In a nutshell, Bored & Dangerous says: “It’s like watching The Golden Girls if every single character talked like Sophia when she’s slamming Blanch for being a slut.”
“Now listen here, you mullet. Why don’t you just light your tampon, and blow your box apart? Because it’s the only bang you’re ever gonna get, sweetheart!”
To me, 20 years ago sounds like a lifetime. Until I remember that Nirvana’s Nevermind is closer to 25 years old than 20, and that Seinfeld finished 19 years ago. Those sorts of things feel like yesterday and like nothing has changed in the years since. But I just watched a movie that showed me just how much has changed, and for the better. I just watched the 22 year old The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Sydney drag performer Trick (Hugo Weaving) gets a call with an offer he can’t refuse. A Casino in Alice Springs, the dead centre of Australia, has booked him for a show, but he can’t do it alone. So Trick recruits the recently widowed, not so recently trans gendered Bernadette (Terence Stamp), and young flamingly flamboyant queen, Adam (Guy Pearce). Through a little emotional blackmail, Adam scores $10,000 from his mother, buys an old bus that he nicknames Priscila, and the three head off to tackle Australia’s outback. (more…)
“You don’t learn to fight, your death’s gonna come real soon”.
To make a movie in Australia, any movie, is a pretty big and rare achievement. There just isn’t a lot of money floating around, or massive studio system to fund them. To make a movie in Australia that gets noticed by a mainstream audience locally, or especially in America, is an even bigger achievement. To be an Australian whose debut movie gets Oscar attention is all but unheard of. Which is why David Michod’s follow up to Animal Kingdom has been one of the movies I’ve looked forward to in 2014. Which is also why I’ve really been wanting The Rover to be awesome
Opening “10 years after the collapse” on the dusty, desert roads of outback Australia, “the collapse” never gets any more explanation, but this is some destruction of civilisation type shit we’re dealing with here. Stopping at a ramshackle bar, Eric (Guy Pearce) is complacent enough to have his car stolen by three dudes obviously on the run from something. Their cryptic, panic fuelled conversation lets us know that their current predicament has something to do with one of the three, Scoot McNairy as Henry, and his absent brother. (more…)
“You know what the bush is about? It’s about massive trees that have been standing there for thousands of years… And bugs that’ll be dead before the minute’s out. It’s big trees and pissy little bugs. And everything knows its place in the scheme of things.”
As far as feature film debuts go, you could a lot worse than writer / director David Michod. When I wrote about The Rover, his second movie, I had to set it in context with his freshman effort, Animal Kingdom. I said, “To be an Australian whose debut movie gets Oscar attention is all but unheard of.” While I’d seen Animal Kingdom when it first came out and while I really liked it, I never felt compelled to see it again. But when I was recently on a plane and saw it on the in the in-flight entertainment, and having also just seen and loved The Rover a few weeks prior, I had to revisit Animal Kingdom.
Josh “J” (James Frecheville) is sitting on the couch next to his dead mother, watching Deal or No Deal. When the paramedics arrive, we learn she’s died of a heroin overdose. Alone, J resorts to calling his estranged grandmother (Jacki Weaver in her Oscar nominated role as Janine ”Smurf” Cody). Soon, J is brought into her fold, along with his several bank robbing uncles. There’s Joel Edgerton as the cool headed Barry, Sullivan Stapleton as the cocaine fuelled loose cannon Craig, Luke Ford as the fresh faced, Darren, and Ben Mendelsohn as the sociopathic Andrew, AKA “Pope”. (more…)
“You don’t learn to fight, your death’s gonna come real soon”.
To make a movie in Australia, any movie, is a pretty big and rare achievement. There just isn’t a lot of money floating around, or massive studio system to fund them. To make a movie in Australia that gets noticed by a mainstream audience locally, or especially in America, is an even bigger achievement. To be an Australian whose debut movie gets Oscar attention is all but unheard of. Which is why David Michod’s follow up to Animal Kingdom has been one of the movies I’ve looked forward to in 2014. Which is also why I’ve really been wanting The Rover to be awesome
Opening “10 years after the collapse” on the dusty, desert roads of outback Australia, “the collapse” never gets any more explanation, but this is some destruction of civilisation type shit we’re dealing with here. Stopping at a ramshackle bar, Eric (Guy Pearce) is complacent enough to have his car stolen by three dudes obviously on the run from something. Their cryptic, panic fuelled conversation lets us know that their current predicament has something to do with one of the three, Scoot McNairy as Henry, and his absent brother. (more…)
Luc Besson is a bit of a genre hero. He makes the kinds of deliberately B-grade, action, adventure fun that makes fanboys lose their shit. He’s the kind of guy that while he has his own strong following, he’s also influenced countless film makers who’ve gone on to massive, blockbuster careers, making billions of dollars in box office bank.
