Film Review - Electric Dreams (1984)

Electric Dreams stars Lenny von Dohlen as Miles, an architect returning to San Francisco from Los Angeles as he wants to design a style of brick that can withstand Earthquakes, but one night after work he is persuaded to buy a computer to help keep him organised though the next day he meets his new neighbour Madeleine (Virginia Madsen) and it all goes from there.

I have to say that I really liked Electric Dreams, the film put a big smile on my face and had me toe tapping along to its soundtrack composed by Giorgio Moroder who also worked on Top Gun, Scarface and other films, no surprise the highlight of the soundtrack was the "Together in Electric Dreams" song by Phil Oakley.

Apart from that, the film is also a lovely romance between Von Dohlen and Madsen, speaking of which Madsen is absolutely delightful in this film, it's easy to see why Miles would fall for her as I would find it hard to think of anyone else that didn't either, happily she has gone on to do other things, even Highlander 2.

All in all, I really loved this movie and it comes highly recommended, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Silverado (1985)

Silverado is a western film which stars Kevin Kline as Paden, a drifter in the old west who comes across three other rough riders on the range, Mal (Danny Glover), Emmett (Scott Glenn) and his younger brother Jake (Kevin Costner), as they travel the old west they come across a town called Silverado where their real adventure is about to begin.

Silverado is a beautiful looking western film, well directed by Lawrence Kasdan who is best known for writing The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark and is clearly trying to do a similar adventure in the style of those films.

Sadly though he falls way short of those great heights due to a very scattershot storyline in terms of those four main leads going off onto their own separate storylines that somehow manage to come together in the end but you don't get any sense of satisfaction in seeing that happen nor do we get to see the leads developed as a posse for just as Kasdan rallies them together. They go their separate ways in the very next scene.

The other big problem with this film is the endless supply of characters, there's two sheriffs (Brian Dennehy and John Cleese), a lot of deputies, the barmaid (Linda Hunt), the gambler (Jeff Goldblum), the fair lady of the land (Rosanna Arquette) and so on and so on.

Well, quite frankly some of these characters needed to go, namely Dennehy's and Goldblums' characters, Goldblum is a great actor but here he is unnecessary and just sucks up screen time for no real reason at all and Dennehy's character wasn't all that flash, again a great actor filling in the time card, what should've happened is the two sheriff's being swapped, Dennehy's at the beginning, Cleese's as the main one as his was set up to be the bad guy only for him to exit the film a few scenes later, what a sad waste of a great talent.

All in all, despite some small positives, this film misses the mark as it feels too episodic in its construction, to cluttered in its characterization and too dull for its own good and boy does it feel sad to say that as I am a huge Kasdan fan for he really was a key reason why Empire and Raiders are considered the best of their respective film series but this time, it all fell short, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Re Animator (1985)

Re-Animator is a horror film that stars Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Herbert West, who interns as a third year medical student and it's here that he meets Daniel Cain played by Bruce Abbott, a fellow medical student who along with his fiancée Megan played by Barbara Crampton rent out a spare room to West, but little do they know of his dark experiments.

As someone who isn't much of a horror fan, I was somewhat impressed by this film, mainly due to its intriguing story of re animating the dead using scientific methods and the great performance by Combs as West, he is delightfully manic and at times compulsive about his work and not once do you get bored watching him on screen in this role, Abbott and Crampton also had some nice chemistry as the young couple and David Gale was good also despite his near scary resemblance to Australian politician Bob Brown, though Combs also bears some resemblance to a young version of Australian prime minister John Howard.

However, what I didn't care for so much was the final act as it went a little too much in the "monsters on the attack" direction which in all honesty was very off putting mainly because of what I said above, not being much of a horror fan, I kept wishing the blood had been toned down a bit as the story was strong enough to not need it that much, but then that's just me.

