The world adores matt hayward

A mate from Canadia came by this little pearler in the states a few months ago. Thankfully, it’s everything an Adam Sandler movie should be. Why do I mention Sandler you ask? Because a cursory look at the credits and you’ll see that the movie is by Happy Gilmour productions. And it’s all the better for it.

Grandma’s Boy is like some sort of modern day American Graffiti, Happy Days, or Detroit Rock City kind of thing. Basically replace the greaser haircuts, motorbikes or your heavy metal for a controller, a bong and an X Box and you’re starting to get the picture. Grandma’s house is all about the pot and the games!

Your plot is basically set around Alex who’s a Quality Assurance tester in the video games industry. His job is to ‘clear’ all levels in video games and identify all the bugs. Life is good until his house mate defaults on the rent and he’s evicted. With only a bunch of neer do well, socially inept buddies, he soon has nowhere else to stay but with his grandmother. She lives in a kind of grandma share house with a mentally disturbed woman with a tackle box of pills and a silver haired nymphomanic.

From hereon in, Alex tries to get the right mix of nanny pampering and stoner gaming. More often than not, he’s too knackered from his ‘chores’, that he’s asleep at his desk at work. As you can tell things get pretty pear shaped and the situational comedy comes on thick and thin.

It has to be said that their adaptation of a games development company seems pretty realistic. Most of the general testers and tragically-geeky-but well adjusted guys. But definitely more so in the two characters that run the joint. The general manager is a complete vegan, hippy freak. But he can’t hold a soy candle to the lead developer, who thinks he’s both a robot living The Matrix dream. It’s with these two nutters that the movie becomes totally believable! If you’ve known people in this industry, you’ll know what i’m talking about. It takes a special kind of insanity to make that kind of genius.

Of course being a Sandler flick, there are the obvious cliches. Linda Cardellini who plays the project manager for the latest game is as achingly perfect and she is beautiful. It just makes you sick what a great chick her character is. Oh and Alex (Allan Covert) bears an uncanny resemblance to Mel Gibson in the early 80s. And of course, what’s his face, Rob Schneider makes a token appearance as the evicting landlord.

No doubt, this will become a modern day stoner epic, in the vein of The Big Lebowsky and Half Baked with a hearty dose of wholesome Adam Sandlerism. I’m glad to say deservedly so. You will laugh, you will cry, you will probably pass the bong . . . I say rock on. 4/5.

For those of you that came in late, The Departed is a remake of Honkywood movie, Infernal Affair starring Andy Lau. Infernal was released circa 2000 was a stellar thriller. Fortunately The Departed has done it justice. Like the original it’s a twisted, sordid thriller of good disguised as bad, bad corrupting the good and so feeds the rich tapestry of life!

In the original, The Hong Kong Triads place a member in the Hong Kong police force and vice versa. This time around, the villians are the Irish Mafia in Boston Massachussets. So most characters (especially Matt Damon’s) talk like Peter Griffin from The Family Guy! Jack Nicholson plays the Irish godfather figure, at the epicentre of both both crime and corruption. Matt Damon plays the cop who rats to the mafia, whilst his nemesis is Leonardo DiCaprio, a straight-edged cop who goes as far as jail time to make himself believable as a mafia henchman.

How this movie differs from the original is in its potrayal of the police. Mark Whalberg (aka Marky Mark) plays one of the grittiest roles of his career, slipping out some choice off colour language as the Police Saraent in the thick of it all. It has to be said he does a damned fine job in playing such a real character. Jack Nicolson, whilst great, is just plain inimitable Jack. I don’t think anyone else could’ve played the mafia boss as well as him. He’s just plain snaky yet likable.

Worthy of praise if the reproduction of virtually all the pivotal scenes and moments of the original. Particularly a rooftop scene, which would be a plot spoiler if I said any more! DiCaprio almost acts out Andy Lau’s original character better than Lau did. 

In summary, this is a movie well worth checking out. For once, an American studio has little to apologise for in reproducing a modern classic. The remake has been rumoured for a while, but thankfully I think they’ve done the original proud. Hopefully it will open a few more people’s eyes to Asian cinema!

5 out of 5. Go Scorcese!

