Sideways — a kind of coming-of-age road movie, but for the 40-somethings. Best viewed with a bottle of wine, I found myself thankful I hadn’t turned into that much of a wine wanker. Some great acting, plenty of laughs, and a touch of drama too. Very enjoyable.

Review: The End of Suburbia. I saw this at a PTUA screening to about 60 people a week or two ago. A fascinating film about the consequences of the forthcoming shortages of oil and natural gas.

The film is North American-centric (as you can tell from the subtitle “Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream”), and so the problems of natural gas running out and its extensive use in electricity generation in there, don’t apply to us, so we’re not in as deep doo-doo in that department. (Though of course our electricity generation is filthy.) But we’re pretty much in the same creek in regards to the peaking and subsequent decline of oil production.

Suburban low densities and form aren’t quite as bad in Australia as in the US, but there are definite similarities. I liked the comment that new suburbs are named after the natural features that they destroy.

The film paints what I think of as an alarmist view of things. I suppose it’s trying to get people’s attention, but I find it hard to believe that the car/oil industry, with its billions of dollars of resources, will just roll over and let itself self-destruct. Will it fight back, and find some other way of making its profits? Not sure.

The conclusion of the film seems to see urban design as the main solution to lessening the impact of these coming shortages, almost assuming that many people could live and work almost entirely within their own suburban neighbourhood. Thus it skirts over issues such as public transport, which I think is a shortcoming — even with advanced telecommunications, people will still want to travel within their cities for work and play, and they won’t be able to do it all by walking or cycling.

A very interesting film though, which raises some important questions about the future of western cities.

Bad Santa. I seem to recall this got reasonable reviews last year. Maybe it was the Christmas spirit that skewed critics’ judgements. I like poking fun at tradition as much as anybody, but I found it dull (and Marita fell asleep — nuff said?). The Joke got a few laughs early on, but wore thin after about the first half hour. Once the dwarf turned Capital B Bad, there were no characters you could have much sympathy for, and the plot went virtually nowhere. So much for everything the Coen brothers touch turning to gold. This is the sort of thing I wouldn’t watch again if it were the only thing on the video on a long haul flight.

I ♥ Huckabees: Quite funny, strange plot. The concept of the existential detectives reminded me Dirk Gently, but I haven’t read it in about a decade, and don’t really recall how similar it is. Very enjoyable.

This picture taken inside Flinders Street Station yesterday reveals what we train users should have guessed all along…

That Connex is aligned with the Dark Side.

I was watching something on TV early on Saturday night when an advert for Grease — The Musical came on. And I pondered to myself that Grease was a fine idea for a movie, but really, was there the need to ram it into the ground by endless adaptions into other formats, such as musicals? Aren’t there enough good ideas out there that the same ones don’t have to be repeated ad nauseaum? I have no intention of seeing Grease — The Musical. I’d rather spend my time and money exploring new and different ideas than the same ones over and over.

And, having come to this conclusion, then I went to see the Hitch Hiker’s Movie. Okay, so much for that idea.

Comparing the movie to earlier renditions is almost inevitable. While I haven’t heard the original radio series, I’ve certainly read the books and watched the TV series numerous times. I also had the LP records for quite some time, which I suspect combined the feel of the radio original with the pace of the TV show. I also played the computer game. My exposure to Hitch Hiker’s, and its influence over the years has been immense. (Towel Day, 2001 — coming up soon on 25th May 2005)

I tried not to be automatically critical of the new movie where it varied from the other versions. Face it, if it introduced nothing new, it would have been deadly dull. But I couldn’t help but spot where bits of dialogue skipped sentences, where they glossed-over some point, or varied it. And I found myself wondering if where they glossed-over something, would a virgin audience still understand it?

It’s important to remember that this was not done entirely without Douglas Adams’ influence, though his input dipped markedly when he died. There were a number of bows to the TV version — the original theme music, a cameo by the original Marvin, and Simon Jones (Arthur in the radio, record and TV versions) as the Magrathean answering machine. There’s even a Dish reference thrown in for good measure, and the League of Gentlemen contributing Vogon voices and Mr Prosser.

Overall, I must say, I enjoyed it. The special effects did everything the TV series ones tried and failed to do. And I think the overall feel of the previous versions was maintained in the movie.

PS. Don’t walk out when the credits start.

PPS. Our chaffeur found a parking spot right slap bang outside the door of the Sun Theatre, which made us all feel like VIPs as we walked out after the movie. The only thing missing was the red carpet.

I can see trouble brewing. They’re not saying so in the adverts yet, but Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith has gained an M rating from the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

Unlike MA, this is not a legal restriction on kids under 15 seeing it, just a recommendation. But it may cause ripples in my house, where we have a well-established rule that G and PG-rated are okay, but anything higher is out. The kids understand and respect that, that they’ll have to wait until they’re older to see those programmes and films.

But this is Star Wars, dammit, the final chapter. I know Lucas said a while back that it was darker, but kids everywhere will be wanting to see it. Isaac in fact got invited to a screening with a bunch of friends, two days after the premiere. He’ll be 10 by then. Obviously I haven’t seen it yet, but knowing where the bar is for M-rated violence, I’m not sure I want him to see it. Some thought and discussion needs to go into this.

(By comparison, in the USA it’s got a PG-13 rating. The UK rating is 12A.)

What do other parents think about it?

The Incredibles. Not very deep, but it’s a kids’ movie I suppose. Enjoyable though.

Amazing luck on Saturday, the crap Kensington video shop actually had a non-mainstream title that I wanted to see. (Wow, even their web site is crap, blasting you with a stupid corporate jingle, and no mute button.)

Napolean Dynamite. I was already enjoying when it was pointed out the similarities between the antics of the characters and the antics of my circle of friends around the age of 14-16. Yup, it’s true. Thus I ended up laughing my head off periodically through the rest of it. Very funny stuff for anybody feeling nostalgic of their teenage years.