Cinema Review ANCHOR OR RMA MAN 2: 2: THE LEG EGEN END CONTINUE UES UE Will Ferrell is an immensely gifted comic actor who (like most of us, I guess) doesn’t think too long about taking the soft option when it comes to earning a buck. His movies aim low, primarily at mob-minded young blokes, but that he is able to raise the bar higher than a script’s dumbness is testimony to his gauche sincerity – how else to explain Talladega Nights or The Campaign? His pose as a cultural subversive might almost be convincing if it weren’t for the fact that he lives like royalty and always flies at the pointy end of the
plane. Back as Ron Bergundy, the idiot newsreader, he is sacked from his regional TV presenter’s job and separated from his wife and little boy. It’s the late Seventies and, with his career hanging by a thread, Ron accepts an offer to be the anchor on the 2–5am graveyard shift of Global News Network, an outfit owned by a brash Australian planning to screen the news 24/7 – CNN and the Dirty Digger are the obvious references. Ron makes it big when he and his crew decide to tell the viewers only what they want to hear. The gags are hit and miss – a
line about Mother Theresa’s vagina might work for the geniuses with their caps on backwards, but really? – the style is ridiculously stilted and the characterisations typically extreme. Steve Carell’s weatherman is embarrassingly awful, as is his clumsy romance with Kristen Wiig (neither will feature this in their CV reel). Not that we could expect any Judd Apatow production to feature an intelligent part for a woman (this makes The Heat look like Ibsen). That it flops timidly over the line with yet another sanctification of the
nuclear family as a dad makes time to see his privileged son’s piano recital tends to water down the tryhard iconoclasm, but it is mildly amusing. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of overpaid stars acting the goat in order to further milk an audience captivated by celebrity dross. ~ John Campbell
that soon, with the sloth of online shopping and the quicksand of social media, none of us will need to leave the house to do anything – least of all become involved in the sort of life-affirming individualism encouraged by Walter Mitty’s awakening. In this, Ben Stiller doubles as director and he seems initially to be more at ease in front of the camera. Walter develops the negative prints that are submitted to LIFE magazine by its photographers scattered around the globe. The one that will be used to provide the cover for the last issue of the venerable publication has gone missing and it’s the responsibility of Walter, a perennial daydreamer, to
find it. There is a flatness, a staid quality about the film’s introductory scenes that doesn’t augur well – Walter’s unrequited love for fellow worker Cheryl (Kristen Wiig) and his downtrodden status in the office is clichéd, while his major flight of fancy, involving a cross-city fight with his tormentor Hendricks (Adam Scott), appears as just another exercise in CGI overkill. But when he travels from New York to Greenland in search of the legendary photo-journalist Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn), the story takes wings. The transformation happens in
one exhilarating moment as Walter, imagining that Cheryl is urging him on by singing Bowie’s Space Oddity (it has never been put to better use), fearlessly leaps into a helicopter as it is taking off, freeing himself from all of his terrestrial inhibitions. Stiller has always been good as the hapless Everyman who is
nonplussed by circumstance, so Mitty’s journey of personal liberation is doubly affecting because it is not that of a typical hero. The final shot, of the long-awaited cover, is heart-swelling, as is the casual intimacy with which Walter finally gets to hold Cheryl’s hand. Bewdiful. ~ John Campbell
