Off the screen magazine august 2014 by Jon Broeke

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Contents On the Cover: 28 THE POWER OF THE MIND Scarlett Johansson stars as the title character in Luc Bessonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new sci-fi action feature, Lucy, mixing the power of her mind with the power of her guns

Features: 20 INVESTIGATING THE COLD South Africa actor Tony Kgoroge takes the lead in the new SA crime thriller, Cold Harbour, battling the Chinese triad, corrupt cops and his own demons

36 SURROUNDED BY FUR This month sees the stage meet the screen when Venus in Fur comes to the big screen. We talk to South African stage actress Janna Ramos-Violante about her stint playing the female lead in the stage production, and what she thinks the film will bring

Scarlett Johansson discovers the power of her mind in Lucy

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74 Frank Grillo is torn

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Tony Kgoroge battles in Cold Harbour

in The Purge:

Anarchy

36 Helen Mirren cooks up a storm in

68 The Hundred-Foot Journey

Janna Ramos-Violante talks about Roman Polanskiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new film, Venus

in Fur

68 THE FIRST STEP Famed British actress Helen Mirren takes on a French accent as well as an Indian family in the cooking drama The Hundred-Foot Journey

74 PURGED Action actor Frank Grillo talks to us about his role in the sequel to the creeper hit of last year, The Purge: Anarchy

Regulars: 12 WHAT TO SEE IN AUGUST Jersey Boys Sin City: A Dame to Die For Lucy 80 DSTV THROWBACK In a World

Reviews:

Deliver us From Evil Bad Neighbours 48 RELEASED JULY 25th Cold Harbour Step Up: All In 54 RELEASED JUNE 27TH Guardians of the Galaxy Mr Pip Wish I was Here 60 RELEASED JULY 4TH Chef Hercules Alles Wat Mal Is

44 RELEASED JULY 18TH

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Editors Letter

t’s all about the stage productions making their way to the big screen this month with two features, not only coming this month, but releasing on the same day. The first was a huge success at the Teatro at Montecasino, Jersey Boys, about the singing group Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and the other is a more existential production, which was at the Pieter Toerien theatre at Montecasino, Venus in Fur. We talk to the star of that production Janna Ramos-Violante about her work in the play, and what she expects from the film. We also talk to Dame Helen Mirren for the cooking based film, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Tony Kgoroge for the South African crime thriller, Cold Harbour, Frank Grillo about the sequel, The Purge: Anarchy and more. Our DStv Throwback this month isn’t really a throwback, being a premiere on the channel, but it is a really funny film that you should all see, In A World. We also have our regular content, reviews of some of the films that released in June, as well as the films to look out for in the month of July. We love to hear from our readers, so please, take five minutes to drop us line at – offthescreenmagazine@gmail.com – Whether it’s a comment, a complaint or just to shoot the breeze, we’d love to know your thoughts. We also love to receive reader reviews, so if you’ve seen a movie and want to tell us about it, please do. Also remember to visit us at our website: www.offthescreenmagazine.com for other interviews, and content. Thanks for reading our magazine, and, as always, we’ll see you at the movies.

Editor Jon Broeke jon.broeke@gmail.com

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Best Wishes Jon Broeke Editor Off The Screen Magazine ___________________________________________________________________

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John Lloyd Young, Erich Bergen, Michael Lomenda, Vincent Piazza, Christopher Walken DIRECTOR: Clint Eastwood Based on the stage production of the same

name, Jersey Boys tells the tale of Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young) and the Four Seasons, the singing group from the fifties made up of Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazzo), Nick Massi (Michael

What to see in August

Lomenda) and song writer Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen). They created a different sound in the fifties and became insanely popular. This film shows their rise to fame from being kids on the

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What to see in August

was an incredible experience. The staging, the performances and the music is so wonderful that it rates in my top five shows of all time, and the fact that I’m a theatre critic and see a lot of productions, that’s saying something. The film looks to capture the same kind of magic that the stage production had, if the trailer is anything to go by. The performances look amazing, the music is just as good as it was live, and it has a lot of the aspects of the stage productions, including dialogue, that we can see from the trailer. There’s just so much more in the film, car crashes, bigger scenes, bigger locations, which you can’t do on stage. This film is also directed by Clint Eastwood, someone that has seriously proven his directorial chops, so I expect big things. If you loved the play, or didn’t see it but love the music, then you need to diarise this date to see Jersey Boys.

rough streets of Jersey, to their most popular hits, Sherry Baby and Walk Like a Man, among others, to their break up, people leaving the band, and what happens in their later lives, both in their

careers, and in the personal lives. I have really high hopes for this film. I saw the stage production at the Teatro at Montecasino back in May of last year and it

JERSEY BOYS opens in South African cinemas August 15th

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Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Josh Brolin, Powers Boothe DIRECTOR: Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez Our favourite antiheroes are back in Sin City: A Dame to Die For. Senator Roark (Powers Boothe) is still causing trouble for everyone in Sin City, the way

he did to get his son out of the trouble in the previous film, but this time it’s all on him. He crosses a man named Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), is the reason for Nancy’s (Jessica Alba) broken heart and sink into madness, and is connected to the double cross of Dwight (Josh Brolin) by Ava (Eva Green), leading to all

What to see in August

three to go after him in a big way. They are aided by man on a mission Marv (Mickey Rourke) from the first film, and seek out their revenge, while chasing down their own vengeance on the way. There’s not much you can tell from this trailer, in terms of storyline. I know that the senator, who was in the first film as more of a

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cameo, is now featured a lot more, and who is after him, but there are a lot of subplots littered throughout the trailer that I’m sure will be explained in the film itself. What I can say about it, from the trailer, is that it looks awesome. The visual style that made the first film such an iconic piece of cinema has been translated again, thanks to directors Miller and Rodriguez, so it’s going to look amazing. I also like the continuation of the Nancy/Hartigan storyline. It ended up in the air and it’s

What to see in August

nice to see it continued, also Alba looks great in the trailer, acting wise before your mind goes somewhere naughty, and I’m looking forward to seeing her breakdown on the big screen. This is a film that all fans of the first need to see. And I’m sure they will.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For opens in South African nd cinemas August 22 15

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What to see in August

Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi DIRECTOR: Luc Besson Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is a student living, and partying, in Tai Pei when, one night she gets kidnapped. She awakens to find she’s had surgery and is being held by some really bad men. They have cut her open and put a bag of some drug in her stomach, which they now want her to transport out of the country. She agrees to do so, just so they don’t hurt her, but they do anyway, rupturing the bag and allowing the drugs into her bloodstream. That’s when things go really crazy. The drug has the ability to open up a person’s mind, to activate parts of the brain we don’t usually use, so soon Lucy’s brain begins to work overtime giving her fighting abilities, the ability to use any weapon, and even to move thing with her mind and control the world around her. She gets the help of Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman) an expert on the human mind, to try and save herself, but the people who put the drugs in her in the first place want them back, and her dead, so Lucy goes to war. I’ve liked Luc Besson’s work in the past, Leon, The Professional, Three Days to Kill, which is on the same track as this one, and the Transporter

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What to see in August

series, so I have high hopes for this film. The trailer looks interesting with Johansson embodying the role of the superhuman heroine, throwing people around with the power of her mind. It looks like it’s going to be good action and an interesting story, but I’m not convinced about the drug thing. I liked it in Limitless, not a Besson film, but along the same lines as this one, but found the drug angle in Three Days to Kill, a Besson film, forced and unnecessary. Then again, that wasn’t the focal point of that film, so let’s hope this will be better. I’m also a little concerned since the last film that Freeman did, Transcendence, with Johnny Depp, was also along these lines, and an absolute waste of time. I have hopes for this film, but along with them is some serious trepidation. Let’s just hope for the best.

