Off The Screen Magazine May 2013 by Jon Broeke

May 2013 www.offthescreenmagazine.com

Standing Tall Carmen Pretorius talks to us about her first starring role in Lien se Lankstaanskoene

Olympus is Here! We talk to international stars Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart about the new film they are starring in together, Olympus has Fallen.

Who Loveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s you Baby?

Little One

We talk to the four guys that make up the Four Season in the new show, Jersey Boys, as well as the girls that back them up

Mutodi Neshehe and Lindiwe Ndlovu, both stars of the new drama Little One

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Content s Cover Story:

22 Saving Olympus Hollywood heavy weight Gerard Butler talks to us about his new role in the action adventure Olympus has Fallen

Features:

6 Leading Olympus

Hollywood actor Aaron Eckhart tells us about his role as the President of the United States in the new film, Olympus has Fallen

On the Cover: Gerard Butler tells us about his new action role in Olympus has Fallen

16 Saving a Little

Lindiwe Ndlovu, star of the new South African drama Little One, tells us about her role in the film

32 A Happy Man

Actor, director Jon Favreau talks to us about not directing, but reprising his role of Happy in Iron Man 3

36 Back at 40

Comedic actor Paul Rudd talks to us about reprising his role from the hit comedy, Knocked Up, in the new comedy, This is 40

44 Standing Tall

Carmen Pretorius tells us about her starring role in the new coming of age Afrikaans drama, Lien se Lankstaanskoene

52 A Not so Little Detective

We talk to the detective chasing monsters in the new South African rape drama, Little One

From The Wings Features

58 The Boys from Jersey The stars of one of the biggest musicals of the year talk to us about their roles and the music in Jersey Boys

66 Jersey Girls

We talk to the girls that stand next to the boys in Jersey Boys, Carmen Pretorius, Taryn-Lee Hudson and Kirsten Murphy Rossiter Off The Screen Magazine

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16 6 44

Film

100 Olympus has Fallen Little One

101 Safe Haven

Reviews: Theatre Reviews

Stoker

102 Seven Psychopaths 21 & Over

76 Jersey Boys 78 The African Passion 80 Desdemona 82 A Handful of Keys 84 Essence of Ireland Feature Reviews 87 The Start of the World

103 This is 40

We review Tom Cruise’s latest sci-fi spectacular, Oblivion

108 The Hobbit

We review the latest offering from Stephanie Meyer to be turned into a film, The Host, starring Saoirse Ronan

109 The Oranges

91 Host-el

95 The Man in the Iron

We review Tony Stark’s return to the big screen in Iron Man 3

Lien se Lankstaanskoene

104 Trance

Escape from Planet Earth

105 Silent Hill: Revelation 3D Trishna

106 Won’t Back Down Robot and Frank

DVD

Adventures in Zambesia Funsize The Perks of Being a Wallflower True Justice: Dead Drop All Alone L.A. I Hate You

Off The Screen Magazine

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Editor Jon Broeke jon.broeke@gmail.com

Deputy Editor Annette Bayne annette.bayne@gmail.com

Photo Credits Nu Metro, Ster Kinekor, Getty Images, UPI.com, Mariola Biela, Maye-E Wong, Val Adamson , Jan Potgieter, Google Images, imdb.com

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Editors Letter Thanks for reading our May issue. We have another bumper issue for you this month. We spoke to Hollywood stars Aaron Eckhart and Gerard Butler for their new action spectacular, Olympus has Fallen. Lindiwe Ndlovu and Mutodi Neshehe, the stars of the new South African drama, Little One, talk to us. We also have interviews with Jon Favreau, the director of Iron Man 3, Paul Rudd, star of This is 40. We also have a double bill of South African star of the stage and screen, Carmen Pretorius, starring in the stage production Jersey Boys along with Grant Almirall, Kenneth Meyer, Daniel Buys, Emmanuel Castis, Taryn-Lee Hudson and Kirsten Murphy, as well as the new Afrikaans drama Lien se Lankstaanskoene. We hope you enjoy the issue and check out our next issue coming out the first week of June. Take care.

Best Wishes Jon Broeke Editor

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Leading Olympus

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In the new film, Olympus has Fallen, Aaron Eckhart plays a president taken hostage. Jon Broeke sat down with him and chatted about the role, the action and why he chose the role.

think Aaron Eckhart is best known for his role as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, but there’s a lot more to this actor than that. He’s been a scientist, a soldier and a love interest in his career, and this time around he gets to rule the world as the President of the United States in the new film Olympus has Fallen. Of course he doesn’t rule for very long since North Korean terrorists take over the White House. When he and fellow star of the film Gerard Butler came to South Africa to promote it, I was lucky enough to sit down with him at the Fairlawns Boutique Hotel in Sandton. I started off the interview asking him about his role, a president who ends up in an insane situation when he’s taken hostage. “You’ve encapsulated it really,” he says. We’re sitting in a small room at the hotel, surrounded by lights. He’s wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans and seems completely at ease. “I play a very young, physical president. Good Father, good husband, who experiences tragedy in the film, early on, and who is taken hostage from a group of North Korean terrorists. He’s a guy, who is, I think, a good president. He’s loved by the people, of course, probably half

hate him and half love him, but he’s generally a good guy and a capable man.” The film takes place in the White House, but for obvious reasons, you can’t shoot in the actual White House. “Well, they built the front of the White House,” Eckhart answers when I ask about the set. “Not the roof, but just the front with the pillars, and they built it in an athletic park, out in a field, in the South of America, in Louisiana. It was the dead of summer, extremely hot and humid, it was brutal. The rest of everything is CGI, and then of course you have the interiors, which were practical. We had a guy who built the sets on W, for Oliver Stone, so they were very accurate, everything inside is extremely accurate. All the protocol, for the Korean delegation and the president is accurate. Going down into crisis mode is totally accurate. We had consultants with us at all times who had worked in the White House, who had worked with many presidents, so what you’re seeing, basically, is very, very real.” Even though Eckhart has played action heroes before this time he spends most of the time getting his butt kicked I say this to him too which he replies. “I see. I know. I was there.” We both laugh before I ask him how he prepared for the butt kicking he received. “Well mostly it’s just how do you keep up energy and intensity in one spot? And what are the stakes, I mean there are no Off The Screen Magazine

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“You’re talking about nuclear destruction. You’re talking about the president being assassinated, the White House being taken over, all hell breaking loose. There are no bigger stakes, so you have to keep your energy up.”

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___________________________________________________________________________ higher stakes than here. You’re talking about nuclear destruction. You’re talking about the president being assassinated, the White House being taken over, all hell breaking loose. There are no bigger stakes, so you have to keep your energy up, for the audience to that, A: That you’re a good leader, you’re courageous, you’re concerned, you’re a father at the same time, who’s separated from his child, and you have the welfare and well-being of millions, of hundreds of millions of people around the world at stake. So that was it.” Eckhart is not only the president in the film, but also a father to a young son, played in the film by Finley Jacobsen. I asked him what it was like to act with the boy, something that all actors are told to avoid. “Great,” he tells me. “Very good kid. It’s always amazing to play with kid actors because it’s a tough business man. There’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of people around. There’s a schedule to be kept, and you’re around adults all day. You know these kids are special because they have the mental capabilities to do it, I always look at them. We try to make it easy on them and obviously he has Gerry there and me there, being surrogate father, he’s got his real father there, but you can see

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sometimes they crack. And whenever they do amazing jobs, like I worked with Abigail Breslin in No Reservations, and I ‘ve never seen more of a professional little girl, and such a good actor. And you’ve got to go, ‘Wow. God touched you. You’re meant to do this because…’ I was so shy as a child. I would

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___________________________________________________________________________ never have been able to do what I do. I barely can do it now, and these kids are performing on a high level, the highest level, at such an early age.” You would never have told he was shy as a boy as he’s so comfortable with interviews now. I ask him about his other co-

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stars in the film, Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman. “Great,” he says of the Scottish actor, Butler. “Lot of fun. Dedicated, concentrated. He produced this movie too, so he’s very involved, on and off the set. Always rewriting, but very affable. He’s full of energy and charisma. Wellliked by everybody. It’s my third time working with Morgan,” he continues. “And it’s always good. He’s a calm, easy presence. Everything that comes out of his mouth is truthful. He’s a subtle, understated actor. He’s had so much experience. He trusts himself. He knows what works. He’s a very charming guy, he sings between takes and makes jokes, and really knows how to put people at ease.” I asked him how he got involved with the project. “Antoine [Fuqua, the director] called me up, called me in his office, said, ‘Aaron, this is what I need. I want a young, athletic, tough president, al a JFK, and you’re the guy I want. He directed Training Day, so no more questions asked.” The film obviously has a tough, athletic president, not unlike Harrison Ford, who played a tough, athletic president in Air Force One. I asked Aaron how he felt being compared to the iconic actor. “I don’t look at movie actor presidents,” he says. Off The Screen Magazine

___________________________________________________________________________ “Because they’re just actors. Of course I have tremendous respect for Harrison Ford and that’s a compliment, I hope. No, first of all you look inside. What’s important to me in a president? Honesty, trustworthiness, integrity, courage, leadership, that sort of thing, and that’s what you want to embody in a president, because really this is not a political movie. You’re not seeing him legislate, you’re not seeing any of that, basically he’s whisked away, and it’s a crisis move. Your most important quality are courage and leadership, and smarts, you know, looking ahead and wheels turning in the mind, that’s what you’re really going for, and once you do that , you’ve sold yourself to the audience.” While he’s happy to play the president on the screen, he has no aspirations of becoming him in real life. “No,” he chuckles to himself when I ask the question. “You have to get elected.” At this we both laugh. “No, I mean, I can barely handle my schedule right now as an actor, getting up and getting through the day. I mean look what president Obama has to deal with right now, with North Korea and with the financial crisis. You know it’s tough right now. The whole world, you know, I was talking to somebody about South African politics and then when we were in Italy, Italy doesn’t even have a Prime Minister right now.” The film opens with Butler’s secret service agent and Eckhart’s president boxing, not something you’d expect. I was surprised when I asked him who the better boxer was. “Well, I’ve been boxing for fifteen years,” he explained. “When I did Erin Brochovich, I said, ‘Yo, if I’m going to have to do this for the movies and learn a skill, I’ll learn a skill every time I have to train. Like I box, MMA, jujitsu, I just did Cali stick fighting, you know. Every actor should know how to ride a horse, shoot a gun and play poker. So you’re always looking for skills, I ride bikes, I do whatever I can to be physical, to be ready for the movies, because it’s an endurance race, you need to keep physically fit , you’re body has to take punishment, as Gerry will tell you. And you have to be willing to up the stakes the whole time. It’s very important if

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you’re going to be in this genre, to be at the top of your physical game.” With such a varied resume behind him, I asked Eckhart what it was that drew him to certain projects, and pushed him away from others. “Well, as you get older and you evolve and your tastes evolve and you want to try different things,” he tells me. “You say, ‘Okay, I did romantic comedy, was I successful at that? Did I enjoy that?’ It’s probably not my number one thing that I’m good at. I think I’m better at action, I’m better at serious stuff, I’m, better at drama. Now in my life I look at father/son roles. I look at more mature stuff. That turns me on more, because I’m less willing now to go into the gutter, although I will if the role is right. Basically it comes down to, I’m and actor and I just like to act. I like to be challenged. I like to go from one to ten, from ten to one, from one to ten. I don’t like to play it in the middle. I like to be stimulated, as a person. I like to learn a new skill. So, like right now, I’m not making movies, so I’m producing movies and starring in movies, and the movie I’m producing right now is about a father who has to go into hell to get his daughter, and that appeals to me on many levels, because it’s a family, it orients itself around a family. The guy goes from being an affable dad to a f*****g monster, and I love that, and his journey. Ever scene in this movie is insane. And it’s physical, but it’s compassionate. It has heart, it’s heart breaking. That’s what I want to do. You know, it’s like doing Hamlet on every movie. If somebody was to offer me a movie and my character goes like this,” he draws a straight line through the air with his hand. “And has no real emotions and it’s sort of funny and it’s quirky, I have no interest in that movie. If he’s just servicing a plot, I have no interest. Challenge me. Give me something to bite into and sink my teeth into and then that will get me to do it.” It’s a challenge he thrives on, and he gets it in Olympus has Fallen. Check it out now at cinemas country wide.

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Saving a Little Off The Screen Magazine

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In the new South African drama, Little One Lindiwe Ndlovu stars as Pauline, a woman that tries to help a little girl. We sat down with the actress to talk to her about the role and the films subject matter, rape.

he fact is that there is a lot wrong with our country. Whether you’re talking about the insane crime rate, or the corruption that plagues the people in power, or the seeming epidemic of rape that’s staining our beautiful land, there’s a lot to worry about. Little One, the new film by famed South African director Darryl Roodt, focuses our attention on one of these troubles. Rape. The film begins with Pauline, played by Lindiwe Ndlovu, finding the body of a little six year old girl, beaten, raped, and left for dead in a field by her house. She takes the child to the hospital and tries to help her any way she can, including visiting her, bringing her sweets, and even taking her when she’s about to end up in foster care. I sat down with Ndlovu at the United International Pictures offices this month to chat about the role. “Pauline is a mother,” she tells me. She’s wearing a white blouse and black slacks and looks nothing like the role she’s playing. “In the township, where I grew up, everyone is everyone’s child. You don’t do anything wrong because if someone sees you, you’re going to get into trouble. Pauline is that kind of mother. She takes care of everyone, not

just her own son, and the girl is one of those kids, that’s why she helps her.” Ndlovu could relate with the character having known many people like Pauline from growing up in the township. She put pieces of those people into the character to make her whole. I asked her how she got involved in the project in the first place. “I got a call from Darryl,” she says, simply. “I worked with him on Winnie, I played a little cameo there, but they remembered me from that when they were casting this movie. So he gave me a call. I remember I was at a testing station at Langlaagte booking for my learners licence and he asked me if I’d be interested in doing it, and I automatically said yes, but he told me he wanted me to first read the script, to see if I liked it or not. So he sent me the script and I read it on my phone as I was sitting in the long queue. I was so hooked people had to keep telling me to move over because I was so here,” she looks down like she’s reading the script on her phone. “And I think the one thing that got me so hooked was the thing that we’ve been hearing on the news, about baby Tsepang and all the others that came after, and now the more recent one. The disabled children being gang raped. There were a lot of rape stories on the news at that Off The Screen Magazine

___________________________________________________________________________ time. I thought this was such an appropriate story to our country at the moment, but I had a dilemma. I’d promised to do a play with someone else at Grahamstown, but I really wanted to do this film. So I talk to my colleagues about it and they told me to do the movie. So I spoke to him over the phone, I wanted to meet with him, but just couldn’t, so I told him over the phone, which was not so nice. I felt he was a bit disappointed, but I think he’s forgiven me by now.” The film tries to highlight the epidemic of rape that is infecting our country. To try and bring the nastiness which is happening all over to the forefront and get people to think, and talk about it. I asked Ndlovu if she felt that the film, the way that Roodt has made it, has achieved those goals. “Definitely. Yes it does,” she’s convinced about it. “It’s all in the news, it’s all over. Grannies in KZN being raped by some 25 year old and I’m thinking, ‘What’s happening to this society?’ I wanted to do something about it, but what can I do? So I thought as an actor maybe this is my platform to do something about it. Tell the story and get people to engage, and say, ‘Okay. This is what’s happening, this is what we need to do, and this is how we can do it.’” She has some strong thoughts about the problem too, as we all do, and she wasn’t shy to share them with me.

