Open wide, movies inside

Okay, lame title, I know. But serioulsy, there's only so many Gold Coast Film Festival related titles you can write before you hit wall. Sigh, I digress. The festival opens tonight at the Birch Carroll and Coyle Cinemas Australia Fair and there’s a huge line-up of stars coming along for the opening night. Leading the charge is Nip/Tuck star Julian McMahon (above), who is in Queensland filming shark action-thriller Bait 3D. McMahon forged a career in Australian television before he broke into Hollywood as Cole Turner on hit TV series Charmed and roles in the Fantastic Four franchise and RED.

McMahon's Bait 3D co-stars Xavier Samuel and Sharni Vinson will also be at the opening night, along with director Kimble Rendall. Samuel was most recently seen in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Aussie horror flick The Loved Ones, while Vinson had success as the lead in Step Up 3D. They will be joined by Tomorrow, When The War Began stars Lincoln Lewis and Phoebe Tonkin, and other Australian actors including John Jarratt, Dan Wylie, Adrienne Pickering, Cindy Nelson, Francesca Gasteen, and Alex Russell, star of the opening night film Wasted On The Young.

However, it is not just big name actors who are attending, with a who's who of international industry professionals. Along with Hollywood horror screenwriter Todd Farmer (My Bloody Valentine, Jason X), will be producers Chris Adams (Syriana, An Inconvenient Truth ) and Steve Kearney (Jucy) , the founders behind industry consultation company Adams Kearney. Local guests include Oscar-winning special-effects whiz John Cox, producer Chris Brown (Daybreakers, The Proposition) and Emmy-award winning make-up effects artist Jason Baird.

I will be on the read carpet chatting to all of these lovely peeps and I’m off to chat to a few of them at their hotel now, so, keenly stand by for the latest and greatest dets from the festival. In the mean time, HERE'S a quick video I did on some of the GCFF highlights.

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Check out my awesome black eye!

So, if you’re looking for something to make you crack the hell up this Friday afternoon, then I recommend watching my bruised face review Step Up 3D here. Seriously, for the facial distortion alone it’s sooo worth it.

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Let me see you one, two step

Step Up 3D opens with NYU freshman Moose (Adam G Sevani) struggling to balance the commitments of his engineering degree with his passion for dancing after he meets a tight-knit group of street dancers called the Pirates (arrrr). Led by Luke (Rick Malambri), the Pirates live, train and dance together in a warehouse above the nightclub which they run to make ends meet. But they are five months behind in their mortgage payments and the only way to repay their debts is by winning the World Jam Dance Championships and the $100, 000 prize. Oh of course! Luke is convinced that with the novelty of a dancing Moose and skills of new girl Natalie (former Home & Away actress Sharni Vinson) they have the talent to win the competition.

The `dance movie' has become as popular as any other mainstream film genre in the last decade and Step Up 3D is not about to break the formula. What it does do, however, is improve on the basic story line of the previous Step Up movies which were essentially cliché soap operas with awesome dance scenes thrown in. Sure, there are still plenty of clichés in this, but overall there’s a lot less eye-rolling thanks to an improved script and quirky characters. The relationship between the Pirates is particularly interesting, as they're like a ghetto Partridge family. There is also the token love story going on at the centre of the film, between Luke and Natalie (below), which is sure to please the tween crowd.
But really, when you go to see a Step Up movie you're not focused on the story – it’s all about the dancing. Which. Is. Incredible. Dr Seuss character turned American hip-hop choreographer Hi-Hat has outdone herself, with eye-popping and innovative routines packed into every baggy-jeaned pocket of the movie. There is also a fabulous scene where Moose and Camille (Alyson Stoner) pay homage to the classic dance movie musicals of the Hollywood era with a spontaneous street dance. Of course majority of the target audience won’t get the reference, but it’s a nice touch.

Director Jon M Chu looks like he’s really having fun using 3D to enhance the dance scenes and it’s utilised in a tongue-in-cheek way, with the actors and filmmakers knowingly playing to the strengths of the technology. It’s an absolute ball as splashes of colour fly at the audience and the limbs of the dancers pop right out of the screen. I refused to see Streetdance 3D, released earlier this year, because it looked super crappy. However, it was the first dance movie made in 3D so I can't compare who uses the technology better. I'm going to guess Step Up 3D, given its budget and general saviness of the filmmaker. Chu has learnt from his mistakes with the second film and not overdone the sentimental moments. The documentary camera work within the film, where the characters talk about why they love dance, its power and how it changed their lives, is also nicely done and balances out the flashy, big budget dance numbers. Step Up 3D is a lot of fun and you will be hard pressed to keep from bustin' a move in your seat.

Step Up 3D opens in cinemas on Thursday, August 5.

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