Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 27 June 2002

In a newspaper, Enid reads an personal ad from a loser named Seymour (Buscemi) trying to get in touch with a woman he fleetingly met at an airport.  Intrigued by the pathetic image the ad portrayed, Enid calls the number and pretending to be the elusive woman, tells Seymour to meet her at a local cafe.  Seymour shows up with Enid, Rebecca and their friend Josh (Renfro) giggling and judging him from a distance while he waits for the date that will never arrive.

Feeling pity, Enid then decides to follow Seymour home and discovers he has a love for old records and music.  Introducing herself at a garage sale, Enid and Seymour hit it off and they find themselves attracted by each other’s wit, sarcasm and negativity.  But what is developing between them?  Is it a friendship or something more significant?

Based on a comic book by Daniel Clowes, Ghost World is a quirky black comedy that turns the teen genre on its head.  There’s a bit of Enid in all of us.  Director Terry Zwigoff describes her as someone “trying to find herself in a world that’s rapidly turning into one big consumer theme park, a monoculture without much of anything authentic remaining.”  Aren’t there times where you’ve become sick of the predictable commercialism that seems to lace everything these days?

The interaction between the characters is the film’s heart.  Enid doesn’t know where she’s going with her life and her confusion affects her friendships with both Rebecca and Seymour.  Just when you start to like her, she’ll do something stupid and your opinions will change.  Don’t expect the film’s conclusion to offer much resolution.  It’s very exciting to have a film explore these feelings.  Is Enid the hero or not?

From the get-go, Ghost World is something special.  The background music to the opening credits comes from the 1965 Indian film Gumnaam.  Clearly, Terry Zwigoff doesn’t know the meaning of the word conventional.  To add spice, Zwigoff throws in an hilarious subplot involving Enid going to summer school and being taught by an art teacher (Illeana Douglas) who has no idea what she’s doing.  It’s crazy!

Thora Birch is simply magical.  Getting decent roles as a young female in Hollywood is a near impossibility but following her breakthrough effort in American Beauty, Birch has found that lightening can strike twice - she was born to play this role.  Controversially overlooked at Oscar time, Steve Buscemi is also well cast in playing such a big-time loser.  He’s still one of the most overlooked actors of today and most are still unfamiliar with his name despite appearing in films such as Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Fargo, Con Air, The Big Lebowski and Armageddon.

How can you pass up an opportunity like this to see one of the year’s best films?  It’s about the challenges and difficulties in this world that intelligent people face.  In a world that’s being overrun by shopping centres and coffee shops, places around the world are losing their character.  They’re becoming “ghost worlds” so to speak.  Filmmaking is in the same boat but thanks to talented individuals like Terry Zwigoff, Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi there’s hope for us all yet...

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 June 2002

Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron (a long title I know) is from Dreamworks, the same production company who made Shrek, Antz, The Prince Of Egypt and Chicken Run.  It’s quite unusual in that the animals in the film (mostly horses) don’t talk.  They neigh and snort like regular horses when you think about it, this is unusual.  There’s hardly any dialogue at all.  A few humans speak and Matt Damon does some light narration but aside, it’s just the background noises and the loud film score from Bryan Adams and Hans Zimmer that you’re likely to notice.

The story’s simplicity will help it appeal to kids.  It’s the Old West and a feisty stallion is captured by humans to be broken in and used as a work horse.  Refusing to give in to the humans, the stallion escapes captivity and begins a journey to find his way back home to be with his mother and friends.  Along the way, he’ll meet some interesting characters and also an attractive mare to spice things up.

It’s less that 80 minutes in duration so make sure you don’t arrive late but do come with children or else there’s little point.  Unlike other recent animations, there’s nothing here to appeal to adults and only kids will derive any satisfaction.  My cinema was packed with plenty of them and their laughter and screams suggested they liked what they saw.

Bryan Adams’s songs are well written and might pop up again in the Oscar season.  But without funny talking animals, this Spirit isn’t going to set the box-office alight, have customers returning for repeat business, or have them cashing in on cheap merchandise and happy meals.  All given, it’s not going to be the film on the tip of kids’ tongues this winter.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 June 2002

On April 22, 2054, citizens of the United States will vote on the issue of precrime.  For six years, the system has been proven flawless by a well-analysed experiment within Washington D.C.  Precrime is a homicide prevention system developed by both the technologists and crime specialists under government direction.  It allows police to utilise a new technology known as previsualisation - a tool that allows them to witness, verify and halt murders before they occur.

With an unwavering belief in the system, Detective John Anderton (Cruise) is head of the Precrime Unit.  On the eve of the referendum, the unit is visited by a sceptical Detective Ed Witwer (Farrell) to investigate its success on behalf of the government.  He is granted full access to the top-secret facility and gets an exclusive look at the three gifted individuals (known as precogs) who can foresee the horrible crimes.

In an instant, John’s life becomes a nightmare.  The precogs identify him as being guilty of the murder of Leo Crow.  John doesn’t even know who Crow is but with the department certain he will commit this murder in 36 hours, the whole police force is looking for him.  John starts running but keeping hidden is an impossibility.  Technology has reached a point where retinal detectors all over the city can pinpoint one’s location.  So just how can he escape?  Who is Leo Crow?  Why is he being set up?

