Movies hitting SA cinemas today
Five new movies open in South Africa today. I can't say that there are any I absolutely must rush to see this weekend, so I'll give you a brief rundown of all the new releases.
50/50: Yay, a Cancer comedy-drama! So yeah, given its subject matter - based on a true story in fact - 50/50 is sure to have limited audience appeal. That said, the film does feature an impressive cast. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a young man struggling with his cancer diagnosis and Seth Rogen is his concerned best friend. Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anjelica Huston also appear.
50/50 has a stellar 93% Fresh rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Apparently the film deftly, and convincingly, handles its shifts between the hilarious and heart-warming.
Anonymous: From director Roland (2012, Independence Day) Emmerich of all people, comes this costume drama centred on the William Shakespeare authorship conspiracy. Basically the film proposes that political intrigue forced Rhys Ifans's aristocrat Edward de Vere to credit his literary creations to coarse peasant Shakespeare. Such is the price of having an affair with Queen Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson).
Anonymous has a 45% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and has neatly split critics. Some are calling the film marvelously fun, with a superb cast and stunning CGI-recreation of Elizabethan London. Others, however, have dismissed it as an increasingly ridiculous, and intellectually insulting, soap opera.
Shark Night 3D: If you were expecting sexy babes and bouncing titties to be paired with sharp fangs and bloody dismembered limbs... you're only going to be partially satisfied. What should have been ridiculous exploitative 3D fun, like Piranha 3D (EXACTLY like Piranha 3D in fact), is in reality a timid, PG-13 exercise with limited gore and zero nudity. All you need to know plot-wise is that college kids get munched by displaced sharks in a freshwater lake. Yeah.
Hardly unexpected but Shark Night 3D is a dire 16% Fresh. Its biggest crime seems to be its AWOL sense of humour and prudish approach (for this kind of flick) to sexual and violent excess.
Attack the Block: Okay, this little known British sci-fi actioner - from the producers of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead - is probably my top choice of the weekend. In the film, a gang of chavs must defend themselves, and their rundown council estate, from hostile alien invaders. Nick Frost pops up as a drug dealer who the kids turn to for advice. Basement Jaxx provide the film's music.
Attack the Block has been very well received, and is likely to become a cult hit as its reputation grows. Favourably compared to District 9, the film has an 89% Fresh rating and has been called energetic, non-stop fun; squeezing in some social satire to boot.
Tower Heist: This crime comedy is sure to be the big box office winner out of the new releases. After seeing their life-savings destroyed by Wall Street billionaire Alan Alda, the staff at his Manhattan apartment block - including Ben Stiller and Casey Affleck - enlist the help of Eddie Murphy's smart-mouth crook to rob the businessman's penthouse. Matthew Broderick and Téa Leoni round out the cast, while Brett (Rush Hour) Ratner directs.
Opening today in the United States as well, Tower Heist currently has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 72% Fresh. Apparently Murphy is the best thing about the film, returning to his wise-cracking 80' style of comedy. Meanwhile, the film as a whole is featherlight popcorn fare that weakens substantially once the silly heist begins.
50/50: Yay, a Cancer comedy-drama! So yeah, given its subject matter - based on a true story in fact - 50/50 is sure to have limited audience appeal. That said, the film does feature an impressive cast. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a young man struggling with his cancer diagnosis and Seth Rogen is his concerned best friend. Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anjelica Huston also appear.
50/50 has a stellar 93% Fresh rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Apparently the film deftly, and convincingly, handles its shifts between the hilarious and heart-warming.
Anonymous: From director Roland (2012, Independence Day) Emmerich of all people, comes this costume drama centred on the William Shakespeare authorship conspiracy. Basically the film proposes that political intrigue forced Rhys Ifans's aristocrat Edward de Vere to credit his literary creations to coarse peasant Shakespeare. Such is the price of having an affair with Queen Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson).
Anonymous has a 45% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and has neatly split critics. Some are calling the film marvelously fun, with a superb cast and stunning CGI-recreation of Elizabethan London. Others, however, have dismissed it as an increasingly ridiculous, and intellectually insulting, soap opera.
Shark Night 3D: If you were expecting sexy babes and bouncing titties to be paired with sharp fangs and bloody dismembered limbs... you're only going to be partially satisfied. What should have been ridiculous exploitative 3D fun, like Piranha 3D (EXACTLY like Piranha 3D in fact), is in reality a timid, PG-13 exercise with limited gore and zero nudity. All you need to know plot-wise is that college kids get munched by displaced sharks in a freshwater lake. Yeah.
Hardly unexpected but Shark Night 3D is a dire 16% Fresh. Its biggest crime seems to be its AWOL sense of humour and prudish approach (for this kind of flick) to sexual and violent excess.
Attack the Block: Okay, this little known British sci-fi actioner - from the producers of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead - is probably my top choice of the weekend. In the film, a gang of chavs must defend themselves, and their rundown council estate, from hostile alien invaders. Nick Frost pops up as a drug dealer who the kids turn to for advice. Basement Jaxx provide the film's music.
Attack the Block has been very well received, and is likely to become a cult hit as its reputation grows. Favourably compared to District 9, the film has an 89% Fresh rating and has been called energetic, non-stop fun; squeezing in some social satire to boot.
Tower Heist: This crime comedy is sure to be the big box office winner out of the new releases. After seeing their life-savings destroyed by Wall Street billionaire Alan Alda, the staff at his Manhattan apartment block - including Ben Stiller and Casey Affleck - enlist the help of Eddie Murphy's smart-mouth crook to rob the businessman's penthouse. Matthew Broderick and Téa Leoni round out the cast, while Brett (Rush Hour) Ratner directs.
Opening today in the United States as well, Tower Heist currently has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 72% Fresh. Apparently Murphy is the best thing about the film, returning to his wise-cracking 80' style of comedy. Meanwhile, the film as a whole is featherlight popcorn fare that weakens substantially once the silly heist begins.
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