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“I relate it to some kind of mental retardation,” she tells me about what she thinks of the men perpetrating these acts. “Because I can’t see how a grown man could see a baby as a woman. There’s something I people’s heads that’s just not right. I know there are a lot of people who will say it’s the residues of Apartheid, it’s the residues of poverty, it’s the residues of… But we’re people. We have hearts, we have consciences, and you know what is right and what is wrong, but if you don’t know what is wrong, what is wrong with you? If you cannot see that it’s wrong, that this is a pencil and this is a phone, if you can’t tell the difference between the two, what is wrong with you?

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___________________________________________________________________________ Maybe that’s what we need to find out. What is wrong with these people?” It’s a touchy subject for everyone, so I directed the interview to something a little more pleasant. The child who plays the little one, Vuyelwa Msimang. And she’s actually Ndlovu’s next-door-neighbour. And, Ndlovu found her for the role herself, before suggesting her to Roodt. I asked her how it all came about. “Darryl said she needed to be 6 years old and I needed to be comfortable with her,” she tells me about a conversation she had with the director where he asked her if she knew anyone for the role. “He’d worked with actors and actresses that couldn’t play with

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kids. Sometimes you find in a scene that the scene demands you hug the child, or you play with them, but the actor can’t get comfortable with the child, so it look s awkward, so I needed to be comfortable with her. So I went home and thought about it, and then I talked to my friend, who’s also an actor, and she suggested Vuyelwa, and I was like,” she clicks her fingers. “Yes. So I phoned Darryl and he told me to bring her to the office, so I did and automatically he liked her.” Ndlovu tells me that she’s not like other kids she’s worked with on film sets. She’s a very sweet, ordinary girl. “She’s a very sweet girl. She pulled me aside once and told me, ‘This white man’, meaning Darryl, ‘Can’t count, he keeps saying one more time, one more time, but it’s never one more time’. This then became a joke on the set. Darryl would tell us we were beautiful and then ask for it one more time and everyone would burst out laughing.” Of course the child plays a rape victim so I asked Ndlovu how much she actually understood about the role. “No,” she tells me when I ask if she knew the story. “When I and her mother were doing lines with her the night before the scenes we would tell her what we were going to do, but not the meaning behind it. Prior to the shoot there was a makeup test, and she ran to her brother saying, ‘Look, look, I’m Off The Screen Magazine

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“I thought as an actor maybe this is my platform to do something about it. Tell the story and get people to engage, and say, ‘Okay. This is what’s happening, this is what we need to do, and this is how we can do it.’”

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injured’,” she laughs. “She understood that we were acting, but what we were acting, she had no clue.” I learned that Msimang has seen the film with her mother and brother, who also feature in the movie, as her real mother and Ndlovu’s son respectively. I asked her if the children understood what was happening on the screen, and what their reactions where to it. “I haven’t seen it with her,” she tells me. The children saw it at a time that Ndlovu didn’t. “And I haven’t asked her mother if she understood it or not, but she has seen it.” Well, it’s a little hard not to understand the meaning behind the film. It’s a tough subject to cover, and a tougher subject to talk about, but one we need to face I suppose. Little One is playing nationwide right now.

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Saving Olympus Off The Screen Magazine

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In his new film, Olympus has Fallen, Gerard Butler plays a Secret Service agent who must save a hostage taken president. Jon Broeke sat down with the Scottish born actor to chat about the role and the action that went along with it.

cottish born Hollywood actor Gerard Butler is best known for his action hero roles in films such as 300, Gamer and the Tomb Raider sequel, but he’s also played romantic leads, psychotic killers and Phantoms. In the new film Olympus has Fallen he’s back to his action routes as a Secret Service agent who must save a president taken hostage by a group of North Korean terrorists in the very White House. I sat down with him at the Fairlawns Boutique Hotel and chatted to him about the agent he plays, who’s more like a big brother to Aaron Eckhart’s president. “That’s a good way to describe him,” we’re sitting outside at the hotel between a swimming pool and an overgrown garden. “He’s the special agent in charge to the president. Very good friends. They don’t have a very typical relationship, at the beginning it opens on a boxing match, you know, how many presidents can you imagine getting in a boxing ring with a friend, and right hand man, and in fact that’s kind of the theme of the movie, keeping your guard up, because he’s teaching the president, you know, he’s teaching the president to be tough, to be tenacious, and to be aware at all times. Unfortunately that

friendship is very much put to the test, when Mike, even in the performing of his duty, in some ways causes a tragedy. He’s protecting the president, but as a result the first lady dies. He ends up in a situation where he’s in apposition which is for a man like him the worst position imaginable. He’s like a caged animal. He’s trained his whole life to perform duties at the highest level of protection and now he’s working in the treasury. We come across a terrorist attack by the Koreans, it completely comes out of the blue, which is so devastating and brutal, and it’s his opportunity. He fights his way into the White House, and finds himself the only survivor in there, and therefore does have the opportunity to kind of, I don’t know, to show the preparation, the dedication, the courage, the honour that he’s made up of. And, in a way, show that dark side of him. Because he’s incredibly brutal, incredibly smart, he’s innovative, and he’s pissed off. And he has a point to prove, and I think when you put all those things together you have a very interesting warrior hero.” I ask the man, who seems very relaxed sitting in the garden talking to me if sees himself in the character that seems to relish ignoring orders. Off The Screen Magazine

___________________________________________________________________________ “Yeah,” he says with a chuckle. “In fact that was something we tried to weave in. Cause the original Mie in the script was not as interesting or fleshed out, so we kind of wanted to make him darker, more brutal, more feared. You know there’s a knowledge of him around the business that he’s not the guy you want to mess with. But at the same time bring out a humour in him and a sensitivity as well, but I liked the idea that he always had kind of a screw loose, so you put a guy who’s made up of those things, one: an incredibly brilliant soldier and secret service agent who’s committed like nobody else and you put him in a situation where he, like the audience, are devastated by what has been done by these cold blooded, ruthless, and yet brilliant crack commandoes, and then you have a game on, you know. It’s like that 300 situation, it’s few against many, but you still wouldn’t bet against Mike.” The film has a lot of fighting, and Butler, being a Secret Service agent in the film, does a lot of it. I asked him if he did any kind of special training to prepare for the role. “It’s just getting down and doing it,” he tells me about the action scenes. “You’ve got to get in the

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gym with the stunt guys, and you’ve got to find any space you can with the stunt guys, because sometimes you’re filming and you have like half an hour and you jump into a room where they create with cardboard boxes the layout of the space you will actually film in, and you just start punching the s**t out of each other, but you choreograph fights, and I love choreographing as well as being in them, because when you put your personal slant on it, that’s the character right there. They’ll give you great moves, but then you say, ‘Okay, what else can I say with these moves?’ because sometimes you can get great humour out of those moments, or great satisfaction for the audience out of the way that it

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___________________________________________________________________________ happens, or perhaps show his improvisational techniques. There’s one example right there, where that’s a big thing about the Secret Service is their initiative and their improvisation, because things very rarely turn out the way you train for exactly, so they’re always looking at any moment to where the exit would be, where the danger would come from, what implements are around that they may use to defend themselves if there is an attacks, it’s always going on in their minds and that’s one of the fascinating things for an actor to get into, and for an audience to watch, and discover. But the fighting was a big thing, it took a lot of time, but I got to tell you, I was working with the most talented stunt

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men, and the better the stuntman is, the more likely you’re going to be able to do the stunts. To me a stunt man is about, you work with him to make you proficient in the moves and then you work them all together, and then you come up with a fight sequence, and then you do it yourself, because even if these guys are much better at what they do, they’re still not the character. They run differently they move differently, they punch differently, and you’re not going to get the same performance.” And almost all of the time you see his character fighting on screen, it actually is him. “Yeah. Did them myself,” he tells me. “If you’d seen my medical reports afterwards you’d know I did them myself,” again he laughs. “I actually broke two little bones in my neck. I bashed my nail. It went black up to here,” he shows all the way past the second knuckle on his finger. “And then the fingernail came off. I bruised my arm, it swelled up to twice the size. It looked like a dead arm. I had to put makeup on it because it was black all the way around. I was forever bleeding. The makeup artist was always turning up and there would be a line of blood coming down my head, or down my arm, because there’s a lot of Off The Screen Magazine

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“This is the third one that I’ve produced, produced. It’s also by far the biggest one. This was a full on job because we really worked a lot on developing the script as well and taking specific angles and tones which were different from the original.”

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___________________________________________________________________________ glass around and debris and you get hit by flying debris from the explosions. I was hit by a bullet casing right in my eye once, I felt like I was punched in the face. So, you take a beating, but at the same time these guys take a beating, and to be honest, they take way more of a beating, because if a bullet hits them in the eye, they’re dead. So, to be honest, I find when those things happen you just slide into the character. You feel his boots more deservingly.” I pass a comment about the glamorous world of motion pictures, and he agrees. “It’s amazing the injuries that go on in movies that people don’t hear about,” he tells me, and being in so many action films he would know. “I’d say on average with the stunt guys per movie, where there’s a lot of action, there’s at least five guys that end up in hospital.” A dangerous job, but it wasn’t just the fight scenes in Olympus has Fallen there are bigger stunts as well, as there always are in these types of films, and Butler didn’t shy away from those either. “Yeah, I was involved in those stunts,” he tells me about the bigger explosions and stunts. “There’s quite a lot of CGI in the movie, the explosions are pretty much real. I think the one in the White House, I think that

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was CGI, but all the explosions in the initial attack are all real, so we were running around just making sure we didn’t step on a landmine basically, because sometimes in one take there are eight explosions going off, and they literally say, ‘Okay, don’t go there, don’t go there, don’t go there’, because these are explosions, there’s like dynamite in there, and you can get hurt, by the way you can also get hurt from a blank bullet of which we probably fired over a hundred thousand. If you fire a blank bullet close to somebody you will blow there face off with the impact of the expanding gas. So it’s full on, but that’s what guy’s like. I’m mean, I’m not trying to sound like I’m some brave dude, because, to be honest… I’ll tell you who were exceptionally good were the stunt guys. They have to do this stuff again and again. You’re doing your stunts, but they’re the ones doing all the other stuff as well, and they have to take a fall, maybe, twenty times, and hit the same part of their bodies, so they’re battered and bruised, but it’s fun. It’s like boys with toys. You know, you take it seriously, you’re telling a story, but you’ve got to sit back at times and say, ‘Jesus, I’m so pumped up right now’. There’s so much adrenalin, and you know you’re part of a sequence that will be enthralling and entertaining and have the

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___________________________________________________________________________ audience on the edge of their seat, and that’s a cool thing to be able to do.” Not only did Butler star in this film, he also produced it, and it’s not the first film he’s produced either. “Nope. This is the fifth one that I’m producing,” he says. “The first one was Law Abiding Citizen and I executive produced two other movies and this is the third one that I’ve produced, produced. It’s also by far the biggest one. This was a full on job because we really worked a lot on developing the script as well and taking specific angles and tones which were different from the original. For instance, if we were going to do an attack, we were going to make this attack real. We’re going to push it to the limits. We’re not making a PG-13 movie, well maybe we are over here,” he laughs. “But in America we knew we were making an R rated movie, and we weren’t ever going to turn away from the violence or avoid woman or avoid animals, it’s like, if it’s a terrorist attack those things get hurt and killed, and to make it as logical and

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plausible and as visceral, really pull an audience in there, and then, you know what? The best thing I think we did in the movie? I think was get the most phenomenal cast. You’ve got Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Melissa Leo, Angela Bassett, two Oscar winning actors, two Oscar nominated actors, and then throw in Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchel, Cole Hauser, Rick Yune, Ashley Judd, there isn’t a single named character in the movie that isn’t very famous and talented,” he laughs again. “And that was important, because if you just want to make your typical action movie you fill it with whoever, but if you want to make an action movie that’s going to transcend that and give it some substance and some resonance and some humanity, then putting actors like that in the movie brings it such a level of class and authenticity, and it helped us no end. It’s why we have such a great movie.” And a great, action filled film it is. You can see it now at cinema’s nationwide.

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A Happy Man Off The Screen Magazine

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The release of the third instalment in the Iron Man series sees Jon Favreau return to the screen as bodyguard Happy Hogan, but not behind the camera this time. We chatted to him about letting go of the reins.

on Favreau stared off his film career as an actor in Rudy, but it wasn’t long until the powers that be realised there was more to him than just an actor, and he proved it with the first film he wrote, Swingers. Since then he has directed some of the biggest blockbusters in film history, including Iron Man and Iron Man 2. Now this month, Iron Man 3 hits our screens, but Favreau is not at the helm. He stepped back, allowing for Shane Black to take his place. He is back, however, in front of the camera, as Happy Hogan, Robert Downey Jnr’s Tony Stark’s Ex-bodyguard, now Stark Industries head of security. “It’s fun to come back as Happy,’ he says about the role. “Happy was a role that I just stuck myself in because it was a peripheral player that allowed me to be involved and be a part of the family onscreen. And truth be told, certainly in the first one, I

had my hands full. By the second one, I had some fighting and some driving and that was more fun, but again, more work to do, and it’s very hard to direct and give a lot of thought to a performance, but for Iron Man 3 my day-today responsibility isn’t tremendous. The team knows what they’re doing. It’s Robert and Shane [Black] and Kevin [Feige] and Stephen Broussard and, although I’m involved as an executive producer, that’s more like being the loving grandfather who gets to play with the baby when you want to, but you don’t have to worry about dirty diapers. So it’s fun to be here; it’s coming back to a place that I’m familiar with. They know me, we share a sense of humour and we share a history.” Things are very different for Happy now, no longer working for Tony, but still very protective over the man in the iron suit. “Where we last left it in Iron Man 2, Happy was working for Pepper,” he tells us. “He wasn’t Tony’s right hand man anymore. So that’s affected things for these two guys who were Off The Screen Magazine

___________________________________________________________________________ once very close. Before Tony was Iron Man, he was just some rich kid who was smart but really relied upon Happy to organize his life, keep him safe and keep him out of trouble. By the time present day is happening, why does Iron Man need a bodyguard? He can build robots to do anything and he’s got a suit to protect himself, so the job that Happy took so much pride in is no longer relevant, but Happy takes working for Stark Industries and protecting Pepper very seriously. In the comic books, he’s got a big crush on Pepper, so I wanted that to inform the role I’m playing. Happy doesn’t have anything to offer her and he’s loyal to Tony, so he would never do anything. But I think it does make his heart ache, and that’s a nice subtext to play as an actor.” Favreau was happy about being Happy again. And thrilled to work with Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jnr again. “I love watching Gwyneth and Robert,” he says. “So much of my job on the first films was to create a sandbox for them to play in to figure out what the dynamics of that relationship are, to capture how well they work together as actors and incorporate that into the characters and adjust what was in the comic books to them. I think there is a classic fun, Tracy-and-Hepburn type thing that they’re doing. There’s an affection and also this sharp-tongue sparring that goes on between the two characters, but at the heart of it, they both have a crush on each other. In “Iron Man 3” they’re together, so that changes the dynamic somewhat, but it was definitely a lot to play with that tension for the first two movies. I always felt that that was the stuff that was the most captivating for me, and the stuff I understood the best. To me, the characters and especially that relationship and that little mini-romantic comedy that was

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going on is at the heart of these big action movies.” He was also very happy to be working for Shane Black, a director he feels a kinship with. “Shane comes at directing from the position of being a very experienced writer, so his storytelling comes from that perspective. He’s also an actor, so he gets that too. So it’s very similar in many ways to my skill set coming into directing. He’s worked with Robert before, and Shane was around for the first film. Robert always looked up to Shane and his ability as a storyteller and his imagination, so I remember that there were

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___________________________________________________________________________ things in the first movie that we would discuss with him. But he was this remote figure who was kind of doing his own thing and every once in a while we’d have a conversation with him. Now it’s a much different situation. Now he’s at the centre of all of this, and so what I have to offer mostly is support.” Of course he directed the first two Iron Man films, but had no idea it would end up being as big as it did. “The first time around it was much different,” he says. “Because “Iron Man” was the first Marvel movie as a studio. There was no real model for it yet and it was their first time controlling their own destiny. I guess we

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always hoped it would build into something else, but the idea was just to get through the first movie and try to make something fun that didn’t get lost in all the superhero noise. When we hired Robert [Downey Jr.], it started to slowly take on the personality of the franchise. With me coming on board there was sort of a sense of humour and an attitude towards casting and characters, and then Robert was a huge part in creating an identity for the franchise and for the whole Marvel Universe, really. Now with this movie, you have, in the rear-view mirror, the success of “Iron Man,” “Iron Man 2,” “Marvel’s The Avengers” and a whole set of expectations.” Now that the last film is Favreau is just looking forward to seeing it as an audience member. “What is nice about being an executive producer, an actor, and part of the legacy of it all,” he says. “Is that I get to have a hand in the film, give suggestions and provide advice if asked, but ultimately the movie is something that is going to be a surprise. As much as I know about it, there are a million details and there are a million little decisions that are going to be made by both Shane [Black] and Kevin [Feige] and everybody working on it in postproduction. So the most interesting part for me is to be able to be an audience member on this one, which is something I haven’t had the pleasure of doing on any Iron Man movie yet.” If you haven’t seen it yet, go and enjoy it the way Favreau will, as an audience member in a darkened theatre. It’s showing in cinemas nationwide.

