Friday July 26
Puncture [M-Net.00.45]
Saturday July 27
DAVID AND SIR ELTON WITH EMILY BLUNT AND JAMES MCAVOY
Gnomeo and Juliet [M-Net.06.00]
Captain America: The First Avenger [M-Net.18.00]
The Rum Diary [M-Net.04.35]
Sunday July 28
Captain America: The First Avenger [M-Net.10.00]
The Watch [M-Net.20.05]
Bad Teacher [M-Net.23.50]
Brubaker [e.tv.23.00]
Monday July 29
PROBLEMS BEGIN IN PUNCTURE
Puncture [M-Net.00.45]
The Lorax [M-Net.03.00]
Tuesday July 30
Snow White and The Huntsman [M-Net.00.30]
Wednesday July 31
CAPTAIN AMERICA IN FULL FLIGHT
Captain America: The First Avenger [M-Net.09.30]
Rabbit Hole [M-Net.23.30]
Made in Dagenham [M-Net.01.15]
Young Adult [M-Net. 03.15]
***
THIS TITLE COMES FROM THE SILENT VERSION OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE-WRITTEN BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON AND STARRING JOHN BARRYMORE. THE YEAR WAS 1920
Ever since the Silver Screen first shimmered, writing for the screen has generated as much cinematic magic as acting and directing. All great classics begin with a germ of an idea, deep in a writer’s brain.
AN EARLY VERSION OF A TALE OF TWO CITIES
After everybody began Talking in late 1927, Hollywood began a frenzied search for the superior written word. Early on, work by Shakespeare, Dickens and The Brontes were adapted for the screen with varying degrees of success. At that time, only Chaplin remained stubbornly silent.
FITZGERALD DURING HIS SOJOURN IN HOLLYWOOD
Later, modern best sellers of the day were turned into popular movies, Lost Horizon, Gone With The Wind and Rebecca, to name but a few. Tinsel Town’s Golden Money Machine also enticed many famous writers; Dorothy Parker, Scott Fitzgerald and even William Faulkner served their time behind Hollywood typewriters.
OR NOT SO NEW-FITZGERALD'S THE GREAT GATSBY HAS JUST BEEN MADE FOR THE THIRD TIME
To this day, the film industry searches constantly for new, fresh and vital material; sometimes with success, sometimes not. This week we have all kinds of movie writing, some original and some adapted especially for the screen.
GONZO
Hunter S Thompson was best known as an alternative American writer who perfected the Gonzo Style of Journalism, where the writer becomes part of the action. He wrote The Rum Diary [M-Net. Saturday.04.35] in 1961, but the novel only saw the light of day in 1998; by which time Thompson had long become one of the established voices of the counter culture.
THOMPSON IN TYPICAL POSE
When Thompson ended his life in 2005, his suicide note read in part—
No more games…no more fun
HUNTER AND JOHNNY
Johnny Depp, who played Thompson (Roal Duke) in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, had become close to the enigmatic writer; Depp helped finance the funeral, where Thompson’s ashes were shot out of a canon.
DEPP AND AARON ECKART SAMPLE THE RUM IN PEURTO RICO
The Rum Diary, filmed in Puerto Rico, attempts to harness the essence of Thompson’s three constant shadows— guns, booze and drugs. In The Rum Diary, the Thompson (Paul Kemp) character is again played by Johnny Depp; this time well supported by Richard Jenkins, Amber Heard and a smoothly sinister Aaron Eckhart.
DEPP IN THE RUM DIARIES
The movie seethes with heat, lust and death and can be viewed as a flawed, if fascinating slice of Americana. The film, like the novel, uses violence and sleaze to expose a society that is both violent and sleazy.
BRUCE ROBINSON SMILES WRYLY-HE REALLY GAVE HIS ALL TO THE RUM DIARY
Thompson’s spirit is a hard one too shake; screenwriter Bruce Robinson who had been sober for six years stepped off the water wagon in his effort to bring Thompson to the screen.