On first appearances alone, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was a Disney movie. It looks very family orientated. But in reality, it’s a roadtrip movie with all the awkwardness of an extended family driving in a Kombi van across the states.

Unfortunately this is the kind of movie that’s difficult to talk about without spoiling the whole thing. What I can tell you though is that the characters are just awesome.

The 40 Year Old Virgin guy plays a gay Proust scholar, who’s just been discharged from a psych ward after a suicide attempt. There’s rock and roll a grandpa whose been evicted from a bourgeoise nursing home for his newfound fondness for snorting heroin. Oh then there’s Greg Kinnear, the motiviational type dad, trying to commercialise his 9 step motivational program. The Johnny Ramone lookalike eldest son whose in his 900th day of a vow of silence until he he’s accepted by the Air Force as a fighter pilot. The mum (the Aussie Collette chick from Muriel’s Wedding) and the little 6 year old girl, who is of course Little Miss Sunshine.

Before they trek across the country to enter their daughter in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pagaent in California, the family is well and truly dysfunctional. It becomes very evident that this shaky cross country ride will force them to work together, to get over their shortcomings and get through this unfortunate event together.

In constrast to other films. There’s a bit of the Wizard of Oz in the plot. Insofar that the journey is a bit of a Yellow Brick Road in which each family member has to overcome their shortcomings, but with a lot of sick, twisted laugh out loud moments. Fans of Napoleon Dynamite will be glad to know that there’ s plenty of dorky moments, especially from the dad. Greg Kinnear, the dad, is a true, holster on the belt for the your mobile phone dork and really shows another dimension to his acting here. Infact pretty much everyone puts in a stellar performance. But it’s the Napoleon Dynamite meets Yellow Brick Road thing that makes this movie so damned special.

6 out of 5 for the ending alone. This has to be movie of the year without fail. Not a bad thing can be said about it.

Honestly, this movie doesn’t dissapoint on one single level. For some, it’s laugh out loud, tears in your eyes funny and for others, constantly mildly hilarious. But the laughs don’t stop coming. Yes toilet humours a constant, but it’s more like that Billy Connolly humour where you could swear in front of the Queen mum and it’s still somehow not taboo.

For the Melbournites out there, you’ll instantly recognise locations such as Flemington, a Chapel St fish and chip shop and the St Kilda Festival. It’s nice when a local production doesn’t try and hide its obvious Australian setting.

The bloke who plays Kenny is absolutely spot on. He’s easily as convincing and hilarious as Christoper Guest, pioneer of the mockumentary, in his character acting. In spite of all the personal obstacles and people in his way (such as his ex wife and anally retentive father), Kenny’s character triumphs. His potrayal never leaves you with questions of continuity or who the hell this character really is. Nor do you know what Kenny is going to do or say next.

Plot wise, Kenny’s life is fairly cyclic. His life is pretty straight forward until summer, ‘when every bastard starts having a festival’ and his life turns routinely chaotic. Just when he thinks he’s on top of the usual adversities, his boss asks him to attend a ‘plumbers’ trade convention in Nashville Tennessee. Suddenly Kenny is forced to step out of his blue collar comfort zone into a business card carrying world of schmoozing and networking. This is where the story goes a bit ‘fish out of water’ and it’s hard to tell how much of what’s going on is improvised or scripted!

On his American journey, Kenny both fumbles and triumphs and does well for a bloke who’s never been on a plane or drank Chardonnay before.

Kenny is the antethesis of TV dramas like ER and Gray’s Anatomy, which provide idyllic potrayals of important people that make a difference in a glam setting. Here we have Kenny who’s such a well balanced and likable individual, he could easily transcend his humble role in life. But he’s both validated and self assured by his job and doesn’t need other people’s accolades to tell him who he is.

I only hope this will become a bit of a cult classic, even if it’s a one-off. It’s worthy of international acclaim and deserves to do well. On the mantle piece of Aussie classic comedies, there’s Barry McKenzie, Bad Boy Bubby, The Castle and now Kenny. 5 out of 5.

View the trailer at  http://www.kennythemovie.com/

How can you some up this chestnut? Well there’s more holes in the plot and continuity than Gary Glitter’s last alibi. It’s pretty average in most if not every regard.

