It’s time to face facts: It is weeks like this that have driven people from the cinemas and to the DVD stores in their masses. (Well, that and the poor service, stale pop corn, uncomfortable seating… but I digress.) The major releases at the cinema chains this weekend are:
Hopefully the weather picks up some time soon…
I liked the original Hellboy. It was a somewhat messy but overall taught comic book adaptation, big on thrills and spectacle and short on story and exposition. It was not the perfect movie, and many have argued that is was not even all that good, but for the most part it was thoroughly enjoyable.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army trades in most of the charm of the original and instead offers up a bloated mess of a film. The spectacle is still there, but the filmmakers have decided to saddle it with so much exposition and frankly awful story elements that, ultimately, the film collapses under the burden.
I feel I need to open this review with a confession: Prior to watching My Blueberry Nights I had never seen a film directed by Wong Kar-wai. (I should also disclose that I have been known to enjoy the music of Norah Jones – please do not hold that against me!)
My Blueberry Nights marks the acting debut of Ms. Jones as well as the English language film debut of Wong Kar-wai. Both have pretty much been on top of their fields (singing and Hong Kong film legend respectively), so I guess I started watching this film with somewhat inflated expectations.
(Don’t ask me what The House Bunny is doing up there… I thought that it opened 2 weeks ago, but the major Cinema chains both have it as an opener this week. So be it!)
In terms of South African cinema this week is a big one, with the release of the biopic Hansie. The best film no one will go and watch for this week is Choke. The rest? Well, let us have a look shall we:
The good news is the the previews will be worked into the cinema roundups. Henceforth, starting on Monday, but then every Sunday evening thereafter, I will be posting more detailed roundups including the IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores as well as the Pajiba quote.
That way the purpose of this site can better be served: To summarise which films are worth seeing and which are a complete waste of time.
In Bruges has been advertised as a black-comedy crime caper set in the Belgian medieval town of Bruges. That is what the trailer and promotional material led me to believe. They lied.
To a degree In Bruges defies easy classification, but I will attempt one anyway: In Bruges is a dark tragic drama (with comedic undertones) that deals with what happens when two hit men are forced to reconcile what they do for a living and the consequences thereof while hiding out in the quaint medieval town of Bruges.
This weekend I will try and make it out to see Hellboy II and In Bruges and will be trying my hand at a proper review for each of these motion pictures.
Furthermore, this weekend I will hopefully nail down the Roundup/Preview formula.
This week we are in for a bit of a cinematic treat with two film festivals and some big releases!
By far the biggest of the commercial releases has to be action blockbuster Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Hellboy II is directed by Guillermo del Toro (who helmed the original as well as the fabulous Pan’s Labyrinth) and has Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones and Jeffrey Tambor reprising their roles from the original. The plot centres around Hellboy and his team protecting humanity from an attack by the creatures of the mythic realm.
Then we have the black comedy crime caper In Bruges, starring Colin Farrel, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Feinnes. Farrel and Gleason play hit men Ray and Ken, forced to lay low in the Belgian tourist city of Bruge while they await a call from thier boss Harry (played by Ralph Feinnes.) There they get involved in a series of surreal misadventures involving the locals, Dutch prostitutes and an American dwarf actor shooting a movie.
Swing Vote is a political comedy starring Kevin Costner as Bud Johnson, an ordinary guy who is thrust into the middle of the American presidential race. When it is discovered that his vote is the deciding vote in a dead-even American presidential election his relaxed existence is turned upside down as he catapulted into the spotlight. Also starring are Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper, Nathan Lane and Stanley Tucci.
FInally we have the animated feature Space Chimps. The plot centres around Ham III, a circus chimp and grandson of the first chimp in space, who is sent into space with two of his fellow simians by an opportunistic senator (voiced by Stanley Tucci.)
This is one that I missed last week. Cinema Nouveau, in association with the Taipei Liaison Office present the Taiwan Film Festival 2008. This festival, headlined by Ang Lee’s award-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon showcases the talents of Taiwan’s leading female directors.
The Taiwan Film Festival 2008 is currently showing at Johannesburg’s Rosebank Cinema Nouveau (until 18 September) and will be at the V&A Waterfront Nouveau from 19 – 25 September. For more information check out the Film Festivals section of the Ster Kinekor homepage.
Nu Metro Cinemas and Hyde Park Shopping Centre are screening the Air France Film Festival from 19 September to 1 October 2008. This should be a real treat for lovers of French cinema living in Gauteng as there will be a total of 18 films screened, comprising a mixture of new releases, recent award-winning French films as well as a couple of African and American films.
For more information see the Nu Metro homepage. (The Mail & Guardian has a preview of it here, while Business Day has a brief preview here.)
On Friday I went out to see Tropic Thunder with Mr. Furmie and his fiance Anne. Tropic Thunder is an action-comedy directed by Ben Stiller and starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. (in a show-stealing performance as “the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude!”)
It’s not very often that we get a cinematic release of a motion picture before North America. This is exactly what we have with Taken, the latest release from writer-producer Luc Besson and director Pierre Morel. (Seeing as PreviewMonkey.com depends on international opinion to render a verdict this could be quite interesting.)
Taken stars Liam Neeson as Bryan, a former spy (or FBI agent – according to SterKinekor’s Movie Mail) who is forced to call upon his particular skill-set when his daughter (played by Lost alum Maggie Grace) is kidnapped while holidaying in Paris. Also starring is Famke Janssen (X-Men, Golden Eye) as Bryan’s ex-wife and Xander Berkeley (Gattica, Fracture) as her wealthy new husband.
Let’s see what we can dig up about this little French mystery:
monkey | 
09 30th, 2008| 