ScreenWize

Review of “Footnote”

Simon — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:43:17 +0000

The Israeli contender for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Academy Awards, Footnote is a weighty dark comedy played out between two competing academics who bring out the worst in each other as they strive for recognition in their narrowest of narrow disciplines – the comparative linguistics of ancient Jewish texts. But don’t run away yet - the two also happen to be father and son, making this a fraught family affair built around two wonderfully intractable characters competing for the same academic prize. (more…)

Review of “The Lucky One”

Simon — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:34:25 +0000

You get just what you’d expect from this Nicholas Sparks romance – good-looking people, ever so soft lighting, and music just tender enough to stir your soul while you watch the inevitability of soul mates finding true love - with a few tear-jerking trials and tribulations along the way. Predictable? Well, of course! This is saccharine romance and Zac Efron is playing the lucky one. (more…)

Interview with Kieran Darcy-Smith

Simon — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:32:51 +0000

Despite our proximity to the countries of South-East Asia – and the vast number of Australians who visit them - few Australian filmmakers have made places like Thailand, Vietnam or Laos the subject of Australian film stories, often because of the sheer logistical difficulty of getting cast and crew organised in remote locations. It was a challenge that didn’t stop actor – now first time director – Kieran Darcy-Smith when he shot a large segment of his new film Wish You Were Here, in Cambodia. “The entire experience was challenging in the extreme and I absolutely loved it,” he says sitting crossed-legged in an oversized chair. “I’ve never felt more alive.” (more…)

Quick Review of “The Deep Blue Sea”

Simon — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 01:59:14 +0000

British auteur Terence Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives) is highly regarded for his formal and meticulously crafted approach to cinema, and in his much anticipated adaptation of Terrence Rattigan’s THE DEEP BLUE SEA, he continues his obsession with representing memory and human experience on the screen with extreme and deliberate care. (more…)

Review of “American Reunion”

Simon — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 01:45:44 +0000

Sitting somewhere between nostalgia and limp sex romp, American Reunion adds a fourth (but not necessarily final) installment to the teen gross-out franchise that took the world by surprise in 1999 when the relatively low-budget first film American Pie took close to $300 million at the box office. Two sequels followed quickly – continuing the exploits of the four central characters (teen boys), who just want to get laid. Ten years on, the boys and the objects of their desires are 30-ish and in a more reflective mood. But, let’s face it – it’s still all about getting laid. (more…)

Review of “Mirror Mirror”

Simon — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 04:37:39 +0000

For all those people who still believe a kiss from your one true love can save you from, well, just about anything, this is for you. Not so much a re-telling as a pre-telling of the Snow White story, this is a romantic panto-style romp through goody-gum drops land, full of the best natured fun you’ll find on the big screen, and with an inspired performance from Julia Roberts at its warm centre. (more…)

Review of “Wrath of the Titans”

Simon — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 04:38:14 +0000

“Yesterday I was locked in a dungeon. Today I am fighting for the universe”. So says Agenor, cousin to main-man Perseus as they fight their way through the dusty burning underworld to find Perseus’ father Zeus and his father Cronos - the nasty Titan who is about to destroy the earth. Yes, it’s a fathers-and-sons affair as epic music, computer-generated destruction and bad one liners combine to provide a sequel of similar style and standard to the 2010 Clash of The Titans, best described as incredibly loud and extremely dull. (more…)

Review of “The Hunger Games”

Simon — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 02:27:06 +0000

“I’m looking for a good book to read,” I announced to my family over the Christmas break, and the almost-teen handed me a copy of The Hunger Games, the first in a trilogy of novels for young people by Suzanne Collins. I was combing his bookshelves the next day for Catching Fire, the second in the series, and by week’s end I had devoured the trilogy. Collins’ series is a page-turner and unlike that Twilight series, is well written. (more…)

Review of “The Raid”

Simon — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:46:20 +0000

This is a seriously well made, kick-ass martial-arts action movie that fans of the genre will absolutely adore. The energy of the film bursts through the screen like a boot through butter, and although it’s more violent than the MA15+ rating suggests, the fight choreography is so fresh and frantic and the pacing so careful that it makes Die Hard look try hard. (more…)

Review of “John Carter”

Simon — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:31:15 +0000

Watching Andrew Stanton’s new SciFi flick John Carter reminds me of a conversation I had with a recently divorced friend earlier in the week. To echo his remarks about dating a twenty year old, it is exquisite banality. Based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ book A Princess from Mars, the film opens with a young Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara) receiving a telegram from his uncle John (Taylor Kitsch) and upon arriving at the family estate, learning of his death and Edgar’s inheritance of the family estate. Being handed Uncle John’s diary, we are taken back to John Carter’s days as a prospector in the New World where he finds himself caught in a feud between the cavalry and Indians and, holed up in a cave out of harm’s way, is transported to Barsoom (Mars) where giant four-armed alien Tars Tarkas (voiced by Willem Dafoe) takes Carter under his wing. (more…)