Tag: Movies

Movie reviews collection

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I really enjoy a good movie experience (sometimes that can even involve bad movies). Thanks to IMDb I have a growing record of all my more than 200 ratings. And on Twitter I often share what I think about the more noteworthy movies or series I watch. My summaries really don’t conform with regular reviews, partly due to a Tweet having a limited number of characters, which I think is a lot more fun. Here’s the definitive archive of Ryan’s movie reviews for your info – and to prevent me from starting to watch something again by mistake.

The list is sorted by most recently watched/reviewed, not when it was released. You can filter by choosing Genre and/or Star rating.

Perhaps my tongue-in-cheek comment about Willis’s unwise decision to be part of this movie could be in bad taste. As it turns out, his declining mental state has been quietly known about for some time.

Hard to believe it’s 30 years since Romper Stomper was infamously released. Now we’re living in Victoria I finally got around to watch it – immediately recognising the Richmond train station subway and Point Addis finale. Kind of an important story still here, regardless of its age.

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Lagaan decor

Reading Time: < 1 minuteOur office received a redecoration, showcasing several IPs – including the Lagaan hero, Bhuvan.

It’s an against-all-odds movie, where Aamir Khan’s peasant farmer character takes on the oppressive British imperialists in a game of cricket.

The stakes were high. And the result, I won’t spoil (cause I’ve yet to see it).

I was clearly entertained by the wall placement of the very cool larger than life-sized character sticker.

Aamir Khan despises 19th Century British tyrants taxing his land, and power points not hidden from view.

Touch down Australia, “summer holidays” begin – Aug 2017

Reading Time: 2 minutesIt’s 4 in the morning, I’m wide awake, and my body feels like it should be eating dinner.
Dubai right now is 37 degrees at 10pm. Outside here in Launceston is 1.
My summer holiday has again become a freezing one.

It was quite a day of flying. In summary, my plane took off from DXB at 10:41am. With a short stop to change planes in MEL, I arrived and reunited with my family at Launceston airport 10:08am the next day.

I already got into the Aussie mood in Dubai. The family behind me at the boarding gate were speaking in Greek. I like the sound of the language. Then occasionally they would switch to a thick, regional Australian accent when they were cursing so impressively. I guess Greek has no equivalent to “flamin‘”

As I boarded, Bob Marley & The Wailers were singing “Don’t worry, ’bout a thing … Cause ev’ry little thing, is going to be all-right.” Not just a cool song, perhaps a great ploy to calm the nervous traveler?

I had the window seat, a vacant spot next to me, then one neighbour on the aisle. It was a lovely, old British lady. She looked like a small, female version of Tim Cook. We exchanged pleasantries. Soon after she took off her shoes, and asked if it’s ok to store them in the seat pocket between us. I said it’s fine. A little while later, she put her feet up on the seat next to me, after asking if it was fine. I figured it wouldn’t be long before I’d be asked to give her a foot massage. It didn’t come to that. She was actually lovely company, even helping me finish my large bag of cashews before Australian Customs.

I watched three movies, which is my standard for this leg. 

  • I watched Fate of the Furious – #8 in the franchise. It’s a lot of fun, and must be the best movie written by a 10 year old boy. 
  • Then I watched Ghost In The Shell. It’s hard to go past an action flick with a near-naked Scarlett Johansson. The movie is quite amazing. It’s the movie you’d expect if The Matrix and Total Recall had a baby. 
  • And the pick of the bunch was Off The Rails. It’s a documentary about Darius McCollum. Darius had issues growing up, and has Asperger’s syndrome, which resulted in his unhealthy love of the New York transit system. He continuously, quite innocently, takes control of trains and buses and impersonates employees. It has landed him in jail 32 times and for more than half of his adult life. His problem is exacerbated by a justice problem which continually proves unable to help. I watched it 1.5 times.

And now the two week whirlwind whistle-stop tour begins. It’s good to be home.

Strangely blown away – April 2015

Reading Time: 3 minutesI don’t know the cause of the strange events.

Was it the full moon (a Red Moon at that)? Or perhaps it was the fact that in the days before, I watched two trippy movies which were challenging reality. First it was all five dimensions of Interstellar, then Fight Club. (I started Inception also, though I dreamed I was too tired and couldn’t watch more than 20 mins).

I guess it begun on Thursday when Dubai was subjected to one of the worst dust storms I’ve seen in my six years here. While I was driving, visibility was down to 10-20 metres.

After work when I got home, the front courtyard immediately looked different. The little tent we bought for Owen was missing.   The snake I had in there to scare the kids was now lying exposed on the concrete path.

Me & Owen, happy days in the tent
Me & Owen, happy days in the tent

My first thought was someone must have stolen it. Though, anyone interested in stealing kids toys had many more, and simpler opportunities. They had all been left where they were. It seemed quite clear, despite our courtyard having a 6 foot brick wall right around it, the heavy wind must have blown the tent outside.

I looked out in the street and in the neighbours’ yards, but it was nowhere to be seen. It was a shame, though I wasn’t too upset about it. The boys wouldn’t miss it for some time, and it was relatively cheap from IKEA.