rudimentary investigative measures. But a story that might follow the familiar lines established by In The Heat Of The Night (1967) veers away from the classic (and now standard) Poitier versus Steiger racial dichotomy and instead takes us with Jay as he navigates a divided cultural landscape as an unwelcome outsider. To his dismay, he discovers that his own daughter, Crystal, living with Jay’s ex (Tasma Walton), was a close friend of the murdered girl and that she, in all likelihood, was moving in the same shadowy, drug-numbed
world. Other coppers are most likely bent, with Hugo Weaving’s shady detective running his own race. The Baileys (David Field and Ryan Kwanten) own the big cattle station and are hostile redneck roo-shooters. Sen films it without any affectation – but for some beautiful aerial shots, the camera is stationary at all times, getting in tight for numerous character close-ups, and is never hand held, while music is kept to a bare minimum, allowing the soundscape to contribute enormously to the atmospherics (as it should
more often). Performances are excellent – Pedersen is especially good as a man becoming exposed to unpalatable truths. Perhaps in keeping with the title, the script is only partially failed by a lack of cohesion – or binding glue – that results in its many disparate components never quite falling into one piece. Ultimately, there is some crucial information not imparted, because probably of an imprecise edit – Sen might have been advised to not attempt absolutely everything himself. Otherwise fab. ~ John Campbell
THE SECR RET LIFE OF WAL ALTE TER MI MITTY The sad irony that nags unheard at this wonderful movie is that all of the major studios have it in
train to stream their newest productions directly into your living room the minute the last edit is done. Meaning
TUESDAY
31 DEC to
WEDNESDAY
8 JAN
SUN JAN 5
OPENS JAN 1
ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (M) (No free tix) Tue 31: 9:20am, 4:15, 9:20pm Wed 1: 2:55, 9:50 Thu 2, Fri 3, Sat 4, Mon 6-Wed 8: 2.20, 9.15pm Sun 5: 2.20 PHILOMENA (M) (No free tix) Tue 31: 1:45, 4:10, 6:45pm Wed 1: 11:15am, 1:15, 6:20pm Thu 2, Fri 3, Sat 4, Mon 6-Wed 8: 11.30, 1.30, 6.30 Sun 5: 11.30, 1.30, 7.00 THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (PG) (No free tix) Tue 31: 11:10, 1:40, 6:35 Wed 1: 3:20, 6:40, 9:10pm Thu 2, Fri 3, Sat 4, Mon 6-Wed 8: 4.30, 6.40, 9.00pm Sun 5: 4.30, 6.40, 9.15 UNCHARTED WATERS (CTC) Sun 5: 6.30 FROZEN (PG) (No free tix) Tue 31: 9:00, 11:35am Wed 1: 9:00, 10:35am Thu 2-Wed 8: 9.25, 11.20am 3D: THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (M) (No free tix) Tue 31: 3:40, 8:50 Wed 1: 3:15, 8:30 Thu 2-Wed 8: 3.30, 8.30pm Enjoy our licensed bar
Lavazza Espresso Coffee
OPENS JAN 1
2D: THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (M) (No free tix) Tue 31: 6:15pm Wed 1: 12:30pm Thu 2-Wed 8: 1.20pm 2D WALKING WITH DINOSAURS THE MOVIE (CTC) (No free tix) Wed 1: 9:00, 10.45am Thu 2-Wed 8: 10.15am AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (CTC) (No free tix) Thu 2, Fri 3, Sat 4, Mon 6-Wed 8: 12.00, 4.40, 7.00pm Sun 5: 12.00, 4.40, 8.50pm AMERICAN HUSTLE (MA15+) (No free tix) Tue 31: 10:50, 1:30, 9:15pm 2D: CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 (G) Tue 31: 9.00am Wed 1: 9.00am Thu 2-Wed 8: 9.00am All sessions are correct at the time of publication. Current session times at: www.palacecinemas.com.au Gift cards are the perfect gift
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26 December 31, 2013 The Byron Shire Echo
MYSTER RY RO ROAD AD Ivan Sen’s new film is set somewhere in the unlovely, unromantic outback, where the car numberplates have no identifying state initials – this is the lost Australia of neglect, disadvantage and wasteful lethargy. Son of a stockman, detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) returns to his unnamed hometown, where the body of an Indigenous teenage girl has been found out where the big rigs rumble through the desert – her throat slit. The sergeant at the local police station (Tony Barry) is apathetic, prepared to take only the most
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