Firstly, there’s no effort to explain how these guys get all there toys. At least in the original series, they try and make it look like they were repossed from fallen drug barons. But now, it’s just implied that there US Cops and because of that they have this amazing cachet of planes and cars that just belong to them. Quite unlikely I reckon in reality.

Then the baddies are these neo nazi cocaine smugglers. Now while nazis make awesome bad guy candidates, not quite so plausible as Miami drug barons taking on (or even worse working with) the Bolivians, Hatians and Colombians. This too me was a bit unbelievable.

Oh and then there’s the Yoko Ono lookalike (it gets better guys, she actually evolves into a really hot chick). But even Yoko’s not the worst thing about this hash job of editing and plot development. And they try and make the other baddie Pablo Escobar wannabe look like Denis Roussous. But put them in a bling bling SUV and apparently most Americans believe they are Bolivia’s worst drug lords. I’d hate to see how bad ass Tiny Tim and Nana Mouskouri could be in an SUV, scary . . .

Basically Foxx and Farrell in their lead roles are a thousand shades of beige. There’s none of the flare or character of the original two. Somehow they even manage to make some of the blandest shower sex scenes i’ve ever seen. Sure they’re great actors separately, but there’s no panache, character or dimension to any of their acting in this one. In fact there might have been one line of decent dialogue by one of the baddies.

Except for two side boob scenes and a great brain stem shoot, just plain miss this movie. That is unless you can stop saying "Why?" or "WTF" for at least 90 minutes. Because believe me you will be. This film makes escapism challenging and the Yoko thing just ruined it for me. I think I would rather listen to Yokos worstest hits sitting on a rusty bed of nails, with my girlfriend’s mother than watch this movie again. It would be less painful. Thanks for the invite though Stevo!

Not a bad little doco this one. This one came out before Cyclone Katrina in May 2004.

The End of Suburbia traces the origins of the North American suburb, which in itself is quite interesting. But more to the point, its dependency on oil to get people from the suburbs where they live, to the cities where they work. Starting out with idyllic ‘country living for everybody’ 1950s propserous propaganda, very quickly you’re taken straight into the urbal sprawl. We soon find out that the suburban US dream is not under threat from Muslim fundamentalists, but the scarcity of the oil the whole American dream was based on.

So what’s so bad about suburbs you ask? Well North American suburbs were more a less a conspiracy away from public transport. Which if you look at some cities such as Los Angeles today, it seems highly plausible. Early suburbs had extensive trams (or what they call cable cars) and were very accessible without needing your own car. Jump to the post-war baby boomers and suddenly the US auto industry is burgeoning, and they didn’t want competition. So motorways got wider and trams more scarce as every family gets at least one car. Detroit used their Washington connections to keep highways coming and the clamp on PT. It was all based on cheap, plentiful oil and never thought to evebe unsustainable.

Cut a long story short, and post war suburbia was based on a false premise, and continues to this day. "it has none of the amenities of country life, and none ammenities of the town. Just a six lane highway" according to Howard Kunstler. Only one thing keeps the masses in the picture though, oil. And oil production peaked in the mid seventies. So guess how bad it is now? We’re just about out of gas.

The keypoints in this doco are three-fold: the false hope in alternative fuels; what peak oil really means for suburbia; economic impacts.

Alternative fuels

1. Alternative fuels are bogus. Hydrogen is no alternative to petroleum as it is only a means of storing energy in water and far more explosive. You still have to create the enegry in hydrogen from something. Effectively it takes more energy to make hydrogen than it does the bang for buck you’d get out of putting it in your petrol tank.
2. Ethanol from sugar cane or corn is not a feasible alternative fossil fuel because you need land to grow it, unlike oil which is mined underground. The amount of corn or sugar cane we’d need to grow to maintain sustainability is unfeasible.
3. Modern agriculture is heavily dependent on petroleum based pesticides and natural gas based fertilisers. The impact of this is two fold as we require pesticides to maintain peak production of affordable and plentiful food. Secondly that pumping so much oil based fertilisers into fertile land is slowly killing it, decreasing our ability to grow food in existing agri areas. Based on the last point, you’d need oil to fertilise corn. . .

