Eddie Murphy Oscar host

So Eddie Murphy has been confirmed to host next year's Oscars. Well, his recent films such as Pluto Nash and the Dr Doolittle series were disgustingly bad so maybe we are giving him a second chance. I rate he wants to be in a superhero movie and needs to get into Hollywood's heads again. He'll be better than Gervais was at this year's Oscars. Gervais just doesn't do stand-up well - he should stick to sitcoms.

Alistair Anderson

Adam Sandler needs to be funny again

Courtesy of Mymoviespot.com, viz: http://www.mymoviespot.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/adam-sandler-happy-gilmore.jpg

Twenty minutes into Adam Sandler's Grown Ups and I realise this really is just a bunch of has-been comedians with tired jokes and some daft ones.

Adam Sandler needs to cease from his glut of bad children's or family films. Or is Grown Ups for adults?

Bring back the Adam Sandler of the 1990s or get him to play a villain or a serious role as in Punch-Drunk Love. Fine, Punch-Drunk Love was the kind of rare great film that few actors can be expected to star in twice.

Nevertheless, I'd like some more Waterboy and some less Just Go With It. I did say he would be in that animated film about monsters, so maybe that is a start.

Alistair Anderson

The Bang Bang Club - dull premiere

I went to the permiere of the co-South African - co-Canadian produced "The Bang Bang Club" this week.

The movie is based on the stories of four South African photographers who took photos of much of the violence in 180s South Africa.

It is based on a book about them but I ofund the film played to emotions and lacked believability.

A more in depth review of the film may be published on this blog in the near future.

I will say that I found the actual premiere boring. There were none of the international stars and the public, which was invited to attend, by paying R70 each, seemed confused. As far as celebrities go, I think I saw Elana Afrika there. Apparently, the Clegg family also counts. But where were all of the movie celebs?

Next time a movie is filmed in SA or with SA people, let's hope the industry is better represented.

Alistair Anderson

Whatever happened to... Leo's The Beach co-stars

Danny Boyle's 2000-directed film, The Beach was on eTV on Thursday night. It is a good film in my opinion. I could even stomach the "gameboy jungle run".

However, this post is not a review. What struck me about the movie was it made me ask the question again; what happened to the French costars of the man who is now one of the world's biggest actors, Leonardo Di Caprio?

Well, both the guy, Guillaume Canet and the girl, Virginie Ledoyen respectively, went on to star in French movies. I think they did this because they enjoy French cinema or people in the US do not rate them as actors or they have just been unlucky in getting roles in US films.

What do you think?

Alistair Anderson

Terminator 3 let me down

It has been about eight years but I still have not got over how awful Terminator 3 was. It was on eTV on Sunday, which reminded me of its evil. It may have seemed less disgusting if Terminator 2 was not as good as it was but number three was an embarrassing piece of excrement. I know some people thought T3 was decent but it had so little imagination. I was not bowled over by Terminator Salvation (T4) either. The only redeeming factor of T3 was the Gavin Rossdale - Blue Man Group song called The Current, which was played at the end.

Here is the awesome song:



Alistair Anderson

Film Review: Scream 4

Rating: 8/10 - Very Good



This is better than most people could expect from a sequel 11 years on. In fact, the team behind Scream 4, has not only made a more than decent sequel, but also managed to reach the heights of Scream 1, with this mostly fresh, entertaining movie. If you do not enjoy this, you have no concept of what makes a good horror movie. You are probably some clown who gets excited every time that there is another Saw film. Those movies lose more sense with every torrid incarnation. Director, Wes Craven, creator Kevin Williamson and the rest of his crew have made a very clever film that makes Scream a stylish parody that deserves praise.



Director: Wes Craven. Screenplay: Kevin Williamson. Producers: Kevin Williamson, Wes Craven and Iya Labunka. Cinematographer: Peter Deming. Editor: Peter McNulty. Music: Marco Beltrami. Distributor: Dimension Films. Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Adam Brody and Rory Culkin. Age Restriction: 16VL. Running Time: 111 Minutes.

The movie is set 15 years after the first film and ten years after the third. Sidney Prescott returns to the small town of Woodsboro, to release her autobiography, which is part of her healing process. But when she arrives, a killer, who looks like Ghostface, starts killing students from Woodsboro High, including her younger cousin's friends. Sidney wanted to move on from all the pain but someone won't let her. She, Dewey Riley, who is now a sheriff after being a deputy in the original trilogy and Gail Weathers Riley, Dewey's new husband and the reporter-turned novelist, set out to investigate the murders.

They have to learn from the teenagers of the school what the new rules of horror movies are as they try to survive. The movie's tag line is new decade new rules and the film makers poke fun at recent horror movies and their reliance on gore and voyeurism.

Neve Campbell plays Sidney. She has not appeared in many big box office movies since Scream 3. She plays Sidney well in this movie and fans should enjoy the role which "broke her" as an actress in the 1990s. One of the clever things that Scream 1 did was to kill off its biggest star at the time, Drew Barrymore, in the opening scene. Campbell had been seen in the TV series, Party of Five and in the cult horror movie, The Craft, but Scream elevated her career, at least for a while. I thought she was great in Three To Tango and The Company. She probably made audiences a bit light-headed while sitting in the bath in the former and dancing in the latter. Let's not forget Wild Things, which was a sleazy film, which definitely excited many teenagers.

