Director, Jon S. Baird is a brave and determined director. When the pig-headed policeman on the front cover of Irvine Welsh’s Filth caught his imagination, he read the novel and was inspired to direct what was then deemed impossible to adapt. The film rights had just expired and Baird took it upon himself to visit Irvine Welsh […]

Continue Reading

Only God Forgives is the much anticipated follow-up to Drive from writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn. In many ways, this is an unofficial sequel to Drive: Ryan Gosling takes another lead role, while the sleek cinematography and pulsating soundtrack reverberate with the same intensity. The difference is that Only God Forgives is set in Bangkok, balancing on a much sharper and darker […]

Continue Reading

South Africa’s crime epidemic has inspired films like Tsotsi, Jerusalema, A Million Colours, How to Steal 2 Million, Stander, Hijack Stories and more recently, Four Corners. We’re living in a gangster’s paradise with a flourishing subculture of violence and criminality. While the SAPS and local crime watch initiatives are trying to combat this, crime is still a prominent issue in South Africa.

Continue Reading

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has got a lot to live up to. For starters, it follows Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man franchise, which only really ran out of web in Spider-Man 3. Second, it’s a sequel following a strong series reboot. Thirdly, the title The Amazing Spider-Man 2 puts a bit of pressure to keep it well, amazing. More to the point, it’s […]

Continue Reading

It’s funny how some movie titles seem to become self-fulfilling prophecies, allowing their overriding meaning to seep into the film. On the surface, Sabotage is a dark, trashy and intense Arnold Schwarzenegger action thriller with a couple of name stars thrown in for good measure. However, as it builds to a crescendo, it seems as […]

Continue Reading

Darren Aronofsky’s Biblical fantasy epic was spawned from his fascination with the character of Noah. On the surface, Noah was a man commissioned by God to build an ark and gather two of every bird, animal and reptile before the floods cleansed the earth of humanity. The retelling of this Old Testament story tends to […]

Continue Reading

Captain America doesn’t really have any super powers. He’s a super soldier, armed with a shield that doubles as a boomerang frisbee. His agility, strength, healing and endurance abilities make him slightly more difficult to kill than you or I, but let’s face the facts… he’s a G.I. Joe at a fancy dress party.

Continue Reading

Pollsmoor Prison is overpopulated and way beyond capacity, famous for Nelson Mandela’s incarceration and infamous for its prolific gangsterism. A gang war has been raging for almost a hundred years between ‘The Numbers’, several prison gangs divided by their 26, 27 and 28 affiliations, exercising their rule by means of extreme violence. Their bonds extend beyond […]

Continue Reading

Wes Anderson is a marvelous film-maker, one whose body of work is simultaneously aloof and delightful. He builds worlds in his films that exist entirely independent of real-life, yet still deeply connected. The Grand Budapest Hotel is one such film, recounting the adventures of a legendary concierge and his trusted lobby boy between the wars at a […]

Continue Reading

It seems strange that LEGO, the beloved building block toy brand, has only just got a movie adaptation in The LEGO Movie. Well, it was worth the wait… because The LEGO Movie is nothing short of AWESOME! While still regarded as a toy for kids, it’s a rite of passage for many people who used to […]

Continue Reading

It’s been 8 years since Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300 hit the big screen. The standalone film blazed with battle cries, cutting edge visuals and ancient Greek “This is… SPARTA!” machismo. It set in motion the careers of its director, Zack Snyder and Gerard Butler.

Continue Reading

When David O. Russell makes a movie, people sit up, take notice and then stand up. He reportedly said he hates plots and is all about characters. Well, the critically acclaimed director has managed to get Oscar-nominated performances out of his cast in his last three films.  It’s no wonder he’s developing a loyal following of […]

Continue Reading

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was Will Ferrell at his best. The comedian’s larger-than-life attitude, the character’s over-the-top ego and the chauvinistic news room of the ’70s made Anchorman an instant cult hit. Catchphrases, big hair and bigger facial hair made way for an almost inevitable sequel for the ridiculous newsman and his cohorts. Well, the day […]

Continue Reading

We’re living in an age when being without our phone makes us feel disconnected from society. No social media, no messaging services, no Internet and no fast track to our list of contacts makes us feel insecure and out of touch. These mobile devices have become more than our personal assistants, they’ve become an integral […]

Continue Reading

Inside Llewyn Davis is a Coen brothers film that captures the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961 through the eyes of a fictional character, who was inspired by the memoirs and music of Dave Van Ronk. This beautifully shot music drama truly takes us there as we experience a week in the life of a struggling […]

Continue Reading

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quickly establishing himself as a bankable actor after a series of significant roles in films like The Dark Knight Rises, Inception and Looper. He’s more than that, pushing forward with his Just Hit Record brand by writing and directing his first feature film, Don Jon.

