Category: General news

Westender’s Jimmy Wall got a sneak peak of The Lone Ranger 2013 remake. It is a bit different from the old TV series he grew up with, but deems it as a must-see-film for anyone that enjoys a lot of action and some good laughs.

The Lone Ranger was one of many old shows I grew up watching as kid, which is why I am always a bit hesitant to embrace remakes, especially with remakes such as the Green Hornet and 21 Jump Street. They were action TV series turned into comedy films for some odd reason.

Which is why the first few minutes of the film somewhat worried me a bit when it started off at an amusement park from the 1930s, when The Lone Ranger is a western set in the late 1800s. The camera zooms in on a kid dressed as The Lone Ranger. He enters a tent with the theme Wild West. There he sees The Noble Savage, which looks like a wax figure of an old American Indian. To his surprise the wax figure presumably comes to life and starts telling the kid a story about The Lone Ranger (Armei Hammer) and himself, Tonto (Johnny Depp).

That the story about The Lone Ranger is told by a much older Tonto is intriguing and rather clever way to repackage the story for both a new and younger audience, and also the old geezers that grew up with The Lone Ranger, like myself. A story about how John Reid (Hammer) accidentally ends up as The Lone Ranger and Tonto’s Ke-mo sah-bee, following their quests to right the wrongs in society.

John Reid is determined to revenge his brother’s death, but as a lawyer he is very reluctant to become The Lone Ranger Tonto wants him to be, a gun-slinging hero with no hesitation of killing outlaws. He eventually learns that diplomacy does not work so well with outlaws, after much frustration from Tonto. Armie Hammer plays John Reid very well and projects the perfect hero. A hero that tries to be merciful, but in the end does not bow down to outlaws.

Tonto wants revenge for what happened to his tribe, and claims The Lone Ranger has been chosen by the spirit horse, Silver, to help him and be his Ke-mo sah-bee. As usual Johnny Depp does an amazing job at playing the weird and unpredictable character. A character laced with sarcasm and witty remarks. The humour is well-balanced without making it too silly, especially when the film is advertised as an action-adventure.

With most films, they all have their weaknesses, and The Lone Ranger is no exception. About half-way through the film it seems as if the writers decided to become a bit too creative and added a bunch of twists towards the end. Not two, or three- counting the ones in the first-half of the film -but enough that I lost count of them all. Sometimes that can be an exciting tool to build suspense, but it became a bit too frequent and just ended up being annoying. When I knew the film was about to end, I still had some worry that another twist would emerge, which is not a good thing, but luckily it did not.

Another weakness was in fact how the story was setup. As I explained early on, that Tonto tells the story of him and The Lone Ranger to a random kid at an amusement park dressed as The Lone Ranger. I guess it is a bit weird if you grew up with the TV series, but the transitions back and forth seemed a bit random, even though it provided some comic relief and it was an interesting concept and approach I found fascinating.

The Lone Ranger offers a lot of action that will satisfy any action-film-junky, and to alleviate the heavy dosage of action it offers some drama. The comedy added into the mix is just perfect – when you can laugh out loud at a wooden beam that crushes the heads of two outlaws, it is done right. Not forgetting the story itself – it is an extremely good western story, even with those annoying twists. It is one of those films that has it all – fun for the whole family, as they say.

It will be in cinemas across Australia July 4.

For more info about the film and to how to buy tickets, visit: http://theloneranger.com.au/

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Lock The Gate Alliance has labelled the coal seam gas (CSG) industry as dishonest and untrustworthy after the release of a new report which shows that the CSG export industry will cause wholesale gas prices in Australia to triple.

In February, the CSG industry said that proposed new rules on coal seam gas mining would lead to higher energy prices in NSW and their website states that the CSG industry could reduce wholesale electricity prices.

However, the new report by The Australia Institute reveals that gas prices are st to rise dramatically across eastern Australia because of plans by the gas industry to start exporting gas from Queensland, leading to export parity pricing in Australia.

“This new report by The Australia Institute shows that the greatest threat to gas prices on the eastern seaboard is the CSG export industry itself,” said Carmel Flint, campaign co-ordinator with Lock the Gate Alliance.