I’m more familiar with the idea of Luc Besson than I am with his actual resume. As a director, the only Besson movies I’ve seen are Leon and The Fifth Element. As a producer, his name pops up on a pretty wide variety of movies. From the Driver franchise, to Tommy Lee Jones’ The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, to the Liam Neeson career reinventing Taken series. I love the idea of Luc Besson, I just haven’t seen enough movies he’s attached to. And after watching Lockout, I really need to change that. (more…)
A soldier going through serious P.T.S.D… Now that’s an interesting jumping off point for a super hero blockbuster that will probably make more money from kids buying action figures than it will from tickets sold at the box office. It’s also something that makes Iron Man 3 stand out a little from the overly saturated super hero crowd. Director and co-writer Shane Black had a tough job on his hands… Take over an established, crazy successful franchise and try to keep his one, single character entertaining and interesting after we’ve all seen the awesome team up fun of The Avengers.
The movie opens in the early 90s with Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark and Jon Favreau as his bodyguard Happy. This is Tony Stark back in his cool days, pounding booze and bangin’ broads, like any rich playboy should. He also rudely dismisses a scientist played by Guy Pearce. But that’s OK, I’m sure his revolutionary theories will amount to nothing and his anger and jealousy towards Stark won’t manifest as a crazy revenge plot. Oh snap, I was wrong. That’s exactly what happens.
Cut to the present day and Tony Stark is obsessively tinkering in his work shop building new and improved Iron Man suits. We learn pretty quickly this is all a coping mechanism as he tries to distract himself from the horrible things he saw in New York in the Avengers climax, and the dark thoughts about what might be next. He’s eventually snapped out of his funk by the prospect of throwing down with new global terrorist on the block, the Mandarin, played by an awesome Ben Kinglsey who chews the scenery gloriously every second he’s on screen. Don Cheadle is in his own Iron Man suit, rebranded as the Iron Patriot after a red, white and blue paint job and shows up just enough to add to the movie in fun ways without ever overstaying his welcome.
Through a series of events, Tony Stark spends a lot of this movie out of the Iron Man suit. That’s not a bad thing. If he’s not in the suit, it means we’re not constantly being hammered with crazy fight scenes and mass destruction. By resisting wall to wall action, it makes the few set pieces hit that much harder when they do occur, like the squadron of Iron Men that appear in the movie’s big climax. Even though I’d seen it in the trailers, the site of a couple of dozen Iron Men all flying to Tony Stark’s side for the last big battle still gave me a bit of a charge.
Shane Black’s screenplay brings plenty of great Shane Blackness to this world and helps give this character a new and interesting perspective. He knows how to write dry sarcasm better than anyone and Downey knows exactly how it should be delivered. I wouldn’t say this is the best Iron Man movie, but it’s more fresh and entertaining than anything you’d expect this deep into a franchise. And it’s definitely better than Iron Man 2.
A soldier going through serious P.T.S.D… Now that’s an interesting jumping off point for a super hero blockbuster that will probably make more money from kids buying action figures than it will from tickets sold at the box office. It’s also something that makes Iron Man 3 stand out a little from the overly saturated super hero crowd. Director and co-writer Shane Black had a tough job on his hands… Take over an established, crazy successful franchise and try to keep his one, single character entertaining and interesting after we’ve all seen the awesome team up fun of The Avengers.
The movie opens in the early 90s with Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark and Jon Favreau as his bodyguard Happy. This is Tony Stark back in his cool days, pounding booze and bangin’ broads, like any rich playboy should. He also rudely dismisses a scientist played by Guy Pearce. But that’s OK, I’m sure his revolutionary theories will amount to nothing and his anger and jealousy towards Stark won’t manifest as a crazy revenge plot. Oh snap, I was wrong. That’s exactly what happens.
Cut to the present day and Tony Stark is obsessively tinkering in his work shop building new and improved Iron Man suits. We learn pretty quickly this is all a coping mechanism as he tries to distract himself from the horrible things he saw in New York in the Avengers climax, and the dark thoughts about what might be next. He’s eventually snapped out of his funk by the prospect of throwing down with new global terrorist on the block, the Mandarin, played by an awesome Ben Kinglsey who chews the scenery gloriously every second he’s on screen. Don Cheadle is in his own Iron Man suit, rebranded as the Iron Patriot after a red, white and blue paint job and shows up just enough to add to the movie in fun ways without ever overstaying his welcome.
Through a series of events, Tony Stark spends a lot of this movie out of the Iron Man suit. That’s not a bad thing. If he’s not in the suit, it means we’re not constantly being hammered with crazy fight scenes and mass destruction. By resisting wall to wall action, it makes the few set pieces hit that much harder when they do occur, like the squadron of Iron Men that appear in the movie’s big climax. Even though I’d seen it in the trailers, the site of a couple of dozen Iron Men all flying to Tony Stark’s side for the last big battle still gave me a bit of a charge.
Shane Black’s screenplay brings plenty of great Shane Blackness to this world and helps give this character a new and interesting perspective. He knows how to write dry sarcasm better than anyone and Downey knows exactly how it should be delivered. I wouldn’t say this is the best Iron Man movie, but it’s more fresh and entertaining than anything you’d expect this deep into a franchise. And it’s definitely better than Iron Man 2.
Bored and Dangerous 