Cox and Arquette are both good and the joining cast is entertaining. The movie must be commended for all of the interesting nuances in the dialogue. It even has a cheesy take on society, which makes it more entertaining.

The new generation's cast of Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin, Emma Roberts, Anthony Anderson and even Adam Brody, all deliver solid performances. They may be playing bratty teenagers, which is not particularly new, but the viewer actually cares a bit about them. The film makers make us want to see people survive the movie. There may be some characters that one would not mind seeing get ripped to shreds by a knife-wielding maniac, but on the whole you support the characters and become fairly freaked out by the killings, even if they seem de-sensitised to the violence. The film makers are telling us that the youth has become de-sensitised to violence and maybe lost some of its innocence.

This is a gory, funny, sometimes silly film that respects its series and has enough smart extras to be worth a couple of viewings.

Verdict: This is a clever movie that should be beyond pretentious gits who expect it to be an entirely new take on horror films. The movie instead returns to the parody-serious formula of the original, which works well. It may make horror movies popular again but essentially, Scream 4, has made the series it was born from cool again.

Alistair Anderson

Thursday's Cheese: Can't Stop The Music

I'd almost forgotten this movie. Actually I had forgotten it. But when I was a lot younger I used to watch this movie to dance along to it. And it's easy to see why. Starring The Village People, yes the Indian, the Cop, the Cowboy, the Dodge-a-rama dude and the Construction Worker in this their first and only silver screen outing. Don't believe me, watch the trailer.

I couldn't believe it when I saw it tucked away in the DVD store. But there it was, with it's neon light flashing.

Proof that even directors like Alan Carr (Grease) can get it wrong, this is a non-stop cheese fest. Let me take that back. Alan Carr did get it wrong again, have you ever sat through Grease 2? Don't. It's also an opportunity to see Bruce Jenner way before he ended up as a bit part in the daily drama of the Kardashians. Sad to say this was his only film role, and was hot on the heels of his Olympic glory and before he succumbed to the plastic surgeon.

The film's plot is loosely based on the Village People's rise to fame. All in all it's rather silly, and the roller skating (note skating not blading), disco tunes and tiny short wearing dancers all add up to a glimpse into the decade that taste forgot.

It's all very camp as well, and not surprisingly has featured recently at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

Can you believe it?

Freedom Fighter Could Scare Away Viewers

The new Marvel movie, Captain America: The First Avenger will just be called The First Avenger in certain countries, Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios were worried that anti-American sentiment would turn many viewers in foreign territories, away from the film, giving distributors around the world the option of shortening the title to "The First Avenger".

Yet the only countries that did this were Russia, Ukraine and South Korea. The villain in the film and comic book upon which it is based is called The Red Skull. He is supposed to be a Nazi but he looks red so maybe he could be seen as a Russian by some folks too? Some Ukrainians may feel similar but I do not know how South Korea fits in.

Alistair Anderson

My Worst Ever Films

Poison Ivy and Mr Freeze ham it up. Photo courtesy of flickr.com; taken by schumachergirl1956

I may write a few posts like this, in which criticise the garbage that sometimes smears its excrement on our movie screens. Bad movies can be enjoyable guilty pleasures to watch, however, so here are a few that you may enjoy:

Avatar: The Last Airbender

This movie makes no sense despite looking fairly cool. It also had awful child actors in it.

Batman and Robin

A classic stinker. I love watching this film for laughs. It was the fourth film in the series and second directed by Joel Schumacher and it was awful, a rare blight on 1997; a great year for entertainment.

Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy: Mammals, a day of reckoning is coming. That's right, the same plants and flowers that saw you crawl from the primordial soup will reclaim the planet. And there will be no-one to protect you.

Gossip Gerty: You must be new in town. In Gotham City, Batman and Robin protect us... even from plants and flowers.

Robin: Where's the snowman?

Batgirl: Maybe he melted.

Batman: No, he's just hibernating.

Mr. Freeze: I will blanket the city in endless winter. First Gotham, and then the world.

Poison Ivy: Just what I had in mind. Everything dead on earth, except us. A chance for Mother Nature to start again. Behold, the dawn of a new age. My mutant plants have the strength of the deadliest animals. Once you have frozen mankind, these babies will overrun the globe, and we shall rule them, for we will be the only two people left in the world.

Mr. Freeze: Adam and Evil!

Ms. B. Haven: Freezy, I'm feeling hot.

Mr. Freeze: I find that unlikely.

Ms. B. Haven: Okay, so my hair is brittle and my skin is dry. I'd wear the blizzards just to have you. You're the most perfect man I've ever known. What do you say we heat things up?

Mr. Freeze: My passion thaws for my pride alone.

Ms. B. Haven: Ooh. Talk about your cold shoulder.

Batman to Mr Freeze: Mr Freeze, the heat is on.

