Australian Penthouse

Animal Kingdom
Director:  David Michod
Star:  Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, Luke Ford, Jacki Weaver
Madman Entertainment

Animal Kingdom centres around a Melbourne family of drug dealers—a popular topic post-Underbelly—and the extended family’s rapidly escalating violence with the police.

The viewer sees events unfold through the eyes of the film’s protagonist and youngest family member, 17-year-old Joshua (James Frecheville), an adolescent wrestling with his allegiance to his family and his conscious.

Written and directed by David Michod, what is so different about Animal Kingdom compared with many other Melbourne underworld movies and TV series of late, is that it doesn’t glorify the drug trade, or life “in the business”.

There are no dramatic gun scenes, no wads of money counted, no mountains of cocaine piled on table-tops. The movie instead focuses on the cascading errors in judgement shown by the family, coupled with the audience’s underlying belief that no good will come of the deaths and drug use—primarily via the expressive-yet-passive narration of Joshua throughout the film.

Ben Mendelsohn steals the show as the increasingly psychotic ‘Uncle Pope’, a man who delves deeper into paranoia, and eventually insanity, due to the mounting death-toll surrounding him and his trigger-happy, drug-taking antics. Winner of the 2010 Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Drama at Sundance, Animal Kingdom presents Australian story-telling in a new light, and is definitely worth watching.

Animal Kingdom opens in cinemas nationally on June 3.

HIS GENERATION
Shaun Micallef
Shock

ALTHOUGH he’s written, produced and starred in award-winning TV programs such as Full Frontal, The Micallef P(r)ogram(me), Micallef Tonight and Newstopia, and helmed the popular game show Talkin ’Bout Your Generation, on His Generation, Shaun voices every interview, character, scene and song featured throughout the 29 tracks.

From murderous doctors and Satan-obsessed gospel singers, to boorish fruit shop owners and Oprah-watching al-Qaeda operatives, Micallef is pants-wetting funny.  His interpretations of Charlton Heston reading the Bible and Christopher Walken singing a David Bowie song are undoubted highlights.

Monty Python madness runs richly in Micallef’s veins, and it’s damnable that this man isn’t minting money on commercial TV, as he is clearly one of our nation’s finest natural comedians.

ASSASSIN’S CREED II

Publisher/Developer: Ubisoft
Platform: PS3, X360 & PC

Review: Dave Kozicki

PLAYING as Ezio Auditore da Firenze, you’re a snappily dressed Italian assassin during the Renaissance.  You’re also Ezio’s modern-day descendant, walking in his dangerous ancestor’s shoes thanks to matching DNA and some seriously cool technology.  Confused? Don’t be.  This is all part and parcel of the Assassin’s Creed joyride.

Just get with the killing and forget about the thinking as you use every weapon in your arsenal to complete your mission and restore your family’s honour.  You can blend in with the crowd, be a ghost, or simply hire mercenaries and get a little confrontational.  New to the franchise is the ability to swim, utilise Da Vinci’s flying machine and nick a gondola, and any title that lets you do stuff like that deserves respect.

Though let down by the less-than-average cut scenes, Assassin’s Creed II is still a stunning recreation of 15th-Century Europe and a damn fine game.

FAMILY GUY:  SOMETHING SOMETHING SOMETHING DARK SIDE

Director: Dominic Polcino
Stars: Seth MacFarlane, Seth Green, Alex Borstein, H. Jon Benjamin, Mike Henry
Shock

Review:  Cameron Murray

Hailed for following the plot of Empire Strikes Back closely, the special 60-minute episode sees Peter Griffin (MacFarlane) as Han Solo; Lois (Borstein) as Princess Leia; Chris (Green) as Luke Skywalker; and terrible toddler Stewie (also voiced by MacFarlane) as Darth Vader.

Naturally, it’s crammed with pop-culture references—some funnier than others—and the attention to detail is impressive.  All in all, it hangs together far better than Blue Harvest and the characters are more well-rounded, although Yoda (Benjamin) is a bit flat.

