6 minute read
ENTERTAINMENT
SUN, SAND AND SURF CROP UP MUSICALLY AND VISUALLY IN THIS MONTH’S ENTERTAINMENT OFFERINGS. THE BEACH BOYS’ NEW ALBUM COULD ALMOST PROVIDE THE SOUNDTRACK TO THE NEW BAYWATCH MOVIE …
1
Advertisement
BAYWATCH Citizen reviewers of Baywatch, the movie, believe that it takes more than Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s developed biceps and Zac Efron’s pretty boy good looks to rescue this movie from drowning. Johnson takes the role of devoted lifeguard Mitch Buchannon, a character made famous by David Hasselhoff in the smash-hit television series. Efron plays brash new recruit Matt Brody, a former Olympic swimming champion sentenced to lifeguard duty as part of his community service for being caught behaving badly. The sun shines, the surf pounds and muscles ripple while the two egos and personalities clash on the beach. But they unite in a common purpose of battling an evil plan.
THE MUMMY Tom Cruise headlines a spectacular, all-new cinematic version of the legend: The Mummy. He’s Nick Morton, a soldier of fortune who plunders ancient archaeological sites. An ancient queen (Sofia Boutella) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her, is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia. From the sweeping sands of the Middle East through hidden labyrinths under modern-day London, The Mummy brings a surprising intensity and balance of wonder and thrills in an imaginative new take that ushers in a new world of gods and monsters.
GIRLS TRIP New Orleans is the destination of a girls-only trip. The plan is to attend the annual Essence Music Festival to rediscover their sisterhoods and wild sides. The girls in question are played by Queen Latifa, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Regina Hall and Tiffany Haddish – and with that ensemble cast hilarity is guaranteed. The four are lifelong friends who have not hung out with each other for five years. They forge even stronger bonds while dancing, drinking, romancing and even getting involved in physical altercations. Expect sassy quips, action, reaction, great music and moments of roar out loud laughter.
2
1967 SUNSHINE TOMORROW THE BEACH BOYS From the original West Coast pop boy band, the Beach Boys comes this compilation album of previously unreleased material recorded in late 1967, a year that marked remarkable creativity from the California musicians. The sessions were of material intended for their 13th album, Wild Honey. Included is the album’s first ever complete stereo mix, various live renditions, session highlights, and additional material sourced from Smiley Smile (September 1967) and the unreleased live effort Lei’d in Hawaii, both of which immediately preceded the Wild Honey sessions.
EVOLVE IMAGINE DRAGONS Imagine Dragons has been one of the decade’s biggest rock acts. The Las Vegas alternative band have clocked up five Billboard Music Awards, a Grammy Award and massive sales, along with the title of Billboard Rock Artist of the Year in 2013. As the title states and band frontman Dan Reynolds has implied in interviews, this, their third album, is an evolution and charts their musical growth after 2016 was spent on hiatus. The break was self-imposed after the band’s two previous albums and exhausting 10 month promotional tour. The first track released, Believer, was followed up by Thunder and Whatever It Takes, all well received by their legion of fans, with the third track hitting number 5 on the US Billboard chart within weeks.
HOPELESS FOUNDATION KINGDOM HALSEY The New Jersey native admits to being a “Marvel nerd and big comic-book kid” growing up. She’s a platinum selling artist with 4 million Twitter followers – and she’s been doling out cryptic clues about this album for months now. The concept is of a pair of lovers in limbo – with Romeo and Juliet having provided some inspiration. She expects this album to generate some airplay. Judging by the success she enjoyed in contributing to the Chainsmokers’ massive smash hit Closer, which shattered chart records, she should be vindicated.
ENTERTAINMENT DVD’S, CD’S & BOOKS
MISS BEHAVE MALEBO SEPHODI Upon encountering historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s quote, ‘well-behaved women seldom make history’, Malebo Sephodi knew that she was tired of everyone else having a say on who and what she should be. Appropriating this quote, Malebo boldly renounces societal expectations placed on her as a black woman and shares her journey towards misbehaviour. According to Malebo, it is the norm for a black woman to live in a society that prescribes what it means to be a well-behaved woman. Acting like this prescribed woman equals good behaviour. But what happens when a black woman decides to live her own life and becomes her own form of who she wants to be? She is often seen as misbehaving. Miss Behave challenges society’s deep-seated beliefs about what it means to be an obedient woman. In this book, Malebo tracks her journey on a path towards achieving total autonomy and self-determinism. IF I STAY RIGHT HERE CHWAYITA NGAMLANA Shay, a seemingly shy and innocent journalism student, is sent to a female prison to cover a story on an inmate, but falls in love instead. Two months later, Sippy, Shay’s love interest, is out of prison and they move in together. On the outside, Sippy is the haunted one in the relationship, but as their love story unfolds, it turns out that Shay has her own secrets. This immersive and interesting story – written with no small amount of flair and intensity – is sexually charged and filled with moments of lacerating violence, both emotional and physical. At heart, it is the story of a woman’s inability to let go of that which both nourishes and destroys her. APARTHEID GUNS AND MONEY HENNIE VAN VUUREN South Africa remains a deeply unequal society battling the legacy of apartheid and the persistence of corrupt networks that seek to ‘capture’ its democratically elected leaders. As Hennie van Vuuren argues, in the absence of accountability, corrupt networks of the past stay in business. Rather than face justice, they invite members of the new elite to the table. This meticulously researched book finally lifts the lid on some of the darkest secrets of apartheid’s economic crimes, weaving together a treasure trove of newly declassified documents and eyewitness accounts. This is an exposé of the machinery created in defence of apartheid and in support of sanctions busting and the people who profited. In creating the apartheid arms money machine they were complicit in a crime against humanity. Whistleblowers were assassinated and ordinary people suffered. Finally, this network of profit is revealed. In forging its future, a new generation of South Africans need to grapple with the baffling silence regarding apartheid-era economic crime and ask difficult questions of those who profited from it. This book provides the evidence and the motivation to do so. 3 DISCLAIMER: All books featured here are supplied by Jacana Media.
