Quick Shots - 01/Jun/2015

'Fast & Furious 6'

I know it's hard to believe but the films in this series keep getting better. They've definitely moved to having Vin Diesel being the drawcard star and that shores up the rating end. Plus, those has a lot of pathos and trade as well as triumph and glory. Some of the stunts in this one are simply extraordinary, but in writing that, the style of the films has begun to ossify the style stunts they seem to get. It's certainly a worthy entry in the series.

The final sequence on the runway is time-defying, physics-denying and mind-bending, but pretty intense.

'Exodus: Gods & Kings'
OMG did the director who gave us 'Alien' and 'Blade Runner' really give us this turkey? It's cumbersome bad and incredibly boring in parts. It's fucking shit, is what it is, but Ridley Scott adorns it with his signature style, and so it becomes something to look at as a wonderful ornament or object, rather than a bitchin' movie to watch. It doesn't reach the bombast of Cecil deMille, but it shares the same inclinations and impulses. Daffy, barmy and much too rationalising of an inherently irrational story. Worse than 'Prometheus' - much, much worse.

Also, God of the Hebrews played by a petulant child is perhaps the most insightful thing about this film.

'Fifty Shades of Grey'

'Nine And A Half Weeks' for the cinema-illiterate generation.

Basically the main character sets her standards so high she's still a virgin as she is about to graduate college. She explains to a billionaire that it's because she hasn't found anybody worthy; and the billionaire promptly deflowers her. Then he compels her to joining in his kinky BDSM sex, but refuses to countenance boring vanilla relationship courting. So she demands to be treated the way he wants to and he whips her hard with a belt. She is in so much pain and feels such humiliation, she calls the whole thing quits. <The EnD>.

It's entirely shallow, belligerently un-insightful, terribly daft - and it's truly surprising that an adult actually wrote this story.

'Mad Max: Fury Road'

This one is truly demented. It's a film built entirely around insane truck stunts in the desert with demented bikie-gang culture gone berserk. It makes the crazy stunts in 'Fast & Furious 5' look pedestrian. It's a throwback post-apocalyptic cyberpunk movie that is essentially a rerun of 'Beyond Thunderdome' but with the mod cons of a 2015 action blockbuster. You laugh, you cry, you get a little excited watching this thing.

Look, it's distinctly Aussie, whacky, off-kilter and generally mad as advertised. It's also absurdly optimistic about the availability of fossil fuels in aport-civilised world - but that's always been the theme. MaybeI'll write more about it soon. It is intense, I'll give you that; and even though he's a pom, Tom Hardy is a pretty good Max. You want more, but you can't imagine what more could possibly be said given the barren milieu of these characters.