The Wednesday Review – Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (possibly in 3d)

February 15, 2012

The Wednesday Review – Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (possibly in 3d)

Liam Neeson – Qui-Gon Jinn

Ewan McGregor – Obi-Wan Kenobi

Natalie Portman – Queen Amidala / Padmé

Jake Lloyd – Anakin Skywalker

Ian McDiarmid – Senator Palpatine

Written and Directed by George Lucas

As many of you might unfortunately know, the scourge of “afterthought 3D” is hitting Star Wars with a splotchy and slow to realise impact. With the release of The Phantom Menace this year, with each episode being released annually after that I thought I would touch upon one of my most hates movie franchises. The Prequels.

It is of no surprise that many people revile the newer Star Wars movies for being effectively piled of poorly made garbage and I am also one of them. However with a new 3D treatment perhaps the movie is worth another look as surely there are some good aspects to it? Well, not really.

Unfortunately the basic issue with The Phantom Menace stems from its complete lack of characters and its rather vague and unthought through storyline. When I say it lacks characters I am more refering to the lack of proper fleshing out and characterisation of its heroes. Neither Qui-Gon nor Obi-Wan, our supposed heroes of this story, have any real discernible traits that define them and unfortunatly this does not give us a good edge into the storyline. Whereas in the original trilogy we always had fish out of water Luke Skywalker to follow around and become involved in the universe with. Whilst this kind of thing could have been happening with Obi-wan as the younger Jedi we never really get it and instead are left back on the ship for a good portion of the movie.

I wont make any paritucaly mention of the much hated Jar Jar Binks whose awfulness is so obvious that its really not worthy of proper mention. I will just say that his terrible and annoying character is a symptom of this movie rather then a direct cause to why it is bad.

Our story, about trade disputes between a planet we have never heard before and an organisation that really makes no sense when you think about it cannot be more irrelevant to Star Wars then it already is. We bounce between a crisis that is not shown at all to a story about a boy that we are told is really important who engages in a race of ridiculous nature before returning and solving the original crisis that is only kind of still there. Does this sound like an interesting premise, even on paper?

This review admitably is beating a dead horse as Episode 1 has been picked apart and ridiculed by many many reviewers who have put in far more effort in de constructing it then I have. So the 3D, is it worth it? Well like any post processed 3D the answer is naturally no. Even then the 3D effects are sparse and are probably utilised in less then half the movie when the special effects are at their highest usage. Still, with over $23million already made from this re-release it can’t be said that it was a bad idea from a financial perspective.

Would I recommend Episode 1 in 3D? Not in the slightest and would infact recommend against seeing it so as to not encourage more movie making of this terrible quality. Stay away.

Rated 1 midichloriran out of 50,000

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Posted by Jesse R

The Wednesday Review – Hurtsville

February 8, 2012

The Wednesday Review – Hurtsville by Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders

Not having seen a decent movie this week I thought it was time to review an album that I have been listening to on a near daily basis for the past month. Hurtsville by Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders is the third album by Jack Ladder, a Sydney born musician, and the first as a collaborative effort with his new band the Dreamlanders.

 

The comparisons with Nick Cave seem to be a favourite with other reviewers and I can see why in a fashion but this also discredits Ladder at the same time. Considering the rather vast influence Cave has had on just about every modern Australian musician it seems unfair to compare Ladder with him simply because they both have deep baritone voices. Yes there are comparisons but lets not go too overboard shall we?

 

Jack Ladder’s previous albums suffered, if anything, from a much to wide breadth. Their large range of differing styles song to song was interesting but were not very captivating. Fortunately Hurtsville does not suffer from this and Ladder seems to have discovered a style of music that will hopefully see him well in the future as well.

 

The stand out song on this album is undoubtedly “Cold Feet” which has been given some radio play by TripleJ and other alternative radio stations but not nearly enough. It is a dark and moody song that is really pushed along by its almost melodramatic instrumentation. My second favourite is called “Dumb love” and is a great change of pace in the album with a far more upbeat and catchy riff to accompany it.

There are a few criticisms that I have of the album that, whilst relativity minor, stop it from getting top marks. The lyrical content is ridiculously all over the place in quality. Whilst some lyrics are extraordinarily clever and well written others are little more then puns or cliches that do not fit the rest of the lyrical tone. On top of this certain songs run a little too long and you’re almost inclined to reach for the skip button after the five or six minute mark which I never consider to be a good thing on any album.