The next day was Good Friday. I went to a friend’s place for an Easter BBQ. Everything was going quite well, until the lady at the end of the table turned and started choking. It was clear she was struggling, when she became quite frantic and ran off into the house. Her husband was nursing their baby, so I jumped up and grabbed the little one. And the guy chased his wife in the house, immediately starting the Heimlich Manoevre when he caught her. What a terrifying sight. After 4 or 5 seconds it seemed to do the trick. He thankfully didn’t show us the evidence, but claimed it was a 5 – 10 centimetre piece of roast lamb.

The awkwardness took a little while to leave, then the afternoon beers were flowing nicely. Before it got too late, I caught a taxi home. I focused my gaze at the passing neighborhood I could see out the taxi’s window. It minimised the sensation of the world spinning. All of a sudden though, I couldn’t believe my eyes! I quickly sat upright and squinted my eyes slightly. Outside, pinned against a small, simple wire fence was the same red, striped material of Owen’s tent. But this didn’t make sense. It was on the other side of my neighborhood – so far from my place.

 

Perhaps a bit forcefully, I told the taxi driver to stop right there and then. He must have thought I was needing to be sick. I opened the door and ran back to what I thought I had seen, and it was proven, I did see it. Here was the kids tent that I last saw in our place, according to Google maps, over 2 kilometres away.

The tent's end spot near Hessa Street
The tent’s end spot near Hessa Street

I guess the shape made it climb like a hot air balloon. And perhaps it didn’t fly in a straight line, so it could have travelled even further.

Imagine if Owen was inside at the time!?

Tent flight
Where I found the tent, 2.22872 km away from our courtyard

I folded it as best I could to fit it into the taxi’s back seat, and returned home. Most of the way I was still giggling in disbelief.

The next day I was keen to check I had not experienced a dream. Nope, the tent had returned – now with three skateboards inside to weigh it down.

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Flying home

Reading Time: 2 minutesOn a plane I always enjoy a window seat. I’ve never tired of that childhood excitement at seeing the takeoff, flying up into the clouds, and seeing the miniature scenery on the ground below. Flying out of Dubai at 10:25am is one of the most beautiful window seats possible. We flew around and (what looked) quite close to the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa. We were so close I felt like I could open one of the doors and throw a watermelon out and it’d get skewered onto the spire.

I also enjoy the ability to watch a movie, or three. This trip I watched the following:

    Moon Rider

What a peculiar documentary. It covers the rise and challenges of Danish cyclist Rasmussen Quad. It makes mention of the distance a professional cyclist covers thru training, which is roughly the distance to the moon – hence the movie’s title. The film began very dull. He appeared very uninteresting.
Typical of old footage, the colour was faded, with blemishes, and the effects were quite odd. Then I noted the documentary was covering events from 2010!
The soundtrack was mostly odd, drawn-out synthesizer music. It was so foreboding I felt at any moment in the story Rasmussen was going to arm up and kill everybody.
Another thing I couldn’t ignore was the race footage they showed. The riders were not microphoned, yet to add more drama, quite often there was loud, heavy breathing. I’m certain someone else added this during the film’s production. It successfully added to the creepiness. Then the story focused on the world championships in Rasmussen’s home country, Denmark. It showed the human element lovely, even introducing his girlfriend. I won’t give away the ending though it made the movie passable (spoiler alert: especially for an Australian cycling follower!)

    GI Joes: Retaliation

What a stupidly wonderful action movie. Non-stop adrenaline-soaked predictability. I rate it very highly – particularly with beer or rum.

    Hitchcock

What an amazing tale, and glimpse into the movie genius!

And then not too long later we’re less than an hour from Brisbane International Airport. What a scene. For some time there’s been a window of nothing but darkness with the odd spot of mining lights. Now the black silhouette of the landscape is capped by a rich, hearty orange of the burgeoning East coast sunrise, giving light to the still dark blue sky.
Hello Queensland, lovely to see you again.

Movie: Van Dieman’s Land

Reading Time: < 1 minuteI just finished watching Van Dieman’s Land. It was terrible.

Elle and I caught a trailer for the film some time ago, which gave the false impression it would be interesting.

And Van Dieman’s Land – AKA Tasmania – being Elle’s home state in Australia, we also thought it’d be nice to see some familiar beautiful scenery and hear some historical accounts.  We were mistaken.

The story tracks the hardships of hardened escapee convicts through the hard Tasmanian wilderness. Then it tracked the hardships of hardened escapee convicts through the hard Tasmanian wilderness.

It was monotonous. Until things got even harder and food become more scarce. So, as you do when in this situation while bush walking through Tasmania, you start knocking off your mates one by one and eating them.  The only piece of suspence was who was next to become stew.

In fact, as there was an absence of any other storyline, perhaps they should have named the flick, “Guys walking through bush, eating each other”.

  • Rating: 0.5/5
  • Tags: Australia, Tasmania, cannibalism

Midnight in Paris – movie

Reading Time: 2 minutesOnce again I made the most of the best entrainment in the skies, and watched a movie in my Emirates flight – this time on my way to Birmingham.

