November 2012

Someone Else’s Shoes We talk to Rob Van Vuuren and Siv Ngesi

about walking a mile in each other’s bodies in

the new film Copposites

This Activities Not Normal Rising star Kathryn Newton talks to us about her

starring role in the new scream-fest, Paranormal

Activity 4

Up the Beanstalk Bongi Mthombeni talks to us about girls,

giants and beanstalks

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Contents

Cover Story: This Activities Not Normal 20

Features: The Sound of Silence 6 Someone Else’s Shoes 13 Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner 26 Up the Beanstalk 35 South African Mzansi Ballet Profiles: Lauren Summerly 40 Monier Jouve 46

Reviews: Feature Reviews The View from the Isle 52What the H**l is Inside? 58DVD: Mad Buddies 63

Film Jeff, Who Lives at Home House at the End of the Street 64

Kathryn Newton in Paranormal Activity 4

Andre Frauenstein and

Angelique Pretorius in Stilte

Reviews: (cont’d)

Taken 2 Piranha 3DD 65Paranormal Activity 4 Hope Springs 66Frankenweenie Stilte 67Hysteria Copposites 68Cloud Atlas 69

Theatre No Romance Here 70Dangerously Good Liaisons 75

DVD Snow White and the Huntsman Metal Tornado One for the Money Knockout 76Dark Shadows The Romantics Phineas and Ferb: The Perry Files Salmon Fishing in the Yemen 77Boy Wonder The Lucky One Cinderella Die Wonderwerker 78

Bongi Mthombeni as Jack in Janice

Honeyman’s Jack and the Beanstalk

Editors Letter

Thanks for picking up the November issue of our magazine, I hope you enjoy it.

We have an interesting issue for you this month with a few changes. Firstly, it has been brought to my attention that you, the reader, want ratings on our film reviews, so this month we have started doing just that. You can find them next to the titles, and at the end of our Feature Reviews.

Next, this month we are starting our Get-To-Know-Your-Company campaign with profiles of two of the dancers from South African Mzansi Ballet, so check those out.

We also have some great interviews for you this month including Bongi Mthombeni,

the star of the new pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, Bryony Whitfield, star of the stage version of Dirty Dancing and Rob van Vuuren and Siv Ngesi, the stars of the feature film Copposites. We also have an exclusive interview with Kathryn Newton, star of the latest Paranormal Activity film.

As you can tell there’s a lot this month to check out, so I hope you enjoy it and be sure to pick up our next issue, coming first Monday of December. It’s going to be a bumper Twilight issue, including an interview with Ashley Greene, so if you’re a fan, don’t miss it.

Best Wishes

Jon Broeke Editor

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The Sound of Silence

In the new South African Afrikaans drama Stilte Angelique Pretorius plays a woman shattered by the death of her parents, so

much so that she refuses to speak, and the fact that she used to be one SA’s best

rising singing stars makes things worse. We sat down with Angelique to discuss

her role in the film.

“”She is a South African pop

sensation, loved by all her fans

and, supposedly has it all, on the

surface. Then when the

tragedy strikes, when her

parents get killed in a

house robbery, you see a very

different side to her.”

Something we in South Africa are

familiar with is crime. It affects all of us on

almost a daily basis, and if we haven’t directly

been held against our will by an armed man,

then we know someone that has been. This is

the world we live in, right or wrong, and art is

known to imitate life. The new South African

Afrikaans drama Stilte does just that.

Angelique Pretorius plays Antoinette Van wyk

in the film.

“She is a pop singer,” Angelique says

of her character in the film. “She is a South

African pop sensation, loved by all her fans

and, supposedly has it all, on the surface.

Then when the tragedy strikes, when her

parents get killed in a house robbery, you see

a very different side to her. She suddenly has

to cope with very raw emotions, and then you

see different elements to her character, like

her stubbornness, and her anger, and just her

unwillingness to open up and engage with

anyone, which is understandable under the

circumstances, obviously it’s very heightened

circumstances. As the story unfolds you start

to see a change in her. Sort of an embracing

of the tragedy as much as she can, and an

acceptance of it, and then a willingness to

actually turn it into something positive. In a

nutshell.”

Angelique was convinced she wanted

to play the part as soon as it came to her

attention.

“It was an amazing acting

opportunity,” she says. “The range of

emotions and the depth of the character were

really appealing. With Darryl [Roodt]

directing, and having written it, I’ve worked

with him before on WInnie, and I knew it

would be a worthwhile project from that

point of view. The script, I thought, was…

Quite simplistic in terms of the story line, but

very thought out and symbolic of a lot more

meaning than what appears on the surface.

The team, I was sure would be great, and just

the opportunity to use it as an acting platform

was very exciting.”

Roodt is one of the best known

directors in our country and is known for

shooting his films very quickly. There was a

rumour, in fact, that Stilte was shot over just

seven days, unheard of for a feature film.

Angelique laughs when I bring up the rumour

and tells me the film was shot over three

weeks, not seven days.

“Which is,” she tells me.

“Unfortunately, in this country, pretty

common. You can’t really, unless you have a

very decent budget, afford to go over that.

Having a smallish cast, it was do-able. It was

tight; we worked under pressure, especially

when we were in Oudtshoorn because the

days were long, it being summer we had long

days at our disposal, but sometimes when it’s

mid-day and the suns out and it’s hot

everyone wants to have a break, and the

scene takes place in the sun we have to just

grin and bear it.”

She didn’t mind doing it though, she

believed in the project.

“I did it with a smile though,” she

confirms. “And so did everyone else. I

wouldn’t call it a passion project, it was more

than that, there is actually more substance

and more to it than it just being done for the

sake of it, but there is a bit of that. There has

to be that commitment and passion for it so

at those times when we have to push yourself

a little harder you’re happy to do it. Especially

my character who was up and down and the

she’s smiling and then she’s crying, and then

she’s throwing a fit…” She laughs.

Angelique’s co-star in the film is

Andre Frauenstein. Frauenstein first came to

our sttention in the South African vampire

film Eternity, and was recently seen in Ek Lief

Jou. He’s reputed to have a very complicated

process for getting into his characters head,

making him a little hard to work with, but

Angelique didn’t find that at all.

“I found him wonderful to work with,”

she tells me of our very own film vampire. “In

fact, I found his insights and advice to me to

be useful, because he has Meisner training, I

have theatre training which draws on

Stanislavsky, which is similar. You also use

certain principals and certain techniques to

get to have certain desired effects and

character development and emotional access,

but I found his approach sometimes to be

helpful. We worked very well together.”

“In fact, I found [Andre Frauenstein’s] insights and advice to

me to be useful.”

The film deals with some pretty deep issues, especially the crime aspect. I asked Angelique where she looked to for inspiration for the role.

“I didn’t have to dig to deep,” she says. “Because my brother passed away a few years ago. I probably would have been able to pull it off, to a degree, in the past, but that experience just gave it a whole different meaning and understanding. I think until something like that happens to you, I could always sort of imagine what it would be like, but I didn’t really want to, so you don’t really let yourself go there, whereas when you experience it, and you see how people that you love the most, your parents, just fall apart, and the process… That’s why, in the movie, there are quite a few emotional scenes, and maybe in the past I would have thought a tear once in the film would have been enough, but after experiencing that kind of grief myself, I cried. I think as a girl that’s the way you deal with it. I cried all the time, and that’s the only way I could deal with it. So when Antoinette starts to give into her emotions, it’s so rough and raw, primitive, those feeling. That was my main source of research. I also had a look at the typical symptoms of posttraumatic stress, because it’s not just grief, it’s also the trauma of the crime. That was already quite well imbedded in the text, in terms of anger. Outbreaks are quite common, and withdrawal from

whoever, as well as re-enactment of the actual occurrence, for example, when Johannes, the farm worker, comes to her and she gets a big fright, and runs away. She immediately associates him with the criminals just because she’s in such a state of shock.”

She also identifies with Antoinette’s learning something from the death of her parents. She feels the same thing about her brother. “With me,” she says. “Even though it’s considered a tragedy that I lost my brother, a lot of good came out of it. As a person I grew enormously, spiritually and just in terms of my perspective on life, my mom and I both. We changed essentially. I think we appreciated life more. I also didn’t realise how deep ones love goes for someone, until it’s not there. There are layers and layers that you’re not aware of at the time because you don’t see the person that often, but actually you share such a history. You can’t fully appreciate it until, unfortunately, you experience that type of tragedy, but those sorts of perspective changes, and the fact that I believe that tragedies happen to us in such a way so we can learn and we can grow and learn lessons.” Let’s hope we can all learn those lessons, but not at such a dear price. In the meantime though, we can see Angelique on the silver screen, and perhaps learn a thing or two from her story.

Someone Else’s Shoes

The new comedy Copposites, hitting our screens this month, is South Africa’s first real attempt at a buddy cop film. Jon Broeke sat down with the stars of the film Rob Van Vuuren and Sivuyile

“Siv” Ngesi and chatted about the film, and what it really means to them.

uddy cop films are always big at the box office. Whether it’s Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg

buddying up in The Other Guys or Mel Gibson and Danny Glover buddying up in the Lethal Weapon films they are almost always a success.

The very first buddy cop film from South Africa, Copposites, has just released at our cinema’s. Technically it’s not a buddy cop film, one character is a cop and the other is a criminal, but it’s close enough.

I met with the stars of the film, local funny men Ron Van Vuuren, familiar to us all as one of the two members of The Most Amazing Show, and Sivuyile “Siv” Ngesi, currently on Mzansi Magic in

the show S.I.E.S, at the African Pride Hotel at Melrose Arch recently. Rob plays the role of Detective Jan Venter in the film.

“He’s a kind of a washed up policeman,” Rob tells me. Both he and Siv are wearing Copposites t-shirts and seem completely at ease with each other and being interviewed. “With a drinking problem, ex-wife problem, personality problem. He’s bitter. He’s twisted.”

“Previously advantaged,” Siv interrupts.

“Previously advantaged,” Rob agrees before continuing. “And currently an a**hole. The kind of movie starts with him at his lowest point. He discovers that his ex-wife, who he still loves, is dating a successful black lawyer, which really grates him.”

