flickjunkie-3

Boy, it has been some time since Sandra Bullock has made a good movie. Speed 2: Cruise Control and Forces With Nature were both serious flops with critics around the globe, and she hasn't been very well respected for a long time. But, this will be the film that puts her on track. 28 Days is a well-made and thought-provoking film that is much better than it looks, and it deserves a wide audience.

Gwen Cummings (Sandra Bullock) is a New York writer who just can't say no to drink or drugs. After crashing her sister's wedding car and ruining her wedding cake, Gwen is ordered into a rehabilitation centre, where she spends the next 28 days. At first she doesn't have much respect for the centre and tries to escape, but as her toxic levels come down, she gradually realises that maybe she can turn her life around.

The plot may sound lousy, but it isn't. It deals with human emotions properly and in a moving way, and 28 Days is able to put a smile on your lips and make tears come out of your eyes. Bullock is a stunner in this film, she is perfectly cast as Gwen, while Steve Buscemi is as brilliant as he always is, no doubt about that. Azura Skye, who co-stars as a friend of Gwen's, lights up the screen in an ignored performance which deserves praise. Susannah Grant, scriptwriter, seems to have a thing for making good actresses come back to their great standards. In the same year of release as 28 Days, Grant wrote Erin Brockovich, a brilliant legal drama that made Julia Robert's get the career-best nod. Now she can fix Sandra Bullock, and this could very well be Bullock's best film.

It has it's problems, some major ones, but 28 Days remains a worthy watch for all ages.

I rate 28 Days 7 out of 10.

I, naturally, was intrigued to see Almost Famous after seeing the director's (Cameron Crowe) first feature, the awesome Jerry Maguire. I was pretty overwhelmed at how good Almost Famous was, and it would easily earn a place in my top 100 films of all time. It was even better than Jerry Maguire!

William Miller (promising newcomer Patrick Fugit) is a 15-year-old aspiring music writer in the 1970s. Given the dream assignment of going on the road with rock'n'roll band Stillwater for a Rolling Stone feature, he embarks on the trip with enthusiasm, much to the chagrin of his mother, Elaine (Frances McDormand). Once on the road, he finds his life changing forever.

The cast is of first-rate, it includes the wonderful Billy Crudup as least singer Russell Hammond, the delightful Frances McDormand as William's over-protective mother, Elaine, New Zealander Anna Paquin in a sexy role that tells us she is trying to do many different things, and she juggles this character well, while Fairuza Balk is repeatedly watchable as a groupie rocker. But, the real talent here is Kate Hudson. She is undoubtely Oscar material and her performance is quite simply a brilliant show-down of romance, drama and love. I will never forget her performance, and I will never forget this film.

I have seen this film twice now, and both times, it was almost perfect. A must-see!

I rate Almost Famous 9 out of 10.

Shortland Street was first judged as a half-a***d, no-brainer of a show. However, over the years, it has become almost impossible to miss. Everyone in NZ will have their TV's switched on to watch New Zealand's most daring, successful and brave show.

The thing that makes Shortland Street such a winner is it's creativity with it's characters. Take Beanie for instance, she's a tattoo-covering-body-piercing-hair-shaving tomboy who also manages to have a largely interesting emotional side and men are attracted to her. Then there is Caroline, the nurse who we've all come to know and love as a straight and guy-attracted girl, turns out to be a lesbian when girl-getter Catalin comes along in 1999. One of the biggest stand-out characters so far has been Oscar Henry, a frightening, raping, but good man who you never know if you love or hate. The writers are always thinking up imaginative ways to get new characters and let the old ones leave, and most of the scripts written for this show are quite fascinating and intriguing. Although it has it's bad side, Shortland Street is able to deal with death, romance and several other mature elements and do it in a completely professional and believable way, making it one of the most valuable doctor-hospital-nurse TV shows in history.

All said, Shortland Street is a near-perfect TV show that sometime's goes off-track, but always manages to grab your attention when you least expect it.

I rate Shortland Street 9 out of 10.