Steve-176 Reviews

Monsoon Wedding (2001)

Joyous account of the trials of putting on a big wedding in modern day Delhi. Subtitled. 4 and a half Flys Out Of Five

[19 June 2002]

The woman in the audience with me who giggled repeatedly through Monsoon Wedding, along with the five or six Aussie/Indian little kids who chatted away delightedly during the film, added to the charm of a very good time at the cinema.

Monsoon Wedding, directed by Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala) along with writer Sabrina Dhawan have concocted a delicious wedding punch of colour, vivacity, romance and drama. Monsoon Wedding is an uplifting celebration of the best and worst of humanity set in modern day Delhi.

Very well to do Aditi Verma is to be married to Hermant. It's an arranged marriage. Hermant lives in the U.S.. Still they're not children, they're in their thirties and they're modern young adults. Aditi has been having an affair with a TV talk show host. Needless to say Hermant has his doubts too.

Aditi's Dad Lalit is also juggling problems of enormous proportions. The wedding is to be a huge and very expensive show. His wedding is being organised by what looks to be a shifty con man named P.K. Dube who, as played by Vijay Raaz, appears both shifty and comical. Getting the money together increasingly becomes more of a task.

Monsoon Wedding follows the time honoured traditions of Bollywood, the thousands of films that have been produced inexpensively for the huge mass market Indian domestic film industry.

Monsoon Wedding also has a sophisticated multi-layered complexity that lends itself to the best of Hollywood films, particularly to perhaps the movies of Robert Altman.

A lack of production gloss doesn't detract in the slightest from just how clever Monsoon Wedding is though. A thousand times in this film the camera whizzes about, tantalizing us with just glimpses of the richness of humanity. The editing of this film is superb.

Of course we're treated to some exuberant singing and dancing numbers, coloured by those peaking Indian melodies and with flashes of eyes and midriffs.

There's a ridiculously romantic scene concocted with marigolds and candles and a wonderful dance routine in what looks like some sort of empty swimming pool.

There must be twenty major characters, a moment of extreme pathos, and at least twenty moments that will encourage you to smile. At one point you might feel like cheering.

The young children having a chat just livened things up even more.

4 And A Half Flys In Pokora Out Of Five

Hardball (2001)

Rough head white guy coaches little black kids in Chicago baseball. Very effectively made with some tough bits that are well above average. 4 Flys Out Of Five

[19 June 2002]

In spite of its rather predictable set up Hardball is remarkably effective. It's a terrific example of a mainstream film that squeezes itself sufficiently out of the comfort zone to be both thought provoking and moving without too often lapsing into the triteness we see so often.

Hardball is yet another genre movie about a desperate white guy (Keanu Reeves) forced into coaching a children's sporting team from a rough black neighbourhood. Does he coach a mob of losers to victory? Does he mature while he does the job? Do the children gain valuable insights from their new friend? Does a love interest hover for our desperado coach?

The first third of Hardball shows us Conor O'Neill (Keanu Reeves) in the throws of digging an even deeper hole for himself with bad bets. He's literally on the run from his creditors and is frantic to get one big win to get the ghouls off his back.

We've seen that thousands of times before on T.V. and film but Hardball worked the trick beautifully. A baseball bat smashing a hole in a wall, where a head was a few moments before, can be extraordinarily effective cinema if done right. I was sold. O'Neill's gambling mate Ticky, played by character actor John Hawkes, has a bit of Steve Buscemi look about him and that has to be a recommendation.

Then we meet the children. The film is set in the notorious Cabrini-Green area of Chicago, a high rise low income housing area which is being progressively torn down. Cabrini-Green is now under redevolopment in what's a bold mixed income experiment, incorporating low/no-income citizens into what an area that was always surrounded by prime real estate.

The children are tough talking 13 year olds, but we're soon shown that they're very frightened. Hardball shows their world as being one where they are rightfully scared to be out after dark. One where people sit on the floor in their high rise for fear of bullets coming in through the windows. Again it was very effective film making.

The baseball is little league stuff in every sense of the word. The coach doesn't seem to know much about baseball and his charges, strangely, instantly improve their game on his arrival. There's the designated tear jerking triumphs and I'm sufficiently chump enough to have been sold on that too!

The token woman is provided by Diane Lane and she's O.K. but that whole plot line could and probably should have been left out. But Hardball was strong cinematic fare and well worth a look.

4 Sporting Flys Out Of Five

I Am Sam (2001)

Retarded Dad has his 7 year old taken away by the authorities. Melodramatic and a little too glossy. A bit of a weapie. 2 Flys Out Of Five

[10 June 2002]

If you're after a bit of weep then I Am Sam might do the job, judging by some of the other patrons in the cinema. It didn't have that effect on me, but then I'm not a fan of middle of the day TV soaps either.

I Am Sam is about a mentally slow father called Sam played by Sean Penn. His daughter at 7 years of age is starting to help him with his reading. Family services set their sights on the problem and decide that Sam can't be expected to raise his daughter on his own.

Sam loves his daughter Lucy. Lucy (Dakota Fanning) loves him. Sam persuades Rita, a high octane lawyer to plead his case. Rita is played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Rita is selfish, greedy and a poor mother to her own son. Rita only takes on the job because she's shamed into it by her co-workers.

So you can see the set up.

Will Rita become softened by her experience with Sam and his case? Will she even have a close relationship with her client. And what of the opposition?

Will Family Services, represented most forcefully by the opposing lawyer Turner played by Richard Schiff, be out and out baddies?

And what of the little girl Lucy. Will she find love elsewhere, perhaps with foster parents? Or will they be the rapacious, money grubbing, nasty child beaters usually coughed up in films like these.

