KOKO a Winner!

RED DOG star KOKO wins prestigious Golden Collar Award in Los Angeles

KOKO, the canine star of hit film RED DOG, has been awarded Best Dog in a Foreign Film at the Golden Collar Awards in Los Angeles on Monday 13 February 2012 (Pacific Time).

RED DOG Producer Nelson Woss said that the win was a remarkable achievement. "This win has cemented KOKO’s status as cinema’s top dog. I am very proud that KOKO has finally won an acting award, which recognises his terrific performance and contribution to the film," Mr Woss said.

KOKO’s win follows on from the RED DOG team's recent success including taking home Best Film at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards and Best Feature Film at the Inside

Film (IF) Awards. Audiences around the world are falling in love with KOKO and RED DOG.

The film has screened at many international film festivals, including Berlin, Busan and Dallas and took out the US$100,000 grand prize at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis.

RED DOG writer Daniel Taplitz accepted the Award on KOKO’s behalf and KOKO’s acceptance speech was screened at the ceremony. KOKO’s acceptance speech is available to view on YouTube: You Tube Video

In Australia, RED DOG is the 8th highest grossing Australian film of all time at the box office and the biggest selling Australian DVD of all time.

RED DOG will be released in UK cinemas on 24 February 2012 and in the USA later this year.

For More Info on Koko and RED DOG visit:  

Golden Collar Awards: dognewsdaily.com

RED DOG Australia: reddogmovie.com

RED DOG UK: reddogthemovie.co.uk

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How they made CHRONICLE

FOR MY FULL REVIEW ON CHRONICLE CLICK HERE


DID THEY REALLY HIRE FLYING ACTORS?

CHRONICLE was one of those rare film experiences where you attend the preview expecting very little.  Then scene by scene, as the story unfolds, you realise you couldn’t be more wrong and this is something fresh and new.  By the end, you are leaning to your partner and saying, “Wow—that was fantastic.”

We left the screening with the children very excited and buzzing about the story and the incredible action and stunts we had witnessed.  The stunts and enhancements were seamless.  The best fun of it was finding yourself almost believing you were witnessing a reality.

Of course, it wasn’t real, and as I was so impressed by the delivery of this story, I thought you may enjoy peeking behind the scenes and discovering how they actually made CHRONICLE.

If possible go see the film first and then come back and read the technical stuff here.  I don’t think you want to know how they did it before.  Much better whilst watching, to instead ponder: did they really hire actors who could fly.

THE IDEAS

Most of CHRONICLE is told through the point of view of Andrew (DANE DEHAAN), a troubled but creative young man with a keen visual eye and a high-quality HD camera.  “So, CHRONICLE is not really a conventional ‘found footage’ feature,” says Director and co-writer Josh Trank, referring to the often grainy-looking “shaky-cam” movies.  “Instead, we wanted a very controlled, thoughtful looking movie, seen through the eyes of a talented young man.  There’s an intelligence behind the way Andrew operates his camera and captures increasingly incredible events.”

Andrew’s newfound telekinetic abilities add an unexpected dimension to his camera operating skills, which give CHRONICLE a one-of-a-kind look and texture.  “Andrew begins operating his camera telekinetically, which opens up his entire world,” Trank explains.  “His camera is, in a way, attached to his brain, and he’s able to make it float, fly and capture action in a unique way.  Halfway through the film, you realize you’re watching something you’ve never seen before, and then in the last 15 minutes, it just becomes insane.  It’s constantly evolving, from the intimate and grounded to the epic and unexpected.”

Andrew evolves from teenage insecurity to full-blown narcissism in a way that could happen to anyone facing his extraordinary circumstances.  Says DeHaan, of portraying Andrew: “When you’re given the ultimate power, and if you’re experiencing something that nobody has ever experienced, there’s a certain God complex that comes of that.”

THE CAMERAS

To convey Andrew’s perspective, the camera operator’s team had to “unlearn” their carefully honed skills. Jensen often worked over DeHaan’s shoulder to create the illusion that the character is recording his experiences, when in fact a team of seasoned professionals was operating the equipment.