Continue Reading

Sylvester Stallone has been making good progress on his Hollywood bucket list. After finally playing opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Escape Plan, the next big fish was Robert De Niro, who co-stars with Stallone in Grudge Match.

Continue Reading

“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” The verse is often misquoted, but seems fitting when you consider the rise and fall of Jordan Belfort, a stock broker whose extraordinary biography became a film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Continue Reading

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is an adventure-slash-comedy directed by and starring Ben Stiller. Every couple of years, Stiller decides to direct a film and the result is always interesting: Reality Bites, The Cable Guy, Zoolander, Tropic Thunder and now The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, an adaptation of a short story by James […]

Continue Reading

Will they be releasing an extended edition of The Hobbit trilogy? It seems as though that’s already happening. If anything, there will be a special director’s cut, which will probably get a cinema release, drawing all of the films together in the space of three-and-a-half hours. If not, there will undoubtedly be a fan-made version […]

Continue Reading

Escape Plan is the culmination of a big idea that has been simmering, along with their testosterone levels, for a couple of decades. Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger have finally made a movie together. The quintessential ’80s action icons have trail-blazed their way into Hollywood history and pop culture with long and impressive careers. Now […]

Continue Reading

Ender’s Game is based on Orson Scott Card’s classic science fiction novel. South African writer-director, Gavin Hood, best known for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Rendition and Tsotsi, was entrusted with bringing the book to life and for the most part, he’s succeeded. It’s not an entirely faithful adaptation with a number of casting and story compromises […]

Continue Reading

Nelson Mandela is an extraordinary man, whose life story plays like a political version of The Count of Monte Cristo. He was born into a rural family, educated as a lawyer, discriminated against in his own country, branded a “terrorist” leader, a political prisoner for 27 years, only to be inaugurated as President of South […]

Continue Reading

The Hunger Games underplayed its hand. While competent and carried by a strong performance from Jennifer Lawrence, Gary Ross seemed like the wrong director for the film. Getting the Seabiscuit and Pleasantville director on-board must have been a ploy to cushion the adult themes to appeal to a much broader audience. While marketed as a […]

Continue Reading

In an age dominated by superheroes, it’s always refreshing to hear about real-life heroes. You know, those people who see an opportunity to step in and have the courage to follow through. Captain Richard Phillips is one such person, who made headlines worldwide when the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama container vessel he was captaining became […]

Continue Reading

The first thing you’ll notice about Luc Besson’s Mafia action comedy, The Family, is its stellar cast, featuring Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones. The film functions as a tongue-in-cheek look at the life of a gangster trying to escape his sordid past. It’s also a fish-out-of-water comedy in the way that […]

Continue Reading

Pitch Black introduced us to the dangerous escaped convict by the name of Richard B. Riddick. The survivors of a prisoner transport ship were stranded on a planet becoming prey to the local flesh-eating alien inhabitants. This gave Vin Diesel, now the poster boy for The Fast & The Furious, xXx and The Chronicles of […]

Continue Reading

Steve Jobs was an entrepreneur, a pioneer and a creative genius. This is the iconic Jobs we know from the media, yet we only know half the story. Jobs the biopic drama about the Apple founder is an eye-opening journey, taking the tempestuous Jobs from his days as a hippie in college to his crowning […]

Continue Reading

Gravity writer-director, Alfonso Cuarón has always wanted to be two things: a director and an astronaut. These lifelong dreams meshed somewhere along the way to become his magnum opus, Gravity, a breathtakingly beautiful, mesmerising, visceral and moving space film about a medical engineer and an astronaut, who work together to survive after an accident leaves […]

Continue Reading

Prisoners is an epic crime drama thriller from Denis Villeneuve, director of the Oscar-nominated foreign film, Incendies. The film pivots on two powerful co-lead performances from Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal with fine direction from Villeneuve. Prisoners makes a wonderful comparative character study of two men approaching the same dire situation from a subjective and […]

Continue Reading