By LUTHER KAASBRADEN*
Surviving Georgia was not a film I had booked to see. I was taken a long by my sister who had told me there was a flick with Holly Valance in that I should see. When I arrived and learnt that it ws a romantic story I was initially cautious as this is not a genre I particularly like. BUT... I have to say I was really taken with both the story and the film.
The story is lovingly told and well crafted. Performances from Holly Valance and Shane Jacobson are at once amusing and endearing. In fact the entire cast shine in this film. Caroline O'Connor makes a great contribution as the somewhat quirky and stressful mother of Valance and Pia Miranda, who both hold their own in emotionally charged scenes that pull at your heart.
The son in this film is also very good. I hadn't seen him before and hope to see mope of Toby Wallace. I also enjoyed a great performance from Spencer McLaren (from Secret Life of Us if you remember on C4) who is also credited as producing.
Overall, a film that touches your heart, and leaves you with a smile. What more could you want? *My son Luther contributed this review as part of a Junior High School project -- DAVID KAASBRADEN
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Roger Bartlett's unpublished review
The following review notes were found amongst Roger's personal effects. An usher at the cinema has told the Coroner Mr Bartlett had been semi-conscious in the toilets for 36 hours. As no ticket butt was found in his pockets, the subject of the review, if any, remains unknown:
By ROGER BARTLETT
I saw a film on Friday night at the Odeon. It's had some glowing reviews – but it proves that the only opinion you can rely on is your own. Thankfully, it was much better than the trailer, which made it look very heavy handed and predictable, and seemed to give away so much of the plot in thirty seconds that I stopped viewing it in case it gave away the ending.
For the first hour, the film was very impressive, slowly building up the tension and very plausibly developing the story, with believable characters saying and doing believable things. Then it started abandoning each of these standards, by letting the hero find out sensitive information too easily, blabbing about what he's found out to people he has no reason to trust, doing stupid things, and getting out of tricky situations too easily. Finally, it all ends too suddenly, and I was left wondering what the fuss was about, and why anyone would be killed over it, since any journalist could have uncovered it easily.
After the movie, about midnight, I was waiting in the foyer, while everyone shuffled past after exiting the many other cinemas. Several attendants and ushers passed by me. About two minutes later, as I was walking down the stairs they turned off all the lights without warning. I yelled, but no one answered, so I kept going in the dark. Then someone saw or heard me and turned the lights back on until I left. When I left the building, I found there were no cars or pedestrians to be seen, and every one of the busy cafes and bars and restaurants I'd passed on the way to the cinema were closed.
So imagine my surprise when I [illegible]
By ROGER BARTLETT
I saw a film on Friday night at the Odeon. It's had some glowing reviews – but it proves that the only opinion you can rely on is your own. Thankfully, it was much better than the trailer, which made it look very heavy handed and predictable, and seemed to give away so much of the plot in thirty seconds that I stopped viewing it in case it gave away the ending.
For the first hour, the film was very impressive, slowly building up the tension and very plausibly developing the story, with believable characters saying and doing believable things. Then it started abandoning each of these standards, by letting the hero find out sensitive information too easily, blabbing about what he's found out to people he has no reason to trust, doing stupid things, and getting out of tricky situations too easily. Finally, it all ends too suddenly, and I was left wondering what the fuss was about, and why anyone would be killed over it, since any journalist could have uncovered it easily.
After the movie, about midnight, I was waiting in the foyer, while everyone shuffled past after exiting the many other cinemas. Several attendants and ushers passed by me. About two minutes later, as I was walking down the stairs they turned off all the lights without warning. I yelled, but no one answered, so I kept going in the dark. Then someone saw or heard me and turned the lights back on until I left. When I left the building, I found there were no cars or pedestrians to be seen, and every one of the busy cafes and bars and restaurants I'd passed on the way to the cinema were closed.
So imagine my surprise when I [illegible]
Sunday, September 12, 2010
DVD reviews: Peeping Tom, Salo
By MARGARET N. BATES
Peeping Tom (1960) is all about a sensitive, sad young foreign man (Hardy Kruger) who lives in London. He loves taking 16mm movies and carries his camera everywhere. But all the ladies he films unfortunately are murdered -- as he is filming them! Hardy is so happy to meet a lovely débutante in the flat downstairs that he forgets to report these murders to the police. Instead he gives the débutante downstairs a private screening of all these terrible coincidental murders for her birthday, and unusual movies of his father torturing him with a lizard, before riding off on a scooter to take passport pictures at a news agency. He is so driven to distraction by the attentions of the débutante's drunken mother and a psychiatrist that he takes his own picture -- and dies! This film makes photography look terribly dangerous, and is not recommended for young adults hoping to take it up as a career.
Salo, or 120 Days of Sodium (1976) is all about a holiday camp for teenagers in northern Italy after the war. Because of rationing, there is insufficient clothing and food for the young cast. Compared to other films made around a similar premise, like Friday the Thirteenth and I Know What You Did Last Summer, Salo lacks drama and suspense. Because no hockey-masked murderer stalks them, or because no posse of vampires pick them off, the cast become so terribly dejected they start eating things out of sheer boredom. Now I know that the obesity crisis is blamed partly on people eating for want of something to do. Once or twice when I was bored, I ate a whole tub of ice cream. I even saw Bear Grylls squeeze out a drink from elephant dung on television, but Salo made this look like a picnic. I'm surprised it hasn't been banned.
Salo, or 120 Days of Sodium (1976) is all about a holiday camp for teenagers in northern Italy after the war. Because of rationing, there is insufficient clothing and food for the young cast. Compared to other films made around a similar premise, like Friday the Thirteenth and I Know What You Did Last Summer, Salo lacks drama and suspense. Because no hockey-masked murderer stalks them, or because no posse of vampires pick them off, the cast become so terribly dejected they start eating things out of sheer boredom. Now I know that the obesity crisis is blamed partly on people eating for want of something to do. Once or twice when I was bored, I ate a whole tub of ice cream. I even saw Bear Grylls squeeze out a drink from elephant dung on television, but Salo made this look like a picnic. I'm surprised it hasn't been banned.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)