How could this be possible you ask? Well first and foremost it’s French. Apparently there’s not a benign, easily offended “mid west” in France that easily gets offended by anything without cheese on it. This allows them a certain well, humourous levity in their films that their lumpen American counterparts somehow can’t achieve. Probably because they couldn’t sell the DVD at the Starbucks counter in Walmart or something equally banal.

The humour straight off the bat is in Dupus, who plays a cute, cuddly pathological liar who works with a crack trio of professional relationship breaker-uppers. But you see they’re ethical: “they open minds, not legs” and move onto the next. Their mission statement alone and it’s apparent Frenchness was funny enough but it gets better. Because yes, The Heartbreaker does schmaltzty romantic moments, like a complete recreation of the main Dirty Dancing ‘I’ve had the time of my life…’ scene.

Somehow though, you never cringe without smiling ear-to-ear. This rom com has an attitude and edginess to the humour and a mise-en-scene that makes this genre work. And on balance makes it a great movie in any genre. It has brilliant locations such as Morocco, Paris and Monaco and it just works. Somehow Johnny Depp’s wife (I really can’t be bothered looking up her name) is a geniunely believable toff that is totally not fazed by Dupis’ charm and exuberance. She has plenty of her own. The supporting cast, who is primarily a married couple that play multiple support roles in Dupus’ ruses to win women’s hearts and thus free them from their broken relationships are hilarious. They are so fond of acting as lackies and background people, in one scene they actually pick each other up while in character!

Rest assured, the Americans will remake this movie. It will have smatherings of ranch sauce and there will be a complimentary chocolate bar or happy meal deal to go with it. But it will suck.  The French might not make many good V8 utes, but they now own this genre. They just do. And The Heartbreaker is now the hallmark of it.

The Heartbreaker is showing at the Nova and Kino cinemas now.

Shane Smith.

Lately I’ve been addicted to the Vice Broadcasting Service (vbs.tv). Not only have they been responsible for epic movies like Heavy Metal in Baghdad, but they relentlessly travel the world showing you places you’d never thought you’d see in your life. I’m talking Liberia, the sewer kids of Colombia, heavy metal mobs on Aboriginal reservations; they literally know now bounds! It’s beyond gonzo journalism or ever war correspondence. They take you to places where war technically hasn’t stopped for 50 years like North Korea. Brining very nicely to the point of this blog: Shane Smith.

Somehow after years of working for a faceless corporate behemoth, I’ve found North Korea both bizarre and strangely intruiging. Perhaps all those bland grey office partitions have got me in the communist mind set. Whatever the reason, I found a Youtube video of Shane Smith going through North Korea as a clandestine filmmaker. I’m assuming that when he went through customs, he did not have to declare the watermelon sized balls he has on one of those arrivals forms.  It seems at no stage of this journey was there no sense of danger. Posing as tourists, at each corner their minders are warning them of the dangers of their actions.

The legend.

So after seeing the North Korea video a few times (it’s just that out there) and Smith’s trip to Liberia it got me thinking. OK so the guy has watermellon sized balls and thus pretty cool. Then he’s got these features of someone we know and love. So there’s no tell tale warts on the face, but the shortish beard and sideburns and long, greasy looking rock and roll hair. Is Shane the bastard child of Lemmy Kilmister? Quite possibly. After all if Vice is a rock and roll version of TV’s 60 minutes, it’s got to be a little close to the Motorhead ethos?! See for yourself with the photos above and below. For those of you not familiar with Kilmister’s work, Lemmy is Mr Heavy Metal. A title which should make him a complete egotistical douche a la Gene Simmons, but actually a complete gentleman and all round awesome bloke.

There are a few things that are wrong with this picture though. Note the scarf Shane’s wearrning which is totally un-metal. Oh and in his profile, he admits to signing the Bloc Party to his label. Even if he is Lemmy’s bastard son, he would still be hung at dawn for that in my book. At the very least, daddy Kilmister should give his kid a hiding for it! Anyway check out Motorhead and Vice TV for youself. Make your own mind up.

