown a film star but was he, really? People seemed to like him best in showy support roles - Breaker Morant, Two Hands, Dirty Deeds, Australia - rather than as the lead. On TV he was a definite draw as proved by the popularity of A Town Like Alice and The Shiralee but feature films starring Brown tended to tank - The Empty Beach, Sweet Talker, Dear Claudia, Dead Heart. An icon, absolutely, a good actor, yes, a charismatic leading man, certainly, loved in supporting roles (eg Two Hands) yes, but a real film star...?

A clip from The Empty Beach - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFcXHTurWNw

*Judy Davis - there was a period there in the 80s when Davis was a "prestige" star, someone who would ensure your film would get looked at: Winter of our Dreams, Kangaroo, Hide Tide. She's never been hugely popular, though always respected - I wish she'd work more.

Here she does a scene with Baz Luhrmann in Winter of Our Dreams - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TTPaHXWSRk

*Wendy Hughes - Bob Ellis once claimed he needed to cast Hughes in Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train to get it financed, such was her reputation in the 1980s. She was incredibly beautiful and talented and did appear in some hits (Careful He Might Hear You, My First Wife, Return to Eden, Lonely Hearts) and there was that late 80s period when it seemed she might brake through interntionally (she had the lead in a Hollywood film Happy New Year) but this ended with a rash of flops: Warm Night, Echoes of Paradise, Boundaries of the Heart, Luigis Ladies. Still, she remained in demand as an actor until her depressingly early death.


Here's a trailer from Touch and Go - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXxLXSRfkXA

Later Years (1990s - present)

*Nick Giannopolous - perhaps the biggest stage star in 90s Australia, his immensely popular Wog shows saw an impressive box office for the highly mediocre Wog Boy. As is far too common in Australian cinema, he waited too long to make a sequel, but nonetheless figures for Wog Boy 2 weren't bad. Giannppolous' appeal in non-Wog roles is doubtful, though The Wannabes actually had a terrific idea, it was just terribly executed. If I ran an Aussie film studio, one of the first this I would do is see if Giannopolous would make a third Wog Boy movie - but only if he toured the country with a stage show immediately before release and kept the budget down.

A clip of him is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xql6L85GEk

*Mick Molloy - the break out star of The Late Show, he grew even bigger when he and Tony Martin became radio giants, then he became a film star via the cleverly crafted Crackerjack. Having established himself as a genuine box office draw, Molloy fumbled with his next two films, Bad Eggs and Boy Town, though both had good things and could (and should) have been awesome. Bad Eggs badly needed to have put Molloy opposite Tony Martin instead of the talented but little-known-outside-Melbourne-comedy-circles Bob Franklin; Boy Town didn't live up to it's concept. Molloy remains kind of well known but is probably no longer a box office draw; a shame since he had genuine broad appeal and with careful handling he could've starred in five-to-six big local comedy hits.

A Boytown clip is here - http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2008/boytown-i-cry/

*Jimeoin - a very likeable actor with a national profile, he brought them in with The Craic but struck out with The Extra even though it had a fantastic central idea. Jimeoin still tours heavily, keeping him in the public eye and I actually think people would still turn up to see him in the right vehicle.

The Craic trailer is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYG9YXSPqds

*Paul Fenech - perennially unfashionable but he has a devoted following who have ensured decent box office figures, although they dropped off a little for Fat Pizza vs Housos. Fenech keeps his budgets down and his audience in mind, using live shows to supplement his filmed ones. He remains a decent draw at the local box office.

Fat Pizza vs Housos trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udTm5CejuCo

*Cate Blanchett - is Cate Blanchett a film star? She's too beloved, wins too many Oscars, is too famous, too beautiful, and has been in too many hits to not be a star. On a local level though, she seems to be the queen of expensive, critically acclaimed box office disappointments - Oscar and Lucinda, Charlotte Grey, Paradise Road, Little Fish, The Turning - which may explain why she doesn't make too many Australian films. I do think however her name does guarantee at least a certain amount of audience which would qualify her as a local star... she just doesn't justify her budgets.

The Turning trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U1r401xxSQ

Maybes:

*Hugh Jackman - it's hard to judge Hugh Jackman as a local film star because he makes so few Australian films. His first ones, Erskinville Kings and Paperback Hero were not massive hits and since then he's belonged to Hollywood, with the exception of Australia. I think if Hugh did make something close to home audiences would turn up in droves, such is his popularity, but because he doesn't, I classify him as a "maybe".

The Erskinville Kings trailer is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECwdc-7Z5IY

*Shane Jacobsen - became nationally famous with Kenny and has managed to sustain his appeal since then with some great choices: Charlie and Boots, Oddball. I don't know if the words "Shane Jacobsen starring in" would automatically mean a certain amount of punters turning up on that opening weekend, but if he keeps choosing well it may do.

Oddball trailer is here - http://www.shanejacobson.com.au/projects/film/oddball.html

*Nicole Kidman - in the right role, they'll come, as The Railway Man and Australia proved, but there is a limit, as shown in Strangerland. I know, you could say that about any star but Nickers has never been a massive draw in local films - even her classics (BMX Bandits, Dead Calm) weren't that big. But she's a superb actor who is normally associated with quality.