Trank gave Jensen and his team free rein to conceive new ideas, new rigs and mounts, and to create ingenious ways to suspend the camera to obtain the “telekinetic” hand-held style.  The result is impressive: graceful and subtle camerawork that conveys the character’s powers.  “Josh was so specific that he graphed each camera movement,” says Jensen.  “By the end of the film, the camera is flying around through the streets of Seattle (where the story is set).  The camera has amazing freedom and flexibility that mirrors the growing strengths and powers our protagonists have developed through the story.”

THE ACTORS

In much of the movie Andrew is only “felt” as the unseen figure behind the lens, so it was critical to cast the role with an actor with a strong enough presence to register even when not in view. DeHaan, a noted theater actor, had the requisite chops to bring the pivotal role to life.  “Dane is also a very naturalistic actor, which was important because we wanted the character and his actions to feel real,” says Adam Schroeder (Producer).

“I really got excited about CHRONICLE because it just feels so new and different,” says DeHaan.  “It’s believable, even though by the third act it’s depicting some pretty incredible things.”

The two other members of the newly empowered high school trio are Andrew’s cousin, Matt (Alex Russell), and campus king Steve (Michael B. Jordan).  As the story opens, Matt is a cynical, know-it-all, too-cool-to-care teen.  But like his two new cohorts, Matt and Steve undergo radical changes after an encounter with a mysterious force. 

Australian actor Alex Russell reflects on playing the all-American high schooler: “What grabbed me about the project was that the concept is so surreal; it’s about teens with superpowers but at the same time it’s so ingrained with reality.  Matt couldn’t be more unlike Andrew and Steve – they would never have become friends under ‘normal’ circumstances – but they become incredibly tight through their shared experience.”

Michael B. Jordan, who was a series regular on the acclaimed “Friday Night Lights” and has a co-starring role in George Lucas’ historical epic “Red Tails,” portrays Steve, who, says the actor, “is everything a teen would want to be.  He’s the most popular student, a top athlete, and is not far from becoming school president.  He comes into Andrew’s life like a guardian angel, pulling him into the school’s social scene, and Andrew starts to feel good about himself.” 

HOW DID THEY DO THOSE CRAZY STUNTS? 

Trank’s vision for CHRONICLE was meticulously chronicled prior to the start of production.  Trank created pre-visualizations for every visual effect and camera angle, and wrote a detailed “Director’s Statement” outlining his plans, themes, and methodology.  Given the challenging nature of seamlessly marrying live action, stunts, visual effects and special effects, the pre-viz was a valuable guide for Trank’s department heads.

Trank’s mandate was to always keep it real.  “What’s different about this show is that it’s really a personal story; we get to know the kids especially well.” says Robert Habros, one of the film’s visual effects supervisors. “We want the audience to be living in Andrew’s experience and not thinking about how the kids are flying. The visual effects work had to disappear within the story, characters and emotions.”  

YOU WILL BELIEVE A MAN CAN FLY

            The film’s flying sequences were extremely challenging and came to life through not only visual effects wizardry, but through the magic of innovative rigs designed by Simon Hansen, a noted visual effects supervisor who in the past worked closely with acclaimed filmmaker Neill Blomkamp.  Hansen invented techniques and rigs that created, says Trank, “flying like you’ve really never seen in a movie before.  It is really the most realistic flying I’ve ever seen.”

Hansen designed a circular rig that would simulate the freedom of skydiving and allow for all sorts of interactive lighting and elaborate flying moves, like corkscrews and somersaults.  The filmmakers wanted the characters to look like they were having the time of their lives flying.

The actors underwent extensive training to prepare them for the rig. “From the very beginning Josh wanted to do as much as possible in camera, live, and with the actors doing their own stunts,” says executive producer James Dodson.  “We had to effortlessly combine these fantastic live-action effects, which are actually happening, with additional enhancements that Simon created digitally.  I think that some of the shots we see in this movie have never been experienced, thanks to that invisible integration.”