I’d tell you more about the plot, but it’s not really that important to why I enjoyed it. Maybe it hits a raw nerve for me. This movie portrays generation Ys as ambivalent morons with no conscience, in a society where OHS rules don’t guarantee fair treatment or fair play; the Scots are the underlords keeping politics in check with a filthy tongue and an iron fist and the Americans are cringe-worthy in their conservative self righteous bland-ness. Whereas the English, as always, are bumbling and polite as always. In other words, it was written for pommy in-greats like me! All second-guessing their way through what would be a political thriller if any one of the main characters had a clue what’s going on!

If nothing else, you get a cameo from Steve Coogan (of Alan Partridge Presents and Saxondale fame) as an Irate constituent. For Sopranos fans, there’s also James Gandolfini playing an American army general, who’s become a git gun shy with age. Truth be known, there’s no dead wood in this movie. It would almost even work as a stage production. The two senior UK media advisers (both Scots) are like UK Ari Golds with their demeaning and chauvinistic one liners.

A character that really grabbed me was Toby Wright (played by Chris Addison). This guy is central to my earlier Gen Y comment and is a media adviser to a new British government minister. Yet a weak gust of wind would change his opinion on any subject you cared to mention – oh and his commitment. He really nailed what’s wrong with politics in general when a guy like this can even get a Guernsey in politics, let alone a job packing boxes.

For those of you who are politically savvy and like a bit of dark British satire, check it out. You won’t be disappointed. I sincerely hope though in January that this isn’t the best movie I see all year.

Unchained America. No it's not a sado-masochistic romp but it's pretty good

In many ways, it should be twee and hateful. After all Gorman is a self confessed vegetarian, which would be a crime worse than incest in Hayward’s Australia – punishable by stuffing Wagyu beef patties down the offender’s throat till their liver turned to fois gras. Perhaps it’s twee because despite good intentions about not giving a cracker to the man, he buys a Ford station wagon. Let’s face it, the man don’t get no bigger than Henry Ford. But hey it was a classic car and I’m splitting hairs here. How many vegetarians have ever built a car out of bamboo and tofu without the man? It’s a very round number.

To be honest, this movie is an absolute cracker. Despite ‘the plan’ to go straight across the states, he takes detours at the drop of a hat, visiting any town called Independence in between breakdowns. Those being either the car or his director/camera person companion who has to jack in in half way through the journey with a bad back. It captures all the bittersweet joy and melancholy misery of a road trip, reaching a climax when his companion can no longer continue on. After a few nights in the fast food ruts, he finds the will to continue and keeps truckin’

Gorman finds an America that is dotted with salt of the earth, hospitable types that see him through. People that despite their Taco Bell, Hootersness and Wal-Mart scattered landscape often showed him more humanity than his British brethren.  There are cringy moments in 1950s diners and dummy spits by the side of the road, basically all the stuff that makes a journey so memorable. Vegetarianism aside, it leaves me hungry for the open road.  All with a great dry wit that you’d seldom find in the states. America Unchained is a must see.

Oh yeah and for all you book readin’ lefties, it comes in book form as well!

See Bud Tingwell wasn't always old!

Firstly, rest in peace big fella. But let’s cut to the chase. I’ve only ever known of Bud as the nice old, cauliflower eared, cute, fuzzy wuzzy grandad. At one point I wondered if there was a law that Bud MUST star in every piece of film made in Australia. From playing the hero QC lawyer in ‘The Castle’ to, er, everything else that called for an old fella.

Cut back to 1978 and a movie called Money Movers. It’s an Aussie movie about crooked armoured truck guards and even more crooked bosses, all trying to rip off the millions that pass through their hands every day. But this movie is so far ahead of it’s time, it’s like getting a birthday card from your children not born yet. So who does Tingwell play? He plays the security company boss – and a brutal one at that.

Some of you may not believe you’d find a middle aged Bud Tingwell doing a toe cutting scene, with some solid A Clockwork Orange overtones. Well he did and he’s bloody convincing at it too. Strangely I bought this movie for six bucks in Melbourne on DVD around the time Bud passed on.

