When the Cheshire emerges...

Merry Grand Final Day!

Australia was on the edge of their seats today as the Swans and Hawks battled it out in today's AFL Grand Final. What a game it turned out to be - it looked like Sydney were going to make it a blowout in the second quarter, a stunning six straight goals to hold Hawthorn to a single point.

It was a real slog by the final term and I at one point actually hoped for a draw so they could do it all again next week. They were lucky the rain held off though, and with Sydney winners I was still happy. I love Adam Goodes, and seeing his efforts today among everyone elses was special because of the immense contribution he has given to his team.

Although I still believe the Crows should've been there and I should've been at the game watching, we had a win for the day. Go Patty Dangerfield, winning the Grand Final Sprint back-to-back!


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To the regular Saturday segment, and tonight is exclusively a classic film. Man, Orson Welles knew how to make films. His edgy filmmaking style is wonderful in Touch of Evil, and he had the ability to make you squirm as an actor. Especially here.






*Published in the Mailbox Shopper (Dubbo) from Wednesday 26/9/2012

MISSED LAST WEEK'S REVIEW? See what I thought of Withnail and I.

And last week went so well.

No major review tonight, but this was always popping up on various 'must watch' lists so I'm finally glad I can share my opinion on this one. So very English this film is.

I've gone on a driveabout this last week to land myself back in Adelaide (you will read about that in the coming days should you choose to accept that challenge), but I still thought it was worth a sneak peek at what my calendar had to offer at this fine time of the year.

My Shopper review didn't get used this week because of space restraints (ah, life is fickle), so you'll see it next Saturday.

Along with learning life skills, I wrote six reviews this week. Four of those were on Thursday (two like the one below and two shorter ones). I was a machine. The other Liberal review is for upcoming Aussie film Mental, but an embargo prevents me from expressing my opinion for another week. I'll put that up when I can. For now, I avoided Madagascar 3 because I haven't seen number two and I want to beforehand. I can't wait to see Afro Circus although I've seen the trailer countless times. And yes, I've done the 10-minute survival on YouTube.

That title was me trying to link my main part of this post to the shoe of the week.

Anyhoo, I did something on the weekend that I've always felt I should do, something I needed to learn - especially for my big road trip home that starts tomorrow.

I learned how to change a tyre. How exciting!

On Saturday I was faced with having my say in a democratic vote, a foundation of Western society.

Voting for people in local government is often not as interesting as state or federal - if you don't live in Dubbo.

The last few weeks in this place have been a madhouse - there were all kinds of scandals from election posters bought on the coast (not locally), to numerous threats and hollow promises.

Tonight I just wanted to quickly reflect on the awesome week I had away last week where I was one of 22 cadet journalists at the latest Fairfax Regional cadet induction - aka cadet camp (they have them twice a year).

I prepared myself for what to expect last week, and it was just that. A rehash of the uni degree with LOTS of shorthand (which I've since neglected with getting back and then preparing to go away again - another story). There was karaoke, a night out, but more than anything else there was FOOD.




Wow. Words cannot describe how amazingly fed we were by the end of that week. Morning teas, afternoon teas, 2-course dinners... We all likely gained a few kilos and all definitely went back with expectations of tea and cake at 10.30am. Some of us ended up improvising. Cake at work is king.

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What I really got from it was meeting people my age from all over the place, and more importantly knowing they were all there for the same reason I was. It helps to know there are others finding their way. Five days together in our own journalistic bubble was never going to be enough. Good times.

After all this though I still had three days in Sydney as I'd originally planned, to go to a concert and see friends. Even this felt like a real holiday - I saw everyone I'd hoped to and more. I made a new friend, and although I already missed the Fairfax gang the idea of meeting people and hearing their stories continued.

Needless to say Tuesday morning didn't go down so well.

A noice duo this week, with Aussie hornbags Kath and Kim back and bigger than... well, the small screen, and a man finding himself through femininity. Share if you like :)

Kath and Kimderella (PG)

ONCE upon a time in the faraway land of Fountain Lakes, there lived two hornbags in their own little bubble... only for it to be burst big time. Modern Aussie icons Kath and Kim finally get the big screen treatment five years after the completion of their show. It was only a matter of a decade before Kim found herself international stardom, but for Kath the experience proves quite the surprise.

