Spider-Man 3, a film by Sam Raimi, with Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst

28 May 2007

I’d heard a lot about the third Spider-Man movie before I saw it, and not all of it was good. Terms such as “spider cheese”, and the like.

But this is the third and final instalment of the franchise as directed by Raimi Smith, and given he needed to tie up a few loose threads that have run through the series, I suppose some cheesiness can be forgiven.

Some things seemed a little rushed though (such as Harry’s turnaround). I still liked it. I don’t really like to say a movie was crap, but Spider-Man 3 wasn’t quite as fun as the previous two.

Originally published Monday 28 May 2007.

The History Boys, a film by Nicholas Hytner, with Richard Griffiths

21 May 2007

While I enjoyed The History Boys, it wasn’t quite the hilt at the British class system, or epic struggle against the odds, sort of tale I had expected. It was more or less a fly-on-the-wall look at the lives of a group of gifted students who had the opportunity to gain places at two of England’s oldest, and most prestigious universities, Oxford and Cambridge.

I actually thought the epilogue like ending was the best part, a scene which kind of melded onto the end of a teacher’s funeral. Given the story was set in 1983— just fourteen years ago — this is one of the best “where are they now” sequences I have seen in a movie so far.

Originally published Monday 21 May 2007.

Scoop, a film by Woody Allen, with Scarlett Johansen, Hugh Jackman

16 May 2007

Scoop is the latest Woody Allen production, and combines elements of his earlier work including Manhatten Murder Mystery, and the more recent Match Point, plus of course Scarlett Johansen. The result is a quirky, yet fun, murder whodunit set in London and the neighbouring Home Counties.

Allen plays a touring magician — who’s often surprised when a trick seems to work — who meets Sondra (Johansen), when she takes part in one of his shows. Together they find themselves trying to solve a murder, working only with scant clues supplied by a recently deceased journalist (Ian McShane), who has managed to return from the afterlife.

Fans of Allen’s trademark neurotic banter will not be disappointed.

Originally published Wednesday 16 May 2007.

Bobby, a film by Emilio Estevez, with Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore

14 May 2007

Bobby is a “what if” movie. What if Robert (Bobby) Kennedy had been elected president of the United States in 1968, as he seemed destined to be? What if he managed to stay in office for eight years, thus by-passing the Nixon era? What might the United States, and the world, be like today as a result of his influence? While the big picture is enthralling, the smaller one is no less so.

Bobby is a dramatization exploring the stories of some of staff and guests working, and staying, at the Ambassador Hotel, in Los Angeles, on 5 June 1968, the day Kennedy was killed. We also are left pondering “what ifs” of their lives. Kennedy is only seen in the movie by way of archival footage, but nonetheless makes the strongest screen impression.

Originally published Monday 14 May 2007.

Progress? Coming soon, the disassociated WordPress blog

13 May 2007

The wordpressing (my new favourite word) of disassociated is well under way. It’ll be a while before anything happens though, as I’m trying to convert four years of static HTML file blog entries into a format I can upload to a WordPress database.

It’s not all cut and paste work. There’s quite a bit of formatting still to do. Redundant CSS styles and HTML tags need to be removed (to say nothing of dead links, but later for those), and there’s still the risk it won’t work. It should though.

As part of the redesign I have created (and uploaded) photos to a new-ish Flickr page, so go check it out. More photos will be added as I go. Bye for now…

Originally published Sunday 13 May 2007.

The Last King of Scotland, a film by Kevin Macdonald, with Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy

23 March 2007

I’m not sure how exactly to classify The Last King of Scotland since it’s not actually a true story in itself, though the portrayal of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), and his reign of terror, is certainly accurate.

The Last King of Scotland tells the story of Amin’s rise to power through the eyes of Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a graduate doctor from Scotland, who through various turns of events becomes Amin’s personal physician.

Garrigan’s euphoria at being newly arrived in Uganda matches that of the Ugandan people, and their belief that the then new leader Amin would turn the fortunes of the country around. Garrigan’s subsequent lapse into depression and despair also parallels that of Uganda, as the previously charismatic and apparently affable Amin becomes increasingly tyrannical and oppressive.

