Time Lapse ✪✪✪✪✪

Opens in Australia:               No release as yet

USA: 27th August, 2014 (Portland International Film Festival)               
UK:No Release as yet.

Other Countries:                   Release Information 

I'm championing this film because I'm an independent author, just like the filmmakers of Time Lapse are independent filmmakers. When you are out there on your own, sometimes, just knowing that there are a few people that really get what you are doing, gives you such a boost. I've had that thrill with wonderful reviews for my books from complete strangers, and so I like to pay it forward.  I apologise ahead of time that I am going to whet your appetite for a film that you may not be able to easily catch at your local cinema. Time Lapse is doing the rounds of the international film festivals, so if you are lucky enough to have it in your city, DO NOT MISS IT.  Otherwise, go to your local cinema and ask them when it is showing and they may contact the distributors and see if they can get a cinema release. Now to the review...

Time slip is one of the toughest genres to pull off. There are so many tropes around this sci-fi sub-genre that writers can easily fall into a plot-hole black hole from which their story cannot return, and they will be criticized for its implausibility. Time travel is implausible, but it holds so much opportunity if written right that we are happy to go along for the ride. Usually, though, the studios worry little about these issues when it comes to the latest science fiction offerings, casting mega-stars, spending a fortune on special effects, and little on the script. Then they blitz with a twelve month pre-launch marketing campaign, and we go along expecting “wow” and, instead, receive “woe” for our box-office dollar.

So you wouldn’t expect that a small indie release would blow you away with its script and originality, but that is exactly what happened at the Revelation Film Festival in Perth, Australia when viewing Time Lapse, a film directed by Bradley King and produced by BP Cooper, both of whom wrote the script. Think classics like Memento, Triangle, and Donnie Darko, where the story twists your mind with its complexity, and the minute you’ve finished you want to rewatch to spot the clues. Time Lapse is currently doing the rounds of film festivals, and winning awards at them. It may not be at your local cinema yet, but keep looking and asking for it.

Three friends (Danielle Panabaker, George Finn, Matt O'Leary), living in and managing an apartment complex, stumble upon a strange machine in a mysterious neighbor’s home. It’s pointed at their large living room window, and they realize that, somehow, it takes photos 24 hours into the future exactly at 8pm. Posted around the machine’s room are hundreds of photos of them. Initially, the machine provides a prosperous opportunity as they send messages, to their 24 hour earlier selves, on horse race winners. However, things turn dark and sinister quickly when they start to believe that they need to perfectly recreate the scene in the photograph the following day or face dangerous consequences and possibly death.

It’s one of those films that you wish would go on forever. With each new photograph revealed, you’re thinking—just like the characters—what’s the story behind the photo? What’s going to happen in 24 hours to make it come true?

First time director, King, and co-writer Cooper have produced a well-imagined film and worked wonders with a small set and budget. Keep an eye on these two. Something tells me we will be seeing big things from them in the future. Do not miss this film when it comes to your local theatre. It’s a science fiction classic gem.

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Beautiful Creatures ★★★★

LOVE IS MAGICAL

  

 

 

 

Have you noticed there is a lot of supernatural loving going on lately at the cinema? Every trailer before the screening of BEAUTIFUL CREATURES was for a Fantasy-Romance film with either zombies, vampires or aliens.  Of course, it’s the story of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for the modern age.   And why not?  Star-crossed lovers, fighting to be together against all reason and parental approval, makes for a great story.   If it’s good enough for the mythical Gods of Greece, then it is good enough for the electronic-gadgetry-toting youth of today.

This year in book and film, it is going to be hard to avoid this genre, and Beautiful Creatures is a good example (please note Twilight producers) of how to make an entertaining, authentic film which can please fans of supernatural love as well as the non-converted.  The New York Times bestselling book of the same name is the first in the series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

 

Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich), a high school senior wants nothing more than to escape the Southern town of Gatlin and bid adieu to his Father who has withdrawn from life since the sudden death of his Mother.   For months he has dreamed of a strange, dark-haired girl he has never met.   Arriving suddenly in his class is a new girl, Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), looking a lot like his dream sweetheart.  She is immediately ostracized, as she is the niece of Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), the reclusive owner of Ravenwood Manor who most townsfolk believe is in cahoots with the devil.  Let’s face it, people who live in those big, creepy mansions usually are.

