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Movie Reviews
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SPL!NG Movie Review: The Woman in Black
18 Jul 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Daniel Radcliffe stars in The Woman in Black, his follow-up to the beloved Harry Potter series, which shaped his career. Now the young British actor has the challenge of overcoming Harry Potter in the same way that Sean Connery had to shake his James Bond persona. To start the disassociation, Radcliffe has chosen The Woman in Black, an adaptation of Susan Hill’s popular […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man
11 Jul 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Whatever your reservations about the new Spider-Man remake, The Amazing Spider-Man delivers the goods. Sam Raimi’s version set the standard with Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker in a slick CGI action fest for comic book fans. Marc Webb takes the same formula and reinterprets the story for a more psychological, dramatic take on Parker and his demons.
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Rock of Ages
04 Jul 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
If you always wanted to be a rock star when you grew up, Rock of Ages is your movie. Just like Guitar Hero gave disenchanted closet rock stars the ability to play guitar like a rock god
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SPL!NG Movie Review: The Dictator
27 Jun 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Sacha Baron Cohen has just given birth to General Aladeen, another outrageous personality in his latest character comedy, The Dictator. The British comedian continues to export his brand of risque, politically incorrect, fish-out-water comedy to the Americas, continuing the legacy of Ali G, Borat and Bruno.
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Mad Buddies
20 Jun 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Mad Buddies is a return to conventional storytelling for Leon Schuster, whose box office achievements have been limited to South Africa with over-the-top local characters like Mr. Bones and Mama Jack. While these films have been runaway commercial hits, they haven’t managed to mimic the international appeal of The Gods Must Be Crazy. The madcap toilet humour, slapstick comedy and […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Prometheus
13 Jun 2012 by SPLING / 5 Comments
Ridley Scott’s long-awaited science-fiction film Prometheus has crash-landed. Prometheus was initially intended as a direct prequel to Alien, but has been set apart as a stand-alone work within the Alien universe. This sudden change in direction suggests that there may have been some serious problems during filming, something that Scott may have done in an attempt to salvage Prometheus and its crew from the fire.
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Men in Black 3
06 Jun 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
A decade seems to have been enough time for Men in Black and Men in Black II to have blended into a distant yet somewhat positive bubble of aliens, memory erasing agents and cartoon style action-comedy with Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones. Well… it may not have been heralded, but like it or not Men in Black 3 is back with […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Snow White and The Huntsman
30 May 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Snow White & The Huntsman is a beautiful magpie and revision of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale. While it may sound like a pretentious new wall paint, you won’t feel like you’re watching it dry. Recent Snow White adaptation Mirror Mirror is a pantomime compared with Snow White & The Huntsman, which spins an intensely dark, mature and captivating […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: The Rum Diary
23 May 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
I hate it when a movie trailer turns out to be a 2 minute highlights reel. The Rum Diary is one such movie that promises a Dagwood and serves up a crouton. On paper, The Rum Diary should have been all that and more, reuniting the legendary actor-writer team behind Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Johnny Depp and Hunter […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Wuthering Heights
16 May 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Wuthering Heights… the title demands a sigh and conjures up women fainting and swooning on mountain tops. Emily Bronte wrote the book with the protagonist of Heathcliff modeled on her brother, Branwell, which would suggest she had incestuous tendencies. It’s difficult to blame the girl, who lost her mother as a toddler, dreamed of imaginary […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Shame (2011)
09 May 2012 by SPLING / 2 Comments
Steve McQueen is a fine artist turned film director, who shares the name of the more famous action man and Hollywood icon – yet they are distinctly different. McQueen’s latest offering is another dark drama in the wake of Hunger and gives his audience a voyeuristic glance into the world of a man living with a sexual addiction aggravated by a painful past. Ag, Shame.
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Battleship (2012)
02 May 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Transformers was essentially a 20 minute advert for the collectible figurines, which went on to become a series of Michael Bay blockbusters. While merchandise is probably the main reason George Lucas gave Star Wars a 3D overhaul. Just when you thought Hollywood had milked the “toy” department dry… Hasbro smashes a mini champagne bottle on Battleship, a popular table top game and now $200 million […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: The Avengers (2012)
25 Apr 2012 by SPLING / 2 Comments
The most anticipated superhero movie of the year is here! Marvel’s The Avengers has received plenty of hype ahead of its release and the bottom line is that it won’t disappoint… much. This superheroes-on-steroids spectacle manages to do the near-impossible, containing several of the world’s biggest superheroes and Hollywood egos in one literal blockbuster.
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SPL!NG Movie Review: The Grey (2011)
18 Apr 2012 by SPLING / 6 Comments
If you’ve never survived a plane crash only to be pursued by a pack of bloodthirsty wolves whilst bracing a bitter Alaskan blizzard, tired, afraid and hungry… you need to see The Grey. It may not be as informative as Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls, but it’s fascinating in a White Fang meets Alive kind of way.