The meticulous preparation, innovative flying rigs and intricate camerawork were critical for the film’s epic third act – a super-powered battle above the streets (and Space Needle) of Seattle.  The sequence features not only flight, but cars rocketing into the air, a bus smashing into the side of a building, and a city under siege.  Notably, Andrew’s ever-present camera, now destroyed, has been replaced by a plethora of recording devices capturing the battle, including telephone cameras, security cameras, automated bank teller cameras, and police dashboard cameras.  

THE ALIEN THINGY

It’s a high-intensity climax, leading to an emotional resolution.  But what about the beginning – where did these powers come from?  Trank and Landis keep it fairly mysterious, but production designer Stephen Altman enjoyed creating the location where it all happens – a craggy hole in the ground, in which rests a chamber containing a massive crystalline rock structure that emits wispy clouds of light.

Altman confesses that the creation of this unknown “matter” was a highlight for him.  “It’s unlike anything I’ve designed before and I hope like nothing anyone else has seen.  Josh (Trank)’s vision of the matter was that it was not of this earth.  We don’t know if it’s animal, vegetable, or mineral.  Perhaps it’s a combination of all three.  To design the structure, we referenced geology, biology, and organic and inorganic matter.”

            That set and what happens afterward will raise numerous questions for audiences – and that is exactly what the filmmakers wanted.  Says Max Landis: “Josh and I know what happened in that cave.  But in the movie it’s never meant to be explained.”

THE CRUSHING CAR SCENE WAS REAL

            In addition to the groundbreaking visual effects, rigs, and stunt work, CHRONICLE features some impressive special effects, including using compressed gas to flip two 1,000-pound vehicles thirty feet into the air, and then have them land and be destroyed. Another scene that many will assume to be CGI but was actually captured in-camera depicts Andrew gently raising his arm and telekinetically crushing a car, which implodes and collapses within itself.  The car imploded on cue, thanks to 20,000 pounds of hydraulic pumps sucking in on actual metal and creating an unforgettable twisting, wrenching metallic sound.

            Squashing cars just by thinking about it.  Flying. Wielding enough strength to level a city.  Who wouldn’t want to obtain these kinds of powers?   Who wouldn’t want to do the impossible?  What would you do, asks CHRONICLE, if you were Andrew, Matt or Steve?

            What are you capable of?

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

            JOSH TRANK (Director, Story) has been a film professional since age 14, when he began working as an editor for public access stations in Los Angeles. After graduating from high school, he was a post-production assistant in several L.A.-area post production facilities.  A few years later Josh made “Stabbing at Leia’s”, an internet phenomenon with over 10 million views online. He then made, with Robert Siegel, the critically acclaimed independent feature Big Fan.

         

            MAX LANDIS (Screenplay, Story by), 26, has been writing habitually since age 15. He has completed over sixty feature scripts. Max briefly attended the University of Miami. CHRONICLE marked the beginning of a year-long streak of selling spec scripts and pitches that hasn't ended yet.  The first half of the streak was commemorated by Max being featured on the cover of Script magazine.  He has many projects in various stages of development at the industry’s top studios and production companies.  In the future, he hopes to direct. 

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Chronicle ★ ★ ★ ★1/2

Release Dates:  Australia 2^nd Feb   USA:  3^rd Feb    UK: 1^st Feb   Other Countries

Super powers meet super filmmakers 

Teen angst is a commonly explored theme in film.  Those tricky years are fraught with sexual, emotional and self-worth issues.  Over the past year, a few films of this ilk spring to mind, Gus Van Sant’s RESTLESS, SUBMARINE, and NEVER LET ME GO.  In general, they remain flawed and tedious, suffering from slow pacing and long scenes of distance staring.  Often I think, “These characters are brats and need a good walloping and so does the Director’’.

In CHRONICLE, first time feature film director, Josh Trank, and his co-writer, Max Landis (son of Director John Landis) explore the teenage condition but with a fun and visually exciting twist. 