“He’s giving it to her good,” Siv interrupts again, knocking Rob off his train of thought as he laughs.

“He gets suspended,” Rob continues. “And ends up working as a security guard in a science lab where he crosses paths with Sharky Majola.”

At this point Siv takes over. He plays the role of Sharky Majola in the film.

“A guy, who was a criminal trying to go straight,” Siv tells me. “On the straight and

B

narrow, when he discovers that his girlfriend, wife to be, is pregnant, and then he owes someone money because he bought a wedding ring, and stuff goes bad and his last job is where he encounters Venter. And that’s where the magic begins.”

Being friends before the film was a big reason why the actors got involved in the project. This was especially true for Rob.

“Siv actually phoned me,” he tells me about how he got involved in the film. “I got the script and it kind of slipped past me and I never got back to Oliver [Rodger, the director] properly. He got hold of Siv and asked who he would like to play against, or with, and he said me. Oliver said he couldn’t get hold of me, so Siv said ‘Hold on’, he picked up his phone and phoned me. I was like ‘Oh, you’re doing it, great let’s go.’”

I look at Siv for his answer. “And me?” he begins. “[Oliver had]

been speaking to agents in Joburg and Cape Town. They were looking for a black guy that could act Afrikaans. A lot of people said there’s this one guy called Siv…”

“He’s practically Afrikaans,” Rob comments.

“Thanks,” we all laugh at Siv’s off the cuff thanks of Rob’s comment. “Then agents, whose books I wasn’t even on, sent me forward,” he turns to Rob. “Including the agent that didn’t send you.” They then spend the next two minutes discussing this agent and the way she tried to keep Rob out of the project before we continue with the interview. I ask how they prepared for their roles in the film, which in tales them swapping bodies and becoming the other person.

“I lived in a town ship for seven months,” Rob jokes. “I adopted a child of colour. Ate nothing but pap for seven years.” We all laugh again before Siv takes over.

“As I was saying…” he comments before continuing. “We spent some time together, bouncing off each other, but I think a lot of the magic happened on the set. I don’t think we could have prepared too much before. A lot of stuff happened on set, and when we had time we were around each other, and played some words off each other,

“We just made specific choices as actors when

creating our base character, in other words the character we start playing in the movie.

What’s rad is what we’re doing is we’re creating a

character who you’re then handing over to the other

actor. That was fun.” got some physicality’s down, and watched each other perform, and just played, had a lot of fun. Some quality comes from having fun.”

Rob agrees with his co-star. “Ja,” he says. “We just made specific

choices as actors when creating our base character, in other words the character we start playing in the movie. What’s rad is what we’re doing is we’re creating a character who you’re then handing over to the other actor. That was fun. We were kind of creating something for each other, and then we kind of checked with each other if physically we were getting it, or watching each other closely and listening to each other. A lot of kind of just talking it through as the film went on.” They had a lot of input into the others role and performance during filming, but something they had no hand in was Detective Venter’s catch phrase, don’t force my wors, which he uses throughout the film.

“That was all Oli,” Rob tells me. “I was like, ‘What is, ‘Don’t force my wors? Who says that? What the f*** is wrong with you?’ He was like, ‘No man, yeah, that’s great let’s do that,’” Rob mimics the English accent of director Oliver Rodger. “And it kind of works, it works in the movie. It’s his catch phrase and people dig it.”

I moved onto the stunts in the film, and being a cop film there are several, including one where the two beat themselves up in the others body.

“Siv turned into a stuntman,” Rob jokes. “When I hit the man over the head with the guitar. That wasn’t Siv.”

“Siv was like, not this head, not this face,” Siv jokes as we all laugh. “And I had to pick up a stunt man,” he continues. “To throw him through the vase, but don’t tell my agent that… We just caused k** man. Heila k**.”

“That was probably the scariest moment in the entire film for me,” Rob continues. “Was when Siv was throwing little, like, ornaments at me, very hard and very fast. If you look very closely I’m not acting in that scene. I’m k****** myself. And there’s one little thing that flies right past my face, cause Siv was trying to make it real, he’s very method like that.”

“But I believe in Rob,” Siv interjects. “I believe in his reflexes. I believe in his abilities to act and his physicality because he studied at Rhodes University.” “What was scary for me though,” Rob continues shooting back at Siv. “Was that with all that belief, moments before Siv actually broke a window by mistake and head butted it, with his own actual head, which he wouldn’t allow me to hit with the guitar and then started throwing stuff a me, so I’m sure you can understand my fear.”

“It came across very real and I’m glad I did it.” Siv says. Both Rob and I start laughing again.

The film deals with the two lead characters, one a white cop, the other a black criminal, swapping bodies, which leads to a lot of embarrassing situations. It also leads to racial issues, especially since both the characters are racist in their own rights. I ask both actors how they felt about the racial nature of the film, and whether or not they were concerned about the way the audience would take the jokes.

“Huge,” Rob tells me about his concerns over the project. “That’s the genre we’re doing. If you’re going to sign up for a project where it is race comedy and using the whole body swap genre in the South African context allows you to play with that comedy. So there’s got to be a level of this is what we’re dealing with. I was incredibly sensitive to it, and I was worried about coming across as insensitive or racist or any of those things. I find race comedy quite difficult, whereas Siv is quite comfortable with it. It’s part of his shtick

as a stand-up comic, and I think he deals with it very well, but I was very aware of it and kind of nervous about it. We talked about it quite a lot and Oli was very comfortable with our suggestions and our changing things. Because he’s originally British and he has a very particular idea about race comedy he’s not as sensitive to it as we South African’s are, even though he has a coloured girlfriend, Carla, who is the writer/producer of the movie as well. So a lot of it is from his own experience, living in South Africa and the reactions that he gets with his interracial relationship. Having said that he wasn’t sure where the line was, and he was happy with us to discuss it. What I’d hoped would happen eventually was that we were dealing with stereotype and race, but that we were approaching it from the point of view of respect and love and hopefully we present certain stereotypes and throughout the process of the film we subvert those stereotypes and your perception of those stereotypes, your preconceived notions of what those are.”

“Like De Klerk and Mandela,” Siv jokes. “That was the aim.”

It’s a joke, but Siv feels the same way that Rob does about the project. I ask them what their next projects are and they answer in more than a little rehearsed way.

“Rob is travelling the world,” Siv answers. “With a documentary about the corruption in the police force. It’s going to New York, Amsterdam, Australia, doing a national tour. That’s for 2013.”

“Siv’s just finished a run of Race Card

in Cape Town,” Rob answers. “His one man

show, which is massive and will be touring the

country throughout next year. He’s also got a

new one man show that’s being written for

him by celebrated South African playwright Mike Van Graan, who also does really amazing political social satire for the theatre and he’s crafting a show specifically for Siv which he’ll take to Grahamstown.”

“But I’m looking for some quality film work,” Siv interjects, more seriously this time.

“I think we’re both hoping that this film does really well,” Rob agrees. “And offers us the opportunity to do more film work together and help grow the industry and get the ball rolling, to help us move onto the next project.”

“As clichéd as it’s going to sound,” Siv says. “We really get on like a house on fire. You watch these Hollywood movies and you think that they’re lying, but we really get along. We can sit down and say nothing, or we can talk s*** with each other.”

“I think that’s what’s really important about the movie,” Rob says. “When you’re dealing with this really sensitive subject matter, and the whole racial thing, we skated a really thin line and I think it could have really easily have fallen into rather harmful stereotyping and surface dealing with the subject matter, but because there’s a genuine affection between Siv and I, because we dig each other as people, and we respect each other as artists, that’s there, you can’t really fake that stuff. I think that really shines through in the movie and kind of lifts it a little so it’s not just about one thing. So it’s more about individuals and people, rather than types of people.”

It’s a wonderful sentiment and the

love between the two men is obvious. I look

forward to their next projects, and the next

one they do together, which I’m sure will be

very soon, and will be great.

This Activities Not Normal

This month sees a familiar face coming from an unfamiliar place when TV star Kathryn Newton comes to the

big screen in the latest film in the Paranormal Activity franchise. Jon

Broeke spoke with her on the phone from Los Angeles about the film,

horror in general and kids that scare us to death.

athryn Newton is best known to South African audiences as Jay Mohr’s smart, and sassy,

daughter in Gary, Unmarried. This month we get to see another side to the young actress when she picks up the mantle as lead in one of the most successful horror franchises in recent history, Paranormal Activity.

“I play Alice,” she tells me over the phone from Los Angeles when I ask about her character in the film, the fourth in the franchise. “She’s just like a normal teenage girl. She’s going through high school. She’s starting to like boys, she has a little brother. I think anybody going through high school, struggling to communicate and find out who they are, but now Alice has a problem going for her. It’s hard enough for her to tell her mom that she might like this boy and now she has to tell her mom that there’s a demon named Toby trying to get her, but she doesn’t let Toby get the best of her, and she fights back and she’s not going to let Toby take her down.”

The film is shot like the other three films, with a series of hand-held cameras. This time round they make use of web-cams as well to try and catch the ghostly occurrences. I asked Kathryn what it was like to have to play double duty, both acting and filming.

“I loved getting to do a lot of the cinematography,” she tells me. “That was something really cool. It was so real, the way that we didn’t have lines, that we used improve, and that I got to do a lot of the cinematography was awesome. I thought that was so cool that I actually had control over what the audience was going to

see.” There is one specific moment in the

film when Kathryn’s character Alice is walking around outside, in the dark, and comes face to face with an army of demon worshippers.

“I was holding the camera the whole time for that last sequence,” she says when I ask her if she saw the scene the way the audience did. “But I could see them. It was pitch black, so it was kind of difficult to see them, but you could feel their presence.”

I wondered if that made the scene scarier to shoot, not being able to see the people, but feeling their presence.

“It was funny,” she says. “Because it’s the same kind of thing where I was freaking out over Toby, and there’s a hundred, five hundred witches standing out in a field looking at you like, ‘What are you doing?’”

