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Rating: 
Summary: "A good bracing failure" & The Plumber
Review: Let's address "The Plumber," a made for Australian TV, 77 minute 'short,' that is included on this DVD, first: Knock Knock. The woman of the house answers the door. I've got to check the pipes. I'm the plumber, the semi-burly long-perm-like-hair man announces, entering. The next 76 minutes play out largely within the confines of this one-bedroom university flat. The woman's husband is mostly home only in the evenings, when he tries to assure his wife that she's taking the plumber's oddities too seriously. The plumber, it seems, has pegged the woman as an elitist intellectual snob, the sort of person who looks down on working class types such as himself. So, he decides to play with her head some as he drags out the job for days on end, all the while trying to unnerve the object of his distaste. Peter Weir's camera herein places us---the viewer---right in the middle of this sort of play. We feel the fright of the woman who begins to fear for her safety; as she reaches out to her husband and Meg, a neighbor. They both, alas, find the plumber almost amusing and stand aside, so to speak, so that we cease to be mere observers, taking on the wife's point of view. Henceforth we begin to wonder how best to get rid of this scary individual. And the film ends when the woman comes up with a solution (which it would be best I didn't dilvulge, of course). It's a finely acted melodramatic mind game and it is worth seeing if you're a particular fan of this director. I wouldn't reccomend purchasing this DVD however, because the main feature leaves much to be desired herein. In an interview which is included on this DVD, Peter Weir refers to 'The Cars that Ate Paris' as "a good bracing failure." He was speaking commercially, but also in the sense that "it is good for you to fail" at one's first film. That's the only way one learns, in other words. If you're a student of this (justifiably) esteemed director then I can see renting this film, say, but most everyone else will not enjoy this film. Frankly, nothing about it is even enjoyable. The film opens with 2 obtrusive commercial product placements as a car winds along roads toward Paris, a small nothing town in Australia. The first twelve mintes of the film we could actually do without, until the town's mayor welcomes and offers his condolences to arthur, who has just survived a car crash in which his brother george was killed. Later on when someone asks the mayor what they plan on doing with arthur, the mayor replies, "We're keeping him." Nobody, you see is allowed to leave this town; this town which deliberately engineers accidents so as to rob passersby of their belongings. The victims who happen to survive are lobotomized usually. Arthur is an exception to provide a point of view, a window on this world. Through him we walk around this one street town as he encounters various characters: the town's doctor/medical Mengele; the mayor's hapless wife; young toughs in long coats, in a western-inspired showdown of sorts, etc. In the end, these toughs---in their ragtag, menacing cars---take revenge on the town, as if all the cars that were intentionally sabotaged had come "back to life." Some of these cars are without doors and/or are painted with fangs and such. One of these cars is a VW beatle bug with dozens of metallic spikes protruding from it. The point of this film is what you choose to read into it, for it has no point; only some vague hostility to adult mentalities. To be honest, I only sat through it because I've seen almost everything Mr. Weir has made, and was curious to see what this was about. To say the least, I was disappointed. (Do have a look at Mr. Weir's accomplished work, however: Picnic at Hanging Rock/Gallipoli/The Year of Living Dangerously/Dead Poets Society/Witness/Master & Commander.) Cheers!
Rating: 
Summary: Cult Classic!
Review: What an off the wall film! I enjoyed it. But it is not for everyone.It is a cult Aussie classic. Terry Camilleri is great as the leading man Arthur Waldo. Terry is still pals with director Peter Weir. I would have loved to have seen Terry in Master and Commander. But check this Aussie classic out. It has great music, a weird plot, and great humor. Fun to be had for all!
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