Matt's Blog

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 26 October 2009

Killed By Hype

I am officially “over” the Twilight movie series.  I actually liked the first film.  It was a nice surprise – something a little different and it was great to see it do so well at the box-office.

However, since that time, I haven’t been able to get away from all the hype and over publicity for this next film (which I’m yet to see).  It may be a good film but I’m sick of hearing about it.

Tickets have been on sale for weeks and there are special midnight screenings when it comes out on November 19.  Radio stations have been taking it up – giving away tickets to premieres and talking about any gossip they can in relation to stars Robert Pattinson (who has zero credits to his name outside of the Twilight saga) and Kirsten Stewart.  Let’s not forget about the trashy magazines either.  Every time I’m queuing up in a supermarket, I see their two faces looking back at me with some crazy, sensationalistic headline.

I’ve learned from experience that the more you hype up a film, the more likely it is to disappoint.  I’m sure that just all the Twilight devotees will love it anyway – no matter how good or bad it is.  Other more discerning moviegoers may not feel as passionate.  It’s kind of like the Harry Potter series.

This won’t mean anything to the big studios that will be rolling in money when New Moon is released.  This film is going to make sooooooo much money that it’s not funny.  I wish I owned a share in it.  I should have written that vampire script after all.

Let me finish my rant by saying that I’m more looking forward to the Coen Brothers film which is being released on that same day (A Serious Man) as opposed to New Moon.

Matt’s Best Of The Decade – Animated Films

Last week, I started my look at the best films of the decade.  This week’s focus is on another area of cinema which has grown exponentially over the last decade – animation.

Back in the mid 1990s, it was Disney who dominated the animation game.  They’d release one big blockbuster every year.  Things changed in 1995 with the arrival of Toy Story – the first computer-generated full length film ever made.  You can forget how quickly times have changed.  Animation is everywhere today.

In 2001, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences introduced a new category at the Oscars – best animated feature.  It’s a category which has been very competitive since its inception.  Shrek took the honours in 2001 and WALL-E won last year.

It wasn’t easy coming up with my two top animated films for the decade and the two that I’ve decided on may catch people off guard – because they’re both in a foreign language.  They are…

Spirited Away (released in 2002) – full review is here.

Persepolis (released in 2008) – full review is here.

What’s also a little strange about my two choices is that they’re both simple, hand-drawn animation.  It’s cool seeing a computer animated film which is rich in detail (like anything coming out of Pixar lately) but it’s the story which is important above all things.

Spirited Away is from acclaimed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki and won the Oscar in 2002 for best animated film.  It’s pretty “out there” but that’s what I loved about it.  Miyazaki has such a vivid imagination, a creativity which cannot be matched.  It has a permanent space in my DVD collection and I never get tired of seeing it.  A beautiful tale.

Persepolis blew me away at last year’s Brisbane International Film Festival.  It’s actually a rarity too in that it’s black and white animation.  It’s a darker story (not necessarily suited for young children) and left me feeling uneasy at times.  It proved that you don’t need to have real actors to convey raw emotions.

I have plenty of honourable mentions this week and they include Chicken Run, Shrek, The Incredibles, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, Ratatouille, Kung Fun Panda, WALL-E, Cars, Up and Coraline.

You can bet there’ll be a lot more animation in the years to come – especially of the 3D variety.

Next week, I’ll look at my favourite thrillers of the decade.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 19 October 2009

With roughly 10 weeks remaining this year, I’ve decided to do my wrap up over this period.  Each week, I’m going to focus on a different genre and name my 2 best films from each.  I was only going to name one film initially in each genre but just found it too hard.  The buffer gives me a chance to expand a little further.

Just because a film featured prominently in my top 10 list for a certain year didn’t guarantee it a spot in my decade wrap.  Some films do age better than others and have had the chance to see some of the films a second, third, fourth… time has helped me develop a better appreciation for just how great it is.

In total, I’ve seen and reviewed 2,021 films between 2000 and 2009.  There’s still two months to go of course so the final total is to be determined.  I point this out because it wasn’t an easy assignment trying to pick my favourites.  I started with a brainstorming session on a bit of paper and slowly narrowed the field.  It was sad to leave certain films out but I might sneak them in for a quick mention along the way.