Lucy opens in South African cinemas on August 29th Off The Screen Magazine ________________________________________________________________

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Tony Kgoroge

INVESTIGATING THE COLD IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICAN THRILLER, COLD HARBOUR, TONY KGOROGE BATTLE CHINESE PERLEMOEN POACHERS, SOUTH AFRICAN GANGSTERS AND CORRUPT POLICEMAN.

outh African films are normally about AIDS or Apartheid or some other depressing thing that happened in our past or is destroying our future, so it’s nice to see a South African film about something different. Cold Harbour focuses on the perlemoen, known overseas as abalone, poaching that’s currently plaguing our oceans. It tells that tale of Sergeant Sizwe, played by Tony Kgoroge, who is given the task of finding the killer of a Chinese man whose body washes up on the shore. Immediately he thinks that it has to do

with the poaching, which it does, in a round-about way, but as he investigates he discovers levels of corruption that run from the highest reaches of the police force to the highest reaches of the South African underworld, directly to a man Sizwe call fought with during the stuggle, a man he calls his friend, Specialist, played by Fana Mokoena. Kgoroge sat down with Jon Broeke at United International Pictures recently to tell us about his character, working with South African and international heavyweights, first time feature directors and action sequences…

Tell me about you character Sizwe My character is a very young feisty guy. He’s very ambitious, who likes to do things for himself, even though it sometimes gets him into trouble. He’s just one of those guys that really works hard and is driven by passion. This is quite a different character from what you normally play, quite an action character. Was that part of the appeal of the role? No, actually the role was pitched to me by the director/writer Carey [McKenzie] and when she started writing she had me

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Tony Kgoroge

“He’s just one of those guys that really works hard and is driven by passion.”

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____________________________________________________ in mind, so I picked it up for that, to honour the spirit that she was writing the story. I really bought into her passion and I bought into her mind and her artistic interpretation and outlook of how she wanted this thing to play out and that’s how I got involved. What’s director Carey McKenzie like to work with, this being her directorial debut in a major feature? There was a lot of pressure,

but at least with that passion she was till on top of it and the passion was still coming out. She used that passion, that hutzpah, to make sure it came out the way she wanted. You’re working with some real heavyweights in this film, South Africa’s Fana Moekoena, Doen lotz and Thomas Gumede and China’s Yu Nan. How were they to work with? It was beautiful, especially

Tony Kgoroge

Yu Nan. She comes from a background of big sets, big action movies, kicking and shooting and whatever, and coming here, and with the little that we had, she didn’t even lose that passion that she’s had with her other movies. She helped me a lot too, she had a way of saying to punch like this and move like this, so I learnt how they do it overseas, because we don’t usually do this type of film, and that was beautiful. With Deon as well, the support was really great. Fana and I’ve been longing to work together for years, so that was nice, and Deon and I are actually in the process of planning to do a theatre piece together. Thomas as well, he’s really funny and one of the better up and coming actors we have in this country. So it was a beautiful experience. Also Zolani [Mahola], who was great on set too. I remember it was really cold when we were shooting on set, btu she was there and wonderful. It’s just great to showcase South African talent. To be able to show the world what we have to offer, and that we can also compete on an international level. It’s a very action packed film, there’s one specific part where you are fighting with the former Intercontinental World Muay Thai Super

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“The role was

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pitched to me by the director. When she started writing she had me in mind.”

actual

shoot, but they cut it great.

middleweight champion Quentin Chong. Tell me about that fight scene. That fight scene, we rehearsed it a couple of times. I was training with some professional guys who do Muay Thai, while he had a coach coming with him from Thailand, and going through the moves. I come from more of a boxing background, so I had to adapt that to add a bit of a knee, a bit of a kick. When we actually shot it, the adrenalin was so high that, even though we were padded and we were padded all over, you still feel, you can get really hurt. I could seriously feel some of those punches coming through. It was longer that how it’s cut as well, the

What kind of training did you do in terms of handling weapons and driving the cars for your character, the cop?

Tony Kgoroge

Every set has an armourer who makes sure that everything is clean and everything is okay. That you handle the gun correctly, that you shoot correctly. Then again they check, because it’s different if you’re shooting like a gangster than if you’re shooting like a policeman, so they show you how to handle the gun properly and were to point it, the danger zones, because it’s still dangerous to shoot, even if they’re blanks, so there’s a lot of training when you get to all that, especially for safety purposes. The major plot is about a Chinese gangster who gets killed, but there’s a major subplot about our country and the state of it, especially in terms of those that were involved in the struggle and those that

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Tony Kgoroge

Is that what you’re hoping this film will accomplish? To create a dialogue? That’s exactly what I’m hoping.

were too young and are coming up now, also to do with black and white. How do you feel about all that? Unfortunately that’s the reality of the world we live in. Those are the things that are a threat to people, but the idea is how to work them out. Let’s bring them

out into the open. Let’s talk about them, instead of hiding them, or sweeping them under the rug and hoping they go away. If we put them on the table and discuss your fears and my fears, maybe we can sit down and sort them out.

Cold Harbour opens in South African cinemas July 25th

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Cover Story: Scarlett Johansson

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Cover Story: Scarlett Johansson

THE POWER OF THE MIND IN LUCY SCARLETT JOHANSSON BECOMES A LITTLE MORE MUTANT AND A LITTLE LESS HUMAN AS THE TITLE CHARACTER. WE SPOKE TO HER ABOUT SHOOTING IN TAI PEI, WORKING WITH HER CHINESE CO-STAR AND BECOMING A LITTLE MORE THAN THE REST OF US.

uropean director and writer Luc Besson is best known for his action films, like the Transporters series and

Leon, The Professional. He’s also known for films with interesting twists about interesting people, like The Fifth Element and Three Days to Kill, which he didn’t direct, but he wrote. This month sees another of his

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_____________________________________ films with an interesting character doing interesting things hitting our big screens with the release of Lucy. Lucy, played by Scarlett Johansson, is a student living, and partying, in Tai Pei, who finds herself kidnapped after a party and implanted with drugs, but when the bag of drugs in her stomach is broken and the drugs start getting into her blood stream, things go completely crazy. Turns out the drug is some kind of mind enhancement which is enhancing her mind to a full 100% capacity, and seeing as all humans only use around 10% of our brains, you can only imagine what happens when she begins to use all of hers. Its action and explosions and crazy action, especially since the people who put the drug in Lucy in the first place want them back. We sat down with Johansson to chat about her role in the film, as the future of our evolution, and a really smart and dangerous woman. “In my mind, she’s

Cover Story: Scarlett Johansson

just a girl who is living in Tai Pei,” Johansson said about Lucy. “Maybe doing a little bit of modelling or just some kind of odd jobs here and there. She’s a student, and she’s been away from home for six months, and is just in a transient phase ain her life when we find her, and she’s kind of figuring out who she is and feeling a little bit like she should probably get her life on track. That’s pretty much all we know about her

when we meet her.” The film takes place, mostly, in Tai Pei, where Lucy is first taken and given the drugs. The shoot actually took place in the Asian city. “We shot in Tai Pei for about two and a half or three weeks,” she told us. “I really loved filming in that city. I loved being able to explore that city, and I think, in some ways, just the fact that we were all so tired and jet lagged and really out of our element, really added to the disorientation of the character and the place where she’s coming out of when she starts being affected by this drug.” The film is thrill ride of action and explosions, especially when Lucy begins to get mental powers, think Carrie meets Limitless.

