The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Friday, March 30, 2012 4:22 PM Posted by Gretchen
          When I first read the premise  of Priscilla, I thought is was going to be just like To Wong Foo, Thank you Julie Newmar. Well, both movies have men who are normally action movie stars playing drag queens driving across country on a road trip. but that is where the similarities end. This movie is a comedy-drama-musical. It is based on a stage play of the same name. Priscilla was written and directed by Stephen Elliott. Hugo Weaving ( Agent Smith from the Matrix movies) played Anthony Belrose "Tick"/ Mitzi Del Bra a female impersonator who gets a mysterious phone call (mysterious to the viewer) that sends him and his two friends on a journey across the desert to the Northern Territory. Terrance Stamp played Bernadette, a transsexual woman who's partner just died. And Guy Pearce played Adam Whitely aka Felicia Jollygoodfellow, who had his mother buy the tour bus for him so they could go on their trip. He christened the bus Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
         Tick gets a phone call for a job in the Northern Territory and asked his two friends to go with him to do the show. They take Priscilla for the road trip and have some interesting encounters along the way. They encounter homophobic people in a small town that paint an obscene suggestion on the side of the bus.There is a giant stiletto shoe tied to the roof of the bus, a  visual trope used  a few times in the film is Felicia sitting in the top of the shoe with about twenty yards if lame fabric billowing behind the bus with classical music playing. Along the way they decide to take a "short cut" through the desert and take a wrong turn. The bus breaks down and they are stranded. While Bernadette attempts to go find help, Adam paints the bus lavender to cover up the profanity with paint he bought at the last gas station. Bernadette found a ride , but when the old couple saw the other "girls", they dropped off Bernadette and pealed out, leaving them still stranded. So, they decided to use this time to rehearse their act. We also find out that the woman who hired them is Tick's wife. A bomb shell of news for the others. 
      While rehearsing, an Aborigines man is watching them and invites them to a party in the desert. The people at the party share different types of entertainment and music, so  Tick, Adam, and Bernadette decide to share a number with them. Here is a clip.
                Their new friends took them to a small town to meet Bob the  mechanic who has a wife with a special talent that Bob is not pleased for her to show off in public. He gets the "girls" to perform at the local pub, and after an eventful evening fixes the bus and decides to go along the rest of the way in case the bus breaks down again.
                When they finally get there, we also learn that Tick has a son. His wife wants a vacation so she wants Tick to take their son back to Sidney with him. Tick is unsure because of his lifestyle, and he does not want to be embarrassing for his son. 
             I won't give the whole ending away. I really enjoyed this film, as a mater of fact I bought it so I can watch it any time. The musical numbers were fun to watch and the lip sinking was well done. I loved the characters and the character development in the film. The scenery in the desert was beautiful. The story dealt with prejudice against gays in a direct and humorous manner at times. The costumes were amazing. I would give this movie 5 stars.
           This movie had a $2,000,000 budget for production according to Wikipedia and earned $29,679.915 world wide. The Broadway musical is going to be touring soon. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 93% fresh rating.
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Tuesday, March 13, 2012 6:13 PM Posted by Alexis
THE CASTLE (1997)



          The Castle is about the Kerrigan family that make their happy little home right next door to an airport. But even with planes flying over head and the chemical waste in the soil, they couldn't imagine living any where else. But, when the airport authorities try to force them out of their home, Dale Kerrigan is in the fight of his life and his home.
          I thought that this film was quite funny. It has that kind of humor that I compared to the National Lampoon films. What makes these films funny is the script. The characters don't rely on slapstick humor or old devices. The humor is in the language and how the characters are completely serious in what they say, even if it is absolutely hilarious. These films also both picture a seemingly functional family that get into situations that test their dispositions. The fathers are both the stars of the films and must draw their families through  battle and become their hero.
          

          I would say that this would be a great family film but I noticed that it was rated 'R'. I thought that it might have been a mistake because there was no crude humor or anything risque. The only reason for this rating was for the F-bombs being produced from one of the other characters. If it weren't for this small part of the film, it could have easily been a PG production. I do not think that the Australian government would have thought the rating should have been so high. To them, the words that we would find completely offensive are more of  the common language. They do not take the same offence and have different opinions about other words that Americans would consider insignificant.
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Strictly Ballroom

5:07 PM Posted by Alexis
STRICTLY BALLROOM (1992)