Matt’s Best Of The Decade – Foreign Language Films

Foreign language films have exploded in Australia over the past decade.  With many new cinemas opening their doors, the demand for different types of movies has increased.  At the start of the decade, one of your only chances to see foreign language films was at the Brisbane International Film Festival.  Now, it seems there’s a foreign language film released each week.

On top of that, there’s a multitude of mini festivals shown in Palace and Dendy cinemas.  There’s also Bollywood which has infiltrated Australia – there’s a new film shown at the Hoyts Regent here in the city each week.

Having sifted through them all, my two favourites were:

Y Tu Mama Tambien (released in 2002) – full review can be found here.

The Lives Of Others (released in 2007) – full review can be found here. 

I remember seeing Y Tu Mama Tambien at the 2002 Brisbane International Film Festival.  It started with a full-on sex scene and it finished with one of my all time favourite endings – Julio and Tenoch sitting in a café with a narrator describing events.  Mexican director has since gone on and made Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban (the third in the series) and Children Of Men.  He’s creative and knows how to tell a story.

The Lives Of Others was my favourite film of 2007.  It had won the Oscar for best foreign language film but even I wasn’t prepared for how good it was.  It opened my eyes to a period of German history that I didn’t know much about.  Many German films focus on the atrocities of World War II but this film was set in the 1980s – just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall.  I have to say that I was saddened to learn of the passing of star Ulrich Muhe who died not long after the film was released.  Her earned a posthumous BAFTA Award for best actor but lost to Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood.

Honourable mentions in the foreign language category go to films including The Spanish Apartment, The Motorcycle Diaries, Downfall, Turtles Can Fly, The Diving Bell & The Butterfly, The Counterfeiters, Summer Hours, No Man’s Land, The Man On The Train, Talk To Her and Kitchen Stories.

Next week, I’ll look at my favourite animated films of the decade.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 12 October 2009

It’s mid October and we’re closing in on the end of another year but it’s just occurred to me that we’re closing in on the end of another decade.  At some point in the next few weeks, I’ll have to do up a blog on my top 10 films of the past 10 years.  It won’t be easy to choose but I’ll give it a crack.  Some films that have appeared on my top 10 lists have definitely aged better than others.

Movie Violence

I have just returned from a special preview screening of The Final Destination.  It’s the fourth in the series which began back in 2000.  I think all the actors from that first film are now living in a ditch somewhere.  It was a film that brought death to the characters and unemployment to the actors.  Well, maybe with the exception of Seann William Scott who is typecast now anyway.

You know you’re getting old when you think a film is too gruesome.  It’s not that I couldn’t stomach the violence but I just can’t believe how far the boundaries have been pushed.  There is no way that this could have been shown in a movie theatre 20 years ago.  Maybe not even 5 years ago.  How far can we go before we start a trend back in the other direction?  Just like I’m waiting for political correctness to take a back seat.

I know this film will be popular so I won’t give away too many plot details.  When I mean plot details, I mean death details.  There’s no real story – it’s just people getting killed one after the other – just like in the Saw series.

But it’s disturbing to think that our society can find a film like this “entertaining”.  One of the characters tries to kill himself before death gets to him first.  He tries sleeping pills but throws them up.  He tries to gas himself in the garage but it doesn’t work.  He tries to hang himself from the ceiling but it doesn’t work.  I can think of plenty of people who would find these scenes distressing.  To cap it all off, two friends rescue him (from the hanging) and the magically realises the value of life and treats himself to a bottle of champagne.  I didn’t realise depression was such an easy disease to cure.

I’m not sure which death scene was the worst.  Each seemed to come with a lot of blood and a lot of body parts strewn all over the place.  The way that the make-up artists and special effects crew have captured the look of a freshly extricated intestine is a sight to behold.

To each their own however.  I think that if you want to see a film like this, you should be entitled to do so… within reason.  If you want to be shocked and if you want to have guts flying at you in 3D, then this film is for you.  Soak it up.  Even I admit that it had its moments.  Sometimes we need a film to get the blood pumping.  I’d rather see this than a new Sandra Bullock movie.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how the Classification Board of Australia have deemed this an “MA” rated film as opposed to an “R” rated film.  That means that any 15 year old can see this without parental supervision.  It’s this ridiculous decision that raises my eyebrows.  I know they will tell you otherwise but I think there are plenty of people in the 15-17 year age bracket who shouldn’t be exposed to this kind of violence and gruesomeness.

