Australia

(Guest Review by Russ)

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A British aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) travels to Australia to deal with a cattle farm that her philandering husband bought, only to get swept up in adventure, romance, war and motherhood. (Not necessarily in that order, or as quickly as it took you to read that sentence).

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters, David Wenham, Bryan Brown

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. If you have three hours to kill and aren’t particularly demanding of the rules that epic romances are supposed to adhere to, then you may find parts of this movie entertaining. If that doesn't describe you, you will be bored and probably mad at me for giving this mess a rating as high as "caution." In other words, I hated it, although I recognize that some of you will like it. But at least now I can rest easy knowing that you’ve been warned.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Think back: have Nicole Kidman and/or Hugh Jackman ever made you laugh in any movies you’ve ever seen them in? If your answer is yes, then they’ll make you laugh here too.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It will certainly try. Boy will it try. It will try, try, try, try, try... But, no.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Maybe in Australia... They're desperate over there to see this movie matter.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman are both bona fide movie stars and even in roles as underwritten as these, they prove once again why they are. They even manage some chemistry, but not nearly as much as this fiasco of a story needs to work. Which brings us to young Brandon Walters who plays Nullah, the child narrator of this story. Apparently this total amateur was ‘discovered’ after an exhaustive search that forced practically every aboriginal child in Australia to audition for director Baz Luhrmann. He should’ve kept looking cause this kid is terrible and for a role so central to the plot, he pretty much brings the entire massive enterprise crashing down around him. And it’s not like he’s just uneven, he’s bad in every single scene (and he’s in a lot of them). Now maybe it’s unfair of me to be so hard on a 12 year-old, but hey, I didn’t cast him and like they say: if you can’t stand the heat… yeah, well in this case, get out of Australia.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Look, Strictly Ballroom is one of my all-time favorite movies and few would argue that Baz Luhrmann is a truly visionary director – not only visually but as a storyteller, too. But Australia is pretty much a train-wreck from start to finish, which is clearly unfortunate, but that’s not to say it has zero redeeming qualities. There are some breathtaking sequences here, specifically a sabotaged cattle-drive that sees hundreds of cattle about to stampede right off the edge of a cliff. But while the parts that are stunning are because of the direction, overall it’s a mess, and that's also because of the direction .

Q: How is the story/script?

A: It’s the biggest problem. I felt like I was watching a foreign film with no subtitles for the first 45 minutes and amazingly, I’m told everyone was speaking English (a language I usually understand). After giving up on figuring out the ‘plot setup’ (believe me, you will too after 10 minutes) the movie sort of settles into three distinct parts. Now that would be fine if this were say, a mini-series, or the entire second part wasn’t basically a montage with (bad) voice-over. But unfortunately it isn’t a mini-series, and the second part is a prolonged montage, and while you’re thinking it’s the end of the movie, you’ll soon discover there’s a whole third act to come that has little to do with anything that’s come before it. (Although if you leave at the end of act-two, you might wind up enjoying the movie more.) One could argue that this is simply an epic love-story that is bucking traditional story convention and we should just go along for the ride. Okay, fine, I would accept that argument if most of what I was watching were still compelling or entertaining, but it’s not. I’ve never been to Australia, but I’m convinced that the continent and its people are infinitely more interesting than what’s depicted here.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/australia/32859/trailers

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The Reader

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A 15-year-old boy (David Kross) falls in love with an older woman (Kate Winslet) in 1958, only to find out later that she was a Nazi war criminal.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Lena Olin, Jeanette Hain, Vijessna Ferkic, Bruno Ganz, Karoline Herfurth, Volker Bruch, Hannah Herzsprung, Burgahart Klaussner

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Go! It starts out sexy and taboo, and goes on to become an emotionally conflicting demonstration of the fine line between being guilty of a heinous crime and just following orders. Its major flaw becomes pretty clear from reading the above noted descriptions of the film-- which is that it feels a little like two separate movies. But if you can get past that, and focus on how the two parts tie together, you will find an interesting examination of how difficult it became to be a guilt-free German after World War II... especially by association.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: There is one joke and it's at Lady Chatterley's expense.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Between the emotions tied to the pain of first love's heartbreak, the life-long damage that baggage can cause, and the realization that those who took part in the atrocities of the Holocaust could be the very people you know and love, there's bound to be something that gets to you.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: It's not the best movie of the year, but this is the kind of historical drama that tends to win Academy Awards. Add to that the death of two of its highly regarded, high profile producers, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, (making this movie the last for both of them), and suddenly this film's chances of winning become unsurmountable... That is, if it hadn't been for the very public, very petty battle that went down between (still living) producers Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein, which led to Rudin taking his name off the project, and turned an angry mob of Harvey-haters even less willing to let him win anything for anything.

Personally, I think that giving posthumous courtesy awards should be illegal. The dead will never know they got it, and the living will always know they're losers. What good comes of that?