Using the hand-held camera point of view (think CLOVERFIELD), via the main character Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan), we follow him and his friends Matt Garetty (Alex Russell), and Steve Montgomery’s (Michael B. Jordan) after they happen upon an alien object in the woods.  Cutting from the discovery scene, the next shot is of them developing telekinetic powers and from here the film, literally takes off.

Their powers grow the more they use them and pretty soon they move on from suspending Lego blocks in the air to moving cars, eventually developing powers which would find them starring in any Superhero film.

Part of the fun of CHRONICLE is the camcorder view, as Andrew meticulously records their experience.  It’s the boys’ natural behaviour towards the camera that provides refreshing humour as they record their initially playful and exuberant reactions to their growing powers.

Trank comments, “We live in a world where you can film anything you want to, at any time.”  Producer Adam Schroeder adds, “There is an emerging aesthetic from this generation.  Josh’s work in CHRONICLE is the next step in that kind of storytelling.  We’ve seen movies that have made extensive use of someone’s point of view and hand-held cameras, but never in the way we use the camera here. It’s more than a device to tell a story; it’s a character, or an extension of our lead character.” 

The film works well for more reasons than the very cool special effects and nifty camera work. Beneath the action, Andrew’s emotional turmoil in dealing with his dying Mother and alcoholic abusive Father provide a depth to the characters, these types of movies tend to gloss over in favour of action. 

A loner, Andrew is the brunt of bullying and unacceptance by his peers, his emotional fragility never far from the surface.  Thus his need to record his life and this experience is a credible set up for the film’s chronicling premise. In other teenage angst films this character would end up slamming doors and shouting.  Throw super powers on super hormones and let’s make that slamming buildings and creating storms.

CHRONICLE is clever, witty and the most fun you will have at the cinema watching teenagers discover themselves.  Reportedly budgeted at $15 million to make and with the tagline “What are you capable of?”, it really begs the question; if these young filmmakers can deliver such good entertainment as CHRONICLE, of what are they capable in the future?  That’s almost as exciting for film fans as discovering you can fly.

CLICK HERE for an inside peek on how they made CHRONICLE

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The Artist ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Hugo ★ ★ ½

The Artist  Release Dates: Australia  2^ND February 2012
USA 20th January 2012      UK 30th December 2011   Other countries

Hugo Release Dates: Australia  12th January 2012  Other countries

WHEN SILENCE IS GOLDEN

 

A film reviewer is a film lover and we happily take the good with the bad, watching the hundreds of movies a year that our passion demands.  We groan restlessly at the bad ones and buzz enthusiastically when we watch something truly remarkable.

 For many of us, slightly older film buffs, our love affair began with black and whites and—I know I am aging myself—silent films.  After school I would sit enthralled watching the antics of the Keystone Cops and the Marx Brothers—no, I wasn’t born in that era; they were reruns in the sixties.

But as time and technology marches on you expect more from your cinema experience and I must admit I am now a big “Blockbuster” fan with all the technological bells and whistles.

So, this week, I watched both ends of the spectrum dealing with the same subject matter—The Artist and Hugo. The former preview I attended, thinking how can a black and white, silent movie be as good as its PR?  And the latter viewing carried with it great anticipation.  My reaction to both, though was very different.

The Artist, set in Hollywood 1927, written and directed by MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS is the story of George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) one of Hollywood’s reigning silent screen idols.  He is the epitome of gorgeous leading man stardom, carrying the swagger and arrogance to boot.  Early in the story he crosses paths with young dancer Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), and it is clear there is chemistry but circumstances separate them before anything can progress.

 Two years later, talkies are arriving and George sticks his head in the sand as Al Zimmer (John Goodman), head of Kinograph, shows him this exciting technology.  The rest is almost a ‘Star is Born’ story as George’s star wanes just as Peppy’s rises.

In Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese, and set in 1930s Paris, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) is an orphan living in the walls of a train station.  He spends his time avoiding the Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen), whilst attempting to solve a mystery involving his late father and an automaton—a kind of a wind up clockwork mechanism robot. With the aid of his new friend Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), he eventually uncovers the secrets of an embittered shopkeeper Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley).

