Movies releasing for the long weekend

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It's a public holiday in South Africa tomorrow, and many cinemas around the country are actually screening the weekend's new releases from today. Given the glut of debuts last week, today there are only 2 notables... and they're both sequels of sequels.

1) Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol: Ghost Protocol is the fourth entry in in the Mission: Impossible film series that kicked off back in 1996 - and is based on the popular, 60s TV series. Once again Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his teammates (Simon Pegg, Paula Patton) from the Impossible Missions Force are the victim of high level political intrigue and betrayal. Forced to go rogue to uncover the truth behind a deadly terrorist bombing, Ethan and co. struggle to decide if they can trust fellow agent Jeremy Renner. Acclaimed animator Brad (The Incredibles) Bird is in the director's chair for this espionage action thriller.

Internationally, Ghost Protocol is screening in conventional cinemas and IMAX - to really maximise the impact of the Dubai skyscraper scenes - but of course IMAX is long dead in South Africa. *sniff*

Anyway, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is currently sitting with an aggregated Rotten Tomatoes rating of 92% Fresh. Apparently the film is the best in the series so far, but then again they say that for EVERY sequel. A more balanced assessment is that Ghot Protocol is far from perfect, but the unrelenting, and sometimes very inventive action scenes, really deliver the adrenaline goods.


2) Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked: Unbelievably, they're still churning out these critically reviled monstrosities, and here we are on movie number 3. Based on the cartoon characters and fictional music group, Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 is a family comedy mixing live-action and CGI-animation. This time the obnoxious singing vermin - and their female counterparts, the Chipettes - are swept from a cruise liner and stranded on a desert island. Meanwhile, for some unfathomable reason, the boys' long-suffering adoptive father, Dave (Jason Lee) sets out to rescue them.

At the time of writing this post, the surprisingly 2D-only Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked was 11% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Apparently the film is punny and full of slapstick and should be amusing enough for under 10s. Everyone else, beware... or get very, very drunk before entering the cinema.

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