The DVD extras include an audio commentary with all the key players, Family Guy Fact-Ups, an animatic version of the episode and, most interestingly, two table reads – one for Something Something Something Dark Side and a sneak peek at We Have a Bad Feeling About This, Family Guy’s forthcoming Return of the Jedi spoof. Bring it on!

Listen to our interview with Mike Henry, the voice of Cleveland/R2-D2 in Something Something Something Dark Side, at: www.australianpenthouse.com.au/8553/mike-henry-interview/

YELLOWBEARD (1983)
Director:  Mel Damski
Stars:  Graham Chapman, Peter Boyle, Peter Cook, John Cleese
Orion/Shock

Review:  Suzan Ryam

THE LOWDOWN

Yellowbeard (Chapman) is the ultimate pirate, a scurvy shyster who feasts on the hearts of his enemies and then forces them to eat their own lips; a crazed man feared by all who travel the high seas.

After 20 years of imprisonment for tax evasion, Yellowbeard escapes to reclaim his buried treasure, but is pursued relentlessly by the Royal Navy and numerous, dubious adversaries (Cleese, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Marty Feldman, Spike Milligan).

However, fate intervenes when Yellowbeard visits a wench (Madeline Kahn) only to discover that, 18 years ago, she birthed him an illegitimate son, the fey Dan (Martin Hewitt), whose head she had tattooed with the map to the pirate’s long-lost  treasure.

Yellowbeard is forced to protect the bookish son he despises, avoid capture, and locate his buried treasure, discovering on the way the true bond of a father-son relationship.

NUTS AND BOLTS

Written by comedy legends Graham Chapman (The Life Of Brian) and Peter Cook (Bedazzled, Derek And Clive Get The Horn), Yellowbeard is a classic example of the kind of madcap comedy made famous by the Monty Python team, and is superbly augmented with the addition of American comedy masters such as Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, and Cheech and Chong.

Regularly cited by fans as the funniest genre movie ever made, Yellowbeard combines a masterful blend of wit, plot, cast and timing to create one of the most revered comedies of the modern era.

The movie remains buoyant via cleverly paced witticisms and superb turns by the peerless Peter Cook, as the inestimably clueless Lord Lambourn; Graham Chapman as the rape-happy, smoking-haired titular pirate; James Mason as the fumbling Captain Hughes (companion to Texta-moustached crew member ‘Mr Prostitute’); Cheech Marin as the sycophantic subject to spit-flinging Spanish King El Nebuloso (Tommy Chong), “Yes sir, your arseholiness!”; and John Cleese as Harvey ‘Blind’ Pew, the Queen’s visually-impaired, sharp-eared spy.

DVD EXTRAS

Extras consist of the original movie trailer: both disappointing and insulting considering the wealth of information and extras provided on the Monty Python movies and the fame and status of the cast.

VERDICT

Yellowbeard should see you crawl, crawl, stagger, stagger to your nearest DVD store for a dose of classic comedy.

PANDORUM
Director:  Christian Alvart
Stars:  Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cung Le, Antje Traue
Icon

Review:  Suzan Ryan

PANDORUM is a refreshingly edgy, dark sci-fi thriller that doesn’t quit. The tension is artfully applied to keep you guessing (and stressing) through every minute.

Pandorum affects brain and body functions in a way that is similar to the bends experienced by deep-sea divers—it is a rare yet decimating side-effect of space ‘hyper-sleep’, where temporary memory loss combines with feelings of paranoia and disorientation, which if untreated, results in a descent into madness.

In this instance, Earth’s final survivors travel into deep space aboard the Elysium, a supership carrying a Noah’s Ark of species and humanity hoping to start again on a distant world called Tanis.  Astronauts Payton (Quaid) and Bower (Foster) awaken in a locked hyper-sleep chamber without their short-term memory.

Payton remains while Bower crawls through the ventilation to attempt contact with the crew, only to find the ship’s reactor failing, the decks empty and the ship crawling with creatures that have replaced humans at the top of the food chain.

Employing elements of fear and paranoia done so successfully in movies such as Event Horizon and Aliens (thanks to co-producer Paul WS Anderson), Pandorum is a taut thriller that will reward investigation.

