Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is a 14 year old girl living happily with her family in 1973, who we learn will soon be brutally murdered. Susie could not be a happier girl, living with her family, her accountant father Jack (Mark Wahlberg), her mother Abigail (Rachel Weisz), her younger sister Lindsey (Rose Mclver) and the youngest child Buckley (Christian Thomas Ashdale). Susie is smitten with an Indian boy from England Ray Singh (Reece Ritchie), and with some pushing from her Grandmother Lynn (Susuan Sarandon) and his like for her agrees to go meet him at the mall. Susie also takes a lot of photos with the 110 camera her parents gave her, going through 24 rolls in a short time, much to the chagrin of her parents who agree to develop only one a month, but she may have a photo of her killer in it.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Susie has as strange neighbor though, who makes doll houses that sell at the mall. This is George Harvey (Stanley Tucci looking completely different than I have ever seen him!). He goes out in a local corn field that winter, and digs a room in the ground, and manages to lure Susie into it one day, where he kills her. We see her running away, and one strange girl in her class Ruth Conners (Carolyn Dando) who sees things, sees Susie’s ghost running away, and finds the poem that was given to her by Ray, which leads her into a relationship with Ray.

Susie wakes up in the place in between Heaven and Earth, filled with things from both, where see meets a young chinese girl who calls herself Holly Go Lightly (Nikki Soohoo) and who tries to get Susie to go to Heaven, but Susie is not ready to give up the real world, or the helping her family find who killed her.

Police detective Len Fenerman (Michael Imperioli) is brought in to investigate, but he finds nothing, and Jack becomes obsessed with finding his daughters killer, even being convinced Susie is still there, when she reaches for him from the other side. Abigail doesn’t cope well, and Jack brings in her mother Lynn to help, and Abigail ends up taking off, going to pick apples.

Jack keeps working, bothering Fenerman, trying to find the killer, while Susie plays with Holly. Susie wants revenge and when Jack, as well as Lindsey both begin to suspect George, things start to go bad.

Susie pushes her dad, who goes out in the fully grown corn field with a bat, but runs into high schoolers making out, and he is beaten almost to death. Lindsey ends up sneaking into George’s house, and is almost caught by him, but finds his notebook with the plans for the kill room, and even a lock of Susie’s hair. She is going to show it to her dad, but her mom returns, and by the time the cops go for George, he is gone, and has gotten rid of the body in a safe into a local sync hole.

Susie is almost ready to go to Heaven, and she meets all the other girls murdered by George, and decides to go back for one more thing. Susie goes back and takes over the body of Ruth, so she can talk to and kiss Ray before going to Heaven for good.

The film ends with George trying to get another girl, but an icicle falls and hits him, making him slip and fall down a cliff, smashing his head.

••••

I really enjoyed the film, and the feel of Heavenly Creatures (though not the performance of Kate Winslett in that, which was so amazing). This is not the best film of the year, but certainly enjoyable, and worth checking out!

Twenty something years in the past a large circular alien ship came to earth, and stopped over Johannesburg, South Africa, with a piece, thought to be the command module falling off, and no where to be found. After months of waiting they flew up to the floating ship and cut into it’s hull, finding a ship full of starved insect like aliens. The aliens were quickly houses in a government camp inside Johannesburg, called District 9, which quickly became a slum, ruled by violence, and Nigerian gangsters who trade for Alien weaponry (even though only aliens can use it) and eat aliens hoping to become like them, so they can use the weapons. A private paramilitary organization named the MNU or Multinational United is put in charge of the slum, and the decision to move the camp 200KM outsie Johannesburg to a new “camp” so the citizens can have their city back free of Aliens. To make it appear legal, MNU is sending in teams to get signatures saying that the Aliens, derogatorily called Prawns have legally agreed to it, though they are being forced to do it at gunpoint. Wikus can de Merwe (Sharlto Copley) a bit of a moron working for MNU is assigned to lead the operation to evict the aliens by his boss, his father in law, and he happily takes the position, going in with the paramilitary to force signatures from the Aliens so they can be forcibly moved to the internment camp of District 10.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

While the operation continues, 2 adult and 1 child Alien, led by the father of the child Christopher Johnson search and find some alien technology, which Johnson then distills and puts into a canister, but when the MNU show up he runs with his on, leaving the other Alien to have a run in with Wikus. Wikus ends up finding the canister, and accidently spraying the black liquid into his own face. Wikus takes the canister in a bag in his pocket.

