mr_impossible

Australia has produced some absolutely cracking kids TV series that anyone of a certain age will remember extremely fondly: Girl from Tomorrow, Round the Twist, Pugwall and many more. These series were quirky (sometimes downright loopy), well made and are a great testament to the fact that good kids TV is smart and sharp, hires good actors, makes careful use of often tight budgets and doesn't talk down to its audience. The Genie from Down Under fits well into this mould being an amiably bonkers premise brought vigorously to life through thoroughly well made production.

When Penelope Townes (a perfectly appalling Alexandra Milman) comes across a magic opal in a trunk in her rambling old house she releases two genies: Bruce and his son Baz. It's an immediate culture clash since Penelope and her mother Lady Diana (the gorgeous Anna Galvin, who also played Marion in 'The New Adventures of Robin Hood' for a bit) are breathtakingly posh Brits while the well meaning but hopeless genies are Aussie beauts who just happen to have special powers. Penelope's extreme selfishness combined with the genies' talent for mischief and incompetence in equal measure leads to giggles aplenty. The fact that Bruce is absolutely head over heels in love with Penelope's mother also complicates matters for all concerned. It's 'I Dream of Jeannie' for the 90's with a twist and I thoroughly recommend it.

Keep putting out stuff like this ABC - you beauty.

Michael Lehmann has had a somewhat checkered career: on the one hand he is responsible for the excellent 'Heathers' and the warm and competently made 'The Truth About Cats and Dogs' and on the other hand he also produced not only 'Hudson Hawk', a textbook flop of the highest order, and the awful '40 Days and 40 Nights' but also My Giant, a film so bad that audiences leaving the theatre should have been provided with complementary hypnotism to remove the experience from their memories. However it is no surprise that the team responsible for this film - Lehmann and the wonderfully named Redbeard Simmons - should have produced a film entitled Beaver Gets a Boner. Applegates is the duo's followup and what a delicious wedge of trash it is, a tart with a heart kind of a movie easily mixing the downright unpleasant with the lightly comic and a bit of social and environmental commentary.

The Applegates are not your ordinary suburban American family: they're giant insects bent on world destruction. I started watching this expecting that the bug natures of the family (excellently played by Ed Begley Jnr, the always brilliant Stockard Channing and two bright young things whose careers have since faltered) would be played down because of the tight budget. I hadn't realised what sort of territory this film is staking out: mention of John Waters is totally justified in the best possible way and there is also a whiff of Troma. Someone somewhere has decided ropey-schmopey they're going with the effects lending a wonderful air of B-movie to proceedings.

I said before that the Applegates weren't an ordinary American family but they are recognisable as a sort of hellish recreation of one in the late twentieth century and they evolve fast. Developing their personae from a sort of Janet and Jim book the family arrive as fifties cardboard cutouts, in that curious way that only a film born of the 80's and that decade's fifties fixation can achieve. That in a sense is what this film is really about for exposure to Bush Mark I's America leaves Dad jerking off to insect porn in the bathroom, Mom a hopelessly addicted shopaholic, Johnny a rather scuzzy ultra-pothead and daughter Sally stroppy, pregnant and rather more than bi-curious. Best of all, that's not even the plot. There's lots to love here: cross dressing Queen Bea (a lovely turn by Dabney Coleman), Kevin and Kenny the twin dealers who now look like something out of a time warp and a whole lot of gore. This isn't a film for the easily offended or the weak of stomach and even I found one or two moments a touch unpleasant. But a broad streak of comedy and a thin veneer of environmentalism gives this in many ways bleak film plenty of heart and if the dialogue sparkled a bit better then this quite political tale (is it really about communism vs. capitalism?) would be a trash classic. As it is this is quirky, unpredictable and looks dated in the best way possible. Don't get me wrong this is no Citizen Kane. They don't make films like this any more and maybe they shouldn't but I'm glad they made this one like this, so sit back, relax, crack open the beers, light up whatever and enjoy because this film - though at times a touch heavy handed - is lots of fun. Just don't show it to Granny.

I've been trying to track down this sharp and well made short film for a while after seeing it on the BBC a couple of years ago. Tony Robinson (of Blackadder fame) plays Hugh, a frail and bitter golf fanatic who is off on the links in a annual golf match with two 'friends' - the unpleasant and ultra-competitive Henry and Slim Jim - which Hugh has never yet won. Accompanied by Nick whose father died in a rather murky golfing accident the race is on to find out which pair will triumph. It's a dark, quite twisted, black comedy the outcome of which I won't reveal but suffice to say that not all four players make it back to the clubhouse for a martini afterwards. The parts are all excellently played - though Duncan Preston has perhaps played one too many amiable roles to be totally convincing as the slimy Slim Jim. Tony Robinson's performance as Hugh is a particular highlight. This biting little take on middle England is worth your time and is certainly the only golf film I have ever bothered to watch.