All articles by Frank Hatherley – Page 6
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Reviews
In My Father's Den
Dir: Brad McGann. NZ-UK.2004. 125minsLast year's Sydney FilmFestival opened to an embarrassing effort, the feeble Australian comedy TheHonourable Wally Norman. This year, in contrast, a packed house was grippedby New Zealand director-writer Brad McGann's assured debut feature In MyFather's Den, a hard-to-categorise mix of family conflict, coming of agedrama and ...
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Reviews
Thunderstruck
Dir: Darren Ashton. Australia. 2004. 100minsFor vitality, volume and pace the team behind high-octane rock 'n' rollroad movie Thunderstruck can't be faulted. The debut feature fromfirst-timers Darren Ashton (director), Jodi Matterson (producer) and ShaunAngus Hall (writer), it follows the members of a failed rock group, first atthe height of their ...
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Reviews
Strange Bedfellows
Dir: Dean Murphy.Australia. 2004. 105minsHomegrown comedies set infriendly country communities did not fare well at the Australian box officelast year. Danny Deckchair and The Honourable Wally Norman (forinstance) had large, sweetly eccentric supporting casts but little credibilityand far too few supporting laughs. Strange Bedfellows follows thistrend, though it boasts an ...
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Reviews
Love's Brother
Dir: Jan Sardi. Australia/UK. 2004. 90 minsJan Sardi's screenplay for the gritty biopic Shine was nominated for all the major international awards in 1997. Now he makes his directorial debut with this lightweight romantic fable from a self-penned screenplay which could have done with a tougher editor. Sardi's stretched story ...
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Reviews
One Perfect Day
Dir: Paul Currie. Australia. 2003. 105minsTelling their tale of a young 'genius' who rejects composing at London's fusty old Royal Academy of Music in favour of spinning the decks at Melbourne clubs and Outback raves, it was essential that the makers of One Perfect Day got the soundtrack right. This ...
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News
Seven scripts selected for top Oz development scheme
Seven creative teams have been selected for Australian script development programme SPARK 2004, developed by the Australian Film Commission (AFC) and the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS).Australian cinema has often been accused of neglecting its scripts and scriptwriters. Acting, camerawork and production design are usually first rate, while ...
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News
Chapman rewarded in Australian honours list
Veteran Australian film producer Jan Chapman has been named in this year's Australia Day honours list.She has been created an Officer in the Order of Australia , perhaps equivalent to a pre-1975 Damehood, "for service to the Australian film industry as a producer, and as a contributor to organisations providing ...
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News
Animal Logic drafts in veteran Smith for liaison role
Animal Logic, Australia's foremost visual effects studio, has appointed Greg Smith to the newly created position director of communications and public affairs.The former executive, who was instrumental in the firm's key move to Sydney's Fox Studios in 1998, will be Animal Logic's "senior liaison person with government and industry bodies", ...
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News
Sinatra feature scores Miracle sale to US
UK/Australian co-production The Night They Called It a Day has been picked up for the US by Miracle Entertainment.Emile Sherman of Sherman Pictures, co-producer of the feature with the UK's Nik Powell of Scala Productions, made the announcement in Sydney. "Miracle have been incredibly enthusiastic about the film and its ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
Tom Cruise led the samurai charge that finally toppled The Return Of The King from its Christmas holiday number one position, but not before the Rings finale had scooped a few thousand dollars short of A$38m from its Australian showings. The Last Samurai had a big opening weekend -- A$3,401,421 ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
At last The Return Of The King - the epic adventure that features fabulous New Zealand scenery - has been overhauled at the home box office. All-action newcomer The Last Samurai - another epic adventure that features fabulous New Zealand scenery - topped the takings (NZ$629,295) and the screen averages ...
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News
Investors sue Village Roadshow for Matrix profits
A group of unhappy Australian investors are suing Village Roadshow Limited over their US$17.9m (A$23m) worth of tax leveraged investments in the first of the high-earning Matrix trilogy.The group, hardly beginners, are current and former partners of KPMG in Australia, the leading business and taxation advisory firm. They including the ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
The Return Of The King retained top spot in its third week, though its screen average -- A$8,429 -- dropped 50% and is now only the eighth highest. It's those 450 screens nationwide that have pushed the King's total box office takings to A$33,725,980.The three newcomers scored well: Something's Gotta ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
It was a steady January holiday weekend, with total box office takings up 17%. Still number one, The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King pressed on towards the NZ$9m mark, though its NZ$7,007 screen average (from 113 screens) was beaten for the first time by teen ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
As expected, The Lord Of The Rings - The Return Of The King dominated the local New Year holiday box office charts, selling a further NZ$1.1m worth of tickets from 114 screens. With a total of NZ$7.5m by its third week it has sailed well clear of the NZ$6.5m reached ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
Australian box office contenders bowed before the all conquering concluding episode of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Return Of The King. Its A$7,686,250 weekend on 453 screens boosted total takings past A$26.6m on only its second week.The two films that challenged the King's A$16,967 screen average were newcomer Welcome ...
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Reviews
Gettin' Square
Dir: Jonathan Teplitzky. Australia. 2003. 100minsThe well-planned heist that 'goes wrong' to a thumping rock soundtrack, the bunch of lovable desperadoes in hock to the real nasties, the reliably unexpected twist in the narrative tail-all are in place in this attractively virile Aussie gangster comedy. Arguably, Guy Ritchie's British Lock, ...
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Reviews
The Night We Called It A Day
Dir: Paul Goldman. Australia. 2003. 95mins.Frank Sinatra's 1974 tour of Australia is the stuff of legends. During his first gig he quipped that local female journalists who had been writing racy copy about his sexlife were "buck-and-a-half hookers". Not keen on criticism from overseas guests - even from showbiz royalty ...
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Reviews
Perfect Strangers (NZ, 2003)
Dir: Gaylene Preston. New Zealand. 2003. 96mins.After its sold-out premiere at the Melbourne Film Festival, Gaylene Preston's "chilling romance" has, unsurprisingly, been invited to Montreal in September, a timely reminder that New Zealand cinema has more to offer than Lord Of The Rings blockbuster fantasy. Perfect Strangers is an adult, ...
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Reviews
Danny Deckchair
Dir: Jeff Balsmeyer. Australia. 2003. 100mins.Welsh actor Rhys Ifans created the abiding comic movie image of 1999 as Spike in Roger Michell's Notting Hill: the shaggy, skinny flatmate-from-Hell merrily posed in his underpants for photographers outside Hugh Grant's London pad. Unpredictably Ifans emerges here as a glamorously handsome Australian ...