I Am Sam does have the virtue of not playing the characters straight down the line, except unfortunately for Sam. Sean Penn is a masterful actor and director. The Crossing Guard, The Indian Runner, Dead Man Walking, She's So Lovely and U Turn have revealed an actor of distinction.

So why should he play a necessarily one dimensional character like Sam? Didn't Edward Norton turn that one on recently in The Score?

There was however a scene in I Am Sam that for me was very effective. Sam is trying to add up money and it's very difficult for him. His struggle was obvious, especially because he knew that other adults did that task much better. He knew that others were much smarter. That was revealing.

However I Am Sam overall was too glossy, perhaps not bleak enough, especially when the glamourous Michelle Pfeiffer character blasted onto the screen.

I Am Sam could have been mistaken for The Old And The Desperate or some such.

2 Glum Flys Out Of Five

Spider-Man (2002)

Goofball Maguire becomes Spider-Man and battles the Green Goblin. Exciting for the most part, good for all the family but includes boring teenage romance bits. 3 And A Half Flys Out Of Five

[10 June 2002]

Spider-Man scurries about sideways, extending its web for probably half an hour too long. But the web is lustrous at its best.

Director Sam Raimi has some impressive credits, mostly from his wonderful Evil Dead films, but he also lays claim to the wonderful A Simple Plan, as well The Cider House Rules. Cider House also starred Spider-Man's lead Tobey Maguire and it would seem that that's a profitable association. (We'll charitably forget perhaps The Quick And The Dead and The Gift, both of which weren't particularly successful.

Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man was an inspired choice as Peter Parker who becomes Spidey. He plays Parker as an affable goofball, a sensitive type who's actually interested in his studies, especially science. I'm not sure Maguire with that twisted little smile could play any other sort of part.

Peter gets bitten by a spider and over night grows muscles, throws away his glasses and finds he can match it with the school bully, in what was for me the best scene in the film. If movies exist partly to realise fantasies for the viewer, Spider-Man provided one of the best "weakling punches back" scenes I can remember. At least for me, that scene was worth seeing the film for, which will amply point to certain facets of my character that I'm sure I would have been better off leaving out of this piece.

Soon Spider-Man starts swinging about from tall buildings and yes, it was terrific. This was Olympic Gymnastics joined to the best of Circus trapeze. Spider-Man was very quick and athletic. It was exhilarating.

The chief baddie in the film is The Green Goblin played very effectively by Willem Dafoe (Platoon, Mississippi Burning, Light Sleeper), although his best bits were probably when it wasn't even Dafoe, as The Goblin zipped about standing on his rocket propelled platform doing dastardly things to Spider-Man's home town.

The Goblin was menacing. This was a digitally enhanced threat of course, but so were Spider-Man's feats of valour.

There's a love story built into the show between Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) and Peter Parker but it adds little to the film. If Dunst had been asked to play the part a little more darkly then it might have been more interesting, I would have liked to have seen perhaps Katie Holmes in the part.

But Dunst has shown she can do ragged in Crazy/Beautiful and bimbo in Bring It On. I'm sure she played the part just as the producers requested.

But that still leaves Spider-Man as alternatively exhilarating and then pretty slow. Perhaps the teenagers will enjoy the teenage romance scenario but I'd say it should have been left from the film. Then Spider-Man would have been just the right length.

3 And A Half Webby Flys Out Of Five

Steve Baker

The Hard Word (2002)

Good guy Aussie gangsters try one last heist. Poorly written but strong performances. Immature. 2 Flys Out Of Five

[3 June 2002]

What can you say about an Aussie film that's blokey enough to throw what approaches character maturation or maturity onto the editing floor?

It's not as if The Hard Word is a hard nosed gangster film like for instance Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The Hard Word has a much softer touch and its main characters were just aching for some sort of real happiness. Call me a sentimentalist.

In The Hard Word we're given three fairly likable brothers. Two of them are emotionally immature and they are offered compassionate women – who are promptly discarded by the film's script! The Hard Word badly needed those female characters.

The third brother's wife is as she says in the script `a c**t.' She sports a manly swagger that would do the boys proud. No chance for real tenderness there.

The tone of the film is fairly soft but it's not matched by the script. Often tough guy films can be exciting, Chopper presents itself immediately, but whereas the Eric Bana character in Chopper was violent, sad and funny, the five hard central characters in The Hard Word are unreservedly macho, immature and shallow, including Carol played by Rachel Griffiths. It's back of the shelter shed male fantasy rubbish.

The Hard Word isn't a tough guy film but it acts like one. In Chopper, Chopper's gal Tania played by Kate Beehan, a prostitute with a heart added great pathos and depth. There was ample opportunity for the same in The Hard Word, especially from Kate Atkinson as a drunken Melbourne Cup reveler. She of course was quickly and disappointingly dumped from the script.

Similarly a ridiculous scene involving a sexual relationship between a prison psychologist (Rhondda Findleton) and her patient showed some promise, I suppose, but she soon departed. That psychologist could have ended up deliciously surreal.

The Hard Word, in spite of strong performances from Guy Pierce, Joel Edgerton, Damien Richardson and Rachel Griffiths is misdirected and badly written.

It's yet another Australian film with a poorly realised script and it won't have universal appeal. It's not funny or shocking enough to overcome it's essential bleakness. Immature male fantasies belong on the high school playground.

2 Aussie Blow Flys Out Of Five

Hart's War (2002)

Fairly inticate P.O.W. film which becomes a court room drama. Lacks dramatic intensity. 3 Flys Out Of Five

[3 June 2002]

Bruce Willis is back at the cinema, or is he? In Hart's War he plays the American commander in a German concentration camp near the end of WW2, but Willis seems to be holding back, reserved, muted. He's not even the central character.