Other actors in the flick such as Terrence Donovan (yes Jason’s dad) liken it to Reservoir Dogs. At least violence and crime wise, it’s bang on. But it was released almost 15 years before it when Tarantino was probably working the video store counter. Money Movers also stars Bryan Brown and seventies legend Lucky ‘Bargearse’ Grills. A bit kitsch sure, but it truly stands up on its own.

Sadly, I don’t think this movie got any props in Oz-sploitation doco Not Quite Hollywood, albeit it didn’t really fit in – which truly is the bane of this movie’s existence. This really is a brilliant action/crime flick without a scene. Produced by Bruce Beresford, he apparently shyed away from the action/crime genre after this movie as he claims it didn’t really excite him.

If you can find Money Movers anywhere, especially if you’re an Oz-kitsch or Tarantino fan, for the love of god check it out. It’s brilliant. Top work Bud!

You can find more info about Money Movers at Australian Screen.

Yup Anne Hathaway plays a recovering junkie that shows up for her sister’s wedding and somehow uses her personal problems to disrupt everything. It doesn’t help that her sister is a psychiatrist! So the sibling rivalry goes off from the get go. The movie is basically set around the sister’s wedding from the setting up of the marquee in the backyard, to the dismantling of it.

Rachael Getting Married is more interesting in how its put together than its synopsis. There are so many brilliant plot devices. Straight off the bat, Hathaway’s character Kim is picked up by her family in this really old Mercedes station wagon. Instantly you’re wondering why this well to do upstate New York (well Connecticut) family drive such an old car. Something is not quite right.

For virtually the whole movie, live music is playing. It’s meant to be the wedding band, which are a multi cultural rag-tag bunch of musos. But it brings a really arty feel to the whole thing as every scene has the dulcet pluckings of a violin in the back ground. And there are these weird antipodes everywhere, like Rachael is a white girl marrying a black guy and all these different kinds of music playing. The Indian theme of the wedding. It’s all very quirky.

In the true tradition of art house American cinema, this movie is virtually all filmed on location in a house with genuine shaky hand held looking cameras. The lighting is very organic which gives it a really edgy feel as well, especially in some of Hathaway’s more poignant scenes.

In summary this movie is not really a chick flick. There’s a big wedding with nearly no bridezilla moments. Simply the past coming back up embodied by Hathaway in such a way that the family has to move on from their tragedy before the joy of the wedding can take place. Saying any more than that might spoil it. But a movie well worth checking out nonetheless.

It’s classic situation comedy with the frustrated guy in his thirties getting angry, stuffing up and in trouble with the law. Him and his mate have to do community service which involves mentoring socially awkward kids. Stifler and his mate are partnered up, Stifler with a 6 year old that swears like Kevin Bloody Wilson’s love child and the other with a medieval role playing game freak.

It’s pretty formulaic in its approach from here on in. Thankfully the medievalness and Stifler’s character’s love of rock demi gods Kiss save this from being in the weekly rental bin in five minutes. It gives the movie some good comedic backbone and needed kitschiness. The two kids are seriously good actors (the medieval nerdy one is like an adolescent Crispin Glover) while their plight is easy to relate to yet you’re not asked to drown them in ‘awwwwwwww’ type symathy.

This is a major studio movie with a really art house tinge. Well worth checking out.

So I know what you’re thinking. 13 movies are out and that’s thirthy bucks each. Wrong! They have come out in a 2 volume ‘Ozsploitation pack’. One volume is R rated with six flicks. The other is M 15+ rated with another six great flicks. Both volumes and the Not Quite Hollywood doco are available at Borders at the Jam Factory. Each volume is $49.95. $100 for 12 movies is pretty decent. Full respect to the producers and distributors for keeping the price down.

Some of the 12 movies included were one of the Barry Mckenzie movies, one with Johnny Holmes, Roadgames with Jamie Lee Curtis. Bikie epic Stone is also on one of the volumes. And that is worth the price of admission alone.