Before the movie, I listened to a few hours of Don Giovanni – in preparation of watching it in the flesh tomorrow by the Welsh National Opera. My boss recommended this latest Woody Allen film, as I had asked him for a good Woody Allen film. I’ve seen that Allen is quite witty, and knew his creativity, but never seen any of his films.

To begin with I had trouble finding the film. I went through the whole list twice, all the while never expecting Owen Wilson to be the star. I’m used to his exploits in kids, action, or cheesy romantic comedy flicks – which is listed in my order of preference. I never expected Wilson to have the tools to cover such subtle comedy.

I was thoroughly impressed with the movie. It was brilliant. Such a unique story, such an awkward scenario, such entertaining characters spanning three eras.

A writer, riddled with self-doubt, is nostalgic for Paris in the 1920s. He magically escapes his unhappiness with the present day to rub shoulders with his idols from yesteryear.

He works out what’s right for him in the end. But not before falling to a new low with his already disapproving pending parents-in-law.

The film had some classic moments which made me laugh so loud I may have bothered my fellow passengers.

Ernest Hemmingway was exactly as I pictured him. His focus on courage was hilarious. After a few drinks and speaking freely, I loved his challenge “who wants to fight”.

Many of the other characters also had their own charm. I loved Salvador Dali wanting to draw Owen Wilson’s portrait infatuated with adding the rhinoceros within a tear – proving just a bit too peculiar for the others.

A very unexpected result of this movie was the strong desire to visit Paris. Many romanticize the French capital, which I’ve never subscribed to. Until now.

The artistic flair, the flowing of warm emotions, the desire to follow dreams. It all sounds and looks amazing.

I thought I’d probably enjoy this film, but mostly for some rich dialogue. It was a surprise to find such a sweet flick. I thoroughly recommend it to everyone.

Movies aboard

Reading Time: 2 minutesI enjoy flying home to Australia. It’s a 15 hour stretch in front of the industry’s best in-flight entertainment. I usually make the most of it and watch as many movies as possible – which i must say is a bit of a luxury for me.

The first movie I watched was The Trotsky, a unique Canadian comedy directed by Jacob Tierney.

In it, the lead character Leon – played superbly by Jay Baruchel – believes he’s the reincarnation of Soviet Union architect, Leo Trotsky. And in a trying transition period between schools Leon uses the knowledge gained from Trotsky’s bio and seeks out the allies that Trotsky had. He endures some failures, but his ideas and resolve are unswerving.

Does he find success, does he emulate his role model? I can’t spoil it. However, one thing is for sure, he knows what be wants and gains the right counsel to navigate through the tough times.

I imagine it’s quite a unique concept to craft a movie about a student choosing to force Communism into the Canadian public school system. And the movie achieved a wonderful result and built the story exceedingly well. I enjoyed it a lot.

4 proletariat uprisings out of 5.

The second film I watched was The Kings Speech – after a reasonable interlude taking Lewis for a walk up and down the aisles a few times.

I had heard a lot about this film, perhaps as it stars Australian Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush. Incidentally young Geoffrey used to find himself around my grandmother’s table at lunch time, being from the once small town of Toowoomba – west of Brisbane. He’s obviously cone a long way since those days.

Everything I heard about the film was glowing. After seeing the film I must agree.

The film is about England’s King George VI, and his attempts to I’ve overcome a stammering problem. Rush’s character was the unlikely Australian speech therapist, who had some quirks which didn’t bide well with Royalty.

The scene was set in the 1930s, in a country on the brink of war with Germany. With the passing of his father, and his country under such harsh adversity, the King needed results now, more than ever.

The climax builds into will he triumph or stutter the country into an embarrassing position unmotivated for the challenge at hand.

Thoroughly recommend this film to colonials who enjoy a good story with a dash of historical references to the Monarchy.

3.5 sea shells she sells by the sea shore out of 5.

Shaolin Soccer #Movie

Reading Time: < 1 minuteWhile waiting for Elle to exit the local grocery store, my kids and I did something I wasn’t sure I’d ever have to do again – enter a DVD hire shop.  It almost seems like a redundant business, with the amount of file sharing and DVD swapping that goes on.  But we did it, and I’m glad we did.  Otherwise we may have missed seeing Shaolin Soccer – a fun and interesting movie which seemed to miss the mainstream audiences which we’ve practically become with some help from the kids.

 The storyline was close to being an unfortunate cliché.  The scene was set with a dominant sporting team, and an unfortunate hero or two vying to do the unthinkable and beat them at their own game. The way it was depicted was unexpected, with well translated comedy. And as you can imagine, it does conclude leaving the viewers feeling good – although the way in which it finishes certainly is not part of the cliché I was expecting.

What a mature audience

Reading Time: < 1 minuteDespite his protests, at 8:30pm I was marching my four year old out of the television room to have a bath when the television ratings warning came on for the impending movie.

Trying to leverage this he pleaded with me, “Ohhh, but I love ‘Low Level Course Language'”.