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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 29 March 2008

I can remember when I started reviewing movies (back in 1996), that you’d only see a handful of foreign language movies released each year.  Times have changed.  The Palace Centro Cinemas at New Farm recently hosted the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival.  38 French films were screened over 10 days.  Many of these screenings were sold out.

If you weren’t able to make it along, don’t worry.  A few of the movies that screened will be receiving a wider release over the coming weeks.  The first cab off the rank is The Secret Of The Grain.

For those who see a lot of French movies, you might be in for a surprise with this one.  It’s very long (151 minutes), centres on an Arab family living in France and features a bunch of non-professional actors with no prior experience.  You’re probably asking yourself – why is being released?  The reason is because it is a good film and has been well reviewed across the globe.  It won the Cesar Award for best film (the French equivalent of the Oscars) and was singled out for a special jury prize at the prestigious Venice Film Festival.

It’s the story of a 60-year-old named Slimane (Boufares) who is not happy with the way his life has turned out.  He’s worked his entire life at the shipyards but has slowly found himself made redundant.  There just isn’t as much work as there used to be.  He’s worried that he won’t be able to provide for his family in the long-run and that he has been a disappointment to them up until now.

Slimane is a quiet man who keeps to himself.  He does what people ask of him with minimal fuss and without ever complaining.  It’s a terrific performance from Habib Boufares who has never appeared in a movie before.  I respected him but felt sorry for him at the same time.  He’s just an ordinary man living an ordinary life.  I really wanted things to get better for him.

After decades of working for others, Slimane decides to roll the dice and take a chance.  He uses all his savings to buy an old, rundown boat.  He wants to give it a complete refurbishment and turn it into a floating restaurant.  His family are 100% behind him and will do whatever it takes to help him out.  All their efforts go into a huge opening gala night where some influential people have been invited.  It’s an event which could make or break him.

As I’ve already indicated, this is an unusual film.  I can see it annoying some viewers.  For example, there’s a scene which goes for about 10 minutes where the whole family sits around the dining table and share a huge luncheon feast.  They just talk about their lives and what’s been happening.  Whilst the film does tend to drag at times (particularly the ending), I liked this approach.  You get a true sense of what the family is like.  It’s as if I was watching a documentary.

I don’t know who to recommend this film to and I think it will struggle at the Australian box-office.  Still, there’s not a lot of great stuff out at the moment and this is better than most movies currently screening.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 23 March 2008

My favourite film of 2004 was Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.  It was written by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and was directed by Frenchman Michel Gondry.  If you haven’t seen it, then it’s your own loss.  It’s one of the most original and beautiful films ever made.  It won the Oscar for best original screenplay and is currently ranked 51^st in the Internet Movie Database’s best films of all time (as voted by the public).

If I could, I’d use my next 500 words to go into more detail on my Eternal Sunshine is such a great movie.  Instead, I have a more difficult task.  Be Kind Rewind is the latest film from Michel Gondry and it is… what’s the word I’m looking for… horrendous.  I cannot believe how bad this film is.  How did such a creative and innovative director come up with such rubbish???

The nonsensical storyline goes as follows.  Elroy Fletcher (Glover) operates a video store called Be Kind Rewind out of a rundown building in New York.  Elroy is behind the times and has never caught on to the DVD era.  He only has VHS tapes.  Suffice to say, his customer base is very small and he’s not making much money (especially since his rental charge is only $1 per tape).

When Elroy goes on holidays, he leaves his son Mike (Def) in charge.  I don’t know why he bothered since there are next-to-no customers.  The person who seems to spend the most amount of time in the store is Mike’s best friend, Jerry (Black).  They’re both morons.  You’ll pick this up pretty quickly once you’ve been introduced to them.

Jerry inadvertently magnetises his brain when he tries to sabotage an electrical power station (for god knows what reason).  When he walks into the video store, his magnetic field erases the contents from every video in the store.  Mike realises this pretty quickly when the customers start returning their tapes and complaining that there’s nothing on them.  Things don’t look good.

Instead of buying new copies or dubbing DVDs, Mike and Jerry decide to reshoot every movie.  Their first effort is Ghostbusters.  Using an old video camera and any useful prop they can find, Mike, Jerry and a few friends star in a 20 minute rip-off of the original film.  They get good feedback from the customer and so they decide to do more.  They end up reshooting an array of films including Rush Hour 2, Driving Miss Daisy and Robocop.

Almost overnight, Be Kind Rewind becomes a sensation.  People are coming from across the city to see the latest creations of Mike and Jerry.  The cash register is filling up with money and it looks like they’ve saved the video store from extinction.

