Volume 39, Number 15
Movies
Movie News
By Bill Hersey
Kudos to Perth, the hometown of the late and great 28-year-old Australian actor Heath Ledger, who passed away from an accidental drug overdose in NYC recently. As a tribute to Heath, Perth named a new 87- million dollar theater in his honor.
You can see the man and his talent as the Joker in Warner Brothers’ latest Batman film Dark Knight. There’s talk about an Academy Award nomination for Heath on this. It happened once before with James Dean who was killed before the release of Giant.
Warner Brothers held their monumental premiere of Speed Racer at Tokyo Dome in June 29. It really was a big day in every way. The size of the Imax screen had to be seen to be believed, from what I was told. It was the largest ever and you may be reading about it in the Guinness Book of Records...
The highlight of the exhibition was an elevated platform with a life-size replica of a Mach 5 racing car, where guests could take photos in front of the car. The well over 20,000 people who attended that day included film, music, fashion, and sports celebrities.
The young star of Speed Racer, who also gained fame for his role in Into The Wild, led the parade of local celebrities for a short appearance on the stage before the film. After the film I really enjoyed dinner with a group of Warner Brothers people at sumo champ Konishiki’s restaurant, Unbalance, which was just a short walk from the venue. The Hawaiian food was excellent.
The next day there was a good turnout at the Speed Racer press conference. In addition to the star Emile Hirsch, pop star Jin Akanishi, who dubbed Emile’s lines in Japanese, and Aya Ueto who did the same for actress Christina Ricci, met the press. Emile said he drives a black Toyota and feels he’s a safe driver who likes to follow the rules, “Please tell your readers not to try the stunts they see at home or on the road,” he added. Jin, who’s a good friend, told me “dubbing is not easy,” but Emile really praised him for his work.
Jin recently released his first English single. He picked up the title, Love Juice, from a cocktail menu. Oh well. We play the song a lot at the New Lex and customers seem to like it.
Movie Reviews - Sex and the City / Across the Universe
by William Casper
Sex and the City
In more ways than is usually the case, this is probably a pointless review. At this point in the evolution of our species, you are already a fan of Sex and the City, or you are not and this blown up, big screen version of the hit HBO series will cause no one to leave their particular camp. You’ll like if you already like it and you won’t, if you don’t. Rather than merely expand a typical episode, the producers have chosen to stuff the contents of a whole series in to one exhausting 148-minute spree which even the most ardent fan might find an experience akin to wolfing down a giant tub of ice cream in one sitting; it’s tempting in theory, but gorging is seldom satisfying.
As one who has never paid much attention to the comings and goings of these four particular New York girls about town (well perhaps girls isn’t quite accurate), not surprisingly, the film does not stand up well as an entity away from the series. Too much insider knowledge is assumed and despite Jessica Sarah Parker’s voiceovers, I got the over-whelming feeling I’d walked in on a story that was halfway through the telling. There were some mildly amusing moments, lots of shopping stuff, and that seemed to be about it. But what do I know? I own two pairs of shoes.
One thing I do find puzzling is the way the film has been attacked in certain quarters for portraying the character’s lives as unrealistic. Its also been said that all the serial shopping stuff is fantasy and has very little baring on real working women’s lives. Unrealistic? Fantasy? When almost every Hollywood movie ever produced has fed into some kind of male fantasy—the violence, the cars, the guns, the girls (and here girls is the right word)—surely a little name brand shopping isn’t the worst fantasy a person can indulge in is it?
Across the Universe
Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup—sadly, none of them can quite capture the magnitude of awfulness presented here. Almost everything about this love-story-set-in-the-60s musical, based on the songs of the Beatles, is dreadful. So dreadful in fact that Across the Universe (ATU) quite possibly plants its flabby, laughably pretentious, backside in the 'so bad its good' category. Only time will tell. One would have assumed filmmakers everywhere would have learnt their lesson all those years ago, with the Bee Gees awful film version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but apparently not.
Where to begin? It's difficult, there are scenes of such excruciating embarrassment that it is sometimes hard to keep looking at the screen. Worse, because it uses (in the way, say, McDonalds uses cows) Beatles songs—songs we all know and if not love, can at least hum along to—it all feels horribly personal; like watching your grandmother lap dancing or something equally unpleasant.
The laughable plot has Jude (Jim Sturgess), a shipbuilder in Liverpool, in what looks like the 1930s, going to America and meeting Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), Max (well) (Joe Anderson), Sadie (Dana Fuchs), Prudence (TV Carpio), and guitarist Jo-Jo (Martin Luther McCoy), who apparently thought he was a loner, in New York in the cool happening 1960s. The act of shoehorning these Beatle themed names into the paper-thin plot is about as creative as this whole exercise gets. As Jude and Lucy fall in and out of love, every cliche of America in the 60s is wheeled out and danced around by longhaired hippy types. There are cameo appearances from Bono, in the most embarrassing sequences of all (and that's saying something), Eddie Izzard as the barker for Mr Kite, who at least has the decency to deliver his lines tongue very firmly in cheek, and Salma Hayek dressed as a sexy nurse, writhing around brandishing a morphine filled syringe. Despite that kind of imagery, ATU is closer in tone to the gentler big screen interpretation of iconic hippy musical Hair than, say, Ken Russell's version of the Who's rock opera Tommy—the film is very coy about what inspires all the psychedelic imagery in various character's heads for example. It also shares some of Hair's anti-Vietnam concerns but adds nothing politically or philosophically and at no point gets anywhere near the emotional impact of Hair's finale; incredibly it actually feels more dated, too. Interestingly this trashing of a British institution, the Beatles PLC, was written by a couple of veteran British TV writers with a string of worthy credits, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. I suppose when you are struggling to make ends meet the way the remaining Beatles and various spouses clearly must be, the 10 million dollars they received for allowing use of the songs, though tellingly not the Beatles versions, is a satisfactory return for the further diminishment of a legacy. Jai guru deva om, indeed.
On DVD
Big Trouble—Surprisingly good, low budget, small town noir starring David Schwimmer Simon Pegg and Alice Eve.
88 Minutes—Al Pacino should change his agent to avoid this kind of hi concept low execution mess. He has 88 minutes to solve his own murder. I hate it when that happens.
Wild Hogs—Decent premise, middle-aged bikers experiencing a mid-life crisis on a road trip, is badly let down a poor script and a story lacking conviction. Going for laughs it misses badly. With John Travolta.
The Assassination of Jesse James—Despite being ravishing to look at this subdued epic, it might be best watched at home where at least you can stretch your legs after the first couple of hours. With Brad Pitt and an impressive Casey Affleck.