Compared to say The Great Escape which would have to be the benchmark in the movie realm, Hart's War lacks dramatic punch. But it has virtues. Hart is played by Dubliner Colin Farrell.

He's a soft soldier, doing his duty as an officer's offsider, driving big brass about protected by the influence of his well to do family. He gets captured, in a scene that is truly dramatic, interrogated and sent to Stalag VI in very wintry Belgium.

Willis's character Col. McNamara, a fourth generation soldier, is suspicious of Hart because Hart emerged from interrogation far too early. Hart might have spilt the beans and McNamara places Hart into an enlisted men's hut.

Hart is soon joined there by Scott (Terence Howard) and Archer (Vicellous Shannon), two black American pilots and here's where the major plot element develops because the white American troops led by Bedford (Cole Hauser) react viciously towards black men being put amongst them.

It's not long before a rather improbable court martial is on for us, with a black man being tried by a hanging judge (McNamara) for murder. The German commander (Marcel Iures) plays his stereotype well, as do the rest.

The racist element is handled forcefully along with a rather intricate plot. There's plenty to think about as various relationships are developed.

What Hart's War lacks is dramatic flourish. We're in a dangerous prison with the men but we don't feel threatened. If fact the prison with its theatre, piano, football, B.B.C radio and trombone looks more like a very chilly holiday camp. I wouldn't have been surprised if there was hot running water.

Colin Farrell's character Hart, the center of the film in spite of Willis's top billing, handles his material well but it seemed he should have been back in The States at his posh law school, of that he really had never left.

We get glimpses of Jewish detainees on death trains, but it doesn't quite register as awful. We've seen it all before and it doesn't stir the Hart. Hart's War fell into that dangerous hole called the court room drama but even the court seemed vacuous. Except for the racist element we'd seen it all before.

3 Flaccid Flys Out Of Five

Monster's Ball (2001)

A prison executioner becomes friendly with a relative of the man he executes. Subtle, brutal and hopeful; a fine piece of film making. 4 And A Half Flys Out Of Five

[26 May 2002]

Monster's Ball describes a felon's last meal before their execution. Monster's Ball is subtle, brutal and hopeful; a fine piece of film making.

Billy Bob Thornton plays Hank who heads the killing team in a Georgian prison in early 1990's America. The prisoner is Lawrence, a self confessed `bad man'. Australian Heath Ledger plays Hank's son Sonny who is also on the team.

Lawrence's former wife Leticia (Halle Berry) is struggling to keep house and home together for herself and her son. Tragic circumstances bring Leticia and Hank together. Halle Berry Won Best Actress for her performance. Billy Bob Thornton could easily have won the male version for his.

Such a plot could easily follow the accepted conventions. Monster's Ball avoids this by allowing the characters to be molded by their circumstances. It's a study of compromise, desperation and maturation.

Both Hank and Leticia experience hard won moments of revelation; life changing, fug clearing scenes where fundamental shifts happen in the way they view the world. And particularly in Hank's case, these moments aren't bellowed at us on the screen: we experience Hank's epiphany in retrospect, as we view his subsequent actions.

Most films happily trot out type cast actors for type cast characters. Refreshingly Monster's Ball takes as a given that we humans are complex, contrary creatures, and slow learners to boot.

It recognizes that most of us might only experience fundamental changes in attitude a few times in our life, and that a change will have many causes.

Monster's Ball is a wonderful comment on racism and on absolute bigotry but it's much more besides. There's no room for flawless characters in a film that paints such a nasty picture of the worst of us, and also a hopeful painting of those desperate enough to treat others with less distrust and more dignity.

And it treats chocolate ice cream with the dignity chocolate ice cream deserves. Such seemingly small matters as ice cream do often glue our lives together.

A clever script, deft direction and stand out performances from all the major players make this Monster's Ball well worth attending.

4 And A Half Flys Out Of Five

The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

Supernatural, thoughtful thriller about moth like creatures who prophesy disasters. Well directed with effective sound. 3 Flys Out Of Five

[26 May 2002]

The Mothman Prophecies is pretty spooky and not an entirely unlikely film for the likes of Richard Gere (The Hair). The Hair's best film I'd say, with the probable exceptions of Pretty Woman and An Officer And A Gentleman, was Internal Affairs (1990) in which he played a very nasty cop. Gere was good as a baddie.

In The Mothman Prophecies he's again thankfully got a part with a bit of meat on it.

Gere plays John Klein who's wife dies horribly claiming she saw something very strange. Two years later Klein finds himself mysteriously in Point Pleasant, West Virginia receiving strange phone calls and fielding probing questions from pretty local cop Connie Parker (Laura Linney).

Connie has been hearing strange stories from the locals about strange creatures and events which recall dead Klein's wife's tales. Events escalate to what was for me a surprising climax. But then I hadn't looked up particular event that occurred in Point Pleasant, W.Va. in 1966/67.

The Mothman Prophecies is very nicely filmed and directed by Mark Pellington (Arlington Road). The music/sound is particularly effective. It isn't a horror film, more a supernatural, thoughtful thriller, a grown up X files, and does provide a reasonably diverting entertainment.

3 Very Big Moths Out Of Five

Life as a House (2001)

Estranged middle aged Dad becomes loveable and a house builder. Very good performances allow this house to glow quite nicely. A one tissue flick. 3 And A Half Flys Out Of Five

[26 May 2002]

Life As A House, in spite of a pretty implausible set up, fleshes out some pretty interesting relationships.

Kevin Kline plays George who's been hitting the skids for ten years since breaking up with his former wife (Kristen Scott Thomas). They have a very rebellious 16 year old called Sam played by Hayden Christensen.

