From my favorite movies..

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I first saw this little sleeper years ago when my video store owner (THAT many years ago) recommended it. I watched it, and then I bought it to watch over and over again. I love Danny's story of reinvention. Who hasn't wanted at some point to discard their life and put on another? Danny's got a pretty boring life in suburban Australia when he decides to take to the skies in a chair tied with helium balloons. Somehow he survives a thunderstorm, only to land safely in the lush green town of Clarence. In Clarence, he meets Glenda, the town's only parking cop. Of course Rhys Ifans (Danny), and Miranda Otto (Glenda) are sensational, but so too is the impossibly adorable revelation Justine Clarke (Trudy). A charming, feel good movie. And the scenery is fabulous too. It really is never too late to change your life.

The seep of the worst aspects of American culture is always depressing to watch. Witness the 2004 Australian film Danny Deckchair, which is an off the rack romantic comedy without a whit of inspiration, and as predictable as they come. Granted, Hollywood romantic comedies can be bad to occasionally mediocre, and this film gently crests out of bad and into tepid mediocrity, but why was it ever made? To prove that Aussies could be as banal as the worst our country produces? Perhaps the secret is that the director and screenwriter was an American named Jeff Balsmeyer, and this was his first film after a career as a storyboardist. Lesson: just because a person can draw scenes others give to them does not mean they can actually write those scenes well. In short, since the film is so generic it's probably not the sort of outing that will have producers clamoring to give him a second shot. The premise for the film comes from the spate of real life nuts who tied balloons to chairs and other devices, and took off into the skies. The first recorded nut was a man called 'Lawnchair Larry' Walters, who took off in June of 1982, and years later suicided.Now, perhaps the actual flight, and a good story tacked on to it would be worth filming, but this is a B-level Julia Roberts film with a good starting gag, but lacking Roberts, who despite her deficiencies as an actress, has an undeniable cinematic 'presence'. None of the actors in this little film has anything near that sort of presence.

CAPRA. CAPRA. CAPRA. If you sit there like an idiot each Christmas and watch "It's A Wonderful Life", stop while cruising cable channels when you come upon "It Happened One Night" or still get a lump in your throat when you see Jimmy Stewart give his desperate speech in "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington", then, by God, you're gonna LOVE this movie! Yes - they took that goofy roommate of Hugh Grant's in "Notting Hill" and turned him into James Stewart and/or Gary Cooper and they even threw in Donna Reed/Jean Arthur for good measure. Okay, it's in 'color', set in another country and, heaven forbid, the hero gets the gal in the sack, but never-the-less this IS a Frank Capra movie all the way! It's full of charm, sweetness, fable, love triumphant and a touch of morality, but hey, with George W. Bush flushing the country away, we sure could use a little more of this right about now. Enjoy.

This film is loosely based on the July 2, 1982 flight of Larry Walters, 'Lawnchair Larry'. Most that know of it think that Larry's flight in a lawn chair, aided by 45 weather balloons, to an altitude of 11,000 to 16,000 feet is an 'urban legend', but it really indeed happened. There were scores of witnesses including two airline pilots who reported the sighting to the air traffic controllers at local airport. He actually was fined by the FAA on several charges, all of which are really hilarious when you read the story. Get on the Internet and read about the flight and Larry's life because the facts of what really happened are more inspiring than this movie!