DANNY AND ZAC KID AROUND
A very different writer was Theodor Geisel, known to the world as Dr Seuss. As Dr Seuss, Geisel wrote for children and adults too; his The Cat in the Hat has delighted readers for decades. His fable, The Lorax [M-Net.Monday.03.00] comes to the screen as an animated feature, voiced by Zac Efron, Danny De Vito and Taylor Swift.
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UNLESS...
The plot centres on the search for a real tree, highlighting the ongoing ecological damage done to the earth by humans. The film is candy with a hard core; a patent lesson to be learned by us all. Dr Seuss was way ahead of his time—The Lorax dates from 1971.
MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL
The Fairy Tale, grandmother of modern day Fantasy, has been with us forever. I have reviewed Snow White and the Huntsman [M-Net.Tuesday.00.30] before, but it is interesting to compare it to Mirror, Mirror which is also doing the rounds at the moment.
WHO IS THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL?
In Snow White and the Huntsman, the leaves in the forest are dark and the undergrowth treacherous, while in Mirror, Mirror, light speckles through the leaves and the undergrowth is soft and warm.
THE DISHY BROTHERS FROM DOWNUNDER
These movies are indeed two sides of the same Fairy Taled coin. With HG all the rage, there is no need to add that Chris Hemsworth, brother of Liam, plays the hunky Huntsman.
THE WONDERS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY
A last word on Snow White and the Huntsman, CGI turned the likes of Bob Hoskins and Ian McShane into dwarves— much to the chagrin of The Little People of America; they were jumping up and down with rage at the unfairness of it all;
THE REAL LITTLE PEOPLE WERE NOT IMPRESSED
they wanted real dwarves cast as the small seven. Which goes to show, I guess, that you can’t please all of the little people all of the time.
BOB HOSKINS-AUDIENCES WILL REMEMBER HIM FOR A LONG TIME
Sadly, Snow White and the Huntsman is Bob Hoskins last film; Parkinson’s disease has cut short the career of this talented English actor. His third last film appearance, Made in Dagenham [M-Net.Wednesday.01.15] is also on show this week.
GROWING UP IS HARD TO DO
Charlize Theron is at her archly eyebrowed best in Young Adult [M-Net.Wednesday.01.35] cast as a writer who ghost writes stories appealing to that vociferous reading mass, ‘The Young Adult’, a seemingly insatiable market at the moment.
JASON REITMAN-DOES HIS JOB BEHIND THE CAMERA
Young Adult, brilliantly conceived and written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman, the talented team that collaborated so well on Juno in 2007. The film, costarring Patrick Wilson and Patton Oswalt should have audiences shouting 'Grow Up' and 'Get Real' has the opposite effect.
DIABLO CODY-FRESH, ORIGINAL AND TATTOOED-RECEIVING HER OSCAR FOR JUNO
One can’t help laughing out loud in all the right/wrong places. Such is the power of Diablo Cody as a screenwriter. Long may she prosper.
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AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHT DAVID LINDSAY ABAIRE
Charlize made South Africans very proud when she won her Oscar in 2003; just a year earlier, so did Australian born Nicole Kidman. Kidman was nominated again in 2010 for her role in Rabbit Hole [M-Net.Wednesday.23.30], based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play by David Lindsay Abaire.
DIANE WIEST- A DIFFICULT ROLE HANDLED WITH FLAIR
Director John Cameron Mitchell adeptly opens up the action and gives the material cinematic depth, aided by a wonderfully empathetic performance by Diane Wiest, herself a double Oscar winner.
THIS STILL SPEAKS VOLUMES
Also, there is a deep study in grief from Aaron Eckhart who is too often relegated to bland parts in Romantic Comedies; he really has more to offer than that.
NICOLE KIDMAN-A STUDY IN GRIEF
The movie touches a raw nerve; the loss of a child must be the most devastating experience that anyone can endure; the film deals very sensitively with the ways in which different people deal with this grim, life changing ordeal.