All in all though, I did think the film was well done enough in its first two thirds to get it over the line, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Lighthorsemen (1987)

The Lighthorsemen tells the tale of the Australian Light horse division during the first world war, well 1917 to be exact, the story here is that a young man named Dave Mitchell (Peter Phelps) who is eager to join the light horse and save his country, meanwhile a new army sergeant plans to take one of the enemy towns to use as a supply base.

The Lighthorsemen is a rousing Australian adventure directed by Simon Wincer, best known as one of the key people behind the Man from Snowy River and who also directed the recently released film The Cup about the 2002 Melbourne Cup horse race, he clearly seems in his element here doing a proper action adventure film with hundreds of horses at his disposal and their put to good work here as some of the action scenes in this movie are nothing short of spectacular as the sight of all those horses charging down the planes is a fantastic sight, especially in the final charge scene which is just breathtaking in its exhilaration, THAT is how you do a long battle sequence, not the relentless 60 + minutes of loud banging and crashing and smashing and shouting that we got in Transformers 3, but then you can't expect something bordering on coherent with Michael Bay now can you?

But my praise doesn't stop there, it extends to two other people, Mario Millo who composed the music and Dean Semler who was the films cinematographer, Semler shoots this film beautifully with rich colours, long wide shots that you couldn't bare to see butchered in pan and scan 4:3, long shots of the Australian desert that seem to go on forever and ever and finally the lush paradise at the hospital that seems a world away from the barren wastelands of war.

Millo on the other hands composes a rousing musical score that perfectly captures the tone of the film, some parts rousing, some parts with a lightness of touch and others capturing the spirit of Australian mateship, at times I was reminded of both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Gallipoli while watching this movie, no doubt the intention of its makers in which case if it was well they damn well succeeded.

All in all, despite a small role from Sigrid Thornton that bordered on dispensable despite doing the best she can to make it work, the Lighthorsemen is a rousing Aussie adventure that's well worth your time, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Street Hero (1984)

Street Hero stars Vince Colosimo as Vinnie Romano, a young man who lives in commission housing and is sent back to school in the hope that his life might start to find some meaning again as his father is dead, one day he is persuaded to join the school band and it's here that Vinnie may start to change things for the better.

I liked this movie, it was well directed by Michael Pattinson and the film has some good performances from almost everyone on board, the highlights for me being Colosimo, the late Bill Hunter, Tibor (yes that is his first name and I did get a good laugh when I saw it) Gyapjas and pretty much the rest of the cast, what can I say everyone here delivered the goods though at times the plot did feel a little cliché in terms of "that I'll happen" and the film did also feel a little long at times despite being only about 98 minutes.

Though there is one that I want to talk about and that is Sigrid Thornton who plays Gloria and boy does she look young in this movie, the reason I say this is that when I talked about Summer Lovers, I mentioned that it was such a sad shame that Valerie Quennessen was killed before she had the chance to do that one iconic role that would ensure people remembered her as Thornton got to later with her TV Series Sea Change and that she was so enchanting that she could've been something great regardless, happily that didn't happen with Thornton and she had the chance to blossom into a great actress and one that is always worth watching.

One other highlight I want to mention also is the soundtrack or more specifically the songs that were in the film, all of them had my toe tapping but the highlight without a doubt was "Wilder World" by Dragon, this song was also used to promote the film and I did perk up a bit when it came on during the film.

But what I think is most appealing about the film is this, and that it reminded me of a time when Australia had a proper film industry and that not only we made the more art house style films but we could also make a good popcorn guzzler like this, Mad Max, Razorback, Alvin Purple and others, a shame that its gone by the wayside and with it, our industry, hopefully the success of films like Tomorrow when the War Began and Red Dog will help to re energise our industry and get it going again like it did in the 70s, 80s and early to mid 90s.

All in all, Street Hero works best as a product of its time, don't get me wrong, the film is enjoyable but all it does is remind you of the past, of a time when things weren't what they are now and I suppose if it does that and give you a good time while your watching it well you have to say that the movie did its job and did it well and that is something that you can't complain about, 3 out of 5.