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“I wanted to be

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Cover Story: Scarlett Johansson

in good physical condition, I wanted to make sure this character looked capable.” “It

“I think the film is what happens to this young woman. She’s put in these extenuating circumstances, I would say,” Johansson laughs. “That really, through a brutal series of events, leads her to be able to use a greater and greater capacity of her brain. I think she’s just kind of a vessel for that, to take place. That’s really what the films about.” The man who puts the drugs in Lucy, and then will do anything to get them back, is Mr Jang, played by a formidable Asian actor Min Sik Choi. This is the first really international film by the actor, most of his work is Chinese, and it’s the first time Johansson is working with him, but she seemed to enjoy the experience.

was wonderful working with Choi,” she said. “He’s a formidable co-star. We didn’t speak the same language, but even so, we communicate very well with our expression. He’s a very warm person, it seems, so even though we were doing

scenes that were really violent and cold and brutal, he’s so enigmatic, his presence, so that we could kind of communicate in a kind of a spiritual sort of a way.” Of course this character is all about the action, the gun fights, the fight fights, and the special effects, so Johansson, who is in good shape anyway, playing Black Widow in the Marvel Universe, had to work even harder to get in even better shape. “For me,” Johansson said. “Just to prepare for this film, I wanted to be in really good physical condition, because I wanted to make really sure that this character looked capable, even though you don’t actually see her doing any kind of martial arts or anything like that, I wanted the audience to believe that

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this girl can handle a gun, also a lot of the movements that I do, in character, are with a lot on intention and purpose, and I wanted those movements to look strong, so when you see her, how she stands, how she manoeuvres, it’s with a lot of inner strength, so that just comes from being physically capable.” This was an interesting experience for Johansson, not going through the usual channels of researching her role; instead she just relied on her director for the direction of his creation. “I only wanted to be aware of what Luc [Besson, the director] had wanted this character to be,” she told us. “Be aware of her capacity, as she grows in intellect, how this growing

Cover Story: Scarlett Johansson

capacity affects her, intelligence, how that affects her, what she sees, what she’s experiencing. I didn’t want that to be muddled by anything, nothing that my character wouldn’t know. These things are happening to her, but she’s not previously aware of what the steps will be, she’s just kind of evolving as it happens. See Johansson evolve into something a little more like an X-Man and a little less like a human in cinemas August 29th.

LUCY OPENS IN SOUTH AFRICAN CINEMAS ON AUGUST 29TH

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Venus in Fur Feature

SURROUNDED BY FUR

WITH THE RELEASE OF VENUS IN FUR, AN INTRIGUING STAGE PLAY TURNED INTO A FILM BY ROMAN POLANSKI, ON THE CARDS, JON BROEKE SAT DOWN WITH THE WONDERFUL ACTRESS JANNA RAMOSVIOLANTE, THE VERY WOMAN WHO BROUGHT THE LEAD IN THE PLAY TO LIFE IN SOUTH AFRICA, TO DISCUSS WHAT SHE THOUGHT THE FILM WAS GOING TO BE AND WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH WHIPS AND PADDLES

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______________________________________________ oman Polanski is a director most in the film industry recognise. From his ground breaking work on The Fearless Vampire Killers and Rosemary’s Baby back in 1967 and 1968 respectively, to his Oscar turn with The Pianist in 2002, he’s become a very well-respected director, even with his recent personal trials. This year sees him bringing the stage to the screen with his adaption of Venus in Fur. Venus was originally written by David Ives and had its debut off Broadway in New York in 2010, before moving on to Broadway in 2011. The plat even won a Tony award, among a slew of other awards the play garnered during its run. The play tells the tale of Thomas, a playwright and director, who is casting for his new play, based on a classic novel. He’s finished his day of auditioning and is about to leave the theatre when Wanda, a young actress, arrives. She’s late for her audition, sprouting some kind of massive excuse on Thomas, but still wants to read for him. He is not interested, until she begins and he finds that the girl can actually act. They run through most of the play as they discuss the characters motives, the directors motives, and then the true

Venus in Fur Feature

Wanda (Janna Ramos-Violante) and Thomas (Neil Coppen) steam up the stage in a scene from Venus in Fur motives of Wanda come to life as Thomas comes to realise who she really is and what she’s doing in that theatre. I sat down recently with Janna Ramos-Violante, the actress who brought Wanda to life in the South African version of the production at Montecasino to discuss the film version versus the theatre version that she performed in.

The first thing we discussed was the fact that the characters, played by Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric in the film, and the fact that they quite a bit older than the characters that are written on the page. “I think that it was just Polanski’s take on how he saw the story,” Janna offered her thoughts. “The themes in the film are quite

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Director Roman Polanski gives his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, who plays Wanda, some tips intense, so I suppose they would work really well with an older cast. I don’t know. I haven’t seen the film, so I can only guess.” At the time of my sit down with Janna I hadn’t seen it either. It hadn’t been released. We had both watched the trailer on Youtube though, and I was rather surprised to discover that the film was actually in French, especially since it was written by an American and set in New York originally. Neither Janna nor I could come to any conclusion as to why Polanski had decided to go with a French version of the English play, but we both thought that the trailer looked amazing and that this was definitely going to be a film to see in terms of visuals. “It looks amazing,” Janna said.

Of course regardless of how good it looks it is opening the same weekend as Clint Eastwood’s take on bringing a stage production to the big screen, Jersey Boys, which also ran at Montecasino a while back. We talked about the amazing staging of Jersey Boys at the Teatro, which was pretty spectacular, versus what it might lose on

Venus in Fur Feature

the big screen, in terms of the producers being really clever with the staging. Also just the way Jersey Boys, as a musical moved,” Janna added. “It flowed beautifully. Venus in Fur will work so beautifully on screen.” I had to agree with that, since the entire play happens on the stage at the theatre, basically one room. “I wonder if they’re going to go away from that local at all,” Janna wondered. “Like they’ll move out of the theatre at all.” I couldn’t answer, having only seen the trailer like her, but I did see in the trailer a bunch of other character floating around and chatting to Thomas, so I think there will be more to it that just the two characters on the stage, which is exactly what the theatre production was. We both

The stage setting for the film

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Venus in Fur Feature

Wanda (Janna Ramos-Violante) and Thomas (Neil Coppen) talk about the play on stage

Wanda (Emmanuelle Seigner) and Thomas (Mathieu Amalric) talk about the play on stage

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Emmanuelle Seigner who plays Wanda in the film decided that it wasn’t necessary, in our minds, since it worked so well just coming in when Wanda arrives, but we didn’t know, since we hadn’t seen the movie. “I also thought,” Janna added. “When I saw the trailer there are little things, like she’s drenched, and she’s got make up running down her face. How do they deal with that on screen? I think they’re going to go quite dark with it.” Something that Polanski probably won’t shy away from, making the start of his directorial career doing Rosemary’s Baby, which is about as dark as they come. I also mentioned that they could do some serious movie magic now, on the screen, something they obviously couldn’t do on the stage, Janna hopes they don’t.

“It’ll lose a lot of its magic,” she said. “I don’t think Polanski will go the CGI route.” And I had to agree, even though I think the risk to use CGI and special effects will be great, especially the closer you get to the big reveal at the end of the play. “It’s very exciting,” Janna said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.” Wait indeed, but we already know a lot about the production, having seen, as in myself, and acted in, in Janna’s case, the production

Venus in Fur Feature

before, so we discussed what the story is actually about, starting with who is Wanda. “Wanda is tricky,” Janna told me. “There are different layers to her, aside to the fact that Wanda is actually Venus the goddess, there’s a side to her that she’s an actress, a very damaged kind of wannabe actress, desperate for her next job, but essentially she’s actually a goddess, which you only discover towards the end of the movie.” This was a difficult concept for Janna to reconcile, playing several different characters in one play, Wanda, the struggling actress, Vanda, the character in the play, Venus, the goddess, and even Thomas, when she changes roles with the director. “Actually it’s just Venus,” she said. “Screwing with him, but you keep up

“PEOPLE ARE

BECOMING A LOT MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THEIR 40 SEXUALITY.”

