WCBE 90.5 FM: "Australia," "Twilight," "Four Christmases"

WCBE90.5 FM: "Australia," "Twilight," "Four Christmases"
Recording time: Wednesday, 9:00am, November 26, 2008
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, November 28, 2008

Clay

"Australia" is a good ole, rip-roarin' big screen epic . . .

John"Twilight" should get teen age girls' blood pumping . . .

Clay"Four Christmases" celebrates four family gatherings too many . . .

HIT MUSIC ("Star Wars"), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . ..

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe.

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

John ("Australia")

Baz Luhrmann's Australia is one of the best epics ever, a down under Gonewith the Wind.

Clay

Or maybe even a George Steven's "Giant" . . .

JohnThe romance of history and adventure is present in every frame. In 1939 Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) voyages from London sell her largeAustralia ranch. Competition with the largest land owner over supplyingcattle for the Australian Army's war effort cannot eclipse the epic fightto save the Aborigines from cultural extinction.

Drover (Hugh Jackman), the embodiment of the romantic Aussie is more than People Magazine's sexiest man.

Clay

How can you be more than sexy?

John

But the real prize for this film must go to the cinematography for its epic sweep and robust movement. As he did in Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann creates visuals that draw the audience in and thrill with innovation and vitality.

Clay ("Australia")

No doubt Ausie cinematographer Mandy Walker's heading for a nod from Oscar, and there might also be one in line for the movie's composer David Hirschfelder. They are the one's who have made "Australia" such a successful spectacle.

Sure Hugh Jackman will having them swooning in the aisles when he ripples all of his "X-men" developed muscles, and Nicole Kidman will cause off the audiences to swoon over her own specially designed curves.

But special mentions should go to Brando Walters, the young lad of mixed-breed, who holds his own with both Jackman and Kidman; and to David Gulpilil, who plays King George, but who originally starred as the young Aboriginal boy in Nicholas Roeg's "Walkabout."

He has now come full circle.

John ("Twilight")

Almost every teenage girl knows the impossibly popular Twilight series byStephanie Meyer is about 17-year-old Isabella Swan's love for 17-year-oldEdward Cullen, a very handsome vampire.ClayI'd give my eye teeth to look like him.JohnOh, the longing. The nuns made us fear this as if girls were vampires.

Twilight does as well as any film could in figuratively embodying theRomeo-and-Juliet-like difficulties of romantic connecting.When director Catherine Hardwicke lingers over the hero and heroine withtheir painful stares of desire, you may wish for some stock vampire stuff to relieve the tedium.In fact, I am beginning to long myself for the hammy other Bella as Dracula (1931) to satisfy my yearning for scary bloodsucking.

Twilight advances the accepted interpretation of vampirism as unbridled lustand civilizes it.

Clay ("Four Christmases")

Unbridled lusts? Uncivil behavoir? Who needs vampires when family gatherings play host to the scariest blood suckers of them all? At least that's what Hollywood has recently been telling us at the approach of every new holiday season.

From Thanskgiving disaster films such as "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," to "Home for the Holidays," and from "Christmas with the Kranks," to "Bad Santa;" Hollywood has been reacting for over a decade to the old, warm and fuzzie holiday films of the 40's and 50's.

And the reaction against those sentimental films continues with this year's "Four Christmases."

Featuring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as a marriage-shy couple, their worst dreams are realized when they visit the four respective families of their now divorced parents.

Take heed though, if you've seen the trailers, you've seen the movie. (pause)

But enough of waltzing with Jackman, vamping with Cullen, and choking on holiday treats, John, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR :

John

Holy Bela and the blood-loving babes, Hooray!"Australia" earns an A because AUSTRALIA is full of AMOUR . . .

Clay

"Australia" gets an "A" because AUSTRALIA'S ABORIGINES finally get their due .. .

John

"Twilight" earns a "C" because it CAN'T hold a CANDLE to CATHOLIC CONSUMMATION . . .Clay"Four Christmases" gets a "B" because BAD Santa movies have become pro forma . .

DRUMS OUT, THEN SNEAK UNDER THE MUSIC "WALTZING MATILDA"

John

Clay, you stayed at Christ Church, New Zealand, while Ivan and I detoured to Sydney many years ago. Were you just being your usual ornery self, or was there something secret you stayed for?I'd like to think it was a young lady, for instance. It's the romantic in me.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Well, kind of a secret, I was just working on my novel called: The Auto-Biography of A Grizzly.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

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