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Back at 40 Off The Screen Magazine

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Comedy star Paul Rudd reprises his role from Knocked Up in Judd Apatow’s latest comedy, This is 40. We sat down with him to chat about turning forty on screen as well as off.

hen Judd Apatow released Knocked Up he became a comic headliner overnight. The film starring Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogan got him on the map and started Rogan and fellow star Jonah Hill’s careers. Also starring in the film that made the others was already established comedy gem Paul Rudd. He reprises the role from that film this month in the sequel, of sorts, This is 40. “There was always the hope that it would be funny,” he tells us about the new film. “But also painful and real and kind of capture what life is, which is funny and sad, angry, happy and all of those things that are, in a way, tough to classify. Somehow that resonates on some level as being believable and honest. Obviously, you want the story to be interesting and you want people to care about the characters, so that was always the goal.” The film follows his character, Pete, for Knocked Up, and his wife Debbie, reprised by Leslie Mann, as they navigate marriage and raising kids when they’re about to turn 40 and their lives haven’t turned out the way they

had really planned. The film struck a chord with Rudd, on a personal level. “I could certainly relate to the subject matter,” he says. “Because I am married, although my kids are younger than Judd’s. The character that I play is the same age as I am, so there’s a lot that I understand and can bring to the role. I’ve never played the same character years later. That was also interesting.” In the film Rudd’s character is going through some serious turmoil, especially financial. The film looks at the familial connections that he has that help him get through those issues. “I think that this family ultimately wants to be there for each other because they are a family,” he says. “As mad as they might get with each other, they do love each other. That’s why I think the scene in the hotel where Debbie and Pete spend a night away from their kids is really crucial because you have to see that these two people really love each other. No one wants to see a movie about two people arguing the whole time. You have to understand why they are still together. No matter how mad you get with your significant other, there is still that bond. For example, Off The Screen Magazine

___________________________________________________________________________ there are the scenes with Melissa McCarthy, who plays a parent who accuses Debbie of threatening her son who has been rude to her daughter on Facebook. I’m going to come to my wife’s defence. I have her back and she’s got mine.” Rudd fells there is an honesty about the film that the audience will relate too. “People who are married or in long-term relationships all deal with a lot of the same things. You ask yourself, ‘Is this person keeping me from realizing my fullest potential? Did I make the wrong choice? How can I be happy in the face of all of these struggles? Should it be this hard?’ Husbands think that. Our wives think that. Everybody thinks a lot about the same stuff. After Knocked Up, so many people said to me that they related to those characters, Pete and Debbie, and that their dynamic and the things they were dealing with were very familiar. I think that we’re going to hear a lot of that from this film, too.) Even with the harder material, playing Pete again after all these years was

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a pleasure. “It was fun and easy,” he tells me. “It isn’t like I needed a month to get into the skin and do some crazy preparation. It was cool and it wasn’t something that I thought would ever happen. I’m actually about to do it again in a few months with the Anchorman sequel.” The film is helmed again by Judd

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___________________________________________________________________________ Apatow, who mentioned the concept to Rudd a few years ago already. “It was a few years ago that Judd asked me what I thought about doing this movie” Rudd says. “He had done Get Him To The Greek, which was a spinoff of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I don’t know if that was the impetus for him to tell this story with the

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characters from Knocked Up. I think the subject matter was the idea that Judd came up with first, without the two characters. Then, I think he thought it should be those two characters from Knocked Up. When he talked about it to me at first, it was in broad strokes. It was an idea about what their life was like. Their kids are now older and they are navigating their way through their marriage. It was an exploration of that, of all the good and bad, as well as the struggles that they face. I thought that would be fun to do and interesting.” Music plays a big part in the film, Rudd’s character owns a private record label. The music is used by Apatow to illustrate the issues Rudd’s character and his wife is dealing with. This was something else that Rudd could identify with. “Judd is so into music and always has been,” he says about the director. “It is interesting because Pete is at a point in his life where, for the first time, he doesn’t know what’s good. It isn’t about what’s popular. He could care less about that, but he hears something and he doesn’t know whether it’s good. For a Off The Screen Magazine

___________________________________________________________________________ character like Pete, that’s a huge thing. I can really relate to that. When I was in my 20s and 30s, I could hear a band and have a debate with absolutely anybody on earth and say this is why this band is good. I certainly hit a point in my life when I wasn’t listening to music as much and in the same way as I had several years ago. I have kids now, and I just don’t know music as well as I used to. When I was younger, I would read liner notes and I could tell you who produced what tracks on any album. I could tell you the musicians who played on every song. Now, I just don’t. The one thing that I could always count on and was a huge part of my identity was tied into music. Then, you hit a point in your life where you aren’t sure anymore and it’s scary and sad. It was always a great metaphor for where Pete was in his life.” The big band that features in the film are Graham Parker and The Rumour. The film has renewed interest in the band, which was big in the 70’s. “I saw them play last night and they were incredible,” Rudd says. “They’ve been playing shows and I asked him how it was going. He is a straight-shooter and said that it’s been amazing. He told me it has been a lot of fun and that they’re so much better musically, maybe because they’ve been playing all these years. I went to see them and I knew what he meant. It was so tight, not forced and just great. It is very cool that this is happening to them. When we were shooting a scene in the movie where Graham plays with

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The Rumour again, it was the most surreal day for them. Their microphones were on when we were shooting. They took a bow and I don’t think they realized it, but they were giggling. One of the guys said, “Well, we made it to Hollywood, boys!” It was so strange and exciting for them. Their kids were there watching them. Graham’s daughter, who is in her twenties, and the son of another one of the guys in the band were there watching them play. They had never seen them play before. They grew up knowing about Graham Parker and The Rumour. They had the records and knew the songs and had heard the stories, but they had never seen their fathers play together until that day on set when they are on stage together. The dads were up there playing knowing that their kids were out their

watching them for the first time. It was so moving and so cool.” The film was a similar occasion, putting the actors back together after years. Rudd is busy shooting the Anchorman sequel, which will reunite him with Will Ferrell, among others. We’ll have to wait a while to see that, but in the meantime you can see This is 40 at cinemas nationwide. Off The Screen Magazine

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Standing Tall Off The Screen Magazine

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The lead in the new Afrikaans drama, Lien se Lankstaanskoene, Carmen Pretorius is a rising, shining new star of stage and screen. Jon Broeke sat down with her recently to discuss the film, her career and her verging film stardom.

s an entertainment journalist I interview a lot of people, but you only get a certain feeling with very few. The feeling of which I speak is the feeling that you’re sitting across from an actual movie star. Now this feeling doesn’t only happen when you’re sitting across from the Gerard Butlers’ or Ashley Greenes’ of our entertainment world, sometimes you can get this feeling sitting across from a relatively unknown actress that you can just tell is going to be a huge star. I got this feeling when I sat down in the Mugg and Bean at Montecasino recently to interview Carmen Pretorius, star of the new coming of age Afrikaans drama, Lien se Lankstaanskoene.

Pretorius is blonde and beautiful, sitting in a light blue scarf and black rimmed, angular glasses as she tells me about her new role. “She’s an 18 year old girl in matric,” she tells me about the character she plays in the film.”She actually turns 18 during the film. Comes from a very well-off background, lives in affluent suburbs in Pretoria and has a lovely family, close knit. The story starts off in the place where something has obviously gone very wrong, they’re now very poor, and you find out later on why. Basically it’s about this girl who now has to suddenly slip into the shoes of an adult and look after her younger brother Braam and her mother has become an alcoholic as well, Off The Screen Magazine

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“I can’t believe it. I’m still so excited that Andre and Kyknet and everyone saw something in me that… Well, they took a big chance on me because I didn’t have any experience, so…”

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___________________________________________________________________________ as a result of the mess up that happened. Her father has actually gone to jail for fraud, so all of this is happening around her, she’s moved schools, everything has changed. So, she decided to start doing odd jobs to try and bring in more money, since she is now the soul provider for the family, her mother is incongruent and incapable of doing it at the best of time. It’s about her journey and her strength and how this young woman deals with this situation she’s placed in.” The way she finally manages to overcome the trouble she’s in is to become a beggar on the side of the road. There she meets some remarkable other people and learns the true meaning of strength and family. I asked her how she got involved in the project. “It’s a funny story,” she tells me. “While I was doing the pantomime, Cinderella, I was working with Anna-Mart van der Merwe, who was playing the Fairy God-Mother, and her good friend is Andre Odendaal, who is the director of Lien, and Andre said to her in passing that he couldn’t find anyone to play the Lien character in the movie, so she told him to come see the panto, that there was a girl playing the lead, Carmen, and he might like me. So he obviously came. So I got a Facebook message from Andre saying that he was a director shooting this film for

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Kyknet and he wanted me to come and audition. At first I was a bit sceptical, but I recognised the man from television and he ended the message by telling me to ask AnnaMart. So that evening I did, and she told me to go, and that she would vouch for Andre, so I went and later I got a call from them saying I landed the role. They obviously knew what they wanted and they obviously found it me, and thank God, because this is such a big break for me. I can’t believe it. I’m still so excited that Andre and Kyknet and everyone saw something in me that… Well, they took a

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___________________________________________________________________________ big chance on me because I didn’t have any experience, so…” Well the chance certainly paid off. Based on the book of the same name I asked Pretorius what it was about the script that drew to doing the role. “It was so heartfelt,” she says. “There are moments in the film that are so real and so true there’s a scene when you see Lien

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sitting under a tree with two beggars. Where do you find that? Where do you find such a mix of race, such a mix of class? It just goes to show you that all humanity is equal. We can all be floored, level with the ground at any second, and have to hold our heads up high and fend for ourselves at the end of the day. I’m drawn to stuff like that. I like dramatic films, but it’s also a story about a real family and it can happen to anyone, and I like strong female characters. I’m really interested in playing a lot more of that type of thing, and my own family. My parents are divorced. My mother and I have had, not the easiest relationship, we’ve gone through our own stuff. There was a lot within the film that I related to on a personal level, from my own family. So I kind of drew on that a lot in the filming process. It’s very odd. It seems like the universe sends me these projects that resonate very closely to me. Maybe it’s because I find that truth in them, as an actor.” The book is actually a set work in Afrikaans high schools. “Actually English schools as well,” Pretorius corrects me. “I actually got a Facebook message from a matric pupil, a guy at St John’s, asking me to be his matric date, to his farewell. He has obviously read the book in his matric Off The Screen Magazine

___________________________________________________________________________ year and he thinks it will be cool if I went with him. I haven’t replied to him yet, but I’m going to go. If I can I’ll be there.” It’s this kind of attitude that makes her stand out for me. We speak about her preparation for the role, which actually didn’t include reading the book before speaking to the director. “It’s very dangerous to make up assumptions about a character before you start your process, that’s why you don’t watch the movie, like with Mama Mia, I didn’t watch the movie. I also don’t know what Andre has in mind for my character, and now I’m going to go in with all these preconceived ideas for the character if what I think Lien should be. There are set in stone characteristics, but I didn’t want to be too stuck in those things. I wanted to go in with a clean slate so Andre could mould me, as the director. Also, originally Lien was a brunette, in Derek van der Walt, the author’s, mind, and they wanted me to go darker for the role, but I said no. That whole thing for High School Musical and going dark was lovely, but I’m going to be bald by the time I’m twenty five. I can’t keep dying my hair. I just said I’m sorry, I just can’t and they said its fine, so my Lien is blonde.” It’s just one of a couple of personal choices the actress made to make the character her own. We chatted about her acting method, which connects back to her connection with music, her first love. “Because I started with singing,” she tells me. “And music was my way into this industry, a lot of my preparation was that. I made playlists because I thought it was the only way I could access all these emotions I needed to portray. Literally on my iTunes it says: anger, frustration, happiness, sadness. I made these playlists, and all these songs in my playlists that I’ve felt passionate about in my life, whether it was a song that made me cry because I’d just broken up with someone, or a song that made me cry for my parents, or just stuff that was really close to my heart, I filed them under those playlists, and then before a scene I would sit and listen to those play lists and force myself to get into a space, in the right feel of the scene. I think everyone thought I was crazy, but eventually Andre

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“It was a great cast and crew to work with” she says. “I learnt a lot from Elize Cawood, I learnt a lot from Marie Pentz, I learnt a lot from Andre, they were all just very helpful. I never felt like they didn’t think I could do it.” realised that that was my process and he would give me time to sit down with my iPod. Everyone was so supportive they would find me a little place where I could be left alone and listen to my music.” She realises that her performance wouldn’t have been as good without a good support cast, and she had a great one in this film. “It was a great cast and crew to work with” she says. “I learnt a lot from Elize Cawood, I learnt a lot from Marie Pentz, I learnt a lot from Andre, they were all just very helpful. I never felt like they didn’t think I could do it. I always felt like they knew I could do it. My first experience on television was not very good. The director was not for me. As an actor I felt like he wanted me to fail, and then I froze up, I couldn’t give him anything, whereas here, Andre was there, on my side, so I could give him anything. It’s like a psychological thing. I knew he was there, and he wouldn’t judge me so I could scream and cry and do whatever I needed to do and he would never judge my method. That is what every actor should do because that’s where it comes from. It’s such a personal vocation, such a vulnerable thing, to cry in front of a camera in room of ten people, and they all Off The Screen Magazine

___________________________________________________________________________ feel sorry. I could see during some of the scenes are really hectic, and I could see them starting to feel real concern for me, because they know me. That’s human. They’ve worked on a million movies, but as a human being you want to help. Afterwards they’d give me a pat and offer me something.” Cawood plays one of the other beggars, while Pentz play Lien’s next-doorneighbour, the woman who cares for her when her mother cannot. Pretorius is, at the moment, performing in mostly dramatic roles, both on screen and on stage. She’s currently performing in Jersey Boys at Montecasino and has been in several TV dramas, and while she loves doing the heavy dramas there are other roles she would like to tackle. “I want to play some really hectic action hero character, like Lara Croft or

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something,” she tells me. “And then also, I would like to play… I don’t know. I seem like quite a feminist, which I probably am, because I grew up with strong female influences. Probably some really strong kick-a*s character like Tomb Raider or something like that, or I’d love to play an icon like Janice Joplin or Madonna. I’d like to do anything like that. I’d love to be in a horror as well, as the heroine, but I may do a little cameo, someone that gets chopped up in the first five minutes that could be fun too.” Whatever role she takes next I’m convinced she will do an amazing job. I’m glad to say I was there at the beginning of what is bound to an amazing career, one I will follow with intense interest over the years. And I’ll be there when she’s as big as Julia Roberts or Angelina Jolie.