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Director Roman Polanski with Mathieu Amalric, who plays Thomas in the film ______________________________________________

the pretence, so the audience doesn’t see it, which isn’t easy.” Janna then continued telling me about the characters. “I think all these woman are essentially quite strong female character,” she said. “In terms of their femininity and they womanness, if you can call it that, and all those themes come through strongly in all those characters. The sexuality is used to express that, because the play is quite feminist.” Which I had to agree with, but it’s also rather naughty. Speaking of sexuality, there are serious themes of dominance in this production, something that’s become so popular lately, especially since the world is waiting for the 50 Shades of Grey film being released soon.

“I think that people are becoming a lot more comfortable with their sexuality,” Janna told me what she thinks the fascination with domination and bondage and such is. “A lot of these things that used to be taboo, our society is becoming a little less conservative, relationships are changing, people are exploring more, people are exposed to more, I think that’s why these themes are coming out. It’s becoming common place in films and book and songs.” I’m a little less

Venus in Fur Feature

conservative, I have to admit, not really getting the whole concept, but I had to ask if Janna understood the appeal of having a man crawl on his hands and knees with your slippers in his mouth. “Of course,” she laughed. “I mean who wouldn’t? I think it’s a case of whatever’s your flavour, you know what I mean? Some people prefer to be submissive, some prefer to dominate. I think whatever floats your boat, whatever turns you on.” I don’t get it, but then again, I’ve been called a prude before. Go and see Venus in Fur, or 50 Shades of Grey, or any of the numerous other films about this specific subject to see if you get it, and then maybe you can get it. Get it? Janna can be seen from August 8th on the stage in Constellations at the Pieter Toerien Theatre at Montecasino

VENUS IN FUR OPENS IN SOUTH AFRICAN CINEMAS AUGUST 15TH

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Thomas (Neil Coppen) kisses Wanda’s (Janna Ramos-Violante) hand

Deliver us from Evil IN C INEM AS

RELEASE DATE: July 18th CAST: Eric Bana, Édgar Ramírez, Olivia Munn, Joel McHale DIRECTOR: Scott Derrickson

THE STORY From the true case files of former NYPD detective Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana). Sarchie has a kind of radar being able to hear a call on the radio and sensing that there is more to the story

than what is offered at first, no matter how mundane the call might be. In the course of a week Sarchie investigates a wife beating, a crazy woman throwing her baby into the moat surrounding a lion enclosure at the zoo and a suspected haunting in a house that results in finding a dead guy. All these incidents seem unrelated, until Sarchie and

his partner, Butler (Joel McHale) investigate further and discover that all three cases are connected. They all involve three marines that came back from Iraq a little different. Now Sarchie has to face up against an evil, the likes of which he’s never imagined, and which will change the course of his life forever.

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IN C INEM AS

If you like horror films then this is the one for you. IT’s interesting and compelling and frightening all at the same time. The story is more interesting knowing that it’s based on actual events, of course, whether or not you believe that is up to you, but it seems to add to the air of menace throughout the film. Bana is strong as the lead character, a man who doesn’t believe in true evil, accepting that all the horrible things he sees are inside the people who do them, and not influenced by outside forces, but when he faces his final case, and meets priest Mendoza, played by Édgar Ramírez, his way on thinking changes, so much so that the actual person quit the police force

after this case to work exclusively with the priest in fighting the forces of darkness. Ramírez is also good as a flawed priest who is fighting a losing battle against evil. The stand out for me was Joel McHale, who we all know as the wise-cracking host of The Soup on E! Entertainment. This time around he’s the adrenalin junkie, on the verge of being a sociopath, partner of the lead character. He’s tough and nuts and completely great, especially since we all know what he’s really like from his other work. He does a great job. This is up there with The Possession and The Exorcist in terms of scares, so if you like them dark and creepy then this is the one for you.

8/10

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RELEASE DATE: July 18th CAST: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Dave Franco, Christopher MintzPlasse, Halston Sage DIRECTOR: Nicholas Stoller

THE STORY Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) are really concerned when a fraternity, led by Teddy (Zac Efron) and Pete (Dave Franco) move in next door to them. To head off the noise and craziness they know will keep their new baby up at night they go over and introduce themselves and ask the guys to keep the sound down, ending with them staying all night for the party and becoming friends with Teddy. All that changes though the next night when the guys have the volume

turned up too loud and their baby can’t sleep. They call the police to stop the noise, but when Teddy finds out it causes a rift between them, and a war starts with both sides trying to destroy the other. But Mac and Kelly know that the frat house is already on probation, and they have a plan to get them gone for good.

THE VERDICT This kind of film really appeals to a very certain demographic, the brainless, former party animal fraternity type. They type that are featured in the film itself. Usually in a film like this I can find a couple of funny moments that make the two hours not so tedious, but that’s just not the case here. The entire film is below the belt jokes

and getting high, and it’s just not funny anymore. The film revolved around a guy, Rogen’s character, and his wife who aren’t ready to grow up, yet have a house and a baby and jobs and everything. They are juxtaposed next to the fraternity who party and don’t study and do really stupid things, all in the goal of getting their faces on the frat’s hall of fame. They are mirror images of each other, just a few years in difference, and that’s probably why they hate each other so much. There is an interesting dynamic when we see that the older couple fears being old and being boring, and then Efron’s character starts to become and actual person when the fact that he’s afraid of getting out of the frat, the what’s next issue that pretty much all university students face, but these aspects are much ignored in favour of the ridiculous comedy that very quickly becomes tedious and simply not funny. If you like Rogen’s other work you may find something funny in this film, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

6/10

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Cold Harbour country. Sizwe turns a blind eye to his businesses, but when he’s right in the middle of this new investigation, how can Sizwe keep that quite. Then he discovers that Specialist is the least of his problems.

THE VERDICT

RELEASE DATE: July 25th CAST: Tony Kgoroge, Thomas Gumede, Fana Mokoena, Yu Nan, Deon Lotz DIRECTOR: Carey McKenzie

THE STORY When the body of a Chinese man with skin missing from his chest washes up on the beach in Cape Town Sergeant Sizwe (Tony Kgoroge) sees it as his chance to get a promotion to detective. He convinces his boss Venske (Deon Lotz)

to give him the case and starts the investigation. It leads him into the multibillion Rand abalone smuggling industry, that’s run by the Chinese Triad in Cape Town, but also right to the front door of his friend, a man called Specialist (Fana Mokoena). He is a friend of Sizwe’s from the days of the apartheid struggle, so Sizwe feels loyal to the man, though in the days after the ANC took power Specialist has become one of the most powerful gangsters in the

This is classic intriguing police thriller faire. It’s interesting with a bunch of plot twists to keep the audience interested. A nice addition to the plot line is something that’s making headlines at the moment, though not in the police force at the moment. The loyalty and handshaking that’s going on between people who were involved in the struggle. It’s an issue that these people, regardless of what they’re doing today, whether it’s right or wrong, feel loyalty to each other. That’s a nice dynamic in the Sizwe/Specialist relationship. Sizwe knows he’s wrong, he knows he should bust him, but his loyalty after fighting together for freedom in the country, stops him doing his job, even when Specialist admits to having started the whole thing. It’s an interesting dynamic and moral dilemma that is interesting to watch. Add to that Lotz’s character, who represents the other side of the coin, those white faces that are still in power, who fear for their jobs every day,

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and are willing to do whatever it takes to secure themselves. Again it’s a moral dilemma that you can sympathise with, but not something you want if you want your country to move forward. An interesting look at life in the new South Africa. The film itself is good. It’s very well written and compelling, but I would have liked a little more focus on police procedures. It seems that all the cops do whatever they please, just breaking down doors, without announcing themselves, which, by law, they have to. There aren’t any warrants or writs or any kind of due process. This may be the way it is, but it’s not the way it should be. Then there’s the cinematography, which is bland and, frankly, boring. The idea was for it to be film noir, for the shadow to show that the world is in shadow, for it to be murky and dark

and symptomatic of what the characters are living, but it doesn’t look that way. Instead it looks dull and unexciting. It should have been darker, possibly even black and white, for the idea to come across. Otherwise make it look like an action movie and the audience will thank you for it. The performances saved it though, wonderful from each and every actor on the screen, especially Kgoroge who carries the film on his shoulders, being and action man, but showing a great amount of emotion and turmoil within his soul at the same time. It’s a stand out performance from this really talented actor. This film does not cast the police force, or the country, or the country in a good light, but maybe we need to look critically at ourselves to see the truth. It is worth the watch though.

