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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 12 December 2005

If you want value for money, King Kong is the true movie experience.  I was initially sceptical as to how this film was going to hold my attention for over three hours?  My doubts have been answered with a phenomenal mix of adventure, suspense, action, comedy, drama and romance.  My only sufferance was a sore butt.

In the misery of the Great Depression, film director Carl Denham (Black) has come into the possession of a map.  It shows the way to Skull Island, a place “that was thought to exist only in myth”.  The self-absorbed Denham sees this map as his ticket to stardom.  If he can find this island, it will be the perfect setting for his latest motion picture.  People will come from everywhere to see it.

Few would be interested in such a risky movie and Denham misleads his cast his crew by telling them it will be filmed in Singapore.  He also forgets to tell them that the studio has withdrawn their funding.  With only Denham and his assistant Preston (Hanks) knowing the true destination, they set sail from New York.

Joining them is a last minute inclusion to the cast, theatre actress Ann Darrow (Watts).  Having just lost her job in a small theatrical company, Darrow had no choice but to accept Denham’s sudden offer.  She isn’t interested in movies but needs the money to survive.

Denham finds Skull Island but it won’t be the setting for his epic motion picture.  Instead, it will be a battleground.  The cast and crew will come face-to-face with tribal warriors, giant insects, vicious dinosaurs and a 25-foot ape.  When Ann is kidnapped by the ape, a rescue team led by writer Jack Driscoll (Brody) set out on a dangerous quest to steal her back.

Peter Jackson has longed to remake this movie since he was a teenager.  The success of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy has created the opportunity and what a fantastic job he has done.  Like Rings, the action sequences of King Kong are gripping and unrelenting.  Just when you think a situation can’t possibly become more perilous, Jackson turns it up a notch.  The level of suspense is amazing and on many occasions, I my fists were tightly clenched.

Jackson’s finest achievement though is the emotion he creates between Kong and Ann Darrow.  When we first meet Kong, he is a horrifying, scary beast.  By the end, we feel sorry for him and understand the loneliness he has endured for so long.  It famously ends atop New York’s Empire State Building and the heartbreaking, final look in Kong’s eyes says it all.  What a brilliant finale.

Australian Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive) is beautifully delicate in the role of Ann Darrow.  Equally good is Jack Black (School Of Rock) who as Carl Denham, looks eerily similar to the legendary Orson Wells.  Others you may recognise include Adrien Brody (the Oscar winner actor from The Pianist), Colin Hanks (son of Tom and star of Orange County) and Jamie Bell (the gifted ballet dancer we remember from Billy Elliot).

The seamless visual effects also deserve recognition but it’s the captivating story and its heart which make this film one to cherish.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 07 December 2005

Sarah Huttinger (Aniston) is frustrated by her life and doesn’t know what to do about it.  She writes the obituaries in a leading newspaper but it’s not the career path she was hoping for.  She recently got engaged to her long-time boyfriend Jeff (Ruffalo) but she’s not sure if she’s marrying him because she loves him or because they’re best friends.

Her search for self-discovery takes a humorous twist at the wedding of her younger sister, Annie (Suvari).  Sarah learns that her late mother had a fling with another man just before she married her husband, Earl (Jenkins).  Knowing that she was conceived not long before her parents were wed, Sarah thinks that this man might actually be her father.  It could explain why she has so little in common with the rest of the family.

Confiding in her grandmother, Katharine (MacLaine), Sarah learns there’s a lot more to this story.  The man’s name was Beau Burroughs (Costner) and whilst her mother did have an affair with him, it was Grandma Katharine who slept with him first!

If this sounds like The Graduate, you’d be on the money.  It’s referred to in the film many times and a running joke is that it was Katharine’s and Beau’s relationship which Charles Webb based his famous novel on.  The film’s title says it all and I can guarantee that there’s no truth to this rumour.

Gossip aside, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be laughing or crying during this film.  It has a light tone but Jennifer Aniston’s neurotic character is unsettling.  Sarah becomes extremely upset at times but it’s usually because she brings it on herself.  She can make a mountain out of mole-hill and I wanted to tell her to “get a grip” rather than utter comforting words of sympathy.

At least she’s interesting and this leads to the high-point of the film - the writing of Ted Griffin (Matchstick Men, Ocean’s Twelve).  The dialogue is clever with some intelligently funny exchanges between Jennifer Aniston and Shirley MacLaine.  I’m sure Rob Reiner also had a say in the script considering past successes in the romantic comedy genre.  His previous directorial efforts include The American President, When Harry Met Sally, and The Princess Bride.

I wasn’t won over by the story and truth-be-told, you’ll enjoy it more for its one-liners than its drama.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 10 December 2005

The Bears are an inept group of 6^th graders who have no idea how to play baseball.  To improve their chances, the mother of a player has hired former Major League player Morris Buttermaker (Thornton) to be their new coach.  He’ll try to take them from zeroes to heroes.

Buttermaker isn’t exactly a roll model.  He’s an alcoholic womaniser who has only taken the job for the money.  When he sees his team thrashed in the season’s opening game, Buttermaker “sees the light” and starts to focus.  With a few new recruits, the team starts winning matches and looks set for a spot in the championship final.

