Australia starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman
When I think of Australia, I think epic. I think the outback - Grainy red sand, land as far as the eye can see, accents, kangaroos, dirty shirtless men, barefoot kids who speak not quiet English. And that is exactly what this movie felt like to me, the outback minus the bloomin’ onion and epic.
Director Baz Luhrmann teamed up again with Nicole Kidman for this glimpse into life in the outback. Kidman plays an English socialite, Lady Sarah, whose ranch owning husband has died. She hires Hugh Jackman’s character Drover – who is a drover, which is basically a cowboy - to herd hundreds of cows across hundreds of miles of outback to be sold into slaughter. Kidman joins him for the ride and high jinx ensue! Also along for the ride is a young boy aboriginal boy, Nallah. Nallah is, by far, the best part of this entire movie – all fourteen and a half hours of it. Lady Sarah treats Nallah like her own son after his mother is killed by authorities who are trying to take Nallah – who is half aboriginal and half white – to a government and church run school for kids of mixed race. What follows is a long and hard journey across Australia – complete with a cattle stampede and Wizard of Oz reference. What doesn’t follow are song and dance numbers by Kidman and Jackman – much to my disappointment.
Australia is long. Like, really long. Just when I thought it was going to end, it kept going. It felt as if Luhrmann was trying to go bigger and better and more each chance he could get – and he took them all. From what I understand, some of the references in the film are facts – children of mixed race were taken from their families for decades, for example. The color was brilliant – just as most of Luhrmann’s are. But the movie was just… Way. Too. Long. Perhaps if I had a bloomin’ onion to help me through it…
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Ruud Review: Four Christmases
I Can Barely Handle One Christmas, Let Alone Four Christmases...
I love Vince Vaughn. Fell in love with him the first time I saw Swingers. Fell even more in love with him the second, third, and fourth times I saw Swingers. Fell a little out of love with him when I saw him in the Psycho remake, but fell right back in love with him in Old School. And while Four Christmases may not be next to Elf, Home Alone or A Christmas Story on my "Much Watch Daily During the Holiday Season" shelf, it wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen.
Brad and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) have what seems like the perfect life - they are in love, carefree, and getting ready for a nice holiday vacation. But when their flight to Fuji gets canceled, they will need to face the hardest challenge in their relationship - instead of couples massages and scuba diving, they will have to visit all four of their parents on Christmas day. What comes next you think would be a series of family mishaps, awkward situations, sarcastic remarks, slap stick humor and tons of Vaughn's on the spot ad libing. And it was all there - but there was something missing. Visiting four families during an hour and a half comedy doesn’t leave much time for a full relationship to develop – between main and supporting characters or between the audience and supporting characters. Though each quirky family serving was just right – there wasn’t enough time to get tired of each family’s quirkiness. All I’m saying is that it would have been nice to form some ties to the supporting cast. Especially when said cast is as stellar as this one: Jon Favreau and Tim McGraw as Brad’s brothers reminded me of the Bushwhack Twins from the WWF (before it was the WWE). And it’s always a treat to see Dwight Yoakam (remember his cameo in Wedding Crashers?) as Pastor Phil – Kate’s Mom’s boyfriend. The peppy Kristin Chenoweth, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, and Mary Steenburgen (who added a nice “cougar” feel to the film as Kate’s mother) all play various family members.
Witherspoon and Vaughn played their parts well. Vaughn seemed a bit diluted and possibly held back by the lack of improvisation by Witherspoon, though I am not sure who else could have played the role of Kate – cute, but sassy. And perhaps this is Vaughn’s way of maturing out of the frat boy roles and into more adult roles – although I hope not. But if that is the case, I will still follow, because let’s face it, Vaughn is still money, baby.
Next Review: Australia
I love Vince Vaughn. Fell in love with him the first time I saw Swingers. Fell even more in love with him the second, third, and fourth times I saw Swingers. Fell a little out of love with him when I saw him in the Psycho remake, but fell right back in love with him in Old School. And while Four Christmases may not be next to Elf, Home Alone or A Christmas Story on my "Much Watch Daily During the Holiday Season" shelf, it wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen.
Brad and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) have what seems like the perfect life - they are in love, carefree, and getting ready for a nice holiday vacation. But when their flight to Fuji gets canceled, they will need to face the hardest challenge in their relationship - instead of couples massages and scuba diving, they will have to visit all four of their parents on Christmas day. What comes next you think would be a series of family mishaps, awkward situations, sarcastic remarks, slap stick humor and tons of Vaughn's on the spot ad libing. And it was all there - but there was something missing. Visiting four families during an hour and a half comedy doesn’t leave much time for a full relationship to develop – between main and supporting characters or between the audience and supporting characters. Though each quirky family serving was just right – there wasn’t enough time to get tired of each family’s quirkiness. All I’m saying is that it would have been nice to form some ties to the supporting cast. Especially when said cast is as stellar as this one: Jon Favreau and Tim McGraw as Brad’s brothers reminded me of the Bushwhack Twins from the WWF (before it was the WWE). And it’s always a treat to see Dwight Yoakam (remember his cameo in Wedding Crashers?) as Pastor Phil – Kate’s Mom’s boyfriend. The peppy Kristin Chenoweth, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, and Mary Steenburgen (who added a nice “cougar” feel to the film as Kate’s mother) all play various family members.