George really hits rock bottom, has a bit of think and what we'd have to call a huge mid life crisis and decides to finally rebuild his house, and to do it with the reluctant Sam's help. Of course the house is on a beautiful stretch of coast line in what looks like minor millionaire's row, but that's Hollywood.

Life As A House somehow pulls it off while pulling the house down. A real telling point would have to be Sam's metamorphosis from pierced Marylyn Manson clone into loving son happily wielding a hammer. Somehow I did find it plausible. Hayden Christensen proved himself to have some talent after all after the Star Wars debacle.

And Kristin Scott Thomas has to fall back in love with her no good former husband. That was made believable by restrained acting from both parties.

Sure the Christmas Lights were way over the top but by then I'd had a good time at the movies.

3 And A Half Flys Out Of Five

The Majestic (2001)

It's 1952 and a second rate, amnesic, Hollywood script writer stumbles into small town America where's he's mistaken for a war hero. Very slow and old fashioned. 1 Fly Out Of Five

[20 May 2002]

The Majestic is pretty slow. You might find yourself wondering about your shopping, musing on whether you've got enough dried food for the dog. And that's when the film is at its most frantic! The Majestic is a try hard bore masquerading as serious cinema; small time America on a wholesome red carpet.

Jim Carrey in spite of being most known for his slapstick comedy routines in The Ace Ventura films has slipped predominantly towards dramatic rolls. He can be good at them.

The sometimes surreal films Cable Guy, The Truman Show and Man On The Moon were dramas with a strange twist, as befits an actor who's always been a little off key at his best. Comedy is after all the drama of the ridiculous.

The Majestic is anything but comedic however with Carrey playing it dead straight in what's unfortunately an out dated, Capraesque, I love small town America, homily.

Carrey plays Peter who's written a third rate film in early 1950's America. He gets accused of being a communist, takes a knock on the head and wakes up with amnesia in Lawson, a village imbued with old timers who lost a lot of sons in WW2.

One of the old men, Harry Trimble (Martin Landau), claims Peter is his long lost son Luke, who was lost in action for nearly ten years ago. There's a strong physical resemblance.

Callow Hollywood man Peter/Luke is lovingly adopted by the good citizens of Lawson and helps reopen The Majestic, the local theatre, which was run by Harry years before. This gives the citizens the opportunity to laud the character of American cinema. Luke/Peter also inherits Luke's old girlfriend Adele (Laurie Holden).

In tried (tired) and true Frank Capra fashion the Feds are closing in and of course the amnesia will eventually lift. The last act of the film has Peter defending the rights of good Americans to have freedom of speech.

What defeats The Majestic is its pace, and I'd imagine that a slow development of the plot was deliberately chosen by director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile). The Majestic certainly has the feel of countless 1950's homilies to the American way which must have been the intention.

But we've moved on surely from this sort of stuff, even if some Americans, feeling under threat in recent times, might find this subject matter comforting. The Majestic did however give me time to mentally sort out my shopping list.

One Hungry Dog Fly Out Of Five

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

Poorly written with wooden acting and a few good special effects set pieces. Get out the old ones on video. 2 Flys Out Of Five

[20 May 2002]

Why in the Galaxy doesn't George Lucas hire a director for his Star Wars films, someone who's interested in actors? Lucas could then concentrate on what he does very well indeed, managing the special effects.

Star Wars – Episode 11: The Attack of the Clones is marred by terrible acting, lousy dialogue and a lead footed story line. There are, as you'd expect, several impressive high tech set pieces, but they become just plain boring when fleshed out by characters who seem to be sleepwalking.

The tall, elongated creatures who build the clones are just plain beautiful and the snarling spotted beast doing battle with the Jedi beasts was impressive, but that's not enough to fill in two hours of supposed entertainment.

Star Wars freaks might find the film fascinating but it really shouldn't leap to anyone's must see list, in spite of its huge promotional budget. Get out the old ones on video instead! George Lucas directed the original Star Wars way back in 1977 but then hired Richard Marquand for Return of the Jedi (1983) and Irvin Kershner for The Empire Strikes Back (1985).

Lucas directed American Graffiti in 1973 which was a quality film, but has directed nothing else of note. More pointedly, he's directed nothing at all for 22 years, until the awful Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace (1999).

He's instead been a giant in the special effects field with his ILM (Industrial Light and Movement) company showing the way for decades. Those dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, the liquid metal man in Terminator 2, the water creature in The Abyss, even the completely digital movies like Toy Story were at least off shoots of the innovations of the ILM camp.

So George Lucas has been and remains at the forefront of film technology. But the last two Star Wars films must serve as evidence that Lucas should stay away from real live actors.

Then he might have lively performances like those of Harrison Ford and the Wookie from the earlier films to add to the magic of film fantasy.

If ever there was proof that digital actors won't usurp live actors, then its there in Star Wars – Episode 11: The Attack of the Clones.

Two Digital Flys Out Of Five

Mean Machine (2001)

Prison Guard soccer team play the inmates. Immature C grade film that might appeal to some males I suppose. One Fly Out Of Five

[13 May 2002]

Vinnie Jones has made his name in film in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Gone In Sixty Seconds and Swordfish. Before that he was a tough man football player in the U.K..

So here in Mean Machine we have him playing Danny a former professional Football player and getting busted for laying down in an international soccer game and then assaulting police. He lands in prison.

The head of the prison, played by David Hemmings, dragoons Danny into coaching and captaining a football team, which will play a team,made up of the prison guards. Lots of money is riding on the game.

Sounds childish? It is.

Mean Machine is a film about sport, which would have to be one of the most difficult types of films to make, especially if the mood is meant to be comic.