9/10

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Step Up: All In they have to compete against some of the best crews in the world, including the Grim Reapers, led by professional dancer Jasper (Stephen Stevo Jones), a guy Sean has had runs in’s with before in LA, but he also has compete against the Mob, now led by his best friend, Eddy (Misha Gabriel Hamilton), who have also entered the competition.

THE VERDICT

RELEASE DATE: July 25th CAST: Alyson Stoner, Briana Evigan, Ryan Guzman, Izabella Miko, Adam G. Sevani, Misha Gabriel Hamilton DIRECTOR: Trish Sie

THE STORY It’s been six months since The Mob impressed the Nike guy at the end of Step Up: Revolutions and won the advertising campaign deal. They think they have what it takes, so they move to LA to become professional dancers, but after one too many auditions where they are passed over the group has had enough, but Sean (Ryan Guzman) refuses to

give up, even if the rest of the crew goes back to Miami. Leaving them with some bad blood, Sean gets a job at Moose’s (Adam G. Sevani) grandparent’s ballroom studio, but he really wants to dance. He gets his chance when he discovers a competition in Los Vegas, the Vortex, which will give the winning crew a three year dancing contract in Vegas. So Sean and Moose put together a new crew, LMNtrix, featuring Andy (Briana Evigan), from Step Up: The Streets, and enter the competition, but when they arrive in Vegas not only do they discover

I’ve loved the Step Up series since the first one starring Channing Tatum back in 2006. The thing I liked most about the franchise was the combining of more classical styles of dance, like lyrical and contemporary, with the more popular hip hop style, which most films just focus on. It was great to see Tatum’s characters doing his hip hop moves while Jenna Dewan, at the time, DewanTatum now, did her more classic styles. Then came The Streets, and while the dancing was very impressive I found it lacking because the focus was put exclusively on the hip hop, forgoing all other types of dance. Step Up: Revolutions was the best out of the bunch because they included Catherine McCormack, from So You Think You Can Dance, and again brought in the more classical styles of dance, and boy, can that girl dance. Now we have the fourth film in the franchise, and again

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they have decided to forego all other styles of dancing in favour of strictly hip hop. Again the dancing is very impressive, and the set pieces are great, especially the video in the lab LMNtirx shoots to get into the competition, and the final dance, which is always one of the highlights of the film, but it’s all hip hop and all starts to look the same after a while. I wish they would bring the other dance styles back, and maybe they will for Step Up 5, which I’m sure they’re working on as I write this. In terms of performance, the dancing is great, but these kids are not actors. They plod through the script and are really just there for the dance

sequences, with the exception of Alyson Stoner, who featured as Tatum’s, very young, step-sister in the first film, and is back as Moose’s girlfriend in this one. She can actually act, but because of this they seem to keep her out of the dances, with the exception of the last one. This is a pity because the girl can dance too. Please, filmmakers, put her in more of a lead role for the next one, dancing and acting, and even singing, she can do that too. A special shout out needs to go to Izabella Miko as Alexa Brava, a pop sensation who is holding the competition. Her embodiment of Lady Gaga, only not quite as weird, is one of the highlights of the

show and had me laughing throughout. If you liked the other Step Up films then you’ll dig this one, but they need to do more than just hip hop, there are too many movies out there already focusing on that.

7/10

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Guardians of the Galaxy RELEASE DATE: August 1st CAST: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Lee Pace, Josh Brolin, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Djimon Hounsou DIRECTOR: James Gunn

THE STORY On the night his mother passes away Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is abducted from outside the hospital by a huge spacecraft. 26 years later he’s an intergalactic thief whose life is thrown in disarray when he steals a metal orb about the size of a baseball. He has no idea what it is, only that it’s valuable, and he’s not the only one after it. His old boss

Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker) is after the orb, and so is Ronan (Lee Pace), an intergalactic Kree, and alien race, terrorist, who wants the orb to destroy the world. He sends Gamora (Zoe Saldana), an assassin and the daughter of Thanos (Josh Brolin) to retrieve the orb, but when she attacks Peter she’s interrupted by Rocket (Bradley cooper), a genetically enhanced racoon, and Groot (Vin Diesel), a walking and talking, almost, tree, who are trying to capture Peter for a bounty on his head. This leads to all four of them being locked away in a prison called the Kyln by the

Nova Corp, an intergalactic police force. In the prison they run into Drax (Dave Bautista), a man whose life has been ruined by Ronan, and wants to kill Gamora, but instead Peter convinces him to help them escape, and to kill Ronan instead, who it turns out is Gamora’s enemy, not boss. Thus begins an uneasy alliance between the five crazy people, but things get really complicated when they discover with the orb really is, and what Ronan wants to do with it. Now these five selfish strangers need to come together to save the entire galaxy.

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The Marvel machine has been working on making good films since the very first Spider-man films starting back in 2002. Since then they have had some of the biggest, and highest money making, films in history, so when we saw this I already expected a lot. Of course, I didn’t know much about the Guardians of the Galaxy. They don’t really feature in the X-Men universe, or with SpiderMan, or any of the other Marvel characters that have had movies in the past. They are a completely new entity, but I have to say that from now on they’re going to be one of my favourite. The film is amazing. The action is stunning and well put together, making it believable, and yet in a galaxy far, far away, excuse the borrowed phrase. The performances by Pratt, Zaldana, Cooper’s voice, Diesel’s voice, even though he only has three words that he says throughout the film, and Bautista are all great. They really embody their

characters giving them real life, and making the audience just love them. We laugh when they laugh, we cry when they cry, we cringe when they get shot with stun guns. It’s some of the greatest acting in Marvel films since Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man. The comedy is also a highlight of this film, coming thick and fast throughout. There are some really funny moments, thanks mostly to the good timing between the leads. The CGI is great. Rocket and Groot are incredible, really lifelike. While the locations are amazing to see, especially the port that the guardians go to that’s inside the head of a huge being. It’s really creepy, but awe inspiring at the same time. What really put this film over the top for me was the

musical score. Usually you end up with instrumental melodies played over the action, and while they’re good, you don’t really connect with them. You also get the odd top twenty hit thrown in, but few and far between. In the film the 80’s features predominantly. In the story it’s the 80’s when Peter is taken and one of the things he has with him is a Walkman with a tape with his favourite songs on. They use this tape and the 80’s music on it as the background music for the film. It’s a great concept, giving us an unmistakably human sound over these crazy otherworldly visuals. And it works great. It’s also great to hear The Runaways’ Cherry Bomb and B.J. Thomas’ Hooked on a Feeling among others on the film. It gives it a great feel. This is a great film on its own, but knowing that it stands with the other Marvel films, and there are going to be more, this is absolutely awesome.

