Australian Penthouse

Director: Stuart Beattie

Stars: Caitlin Stasey, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Deniz Akdeniz, Lincoln Lewis, Phoebe Tonkin, Chris Pang, Ashleigh Cummings

PARAMOUNT

IN CINEMAS SEPTEMBER 2

BASED on the first in a series of acclaimed novels by John Marsden, Tomorrow, When the War Began explores what might happen if Australia was invaded and occupied by a hostile foreign power.

At the heart of the action are seven teenagers, who leave a fictional country town called Wirrawee to go camping in a beautiful remote area incongruously known as ‘Hell’. While they’re there, forming and furthering romances and generally having fun, they see a large number of military aircraft fly overhead. While they acknowledge it as strange, they don’t think too much of it…until they arrive back in Wirrawee and find the place deserted.

Worried about their families, the kids split up into three groups and discover that the townsfolk are being held captive at the local showground by a ruthless, unidentified army. Led by the pragmatic Homer (Akdeniz) and resilient Ellie (Stasey), the friends decide to fight back and wage a guerrilla war against the heavily armed invaders.

Filmed entirely in New South Wales, primarily in Raymond Terrace and the Blue Mountains, Tomorrow, When the War Began is one of the best Australian movies to emerge in recent years. While it’s obviously aimed at teens and young adults – just like the book – the action sequences are as good as you’ll see in any Hollywood blockbuster and the performances are engaging, particularly from Caitlin Stasey and Deniz Akdeniz.

With six more novels in the series, the film-makers hope Tomorrow… will become an international Twilight-like phenomenon, and the potential is certainly there.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jason Schwartzman, Brie Larson, Kieran Culkin, Ellen Wong, Brandon Routh, Chris Evans

Review: Dave Kozicki

The comic book-to-film adaptation is a fickle mistress. For every The Dark Knight and Sin City that challenges our perceptions and exceeds our expectations, there is a Ghost Rider or X-men Origins: Wolverine to remind us that Hollywood considers the graphic novel and comic book genre to be a box office no-brainer, a target market cash cow, with ad-hoc consideration of the source material.

The  independent film market often fares considerably better, resulting in the exceptional Kick Ass, and Wanted. Now indie comic book hero, Scott Pilgrim, gets the big screen makeover. Much as Matthew Vaughn’s Kick Ass used the graphic novel as a basis—artfully taking the film in an action-packed and “movie friendly” direction so it feels like a companion piece to the source material—so too has director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) taken the whimsical core of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s digest-sized morsels and added kinetic camera work and an impressive grasp of action flick lore in creating Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Any doubts are allayed quickly as the film kicks off with an 8-bit pixellated rendition of the Universal studio logo and a fun reworking of the studio’s introductory theme via Super Mario keytones. Pop culture status approved. Rating: Awesome!

Michael Cera (Arrested Development, Superbad) plays 20-something Scott Pilgrim, an “in between jobs”  slacker who has retreated into his shell after a particularly nasty break-up. Distracting himself with his band, Sex Bob-omb, he lives a carefree existence and platonic relationship with his 17-year-old Catholic High School girlfriend, Knives Chau (newcomer Ellen Wong), until a dream encounter with  spunky Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Deathproof) results in instant attraction/near obsession for the newly invigorated Scott.

When the two begin dating it soon becomes apparent that Ramona has major baggage—namely a Legion of Seven Evil Exes who Scott must fight, and defeat, in order to date Ramona.

While the colourful cast of side characters and evil exes do ultimately steal your attention, thanks to Michael Cera’s layered performance, the impressive supporting cast are the icing on the cake as opposed to the main course.  Kieran Culkan (Igby Goes Down) is great as Scott’s sardonic flatmate, Wallace, and Chris Evans (The Losers) shines in his all-too-short stint as heartthrob action hero, Lucas Lee, a hilarious mesh of Wolverine and Vanilla Ice, with a dollop of douchebag.

However, the most rewarding Evil Ex is without doubt Todd Ingram, played by Brandon Routh (Superman Returns, Chuck). After several double takes to confirm that yes, this is really Superman, Routh’s interpretation of vegan-powered, bleach-blond bass player (and evil ex) Todd Ingram is riveting, but just one of the film’s many highlights.

Director Edgar Wright’s eye for action is impressive, with all fight scenes brilliantly choreographed—so much so that you can believe that Michael Cera could kick serious ass. Each battle has its own tone and is rife with heavy-handed but welcome videogame references. The pacing is spot on and entertaining from the moment the film begins until the final credits roll. The only criticism: the brushed-over development of Scott and Ramona’s relationship, with the chemistry between Scott (Cera) and Knives (Wong) both while dating and laying the smack down, offering real electricity.

