Screening tonight at Centennial Park, The Hangover, one of last year's breakout hits, is a mystery movie masquerading as a dumb comedy. In fact there's nothing dumb about it. No sooner are we introduced to our cast of characters—four guys heading to Vegas for a night of bachelor party debauchery—than the rug is pulled from under them and us as they wake up the next morning with no groom and no memory of what may have happened to him. The rest of the film is spent retracing their steps and reconstructing their evening—an epic night that we soon come to learn involved Mike Tyson, a tiger, a baby, a missing tooth, a shotgun-wedding chapel and an unhinged gangster named Mr Chow, played with relish by Ken Jeong. Tomorrow night's film is also worth catching. For many people's money, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the cult classic to end all cult classics, and with one of the great screen musical climaxes—perhaps only Singin' in the Rain outdoes Rocky Horror's sequence in the castle ballroom—one can perhaps see why. Start shivering with antici…pation.

Review, 2 January 2010

Start shivering with antici…pation. For many people's money, The Rocky Horror Picture Show remains the cult classic to end all cult classics. Fans of Star Wars and Star Trek may have their adherents, queuing for days on end for tickets and adorning costumes at the drop of a hat, but neither can claim to have audiences throwing toast, water, toilet paper, hot dogs and rice at at the screen during the proceedings. John Waters' films attract a certain set, sure, and Ed Wood's always get a decent turn-out of diehards, but do you see people dancing in the aisles during Pink Flamingos or Plan 9 from Outer Space? No, Rocky Horror really is the cult film par excellence. Which is perhaps surprising when you consider that, unlike many cult films, it's also very good. Tim Curry as Dr Frank-N-Furter ("I'm just a sweet transvestite," he sings with relish), heads a fantastic cast that includes Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick and Meat Loaf, in a short but memorable role. Directed by Australian Jim Sharman, the film also lays claim to one of the great screen musical climaxes: perhaps only Singin' in the Rain outdoes Rocky Horror's castle ballroom sequence. Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!—part tongue-in-cheek throwback to the paranoid conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s, part damning indictment of corporate malfeasance—screens later in the week.

Review, 23 January 2010