Today, South Africa... and other bits 'n pieces

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Just one high profile film release hits South African cinemas today - The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

I'm sure I'll be seeing this third installment in the Mummy movie franchise during the next week or so. I saw the others in the cinema and I admit I was sold on this film (which moves the mythological-flavoured action from Egypt to China) purely by the fact that Michelle Yeoh is in it, and there's a sequence in the trailer in which World War II fighter planes strafe an army of reanimated terracotta soldiers.

I have simple entertainment needs like that:)

Anyway, I'm not expecting Tomb of the Dragon Emperor to be especially good - it has scored a dire 9% on Rotten Tomatoes - but I'm hoping it will be a fun, diverting way to pass a few hours.


Anyway, while we're on the topic of movies, just in case you didn't see it when it debuted a few weeks back, there's a new trailer online for The Spirit. I've blogged a bit in the past about this comic book adaptation - which opens in the States around Christmas, and in South Africa in February 2009.



As I've said before, I'm not that familiar with Will Eisner's highly influential Golden Age comic, on which this film is based. What I do know about the original series though is that it was a hybrid of genres and influences. That comes through loud and proud in the trailer... to the point where you find yourself asking, "What the fuck is writer-director Frank (Sin City, 300) Miller doing?" I'll certainly give The Spirit film a chance when it's released, but so far it looks utterly bizarre - Samuel L Jackson as a Nazi AND a samurai while a 2D animated helicopter flies overhead. Very strange.

The only thing in the trailer that comes through as strongly as the weirdness is that The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) is a man-slut of Robbie Williams proportions. Sheesh.

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