A best of the year list. This is a first for The Movie Boards. For those of you who might be wondering the list is in no particular order. To get on to this list when it was reviewed the series of movie had receive a score of 5/6 or better and of course it had be reviewed in 2018.
Director Dean Murphy
Starring Shane Jacobson, Paul Hogan, Michala Banas, Jimeoin, Fiona O’Loughlin
Rated M
Score 6/6
The invite that goes out is clear. Don’t bring meat. We’ll provide the beer. Just come armed with nothing but the funniest jokes you’ve ever heard. Shane will take care of the rest. It’ll be a night of great friends telling the world’s funniest jokes over a beer and BBQ.
Okay. I have finished watching That’s Not my Dog and for the past ten or so minutes I have been trying to figure out, exactly what I was going to write for my review. When I saw the trailer for That’s Not my Dog I knew I was going to have to watch this one. For all intents and purposes this is a comedy concert movie but on a smaller scale. You could compare this to something like The Green Room with Paul Provenza but there is more of an intimate feel to the whole movie as there is no audience. There were some familiar faces of Australian comedy, some comedians I have never seen before and some really great music.
With the world being as crazy, cold and unforgiving as it is, I can say that with certainty that watching That’s not My Dog was joyous bliss.
Dean Murphy and the joke wranglers that you worked with while making That’s not My Dog. Bravo and Thank you.
L’ascension aka The Climb
Director Ludovic Bernard
Starring Ahmed Sylla, Alice Belaïdi, Kévin Razy
Rated M
Score 5/6
A young man from the suburbs with no mountaineering experience decides to climb Mt Everest to show a woman he’d do anything for her.
For those of you who might be interested L’ascension is the first fictional film to be shot at the Everest South Base Camp. It should also be noted that Though technically based on the true story of Nadir Dendoune, this is only in a very loose sense. Indeed, the main character’s name, age, ethnicity, relations and entire motivation for wanting to climb to the top of Mount Everest were changed for the film and director Ludovic Bernard never read Dendoune’s book Un tocard sur le toit du monde which the movie is supposedly based on.
L’ascension has been on my Netflix list for a little while waiting for me to get around to watching it, and this can easily define as a ‘Mum Movie’. Its been a little while since the last I have used the term Mum Movie, but basically a Mum Movie is the kind of movie that you can watch with your Mum without either of you feeling the least bit awkward. I just love the positivity of this movie. Okay sure it could be an example of don’t let your heart write cheques your butt might not be able to cash. Ahmed Sylla gave a great performance and I found his smile infectious. But what really steals the show is amazing countryside of Nepal.
Bohemian Rhapsody
Director Bryan Singer
Starring Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Joseph Mazzello
Rated M
Score 6/6
A chronicle of the years leading up to Queen’s legendary appearance at the Live Aid (1985) concert.
Okay, it should be noted that director Bryan Singer was fired during the production of Bohemian Rhapsody and replaced by Dexter Fletcher. But the Director’s Guild of America deemed the sole credit for directing the movie belonged to Singer.
With biopics there is always the question that you have to ask and that did the filmmakers gloss over things to much. Well I suppose it could be argued that they did to a degree though I suppose considering Freddie’s reputation for wild parties to much in the interest of a film classification suitable for a broad audience and if they had of delved to deeply into Freddie’s death they would have had to sacrifice the uplifting ending they had at the end of the Live Aid concert. The other thing about biopics is that there are certain moments portrayed in the movie that you hope happened just how you saw it on screen. For me it was the scene where Freddie joined the band.
Bohemian Rhapsody is a movie that you should watch at your friendly neighborhood cinema. Now if you missed at the cinemas when you watch this at home you are going to watch this on a screen that has good speakers.
Now part of me would have liked to have seen the movie also focus on the lives of Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon inside and outside of the band to make this seem to be more of a rounded movie. However, Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie was amazing. I’ll admit it that half way through Queen’s performance at Live Aid Malek had me a little bit teary.
I was a little surprised to see Mike Myers cast in this movie, it was probably nine years since I last saw him in a new movie. I enjoyed Lucy Boynton’s portrayal of Mary Austin and her relationship with Freddie was one of the more interesting ones in the movie. As for Allen Leech portrayal of Paul Prenter I’m conflicted I know I’m supposed to hate him but at least on the surface he seems to be a nice man.