One of the most memorable moments in the film is when Kathryn is lifted three feet from her bed while she’s sleeping. I

K

asked her how they shot the scene. “It was the stunt co-ordinator,” she

tells me. “And he set up that whole thing in about three days, and they tested it. One of the AD’s, named Megan, did the levitation before me so I could see what was going on, but I had to do all my own stunts, which was awesome, and I felt invincible with the harness on and I loved it.”

This being the fourth film in the franchise I asked Kathryn, whose only fifteen now, if she’d seen the other Paranormal Activity films.

“We have a little tradition,” she says. “Every Halloween, with all my friends, and we all get scared together. I mean, I’ve never really watched all the movies ‘cause my eyes were closed the whole time, but when I was testing on the project I watched all of them alone in my room and all the lights went out, and then the next day when I met Henry Joost [the director], I told him what happened and

he said ‘No way, we were watching all the Paranormal Activity movies and all the lights went out too.’ That’s something paranormal.”

Paranormal indeed, but it didn’t put off Kathryn, a fan of the horror genre.

“I love horror films,” she says. “Because they’re the only film where the audience is really invested, especially the Paranormal franchise. We write the movies for the fans and so it was really great to get to go to the screenings with all the fans to really support us, and to get to see them be happy and screaming. That’s what we wanted, we wanted everybody to get scared.”

I asked her what her favourite horror film is, besides the films in the Paranormal Activity franchise. “What’s my favourite horror film besides Paranormal?” she repeats my question, thinking about it. “Well, I loved Insidious, a lot, It was very, very good. It was like a psychological thriller, kind of like the

Paranormal.” She used

other horrors to prepare for the film as well.

“When I was practising my screams,” she tells me. “I watched the first five minutes of Scream, my favourite part with Drew Barrymore. I love that, she’s in the movie, oh, wait, never mind she’s going to die in the first five minutes.”

We both laugh at that before I mention Insidious again, and the monster sharpening his claws with Tiptoeing Through the Tulips plays in the background, one of the scariest scenes

“It’s hard enough for her to tell her mom that she might

like this boy and now she has to tell her mom that

there’s a demon named Toby trying to get

her, but she doesn’t let Toby get the best of her, and she

fights back and she’s not going to let Toby take her

down.”

ever put on screen. She agrees. “That song’s so creepy.” I move the interview to children in

horrors. People don’t like kids in horror, and find the films scarier for them. I ask Kathryn why she thinks that is.

“I think it bothers them,” she explains

her theory. “Because they’re so freaky and cool. Kids scare you because they’re so truthful. Kids always tell the truth because they don’t really know how to lie, so they’re much scarier if they say something scary because you’re going to believe, and I think it plays tricks in your mind.”

I ask about the people who think that

children who act in horrors risk getting

traumatised.

“I feel like on set it was never scary,” she tells

me about her experience. “The boy playing

Robbie, he never knew he was playing the weird kid, he was just really having fun, and that was really just how he was a boy and he played really well on camera. Everybody was great, both of them were so good and so real, you just fell in love with them watching, but they had no idea what was really going on

about demons and Toby. They didn’t really

get that, they just thought that we were all

having fun playing pretend, and that’s really

what we were doing.”

Well, there playing pretend scares the

c**p out of the rest of us, and that’s the

point, isn’t it. Kathryn is funny and charming

and a joy to speak with, and I wish what

happened to her at the end of the film didn’t,

but that’s horror, huh? If you want to know

what I’m talking about go and check it out

today, but be prepared for a scare.

ots

Nobody puts Baby in the

Corner Photos by Pat Bromilow Downing

Baby, from Dirty Dancing, is such an

iconic character. She’s up there with Scarlett O’Hara and Juliet. Now

we get to see her on the stage in the new stage version of the hit film.

Actress and dancer Bryony Whitfield is

playing this wonderful part. Jon Broeke sat

down with her at the theatre to get her

impression on the role and what keeps

bringing the audiences back for more.

love the film, Dirty Dancing. I

remember seeing it as a teenager

and wanting to be Johnny Castle,

so I was thrilled to go along to the Teatro at

Montecasino for the press call and sit down

the with the star of the film, the girl that has

been chosen to give on stage life to one of the

most iconic characters in dance film history,

Baby. That person is Bryony Whitfield.

Small in stature, but big in personality,

Bryony sits with me still wearing her hair like

Baby’s and wearing her denim shorts and

peasant shirt, I need to remind myself I’m not

sitting with the character herself, but then

again, I am, aren’t I?

I ask her about her impressions of the

character she is playing.

“Baby is a character that, I think, most

girls can relate too,” she tells me. “The people

that have seen the movie they look at Baby

and they’re like ‘I wish I could be Baby,’

because her character is very positive. She

wants to change the world, nothing stops her.

She’s faced with so many challenges and she’s

like, ‘I’m not going to let this get to me, I’m

going to learn how to dance, I’m going to help

get money for Penny’s abortion,’ so there’s a

lot of challenges that she faces and nothing

gets her down. Only towards the end of the

show does she really get to a point where

she’s just like, ‘I can’t do it anymore. I’ve had

a punch from every angle,’ but she’s so

positive. She’s extremely naïve, and has a

beautiful relationship, especially with her

father, and those are all beautiful

characteristics that people can relate too and

they go, ‘I wish I was that positive.’

Bryony has a definite idea of what has

made the film so popular, and what is bringing

people to the theatre to see the stage version

as well.

I

It’s a beautiful love story,” she says. “I think that’s bringing everyone here. It’s the music, absolutely, but it’s the love between two completely different characters, being

Johnny and Baby. Johnny is from the streets, he’s rough around the edges. He doesn’t show emotion whereas Baby is completely the opposite. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and they come together and they form such a beautiful relationship and they help each other bring out what they

need to change in their lives, and support and they encourage each other to grow. So people are coming for that, the love. Dirty Dancing is about real people. It’s not dramatic, it’s real emotions that real people feel and the end scene, where Johnny leaves, it always gets to me, not only as Baby, I can relate to her, but we’ve all felt pain in our life when someone we love has left and that physical pain, you can relate to her, you can feel what she’s feeling, so there’s all these issues that you see that are completely real.

Bryony was a fan of the film as child. I asked her what impact it had on her.

“It came out 25 years ago,” she begins. “I was born in 86, so I was 1 when the film came out, but I remember watching it. I remember the pink, you can’t miss, and the

Dirty Dancing logo, and I remember this girl, how she couldn’t dance and this really sexy guy taught her how to dance, and I loved the story. I loved the concept of it and the lift at the end.”

The film played an important part in her preparation for this iconic role.

“While I’ve been growing up,” she said. “I haven’t watched it that much,

“Baby is a character that, I think, most girls can relate too. The people that have seen the movie they look at Baby and they’re like ‘I wish I could be Baby,’ because her character is very positive.”

and when the auditions came up I thought it could be a really interesting show. When I auditioned I didn’t think about landing any role. I just thought because I’m a dancer I could be a dancer in Dirty Dancing, but when I went to the audition they encouraged me to look at the character. I went home and went and bought the DVD, and basically stalked her for the time that we were auditioning, although our director, she’s wonderful, Sarah Tipple, she’s really given us amazing freedom. You can’t be a carbon copy, it’s impossible, I can’t be Jennifer Grey, but I can take the emotions that Bryony feels and incorporate that into the character. They’ve given us an amazing freedom to develop our characters ourselves, which has been fantastic, because it just takes the pressure off. If you feel comfortable with what you’re doing as a character, then that’s easier for us, and I’m sure the audience enjoys it more.”

That doesn’t mean that theirs is no pressure, after all she is playing a character loved by millions of fans. I asked her if she felt that pressure of taking on the character, as well as being compared to the original actress to take on the role, Jennifer Grey.

“As a performer there’s always pressure,” she says. “It depends on what role in the show you are, that level of pressure. This is my biggest role to date and I’m in the front line of that pressure. People do come to see the show and they do want to see Jennifer Grey, but there are a lot of things that I’m supported by as well, being the costumes, my hair, the dialogue is exactly the same, I’ve got all of that, that is Jennifer Grey, which is associated with Jennifer Grey. I can just add a few things of my own personality in that. It becomes organic. You want acting to be organic, you want people to feel what you’re feeling, and you can’t just be like a robot. I was extremely nervous, but I think more excited during the rehearsal period.”

Bryony is no stranger to the stage, having performed in Cats, Phantom of the Opera and African Footprint, but this is quite different, being her first leading role. I asked her about the rehearsals for the role.

“My preparation for rehearsals,” she tells me. “I watched the film, I studied the script, so I could be as prepared as I possibly could be and when we started rehearsing we learned he show in just over three weeks and

“This is my biggest role to date and I’m in the

front line of that pressure.

People do come to see

the show and they do want

to see Jennifer

Grey.”

then we had a nice week to really solidify

everything and just get comfortable with it,

especially the American accent. That we got

training and group sessions we had. The

American accent can be so diverse, we

wanted to do kind of a general accent so

people weren’t confused as to where they

were, so that was very interesting, and I loved

that part of it. Then we had a week where we

could run the show and get comfortable and

then we teched. During those weeks I was

very excited, because I was enjoying what I

was doing and when you love what you’re

doing it’s the best.”

She’s also on stage for almost the

entire film, and has a

staggering 21

costume changes

during the show.

“Baby is extremely

busy,” she says. “If she’s not

on stage she’s changing in the

wings and they’re 25 second

changes, 30 second changes, but I

love that, it keeps me so busy, and

the show flies for me. It feels like

twenty minutes, when it’s actually two

hours. It’s up and down, up and down,

and I love it.”

Well, from audience reactions

they love it as well, just as much as

the film. If you’re a fan, or are not

yet a fan you will be after you’ve

seen Bryony doing her stuff. Go and

catch Dirty Dancing at the Teatro at

Montecasino running until the

middle of January, and then go and

buy the DVD and love them both

forever.

