Quick Shots - 22/Dec/2014

Screw Politics, It's Extended Video Time! 

Watched a lot of videos. I can't take talking about politics this week.

Outcast


 This one's weird.

You want weird? This one is definitely weird. Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen play Crusaders who get jaded and end up in China where they do some sword-fighting heroics. Hayden Christensen still has some of his moves from Star Wars episodes 2-3 going. Now that it's been 10years on he's matured bit and quite a bit more believable as a sword-wileding dude. Natalie Portman was saying playing Padme in the Star Wars movies nearly killed her career, but that could be more true of Hayden Christensen. Anyway, he plays the swashbuckling lead and it's quite okay. I can sort of see what George Lucas originally saw in him. He'd be a more credible Anakin now, by dint of age. I guess it's not to be.

Nicolas Cage is just plain-vanilla-odd in this movie. All of it.

Predestination



An Australian production starring Ethan Hawke. Hey, it's really quite good. A time-travel mind-fuck movie without any real 'Australian content' going on. Don't know how Screen Australia came to funding it, but it's a step in the right direction. And you know me and this blog - I never say nice things about Australian films these days. It's pretty damn good.

Recently when I was down in Melbourne I got to be talking to the critic Richard Haridy and he mentioned 'Predestination' as a great Australian film and mentioned was hardly getting audience traction exactly because it was Australian. It's a shame the brand of Australian cinema has sunk so low that when a good film finally comes along it can't earn its keep.

Fading Gigolo


There's this old story: People would pitch projects in LA saying they wanted to do a Woody Allen sort of movie and get rejected because they would get told only Woody Allen can do a Woody Allen sort of movie. This is John Turturro's Woody Allen sort of movie and to his credit, he has Woody Allen in it - and it's Woody as his specialty-funny-character in this one.

Sharon Stone is also in it which is wonderful because she made her acting debut in 'Stardust Memories'. She's in the amazing Fellini parody opening scene of 'Stardust Memories':



Yes, that's Shazza in the other train inviting Woody.
Anyway, she's been around the block a few times since 1981 and we know her from undie-less legs crossing and her Oscar-winning turn in 'Casino' and what have you, but here she is doing her thing in a film with Woody Allen. She even unleashes her trademark "I'm-having-the-best-sex-in-the-universe!" acting intertwined with barbs. They don't exactly share screen time - they just talk over the phone together - which is a shame.

John Turturro is very good as this dufus who falls into being a gigolo. It's a superb bit of film making. (Yay for the adults and no transforming robots or massive explosions and CGI.) Oh, and Bob Balaban is in it too as an inappropriately frank Jewish lawyer.

Hollywood Ending

Anyway, all this Woody Allen watching recently got me looking up this oldie, from just before Woody Allen stopped making films in Manhattan. It's almost a confessional.



It's about a director who directs a $60million blockbuster while being blind. He's really bagging out Hollywood so it's pretty cutting how he handles the studio executive characters played by George Hamilton, Treat Williams and Tea Leoni (my eternal fave!). It's not a great Woody Allen film, but it does have its moments of gut-busting laughs.

Speaking of which, Tea Leoni is sadly under-utilised in this film. She's a tremendous comic actress and yet she's given the strictly straight role against Woody's motormouth psychosomatic-nightmare patter. It's funny, but it could've been a lot funnier if he'd bothered to write some funny stuff for her to do. Bit of a waste of a good resource.