         Strictly Ballroom is a fictional, romantic comedy of a young attractive champion dancer named Scott Hastings who is seeking to dance to his own steps, literally. Fran, a beginner as ballroom dance and a bit of an ugly duckling, who asks to be Scott's partner after his more orthodox dancing partner walks out on him. Together, they try to win the Australian Pan Pacific Championship and show the Ballroom Confederation that there is such a thing as "new steps".
          This film was quite enjoyable but was it a comedy? It certainly wasn't morbid or horrifying, but I'm not sure if I can say that it was comedic. A comedy is defined as professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches meant to make an audience laugh. This film possessed moments of slapstick humor and puns that directed the films mood toward a lighter side. During the film, there was a visual trope of Liz Holt (Scott's first partner) repeatedly shuts the door in the face of Fran (a beginner). Not only is this to make clear the status quot between the characters, but it is supposed to bring out a moment of slapstick humor. There are also many characters that possess comedic qualities to help lighten the plot. Ken Railings is the ultimate dance opponent and also a bit of a drunk. He always shows up to the competitions completely under the influence. Scott's mother (Shirley Hastings) is one of those controlling parents that has their child's life already planned out and prepared. All they have to do is be perfect. When Scott decides that he is going to take up a beginning dancer and dance to his own steps, she plots and tries to make him change his ways. However, I never found this film to be be particularly humorous. This could just be because I do not find the sense of humor amusing. Many of the techniques and devices used for this film, are 'old'. I have seen the 'door slap" in cartoons and other films, I have also been exposed to the drunken bully that makes a fool of himself, the obsessive mother and her struggle to obtain power over her child's life, and the underdog that becomes the star of the show.
         The use of old gimmicks and traditional humor is what keeps me from enjoying the film in the way that was intended. I wonder if I had seen this film when it first came out I would have a different point of view about it, but I still think that this was a very entertaining film for the whole family.
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Crocodile Dundee

12:28 PM Posted by Carrie
Crocodile Dundee was a huge hit not only in Australia but all over the globe. It paved the way for Australian Comedies to be recognized among the movie world.  The film makers seemed to use some of the humor from American shows and films from the 1970's in Crocodile Dundee. Tarzan and I love Lucy are a couple of examples. This doesn’t mean it did not form its own identity in the film world.

The movie is about a very burly Australian man who is a legend in Australia. Most of the movie is watching the crocodile Dundee adjust to the American Culture when he asks Sue the American Journalist to take him there. The comedic theme of Dundee being a fish out of water coming to America is evident throughout the movie. Although at first he seems very out of place and out of his element, he always accidentally finds his way out of unfortunate situations by just being himself. He fends off muggers and even gets Sue to fall for him. The storyline sounds like something from a Hollywood film but the obvious cultural differences between Dundee and America are portrayed in a comedic manner that demands people’s approval. I like the movies lightheartedness but at the same time making people aware that people around the world can be vastly different but that doesn’t mean they cannot live in harmony.

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Hercules Returns

Monday, March 12, 2012 4:20 PM Posted by Gretchen
This 1993 movie is really a film within a film written and produced by Des Mangan. The story of a movie buff, Brad McBain, who is tired of his job working for a cinema conglomerate that has taken all the fun out of the movie experience. Brad decides to quit his job and reopen the old "Picture Palace" so he can run a movie house the way they used to be. He hires his old friend, a projectionist named Sprocket, and a publicist named Lisa (who isn't afraid to punch out any man who is inappropriate with her). They decide to show the last movie that played at the Picture Palace before it closed. Hercules. The only problem is that Brad's old boss doesn't like competition.His old boss makes sure that the copy of Hercules is in Italian, with no subtitles.
 They find this out at their gala opening night, so thinking fast,  they decide to dub all the parts in the movie themselves. Brad, Sprocket, and Lisa do all the voices and they make all the sound effects. They create their own dialogue for what is going on on screen using contemporary references for the time. Scenes split from what is going on in the film to what they are doing to make the sound effects. In one scene Delilah [of Sampson &] is cooking meat on a spit; in the projection room Sprocket is cooking a pig on a spit. They also played with some of the names of the characters. Zeus told Hercules to go to Climidia, on his way there he saved the life of Labia who is in love with Testiculi.
There is some coarse language, as with any Australian film,  but this is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. I am attaching the trailer for the movie to give you a sample of how funny it is.
 This film earned $318,788 in Australia. It was not released in the US. The film that they used in the film was Samson and his Mighty Challenge.  The idea for the film came from the comedy stage show Double Take. Des Mangan created the stage show and expanded on it for the film.


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