I know I do. ots

Up the Beanstalk

It’s pantomime time again and this year Janice

Honeyman is giving us an old classic, Jack and

the Beanstalk. Jon Broeke sat down with the star

of the show, Bongi Mthombeni, of Idols SA fame,

and found out what it was like to climb that

beanstalk.

e’re heading fast into the end of the year again. Towards that silly season

where people spend way too much money on presents and eat too much at our favourite days lunch, or dinner, however you do it in your family. If you’re looking for something different, or if you’re already on the bandwagon of those who attend every year, the pantomime is about to hit the Joburg Theatre. This year Janice Honeyman, the resident director of the pantomime, is bringing us the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

The story is the same old familiar fairy tale that we all grew up with. Having no money Jack’s mom sends him to sell his cow. He does, for a handful of magic beans, which then grow into a gigantic beanstalk. Jack climbs the beanstalk and finds himself in the world controlled by a monstrous giant, who he then needs to battle to save the day. Of course Honeyman has added a couple of things to make it more of a pantomime and less of a fairy tale. Jack has a brother and two sisters, and is fighting for the love of the rocking Raspberry Rose, played by Carly Graeme. The giant also has a sidekick, the devious, evil Henry Hideosa, played by a staple on the pantomime stage Tobie Cronje. Heading up the cast again this year, after last year’s success in Cinderella, is Bongi Mthombeni. He plays the title character in the production.

“Jack. Now Jack,” he laughs when I ask him about his character in the production. “Jack is very street wise. With energy, of course, with a lot of energy, but Jack, now, he wants to be this hero, because of Raspberry Rose. No one wants Raspberry Rose, none of the guys in the whole village want Raspberry Rose, but the first time Raspberry Rose comes out and he sees

W

Bongi with Tobie Cronje as Henry Hideosa and

Desmond Dube as Dame Dora Dimpledumpling.

“Jack is very street wise. With energy, of course, with

a lot of energy, but Jack, now, he wants to be this

hero, because of Raspberry Rose.”

her, he falls in love with her, because she’s very rock and she’s very out there, and very violent, because there are parts in the story where she’s very interesting. Jack is like the superhero. He’s a very naughty guy, he owes speed fines, he’s got summons everywhere. So he’s a naughty guy. All he’s got is his mother, two sisters, a brother and a cow. Because they owe so much the mother decides that they must sell the cow, and Jack is very close to the cow. So, like in [the original] fairy tales, he goes up the beanstalk and he sees the giant, and there’s a lot of nice that’s been put in, in terms of songs and language which kids can relate to, like cartoons and stuff. Jack is the crazy hero who saves the crazy girl.”

When I spoke to him the rehearsals had only just began, but things like the giant and the beanstalk had been discussed, but not in detail.

“I haven’t seen how I’m going to get up the beanstalk yet,” he tells me. “But the giant is a huge machine, it’s like huge. His arm is so huge. I don’t know how they’re going to do it, I’m so excited. We’re just going through the first act now sort of polishing the act, and we have to dance, so all those things are coming together.”

With a huge giant I’m sure it will be an exciting show. We all know Bongi from his times as an idol on the hit TV show Idols SA. He was wonderful as a singer on the show,

but it’s a far cry from what he’s doing on the stage. It was interesting to find out how he got involved in the panto’s.

“I did Idols 2010 and Bernard [Jay] saw me,” he tells me about being approached by the CEO of the Joburg Theatre, Bernard Jay. “While I was doing Idols the producer of Idols came to me and told me that the CEO of the Joburg Theatre is interested in doing a show with you, and he wants to cast you as one of the lead

roles. I was excited, until the day I actually met with Bernard and he explained to me what the pantomime is and what is required from the actors and how much work it is. Then, in my heart, I was like ‘Bernard, I’m actually just a guy, who’s got no big qualifications.’ I think Bernard saw something in me that I didn’t know that I had, and that’s how it all developed. “

He is thrilled to be returning to the stage again this year in the latest pantomime.

“To be Jack this year,” he says. “They asked me again. I remember I was having supper here at News Café [at Joburg Theatre]. They said ‘Bongi we just want to talk to you. How would you feel being Jack next year?’ I was screaming with joy and happiness, because that to me meant that I’ve got something that I don’t know about, but I’ve got it in me, and if people see it in me I’ll just keep on doing what I’m doing.”

He is doing a lot more of it this year with his role being so much larger than it was in last year’s performance.

“When I got the script last year it was like, skip a few pages, and there’s me, then skip a few pages and there’s me,” he tells me about his role in Cinderella compared to his role as Jack. “This year I’m on like every page. It’s like constant. This year’s going to require double dedication. Now I know what’s required of me. I know what I’m putting myself into.”

I asked him if he would want to pursue a career on the stage, in various other musicals and plays.

“Yes I would,” he tells me without a second thought. “I expressed myself a lot when I was on stage, [for Idols SA], and I guess that’s what people fell in love with. That’s what Bernard saw. Randall [Abrahams] always said ‘Bongi, you’ve got a great performance.’

Basically I’m an entertainer. Not that I can’t do studio work, because I can also do that. I think it’s important to be able to sing and act and dance. You’re building up your entertaining skills. So pursuing it, yes I would. I’d pursue it very much.”

With the sort of dedication and commitment he’s shown in recent production I’m sure only the sky is the limit for this talented man. If you want to see more of him in the meantime you can catch him on the stage at the Joburg Theatre, fighting the giant and winning the girls heart.

Bongi with Desmond Dube as Dame Dora

Dimpledumpling.

ots

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Dancers Profile:

Lauryn Summerly

I started doing ballet at the age

of 10. I didn't really want to, but I

was doing modern and

contemporary and started for the technique

that you get from ballet. I started and the rest

you can say was history.”

History indeed, Lauryn

Summerly has earned her place as

one of the best dancers in South

Africa, and a prestigious member of

South African Mzansi Ballet. Born in

Johannesburg, she trained under

some of the best teachers around,

including Lynne Fouché, Gail

Myburgh, Paula Olivier and Liane

Lurie. She also spent two years at the

English National Ballet School under

the tutelage of Anthony Dowson,

Francine Richard and Jean-Paul

Pascal.

“I always knew that I wanted

to dance,” she says. “It was one my

earliest memories. I remember

thinking that my elder sister was

going be the dancer in the family and I

was very envious of her. It’s quite

amusing when I look back at it.”

In 1995 Lauryn won the

Mabel Ryan Award and was recipient

of the Val Whyte Award in 1996. She

won the Natalie Stern Trophy

for the Most Artistic Dancer

and won both Ballet and

Spanish championships at the

1997 Concours de Ballet.

She joined

South African Ballet

Theatre in 2002 and

was part of the merge

when Mzansi

Productions joined to

create South African

Mzansi Ballet.

We asked her

what her

favourite

roles are.

“

South African Ballet Theatre, La

Traviata Rehearsal, The Nelson

Mandela Theatre at the Civic.

Photograph: John Hogg

“I always knew that I wanted to

dance,” she says. “It was

one my earliest memories.”

South African Ballet Theatre, La

Traviata Rehearsal, The Nelson

Mandela Theatre at the Civic.

Photograph: John Hogg

“I have three favourite ballets,” she

says. “Each for different reasons. Performing

Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, was a dream come

true. Carmen was also an amazing character

to play but the one closest to my heart is

Camille in La Traviata. The character, the

music, the costumes...it was my best time on

stage.”

Lauryn has danced in dozens of

ballets, including: Odile, Pas de Trois, Cygnets

and Fiancées in ‘Swan Lake’; The Lilac Fairy,

Golden Vine Fairy, Songbird

Fairy, Pas de Quatre and

Friends in ‘The Sleeping

Beauty’; Peasant Pas de Deux,

Myrthe Queen of the Willis

and Zulma in ‘Giselle’; Louise,

Snow Queen, Sugar Plum

Fairy, Spanish,

Chinese and Arabian in ‘The

Nutcracker’; Camille in ‘La

Traviata’; Swanhilda, Dawn

and Friends in ‘Coppélia’, just

to name a few. We also asked

her if there are any

productions that she wasn’t

too fond of.

“I don't hate or dislike any

ballets,” she told us. “But The

Sleeping Beauty for me has

been one of the most

challenging. I made my debut

in Aurora last year and was

one the hardest roles I have

ever had to dance.”

As a ballerina, and principal dancer for

South African Mzansi Ballet, we asked her if

she had any advice for up and coming dancers

that want to be professional one day.

“You have to be strong, take the

knocks that you are given on a regular basis

and use it to make you stronger.” ots South African Ballet Theatre, La

Traviata Rehearsal, The Nelson

Mandela Theatre at the Civic.

Photograph: John Hogg

“You have to be strong, take the knocks that you

are given on a regular basis and use it to

make you stronger.”

Dancers Profile:

Monier Jouve

orn in Cuba, Monvier Jouve only came to South Africa in 2012

after being invited by the then Mzansi Productions. After they merged with South African Ballet Theatre Monvier stayed on to become a member of the newly established company. He started dancing at the age of nine at the Alejo Carpentier Provincial School of Ballet in Havana, Cuba. At age 15 he started training at The Cuban National Ballet School (Escuela Nacional Cubana de Ballet) in Havana, directed by Ramona de Sáa. In his third year, he won a medal in recognition of his achievements and was cast in Soloist and Principal Roles.

“It was a decision from my parents,” he says on his reasons for starting ballet. “They wanted me to go dancing, and I agreed, I said yes and that I wanted it, and since then I fell in love with ballet, although at the beginning it was difficult for me, as what I used to do before that was play ball, but then that was unimportant. What is important is to follow ballet, to go so far and be with this marvellous company.”

In 2011 he was selected to travel to Mexico for classes with Ballet Folklorico’s Ollin Yoliztli where he performed excerpts from Le Corsaire and La Bayadére. We asked him about his favourite roles to dance.

“My favourite ballet is Don Quixote,” he says. “Because it is the ballet wherein I can show my technique and expressive qualities, it is also a very dynamic ballet, very explosive. Don Quixote has a lot to do with my character; in this ballet I can also express my feelings of love, an emotion I find strong within myself. I have not had the possibility to perform a lead role in this ballet, but when I do, I will give all my strength.”

