Looper

October 14, 2012 at 9:17 am | Posted in Film Review | Leave a comment
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Time travel science fiction movie – with a better than usual plot.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis play ‘Joe’ a hit-man with a difference: Gordon-Levitt is the young Joe who must kill his older self, played by Willis.

The premise is that in the future forensic science is so good that given a body the killer can be identified – so you send the person back in time and they are killed there.

The film is all about how Joe ends up not killing his older self, and avoid even worse excesses.

Jeff Daniels is an improbable mob king-pin.

DREDD 3D (2012)

October 5, 2012 at 4:38 am | Posted in Film Review | 4 Comments
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I saw this last night.

Having read the first 1000 issues of 2000AD, I was pleased that Pete Travis (director) and Alex Garland (screenplay) had stayed true to the original comic character. So the audience never sees Dredd’s face – only his jaw; all ably played by Karl Urban.

Dredd and a rookie take on the badest block in Mega City 1. Does Dredd have enough ammunition? – because you know he isn’t going to back down. The rookie – future PSI Judge Anderson, played by Olivia Thirlby – is being assessed confirmation as a full Judge. Being picky: I wished they had given Rookie Anderson a white helmut (as per the comic).

The film did not loose the subtle social commentary that went with the original comic strip at times. Anderson is brutalised by her first taste of street policing – early on Dredd pointed asks if she is ‘ready’. By the end of the film, she is ‘ready’. Her first execution is like a mafioso making their ‘bones’ – she has crossed a line, regardless of Dredd’d final assessment she will never be a normal citizen again.

The film is like High Noon – only Marshall Kane’s (Gary Cooper) wife (Grace Kelly) is not a quaker! and there are 400 “perps” instead of four.

The look and feel of the movie also stays true to the comic: everything is a bit rundown and unkept, the scale of the city dwarfs the citizens, and it is a concrete jungle – with more than its share of predators.

The film is very violent and graphic and gory. Respect the R18 (in New Zealand) rating.

I found the 3D unnecessary The Dark Knight Rises showed that you don’t need 3D gimics to do a dark crime fighting film well.

A must for Judge Dredd fans.

Life is Movement

October 5, 2012 at 1:57 am | Posted in Dance Review, Documentary Review, Film Review | Leave a comment
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I went to see Life is Movement the other day and really enjoyed it.

The film gives a really good look behind the scenes of two contemporary dance works – Construct and 12th Floor. These were the last two work choreographed by Tanja Liedtke – the film is monument to her.

In 2007, 29-year-old choreographer Tanja Liedtke had just been appointed artistic director of the Sydney Dance Company. But before she could take up the role she was run down and killed by a truck during an early morning walk.

The film skillfully uses footage shot by Liedtke and her company and interviews with her former dancers – inter alia: Solon Ulbrich and Kristina Chan – and even the interview she gave when she was appointed.

After her death, members of her old company embark on a world tour with her last work – 12th Floor. Sort of a memorial tour. Footage from the tour is also used.

The film gives a really good glimpse into the creative process and of Tanja Liedtke talents as a choreographer and playwright. To me Construct and 12th Floor look more like plays that are danced, rather than dance rendered down into an abstraction.

We also see footage of Liedtke when she trained as a classical ballerina. I was left wanting to see more of her life: what caused her to switch from classic ballet to contemporary dance? she did spend one year with Rambert.

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