I don’t do death. I’ve spent my entire life blocking out the fact that death happens. But yesterday I learned that my most dearly beloved – the sweet and loyal and gentle Finley Dogchild – has a tumour the size of an orange growing between the muscles of her right thigh. It’s not going to…
Read moreIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Ok, now that the movie’s finally out, it’s probably finally safe to talk about this….. Although Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull features all sorts of Cold War triple agent spy-jinks and McCarthy-esque witch-hunts for hidden Reds, it would appear that most feared were those who might have tried to steal the movie’s secrets. The final…
Read morePieces of Dan in Real Life
Anyone whining about the lack of success of the South African film industry need only to look at a movie like Pieces of April to understand what we’re doing wrong. Written and directed by Peter Hedges, April is a small, personal film, well told. It stars Katie Holmes (post-Dawson and pre-Tom and therefore appealing) as an…
Read moreIron Man (again)
Based upon Marvel’s iconic Super Hero, Iron Man tells the story of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who is kidnapped by the Bad Guys and forced to build a devastating weapon for them. Instead, Tony builds a high-tech suit of armour and escapes captivity. Upon his return home, Tony…
Read moreLittle did he know……
In Stranger than Fiction, Will Ferrell plays Harold, an anal IRS agent who begins hearing a voice in his head, narrating his life. But then the narrator – a distinguished author with writer’s block – Emma Thompson, says: “Little did he know that this simple seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death……” I’d…
Read moreMistress of Spices
Aishwarya Rai plays Tilo, Mistress of Spices, a kind of sayer-healer-agony aunt who is sent to California with three implausible challenges: help people to accomplish their desires (but never her own) through the considered application of spices; never leave the store; and never touch another person’s skin. But she’s sent to Oakland for pete’s sake,…
Read moreInterminable 10000 BC
OK, so even my regional loyalty can be pushed to its limits. Citing nothing more than the fact that it had been shot in Namibia as rationale, (it was the biggest budgeted film ever to have shot in southern Africa, employing hundreds of African cast and crew members in the process), I forced Christopher sit…
Read moreGood Taste is a Deadly Attribute
My second Made in Cape Town movie of the weekend was Rendition, the first Hollywood production of South African director Gavin Hood, who won a Best Foreign Language Oscar for Tsotsi. Cinematography was by another high flying South African, Dion Beebe. “Rendition” refers to the ability of the CIA to detain anyone suspected of terrorist dealings,…
Read more