I don’t know who this film is marketed at.  Billy Bob Thornton’s cursing character is similar to what we saw from him in Bad Santa.  Television advertisements have been making reference to it with quotes such as “if you thought he was bad in Bad Santa…”  This is simply a marketing gimmick – Bad News Bears is much tamer and has almost no profanity.  A few sexual references have pushed it up to an M-rating but it’s not even close to being in the same ballpark as Bad Santa (which deserved earned an MA-rating).

This leaves the film in limbo.  There isn’t enough comedy or cussing to lure a mature adult audience.  Without this edge, what is there to entertain adults?  Am I really going to go with my friends to see some nonsensical Cinderella story about a group of rotten kids (who can’t act) playing baseball?  Thornton needed to be much funnier and I keep thinking back to how great Tom Hanks was in a similar role in 1992’s A League Of Their Own (as coach Jimmy Dugan).

Parents with kids might also be advised to stay away.  As disappointing as the jokes are, there are “medium sexual references and coarse language” according the Office of Film & Literature Classification.  When you consider some of the more appropriate family films which will be out this summer, and the reputation of Billy Bob Thornton following Bad Santa, are parents actually going to take their kids to see this?

My focus on the lack of marketing target shouldn’t take away from the fact that Bad News Bears is terrible.  The team’s quick rise through the ranks is too hard to believe and the cop-out finale left me confused and irritated.  The film is a remake of a 1976 film starring Walter Mathau (which I haven’t seen).  It spawned two sequels and a short-lived television series (which ran for just eight episodes in 1979).  That is where this concept should have ended.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 05 December 2005

My love for the movies started in 1995 when I worked part-time in a video store.  I worked with some lovely people and there were many regular customers who I enjoyed talking with.  There were also some very strange customers and if I had time, I’d share great stories – both humorous and disgusting.

Around the same time I started working, a low-budget comedy named Clerks was screening in select cinemas.  Given that I worked in a video store, I had to see this film.  It’s the story of two guys (one who works in a convenience store and the other in a video store) and the dramas they are put through by an assortment of strange customers.  I always remember the tagline – “just because they serve you, doesn’t mean they like you.”

It was the first film of director Kevin Smith who made it for about $27,000.  The film has since become a cult favourite and Smith has gone on to make Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back.  If you haven’t seen it before and think you can handle the R-rated material, check it out.  Fans will be happy to know that a sequel is due to be released in 2006.

Sorry to keep you “waiting” but I like talking about good movies.  Waiting is not a good movie but it had the potential to be.  It’s about a group of people who work at a diner.  There are gags about food preparation in the kitchen (I don’t suggest eating beforehand), waiters not being tipped, people complaining about everything and one of my favourites, customers who walk in with about 2 minutes to closing time.

Writer Rob McKittrick manages a few laughs but not as many as I hoped for.  When they aren’t interacting with the customers, these characters don’t have much to offer.  The worst of the bunch are two unfunny cleaners who smoke drugs all day in the storeroom.  Did they serve any purpose?  Star Ryan Reynolds isn’t up to his best either.  The standout is Alanna Ubach who plays Naomi, a waitress who is endearingly pleasant when speaking to her customers but indecently offensive when talking behind their back.

I haven’t worked in the food service industry and perhaps this film, like Clerks, will develop a cult following.  I however, am not leaving a tip.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 09 December 2005

David Abbott (Ruffalo) has just rented a lavish new apartment with an amazing view of San Francisco.  He must be a very well paid landscape architecture because I don’t otherwise know how he could afford it.  Living alone, the apartment allows David to shut himself out from the rest of the world.  His wife passed away two years earlier and he’s never really recovered from the loss.

Out of the blue, he meets someone.  Her name is Elizabeth (Witherspoon) and she used to live in the apartment before David.  The catch is that Elizabeth isn’t quite there – she’s a ghost/spirit who only David can see.

After going through the whole “I’m crazy and I can’t believe this is happening” routine, David starts falling for Elizabeth.  She’s a funny, free-thinking girl and for the first time in years, he’s happy.  Why is it though that only he can see her?  The answer to this question will change his life…

Just Like Heaven is a standard romantic comedy.  Once you’ve been introduced to the characters, all you care about is how it will end.  The middle third of the film is a bore and there are umpteen lame jokes about David appearing to talk to himself in the street.  I chuckled the first time but that’s it.

My biggest grievance is the disjointed screenplay.  It’s as if the writers have started with the conclusion and then worked backwards.  There is a scene where David meets Elizabeth’s sister and tries to make her believe that he can communicate with her.  Instead, the sister thinks he’s crazy and comes after her with a large knife.  I’m no genius but I think I could do a better job of convincing someone that I’m seeing a ghost.  To start with, I’d get Elizabeth to tell me dozens of stories which only she would know.

Reese Witherspoon is an Oscar frontrunner this year but it sure ain’t for her performance in Just Like Heaven.  She stars in Walk The Line with Joaquin Phoenix which is due for release in Australia in February 2006.  There’s a strong buzz from the States and perhaps the old Reese (who I fondly remember from Election, Cruel Intentions and Pleasantville) will return.  Her journey into the romantic genre (with films including Legally Blonde and Sweet Home Alabama) has been disheartening.

Considering I’m a guy talking about a “chick flick”, take my opinion for what you think its worth.