Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
[ 2009 ] [ Hits:5343 ]
Review: Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince is the best Harry Potter adaptation yet (despite sitting next to someone with a super-size popcorn and slurpy and no sense of volume control!). The franchise has slowly evolved from an adorable, theme park-friendly fantasy adventure for kids into a swirling, dark mass of might and magic for older teens and adults. The series has become darker and darker as its audience has grown older in a similar pattern to J.K.Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. Now The Half...
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Spud
[ 2010 ] [ Hits:4112 ]
Review: John Van De Ruit's character, John Spud Milton has become the South African equivalent of Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole. Both characters are at that age when puberty is starting to kick in, physical changes are bound to create some form of clumsy embarrassment and life is only really beginning. These are the formative years and yet we somehow get a burst of nostalgia by suffering their crisis of identity, their painful pubescent years and seem to "get" where they're coming from... no wonder their e...
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Jock of the Bushveld [3D]
[ Hits:3233 ]
Review: Jock of the Bushveld is a South African story by Sir James Percy Fitzpatrick. Written and published in 1907, it wasn't long before the tales of Jock and his master became a bestseller and South African classic, now translated into Afrikaans, Dutch, French, Xhosa and Zulu. In 1986, Jock of the Bushveld was adapted to film starring Jonathan Rands as Percy Fitzpatrick with music by Johnny Clegg. The adaptation didn't fare well with American audiences and was later re-released with a happier ending....
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Semi-Soet
[ Hits:2942 ]
Review: Semi-Soet is a sweet homegrown romantic comedy from South Africa. While Afrikaans, the film adopts strict Hollywood genre conventions making you think you've seen it all before. You probably have, but this isn't always a bad thing when it comes to romantic comedies, the predictability factor actually adds to the overall enjoyment of the happily ever after.
Romantic comedies emulate that euphoric feeling of love as Ken and Barbie get themselves in various predicaments. Yes, there's a plastic fee...
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Izulu Lami
[ 2008 ] [ Hits:2662 ]
Review: Izulu Lami is a South African film with a focus on street kids in Durban. The film encounters several themes surrounding children in South Africa including: a local fallacy that Aids can be cured by sleeping with a virgin, the problems with glue-sniffing street kids and petty crime. These contentious issues could easily recreate another City of God scenario in the slums of Durban, however the film's approach has been compared with Slumdog Millionaire. Although, it's unfair to even contrast Izulu...
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Water for Elephants
[ Hits:2552 ]
Review: Water for Elephants is a ridiculous title. Although it makes more sense when you realise that it's a crossover of two cinematic achievements of the 20th century... namely Titanic and Dumbo. Titanic in the way that this epic romance drama has been constructed, and Dumbo in the subject matter, story and special effects. Lavish, historic sets filled with extras in accurate costume and circus animals form the backdrop to this swirling romance about a young man, who happens to jump a circus train, be...
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
[ Hits:2431 ]
Review: It all ends in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The boy wizard has grown up to grab hold of his wand, or any number of oddly shaped wands, and wreak havoc upon Lord Voldemort. For some... it's a moment for melancholy and sweet relief - the long wait is finally over, the books have been dog-eared and the Harry Potter shrine has been swept clean with a genuine Nimbus 2000 in preparation for the homecoming. For others, it's a joyous occasion... as an irritating little prick with glasses...
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Wrath of the Titans
[ Hits:2392 ]
Review: Clash of the Titans was disappointing. The action-adventure relied too heavily on visual effects, offering a tired video game script, wooden performances and substandard post-production 3D in the face of much anticipation. Yet as tarnished as it was, the blockbuster made enough money at the box office to warrant a sequel. Greek mythology is getting the Hollywood treatment with competition from another Greek hero franchise in Immortals, making it only a matter of time before Wrath of the Titans w...
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Rainbow Skellums
[ 2009 ] [ Hits:2253 ]
Review: Rainbow Skellums is the latest candid camera phenomenon to hit South Africa, produced, written and directed by Andre Scholtz (Panic Mechanic) and starring Louw Venter (T.M.A.S), Kevin Ehrenreich and Alexa Strachan. Leon Schuster is the Godfather of candid comedy in South Africa with his off-the-cuff, on-the-spot and distinctly South African disguise comedy, which is all about reeling the target in and catching the big one. Schuster's You Must Be Joking and Panic Mechanic eptiomise this brand of ...
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Ingrid Jonker: Her Life and Times
[ 2001 ] [ Hits:2238 ]
Review: Ingrid Jonker: Her Lives and Time is a biographical documentary based on the life of South African poet and artist, Ingrid Jonker. The film examines her place within society, from her position during Apartheid in South Africa to the vantage point of Nelson Mandela’s famous reference in Parliament. No one can deny that the woman was gifted, and this documentary reflects on her life while acknowledging influences: from regimes to lovers. Her suicide at the age of 31 in Three Anchor Bay immortali...
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