In the same vein as A.I., Spielberg has chosen to peer into the future to provide stimuli for his film.  Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick (Total Recall, Bladerunner), Minority Report is impeccably shot.  Spielberg has created a believable world where the motives and ethics of every character are placed under the microscope.  In addition to exploring the intriguing concept of precrime, the film predicts how advanced technology will become.  Some elements (such as advertising) are very funny but others (such as retinal scanning) are eerily chilling.

Perhaps burdened by an abundance of material, the film suffers in sticking too closely to proven script formulas (unlike A.I.).  The film is too predictable and we certainly won’t need the help of others to previsualise this finale.  A grittier, tougher ending was needed to deliver a bigger punch.  It’s a cop-out to have matters resolve so easily and a huge letdown to the potential developed in the introduction.

Unlike many of his recent works, Tom Cruise is forced to extend himself with this role and does deliver.  It was both a physically and mentally demanding performance and despite the noted weaknesses in the screenplay, he has the passion to keep our attention and maintain our faith in his plight.  Always wanting to work together, it took ten years for Spielberg and Cruise to settle on this project.  Cruise fans will lap it up but Spielberg fans won’t be as easily satisfied.

Like too many films of late, Minority Report fails to take the next step.  It has something important to say but is inhibited by the method chosen to deliver this message. 

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 June 2002

Conor unenthusiastically shows up for the first day of practice to meet his team.  They’re all from poverty stricken backgrounds and live in substandard housing on the outskirts of Chicago.  The training session doesn’t go well with the team showing their obvious lack of skill.  To make matters worse, Conor gets a visit from the league president warning him that if he can’t find a nine man team, the team will be kicked out.

To get two additional players, Conor goes to the local school and introduces himself to teacher Elizabeth Wilkes (Lane) who his instantly develops an attraction to.  Ms Wilkes promises to let more of her students play if Conor will help them prioritise their homework.  So, Conor begins the job of transforming his team from a team of jokes into a team of champions.  Not only is he successful, but he reaches a defined understanding of his own life and vows to get himself back on track.

Keanu Reeves would be one of the most hot-cold actors in the business.  He draws consistent criticism for many weak performances which have arisen because of bad casting.  Yet, when he finds a role that does suit, he rises to the occasion and reaffirms our faith in his ability.  Hardball best fits the later description.  Reeves is on-song and has the rough personality that matches that of Conor O’Neill.  Surprisingly, the talented Diane Lane doesn’t feature and is very much secondary to Conor’s and the kids’ stories.

You always know where a film like Hardball is heading and there’s only so much of it you can take.  As I’ve reiterated before, sport is most exciting when it is unpredictable.  Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, the underdog steals the show to heighten your interest.  The problem on screen is that sport movies usually are predictable and don’t contain the same level of excitement.  Honestly though, this is a feel good flick and nothing more should be expected.  There’s room for improvement but at least its heart is in the right place. 

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 June 2002

For those who’s seen episodes of the cartoon series, the script with require little explanation.  There’s an urban legend that creators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were smoking something (other than nicotine) when creating the Scooby-Doo concept.  It’s the story of two guys, two girls and a talking dog who solve mysteries.  Practically every episode was the same and to be honest, it’d be the last cartoon I’d expect to see made into a live action film.  Oh well, I was wrong.

In this adventure, Fred (Jones), Daphne (Gellar), Shaggy (Lillard), Velma (Cardellini) and Scooby have all gone their separate ways.  After years of solving mysteries, they’ve become arrogant and decided to begin individual careers.  Two years later, they are reluctantly reunited when Mondavarious (Atkinson), the owner of a new theme park named Spooky Island, ask them to solve a new mystery.  It seems the teen crowd that are attracted to the island are being brainwashed into mindless zombies.

The plot is plain dumb and needed way more spice.  The villains and ghosts/monsters are very silly and not even remotely close to the stuff I remember from the original cartoon.  Of the cast, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy is the only believable cast member.  His voice is amazingly similar to that of Shaggy in the cartoon and given his sense of humour, it’s no wonder he gets the most on-screen time.  Scooby is a computer generated character and is fun in his own right but it’s too obvious he isn’t real.

Freddie Prinze Jr would be my least favourite actor.  He is pathetic and his bad acting skills combined with bad script decisions has seen him feature in the abominable Head Over Heels, Boys And Girls, Down To You and Wing Commander.  This film was shot in Brisbane at Movie World and the stories from the set are very interesting.  Prinze and girlfriend co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar refused to eat lunch with the other cast and refused to be on set unless required.  Any extras were ordered not to look directly at either Prinze or Gellar between shooting scenes.  Who are these arrogant pricks?  What gives them such a god given right?  No offence, but both have much to learn about acting and neither has a long career ahead of them.

Within a week of seeing the opening day box-office numbers, the studio has already announced a sequel is in the works to be released in 2004.  You see???  This what you get by going to see this film!  By handing over our money, we’re only encouraging them to make even more shit!  It’s time the U.S. government stops focusing on the war in Afghanistan and starts looking at some of the atrocities being committed against audience members in the nation’s multiplexes.