What peak oil really means for suburbia

1. M King Hubbert an eminent, widely respected geologist predicted that US oil production would peak in the early 70s. In the true American style, they made a mockery of him. But history has proven him right although it took everyone a decade to realise that US oil prouction peaked in 1970, never to be beaten again. He also predicted world oil producton to peak in the 1990s. Scary . . .
2. According to Michael C Ruppert, 60% of the worlds’ avaialble oil fields are in the Persian Gulf. Guess where we’re at war?
3. So long as depleting natural resources are a reality, Cheney’s ‘war that will not end in our life time’ will continue. Because politicians that can keep the suburban dream alive, will stay in power. Furthermore control the (remaining) oil and you control the world.
4. Once you get past the peak of an oil well’s production, both the quality of oil suffers and the energy necessary to drill the oil makes it totally unfeasible to obtain. So there may be 50% of oil left in the ground, but it’s 10 times more expensive to drill for and half the quality of the former 50%

Economic impacts

1. As oil fields deplete, international free trade becomes impossible. It wont be feasible to make goods cheaply in China if the oil necessary to transport them continues to increase in cost.
2. Modern retailers such as K Mart and Wal Mart that not only ship in goods from overseas but truck them all over the country will become an impossible distribution model so long as we’re dependent on "cheap gas" to make it all possible 
3. suburbs themselves will have to become far more sustainable both economically and agriculturally. Local businesses selling local, seasonal goods will become a fact of life

Before we discuss there points further, here’s a bit about the production aspects of this doco. A hero of mine Michael C Ruppert (who wrote Crossing the Rubicon) is also featured in the oil scarcity discussions. Kunstler I don’t know anything about, but he’s pretty hip and calls the whole suburban nightmare a "clusterfuck" and refers to the average modern suburban house as a McMansion. So yes, I like his style! He certainly does lighten up the otherwise sombering tone of suburban despair.  This film also has minimal use of hyperbole and looks like it was made for television, so it production values and continuity are top notch.

Getting back to the crux of the matter, ‘Suburbia does have an upside. While the suburban way of life will be in imminent crisis, there are answers. Civilisation has to get back to a sustainable urban model that’s accessible by foot wherever possible. So there’s flirtation with a renaissance in urbanism to address these concerns. But increased inter and infrastate such as railways to curtail use of trucking and cars to travel are less likely but imperative.

And last but not least, we need to start thinking less of ourselves and more of our neighbors. Ingeneouity will have to solve the problems burocrats can’t. If it doesn’t we’ll perish. Those that do insist on suburbia will have to grow their own vegies and find a job locally. Quite possible even share their McMansion with another family. We’re in for an interesting ride as unsustainability becomes a bitter reality. In raising these points, this documentary has done very, very

The End of Suburbia is available at Mike Ruppert’s site at www.copvcia.com.

Not many docos on the market finish with a warning that under section 802 of the Patriot Act, you could be arrested under ‘Domestic Terrorism’ without charge and sent to Guantanamo Bay for viewing it. This one doesn’t even have the cursory copyright warning. Infact you’re freely encouraged to share it with others.

Whether or not you could ever get arrested for simple possession of a documentary film is yet to be seen. But this second installment ponders some serious questions for the US Government. Que bono? Bush administration? You betcha!

For those of you who have seen the first edition, there is a little overlap, but a whole lot of new content that flows on nicely. It’s very much in the same vein as the first, with plenty of newspaper quotes, an interview courtesy of Australian ABC radio with Hunter S Thomspon. At least 60% of it’s new and just as thought provoking as the original.

Fortunately this documentary is more palatable for a younger audience thanks to a funky New York DJ soundtrack, something you’ll never find on an Alex Jones or David Icke doco. The three guys that are responsible might not be historians, but that’s part of what makes it great. This not for profit production really hits home with a few Mythbusters style, ‘is this physically possible?’ factettes about the 911 attacks. I use the term factettes loosely. All facts are reasonably substantial and the producers freely encourage you to be skeptical and investigate further.