This film is a mess.  It seems to take forever to get to the part where they start shooting the spoof movies - why was the introduction so long?  Danny Glover’s character goes on a bizarre trip to scout out other video stores – what was the point of this?  Every customer seems to love Mike and Jerry’s movies – how could this possibly be true?

By biggest grievance with Be Kind Rewind is that it is too convoluted.  I know it’s only meant to be a comedy but surely something could have been written that was more plausible than this?  I thought that maybe it was an inside joke in that Gondry has made a film with lots of plot holes to mirror those films being made by Mike and Jerry.  Even if that’s the case, I still want my money back.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 27 March 2008

If you’re a fan of street dancing, you’ll probably get a kick out of Step Up 2 The Streets.  You’ll see some well choreographed dance sequences performed by a young, fresh cast.  The soundtrack isn’t too bad either.

This film is the sequel to Step Up (released in 2006) which starred Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan and Australian Rachel Griffiths.  Tatum makes a brief cameo at the start of the film but aside from his appearance, this is a different story with different people.  I don’t think this is as good as the original (which I gave a B grading) but it’s still worth a look.

The story is set in Maryland and focuses on a girl named Andie West (Evigan).  She’s part of a crew called the “410” who roam the city and cause trouble with their illegal street dancing.  One of the latest stunts, where they disrupted a bunch of commuters on a city train, made the news.  Andie’s mother died of cancer many years ago and her foster-mum thinks she’s fallen in with the wrong crowd.  She wants to send her to live with her aunt in Texas.

This doesn’t go down well with Andie who pleads for one more chance.  With the help of a new friend named Chase (Hoffman), she gets herself enrolled in the dance program at the Maryland School of Arts.  It’s time to knuckle down and fly right.

There’s an interesting mix of people at the school and Andie quickly makes new friends.  They share her love for street dancing and aren’t exactly thrilled with the old-style dance lessons and programs which are set by the school.  They start up their own street dancing club and start practicing in secret.  Their goal is to compete at a huge underground dance competition known as “The Streets” and prove just how good they are.

As I’ve already alluded to, the dance scenes are the best part of Step Up 2 The Streets.  The best part is probably the finale where the crew showcase their talent in pouring rain at The Streets competition.  It looks great and credit goes to 28-year-old director Jon Chu.

If you’re seeing this movie for its storyline however, don’t get your hopes up.   It doesn’t make much sense when you break it down.  I can’t go into a lot of detail for fear of ruining the film for those who haven’t seen it.  All I’ll say is that transformation of certain characters (such as the big-name dance school teacher) was pretty hard to believe.

Both Step Up and Step Up 2 The Streets have made over $50m at in the United States.  There’s a strong market for this new wave of “dance movies” and I’m sure we’ll be seeing more in the near future.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 15 March 2008

Andy (Hoffman) and Hank (Hawke) are two brothers with money problems.  Andy is the payroll clerk at a large real estate agency and has been stealing cash to fuel his drug addiction.  He has just learned that the business is to be audited by the IRS and that if they find that money missing, he’ll be in huge trouble.

Hank works at the same real estate agency.  I guess it’s not a high paying position as he owes a substantial amount to his ex-wife for rent and child support.  It seems that every day, his ex-wife (who lives in the same apartment building) is nagging him for the cash.

Andy comes up with a hair-brained scheme to solve their financial dilemmas.  Their elderly parents (played by Finney and Harris) own a small jewellery store in a shopping complex.  They plan to rob the store, sell the jewels and make out with roughly $600,000.  Andy justifies the crime by saying that the insurance policy will cover his parents’ losses.

It’s a stupid plan and neither has the courage to go through with it.  Andy comes up with a lame excuse to avoid involvement in the actual theft.  He says that he was involved in a recent real estate deal in the area and that someone might recognise him.  He wants Hank to do it alone.  Hank doesn’t think he has the guts to pull it off and so asks a dodgy friend named Bobby to help out.  Hank will drive the get away car while Bobby performs the robbery.

As you can expect, it all goes terribly wrong for Andy and Hank.  It turns out that their mother, Nanette, is the only one working in the store on the morning of the crime.  She is filling in for someone.  As Bobby prepares to leave the store with his stolen back of jewels, Nanette takes a gun from under the cash register and shoots him.  He then responds by shooting Nanette.

The tagline from the film’s poster says it all – “no one was supposed to get hurt”.  This was meant to be a quick and easy grab for cash.  Andy has already lined up a crooked dealer to help offload the stolen jewels.  Now they’re in a position where their mother is in hospital fighting for her life, a trail of evidence threatens to expose them and oh yes, their money problems are even bigger.  What are they going to do?