Whitaker’s fits-like-a-glove portrayal of Amin surely matches that of Helen Mirren in The Queen.

Originally published Friday 23 March 2007.

The Queen, a film by Stephen Frears, with Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen

9 February 2007

Constitutional politics has always fascinated me. And The Queen offers — for me at least — an intriguing insight into the British governing hierarchy.

Set in 1997, newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) nervously sets off to meet the Queen (Helen Mirren), to be invited to form a Government. While the Prime Minister holds the real, executive power, the Queen has an authority of her own. But this standing is threatened, following the death of Princess Diana, in the weeks following Blair’s election.

Originally published Friday 9 February 2007.

The Pursuit of Happyness, a film by Gabriele Muccino, with Will Smith

20 January 2007

The Pursuit of Happyness: based on a true story. I loved the central character’s lateral thinking abilities. Often with little warning, he manages to devise excuse upon excuse, while lurching from one crisis to the next. And if losing your home and going bankrupt isn’t bad enough, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is also trying to land an internship at a prestigious stockbroking firm.

Originally published Saturday 20 January 2007.

The Prestige, a film by Christopher Nolan, with Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale

30 November 2006

First an aside, I wonder if The Prestige was the team behind 2005’s Batman Begins deciding to apply their collective acting and producing talents to a completely different story? We have Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and director Christopher Nolan, all from Batman Begins, present here.

The Prestige traces the unhealthy obsession (is any obsession healthy though?) friends turned rivals, Alfred Borden (Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), have with each other’s magic acts, and the ends one will go to, so as to out do the other.

Caught up in this rivalry is Scarlett Johansson as stage assistant, Olivia, who becomes romantically involved with both men during the course of proceedings. And though I knew David Bowie was also in the movie, I didn’t recognise him as Tesla, an American inventor competing with Thomas Edison.

Originally published Thursday 30 November 2006.

Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, speak at 2001: A Space Odyssey screening, Sydney, Australia

1 October 2006

Anyone who has even once watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, could be forgiven for thinking the two lead actors, Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, who portray astronauts Dave Bowman and Frank Poole respectively, mightn’t exactly be the life of the party, were they ever to meet them.

After all, nary a snigger, let alone the merest of smiles, is ever forth coming during their ill-fated deep-space voyage towards Jupiter. Aside from the BBC 12 interview that is, but such theatrics are referred to as spin in today’s post-2001 world.

Were you however to meet Dullea and Lockwood in person, you’d be forgiven for believing they were part of a comedy act. A latter day version of Laurel and Hardy, god help us, piloting humanity one-way through the final frontier. “It’s full of Aussies,” quipped Lockwood, to much amusement, as the actors walked on to the stage at the Orpheum theatre, in the Sydney suburb of Cremorne.

The actors were speaking at a special 2001 event held on the evening of Wednesday 27 September, 2006. The event also included a screening of the seventy millimetre version of the movie. “A very good print, actually,” Dullea told us.

And he was right, not only was the film visually stunning (as always), but the soundtrack really hit the audience in the face also. Never before has the Moon monolith’s electronic scream seemed so shrill, so high pitched, so prolonged.

The pair spoke with Australian film critic David Stratton, and for the most part talked candidly about almost, well everything. The conversation was laced with anecdotes about working with director Stanley Kubrick, and the movie itself.

There were plenty of asides, including discussion on the “science of acting”, with Lockwood insisting improvisation is not an acting method per se. Lockwood also told stories about meetings with people such as Orson Wells, John Lennon, and Neil Armstrong, over the years.

There was little doubt that the pair’s participation in 2001 was a highlight of both their acting careers. And how couldn’t taking part in the greatest movie of all time, not be? Greatest movie of all time?

Lockwood related once meeting someone — possibly not a fan of the film — who told him 2001 was ranked as the thirty-fourth greatest movie ever. “Oh yeah?” Lockwood had retorted, “well, name the thirty-three movies that come before 2001 then.”

If that’s not the greatest comeback of all time, what is?

Originally published Sunday 1 October 2006.

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