alexthewriter Reviews

Mad Buddies (2012)

Why did I see this?

[2/10 · 28 August 2012]

I'm not very familiar with Leon Schuster's past works which may explain some joke I'm missing. Supposedly he's a very talented writer with a strong fan base in South Africa, but if this movie is any indication of that talent, I would need to ask why.

Mad Buddies had the thinnest and most ridiculous of plots, with virtually no character development or depth. Two men who supposedly hate each other are forced to walk to Joburg together, not knowing that they're part of a reality TV program. The movie dissolved from there into Benny Hill and Three Stooges style pratfalls which may have been funny 20 years ago, but which today are simply overdone and unnecessary. Both men seemed to do nothing more than fall down, get hit by random objects, and shriek like donkeys. This went on for 90 minutes.

Model Tanit Phoenix, obviously tossed in for nothing more than eye candy, poses through her god-awful wooden delivery of what few lines she had. Kenneth Nkosi showed he has some talent from his role in D9 and Schuster seems like he can deliver a line on cue, but if South Africa wants to compete on the world stage, it will need to do better than this drivel. I don't know that the kids will even appreciate its obvious setups and jokes you can see coming from kilometers away. I wasted too many Rand on this film; I wouldn't recommend you do the same.

Stake Land (2010)

Very Decent for a Horror Flick

[8/10 · 24 August 2012]

***extra warning that there are spoilers ahead***

If you're looking to find fault with Stake Land, you'll certainly be able to do just that. The cult leader Jebediah Loven certainly could have been played up more, as could the one-on-one clash he had with the lead character, Mister. The concept of thinking zombies (and I refuse to use the word vampires because they were zombies, not vampires, despite what the director says) should have been brought up earlier in the movie rather than just at the end. In one scene when zombies attack a small town, I expected Mister to stand and fight but instead he grabs his posse and finds a place to hide all night.

All of those things are relatively minor when you hold them up against the skillful directing and acting of Stake Land, as well as the superb pacing and mood. Stake Land is not some overblown horror fest with half-naked teens running around trying to get laid in the middle of all the terror, but is character-driven, moody, and very sombre. It's a refreshing change from zombie movies that rely solely on the gross factor of the undead with little attention given to plot or characterization.

Mister and his new sidekick Martin pull you in from the very first frame, and do an excellent job of never losing the audience. Unlike many lead characters in undead movies that you wouldn't want to spend five minutes with in real life, these two are tough and strong but sympathetic and realistic. Nick Damici does an excellent job portraying Mister; he's not overly brooding and callused and doesn't quip his way throughout. Conor Paolo is another great talent who holds his own against the strong performances around him without coming across as needing to prove something.

I'm shocked to see how little this movie made in theatres. If you're looking for a grownup horror film that offers characters you'll love and real scares but not a lot of schlock, I would recommend it.

Saving Rhino Phila (2012)

Definitely Recommend This One!

[8/10 · 25 July 2012]

I saw Saving Rhino Phila at a film festival in Johannesburg and was very impressed with the work and the message. Director Richard Slater-Jones does a great job of combining reenactments of poaching with actual footage of rhino Phila being rescued and transported to a zoo after being hunted by poachers, and with adding in other elements that make it seem like an actual adventure movie and not just a dry and bland documentary.

Because rhino Phila is a real animal that suffered real gunshots by poachers, the entire story became more involved than many standard documentaries. Often filmmakers that tackle poaching are left with nothing more than carcasses to get their point across, which makes it difficult for the audience to connect to the animals. In this telling, Phila becomes the star of her own show, suffering the wounds of being shot some eight times by poachers before she is finally rescued and released into a zoo. Once there, she struggles to adapt to life in captivity and with learning to trust her new benefactors. The story could not be more heart-wrenching if they had written it as a fictional tale and trained a real rhino to play the part.

Interviews with the rescuers also gave the film its human touch; they openly wept on screen when talking of Phila's struggles and their struggles to save the rhino population overall. Their sincerity kept the entire project from being forced in order to get the message across.

