the true story of chasing mavericks

source: www.waldenfans.com
"legends start somewhere"
chasing mavericks' tagline

Chasing Mavericks is a 2012 biographical film about the life of American surfer Jay Moriarity, who started surfing maverick’s, dangerous waves at age 16.

The movie follows Jay Moriarity and Frosty Hesson and their love for surfing. Jay Moriarity views Frosty as a father figure. Jay soon asks Frosty to teach him how to surf mavericks, he firstly disagrees but later agrees to it.

We follow the two as Frosty teaches Jay how to survive surfing these huge waves at maverick’s point. “Chasing Mavericks” is a true life story that follows the love a boy has for surfing, his love for surfing was strengthened when his father left, which leaves him searching for a father figure to help him better his surfing skill, frosty Hesson  comes into the picture after he saves Jay from nearly drowning this creates a complex relationship between the two. Frosty later on goes on to fill the empty space left in Jay’s heart by his father when he left.

If you like an epic, heart wrenching true life film that shows us how far people will go for the people they care about, then you will enjoy chasing mavericks.

WHITNEY HOUSTON'S LAST SPARKLE

Source: www.imdb.com
sparkle (2012) movie poster

Sparkle is a remake of the 1976 production of the same name. although in this one they have Whitney Houston, Jordin Sparks, Derek Luke, Mike Epps and Omari Harwick. This film was the last project Whitney Houston worked on before she passed away.

This is the only time it is acceptable for Hollywood to remake an old film, films that share musical history and are heartfelt should be shared with the public if possible. Whitney Houston passed away while the movie was in production, it was set to be a big comeback for her. Many fans were excited to hear that they could see Whitney Houston perform one last time. The movie follows Sparkle and her sisters as they try to make it into the music industry.

If you have not seen “DREAMGIRLS” then you will definitely enjoy this movie, the movie was also inspired by the true life history of The Supremes. The iconic voice of Whitney Houston will forever be missed

Yet another remake by Hollywood

source: www.thehypescene.com
Judge Dredd

hollywood has given us yet another remake. this time they remade the 1995 movie "Judge Dredd" with Sylvester Stallone, this 2012 adaptation of the movie will be totally unrelated to the 1995 epic.

It would seem like Hollywood has run out of ideas, lately all they give us are remakes of movies from the 90’s, what is going on with Hollywood?, they threw “Total Recall” at us not so long ago and it tanked hard even, now they bring us yet another remake in the form of “Judge Dredd”, renamed “DREDD” for this 2012 depiction. The movie for me worked with Sylvester Stallone, but Karl Urban might be able to pull the role of “DREDD” off.

The good news here is that, the movie was shot in South Africa or some scenes rather, it was shot on location in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and they incorporated some south African actors into the cast, like Junior Singo from “Intersexions” and ”10000BC”.the producers of this movie are planning on making sequals and a series about the movie, if this movie grosses more than $50 million. they better pray it does.

 I for one am excited to see what the new Dredd holds in store for us.. I enjoyed the 1995 epic so I’m hoping they better themselves in this remake. The movie will be in cinemas on the 28^th of September 2012 in South Africa..

thehypescene.com

I RECALL a TOTAL waste of time

source; crytical myth
total recall poster

The original Total Recall movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger was a better movie as compared to this 2012 remake.

 I was shocked to walk into an almost empty cinema after all those awesome and cool trailers I saw, it made no sense to me, a few minutes into the movie I understood why. Total Recall (2012) was a waste of time and energy, it was too long, you will sit in the cinema yawning and wishing for someone to please cut the power…  there was nothing that needed more clarity on from the original movie. The producers could have just saved themselves time and money to make a different and better movie. The only thing that was better about this movie was the special effects; oh they kicked the original Total Recall out of the water on that part, but that’s where it ends. The acting was decent, although the female lead seemed to be struggling with this role.

The story line was similar, understandable, but this time it was not only about an individual it was more about politics, there are only two colonies left on earth after a devastating chemical war.. Yeah, the movie loses you at times, going on about its business forgetting the audience, it would seem the story teller is more interested in telling his story than he is in trying to connect with the viewer. Perhaps something should be said to such movie makers.

they stepped up too many times

source: wearemoviegeeks.com

People who love dancing and like the “Step Up” movies, will be happy to hear that they have come back with a fourth movie in the step up franchise, hopefully this is the last. They are all starting to look the same, boy meets girl, girl meets boy, they share a passion for the dance, they fall in love and win a contest.

