***2016 RECAP*** MOVIE REVIEW | Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

In a nutshell, Bored & Dangerous says: “I was wrong about everything I expected, and I’m really glad that I was.”

 
“No child left behind.”

I saw the trailer for Hunt for the Wilderpeople on three recent trips to the cinema.  And while it made me laugh every single time, I still had no real burning desire to see it on the big screen.  The trailer was so laugh heavy, I assumed it probably ruined all of the movie’s best jokes.  It also gave a really wacky, loose tone that I thought would struggle to sustain a feature length running time.  Then, I went to the movies to see The Nice Guys, it was sold out, and the only other option was Hunt for the WIiderpeople.  Turns out, I was wrong about everything I expected, and I’m really glad that I was.

Preteen Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) is a bad egg.  His history of offences and re-offences is too long to list.  We’re talking graffiti-ing, littering, smashing stuff, burning stuff, breaking stuff, stealing stuff, throwing rocks and running away.  After exhausting all other relatives, he’s sent to live in the New Zealand country side with distant aunt, Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and her husband, the quiet and cranky master of the bush, Hector (Sam Neil).

MOVIE REVIEW | Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

In a nutshell, Bored & Dangerous says: “I was wrong about everything I expected, and I’m really glad that I was.”

 
“No child left behind.”

I saw the trailer for Hunt for the Wilderpeople on three recent trips to the cinema.  And while it made me laugh every single time, I still had no real burning desire to see it on the big screen.  The trailer was so laugh heavy, I assumed it probably ruined all of the movie’s best jokes.  It also gave a really wacky, loose tone that I thought would struggle to sustain a feature length running time.  Then, I went to the movies to see The Nice Guys, it was sold out, and the only other option was Hunt for the WIiderpeople.  Turns out, I was wrong about everything I expected, and I’m really glad that I was.

Preteen Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) is a bad egg.  His history of offences and re-offences is too long to list.  We’re talking graffiti-ing, littering, smashing stuff, burning stuff, breaking stuff, stealing stuff, throwing rocks and running away.  After exhausting all other relatives, he’s sent to live in the New Zealand country side with distant aunt, Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and her husband, the quiet and cranky master of the bush, Hector (Sam Neil).

MOVIE REVIEW | ***AUSSIE WEEK 3*** My Brilliant Career (1979)

“I think ugly girls should be shot at birth by their parents. It’s bad enough being born a girl…but ugly and clever…”

The Australian cinematic New Wave of the 70s kicked off with Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock. It set a tone for a kind of film making and story telling that was uniquely Australian. At the turn of the 20^th century, Australia was a strange place. It had well and truly started to form its own identity, but was still well and truly part of the British Empire in a way that meant Englishman were a kind of nobility, and the whites born and raised here were a step below. It was also a time when old fashioned British ways of propriety were still trying to survive in the harsh outback and desert environment that would eventually win out in the end.   It was a fascinating setting for the off putting dreamscape of Picnic at Hanging Rock. And it’s just as fascinating for the more grounded story of My Brilliant Career.

At 16, the confident and defiant Sybylla (Judy Davis) is living in a time and place when confidence and defiance in a woman is seen as a burden. Her parents have decided that they can’t afford to keep her anymore and that she needs to make a living until she can find a husband. But for now, they send her to live with her grandmother (Aileen Britton), uncle JJ (Peter Whitford) and Aunt Helen (Wendy Hughes). Here, she meets pompous English jackaroo Frank (Robert Grubb), and local well to do property owner, Henry (Sam Neil).

MOVIE REVIEW | ***JURASSIC WEEK*** Jurassic Park III (2001)

“I read both of your books. I liked the first one more. Before you were on the island. You liked dinosaurs back then.”

In this day and age of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, movie franchises are planned out years and half a dozen sequels in advance.  But a mere decade or so ago, a decent sequel was a novelty, and a third movie was more than likely one last cash grab before all goodwill was pissed away.  In my memory, Jurassic Park was the blockbuster hit that deserved every cent of its box office success and every newspaper inch of its critical praise.  While The Lost World: Jurassic Park was its less appreciated, cash in sequel.

Also in my memory, as someone who had seen neither of its predecessors, Jurassic Park III was the expected shitty, last breath cash grab that ended being revered as nothing but a shitty, last breath cash grab.  But I never saw Jurassic Park III in the context of it being the second sequel, eight years after the beloved original.  I saw it less than 24 hours after shot gunning the first two.  I wonder if that affected my opinion of Jurassic Park III?  I wonder?

MOVIE REVIEW | ***JURASSIC WEEK*** Jurassic Park (1993)

“Can’t just suppress 65 million years of gut instinct.”

For the last few months, it has seemed like people have been trying to convince themselves they were excited about Jurassic World.  Or at least, I felt like they were trying to convince themselves.  Then, a few weeks ago, it opened and broke the box record for highest grossing opening weekend ever.  So I guess people had been genuinely excited about Jurassic World and I just projected my own ambivalence about the movie on to them.  Then I realised that the reason I was so ambivalent while the rest of the world was getting excited, was because I’ve never seen a single movie in the Jurassic franchise.   I guess I had nothing to get excited about.  So, it’s time to join the rest of the world in getting excited about Jurassic World.  But before I can see it, I have to catch up, starting with the original, Jurassic Park.

Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neil) and Dr Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) are working on an archaeological dig for dinosaur bones when they’re summoned by eccentric billionaire, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), whisking them away to a secluded island somewhere in Central America.  Joining them is mathematician, Dr Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum).  Landing on Hammond’s island, the three doctors soon have their minds blown when they see that Hammond and his scientists have brought dinosaurs back to life.