Out of Africa

I watched the DVD of this magnificent movie a few nights ago and feel compelled to write something about it. I was barely out of high school when I saw Out of Africa on its first release. I had not seen it since and what a treat it was to revisit. I can remember choking up at the end, despite being a brash youth, when I saw it for the first time. Everything about this film speaks of quality. Meryl Streep and Robert Redford are at the hight of their powers and deliver perfect performances. The film is beautiful to look at. I could never tire of watching the African landscape scenes. It captures a time and place that is long lost and can never be regained. If there is anything even better than the acting and the cinematography, then it is John Barry’s wonderful musical score. There are few films of recent times that stand up to this.

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I always look forward to Adam Sandler movies. They are always good for a laugh. Trouble is, while this one has quite a few funny moments, it’s also scary and sad. Adam’s character receives a universal remote from the mysterious Morty, played by Christopher Walken, who is excellent as always. The remote really is universal in that it can control every aspect of his life. The message is clear that many of us fast forward through much of our lives by allowing day-to-day ‘busy-ness’ to crowd out the things and the people that are really important. This has long been a bugbear of mine. One of my favourite sayings is that no one says on his deathbed that he wishes he had spent more time at the office. So the movie struck a chord with me and if it encourages just one workaholic Dad to spend a little more time with his kids it will have been worth the making.

The Break Up

This is puzzling. Why would two actors as likeable and charming as Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston choose to play two such unlikeable and charmless characters as these? To be fair Aniston’s character is not so much unlikeable, as dull and dim witted. I found it entirely unbelievable that these two characters would ever get together in the first place and from twenty minuted into the movie I was rooting for them to break it off and move far away from each other as quickly as possible. There is little to laugh at here. Imagine two lesser known actors in the roles and you quickly realise that it is only star power that lifted this turkey off the cutting room floor. Dire. Not even worth a mention as a chick flick. Just as the Aniston character deserves a better boyfriend, chicks deserve better movies than this.

United 93

This is a film by Paul Greengrass of the final hours of flight United 93, which went down in a field en route to Washington on September 11. It is thought that the plane’s target was the White House and that the brave actions of the passengers prevented the terrorist hi-jackers from reaching their goal. The story is told without any dramatisation or back-story, entirely as a fly-on-the-wall documentary. This approach is very effective at capturing the confusion of the time. The realism extends to using the actual people involved on the ground to re-enact their roles, notably, Ben Sliney, the man in charge of the FAA national center. This is a very intense film and some people will find it hard to watch. Whilst there is no dramatisation, we are not spared any detail of the actual events. A worthy document of these sad events and one that is respectful of the memory of the victims. United 93 was screened as part of the Sydney Film Festival.

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous

This film is the punishment for when you are so lazy on a Sunday night that you end up watching whatever is on Cable. No one would surely watch something this bad on purpose. I have no excuse and deserve having lost an hour and a half of my time to this tripe. I had after all seen the banality of the original and should have been prepared for more of the same. Of course, #2 is much worse. The grain of originality in the concept of the tough FBI agent having to put on a demure and sophisticated façade is now old hat and we do not even have the small pleasure of Michael Caine’s company, as he sensibly excused himself from the sequel. The rescue scene stands out as the dumbest moment in a sea of stupidity. The feather boa getting caught and nearly causing our heroic agent to drown had me laughing out load and shaking my head in disbelief. Avoid at all costs. Re-runs of The Love Boat translated into Russian would be preferable.

Over The Hedge

Sticking with movies suitable for the holidays, this is my favourite so far. I found the story engaging, which is very unusual for this type of movie and I laughed out loud a number of times. It is visually very attractive and, I think, the best animation since Nemo and Shrek. It has a stellar cast of voices including Nick Nolte, Bruce Willis, William Shatner, Garry Shandling and Eugene Levy, whom I always admire. Hammy, the super-fast squirrel is worth the price of admission alone, particularly when he is given a dose of a high energy caffeine drink to further boost his speed. Guaranteed to keep the kids happy.

Cars

The very entertaining bit of school holiday fare is remarkable for two things. One is how it manages to provide human characteristics to the cars while still managing to make them look like cars and two, in that it packs quite a sophisticated message i.e. that good things are often lost in the name of progress. It has some very funny moments, notably the scenes involving the cow-like tractors and the Ferrari-loving tyre sales man/car. In a quick poll of kids in our little group, this movie seem to be score more highly with boys than girls, perhaps not surprising.