The first three movies were exactly like that. In this fourth installment of step up they don’t dance to win a contest though, they dance to save their neighborhood. Out of all four movies, the second step up movie was the best, in my opinion.  Don’t get me wrong the third one had its moments, like the introduction of robot Rock and the tutting guy during the end credits now he was cool, but moments don’t make a movie.

If you watched step up 2 and then step up 3 you’d see that they repeat some of the dance sequences, the water scene, is in both movies. The choreography keeps changing atleast.

 I do believe that summit and touchstone should have stopped with the step up movies after the second one, it’s just too much now. We may never get tired of the dancing but the movies and their silly plots, I’m not so sure.

Tutting = changing the angle of your arms to the beat, dancing with your hands and arms practically.

the true meaning of bravery

source: en.wikipedia.org.

Disney and Pixar brought us an animation movie that explores the never ending struggles between a daughter and her mother, and customs set by lords and the right to choose your own path, that’s what the movie BRAVE is all about, this movie is the perfect blend of defiance, adventure, magic, humor and desire. The daughter of king Fergus, an over indulgent father who just wants to keep her daughter  happy,  Merida decides to go against custom, when she decides she does not want to marry any of the suitors chosen for her from the other clans.

We are sent on a wild adventure in old Scotland following Merida as she challenges custom by entering a challenge to win her own hand in marriage and to find the witch that tricked her into turning her mother and three brothers into bears. She finds herself in an odd situation, when she has to save her mother, who is now a bear, from her father king Fergus, who hates bears, for good reason even, as a bear once robbed him of his leg. I like how the movie never loses the humor of the whole situation, a daughter who was only looking to change her mother’s mind has now changed her mother’s entire outlook. In the end it all comes together when Merida saves the day.

for more info disney.com/brave

a dark knight for batman premier

A man shot 70 people, killing 12 and injuring 58, at the premier of the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, in AURORA, Colorado, USA, on July 20^th 2012.

The man responsible for the shooting was later identified as James Eagan Holmes. He allegedly walked up to the moviegoers waiting in line and threw a smoke bomb, and then started shooting.

 As many people where happy about going to watch the batman movie, another was planning his own rendition of the movie in real life.  The guy later handed himself over to the police.

 What set him off is only something that he knows, or does he hate the Batman movies so much so that he would kill those that like the movies? After this incident security at the movie theatre in AURORA, was tightened up.

Christian Bale went to visit some of the victims of the shooting; he was spotted in a photo taken by one of the people injured in the shooting.  It’s a good thing that Christian Bale did, but he should have went to visit the people injured in the shooting as Batman, just to show the victims that even Batman cares, this would have been more for the fans than anything else.

a fitting end to the batman legacy

source: wearemoviegeeks.com,  Picture of batman signal.

Xan Brooks a reviewer for “The Guardian” had this to say about “The Dark Knight Rises”, “Christian Bale’s tormented Batman duly rises for Christopher Nolan’s bruising saga of revolution and redemption.”

The Dark Knight Rises would be the last Batman movie, from Christopher Nolan.

Christopher Nolan decided to put his Batman movie making days behind him and he did so on a high note. The Dark Knight Rises would be the third and last batman movie by Christopher Nolan, it is not clear on whether they are shutting the franchise down or that they will return to it in later years with a different director and writer at the helm, but this batman movie will be a tough act to follow if they do decide on returning to the batman movie making business.

The Dark Knight Rises is a great close to the batman franchise, the movie picks up where “The Dark Knight” left off. In this third movie the writers brought out the human side of batman, his vulnerability and his insecurities to the surface. The movie reminds us that at the end of the day Batman is only human, unlike other Superheroes. Batman for the first time in all three movies takes a serious thrashing from the evil villain BANE, this was a refreshing angle by the writers. The Dark Knight Rises was released on the 27th of July 2012.

As fans of the Batman franchise we were only happy that they ended it all on a high, as sequels tend to be very bland.

. For a different perspective visist movie geeks

The black surf



award winning movie
OTELO Burning



Otelo Burning is an award winning movie that was nominated 13 times at the  Africa Movie Academy Awards Nominations and it Won Best SA Film Award.

Not only can black people swim, they can surf in this movie. The film is named after the main character Otelo Buthelezi, whose father does not like him going anywhere near the beach. The movie is a classic example of the saying  “hard work pays off” it certainly worked for them. The movie has already accomplished quite a lot in a short period of time.

It’s set in 1989, against a backdrop of brewing conflict between two political groups in Lamontville. The film follows the lives of four young men, Otelo Buthelezi, Ntwe, New-Year and Mandla Modise. The three young boys Otelo, Ntwe and New-Year are introduced to the world of surfing by Mandla, they grow to love the sport and see it as their way out of their township LAMONTVILLE.