My friend described this film best when he used the term “depressing”.  It’s the perfect word.  This is a grim story for which there cannot be a happy ending.  You aren’t going to leave the cinema with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

It’s still a great movie though.  The reason it is so depressing is because it is so believable.  I could see this kind of thing happening.  This isn’t like your normal heist flick where every detail has been carefully planned and some incredible detective puts all the pieces together to solve the crime.  Andy and Hank are just two stupid guys doing some really stupid things to get their lives back on track.  I almost felt sorry for them.

Academy Award winning director Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network) is 83 years of age.  You’d think he’d want to sit back and enjoy his retirement.  I guess he just loves making movies.  He’s done a great job here and I do like the film’s style.  We start by seeing the crime itself and then we take flashbacks to see how it came about.  It’s creative storytelling.

Before The Devil Knows Your Dead received a terrific response from the public and from critics when it premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival.  The fact that it’s a small, low-budget film saw it get lost amongst the bigger releases during the recent awards season.  I like the movie and I like the title.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 24 March 2008

Detective Johnson:   Mr. Toomey, as you would have heard, there was a murder in your apartment building a few nights ago.  We’d like to ask you a few questions.

Matthew Toomey:     No worries.  Fire away.

Detective Johnson:   Where were you on the night of March 24 at around 9:00pm?

Matthew Toomey:     Um, ah, I was actually at the movies.

Detective Johnson:   What was the movie?  Where did you see it?

Matthew Toomey:     It was, ah, um, ah, um, the Hannah Montana 3D movie.  I saw it at the Birch Carroll & Coyle Cinemas at Indooroopilly.

Detective Johnson:   Hmmm, ok.  And who did you see it with?  Is there anyone who can verify that you were at the cinemas?

Matthew Toomey:     Ah, look, I know this is going to sound bad, but I actually saw it on my own.

Detective Johnson:   So you’re telling me that you gave up a Monday night and went alone to see a film marketed at 12-year-old girls?  Do you really expect me to believe this?

Matthew Toomey:     Well it is the truth, I swear.  There were just 4 of us in the cinema and I sat in the second back row to be as inconspicuous as possible.  I didn’t really want to attract attention to myself.

Detective Johnson:   But why were you watching that movie in the first place?  You’re sounding a little suspicious.

Matthew Toomey:     Well, you see, I’m actually a part-time film critic.  I have a website where you can see all my reviews and I also do a segment on 2 radio programs.  I missed the free press screening and so had to pay to see it like everyone else.  Trust me - this is the last film I’d pay to see.  I just went because I had to.

Detective Johnson:   Ok then.  I’ll look into that.  So do you remember who sold you the ticket at the cinema?  Can they confirm your whereabouts at 9:00pm?

Matthew Toomey:     No, I can’t remember, sorry.  I was trying to avoid eye contact with the cashier.  It was embarrassing enough asking for the ticket.  I do remember trying to get a student discount with my Australian Film Institute Membership card but she wouldn’t let me since it was a 3D movie and there was no concession rate.  I had to pay a ridiculous $16.50.  Those cinemas are such a rip off and they really…

Detective Johnson:   All right, calm down Mr. Toomey.  If you really where there and you did see the movie, tell me a bit about it.

Matthew Toomey:     Well, Miley Cyrus in the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus.  She stars in some Disney TV show in America called Hannah Montana.  The show is about a girl who lives a double life.  She’s a normal school girl by day and music star by night.  The movie has nothing really to do with the TV show.  It’s just a bunch of songs that Miley sung at a huge concert somewhere in the U.S.  You can see thousands of screaming kids in the audience.  I guess she’s pretty big over there.  I’d never heard of her until I saw the movie.  The cool twist to the film was that they shot it in 3D.  So you get special glasses to watch the movie with and it does look pretty neat.  If you’re a Miley Cyrus or Hannah Montana fan, I reckon you’d like it.  I can’t see it appealing to anyone else.  You do believe me now, right?  I can show you my 3D glasses if you’d like?

Detective Johnson:   Nah, that’s ok.  Your story is so horribly embarrassing that I’m thinking that it must be true.  I’ll see if the cinemas can confirm your presence on their security cameras.  Look, I’ll give you my card.  If you have anything else you’d like to tell me, please give me a call.  I’ll be in touch.

Matthew Toomey:     Thanks Detective.  Sorry I wasn’t able to be more help.