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SPL!NG Movie Review: The Hunger Games (2012)
11 Apr 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
The Hunger Games is old hat. We’ve seen our fair share of films involving a group of children, forced to do combat in a confined area in a kill-or-be-killed situation. Suzanne Collins has just commericialised the format made famous by William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, writing a novel that has enough human interest and viral appeal to capture a […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: American Reunion (2012)
04 Apr 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
American Pie followed four young high school students as they tossed their wild oats to the wind in a last ditch effort to enter college without their virginity. The mix of gross out comedy and spirited coming-of-age school nostalgia was infectious, instantly igniting film careers and spurning several sequels with diminishing returns, until American Reunion…
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Wrath of the Titans (2012)
28 Mar 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
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. It’s no secret, Greek […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: 21 Jump Street (2012)
21 Mar 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are not a match made in buddy cop heaven. Hill, best known for comedy, got a tip of the hat when he received an Oscar nomination for his role in Moneyball, while Channing Tatum’s range is best encapsulated by boxing legend Muhammed Ali’s mantra: float like a butterfly (romance) and sting like […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: John Carter (2012)
14 Mar 2012 by SPLING / 1 Comment
A bearded man with extraordinary powers, savior of a planet, died and buried in a tomb only to rise again with the initials J.C. The life of Jesus Christ inspired the character of John Carter and Edgar Rice Burroughs inspired hundreds of writers and film-makers with the Barsoom series of science-fiction novels, which have been adapted into the film, John Carter of Mars.
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
07 Mar 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
If a nice cup of tea, a dry scone and a fascinating game of chess against one of those electronic Kasparov chessboards sounds like a great night in… Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is your movie. Slow-moving, dull, dreary and stoney-faced – this Cold War club for stiff cigar room suits makes the dense two hour plod as inviting as […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
29 Feb 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is a miracle. Why? There’s no other way you could explain it being nominated for a Best Picture at the 84th Academy Awards. Grant 2012 hasn’t been the strongest year for Hollywood with only a handful of truly excellent films, but let’s call it what it is… extremely long & incredibly […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: War Horse (2011)
22 Feb 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Stephen Spielberg loves a good war drama and it shows, having directed Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, Empire of the Sunand Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. All of these epic dramas were set in and around World War II, which is just one reason the Best Picture nominated War Horse is so different…
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Material (2012)
15 Feb 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Material is one of the smartest, most heartwarming movies to originate from South Africa, telling the story of a young Muslim man whose love for stand-up comedy leads to conflict when his father expects him to take over the family business. You will love it!
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Safe House (2012)
08 Feb 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Safe House is one helluva ride! Man-on-the-run movies have always been popular. They carry the thrill of the chase, the drama of a man wrongfully accused, the natural ebb-and-flow of a road trip movie and the narrative equivalent of an ant, a magnifying glass and a hot day.
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Man on a Ledge (2012)
01 Feb 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Man on a Ledge stars Sam Worthington, whose robotic acting is best forgotten in blockbusters such as Avatar, Clash of the Titans and best remembered in Terminator: Salvation, where he was actually part cyborg. As you can imagine with any movie where the lead character wants to commit robot suicide off a high-rise building – expectations were low…
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SPL!NG Movie Review: The Skin I Live In (2011)
25 Jan 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
Skin… everyone’s got one, except that guy dangling from the tree in Predator. The word has developed a stigma and a deviant curiosity in Hollywood: Mysterious Skin, Skinwalkers, ‘skin flicks’ – and it would be rash to think The Skin I Live In, a film that nabbed a spot in Quentin Tarantino’s Top Ten Films of 2011, could cure that little niggling […]
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SPL!NG Movie Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
18 Jan 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo… didn’t they adapt the Millenium trilogy just two years ago? Why didn’t they cast Noomi Rapace, the ‘Girl’ from the original? Is it a faithful adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s novel? There’s an 8 minute movie trailer?
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Margin Call (2011)
11 Jan 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
The award-winning documentary Inside Job drilled down into what caused the 2008 financial crisis by consulting some of the finest financial experts. Margin Call creates a fictionalised account of the most critical 24 hour period of the meltdown, featuring some of Hollywood’s most respected actors.
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SPL!NG Movie Review: The Ides of March (2011)
04 Jan 2012 by SPLING / No Comments
It’s no secret, 2011 was a dismal year for Hollywood. The movie machine is running out of ideas, David Lynch has turned to music, budgets are being screwed tight and we’re getting a spill of bankable franchise sequels and unnecessary adaptations. Although one actor seems to have risen out of the ashes…
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SPL!NG Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes – A Game of Shadows (2011)
28 Dec 2011 by SPLING / No Comments
Here’s a mystery for you, Arthur Conan Doyle is dead. He’s been dead for 81 years, but still gets “posthumourous” writing credits for the title action man and his sidekick in the latest “Sherlock Holmes” on steroids movie adaptation starring Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Guy Ritchie.
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