Mark's blog about the 2005 Melbourne International Film Festival.Saturday, July 23, 2005
GUNNER PALACE
5/10
Gunner Palace was a documentary which sounded like it had a lot of potential - the filmmaker spent a couple of months over two trips to Iraq with American soldiers after major combat was finished to see what was going on over there. Unfortunately, I walked out not really feeling like I'd seen a good representation of what it actually does feel like to be there. Instead, I saw American soldiers being very American; enjoying the swimming pool, making rude/lewd comments, writing and performing rap music throughout, and talking about how much they love 'real food' like Burger King... I suppose I was hoping to see a little more about what the Iraqis thought about the war, and their interaction with the forces there. A little disappointing.
KUNG FU HUSTLE
7/10
Anyone who liked Shaolin Soccer when they saw it at MIFF a couple of years ago (or before or after it) will pretty much be happy with this film. It's heavy on the special effects and has plenty of humour and some great fight scenes. The opening scenes promised more style to the film than it actually offered, but I thought it was great fun. I particularly liked the 'capone-era chicago-esque' feel. Definitely worth seeing if you like kung fu/action films. I'm only giving it a 7/10 rather than a higher score because it didn't really feel like it broke any new ground... I suppose one can't expect too much more than what it offers. If you are a fan, the Director/Writer/Producer/Actor (phew), Stephen Chow, will actually be at the next showing and will be doing a Q&A type thing at the festival club on Sunday July 31 at 9:15pm.
LITTLE FISH
7.5/10
I liked this film, which showed the various ways that drugs have affected a family living in Sydney - the relationships between the different members was also interesting. And, of course, it starred Dustin Nguyen who I last saw in 21 Jump Street :-). I think I liked this film because it didn't push edges too hard - it wasn't depicting utter human waste stages of addiction, it wasn't overly soppy/emotional and didn't have particularly sensationalised over-dramatisations, which would probably be easy in a film like this. Of particular note though, was the description of Vancouver by Jonny, which I found a little ironic - in the film, he describes Vancouver as a city where people work or sleep, and that they don't get much sleep. (or something along those lines). Having lived in Vancouver, Melbourne and Sydney, I don't believe this to be true - Vancouver's the closest city to Melbourne that I've been to. Sydney on the other hand *is* a city where careers seem to be the 'guiding light' and quality of life outside one's career is generally more lacking. Again, my opinion, which I'd say is worth about this much in the greater scheme of things; --> <--
On another note, the Film Buff's Forecast folks plugged this blog on their weekly mail out, so cheers to them! They'll be doing their radio show live from the festival club on Sat 23 July from noon till 2pm.
5/10
Gunner Palace was a documentary which sounded like it had a lot of potential - the filmmaker spent a couple of months over two trips to Iraq with American soldiers after major combat was finished to see what was going on over there. Unfortunately, I walked out not really feeling like I'd seen a good representation of what it actually does feel like to be there. Instead, I saw American soldiers being very American; enjoying the swimming pool, making rude/lewd comments, writing and performing rap music throughout, and talking about how much they love 'real food' like Burger King... I suppose I was hoping to see a little more about what the Iraqis thought about the war, and their interaction with the forces there. A little disappointing.
KUNG FU HUSTLE
7/10
Anyone who liked Shaolin Soccer when they saw it at MIFF a couple of years ago (or before or after it) will pretty much be happy with this film. It's heavy on the special effects and has plenty of humour and some great fight scenes. The opening scenes promised more style to the film than it actually offered, but I thought it was great fun. I particularly liked the 'capone-era chicago-esque' feel. Definitely worth seeing if you like kung fu/action films. I'm only giving it a 7/10 rather than a higher score because it didn't really feel like it broke any new ground... I suppose one can't expect too much more than what it offers. If you are a fan, the Director/Writer/Producer/Actor (phew), Stephen Chow, will actually be at the next showing and will be doing a Q&A type thing at the festival club on Sunday July 31 at 9:15pm.
LITTLE FISH
7.5/10
I liked this film, which showed the various ways that drugs have affected a family living in Sydney - the relationships between the different members was also interesting. And, of course, it starred Dustin Nguyen who I last saw in 21 Jump Street :-). I think I liked this film because it didn't push edges too hard - it wasn't depicting utter human waste stages of addiction, it wasn't overly soppy/emotional and didn't have particularly sensationalised over-dramatisations, which would probably be easy in a film like this. Of particular note though, was the description of Vancouver by Jonny, which I found a little ironic - in the film, he describes Vancouver as a city where people work or sleep, and that they don't get much sleep. (or something along those lines). Having lived in Vancouver, Melbourne and Sydney, I don't believe this to be true - Vancouver's the closest city to Melbourne that I've been to. Sydney on the other hand *is* a city where careers seem to be the 'guiding light' and quality of life outside one's career is generally more lacking. Again, my opinion, which I'd say is worth about this much in the greater scheme of things; --> <--
On another note, the Film Buff's Forecast folks plugged this blog on their weekly mail out, so cheers to them! They'll be doing their radio show live from the festival club on Sat 23 July from noon till 2pm.
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Oh, one more thing - while watching Little Fish today I thought that Hugo Weaving looked a little clint eastwood-like in one scene and would be great in a Western. :-)
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