Category: General

There was no buzz about this movie at all. But it fell onto my (actually surprisingly long) list of ‘movies to see’ when I saw the trailer, you see I quite like the idea of people sorting shit out. Washing the filth off the streets, and so on.

Anyway, our radio show host and heroine (anti-heroine even? Anyway, Jodie Foster) is sickeningly lovey dovey with her hot English fiance, then he gets beaten to death, and she gets beaten to the brink of death. She recovers physically, more or less, but emotionally she’s very badly damaged (never mind the loss of her lover, she lost the trust of the city she loved – New York).

Her emotional damage is patched up, to her surprise, when she gets a big fuck off gun. Her confidence returns when the killing starts.

I don’t want to give away too much of the story, but let’s just say that there’s a good cop on the case, and they play a bit of cat-and-mouse.

Strongly recommended to all.

P.S. Jodie foster has nice ( o Y o )s.

I only made it along to catch this one on the second day of general release, the theatre was nearly empty. Doesn’t bode well for box office earnings, or a long season in theatres. (Though I’m sure that even if theatre takings don’t pay back their measly budget, DVD and international earnings should push them well into the black – if they aren’t already there.)

Hugely enjoyable, riddled with in-jokes that no-one outside NZ will even notice (All the Te Puke gags, the Bruno Lawrence Studios, and so on) to make us feel special, and awesomely retarded from beginning to end.

It’s a lock to join the hallowed halls of cult classic Kiwi cinema. I guarantee it.

I can’t help but think that actor/director/writer team Stapp & Heath could benefit from a bit of mentoring from a more experienced filmmaker/writer. They need to focus their ideas just a little more. They’re already reasonably successful, considering their obvious disabilities (gigantic balls, fantastic retardation), sharpening things up a bit more – without giving up their charm – should be able to make them a bit more accessible and evenly enjoyable.

If you were a fan of Back of the Y, you’ll love the hell out of this. If you have testicles, you will squirm and wince. If you’re a woman, you’ll wonder just what the hell is going on – and indeed, even as a non-woman, I do have some questions about the treatment of women in this film. You see, every woman ends up horribly burnt and dismembered. Sure, some of the guys suffer some nasty injuries, even a few good rapings – but all of the women end up dead. I think someone might need some therapy.

I have a lot of respect for these guys – even if I am perhaps a little critical – they’ve managed to make TV and movies just the way they wanted, they just do it. And it impresses the hell out of me – they also seem to be good guys, though I don’t know Stapp, I worked with Matt Heath at ihug, always very friendly, with an easy smile. So there you go.

If you haven’t seen it, do. We need to support New Zealand film making, even dodgy-as-hell, violent-as-fuck, crazy asploding New Zealand filmmaking. You’d better get your toddle on though, as I can’t imagine it’s going to be in theatres very long.

You’ll hate it or you’ll love it, and either way I’m sure you’ll get at least a few good hearty laughs out of it.

You know what they say, sometimes you go splode, and sometimes you make other guy go splode. This movie is about a very big splosion – at a softball game played in, of all places, frickin’ Saudi Arabia. So yeah maybe asking for it? Short answer: no they weren’t. And when a high achiever FBI guy manages to finagle his way into the country, progress is made on tracking down the murdering thugs that perpetrated the killing.

This film is grim, extremely violent, and has a surprising message about where all this terrorism has ‘suddenly’ come from. (Well, perhaps not surprising for non-Americans, and sadly odds on that any American audience members that didn’t already have some idea about the history of the middle east, and just where all these complete insane murderous Islamic extremists sprang up from, will grin dumbly at all the loud noises and flashing lights as the actual message flys directly overhead.)

All that said, it is clearly a blockbuster style of movie, so very easy to enjoy as nothing more than an action movie. Be warned that it does suffer a bit from shaken-camera-syndrome, which is just so damn prevalent these days – it works well to convey a particlar feel to a scene, so I don’t blame the filmmakers. But.

Jamie Foxx puts in a fine performance as the lead FBI guy, as does Ashraf Barhoum his Saudi police officer. Surprise, surprise, but Jennifer Garner looks like she’s going to break into tears the whole time, what is it with that girl’s face?

If you don’t mind your entertainment to include a few dead children or hot women with asploded legs, I think you’ll probably like it a great deal. I know I was surprised by how good I found it to be. So let’s just say ‘recommended’ shall we?