Change Your Image
sumwhanino
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Hug the Sun (2021)
Thank You for resurrecting my childhood.
As a former follower of The Second Prophet Gary and the Church of Oxtos, it filled me with so many rays of light to see this show again. Regardless of all the arrests, cult-like activity, the legal battles, stolen money, and mysterious disappearance... this show still brings back fond memories. Especially when I see myself in the Audience. Love it. More please.
Top Knot Detective (2017)
Why isn't this on Netflix?
This film needs to be seen by a larger audience outside of the festival circuit. Really hope a streaming service picks it up in 2018. Go see it if you get a chance.
Solo (2006)
Average at best
I just watched SOLO last night. I went into it not expecting much so that once the film was finished i would hopefully be pleasantly surprised... I wasn't. Now I realise that the film was only made for a million dollars and that it all had to be done by the book, but this has proved time and time again to be detrimental to the Aussie industry. We need guerrilla film-making at the lower end simply because we have to make a million dollar film look like it's worth so much more. On the documentary which screened about the film (it was a project greenlight film, the first in Australia) it showed how due to restraints they could not lock down a car wash so they dressed an allyway to look like an Asian Laundry. now the set looked good, but when i went to see the film you couldn't see any of the set design because of the poor choice in coverage and because they decided to use a long lens.
Now it's not all the technical stuff which got to me, the writing and performances, the clichéd storyline also hit me hard. Solo comes across as a film noir, which is such a staple of American film-making but fails to translate well on the Australian screen, i'm sure in the future someone here will actually be able to do it but for the time being... they can't.
Now the plot: Barrett (Colin Friels) play's the age old clichéd character of the hit-man who wants to get out of the business but can't leave until he does one last job. It's a tired plot device and I for one am sick of it. His last job of course is to kill off Billie (Bojana Novakovic) who is a nosy uni kid digging too deep into the underworld. Now becomes an exercise in fitting in as many clichéd scenes as possible. everything you think will happen does happen. 1) he can't kill her but instead falls for her 2) there are crooked cops how also want him dead 3) he's sleeping with a hooker (cause as we all know hit men can't have a stable relationship) 4) there are other gangs that want to see him dead, yet no one can seem to kill him. 5) an automatic uzi still can't kill a man with a single revolver 6) when the cops corner our hero about to kill him their crooked chief will arrive to say goodbye then of course leave before the 'killing' is done leaving our hero to escape 7) (you'll get this when you watch it) if you're 80+ and can still play piano with just one hand in an earlier scene then why think you life is over when some fingers on one hand are broken.
there are other clichés too, like the ending (which i won't spoil) but lets just say that anyone with half a brain can figure it out about 30min into the film and it doesn't come as a surprise or a shock like the director intended... simply because this ending has been recycled from sooo many other films.
all the actors (and i do realise that there was No rehearsal time at all) seem to just walk through their performances. the characters and o two dimensional it's hard to care about any of them, especially Barrett who we are supposed to latch onto.
Look it's not a bad film but it's most definitely not a good one either. all i can say in it's support is that at least it got made. the sate of the Australian film industry is on a massive decline and more private investors are needed so it's good to see it at least get made within a year instead of the usual 3-10 year waiting period that usually occurs with most Australian films, so for that i applaud it.
Blank Point (2003)
A Journey in a Box
From the opening frames of this magnificent short you just know the film is going to be good and it doesn't disappoint. It's such a surreal journey into the mind of a young man who has had a hard life, 'lived his life inside a box' as the film puts it, and has to finally make the decision of how he can make a stand for himself and become something more than just a coward. I'm not surprised it has taken home so many awards.
Directer Henry Inglis definitely knew exactly what he was doing with every frame and it shows. Shot beautifully and edited with such an entertaining pace, this short film is a must see IF you can find it anywhere.
10/10 -Sum
Black Swan (2003)
Very Cool
Saw this film a while ago at the WASA festival and it was very cool, it's a pretty complex story about dealing with fatherhood and loss of innocence but it's also got some kick ass effects and music in it. I mean for a first film you can really see what it's trying to achieve, going for that film noir meets SE7EN type of thing with a touch of David Lynch's dream logic intertwined. I really hope the guys that made this get to do another one some time soon, but it's probably too much to ask here in Perth where all films that try to challenge the basic idea of how films should be made never get funding, but if you do a stupid comedy or have Aussie characters in the outback then all the money will flow your way. I think filmmakers like these should be able to make more things, they have shown that they can use visual effects subtally and created a very complex story in just 15 minutes, imagine what they could have done with more cash and a bigger script. Anyway It was cool, and it did win some awards, hope to see more from them soon, and hopefully a feature. Short films are sooooooo under rated.
8/10
Johnny English (2003)
Not a laughing matter
This was the worst movie i have seen all year. The plot is sooo damn predictable and the jokes are ridiculous and not even remotally funny. Atkinson has completly lost it and i have no idea how this film got made in the first place. This is by in large the worst film i have ever seen in my life.
1/10
Stump (2002)
Laughed My head off!
This film was brillient and it's dark sense of humour made me chuckle. It was brilliently edited and shot and the beta transfer that i saw at it's recent viewing at the WA entrant's at the St Kilda festival tour was fantastic.
It's a pity that good films never get the funding that they deserve, and it takes hard working filmmakers, and a good idea to make it on it's own merits before people take notice.
As a young filmmaker myself i know this hardship.
Good work fella's keep it up and i can't wait to see the next film!
people out there should try and get a hold of this short somehow, ask around or maybe try and download it off the net if it's been circulating.
fantastic job.
9/10