Director Dianna Reid
Starring Lachy Hulme, Abe Forsythe, Damon Gameau
Rated M
Score 6/6
The story of how legendary media mogul Kerry Packer fought a cricket war by secretly signing up 50 of the world’s greatest players to form a breakaway tournament. Packer took on the Australian Cricket Board and MCCC in a war over TV rights and threw the cricket world into turmoil by creating ‘World Series Cricket’. He knew the players, who had been underpaid for years, were on the point of rebellion against the cricket authorities. His rebel games clashed head-on with official test matches, and the war was on. Polishing an idea by John Cornell, Packer fought a bitter two-year battle against the cricket establishment doing its best to protect the hundred-year legacy of pride in the traditional nature of the poorly paid game. The result changed cricket forever.
I did not watch this on its original run on Australian TV, I suppose the only reason that I came to watch this was a bargain opportunity on a recent DVD buying expedition.
For those of you who might not know I am way to young to have witnessed this first hand I was born in 1982 three years after the last season of world series cricket. Howzat doesn’t shy away from the fact that a degree of dramatic licence was taken with history (though there are a couple of scenes that I would like to know if they happened the way that they were portrayed. Including the sale of a major metropolitan newspaper that was referenced in passing). Especially given that two characters are noted as being fictional in the closing credits. It’s also clear that the plot of the mini-series was biased in favour of Kerry Packer, though I suppose for a completely unbiased telling of these events you would need the runtime of a complete television season.
Lachy Hulme as Kerry Packer, Mandy McElhinney as Rose Mitchell & Abe Forsythe John Cornell gave great performances. Hulme’s performance as Packer is particularly noteworthy because even though Packer was a bully and perhaps even a bit of a dick, he was the kind of person who had the commitment, depth of faith and the chequebook that was needed to change cricket.
The scene where David Hookes came back to cricket after breaking his jaw had me on the verge of tears.
Creators Grant Morrison, Brian Taylor
Starring Christopher Meloni, Ritchie Coster, Lili Mirojnick, Patton Oswalt
Rated MA
Score 6/6
An injured hitman befriends his kidnapped daughter’s imaginary friend – a perky blue flying unicorn.
With the excess of comic book related movie and television content it is soooo satisfying to know that there is content out there to be adapted into a show like this that has me eagerly awaiting its second season. The first episode of Happy! had me laughing out loud for the entire episode and given some of the action scenes it had me wondering that something might be just that little bit wrong with me. Happy is another example of the syfy channel struggles with the quality of the movies that they produce and yet is capable of producing some brilliant television series.
Personally, I am only familiar with Christopher Meloni from his time working on Law & Order and it is safe to say that his role of Elliot Stabler is the polar opposite of Nick Sax. A lot of positive things can be said about all of the actors that where involved with Happy, however Patton Oswalt who voiced perky blue flying unicorn Happy stole the series. Of particular note was the homage to Quentin Tarantino Reservoir Dogs’ stuck in the middle with you scene.
Director Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman
Starring Douglas Booth, Jerome Flynn & Robert Gulaczyk
Rated M
Score 6/6
In a story depicted in oil painted animation, a young man comes to the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist’s final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.
Loving Vincent is the world’s first fully painted animation feature. For those of you who are interested each of the film’s 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas, using the same technique as Van Gogh, created by a team of 100 painters.
Going into Loving Vincent I really did not do any homework, for the record I am completely unfamiliar with the life of Vincent van Gogh except for maybe for that episode of Dr Who, Vincent and the Doctor (I’ve no doubt came across van Gogh’s art at other points in my life, this is just the first thing that came to mind). Anyway, this is a gorgeous movie to watch and the painters involved with the production of this movie should rightfully be proud of their work. There is just so much to love about this movie that you will find yourself pausing it random just to admire the attention to detail of the artwork.
There was probably one actor involved with the production that I was familiar with Chris O’Dowd, I found that I really enjoyed Eleanor Tomlinson performance as Adeline Ravoux.