The film is captured beautifully with superb lighting and rich, deep colours and stunning 3D sweeping views across Paris and through the train station.  The setting is as intricate and detailed as you will see in any film, and the actors would have spent most of the filming before green screens, in order for the digital artists to later weave their considerable magic.

            Without giving too much away the story is really about maintaining the preservation and respect of early black and white film. Hugo is Scorsese’s tribute to the origins of filmmaking, just as The Artist is Michel Hazanavicius’.

              My experience of both films, though, is poles apart and is not due to whizz bang effects.  In the initial twenty minutes of The Artist I felt myself rebelling against the lack of technology.  I didn’t want to watch a film without colour or sound—and try opening a packet of crisps quietly in a crowded cinema during a silent film (not easy). 

              But as the frames flickered by, we the audience were drawn in to this world to the point where you forget there are no spoken words.  All you see is an age old story, superbly acted and crafted, unfolding before you.  By the time it is over, you understand you’ve just participated in something magical.

              The whole family attended Hugo, and despite its mastery of all things film technological, my nine year old’s comment half way through was, ‘Too much talking. It’s a little boring.’  And yes, I agreed.  With everything thrown at it, it failed on the one point which is important to a book or a film; it was too wordy and too determined to prove its point.

              With Hugo’s current, wide release, box office gross only $55 million (USA) against a $170 million estimated gross and The Artist’s current $12 million (USA) against its $15 million estimated gross on limited screen release, I hope a message has been sent to Hollywood.  Tell the story first and use the special effects to supplement.  Keep your scripts tight and show, don’t tell.

              And from  the mouth of a nine year old critic, to those who wield the big cheques, too much talking is boring, no matter how pretty your picture or fabulous your Director.  I realise I am going against critical opinion but Hugo fell far short of its promise and premise and it is not a film for children despite the advertising being aimed squarely at them. 

If you desire a rare treat and want to skip lightly from the theatre with your heart uplifted, I promise you that you will find the silence of The Artist is golden.

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Young Adult ★ ★★ ★

Release Date: Australia 19^th January, 2012, Other Countries

EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IS MADE UGLY

In watching “Young Adult”, directed and produced by Jason Reitman, there was some personal satisfaction for me, in the disaster that had become Mavis Gary’s (Charlize Theron—“Monster,” “The Road”) life.  

In being one of the unattractive skinny girls at school, I worked out that to survive you need a plan.  There was a boy in my class, surprisingly popular considering he was overweight.  There was one simple reason.   He was funny.

So, armed with humour, two shiny long haired popular girls became my friends.  Thus, began my popularity by association. When the miracle of boobs occurred, I ended up tall and curvaceous and with the most gorgeous boy in the school as a boyfriend. The best part though, was that I got to keep the personality.

Mavis lives a lonely, messy life, enjoying one-night stands she instantly regrets, in an apartment that borders on squalor. The series of young adult books, for which she ghost writes, have been cancelled and she has just received an email from her ex-high-school sweetheart with a taunting—for Mavis—picture of his new baby.

 This set up is played beautifully in the opening scenes.  By the time Mavis decides she is going to visit Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson—“The Switch,” “Lakeview Terrace”) to rescue him, from what she imagines is an unhappy marriage, in a town where nobody in their right mind would stay, we already know we are in for a fun ride.

On her first night back, Mavis, hooks up with Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt “King of Queens”, “The Informant”), another former classmate who suffered such a beating at school that he now still carries a limp and other handicaps.

Matt becomes her humorous conscience and accomplice as she single-mindedly pursues Buddy, ignoring that he is clearly happily married to Beth (Elizabeth Reaser—“New Moon,” “Eclipse”).

If you like your comedies dark and lacking in redemption, à la “Bad Santa” and “Seinfeld”, then you will laugh at the outrageous behavior of Mavis.  She is never going to grow up or grow a conscience, thus remaining a perpetual young adult.