B

Cuban dancer Monier Jouve in LE

CORSAIRE PAS DE DEUX Celebration 3

Mzansi Productions 2012 (Photo: Pat

Bromilow Downing)

“I fell in love with ballet, although at

the beginning it was difficult for

me, as what I used to do before that was play ball, but

then that was unimportant.

What is important is to follow ballet, to go so far and be

with this marvellous company.”

We also asked about his least favourites.

“Personally,’ he tells us. “I have not had a good or bad role; I have liked all the roles that I have had the opportunity to perform. I try to enjoy every ballet I perform and I always do. I give my best, so every performance is cheerful and if the audience likes what I do and are satisfied, then I experience best feeling for a dancer on stage. If it is like this always, I will never have a bad character or role.”

Monvier has always dreamed of being a great dancer, though becoming a professional wasn’t something that occurred to him.

“Since I started studying ballet,” he says. “The only thing that I have had in my head is to be a great dancer and to be with the best companies in the world, this is the dream of all young dancers. I never thought that I was going to study ballet when I was a child; I only wanted to have fun and enjoy myself like the rest of the children. I always wanted to be a football player and not a dancer, but my parents always wanted me to be a dancer, as they are dancers themselves. They wanted me to follow in their footsteps, but it did not occur to me at a young age to be a professional dancer.”

We asked him for some advice for young dancers wanting to dance professionally, maybe with South African Mzansi Ballet one day.

“The advice that I can give to the future dancers, is to have lots of discipline, to work hard and never give up what they love doing.” ots

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The View from the Isle

Morgan Freeman is on our screens this month as Monte Wildhorn, a writer

with more than a bad attitude, who is befriended by a precocious 8 year old. We went along to the cinema to check

it out.

t’s hard when we lose our drive.

When we lose that one thing that

makes us happy and makes our

lives worth living, whether it’s a loved one, or

a career it’s hard for someone to get back on

the path once it’s vanished before our eyes.

This, in part, is what The Magic of Belle Isle is

about.

Monte Wildhorn, played by Morgan

Freeman, is a once famous writer, now a

wheelchair-bound alcoholic. When his

nephew, played by Keenan Thompson, drags

him out to the rural village of Belle Isle as a

house sitter, he is not happy about it, and

plans to drink the entire time, and hopefully

die. His plans are interrupted though by a

meeting with his next door neighbour,

Finnegan, played by Emma Fuhrmann, a little

girl who makes Monte a deal he can’t refuse.

She wants him to teach her how to write a

book, how to access her imagination. At first

he’s not interested. But the girls’ persistence

wears him down, and soon he is learning as

much from the little girl as she is from him. He

also develops a relationship with Finn’s

mother, Charlotte, played by Virginia Madsen,

a woman struggling through a divorce, and

together they try and discover a way through

the loss they have both endured.

I

“This is a sweet film, really sweet. It’s the type

of film that could give you cavities if you’re not careful. It is cheesy and completely sentimental,

but that is some of the charm of the film.

Sometime you just want to swim in the sugar of a

sappy film.”

This is a sweet film, really sweet. It’s the type of film that could give you cavities if you’re not careful. It is cheesy and completely sentimental, but that is some of the charm of the film. Sometime you just want to swim in the sugar of a sappy film.

The story is universal. Monte is a man that has lost his will to do anything. Since the death of his wife he’s had no reason to fight and has started to give up, using the drink to hide from people and things that he’d rather not face.

Finn brings him back from the brink, re-awakening the drive, and the joy he used to feel when creating stories. The short stories he writes about the elephants are his first step to exiting his self-imposed isolation and opening himself up to the world of writing

again. The acting is good in this film too,

especially from Freeman and Fuhrmann. The interactions between these two characters are the highlights of the films, especially the ‘Tell me what you don’t see’ moments, which are pivotal, not only to the film, but to any writer, which they could tell you. Freeman gives a solid performance as is expected from an actor of his calibre, but Fuhrmann is lovely. She precocious and curious and delivers a believable amount of emotion when the scene calls for it. She could be a great actress, so keep an eye out for her. This is a lovely film and reminds us all to hang onto what matters most to us, whatever it takes, but because it is a little sappy and may put a few viewers off, it gets 8 out of 10.

OTS

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What the h**l is inside?

Boxes can be dangerous things. There’s no way to know what’s inside until you open it,

but by that time it may be too late. This is part of the premise for the new horror film

The Possession. Jon Broeke went to the cinema to check it out.

’m a fan of horror films. Ever since

I saw Freddy Krueger skewering his

first victim with his glove I was

hooked. It may sound a bit strange, but I’m

sure there are a few out there who know

what I’m talking about. As a horror fan I look

at every horror film that comes my way, and

usually I’m sorely disappointed. It’s very

difficult to find a good horror film. Usually the

story is lame, or the bad guy doesn’t match

expectations, or the acting is so wooden they

may as well have set up mannequins for the

bad guy to kill instead of people. So for the

horror lovers, like me, out there I have very

good news. The Possession is great.

Recently divorced dad of two little

girls, Clyde, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan,

has just moved into a new house. His

relationship with his eldest, a teenager,

Hannah, played by Madison Davenport, is

strained, but he’s best friends with ten year

old Emily, played by Natasha Calis. That

changes though one day when they stop at a

yard sale and Emily sees an old box with

strange markings on it. She gets her dad to

buy it for her, then strange things begin to

happen, and Emily begins acting very

strangely. After a few run in’s Clyde looks for

help and discovers that the box that Emily is

compulsively tied to, is actually a prison for a

demon, and Emily has opened the box, letting

the monster out, and straight into her.

I loved this film. The story is good,

based on true events as well which gives it an

added air of horror. It takes a lesser known

Jewish type of demon and brings it to the

limelight, at the same time putting in all the

classic possession devices, the dark

rings under the eyes, the mysterious

movement of objects, the only

thing missing is the girl projectile

vomiting, but that would be

pushing it. The highlight of this

film comes from the special

effects and the acting. First, the

effects. They are awesome. The

demon is truly frightening, the

wind that scares people, does

just that, and the moths are

creepy to no end. You’ll have to

I

“I loved this film. The story is good, based

on true events as well which gives it an

added air of horror. It takes a lesser known Jewish type of demon

and brings it to the limelight, at the same time putting in all the

classic possession devices.”

see the film to get that reference. The effects work seamlessly within the film and create a really frightening reality in which the characters find themselves, and the audience gets sucked into. Second, the acting. Everyone performance is good, from Morgan, who I’ve liked ever since I first saw him on Grey’s Anatomy, to Sedgewick, aslos a favourite of mine, but the stand-out performance comes from Calis. Not since Linda Blair in the original Exorcist have I seen a child so inhabit a

possession. She is terrifying, but at the same time pulls off the complete fear that a child in that situation would feel. Her performance is complete and solid and wonderful. Now that Jodelle Ferland, the former child-star of horror, has grown up, I feel that Calis should be the next to pick up the reigns. And she will do a tremendous job.

This is a film I would recommend to anyone that’s a fan of horror films, and so I give it 9 out of 10.

OTS

Mad Buddies

Leon Schuster hits our small screens this month with the release of his latest film on DVD, and I gotta tell you, these

buddies, they’re mad.

A sure bet at the South African box

office is Leon Schuster. If his name is on a film you know exactly what to expect from the picture, and you know it’s going to bring in the crowds. Mad Buddies was no exception when it was released on the silver screen, and now it hits the DVD rentals for round 2.

Beast (Kenneth Nkosi) and Boetie (Leon Schuster) are enemies, ever since Beast shot off Boetie’s big toe in a poacher incident. When they meet again at the wedding of a minister’s (Alfred Ntombela) son, it’s fireworks straight away, leading to the two getting arrested. It’s at this point that Kelsey (Tanit Phoenix), a TV producer, enters the picture. She offers them an opportunity: walk the 600 kilometres to Gauteng together, or stay in jail. They accept readily, not knowing that she plans to film and televise their every move on her new reality show, with them as the unsuspecting stars.

If you’re a fan of Schuster than this is the film for you. It has all the slapstick comedic moments that you expect from a Schuster film. That

is about all it has though. The story is silly and not well thought through; the acting is pretty shoddy, even from the big names of Phoenix

and Nkosi. The locations are beautiful though. The two walk through our country and the film makers made the most of the scenery that South Africa has to offer. It also has to be said that the CGI effects in this film far surpass any in the previous Schuster films, and are really quite impressive.

This is a film for fans only, and since

rumour has it it’s the last film Schuster will be starring in, you fans better get your fix. We’ll just have to wait and see if that’s true, and if so, who will become the new box office sure thing. ots

ff, Who Lives at Home Je S rring Jason Segel, Ed Helms and Judy Greer ta Di ected by Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass r

eff (Jason Segel) is a lovable thirty year old slacker who lives in his mother’s basement. He is desperately trying to seek

out reason and his destiny, while getting high and doing little else. When he gets a phone call asking for Kevin it sets his world spinning as he contemplates the meaning of this event. It leads him to leaving the house to run an errant for his mother, Sharon (Susan Sarandon), getting mugged, running into his brother, Pat (Ed Helms), discovering that his sister-in-law, Linda (Judy Greer), may be having an affair and leading to something that no one sees coming, let alone him.

Meanwhile, his mother discovers she has a secret admirer at her office, this also leads her to a dramatic conclusion in which all the strings of this story come together. This is a lovely film. It is so clever and sweet and funny that I absolutely loved it. The way the story is woven together in such a way that the viewer gets so involved in the plot is fantastic, and rare. The acting is wonderful, especially Segel, who I’ve loved in all the films I’ve seen him in. He has a sincerity that makes the viewer route for him whether he’s going through a Five-Year Engagement, or trying to Forget Sarah Marshall. Helms is over the top and insane as the brother we can all say we know, and Sarandon is funny and touching as the woman who thinks she’s over the hill, but then finds love in the most unexpected place. This is a film I would definitely recommend.