Veteran David James put his practiced snarl to good use as the sinister poacher boss who will obviously stop at nothing to get at his prize. Slater-Jones does an excellent job of allowing him to be driven and purposeful but not exaggerated or comical. In the hands of a lesser experienced or less skilled director, a poacher boss (or any bad guy) may be portrayed as so one-dimensional and so over-the-top that it's a distraction, but in this he was spot-on.

Good writing and directing make this a must-see for anyone. You'll easily get caught up in the story and the purpose of the message and may find yourself becoming more concerned with the problem of poaching and animal rights overall. South African filmmakers have always turned out great documentaries, and this one is no exception. I hope it makes it to the worldwide circuit.

Winnie Mandela (2011)

Very Sad Attempt

[3/10 · 16 June 2012]

I saw this movie at TIFF and thought it was a very sad attempt to tell a very important story. Winnie Mandela herself is often a character that is larger than life, and the events surrounding Nelson Mandela's trials and incarcerations always deserve respect in how they're presented.

Instead, this movie was choppy and disjointed and just a collection of hollow and pointless scenes, strung together with little reason or coherence. There is not much depth to any one scene, as if the director couldn't decide what to concentrate on and whose story it really was. Because of this, everything came across as empty and woefully underdeveloped. When dealing with a story as broad-reaching as Mandela's importance and impact with the anti-apartheid movement, you need to pick one point of view and stick with that; this director was all over the map, so that nothing was fleshed out properly.

The acting, save for Terrence Howard, was embarrassingly stiff and disjointed. Jennifer Hudson never let you forget that she was just acting, that these lines were written for her by someone else. I would wonder if she did any research before shooting and really understood what someone like Winnie Mandela would go through, and what it would be like to have a flawed personality that wasn't always angelic and heroic. While her Oscar for Dreamgirls was well-earned, I would hesitate to actually call her a real actress with range and presence. She was definitely in over her head here.

All in all, it was very unfulfilling and seemed to serve no purpose. It's no wonder that it has yet to be released in theatres or even to DVD, which, considering the amount of story that can be told about the Mandela family, is an inexcusable failure.

Material (2012)

Hilarious and Touching, Not Bad!

[8/10 · 22 April 2012]

I've never understood the concept of following tradition just for the sake of tradition, especially when it makes no sense to you personally or just doesn't fit today's world, so I kinda held my breath when I went to see Material. I expected to be irritated through the whole thing, thinking "Just live your life already!" But I was really pleasantly surprised, the material wasn't heavy-handed and didn't have a lot of sermonizing which was a big saving grace. A son discovering his own passion in the world is a common story, but discovering a passion for stand-up comedy in opposition to strict Muslim roots made it a breath of fresh air. The characters each had their own function in telling the story but none of them were so stereotypical or overdone that it was distracting. I highly recommend this one.

Night Drive (I) (2010)

Not the Best, but Not Too Bad Either

[6/10 · 11 March 2012]

South African cinema may have a long way to go before it can churn out movies as good as District 9 on a regular basis, but I'm happy to see them step away from movies about apartheid and racism and try something different once in awhile. While I've seen scarier movies than Night Drive, I did think it delivered the goods enough times to make it worthwhile. The writing and dialogue won't win any Oscars, but it never seemed to get tripped up with anything too obvious and contrived. It was a bloody slasher flick that knew when to be scary and when to give us a breather.

The African bush offers a lot of potential for scary movies and I hope this is something filmmakers keep exploring. The juxtaposition of its daylight beauty with its nighttime dangers can take a good writer and director anywhere. Hopefully Night Drive is just a start with what can be done when filmmakers take advantage of what their own country offers them.