As Reitman says, “Hopefully Mavis is a character that the audience has never seen on screen before. I think that there’s a long history of male characters that we love to hate but there’s actually very few female characters that we love to hate. It requires great writing and great acting and that’s how I think this movie is going to work because Diablo Cody wrote a hell of a screenplay and Charlize knew exactly how to walk that tonal balance—that very fine razor’s edge of being brutal with people and yet very human and very funny.”

Theron is at her finest here and there would be few actresses who could carry off her cringing, unsympathetic attitude to others without overplaying it.  Theron was helped, literally, to get into character by Mavis’s wardrobe.

Reitman believed that her clothing should reflect the disconnect between Mavis’ public persona and her private self.  “We needed to establish a separation between how Mavis looked at home when nobody was watching vs. the character she created every time she went out. There was almost a sense that she was putting on different weaponry depending on her agenda,” he says.

Theron recalls, “Jason was the one who came up with the concept that she was a slob and that was really helpful for me. I came in wearing a pair of sweats during our second costume fitting. We were looking at photos of a series of possible costumes and I remember this vividly—there was a moment where Jason took a step back from looking at the photos and took a long beat, just staring at my sweatpants. He said something like, ‘Hmmm, get those in a bigger size.’ And that’s pretty much what I wore throughout the movie.  I would just roll them up and shove them in a corner in my car, drive up, put them on and we’d go straight to work.”

My one criticism of this witty, well crafted film is that it needs another twenty minutes.  From the very beginning we are treated to the unexpected indulgences of Mavis’s fantasies and opinions and when the ending arrives that, too, is unexpected in its brevity.

Still any time spent with Mavis is a good time, brief as it is, cringingly honest as it is, and redemptive as it is for all of us high school ugly ducklings.  Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder but in ‘Young Adult’, ugly is made beautifully funny.

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The Darkest Hour ★

Releases:  Australia 19^th January,  Other Countries

Invisible aliens star in an invisible plot

'The Darkest Hour' should be renamed 'The Darkest 89 Minutes of Cinema'.  After recently watching one of the best sci-fi films of the past decade 'Attack the Block’, I believe there should be a moratorium on films involving aliens invading the planet.  We have seen the best and we don’t need anymore. 

It seems every year we must endure one of these badly plotted, poorly scripted, lamely acted disappointments (warning adverb invasion).  Last year, at the same time, we suffered 'Battle: Los Angeles' and already I’ve forgotten the story except for the image of Michelle Rodriguez toting a gun that looked too big for her.  I pray that by this time next year the image of teenagers—in high heels—running through the deserted streets of Moscow, with light bulbs strung around their necks, will also fade from memory.

Sean (Emile Hirsch) and Ben (Max Minghella) are in Moscow to close a phone app deal with investors.  Not only does that go terribly wrong, thanks to Skyler (Joel Kinnaman), but later that night their attempt at picking up Natalie (Olivia Thirlby) and Anne (Rachael Taylor) at a nightclub is rudely interrupted by ball like lights descending from the sky.  These turn out to be invisible aliens, who within minutes, begin disintegrating people leaving a trail of very messy dust. 

Our four heroes—hear a mocking tone in those words—end up surviving by hiding in a cellar for four days, along with the arch business enemy Skyler. I pause here for a note to the scriptwriter, Jon Spaihts—if people hide in a room for four days, their hair will be messed, their clothes dirtied, men grow beards, and women tend to take their four inch high heels off.

When they finally emerge we are treated to a view of an unpopulated Moscow that is a little intriguing if we hadn’t become so worried that the film was already running amok.  The aliens, having totally devastated the city and incinerated everyone, are now patrolling looking for survivors to crisp.  At this point, the survivors decide they must get to the US embassy because, as we know, only the Americans can save the planet.  Before travelling there, they decide the most important thing is to stop at an empty shopping mall and, wait for it…get new clothes—yes, there is such a thing now as “Invasion Fashion”.