Those who question Wright’s ability to move beyond the comedies of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, to bring a cult classic to life will enjoy sitting down to a double serving of humble pie, as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is the most quirky, perfectly paced, action-oriented and entertaining film of the year, so far.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World opens August 12

The Expendables
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Randy Couture
Roadshow

Review: Nathan Lawrence

THERE’S a big problem with contemporary action films. Many of them seem to buy into the belief that the evolution of the genre is dependent on intricately layered stories or ‘gray area’ bad guys. With the 2008 release of Rambo Sylvester ‘Sly’ Stallone broke the cycle and reminded action movie junkies what it was really all about: evil bad guys, rough-edged but righteous heroes and a whole lot of bang for your buck.
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SALT
Director: Philip Noyce
Stars: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbrychski
Sony

IF ever there were an argument in favour of formulaic film-making, Angelina Jolie is the sum total of its premise.

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Inception

Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe.
Warner Bros

WHETHER it’s a superhero-fuelled blockbuster or a smaller scale passion project, the common thread within all of Christopher Nolan’s films is layered character development and an examination of the fears and beliefs that lie within our psyches… this, and perhaps the evocative aural landscapes of composer extraordinaire, Hans Zimmer.

Inception blends Nolan’s knack for three-dimensional characters with Zimmer’s skills with scoring, to create magnificent mindscapes, and to call upon a cadre of Batman Begins alumni to populate his multi-layered world.

At its core, Inception is a heist movie where corporate espionage works very differently. Gone are the days of gallivanting across rooftops and breaking into offices to steal sensitive information. True professionals, such as Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) inhabit their target’s subconscious and extract what they need while their subject is in a dream state.

Each extraction carries its own risks, with Cobb’s own emotional baggage occasionally bleeding through his carefully constructed dreamscapes to wreak havoc on his team’s best laid plans.

When a botched mission leaves Cobb and his crew exposed, their mark, company director, Saito (Watanabe) instead becomes their employer, offering Cobb a chance at redemption, along with a risky proposition.  Instead of teasing company secrets from the sleeping brain of a competitor, Saito suggests inception—where the team must plant the seed of an idea via the power of suggestion, then allow the target’s mind to mature the thought into action, none the wiser that he has been manipulated.

To achieve inception, Cobb recruits a band of specialists to create a tri-layered dream system, with each journey delving deeper into the subject’s subconscious, and each level carrying exponentially greater risks, the least of which are Cobb’s own mental defences.

Keeping his increasingly unstable subconscious a secret from the rest of the team proves a challenge that not even Cobb’s team of skilled extractors are guaranteed to overcome.

The character of Cobb is burdened with emotional guilt and distress, and DiCaprio plays the role convincingly. It’s an intriguing concept—projecting your emotional baggage and insecurities not only on to others but also on to the  world. DiCaprio is solidly supported by Ellen Page (Juno) as skilled architect Ariadne, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (G.I. Joe) as his right-hand man, Arthur, but it is the anchoring performances by the charismatic Tom Hardy (Bronson) and wonderfully understated Ken Watanabe (Letters From Iwo Jima) that truly seals the deal.

Visually, Inception is astounding, with a fascinating blending of the lines between reality, imagination and special effects, providing each layer of the dream worlds with a distinct feel. From the highway car chase and luxury hotel to the snow-capped military base and surreal world of limbo, Nolan has created a lush cinematic playground of both visual and psychological proportions, proving that Hollywood need not focus on remaking already average films when such original thinkers as Christopher Nolan are standing in the wings ready to blow our minds.

Inception opens nationally July 22^nd.

TOKYO VICE

JAKE ADELSTEIN
SCRIBE PUBLICATIONS

Tokyo Vice is three things: an outsider’s perspective on Japan in the nineties and noughties; an insider’s view of the complex, often contradictory symbiotic relationship between that country’s press, police force and organised crime syndicates; and an example of the classic journalistic dilemma – how far a person is willing to compromise their own principles in search of a story.

American Jake Adelstein goes to Japan as a college student, to learn the language and perhaps even become a Buddhist monk. What he ends up doing is scoring a gig as a crime reporter on the Yomiuri Shimbun, a prestigious newspaper with the largest circulation in the world. It’s an amazing feat for a Westerner, made more amazing by the fact he sticks it out for 12 years, overcoming cultural barriers to produce articles that actually bring about positive social change.

