MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL - various shows PART 4 /  by Cut to the chase

Adam Rozenbachs in Eurodad - Plenty of laughs in this stand-up show which tells some hilarious tales about Adam's trip to Europe with his old man. My own old man travelled to Europe for the first time in his life at the age of 69 last year and even though I wasn't there, this all felt incredibly familiar. His dad actually steals the show with the closer - it's superb. This show is stand-up done well, a good combo of laughs and narrative but doesn't knock it out of the park like a few other shows I've seen.

Joel Creasey in The Drama Captain - this show is hilarious. Tales of a painful relationship break-up and school days as an overbearing drama captain somehow gel nicely to create this super funny show. Went with two friends to this one straight after Adam Rozenbachs and we all agreed that we preferred this one, definitely more laughs. This show got five stars in the Herald Sun & it is definitely great but maybe more like 4-4.5 for me.

Judith Lucy & Denise Scott in The Spiral - I'm a big Judith Lucy fan and I also love Denise Scott so this was a no brainer for me and I wasn't disappointed. It was an unusual format, a combination of random stand-up bits from each woman, some readings from their respective books and some dancing that words cannot describe. I'd pay $47 to see this again just for the dancing. I had tears streaming down my face. Spectacular!

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL - various shows PART 3 /  by Cut to the chase

Lessons with Luis in Famoucity! - Got my first dud of the Festival! I was baffled by this show and hardly laughed at all. To be fair, the woman next to me was cacking herself so something in it for some obviously, but nothing in it for me. It's an unusual style, check it out here if you want to make up your own mind whether it's for you. The person who posted this video to YouTube agrees with me if their caption on it is anything to go by!

David O'Doherty in Sieze the David O'Doherty (Carpe DO'Diem) - New favourite show of the Festival! I've seen David every year for the last 4 or 5 years I think it is now and there's a reason I keep coming back. Love, love, loved this show. Consistently laughed throughout, his style is just an absolute delight to watch. I enjoyed this even more than Wil Anderson which is interesting since the Herald Sun's reviewers gave Wil 5 stars and David 3.5 - a reminder that it's horses for courses with such things. Interestingly, I saw this show with two of the friends I also saw Wil with and they both preferred David's show too. The Herald Sun review of David's show notes the absence of narrative running through it and that's true but you know what, he made me cack myself again and again, more than any show I've seen so far, and that's why I go and see shows at the Festival.

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL - various shows PART 2 /  by Cut to the chase

Josh Thomas in Douchebag - Saw this off the back of Josh's TV show 'Please like me' which I really enjoyed. Thought I'd give his stand-up a go and I enjoyed this show. It jumped to and from a bunch of different topics but I don't mind that style. As long as the comedian is delivering good laughs, I can go with it. I've heard people mock Josh's (made up) accent but I generally find it pretty endearing. The exception to this though is that in a couple of places in the show I literally could not understand what he said! I heard mutterings along the lines from others around me so I wasn't the only one. The Herald Sun only gave it 2.5 stars which I think is a bit harsh, more like 3.5 or so for me.

Greg Fleet in The Boy Who Cried Sober - Greg Fleet has been doing stand-up for so long that I decided this was the time to finally go and see his work for the first time. He is a masterful story teller and has beautiful diction but I have to say, just not enough big laughs in this for me. I enjoyed the experience of listening to the show but didn't laugh as much as I hoped or expected. I wonder what people who've seen a lot of his work would make of it, whether perhaps being sober after so many years of performing under the influence has taken the edge off? The Herald Sun has given the show four stars so maybe it's just that my expectations were too high. It's more like a 2.5 or 3 stars for me.

Wil Anderson in Goodwil - One of the best stand-up shows I've seen. There's a reason this guy gets all the gigs; he's superb. The laughs just kept coming and coming. Go and see this show, especially if you don't get the chance to see much comedy, as there's just no chance you'll be disappointed. Five stars from the Herald Sun and I agree.

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL - various shows /  by Cut to the chase

So I've packed in a few MICF shows this weekend because all the shows are cheaper for the Easter preview weekend. For what it's worth, my opinions on comedy shows are basically about how much they made me laugh - a pretty fair measure in my view. Here's what I've seen so far...

Melinda Buttle in 'How Embarrassment' - Saw this one because I listen to Mel's podcast 'The Minutes' (with The Grates singer Patience Hodgson) and really like her humour. I enjoyed the show but there wasn't as many laughs as I'd hoped and she was a bit unprepared, using an audience member to help her along by prompting from a list as to what story was up next. A Herald Sun reviewer has given the show 4.5 stars which surprises me. I don't really do 'stars' but if I had to for this show, I'd have put it at more like 3.5. Funny but not side-splitting, tell-all-your-friends funny for me.