The Strangerland trailer is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Kj1VmbJiw

*Michael Caton - he's not often thought of as a star, but he's nationally known/loved and people do tend to come to his movies: The Castle, Strange Bedfellows, Last Cab to Darwin.

The Last Cab to Darwin trailer is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hypCdpjTMDI

*Toni Collette - obviously an outstanding character actress, her limits as a box office attraction were proven by Diana and Me and Lilian's Story. Because she's so good and gets some great parts, she'll stick around a long time, and a lot of her movies do some business - eg Mental, Japanese Story.

*Eric Bana - if there's anyone who should come back here and make a good Aussie film it's Eric, who probably has some residual popularity here. For a while he was genuinely popular off the back of Chopper with Romulus My Father doing ok and Love the Beast performing well. Personally I think he's wasted doing American films though presumably his accountant disagrees. Hopefully The Dry will lead to more roles here.

Chopper's trailer is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKgvs9uqPJo

My conclusions from the above? Australian filmmakers are probably better off getting the rights to some awesome material rather than a star - say a best selling book like Red Dog, or popular play like Last Cab to Darwin. The exception is comedy, where the popularity of a Paul Hogan or a Nick Giannopolous will help your returns. Of course I could be wrong about all of the above - like so much in the film industry, it's just an educated guess...

Book review - "Heaven and Mel" by Joe Eszterhas (2012)

Train crash reading - awful but you can't look away. It's also highly entertaining - Eszterhas is a very good writer, even if he does come out of this story almost as bad as Mel Gibson. It's based on the time he wrote a script about the Maccabes for Gibson, which was never made - I remember when it was announced most people assumed it was just a sop to get people off Mel's back about anti-Semitism and that seems to be the case. But there was a long development process which meant several meetings between Eszterhas and Mel, resulting in some memorable encounters.

Everything Mel does in the story feels authentic and all to true - the grey skin, chain smoking, concerns about his balding head, railing at God for turning him old, bitter rants about his second wife, the constant outbursts of rage, entourage of priests and others, innate intelligence (he's no dummy, look at his career), obsessions with enemas and oral sex, receiving blow jobs from women at dinner parties, genuine love for his daughter, sense of humour, desire to confess, overwhelming unhappiness, bitching about Brian Hegeland and Randall Wallace, Richard Donner being the only director he had a good word for, threatening to hire hit men to kill his ex, wanting to convert Jews to Christianity, hating John Lennon.

Eszterhas comes out of it as a dick too - firstly, writing the book at all; almost bragging about ignoring his father for the latter's anti Semitic writing in the 30s and 40s despite all the good his father did for his son since then (cutting the guy off from his grandkids?); taking the job with Mel and not quitting despite what sounds like constant anti-Semitic rants; allowing his 15 year old son to go to Costa Rica and hang out with Mel when he knew Gibson had a temper; only resigning after Gibson had directed his first draft (Eszterhas quotes some dialogue from it which sounds pretty terrible). Eszterhas leaves out the fact he's had only something like one credit in the last 15 years, and by leaking a letter about Gibson he was replaying his old trick against Mike Ovitz back in the early 90s when he was more of a Hollywood player; calling Mel mad because he didn't like Eszterhas' script. He also says he's started having the occasional drink of wine because his doctor said it was okay - the guy was/is an alcoholic, he shouldn't be drinking at all.

I actually wound up having more sympathy for Gibson than Eszterhas - Gibson is clearly a tormented person given a lot of bad lessons by his father who is still alive and has messed with his head; fame and power hasn't been healthy to him - since the 1980s he's been bombarded by people who want to use him. He's managed to channel his madness into some truly memorable cinema - not just as actor but also director and producer. He's full of rage, can't let go of his addictions, probably doesn't have any real friends and is bonkers - but at least he's not a self righteous holier than thou clown.

Still Eszterhas can write and this was so much fun to read.

Movie review - "Get the Gringo" (2012) **

This starts marvellously, with a fun sequence of Mel Gibson in a clown suit fleeing cops with a dying partner, trying to race to the Mexico border, and some funny narration. And at first things are promising - Mexican cops steal his money and Mel winds up in an eccentric prison where you can live the high life if you have contacts but if you don't it's not going to be fun.

Unfortunately as the movie goes on it gets less and less interesting. Mel's character remains sketchy, his story uncompelling; what should be about getting the money and getting out of gaol becomes more about helping a little ten year old kid not have his liver cut out (it's like there are two narratives operating side by side); excellent Mexican actors are given types to play rather than characters; the world of the prison is interesting enough, but then the last third is mostly set outside it back in America; and some scenes just felt plain unrealistic, such as the shoot out with three American gun men.

It's not that funny and there's some unexciting bang bang at the finale, where Mel is a super hero, plus some yucky gore in the form of liver transplants and torture, and a confusing epilogue. I get where they were trying to go with this - it's a sort of Out of Sight vibe - but they didn't have Elmore Leonard. Mel is in good haggard form, I just wish the movie had been better written and directed.