Wikus later finds Christopher and his son, and unlike other aliens, Christopher questions the legality of the action, and wants his rights upheld, so Wikus threatens taking away his son (who is legal), and this is the man that has been burning illegal alien egg stashes throughout the day, so it is a serious threat.

Wikus is not feeling so well, and has black gook coming out of his nose, but he runs home to his wife Tania (Vanessa Haywood) who is having a party for him because of his promotion, but he is really sick, and ends up throwing up black stuff over the cake, and has already lost some fingernails, and has his arm bandaged.

Wikus is taken to a hospital, and when his injured hand is unbandaged it is found to be an alien hand, which is fully integrated with his body, and seems to be spreading. His father in law has him taken to the underground parts of the MNU building, where they have been experimenting on the aliens, and many corpses lay around.

They test Wikus on Alien weaponry, and he can use it, unlike any other human, and not just with his alien hand, but also with his human hand. His father in law, right in front of him, declares that he is to be harvested as a biological weapon right now, before he can fully change into an alien.

They go to harvest him, but his alien parts are strong, and allow him to manage to escape, and run for District 9. He tries calling his wife, but she has been told he is a terrorist, and has been having sex with aliens, so she won’t listen to him, though he keeps his phone (pretty damn stupid to not realize he can be tracked, and it happens twice too).

Wikus ends up going to Christopher Johnson’s hut, and Christopher sees the arm and realizes it can only in fact be the fuel, and he wants it back as he has worked for 20 years to get enough to get the mothership repowered. He tells Wikus he can cure him, but he needs the fuel, and Wikus tells him it is in MNU headquarters, and it would be suicided to go get it. Still they decide to go get some weapons.

Wikus goes to the Nigerian gang leader Obesandjo (Eugene Khumbanyiwa) to get weapons. Obesandjo is paralyzed and in a wheelchair, and eats Aliens so he can hope to become like them and use their weapons, and maybe walk again. When they see Wikus’s arm, he wants to eat it, to gain it’s power. Wikus manages to grab an alien gun, which works, and kill a bunch of the guards, though he lets Obesandjo live, even though he has vowed to murder him and eat him, and gets back to Christopher with a whole stash of weapons.

Wikus and Christopher manage to break into MNU and the secret subbasement and get the fuel canister, but a colonel in the MNU Paramilitary who never liked Wikus is after them with his men, and Christopher freezes when he sees that his people are being experimented on. Wikus finally awakens Christopher and they get back to Christopher’s hut and his son. Under the hut, is the mothership command module, and they now have fuel to power it up and fuel it, but not much power. Christopher tells WIkus he has decided to go back home to get help for his people before he can cure Wikus, and it will take 3 years. Wikus flips out, and just as the MNU forces approach he knocks out Christopher and locks himself and the child into the command module, and attempts to fly it out himself (WHAT?!?!??! ARE YOU KIDDING? This is the only guy who can possibly cure him as he turns more and more alien, and he leaves him to die by the sadistic colonel? You have to be kidding me, this is badly written, and could have been done so much better).

Wikus takes off, but the Colonel shoots an engine off with the command module, and he crashes, and he is taken prisoner just as Christopher already was.

The convoy is then attacked by Obesandjo’s gang, who take him, and get ready to eat his arm.

The child in the command module, powers it up, and activates a robotic suit that the nigerians have purchased for cat food (the aliens favorite earth food), and uses it to kill the Nigerians, and allows Wikus into it. Instead of helping Christopher escape though, Wikus starts to run away, but eventually turns back to save Christopher (if only to save his own skin).

The Suit is badly damaged, but he does allow Christopher back to the command module, and activate a tractor beam which lifts the command module back to the ship and powers it up.

The colonel is going to kill Wikus, who has crawled out of the suit, but and Alien gang comes up and rips him to shreds.

Christopher powers up the mother ship, and it’s engines start, and the ship takes off, blowing out all the windows in Johanesburg.

We see the film end in documentary style interviews, and Tania tells how she got a flower much like the stuff she used to get from Wikus on her doorstep, and she seems to think it is from him. We also see Wikus’s co-worker in jail, for exposing the alien experiments, and what had gone on with Wikus.