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A Not so Little Detective

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The new film Little One focuses on violence against woman and children, but star Mutodi Neshehe thinks it should focus on something else. Jon Broeke sat down with the actor to discuss his role in the film and what should be focused on instead of the bad.

he new film Little One, focuses on a very touchy subject here in South Africa, violence against woman and children, specifically, child rape. The film tells the story of a woman Pauline, played by Lindiwe Ndlovu, who finds a little girl, beaten, raped and half dead, in a brush near her home. She takes the child to the hospital and then tries to care for her, including kidnapping her when she’s going to be put into foster care. Of course the police get involved in the story, trying to find the rapists, and later the child when she disappears. South African born, but partially American raised, actor Mutodi Neshehe, plays the role of the lead Detective in the film, Detective Morena.

“He’s a typical South African detective,” he tells me. We’re sitting at JB Rivers at Clearwater Shopping Centre having a coffee and chatting about the film. “His desk is a mess, he’s got cases coming up to wazoo, and he cannot afford to actually get too attached to any case really. He starts off being, yeah, yeah, yeah, just another case, but then he has a turning point where he realises what really just happened to this little girl and how luck she is to be alive, but at the same time him being a detective he needs to detach himself, but he does breakdown and get emotional, when in most cases detectives don’t give a hoot about anything, they just come and walk around crime scene and act and look busy. So he is a good detective, but he was numbed by the profession, and this case actually threw him over the end.” Neshehe is tall and muscular and has a definite American tinge to his accent. He’s Off The Screen Magazine

___________________________________________________________________________ wearing a shirt with Mutodi Productions printed on the front, his own production company. I ask the man what it was about Little One that got him involved. “Well, I’m a father to two little girls. When Darryl gave me the script I was sitting in my bed, reading this thing, and I was crying. My wife walks up and she’s like, ‘What is wrong with you?’” he laughs. “So I’m kind of playing it off like, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine. This is a good movie’.” He laughs again. The Darryl he refers to is Darryl Roodt, the director of this film, and it’s not the first film Neshehe has done with the man. In fact he’s done several, including his first film many years ago. “I don’t know,” he says when I ask him what the South African director is like to work with. “I guess we’re kind of like minded in doing what we love, which is making film, it’s just always a fun set to be working with Darryl. Everything is just the way it’s supposed to be and everyone is having fun. We’re joking around. It’s kind of hard to believe you’re being paid for this. But you’ll take the money,” More laughter, this time rolling laughter. A lot has been said about Roodt’s style of directing. How

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fast he moves and how much freedom he gives the actors. I asked Neshehe how he felt about it. “He’s hands on with the technical aspect of it,” he tells me. “With me, because I’ve worked with him since, I think my first movie with him I was 10 years old, playing my first lead, and he was 20, or 21, doing his either, first or second feature film, so with me he kind of knows that I have a process and I do research my character and he knows how I work and he knows I’ll bring the best I can to the character, because I spend a lot of time thinking about it, and he knows I don’t care

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___________________________________________________________________________ about the way that I look, I mean, I’ll show up and I’ll say, ‘This guy should have a bald head’, or whatever and he’ll agree, saying whatever I think and run with it. So we do have an understanding. We do know how each other works. I like to think I make it easier for him because when I’m shooting my stuff he can focus on other actors who need his attention. He probably doesn’t understand the way they work, or he hasn’t spent a lot of time discussing the character with them, but for me, I do dig deep and find the character in me, and then portray that to the best of my ability. There are certain things, like he’ll say,

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‘Now that we’ve done it that way, why don’t we try this other way’, because obviously you want to have a variation in case when you’re looking at it in post you need to be able to say, ‘I think that’s better because of that, or that’, But working with Darryl for me is a walk in the park.” The first film Neshehe did was with Roodt, back in 1985. “My first film with him was Wind Rider, back in 1985,” he says with a chuckle, thinking back that far. “My first lead role. We were just all over Bophuthatswana and South Africa, just going around shooting. Back in the day, shooting on 16 mm, and small tight crew, and just driving around doing a movie. Kind of like the same thing we’re doing now thirty years later.” He chuckles again. I asked Neshehe what it was like working with Ndlovu, also in her first leading role. “Believe it or not, she reminded me of this when she won the SAFTA,” he says. “The first day of shooting with her I looked at her and said, ‘2013, the SAFTA is yours. If you keep up what you’re doing and what I just saw, the SAFTA is going to be yours’. She was like, ‘Whatever Mutodi’. And then when she won the SAFTA, she gave me a hug on the Off The Screen Magazine

___________________________________________________________________________ way to the stage, and then at the after party and said, ‘Remember you predicted this?’, I was like, ‘I did?’” he laughs again. “I had totally forgotten about it, because I read the script and I knew the content, the depth of the character , it was a deep character and it would take somebody special to portray this, and to be recognised for the portrayal of that character, and I did not know Lindiwe was the one. I did not now that until I was working with her on set, I wasn’t actually working with her, I was just on set and she was doing a scene and I was like, ‘Wow. This is yours. You’re going to take this home with you, next year the SAFTA is yours’, and bam, she got it.” In the film Ndlovu’s character, in essence, breaks the law by kidnapping the child to keep her safe, at least in her eyes. I asked Neshehe what he felt about it, and about the film, in essence, condoning breaking the law. “I don’t think it actually condones breaking of the law,” is his answer. “If you look in South Africa, when kids get to be a certain age, like Vuyelo’s age, they are not they are not the attractive adoptable kind. They pretty much stay in the system forever. They’re not the cute little babies that everyone wants, but for the character Lindiwe plays, Pauline, she’s just like so many other go-go’s and South African woman who have absolutely nothing and live in a shack, but will take in as many kids as they can fit. Sometimes they can’t even fit into this house, or shack, but they’ll keep taking these kids because the only thing they can give these kids it love. They can’t give them the flashy cars, they can’t give the best education, but a lot of South African woman have the love to give. You can look at it as that she’s breaking the law, but the flip side of that is that no one is claiming these kids. The parents are not going to the police and saying their child is missing. This woman, who has absolutely nothing, is willing the give the world, as she knows it, to this child. So it’s up to you, which side do you look at? The love side, or the law side. The law is hard, grey and cold, the love side is warm, bright and soft, so which part do you look at. If you look at all the go-go’s who

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she came over to me don’t even get grants for some of these kids, but they keep taking these kids in, not enough money to buy food, but they’d rather have the child than a decent meal. They’d rather give that child the dry pap with no gravy then have this child be in this hard, grey cold system that that social whatever provides for them. So, I’m all for the love and hope.” The film is supposed to have a very definite focus, that of child rape, but Neshehe feels the focus should be elsewhere, and it fits with the idea of hope and love. “This is pretty much a tribute to the woman of South Africa,” he says about the film in general. “And I think we need to focus on the fact that they do a lot for nothing, and Darryl did want to re-write the film to make Detective Morena and more prominent character, and I told him not to touch it. To shoot it that way it is. We can shoot the other movie later, but I saw this movie as an Oscar film, and the film came out 11th in the world. So I’m glad he didn’t tamper with the film. If we had re-written it, it wouldn’t have been this story. It wouldn’t have been a tribute to the woman of this country that do so much, and I appreciate it. The detective element of it, I’m not saying that it gives you the feel that South African detectives really don’t do the legwork, but the tribute of this film is not about the crime, it’s about the hope of what happens after the crime. It’s about these woman taking care of all these kids and then when the lights go down at knight they sit in a corner and cry, but in the light of day they put on a brave face, and everything is okay in front of the kids, and that’s giving those kids hope. So the movie is exactly the way it should have been, because it focuses on, not the crime, but the hope of what happens after the crime.” It’s a nice thought, to focus on the good after the bad instead of focusing on only the bad. It would be nice if other people could think the same way. If you haven’t seen Neshehe in Little One yet it’s playing at cinemas nationwide right now. Go and see the hope on the big screen.

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From left to right: Daniel Buys, Grant Almirall, Emmanuel Castic and Kenneth Meyer

From the Wings ______________________ Feature

The Boys from Jersey Pictures by Maye-E Wong

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From the Wings ______________________ Feature

The new show on at the Teatro at Montecasino, Jersey Boys, stars some of the best up-andcoming musical talent in our country. Jon Broeke sat down with the four guys that play the Four Seasons to discuss the show, their lives and the music that the people love so much.

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From the Wings ______________________ Feature

ften we tend to focus on a specific person who becomes the face of a play or a film. The person playing the lead becomes the only person we think about. They become the person the film is about. What we fail to remember, a lot of the time, is that it takes a community to make a film or a play, very much the same way it takes to raise a child. This is more so true with the new musical that opened this month at the Teatro at Montecasino, Jersey Boys. While Grant Almirall is playing the lead, the role of Frankie Valli, the lead singer of the musical group the play is about, the Four Seasons, it wouldn’t have been a group, and there would be no musical without the other three members, played by Kenneth Meyer, Daniel Buys and Emmanuel Castis. I sat down with the four leads at the media call at the Teatro just before the musical

opened. I also got a chance to see them perform the three biggest hits of the Four Seasons, and I have to say, they are all incredible talents, but Frankie is in the lead. I asked Almirall about the role. “Frankie is the voice of the group,” he tells me. He, along with the other guys, are wearing suits, one of a few of them they wear throughout the show, but they’ve taken off

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From the Wings ______________________ Feature their jackets to speak to me. There are no cameras rolling at the moment. “He is always known as the voice. He’s got this very high falsetto that he sings in, that he’s still recognised for. He’s trying to figure things out in terms of life. He’s quite a serious person.” Daniel Buys is quite comfortable on the stage having performed in a number of productions, including Janice Honeymann’s

famed pantomime, Snow White. He plays the bad boy Tommy DeVito in the musical. “Tommy is the rogue of the group,” he tells me. “He’s the bad boy. He started, or put the group together, and then kind of, pulled them apart as well, to an extent. He’s sort of a fast paced big talker, hustler, but charming at the same time, and that’s him in a nut shell.” Coming off Jesus Christ Superstar, the Afrikaans film Pretville and the Afrikaans stage musical, Dawid, Kenneth Meyer plays Bob Gaudio, the genius behind the lyrics that Frankie and the Seasons sang. “Bob Gaudio Is the baby of the group,” he tells me. “He only joined in the later years, when they were the Three Lovers, that’s when he joined. He’s a very driven individual. He’s always aware of what’s going on around him and what the people want to listen to and what the bands are playing, that’s kind of what inspires him to write the hits that he’s created. He kind of always looks ahead and Off The Screen Magazine

From the Wings ______________________ Feature because of that he’s always sort of oblivious to what’s happening around him that kind of leads to the start of the demise of the group, but that’s Bob, sort of the quiet baby.” The other guys tease him a little at this statement, but he takes it in his stride. Best known for his TV and film work Emmanuel Castis is probably the best known of the four, but he doesn’t act like the celebrity he is. He’s quiet, waiting his turn to answer the question. He plays the equally quiet Nick Massi in the production. “Nick was the genius behind the sound that made the Four Seasons,” he tells me. “The harmony sound. It just came out of his head. He was the base singer as well, which created a great contrast between him and Frankie and kind of highlighted Frankie’s voice I guess. He was a bit of a mystery. He passed away before the musical was even conceived so there’s very little known about him, but that’s who he was in general to most people, he was a mystery. Hew a typical bassist I guess, and a bit of a boozer, a womaniser, became a tailor once he left the group. That’s pretty much Nick Massi in a nutshell.” Coming off Isidingo, Erfsondes and

Scandal, all highly rated television shows, I asked Castis what it was about this show that made him step off the screen and onto the stage again.

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From the Wings ______________________ Feature “The thing about Jersey Boys,” he answers. “Is that it’s more of a play than it is a musical. It’s a play with music, and the characters of the show, where these people

come from, was really the thing that really intrigued me about it. I’ve always wanted to play someone from the wrong side of the tracks, like that typical kind of Jersey you know? Involved in mob relations, guys involved in you know? Coming from a background where they grew up driving cars for mobs and doing B and E’s and all that kind of thing, and it’s just such a beautifully written show. Although, to be honest, I didn’t know that part of it before the audition, all I know was who the characters were, and if it wasn’t for Bryan Schimmel [the music director of the show], I don’t think I would have been at the auditions.” Castis isn’t the only one that’s doing other mediums. Meyer was one of the leads in the Afrikaans big screen musical, Pretville. I asked him how the experience compared to Jersey Boys. “Can’t compare the two,” is his simple answer. “Film, stage and Afrikaans, English for that. This is leagues beyond Pretville, mostly because it’s a real story. I can’t explain it, it’s amazing and the music, yes, Pretville was a lot for fun and just for laughs, people smiling and stuff, but this is a story that touches people and you can’t forget it. I would say the gap between the two of Off The Screen Magazine

From the Wings ______________________ Feature them in comparison is huge, but still a lot of fun for both.” Though it seems musical theatre was Buys’ destiny, he did entertain another career path for a while, that of cooking. “I can hardly claim to being a chef,” he says when I ask him about the change. “I mean I studied it and worked in a kitchen while I was studying, but after the course I went back to music. I had a look at starting chef salaries and I was like, ‘Forget that’.” “Because musical theatre salaries are so high,” I comment. They all laugh at the joke. “Yes, they’re huge,” Buys concedes, “But I’m not standing cooking my eggs by a stove all day and night, you know. This for me is a lot more fulfilling. I was always involved in music and performance at school, but after school, not knowing what to study besides a BMus or something in jazz, which at the time I wasn’t interested in, I studied the cooking, and then, like I say got into music and then did a season of Idols and that got me into theatre and sort of haven’t looked back since. So yes, I all for the stage and performing. And Jersey Boys.” The role of Frankie Valli is coveted the world over. I asked Almirall how he was chosen. “I auditioned for it,” he tells me. “Like we all got briefs from our agents and yes, I prepped a song and went through to the audition and just did what I could. I didn’t know, at the time I was kind of auditioning for Bob, because I didn’t know vocal-wise where I fit in, and I didn’t know much about the show I started either, so I just went to audition and whatever comes my way comes my way.” I added to question asking him why he thought they chose him. “I have no idea,” he laughs. “Because he’s deep and brooding,” Buys jibes. Almirall laughs before he continues. “I don’t know. There are a lot of prerequisites that come with the part, I mean you have to able to be able to hit the high notes, obviously, and then there’s a lot of the character that they put you through your paces in the auditions, you do a lot of acting pieces from the show to find out if you can