Mr. Freeze: In this universe, there's only one absolute ... everything freezes!
What killed the dinosaurs? The Ice Age.
Mercy? I'm afraid my condition has left me cold to your pleas of mercy.
If revenge is a dish best served cold, then put on your Sunday finest.
We aim to ... freeze.
You won't be sending me to the cooler!
Chill!

Town and Country

Bad acting, complete trite.

Apparently Beatty was ocnfused with what the film was about.

Alistair Anderson

Angelina Jolie And Sarah Jessica Parker Top Forbes Magazine's Highest Paid Actresses List

Apart from being a business magazine, Forbes Magazine is perhaps most most well known for its annual lists of the wealthiest people in various fields such as sports and film as well as their Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. They have recently released their list of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood and to be honest there are no real shocks here. It's pretty much the usual suspects with newbie Kristen Stewart (Twilight Saga) thrown in for good measure but that's hardly a surprise. Check out the full list below:

1. Angelina Jolie and Sarah Jessica Parker - $30 000 000

3. Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon - $28 000 000

5. Julia Roberts and Kristen Stewart - $20 000 000

7. Katherine Heigl - $19 000 000

8. Cameron Diaz - $18 000 000

9. Sandra Bullock - $15 000 000

10. Meryl Streep - $10 000 000

Source: Forbes Magazine

Do think any of these actresses deserved what they were paid? Who would you rather see in this top 10 list?

Say It Isn't So

According to the Huffington Post, Johnny Depp is said to be in talks for Pirates of the Caribbean 5. The reason? The fourth film, On Stranger Tides, was thought to be a 'fresh start' for the series. This was no doubt as there was no sign of Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightley. Somehow I think the 'fresh start' has more to do with the ringing of the cash register rather than any attempts at inconsequential things like story, plot, pacing.


Is there really a need to drag out a story based on a Disney park ride to five, five, 3 hour long movies? Yes the first was fun, the second was okay, by the third it felt like been-there-done-that, and the fourth was kind of fun, but not entirely redeemed by Penelope Cruz and a new storyline. Does sucking every last ounce of life out of an idea always work?

One quick trip down memory lane will attest. Jaws 4: The Revenge. Policy Academy 4, 5, 6......Lethal Weapon 4, 5. Die Hard, even. And that one started fabulously. When the heck does someone call it a day? When it goes straight from studio to DVD?

I won't be watching another Pirates film. How about you?

Adam Sandler and Dexter's Daddy join forces

Adam Sandler receiving his spot on Hollywood's Walk of Fame

Comedic stalwart Adam Sandler and a few other funny people have been confirmed to voice characters in Sony Pictures Animation's new 3D family comedy, Hotel Transylvania, Hitfix said on Tuesday.

Adam Sandler is gathering some scary pals for the 3D family comedy "Hotel Transylvania" for Sony Pictures Animation. Sandler will voice the lead role of Dracula in a comedy homage to classic monsters movies. The movie will be directed by the genius who created the cartoons: Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack; Genndy Tartakovsky.

The movie also features The King of Queens' Kevin James, as Frankenstein, the Nanny's Fran Drescher as the Bride, Just Shoot Me's David Spade as Quasimodo, singer Cee Lo Green as the Mummy, and the best thing about Saturday Night Live, Andy Samberg, as Jonathan, a 21-year-old man who checks into the hotel. Brilliant actor Steve Buscemi, and Molly Shannon will also feature.

Many people may be tired of Sandler's bad romantic comedies and corny children's movies but the ensemble cast and talented director should result in a good film. It will be better received than Sandler's 2D animated movie, 8 Crazy Nights (2002), which was decent, I thought.

Alistair Anderson

5 Things I Want To See In Transformers 4

With the latest film in the giant fighting robots franchise on course for $416 million worldwide in it's first seven days of release, it's likely that it will top at out at over $1 billion worldwide and thereby making it a no-brainer that there will indeed be a Transformers 4 in the near future. Director Michael Bay and lead actor Shia LaBeouf have confirmed that they won't be back for the next instalment so it is pretty much guaranteed that Transformers 4 will be reboot. As much as I've mostly enjoyed all three films (even the supposedly abysmal Revenge Of The Fallen) there are some changes that I would like to see in the next film. Here are my suggestions for Transformers 4:

1. More Cybertron Please!

If Avatar made one contribution to humankind, it was to show that the general movie-going public isn't as averse to strange new CGI worlds as most Hollywood execs would have you believe. Therefore I believe that there's no good reason why the next Transformers shouldn't be set mostly, perhaps entirely, on Cybertron. Hopefully it'll be a prequel where we get to see how the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons first broke out. That would pretty awesome.

2. A Half-decent Screenplay Would Be Nice

A reboot requires fresh new ideas and therefore Paramount needs to hire a new screenwriter for the next batch of sequels. Ehren Kruger's screenplays have been the weakest link of the last two films so he definitely needs to go and hopefully they bring in some new writing talent.