A PROPHET
Director:  Jacques Audiard
Stars:  Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif
Sony

Review:  Suzan Ryan

IT’S obvious why this French film won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival; it’s a corker.  Forget Hollywood’s overly polished prison dramas, this is the real deal: a character study of 19-year-old Malik El Djebena (a riveting performance by newcomer Rahim), sentenced to a six-year stint inside that charts his progression from naïve boy to wary and wily man via the decisions he makes, the alliances he creates, the mistakes he must deal with and, finally, his emergence to rejoin the populace as a man transformed.

Malik is part Arab, part Corsican and accepted by neither ethnicity, instead his mixed heritage earns him the attention of César Luciani (Arestrup), head of the Corsican gang, who strong-arms the terrified Malik into murdering an Arab due to testify in an associate’s trial.  In exchange, Malik is offered protection by the Corsicans, along with the role of errand boy and general shit-kicker.  However, Malik’s unique status allows him to mix freely between gangs and allegiances, and to form his own partnerships, both inside the prison and out, with unexpected results.

Withholding judgement on the prison system, prisoners, redemption and other hokey themes, A Prophet is a mature, interesting, violent and exciting movie that will restore your enthusiasm to part with $15.

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN
Director:  F. Gary Gray
Stars:  Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Colm Meaney
Roadshow

Review:  Suzan Ryan

IT could have been so good.  The premise is exciting: family man and electronics whiz Clyde Shelton (Butler) is forced to watch his family murdered during a home invasion.  The devastated father looks for justice in the US courts, only to discover that one of the killers has made a deal with prosecutor Nick Rice (Foxx) to send the other guy to the chair while he gets three years.  The attorneys call it a victory, but to Shelton, it’s an abomination.

Shelton takes matters into his own hands, and after a clever and shocking series of revenge murders, he is jailed, but still the killings continue.  Rice and DA Jonas Cantrell (Bruce McGill) must stop Shelton from striking again, but first they have to discover how he is doing it from his maximum-security cell.

What begins as a fresh look at the fall of the American empire from its corrupt core of misplaced values—with an Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) inspired feel to the script, in pace and suspense—degrades into an ‘America is always right’ mawkish family-values drama that’s an insincere and as rotten as the killers.

By mid-point  you may find yourself wanting Rice and Jonas to get whacked; their vapid and ignorant posturing is nauseating, and a single-faceted performance by Foxx overshadows an understated turn by Butler, effecting bitter disappointment after such a promising start.

THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE
Director:  Steven Soderbergh
Stars: Sasha Grey, Chris Santos
ICON

Review:  Cameron Murray

YOU have to admire Steven Soderbergh for trying something different with The Girlfriend Experience.  It’s not often an Oscar-winning director (he picked up a gold statue for 2000’s Traffic) bucks the Hollywood system and goes low-budget just for the sake of experimentation.

Set in New York in the weeks leading up to the 2008 US presidential election, the movie revolves around a high-class hooker named ‘Chelsea’ (Grey) who prides herself on providing more than just sex, whether it be dinner and a movie or just an honest conversation.  Money and greed are central themes—Chelsea is looking at ways of increasing her business, her boyfriend wants more cash as a personal trainer, and her wealthy clients are worried about losing the lot in the looming Global Financial Crisis.

Soderbergh took a risk in casting porn star Sasha Grey as the film’s heroine, but she delivers an understated and beguiling performance as the confused call girl.

Although short at 74 minutes, The Girlfriend Experience effectively captures an uncertain moment in time. Unfortunately, there are no extras on the DVD, which is disappointing. An interview with Soderbergh and Grey would have been appreciated.

DEAD SNOW
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Stars: Lasse Valdal, Vegar Hoel, Charlotte Frogner
Madman

Review:  Suzan Ryan

REMINISCENT in tone to the schlock-horror heydays of Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi, Dead Snow takes the classic zombie genre movie, based around horny 20-somethings trapped in a cabin, to new heights—by introducing Nazi zombies!

