Movies releasing today: Hitting Wall Street with the Legend of the Guardians
It's a public holiday in South Africa tomorrow, meaning I'll be taking a break from blogging. More importantly though, as a result of the long weekend, six new films are hitting South African cinemas today. And they offer a little something for everyone...
First up, Susanna Van Biljon is a local Afrikaans drama from soapie and TV series king Franz Marx. Songstress Karen Zoid stars as a dowdy 30-something woman stuck in a tiny Karoo town with her overbearing mother (Marié du Toit). She dreams of a brighter future elsewhere but at the same time can't deny her feelings for a local sheep farmer (David Rees). Many other popular South African actors and musical performers appear in the film including Shaleen Surtie-Richards, Kurt Darren and Nicholis Louw.
Anjaana Anjaani is a Hindi comedy romance starring Priyanka Chopra and Ranbir Kapoor as two strangers thrown together by fate, despite their very different lives on opposite coasts of the United States. Both unlucky in love, and both on the verge of committing suicide, they decide to head to Las Vegas together for a shared, potentially life changing adventure.
Oceans is a feature length nature documentary exploring the world's various oceans and the impact of Man on these amazing eco-systems. Released by Disneynature, the English-language version of this French production (which took four years to film out of interest) is narrated by Pierce Brosnan. The film is 80% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is the unexpected sequel to Oliver Stone's 1987 drama Wall Street, which won Michael Douglas an Oscar for Best Actor. Douglas and Stone are both back 23 years later for Money Never Sleeps, with Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan joining the cast as the young people caught up this time in the schemings of slimy former stock broker Gordon Gekko.
I'm ashamed to say that I've never watched the classic original, an examination of 80s excess, ambition and corporate villainy - which also coined the term "Greed is good." As a result, I'm unlikely to be seeking out the sequel at the cinema. For the record, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is currently 52% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and splitting critics, who are either calling it a compelling, classy drama, or overblown and uneven.
The Other Guys is a surprisingly well received buddy cop comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as a team of misfit, mismatched police detectives. The film also features Eva Mendes, Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, with several other celebrities making cameo appearances as well.
The Other Guys is the fourth pairing of Ferrell and writer-director Adam McKay, following Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers. Those films should provide a good indication of the style of comedy used in The Other Guys. So expect goofy, juvenile, very hit-and-miss humour. This said, while the film clearly isn't for those with more cultured comic palates, The Other Guys is 78% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes! Apparently it's the funniest comedy of the midyear blockbuster season, even if it loses momentum towards the end of it's almost two hour running time.
Finally this week there's family fantasy adventure Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. Based on the children's books by Kathryn Lasky, Legend of the Guardians combines epic fantasy (Lord of the Rings) and anthropomorphic animal literature (Watership Down) in this tale of a young barn owl, Soren, caught up in the battle between the evil armored owls, the Pure Ones, and the kingdom's heroic protectors, the mythical Guardians of Ga'Hoole.
I'm getting quite a strong The Land Before Time vibe from Legend of the Guardians as well, although to be honest, the lack of flavour in regards to the film's marketing has done little to excite me about the movie. This is despite the fact that it's directed by one of my favourite directors, Zack (300, Watchmen) Snyder, has been animated by the same team behind Happy Feet and features the voices of many Aussie and British talents, including Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving, Sam Neill, Helen Mirren and Miriam Margolyes.
Although Legend of the Guardians has yet to receive a Rotten Tomatoes rating (at the time of writing), early word is that this adaptation is stunning visually but limp storywise - and your response to it will be shaped by your feelings in regards to director Synder's other live-action work. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole will be screening in traditional format, as well as 3D at selected cinemas.
First up, Susanna Van Biljon is a local Afrikaans drama from soapie and TV series king Franz Marx. Songstress Karen Zoid stars as a dowdy 30-something woman stuck in a tiny Karoo town with her overbearing mother (Marié du Toit). She dreams of a brighter future elsewhere but at the same time can't deny her feelings for a local sheep farmer (David Rees). Many other popular South African actors and musical performers appear in the film including Shaleen Surtie-Richards, Kurt Darren and Nicholis Louw.
Anjaana Anjaani is a Hindi comedy romance starring Priyanka Chopra and Ranbir Kapoor as two strangers thrown together by fate, despite their very different lives on opposite coasts of the United States. Both unlucky in love, and both on the verge of committing suicide, they decide to head to Las Vegas together for a shared, potentially life changing adventure.
Oceans is a feature length nature documentary exploring the world's various oceans and the impact of Man on these amazing eco-systems. Released by Disneynature, the English-language version of this French production (which took four years to film out of interest) is narrated by Pierce Brosnan. The film is 80% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is the unexpected sequel to Oliver Stone's 1987 drama Wall Street, which won Michael Douglas an Oscar for Best Actor. Douglas and Stone are both back 23 years later for Money Never Sleeps, with Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan joining the cast as the young people caught up this time in the schemings of slimy former stock broker Gordon Gekko.
I'm ashamed to say that I've never watched the classic original, an examination of 80s excess, ambition and corporate villainy - which also coined the term "Greed is good." As a result, I'm unlikely to be seeking out the sequel at the cinema. For the record, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is currently 52% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and splitting critics, who are either calling it a compelling, classy drama, or overblown and uneven.
The Other Guys is a surprisingly well received buddy cop comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as a team of misfit, mismatched police detectives. The film also features Eva Mendes, Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, with several other celebrities making cameo appearances as well.
The Other Guys is the fourth pairing of Ferrell and writer-director Adam McKay, following Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers. Those films should provide a good indication of the style of comedy used in The Other Guys. So expect goofy, juvenile, very hit-and-miss humour. This said, while the film clearly isn't for those with more cultured comic palates, The Other Guys is 78% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes! Apparently it's the funniest comedy of the midyear blockbuster season, even if it loses momentum towards the end of it's almost two hour running time.
Finally this week there's family fantasy adventure Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. Based on the children's books by Kathryn Lasky, Legend of the Guardians combines epic fantasy (Lord of the Rings) and anthropomorphic animal literature (Watership Down) in this tale of a young barn owl, Soren, caught up in the battle between the evil armored owls, the Pure Ones, and the kingdom's heroic protectors, the mythical Guardians of Ga'Hoole.
I'm getting quite a strong The Land Before Time vibe from Legend of the Guardians as well, although to be honest, the lack of flavour in regards to the film's marketing has done little to excite me about the movie. This is despite the fact that it's directed by one of my favourite directors, Zack (300, Watchmen) Snyder, has been animated by the same team behind Happy Feet and features the voices of many Aussie and British talents, including Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving, Sam Neill, Helen Mirren and Miriam Margolyes.
Although Legend of the Guardians has yet to receive a Rotten Tomatoes rating (at the time of writing), early word is that this adaptation is stunning visually but limp storywise - and your response to it will be shaped by your feelings in regards to director Synder's other live-action work. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole will be screening in traditional format, as well as 3D at selected cinemas.
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