3. Bring On The Dinobots

If you think that Transformers that change into cars look cool, wait till you see the Dinobots who, you guessed it, transform into dinosaurs. They're pretty cool and badass plus they would be an awesome way of introducing the wider world to an expanded Transformers universe so I'm definitely keen on seeing them on the big screen.

4. Less Humans, More Robots

This ties in to points 1 and 3 but I want to emphasise it because this really is what Transformers is all about. The events that take place on Earth form a relatively small part of the canon and I believe that the best way for the series to reboot is to move away from Earth to other more exotic and frankly interesting parts of the Transformers universe.

5. NO MORE DORKY HUMOUR!!!

Please for the love of God make it stop! A straightforward action-thriller, no-nonsense Transformers would be the best thing ever. The humour in the current series is at best unfunny but mostly excruciating to sit through.

What changes would you like to see in the next Transformer film?

The South African Box Office Report

Welcome to our weekly box office report where we reveal the Top 10 films in South Africa over the last weekend. See the full chart after the jump.

Trailer Roundup: Spy Kids 4, The Three Musketeers and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Here are a few trailers for you to enjoy. Sometimes trailers give away the plot to films they preview but they can be entertaining nonetheless. Enjoy:

Spy Kids: All The Time In The World



Why is there a fourth Spy Kids movie? None of the first three were good films but some youngsters enjoyed them. Robert Rodriguez directs again. I think he was lucky in making the Desperado series, including Once Upon A Time in Mexico, as every film he has helmed since has been rather unimpressive in my opinion, except for Sin City, which was excellent. Jessica Alba starred in that and she features in this new Spy Kids film too. Perhaps she will deliver an interesting performance? She probably has some kind of motherly or old-sister role so that could force more out of her.

The Three Musketeers



We have another Three Musketeers movie. This one could me worse than the watchable 1994 movie or maybe even better. It is quite difficult to predict, seeing that it has the likes of Mathhew Macfadyen, Christoph Waltz and even Orlando, what happened to him, Bloom. It also features Mads Mikkelsen and Milla Jovovich. These actors all have shown some level of quality in their performances but the sometimes awful, hardly ever good, Paul W.S. Anderson directs. I would be less critical of him since I enjoyed his Event Horizon, Resident Evil movies and Mortal Kombat, which he directed but he made a weak Death Race. This guy has been an action movie man his whole career but hopefully he will couple this film with a decent storyline and acting.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy



In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons. - Imdb.com

This film may be very good, given the fact that it is based on a John le Carré novel and is directed by Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson. The cast is a who's who of cool, many up and coming British actors; Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciaran Hinds, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, Simon McBurney, Tom Hardy I expect a clever, well-made British thriller. (Gary Oldman and Colin Firth are established, I realise).

America's Sweethearts?

The negative press emanating off the latest Tom Hanks film Larry Crowne could power an entire nuclear waster disposal unit for the rest of humanity's existence. It has yet to release here, so I'm not going to join in the trend. But it did make me think about Hollywood, the career of an actor or actress and the damage of the typecast.

Last night I watched A Breath of Scandal, a rather forgettable but pleasant enough oldie with Sophia Loren as a spoilt Viennese princess who falls in love with an American (John Gavin, who I can't say rings any huge bells). But to my point, La Loren pouts her way through the material looking bleached and frou-frou. If you looked closer, you could make out the rumblings of the superb actress underneath, but it was hard to tell under all that cheese. Which led me to wonder. Would we have Sophia Loren screen icon, if she had been typecast earlier in her career. I doubt it.

Tom Hanks likes to play a lovable, nice guy who sort of stumbles upon extraordinary circumstances (Splash, Big, The Green Mile, Cast Away, The Terminal), when he's not acting as a slightly slow Gump of a man (Forrest Gump), voicing a toy cowboy (Toy Story franchise), and every now and then breaking the mold (Philadelphia, Road to Perdition). He is a multiple Oscar winner and to all intents and purposes, a movie hero, an American sweetheart. Slow and steady.
So what's with his apparent lack of pulling power?

Maybe audiences, who have grown used to Tom Hanks over the years, know what they're going to get. If it's Tom Hanks, well, you know that it will probably be a good film, and it will probably have the right elements of drama and comedy, and slightly bittersweet ending.

And maybe that's enough to have them staying at home content to wait for the DVD or the TV re-run. Just a thought.

Which was your favourite Tom Hanks?

Snow White To Be A Trilogy

Kirsten Stewart at the 82nd Academy Awards

Film site TotalFilm.com reported on Monday that the new Snow White And The Huntsman film will be a trilogy.
Producer Joe Roth said the Kristen Stewart-starring fairytale revamp would constitute three films.

"It's meant to be the first in a series of films," he said.

"This story will end, but there will be questions remaining for these three characters."

It sounds to me like a Stewart-vehicle to make yet more money. She has been in a bunch of Twilight films so why can she not star in another slew of fantastical movies?

She plays Snow White, who is sent away by Charlize Theron’s evil queen. Snow White then meets the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth of Thor).

"We retain the basic story in the same way we retain the basic story of Alice, a young girl meant to be the queen who is cast out," Mr Roth said.

