Don Johnstone

This is a movie every catholic novice who is thinking about becoming a nun should watch. There are many insights and practical instructional lessons, that provide a basic primer for what life as a nun really entails, especially for young and inexperienced novitiates. The scenes involving supernatural events and encounters with the devil are particularly useful for anyone wishing to face the dark forces of evil incarnate, as an innocent and naive servant of God.

I found some real problems in trying to enjoy this movie. It was so confusing and difficult to know where the characters were at any given time, in relation to the layout of the mining facility. So much so that labels were inserted on screen to let us know where they were. The underwater scenes were so murky and dark that I couldn't see what was happening beyond the torch lights they carried for most of the journey. The conversations between the characters in their underwater suits was often difficult to hear and understand clearly. The idea that they took such a long time to work out what was responsible for the tremendous ongoing damage to the facility and had no support from the surface, didn't ring true. Turning out to be just another monster movie cheapened the whole show, in my mind, which could have been made more original and interesting, if only the creators were more inventive. Not the actors fault but the production could have been done better and I was generally disappointed with the overall result. PS. Why didn't the main character try and use the malfunctioning pod to escape in? After all it was flashing green 50% of the time and worth a shot.

It was an interesting and promising premise but this is one of those movies where the plot was a journey that no-one on spacecraft impossible really cared about and the longer it went on, the more improbable, dour, violent and confusingly pointless the story got. "Mother" has a more engaging, metaphorically meaningful plot, with a powerful ending that makes ''High Life" seem messy, self indulgent and cheaply thrown together, although the fine actors made the best of a production that appeared less than adequately resourced and for whose efforts I give it 2 stars.

I like the way Sam Elliot portrays characters and in this film he does his usual very good work. The other actors also do a fine job with the material and the film work, production and direction are of good technical quality. The main problem for me though, was the story itself, which I can only describe as a tongue in cheek farce, bordering on the ridiculous. Whatever happened to Hitler, we know for certain he wasn't assassinated by a young American soldier disguised as a nazi officer. The long scene about a Russian pratling on while shaving the young yanks' beard made little sense, like some other scenes, which failed to contribute to a cohesive storyline structure. To think the US. government could find no other way to stop the killing spree of the, diseased, out of control, man in a very ugly monkey suit, 'Bigfoot'?, except by calling on an old, comfortably retired codger, like the ever regretful Mr. Barr, (he spent a lot of time hanging out at his local bar), was just too stupid to think about. Trying to suspend disbelief was impossible for me, if I saw it as a typical drama and not a black comedy but as an attempt at a darkly dry, comedic farce, it also failed to humour me. I was actually getting annoyed thinking the writer director was just showing his contemt at ordinary viewers who wanted the story as a whole, to make some reasonable sense. Even the included romantic story failed to satisfy with any conviction and fizzles out to a miserable ending. What ever point the movie was supposed to convey was lost on me. probably because there was no overall, satisfyingly comprehensible point to it. I could well imagine that no large film company would ever make and/or release a movie with a storyline as odd and uncomfortably mashed together as this. I could, though, imagine a better effort at making two separate movies about an assassination of Hitler and another about hunting down a killer Bigfoot but putting both stories together like this, was a silly idea that doesn't work at all for me, even with the wonderful Sam Elliot. Maybe on second or third viewings I might find more positive qualities that I missed on first viewing this movie but these are some of my current opinions.

Firstly, comments from people about the movie "Serenity", who haven't actually seen the movie, are obviously pointless and worthless. I had no prior expectations before watching it, except that a movie with such an excellent cast of lead actors, would be worth seeing. It captured my interest from the start, with its dramatic opening fishing scenes and small tropical island town setting, filled with strongly wrought local characters. The nerd on the beach in a suit carrying a briefcase, was the only out of place element that had me wondering what was really going on. Apart from that, the story seemed clear enough, until later on when the nerd was revealed to be more curiously mysterious than I could have imagined. Basically, there are two parallel stories being told (or is it just one?), which are intrinsically interconnected. One is the fisherman's story and the other is his son's story. Somehow, although physically separated, they are both psychically connected across time, space and death, via a game of inter-dimensional co-awareness. That game has rules which can be broken, according to free will decisions, based on a persons moral and ethical values of right and wrong. It is somewhat of a strange and confusing movie but very interesting to try and get your mind around, which may benefit from a second or third viewing.

This movie is about the Chappaquiddick accident that lead to the tragic death of Mary Jo Kopechne and the way it was dealt with by Ted Kennedy, his family and his handlers. It is an insightful and darkly sobering account of what most likely happened. It portrays the turmoil, confusion and moral and ethical conflict in Ted Kennedy's mind after the accident, juxtaposed with the desperate attempts of himself and his minders, to do whatever it takes, to try to stem the deepening personal and professional crisis the accident has created for Ted and the Kennedy dynasty. Poor Mary Jo, whose death was the real tragedy, never gets the attention she deserves, but that goes to show something of the Kennedy's obsession with themselves and their reputation of ruthlessly pushing for success against all obstacles, including the law. It is a good movie worth seeing, that doesn't answer all the questions, because no-one can but it gives a further insight into that historical tragedy and the Kennedy legacy that continues to interest people.

This is a very well directed and produced movie, made with great care and sensitivity to it's source material, being Tim Wintons wonderful book. It has a very well balanced flow of beautifully filmed images of natural settings, that are a constant pleasure to watch as the story unfolds. There is something about it that reminds me of the original ''Stormboy" movie. Obviously crafted with a knowing sense of the times, the characters and the places it depicts, it is filmicly accessible and easy to follow, which helps to highlight the complexity of the internal psychological dramas each character is experiencing. I highly recommend this movie, as yet another fine example of Australian film making.