Here are some quick factettes covered in the second edition:
- Marvin Bush, George W Bush’s youngest sibling was head of security at the Twin Towers until Sept 10, 2001.
- near the Pentagon, FBI officers have confiscated security tapes from a nearby servoce station and the Hilton Hotel within minutes of the collision. These tapes would show if nothing else that a commerical jet did hit the Pentagon and not a missile.
- the official coroner at the scene of the Pennsylvania crash said no bodies were found at the scene.
- the black boxes from the Twin Towers attacks were never recovered, despite the fact that almost 99% of black boxes are both recoverable and workable in domestic US plane crashes. Yet despite this, one of the alleged hijacker’s passports feel over 100 stories and was found on the street.
- the alleged cell phone calls that took place from one of the hijacked airliners would be impossible in 2001 at normal cruising altitudes. Certainly so given that American Airlines had to install mobile phone base stations on some of their planes in 2004.
- in the Bin Laden confession tape, aired days after 911. Bin Laden was seen wearing a gold ring and was writing with his right hand. He’s not only left handed but fundamental Muslims are forbidden to wear gold jewellery.
- at least 9 of the suicide bombers are still alive!

Now we’re just starting to get controversial and we’ve only just begun. from the Loose Change web site "And according the FAA, both N591UA and N612UA, Flights 93 and 175, are still valid. But Flights 11 and 77 are listed as destroyed." Strange that two planes that everybody saw crash and burn could still be in the air.

Better still the claim that the planes that hit the Twin Towers (probably the two the FAA still think are in service) were landed at an evacuated airport. Now even I think that might not be that plausible until I remember Mike Rupport mentioned the same thing in his book Crossing the Rubicon. That book has been out for at least a year and a half.

Now you might argue that Ruppert and guys are both a bunch of cooks, and that’s fine. Although there will be some of you that have actually read Ruppert’s book and fromthewilderness.org web site and will know him to be one of the most verbose, dedicated and articulate writers on subjects such as clandestine CIA operations, 911, peak oil and dodgy US economics.

So OK, what makes this crackpot conspiracy doco unique? Well these guys are in their early 20s and pledge to give a free DVD to anyone that can prove they lost a loved one in the 911 attacks. They are the true patriots that don’t just tow the party line, or do the Micheal Moore ‘profit from your politics’ emoticrap that made him a millionaire. These 3 New Yorkers don’t even show their faces in the main feature, which is true unbiased journalism. Their web site asks you to take nothing at face value and to check their references and make your own mind up.

A fantastic pro bono production to clearly demonstrate que bono. You simply must download this doco, while you still can. It’s amazing to see stuff like this actually happening via the internet at the grass roots level.

Johnny bloody Cash, what a legend. The big, brooding ‘man in black’ just was rock hard cool. He never wore rhinestones and as an old fella covered Soundgarden tunes and put out a full page ad in Billboard sticking his finger up at the entire country music scene. But what about the man? What’s his story? That’s what made this movie instantly compelling to me. Though I must admit, Joachim Phoenix(?) playing the man in black threw me a bit.

Like Ray, this is a production that could probably only be made after the subject dies. Because let’s face it, no one reads - especially me. Simply it sheds too much light on the junkie factor the greatest hits album liner notes always gloss over.

What I really enjoyed though was the whirlwind pace this movie starts off with. Johnny’s career seems to kick off with intense fervour. He’s playing off the back of Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis as they take the piss and cover each others’ songs and just plain rock out. Then all of a sudden, it just hits the fan. Johnny boy falls in love with his co singer, a love that would last till his dying day, and starts hitting the pills harder than a DJ in Manchester, 50 years before their time.

Suddenly Cash is a success stuck in second gear. Joachim plays all this really well. Although I don’t quite reckon he can sing like Johnny (who the hell could) he has the brooding look pretty down pat. And he is pretty good looking. But holy crap! Reese Witherspoon is so good looking in this! While I conceeded with her that Phoenix is handsome, Reese is just unbelievably gorgeous in every scene. I honestly think my missus could watch it again just for her wardrobe. I could just because she is absolutely fantastic looking as a raven haired 50s chick.

You get the feeling that this movie, whilst lengthy doesn’t embellish the truth too much. Wikipedia tends to substantiate virtually all of it. There are some sheerly dynamite scenes though. My favourite being a big arsed drinking session after a gig, where Johnny Cash, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and all bandmates have had an all night drinking and jamming session after a gig, throwing their empties all over the stage. Reese’s character comes in enraged at Cash who’s forgotten a day time gig and starts throwing the empties at them!

