Movies out in South Africa today: a princess, a monster and plenty pills
It's all about weird, wonderful and pill-popping women at South African cinemas today.
Tangled: Disney (not Disney-Pixar, mind you) does Rapunzel. Finally. Screening in 2D and 3D is this CGI-animated adventure loosely based on the classic Brother's Grimm fairytale. Carrying on from The Princess and the Frog, Tangled is a return to old school Disney entertainment for the whole family, although - and the trailers sneakily omit all reference to this - the film is actually an Alan Menken musical. Mandy Moore voices Rapunzel while Zachary Levi is the roguish thief who stumbles onto her tower prison.
Tangled is definitely my movie pick of the week, and I'll likely seek it out in 3D. Although the trailer was horrible - trying too hard to be sassy and zany - the finished film has released to surprisingly massive acclaim. Tangled is 89% Fresh on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, where it is being heralded as a visually stunning return to the glory days of Disney animation.
Splice: It's taken over 7 months for this indie sci-fi/horror flick to reach our shores. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play high flying young scientists who cross all sorts of legal and moral boundaries when they secretly splice human and animal DNA. The result is a rapidly evolving creature called Dren ("nerd" backwards), and the scientists have to decide what to do with their creation.
Splice is 74% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Feedback from online overseas friends who've watched the film has been negative, and my scientist buddies have dismissed the whole concept as utter crap. However, many reviewers have called the movie simultaneously uncomfortable, daring and thought-provoking, and I'm definitely keen to watch it. Splice has previously been profiled on this blog as part of the weekly Trailer Tuesday feature, here.
Love & Other Drugs - If you're not in the mood for escapist fantasy this weekend, then there's this romantic comedy-drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. So, yeah, eye candy for the girls and guys alike. And apparently the two stars don't shy away from simulated sex and nudity in this one either. In Love & Other Drugs - which is based on the book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman - Gyllenhaal plays a womanising pharmaceutical rep who finds his match in free-spirited, live-for-the-moment Hathaway. Only, their no-strings-attached fling soon leads to something more, much to their shock.
Love & Other Drugs is a divisive 49% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. There has been a lot of awards season love for the film's leads, especially Hathaway, and the movie has been praised for presenting a decidedly adult romance - in contrast to so much other sanitised Hollywood fare. However, the film apparently loses its nerve as it progresses, and writer-director Edward Zwick struggles to balance tender romance and cut throat corporate competition.
Tangled: Disney (not Disney-Pixar, mind you) does Rapunzel. Finally. Screening in 2D and 3D is this CGI-animated adventure loosely based on the classic Brother's Grimm fairytale. Carrying on from The Princess and the Frog, Tangled is a return to old school Disney entertainment for the whole family, although - and the trailers sneakily omit all reference to this - the film is actually an Alan Menken musical. Mandy Moore voices Rapunzel while Zachary Levi is the roguish thief who stumbles onto her tower prison.
Tangled is definitely my movie pick of the week, and I'll likely seek it out in 3D. Although the trailer was horrible - trying too hard to be sassy and zany - the finished film has released to surprisingly massive acclaim. Tangled is 89% Fresh on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, where it is being heralded as a visually stunning return to the glory days of Disney animation.
Splice: It's taken over 7 months for this indie sci-fi/horror flick to reach our shores. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play high flying young scientists who cross all sorts of legal and moral boundaries when they secretly splice human and animal DNA. The result is a rapidly evolving creature called Dren ("nerd" backwards), and the scientists have to decide what to do with their creation.
Splice is 74% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Feedback from online overseas friends who've watched the film has been negative, and my scientist buddies have dismissed the whole concept as utter crap. However, many reviewers have called the movie simultaneously uncomfortable, daring and thought-provoking, and I'm definitely keen to watch it. Splice has previously been profiled on this blog as part of the weekly Trailer Tuesday feature, here.
Love & Other Drugs - If you're not in the mood for escapist fantasy this weekend, then there's this romantic comedy-drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. So, yeah, eye candy for the girls and guys alike. And apparently the two stars don't shy away from simulated sex and nudity in this one either. In Love & Other Drugs - which is based on the book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman - Gyllenhaal plays a womanising pharmaceutical rep who finds his match in free-spirited, live-for-the-moment Hathaway. Only, their no-strings-attached fling soon leads to something more, much to their shock.
Love & Other Drugs is a divisive 49% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. There has been a lot of awards season love for the film's leads, especially Hathaway, and the movie has been praised for presenting a decidedly adult romance - in contrast to so much other sanitised Hollywood fare. However, the film apparently loses its nerve as it progresses, and writer-director Edward Zwick struggles to balance tender romance and cut throat corporate competition.
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