Father Geek here, surrounded by the barbwire entanglements that mark the outer boundaries of our heavily wooded and bamboo studded Geek Headquarters Compound in North Central Austin, Texas. I've just received another weekly communicae from our Bushmaster hunting downunder editor, Latauro... "Downunder what?" You may ask... well, they've got these sacred giant termite mounds in Australia, and... well, once you get use to them... well, they're really, really big... and low cost, and protected by law, and, well we got a great deal on a whole complex of them, and Latauro needed office space, sooooooo...

Latauro reporting... Looks like I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue...

AICN-DOWNUNDER

Can anyone remember a time when politics and films have been so intertwined?

Yes, there was the great Leni Riefenstahl doing her propaganda shtick for Hitler, and of course Frank Capra & John Ford, annnnnnd even Dr. Suess & Ray Harryhausen (HAPPY BIRTHDAY... RAY!!!) doing likewise for the USA during WWII, not to mention the notoriously infamous McCarthy film industry blacklisting in the late 40's and early 1950s... but those were a long, long time ago, in a land far away, and despite the occasional crossover, or backsliding, there hasn’t been much meeting between politics and cinema in the interim. (As an aside, for those of you who don’t know, Riefenstahl directed her first film since 1954. Called Impressionen unter Wasser – or Underwater Impressions – it is an underwater documentary that was released in 2002 to coincide with her 100th birthday. Fun fact central!)

You can’t trawl through international film news these days without coming across a political connection. The controversy surrounding KEN PARK’s banning brought in lawmakers promising to create exemptions for film festivals. Recently in Australia there has been comparable arguments over Adrian Lynne’s LOLITA and the French film BAISE MOI, the latter of which was released and *then* banned.

Now we have the battles being fought in tax cuts. It’s far cheaper to shoot Hollywood films overseas, and the most popular choices have been Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Producer Barry Osborne pointed out that by shooting in New Zealand, LORD OF THE RINGS practically tripled its budget.

Representatives from AusFILM and special effects company Animal Logic traveled to Canberra on June 25th to screen MATRIX RELOADED for politicians. The presentation is part of a call for the Australian Government to extend its 12.5% refundable tax offset for the big budget productions.

Meanwhile, senior New Zealand Cabinet ministers are wary at implementing a similar tax incentives scheme. Why? Who knows. Though NZ isn’t doing badly when it comes to the Hollywood holidayers (LAST SAMURAI being the most recent to boost the economy), a tax break would definitely attract more productions. Are they being held back by the idea that Hollywood has lots of money and shouldn’t be given breaks? A valid argument to be sure, but while Australia is offering the big bucks back, the competition is going to be tipped to one side.

NEWS

* Baz Lurhmann and Dino De Laurentis have been location scouting in Broken Hill (“Look, there’s some dirt... look! Some more dirt!”) for their ALEXANDER THE GREAT pic. Strangely undeterred by Oliver Stone’s version, Lurhmann and De Laurentis are trying to convince John Howard to let them use masses of troops in the Australian Armed Forces for their epic battle scenes. (All Howard has to do now is ask Bush if it’s okay, and they’re set.)

* Ever been embarrassed by a film from your past getting re-released? Sandra Bullock, I’m looking in your direction... Evan English, the producer of GHOSTS... OF THE CIVIL DEAD would rather you didn’t know he was the producer of GHOSTS... OF THE CIVIL DEAD (and probably isn’t happy I keep repeating the fact). Australian DVD manufacturers Street Smart Films and Umbrella Entertainment are releasing the film onto the versatile disc format, and English (producer of GHOSTS... OF THE CIVIL DEAD) isn’t happy. He describes it as an “unapproved, fabricated and tawdrily exploitative” product, and is preparing legal action to prevent the 1998 film from being seen. English also directed the Nick Cave and the Badseeds video clip ‘In the Ghetto’, but is best known for producing GHOSTS... OF THE CIVIL DEAD.

* Sick of waiting for the BBC to get off their arse and greenlight a DOCTOR WHO series with Paul McGann (I know I’m fucking sick of waiting)? Andrew Merkelbach (of, coincidentally, Merkelbach Films) is about to make a feature film called (wait for it) DOCTOR WHO: DRAMAS OF THE ALTERNATE. We wish Merkelbach the best in his endeavour, and assure him that despite not granting him the rights, the BBC is very unlikely to pursue legal action. *Cough*!!!

* After a massively positive response at the Tribeca Film Festival, Robert Sutherland’s film THE INSIDE STORY is finally getting a cinema release. The season will kick off on July 31st at the Rivoli Cinemas in Melbourne, with others to follow. AICN-D will run a feature on this local film in the coming weeks.

* Melbourne television producer Paul W. Fraser passed away in the US after being struck by a car. Fraser produced local variety series HEY HEY IT’S SATURDAY and THE DONE LANE SHOW, and had most recently produced international versions of THE WEAKEST LINK and WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE. Sincerest condolences to his family and friends.