"The Huntsman is a mercenary, in the sense that he's a guy who is very able in the woods, more able than most anyone. His job is to capture runaway girls, who are all fleeing the kingdom because of the queen.

"He's a nondescript bounty hunter, as we first meet him... He's not a nice guy, but not only that he’s someone who has lost hope and lost faith. He has lost his wife, given up on everything," he said.

I think Hemsworth may be able to act but Stewart leaves me with questions. Theron may make a good queen.

Alistair Anderson

Bridesmaids Better Than Sex And The City

Who'd have thought it? Judd Apatow's gross-out comedy for women has topped Sex and the City to become the top R-rated female comedy of all time.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, SATC earned a $152.6 million with Bridesmaids already coming in at $152.9 million. And that was before the Independence Day end of run.

This is somewhat reassuring. Somewhat in that I can't see any other female ensemble cast comedies waiting in the wings. Sure, we've got the drama, like the recent For Coloured Girls, and any number of similar 'he did me wrong' stuff, ditto the traditional romcom. But funny women together? Let's see if this marks a change. I won't hold my breath.

Dare I even ask, do you think female comedies are funny?

Film Review: Madea's Big Happy Family

Rating: 3/10 - Terrible

Love him or hate him, the fairly consistent box office earnings of Tyler Perry's films mean that he sure knows how to please his core audience. Whether or not the actual films are any good is debatable because box office earnings are NOT directly proportional to great film making. So is the latest film in the Madea series any good? See my full review after the jump.

Film Review - Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Rating: 5.5/ 10- Average

The third film in the Transformers series has proven to match up with the two previous films. It is not much better and not worse, pretty much the same things happen with a slight change in storyline.

DVD Review: Toy Story 3

Rating: 8.5/10 - Excellent


Toy Story 3 may be a seen as a child's film about talking toys but it was made for adults who grew up with its predecessors. The first film in the trilogy was groundbreaking for its use of 3-D animation and well-written story. The second was a decent follow-up. The third finishes the tale well. It may make some adult viewers feel nostalgic but will also gain some new child fans, who could then watch the first two films.

DVD Review: How Do You Know

Rating: 3/10 - Very Bad

There is said to be a curse that affects the Best Actress Oscar winners. They either lose their errant husbands, choose dud roles or slide into obscurity. Or all three. I was hopeful that Reese Witherspoon would not be one of them. From her performance in Man in the Moon to Walk the Line, she showed a certain style in her choice of film. Then along came this one.

Weekend TV Top 10: 01-07-2011

Hello and welcome to our weekly Friday afternoon series where we highlight the best films to watch on TV during the weekend from Friday evening till Sunday night. See what those films are after the jump.

New Spielberg: War Horse Trailer

First look at the trailer for Spielberg's latest film, set to be released later this year. Based on the children's novel of the same name, War Horse is about the relationship of a young boy and his horse set against the back-drop of the First World War.



It looks like a first-class tear jerker. What do you think?

Transformers 3 Not The Biggest Money-puller

Photo: Actors on set, courtesy of Wikipedia.org

BoxOfficeMojo.com reported on Thursday that the third Transformers movie did not make much money in its opening. Maybe people realised it was destined to be weak.

"The Transformers franchise fell back with the debut of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The robo-sequel made $37,3m on Wednesday, and, while that ranked as the sixth highest-grossing Wednesday opening ever, it paled compared (with) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and likely yielded fewer viewers than the first Transformers," the website said.

The film was released at close to 10 000 screens at 4 011 locations. It had about as many screens as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Transformers 2) and exactly the same number of locations as the first Transformers.

Revenge of the Fallen raked in a then-record $62m in its Wednesday debut two years ago, while the first Transformers drew $27,9m in its Tuesday start in 2007. Dark of the Moon was the first movie in the series to be presented in 3D. Its run includes 2 789 3D locations and 146 in IMAX.

I think some of the public realised how derivative the film was bound to be.

Bloomberg West, a financial news program that focuses on media and technology companies recently reported that 3D cinema as a concept, was under-performing in many countries.

Transformers 3 is now showing at South African cinemas in 2D and 3D.

Original article at: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3197

Alistair Anderson

Director Of The Month Film Review: Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan

Rating: 6/10 - Good

Billed as a psychological drama, Black Swan (2010) garnered a fair amount of acclaim for its lead Natalie Portman in her Oscar winning role. As for the film itself?

Director Of The Month Film Review: Darren Aronofsky - The Wrestler

Rating: 7.2/10 - Very Good

Welcome to our second to last review in our series on Darren Aronofsky. Is it as good as his previous effort, The Fountain? See the full review after the jump.

Director Of The Month Film Review: Darren Aronofsky - The Fountain

Rating: 9.7/10 - A Masterpiece

As a film reviewer, most of the films I get to watch are pretty dull and uninspiring. Truly remarkable films are few and far between but I guess half the reward of sitting through the most of the nonsense is the hope of catching a true masterpiece every now and again. The Fountain is one of those rare masterpieces.

Mission Impossible 4: Official Trailer

It's here. The new Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol official trailer.