The cases recounted in his memoir range from the quirky – a suit-wearing master pickpocket who treats his illicit enterprise like a 9-to-5 job and returns victims’ wallets to their pockets after removing only the cash – to the ghastly. The latter category includes an exotic animals salesman who also deals in murder for those who oppose or anger him. Then there are the more sensitive issues, such as the way the Japanese justice system deals with the mentally ill, and a particularly sinister form of loan-sharking designed to entrap individuals for life.

We soon learn that there isn’t much Jake won’t do if he thinks there’s a scoop to be had, whether this means going undercover as a male host, brawling with a bouncer or taking tea with a high-ranking member of the Yakuza. However, he never tries to make himself out to be some kind of action hero, and his writing is thoughtful, at times deeply regretful, and peppered with insights into the Japanese mindset, as in sayings like, “To not know and to ask a question is a moment of embarrassment; to not know and not ask is a lifetime of shame.”

Adelstein plays a prime role in investigating the disappearance of English girl Lucie Blackman in 2000, and he makes it his personal crusade to stop the human trafficking operating virtually unchecked in Tokyo’s Roppongi district. He also attempts to expose and bring down a mob boss guilty of screwing over not just innocent civilians, but fellow Yakuza and the US authorities – an undertaking that results in the death threats to himself, his family and his friends that underlie the entire book. A case of publish and you may very well be damned.

Edge of Darkness

Director: Martin Campbell
Stars: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston
Icon

MEL Gibson is back, doing what he does best: kicking arse (sans spouting racial epithets).  In Edge of Darkness Mel channels the kind of fatal simmering anger his character, Porter, carried throughout the rewarding revenge thriller Pay Back (1999)  into a story of revenge against corporate corruption.

Gibson stars as Boston homicide detective Thomas Craven.  Craven’s only child, 24-year-old science graduate, Emma, is shot dead on the doorstep to the family home just hours after arriving for a short break.

Initially it appears that Craven was the intended target, but when it is discovered that his daughter was also  poisoned with the heavy metal thallium, via interviews with her terrified boyfriend David (Shawn Roberts) and a college friend, Craven uncovers evidence that Emma’s employer, Northmoor, deliberately poisoned her to cover-up her role in a  recent break-in by anti-nuclear activists, looking to uncover other, secret Northmoor dealings.

While burning his daughter’s radioactive clothing in his yard, Thomas is joined by Darius Jedburgh (Ray Winstone), a Northmoor “consultant” whose job it is to monitor the situation with Craven and, if necessary, prevent him from uncovering the company’s illegal activities.

The two men are direct and uncompromising in their intentions, and their clouded-yet-clear conversation reveals an undercurrent of unexpected respect for each other.  Jedburgh leaves Craven to investigate, with a warning.

After meeting with a Senator whom his daughter tried to use as a whistleblower, and her former boss, Jack Bennett (Danny Huston), the increasingly haunted father understands that these people not only know what happened to his daughter and the dead activists, but are in collusion to cover up government-sanctioned murder. With little to live for, Craven embarks on a path to mete out his revenge—even if it kills him.

Edge of Darkness is available to rent or buy on 7 July.

Predators

Director: Nimrod Antal
Stars: Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo

Produced by Robert Rodriguez and directed by Nimrod Antal (Vacancy, 2007) Predators is, first and foremost, a sequel to the incomparable 1987 classic starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, written by Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight) and directed by John McTiernan (Die Hard, Last Action Hero).  The film successfully integrates many of the key elements beloved of the classic without mimicry or crude imitation.

The film premise involves the Predators hunting game—an element introduced in Paul WS Anderson’s largely successful effort Aliens vs Predators (2004), written in conjunction with Alien writer Dan O’Bannon.  This time the planet is a dumping ground for the worst of our world’s serial predators (soldiers, killers), who are armed, dropped via parachute from the sky, and then tracked and killed by the Predators like game animals in order to hone their hunting skills.

The cast is exciting in its unexpectedness: Adrien Brody is Royce, a former black ops soldier turned mercenary; Walton Goggins (who many will remember as the brilliant Shane Vendrell in The Shield) is serial killer, Stans; Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix, CSI) is the survivor of a previous game hunt, Nolans; Danny Trejo (Machete) is Mexican cartel killer, Cuchillo; Alice Braga (niece of Sonia) is South American revolutionary, Isabelle; Oleg Taktarov is Chechen death squad soldier, Nikolai; Topher Grace (Spider-Man 3) is scientist Edwin; and Louis Ozawa Changchien is Yakuza assassin, Hanzo.  An already exciting line-up when you consider the many and varied fighting techniques each character will bring to the movie.