Sport is theatre already. Attempting to dramatize what's already high drama is likely to be a let down; especially once the film actually enters the sporting arena. The climactic football game in Mean Machine, when it finally occurs, is a hollow shade of the real thing. These boys should be ashamed of themselves.

As far as the humour goes, well I don't think it's funny to maim an opponent on the sporting field. It might be impressive, but never funny. But that's where I part ways with the fans of films like Lock Stock and Snatch who reckon that's it's even funny to seriously maim someone with indifference.

Comic violence done to stirring music isn't entertainment. It's just violence. Adding insult to injury by putting this is a sporting contest isn't going to win too many votes from me.

One Broken Fly

High Crimes (2002)

Predictable thriller about a fellow accused of a slaughter while in the U.S. military. His lawyer wife leads the defense. One Fly Out Of Five

[13 May 2002]

High Crimes starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman is so resolutely mainstream, so determined to attract maximum patronage, that even I could anticipate the big twist! High Crimes is meant to be a thriller but it's predictable enough to only thrill a dill.

Ashley Judd (Kiss The Girls) plays Claire who's a hot shot San Francisco lawyer. She's about to be handed a partnership at work, she reckons she's just about got the getting pregnant to her husband trick licked, and she's made the local TV news for her fine work. She's good looking and successful; an American dream.

Then her husband Tom (James Caviezel, The Count Of Monte Cristo, The Thin Red Line) is ripped into military prison. The military give him another name and tell Claire that Tom in a past life was in the marines and that he'd slaughtered civilians illegally some years before in El Salvador. They want to lock him up big time.

Of course Claire takes on his defense and enlists Charlie Grimes (Morgan Freeman, Kiss The Girls, The Unforgiven), a drunken expert on military law to assist her.

High Crimes rushes about at a furious pace, presenting red herrings, leaving loose ends and failing to explain itself. It's all about genre rather than substance. It always looks good, filmed to present its stars in a proper Hollywood light, but neglects to allow suspense to grow. Ther's certainly no time for contemplation.

It's a thriller concocted by following the dots, making certain that the dots are attractive. It's rush about story telling and worse for it.

One Lazy Fly Out Of Five

Charlotte Gray (2001)

The always superb Blanchette in a nicely shot period romance/spy story set in WW 2 France. Not much tension but the setting and acting make it worthwhile. 4 Flys Out Of Five

[13 May 2002]

I'd say that just about any movie starring Cate Blanchett would probably be worth seeing. Charlotte Gray also has a terrific setting, attractive scenery and costumes, as well as appealing co-stars in Billy Crudup and Michael Gambon.

Charlotte Gray is a spy tale without much tension and a war film set in France without much of a hint of the French language, but it's enough of a tale about romance to make it reasonable entertainment. And there was something about the look of moss ridden cobblestone walls that made 1940's occupied France look very appealing.

The time is World War 11 and Charlotte (Blanchett) is a Scottish lass who has a whirlwind romance with Peter (Rupert Penry-Jones). He's promptly lost, shot down in France. Charlotte engineers a career as a spy in France, secretly hoping to make some contact with her beloved.

While in France she meets the dashing Julian (Crudup) who heads the local resistance. You can probably guess the rest, at least in outline. There's also an important sub plot involving two Jewish boys and Julian's Dad Levade played by Michael Gambon.

But what lifts Charlotte Gray out of the ordinary is Cate Blanchett's performance. Blanchett really exudes Star Quality in the manner of the old time studio female leads.

Elizabeth, Pushing Tin, Oscar And Lucinda, The Talented Mr Ripley, The Gift, The Man Who Cried, Bandits, The Shipping News, The Lord Of The Rings have shown us an actress with an excess of vitality and intelligence; a woman from Australia who has ripped quickly into the A list of Hollywood.

She carries herself like a star and Charlotte Gray, a film that relies heavily on its look, did well in hiring Blanchett.

4 Cate Rules Flys Out Of Five

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

Scenic remake of Dumas's huge novel. Miscast but a reasonably adept if bland minor swashbuckler. 2 Flys Out Of Five

[6 May 2002]

Those who love dusty, thick books found in second hand shops might enjoy The Count Of Monte Cristo but really it's a bit bland. This is a throwback film, a lunge backwards into those Saturday afternoon Jaffa rollers, designed for teenage swooners and mooners.

Alexandre Dumas's huge novel has been put onto the big and little screen many times. It's an epic which can barely be fitted into a two hour film, but I am very pleased it only went for two hours.

Australian Guy Pierce (Memento, L.A. Confidential, The Time Machine) plays Mondego, one of the baddies. The hero Edmund is played by Jim Caviezel (The Thin Red Line) and his teacher Faria by old timer Richard Harris.

The film does look good. The island fortress Chateau d'If looks formidable, the treasure trove is found in a suitably spectacular location and I did enjoy the hot air balloon entrance of The Count (even if it apparently had no means of heating the air, perhaps it was a cunningly conceived helium balloon).

But Monte Cristo looked miscast. The Count was too wimpy and Pierce, who would have been better as The Count, sneered too much. Still the film had a Technicolor air about it that was reasonably pleasing.

It's a tale about revenge. Two young adventurers, Mondego and Edmund have a falling out when the nasty Mondego frames Edmund as a traitor. Mondego is after Edmund's girlfriend Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk).

Edmund spends nearly 20 years in jail, living on nothing much, but emerges fat and feisty with a treasure map. With his riches he sets fiscal traps for his enemies and just might win back the girl. There just has to be a wing ding sword fight or two. There is.

The Count of Monte Cristo is Rob Roy without the drama and Braveheart without marauding knickerless Scots and thankfully The Man In The Iron Mask (another Dumas novel) without Leonardo DiCaprio.