“I hope people can walk away having had a completely new experience of theatre, of Musical theatre,” is Buys’ answer. “That they can walk out of here thinking, ‘Hey, I never expected that and it was awesome’.” key into all those moments that he goes through in the piece.” The high notes are obviously something to take seriously. I asked if he was concerned about them before taking the role. “Not so much concern,” he answers. “But there was a lot of work that went into it. I surprised myself realising I could do it. I’ve always been able to sing falsetto stuff, you know, but realising what I could do in the audition was an eye opener for me, and then with the training that we got for the show, I mean, I’ve been doing vocal lessons with a New York vocal coach for the show, Katie Agresta, she’s been helping me with all the stuff and getting my voice into shape so yes, it’s been a journey and it’s been great.” Castis’ singing role was also challenging, doing the base part in the songs, a part that is vitally important for the Four Seasons sound. “For me it was a total surprise,” he tells me about getting the role. “I went to the audition and we did the scales and I went down to the bottom note and I got an excellent and I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ and then when I found out I got the part I went to my singing teacher and told her I got the part, but I’m singing the base and she was like, ‘What?’. She couldn’t believe it because I’m a high baritone normally, so it was a huge surprise which kind of opened things up for me because I kind of realised the Off The Screen Magazine

From the Wings ______________________ Feature range I have. So I’ve obviously just had to go into training now to get those base notes working, but total surprise.” Of course the guys can’t be involved in the show without loving the music, and having favourite songs? “Can’t Take my Eyes Off of You,” Castis tells me. “The guys already know that. It’s just such a classic and beautifully written love song, and the history behind it, the fact that it was three different songs that Bob Gaudio put together, one section of which, the big trumpet section, was actually originally a nursery rhyme, and he put it into that whole system and it worked, and they created a whole new genre basically with that one song.” “Fallen Angel,’ is the song that Meyer choses. “That song just touches me. It hits home. I love it.” “You okes always just choose one,” Buys jokes. “Ja, I can’t,” Almirall agrees. “Well,” interjects Castis. “The question was what is your favourite song, not songs.” They start to laugh as Buys looks over at him. “I’ve got an idea,” He says in fake menace. They all laugh more. “I like Cry for Me, and I like Bye, Bye Baby, and I love Can’t Take my Eyes Off of You.” “It’s just difficult,” Castis adds, “All the songs are so good.” “Who Loves You? also rocks,” Buys adds. “Because there’s also a feeling for us that goes with it.” “I think mine are definitely Can’t Take my Eyes Off of You,” Almirall adds. “Because I enjoy performing it, and Beggin’ is one of my favourites too.” All the others add their agreement to this. “Because it just rocks.” “And you feel super cool when you do it,” Buys adds. “It’s my favourite dance piece,” says Meyer. “Those are the two songs that have, quite recently, had covers made of them. Beggin’ and Can’t Take,” Castis adds. They are the latest, but not the only. The songs that the Four Seasons made famous have been covered dozens of times since. I asked the

guys what they hoped the audience would take away from this show. “Lots of enjoyment,” Meyer says. “Ja,” Almirall agrees. “If we can educate them in some way about these guys and what they went through and tell their story, they’re always going to leave here thinking, ‘Well, that’s cool. They didn’t know that and now they know more about these guys’. I think that’s the cool thing, telling someone else’s story, when they did so much with their lives, they got so far, with this the Four Seasons. And the fact that they were so closed about it. No one knows anything about them really. I think if we’re going to open it up to this genre n dope it up to this timing I think it’ll be great.” “I hope people can walk away having had a completely new experience of theatre, of Musical theatre,” is Buys’ answer. “That they can walk out of here thinking, ‘Hey, I never expected that and it was awesome’. We’ve been told, and it’s been heard, that it’s a guy’s musical, that so many men end up taking their wives to it, as opposed to the other way around. You hope that does kind of spread and that your average dude, or oke, comes in here and walks out thinking, ‘Gees, I’d do that again’.” “That’s it,” Castis adds. “It’s about your average Joe. This is a story about guys that came from nowhere and so a lot of those average people will relate to this kind of story. I think sometimes your usual musicals it has this stigma of being an elitist thing, whereas this is not an elitist thing at all. This is about four guys who came from nowhere, and there are plenty of people out there that will be able to relate and will be able to enjoy the rise and enjoy the story.” “In America,” says Meyer. “Originally Jersey Boys made its success by word of mouth, and I hope that in South Africa that also happens, and it opens up a whole new world for people to come to theatre. I hope this is a start to invite more people to come to more theatres in the future. I hope it brings more people.”

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From the Wings ______________________ Feature

Jersey Girls Photos by Maye-E Wong

From right to left: Kirsten Murphy Rossiter, Taryn-Lee Hudson, Carmen Off The Screen Magazine Pretorius, and other cast member Lara Lipschitz in Singapore

From the Wings ______________________ Feature In the new show, Jersey Boys, at the Teatro at Montecasino, the girls are just as important as the boys. We sat down and chatted to the girls that support the boys on the musical stage.

he new show at the Teatro at Montecasino, Jersey Boys, tells the story of Frankie Valli and the other three guys that made up the Four Seasons, a musical group that had a slew of hits in the 60’s and 70’s, and whose music is still re-recorded today, but the old adage is true, behind every famous man is a slew of woman, and this tale is no different. The women portraying the women who crafted these men’s lives are Carmen Pretorius, Taryn-Lee Hudson and Kirsten Murphy Rossiter. At the media call at the Teatro at Montecasino, I went on stage to talk to these three beautiful and talented women. “I play Mary Delgardo,” Hudson tells me. She, along with the other three, are wearing the costumes from the finale of the show, white, long sleeved cocktail dresses, cut to mid-thigh, with hundreds of dangling beads on them. Very 1960’s, Austin Powers, style. “She is Frankie Valli’s wife. She’s a very feisty, very opinionated, very strong woman and through the course of the show they go through some hard times, as a lot of married couples do, but I suppose it’s heightened considering Frankie’s career and the pressures of being on the road and being a stay at home mom with three kids.” Pretorius, who most of us know from TV and High School Musical, looks very different in the ginger wig that all three girls are wearing along with the dresses. “I play Lorraine,” she says. “She actually comes into Frankie’s life after he divorces his wife, Mary. She’s actually the only fictional character out of the three girls. They kind of made her up, as an amalgamation of women that were in Frankie’s life. So, she is still real, but she wasn’t an actual person. She is a reporter. She grew up in New York, wealthy background, so very different from what Frankie is used to in his life, and she falls

in love with him, obviously during covering his activities and his shows, touring with them. She wants more from Frankie, I think, but she soon realises that his career and his kind of famiglia life, in the Italian way, will never replace her love for him, so she’ll never come first in his life.” The third member of the group plays a real person, as well as several other characters, the same as Pretorius. “I play Francine,” Rossiter says. “She’s Frankie Valli’s daughter. She’s 22 when she first comes on stage, which is in the second act. She struggles. She struggles without a dad, she hardly sees him. She grows up basically without a dad, when she needs him. It’s hard to say anymore without giving the show away,” all three laugh. “In the end she ends up on drugs and she dies from drugs.” All three of the girls are well known performers in their own rights. Rossiter has performed in Grease, Into the Woods and Some Like it Vrot on stage, and appeared in TV shows such as Crimes Uncovered and the Bollywood film Welcome. Hudson has been in Rocky Horror Picture Show, Rocking all Over the World and Kidz Rock, just to name a few. Pretorius is probably the most recognised of the three having reached fame after winning the High School Musical TV Reality Show to play the role of Gabriella on stage. Her other appearances include Janice Honeymann’s Cinderella, Footloose, the Musical and Mama Mia. On screen she’s appeared in Getroud met Rugby and Binnelanders, and can be seen in the feature film Lien se Lankstaanskoene, see the interview in this issue, but Rossiter had something on this production none of the others did. Her husband. He was also working on Jersey Boys. “Amazing,” again she laughs when I ask her what it was like having him on hand. “It was pretty awesome because we only just Off The Screen Magazine

From the Wings ______________________ Feature got married, just before we started rehearsals for the show, so it’s cool, it’s very nice. Obviously we both have different roles in the show. He’s automation engineer and I’m performing, so we don’t see each other too often, but it’s fun when we see each other backstage, it’s a little smile, a little wink here and there. It’s been awesome.” I asked the other two what they thought about the whole situation, and if they were jealous not having their significant others in the show with them. “I think it’s awesome,” Hudson is the first to answer. “I think considering the story of the show, I mean this married couple and his life on the road and her being at home, it’s great that they get to travel together and it’s foundation for an awesome relationship.” “I’m happy for them,” Pretorius adds. “I think we kind of wish it for ourselves as well,” “But not in a jealous way,” Hudson intercedes. “I think it’s just maybe just a building block and something to aspire too.” “And he comes to visit in the dressing

room,” Pretorius points out. “He looks after all of us at times,” Hudson interjects with a laugh. Pretorius laughs as she agrees. “We just hear, ‘Knock, knock, knock, wifey?’ Then we know it’s him.” Sounds like a fun time. They really come off like sisters. Three girls that have been together for a while and know each

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From the Wings ______________________ Feature other very well. I asked Pretorius what it was about this show that made her want to get involved. “I was keen to get involved in something more sophisticated,” she tells me. “More adult, and although I kind of wanted to be involved in a musical where it allowed me to grow as an actress, because, I did Mama Mia, I did High School Musical, but I’ve grown

since then, I’ve become more of a woman, so the subject matter was amazing for me. Even though Lorraine is a small role, I play fifteen other roles in the show, it’s more grown up and I wanted to make that transition and be seen as a more sophisticated actress. And I love the story, I love the music. It was a chance to be part of a Broadway musical and work with people from overseas that are so experienced, so I am absolutely loving it and am glad to have been cast as Lorraine.” Hudson is still a relative new comer to the South African stage, eve with a good couple of productions behind her, but she wasn’t sitting on her hands. She was in New York, studying at the New York Film Academy. “I was trained in Musical theatre,” she says when I asked about her time in New York and how it helped her with her stage work. “I’m a Durban girl. Struggled a little bit up here and I think my career, I felt that I just wanted to focus a little more on film and television, and I thought what better place to do that than New York. So I packed up everything and went for a year, and I think the great thing about that was realising that Carmen with Grant Almirall who plays Frankie Valli Off The Screen Magazine

From the Wings ______________________ Feature

“I asked the girls what their favourite songs are and the answers were all different. Hudson says Beggin’, Pretorius answers Oh, What a Night, and Rossiter answers Who Loves You?, but there is one song that all three of them love. “We have one,” Pretorius says before all three answer in unison, My Boyfriend’s Back.”

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From the Wings ______________________ Feature

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From the Wings ______________________ Feature the training that we get back at home is just as good as it is there, and South African actors are really hard working and coming across American actor and British actors and working on the same material in the same pool, we’re just as good, we’re just as hard working, and its actually when I was in New York, one of the first shows I saw was Jersey Boys in my first week of being there. I fell in love with the show and became a bit of a super fan. Then I returned to South Africa, I realised that I wanted to be here, I didn’t want to live away from my family and friends, it’s really hard, so I thought I’d come back here and start my film and television career, and literally within a few weeks of being back this audition came up and I was going to kind of steer away from theatre, but I thought I am so in love with this musical, I can’t not give it a shot, so I did and here we are. It’s amazing that it’s this musical, because this musical is kind of done as a film. All the acting is very subtle. When people talk about Jersey Boys they talk about the acting style and it’s very subtle. They’ve put this show on and they’ve directed it as if it were a movie, which is kind of great because that pulls in my TV and acting training which I did when I was in New York and combine it with my musical theatre training.” The production is a musical at the end of the day, showcasing the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I asked the girls what their favourite songs are and the answers were all different. Hudson says Beggin’, Pretorius answers Oh, What a Night, and Rossiter answers Who Loves You?, but there is one song that all three of them love. “We have one,” Pretorius says before all three answer in unison, My Boyfriend’s Back. “It’s the only one we get,” Rossiter explains. “And we’re all very different as well,” Pretorius added. “As in the three of us. We all bring something different to the show,

that’s why we all like different songs, I think.” She laughs. “I think I like Beggin’ in terms of the show,” Hudson says. “And in terms of the transition and everything. How it all works and what goes into it, without giving too much away. I think that’s what makes it my favourite part.” Of course the show is about the boys, and I asked if they have a favourite character. “Frankie Valli,” Pretorius answers without a moment’s hesitation. “I like Bob Gaudio,” Rossiter said. “I like Kenny [Meyer]. He’s also my mom’s favourite.” “Probably because of my character,” Hudson justifies her answer. “I would have to say Tommy. I relate a lot to him, Mary and Tommy are very similar. We often talk about it backstage, we’re like, ‘If we had to play the Four Season’s which one would we be?’ and I think the kind of character that Mary is and the kind of character that Tommy is, they’re very mush aligned, so I do relate very much to his character. And I think Daniel’s really doing a fantastic job.” The Kenny is Kenneth Meyer, the actor who portrays Bob Gaudio, and Daniel is Daniel Buys, who plays Tommy DeVito in the play. All three girls are wonderful actresses and singers, and well deserving of their roles, even if they are there to boost the boys. If you want to see them making the guys look good, and you missed them at the Teatro in Montecasino, then you can catch them at the Artscape theatre in Cape Town from June 19th.

Taryn-Lee with Grant Almirall who plays Frankie Valli

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From the Wings _____________ Theatre Review

Jersey Boys At the Teatro at Montecasino

t’s not very often, especially as a reviewer of theatre shows, that you’ll come across a show that will leave you speechless, but that’s exactly what I found in Jersey Boys. It’s smart, funny, musical, entertaining, wonderful, I can’t think of enough good things to say about this show-ofthe-year so far. It tells the story of four guys, three of whom come from New Jersey in America and become the Four Seasons, going on to create the forerunner of the boy bands we have today,. The four are Frankie Valli, played by Grant Almirall, Tommy DeVito, played by Daniel Buys, Bob Gaudio, played by Kenneth Meyer and Nick Massi, played by Emmanuel Castis. The show is broken up into the four seasons. Each season is narrated by a member of the group and tells a certain section of their story. Starting in Spring, narrated by Tommy DeVito, we see how the band was formed, firstly by Tommy, Nick Massi and Tommy’s brother, also Nick, but after his brother went to prison Tommy enlisted Frankie to join the group. We see how Tommy and Nick taught Frankie to sing and introduce him to the world that would make up the rest of his life. In Summer, narrated by Bob Gaudio, we see how Bob, a 17 year old who had already had a hit single at fifteen, joined the

group and started writing music for them. We also see them hit it big with their three biggest hits, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Sherry and Walk Like a Man. It’s sunshine and roses, until the wheels fall of, courtesy of Tommy. In Fall, narrated by Nick Massi, we see the decline of the group. While their music had never been more popular infighting in the group and Tommy’s debt cause the group to collapse around itself. By Winter, narrated by Frankie himself, we see the end of the Four Seasons. The group splits up, Tommy moves to Vegas to be watched by the people he owes money to while Frankie and Bob pay it back, and Nick leavesg to go back to Jersey, having had enough of the life. It all culminates in the group being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. What sets this show apart from the others that I’ve seen this year, and there’s been a few already, was the cleverness in the way it is staged. The set is minimal, yet expertly handled. The fire escape-esque rigging that was on the stage is made up of two wrought iron staircases, one a spiral, and a connecting walkway about ten feet off the stage. Used with finesse, it allowed the characters to move in and out of scenes and from one set to another by making it look like they had moved into another area, while just walking around the stage. It was very clever. It really streamlined the entire show not Off The Screen Magazine

From the Wings _____________ Theatre Review having the guys in black t-shirts running backwards and forwards across the stage the entire show. The music is awesome. Hits most of us recognise, though didn’t know that they were originally done by Frankie Valli. The show starts with the latest incarnation of their music, Ces Soirees-La, a French version of Oh, What a Night which hit the charts in 2000. From there the music just gets better, moving from big hits in the day being sung by the group as covers, to their original music, it just gets better and better. Every song is sung with grace and energy and is absolutely great. Special mention must be made of Fallen Angel, sung by Almirall. Sung as a memorial to Francine, Frankie’s daughter who died, it is tear-jerking and hauntingly beautiful. A fantastic piece of work by an immensely talented musician. This was just one section of a flawless performance by Almirall. He embodies Frankie so well, you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. He’s not the only one either, everyone in the show is great. From Buys’ brash, mafia-esque Tommy, to Meyer’s studious, naïve and way out his depth in most things Bob, and Castis’ funny, slightly goofy Nick, all four give stellar performances. Mention must be also made of the supporting cast, the girls, Carmen Pretorius, Taryn-Lee Hudson and Kirsten Murphy Rossiter who play so many roles in the play that they’re on and off stage more often than the props, but in each and every one they are completely

professional and believable, especially in the bigger, speaking moments. They are all also very talented singers and their rendition of My Boyfriend’s Back, is one of the musical highlights of the show. This is a fantastic show and will be my show of the year for a good long while, and I don’t see anything taking its slot. If you have the money, or you’re wondering what to do, go and see the show. If you were thinking of seeing Rhianna, don’t, go and see this show. Just go and see this show, it is really worth the money.