The film succeeds because it works across two distinct yet important lines: it is both an homage to the original and an effective sequel. As the movie unfolds snippets of the classic (best not mentioned here to avoid spoiling surprises) are interwoven subtly throughout the script, generating in-the-know chuckles from hardcore fans without alienating those new to the franchise.

The violence is swift, brutal and woven effectively throughout the tense, cat-and-mouse tests of guts and military strategy so necessary to the Predator franchise.

As the group of killer misfits realise they are being hunted to extinction, the challenge to remain alive competes with the human instinct to save each other from (an always) grisly death.  When the group stumbles across a Predator tied to a tree and stripped of its armour, it is revealed that not only are the Predators hunting the humans dropped onto the planet but they also hunting each other. Can a truce between two killers work on the battlefield (also touched on briefly in Paul WS Anderson’s AVP) work? You bet.  But Robert Rodriguez doesn’t “do” predictable, so  prepare for an action-packed ride.

Predators is a well written, low-key and solid return for a franchise many thought was left for dead after the abysmal Alien vs Predator: Requiem (2007). Welcome back.

Predators is releases in cinemas nationally on July 7.

Grown Ups

Director: Dennis Dugan
Stars: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider

After the career misstep You Don’t Mess with the Zohan for both Adam Sandler and long-time collaborator director, Dennis Dugan (Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy), both are back on track doing what they do best, making us laugh and chuckle with the prerequisite amount of schmaltz to tug at the heartstrings.

Running through the cast of comedians and comediennes, it reads like a veritable who’s who of Saturday Night Live alumni, and very much feels like Sandler’s version of Ocean’s Eleven.  Sandler and Fred Wolf’s (SNL, Joe Dirt, Black Sheep) script will not garner any Oscar worthy praise, but they have one thing in common, they both know their strengths, and those of their co-stars, and weave the tale around them.

Grown Ups centres around a reunion of five championship-winning High School chums who are brought back to their hometown for the funeral of their basketball coach. This trip down memory lane, and the subsequent weekend away at a picturesque lake-house with wives and children in tow, forces each of the friends to revaluate their lives as they rediscover the bond between them.

Super Agent Lenny (Adam Sandler) yearns for a simpler time and wishes his technology-addicted kids would lose the wi-fi and embrace some old fashioned fun. Eric (Kevin James) is down on his luck with a young son with breast-feeding issues , of which he acknowledge neither.

Kurt (Chris Rock) is a househusband, emasculated by his pregnant career wife and overpowering mother in law. Ever the ladies man, Marcus (David Spade) is the fish out of water, with no family or responsibilities, and while his buddies envy his position, he secretly yearns for the life they all lead. The weirdest, and by far the most emotional of the bunch is Rob (Rob Schneider): with several failed marriages behind him and daughters he doesn’t know, he shares his life as a new-age hippie with a partner 20 years older than him, dispensing holistic advice to others while applying none of it to his own life.

After a slow start, the characters solidify into a comedic unit, with Sandler playing the straight man, James’s physical antics a riot, offset by Spade’s trademark sleaziness, and surprisingly understated performances by some of comedy’s more outrageous elements—namely Rock and Schneider. Schneider usually ends up the butt of many jokes, but here you really feel for him and plays more of a sad clown (with am amusing Fonzie-inspired toupee), eliciting sympathy in a genuinely surprising turn.

Each of the guy’s wives offer the film a sense of balance and bring their own unique quirkiness, with Maya Rudolph’s wonderfully inappropriate zingers and Maria Bello’s unnatural breastfeeding of her four-year-old the highlights. Salma Hayek smoulders on screen, as you’d expect, bolstered by the unexpected pants-exploding hotness of newcomers Madison Riley and Jaime Chung as the scantily clad daughters of Rob Schneider’s character.

But it’s not an out-and-out love-fest, with a bitter rivalry between Lenny and the captain of the losing basketball team, Dickie Bailey (Colin Quinn) rearing its ugly head and eventually running it’s course with many laugh-out-loud moments, some involving broken bones. The ever-so-funny Tim Meadows and the king of Sandler film cameos, Steve Buscemi, round out the Hometown Boys crew.

Grown Ups is an entirely predictable affair, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It hits all the notes you expect, and quite a few that you might not. It’s a chuckle-fest with a warm glow. Check it out.