What I wouldn’t do to be in that debauched jam sesh is just indescribable. It’s scenes like this, and the band on the road which are so indescribably compelling. The chemistry too between Phoenix and Witherspoon is cute, deep and often just plain funny. They show the complexity of the professional and emotional relationship quite well.

My only criticism is that this movie wasn’t so much about the rock and roll recklessness, but the endearing love affair between Cash and his second wife and co star June Carter. I kinda wish they focused more on the prison gigs at Folsom but their love was remarkable. And so is this story.

Have been hanging out to see all two hours of this movie and every last bit of it was worth it. Four and a half out of five!

Heya. Saw this the other day. It harks back to a time of seasonal family slapstick comedies. So in case you haven’t guessed, it’s a bit of a Christmas-based chick flick. Probably a bit too chicky for my tastes.

In Malaysia, I remember they had these Chinese New Year happy family fantasy kinda movies. They all had the fabulously wealthy guy and the pheasant Chinese chick that’s whisked into a life of luxury because she has a nice pair of tits or something, with a few laughs along the way and some religious references. There’s no shame in that, and these movies have their place. Just hopefully my place is not in front of the screen when it’s on.

The Family Stone is the same kind of concept. Some soppy sentiment you dust off once a year like a Christmas tree and laugh and cry at the parody presented before you of your own extended family. They do try and be a bit topical though though a deaf, gay brother who brings his boyfriend home for Christmas. For most of the movie they converse in tongue and sign for the deaf brother.

For all intents, this movie could be a pantomine and was probably written as one. Most of it’s in the house and there’s probably about 4 scenes outside. It’s all about the slapstick timing, ‘comedy of errors’ style faux pas around the Christmas table and how it feels when you’re the outsider at the Christmas table. It’s funny, but has too many sob sob moments, because the mum is dying of breast cancer and this is quite predictably, her last Christmas with the family. So there’s lots of oestrogen laced, soppy moments.

Acting wise, this movie is all Sarah Jessica Parker. It has to be said, that if you want an annoying, neurotic, stuck up, whiney, size 6 bitch that has more shoes than IQ points, give Sarah a call. She is fantastically good at this and you can’t really imagine anyone else fulfilling this role. She makes you cringe with disgust at her character constantly.

Take your girlfriend along ladies, not the man to this one. 6 out 10.

Don’t let the title put you off. This isn’t some jingoistic, Republican response to Moore’s evidently successful Farenheit 911.  In fact documentary maker Michael Wilson, dedicates a great deal of time to justifying the movie’s somewhat harsh title and how similar his upbringing was to Moore’s.

Interviewed are people from Moore’s real home town in Michigan (not Flint) and several renouned documentary makers. So to are the bank clerks from the beginning of Bowling For Columbine that handed our Mick the shotgun over the counter. Because this is where Moore shows his contempt for his fans, by liberally editing and manipulating the truth to the point he could be an intern on Fox News. You’ll be quite surprised to see what the bank clerks have to say about Moore’s ruse to get his scene.

Those of you looking for a pro gun, doco-made-from-the-back-of-a pickup will be disapointed. So too those who are far too sensitive to Moore’s plight to overcome dumb, middle America. Because this doco shows a more liberal, beligerant side to the US that Moore belittles as the rubble left behind by corporate America. No doubt the US is trouble, but several people, including a maimed Iraq war vet. are furious with the way Moore has manipulated the interview footage.

Moore himself hasn’t done himself any favours by telling the doco maker, for all intents, to fuck off at question time at one of his university tours. So much so that many attendees actually came up to the documentary maker, to comment that whilst they agreed with Moore, they thought accosting him was uncalled for. Furthermore for refusing to be interview, as so many of his own subjects had in Roger and Me especially.

Whilst Moore himself may not hate America per se, he’s certainly profiting from corporate channels through criticising it.  Allegedly he now lives in New York far, far away from the Flint he so allegedly loves. This film certainly illustrates he’s not catching the bus.

Effectively those who criticise this doco may say it’s a dissection of Moore’s crock pot edit techniques to polarize people into action. I used to agree with his principals despite his actions. However this doco was in making me realise that truth should never be manipulated or compromised. Ultimately it only weakens your case and strengthens your detractors.

Two very big thumbs up buy the Michael Moore Hates America movie here.