View it here:



Looks like the typical slick action and baffling plotline we've come to expect from this franchise. Can hardly wait.

Which of the impossibles is your favourite?

Films That Make You Want To Go There

Some films are set in such amazing places that when you watch it you just want to go visit that same place and experience what the characters in the film experienced.

Recent reports have said that Hangover 2 has boosted tourism in Thailand. Some tour groups are allegedly even offering 'Hangover tours', whereby visitors can go for a tour around all the places where Hangover was shot.

I really do feel that many films are great ways to boost tourism in the destinations that they are filmed. This is obviously only if the film reflects it in a positive light. It can have the opposite affect and make people not want to visit the place at all.

The film that made me fall in love with 3 destinations, was Eat, Pray, Love. After watching that film all I wanted to do was pack my bags and travel the world. Italy, India and Bali are the three countries featured in this story and I would now love to visit each of them.

Which films have given you the travel itch?

Another Remake

Hollywood has decided to use current technology to remake a cult 1980s science fiction film.

Yahoo! reports that the thriller WarGames will be remade.

"Global thermonuclear war is coming back to a theater near you. And, fittingly, a gamer is helping make it happen," it wrote on Tuesday.

It said news company Deadline had reported that the 1983 film was getting rebooted by MGM, who have chosen Seth Gordon, the man behind the video game documentary "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters", to direct.

The orginal starred Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy. Broderick was a computer whizkid who hacked into a government network to entertain himself. He accidentally triggers World War III.

It was a hit hacker film before 1995's Hackers, which starred Angelina Jolie.

WarGames was credited as the first film to reference the security term "firewall" but it was also Broderick's first big hit, made before Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

"Gordon, meanwhile, endeared himself to gamers with his breakthrough 2007 documentary about competing Donkey Kong players. His latest work, the comedy ‘Horrible Bosses', opens July 8th," Yahoo! wrote.

Other MGM remakes in the pipeline are Mr Mom, RoboCop and Poltergeist.

See the original article here: http://blog.games.yahoo.com/blog/797-wargames-remake-coming-from-king-of-kong-director

Alistair Anderson

Toy Story 4?

Just in case you thought you'd said goodbye to Buzz and Woody and the rest of Andy's gang, looks like Tom Hanks is making noise about a fourth installment.

According to the Guardian, Hanks answered in response to the question of TS4 "I think there will be, yeah. Yeah, yeah, think they're working on it now."

Toy Story 3 was one the highest grossing film of 2010, and received critical acclaim. Certainly it continues Pixar's winning streak.

Looks like this franchise might well go to infinity and beyond.

What do you think of rumours of a 4th?

The South African Box Office Report

Welcome to our weekly box office report where we reveal the Top 10 films in South Africa over the last weekend. See the full chart after the jump.

Trailer Roundup: Captain America, The Muppets And Midnight In Paris

As has become the norm on this little corner of the interwebs, I have rounded up some cool new trailers which I think you should have a look at. While you cannot - and should not - judge a film by it's trailer,  they are, more often than not, a useful indicator of what to expect from the final product. Check out the full trailers below:


Captain America: First Avenger



Judging by the response to the previous trailer at a Green Lantern screening I attended last week, fanboys and fangirls are keenly looking to forward to Cap's big screen debut and I can't blame them. Every trailer and clip from this movie so far has looked pretty darn good and this latest trailer continues that trend by upping the action stakes and show more of the film's scope. Fingers crossed Marvel doesn't screw this one up!

The Muppets



I loved The Muppets as a kid so I am probably a bit biased but this looks HILARIOUS! It has everything and more that I'd want to see in a Muppets film so I'm sold already and I will be seeing this on opening day.

Midnight In Paris



With a current score of 92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, this is the most critically acclaimed Woody Allen film in many years. Box office-wise it's doing really well in the US where it's already opened so I thought I'd bring it to your attention and hopefully get you to add it to your must see list for 2011.

Which of these films are you loking forward to seeing?

Snow White and the Huntsman

Filming for Snow White and the Huntsman is said to kick off in August. The final cast is being wrapped up and decided.

Bob Hoskins, actor in Made in Dugenham, is going to be one of the dwarfs, says Chanel24. He will star opposite Twilight actress, Kristen Stewart, who is the beautiful Snow White. Our South African beauty, Charlize Theron will be the evil stepmother.

Eddie Izzard, Eddie Marsan, Toby Jones and Stephen Graham are all also believed to be in negotiations to play the remaining dwarves.

Ian McShane has recently signed up to play the leader dwarf. He is know for his role in the recent Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides.

This film will have a modern retake on the classic fairytale. It will keep most of the storyline with a few adjustments to make for an interesting story that will keep you entertained.

Let's hope director Rupert Sanders does the classic justice.

Are you a fairytale fan?

Hip Hobbits

Legolas and Gimli have a Roman Holiday moment on a loaner moped. Gimli hates mopeds

Hipster Hobbits? Had to happen. Pics and captions courtesy of How are You I'm Fine. Hard to believe it's been over ten years now since we first watched Fellowship of the Ring. We've still got a bit of a wait until The Hobbit, the first part of which is set to be released in December 2012. Until then, we'll have to be content with pop culture takes on the LOTR phenomenon that was.