Grown Ups screens in cinemas nationally now.

Knight And Day

Director: James Mangold
Stars: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Saarsgard

DIRECTOR James Mangold has taken the zest and sass of a 1950s Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie and paired it with the high-octane thrills of a modern day action movie for Knight and Day, rescuing the film from the bucket of saccharine-laden relationship pap that clogs our cinemas.

Patrick O’Neill’s witty script focuses on keeping the obvious attraction between the two leads realistically suppressed—just like in the real world, where tact, ego and the to-and-fro of the male-female dynamic creates sparks. And he does a great job.

Similarly, Tom Cruise is very enjoyable as the titular super-spy Roy Knight—part Cary Grant, part Jason Bourne. Cruise moves through the demanding (and impressive) action scenes with total confidence and not even the occasional awkwardness between himself and onscreen love interest Diaz can’t be (mostly) smoothed over with his roguish charm or via dazzling fight scenes.

Diaz is the Doris Day to Cruise’s Grant: part ditz, part self-assured woman in charge; but, disappointingly single faceted and low-lit against the mega-watt Cruise, who deserved a better partner to romance in an albeit light and fluffy female role.

The plot is thus: June Havens (Diaz) rebuilds classic cars and is on her way to visit her sister In Boston for her wedding. At the airport, June’s path crosses that of secret agent, Roy Knight (Cruise), who is on the run after a failed mission. Once June is dragged into Roy’s plans, he realises that her involvement—no matter how accidental—will most likely get her killed, so he is forced to monitor her actions from afar in an effort to keep her safe.

Monitoring her actions at times uncomfortably resembles a Crime Channel date rape recreation where Roy almost constantly drugs June with  Rohypnol-like substance and increasingly creepy sexual overtones (such as changing her clothes for a bikini while she’s passed out) with “hilarious” repercussions.

However, as slightly creepy as this is, the regular drugging mirrors June’s increasing bubble-headedness, which grows incrementally concomitant to her unconscious states. Coincidence or heavy-handed plot-point coping mechanism?

Anyway, back to the plot: Roy is pursued by his former partner, Fitzgerald (Peter Saarsgard, in a very Keifer-Sutherland-in-24 turn) and his former agency, both believing that Roy tried to kill an asset that he and Fitzgerald were tasked to protect, and both on the hunt for the zephyr, a new form of perpetual energy created by bookish wunderkind kid, Simon Feck (Paul Dano), that is stored in a capsule the size of a vehicle cigarette lighter.

Whoever owns the technology will change the power structure of the world, and so Roy’s fight to keep both June and Simon alive forms the crux of the film as the trio jet, drive and boat across the globe, pursued by the American government and unnamed drug cartels, represented by the dead-eyed Antonio (Jordi Molla, channelling a delightfully crazy Latino Fisher Stevens).

In between the elaborate car chases, helicopter attacks, exploding buildings, and rapid gunfire lies the kind of witty banter not heard nearly enough in modern Hollywood movies, and in this case the combination of ADHD action with old-style cinema dialogue rescues Knight And Day from being just another churn-and-burn rom-com.

Knight And Day is released in cinemas nationally on July 15

Mr. Sin
Director: Hugh Piper
Cast: Richard Roxburgh, Alan Saffron, Jim Anderson
Ovation

This fantastic documentary from Hugh Piper charts Abe Saffron’s meteoric rise to the highest echelons of Sydney’s underworld, while exploring the effects it had on his personal life. There are interviews with his children, grandchild, mistress and right-hand man, as well as a few fringe characters and the writers who’ve since studied his life. The story is seamlessly illustrated by a rich gallery of photos, dating back to the days before he owned the Roosevelt Hotel, and footage of the interviews he did when he was alive.

The overall picture of Abe is complex and hard to place. He was a manipulative, reptilian man with the capacity for great kindness, who lived and breathed the rush of deal-making and backroom politics, birthed the systems of organised crime that endure even now in Sydney and went to his grave with only one substantiated criminal charge to his name.

On paper it seems pretty easy to label him the bad guy. But Mr. Sin is compelling enough to make you wonder, and by the time the last images of Abe’s life are flashing up on the screen, it’s hard to resent all the love and contentment that surrounds him.

By Hand Solo

I jumped at the opportunity to test the new Jesse Jane Fleshlight from AdultShop.com. I’ve heard a lot about the Fleshlight or “pocket pussy” from TV shows and magazines but I had never tried one and I was intrigued to hear if the product was as realistic as it claimed it to be.
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