House at the End of t Street he ennifer Lawrence, Elisabeth Shue and Max Starring J

Thieriot Directed by Mark Tonderai

hen a mother, Sarah, (Elizabeth Shue) and her teen daughter, Elissa

(Jennifer Lawrence) move to a new house in a small town they think it’s going to be the perfect new start for them, even though the house next door was the scene of a double murder where a girl, Carrie Anne (Eva Link), killed her parents, a few years earlier. Things are good at first, but when Elissa makes friends with Ryan (Max Thieriot), the son and only survivor of the double homicide that took

place in the house next door, Sarah begins to think that maybe things aren’t as great as she first thought. Elissa thinks she’s nuts, but as things begin to happen, and Ryan starts acting stranger and stranger she begins to think that maybe he’s hiding something. She has no idea… This isn’t a completely original idea. We’ve seen this type of film before, think Hide and Seek, but there are enough plot twists, spaced well throughout the film, to keep the audience interested. The acting is also good, especially from Lawrence and Thieriot. Theiriot is truly frightening at the end of the film and stands out as an actor to be watch out for in future, whether in horror, as in this or My Soul to Take, or in other genres. If you like psychological thrillers, with a large dollop of scares thrown in, then this is the one for you.

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Taken 2 eeson, Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen Starring Liam N ier Megaton Directed by Oliv

t’s been awhile since the events of the first film and Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), the ex-CIA operative from

Taken, as well as his ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen) and his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), are moving on with their lives, but after Lenore’s new husband leaves her, Bryan invites her and Kim to come with him to Istanbul for a vacation. After they arrive in the beautiful city everything seems perfect, but, unknown to them, the father of the man he killed in the first film (Rade Serbedzija) is after him and his family to exact his revenge for the death of his son. Soon he discovers all their lives are in danger, but this time it’s not just him fighting, it’s his whole family.

This film is a sequel in the truest sense of it. If you haven’t seen the first film, you will be able to understand what’s going on, but you won’t be able to appreciate it as much. The acting is good again, which we expect from the likes of Neeson, but it seems like more of the same. The first film was new and interesting and really lit the imaginations of those that watched it, and while there are parts in this film that I enjoyed, and Neeson can still fight with the best of them, I felt that there was nothing new, and that we’ve seen it all before. In essence it was a let-down, considering I enjoyed the first one so much and expected more from the sequel. That being said, this is still a good film, and, putting the first one aside, it’s an action filled film that catches your attention. If you like that type of thing this is for you, but don’t go in expecting Taken 1, because you’ll just be disappointed.

Piranha 3DD Starring Danielle Panabaker, David Hasselhoff and Matt Bush

Directed by John Gulager

fter the events at Lake Victoria

the entire town has become

deserted, a ghost town. The

piranha that destroyed their home has been eradicated, or so they think. A new waterpark is about to open in another part of the country and people have started dying. Maddy (Danielle Panabaker), co-owner of the worst, cheesiest water park in the history of the world, has noticed the deaths and tries to convince her step-father, Chet (David Koechner), that they need to close the waterpark to save the people, but he refuses to listen. Then the fish make their way through an intake pipe into the swimming pools, and all hell breaks loose. This is the lowest form of film making in my opinion. I quite enjoyed the first Piranha film. Yes it was ridiculous, and yes the gore

was way over the top, but there was a kind of tongue in cheek humour about the whole thing. It never took itself seriously, and that was part of the charm. Add to that cameo from Richard Dreyfuss and the film is a god laugh. This film has none of the nuance of the original. The plot is non-existent, plodding along from one naked girl getting eaten to the next, the gore is just as much, but not even amusing this time, and the cameos by David Hasselhoff and Ving Rhames, yes, they are cameos even though they are listed in the credits, are ludicrous and stupid and downright insulting. This is not a film anyone should see, it’s just a lame attempt to try and make more money from an unsuspecting audience. Shame on the producers of this piece of ****.

I

A

rmal Activity 4 Parano ng Katie Featherston, Kathryn Newton Starri att Shively and M

ed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman Direct

t’s been five years since Katie (Katie

Featherstone) murdered her boyfriend,

Micah (Micah Sloat), her sister, Kristi (Sprague Grayden) and her husband, Daniel (Brian Boland) before making off with her nephew Hunter (William and Jackson Prieto). The quiet lives of 15 year old Alice (Kathryn Newton) and her brother, Wyatt, as well as their parents are thrown into turmoil when their neighbour, a strange little boy named Robbie (Brady Allen) comes to stay with them. Things are fine at first, besides the boy’s strange behaviour, but the Alice starts to notice strange noises and things happening in her house that scare her. They are headed to a showdown with the very monster that has destroyed so many lives already, and it’s

closer to them than any of them could have possibly imagined. There’s nothing new here. It’s just the same thing over again that was featured in the first three Paranormal Activity movies. Strange things start happening so they set up cameras. Then noises start sounding, shadows moves across the screen and things start moving by themselves and then all hell breaks loose in the last ten minutes of the film. This time they’ve added a *spoiler alert* cult to the mix, but this is a poor attempt to revitalise a failing franchise. The kids are good, especially Newton, who plays the naïve, wide-eyed, doe-to-the-slaughter very well, but even the addition of the young blood, not that they’ll be in the sequel since this film ends the same way others did, isn’t enough to save this film. If you loved the first three, you’ll like this one, since it’s the same film. If not, steer clear.

Hope Springs Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep and Steve Carell Directed by David Frankel

fter 31 years of marriage a woman, Kay (Meryl Streep), feels discontented in her marriage. Her and her husband,

Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones), is more like roommates then husband and wife, living in the same house, but hardly speaking or interacting with each other in any way. In an attempt to save the marriage Kay buys the two of them a week long intensive couples counselling course under the watchful eye of Dr Feld (Steve Carell) in the small coastal Maine town of Hope Springs. Once there the two try and discover where the magic that they had has gone, and try and recapture it,

risking loosing what they have in the processes. This is a lovely film. The story is sweet and compelling and the acting is wonderful. Jones is wonderfully funny as the grumpy old man, stuck in his ways and unwilling, or unable, to change. Streep is her fantastic self as the wife, trying to recapture the magic, but not even knowing where to look for it, or how to find it. I will admit I got a little annoyed with the musical interludes that came a little too often. When a lead character walks along the beach, or through a museum, with a song in the background it can denote the emotion the characters going through, but when the director uses it for the fifth time it seems less than subtle, and heavy handed. Other than that, though, this is the kind of film that wins actors Oscars, so if you’re a fan of those types films than this one is for you.

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weenie Franken es of Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara and Martin Starring the voic Short

Burton Directed by Tim

ictor Frankenstein (voiced by Charlie Tahan) is an inventive young man that loves science and making films with his

best friend, his dog Sparky, but Victor’s life falls apart when Sparky is hit by a car and dies. Then, one day in science class, Victor gets an idea. Death may not be the end. After setting up an elaborate experiment Victor manages to bring his beloved pet back to life. Soon news of the reincarnation is all over his town and all the kids want a piece of it. Their goal: to outdo each other so they can win the coveted big trophy that is the prize for the science fair, but the experiments go horribly and wrong and now, not only does Victor has

to save his newly resurrected dog, but he needs to save the entire town. I’m always harking on about how I don’t understand why a film is stop-motion animation, or this new CGI animation that I don’t like, when it could just have easily been live action. I don’t know if the producers are trying to cut costs, or don’t want to work with actors, but it makes no sense to me. This film is a perfect case of a film that wouldn’t have been the same if it had been live action. It needed to be stop-motion and is all the better for it. The characters are so over the top that they couldn’t be real, which is great. They are all awesome, from the Spooky Girl with her big eyes and her cat, to the science teacher, to Victor himself. I loved them all. The story is sweet, and homages are well done and respectful, all in all this is one of the films of the year and one that everyone should watch.

Stilte Starring Angelique Pretorius, Andre Frauenstein and Chris de Clerq

Directed by Darrell Roodt

ntoinette (Angelique Pretorius) is one

of the best, most promising up and

coming singing stars in South Africa, but when her parents (Deon Coetzee and Dienie Steenkamp) are killed in a home invasion she vows to never talk, let alone sing, ever again. She’s sent to live with her Aunt Dorrette (Chante Hinds) and Uncle Hans (Chris de Clerq). The try to help her as best they can, but there’s little they can do for the girl. It’s only when she meets the local pastor, Peter (Andre Frauenstein) that she starts to open up. He discovers that her not talking is because she doesn’t want to, not because she can’t, and that she’s not dealing with what happened to her parents, instead choosing to ignore it. He helps open her eyes to the truth, and come through the other side in one piece.

This is very difficult film for me to review. The version of the film we, the critics, saw was unfinished. The audio was very bad, the subtitles were incorrect and it was shoddily put together. I’ve been told that since I saw this film the new version has the wound and subtitles fixed, so I don’t feel right to comment about those, which I otherwise would. What I will say is that I still don’t think this is a good film. Firstly, to show an unfinished version to the critics is not a good idea. You want us to think the best of the film, so show us the best. Secondly, the film is not good, the acting is not great, even by Frauenstein, who I personally love as an actor. The story is weak, not really going anywhere, and the script is preachy, pushing the writer’s beliefs onto the audience in an unwanted way. It is a very disappointing film, even if it was perfect, it still wouldn’t have been good.

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steria Hy ing Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy and Jonathan Pryce Starr ted by Tanya Wexler Direc

t the beginning of the 1800’s the

medical community is torn between

the new investigations in germ and s science and the old guard who still believe in bleeding and possession. In this world is Dr Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy). He is a firm believer in the new order and wants the doctors in London to try new methods to treat their patients, instead of killing them. He has gone from employment to employment being sacked from one after the other for his thoughts, and vocal nature, when he comes to the office of Dr Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce). He has a very successful practice treating an ailment known as hysteria, which is exclusive to woman. The treatment is applying pressure to the most private area of a woman. Granville starts working at the practice, and becomes very popular, but he suffers injuries in his hand from too much

“exertion” and is sacked again. Then he pays a visit to his friend, Lord St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett), and finds his new electric feather duster. A contraption that vibrates most beautifully. This is fantastic film. It’s funny and clever and well written and well-acted. It has everything you would want from a comedy. I will say that the subject matter, the creation of the modern vibrator, is not for the young, or faint hearted, but it is handled in such a way as to make it truly amusing and touching. I especially loved Maggie Gyllenhaal as the older doctor’s rebellious daughter. She is head strong and wilful, and completely steals every scene that she is in. She is simply marvellous. If you like dry British humour this will tickle your funny bone, if you like your comedy more in the gutter, watch The Campaign instead.

