Because Everybody Else Has One

No really, just how mediocre can one film be? Also at Channel24 in edited form   What it's about A group of young tourists find themselves on the run for their lives after Moscow is invaded by deadly, invisible aliens. What we thought The Darkest Hour: generic title, generic film. For a relatively major motion picture that has gotten some seriously bad reviews (16/100 on Metacritic, 12% on Rotten Tomatoes), I can almost guarantee that come December, absolutely no one is going to include the film in their “Worst of 2012” list. December is a long way away and there is simply no way in hell that any body is going to remember what genre of film The Darkest Hour belongs to, let alone what it was actually about. And this, oddly enough, is the very thing that saves it.

Not a great week for films... at least not based on what I've seen. French film Incendies and local flick Retribution were also released but I have not seen them. Cowboys and Aliens has the sort of title that begs to be either warmly embraced by those of us who like a good bit of schlock in our cinema diet or scoffed at by pretty much everyone else. The biggest problem is that the film tries to hard to win both audiences and, in the process, alienates even the b-movie-loving geeks who would normally flock to a film called Cowboys and Aliens. It's not a terrible film by any means - how could it be when you have John Favreau, the director of Iron Man, working with current Bond Daniel Craig, current "It" girl Olivia Wilde and Harrison Frickin' Ford in a crazy mashup of the science fiction and western genres - but it is much, much less fun than it should be. It does pretty well as a western and Craig makes for a solid "Man With No Name"-type gun-slinging...

Jock of the Bushveld may have taken the number one spot in South Africa over the weekend but I don't see much life in it beyond that - certainly not overseas. The rest of the stuff on release this week are far more deserving of your cash - even if they do vary in quality quite a bit. First, and by far the best, is Super 8. Much has been said about this film basically being one long love letter to the films of its producer, Steven Spielberg and I'm certainly not going to argue with that. Super 8 does have the feel of a classic Spielberg blockbuster and, as a fan of the great man, it hit all the right notes as far as I'm concerned: the ET-on-steroids alien that just wants to go home; the Jurassic-Park-inspired monster action; themes of families and friendship; untrustworthy government types; a group of children being the lead characters and the sort of genuine sense of wonder and excitement that Spielberg, at his best, is known and loved for. It is also very much a love ...

Man, was the turnaround on this one quick! I saw this yesterday afternoon, reviewed it as quickly as I could straight away and the review is already ready for posting. The film is crap, of course, but can you really expect any different from Michael Bay at this point? My review here is, as is often the case, very slightly different from the Channel24 one. From Channel24.co.za ( Originally posted 29 June 2011) What it's about Following on from the first two films, Transformers: Dark of the Moon picks up with The Autobots living a peaceful existence with their human hosts but that peace is soon shattered when the Decepticons launch their most devastating attack yet, involving an old Autobot ship that crash-landed on our moon decades ago. What we thought Never having been what you might call a fan of director Michael Bay, I gave his first two Transformers films a very wide berth – avoiding them even as they replayed endlessly on DSTV. That is, I did until a f...

This one is up early on Channel24 so I thought I would post it here today as well. The review has been edited quite a bit on the site so, seeing as how this is my blog, I thought I would post the original here.  Oh, and if you're wondering, the reason why I don't mention the 3d effects, it's because I was fortunate to see a screening of the film that didn't require those annoying bloody glasses. From Channel24 (Originally posted 22 June 2011) What it's about Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds), a cocky test pilot, suddenly finds himself selected to be a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an elite group of “space cops” who, equipped with willpower-based power rings that can create anything they can imagine, are charged with protecting all of the known universe. What we thought Comic book fans have had an embarrassment of riches lately with a string of really impressive films based on their (or, to be honest, our) favourite comics properties. Last year ...

After some less than stellar weeks, this is a pretty good week for films. We not only have an excellent but harrowing art film, we even get a genuinely good courtroom drama starring Matthew McConaughey! Best of all, though, is this week's big blockbuster, X-Men: First Class. Honestly, between this, Stardust and Kick Ass can we please get Matthew Vaughn to direct the new Superman. It's not too late is it? Also posted at Artlink When you consider just how many BIG superhero movies will be/ have been coming out over 2011 and 2012, it's not that hard to understand why X-Men: First Class has fallen somewhat between the cracks. Certainly in terms of fan expectations. This year we have Marvel's Thor and Captain America as the build up to next year's Avengers reaches its climax, while DC offers its first film to be based on a major superhero that's not Superman or Batman with Green Lantern. Next year is even more exciting as we have reboots of Superman...