2 Scenic Flys Out Of Five

Collateral Damage (2002)

Arnie against Columbian terrorists. Standard B grade fare. Arnie's too serious in this one. 2 Flys Out Of Five

[6 May 2002]

Much has been made of Collateral Damage being shelved for five months after the September 11 fiasco. Collateral Damage is about a terrorist attack on a U.S. major building or two – a subject not considered to be saleable to the American public in recent times.

But now it's here, and it's over there, and it's what it always was, a predictable B grade Schwarzenegger movie.

In this one Arnie has his family killed by the terrorist early in the film and then hightails it to Columbia where he does battle with the terrorist army cartel who were responsible for killing his son and wife.

Collateral Damage is interesting though because of the character of the terrorist called The Wolf who is played by Cliff Curtis. He surprisingly gets to state his case clearly, to define his ideological reasons for hating the U.S., which would have been unthinkable not many years ago. Things have changed.

The Wolf certainly isn't innocent, he blows up children and gets his funding from the drug trade, but he's not painted completely blackly. That might present some problems when we're supposed to really hate the baddie.

But of course Arnie does what Arnie does and proceeds to orchestrate numerous murders and explosions. He plays a remarkably talented 54 year old Fireman.

But he's dour and relentless. There's none of the self mocking humour that has made Schwarzenegger the star that he's been for decades.

And what of the U.S. government? At one stage they subdue Arnold's character with a very nasty looking stun gun which fires out darts and then immobilizes its victim with electricity. I hope they don't really exist. They probably do.

The other notable factor in Collateral Damage was the female star Francesca Neri, who really was stunning. The two Johns, Leguizamo and Turturro also turn in notable performances as does Elias Koteas as agent Brandt. Just loved that hard laugh when he learnt that the fireman had made it into deepest Columbia.

2 John Flys Out Of Five

We Were Soldiers (2002)

Recreation of the first big land battle of the Vietnam War. Lot's of deaths. Mel's a bit annoying. Not for most. 2 Flys Out Of Five

[28 April 2002]

We Were Soldiers, as you'd expect from the title, is a war film told from the American soldier's point of view.

It's 1965 and the U.S. army has escalated their commitment to the Vietnam War.

North Vietnamese Regular Army personnel at Ia Drang in the central Highlands of Vietnam had attacked American troops and then retreated. Chasing them, The American Seventh Cavalry fly into battle, and into an ambush, on their new steeds, the helicopter.

Colonel Custer led a battalion of the same name, the First Battalion of the Seventh Cavalry, into a similarly risky battle many years before. Will this fight 10,000 miles from mainland America turn into another massacre?

We Were Soldiers follows to large extent actual events of the time. This battle became the first major land battle between the Americans and the Vietnamese of the Vietnam War.

The battalion was led by Lt. Col Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) who is now a sprightly eighty something year old. (He obviously survived!)

Moore was a veteran of the Korean conflict and according to his biography, upon which the film is based, a student of the history of warfare.

He knew how effective the Vietnamese had been against the French only a few years before. And this was the first use like this of the helicopter in warfare.

There's a long lead up to the battle, establishing the American troops as being parents and lovers to their wives. There's a good deal of knee bending. Moore was (is) Catholic.

Then we're into battle with a bang, thousands of them. The firefight is intense and lasted unabated for days. We cut periodically back to the U.S. where we see the wives receiving telegrams informing them of the death of their husbands.

The Vietnamese appear to be well drilled, heroic and surprisingly, neatly outfitted, and we're given some insights into the concerns of their officers as they try to cope with this new enemy.

The Vietnamese were veterans. The Americans were only the latest invaders of their country. The locals had already seen off the Chinese and the French in the previous decades.

Some attempt made to personalize the Vietnamese, even if not much effort was made to get appropriate extras. Not too many 1960's Vietnamese would have carried nearly as much body fat. I'm pretty sure I even spotted a black skinned, Negroid Vietnamese!

And what of Mel Gibson as Lt. Col Hal Moore? Apart from being far too old, today's Hal Moore would be well over 100 years old if Mel was the right age, Gibson's facial ticks, ideal for crazy cops a decade ago, tend to be just annoying in We Were Soldiers.

Sam Elliot as his offsider gets all the good lines. The photographer depicted in the movie wrote the book the film is based on with Hal Moore.

But We Were Soldiers isn't riveting cinema. It's relentless, but those who really like war movies because of the violence will only enjoy it. Mel does Mel well. Has he ever done anything else?

And those of you who might think that the final `victory', the rush up the hill, in the battle looked a bit strange will be reassured by the fact that reportedly it didn't happen.

The Vietnamese in fact moved deeper into their tunnel complex because of devastating air bombardment, principally from B52 bombers. Not because of the no doubt heroic efforts of the Americans on the ground.

The Vietnamese were heavily mauled in this battle.

They retreated and regrouped to fight another day. The Americans were always outnumbered and less motivated on Vietnamese home soil.

A pattern was then set that continued until the Americans finally retreated in disarray from the country on April 30 1975. 2 Bloody Flys Out Of Five

John Q (2002)

Father takes over hospital when son is denied a heart transplant because the insurance won't pay. Preachy. One Fly Out Of Five

[28 April 2002]

Hey we already know that there are two classes of health care on the planet, one for the rich and one for the poor.

Hey we already know that the fine print on insurance policies often takes advantage of the unwary and the less powerful.

Hey we already know that justice depends as much as anything on how much money and power you wield.

We don't need to be preached to in feature movies on such matters. We can take it as a given. John Q even has the characters stopping mid scene to deplore the unfairness of health care in the U.S.. Why not just make a documentary and be done with it! John Q has the feel of a made for T.V. mini series.