You just know Boromir uses that line all the time. Faramir is a sensitive soul who’d rather take artsy photos than party



“Potholes and bike thieves! But the bike thieves were too much for him. I had to choose, Mr. Frodo. I had to come with you"

Counter Cinema

Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark (1987), an example of horror counter-cinema.

Searching for information on random actors from the 1980s and 1990s and what had happened to them since they starred in a decent movie that I watched, I stumbled upon the term; counter cinema.

Counter-cinema is the rough grouping of films, film makers, and institutions which attempt to work against the formalist and ideological domination of Hollywood cinema.

This is quite a broad definition. It effectively means that counter cinema includes films that do not follow linear plots, have stereotyped characters or are hyper-violent. In fact, one could say that counter cinema does not strictly exist as one concept.

Some research suggests that it started with feminist film. Feminist film theoretician, Claire Johnston, said women’s cinema could function as "counter cinema". Through consciousness of the means of production and opposition of sexist ideologies, films made by women have the potential to posit an alternative to traditional Hollywood films. In reaction to this article, many women filmmakers have integrated "alternative forms and experimental techniques" to "encourage audiences to critique the seemingly transparent images on the screen and to question the manipulative techniques of filming and editing", she says.

But it could also refer to cinema from developing countries. Indie film perhaps crosses into counter cinema. I think many Japanese ultra-violent horror films can be classified as a part of the concept. Maybe the most successful counter films of the last few years, are the Crank films and Gamer, which were directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. These two directors are now working Ghost Driver 2: Spirit of Vengeance.

Other research says that author Peter Wollen established the term, counter cinema, in his 1972 essay on Jean-Luc Godard's Le Vent D'Est.

He said the cinema is designed to unnerve viewers.

What would you count as counter cinema? - See what I did there?

Alistair Anderson

Sam Rockwell - Dance Man

Sam Rockwell loves to dance or at least movie makers like to see him move. Here are some clips of him dancing:

Iron Man 2 (2010)

He plays Justin Hammer, a bad rich kid who likes to play with expensive toys.



Moon (2009)

He plays a guy lost in space, in a sense.



The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (2005)

He is Zaphod, a nutter politician. The scene below is a deleted scene from the DVD of the movie, however.



Confessions of a dangerous mind (2002)

Rockwell plays Chuck Barris, a TV presenter and maybe-spy. This was actually lifted by YouTube from when the film was made.



Charlie's Angels (2000)

As Eric Knox, he enjoyed a fine dance moment.



Alistair Anderson

SURPRISE:

Trailer: A Dangerous Method

Fright and thriller master David Cronenberg has made a biopic which will surely attract some award attention.

A Dangerous Method features the worsening relationship between psychiatrists Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and how they disagreed on how to treat a troubled patient called Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley). The movie also stars the talented Vincent Cassel and was filmed in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I'm expecting an authentic but entertaining film. Freud and Jung have been considered to be rock stars of the psychology world in the past, so a potential bit of creative bending of the truth to make them appear more entertaining, may serve viewers well. Let us know what you think of the trailer. Fassbender looks on form to me but Knightley looks a bit silly. Maybe I need to get used to her accent.



Do you think Cronenberg, who made the brilliant Eastern Promises, with Mortensen, can pull this off?

Alistair Anderson

DVD Review: Big Mommas - Like Father, Like Son

Rating: 3.5/10 - Terrible

I'd be lying to you if I said I was looking forward to this film but, in life you sometimes have to take the good with the bad and Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son definitely falls under the bad. Make that the very bad.

DVD Review: True Grit

Rating: 5.5/10 - Average

This Western directed by the Coen brothers is adapted from the 1968 novel by Charles Portis. It has all the characteristics you would expect from a Western film, a sheriff, horses and a chase.

Film Review: Ek Joke Net

Rating: 6.3/10- Good


South African cinema has two great pranksters in Jamie Uys and Leon Schuster. Can Ek Joke Net hope to create room for a third?

Friday's Cheese: Thank God It's Friday

Warning for those with sensitive stomachs. This is deluxe cheese with added extra cheese. And what could be better for Friday than well, Thank God It's Friday.

What are you doing Friday night? If it was 1978, and you were anyone who was anyone without a date/hoping to score/experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs, you'd be at the disco.Oh yes you would.But this Friday night there's a dance competion, with music by The Commodores.

This disco movie, released in 1978, wears its bell-bottomed pants and sky-high platforms in glorious ode to the Friday night disco scene. It even won an Oscar, I kid you not. For Best Song. Donna's Summer's Last Dance which is at the end of this rather rickety and sponsored trailer that I managed to unearth:



If that wasn't enough, it also has Jeff Goldblum as the owner who oozes sleaze across the screen, Debra Winger before Terms of Endearment, and Teri Nunn (lead singer of Berlin).

Cheesy yes, but with a great disco soundtrack. Nostalgia is a dish best eaten in a room with a glitter ball.