“It proves that the scare campaign being run by the gas industry against community opposition to coal seam gas, claiming it will lead to energy price hikes, is a whole lot of hot air.

“There is no doubt that the primary driver of gas price increases in Australia is the gas industry seeking bigger profits by exporting Australian gas to Asia to exploit higher prices.”

Shaun Murray, Darling Downs Coordinator for Lock the Gate said, “This report suggests that even if the CSG industry is allowed to continue the wholesale industrialisation of rural Queensland, the massive gas export projects are just going to drive up prices for Australian consumers.

“These price hikes add to a long list of problems associated with the CSG industry, including the damage being done to our farmland, to our aquifers, and to the health of nearby communities. It’s very difficult to see any net benefits for ordinary Queenslanders.

“Now that the energy affordability argument in favour of CSG has been comprehensively debunked, our governments should act quickly to implement a moratorium on this damaging industry,” he said.

Local Legend

Micah Projects’ Karyn Walsh welcomes the Queensland Government’s Homelessness-to-Housing Strategy 2020

“Premier Campbell Newman is to be congratulated on maintaining the Queensland Government’s commitment to halving homelessness in Queensland by 2020”, said Karyn Walsh, Coordinator of Micah Projects, a not-for-profit organisation working with hundreds of people in Brisbane who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. (more…)

“Julia Gillard: Australian blokes have done their country down” – Telegraph UK

Julia Gillard has been driven out as Australia’s prime minister by a brutal and unfair misogynist culture

The UK media can comment on misogyny in Australia, but Australian society is not yet ready to look at itself. It seems the male owned media and the men of Australia, and women anti-feminists, many of whom are women who in more or less subtle ways look to male patronage, are not yet ready to go beyond reactive denial and face a very dark aspect of Australian culture.

I ask you to substitute race or disability or gender in your arguements about sexism and misogyny in Australia and discern if you feel any twinges of shame at the positions some of you are defending.

And is this list sophisticated enough to engage in this debate, or will it retreat to entrenched positions.

I also ask you to reread Henry Lawson The Drovers Wife and ask if we’ve progressed much since then. I fear we have edged forward very little.

And lets not be so cocky in our criticism of Islam, where the female victim of rape is punished for bringing shame to the reputation of men in the culture, and other so called ‘honour killings’. Germaine Greer once commented that one of the most important roles expected of ‘gatherers’ was to protect the ego of the ‘hunters’ in the socalled ‘hunter’ ‘gatherer’ view of gender roles.

I watched a documentary recently on corruption in Sumo wrestling in Japan where contests were rigged around betting scams. It took years to crack the corruption. One commentator put it down to 2 words for truth in Japan, one meaning the actual truth and one the convenient truth. Saving face for the deeply entrenched male sumo culture meant the actual truth could not be discussed, only the convenient truth that sumo heroism was incapable of negative behaviours and societal critism.

Mendacity requires scape goats on which to heap all that cannot be faced which must be driven out of the community so the convenient truth can continue.

The convenient truth that sexism and misogyny played no role in Julia’s demise displays an inability to challenge the blokey hegemony of Australian society. Are Australian men not up to challenges to their behaviours and their self image.

Julia is a typical scape goat, all that is blackest in Australian sexism and misogyny has been heaped on Julia’s head and now she’s been driven out, all can return to the convenient truth and the discussion about what we all just witnessed? – there’s powerful forces for no discussion but to take the easy path and just move on. The blood letting, the sacrifice has absolved us of self critique.

Well let’s challenge that. We’ve never had a better case study than the last 3 years of our first woman prime minister, one who put her faith for success as a woman in competance, which turned out not to be enough.

Lets not settle back into convenient truths. Do we have the guts to look sqarely at the behaviours of Abbotrt, Rudd, the media and give Ausrtralia the opportunity to become more sophisticated in its sexism debate. Like it has done with race and disability.

I ask the men on this list, how would you feel about Julia’s treatement if she was your daughter?

And don’t forget the misogyny in the Armed forces revealed the same week as Julia’s demise, and the Royal Commission into sexual abuse which is breaking through the convenient truths of the Catholic Church, and other institutions.

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