With the tagline: “Eins! Zwei! Die!”, you know what to expect: tits and arse, pop-culture one-liners, and gratuitous and gory deaths.  Stocked with beer, a skidoo and raging hormones, eight Norwegian medical students prepare for a boozy weekend in the snow-capped mountains, only to realise that a secret cache of stolen gold secreted under their bungalow’s floorboards has been guarded by zombie Nazis since WWII. Sick heil!

The luckless campers’ snowbound getaway quickly becomes a hilarious splatter-fest that makes Dead Snow both an original and enjoyable thriller.

REVIEWS:  FILM

IN THE LOOP
DIRECTOR: ARMANDO IANNUCCI
STARS: PETER CAPALDI, TOM HOLLANDER, CHRIS ADDISON, GINA MCKEE, JAMES GANDOLFINI
MADMAN

AMERICAN General William Westmoreland said: “The military don’t start wars. Politicians start wars.”

Black comedy In The Loop explores how this might happen. Despite enormous opposition from their own governments and citizens, an unnamed US President and a similarly anonymous UK Prime Minister plan to launch an armed conflict in the Middle East.

When meek British minister Simon Foster (Hollander) gets flustered during a series of interviews in which he appears to support military action, the gears of war begin turning in London and Washington, where ruthless Scottish spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (Capaldi) prepares to take advantage of the situation.

Meanwhile, Foster and a few American allies, including the respected Lt General George Miller (Gandolfini), try to keep the peace.  An impressive directorial debut from Armando Iannucci (best known for co-creating the Alan Partridge character with Steve Coogan (who incidentally appears in the film).  In The Loop is a sharp, well-acted political satire packed with brilliant and witty one-liners.  A movie that would be that much funnier if it weren’t so close to the truth.

REVIEWS: CLASSIC DVD

AKIRA (1988)

DIRECTOR:  KATSUHIRO OTOMO
STARS:  MITSUO IWATA, NOZOMU SASAKI, MAMI KOYAMA
MADMAN ENTERTAINMENT

THE LOWDOWN

IN THE bloody wake of WWIII, Neo-Tokyo rebuilds after a devastating nuclear attack that decimates the city.  In 2019, the city is in upheaval—on the brink.  Delinquent motorcycle gangs run riot at night, going head-to-head in violent and brutal skirmishes. During an altercation with rival gang The Clowns, leader of The Capsule gang, Kaneda, and his childhood friend Tetsuo find their paths intertwined with an experimental and covert government science project.  As chaos takes over the streets, religious fanatics, the military, and splinter resistance cells vie for control of Neo-Tokyo, and at the centre of the conflict stands Tetsuo and his newly manifested (and unpredictable) telekinetic abilities.  Is he Neo-Tokyo’s saviour or destroyer, and where does the mysterious entity known as Akira fit into the maelstrom?

NUTS AND BOLTS

Based on Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga of the same name—which appeared in Young Magazine from 1982-90—Akira remains one of the most ambitious features in animation history, as Otomo attempted to condense his original 2182-page, six-volume epic to a more readily accessible format.  Otomo’s storyboards led to 2212 shots and more than 160,000 single pictures—almost triple the average amount for animation at the time—and an astounding amount of detail. Akira remains Otomo’s signature work, though his most recent effort, Steamboy (released in 2004), is also recommended.

DVD EXTRAS

For such a benchmark film, the special features leave a lot to be desired. Those hoping for behind-the-scenes footage, a retrospective charting the film’s influence, or at the very least an interview with writer, artist and director Katsuhiro Otomo, will be sorely disappointed; extras include the usual trailers and TV spots and little else.  Comic aficionados will rejoice, however, with the inclusion of Otomo’s hand-drawn storyboards—previously available only in an A5-size graphic novel in the rare Japanese Special Edition (collectors will have to scour eBay for this version), plus the newly remastered THX sound and cast vocals in TrueHD 5.1 stereo is a significant improvement on the original Japanese recording.  If you can’t get your hands on the Japan-only release, check out the 2001 Special Edition (packaged in a tin case); it’s full of production stills and interviews, including one with Katsuhiro Otomo.

VERDICT

The Blade Runner of anime-tion, if you have yet to delve into Japanese adult anime, Akira is the best place to start; 20 years on it remains a haunting visual masterpiece.