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From the Wings __________________ Theatre Review

The African Passion At the Mandela at Joburg Theatre Photos by Val Adamson

he story of the crucifixion of Christ, is one of the most widely known, and most frequently told stories out there. On screen and on stage the story has been told in many ways and is done so again in the new opera that played at the Mandela Theatre at Joburg Theatre this month. The African Passion, directed by Themi Venturas, tells the tale of Jesus, played by Faca Kulu, the supposed son of God, as he goes through the trails that made him into such an iconic figure. From entering Jerusalem, walking on palm leaves, to the last supper with his disciples, where he tells them about the kingdom of heaven and makes a few prophecies. That Judas, played by Nkosinathi Mnqayi, will betray him to the Romans, that Simon Peter, played by Grant Jacobs, his right hand man, will deny him three times, and that he is going to die. He’s then captured by the Roman’s, betrayed by Judas to Caiaphas, played by Blessing Xaba and put in front of Pontius Pilate, played by Dewald von Solms, the Roman prefect of Jerusalem and his wife, played by Caitlin Kilburn. The Prefect sends him to Herod, played by Babuyile Shabalala, who sends him back to Pontius, who eventually crucifies the man, due to overwhelming pressure from the mob. Jesus dies on the cross, but then rises again and his

people, hiding from the mob, rejoice at his resurrection. As I said, it’s a story we all know, whether we heard it in Sunday school, or saw a play or saw a film, we know the story, what

differentiates each of the versions is the way it’s told to the audience, and this is where this version falls flat. I’ll start off with what is good. The talent. Every person on the stage can sing, and sing well. From the first opening by Jacobs, who has a wonderfully clear and full voice, to the lower register of Xaba, to the choir, sitting on stands on the sides of the stage, every person who opened their mouths can sing beautifully. Special mention must be made of Jacobs, and Sharon Dee whose high register is clear and strong and brings goose flesh to your arms. The problem, as I see it, is the music. It all seems like a bad knock off version of the Off The Screen Magazine

Pontius Pilate, played by Dewald von Solms, and his wife, played by Caitlin Kilburn.

From the Wings __________________ Theatre Review

far more popular and famous, Jesus Christ Superstar. The song structure is similar, the song placement is similar, and the song style in those placements is similar, it seems someone saw the better show, liked it, and decided to write their own version, hoping no one would notice. Guess what? We noticed. There are highlights though. The Ladysmith Black Mambazo style songs are very good. The harmonies by the men are wonderfully intricate and work beautifully. Also the songs sung in African languages are all great.

I think the thing that would have saved this production is if the African Opera, as it was advertised, should have been just that, African. If it had all been in an indigenous language any similarities to the better show would have been shattered. Instead 95% of the show is in English, so immediately you compare it to the better show. Italian operas arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t translated into English for an English market, the same can be said for French and Russian operas, the same should have been applied here by making the entire thing Xhosa, Sotho, or Zulu.

Caiaphas, played by Blessing Xaba along with the other priests Aubrey Lodewyk and Bonakele Edward Lungu

From the Wings _____________ Theatre Review

Desdemona At UJ Arts Centre Theatre, Kingsway Photos by Jan Potgieter

esdemona, the latest show from the UJ Dance Company hit the stage at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) Arts Centre Theatre, Kingsway campus this month. Once again, I’m faced with a dilemma; I find it very difficult to critique these shows for a simple reason – almost none of the performers on the stage are professional. If I understand it right the company is allowed one or two professional performers per season, but all the rest need to be students, or past students, from UJ. I think it’s a fantastic idea, to give these kids a platform to dance where they wouldn’t otherwise have had one, but it makes my job difficult, not being able to compare them with professional companies like Moving into Dance

Mophatong, or South African Mzansi Ballet or other companies in the country. So I will, instead, do what I do with these shows, and look at the merit of the show. In essence critique the director instead of the performers. Desdemona is based on Shakespeare’s Othello. It revolves around the man, Othello, danced by one of the two professionals on the stage Angelo Collins. The character is a very popular guy at UJ, or whatever high school or college you want to put them in He meets Desdemona, danced by BA Journalism student Helen Georgiadis. She’s popular and beautiful and falls hard for Othello as he does for her. Enter the antagonist – Iago, danced by the other professional Sibusiso “Starr” Mthembu. He is jealous of Othello, wanting what he has, and devises the perfect plan to oust ‘the king’ – make him believe that his girl is having an affair with his best friend Off the Screen Magazine

From the Wings _____________ Theatre Review

management. He enlists the help of Desdemona’s friend, Imelia, danced by Nontsikelelo Mosa Khasu, currently studying towards a B.Ed foundation phase and they set up their plan. It works so well that, after an eventful few days or weeks, Cassio is dead, Othello kills Desdemona before figuring out the truth, thanks to Imelia, so Iago kills her, and Othello kills him before killing himself. A very cheerful story all round, but that’s Shakespeare for you. I always enjoy the UJ Dance Company performances, partly because I’m always surprised at how good the dancing is, but also because I find company director Owen Lonzar’s, work very sharp and inventive, and he’s done it again this time. There are several scenes in the production that I really thought were clever, namely when Iago comes up with his plan. The company, now twenty or so strong (whereas it was maybe ten last year) come on with metres of red chiffon pulled between pairs of them and then act out the evil ideas that then set the stage for the rest of the show. It’s really smartly pulled off. The second the chiffon comes out you know it’s a dream sequence, and you know exactly what the evil one is thinking. He employs the same tactic later on when he brings the company on with smaller pieces of chiffon, and wearing masks, to show the mental disintegration of Othello into his murderous rage. Collins is very good at what he does, popping and locking. I would like a little more stage presence from him, especially since he’s the pro, but what he does do, he’s very good at. Starr has a good range of movement, and I’m sure I picked up on ballet training. He has good stage presence and was a joy to watch. At

Cassio, danced by Justin Tromp, currently studying for a diploma in marketing first I was concerned about Lonzar’s casting of Helen in the role of Desdemona. While she’s very pretty, she doesn’t have the range of movement, or the extension, or the height of leg that a principal should have, but when she performed her solo, a touching piece showing her anguish over losing the man she loves and not knowing why, I understood. She has wonderful stage presence. You don’t want to take your eyes off her while she has the stage. She also worked very well with Angelo. I totally get it. I also want to mention the music, composed by Nik Sakellarides, who did the music for the Johannesburg Youth Ballet’s Hansel and Gretel see September 2012 issue. It was beautifully done, using popular music but making it sound like it was done by the same person. Very classy. The show was marred for me by the last number though. After the story is complete. Everyone is dead, Desdemona and Othello are lying on the bed in the middle of the stage in a dramatic red light and I think it’s over. The stage goes black and the dancers leave. Then the whole company comes onto the stage, all dressed in white, moving to Ave Maria, so I expect a touching, sad piece to sum up the tragedy of the plot that just unfolded. Instead the boys proceed to teach us how to beat up the girls and the girls seem to take it all. There’s no moral, there’s not point that I could tell. The boys even kill the girls at the end. A complete mind bender. Othello killing and beating Desdemona I can understand, it was part of the story, but why then bring the company, as themselves, onto the stage and show that? The show is over, everyone is dead. Leave it at that. It was a little bit of a pity to end on a sour note after enjoying everything that proceeded. That said, this show didn’t have the same impact that Dangerous Liaisons did, see the November 2012 issue, but, with the exception of the last piece, I did enjoy it, and I look forward to next year.

From the Wings _____________________ Theatre Review

A Handful of Keys At the Pieter Toerien Theatre Main Stage at Montecasino

sually when a show has been running for 19 years it starts to become dated. You begin to wonder if the best days are behind it and whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wise to keep the show running or not. This is not the case with the show that opened this month at the Pieter Toerien Theatre at Montecasino for its 19th season. A Handful of Keys is a review show that shows the best, and funniest, of the piano. Ian Von Memerty, who created the show 19 years ago along with Bryan Schimmel, is back in the limelight, but this time he has help in the from young, already established, but still considered up and coming, stage star Jonathan Roxmouth, and they are both wonderful in the show. They both have a wonderful comedic timing that works so well together that they have the audience in hysterics from the moment they walk onto the stage until they leave. They are also very

consummate musicians, both using the piano is ways that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never heard before to, in fact, tell a story. The show opens with rag time music, when the piano was initially used. It then moves through the classic composers, Bach and Chopin, Von Memerty and Roxmouth giving their own interpretations of the composers and giving a short, and often very funny, account of their lives and how they played the piano. The show then moves onto the woman that made piano famous, from Nina Simone, to Alicia Keys. The guys are represented, including Nat King Cole. Legends like Elton John, Liberace and Billy Joel get their own special segment, including loud outfits for John and Liberace. After the interval we were treated to a stunning rendition of Rhapsody in Blue and Von Memerty performing Mr Bo jangles. The two performers then went into the Off The Screen Magazine

From the Wings _____________________ Theatre Review history of Broadway in 12 minutes, which included more than 140 snippets from songs featured in the musicals that have appeared on Broadway since 1911. It was truly an experience to behold. The show closed with a rendition of the Piano Man, Billy Joel’s classic piano opus. A lot of the show is comic with the performers making fun of the living and the dead, from the classic composers to the modern piano musicians, no one is off limits in terms of who’s going to made fun of. They do it with a certain amount of respect, after all these people may be the butt of the joke, but they are still good musicians, but what got me about the show isn’t the comedy. Yes, there is a lot of it, but there is more to the show than that. Besides all the comedic interludes the

show is about the beauty of piano, played by two very talented musicians. Von Memerty has years of experience on the stage and playing the piano. He brings his wealth of knowledge to the stage creating beautiful work. Roxmouth is young and vibrant and excellent. His voice is one of the clearest and most pure I’ve ever heard and he is as talented on the piano as Von Memerty himself. Together they do an amazing job of bringing piano music to the masses. This show is an awful lot of fun. It’s funny and smart and incredibly musical. If you enjoy piano music, or stage music, or just want to have a good laugh this is a great show.

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From the Wings _____________ Theatre Review

Essence of Ireland At the Mandela at Joburg Theatre Photos by Mariola Biela

nother Irish dance show. That’s exactly what I thought when I heard about Essence of Ireland, but that’s not what it is, and I’m actually thankful for that. The show has a story, though, as with many shows like this, the story is secondary to the music. It tells the story, the real life story, of Sean and Cora. Both Irish born, living in Ireland, they meet and fall in love, but soon after Sean has to leave to find work. He starts off in England, finding odd jobs and drinking in a local pub called The Crown. He sees Cora when he can and they are still very much in love, but when the work in England even dries up and her gets the opportunity to enrol with NYPD, he has to leave for America. He joins the police and he and Cora try to make it work, but after many years Sean meets someone else and gets married before having three children. That’s the story in a nutshell, but as I said, it’s just a catalyst for the music. The writer of the show uses the moments in the two’s lives to explain why the song being sung is being sung, like a sad song when he needs to leave and happy songs that he listens to at the pub. Now for the show. The music is great, most of it is classic Irish drinking songs that one would hear if in a pub in Belfast, but it’s

interspersed with some traditional Irish folksongs and even a U@ hit thrown in. The musicians are really talented, especially Ged Graham, who we saw on the Joburg Theatre stage last year with American Anthems. He has a remarkable voice and a great stage presence. Also worth a mention is Leanne Thorose who played the fiddle during the performance, as well as singing backing vocals and taking the lead once or twice. There’s something about her voice that gave me goose flesh every time she sang lead. It’s really stunning. Unfortunately there needs to be a down, and in the case it’s the reason I’m glad this is, in fact, not a dance show. The dancers were just second class. They made a lot of mistakes. I can forgive the odd misstep, or odd bad turn, but when it’s in every single number, and there are girls falling and some have no idea what they’re actually supposed to be doing, it’s unforgivable. At the end of the day these are professional dancers, and if they can’t be bothered to learn their routines, then we shouldn’t be expected to pay to watch them. It’s as simple as that. The other issue is that with tap especially, I want to hear

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From the Wings _____________ Theatre Review the taps on the stage. The Tap Dogs did this perfectly, but this performance the taps were pre-recorded, and then what they were doing on stage didn’t match the recording, and it was blatantly obvious, especially on the solo sections. I realise it’s hard to hear the taps, especially with a live band, I did tap dancing so I know, but you need to make a plan, otherwise, again, don’t expect us to pay for tickets. As far as Irish shows goes this one is not up to scratch. It’s a pity because I was looking forward to this show and was somewhat disappointed. Oh well, I’ll just have to wait for the next to come around, because I’m sure there will be a next one.

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Feature Review

The Start of the World Off The Screen Magazine

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Feature Review

Tom Cruise’s new film, Oblivion, sees him saving the world again, but this time he has no idea it even needs saving. We went along to see if it should be saved.

few years ago Tom Cruise was a hot commodity. It seemed that every film he did raked it in at the box office. After a few years of turmoil in his personal life, his star as faded a little. People aren’t as enamoured with him as they once were, but let’s not mistake the fact that his personal life is a bit of a mess with the fact that he still makes good films, and Oblivion, his latest feature, is testimony to that fact. Cruise stars as Jack Harper one of only two people left on Earth. The story goes that there was an invasion by an alien race called the Scavengers. These scavengers destroyed the moon, causing earthquakes and tidal waves, killing off a large portion of the population before invading. The humans that were left fought back, using everything in their arsenal, including nuclear weapons, to win the war. They did, but in the process they destroyed the planet. Now all that are left are either living on the TET, a huge space station hovering in orbit around Earth, or on Titan, Jupiter’s moon. Jack, and

his partner Victoria, played by Andrea Riseborough, are the only two people left on the dead planet. He’s a soldier/repair man, repairing the hovering sentinel drones that

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____________________________________________________________________ protect huge hydro power stations that power the TET from roving scavenger’s that are still left on Earth, the soldier part is that they sometimes attack him too. Things get complicated when Victoria picks up a signal being sent off world. Jack investigates and finds what’s left of the Empire State Building, sending a signal that brings a space ship, a very human space ship crashing to Earth. Jack investigates and finds drones killing off the survivors. He manages to save on, a woman he’s been dreaming of for years, played by

Feature Review

Olga Kurylenko. This leads him to question what is really going on on the planet, who the scavengers really are, and leads him to a showdown that he couldn’t have even imagined. This film is a mixture of several other films, including I, Robot and Independence Day and feels a lot like Cruise’s other futuristic hit Minority Report. It also has plot holes the size of large cities, but we can look past that because it is jolly good fun. The story is interesting and engaging, though, admittedly a little slow at times. The acting is great from Cruise who is his thinking man’s action hero again for this role putting together kick a*s action along with thought and a good dramatic edge at times which the character needed. Riseborough is wonderful as a girl that is obviously madly in love with a man who likes her well enough, but doesn’t really share her depth of feelings. She really comes to life in the scenes where he breaks her heart, I won’t tell you how because that would give it away. But the star of the show is the scenery, which is a lot of desolated cities and forested areas, which are wonderful, and the technology. From Jack’s bubble plane to his weapons to his bike, which is really cool, to the control towers where they live, everything developed for the characters in this film are cool. They’re sleek and futuristic and really work well with the plot, adding to the Off The Screen Magazine

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realism of the whole story. If you like sci-fi actioners then this is a film that you should see. If you still like Cruise, despite everything, then youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll love this film. I give it an 8/10.

