TRAILER THOUGHTS: POINT BREAK (2015)

When I first heard that a remake of the 1991 action classic Point Break was in the works, I shuddered. I feared it would be a generic, boring and completely pointless re-iteration of something that never needed to be remade. Sure, Point Break is cheesy and over-the-top, but it’s a product of its time and had some incredible action (that foot chase scene through the houses is worth the price of admission alone), great direction from future Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow, entertaining and memorable characters and lots of great one-liners.

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An Interview With CHESS director Ryan Fogwell and lead Tavis Cunningham

Tavis+Steph Chess hero mediumIt’s hard to describe Chess, the musical composed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA with lyrics by Tim Rice, with its intricate plot, complex characters and multitudinous themes of love, politics and war – one really has to see it to appreciate it. With such well known songs as Anthem and One Night in Bangkok, this production has won countless fans all over the world and its original London production, starring Elaine Page and Murray Head, ran for three years on the West End. I spoke with Director Ryan Fogwell and lead Tavis Cunningham, who plays Anatoly Sergievsky, about the new production coming to Manly, NSW for a limited run this May.

Let’s talk about Chess. For people who haven’t heard of nor seen the musical before – what is Chess about?

Tavis: It’s set in the middle of the Cold War in 1979-1980 – a bit more into the later of the Cold War I guess, – and it’s really about how people are controlled by their countries and the political machinations that are going on between members of the US and the Soviet Union. It’s all taking place during two chess tournaments – one in Italy and one in Thailand. It follows the Russian chess player [Anatoly] and one of the members of the American team [Florence] who they get together during the first chess match and then various complications happen.

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An Evening With Michael Bolton at the Palais Theatre

Last Saturday night I had the pleasure of seeing the An Evening With Michael Bolton concert at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne. I’ve wanted to see him live in concert for a very long time now. I was raised on his music and having missed my chance twice before of seeing him live, I wasn’t going to miss out a third time. I dragged my Mum along – aka the reason for my love for his music – with me and this is how the night went.

Please note, I am going off memory so some details may be slightly off.

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Interview: Actor Emmett Skilton

MV5BMTY4MzM3NDE2Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDU2OTkxMDE@._V1_SX640_SY720_If you haven’t heard of New Zealand actor Emmett Skilton then you probably have yet to discover the brilliance of the kiwi comedy-drama series The Almighty Johnsons. If this is the case, find it on Netflix, buy the DVDs, hell – illegally download it if you must!, however you can get your hands on it – it’ll be well worth your while! Emmett, who plays youngest brother Axl Johnson in the series, speaks all things TAJ and more below.

Please note: There are some slight spoilers from the series in this interview!

Firstly, you’ve been in Los Angeles for quite a while now. What have you been up to?

Sure have. I originally came here for The Almighty Johnsons’s SYFY promotion last year and since then I have worked on various projects, a favourite being a feature film called Bella, being released later this year/early next year. And I have, of course, been exploring this giant country as best I can – Central Park in New York in the snow is a definite favourite so far!

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