10/10

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Wish I Was Here

RELEASE DATE: August 1st CAST: Zach Braff, Joey King, Pierce Gagnon, Kate Hudson, Mandy Patinkin, Josh Gad DIRECTOR: Zach Braff

THE STORY Struggling actor, Aidan’s (Zach Braff) life is thrown in disarray when he discovers that his father (Mandy Patinkin) is dying of cancer. He is also taking the money he usually uses to pay for his grandchildren, Grace (Joey King) and Tucker’s (Pierce Gagnon) school, a Jewish religious school that their father was forced to send them too, for his experimental treatment, meaning the kids can no longer attend the school. Now Aidan finds himself dealing with home schooling the kids, dealing with his dying father, and a brother, Noah (Josh Gad), a recluse genius who gets it in his mind to make a costume and go to a convention. Aidan is also dealing with a

wife, Sarah (Kate Hudson) who is unhappy in her job and trying to remember what her dreams were, dreams she gave us for his.

THE VERDICT Braff has always been able to put drama and comedy in the same sentence. Sometimes this doesn’t exactly work, like in the series Scrubs, which was

good but always seemed a little uneven to me, with this wacky humour meeting these moments of heavy drama. Sometimes it works really well, like in Braff’s directorial debut Garden State, which is quirky and heartfelt and funny. This film falls firmly into the latter category. It is sweet and quirky and funny and sad and everything you would want in a film. Braff is a very good actor and director, but it’s in his writing where he really shines. He has a quirky sense of humour that just tugs at the heart strings, which he uses incredibly well with his real, honest emotional scenes, which make this film really wonderful. Add to that some amazing performances, not

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only by Braff himself, who is just wonderful, but also by Hudson, who is a woman stuck between what she wanted ten years ago and what she’s stuck with now. She’s happy, but also miserable, and she shows both sides with grace. Gad gives another stellar performance as a misunderstood genius who hates his father, but still loves him at the same time. He is weird and funny and interesting in all the best ways. Patinkin is the father, in all senses of the word. He fills the screen with presence and really works well with the rest of the cast. King is fabulous as a rather mixed up little girl. She’s indoctrinated by the school she attends, and the

friends she has there, but receiving rather different messages at home, from parents who don’t have the same religious beliefs that have been forced on their daughter. She’s also starting to show interest in boys and being independent, something seriously frowned upon by her religion. King is fearless in this role, really showing the turmoil that she feels, even going so far as to cut off her hair. She is a fabulous actress that I realy hope makes the cross over from child actor in more adult roles, because she is good enough to compete with the best of them. If you’ve enjoyed Braff’s quirky sense of humour in other projects then you’ll love this film. If you haven’t seen his

other work this may be the film to convert you to his side. It has me.

9/10

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Mr. Pip

RELEASE DATE: August 1st CAST: Hugh Laurie, Kerry Fox, Eka Darville, Xzannjah Matsi, Florence Korokoro DIRECTOR: Andrew Adamson

THE STORY On the copper rich island of Bougainville, owned by Papua New Guinea, an uprising by the citizens against the controlling state causes all schools to be shut and the island to be cut off from the rest of the world. A massive army moves in as well, dubbed the Redskins, whose job is to find and kill the rebels. In this world Matilda (Xzannjah Matsi),

the school going child of the local parishioner (Grace Korokoro), finds solace in the story of Great Expectations, told to the class, and eventually the whole village, by the only white man left, an English man named Mr. Watts (Hugh Laurie), who takes over teaching. This connection leads to Matilda writing Pip on the beach, a shrine to the character for herself, but when the leader of the Redskins sees the shrine he assumes it’s to the leader of the resistance, and carries out horrible

vengeance on the village as a result.

THE VERDICT This is a beautiful film. Starting in the future and being shot in flashbacks, we see Matilda walking into the Charles Dickens museum in London before we even move to the island to see where she came from. The island itself is a stack of mixed signals. On one hand it’s picturesque and beautiful, but it’s also full of all this violence and poverty, so beauty and ugly meets somewhere in the middle. It’s truly harrowing. Matilda is stuck in the middle of this

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as well, a girl searching for truth in a world that offers little. Something about the story, Great Expectations, touches her and she finds herself imagining she’s in this world, with Pip and the convict and all their friends. These scenes are incredible, a mixture of Victorian England and current day Bougainville. The costumes are Victorian, but with such bright and vibrant colours that they seem to fit on the island. It’s a beautiful piece of cinema mastery. The performances match the setting, especially from Matsi and Laurie. She is honest and subtle as the girl finding a different world in the pages of books, only to be torn back to reality in the most brutal of ways. She is

amazing and really breaks your heart. Laurie is fabulous, whether he’s playing a funny father of a mouse, or a wisecracking drug addicted doctor, he is just an amazing actor. He gives another solidly wonderful performance in this and is one of the acting highlights I’ve seen for a while. This film is hard

viewing, and a lot of people probably won’t understand the symbolism, but for those that take the time, you will be greatly rewarded.

8/10

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Hercules RELEASE DATE: August 8th CAST: Dwayne Johnson, John Hurt, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Aksel Hennie, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Reece Ritchie, Rebecca Ferguson DIRECTOR: Brett Ratner

THE STORY Ancient Greece and the tales of the man known as Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) are legend. He is known as the son of the god, Zeus, hated by Zeus’ wife, the

goddess Hera, who tried to kill him as an infant, but failed. Tasked to carry out twelve insane tasks to appease the goddess and be allowed to live in peace. Everyone everywhere knows his story, but the truth is a little less extraordinary. Hercules is a soldier, a mercenary, who works with a tight group of warriors including, Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), a seer, Autolycus

(Rufus Sewell), who’s good with a knife, Tydeus (Aksel Hennie), an Egyptian, the only survivor of a massacre at Thebes, Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal), an amazon woman and Hercules’ nephew, Iolaus (Reece Ritchie), the storyteller who flourishes Hercules story, but when Hercules and his band are hired by King Cotys (John Hurt) to stop a man, Rhesus (Tobias Santelmann) who is destroying his kingdom and killing his people, they face a challenge more dire than any of them could imagine, not from outside, but from within.

THE VERDICT This is a great film filled with action and adventure and the scale that makes this type of ancient hero film as wonderful as we expect. I was a little sceptical about it at first, knowing that this type of film could be really good, or really, really bad. Thankfully this was on the good scale, mostly because they’ve taken out the majority of the fabulous from it, turning it more into Gladiator than Hercules, which works really well. There are aspects of films such as The Mummy and The Legionnaire, but the mixture of truth and fantasy, and the way it’s portrayed on screen is great. Johnson

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is powerful, in more ways than one, as the title character. He is layered as a man who just wants to be normal, but finds himself the centre of all these fables. He also has a tragic back story, involving his wife and children, who he may or may not have murdered. This leads to a complex character, not just the muscled miscreant that Hercules is sometimes portrayed as, and gives Johnson something to sink his teeth into, which he does beautifully. The supporting cast is great too. His band of merry men, and one woman, are all convincing in their respective roles, Rebecca Ferguson is wonderful as the princess who finds Hercules, and ends up getting him in more trouble than she’d even planned. The stand out is John Hurt, as a good king, or is he? He has a layered performance as well and gets to show his dark side, which he does really well. The effects are as impressive

as you’d expect. They are based in fact, mostly, which is nice, but the few extraordinary events that take place are done with believability that make them even more extraordinary. If you like action adventures then this is one you shouldn’t miss.