Movie review - "Attack Force Z" (1981) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

I remember seeing this film in the video store when I was a kid and thinking it was so cool - an Aussie guys on a mission action movie, how awesome! - then being disappointed when I saw it. Re watching it years down the track the same feelings remain. This should have been could, it could have been good, but it's never more than average.

It starts well - the terrific title, a scroll explaining what Z Force was, touching on their two famous missions, then listing the cast with their characters full name and rank. And there's a great opening of a submarine dropping off the men - and the beginning sequence where one of the gang shoot their own is striking. But then it gets bogged down with too many scenes of people peering over ridges and firing machine guns. That sounds exciting, even writing it, but not as you see it.

It's a fairly rudimentary trudge through the jungle. They could have done great things with Jon Philip Law being a Dutchman from the area whose family was killed by the Japanese, but its thrown away. (Is this island meant to be a former Dutch colony? It's never clear.) His romance with local Sylvia Change is very chaste (they snuggle, not have sex), and there are some silly bits like local resistance leader going all kung fu fighter on the Japanese. And the ending rips of The Wild Geese with the human McGuffin carking it at the last minute.

I will say this for it - the cast is great, and they all have distinct roles to play: callow Mel Gibson, who is bullied into the final battle by the Japanese diplomatic (who looks like a caricature of a Japanese from a war comic); ruthless Sam Neill who nonetheless has sympathy for the villagers; cheery Chris Haywood; sensitive Jon Philip Law. It's a great opportunity missed- they should look at remaking this.

Script review – “Lethal Weapon” by Shane Black

Terrific fun to read – bright, witty, full of asides. Very easy to digest. The story isn’t that original, even then a typical cop show would do it better (girl kills herself, revealed she was murdered, cops investigate and uncover drug ring, baddies kidnap cops daughter). Even on the page it drags on a bit (that final fight with Riggs and Joshua is dull here too.) The ace in the hole is the character of Riggs – suicidal, funny, super tough and a brilliant killer. Him and his relationship with Murtagh is what helps the piece become something different.

Movie review – “The Beaver” (2011) **1/2

Mel Gibson gives a fantastic performance here – but then I guess he’s really playing himself, a burnt out middle aged family man who loathes himself and his life. (At times I couldn’t help thinking maybe the technique his character uses here would work for Mel in real life). 

 

You wonder why, then, half the film is devoted to the escapades of his son, which really don’t have anything to do with Mel. This goes on and on, while more interesting Mel is ignored. 

 

Also some of it doesn’t ring true: a valedictorian having to pay a boy to write her speech? Would the beaver really be a craze that sweeps the nation? Does the beaver have to be cleaned? 

 

Jodie Foster doesn’t have any character to play really and the young boy is just a young boy – there’s opportunities missed there. Instead they devote time to the son, and his girlfriend, and her fear of talking about her brother. Yawn, snore. A real shame. But Mel is really good.

Movie review – “Edge of Darkness” (2010) **

A disgraceful bowdlerisation of the brilliant mini series, which replaces excellent ideas, scenes and characters with dumb ones. For example they reduce the great "discovery of the dildo scene" - one of the most skilled moments of screenwriting in history for my money (Bob Peck looking at a hope chest, discovering something childish, then discovering a dildo, then a Geiger counter, turning it on and finding everything is radioactivity) - to simply discovering a Geiger counter. They cut out the pro-environmental message of the mini series (all the stuff about Gaia) and have Mel Gibson beat up an environmentalist; they pull back on Jedburgh's involvement and remove the love interest and those two brilliant government spies; add a whole lot of stupid cliched ideas: the friend of the hero who turns out to be corrupt; getting a baddy to yell "Craven" before he's killed by Mel; giving all the information to a journalist at the end (this plot idea should be banned from Hollywood films for ten years). The only thing the film seems interested in his having scenes where angry middle aged men shoot other people with handguns. Mel Gibson is ideal casting but I blame him for a lot of these stupid changes (director Martin Campbell too); Ray Winstone is a good substitute for Joe Don Baker.

Movie review – “Mad Max 2” (1981) *****

Stunningly good Australian film – the best ever made here? – which still holds up well. There was never a cooler action hero than Max, battered and worn (cf the callow youth of the first film), with his tousled hair and leather, not to mention his great dog and car. That’s one of the many things about this movie that are incredibly Aussie despite it being set in a post-apocalyptic never-never land: plus the crippled mechanic smart enough to figure out the bomb on the car who insists on going in the truck at the end (love that dialogue exchange with his dopey mate about when the truck can be ready); Syd Heylen; the gay bikies doing circle work; the 80s era fashion. 

Mel Gibson is terrific in the lead – one of my favourite bits of movie star acting ever is his tired, resigned smile to Bruce Spence at the end – but he’s backed by a strong support cast, including hands-on tormented henchman Wes (put on a chain by his boss); Emily Minty as the Feral Kid (looking genuinely feral); Virginia Hey as a terrific Amazon woman (oh so 80s), sweet Arkie Whitely; good egg Mike Preston (whose death scene is kind of thrown away); likeable Bruce Spence; imposing Humungous (who seems to genuinely believe the promises he makes); the dog. It’s a fabulous film and a credit to all who made it.