The foxy mother (Jane Turner) takes daughter Kim (Gina Riley) and Kim’s second best friend Sharon (Magda Szubanski) to the fictional Italian city of Papilloma on a trip won at a pharmacy. They get there to find it abandoned by its ruler King Javier (Rob Sitch), who still lives comfortably in his castle with page Alain (Richard E Grant) and masked son Juleo (Erin Mullally). As the king makes his moves on Kath and Kim is living her dream as a temporary princess, husbands Kel (Glenn Robbins) and Brett (Peter Rowsthorne) sit at home wondering who will win the latest Masterchef challenge.

No expense has been spared in bringing the foxy morons to the big screen, much in the same way The Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos tried to recapture the success of its predecessor. The move to Mediterranean Europe away from suburban life is a parallel, as well as the introduction of new ballplayers. However, Riley and Turner’s biggest challenge was successfully pulling off a story three times the show’s normal length.

The story throws pop culture at you like you’re watching 3D, only you’re not and it bounces back to them for more material. Riley and Turner, extensively involved in the creative process as with the show, are still inventive, and find some of their best dialogue in the banter irrelevant to the movement of the plot. Their chemistry is still second to none, and the duo is just as good bouncing off one another as posh and snide alter-egos Prue and Trude - whose own trip to Italy is much more straightforward as an escape from the droll they see as Australian life.

Constant allusions to Sharon’s sexuality are more pertinent given Szubanski’s choice to come out earlier this year, but all of the relationships are questioned and tested. The Fountain Lakes posse don’t like change, but Kath’s attitude takes them a long way. Turner steals the show as the can-do mum, confident in her stuck-in-1983 look and melodramatic on cue. She takes Kath to a new place and comes off the better for it, proving she’s still at the top of her game as one of Australia’s best comedians.

Director Ted Emery is back on board, but while a sometimes frenetic feel was well suited to their crazy suburbia, his feature version is amplified by a thousand and makes the film look cheap. Likely intentional bad effects while Kath finds herself on the road are ultimately too much and the subsequently intended nostalgic feel makes way for an all-audience cringe. Shot in just two weeks, it’s not difficult to draw that conclusion.

It’s C-grade at best, but from that it’s the best of them. One of Australian film’s greatest cameos emerges from Frank Woodley, and they clearly had a ball. We must accept that these ladies, as much as they think they’re the bee’s knees, will always keep their protective bubble close at hand. It’s a little bit uneyewsuel.

Rating: 2.5/5
Now screening at Reading Cinemas

*Published in the Daily Liberal (Dubbo), Western Advocate (Bathurst), Parkes Champion Post and Midstate Observer (Orange) from Saturday 8/9/2012

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*Published in the Mailbox Shopper (Dubbo) from Wednesday 5/9/2012

MISSED THE LAST REVIEWS? See what I thought of Total Recall and Don't Look Now.

In line with the theme of Mental, being tonight's opening film of the first Inland NSW Film Festival (first premiere in a while, excited!) and the basis of my interview with P.J. Hogan, my shoe of the week choice was inspired by the crazy woman that is Shaz.

Toni Collette could totally pull these off right? I'm thinking as one of the egos in United States of Tara. Gosh, really though, who wears backless boots?...

Shoe of the month was another Collette inspiration. And possibly chosen after the influence of perusing items in Newtown's many burlesque shops (they make me think of pole dancing more than anything else though).

Long time coming, but here's the extra Shopper review I promised of a Cary Grant classic.

In other film news, I interviewed Aussie director P.J. Hogan ahead of his visit to Dubbo tomorrow to open the inaugural Inland NSW Film Festival - I'll put up a link in tomorrow night's post. For now, enjoy this review. It feels like so long ago that I wrote this, my week away was ker-razy. More on that another time.

As I'm AWOL this week, there's no major review. I am sad to know I'm missing out on The Expendables 2 even though I'm yet to see the first one, but I'll make the effort on coming back.

I still got a Shopper review in. And this film was a cracker. Cary Grant at some of his charming best in newspaper journalism comedy His Girl Friday.

Unfortunately, it failed to find my way onto my USB, so slightly devastated I can't put it up just yet. Luckily for you that means you'll get it sometime during the week.

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To keep in the spirit of cinema, I'm posting a meme I found back when The Amazing Spider-Man came out and kept forgetting to post.

Credit to ivismynumber.tumblr.com