previewmonkey.com

With the continued absence of Monkey it falls to me to try and provide some guidance in terms of what is showing at your local cinemas. I don’t really like the amount of attention that Monkey provided to some of the crap that has been coming our way, so without a further ado:

High School Musical 3: If you are a mindless teenager (or preteen) that is controlled by your peers, has no free will and craves the universal acceptance of your fellow wannabetards, you will go and see this no matter what anyone says. Everyone else need not bother. That is all I have to say about that. (The same goes for College Road Trip.)

So what has happened at the box-office since Monkey last took a peak:

• Lakeview Terrace
• Nights in Rodanthe
• Pineapple Express
• Stop-Loss
• Max Payne

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Dear PreviewMonkey.com readers

I am Walrus (not to be confused with I am Weasel or The Walrus) and will be filling in for Monkey for the foreseeable future. My first order of business is to apologise for the lack of posts of late and offer an explanation for this sad, sorry state of affairs.

I will also like to reaffirm this website’s commitment to providing timely box-office information as well as the occasional movie and DVD review. But right now let us see what has happened to Monkey…

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It is almost odd to have a box-office roundup without any definitively awful movies on the list.  While the critics are unanimous about the dire quality of modern cinema, audiences (voting via IMDB.com) at least found something they liked out of this week’s cinematic offerings.  This week the big openers are:

• Righteous Kill
• Eagle Eye
• The Strangers

While there are no masterpieces being released this week, it is still a breath of fresh air not to have any groan-inducing stinkers on the list.  The South African cinema chains seem to have gone on a mission lately to provide the worst kind of entertainment, so any respite is welcome.

Let’s have a look at whether it is safe to venture out to the movie houses, or if you are better served renewing your DVD rental contract…

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About five minutes into watching Bangkok Dangerous I started getting a little worried.  The film, while far from being good, was not the travesty I was expecting, nor did it seem as terrible as critics had made it out to be.  Mentally I started rehearsing what I was going to write: “It takes a strong man to admit he was wrong…”

Fortunately (for me) the apology was soon forgotten. After about 30 minutes Bangkok Dangerous revealed itself to be a dire mess of a film. A true travesty of film-making. And then it got worse, a lot worse…

SPOILER ALERT: The rest of this review contains numerous spoilers, including the events from the conclusion of the film.

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This week at the South African box-office: a period drama, no less than three comedies and an action film I thought had already been released!

• Brideshead Revisited
• Step Brothers
• Superhero Movie
• The Love Guru
• Bangkok Dangerous

Are any of them worth watching? Let’s have a look shall we…

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There is no shortage of adjectives to describe The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. Words like amazing, astounding, triumphant, beautiful, harrowing and graceful are all appropriate.  Ultimately, though,  they do not do the film, nor the story it tells any justice.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is based on the autobiography of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a man who at age 43 found himself trapped inside a lifeless body, unable to move or speak and only able to blink his left eye. It tells the story of someone who, in spite of  that condition still manages to tell his story, one letter at a time when it would not be unreasonable to sink into utter desolation.

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