Copposites Starring Rob van Vuuren, Casey B. Dolan and Sivuyile “Siv” Ngesi

Directed by Oliver Rodger

etective Jan Venter (Ro van Vuuren) b is a drunk cop whose ex-wife (Casey B. Dolan), who he’s still in love with, is

having a relationship with a successful black lawyer. Shrky Majola (Sivuyile “Siv” Ngesi) is a down on his luck, trying to reform criminal, whose trying to propose to his pregnant girlfriend, but being thwarted at every turn. He also owes a loan shark (Alfred Ntombela) a lot of money, so he goes on one last job to square things, but it happens to be at a science lab that Venter, after being suspended from the force, is guarding. The two have a run in and after a vial of chemicals is spilt in the lab the two change bodies. Now they need to learn to work together to change back, all the while running from the cops, the

criminals, and trying to keep their respective others in the dark. I really wanted to like this film. I read the synopsis and found myself remembering the good old body switching films, like Vice Versa, or Like Father, Like Son, and found myself hoping that this would be as good. Add to that the buddy cop slant that they’ve added and I was hoping for a winner, unfortunately I was disappointed, as happens so often with South African cinema nowadays. This film just isn’t funny. Every joke in it is racial, and not funny racial, insulting racial. The performances are over the top and unappealing, even from Dolan, who I’ve seen in other things and liked. She just had nothing to work with here. Again I am disappointed with a film that could have had promise, but I still live in hope that we will get somewhere in this country.

A

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Cloud Atlas Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Jim Broadbent Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana

Wachowski

loud Atlas is the exploration of how an individual’s actions can ripple through time and affect other’s live in the

future. Told in six separate stories, one set in the 1800’s involving a man who is travelling on a long journey and finds a black stowaway in his cabin and sets about helping the man, one set in the 1920’s revolving around a man who takes a job working with an old, mean composer so he can write his own musical masterpiece, one set in 1970’s where a reporter discovers that a new nuclear reactor isn’t what appears, and is tied to a conspiracy that involves murder, one set in present day that resolves around an aging publisher who, after taking money from the sale of a gangsters book and having his life threatened, finds himself imprisoned in an old age home, and at the mercy of the nurse from hell, one set in the distant future where servers at fast food chains are grown, instead of born, leading to massive class distinction for these “Fabricants” and the young clone who is supposed to save the world, and the last set in the very distant future, where a man living a quiet life in a farming village is forced to take

a mysterious woman to a dangerous place so she can “Phone home” All the stories meld into each other as the characters from the past effect the characters from the future in ways that neither could

imagine, or even know. I still can’t really tell you what this film

is about. It is one of those films that leaves you wondering long after the final credits have rolled. The way the filmmakers connect the characters, through books the past characters have written, or songs that they created, or messages beamed to the world

that inspire a revolution, is very clever, but in the same breath very confusing, since it’s so subtle that you really need to think about it afterwards to understand it. That being said it is an amazing film. The attention to detail is remarkable and the scripting is inspired. The most amazing thing though is way the actors were used. Each actor has multiple roles in the film, coming to the audience in every time period in the film. As such the make-up effects are Oscar worthy and absolutely wonderful, along with the visuals on the various sets for the different times. If you like films with a good deal of thought necessary on the watchers part, then this is the film for you, if you prefer mindless action, or comedy, then don’t watch this, it will only confuse and irritate you.

C

OTS

No Romance Here Photos by Jan Potgieter

Cindy Swanepoel as Janet

The UJ Arts Centre’s Con Cowan theatre played host to the last production of the That So Gay

Festival this month, Dalliances. We went along to the opening night to see if romance was in the

air, or sorely lacking.

From left to right: Jacques Le Roux as Andy and Christopher Dudgeon as Leo

think it’s fair to say that the That

So Gay Festival of plays hosted by

UJ Arts and Culture was a huge

success. Featuring Snowman, written by Greg

MacArthur and directed by Renos Spanoudes,

Little Poof! Big Bang!, written by Bruce J. Little

and directed by Neels Clasen and The Boy

Who Fell Off the Roof, written by Juliet Jenkin

and directed by Jade Bowers, each

performance was strong and well written and

a joy to watch.

The festival ended this month with

the production of Dalliances, written by Pieter

Jacobs and directed by Alby Michaels.

The show follows the lives of Janet,

played by Cindy Swanepoel, Leo, played by

Christopher Dudgeon, and Andy, played by

Jacques Le Roux. When Leo meets Ken, played

by Zak Hendrikz, at a supermarket and they

hook up in the elevator it leads to a series of

events that change the lives of all four people.

Ken, a serial philanderer, Andy, his unstable

boyfriend, Leo, a nightclub owning playboy

and Janet, the unstable young woman who is

hooked on drugs and runs the nightclub with

Leo. Things get worse when Ken and Leo meet

again and Leo gives him a business card so he

can find him. This leads to Ken hooking up

with Janet, Andy finding the business card and

making a suicide pact with Janet, then finding

Leo and holding a gun on him, and all around

insanity. This is only topped when they

discover that AIDS has come into the mix.

I have to be honest in my opinion of

the show, and though others loved this work, I

didn’t. I found the entire thing pretentious. I

thought it was over written and the dialogue

wasn’t true or realistic. The thing that

bothered me the most was that none of the

characters learnt anything. They did bad

things and died from the bad things, but none

of them learnt from their actions. Yes, there

were repercussions for their actions, but none

of the characters gained any knowledge about

how they had grown from the experience.

They just simply had to face the

consequences. I really wanted them to learn

something.

The acting is not bad, but for some

reason it was stilted and confused. All the

actors were under the impression that by

I

“I have to be honest in my

opinion of the show, and though others loved this

work, I didn’t.”

In front: Jacques Le Roux as Andy. Behind: Zak Hendrikz as Ken

shouting their lines, or bursting into tears at

the appropriate moment, they were acting.

There was no subtlety in any of the

performances, each of them being more

heavy handed and see-through than the next.

And why they needed to be naked in the first

five minutes of the show eludes me. The

writer and director probably wanted to shock

the audience, but I wasn’t

shocked, I was bored. The

gasps from the rest of the

audience denoted shock,

sure, but mixed with

nervous giggles that said

to me that the only

reason they stayed to

watch the rest of the

show was because they

knew someone on stage, and that was true

for about 80% of those watching.

The set was great, at first. I was really

impressed with the bar, and the bedroom

sets. The elevator was also very cool, and the

way the moved it, like it was a character in the

play was impressive, but after about half an

hour it all seems a bit much, and becomes

cumbersome to the actors. Less is more and

maybe a little less would have been better.

I know I’ve ragged on this show pretty

heavily, but I have a good reason. Over the

last few months I’ve watched several shows at

UJ, including Snowman, which opened this

festival, and each and every one has

impressed me no end, so to go and watch this

show, that just doesn’t meet up to the others,

is a real disappointment. That being said, I

suppose you can’t win them all, so I will put

this show behind me and move

onto the next.

All in all the festival

was a huge success, and I

look forward to next year’s

festival, and the fantastic

productions that will be featured. ots

Dangerously Good Liaisons

Photos by Jan Potgieter

This month sees the dancers of UJ Arts and Culture back on stage in the original work Dangerous Liaisons. We went along to the

opening night to check out the liaisons, and see how dangerous they really are.

Kiki Moopa in Dangerous Liaisons

he French novel Le Liaisons

Dangereuses has inspired

several films that revolve

around the plot points. Now the latest dance

production to come out of the UJ Arts and

Culture department is inspired by this very

same book.

Choreographed and directed by

resident dance director Owen Lonzar the

show tells the story of three people. The Man,

danced by guest artist Angelo Collins, is a

philanderer. The type of man who takes what

he wants from woman with no thought to the

consequences, that is until he meets the

Virgin, danced by Nontsikelelo Mosa Khasu.

She is a naïve, completely out of her depth girl

who is seduced by the man, but instead of

him using and discarding her, he falls for her.

This is infuriating for the Girl, danced by the

dance captain of the company Kiki Moopa,

who is a seductive, manipulative witch of a

woman who uses her sexuality to get what

she wants. It was her idea for the Man to

seduce the Virgin, but when he falls for her

the Girl gets incredibly jealous leading to a fall

out with dramatic consequences. Add to the

mix the jealous Other Man and things turn

explosive very quickly.

I’ve seen a couple of the dance

productions done by the UJ Dance Company,

as they called themselves for the last

production, though the name doesn’t appear

this time, and I’ve got to say, this is by far the

best I’ve seen them perform. The entire

production was fabulous. It was clever and

original and inventive. Lonzar did a great job

with the choreography, which made good use

for all the dancers, and played to their

strengths well. The opening, done behind

screens which are used to create silhouettes

of the dancers, is very clever and catches your

attention from the moment the lights go

down.

The dancing from everyone involved

is good, especially from Collins, the only

professional dancer on the stage, and Moopa.

The first duet danced by the two of them was

especially riveting, and the use of lifts, and the

execution of them by the dancers, was breath

taking at moments.

T

The highlight for me though was the

dances performed by the entire company

together, especially the guys. They performed

strong hip hop feel numbers, moving as a

solid unit, as one person, and were an

absolute joy to watch.

The music was also wonderful. An

eclectic mixture of rock and new age with

heavy beats. Everything from Evanescence to

a remix of Adele’s Someone like You, mixed

with Rumour Has It. The music was absolutely

wonderful. Songs that the audience

recognises goes a long way to adding to their

enjoyment.

There were one or two issues I had with the

show, but only in nit-picking. I would have

liked the company to be wearing dancing

shoes, or going barefoot, rather than wearing

the sneakers they were wearing. It would

have added a more professional feel to their

performances. Also, I would have liked Khasu

to have a little more characterization. Her

attempt at looking coy made her look like she

had no neck, and her crying made the

audience laugh, never a good sign.