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Feature Review

Host-el

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Feature Review

The new film from the writer of the Twilight series, The Host, hits our screens this month. Jon Broeke went to the cinema to see if the aliens matched up to the vampires.

he name Stephanie Meyer is not unfamiliar after a certain series of books she wrote, about girl falling for a vampire, became the insane hit that they did, spurring the series of films which became just as big, if not bigger than the books. Now her latest offering, based on a book she wrote of the same name and released at the height of the Twilight success, is hitting our screens. The Host is also, at its core, a love story, but this time instead of vampires and werewolves, its humans and aliens. Melanie Stryder, played by Irish born actress Saoirse Ronan, is one of the last remaining humans on our planet after a race of bug-like energy creatures have invaded. They’ve taken up residence inside our very bodies, very Invasion of the Body Snatchers-esque, but we do come in at the end of the story. We’ve already lost. They have millions on Earth and humans number in the hundreds perhaps. We meet Melanie as she is jumping out of a window to kill herself in an effort to avoid being

taken by the aliens and turned into one of them. Unfortunately for her, she doesn’t die, and within the first five minutes of the film, she’s possessed by an alien called the Wanderer, a smart, ancient, almost teacher type of alien. The Wanderer is now expected to give the alien seekers, (the police force of

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sorts) and more specifically the Seeker who’s searching for the human resistance, and the one that found Melanie, played by Diane Kruger, information about Melanie and the human resistance she supposedly was connected to. But things aren’t so simple, Melanie isn’t gone. She’s still inside her head, along with Wanderer, speaking to her, and convincing her to help her, instead of the Seekers. Wanderer tries to stick to the program, but soon Melanie’s insistence, as well as the fact that Wanderer can see her memories, causes her to switch sides and go in search of the resistance. Of course, once she finds them things get even more

Feature Review

complicated. They think she’s an alien, so they hate her. She’s confused by Melanie’s feeling for Jared, played by Max Irons, the boy that Melanie loved before she was captured, and Wanderer’s own verging feelings for another boy in the resistance, Ian, played by Jake Abel, creates a triangle of sorts, but with one body being two people. I loved the concept of this film. I loved the idea of having two characters in one body neither one good nor evil, just trying to coexist. I was even more fascinated by the idea of each of those personalities then falling for different guys, and the dynamic that would cause. Unfortunately, the execution of it leaves a little to be desired. The impact that could have been created, especially with Ronan, who is a phenomenal actress, having the two distinct personalities, is not allowed to develop. Melanie is just a voice over the speakers, and having no corporeal form, has no real impact on the viewer, kind of like a narrator not really being part of the story. Wanderer, has no real personality at all for most of the film, but this is good, because the brash, roughness of Melanie compared to the refined etiquette of Wanderer would have been great, but it just wasn’t explored. As for the guys. They’re very good looking and very broody, and the kissing is hot, at first, but then it becomes a little less so since there’s so much of it, but neither one of them gives a solid enough Off The Screen Magazine

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performance. The scenes that should have been hot are lukewarm at best, and the scenes that should have had fireworks, where they fight over the girl of their dreams, just never happened. It’s just not developed to the point where it becomes something great. If you loved the Twilight films you’ll probably enjoy this film. It has a lot of the same aspects as the more popular series, but nowhere near the poetry. If you hated Twilight, as I know many did, then you will hate this too, so don’t bother. I’m giving it 7/10. It would be 6, but I’m giving it an extra point for adding Emily Browning, best known for her role in Sucker Punch, to the cast at the very end. I’m not going to tell you who she is, that would give away the story, but I love the irony that the girl that should have played Bella Swan has a cameo in this film.

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Feature Review

The Man in the Iron Off The Screen Magazine

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Feature Review

Tony Stark is back on the screen and this time he has a bunch of suits to choose from.

ince the popularity of the first Iron Man film, and the subsequent Thor, Captain America and Avengers films, we’ve all been waiting to find out how the makers of these films are going to improve themselves. Well, we’ll have to wait a while to see how they improve on the Avengers with Avengers 2 coming next year’s sometime, but in the meantime we can see the world’s favourite armour wearing superhero, Iron Man in Iron Man 3. The film starts back in 1999, before Iron Man was born. Tony Stark, reprised for the fourth time by Robert Downey Jnr, is in Switzerland at some science convention where he meets Maya Hansen, played by Rebecca Hall, a botanist who is making a plant that can repair itself, but then blows up. He also meets Aldrich Killian, played by Guy Pearce, a scientist looking to start a think tank called AIM, and wanting Tony on board. Of course Tony makes fun of him and sends him to the roof for an imaginary meeting, before ignoring the man and heading off with the girl, who he also leaves the next morning. Fast forward 13 odd years to present day

and Tony is Iron Man and living with his girlfriend, Pepper Potts, reprised for the fourth time, she had a cameo in The Avengers, by Gwyneth Paltrow. Tony is not well though, he can’t sleep, he’s having bad dreams, and terrible anxiety attacks, and it all comes down to what happened in New York, with the Avengers, and his fear now of not being able to protect Pepper from the bad things out there. In the middle of his personal crisis America is being attacked by a terrorist named the Mandarin, played by Sir Ben Kingsley, who is blowing up people and

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buildings, taunting the president, played by William Sadler. Also Killian re-enters his life as a rival for Pepper’s affections when he tries to get her into AIM. Then the Mandarin strikes, blowing up Tony’s Malibu mansion, with him and Pepper inside, and destroying his suits. Now Tony has to make a decision about how to fight back, and what he’s willing to do, and what he’s willing to lose to be the hero he’s become. The first Iron Man was completely iconic, launching Robert Downey Jr. back into

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the limelight. The second instalment wasn’t as strong as the first, but still a good film. It also introduced Pepper as Tony’s love interest, even though we saw that coming, and introduced War Machine, played by Don Cheadle in the third film as well, except this time he’s called the Iron Patriot. Now the third instalment is just as good as the first film, if not better. Downey Jnr is back at his best as the hero, who used to be a putz, but is now fighting to be a good guy, but still being a schmuck a lot of the time. Paltrow is great again as the only woman that will put up with him in long instalments, and Jon Favreau is wonderful again as Happy, first Tony’s body guard, but now Pepper’s, and the head of security for Stark industries. The highlights of the show are Pearce as Killian, who is far more than meets the eye, but saying anymore would give it away, and Sir Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin, who is wonderful, but again you’ll have to watch to see why. The effects are great, and the suits are awesome. There are 42 separate ones in this film. The film has everything you want from an Iron Man film. It’s funny, it’s smart, it’s full of action, and it’s immensely cool. I know that Iron Man is featured in the Avengers 2, but I get the feeling that this is the last Iron Man film we’ll see. It just gave me that impression. I’m not sure if that’s true, but if it, this is the film to go out on. A serious high. If it’s not true, I’m not sure how they’re going to improve on this, but never fear. Even if this is the last Iron Man, he will be in the next Avengers film and who knows, maybe a cameo with the other characters from the Marvel universe.

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Film Reviews

Olympus has Fallen 9/10

Starring Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman Directed by Antoine Fuqua begins making outrageous demands, all the while perpetrating his real plan. It falls on Mike, who managed to get inside the White ike Banning (Gerard Butler) is a House, to save Ben, stop the terrorists and, if Secret Service agent protecting they get their way, the world as we know it. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron This film is exactly what you expect it Eckhart), but he’s more than that, he’s like his to be, it’s full of action, violence, one liners big brother, until during a car crash Mike and fighting. It’s a fun filled romp with plenty saves Ben’s life, allowing his wife (Ashley of dead people and swearing. It’s Die Hard Judd) to die. 18 months later Mike is working inside the White House. The performances by at the Treasury because Ben doesn’t want him Eckhart as a president facing an insane around, when the unthinkable happens, a situation, and Butler as a kick-a*s fighting group of North Korean terrorists attack the machine, are both great giving to the essence White House. Killing all the Secret Service of the film. If you like action and one-liners, agents inside and taking Ben hostage, the and don’t mind a lot of blood and swearing, leader of the terrorist group, Kang (Rick Yune), then this is the film for you.

Little One 4/10

Starring Lindiwe Ndlovu, Mutodi Neshehe and Vuyelwa Msimang Directed by Darryl James Roodt Darryl Roodt’s new film is a good idea. The story is touching and poignant, especially considering the state of rape in our country at the moment, but the entire film is clumsy. From the cinematography, which is over glared and low in production value a lot of the time, to the scripting, which doesn’t make full auline’s (Lindiwe Ndlovu) life is turned use of the dialogue in the film, to the acting upside down when he finds a little girl which is good at moments, but sloppy at (Vuyelwa Msimang) lying in the veld others, the film is just not good. I really near her home. The girl has been raped and wanted to like this film, mostly because of the beaten and is on the very verge of death. story, but I just found myself annoyed at the Pauline takes the girl to the hospital and saves laziness in the production that I found. Not her life, but she can’t let go, even though enough focus was put on the film side of it, people tell her she should. She goes and visits instead trying to focus in the message, which, the girl, hoping to help the traumatised child. alas, also gets lost along the way. It is a true She also gets involved in the police pity for what could have made a real investigation trying to help Detective Morena difference. (Mutodi Neshehe) find the culprits’ behind the child’s attack, but when she discovers that the child is going to be put into foster care because they can’t find her parents, Pauline takes matters into her own hands, risking getting arrested and alienating her entire family.

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Film Reviews

Safe Haven 7/10

Starring Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel and David Lyons Directed by Lasse Hallström and the guy that runs the local grocery store, Alex (Josh Duhamel) and his kids, Lexie (Mimi Kirkland) and Josh (Noah Lomax). But as she ased on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, begins to think she’s found a safe place writer of the Notebook and Dear John, Tierney begins to close in. and also produced by the writer, Safe This is exactly what you would expect Haven tells the story of Erin (Julianne Hough) of a Nicholas Sparks story. It’s sweet, and who we meet running through suburban dramatic, and sentimental and will give you streets covered in blood. She changes her hair cavities if you let it. Duhamel is his usual and boards a bus, narrowly escaping a charming self in a role that seems to have policeman, Tierney (David Lyons), who’s been written for him, while Hough is a really looking for her. She gets as far as the small pretty face, and not bad in her rather sea side town of Southport, North Carolina dramatic role. If you liked Sparks’ other work and stays, trying to hide and create a life for then you should enjoy this, if not avoid at all herself while she decides what to do next, but costs. as she stays in the town she likes it more. That

Stoker 7/10

Starring Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman and Matthew Goode Directed by Chan-wook Park

fter her father (Dermot Mulroney) dies, India’s (Mia Wasikowska) Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode), who she didn’t even know existed, moves in with her and her mother (Nicole Kidman), but from the very beginning she’s very uneasy about the man. He’s good looking and charming, but there’s something not quite right about the man, but there’s something not quite right with India as well, as she mopes around the house and doesn’t talk to other kids at school. As they get to know each other India realises that she has more in common with her uncle

than she could have imagined, and that may not be a good thing. It’s difficult to explain this film. The story is a basic plot, and quite compelling, a serial killer type story, but with a startling twist that I found fascinating, but the style of the film throws the whole thing off kilter. The story reads like a basic whodunit killer film, but it’s shot like an art house film. There are tons of extreme close ups of hair and leaves and grass, pauses and slow-motion shots coming out of the blue, and the feel of the film leaves you uneasy the whole way through. I thought it was wonderful, but if you’re expecting a murder thriller, don’t, because it’s not that. If you’re expecting an art house film, don’t, because it’s not that. It sits somewhere in between, but doesn’t quite fit in either. Very interesting.

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Film Reviews

Seven Psychopaths 7/10

Starring Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell Directed by Martin McDonagh This is a very strange Tarantino-esque film. The plot twists and turns throughout leaving you unsure of where you’re going until everal interwoven stories. A writer, the very last scene. There are good Marty (Collin Farrell) is working on a performances throughout, especially by new story. He has the title, Sven Farrell as a regular guy that gets sucked into a Psychopaths, but that’s pretty much it. His psychotic world, Rockwell as the psycho of all friend, Billy (Sam Rockwell) is trying to help, psychos, Walken who is his cool, unflinching getting him interviews with real psychopaths, self and has a lot of the best lines in the film, but his job, stealing dogs to return them for and Harrelson, who is also good as another the reward, something he does with his one of the psychopaths, and he plays it so partner, Hans (Christopher Walken), is about well, you’re not entirely sure they’re not type to get him in a lot of trouble when he steals casting. It’s dark and violent and weird and the dog of a notorious gangster, Charlie kind of funny at times, but if you like this kind (Woody Harrelson), but as the plot unfolds of creepy, dark comedy, al a Fargo, then you Marty discovers that there are no accidents, may get a kick out of this one. and the stories Billy’s been telling him, may not be stories after all.

