Movies today, SA!
I'm a bit snowed under with work at the moment, as well as vacation preparations, so I'm going to keep today's blog update brief. Basically, instead of profiling every single film opening in South African cinemas today I'm just going to stick to my personal top 3 - which I believe to be the movies that will most likely catch the attention of local moviegoers.
Where The Wild Things Are - I have no idea how much interest there will be locally for this big screen adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved 1963 children's book. I have my suspicions that it be viewed as too dark and weird by the man on the street.
Anyway, Where The Wild Things Are centres on lonely but imaginative young boy Max (Max Records), who, feeling miserable and misunderstood at home, retreats to a fantasy world populated by emotionally unpredictable creatures. The film is the pet project of director Spike (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) Jonze, who has developed a reputation for creating memorably offbeat films.
Where The Wild Things Are is 73% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, where it has been called beautiful and poignant, but also melancholic and narratively weak.
A Perfect Getaway - For anyone in the market for a twisty action-thriller, there's this film starring Timothy Olyphant, Milla Jovovich and Steve Zahn. From the director of Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick comes this tale of newlyweds celebrating their marriage by hiking to some of the most remote and picturesque beaches in Hawaii. Someone, however, is murdering young couples on the secluded trails, and soon the couple learns they can't trust any of the other backpackers around them.
A Perfect Getaway is 58% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It's been labeled a solid B-grade thriller with a decent amount of intelligence. Even if it succumbs to genre conventions and general silliness in the end.
Planet 51 - This comedy-sci-fi film from Spanish animation studio Ilion features a nifty little role-reversal premise: instead of humanity living in fear of alien invasion, here it's a planet of green-skinned beings succumbing to the same paranoia when a human astronaut lands in their midst. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, Seann William Scott, Gary Oldman and John Cleese lend their voices to the film.
Planet 51 has one of the funniest teaser trailers for an animated movie that I've seen in a good long while. However, this doesn't mean the film is particularly good. Reviews have mostly been negative, with critics calling it overly frenetic and unfunny at worst, and harmlessly adequate kiddie fare at best. Planet 51 is 23% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Where The Wild Things Are - I have no idea how much interest there will be locally for this big screen adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved 1963 children's book. I have my suspicions that it be viewed as too dark and weird by the man on the street.
Anyway, Where The Wild Things Are centres on lonely but imaginative young boy Max (Max Records), who, feeling miserable and misunderstood at home, retreats to a fantasy world populated by emotionally unpredictable creatures. The film is the pet project of director Spike (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) Jonze, who has developed a reputation for creating memorably offbeat films.
Where The Wild Things Are is 73% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, where it has been called beautiful and poignant, but also melancholic and narratively weak.
A Perfect Getaway - For anyone in the market for a twisty action-thriller, there's this film starring Timothy Olyphant, Milla Jovovich and Steve Zahn. From the director of Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick comes this tale of newlyweds celebrating their marriage by hiking to some of the most remote and picturesque beaches in Hawaii. Someone, however, is murdering young couples on the secluded trails, and soon the couple learns they can't trust any of the other backpackers around them.
A Perfect Getaway is 58% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It's been labeled a solid B-grade thriller with a decent amount of intelligence. Even if it succumbs to genre conventions and general silliness in the end.
Planet 51 - This comedy-sci-fi film from Spanish animation studio Ilion features a nifty little role-reversal premise: instead of humanity living in fear of alien invasion, here it's a planet of green-skinned beings succumbing to the same paranoia when a human astronaut lands in their midst. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, Seann William Scott, Gary Oldman and John Cleese lend their voices to the film.
Planet 51 has one of the funniest teaser trailers for an animated movie that I've seen in a good long while. However, this doesn't mean the film is particularly good. Reviews have mostly been negative, with critics calling it overly frenetic and unfunny at worst, and harmlessly adequate kiddie fare at best. Planet 51 is 23% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Comments
Ugh.