Review Round Up 16th September 2012

THIS WEEK'S PREVIEW REVIEWS

Too busy to read those long reviews?  Try our minis…  How should you spend your precious dollars when visiting the cinema?  Read on.

Beasts of the Southern Wild ★★★★

Opens in Australia:  13th September 2012

Other Countries:      Release Information

OUR THOUGHTS

          This is one of those films that will grow on you long after your visit to the cinema.  I can quite honestly say you will learn things about human nature you didn’t care to know.  Yet, by the end of the film you will imagine that for just a moment you shared a magical experience.  The little girl is so extraordinary, as are all the actors, that it feels more like a reality show than a work of fiction.  Don’t go expecting a big, budget blockbuster.  It is film about life from the depths to the heights told with subtlety that makes this a work of art.

STORY

          In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.

 

Finding Nemo 3D ★ ★★ ★½

Opens in Australia: 30th August 2012

Other Countries: Release Information

OUR THOUGHTS

           I love all films Pixar.  And I know you have this at home on the DVD (all 1.99 million of you) and the kids and you have seen it many times.  However, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen it in 3D.  The colours and the depth are extraordinarily beautiful.  It is just as charming nine years later as it was in 2003 and well worth seeing on the big screen. Love, love, love it.  Did I mention that I love all films Pixar?  I did!  My memory isn’t what it used to be.

STORY

            Academy Award®-winning Best Animated Feature “Finding Nemo” returns to the big screen for the first time ever in thrilling Disney Digital 3D™. In this stunning underwater adventure, with memorable characters, humor and heartfelt emotion, “Finding Nemo” follows the comedic and momentous journey of an overly protective clownfish named Marlin (voice by Albert Brooks) and his son Nemo (voice by Alexander Gould)––who become separated in the Great Barrier Reef when Nemo is unexpectedly taken far from his ocean home and dumped into a fish tank in a dentist’s office. Buoyed by the companionship of Dory (voice by Ellen DeGeneres), a friendly-but-forgetful Pacific regal blue tang, Marlin embarks on a dangerous trek and finds himself the unlikely hero of an epic effort to rescue his son––who hatches a few daring plans of his own to return safely home.

Kath & Kimderella (★★)

Opens in Australia: 6^th September 2012

OUR THOUGHTS

 

            Kath and Kim are quite the phenomena.  At the special preview in Perth we were graced with the presence of Kath and Kim and the cinema did not have a spare seat.  What surprised me was that these two, who are around the fifty years mark, looked so good—must be the laughter.  No matter what I say, Kath and Kim fans are going to flock to this.  It’s not my type of humour but those around me were laughing their curly blonde-wigged heads off.

STORY

Fountain Lakes' foxy ladies return along with many other original characters as Kath Day-Knight and Kim Craig take an overseas trip to Italy and find themselves being the centre of their very own fairytale.

 

Arbitrage (★★★★½)

Opens in Australia: 27th September 2012

Other Countries: Release Information

OUR THOUGHTS

            This is one slick drama with an even slicker cast.  It reminds me greatly of a 2002 film which I loved called “Unfaithful”.  It also starred Richard Gere.   As each moment unfolds I held my breath thinking, surely he’s going to come unstuck here. But Gere’s character, Miller, is slipperier than a slimy fish—which is what he is, despite his charm and still-gorgeous looks.  Can money buy you everything?  That is the question asked and answered here.  If you love intelligent films and fine performances you will enjoy this one. 

STORY

             On the eve of his 60th birthday, New York hedge-fund magnate Robert Miller (Richard Gere) is the portrait of success in American business and family life. But behind the gilded walls of his mansion, Miller is in over his head, desperately trying to complete the sale of his trading empire to a major bank before the depths of his fraud are revealed. Struggling to conceal his duplicity from loyal wife Ellen (Susan Sarandon) and brilliant daughter and heir-apparent Brooke (Brit Marling), Miller’s also balancing an affair with French art-dealer Julie Côte (Laetitia Casta).  Just as he’s about to unload his troubled empire, an unexpected bloody error forces him to juggle family, business, and crime with the aid of Jimmy Grant (Nate Parker), a face from Miller’s past. One wrong turn ignites the suspicions of NYPD Detective Michael Bryer (Tim Roth), who will stop at nothing in his pursuits. Running on borrowed time, Miller is forced to confront the limits of even his own moral duplicity. Will he make it out before the bubble bursts?

What have you seen this week?  Did you find our comments helpful or do you disagree?  Share your thoughts with us.