The film makers decided on a young leading cast, they cast young up and coming actors and first time actor Tshepang Mohlomi. The movie plays around the topics of love, friendship, betrayal, death, hopes and desire. It is a much needed refreshing angle on making movies in South Africa, it took films were many not dare go, it came up with the concept of throwing a few black people in water and hope they don’t drown before you capture your shot.

This movie is an all-rounder it has all the elements needed to make a movie work, missing out on this one is your own loss and also lets support local films.

colour me grey



A MILLION COLOURS movie poster

A MILLION COLOURS is a movie based on true events that happened around the 1970’s. It follows the life of two young men, Muntu Ndebele and Norman Knox, the actors from the acclaimed South African movie “e’lollipop”. We are taken through how their lives changed when the country went into a state of emergency.

“A MILLION COLOURS” is about the ultimate triumph of friends over diversity. It is a true story of danger, hearth-ache, and triumphs. It is an epic documentation of the human condition and its trials. Muntu and Norman were great friends from when they appeared in the movie “e’lollipop” and they were torn apart by the apartheid system, we are taken through their how their relationship was strained and almost destroyed by the apartheid regime. They were forced to fight on different sides of the fence and miraculously they were re-united after struggle when Nelson Mandela became president in 1994.

This is a great movie to watch if you are one of those sentimental types who enjoy a good movie, it is bound to probably be a real tear jerker this one. The film makers decided to cast an almost unknown cast, most probably they were trying to make the movie seem as real as possible, I applaud them for that, nothing like a big well known actor to distract you from the reality of the film.
If you feel like a movie that has no CGI effects in it or constant muscle men testing their strengths on each other’s heads and if you want to learn something and leave the cinema fulfilled, then this is the movie for you. Check out imdb for more information about the movie.

Avenged



The Heroes of S.H.I.E.L.D



The Avengers is bound to be a crowd pleaser, it brings all, well most of the marvel superheroes you know and love and throws them into one action packed epic movie that would be impossible to fail.

It works around bringing all these different people together, with their differences, ticks, views & ideas and personalities to work towards a single goal to save the planet from LOKI (Thor’s brother) Tony Stalks’ ego, The Hulks anger issues, Thor’s thirst for battle and Captain America’s hard adjustment to the new world, all this things work well together in the within the Team, not at first of course.

The Avengers is a 2012 American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, based on a Marvels Comics superhero team of the same name. It boasts an ensemble cast of the likes of, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth , Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hidelston, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Many people have high expectations of the AVENGERS, from the fans themselves to the producers, many fans have been itching at the thought of watching the movie, the AVENGERS movie movie is expected to gross just well over $100 million in its first three days at the cinema. I’m thinking I might have been a little too hasty when I said “BATTLESHIPS” is the most anticipated. The producers of the movie hinted towards there being a sequel to this movie at the New York Comic Con. In this movie adaptation of the cartoon series they left out “ANT MAN” maybe perhaps it would have been impossible to fit him into the movie, let’s hope he will be in the sequel. The Avengers movie is too big to fail. For a more detailed view of the movie visit crytical myth.

Have we not seen this before?



Kronos (left) and Perseus riding Pegasus(right),
 Wrath Of The Titans 3D movie poster.



‘Wrath of the Titans’ is the sequel to “Clash of Titans”. The movie promised so much and delivered so little.

Wrath of the Titans is similar to Clash of the Titans, actually it’s the same plot, the film makers just added a few new faces, changed the dialogue and changed the threat that threatens to end life as they know it.

If you had not watched Clash of the Titans this movie would have been a great movie to watch. The movie suffers from “the hangover” syndrome.

There is nothing spectacular about Wrath of the Titans, the movie does not grab you, you sit there feeling like “I have seen this before” you would have more fun talking to your date (if you brought one along).

The film makers where just unimaginative and pulling a fast one on the thriller hungry public, the nerve of them to make people pay for the same movie twice

Perseus goes on a quest in search of something, he finds a friend(s) to help, they get into trouble, they escape, they find what they were looking for and then he has to get back in time to stop the godly monster before it does real damage and he stops the monster in its tracks. Yeah, that’s the whole plot of both movies in a nutshell.

We keep being palmed all this sequels that do not live up to the first movies reputation. I will not deny that the first TITANS movie ended on a sour note, but it was entertaining, it was not so entertaining that you would want to see it twice. Movies such as Wrath of the Titans help us escape our everyday lives and we like that, but we can’t keep escaping to the same place all the time.

