So its that time of the week again, time for me to put together a list of a few movies I feel are worth everyone giving a look too, if for nothing else but to give you an excuse to waist two hours out of your day...
all set? here we go...
All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane: here is the plot; Anthea is undergoing a crisis of confidence: overworked, no boyfriend, struggling to find goals - and all her friends are leaving Brisbane. She is tempted to leave herself, but is opposed by her long time best platonic male friend Michael. Michael thinks people who leave Brisbane are copycats who follow the crowd; he is quite happy to stay in Brisbane, he is in a stable job and a stable very low-maintenance sex-with-the-ex relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie. He is in a rut. Anthea's temptation to leave Brisbane increases with the impending departure of her flatmate Kath. However she then hears that an ex-boyfriend of hers Jake is coming back to Brisbane to live. To Michael's annoyance, she dreams of a great future with him. Michael is thrown out of his comfort zone by starting a new relationship with a girl he meets at work, Simone. Slightly "alternate" and good natured, Simone is totally different from the sorts of girls he normally deals with, and he finds himself in a relationship over which he does not have total control. On her last day in Australia, Anthea and Michael finally resolve their feelings for each other. The film is cute, kind of the aussie take on a "feel good" movie, its nothing that'll change your life, but it should be worth giving a watch if nothing else then a laugh, or to see how other countries do comedy of this sort.
An American Haunting: This film is loosely based on the true story of the Bell Witch in Tennessee. According to the legend, a family was terrorized by a demonic presence called the "Bell Witch" between 1817 and 1921. The film, American Haunting, presents the story in such a way that audiences have a chance to glimpse both what the family experienced, and the cause of the haunting itself. The latter statement is more fictional than the former. The movie, starring Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek as the troubled Bell parents, takes viewers from the present day to the 1800’s based on the current family now inhabiting the infamous Bell House. this film is great in the fact its both scary, and incredibly well made, as well as the fact the Bell Witch is also who The Blair Witch is based on, which adds a nice neat little extra level to it all.
Gone Baby Gone: here is the plot; Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) are private investigators who specialize in finding missing people. Usually, these are people who have willingly made themselves disappear, but when four-year-old Amanda McCready goes missing, the two are hired to help the police find her. Amanda seems to have vanished into thin air. Her aunt (Amy Madigan) and uncle (Titus Welliver) are desperate to find her. As the investigators use their knowledge of the neighborhood and its inhabitants to unravel the case, they discover a tangled web. Three police detectives (Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John Ashton) seem to be helping them. The girl’s mother (Amy Ryan) is involved with one of the neighborhood’s drug dealers. And, a pedophile has recently been released from prison in the area. Patrick and Angie must wade through mountains of misinformation to find the missing child. Will they be in time? And, will their personal relationship survive the tough choices they will have to make? I'm not really big on police movies most of the time, but i found this one engaging and rather good, and i hope maybe you will find it the same.
Hannibal Rising: Beginning in 1941 at Lecter Castle in Lithuania, the eight-year-old Hannibal Lecter’s (Aaron Thomas) life is thrown into turmoil by World War Two. Lecter, his sister Mischa (Helena Lia Tachovska), and his parents flee from the Nazis to the family’s hunting lodge deep in the forests of Lithuania. As a final destructive act of the war, the Nazis destroy a Soviet tank that was near the Lecters’, the explosion kills everyone but Hannibal, and his sister Mischa. The two children live in isolation until seven Nazi collaborators discover them while searching for food. Then further horrors ensue. Hannibal blacks out and then wanders about as a mute, until he is picked up by a Soviet tank that takes him home to Lecter Castle, now an orphanage. Two years later his uncle, from France, comes to Lithuania to take in Hannibal. Hannibal begins his studies at this point and his remarkably successful. He also begins his murderous habits, mainly focused around hunting the Nazi collaborators from his youth in Lithuania. Hannibal is caught by the police, but freed because of support for his revenge and a lack of evidence. Hannibal then leaves Europe for America to pursue his medical education. This is the great backstory to the great Hannibal Lector, one of the greatest movie villains of all time, and though i felt it odd it be released years after any of the other films based on him, i still found it rather engaging and brilliant.. I hope you do as well.
Six-String Samurai: Six-String Samurai is set in an alternate history America, in which Russia launched several nuclear warheads at the U.S. in 1957, reducing most of the United States to an inhospitable desert. The government has entirely collapsed save for the Kingdom of Elvis, who rules from "Lost Vegas" to California. The Red Army is besieging Vegas, but the lack of supplies and equipment ("We haven't had bullets since 1957," comments a Russian general in the movie) from the Soviet Union has caused them to degenerate into just another gang squabbling for territory. As the movie begins, Elvis has died and a radio disc jockey (voiced by Keith Mortimer and sounding suspiciously like Wolfman Jack) announces a call for all musical virtuosos to come to Lost Vegas to try to become the new King of Rock'n'Roll. Buddy (Jeffrey Falcon), a Buddy Holly look-alike with a katana taped to the back of his guitar, is one of the musicians converging on Lost Vegas on the death of The King. Early in his travels, he finds himself obliged to take care of a kid, simply called "Kid" (Justin McGuire). While Buddy resents having to look after the Kid, the Kid turns out to prove his worth in a few key situations. Buddy comes across many people in his travels, ranging from a zombie-like, cannibal suburban family to the 'windmill people' who are dressed like astronauts, to the filthy tribals that make up most of the civilian population. He also combats many foes, including a samurai, a bowling team of bounty-hunters, a Russian surf band (played by the Red Elvises), and the Russian army laying siege to Lost Vegas. Throughout his journey, Buddy is stalked by his greatest foe: a sinister Slash look-alike who might be the personified Grim Reaper, and his grungy group of guitarists/archers; the goal of "Death" is the elimination of all King-wannabe rivals and the conquest of Vegas (this being allegorical to the actual motive, that of removing rock'n'roll music from society and replacing it with the sound of heavy metal). This is one of those films that I just can't stop raving about, sure its low budget, sure its a silly plot full of goofball oddity played off serious, but thats the joy of it all, the truest from of what Grindhouse is, and also what surrealest humor is all about all at the same time, its just so great of a film, that even though its a b movie, you just have to see it because its so brilliant.
So thats it for this week, i hope you enjoy, these as much as i have enjoyed picking them out for you..
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BC
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