9/10

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Chef RELEASE DATE: August 8th CAST: Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Emjay Anthony, Oliver Platt, Sofía Vergara DIRECTOR: Jon Favreau

THE STORY After chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) gets a really bad review from the most popular food blogger in America, Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt), he loses it, resulting in him starting a Twitter war with the man, inviting him back to the restaurant, but being fired before he can cook for him again, and then shouting at him in the middle of the restaurant, which then goes viral on Youtube. This results in no one willing to touch the chef, sending him to the only option he has, asking his ex-wife, Inez (Sofia Vergara) for help. She organises to get him a food truck, something he thinks is

below him, but he has no choice, so his son, Percy (Emjay Anthony) and his friend, Martin (John Leguizamo), one of the other cooks at the restaurant who quit when he was fired, go on a cross country journey, cooking and selling off their food truck, but also getting to know each other and

getting to understand that there’s more to life than reviews and expensive restaurants.

THE VERDICT This is a really sweet and funny film, something you’d expect from Favreau. He is funny and quirky as the lead, really going into the insane side to show the poor guy’s

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life unravelling. I’ve always liked Favreau as a director and an actor, and he does both so well. The co-stars are great too, especially Leguizamo who zany, but reserved as Favreau’s best friend, bringing a levity that lights the film, and Anthony as Favreau’s son. He is a great little actor and has the potential to go on to something a lot more. A special cameo by Robert Downey Jr. as Inez’s ex-exhusband really steals the show. He and Favreau really are great on the screen next to each other, which they proved in Iron Man. There is a slight problem with this film, and that’s the pacing. The first half, which is him losing his job and them

getting into the food truck, just takes too long, leading to the road trip being too short, and the conclusion, which is sweet and works, being a little too sudden and out of the blue. It’s a bit of pity, especially since we expect so much from

Favreau now, since his previous work, but it’s still a good film and worth the price of admission.

7/10

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Alles Wat Mal Is

RELEASE DATE: August 8th CAST: Erica Wessels, Louw Venter, Meme Ditshego, Keagan Verwey, Eugene Du Toit, Christina Storm DIRECTOR: Darrell Roodt

THE STORY Helena Joubert (Erica Wessels) is a lost woman. She’s not happy in her marriage to Gustav (Louw Venter), not coping with her kids, and her career, if you can call it that, reviewing household appliances, is not bringing her any satisfaction. Then she goes out to dinner with Gustav and meets Elzaan Mostert (Christina Storm), an investor who is giving Gustav’s company a lot of money, but who Helena thinks has more than just a passing fancy with her husband. This leads to Helena hitting her head and suddenly seeing another version of herself, only in her head of course, the smart, sassy and independent woman that

she used to be. This alter ego convinces Helena to start a blog called Alles Wat Mal Is, which becomes a sensation, after Helena and her friend (Meme Ditshego) go on a crazy marketing campaign, and give Helena an outlet for her frustration, of course this doesn’t go down so well with Gustav, and just drives a greater wedge between them. This leads to Helena trying to come up with a way to get her husband back, save her marriage and give Elzaan Mostert exactly what she deserves.

THE VERDICT This story sounds interesting, like it could be a quirky, interesting, weird little comedy with some really funny moments. Unfortunately this is not the case. It’s dull and tedious and just really not funny. Firstly, the way they did the story is just silly. The alter ego is completely

unnecessary, she just murk’s things up, not to mention not being completely explained, so it’s very odd. Elzaan’s ultimate scheme is never really explained, so it leaves the audience guessing as to how it was actually going to work. The characters are stereotypical, and not well conceived. There’s nothing really interesting about them, so you don’t really care what happens to them, at all. I don’t know Wessels very well, but I think I can tell why. She’s just not good enough to carry a film, and she doesn’t in this one. She does have one or two moments where she shines, a little, but not enough to really overshadow the bad moments. I did like the pole dancing sequence, and the animal whisperer was quite funny, but these are little things in an otherwise dull film. Venter tries his best to do something, as does Storm, but neither of them can do much to save a film that just doesn’t work. Maybe as a last alternative, on a Tuesday night on DStv, when there’s nothing else on, but I couldn’t, in good conscience, recommend anyone paying to go and see this film.

4/10

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Helen HelenMiMirren rren

THE FIRS T S TEP DAME HELEN MIRREN IS IN THE KITCHEN IN THE NEW FILM, THE HUNDRED-FOOT J OURNEY. S HE’S FRENCH, SHE’S ARROGANT, S HE’S INTENS E, AND S HE’S ABS OLUTELY WONDERFUL.

ame Helen Mirren has been a fan favourite since she hit the big time with the Prime Suspect series, starting in 1991. She has no less than 117 credits behind her name on IMDB, showing that she has had a full and varied career, and stands out in every performance. This month sees her taking on a restaurant, an Indian family and a French accent in the new comedy drama, The Hundred-Foot Journey. Madame Mallory, Mirren’s character, owns one of the best and most prestigious restaurants in France. With a

Michelin star to boot, but her life is thrown into disarray when a family from India, the Haji family, led by the father, Kadam, played by Om Puri, move into the house across the road from her restaurant, exactly one hundred feet away, and open an Indian restaurant. What she thinks of as a minor nuisance suddenly becomes actual competition as Kadam’s son, Hassan, played by Manish Dayal, can actually cook. This spars off a war between Kadam and Mallory for control of the street, escalating until it gets completely out of control. This leads them to see something else in each other, and decide that perhaps there is something

more important, like Hassan’s future. The very British Mirren tells us about playing someone not much like her, her relationship with food and what it is about food movies that bring an international audience to cinemas… In your film, Madame Mallory is poised, but she’s also very intense in many ways. Is she anything like you, and how was it to play her? Any role that you play, any role, is as much a part of you as it is the character. You can’t help but do that when you’re actor, because all you have is you and your memories and your hands and your face and your

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Helen Mirren

“I LOVE FOOD. I COULD EAT ALL DAY.”

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just didn’t understand how other people could take that, take this battle into an area that she very much doesn’t agree with.

psychology, and so anything you play has got to be infused with what you are, but, having said that, I’m nothing like Madame Mallory at all. Really, I’m not obsessive like that. I’m not intense like that. I would hate to be a restaurateur. I’d hate to run a restaurant. I’m not a foody, I’m not a gourmet on any level, whatsoever, I’m somewhat of the antithesis, but as I say playing a role, inevitably, you bring yourself into it. In that role Madame Mallory chooses to deal with her competition in rather unusual ways. Can you tell us about some of the things she does when she starts to feel threatened? Dirty tricks. It’s what happens when neighbours turn against each other, they get obsessed with each other, so anyone outside whose looking at it is going, ‘What is your problem?’

‘Does it matter that the kid kicks the ball into your garden? Why not just throw it back again? Is it such a big deal?’ So the two of them get obsessed with their competition and hatred and challenge of each other, and neither of them wants to give way, they both want to win. So yes, she does play a few dirty tricks. Then we see her character change there’s a bit of an arc. Without giving too much away, what triggers that change? And how is it for you to perform that on screen? I think the change comes about because she comes to understand where her pride in her culture and her pride in her Frenchness and her pride in French food and her pride in her restaurant and her battle to maintain it, and that it can go up a dark road, which we see happen in the movie. It’s not so much the error of her ways, but she

Did you come appreciate cooking as an art? You said you’re not much of a foody, or a food connoisseur, did that change during the course of this project? I’m not a connoisseur, but I am greedy and I love food, I absolutely love it. I could eat all day, and one of my great pleasures of my life, when I travel, is to try the local foods of a country. My husband and I, we both love to eat, it’s one of our great pleasures, to do that, but I’m not a gourmet. I wouldn’t travel halfway across France to have the fois gras in that particular restaurant or try this particular chef’s food. Having said that I was rather sad that there was this famous restaurant called Ile Boulay, and my husband and I happened to be staying in a hotel very nearby, so that we had to drive past it every day, and this was the kind of restaurant that’s booked out six months in advance, so every day he’d tell me to go in and ask if they’d had any

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“The basic

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premise? Love your neighbour, really.” cancellations, which I’d do, but they’d just laugh in my face. So we never got a chance to eat there, which I was a little sad about, because it’s supposed to be really incredible, but I have had some really spectacular meals in my life.

