Because Everybody Else Has One

As is more and more becoming the case, I haven't seen a couple of notable releases from this week that weren't screened to the press but hopefully I will get to Trust and One Day at some point. In the meantime, here are three other films released over the weekend. And, yes, they are all better than Abduction...      First up is The First Grader, a Kenyan/ UK co-production, tells the true story of an 84 year-old former freedom fighter who, wanting to finally learn to read and write, fights for his right to join a class of first graders and get the education of which he was deprived for so many years. It's the sort of film that could easily have been unbearably mawkish but thanks to a balanced script, well-measured direction and some mighty impressive performances from a largely unknown African cast, ends up being far, far better than one could ever reasonably expect. Though it never quite makes the jump to being something truly remarkable,  it is a genuinely upl...

This was posted pretty early already at Channel24 so I might as well post it here early as well. Don't mistake this for excitement though... What it's about When a young man finds an old baby photo of his on a missing persons website, he soon finds his life unravelling as he tries to hunt down the truth behind who he really is. What we thought I like trashy thrillers. Indeed, I dare say that the less seriously a thriller takes itself, the more likely I am to get behind it. It's why I will always prefer the ludicrous nonsense of something like the Liam Neeson vehicle Unknown to the more dramatically daring but overly serious and tonally inconsistent The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (glorified Bond villains and brutal sexual violence make for very uncomfortable bed-fellows). I love bonkers plot twists, explosive set-pieces, camp villains, head-kicking action and, of course, that complete and utter suspension of disbelief that these one-man-against-the-world ...

Just a couple more films to talk about this week.  Spy Kids 4D: All the Time in the World does, I suppose, get some point for acknowledging the fact that the fourth dimension does actually refer to time and, not as it seemed at first, the added "dimension" of "Smell-ovision". That's right, not only do you have to put up with some rather lame 3D, you are also presented with a scratch-and-sniff card that is supposed to correspond to various aromas that are on screen but, regardless of whether you're supposed to be smelling farts or sweets, it all lands up smelling like jelly powder. Silly, gimmicks aside, there's absolutely nothing interesting about the film. On the one hand, little kids will probably get a kick out of the basic premise of pre-teen Super Spies with a bunch of rather cool (though, obviously, non-lethal) gadgets at their disposal but beyond that even the least discerning kid will probably be left scratching their heads at the thoroug...

After a couple of very uneventful weeks at the cinema, we finally have a bunch of new major films to check out. Are they any good, though? Well, that's a whole other question... Also up at Channel24 What it's about After seeing both her parents gunned down before her as a young child, a young woman goes on a murderous rampage to enact revenge on those guilty for her parents' death. What we thought Following in the footsteps of Ripley, Buffy and, most recently, Hanna, Zoe Saldana's Cataleya is the latest in a line of female (anti-) heroes that are part “Grrrl Power” feminist figures, part ruthless ass-kickers and part fully-rounded, very human characters. She is also, unfortunately, the only truly noteworthy thing in what is otherwise a perfectly competent but dreadfully generic revenge thriller. Director Olivier Megaton certainly doesn't shy away from playing up Ms. Saldana's obvious sexiness but she's far too compellingly convinci...

This is the only film I've seen this week but the only other offerings are Afrikaans film, Saak van Geloof (no clue) and Australian thriller, Wasted On The Young, neither of which were press screened. Is there some massive sports event happening that I don't know about or something because it looks for all the world like the major film distributors have decided to do a class bunk this week? Weird.   Also posted at Channel24     What it's about: After experiencing a vision of the cataclysmic collapse of the bridge on which he and a bus full of fellow employees are travelling, Sam Lawton (Nicholas D'Agosto) manages to save a number of his fellow passengers from impending doom with mere seconds to spare – but did he truly circumvent death or did he simply prolong the inevitable? What we thought: If you have seen any of the four previous Final Destinations , you really should know what to expect this time around. This is not a series that is ...

I mentioned that I hadn't seen Chameleon when I wrote up last week's film roundup but I have since rectified this (and yet I still haven't seen the Conan remake - go figure) so here is a very quick review about this Hungarian thriller. Originally released back in 2008 in its home country, Chameleon is a Hungarian film that plays with the very well worn Hollywood convention of a slick and charming conman wooing women into marriage only to run off with their money. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels anyone? The biggest problem with the film is that is does spend so long adhering doggedly to the formula but,unless its simply a case of the jokes getting lost in translation, without any of the humour of something like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The early parts of the film are largely watchable but most unremarkable with only the performances of the two leads - most especially Gabriella Hamori - to really keep us going.

Ok, here's the thing: I was planning on just writing up a short little review of the recently released remaster of Paul McCartney's first solo album but apparently I haven't figured out how to do short reviews about my favourite albums. The next one will be shorter, I promise! Well, OK, if not promise then at least hope... The History For so unassuming an album, Paul McCartney's first proper solo work sure came with a lot of baggage. Rush released to hit stores to compete with Let It Be , The Beatles final album, the initial pressings of McCartney came with a press release in which McCartney effectively publicly announced the end of the band - apparently without the knowledge of his former bandmates. It was, in fact, John Lennon who ended the Beatles partnership months prior to the release of either McCartney or Let It Be but the group had decided to keep it on the down low until Let It Be and its accompanying film were released. McCartney's seem...

Very small and very underwhelming week this time around where I have all of two films to talk about. There is also How To Steal Two Million, whose screening I somehow never got an invitation for but it's a South African crime film - I know, right - that seems to be adequate at best. Also there's a Hungarian film called Chameleon that I know very little about and am reasonably sure was never press screened. It's apparently quite good so I might check it out and I'll be sure to post my thoughts about it if I do. Who knows, it may well be the best film of the week. Bad Teacher has gotten some very rotten reviews overseas and, though, it's no where near as good as the similarly female-centric comedy stylings of Bridesmaids, it's a diverting enough bit of fluff. Yes, the fantastically sweary misanthropy of Cameron Diaz's character does get old some time before the end of the film but, for a while at least, it's easily the best comic performance from Ms D...