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 - "Maslin Beach" (1997) **1/2

 The spirit of the 70s lives in this plotless comedy about a day at a nudist beach - because it's matter of fact presentation of nudity feels 70s. And yet there are also 90s elements because that was the decade of films about people hanging out.

There's a lot of talk about love and stuff. Some philosophy, a lot of flirting, arguing. It's a shame Wayne Groom, who wrote and directed didn't have a co writer on board.

Michael Allen and especially Bonnie-Jaye Lawrence and are sweet as the leads. Lawrnce was a find, I wish we'd seen more of her. I don't think many of the cast were professional except for Gary Waddell who plays a (clothed) ice cream seller.

It's raw. Not that funny. But it has a charm. It has a soul. And integrity. 

It kind of feels very Adelaide with its nudity, high brown cultural references,  combination of high and low humour, long beaches that aren't that budy. I could be wrong.

It rated well enough to give rise to a sequel!

Movie review - "Fragments of War: The Damien Parer Story" (1988) **1/2

 Damien Parer story sounds interesting - young good looking photographer who shot some of the most famous images of the war, killed by the Japanese in 1944. But is it dramatic...?  Do films about photographers work? If they have sex with models and take a photo of a murderer, yes (Blow Up)... but if they are nice people who take photos... I'm not so sure. They've tried to make the Robert Capa story for ages but never been able to do it.

That's what this is. Parer films things. Some recreation is cut in with his amazing photography. Parer dies.

The film is full of female characters commenting on how good looking Parer is, and one woman asks Parer to photograph her nude.  There's actually a few one-off scenes with Parer and female characters - a nurse whose brother has died, a woman in Europe. Look, maybe that happened, and it's good to have female representation I just can't wonder if Duigan did it in part to gives roles to actresses who he tried to seduce. The screen time would've been better spent on Parer's relationships with more important people in his life, not random women - his mates, his family, his wife. Anne Tenney seems too old as the wife, btw - she's a good actor, she just seems wrong. Nicholas Eadie is good.

Film buffs will enjoy the appearance of Maslyn Williams (Huw Williams), Chester Wilmott (Steve Jodrell), Osmar White (Jeff Truman), and Ken G Hall (Bob Haines). Maybe there's a more interesting version of this story to be told. Or maybe there isn't.

Movie review - "Nightmares" (1980) ** (warning: spoilers)

 John D. Lamond tried his hand at soft sore sex and here changed gears, going for the slasher market. The script was written by Colin Eggleston.

They imported a "star" Jenny Neumann, whose main credit was in Larry Buchanan's Mistress of the Apes. This has decent photography and a Brian May score. It's also got a young Gary Sweet (lots of hair and a high pitched voice), Max Phipps doing good work as the mean director, John Michael Howson in a hilariously OTT cameo as a critic, Gary Day as a cop, the people in the theatre show also include Maureen Edwards, Briony Behets, Sue Jones and Nina Landis.

 We know Neumann's the killer all along so there's not a lot of suspense. There's some okay kills - I'm not the best judge, slashers aren't my thing. The theatre atmosphere is ideal.

I wish Nina Landus has played the lead, Neumann doesn't bring a lot to the party -would she have even been vaguely known?

A film that you want to like because it was Ozsploitation and Lamond comes across as such a cheerful rogue, and Colin Eggleston made The Long Weekend but it's really not that good.

Movie review - "The Clean Machine" (1988) **1/2

 Kennedy Miller's TV series of the 1980s gripped the nation - they were all watercooler shows. They made four TV movies in 1988 as well for $7.2 million... none seemed to have the same impact except for The Year My Voice Broke which was released as a feature. They also did Sports Crazy a TV series which no one seems to remember.

This is a look at corruption in the NSW police force, which has provided some of our best dramas - Scales of Justice, Blue Murder. This suffers in comparison to that. It's got this sort of TV sting music and some on the nose dialogue (Terry Hayes, normally so good, wrote it with Richard Mortlock and director Ken Cameron).

The plot has a new state government appoint traffic cop Steve Bisley to form an anti corruption task force. Ed Devereaux is his boss. The team also includes Sandy Gore, Peter Kowitz, Marshall Napier, Mervyn Drake, and Tony Poli. Problems emerge when Bisley gets close to some really bad cops including Grigor Taylor as a Roger Rogerson type and they wonder if Devereaux is corrupt.

There are some effective moments particularly when the heat turns up on the corruption team but it didn't quite work for me. It didn't feel tonally consistent - part ep of a typical cop show, part realism (eg a stake out interrupted by the noise of a lawn mower), part of it based on cases I recognised (eg taking a shot at Bisley at home was like the shooting of Michael Drury in Blue Murder). I also got confused at times as to what was going on.

It lacked focus. It was about Bisley... then it was also about Kowitz, as a sort of dodgy undercover cop, and Napier.

Bisley is an odd-ish choice for a nerdy cop - but the moustache helps. (Also... his house has a pool... I didn't realise cops could afford them). Tim Robertson plays a character called "Milius".

There's a Down Syndrome character - Deveraux's son. Kennedy Miller used that in Mad Max 1 and 2.

Female roles aren't great. Bisley's wife is concerned (she's a good actor), a girl gives Devereaux massages, Robertson has some hot girl, Sandy Gore ia part of the team but doesn't really do anything. 

This was fine. Not terrible. Just not up to the standard of their other stuff. Hayes was writing Dead Calm and Bangkok Hilton around this time, his attention span was probably not great.

The Age 1 July 1988

The Age 21 May 1988

Movie review - "Breakfast in Paris" (1981) **

Change of pace from John D. Lamond... a romance (not really a rom com) about an American woman Barbara Parkins whose boyfriend (Chris Milne from Felicity) cheats so she heads to Paris and falls in love with Rod Mullinar.

These films are harder to do than they appear, and Lamond can't pull it off. It's clearly being shot in Melbourne with Paris second unit and the budget doesn't stretch to truly nice looking clothes and settings.  The blocking, shot selection and camerawork doesn't help.

Mullinar was something of the George Brent of Australian cinema so it's fun to see him as the leading man in this venture. 

This film is a hard slog. There's not enough story or fashion or glamour. The false love interest is false. (Why not bring back Milne as a threat). The dialogue is poor. There's a lot of swearing. No chemistry between the heads. Mullinar's character is controlling.

I love that Lamond made it but his film really is inept. He wasn't much of a filmmaker. I'm giving it two for sentimentality.

Top Ten Imitation James Deans

 1. Michael Parks - played broody enigmatic loner in Bus Riley's Back in Town

2.Paul Newman - took Dean's part in Somebody Up There Likes Me

3. Christopher Jones - very Dean style in films like Wild in the Streets

4. Tab Hunter - under contract to Warners... more a nice young man that Dean's moody people

5. Troy Donahue - soulful man in a series of 60s films at Warners

6. Warren Beatty - discovered by Elia Kazan in a Dean style role

7. Robert Wagner - don't laugh - played Dean role in True Story of Jess James

8. Elvis Presley - occasionally went into Dean territory eg King Creole

9. Nick Adams (not Dennis Hopper) - copied Dean

10. Dean Stockwell - Dean style actor in Compulsion