Dave O'Neil in '33 things I should have said no to' - Dave O'Neil is a bit of a stalwart but I've never seen him do a stand-up show, only enjoyed his work on TV and radio. It was really his appearance on 'The Agony of Life' that made me go and see this one, he's just so funny on that show. He didn't quite live up to the expectation I had based on that but I guess that's an unfair comparison when his moments on 'The Agony of Life' are edited down so we just get the real zingers. Enjoyed this but would put it at about the same level as Mel Buttle in that I wouldn't encourage you to race out and buy tickets if you're only going to see one or two shows.

Rhys Nicholson in 'Dawn of a new error' - This show is very, very funny though not for the faint hearted. He covers ground that will make the conservative among you squirm so don't see it if you know you'll be offended when things vere into murky territory. Like, graphic sexual territory. Amongst other things. He tells a story about his mother that is as hilarious as it is alarming and it certainly explains a few things about the man before us. So many laughs, I loved this show. The Herald Sun gave it four stars, for what it's worth.

Matt Okine in 'Broken Diamond House' - Hilarious. Loved this show, my favourite so far. Beautifully crafted narrative and the laughs just kept coming. The narrative came to a bit of a crescendo and that was when I realised just how deeply he'd lured me in - I HAD to know what happened at the end of the story. His popularity is catching on and his shows are selling out so book yourself some tickets soon. Highly recommend!

Luke McGregor in 'My soulmate is out of my league' - This is a fascinating experience of stand-up comedy. This guy, who I saw because I love his appearances on one of my favourite podcasts, 'The Little Dum Dum Club', is probably the most unusual comedian I've ever seen perform. He seems so nervous and uncomfortable (indeed, he refers to his OCD and anxieties throughout the show) and yet somehow it just works. It's hilarious. It's hard to explain, but it's hilarious. He's performing in a tiny room at the Portland Hotel which was so hot I thought I was going to faint but other than that, a pleasure to watch. (And for the record, I reckon this guy is going places. You mark my words.)

I GIVE IT A YEAR - film /  by Cut to the chase

Not dreadful but ho hum and not worth a $19 admission for me.
This comedy delivered a few laughs but it's telling that the only moment I really cacked myself was when, following a character drooling over Justin Bieber, a woman sitting behind me said to her companion in a loud voice "Ha, it's funny because Bieber's disgusting"... She was wrong about the moment (it wasn't funny) but searingly accurate about Bieber so well done, loud-talker.

Trailer here

GREAT EXPECTATIONS - film /  by Cut to the chase

Worth seeing just for Helena Bonham Carter's turn as Miss Havisham! This adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel isn't a five star film for me but HBC is brilliant in it making it worth a look, at least on DVD. I haven't read the book (quelle horreur!) so I found it really interesting to just get to know the story too.

Trailer here

SAVE YOUR LEGS – film /  by Cut to the chase

Urgh.

As with most Australian films, I wanted to like this, I really did. But alas, even a great cast including Steven Curry, Brendan Cowell and Damon Gameau, it’s a dud. It’s about an amateur suburban cricket team who go on tour in India (you’re seeing a problem already, aren’t you?) and predictable Delhi belly ‘humour’ ensues. To be fair, there’s much more to the story than that but it’s just not very… interesting. There was only two other people in the cinema and they laughed a bit more than me but the woman in the pair ceased to be a credible witness when she cackled at a lame ‘sharting’ joke. One moment where I laughed out loud was when someone did some good old fashioned slapstick and face-planted some chairs but I suspect that says more about me than the film. Actually, the name ‘Marcus Cobbledick’ in the titles at the end made me smile so yes, it’s definitely me.

Maybe I’d have liked this more if I liked cricket but anything would have helped really.

Trailer here

 

AMOUR - film /  by Cut to the chase

Nominated for various Oscars and deservingly so. About an older couple where the wife is suddenly struck by illness and is faced with life in a dreadful deteriorating state. The lead actress Emmanuelle Riva is spectacular. Like, truly amazing. I love Jennifer Lawrence as much as the next guy but there’s no way she was better in Silver Linings Playbook than Emmanuelle is in this – they got ‘best actress’ at the Oscars wrong in my view. Really wrong.

A beautiful film but a bit harrowing, not one to see when you want to buck up!

Official trailer
 

SAFE HAVEN – film /  by Cut to the chase

*meh*

OK, to be fair, I was sufficiently engrossed at one point that when someone appeared unexpectedly from the shadows I yelped embarrassingly loudly but still this one’s all just very ho hum.

Sole highlight would be Josh Duhamel for those inclined to have a bit of a perve at the lads. He’s divine. To look at. Hubba hubba.