Weekend TV Top 10: 24-06-2011

Hello and welcome to our weekly Friday afternoon series where we highlight the best films to watch on TV during the weekend from Friday evening till Sunday night. See what those films are after the jump.

Film Review: Green Lantern

Rating: 6.7/10 - Good

The filmmakers could have little else with the subject matter than this film. The character of the Green Lantern has incredible superpowers, that are maybe second only to Superman, which makes it inevitable that he is super-powerful and able to take on the most destructive forces in the universe.

Oceanic Inspirations

There is something really interesting about the way that directors adapt specific personal inspirations into their films. One such example is Wes Anderson’s film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou’s strange similarity to the 1969 film Captain Nemo and the Underwater City directed by James Hill.

The seemingly kitsch and low budget British film, Captain Nemo And The Underwater City, originally adapted Jules Verne’s novel Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea to include the character Captain Nemo in some of the outrageously fantastical settings as the novel describes. This film is an obvious inspiration for Wes Anderson’s Life Aquatic - Anderson mirrors many of the settings and key concepts within this 1969 oceanic fantasy world.

Considering this intense connection that is established between a directors inspirations and the way that these inputs so strongly influence their creative output - it is very important in a way to comprehend these influences in order to understand each directors’ unique creative process.

Kings Of Leon Might Do Bond

The Bond song is almost as much of an honour as being a Bond girl, though with less call for bikinis. Rumour has it that Kings of Leon have been asked by Daniel Craig no fewer than three times to consider the offer(didn't realise Daniel Craig had pre-approval, but these are rumours).

As much as I am a fan of Kings (have my tickets, ready to party, injured drummers notwithstanding), but are they really James Bond material? Ponder for a moment Garbage's World is Not Enough, and Madonna's Die Another Day. Oi. Vay.

For James Bond's 23rd outing, Adele is also being considered. If you consider the hideous warble that was Jack White and Alicia Key's Quantum of Solace tune, Adele seems a more obvious choice.

Why? Let's take the legendary John Barry's signature James Bond tune. It's classy rather than edgy. Ditto Shirley Bassey's belters Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever (Moonraker was intended for another singer, so we won't comment on that forgettable track). It's classic rather than country. Consider Matt Munro's From Russia with Love, or Duran Duran's View to a Kill. Even Wings's Live and Let Die.

Yes the series has been re-launched to align closer with the Ian Fleming books, but his cold war spy didn't have that deep-fried Southern twang anywhere. Ah well, let's see. Or rather hear what transpires.

What's your favourite Bond song?

The Good The Bad And Ed Wood

It is very interesting if one considers the vast array of films and the assorted quality that ranges from the worst to the best. With this in mind I had the pleasure of being introduced to one of the worst directors by the means of Tim Burton’s fantastical biography, Ed Wood (1994).

This comedy-drama biopic, starring Johnny Depp as Ed Wood was awarded with 19 official wins and 12 nominations (including 2 Oscars). This underlines the pure irony which epitomizes the life and times of the real Ed Wood. Edward Davis Wood Jr. (1924 − 1978), assigned himself as director, producer, actor, author and editor. As if performed, Wood almost literally waltzed through the flimmaking process and notoriously finished a feature film in the matter of 5 days. Known for the poor quality of his blatantly staged special effects and lifeless actors, Wood earned a considerable cult following in the days following his death.

Despite Wood’s Golden Turkey Award for Worst Director this cult following has shed new light on Ed Wood and his film career. Since ‘bad’ became ‘good’ in this case, it seems like the borders between good and bad has shifted a considerable amount.

Steven Spielberg ordered the axing of Fox from TF3

Picture courtsey of mariosp at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariosp/

Steven Spielberg, who is the executive producer of Transormers 3, ordered that the makers of the film fire Megan Fox, because she misbehaved on set and compared director, Michael Bay, with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Yahoo! Movies reported on Wednesday:

According to a "new Michael Bay oral history in GQ, Bay says Fox was booted by the direct order of Sir Spielbergo (who helped produce the movie)".

"She was in a different world, on her BlackBerry. You gotta stay focused. And you know, the Hitler thing. Steven [Spielberg] said, 'Fire her right now.'"

Fox probably thought Bay ran his movie sets like Hitler would have, which did not sit well with Spielberg.

But I think Fox should play by Bay's rules. She would have earned a ton of money for the film. Unless, he made her life unbearable and was extremely sexist or sexually harassed, what would she have to complain about?

As for how Bay felt about Fox's comments, he said:

"I wasn't hurt, because I know that's just Megan. Megan loves to get a response. And she does it in kind of the wrong way. I'm sorry, Megan. I'm sorry I made you work twelve hours. I'm sorry that I'm making you show up on time. Movies are not always warm and fuzzy"

When I began this post, I thought maybe I should abbreviate Transformers 3 to T3. However, then I realised that T3 would refer to Terminator 3. The Terminator series was decent although the third film was poor. Let's hope that Transformers 3 is far better.

It may be; Fox was replaced by Rosie Huntington-Whitely, a British model-come-actress, who I have been excited to see more of for months.

Here she is:



Alistair Anderson