I then compare this rating with the R ratings dished out to films like Y Tu Mama Tambien, Candy and Zack & Miri Make A Porno.  Did the fact that The Final Destination has a light-heartedness make a difference to those on the Classification Board?  I still don’t know how it’s different from films like Halloween, Hostel, Wolf Creek and the last two Saw movies.

That’s my tirade for another week.  I’m off to find something a little more conservative on the telly…

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 05 October 2009

Everything is back on track following my return from wet and windy Melbourne.  I’ve been able to see 12 films over the past 10 days and we’re back on schedule.

Creative Film Advertising

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, the Italian Film Festival is now underway at the Palace Barracks and Palace Centro cinemas.

I was there last Wednesday night at the Barracks for the gala opening night celebrations and screening of Vincere.  I have to say that I was very pleased with the goody bags – a nice touch.

However, what I will remember most from the event was perhaps the most creative cinema advertisement that I’ve seen.  It’s hard to take in cinema advertising sometimes (given that there’s often so much of it) but there are some very creative people out there making these ads.  You have a little more flexibility in the theatres as well – you’re not limited to a mere 30 seconds like you are on television.  It’s often the car or alcohol ads which leave me going “hey, that’s pretty cool”.

But it was actually pasta which grabbed my attention in this instance.  The ad started with a guy on the screen sitting alone at an Italian café with a bowl of pasta in front of him.  He then picked up his phone and started dialling.  I wasn’t paying much attention at the time but suddenly, a guy’s mobile phone starting ringing in the middle of the theatre.  He stood up and then started talking loudly to the guy on the other end.

My first reaction was how rude he was.  I couldn’t believe someone had the audacity to speak so loudly on their phone during the movie.  People were murmuring.  Then, I realised.  He was talking to the guy on the screen!  The man in the audience would say something and then the man on the screen would respond.  It was all scripted with perfect timing.  This went on for about a minute (quite a funny conversation), they both hung up and the guy in the theatre left to a huge applause.  How often do you see that?  An ad getting a round of applause?

I have to give credit where credit is due and my hat goes off to Zafarelli pasta.  I can remember the name as there was a free pack of spaghetti in my goody bag.  I have to admit I didn’t remember the name first off – despite how much I was taken in by the advertisement.  How odd.

Anyway, it was another movie-going experience to remember.

Toronto Film Festival

The Toronto Film Festival wrapped up two weeks ago and I haven’t had a chance to mention the winners.  It’s always great to do well in Toronto since it’s the launch pad for so many Oscar hopefuls.  Slumdog Millionaire won the audience award in Toronto last year and it went on to win the coveted Oscar for best film.

This year’s audience winners were:

1^st – Precious: Based on The Novel “Push” by Sapphire.  Yes, that is the full title.  There’s been substantial buzz for this film for a while and the IMDB describes it as being about “an overweight, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child and is invited to enrol in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.”  Sounds like a tough sell but I’ll believe the audience.

2^nd – Mao’s Last Dancer.  This has now been released in Australia and my mini review is above.  I didn’t care much for it and am surprised to see it included here.

3^rd – Micmacs.  A French film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of Amelie and A Very Long Engagement.  The IMDB says – “A man and his friends come up with an intricate and original plan to destroy two big weapons manufacturers.”  That looks like a very interesting movie to me.

The best documentary was won by The Topp Twins which will be out in Australia next month.

Now You See It

A couple of quick things before I finish up this week.  In 1990, I appeared as a 13-year-old on a television show called Now You See It.  I’ve finally gotten around to uploading the clips on Youtube and you can view them at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro22t7I2ERc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD2L1pCr8eI.

Those who know me well will get a kick out of them I’m sure.  At least I got the one movie question right.  I can’t believe I’d even heard of Ben Hur at that age.

Roman Polanski

I had a good friend ask me for what stance I’m taking on Roman Polanski and as this is a political hot potato, my comment is not to comment at this point in time.  A lot of big name Hollywood stars are rallying behind Polanski and it’ll be interesting to see what becomes of him in the near future.