There is one problem though. The movie I really wanted to see The Man From Hong Kong (here’s the trailer on Youtube) has been re-released in Australia. However Borders say it’s been on back order since October 2008. TMFHK is Australia’s one and only Kung Fu movie starring Jimmy Wang Yu and Bond guy George Lazenby. It has some killer car chases and great 1975 action.

Australian Muscle Car Magazine (an awesome mag by the way) did a great feature on the movie and the car stunts, talking up the re-release and the distribution’s been stuffed up!

Sadly I can’t find too much more about these DVDs. Not Quite Hollywood is available at Borders and JB Hifi though.

Finally Australia has an Ozsploitation doco epic!

Have you yearned to know what Aussie cinema was like in the seventies? Did you even know there was one? Did you know that for love nor money, you can’t find a decent print of Mad Max in Australia, because they were all played to buggery at the drive ins? All this and more is uncovered in Not Quite Hollywood – a warts and all look at an uncovered golden age of Aussie exploitation cinema.

When I say warts an all, first we start with a sexy look at Aussie cinema. It’s the Barry McKenzie/Number 96 era, where any tits and arse film would be guaranteed to reel in the dosh. And there is a LIBERAL splash of muff and tits in the first half hour of the film. My only complaint is they didn’t keep it going throughout the film! In fact even Johnny Holmes made a cameo appearance in Aussie cinema!

Next you get the so called ‘genre’ films, mostly action and horrors. This is where a special guest pops in Quentin Tarantino. You guessed it, the world’s most pre eminent film nerd is obsessed with Aussie exploitation films as well and has quite a lot to say. So much so that it was by virtue of his support, this movie got off the ground.

Along the way, they uncover a brilliant 1975 Hong Kong action flick, filmed in Australia, heaps of Mad Max esque films, schlock horror flicks aplenty and loads and loads and loads of speeding cars and gore. All I can suggest is bring a pen and paper because you will find at least 10 Aussie movies you would trade your left nut to see, because they’re breathtakingly good.

Two of the really good looking movies they found were Road Games starring no less than Jamie Lee Curtis. This looks like a trucking convoy movie meets Wolf Creek. The second being Stone, which is a gonzo journalism style look at Bikie gangs in Sydney. I’ve seen this movie around the traps but had no idea how good it was and I’m dying to see it now.

For real sociology or film nerds, there’s a quick look at the socio-political circumstances that helped this genre grow – and die. Apparently ANYONE could claim a 150% loss on any Aussie movie they funded in the seventies . No genre or culture requirements whatsoever. While it would’ve been good if they discussed more of this, the movie is quick and snappy and never lags anywhere. Probably helped a great deal by the director being primarily a music video director by trade!

Amazingly, despite the gore and tits aplenty, it’s rated MA15+. I’m told it’s opening on about 50 screens in two weeks Australia wide, so for the love of god, check this movie out. 5 out of 5!

Whilst he may not have been the pioneer that Lenny Bruce was, he made a huge contribution to the art of stand up. He used obscenity not just to offend, but hold a mirror up to America and show how ridiculous conservative thinking really was. Point in case “Selling’s legal. Fucking’s legal. Why isn’t selling fucking legal?!”While the delivery may not have been completely original, the material was.

Oh yeah, and the ‘7 words you can’t say on television’ skit that almost made him the second commedian in US history (after Lenny) to be charged with obscenity in the early seventies. Post 9-11, he also got really stuck into airport security saying words to the effect of ‘it’s just to make white people feel safe’ and ‘it’s the government’s way of saying that we can fuck with you any time we want’.

He also had a famous altercation on Fox news that saw an interview end in furore and argument when he refused to tow the Republican line the program was taking. Carlin basically argued the news presenter down and walked off.

While he’s done so much great edgy stuff, it did take him a while to find his groove. Before he was the angry old man, he was a contemporary groovy comedian doing mostly impersonations. Which don’t really work today in all honesty. But it’s harder to appreciate an artist that always tried something new than someone that did the same schtick from the cradle to the grave.

If you’d like to hear a great albeit objective tribute to Carlin, have a listen to this Keith and the Girl (KATG) George Carlin podcast. It’s very fresh and cool. I don’t think Carlin would have it any other way.

Salut George!