Tuesday 5 October 2010

Whip It! - Starring Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Lewis

Looking like a 1 UP from Super Mario World everyone's favourite jail bait returns to mix it up with some rock and roller derby.

Teens kiss and make out, and one couple goes all the way - no sensitive body parts are shown, but you see them stripping to their skivvies underwater in a swimming pool and later holding each other out of the water (bare shoulders showing). The girl later discusses the experience euphemistically with her mother. References to penis size.



Roller derby is very aggressive, and the film showcases plenty of bruising, bone-crunching action. Characters are elbowed, kicked, and pushed around, and they sometimes end up bloodied. There's also some outright fighting, and trash talk is a common occurrence on the track.

Fairly frequent use of language like "jackass," "hell," "shit," "bitch," "screw," ass," "balls," one use of "fuck," and a character gives someone the finger.


Some underage drinking. A teen girl gets drunk at a party and makes out with a random guy before throwing up; later, a teen is arrested after being caught with a drink in public. One character (not a teen) does a kegstand. A mother hides her smoking from her daughter. A father drinks beer while watching sports and lets his teen daughter take a (big) sip.All in all, not one for the kids, not really one for the adults either, unless you're a certain kind of adult and if so you may want to keep that quiet.

Sunday 3 October 2010

Educating Rita - Michael Caine, Julie Walters

Michael Caine stars as Rita, an alcoholic loner given a girl's name at birth who prowls the streets of Liverpool breaking into housing and beating the shite out of anyone who lives there.

Julie Walters is Frank. A tough madam with a huge collection of leather catsuits and bondage equipment which she can use to hold her own.

One night when Rita breaks into Frank's house the game is set!

Only one can win!

Only one can survive!

Who will it be?
There's not much dialogue which is great for building suspense and drama but Caine really should have used a stuntman as he's clearly not in shape to be doing roundhouse kick's at head height.

An iconic film and pre-runner to the wave of smut that appeared in British Cinema in the 1980's (see Rita, Sue and Bob Too).

The film resurrected Caine's career after the disaster that was Jaws 3 and it launched Julie Walters as a household name and bricklayer's fantasy.