Bad Taste.
Kaihoro, New Zealand. Barry, Frank, Ozzy and Derek are investigating the disappearance of the town’s population, the former getting chased by an axe-wielding loony for his troubles; though a number of gunshots to the head takes care of that. While Frank and Ozzy drive to the rendezvous, Derek tortures a captured alien psychopath for information and Barry, ambushed by a horde of the blue shirted extraterrestrials, becomes trapped in a barn. A battle ensues between the aliens and an uzi-wielding Derek after the horde hear the screams of their alien comrade, ending with the human taking a little tumble off the cliff. The final remaining alien, heading back to their base, intercepts a charity collector who, after being captured, awakens in a tub of water and vegetables ready to be served for lunch the following day. Having discovered the base and the reason for the aliens presence, the team begin their mission to free the marinating charity collector and shut down the alien corporation from harvesting the next taste sensation, human meat, and exporting it across the galaxy. A cheese-filled splatterfest, hilarious in its ridiculousness, Peter Jackson’s debut, Bad Taste, is a hyperactive film of grotesque, over-the-top gore and hammy acting, not least of all by Jackson himself. It’s hard to believe that the same man behind this ultra-low budget flick built on incredible real effects also oversaw the excessively over-CGI’d Hobbit trilogy. I know which I’d rather watch again.
Ghost.
Sam, a Wall Street banker, and Molly, an artist and pottery fanatic, renovate their new Manhattan home with the help of Sam’s colleague and friend Carl. Sam discovers inconsistencies in some of his bank’s accounts and, after declining assistance from Carl, investigates further. After attending the theatre that night, Sam and Molly are approached by a mugger brandishing a gun; a skirmish occurs, the gun goes off and Sam chases the mugger partly down the street, returning to a crying Molly holding his own bloodied body. Resisting the light, Sam faces existence as a ghost, invisible and unable to interact with the living. A couple of days later, with Molly out of the apartment, Sam witnesses the mugger break in and search for something before fleeing. After following the mugger retreat to his own apartment, Sam stumbles across “spiritual advisor” Oda Mae, a charlatan who is shocked to discover she can in fact hear the deceased Sam. After discovering the horrifying truth of his murder, Sam must use Oda Mae to protect Molly from the oncoming storm. Whoopi Goldberg steals the show as she provides the entertaining, comedic soul of Ghost, making up for the lack of attention and characterisation afforded to Demi Moore’s Molly. Expected a nauseating, melodramatic romance; pleasantly surprised to discover Ghost is, in fact, a fantasy thriller that warms the heart and provides more than a few laughs.
Dreams.
“I had the following dreams…”. So begins Akira Kurosawa’s anthology of unconscious tales on spirituality, death and humanity’s destruction and perversion of nature. There is no continuing narrative throughout the vignettes, though Kurosawa is represented in each, as a young boy in the early dreams “Sunshine Through the Rain” and “The Peach Orchard”, and later as a middle-aged man learning of the tranquility and simplicity of life in the “Village of the Watermills”. In the chapters “Mount Fuji in Red” and “The Weeping Demon”, Kurosawa reflects on a theme that he would return to in 1991’s Rhapsody in August, that of nuclear power and nuclear war; Kurosawa is critical of humanity for allowing us to reach this point, before ending Dreams with a nostalgic view of being one with nature, not harming it for our own selfish, convenience-driven needs. Accompanied by a mystical score and beautiful costume and set design, Kurosawa’s Dreams is an interesting introspection of the filmmaker’s thoughts and fears; the anthology format certainly lends itself to the dream concept, though even with only fifteen minute runtimes some overstay their welcome.
Driving Miss Daisy.
Post-war Atlanta, Georgia. Elderly, wealthy, Jewish widow, Miss Daisy Werthan, lives alone, with the exception of her black housekeeper, Idella. After a driving mishap, Daisy’s middle-aged son, Boolie, worries for her and, after trying a variety of other transport arrangements, hires Hoke, a desperate, aging black handyman, as his mother’s chauffeur. Initially repulsed by the idea of being driven around, forbidding Hoke from helping around the house and ridiculing him at every opportunity, Daisy eventually relents and allows herself to be taken to the grocery store. As Daisy’s attitude toward Hoke softens, their relationship blossoms and she is able to see the experiences Hoke, and other black men, had to endure during the 1950’s and 60’s in the Southern USA. The humorous repartee between the leads, Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, as well as the latter’s captivating performance of unique dialect, mannerisms and facial ticks, drive Miss Daisy forward. Driving Miss Daisy is a charming, heartwarming tale of friendship in the most unexpected of places, and times.
Cinema Paradiso.
Renowned film director Salvatore Di Vita hasn’t seen his mother or visited his home town of Giancaldo for thirty years. When he returns to his Rome apartment late one night, his girlfriend informs him that a man named Alfredo has died and that his funeral is to take place in Giancaldo in the coming days. The news of this man’s death causes Salvatore to recollect his childhood and his relationship with Alfredo. In the years following the Second World War, the cinema is the central social hub of the small Sicilian town; the old, young, rich and poor pack into the seats and share an experience as a single mind. Salvatore, or Toto as he was known as a youngster, fascinated by the cinema experience, spends his time, and his family’s money, at the movies. His mother disapproves of his obsession, though, with Toto’s father missing following the war, Alfredo, the cinema’s projectionist, befriends Toto and acts as a father figure to the boy. Initially Alfredo refuses to teach the lad how to operate the projector after Toto’s family home nearly burns down due to nitrate film kept under his bed; he acquiesces however when Toto helps him pass a grade school diploma exam. Discovering love and friendship in his small town, the truth about why Toto hasn’t returned for so long eventually becomes clear. One of the classics of modern film, Cinema Paradiso is an emotional coming-of-age story built on the power of nostalgia, the magical experience of the cinema and the role the projectionist used to have in this romanticised era of the big screen. Impossible not to like, Giuseppe Tornatore’s film has a lot of heart, a lot of laughs and a lot of tears. Cinema perfetto.
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