Do you think there’s a

timeless

international feel to the film because of the cultures and food involved? And how did that speak to you? I think all food movies have an international. If you think Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, that was about Asian food, but also about family, and everybody, all over the world, understands food and

Helen Mirren

family, food through relationships, culture through food, personal and cultural identity through food. I think that’s a very universal theme. Going backwards, if you, in one sentence, had to give us the basic premise of this film, how would you summarise it? The basic premise? Love your neighbour, really. The hardest of all the Ten Commandments, I think, but I think the most important one too.

The Hundred-Foot Journey opens in South African cinemas August 22nd

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Frank Grillo

PURGED AFTER PLAYING A MERCENARY TURNED BAD GUY ON CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, FRANK GRILLO IS NOW A POLICE SERGEANT TRYING TO SURVIVE THE PURGE IN, THE PURGE: ANARCHY. Off The Screen Magazine ________________________________________________________________

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Frank Grillo

“I’M A BIG FAN OF DEATH WISH AND THE

WARRIORS, THOSE 70’S FILMS, SO IT WAS A COMPLETE FANTASY TO DO THIS FILM.”

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____________________________________________________ ometimes horror films are made pretty cheaply, and yet they perform incredibly well at the box office. The most well-known example of this was The Blair Witch Project, which cost an estimated $60 000 to make and made around $250 000 000 at the box office. This doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen. Another film that did well, not as well as Blair Witch, but still well, was a little horror film released last year called The Purge. The film, whose budget was an estimated $3 000 000, made around $90 000 000 worldwide, which is why we are now seeing the release of the sequel, The Purge: Anarchy this month. In the film five people cling to each other to survive The Purge, one night a year when all crime is legal and police take the night off. They are all out in the open, in the middle of Los Angeles, and need each other to survive. The leader of this group is Sergeant, a police officer the rest of the time, who has gone out on this night to get revenge on the man that murdered his son. He is the quiet, strong type, but falls back on his moralistic urges as a cop when he has to save these strangers from the madness

of the Purge. Coming straight off playing Crossbones on the Captain America: The Winter Soldier set, Frank Grillo plays the sergeant. He tells us about the action in the film, the differences between this one and the first, his co-stars and how he would survive if the Purge was real… What is the biggest difference between this film and the original? The films different from the first by sheer scope. The first movie, because of budget, was in a house, basically, in a suburb, whereas this movie takes to the streets. You really get to see what the ideology behind the

Frank Grillo

purge is. That’s what he wanted to do with the first one, but was limited. It’s so exciting, when you’re on the streets fighting with this band of people. What did you enjoy most about this role? What I enjoyed most was getting to be like the antihero, getting to be this guy who doesn’t say very much, gets the job done and at the end you see that there’s this transformation that this guy makes, because of these people that he meets. For me as an actor it was a great, kind of fun thing to, kind of, go down that road. I’m a big fan of Death Wish and The Warriors, those 70’s

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“PROBABLY

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ARM MYSELF PRETTY HEAVILY, AND THEN I WOULD KILL EVERYONE, NO, I’M KIDDING, I WOULD HIDE.” films, so it was a complete fantasy to do this film. It was great. Was there some type of joy to be such a bad ass, a real tough guy in this film? Yeah. It was a joy to kind of peal back, that’s how I described it to the director when I first met him, I told him that if we do this the right way, by the end the audience actually earns to see what is really going on with my character, because there’s not a whole lot of emotion from him in the beginning of the film, and little by little we get to see him unravel, and for me that was why I wanted to do the movie.

would you get yourself through the Purge? If this really happened I would probably arm myself pretty heavily, like I did in the film, and then I would kill everyone, no I’m kidding, no, I would hide. I’m a coward. I would hide from everybody. I would go underground somewhere. I don’t want to be killed and I don’t want to purge. Nobody Purge. How did you prepare for the physicality of this role? I had just come off of Captain America, I mean, I’m a physical guy, I box every day, but I was in shape from doing Cap for five months, so from there I went right into this, so it was kind of a no brainer for me, physically.

Frank Grillo

You’re a fan of old school action movies, are there any old school action heroes you drew from for this role? I have a lot of old school action heroes, Charles Bronson being one of them. He’s one of my favourite actors from when I was a kid, I love Charles Bronson. Big Clint Eastwood fan, Outlaw Josie Wales, and films like that. Steve McQueen, Lee Marvin, those kind of actors, for me, they weren’t great Shakespearean stage actors, but they were men that represented something that I think is disappearing a little bit these days. So it was fun to pay homage to them a little bit.

If this actually happened in real life, how would you spend the night? How Off The Screen Magazine ________________________________________________________________

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Can you talk to me about your co-stars in the film? Working with these actors was great. I didn’t know any of them prior to filming, but now, like Kiele Sanchez, who was so good that she’s now working with me on a TV series that I’m doing. We got that together because we were doing this movie. They were great, and fun to work with and just gorgeous actors. It was a really great experience. What do you think, Purge 3, Purge 4? You know what, Purge 3, Purge 4, if people go to see the film, it always depends on the movie gods, and if people show up to the theatres, but if they do, and it’s successful, we have started to talk about where this would go next, and there’s some interesting

Frank Grillo

things that we’re throwing around, but again, people have to go and see the movie.

THE PURGE: ANARCHY OPENS IN SOUTH AFRICAN CINEMAS AUGUST 22ND

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throwback

CAST: Lake Bell, Jeff Garlin, Fred Melamed, Alexandra Holden, Eva Longoria, Ken Marino, Demetri Martin DIRECTOR: Lake Bell

THE STORY Carol (Lake Bell) is a voice coach who moonlights some times as a voice over artist, but has never really had her big break, mostly because the industry is male dominated, and her father, Sam (Fred Melamed), is one of its biggest stars. Things change for her, though, when she gets the opportunity to read for the trailer for a new major motion picture that’s being released, but she has some serious competition in the form of Gustav (Ken Marino), a popular voice over artist who Carol stood in for, getting her on the radar for the other job, and

her very own father, so she prepares for battle with the help of a producer, Louis (Demetri Martin) who has a crush on her, and her sister, Dani (Michaela Watkins) and her husband, Moe (Rob Corddry).

THE VERDICT This is a sweet and interesting comedy, I’ve never seen one set in the cut throat world of trailer voice overs, but the problem is

that it’s largely forgettable. There are funny moments, the voices are interesting and Bell, who wears two hats in this project directing as well as staring, is good, especially with her voices and impressions, but nothing really makes you roll in the aisles laughing. Everyone does a good job, Corddry is funny and endearing as the loving husband who is complete

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Jamie (Alexandra Holden), Carol (Lake Bell) and Sam (Fred Melamed), Carol’s dad, argue in the car

Louis (Demetri Martin) helps Carol (Lake Bell) in her time of need

oblivious to the world around him, Watkins does a good job as his wife, tempted into an affair, Marino is rude and crude and very good as the rival, very popular, voice over artist, Melamed is egotistical and neurotic as a former star trying desperately to hang onto his fame, and Martin is nervous and awkward as the guy who likes the girl, but has no idea how to tell her, but none of them really stand out. This is a fun comedy if there’s nothing

else on, but I wouldn’t pay to go and see it.

IN A WORLD… IS ON MONDAY AUGUST 25TH AT 22:30 ON M-NET MOVIES PREMIERE

Sam (Fred Melamed) and Gustav (Ken Marino) catch a steam

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