Today, South Africa!

Thanks God! In terms of cinema releases finally there's something actually worth seeing this weekend.

First up is Tropic Thunder, the latest comedy from Ben Stiller - who also assumes writing and directing duties for the film, as he did with 2001's Zoolander.

Here's the plot synopsis:

In the action-comedy "Tropic Thunder," Ben Stiller plays pampered action superstar Tugg Speedman, who is cast in the biggest, most expensive war movie ever produced. He sets out to Southeast Asia with a "Who's Who" of celebrity co-stars. They include Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), an intense, three-time Oscar-winning actor, and Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), star of the popular gross-out comedy franchise "The Fatties". Soon after the production begins the actors are thrown into a real-life situation and are forced to become the fighting unit they're portraying, in order to find a way out of the jungle in one piece.

Tropic Thunder has been #1 at the American box office for the past 3 weeks (admittedly though with little competition to dethrone it), and is sitting at 84% fresh over at Rotten Tomatoes - which is outstanding for a comedy this time of year. I'm definitely keen for this one... and I really don't give a damn about the whole "retard" controversy surrounding the film.


The other release for this weekend is Vin Diesel's latest action sci-fi flick, Babylon A.D. Diesel stars as a mercenary hired to deliver a package from the ravages of post-apocalyptic Eastern Europe to a destination in the teeming megalopolis of New York City. The "package" is a mysterious young woman with a secret... something to do with genetic engineering and the messiah, apparently.

Bogged down by delays and budget problems while in production, Babylon A.D. was supposed to have a February release, but was delayed until now. At some point it was also chopped down from a 2 hour+ running time to an audience friendly 90 minutes (and PG-13 age restriction).

Director Mathieu Kassovitz has publically slammed his own film, calling it "pure violence and stupidity" and "a bad episode of '24'". He claims that studio Fox wrestled control of the project away from him and made editing decisions behind his back.

Babylon A.D. has scored a pitiful 6% at Rotten Tomatoes. Ouch!

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