Yellow (IV) (2006)

One of the Most Interesting Shorts I've Ever Seen

[9/10 · 9 March 2012]

"Adicolor Yellow" or just "Yellow" is one of the short films written and directed by District 9's Neill Blomkamp, and I found it to be quite impressive. Done in his typical mockumentary style, the story follows an android that develops enough intelligence to escape its creators and live among society for some 18 months, while being hunted by those creators. While there are obvious similarities to other AI movies including I Robot and Bladerunner, it's Blomkamp's delivery that makes this short film special. In a span of five minutes, we learn everything we need to know about Yellow's development and also see him casually interacting with others. Without ever saying a word, he's believable but also somehow sympathetic and likable. By the end, when he's confronted by security forces sent to retrieve him, we're more attached to him than we are to many heroes in full-length films.

Blomkamp knows how to add all the right touches to his films, from slowing down the frame rate to blocking out the sound and adding just the right music instead. The entire short film was rich and alive and believable and heartfelt, and something I would love to see developed in a full-length feature.

Semi-Soet (2012)

Not Bad ... Not Great, But Not Bad!

[7/10 · 9 March 2012]

Sometimes when I travel to South Africa for business, I pick the worst movies to see while I'm there. With Semi-Soet, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, you've probably seen much of it before and American audiences of Sandra Bullock's "the Proposal" will be picking apart the similarities, but all in all in had its own brand of charm that was quite refreshing.

What was especially fun about the lead characters is that while they both had an agenda, neither was so self-absorbed that you felt a distaste for them along the way. Too often movies try to make characters interesting by making them selfish so that by the end, you really don't care what happens next. In Semi-Soet, I was glad to keep watching them and had no problem keeping up.

Very clever of the movie makers to set part of the movie in South Africa's wine country, a great advert for tourists but it was nothing that was distracting in any way. The beautiful scenery was just what was needed to give the audience a breath of fresh air. All in all, not a bad afternoon at the cinema and a something I hope to see more of from SA filmmakers.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001–2011)

Great Show That Got Out of Hand

[6/10 · 9 March 2012]

L&O CI started out as a very interesting franchise in the Law & Order family, but IMHO it got out of hand and lost its footing along the way. The idea of an incredibly intelligent albeit a bit dark and even socially awkward detective (Goren) was interesting, but soon it got to be too much. Goren picks up on clues the M.E. misses, he always needs to explain things even to his own seasoned partner, and eventually became downright disrespectful and belligerent as his family life fell apart around him.

As with most shows that have one character that is meant to stand out from the rest, it just didn't know where to stop. The Eames character, although she was technically the senior partner, was often left in the dust as Goren steps in and does all the interrogating at the end of each episode. While I'm all for showing a character's flaws, Goren's ruffling of feathers with the brass was unnecessary and often overdone, as were his family issues. I loved the difficulties he had with his sick and demanding mother, but wasn't anyone in his family just normal and not a junkie or murderer or locked in a mental hospital? The revolving door of detectives brought in after D'Onofrio's health issues didn't help matters either, as it was difficult to attach to characters that just come and go. I actually enjoyed Goldblum's character by that point since he seemed more constant and reliable than all of Logan's partners and was obviously in a better place than Goren's character by that point, and I would have loved to have seen more years with him.

In the end it felt as if the entire series and the characters weren't really thought out from the beginning but just made up as they went along, and by the end of the series, I really wasn't all that sorry to see them go.

At Thy Call (2008)

Bad, Just Bad

[1/10 · 9 March 2012]

The acting was good in this film, but the writing and directing were just bad. Some of the things the characters said were ridiculous. It's like this Christopher-Lee Dos Santos knows what a character is supposed to say to make him the hero and what a character is supposed to say to make him the bad guy but he has no idea how real people actually talk.

We never learn anything about any of the characters so when one dies at the end, I didn't even know who he was. You can't kill a character and expect an audience reaction when the audience hasn't attached to that character.

Worse yet it was boring. I was almost asleep at the ten minute mark. I agree with the other reviewer, too much time spent watching them at target practice and marching down the road. Who cares? Even Rambo movies knew better than to show Rambo in target practice. When one soldier returns home at the end supposedly all tired and worn out, I almost laughed. Tired from what? Bad. Just bad.