 

It is really the entirety of Hurtsville that gives it strength. There are no bad songs on this album, simply ones that stand out, and all will maintain a listen on a complete run through. By no means a perfect album Hurtsville still manages to deliver a very solid and brooding sound that just simply works. Highly recommended.

 

Four Nick Cave comparisons out of Five.

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Posted by Jesse R

Sniffing drugs just a’int for the dogs.

February 6, 2012

There are many things we watch in police shows that we take as gospel. Lie detectors, bullet analysis, sniffer dogs and the list goes on. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your circumstances, the actual effectiveness of many of these “methods” is arbitrary, subjective and generally rather poor.

 

Lets take sniffer dogs for instance. Their usefulness to police is unquestionable but unfortunately the actual realities aren’t so favourable. Last year on the ABC site Amy Simmons brought up results of sniffer dogs being terribly ineffective in the job they do. As high as four in five positive “sniffs” were revealed to have been false.

 

Well you ask, that’s still not a problem really is it? They still have a twenty percent chance of catching someone! Well tell that to those 80% who were potentially forcibly searched, detained and generally inconvenienced due to inaccurate readings. Its not fair, is a violation of what should be steadfast civil liberties and should not be tolerated.

 

I bring this up largely as a response to Greg Barn’s article outlying much of these ideas but particularly focusing on the usage of dogs in festivals to specifically combat the usage of party drugs. Why are we continuing such a “war on drugs” when only a handful of people are even being punished out of the many thousands who attend these festivals?

 

This country has a rather sorry love affair with slowly allowing our rights to be eroded because “it does not really effect me”. How much longer should we put up with allowing a woefully inadequate system to function when it has the power to arbitrarily search anyone effectively? Perhaps no longer.

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Posted by Jesse R

The Wednesday Review – A few best men

February 1, 2012

The Wednesday Review – A few best men

Xavier Samuel as David Locking

Laura Brent as Mia Ramme

Olivia Newton-John as Barbra Ramme

Jonathan Biggins as Jim Ramme

Kris Marshall as Tom

Written by Dean Craig and directed by Stephan Elliott

The root of Australian comedies has always seemed to me to stem from familiarity. Our comedy heroes are generally the “battler” whose charm and wit comes from his or her surrounding that us as Australians are intimately familiar with. Even going so far back as Barry Mackensie you can see how the Aussie comedy icon is very much supposed to embody Australia.

The problem is that this is simply not marketable. Sure films like The Castle, Muriel’s Wedding and even the Wog Boy to name some contemporary ones have done well and are even critically and culturally acclaimed but overseas their marketability is rather low.

There of course is one Australian comedy that everyone knows and did remarkably well overseas and that is Crocodile Dundee. The thing about Dundee however is that the marjority of the film isnt even set in Australia. It is actually a fish out of water story and well, that works just about anywhere.

This is where A few best men come into it as at its heard, A few best men is not an Australian comedy despite being financed by Australian film and directed by Stephan Elliot of Pricilla fame. Written by Dean Craig the film is decidedly a British take on the ensemble friend comedy and with some Australian humour thrown in here and there. This is actually a rather smart move by the film makers as by effectively creating a British comedy in Australia they can capture both markets well.

The plot of the story consists of four friends making their way to the Blue Mountains for the wedding of David and naturally hijinks ensue involving a prize sheep, a drug dealer with parent issues and a politically obsessed father in law.

It would be unfair to say that A few best men is derivative as it is certainly a funny and well made movie. It is however fairly formulaic and predictable with scenes and ideas very much there only to set up a joke later in the movie that you can see a mile off.

Fortunately the ensemble cast are all very good with the stand out being Kris Marshall who you may remember from a slightly similar film called Death at a Funeral. Props must be given to Olivia Newton John who is actually quite funny in her role as a fed up political wife.

Overall A few best men is decently funny, if highly predictable, movie that is guaranteed to get you laughing. Being a film that is largely Australian in funding and production I would probably recommend it on that basis alone as promoting our film industry is important so you might as well do it in exchange for a laugh.

A few best men gets a solid three prize rams out of five for me. A perfectly good comedy but not one that you will be quoting for years to come.

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Posted by Jesse R

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