Mrs. Lincoln (Emma Thompson), mother of Ethan’s best friend is adamant that Lena must be banished from the town and spends a good deal of time pointing fingers and rallying the townsfolk against the young girl.

Despite strange happenings that surround Lena, and her spurning of his advances, Ethan ardently pursues her.    Lena reveals that she is a Caster, as is her Uncle, and each Caster has a special power.   On her sixteenth birthday Lena will discover which side she will practice her Casting based on her true inner self. Will she be chosen for the much more charming Light or the evil-doing Dark?  The entire clan, including Lena, fear she will be taken by the Dark which will prove to be very bad for the human race.  There’s also a curse hanging over Lena’s family and she and Ethan face many spells and dangers and even their love may prove fatal.

Beautiful Creatures is a stylish story, a cut above the Twilight Saga’s progressively more outlandish portrayals. There is a wit in the script and Thompson and Irons, who could have lapsed into overdramatics, rein it in enough to lend a sophistication that is usually lacking in these supernatural tales. 

Whilst I am not an urban-fantasy fan, I certainly can appreciate a story well-told.  And as the great man said himself, “a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” This love story smells of success and with four more books ,no doubt the sequels will be gracing our screens in the years to come.   If they’re as good as this, we are definitely on the side of Light.

 

 

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The Woman in Black ★ ★ ★★

Hammer Horror: Haunting once again

Release Dates
Australia: in cinemas17th May, 2012
Other Countries Release Dates

DVD release date:  USA  22nd May, 2012  UK  18th June 2012

               As a kid in the sixties, my favourite films were horror with a majority coming from the Hammer Horror Films stable.  Give me a Dracula, Mummy or Frankenstein any day over Lassie and Bambi. I would cut deals with my Mother that if I napped in the afternoon, I could then stay up past my bedtime to watch the horror flick.  Despite my viewing taste, I didn’t grow up to be a serial killer; I just grew up to be a horror writer.

               When I heard that the new revamped Hammer Horror Studios were releasing their first ghost story, The Woman in Black, I was first in line, dragging my children along with me.  They jumped, laughing nervously, at the spook bits and the eleven-year-old spent some of the film with his hands over his eyes, cringing in his chair.  Now before you start nominating me for ‘Bad Mother of the Year’, remember the fun you had being scared witless when you were a kid?

               That thrill is rarely there in horror films these days.  Either we are more sophisticated or they just don’t make them like they used to anymore.  After The Woman in Black, my verdict is the latter.   So, a huge ‘thank you’ to Hammer Horror for rectifying this with a great adaption of Susan Hill’s 1982 novel.

               Originally founded in 1934, legendary British film studio, Hammer delivered, in the sixties and seventies, a hugely successful run of films including Dracula, Frankenstein Created Woman, One Million Years B.C. and The Vampire Lovers. Not in production since the 1980s, Hammer marked their return to features in 2010 with the release of the critically acclaimed Let Me In, an adaptation of the highly praised Swedish vampire film.

               For Simon Oakes (producer and president and CEO of Hammer), The Woman in Black was one of the first properties of interest to the recently reborn genre label. “One of the things we talked about, as a team, when we first put this new incarnation of Hammer together was that horror is made of many different genres and subgenres but in recent years the tendency has been for body count horror,” he explains. “We wanted to explore different kinds of horror, and while there’d been a TV movie and a stage play, we recognised a great opportunity in The Woman in Black to combine Susan Hill’s gothic ghost story with a modern sensibility to turn it into a feature film.”

              
               For his part, Daniel Radcliffe recognised the need to strike out from the role of the Harry Potter that made him famous. “I’m very, very proud of Potter,” Radcliffe says. “But I now have to prove to people that I’m serious about acting, and I think the way to do that is to start selecting some interesting material.”

