Can you believe that it’s only 35 days to the Soccer World Cup – I certainly can’t, it sometimes still feels so unreal. Winter is also nipping at our heels, but no need to worry. Apart from all the sports at the moment like the 20/20 Cricket World Cup, Super 14 and the Telkom Knockout Championship, there are plenty of good movies showing this weekend. I think it’s fairly safe to say that this weekend belongs to Mr Jean Claude van Damme and Mr Robin Williams with no less than two movies each showing. I’m looking forward to quite a couple of movies that I haven’t seen yet, that is if I get the time to pig out in front of the tele. My absolutely have to see movie of the week: Gran Torino
FRIDAY, 7 MAY 2010
Ch 101 M-Net 21:30 Great Buck Howard
Starring: Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks, John Malkovich, Emily Blunt, Debra Monk
Director: Sean McGinly
A young man, much to the chagrin of his father, becomes the new assistant to an illusionist in decline
Ch 103 MM1 19:00 In Bruges
Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clemence Poesy, Jeremie Renier
Director: Martin McDonagh
Holed up in Bruges, Belgium after a difficult job, two hit men begin to differ on their views of life and death as they become used to local customs.
Ch 103 MM1 20:50 The Strangers
Starring: Liv Tyler, Gemma Ward, Scott Speedman, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis
Director: Bryan Bertino
A young couple staying in an isolated vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants.
Ch 104 MM2 20:00 A Mighty Heart (****)
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman, Irrfan Khan, Adnan Siddiqui, Alyy Khan
Director: Michael Winterbottom
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It’s an excellent drama and Angelina Jolie delivers a powerful performance as Mariane and proves once again that her Oscar won was no fluke. It’s a heartbreaking story of one woman’s survival in one of the world’s harshest’ countries. It’s a must see in my books.
Synopsis
Mariane Pearl embarks on a frantic search to locate her journalist husband, Daniel, when he goes missing in Pakistan.
Ch 104 MM2 21:55 Longford
Starring: Lee Boardman, Jim Broadbent, Tam Dean Burn, Lindsay Duncan
Director: Tom Hooper
A portrait of Lord Longford, a tireless British campaigner whose controversial beliefs often resulted in furious political debate and personal conflict.
Ch 105 M-Net Stars 19:30 Laws of Attraction
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Julianne Moore, Parker Posey, Michael Sheen, Frances Fisher
Director: Peter Howitt
Amidst a sea of litigation, two New York City divorce lawyers find love.
Ch 105 M-Net Stars 21:30 In the Army Now
Starring: Pauly Shore, Andy Dick, Lori Petty, David Alan Grier, Esai Morales
Directors: Daniel Petrie Jr, Cyrus Yavneh
Two misguided youths join the reserves to make some money for their entrepreneurial dreams. No sooner than they finish basic training are they called up to do their part to save the free world.
Ch 106 M-Net Action 20:00 The Hard Corps
Starring: Jean-Claude van Damme, Wesley Snipes, Dexter Bell (II), Doron Bell (II), Ron Selmour
Director: Sheldon Lettich
An Army veteran assembles a team of bodyguards to protect a former boxer. Complications arise when the boxer suspects his sister may be romantically involved with the bodyguard.
Ch 109 TCM19:05 Clash of the Titans
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith, Ursula Andress, Jack Gwillim
Director: Desmond Davis
A film adaption of the myth of Perseus and his quest to battle both Medusa and the Kraken monster to save the Princess Andromeda.
Ch 109 TCM 21:00 The Odessa File
Starring: Jon Voight, Maximilian Schell, Maria Schell, Mary Tamm (II), Derek Jacobi
Director: Ronald Neame
The gripping true story of a journalist whose search for a Nazi murderer leads him to the discovery of a secret Nazi organization file named "Odessa."