You know all those films that have won Oscars today? Go see them instead. Any of them will be better than this.

Official trailer here

Movie 43 - film /  by Cut to the chase


Absolute stinker. Not at the movies, not on DVD... no way, no how.

In the interests of fairness, there was a couple of laughs but this compilation of short sketches is, broadly speaking, a rotten mess. How it secured the cast it did (Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Richard Gere, Emma Stone, Jason Sudeikis, Gerard Butler, Uma Thurman, Stephen Merchant, Hugh Jackman... the list really does go on) is one of the great mysteries of modern cinema.

I overheard another patron in my session (there was six of us) say at the end “That movie was really confusing”… I felt like saying “Any time you spend on trying to understand it is precious minutes wasted, lady.”

PS. This film has been widely criticised but the Crikey film reviewer Luke Buckmaster mounted a defence which makes an interesting read.

Official trailer here

ANNA KARENINA - film /  by Cut to the chase


I read some pretty ordinary reviews of Anna Karenina so went in with low expectations. It was a bit better than I’d expected but definitely didn’t love it. I already didn’t much like Keira Knightley and this cemented those feelings. Felt like it went for about five hours when in reality it was just over two. A DVD kind of film (at best), not worth the $19.50 for mine.

The ordinary experience was rounded out by having a young couple sitting behind me who appeared to be embroiled in some sort of emotional crisis that meant that they sniffed (she), talked (mainly he) and cuddled (both) most of the way through. You're not in your lounge room, people!



Trailer here

ZERO DARK THIRTY - film /  by Cut to the chase

This is a fantastic film, no surprises it’s getting so many accolades. It follows the ten year hunt for Osama Bin Laden following the September 11 attacks in America. If you’re anything like me you followed that hunt to a degree through the media coverage but this fascinating film fills in the details of how an operation like that would work. It’s really very eye-opening. One of the stars is Jason Clarke and I was occasionally distracted by the fact that sometimes in the film he reminded me of Nudge from Hey Dad! and then at other times I thought he was hot. HOW COULD HE BE BOTH? I hear you ask. Well, I’m afraid that remains a mystery. When I looked him up on IMDB I discovered he was born in Australia. Nudge’s long-lost cousin? Yes, I think so too.

I digress.

Other actors in the flick include Jennifer Ehle who played Elizabeth Bennett in the BBC Pride & Prejudice series and Joel Edgerton, one of my favourite Aussie actors. Also very happy to see the cinematographer is Grieg Fraser, a talent Aussie whose sister I used to work with!

Really enjoyed this one, catch it before someone declares it too highbrow and it winds up only on at the usually-inconveniently-located arthouse joints.

Trailer here.

DJANGO UNCHAINED - film /  by Cut to the chase

Not a big Tarantino fan but saw Django Unchained and the critics are bang on the money, this is a great film that I really enjoyed. It helps when you have virtually no expectations and I also had no idea what the film was about but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s an old school western with a big theme of slavery and whilst some scenes around that slavery were pretty disturbing it’s done well and all in a palatable context. There was one scene that I really hated, interestingly the one which Tarantino cast himself! He attempts an Australian accent but it just comes out as a weird mix of Australian, New Zealand, British and American. And when you combine that with John Jarratt playing a cringeful redneck Aussie, it really was pretty awful. But that was the only lowlight. The highlight for me was Leonardo DiCaprio as a plantation owner (& ‘owner’ of many slaves including the excellent Samuel L Jackson) who the main characters Django (Jamie Fox) and Dr King Schultz (Christoph Walz) find themselves negotiating with. It’s a spectacular delivery of a hideously slimey character & one that’s made me a much bigger fan of DiCaprio’s work. Also loved the performance of Christoph Walz who you might recognise from Water for Elephants – he won the best supporting actor at the Golden Globes for this performance when many expected it to go to DiCaprio).
 
 Warning for the sensitive… as is Tarantino’s custom, this is full of graphic violence. In a couple of places it’s so bad that you just have to laugh but it’s peppered throughout the movie and gets very gruesome though strangely it didn’t bother me as much as violence normally does and certainly didn’t bother me as much as Tarantino’s onscreen performance did.

A surprise winner for me and I add ‘me’ deliberately as this film has scored a couple of Golden Globes already & is likely to feature at the Oscars also so hardly a ‘surprise’ hit! A nice reminder that you can be well rewarded if you try a film that’s not what you’d usually go for.

Enjoyed the soundtrack too for what it’s worth.
 Trailer here if you want some more detail on the storyline.