It’s in the mall where they analyse the aliens and deduce that they can see living things by their electrical impulses and, also, that the aliens light up electrical appliances when they pass.  So, they all don light bulbs as early warning alarms against alien drop-in.  Throughout the balance of the film there is much light bulb throwing.  And I fear that, as much as the producers will protest, some light bulbs may have been harmed during the filming.

The film travels on from one ridiculous idea to the next; an electrician who has created an apartment sized Faraday cage in four days; a mob of Russians riding horses and toting guns that don’t kill the aliens yet the Russians are still alive; a submarine waiting in the river for the only survivors—our heroes; microwave guns built in hours; and don’t get me started on women running around in high heels and perfect hair.

Whether the careers of these promising young actors are also harmed by first time Director Chris Gorak’s lack of any sense of creativity or logic is something that remains to be seen.  As this film will no doubt only last a few weeks on screens the actors probably thought that most people won’t see it, and they may as well take the pay cheque.

Normally in reviews my policy is to give away very little of the plot.  However, in this review for the sake of your hip pocket, I would like to share the whole plot.  They get away—fortunately the better acted characters survive (thank you Aliens for taking out the bad actors first).  In the end, they work out how to kill the aliens and you do see the little critters—think some kind of rough sketch of a spider that the special effects department forgot to run through their CGI machine.  Most of the other plot highlights I have already revealed earlier.

I do this dear filmgoer because I know you will see the trailers and think, ‘That looks really good,’ and you may say to yourself, ‘How bad can it be?’  It so bad, you will want your money back. 

You see the marketing department is tricking you with the trailer. They know you will think all those disjointed images that don’t have much story are like that because they are edited from the movie and that the movie will explain everything. Let me enlighten you with my light bulb preview knowledge, those good bits they show you make more sense than the movie and at least they are all over in a few minutes. 

So, get your popcorn and coke, and watch the YouTube trailer and then use your saved eighty-nine minutes productively.  Go to bed and read ‘War of the Worlds’.  Oh and send the twenty dollars you’ve saved to Jon Spaihts the writer, because he needs to go to scriptwriting school.

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JOURNEY TWO: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND ★★ ★

Release Dates: Australia 19^th January,  USA  10^th February,  UK 3^rd February

Other Countries

IT’S A JOURNEY FOR LITTLE PEOPLE

All aboard folks, it’s another journey film.  Don those 3D glasses and we are off and running from huge lizards, flying through storms, falling through gigantic eggs, and diving into oceans to escape lava.

This time around, after unlocking a secret code transmitted by his missing grandfather, Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) of the predecessor Journey to the Center of the Earth, and his step-father, Hank (Dwayne Johnson) decode a puzzle hidden within three books—Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island, Jonathon Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Robinson Crusoe. The code reveals the position of The Mysterious Island, and they set off for the Pacific to look for Sean’s adventuring Grandfather (Michael Caine).

Along the way they gather Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens) and her Father, Gabato (Luis Guzmán) who fly them to the Island, only accessed, they discover, through the eye of a storm.

Once on the island, they encounter the result of the ‘Island Rule’, a genuine evolutionary theory which imagines that, over the course of evolution in an isolated environment, large things can become small and small things become large.  

Thus, we have on The Mysterious Island, dog-sized elephants and bees large enough to ride.  How you steer a bee is not explained but the characters certainly seemed as adept as Star Wars Tie Fighter pilots.

This is one for the children and whilst the quite ridiculous dialogue and behaviour of the characters is redeemed somewhat by Michael Caine and the comic talent of Guzmán, most adults will be thinking, sink the island and please take Dwayne Johnson with you. But the kiddies will probably love it.  My eleven year old critic commented, ‘It’s better than the first one by miles.’ The nine-year old laughed uproariously at Gabato’s antics.

It’s a bit of fun, with intriguing use of Verne’s imaginative literary creations, and special effects that will keep most children between the ages of eight and fourteen very happy. Adults please note, whilst visiting the island, keep your brain switched to low and just enjoy the ride.  Don’t analyse the plot holes or you will certainly fall off.  And before you see the film, do explain to your children first, “No, you are not getting an elephant.  Yes, they are cute, but they get big.”

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