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The
Producers
Cert: PG
Starring: Zero
Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, Kenneth Mars
Director: Mel
Brooks
Running Time: 88
minutes
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Mel
Brooks’ 1968 classic, The Producers, still stands to this
day as one of the funniest movies ever to come out of Hollywood.
Delivered in a manner that only Brooks was capable of, it was the
story of a rapidly-failing Broadway producer, Max Bialystock, and
a nervous accountant, Leo Bloom, who together conjure a ploy to
make themselves rich. How? By staging the biggest flop of all time.
Naturally.
In 2001, Mel Brooks decided to turn his comic masterpiece into
a Broadway musical, winning an unprecedented 12 Tony awards in
the process. This latest incarnation of The Producers, with Nathan
Lane and Matthew Broderick reprising the starring roles they had
such success with on Broadway, is based more on the theatre production
than the original film. Is it for the better? Not quite. But then,
nobody EVER thought that it would top the original, did they?
Despite the fact that all the colourful musical numbers are here,
the film doesn’t quite capture the imagination that its Broadway-based
alternative would have no-doubt delivered. What works on stage
doesn’t necessarily work on screen and some of the humour
has been lost in translation. That’s not to say that most
of what’s on offer here isn’t funny, of course; it
most certainly is. It’s just not quite as funny as you suspect
it probably should be.
Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick both make a bold stab at reinventing
their characters, with Lane achieving the higher level of success.
Uma Thurman hots things up as Swedish bombshell Ulla, and Will
Ferrell (playing the Hitler worshiping playwright Franz Liebkind)
almost steals the show with his usual zany performance.
I agree with the director’s decision not to directly remake
the original movie, because I don’t think that anybody could’ve
possibly touched Brook’s initial vision. However, this is
a very enjoyable remake of a great theatre adaptation, and is definitely
worth checking out. |
Brokeback
Mountain
Cert: 15
Starring: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien
Brody, Andy Serkis, Colin Hanks, Thomas Kretschmann, Kyle Chandler
Director: Ang Lee
Running Time: 134
minutes
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Brokeback
Mountain sees Ang Lee, the Taiwanese director of Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon and The Ice Storm, adapting a short story
by Annie Proulx about two cowboys, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger)
and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), working together in Wyoming
in the 1960s. Somewhat unconventionally, a bond of love develops
between the two men, manages to sustain despite them going
their separate ways and getting married.
A ‘gay cowboy film’ is about as far-flung from
the genre’s usual subject matter as can be, although
the quality of the writing, direction and performances manage
to overcome the stereotypes effortlessly. Aside from the film’s
controversial backdrop, Brokeback Mountain is also a story
about repression. The women whom Ennis and Jake marry (brilliantly
played by Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams) are presented
as genuine characters rather than casual non-entities. The
relationships the men form with them ultimately produce the
film’s major conflict.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger have certainly done their
Hollywood profiles no harm with their performances, either.
As demanding as the roles are, both actors manage to convince
us of their inner conflicts without even having to paint them
out with dialogue. It’s their superb chemistry onscreen
that really has the audience engrossed in the story.
With so many films out there that seem so forgettable, Brokeback
Mountain offers something that will keep you thinking for some
serious time to come. Absolutely fantastic. |
Where
The Truth Lies
Cert: 15
Starring: Kevin
Bacon, Colin Firth, Alison Lohman, Sonja Bennett, Rachel
Blanchard, Kathryn Winslow
Director: Atom
Egoyan
Running Time: 107
minutes
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Lanny
Morris (Kevin Bacon) and Vince Collins (Colin Firth) are a
duo of entertainers who achieved fame and fortune in the late-1950s.
Lanny was always the flamboyant one with an eye for the ladies.
Vince was the classy, suave Englishman. 20 years later, an
aspiring journalist, Karen O’Connor (Alison Lohman),
is handed the task of writing a book about Vince Collins. A
huge fan of the duo as a child, she is intent on finding out
what really happened the night a young woman’s body was
found in their hotel suite.
As Karen delves deeper into the lives of her former heroes,
she discovers that their showbiz lifestyle concealed some rather
questionable activity, which is revealed to us in a series
of (sometimes confusing) flashbacks – not all of them
are necessarily real, you see. Despite their image as decent
family entertainers, Lanny and Vince’s appetite for the
rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle resulted in some serious
debauchery. And after Karen encounters (by pure chance) Lanny
on a plane, she finds herself involved with the pair in ways
she could never have imagined.
Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth deliver superb multi-layered performances,
helping establish their on-screen characters’ split personalities.
The director Atom Egoyan manages to hold the film together
as it jumps between different times and scenes, a hurdle which
many have stumbled over in the past.
Overall, it’s well directed, very well acted, and serves
up a gritty, noir-ish tale of twisted characters
and hidden secrets. Highly recommended. |
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