You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll dance in your seat throughout This Is It…as long as you’re a Michael Jackson fan. If you’re like me – neither a lover nor hater of MJ– then you’ll be bored stiff within the hour. That’s because This is It is little more than what you’d see in the special features of a concert DVD; there’s MJ rehearsing, then there’s MJ rehearses a little bit more, and for the final climactic act, MJ rehearses one last time before the credits roll. Fan will be transfixed throughout, but if you’re looking for an insightful documentary on Jackson’s final concert, this isn’t it.
Australians don’t like seeing Australian films. Sadly, that’s been the general consensus by the critics and public alike for some time, and now figures tell us it’s a fact. The issues of Australian filmic content and output have been debated since the re-emergence of our cinema with the New Wave period in the 1970s, but forty years later the output is yet to stabilise itself and distribution in Hollywood-dominant cinemas is near impossible. What this documentary shows is how this affects the livelihood of independent cinemas – not independent chains, but the family-owned cinemas of the ‘good old days’. Not that we here at Cut Print Review could honestly tell you from experience; half of Generation Y were unlucky to miss out. And Generation Xers – the poor buggers. They’ll never know any different.
Whether it be because of creepy demonic girls (Case 39) or monsters in spaceships (Pandorum), moviegoers in all corners of the globe are cowering under their seats because of German-born director Christian Alvart. The first of the two, Case 39, stars Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper and follows a social worker who rescues a bright young girl (Jodelle Ferland) from her abusive parents, but later discovers there’s something evil lurking beneath her angelic facade. Case 39 hits Australia November 5th, while Pandorum, which has already had it’s release in the US, will screen Down Under next February.
Thanks to Walt Disney Pictures, we’ve got 20 double passes to give away to an exclusive Adelaide preview screening of A Christmas Carol in Disney Digital 3D!
To enter, first make sure you are able to attend the screening on Wednesday 4th November, 7pm, at Event Cinemas Marion. If you can make the screening, then simply fill out the entry form below to be in the draw to win!
Following the backlash of Richard Kelly’s sophomore effort – the grand disaster that was Southland Tales — one would have thought that the famed Donnie Darko director would play it safe for his next outing. It looked like Kelly was doing just that with The Box; a bluntly titled, seemingly straightforward period thriller starring the ever-bankable Cameron Diaz. It doesn’t get much safer than that, right?
Wrong, all wrong. The Box is a logically-impaired, hyperbolic mess that darts from one high-concept idea to another as flowingly as someone with a bladder infection.
Like a travelling sideshow, Terry Gilliam’s Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus drifts from one weird and wonderful idea to another without any discernable plan or structure, managing to maintain mild amusement though novelty value alone. It’s a slight step up from Gilliam’s more recent works (Tideland and The Brothers Grimm), but when you consider the reputable talent involved — not to mention the added pressure of being Heath Ledger’s swan song — you can’t help but wish it was something more significant.
An Education is a coming-of-age tale centering around a British schoolgirl in the early 1960s, I think I would be safe to wager that a great number of audience members were able to identify in some way to the wide-eyed wonder Jenny experiences upon her entry to a world of jazz, restaurants and weekend jaunts to Paris, a world so far removed from essays, dorky teenage suitors and boring parents.
The way we recognise and deal with events in our lives often comes in the form of correlation. If we can relate an event to something from our past, or use the most relevant expression then we often have the ability to deal with things effectively. You would expect this film to have some form of preaching in terms of the consequences of creating mistakes, with the premise that looks aren’t everything. And Hollywood seems to have a thing for films with writers or reporters unlucky in love. However, All About Steve’s presentation takes a different turn with a slightly impulsive way of viewing life.