John Q tells the story of a working poor family in the U.S. whose young son suddenly collapses during a little league baseball game. The boy is diagnosed as having a lousy heart, which needs to be replaced by means of a heart transplant. The boy will die within a few days, weeks or months without the transplant.

Dad (Denzel Washington) and Mum (Kimberly Elise) agree to the operation but are then asked for their insurance details. Because Dad, also known as John Q., hasn't had much work lately his insurance cover has been demoted and they won't cover.

The hospital, represented by Ms Payne (Anne Heche) won't offer any help and suggest that the boy be offered conditions to keep him as comfortable as possible until he dies.

John Q. in desperation chains off the Emergency Room of the hospital and takes hostages, demanding that his son be put on the list for heart transplants.

The police and the media become involved, There are some rather heavy handed attempts at satire involving a preening T.V. personality and believe it or not a police sniper. It's all rather heavy handed and awkward. Stay home and watch Oprah instead.

One Hearty Fly Out Of Five

40 Days and 40 Nights (2002)

Young fellow gives up sex and naughty thoughts for Lent. Friends male and female take bets and set sexy traps. Not nearly as funny as it might sound. 2 Flys Out Of Five.

[28 April 2002]

This made for youngsters film has Matt (Josh Hartnett) giving up sex, and naughty thoughts about sex for lent. He's been dumped by his girlfriend (Vinessa Shaw) six months previously but has since developed a real problem.

When he's having sex with anyone else he imagines the ceiling cracking above his head. Sex isn't fun any more so he gives it up, but just for lent.

These sex romp comedies evolve, if that's the right word. These days they're increasingly profane and the latest thing is masturbation. What was no go area five years ago is so fashionable now it will soon become required. What will be the next fad? Celibacy?

It seems that in Matt's world the overwhelming topic is sex. When one of their number goes on the wagon it becomes a matter of honour to get Matt laid. They even start a book on it and of course put it up on the internet.

Then Matt meets a pretty girl (Shannyn Sossamon) who of course looks like the new best thing. She reckons he's interesting because he won't even kiss her. Is he gay? (They must sell a lot of contraceptives in these communities.)

Josh Hartnett has been doing war movies of late (Pearl Harbour, Black Hawk Down). He's pleasant in 40 Days and 40 Nights. So is Shannyn Sossamon).

Bagel Man (Michael C. Maronna) and Jerry (Griffin Dunne) get the best lines in a throw away comedy that will be of value to those wanting to ogle Josh Hartnett.

2 Masturbating Flys Out Of Five.

Showtime (2002)

2 cops have a media team tag along. One wants to be a movie star, the other doesn't. Not a spoof, not a cop movie. Not a good movie. One Fly Out Of Five

[22 April 2002]

Showtime (Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, Rene Russo) is meant to be a spoof of cop movies but contains enough `action' in the form of big guns and car chases to make that debatable.

What of De Niro and Murphy, both archetypes within the genre, spoofing themselves? Well it becomes boring, particularly in the case of Robert De Niro.

Robert De Niro has been playing these types of roles for decades now and is old enough you'd think to have moved off the streets into a police desk job. But that's beside the point. De Niro doesn't look like he's even trying in Showtime.

De Niro's character Mitch has seen it all, doesn't like the upstart Trey (Eddie Murphy) but has fallen foul of the boss and the media for destroying a television camera that got in his way while a crime was being committed.

Mitch and Trey are ordered to cooperate with a television producer called Chase (Rene Russo) in the hope that the PR will be profitable for the police force.

Big nasty guns have hit the streets and the boys are chasing them down. This is done fairly seriously even though the film is I think supposed to be a spoof.

It might have worked better if it had gone all out Police Academy style. Then all of the actors in Showtime, even the stars, wouldn't have all seemed to have been doing cameo roles.

One Lazy Fly Out Of Five

The Scorpion King (2002)

Spin off from The Mummy films. Lots of muscles, sandals, sand and swords. Not many clothes. Sex without eroticism. Violence without blood. Good fun. 3 Flys Out Of Five

[22 April 2002]

The Scorpion King, starring The Rock of World Championship Wrestling fame, is unashamedly about men with very big muscles, women with very little clothing, swords, sand and sandals. It's fun.

The Rock, real name Dwayne Johnson, just might crack it for the new big muscled super hero, the Arnie of the 21st century, if that genre still exists.

He has a similar feel, only without Schwarzenegger's accent, a self mocking assuredness that makes The Rock very likeable, at least in this movie.

The plot is a joke, as it's meant to be. The scorpion King is something of a follow on from the Brendan Frazer Mummy duo of flicks, but only nominally.

A tyrant called Memmon (Steven Brand) rules some ancient sandy land with the help of a beautiful sorceress (Kelly Hu).

The Rock plays Mathayus who, with a jokey sidekick (Grant Heslov) and a huge cohort (Michael Clarke Duncan, The Green Mile), takes on the bad guy in a series of big battles.

Lots die but this is a film with no blood. That's balanced by a feast of male and female flesh, carefully concealed by a few stitches of thread.

This is violence with a lot of grunt but a minimum of carnage. This is sex with a lot of grunt but no eroticism.

The Scorpion King starring The Rock was introduced in The Mummy Returns. Somehow he's reincarnated here as a goody, reinforcing the parallels with Arnie in The Terminator films.

We'll see how The Rock shapes up after this promising debut in a leading roll.

3 Sandy Flys Out Of Five

Crossroads (I) (2002)

Britney Spears, Taryn Manning. A road movie. Suprisingly serious film where Britney wins a karaoke contest! Spears is also cute and likeable. A fine performance from Manning as pregnant trash talking pregnan

[22 April 2002]

Britney Spears has largely escaped my notice, except that apparently she's the U.S. flag waver for maintenance of virginity until marriage.