Ch 113 Sony 20:30 Cruel Intentions 3
Starring: Kerr Smith, Kristina Anapau, Nathan J. Wetherington, Natalie Ramsey (II), Melissa Yvonne Lewis
Director: Scott Ziehl
A string of sexual manipulations and double-crossings occur at an exclusive prep school on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
My Picks for Today: A Mighty Heart,
Movies that Might be Worth Watching: The Odessa File, Clash of the Titans
SATURDAY, 8 MAY 2010
Ch 101 M-Net 21:30 12 Rounds (***)
Starring: John Cena, Steve Harris, Aidan Gillen, Brian J. White, Gonzalo Menendez
Director: Renny Harlin
Believe it or not, but this movie is not half bad, but how else with the director of Die Hard behind the lens. It’s a mixture between Speed and Die Hard and is 10x better than The Marine. It has a decent storyline and some good action sequences.
Synopsis
Detective Danny Fisher discovers his girlfriend has been kidnapped by a ex-con tied to Fisher's past, and he'll have to successfully complete 12 challenges in order to secure her safe release.
Ch 103 MM1 19:30 Reservation Road
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino, Elle Fanning
Director: Terry George
Haunted by tragedy, two fathers and their wives react in unexpected ways. As a reckoning looms, the fathers are forced to make the hardest choices of their lives
Ch 103 MM1 20:55 The International (***)
Starring: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Thomsen, Brian O Byrne
Director: Tom Tykwer
It’s official, Mr Owen has now become one of my favourite actors. He’s an excellent actor and in this movie he’s no different. It’s a good action/drama with an intriguing storyline which will keep you on the edge of your seat right until the end credits roll.
Synopsis
An Interpol agent attempts to expose a high-profile financial institution's role in an international arms dealing ring.
Ch 104 MM2 20:00 Hot Rod
Starring: Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Ian McShane, Sissy Spacek, Will Arnett
Director: Akiva Schaffer
Self-proclaimed stuntman Rod Kimble is preparing for the jump of his life - to clear fifteen buses to raise money for his abusive stepfather Frank's life-saving heart operation
Ch 104 MM2 21:30 The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (**½)
Starring: Jonathan Bennett, Randy Wayne, April Scott, Joel Moore, Willie Nelson, Christopher McDonald
Director: Robert Berlinger
I preferred the original, and thought that this movie was made as an afterthought. I still cannot understand Hollywood. Why make the ‘beginning, origins etc – call it what you want’ after the original movie, why not tackle it the first time around? Maybe it will stay as one of those rhetorical questions where there isn’t actually an answer for. It’s okayish, but with non of the original cast, it just didn’t feel the same (the only person that does make a return is Willie Nelson). The comedy felt forced and non of the comrade that was displayed in the original was present. It’s mindless fun if you don’t mind movies like this.
Synopsis
Teenaged cousins Bo and Luke Duke spend their first few weeks in Hazzard County getting into trouble running outlawed liquor in order to save their Uncle Jesse's farm.
Ch 105 M-Net Stars 19:30 Jack (***)
Starring: Robin Williams, Diane Lane, Brian Kerwin, Jennifer Lopez, Bill Cosby
Director: Francis Ford and Roman Coppola
This movie is funny, sentimental, sweet and heartwarming, but what else do you expect from Mr Williams. It’s a nice movie the whole family could enjoy.
Synopsis
Because of an unusual aging disorder that has aged him four times faster than a normal human being, a boy enters the fifth grade for the first time with the appearance of a 40 year old man.
Ch 105 M-Net Stars 21:30 Imaginary Crimes
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Fairuza Balk, Kelly Lynch, Vincent D'Onofrio, Diane Baker
Director: Anthony Drazan
A recently widowed, small-time hustler struggles to raise his two teenage daughters on his own and still make a dishonest living in 1950s Indiana.