Highly Anticipated



The Battleships movie poster



The film BATTLESHIP was directed by Peter Berg, the man that brought us “HANCOCK”.

BATTLESHIP is a 2012 sci-fi movie based on a game of the same name. The movie is shaping up to be a world-wide hit, grossing more than $58 million at the box office in just a few days of its release in a few countries in ASIA, it is due for release internationally on the 18^th of April 2012 (that was yesterday).

The concept of making a movie out of a board game must have been a hard idea to pass by producers; the involvement of certain individuals in the movie must have made financing this film a lot easier, like Peter Berg, Liam Neeson and Rihanna.

 During the making of the movie they took an odd route and actually used actual U.S Navy sailors as extras on the ship, the movie is Rihanna’s film debut,  we will get to see her acting talents (if she has any) we will have to wait and see, let’s hope she does. I am not quite sure of what the Aliens supposedly invading our planet look like but I do know they wear some sort of metal suit to shield themselves from the sun.

The action sequences are really good, so I can gather from the trailer and Liam Neeson is in this film, he alone is enough to make you drag yourself to the cinema.

Peter Berg’s movies are always a huge hit with the fans, they are all hoping that this one will live up to the standard set by all the other movies he has made, BERG fans are ridiculous, it does not matter if the movie does well or not they will support him and go watch.

The film is a must see.

Failed to Transform

The Transformers movies are like the best thing to ever happen to modern day film. All Transformers movies are great, they gross more than expected at the box office. The trouble here is that the movies are not on the same level.

Many fans of the Transformers trilogy will say that the first movie was the best, but I will have to strongly disagree “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” the second Transformers movie was un-questionably the best. It was non-stop kick-ass action from beginning to end. The second movie in the Transformers trilogy made more sense to me, as opposed to the third movie in the franchise, which was just plain ridiculous in my view.

The most horrible thing to ever be done by any movie trilogy, is kill off the villain that tied all three movies together, we saw Megatron come to his untimely end in the third movie. I hated the third movie for doing that, why would you kill off one the most interesting characters in the movie?

The film makers killing off Megatron, sets us to believe that there will never be another TRANSFORMERS movie, that this is the end of the franchise, if that is true then the trilogy ended on an anti-climax. The third Transformers movie “Transformers: Dark Of The Moon” as compared to Its predecessor “Revenge of the Fallen”, was a complete bore, it was one of those movies you regret watching, they took forever to get to the action scenes, and once they got to them, they did not live up to what was advertised on the trailer. All Transformers fans know that the Transformers movies are very long, but ‘Dark Of The Moon’ felt like it was 10 times as long. My thoughts are, the film makers came back for a third movie a little too early.

District 9

our first Sci-Fi Movie

District 9 the movie that showed South African film makers that they can go big… International big, Big budget big, Box office #1 big, that kind of big. District 9 was basically South Africa’s first sci-fi movie.

District 9 was about aliens that came to our planet lost and they landed in Johannesburg (well their spaceship was hovering right over Johannesburg for the first time ever aliens had landed somewhere other than America.) so our governments and others decided to let them stay on our planet, the governments set aside a certain area in JHB for the prawn-like aliens, it was called DISTRICT 9. Wikus Van Der Merwe, one of the operatives in charge of relocating the aliens from District9 to District10, finds an alien container, that has an unknown chemical in it he gets exposed to this chemical and he slowly changes into one of the prawn-aliens. He then discovers what our government and the MNU are doing to this aliens and what they intend on doing with the alien technology and weaponry that can only be controlled by the aliens and Wikus now that his DNA is changing alien like. Wikus and Christopher (one of the aliens) try to stop them while Christopher and his son try to get back home to their planet.

District 9 was the first sci-fi movie to come from South Africa, it changed the movie landscape of our country. It moved us away from those documentary films South Africa is famous for. Our film makers usually made movies about struggle heroes, movies with serious human issues or comedies, mainly by one man Leon Schuster, yeah for some time in our film making history this man monopolized our movie industry… Oh shucks.

The movie District9 set the stage for many films/movies to follow, it moved our film makers away from making one dimensional movies, forced them to get creative, soon after District9 we had our first movie on Vampires in Johannesburg it was called “ETERNITY”, we had cool vampires though, Then a horror movie about human hunting or smuggling body parts, I don’t know, Len from Isidingo was in it. Needless to say District 9 opened the door of creativity in our film makers’ minds and they gave us movies that made South Africans want to go to the cinema more and moved us away from the bootleg market. Pirating of movies in South Africa actually around the world is a big problem, but hopefully more creativity when it comes to movies will push people away from this trend.