Because Everybody Else Has One

Look, I enjoyed writing this because, hey, rants are fun but I don't like coming down this hard on a film that is essentially a little indie film by a group of South African filmmakers who had the unenviable task of trying to compete with the big Hollywood animation studios. Still, I have to be honest and, frankly, if they disn't have the manpower needed to pull off this kind of CGI film in the first place, they should either simply not have made it or gone a more traditional hand-drawn animation route. In the end, though, weak storytelling is weak storytelling. It's not the worst film of the year in that there is nothing truly offensive about it but I literally can't think of a single thing about the film that was even remotely satisfying.  With that wordy intro out of the way, on with the review. Just please note that this is my original, unedited version. Head on over to Channel24 for the edited - and somewhat toned down - review.   What it's a...

By this point, reviewing the latest Harry Potter film is probably a total waste of time but I have a few words to say on that and (almost) all the other films that have been released over the last couple of weeks. First off, last week's films: Like I said, there probably is no point in reviewing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 because, while people who like Harry Potter will obviously be showing up in their droves for the finale, those who don't - yes, they exist - probably aren't going to drop in for the last half of the last installment. But, hey, I've always figured that people are like me and only really bother with reviews after they've seen the movies, so why not throw in my two cents worth? HP7b is, in a word, terrific. It falters very slightly at the end with an epilogue that is unnecessary here as it was in the book and Voldemort's eventual defeat is vaguely unsatisfying but, these minor flaws aside, this is a stellar climax to a ...

Now for a quick review of a pretty fun horror flick.  From Channel24 What it's about A married couple's idyllic life is thrown into turmoil when their young son falls into a coma but even as they try and deal with the fact that no one understands why he isn't waking up, they are confronted with increasingly malicious supernatural forces. What we thought Regardless of whether you find Insidious scary or not, it's nice to see a horror film that is neither a remake ( Let Me In ) nor another entry into the increasingly irritating “torture porn” genre (take your pick). Neither, for that matter, is it as mind-numbingly boring as Paranormal Activity 2 , nor as pointlessly nasty as something like local slasher, Night Drive . It's especially cool to note that it is directed by none other than Saw director, James Wan, who is apparently as sick and tired of “torture porn” as the rest of us should surely be by now.

Yesterday, I posted a feature that dealt with the background and origins of the film. Now, here's my review. From Channel24.co.za What it's about: Based on a true story, the titular Bang Bang Club was a group of four South African photojournalists whose willingness to do whatever it took to get the perfect shot often took a great personal toll on their lives and personal relationships and had them facing tremendous ethical dilemmas about what they were doing. It also meant, however, that they were responsible not only for some of the most iconic images to come out of those tumultuous years before the end of apartheid, but were also able to expose a civil war happening in South Africa that could have brought the country to its knees, but went almost unnoticed by white South Africans and the international community. What we thought : There is a lot to like about The Bang Bang Club and, yes, there are aspects that niggle, but it is a film that deserves to ...

OK, it has been way too long since I updates this here blog but I should have quite a bit of material for you over the next few days, including a roundup of almost all the films released this week and last. But first, here's a feature article I wrote about the new South African/ Canadian co-production with some notes on the film's history and a number of quotes with some of the talent involved. Check out the published article at Channel24.co.za with links and nice pictures and all but here is the original article that I wrote... The Bang Bang Club: A Fresh Look At Some Familiar History And The People Who Captured It. Based on the book of the same name, The Bang Bang Club tells an unfamiliar tale about a very familiar time in South Africa's history. The years leading up to the South Africa's 1994 general elections have been well documented in history books and films but those events have never been dealt with quite like this. The Bang Bang Club of the ti...

Er... sorry about the delay but better late than never, right? Nope, I'm sadly not talking about the final Harry Potter film, which I still need to see and am unashamedly psyched for but here's the last review from last week's lineup. And it's the best of the lot too... Win Win is the latest film from indie director Thomas McCarthy and if you're aware of his previous films (The Visitor, The Station Agent) then you should know what to expect here. If not, Win Win is as good a place to start as any. The basic setup of the film is that Paul Giamatti plays Mike Flaherty, a struggling lawyer who sees an opportunity to make some extra money by becoming the guardian of a wealthy old man but, when the teenage son of the old man's estranged daughter turns up looking for his grandfather, Mike finds himself with a whole lot more on his plate than he could possibly have imagined. While trying to deal with this fractured family and his own financial problems, he beco...

As promised, here are reviews of the other two films released this week. First up.... It would be all too easy to simply review Something Borrowed by throwing its title back at it and writing it off as a generic rom-com that borrows much of its story and characters from better examples of the genre. The problem is, though, that its unoriginality is, by far, the very least of its problems. This story about a love triangle between two best friends and the man they both love is obvious, lazy and predictable and nothing in Something Borrowed displays any of the emotional poignancy - not to mention solid laughs - that might have elevated the material beyond its mundane plot. And, yet, that's almost besides the point. What really ends up sinking the film are those four smiling faces there on the left. First, as Dex, the object of the two women's affections, insecurities and jealousies, is Colin Egglesfield, an actor whose pretty boy blandness somehow still fails to capture ju...

I don't know if it's a school holidays thing but once again we have new movies releasing on a Wednesday rather than the more traditional Friday. It's not even a question of their being world-wide releases because they have both been out for a while overseas. Plus, it's only two of the films that are being released early - one for the kids, one for slasher fans - fans of romantic comedies and, better yet, quirky indie dramedies are going to have to wait for Friday, I'm afraid. I'll have more on those over the weekend but here, for your reading pleasure, are my quick reviews of two solid sequels to films that didn't really need them.  Cars 2 is a film that has gotten quite the drubbing from most critics and, considering the high standards that Pixar has maintained over the years, it's not exactly surprising - nor, for that matter, entirely undeserved. Cars 2 is a long way from the dizzying highs of the Toy Story films or The Incredibles, possessing li...

No roundup for this week's releases because there were only three new films released this week and one of them was the new Tyler Perry film that I happened to have missed. Also, there really is no point in trying to pick a best film for a week that doesn't even have a decent film, let alone a best one.   The Resident is an old fashioned b-movie that, had it been headlined by less well known actors than Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilary Swank, it would have gone straight to DVD. And that's probably the most interesting thing about it. I have nothing against generic obsession-thrillers but, solid performance aside, The Resident goes right past generic and straight to lazy, banal and uninspired. The story about a young doctor who movies into a too-good-to-be-true apartment whose flirtations with the building's handsome landlord lead to something far less innocent is nothing we haven't seen before but the film's biggest problem is that it never once bothers to ev...