AWARDS AND FESTIVALS

50TH SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL

One of the more controversial film festivals closed on June 20th. THE SPANISH APARTMENT (directed by Cedric Klapisch) took away the award for Best European Film as well as the audience award for Best Feature Film.

52ND MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The festival began on June 25th, and is playing at various locations around the city. The big announcement is that anticipated local feature JAPANESE STORY and fame-attracting animated short HARVEY KRUMPET will make their Australian premiers at the festival.

4TH MELBOURNE UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL

This dangerous and wild festival opens on July 3rd at the George Cinemas. For more information, go to www.muff.com.au.

AUSTRALIAN FILM COMMISSION: FILM DEVELOPMENT

This Monday evening at 7:30pm, the AFC will hold a seminar at the Australian Centre for Moving Image (at Melbourne’s Federation Square), to discuss guidelines for funding programs. Topics include documentaries, fellowship programs for experienced filmmakers, indigenous films, business skills workshop for producers, and more. The guidelines will be officially launched at the AFC office in Southbank this coming Thursday at 10am.

BOX OFFICE

WHALE RIDER dipped down to 6th position after an astonishingly impressive run. Despite WHITE OLEANDER’s star power in Ms Z and Ms P, it barely scratched the office at 8th. The top five are now solely US product, with Carrey, Walker and Reeves taking the top three spots.

Here's the winning flicks...

• 1. BRUCE ALMIGHTY
• 2. 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS
• 3. MATRIX RELOADED
• 4. BULLETPROOF MONK
• 5. THE CORE

RELEASED THIS WEEK

Eddie Murphy takes his career to new heights, Afghan refugees work illegally in Iran, brother Ang and Stan cook up green, Samantha Lang convinces herself she’s French, Disney waits almost a month before remaking WHAT A GIRL WANTS, France finally make a film about a repressed Frenchman living in occupied France during WWII, while Rachel Griffiths plays against type as ‘quirky’.

Soooo here's the new ones...

• DADDY DAY CARE
• BARAN
• HULK
• L’IDOLE
• THE LIZZIE MCGUIRE MOVIE
• MONSIEUR BATIGNOLE
• VERY ANNIE MARY

REVIEW

"YOU WON’T LIKE ME WHEN I’M MAINSTREAM..."

HULK

When I left the cinema, the first thing I was going to say to the four dudes with me was ‘This is definitely a love it, or hate it film’, a comment which I’d expected to follow up with ‘No, seriously, there are people who don’t like this film’. I never got the chance to say any of that, however; turned out I was with the people who didn’t like this film.

And these are not people who go to films solely for the action content, so it’s not like I can dismiss their opinions with an ‘Oh, they just don’t like the dramatic elements’. That’s both the best and worst thing about films: you can’t argue someone into liking or disliking something.

Me? I’m in the love it camp. And I’m the worst kind of geek. I’m a faker. Totally. Sure, I know my film trivia back to front and then back again (although every time Harry writes about obscure silent films I’ve never heard of, I curse myself for not having yet seen a fraction of what he and others have), but I’m a total faker with comic lore. I’m a Latty-come-lately. Up until a few years ago, I knew Batman and Superman from the films and that was about it.

It was when the X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN hype started that I headed down to the comic book store to see what the fuss was about. And I liked what I saw. I’ve only read a couple, but it all seems good. Still, everything I knew was garnered from online discussions and articles on sites such as AICN. That way I was prepared to talk with some modicum of intelligence about the Universe that Matt Murdoch and Peter Parker inhabit.

So what did I know about HULK when I went in? What information had I read up on in order to sound like an expert when the end credits ran? Almost nothing. I knew angry meant green, and that was it. I didn’t even know if he had any enemies.

This is a film whose visual language has been re-invented by comic book artists. The ‘live-action comic book panels’ is infinitely more effective (and far less hokey) than it’s been in the past. Ang Lee breaks many different cinematic rules (crossing the line, breaking continuity, etc), and yet it’s all seamless.

It’s bizarre watching Eric Bana in this role. In Australia, we know him as a stand-up comic (a fact that he’s gone to great lengths to cover up, it seems). I only recently saw him in CHOPPER, and I’m sorry I missed it at the cinema because it is easily one of the best Australian films ever made. Between these two films, it’s clear that Bana has the dramatic chops to carry a film... even if it’s not him that carries the film.

It ain’t the Hulk, either. There’s a much-mentioned forty-five minute period before we see the beast, and I don’t believe for a second that the spectacle is what this film is about. It’s the drama between father and son, father and daughter, between former lovers. The opening carries itself with effortless momentum, I almost felt like I was watching something written by Alan Ball.

I adored this film, but not for the reasons I thought I would. This is easily one of the best inter-personal dramas since AMERICAN BEAUTY – the CGI is simply a bonus.

NEXT WEEK...

- Danny Boyle to direct Sandra Bullock in a sequel to 28 DAYS

- Carl Franklin to direct THE THING sequel as a weepy family drama

- Jonathon Demme to direct a more ‘honest’ sequel to CHARLIE’S ANGELS

Peace out,

Latauro

downunder@aintitcoolmail.com