Some sequences are shot at night without any light source to allow the cameras to focus, resulting in a grainy, blurred image of someone chasing someone else, and then all sorts of hand-to-hand fighting and gunplay, and you simply can’t tell who is fighting whom, with what, and who’s winning.
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Green Zone
The Blind Side is an embarassment to the voters who have decided it is worthy to compete with such brilliant films as The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds – this has ‘Midday Movie’ written all over it, but is dressed in Hollywood finery such that people are inclined to take it more seriously than it deserves.
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Continue reading The Blind Side
Perhaps it is unreasonable to judge the film negatively due to the hype surrounding it, but while it is a competent and entertaining piece, it doesn’t quite have the chops to match Reitman’s previous outing.
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Up in the Air
The amiable tone and comfortable pacing ensure the lead actors are afforded every opportunity to capture ones attention, however, and Bonnaire in particular benefits from this generosity.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Queen to Play
Writer/director Lioret has seemingly achieved his aim of raising the profile of the plight of illegal immigrants, with his film being nominated for many awards and highly successful at the French box office. That his characters and their tragic story are so masterfully realised is reward for his audience.
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This is a film that attempts to deliver the facts yet never forgets that these are human beings we’re talking about. It’s easy to see how this film would resonate with audiences around the world, particularly here in Australia where migration is forever on the political, moral and social agenda.
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Welcome
Scattered moments in which the performers make something of the dross they’re asked to perform can’t make up for the long stretches of boredom and disappointment that must accompany any viewing of Valentine’s Day.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Valentine’s Day
Hawke is unremarkable in the lead role, perhaps uncertain as to why he is surrounded by unknown-to-American-audiences Australian (and occasionally New Zealand-born) actors sporting moderately successful American accents in a film funded by the Film Finance Corporation Australia (now Screen Australia) and shot in Australia by Australian writer/directors.
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There are half a dozen fantastic moments – ones that show just how inventive the Spierigs are and how strange it is that Hollywood haven’t plonked them at the helm of a bit, fat juicy budget – the boys certainly get their money’s worth here.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Daybreakers
After enduring the ridiculously over-the-top musical introduction accompanied by mood-setting shots of space, it also would be overly optimistic to expect the script to demonstrate the slightest subtlety or intelligence. Instead, the audience must endure 158 minutes of mind-numbingly uninspired character interactions, and dialogue that would make an average 5th grader blush.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading 2012
The flimsy excuse for getting the glamour cast of Couples Retreat to the glamour location of Bora Bora simply cannot sustain a near-two-hour feature film, and the failure to progress beyond an outline to a narrative that allows meaningful growth of the characters is perhaps its greatest flaw.
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Couples Retreat
A film like Julie and Julia must be savoured, attempting as it does to bring to life the struggles of two women, flawed as they are, to succeed in their chosen fields and, more importantly, in life. That it mostly succeeds is the real joy.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Julie & Julia