THE IMPOSSIBLE - film /  by Cut to the chase

This film is really well done. It's based on a true story about a family holidaying in Thailand in 2004 when the now infamous tsunami struck. Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor play parents of three sons and all the performances are great but Naomi's is a standout as the central character. The five of them, along with so many others, are literally swept away when the front of water storms toward their resort with no warning whatsoever. I won't spoil it by telling you who ends up where and in what state but it gives an amazing insight into what people really experienced in that natural disaster that seems like it happened only yesterday. I'm sure some creative licence has been taken but nonetheless, it's an incredible story.

The film was so compelling that I was totally engrossed and were I not fairly lazy, I'm sure I would have been on the edge of my seat. I enjoyed this film and think it's very good, but to be frank, not off-the-dial, 5 stars kind of good.

Trailer here

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK - film /  by Cut to the chase

All I knew about this film when I saw it in London back in November 2012 was that Jacki Weaver was in it. Enough to get me over the line since I was feeling patriotic seeing it with another Aussie on the other side of the world! Jacki was great but not the highlight I thought she'd be to be honest; I'd be surprised if she picks up an Oscar for it. Not because of her performance but just because of the size of the role. She plays the mother of the main character Pat, who is played by Bradley Cooper. (Hubba hubba! And as an aside, he speaks French... *swoon*)

 Pat's trying to recover from an episode of mental illness and win back his wife Nikki, whom we discover has had an affair. I reckon it's probably a fairly realistic portrayal of a bloke in that situation (but hey, what would I know) but then Hollywood fantasy takes over and enter mysterious troubled woman, Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence. Jennifer's great and there's a good chemistry between she and Bradley, which helped make this film really enjoyable. The story is generally good fun with some poignant moments too. 

Part comedy, part drama, this film delivers. Go see!


Official trailer here

ARGO - film /  by Cut to the chase

Argo is based on a true story from 1979 when the American embassy in Iran was invaded. The film follows the journey of six Americans who escaped the building and then had to find safe passage back to the USA. It’s directed by Ben Affleck who also stars as CIA guy Tony Mendez leading the escape operation.

The excellent news is that Affleck’s come good since the disastrous Gigli days - he's great in this. In Argo he rocks a 70s beard and shaggy hair do that are somehow quite attractive.

Alan Arkin and John Goodman steal some of the limelight as Hollywood hot shots who help Mendez create a fake feature film as part of a very unusual plan to free the six Americans. They get most of the funny lines and indeed, there’s quite a few so it’s not all nail-biting serious stuff.

The story builds to a tense crescendo and, not knowing the story at all, I was totally engrossed and desperate for a happy ending.

This film opens Thursday 15 October. Loved it, go see it!

Official trailer here.


MENTAL - film /  by Cut to the chase

This Australian film was given a one star review by Leigh Paatsch (News Ltd) and a four star review by Margaret Pomeranz (At the Movies, ABC TV).

 I'm with Leigh.

 The mate I saw it with agreed. There was only two people in the cinema other than us and with the word of mouth I'm expecting this to attract, it won't be around for long. No great shame there for mine. 

 And as for Margaret's four stars... well, I can't begin to explain that...



Trailer here.

KATH & KIMDERELLA - film /  by Cut to the chase

I’m a big fan of the TV show that this is based on, Kath & Kim, but I went into the film with pretty low expectations because, amongst other things, the last time they went feature-length we got ‘Da Kath & Kim Code’ which was a big ol’ let-down.

The first, probably 20-30 minutes or so, was actually pretty good! They were setting up the story, which involved Kath, Kim & Sharon going to Italy, back in Fountain Lakes. There were loads of laughs, even if some of the jokes were things that fans of the show would have heard before.

The trouble started really once the ladies hit Italy because that’s when the weak story really started to unfold. The laughs subsided pretty quickly and by the time we got to the cameo by Dame Edna, well, the 25 or so people in the cinema mostly just looked at each other or the screen pretty baffled. It was the ‘jump the shark’ moment we’d all feared.

All that said, for Kath & Kim fans, it’s still worth a look I reckon. There’s laughs there and it’s still good fun to see what all our old mates, including Prue & Trude, are up to. If you don’t catch it at the cinemas (just how long it will remain in them will be very interesting as it did very well on opening day) do catch it on DVD. I can’t imagine you’d be considering it if you’re not a fan, but if you are, give it a miss. Baffled wouldn’t even begin to cover it.

Official full length trailer here.

THE CAMPAIGN - film /  by Cut to the chase

This film stars Will Ferrell and Zach Galafianakis & if you like their stuff generally, get on board this offering. There's plenty of laughs to be had, belly-laughs even, as their characters campaign for a place as a Republican Congressman. It doesn't break any new ground and the ending is pretty naff but if you want a good laugh and a bit of escapism, go for it as this is good fun.

Trailer here