               The particular challenge of playing Arthur, for Radcliffe,  was in the character’s peculiar stillness. “There are moments when you shouldn’t be sure what Arthur’s thinking,” he says. “You know it’s probably not happy thoughts, but you’re not sure exactly why, or what he’s going through at particular moments. That just leaves a little bit more room for the audience to relate, because they can just insert any emotion that they assume he might be feeling.”

               Radcliffe plays a young bereaved London solicitor Arthur Kipps who must leave his three-year-old son and travel to the remote and unwelcoming village of Crythin Gifford to attend to the affairs of the recently deceased female owner of Eel Marsh House.  He must go through her prolific paper work to ensure her will is the only true will.

               We already know there is something wrong in the village.  In the opening scenes three young sisters climb, trancelike, out their attic window to fall to their deaths.  When Arthur crosses the moors to visit the house, it is clear that once there the tide will cut him off from the mainland, trapping him in the dishevelled and dusty house longer than he wants.

               The haunted house delivers the horrors of upstairs noises and banging, glimpses of shadowy figures and one or two adrenaline filled jump-in-your-seat scares. The reveal of the real truth of Eel Marsh House is skilfully handled and whilst you always wonder why characters stay in these haunted houses, the story provides thoughtful answers to Arthur’s motivations.  The suspense is skilfully built with a solid supporting cast and artful sets and costumes. A twist at the end, should give any horror aficionado a satisfying feeling that this is a class act all the way. 

               Hammer horror is back and that is a great thing for the genre and its fans.  With The Woman in Black, Hammer has proved horror can be stylish and thoughtful and we horror fans may enjoy some disturbed sleep in the future but that is how we like it.  Thankfully, I now don’t have to nap in the afternoons to indulge my passion.

JUST FOR FUN

Enjoy this trailer of the 1959 movie, The Mummy.  For years, this gave me nightmares anytime I was in a small room with only one door for escape.

Hammer Films classic film trailer from 1958, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in Horror of Dracula.

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Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Fans)★ ★★ ★ (Me) ★ ★

Release Dates:   Australia 5th January 2012
Other Countries


It's not so elementary
 

In Sherlock Holmes’ own words, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth".

And this may also be true for the movie, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Getting to the truth of why you should or shouldn’t see it, is quite a difficult game of deduction.

Notice in one corner, we have Robert Downey JR (Sherlock Holmes), everybody’s favorite actor, the swaggering Iron Man hero himself. Also in the wonderful actor area is Jude Law (Dr. John Watson), considered one of Britain’s best actors. Alongside them, Noomi Rapace (Sim) of the Swedish Girl With The Dragon Tattoo role, captivating to watch. Of course, lets not forget Jared Harris (Professor Moriarty) of Mad Men fame and Stephen Fry (Mycroft Holmes) whom everyone loves.

Now swing your ever observant gaze to the Director, Guy Ritchie, who literally created a genre of UK gangster films with his hit the 1999, Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels made with a paltry one million dollars.

And hidden away, where most people wouldn’t notice them, is the production team of Joel Silver, (who has more than sixty films under his belt, including the Matrix trilogy),  Susan Downey (a prolific producer and Downey’s wife), and Lionel Wigram, (co-producer of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows).

This is a dream team for big success and they have achieved it with the first Sherlock Holmes film, grossing over $516 Million. So your deduction, my dear friend, is that this movie would be a thrilling caper from start to finish. That, though, would depend on your powers of observation.

The story begins with the death of the Crown Prince of Austria. All is not as it seems, of course, and Holmes follows the slim clues to a gentleman’s club, where he is, supposedly, out with Watson on Watson's buck’s night. Here he meets the Gypsy fortune teller, Sim, who knows more than she is revealing in her card reading. It’s not giving too much away to share that Moriarty is behind everything dastardly. Suspecting this, Holmes and Watson follow Moriarty across Europe in order to discover and thwart his evil game plan. There is a tremendous amount of running and jumping, fighting, and gun exploding, much of it in slow motion, so we miss nothing. And there is much 'follow the clue' revelations, just like in the first film.