Ch 106 M-Net Action 20:00 Bloodsport (****)
Starring: Jean-Claude van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, Norman Burton, Forest Whitaker
Director: Newt Arnold
Of all of Mr JCvD’s movies, this surely must be the best one he has made – well at least in my books. He shot to fame after this movie and has never looked back. If you haven’t seen it you must have been living under one huge rock. It has a killer soundtrack, some tongue-in-the-cheek humour, but best of all the fights, choreography and storyline are excellent. It’s just a pity he could never actually repeat his success that he had with this movie.
Synopsis
American soldier and martial arts master Frank Dux gets an invitation to "The Kumite," an illegal martial arts tournament in Hong Kong, where only the world's best fighters are invited. While eluding American agents set on bringing him back to the U.S., Frank enters the competition, which no Westerner has even won before.
Ch 109 TCM 19:15 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson
Director: Richard Brooks
A Southern house is divided by patriarchal dominance and the marital problems between one of the sons, a heavy drinker, and his wife.
Ch 113 Sony 20:30 Airplane
Starring: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves
Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Food poisoning strikes the crew and passengers of a 747, and it is up to a former fighter pilot, his old flame, and an uncouth doctor to land the plane safely.
My Picks for Today: Bloodsport, Jack, The International, 12 Rounds
Movies that Might be Worth Watching: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Reservation Road
SUNDAY, 9 MAY 2010
Ch 101 M-Net 20:00 Gran Torino (*****)
Starring: Cory Hardrict, Bee Vang, Clint Eastwood, Ahney Her, Brian Haley
Director: Clint Eastwood
If there is only one movie that you watch this weekend it should be this one. It is a powerful drama about forgiveness and accepting change. I’m a huge fan of Mr E (the actor and especially the director). I have yet to watch a bad movie of him. This movie will pull on your heartstrings - guaranteed and make you think of what is important in life. You’ll come to hate his family, but you’ll love his neighbours. This is one movie you defs should not miss.
Synopsis
Disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager, who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: his 1972 Gran Torino.
Ch 104 MM2 20:00 Back to Gaya
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Emily Watson, Lorelei King, Glenn Wrage, Alan Mariot
Director: Lenard F. Krawinkel
Follows the adventures of two cartoon characters from a TV series who find themselves in the real world.
Ch 105 M-Net Stars 19:30 Flubber (***)
Starring: Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald, Raymond J. Barry, Clancy Brown
Director: Micky Moore, Les Mayfield, Peter T. Crosman
I enjoyed this movie. It is innocent, sweet, funny and heartwarming and doesn’t try to be anything else than a perfect family movie. Robin plays the eccentric absent minded professor to a T and ‘Flubber’ creates enough entertainment I’m sure the little ones would enjoy. It’s not a bad movie if you’re in the mood for something lighthearted.
Synpopsis
An absent-minded professor discovers "flubber," a rubber-like super-bouncy substance.
Ch 106 M-Net Action 20:00 Black Rain
Starring: Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura, Kate Capshaw, Yusaku Matsuda (II)
Director: Ridley Scott, Bobby Bass
Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. In Japan, however, he manages to escape. As they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game the Japanese way.
Ch 109 TCM 19:00 2010
Starring: Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban
Director: Peter Hyams
A joint American-Soviet space expedition is sent to Jupiter to learn what happened to the Discovery.
Ch 113 Sony 20:30 Analyze That (***)
Starring: Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow, Joe Viterelli, Cathy Moriarty
Director: Harold Ramis
I wonder what happened to Billy Crystal, he had a string of successful movies (comedies) and then just (appeared to have) disappeared from the movie scene. He is still one of my all time favourite comedians and I’ll watch anything that he stars in as it can only be excellent. I enjoyed this tremendously, it’s not as good as the original, but it holds its own and is still funny, so if you’re in the mood for something lighthearted, then this movie is just for you.
Synopsis
Mobster Paul Vitti is released into Dr. Ben Sobol's care, where only more chaos ensues
My Picks for Today: Gran Torino, Flubber, Analzye That
Movies that Might be Worth Watching: Black Rain