Posts Tagged ‘Hugh Jackman’

Sharp-fisted fella

Prequels, eh? We all know that The Godfather Part II (1974) by and large started the ball rolling, with its look at the early life of Brando’s Vito Corleone, as played by Robert De Niro in the second film. However, that is one of the best films ever made (it was the first and thus far only sequel/prequel to win the Best Picture Oscar) – X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), surprisingly enough, is not quite in the same league.

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Nothing wizard here

Always a worrying sign, when a studio places an embargo on critics at the world’s first screening of a film, as happened with Australia (2008) – the inevitable question is: ‘So, does 20th Century Fox know something really bad that we don’t?’

Unfortunately, it would appear that the answer is pretty much in the affirmative. Baz Luhrmann is a director who has split audiences and critics alike down the years – the pro-votes tend to veer towards his sublime Romeo and Juliet (1996) (well, I say sublime but Colin, of course, hated it) and, of course, the brilliant Strictly Ballroom (1992), which differs from the recent BBC craze Strictly Come Dancing in that it isn’t fucking awful, while the naysayers tend to gang up on Moulin Rouge (2001) – its star, Nicole Kidman, was Oscar nominated, but it’s nevertheless an overblown and somewhat insincere musical maelstrom.

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Magic circle

Don’t you just love movies that play games? Joseph L Mankiewicz’s Sleuth (1972) obviously springs to mind, as does the more recent Memento (2002), directed by the same wunderkind, Christopher Nolan, who here takes us on a playful but dark journey into the disappearances and deception of turn-of-the-20th century magicians.

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