November 2002 Volume 83 Number 11 "serving the protectors"
Edited by John Ballantyne

Road to Perdition

This is a mob movie set in Chicago during the Depression and Prohibition days of the 1930s. It explores the ties between a gangster father Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) and his son Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin).

Sullivan is a hired killer – an enforcer – for Irish gang godfather John Rooney, played chillingly by veteran Hollywood star Paul Newman.

Sullivan’s wife and one of his sons are slaughtered by Rooney’s double-crossing son, Connor (Daniel Craig). Now in peril for their own lives, Sullivan and his surviving son set off across America’s Midwest, not only to escape danger but also to seek vengeance for the deaths.

The movie title, Road to Perdition, has a twofold meaning. In literal terms, Perdition is the name of the town to which they are heading. But Perdition is also a euphemism for Hell.

The journey, however, leads to a renewed relationship between the pair. The son comes to realize what a depraved business his father is in. The father, deeply flawed human being that he is, knows that he has chosen the wrong road in life, but has enough good left in him to want something better for his son.

The excellent cast also includes Jude Law as a creepy crime photographer/assassin Maguire.

Hanks is at his best, brilliant at depicting the many-layered character of the tormented gangster and father Sullivan.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

“Nice Greek girls are expected to do three things: marry Greek boys, make Greek babies and feed everyone until the day we die.” – Toula Portokalos.

Everyone in the Portokalos family worries about Toula (Nia Vardalos). Still unmarried at 30, she works at Dancing Zorba’s, the Greek restaurant owned by her parents, and smells like garlic bread.

But what is to be done when she falls in love with Ian Miller (John Corbett), a high school teacher who is tall, handsome and definitely not Greek?

Toula isn’t sure which will be more upsetting to her old-fashioned father, that Ian is a Xeno (foreigner) or that he’s a vegetarian.

But none of this matters once he asks her to marry him. Toula knows that if he can pass muster with her crazy relatives and get baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church, their big fat Greek wedding – including one powder-blue limousine, two ice sculptures and 10 bridesmaids in turquoise dresses – will be a piece of cake, five layers high with a plastic staircase and a fountain of champagne.

This is a delightful, laugh-a-minute comedy-romance, guaranteed to warm the heart.

Crackerjack

This new Aussie film, produced by and starring comedian Mick Molloy, is bound to be a big hit.

With dwindling membership, the financially struggling Cityside Bowling Club, desperate to stave off imminent closure, enters a tournament for a cash prize. But it soon discovers it is unable to field a team because its members are too old or too sick to play or have moved away.

The club functionaries discover on their membership list a young man, Jack Simpson (Mick Molloy), whom they have never seen.

Jack, however, is not interested in bowls. He has signed up in the club under three different names solely for the purpose of renting out his inner city car park spaces at a premium price to nearby workers.

The club, however, corrals Jack into playing for the club on pain of having his membership rescinded and his parking spaces withdrawn.

Jack soon gets caught up in the fortunes of the club and discovers that he is not bad at bowls.

Pitted against him is ruthless local businessman Bernie Fowler (John Clarke, The Games) who wants to take over the club and install his beloved pokies. To this end Fowler tries to rig the tournament to prevent the struggling Cityside Bowling Club from winning.

The usually peaceful greens of the club become a battlefield where young meets old, greed meets good, and people rise to the occasion in extraordinary circumstances.

Crackerjack boasts a brilliant ensemble cast including Bill Hunter, Frank Wilson, Monica Maughan, Samuel Johnson, Judith Lucy and Lois Ramsey.

Blood Work

A veteran FBI profiler, Terry McCaleb (Clint Eastwood), is unrelenting in his pursuit of justice and unequalled in his success at tracking and catching murderers.

But as he closes in on his latest adversary – a psychopath dubbed “The Code Killer” by the media – McCaleb is felled by a massive heart attack and forced into early retirement.

Two years later, a beautiful stranger (Wanda De Jesús) reveals a secret that compels McCaleb to re-examine his recovery: his life was saved by someone else’s death – the victim of a murder that remains unsolved.

Against the advice of his cardiologist (Anjelica Huston), and with the help of an eager neighbour (Jeff Daniels), McCaleb literally puts his life on the line to track down a murderer who has forced him to take this case personally.

McCaleb is a heartbeat away from catching the killer and has to ride roughshod over incompetent cops to get his man.

Produced and directed by Eastwood, Blood Work is based on the best-selling novel by Michael Connelly.

Special Movie Offer
For your chance to win one of 15 double passes to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, put your details on the back of an envelope and send it to Greek Wedding Comp, SA Police Journal (168).

PASAweb   Index & Search   Top of Page   Comments   Email to Editor

The Police Journal Online is an official publication of the Police Association of South Australia and is published monthly. Editors of kindred publications can seek permission from the Editor to re-publish any Police Journal Online article. Copyright 2001  The Police Association of South Australia sustance