21 & Over 4/10

Starring Miles Teller, Justin Chon and Jonathan Keltz Directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore friends, who may be able to give them Jeff’s address so they can get him home and ready for his interview the next morning, without his dad finding out what they’ve been doing. But as the night progresses they learn more about each other and realise that high school is really over. This film is strictly for the fans of the n his birthday, which happens to be gross out comedy. If you liked any of the the day before a big interview he’s Hangover films, then you should enjoy this supposed to be having for Med one. Just think of it as the film about the School, two high school best friends, Miller Hangover guys before they decided to get (Miles Teller), a perpetual loser and the clown married. The jokes are all below the belt, and I of the group, and Casey (Skylar Astin), the mean under the ground, the scenes are gross studious one who just wants to work on Wall and disturbing and all the characters are a Street, surprise Jeff Chang (Justin Chon) with a bunch of freaks. That being said, it is funny in visit to his college, but after a night of drinking places, much like the Hangover films. Not very a little too much, they realise that they’re lost, often, but there are a few laugh out loud and Jeff is unconscious so he can’t help them. moments, as well as a few emotional dramatic This leads them on a night of misadventures moments that are actually not bad. If you like as they try to locate people, including a this type of gross out comedy, then watch it, steroid crazed cheerleader, Randy (Jonathan otherwise skip. Keltz), a weird RA in a hostel and infiltrating a Latino sorority, which ends badly for the two

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Film Reviews

This is 40 7/10

Starring Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann and Maude Apatow Directed by Judd Apatow see. They both then go to extraordinary lengths to try and feel young again, get reacquainted with their respective families, who they’ve lost contact with, and re-discover what it was that made them fall in love in the t’s been years since the events of Knocked first place. up and Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie I was sceptical when I went to see this Mann) are trying the live their lives. Pete film, but it was a lot funnier than I thought it has started his own record label and is trying would be. Yes, all the comedy is below the to make ends meet with his favourite rock belt and a lot of the scenes are gross, but bands, ones that no one’s heard of for years. that’s what you expect when you go to see a Debbie owns a boutique store, but someone’s Judd Apatow film. Rudd and Mann are both stealing from her and she’s not sure who. funny again as they reprise their roles from Things come to a head when Pete’s 40th the hit Knocked Up, but this time they add a birthday comes around and the two take touching aspect to the roles. If you liked stock of their lives and don’t like what they Knocked Up, you’ll love this film

Lien se Lankstaanskoene 8/10

Starring Carmen Pretorius, Elize Cawood and Elne Pretorius Directed by Andre Odendaal that we are always sceptical going in to watch a new one, but I actually quite enjoyed this one. The acting was great by every single person that appeared on the screen. Carmen is wonderful as a girl trying to cope in an ien (Carmen Pretorius) is a normal impossible situation. Swanepoel is great as a teenager. She’s trying to concentrate on mother clinging to drink to survive the matric, trying to learn her line for the nightmare her life has become. Kelderman school play and trying to have friends, but gives a solid performance as the brother she’s not normal. She has to take care of her hiding from the truth. Elize Cawood is entire family since something happened to marvellous as the beggar who teaches Lien her father and mother (Franci Swanepoel) the ropes. Supporting cast Marie Pentz, Fiks started drinking. Now she drinks every night Mahola and Hykie Berg all give solid until she passes out and it’s up to Lien to care performances as well. The problem with the for her and her brother, Braam (Tiaan film, and yes, there has to be a problem, is Kelderman), but when she loses one job after that the script wasn’t quite worked well another, and her mother gets sent to a rehab enough. Based on a book the film bounced to clean up, she’s not sure what to do, until from one theme to another, never focusing on she gets a crazy idea. So after borrowing a wig any specific topic, but instead, jumping from and a pair of glasses from the school, she one to another. As a result the audience starts her new job, standing on a corner doesn’t become as engaged in the film as they begging for money. really could. It’s a bit of a pity because this I must say, this film was surprisingly film has real promise. good. We see so many bad South African films

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Film Reviews

Trance 4/10

Starring James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel and Rosario Dawson Directed by Danny Boyle

imon (James McAvoy) is an art auctioneer working at an auction house when four men, led by Franck (Vincent Cassel), break into the auction house, in the middle of an auction and try to steal a painting worth 25 000 000 pounds. Simon gets hit in the head and ends up in hospital, but when Franck opens the case the painting is supposed to be in, it’s not there. Turns out Simon was in on the robbery from the start and he hid the painting before he gave the case to Franck, problem is he know can’t remember where the painting is, due to the hit on the head. Franck sends him to a hypnotherapist, Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson) to try and recover the memories to find the

painting, but the woman seems to know more than she’s letting on, and soon they all fall into a triangle where none of them know what is real and what is just in their heads anymore. This seemed like a great idea for a film, and it starts off great, but then it just becomes too much. It’s very confusing and over-written with too many twists and turns that by the end you just want it to end because you have no idea what’s going on anyway. I will say that McAvoy’s performance is great, as we expect from him by now, but even can’t save a film in which it seems everyone tried too hard to make it clever, and ended up making it annoying.

Escape from Planet Earth 9/10 Starring the voices of Brendan Fraser, Rob Corddry and Jessica Alba Directed by Cal Brunker

rothers Garry (voiced by Rob Corddry) and Scorch (voiced by Brendan Fraser) have an interesting relationship. Both work for BASA, Baab Aero Space Administration, but Scorch is the hero astronaut who gets all the glory, while Garry sits at mission control, does all the real work, but gets no respect for his efforts, but when Scorch is ordered to the Dark Planet, which we call Earth, things come to a head. Garry thinks it’s a bad idea, considering everyone that’s gone there has never come back, but Scorch won’t listen. Their fights results in Garry quitting, and Scorch, after going to the Dark Planet, getting captured by the megalomaniacal General Shanker (William Shatner). Now Garry must go against his better instincts and go after his brother, brave the strange aliens he meets, and save the day.

I love these little blue guys. This is a wonderful film, fun for the whole family. The moral is sweet, not entirely subtle, but it’s for kids, so even they will get the message, and the animation is good. The voices are great for the characters and they are well developed and a lot of fun. If you have kids, and they still like animated films, then this is one you should take them to. They will love.

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Film Reviews

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D 7/10 Starring Adelaide Clemens, Kit Harington and Carrie-Anne Moss Directed by Michael J. Bassett burning her. Now all they need is to get Sharon back and they can complete their plan. This sequel to the 2006 horror smash t’s been years since the event in the first Silent Hill is very similar to the original. Seasn film found Sharon (Adelaide Clemens) and Bean is playing the father again, Radha her mother Rose (Radha Mitchell) trapped Mitchell makes a cameo as Sharon’s mother, in the world that is Silent Hill, but Rose the only one not coming back is Jodelle managed to get Sharon out. Now she and her Ferland who played Sharon in the original, father (Sean Bean) are running from the and I’m not sure why. She’s old enough now monsters that live in Silent Hill. They want to play the older Sharon, and definitely a good Sharon, now calling herself Heather, back, and enough actress. Don’t get me wrong Clemens will stop at nothing to get her, but it’s not for is great, but I love Jodelle and would have the reason you might think. It turns out that liked to see her reprise the role. Other than the people who killed the little girl Alessa (Erin that it’s exactly what you expect it to be. And Pitt) were trying to bring their god to Earth by the mannequin spider is seriously creepy.

Trishna 6/10

Starring Frieda Pinto, Riz Ahmed and Meeta Vashisht Directed by Michael Winterbottom

ased on the classic British novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Trishna tells the tale of a 19 year old Indian woman, Trishna (Frieda Pinto). She lives in the more rural area of India with her family, ten or so in two small rooms. She does odd jobs here and there, one of them as a part time waitress at a fancy hotel, it’s here that she meets Jay (Riz Ahmed), the wealthy son of a hotel magnet. The boy is obviously taken by the girl and offers her a job at his father’s hotel in Jaipur. She takes it, of course, and they begin to see a lot of each other, but what starts off as harmless flirting soon turns more serious. Scared Trishna runs home, but the boy follows

her. He convinces her to go with him to Mumbai where he’s trying to create a life for himself out from under his father’s shadow. She agrees to go with him and they’re happy for a while, until his father has a stroke and he has to go back to the hotel business. This is the beginning of the end as things start to unravel between them resulting in tragedy. This is a very dramatic and moving film with great performances by both Pinto and Ahmed, but there is a problem with it. It is based on a classic British novel, so you expect Victorian England, instead you find contemporary India, a place most of us aren’t familiar with. It’s a good idea, but my concern is that it’s trying to straddle two worlds that don’t meld well. It’s not a Bollywood film, but it’s not a British one either. It’s a bit of a hard sell.

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Film Reviews

Won’t Back Down 9/10

Starring Viola Davis, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Holly Hunter Directed by Daniel Barnz control if they feel the school isn’t meeting its promises. She enlists the help of a teacher, Nona (Viola Davis), another mother struggling to help her son and in a failing marriage, to try and save the school from itself, but they face hen a mother, Jamie (Maggie some serious opposition, and not just from Gyllenhaal), has to move her outside, but from inside the school as well. daughter, Malia (Emily Alyn Lind), This is an amazing, inspirational film. to a public school due to the school fee being The fact that it’s based on a true story, and an too much, she’s not happy about it. She’s less unbelievable one at that, is frightening. The happy when she discovers that the teacher fact that teachers, not only in America, but whose class her child is in has no care to help seemingly more and more here too, are only her, and will not give her extra classes for her interested in the pay cheque, and not helping dyslexia. Jamie does everything she can to the kids, is scary. I love the way that the help, but the teacher, and the school itself, parents of these children fight back and make will not budge due to union restrictions and a difference. Maybe we need a little more of apathy, so she takes it on herself to find a way that in this country and things might get to help. What she finds is a little known clause better, in the meantime watch this film for a that allows the parents at a school to take little inspiration.

Robot & Frank 8/10

Starring Peter Sarsgaard, Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon Directed by Jake Schreier handle anymore, but things get complicated when Frank’s health, especially his mind, begins to deteriorate, and he starts making mistakes on jobs. A quirky film that I enjoyed very much. It’s not something I’ve seen before. We’ve seen films with robots as lead et in the near future, Frank (Frank characters, but these robots normally have Langella) used to be a second story man. personalities. This one doesn’t. Which it tries One of the best in the business, but he’s to point out to Frank often throughout the old now and only pulls off jobs to keep himself film. It is simply following its programming. occupied. His son, Hunter (James Marsden), The scenes between Langella and the robot however, is concerned about him and buys are touching, especially when he begins to him a robot companion. A robot that’s care for the machine. The supporting cast are designed to help Frank eat better and have great too, Marsden as the son, Liv Tyler as his someone talk to, but also to aid Frank in some daughter who doesn’t like robots, and Susan extramural activities to keep him exercised Sarandon as the local librarian who has a and focused. So when Frank realises that he deeper connection to Frank than he realises. If can con the robot into whatever he wants, as you like tear jerkers that are a little different, long as it fits the robot’s programming, he then this is the one for you. begins to teach the robot to rob houses, using him to pick locks that his old hands can’t

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 9/10 Starring Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage Directed by Peter Jackson Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), a hobbit more than content to sit at home and grow old, gets pulled into a whirlwind adventure when the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) shows up at his door. He is leading a group of several dwarves, led by the dwarfish prince Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain, the former mountain stronghold of dwarfish kings, from the dragon that took it from them, only thing is, Bilbo doesn’t want to go. Based on the book and told in the same epic fashion as the Lord of The Rings trilogy, this is a spectacle to see. The characters are great, the story is wonderful and the effects are mind blowing, but watch the first series before watching this to get the most out of it. Then just enjoy. Check out the feature review in the January 2013 issue

Adventures in Zambezia 8/10 Starring the voices of Jeremy Suarez, Abigail Breslin and Samuel L. Jackson Directed by Wayne Thornley Kai (voiced by Jeremy Suarez) is a spirited young falcon living in the middle of nowhere with his father, Tendai (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson), but the moment he hears about the fabled bird city of Zambezia he wants to go there, so going against his father’s wishes he does. As soon as he gets there he discovers a world he’s been missing. He joins the Hurricanes, the fighting force for Zambezia and tries to make a name for himself, but little does he know there’s danger around every corner, including an evil monitor lizard, Budzo (voiced by Jim Cummings) who has captured his father and has his eyes set on the city. This South African made animated film is as good as any American one that I’ve seen. The story is good, the animation is wonderful, especially the flight sequences. If you’re looking for something to entertain the kids, but not bore you to tears, I recommend this one. Check out the feature review in the January 2013 issue

DVD Reviews

Fun Size 6/10 Starring Victoria Justice, Thomas Mann and Jane Levy Directed by JoshSchwartz Wren (Victoria Justice) is a regular, somewhat nerdy high school student who is invited to the Halloween party of the coolest kid in school, but when she’s about to leave the for the party her mother (Chelsea Handler) informs her she’s going to a party with her 26 year old boyfriend, and Wren needs to watch her brother, Albert (Jackson Nicoll). She agrees much to the annoyance of her friend (Jane Levy), but when they lose Albert they turn to Roosevelt (Thomas Mann) a boy with a huge crush on Wren, to try and find him before Wren’s mother finds out what’s going on. This is your regular, run of the mill coming-of-age story. It’s got the messages, learning that popularity is not the most important thing, that the good guy is usually the right guy and friendship is more than a passing fancy. The comedy is really juvenile, not dirty, considering the target market is under 15, but still rather silly, not to say there aren’t some actual funny moments. It’s strictly for under 15’s.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower 9/10 Starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller Directed by Stephen Chbosky It’s Charlie’s (Logan Lerman) freshman year of high school, and it should be the best years of his life, but the recent suicide of his best friend has caused the boy to disappear within himself, causing him to be viewed as an outsider, but an uncharacteristic act of standing up for someone (Ezra Miller) leads to him meeting the best friends he’ll ever have, meeting the love of his life, Sam (Emma Watson) and discovering life after death, and acceptance after shunning. This is a quirky, interesting coming-ofage story. The performances by everyone are great, especially Watson, who shines being out from under Harry Potter’s cloak, and Lerman who gives a strong, heartfelt performance. Off The Screen Magazine

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DVD Reviews

The Oranges 7/10

All Alone 4/10

Starring Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt Directed by Julian Farano David (Hugh Laurie) and Terry (Oliver Platt) are best friends. They live across the street from each other and their families, David’s wife, Paige (Catherine Keener), son, Toby (Adam Brody) and Daughter, Vanessa (Alia Shawkat), and Terry’s wife, Cathy (Allison Janney) and Daughter, Nina (Leighton Meester) are close. Things change when Nina comes home after five years and she and David are immediately attracted to each other. They start seeing each other, which throws the lives of everyone else into complete disarray, resulting in complete chaos on the street. This film reminds me a lot of American Beauty, though it’s not as deep or profound as that. It has a good message and a good story. Everyone involved, both entire families, give good performances. If you like thought provoking dramas with some comedy thrown in, then this is good fun.

Starring Mandy Levin, Suzy Cote and Brice Williams Directed by Jon Cellini Four Friends, Maggie (Mandy Levin), her husband Ben (Brice William), and Alex (Suzy Cote) and her husband Kyle (David HaydnJones), travel into the woods for a camping trip to get away from the city, but the true intentions of the trip are soon realised as it is revealed that Ben and Alex are having an affair, and they devised the trip as a way to do away with Kyle so they could run off with his money, and it looks like it may work, until another hiker, Birch (Beth Navarro) appears and puts a spanner in the works. This is very much a B-grade film. The concept is sound, but poor cinematography, and not so great acting makes the whole thing a little boring. I understand what they were trying to do, and there are a couple of goof moments, but the total thing is not so great. If there is absolutely nothing else then rent this, but pick something else if at all possible.

True Justice: Dead Drop 5/10 Starring Steven Seagal, Sarah Lind and Lochlyn Munroe Directed by Keoni Waxman Kane (Steven Seagal) and his team are hot on the trail of the Ghost. They’ve found evidence of two nuclear bombs having entered the United States, but there are a bunch of people after them, including mercenaries, the C.I.A and the Russians, who lost the bombs in the first place. Old friends become new enemies and the team is betrayed by someone they trust as the search heats up and Kane has to put his quest revenge on hold for a while to try and stop a nuclear catastrophe. The fifth film in the series this one really is a continuation from the previous one and for-runner to the next. The other films in the series have had their own storylines, but this one just continues on. The action is good, but a little boring. If you liked the others then you may enjoy this one, but make sure watch True Justice: Angel of Death first.

L.A. I Hate You 2/10 Starring Paul Conway, Rebecca De Costa and Warren Ostergard Directed by Yvan Gauther Three seemingly unrelated stories merge in this cohesion of true Los Angeles stories. A man is urged by his uncle to have an affair with a sexy Latin waitress, but when he arrives to do the deed things turn out differently than he planned. A man’s best friend tells him to have his paralysed girlfriend killed to escape her, and in a drunken stupor he agrees, ending up with two bodies on his hands and cops coming after him, and an actor is told that he can have a part if he kills a girl, the paralysed one, but can’t go through with it, then he discovers that his sexy Latin girlfriend, the waitress in the first film is having an affair. This is an odd film that makes no sense. Most directors can’t be Quentin Tarantino, and most shouldn’t try. This director tried and failed miserably. Not a good film.

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