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Kate Winslet gives the most transformative performance of her illustrious career. But rumor has it, she's going to campaign harder for her role in Revolutionary Road, because her husband, Sam Mendes, directed that one. I hope for her sake that she doesn't get nominated for an Oscar for Revolutionary Road, because not putting all her eggs in the husbandless basket would be a huge mistake. This is the role she could win for.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: The look and feel of the film is perfect, but the pace drags a bit at times. Thankfully, Stephen Daldry can always blame Harvey Weinstein for that, since he's the one who rushed him out of post-production, to make the Awards season deadline, which, coincidentally, is why Scott Rudin allegedly took his name off the film in the first place.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The two part structure gives away that it's based on a novel, and makes this an unconventional narrative for a movie. But with the clear use of flashbacks and time jumps, the writer, David Hare, manages to make it work. Except for the last scene, which would have been better served had it been the first scene instead. Considering it sets the story in motion, I would bet money that there was a time when the last scene of this movie was the first scene.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: Warning: There is full-frontal 15-year-old male nudity. And I'm not sure if you can go to jail for looking at that.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-reader/30943/trailers

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Valkyrie

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: The true story of a group of high level German politicians and military men who attempt a coup on Hitler's life and regime during World War II.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Sizemore, Eddie Izzard, Terence Stamp, Carice van Houten, Thomas Kretschmann, Christian Berkel, Kevin McNally, Tom Hollander, David Bamber, Halina Reijn

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Go! It's Tom Cruise presents: History for Dummies! And let's face it, there's no better way to learn history than in a dark theater with a bucket of popcorn and a dramatic score pounding through your bones and pushing you to the edge of your seat.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Unfortunately, he doesn't talk about Scientology or how much he loves Katie Holmes at any point, so the movie is basically humorless. Thankfully, if you need a good laugh at Tom Cruise's expense that stuff is all up on YouTube.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Not really, but it's always inspiring to see resistance forces rising up and committing high treason in order to do the right thing, in a society filled with sheep following orders. There was a time when people were willing to die for what they believed in. So maybe you'd die a little bit sooner? But at least you'd go down knowing that your life had purpose and meaning.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: As entertaining as it is, it's got one major thing going against it, when it comes to award recognition... It's entertaining.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Take Tom Cruise's performance from any other action thriller where he plays a ballsy hero who will stop at nothing to see that justice is served, and cut and paste it here. He never seems to get tired of that same old performance, and apparently neither do we.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: The pace and the music keep the story suspenseful, making it not just a war movie, but also a political thriller that actually is thrilling.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: For such a complicated political plot, the writers manage to keep it as clear and simple as they can. You still need a military school degree to catch all the nuances of this intricate plan to make the army eat its own tail, but it's a good introduction to how clever they had to be to get as far as they did.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: [http://www.moviefone.com/search/valkyrie/trailers

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Lust, Caution

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: During the Japanese invasion of Shanghai in WWII, a college coed (Tang Wei) joins a drama club in Hong Kong, and soon finds herself working as an amateur spy for the Chinese Resistance. Her job is to sleep with a high powered politician (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and lure him to fall in love with her.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Tang Wei, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Joan Chen, Lee-Hom Wang

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. This movie is 2 1/2 hours long and would have benefited greatly from being at least 45 minutes shorter. A cut of that size would have kept the story moving at a nice clip, which would have in turn heightened the tension and the intrigue. If you want to see this story done right, rent last year's Paul Verhoeven film, Black Book.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: I can't think of how.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: I don't see why.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: It won the awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography at the Venice Film Festival. As far as the Academy Awards go, I'm sure they'll try to angle Ang Lee for another Best Director nod. But who they should really be gunning for is the lead actress, Tang Wei, who is spectacular.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Tang Wei seems to have the entire range of human emotions at her fingertips and she knows exactly when to call on each of them.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Ang Lee's style is distinct and recognizable. There is some wonderful work in the opening scenes, as he cuts between the fast paced Marj hon game and the four lady players gossipping as their chips hit the table. It moves well and sets a good pace. Unfortunately, in an effort to be dramatic, he slows it up in the later portions of the movie, when he would have been better served to cut to the chase.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: I have never said this before but... there was too much dialogue! Because the movie is in Chinese, I actually was not able to keep up with the words as they passed across the screen, and when I did keep up, I wasn't left with any time to look at the actors' faces to see who was doing the talking. Aside from that, I thought the nature of the main characters' feelings toward the man she is forced to sleep with were unclear. Does she love him? Does she hate him? Do I care? Oh, and I didn't feel satisfied by the ending.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: It's rated NC-17 due to sexual content, of which there is a fair amount. Something you might want to know in advance is that the sexual portrayal is for the most part violent and aggressive, rather than sensual.

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