The film ends with an Alien making the flower out of scrap in a junkyard, and we know it must be Wikus.

•••

Really an enjoyable film with great effects, but with some writing shortcuts. I mean Wikus already killed gang members, so why not kill the gang leader who threatens him except as a plot point to bring him back (why not have his lieutenant come after him or something). And really he is so stupid as to be traced twice by his cell phone? I mean even if he wants to talk to his wife, he should steal another one. And finally knocking out Christopher and leaving him to die is plain stupid, because it would mean he never gets changed back! I mean, come on! What is up with that?

Still the rest of the film is really, really, really good, and I look forward to getting it on blu-ray and seeing more about it. And of course the inevitable sequel, taking place in district 10, and with Christopher returning to Earth to kick some human ass for mistreating the aliens so badly.

This is the story of the Heke family, a family of Maori’s living in the slums of Aukland. The family is pretty disfunctional, with the father being the quick to fight and quick to party Jake (Temuera Morrison who went on to play Jango Fett in the Star Wars prequel films), his wife Beth (Rena Owen) who tries to do good, but also loves to party with the best of them, their estranged eldest son Nig (Julian Arahanga) who hates his father, and is ready to leave, the always getting into trouble second son Mark who calls himself Boogie (Taungaroa Emile) and the 13 year old Grace (Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell) who is always writing stories and telling them to her 2 younger siblings, and is really the glue that holds the family together. Grace’s best friend is a homeless boy who lives in a burnt out car under an underpass, and who she always goes to read to because he can’t read. Nig leaves home to join a Maori street gang, who go for full body tattoos, and Boogie has a court date, and got picked up again by cops, so things aren’t looking good. Jake comes home with a bunch of fish, and wants to have a good time, but finally admits to his wife, that he has been fired, and she freaks out, so he goes to the bar and drinks with his group of buddies, then brings the whole gang back to his house for a party after getting into a major fight. The young kids try and sleep upstairs, as Boogie has a big day, but it is hard with all the noise. And when Beth pissed off Jake, he literally beats the living piss out of her, before forcibly taking her to bed.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….

Beth awakes to find her whole face is black and bruised and puffed up, and knows she can’t go to court like this, so she sends Boogie with Grace to go to court. Boogie still thinks his mom will show, but when she doesn’t Boogie is taken away from his parents to be raised by the state. Of course when Beth finds out she is morose, but there is no getting to Jake, and telling him just makes him angry again.

Boogie does start to improve though, as he learns about Maori culture.

Grace had promised to write to Boogie, but then Beth decides they should go see him, and when she talks to Jake he gives her his gambling money and they are able to rent a car to go and see their son. They go and try to get Nig, but he is not leaving his new family, so they the rest drive off, but Jake stops at the bar for one drink, and never comes out. Finally Beth goes in to get him, but he won’t come out, so she goes with the family to get a cab and return home.

At another of Jake’s rowdy parties with his friends, Grace is raped by Jake’s best friend  ’Uncle’ Bully (Cliff Curtis). And she ends up running away, and Beth goes out looking for her. Grace goes to see her best friend, and when her best friend tries to kiss her she freaks out and goes back home, then Bully tries to get her to kiss him again, she freaks, and Jake almost starts beating her, but finally lets up, and she goes out back. Beth returns home, and Jake tells her that Grace has retuned home and is out back, but when Beth goes out she finds that Grace has hung herself.

Beth calls her family, and says she wants to bring Grace home, since Beth had been a Maori princess who had gone with the born of slaves Jake because she loved him, and turned her back on her people, but now she has to return. Nig and Boogie go, and show themselves to be good kids, even while Jake sits in the bar and drinks with his friends.

Beth puts Garce’s notebook back together, since Jake had ripped it up, and finds that Bully had done the rape, so she goes to confront Jake, who at first doesn’t believe it, but when he reads it, he starts beating Bully and stabs him until the cops come.

Beth gets her family, including Grace’s best friend who she takes in, and tells them they will return to the Maori village, leaving Jake sobbing and saying she will be back.

••••

Wow, what a moving film. So sad, but such a good film. So sad that such a noble people can be reduced so low, but so great that some of them can find themselves. Really an amazing film, though certainly not the New Zealand I saw when I was in Wellington!

Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister) is returning home to the family sheep farm, though he is deathly afraid of sheep, but his psychologist thinks it will do him good. And he is planning on selling his share in the farm to his brother Angus (Peter Feeney), but Angus may not be up to anything good. Also sneaking into the farm are two environmentalist, the beautiful Experience (Danielle Mason) and Grant (Oliver Driver) who want to get evidence of Angus’s and Dr. Rush (Tandi Wright). The two do-gooders see them dumping some waste goods into a whole, and Grant runs out and grabs a canister, which has a strange sheep embryo in it. They run and get separated and Grant drops the canister and the disturbing embryo comes to life and bites him. Meanwhile Henry signs the deal with Angus, who is holding a business meeting to show off his super sheep, and sends Henry out with his old friend, the Ranch hand Tucker (Tammy Davis). While out the sheep start acting strange and attack them, and Tucker gets bit, but they also save Experience. ANd Angus runs into Grant who is looking more and more sheep like and who bites him.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….

They want to escape, but end up realizing Tucker’s foot has turned into a sheep hoof, and they end up at the lab, where Dr. Rush gets her hands on Tucker, and Angus shows up with a gun, and chases Henry and Experience until they get surrounded by the deadly sheep (though they ignore Angus who has been bit) and end up falling into the waste disposal whole, which luckily is connected to a cave, but the sheep are hot on their heals. Meanwhile Angus has gone off to his investors meeting to show off his new sheep, and Dr. Rush has cured Tucker with a shot from the other embryos, and he has managed to escape.

Henry gets bit on the foot, but they manage to escape through the tunnels and get to the old housekeeper Mrs Mac (Glenis Levestam) and her gun, just as the sheep man Grant attacks them.

At the unveiling, the sheep calls to the other killer sheep, and they come and attack and take out all the humans there, except Angus whose hand turns into a sheep.

Henry sends out Mrs. Mac with Experience, but he goes back to get Angus who is going to escape in his biplane, and spread the disease, and he realizes that the sheep don’t hurt him because he has been bit, and fights Angus, and luckily Tucker shows up with the antidote and they hit Angus with the propeller, but he wants to get bit again, but they have driven the sheep into the barn and they explode the sheep farts and kill all the sheep.

They then use the antidote to bring back the turned humans including Grant, and they decide to turn the farm into an Organic farm to please Experience.

••••

THIS MOVIE FUCKING RULES! JUST ABSOLUTELY RULES! I NEED TO BUY IT NOW! IT IS AMAZING!!!! THE BEST HORROR FILM I HAVE SEEN IN YEARS! Not torture porn, but a good old fashion zombie movie in the vein of Peter Jackson’s early films.

THis is the story of Burt Munro (Anthony Hopkins) and old Kiwi with a 1929 Indian Motorcycle that he is constantly modifying. He lives in a shed, and doesn’t keep up his house or yard (much to the chagrin of his neighbors) and is always working on his bike to make it faster. His dream is to go to the US and Bonneville salt flats and compete in speed week and set a world record. To this end he makes his own pistons and self modified the bike.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Burt saves his money from his social security, and his friends try to raise money, but he has not much time to make it in time for this years race. He asks a woman out from the social security office, and she convinces him that he should take a loan on his home to get the money, but also he has what seems to be a heart attack and ends up in the hospital. He has heart problems, and has to take nitroglycerine pills to stop the pain. Burt goes anyway.

He ends up in LA, spending way too much of his hard earned money. He meets a transsexual who helps him get a car and his motorcycle through customs, and he makes a deal with the car dealer to help fix some cars to be allowed to make a trailer. On the way he loses a tire, and meets an indian man who gives him a necklace. He then stops at a woman’s house and gets a new tire, and has sex with her, charming his way across the country.

At the Speed Trials he finds that he needed to register 2 months ago, but he makes a lot of friends and through shear determination ends up getting himself into the contest even though they don’t allow his bike to pass the test inspection.

And when Burt goes he i shaving steering issues, but manages to break 200 miles per hour and a record breaking win, before he crashes, though not badly, and he comes home a hero. And he later returned 9 times to break more records, with his 1967 record still standing.

••••

Not exactly a completely true story (the speed record he got was not quite for that much, though he was supposed to have gotten up to 205 MPH, still quite a good story about Kiki ingenuity and determination with an amazing performance by the always great Anthony Hopkins.