As such, she would represent a fairly small percentage of Australian brides and bride grooms I would imagine.

I would like to report that in Crossroads Britney apparently does `do it'. That information might be vital for anyone considering attending the movie who would be offended by such a situation.

And I would also like to announce that Britney Spears is cute and photogenic which the rest of the world no doubt have already noticed. And that she wins a karaoke contest! Surprise, surprise.

Crossroads is a road movie. Three high school girls take off for a long drive to California with an unknown hunk who is rumoured to be a murderer (but who also has a car). That's about it.

Films like these win or fail according to how interesting you find the characters. Lucy (Spears) is searching for her estranged Mum in Arizona.

Kit (Zoe Saldana) is chasing after her boyfriend in L.A.. Mimi (Taryn Manning (Crazy/Beautiful) is pregnant and heading to a band audition in L.A.!

The boy Ben (Anson Mount) is there mainly to look handsome for the girls and coincidentally to compose music for Lucy's poetry. It all sounds fairly unpromising I know but Lucy and Mimi make a fairly weak script sing quite a bit at times.

Things get pretty dramatic too in an offhand sort of way, to the extent that I thought for a moment that Mimi had gained her name from Puccini's La Boheme.

That's no criticism either. Taryn Manning as Mimi adds quite a bit of bounce to film that could have been just a teenage homage to Britney. Crossroads has presented Britney Spears as an actress with a good deal of charm and a script that takes a surprisingly serious bent.

3 Flys with Bared Navels Out Of Five.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

An East Berlin born transexual heads a rock band in the USA. Innovative with a rock musical feel and featuring memorable animation. 4 Flys Out Of Five

[22 April 2002]

Hedwig And The Angry Inch is part rock musical, part animated film, part stage play and very much a virtuoso performance for its writer/director and lead actor John Cameron Mitchell.

Hansel/Hedwig was born in East Berlin before the wall came down, becomes a transsexual prostitute/singer in America in the sixties and then falls in love with a young boy who becomes a big stadium performer on the strength of the songs Hedwig composes.

Evocative animation accompany cabaret style songs and some of those songs are very angry indeed.

John Cameron Mitchell lends an admirable dignity to the part of Hansel/Hedwig. Hedwig And The Angry Inch is worth chasing up in the Video stores if it has left your multiplex.

4 Flys with Angry Inches Out Of Five

The Time Machine (2002)

Classic story with modern props and sets. A nifty time machine, a whiz bang hologram, a changed moon and charming cliff dwellings. 2 Flys Out Of Five.

[14 April 2002]

The Time Machine inherits some pretty sweet concepts, is sensibly pretty short (96 minutes) and displays a couple of neat sets and props. HG Wells wrote the original story over a hundred years ago and the idea still has charm.

This film relocates the machine from London to New York (of course) and of course has updated some of the elements. I did like machine. It's all whirring gyroscopes, brass rings to tell the year and a leather bound old chair. Pretty nifty I reckon.

Then there's a hologram the time traveler meets in the future. The hologram (played by Orlando Jones) is a know all, literally. It's got the history of literature and science in it's computer memory banks and can launch into choral version of songs, in beautiful harmony just by replicating itself.

And then there's a phase in the future that we see involving the moon. This doesn't bear further explanation for fear of spoiling the idea, but that was interesting.

We later travel 800,000 years into the future which would have to be some sort of record for these films. What's recommended there are the dwellings of some of the humans living at that time. They're suspended on cliffs and really are eye catching.

The Time Traveler is called Alexander and is played by Aussie Guy Pierce. Pierce makes Alexander a rather fey, love sick puppy. That's fine until Alexander has to physically battle some baddies in the far future. By then The Time Machine had become fairly humdrum anyway.

2 Sets And Props Flys Out Of Five.

Panic Room (2002)

Classy thriller about a mum and her daughter fighting off home invaders. Well made and acted. 4 Flys Out Of Five

[14 April 2002]

It's the middle of the night. A mother is hiding in a secure room, in her house, with her young daughter. Three intruders have broken in.

The room is a `panic room', sadly said to be commonly installed in new rich peoples houses in Manhattan who live in fear of home invasions.

It has thick steel walls, food and medical provisions, its own power, phone and air supply, and is designed to keep intruders out.

You rush in, punch a button, a door rapidly slams shut and settle in, with the invaders on the outside. Surveillance cameras give views of the rest of the house.

David Koepp (Carlito's Way, Mission: Impossible, and Snake Eyes) wrote Panic Room. David Ficher (Seven, The Game, Fight Club) is the director. They have concocted a classy thriller, a rich piece of escapism about people trying to escape.

Jodie Foster is in her element as the mum Meg. Meg is capable and smart which is handy because Panic Room becomes a strategic battle. The defenses of the room are formidable and the intruders will only get in if the can persuade Meg or her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) to open the door.

The intruders are a mix. One is a dangerous hothead, another is a strategist and the other put the team together. They expected the house to be empty and need to adjust to the idea of an assault on the inhabitants of the house.

Forrest Whitaker (The Crying Game) is the strategist and brains amongst the intruders. Country singer Dwight Yoakam is a credible maddie and Jared Leto makes up the trio. Young Kristen Stewart does a fine job as young Sarah.

The opening credits are spectacular and the camera craft by David Ficher and his team is outstanding. Ficher loves to swing cameras through the house in elaborate, impressive, digitally enhanced shots. Panic Room is a terrific display of film making. It will have the adrenaline rushing.

4 Wide Eyed Flys Out Of Five