Witherspoon and Vaughn played their parts well. Vaughn seemed a bit diluted and possibly held back by the lack of improvisation by Witherspoon, though I am not sure who else could have played the role of Kate – cute, but sassy. And perhaps this is Vaughn’s way of maturing out of the frat boy roles and into more adult roles – although I hope not. But if that is the case, I will still follow, because let’s face it, Vaughn is still money, baby.
Next Review: Australia
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Letter of the Week: Postmaster
It snowed today. Like, a lot. I would say it snowed a foot, but I have no sense of measurement, so it could very well be only about 3 inches of snow. But regardless, there is enough snow on the ground to cover the grass and prompt my neighbors to pull out the snow blowers (which are for wusses, by the way, especially if we are talking about just a few inches of snow, but I digress).
Since I spent the majority of the day on my couch, I decided to venture out and shovel the porch and sidewalk. When I walked out my front door I noticed some very distinct footprints in the snow. Footprints that look somewhat like the ones in the photo in the header of this blog. Big, moon-boot like footprints very close to my house. Footprints that could be from one person and one person only... my mail carrier. The below is an actual letter I wrote to the Postmaster. I never did receive a response, but I hope to soon. Enjoy!
Dear Postmaster,
It recently came to my attention that my mail carrier can refuse to deliver my mail if my walkway and/or porch are not cleared of snow and/or ice. While I understand and appreciate your attempt to provide a safe workplace for those field postal workers, I cannot for the life of me understand WHY my mail carrier did not deliver my mail for 2 entire days until I shoveled my walkway and porch and then after dropping off my mail WALKED ACROSS MY SNOW COVERED LAWN TO THE NEIGHBORS HOUSE.
No, this is not a joke. This is fact. I have pictures of to prove it. I actually watched my mail carrier trudge through 6+ inches of snow covered lawn. All I can say is WTF.
WTF?
Amy Ruud, busy homeowner
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Ruud Review: Milk
Milk, starring Sean Penn and James Franco.
Penn stars are Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official to serve public office. He held a City Executive position in San Francisco – similar to a City Councilman. He was known as the Mayor of Castro Street – known to have a large gay and lesbian population. Before taking office he organized several rallies and boycotts – including teaming up with the Teamsters Union to boycott Coors – which was the number 1 beer in America during that time. While in office, he fought for equal housing rights for gays.
In all, the movie was fantastic. Directed by Gus Van Zandt, the film used archive footage of the San Francisco area during that time to give the movie a bit of a documentary feel. Penn embodied Milk with precision – right down to his mannerisms and facial expressions. The supporting cast was stellar in their portrayals as well – especially James Franco as Milk’s long time partner. And who doesn’t love a bunch of good look guys in tight jeans? Well, this girl does!
Milk wasn’t a perfect man, and the movie did a great job portraying him as someone who threw himself into his work and let his personal relationships fall to the side.
But what disturbed me the most about this film is that 30 years after Milk successful fought against the passing of Prop 6 (which would have banned gays and lesbians from working in public schools. The Briggs Initiative, as it was more commonly known, was the first failure in a conservative movement that started with the successful campaign headed by Anita Bryant to repeal a local gay rights ordinance in Florida. Read more about it here.), California passed Prop 8 (which essentially banned same sex marriage). It’s just sad to see that 30 years later, not much has changed or maybe history repeats itself.
Next review: Four Christmases
Penn stars are Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official to serve public office. He held a City Executive position in San Francisco – similar to a City Councilman. He was known as the Mayor of Castro Street – known to have a large gay and lesbian population. Before taking office he organized several rallies and boycotts – including teaming up with the Teamsters Union to boycott Coors – which was the number 1 beer in America during that time. While in office, he fought for equal housing rights for gays.
In all, the movie was fantastic. Directed by Gus Van Zandt, the film used archive footage of the San Francisco area during that time to give the movie a bit of a documentary feel. Penn embodied Milk with precision – right down to his mannerisms and facial expressions. The supporting cast was stellar in their portrayals as well – especially James Franco as Milk’s long time partner. And who doesn’t love a bunch of good look guys in tight jeans? Well, this girl does!
Milk wasn’t a perfect man, and the movie did a great job portraying him as someone who threw himself into his work and let his personal relationships fall to the side.
But what disturbed me the most about this film is that 30 years after Milk successful fought against the passing of Prop 6 (which would have banned gays and lesbians from working in public schools. The Briggs Initiative, as it was more commonly known, was the first failure in a conservative movement that started with the successful campaign headed by Anita Bryant to repeal a local gay rights ordinance in Florida. Read more about it here.), California passed Prop 8 (which essentially banned same sex marriage). It’s just sad to see that 30 years later, not much has changed or maybe history repeats itself.
Next review: Four Christmases
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