GNOMEO, GNOMEO.. YONDER LIES THY FISHING ROD
Shakespeare has always been the yardstick by which all writing is judged. A strangely appealing animated reworking of Romeo and Juliet, set in a world of garden gnomes is Gnomeo and Juliet [M-Net.Saturday.06.00], with voices of James Mc Avoy, Emily Blunt, Sir Michael Caine, Dame Maggie Smith and plain old Dolly Parton.
A PIANO PLAYER OF NOTE
Happily, there is no tragic ending, star crossed or otherwise in GnomeLand; mauve provides a happy compromise between red and blue. Pity the Capulets and the Montagues didn’t think in terms of colour coordination. Sir Elton John wrote the music, while he and partner David Furnish had a hand in production.
MATT SALINGER AS CAPTAIN AMERICA IN 1990. HERE IS THE LITERARY TWIST-HIS FATHER J D, WROTE THE CATCHER IN THE RYE.
The comic or graphic novel was perfected in the last century, mainly but not exclusively in America. Captain America came from Marvel Comics, home of both Iron and Spiderman. Captain America has been filmed before, a lacklustre version made in 1990.
THE 'SECOND' AVENGER
With the soaring popularity of filmed comics, Captain America’s juicy adventures were too good to miss again; a remake came in 2011, starring Chris Evans.
BIG CHANGES
He plays Steve Rogers, the archetypal weakling transformed by magic serum into a SuperSoldier. This notion of ‘a nerds dream comes true’ is at the core of comic all Superheroes and most comic book writing.
THE CAPTAIN VS HERR HITLER
Seriously, Captain America: The First Avenger [M-Net.Saturday.18.00,Sunday.10.00 and Wednesday.09.30], set mainly during WW2, is chock- a- block with popcorn throwing, gum chewing fun; crammed with nasty Nazis and Brave Heroes. The first Captain America comic dates from 1941, conceived back then to boost wartime morale.
CHRIS EVANS AS THE DRUG ADDICTED LAWYER
A very different Chris Evans can be seen as a drug addicted lawyer in a fine film called Puncture [M-Net.Friday.00.45 and Monday.00.45]. In the tradition of John Grisham, Evans, along with fellow lawyer, Mark Kassen come to the legal aid of a nurse who contracted AIDS when punctured by a substandard syringe.
MARK KASSEN CAN WRITE, DIRECT AND ACT- HERE WITH BROTHER ADAM
The concurrent plot thread is that safer syringes are made unavailable. This dark tale is based on a true story, with Vinessa Shaw as the blighted nurse; the very versatile Mark Kassen not only acted in Puncture, he also had a hand in the script and directed the movie with brother Adam.
SETH AND JONAH DISCUSS WEIGHTY ISSUES
Seth Rogen is the highly gifted but erratic writer/actor who co scripted The Watch [M-Net.Sunday.20.05] which has the makings of a great idea; a group of Neighbourhood Watchers find signs of alien activity.
THE WATCH DOES HAVE IT'S MOMENTS
With a lighter touch, the movie might have worked so well; as it is, although Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade share a few good lines and situations, overall The Watch is a bit of a damp squib. Pity.
A YOUNG ROB THE RED-LOOK OUT FOR MORGAN FREEMAN IN HIS SECOND MOVIE
Brubaker [e.tv.Sunday.23.00], a prison drama dating from 1980, is directed with Quixotic fervour by Stuart Rosenberg. Robert Redford is well cast as a prison warden who goes undercover to sniff out at first hand corruption and cruelty in the American Prisons System. This well meaning but rather long movie is based on the writings of penologist Tom Murton.
I REMEMBER THE FEELING
Bad Teacher [M-Net.Sonday.23.50] is a black comedy, in extremely bad taste, gross and over the top, although to be fair, although Cameron Diaz is lovely to look at and Jason Segal vaguely amusing to watch. I only mention the movie because I was one once, a VERY bad teacher.
CHARLIZE WATCHES PATRICK WILSON WITH INTENT
My Pick is the off beat Young Adult [M-Net.Wednesday.03.15]… but...
CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE REST OF THE MARVEL TEAM
I really loved Captain America: The First Avenger [M-Net.Saturday.18.00,Sunday.10.00 and Wednesday.09.30]