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mrjohnnyandrews
Reviews
The Other Fellow (2022)
A life-affirming documentary that should appeal to all audiences - whether you're a fan of the Bond films or not.
Extremely happy to not only have seen the world premiere of this fantastic documentary last night at the Civic in Auckland, but I'm also the first to post a review of it here on IMDb.
THE OTHER FELLOW charts men around the globe who all carry the name James Bond. It is at times both hilarious and tragic, with a number of emotional hooks that underline the film.
Superbly made - particularly the editing (and sound editing) - it's a film that explores the curse, or perhaps the benefit, of having such a name 60 years after Ian Fleming made it famous. The archival footage of Fleming talking about how he arrived at the name - an interview very familiar to James Bond fans - is painted in a different light here, as we see the 'theft' of the name from the viewpoint of the OG James Bond, the ornithologist and author whose book on birds of the West Indies Fleming lifted it from.
There's a lovely thriller element in the last third of the film which takes a few surprising turns, and adds yet another layer on the benefit / curse of the name.
I wonder how George Lazenby is going to react to the film given that he's so far been the #1 Australian association with Bond. The director of THE OTHER FELLOW, Matthew Bauer, is Australian, and the name of the film is lifted from perhaps Lazenby's most famous line of dialogue.
A life-affirming documentary that should appeal to all audiences - whether you're a fan of the Bond films or not.
Love Birds (2011)
A romantic comedy without a bitter aftertaste...
I'm sick of the Hollywood version of the romantic comedy. It seems like all this time, Hollywood has been trying to get close to repeating the critical and commercial success of When Harry Met Sally – itself an attempt to pull off a more accessible version of Woody Allen's late-70s bittersweet romantic comedies. However, Hollywood tends to get it wrong each time, with either bad casting, a bad script, or a very dubious moral centre (or all three - step forward Made Of Honour).
Away from the Hollywood version, Love Birds manages to entertain without leaving a bad aftertaste (the sort of guilt you usually feel after watching a romantic comedy when you realise you've just wasted 90 minutes of your life). Kiwi comedian Rhys Darby plays Doug, down-on-his-luck after being unceremoniously dumped by his long-term girlfriend. He finds solace in caring for an injured duck – also taken away from its partner – and this leads him to the supporting cast of Sally Hawkins and Bryan Brown.
Both actors are as awesome as ever, and Darby – by trade a stand-up comedian and comedic actor – more than stands up against them, carrying the film on his shoulders. The film is set in Auckland, New Zealand and it serves as a good showcase of the city's key features. In fact, the Auckland tourism board should really pay this film some attention (if it hasn't done already).
All in all, not the greatest film in the world, but a pretty entertaining one and a nice example of Kiwi filmmaking.
The Hopes & Dreams of Gazza Snell (2010)
Try Harder, New Zealand
I'm sorry, but after watching the world premiere of this film, a film that has been seven years in the making, I was left with only one thing to say: is this the best you can do, New Zealand? That might seem an ignorant and crass comment about a low-budget New Zealand film, but I just feel that to really make it on the world stage this country needs to step up its game and make eye-catching pieces of cinema, not mediocre works that would sit more comfortably as TV fodder.
Sure, there's nothing terribly wrong with the film, but there's nothing outstanding about it either. Maybe my mood was soured by watching this back to back with Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West – which is a long time to sit in a cinema with its almost 3 hour running time. This film was set and shot in the East Auckland suburb of Howick (so Once Upon A Time In The East?), and is a melodramatic tale of a man obsessed with the racing achievements of his two sons.
And here's where the story falls down. The script, by director Brendan Donovan and David Brechin-Smith, concerns itself far too much with the melodrama of the family unit and – probably due to the nature of the event that causes the drama of the piece – there's very little left to laugh at. The writers have attempted to portray the father figure of the title as a lovable rogue, but his machinations leave little to empathise with, and it's left to the minor characters to provide any level of enjoyment.
I'm sure Donovan can go on to do bigger and better things. He just needs to start off with a stronger script next time. Still, if his career as a film director does start to wane, he could always fall back on to stand-up comedy. After a very funny introduction to the film, Donovan was joined by the rest of the principle cast after the screening for a Q&A session. Around 3 or 4 questions in, an elderly lady in the audience stepped up and creaked something along the lines of "I thought the racing scenes were far too loud, and probably beyond the legally allowed limits..." Butting in, Donovan stepped up to the mike and said "Excuse me, could you please speak up, I think I've gone deaf."