These are little things though, and

didn’t distract from the show in anyway. I

loved it and look forward to the next

performance by this talented company.

ots

“The entire production was

fabulous. It was clever and original and

inventive. Lonzar did a great job with the

choreography, which made good use for all

the dancers, and played to their strengths well.”

Snow White and the Huntsman Starring Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron Directed by Rupert Sanders

When an evil queen (Charlize Theron) takes control of a kingdom, killing the king, she locks the princess, Snow White (Kristen Stewart) in the north tower, imprisoning her. But on her 18th birthday, the queen discovers that the girl now has the power to destroy her. She sends for the girl, to kill her, but she escapes into the dark forest. The queen then sends the huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) to capture the girl, but when he finds her, and discovers who she is, he decides to fight for her instead of helping the queen. This is great action film with a good dollop of fantasy thrown in. It does run a little long, and there are a few scenes that it probably could have done without, but Theron’s performance is fabulous, and I love the queens back story, something you don’t normally get.

Metal Tornado Starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Nicole DeBoer and Greg Evigan Directed by Gordon Yang When the Helios Corporation tries to solve the worlds energy troubles by

gathering ions from solar storms, they unintentionally release a rogue magnetic vortex, a tornado made up of magnetic fields, which goes on a rampage across Pennsylvania, destroying everything in its path. It falls on Michael Edwards (Lou Diamond Phillips), one of the scientists that created the vortex, and his girlfriend, Rebecca Adler (Nicole DeBoer), another of the scientists, to stop the vortex, but with the next attempt being planned for France, and a CEO unwilling to accept responsibility; can they stop it in time? This is completely a B-grade film. The story is silly and full of holes, the effects are about as unbelievable as they could be, and the acting is not good. Even Phillips and DeBoer, who I have always liked as actors, can save this film. That being said, if you rent a film called Metal Tornado, you must know what you’re letting yourself in for.

One for the Money Starring Katherine Heigl, Jason O’Mara

and John Leguizamo Directed by Julie Anne Robinson

With poverty, and debt collectors, nipping at her heels, Stephanie Plum (Katherine Heigl) takes a job as a bounty hunter. When she finds a bond on her ex-boyfriend, Morelli (Jason O’Mara), a cop that is accused of killing someone, she immediately takes the bond and starts trying to track him down, but as soon as she does she finds herself wrapped up in something a lot bigger than she had anticipated, and it may cost her more than her home. It may cost her life. Based on the wildly successful set of Janet Evanovich books this is a great film. It’s funny and exciting, with loads of action. Heigl is wonderful as the street smart Plum, a girl trying to make it on her won, but failing in a lot of respects. If you liked the book, you’ll love the film. Let’s hope they make more soon.

Knockout

Starring Steve Austin, Daniel Magder and Emma Grabinsky

Directed by Anne Wheeler When Matthew Millar (Daniel Magder) moves to a new town with his mom and step dad, and starts at a new school, he immediately becomes the target for the school bully. When he tries to stand up to the boy things go wrong, and it just gets worse. He finds an ally in the schools janitor, Dan Barnes (Steve Austin), once an up and coming boxing star. Matthew gets the chance to fight back when he enters a boxing match with the bully, the schools bets boxer, and Dan agrees to train the boy, but he learns far more from Dan than just how to fight. This is Karate Kid in a boxing environment. Matthew’s new girlfriend, played by Emma Grabinsky, even mentions the film to him. It goes the way you’d expect, and it’s fun and inspirational. Austin is good as the mentor, but Magder needs a little more acting training. It’s not bad, but rather watch its inspiration.

Dark Shadows Starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Chloe Moretz Directed by Tim Burton

Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) is a dashing aristocrat in 1700’s Maine, but he spurns his lover, Angelique (Eva Green), for another, she takes revenge on him by killing his love and cursing him to become a vampire. She then locks him in a coffin. Two hundred years later he is released from his prison, but 1972 is very different from the world he left. He reconciles with the Collins family and tries to rebuild his home and fortune, only to find that the business rival of the Collins family now is the very same witch that condemned him all those years ago. Based on the 1970’s TV show, this is a very interesting film. Depp is great as the over the top, out of place vampire, as is Green as the witch who loves him to death. The effects are great, especially the porcelain Angelique, but the whole film is very odd, so be warned.

The Romantics Starring Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel and Anna Paquin Directed by Galt Niederhoffer Lila (Anna Paquin) is marrying Tom (Josh Duhamel), so the day before the wedding her best friends from school, including Tom’s ex-girlfriend and Lila’s maid of honour, Laura (Katie Holmes), travels to her home by the sea. That night, at the rehearsal dinner, the alcohol flows freely, but it’s afterwards that the real fireworks begin to fly. As the group of friends reminisce about their pasts, Tom freaks out and swims out to sea. During the search for the missing groom, feelings are expressed and clothes are shed. Then Laura finds Tom, hiding from his life, and the truth behind their relationship comes out. I suppose there is a place for this type of film, but it’s not for me. I found it plodding and boring from the moment it began until the end, which wasn’t an end at all, just a continuation of the pointless storyline that crashed to black. If you like this type of film, as in pointless drama, or are a fan of the book, watch away, otherwise don’t waste the money on the rental.

Phineas and Ferb: The Perry Files

Starring the voices of Ashley Tisdale, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Vincent

Martella Created by Jeff 'Swampy' Marsh and Dan

Povenmire Phineas and Ferb are average everyday kids enjoying their summer vacation, with one big difference. Every day they create wonderful, fantastical contraptions that they share with their friends. From the world’s largest aeroplane, to an amazing backyard fort, to a transport to Mars, they have the most fun of any kids. Add to this a sister trying to bust them to their mom all the time, and a pet platypus, who is secretly a secret agent, and you have the recipe for great fun. I am a fan of the Phineas and Ferb series on Disney and Disney XD. I think it’s smart and funny and great for kids. The five episodes on this disc focus on the exploits of Perry, the platypus, as he battles his arch enemy, Dr Doofenschmirtz. They are quirky and amusing. If they’re fans buy the DVD for them to own.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Starring Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt

and Kristin Scott Thomas Directed by Lasse Hallstrom

When Dr Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor) gets an email from Harriet (Emily Blunt), the financial advisor for an Arabian Sheik (Amr Waked) about introducing salmon into the Yemen, he thinks it’s a load of rubbish, but after some pressure from her, and a large amount from the government, desperate for good publicity from that part of the world, Jones agrees to get involved. As soon as he begins though he finds himself being pulled into the Sheiks vision for the place, and his feelings for Harriet, causing him to re-evaluate the project, and himself. This is a lovely film, filled with good humour and a wonderful message. It is a great film for a Friday night, and I recommend it highly.

Boy Wonder Starring Caleb Steinmeyer, Zulay Henao and Bill Sage Directed by Michael Morrissey

Sean’s (Caleb Steinmeyer) mother is killed in front of him when he’s just a child. Ten years later he’s still looking for the killer, but at the same time forging himself into a vigilante. As he begins ridding the street of those that he feels the police can’t, a new detective (Zulay Henoa) is transferred to the police precinct where he spends time. She immediately thinks that something isn’t right with the kid, but as Sean gets closer to his mother’s killer they both discover that they are more connected than they realised. We’ve all heard the story of a boy’s parents being killed turning him into a vigilante, think Batman, so it’s not a new idea, but the way it’s done is good. The plot twists happen in good time, and are compelling. The performances are good too, giving the film real appeal. It’s an enjoyable watch.

The Lucky One Starring Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling and Blythe Danner Directed by Scott Hicks A marine, Logan’s (Zac Efron), life is changed when he finds the photo of a girl (Taylor Schilling) in the rubble of Iraq. Moving to pick it up he evades a mortar, so, thinking the photo saved his life, when his tour is over he leaves on a mission to find her. When he does, he just can’t tell her the real reason he’s tracked her down, but manages to land a job at the dog hotel she owns. As the two get to know each other they help each other, her, with the death of her brother, also a marine, and him, with his survivors’ guilt. This is lovely chick flick. Based on the book by Nicolas Sparks, who wrote the Notebook, this is along the lines of that film, very emotional and moving. If you enjoyed the Notebook, or that type of film, this is one for you.

Cinderella Starring the voices of Ilene Woods, James

MacDonald and Eleanor Audley Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred

Jackson and Hamilton Luske When Cinderella’s father dies her stepmother turns her into a servant to wait on her and her two horrible daughters. When news comes of a ball that the king is throwing to find a wife for the prince, everyone in the house is excited, but when her stepmother makes it impossible for Cinderella to attend, her fairy god mother appears and saves the day getting her to the ball in style, but when Cinderella has to leave at midnight, and loses her slipper on the stairs the prince starts a search for her. One her stepmother is desperate to stop. This is a classic animated film. Shot in 1950 it is still one of the most loved Disney films of all time. Yes, the animation is old fashioned, compared to what they’re releasing nowadays, and the songs, with the exception of Bibbity Bobbity Boo, aren’t as catchy as most Disney songs, but it’s a classic and should be owned by all fans of Disney. Buy yours today before it’s off the shelves again.

Die Wonderwerker Starring Dawid Minnaar, Elize Cawood

and Anneke Weidemann Directed by Katinka Heyns

In early 1900’s South Africa Eugene Marais (Dawid Minnaar) is already a well-respected Afrikaans poet, conservationist and scientist. The film revolves around his time at a small farm of Rietfontein and the way he changes the lives of the people that live there, including Maria (Elize Cawood), the unhappy wife of the farm’s owner who falls for Eugene, and Jane Brayshaw (Anneke Weidemann), the young girl who lives there and also falls for Eugene, but Eugene falls for her too, creating a dangerous dynamic in the house that effects everyone. This is one of the best South African films ever, and it’s a travesty that it wasn’t entered as Foreign Language contender in the Oscars. The acting, cinematography, costumes, directing, are all good. Buy it today, it’s well worth it,

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