My husband, an avid fan of the first movie, found this one exhilarating. He inferred, quite rightly, that it was true to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Downey’s Sherlock Holmes is to say aloof, uncaring and a downright narcissist. Watson continues to be his able sidekick, who, despite being treated like a fool, still follows Holmes faithfully through all his adventures, even abandoning his wife on their honeymoon.

The movie is dark—and I mean darkly lit—which again my husband pointed out is true to the era, where it was candlelight all the way. Holmes slow motion think-through process for every physical clash, along with his and Moriarty’s word play, for me, ground proceedings to a yawning halt. Not so, for my Husband, who commented, this was true Holmes, a man of thought and words.

And yes, we did have a heated discussion, in the car, on the way home from the screening. For every move I made on the credibility of this Sherlock Holmes film, my husband had a counter argument.

So, in order to decide if you will enjoy Sherlock Holmes I can only offer this advice: You must reach your own conclusions. The evidence is there for both sides of the, is it a good movie, argument.

In this case, the truth may be that, whilst this movie was not for me, I feel that the probability is great that an enjoyable two hours is in the cards for fans of the original. And the last person with whom I would argue is Sherlock Holmes. He does play a good game at times.

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The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ★ ★★ ★ ½

Release Date: Australia January 12, 2012 Other countries

Rating: MA 15+

Running Time: 158 mins

 The Answer to the Millennium Question?

We serious moviegoers don’t like remakes. Especially remakes of European movies. Hollywood has this thing about underestimating audiences. They think we don’t like reading subtitles.

They take a good story, already successful in a foreign language, cast some big name actors—sometimes not—Hollywoodfy it. And presto, we all have another reason to dislike remakes. We comment to each other, “Did you see the—enter European country of origin here—version? It’s sooo much better.” Then there’s the book conversion film which encourages the same discussion. “The book was sooo much better.”

So, here we go again, this time with ‘The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo’. Unless you have lived on another planet, you will know that it's book one of Stieg Larsson’s Swedish Millennium trilogy, which has sold 65,000,000 copies in forty-six countries, since its publication in 2005.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo opens with Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) in a load of trouble. He works with Millennium Magazine and is convicted of printing a libelous story against billionaire industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. There is one bright light for him, though, when one of Sweden’s wealthiest industrialists, Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) hires Blomkvist to discover what really happened to his beloved niece, Harriet, whom he believes was murdered by a member of his large family.

Lisbeth Salander (played by an unrecognizable Rooney Mara), an ingenious researcher, is contracted via Milton Security to investigate Blomkvist for Vanger. Lisbeth is an antisocial, pierced, tattooed, cold personality with a dark past. When Blomkvist moves to the Vanger family property, set on a remote snow swept Swedish island, he begins to unravel, step by step, the forty-year-old mystery of Harriet’s disappearance. Things become explosive when Lisbeth joins him in his quest as together they follow the leads to a most surprising end.

Now for the million dollar Millennium—or entrance price—question…

If you’ve read the book and seen the Swedish film—which I have—is there any reason to see this remake? I pondered this as the lights dimmed and the exhilarating sound track by composer, Atticus Ross (Academy Award® winner for Social Network) began pumping.

The unequivocal answer is YES. It is one of the best thrillers you will see this summer, and worth it, if not just to see Rooney Mara’s habitation of Lisbeth Salander. Director, David Fincher, whose last effort ‘The Social Network’, swept the Academy Awards® last year, teams with Steven Zaillian (co-writer Moneyball) and producer Scott Rudin to bring this story to the screen so dynamically you won’t realise you’ve just sat there for a not inconsiderable 158 minutes.

The only thing that would improve the experience would be to be handed, upon cinema entry, a family-tree card of the Vangers. The relationships are a lot to follow at the cracking pace set by the film—even if you have read the books.

Ultimately, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" contains no big name stars leaping off incredibly tall buildings, amazing motion capture characters, smart spies or Oscar winning performances from actresses seeking more awards. What there is, though, is a group of consummate film makers coming together to create a film that will knock your socks—or tattoos off.

And yes, it’s better than all the books and films combined. And, yes again, films of the other two books in the series will follow. Go see it.

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