Thursday April 28
Never Been Kissed [e.tv.20.30]
Akara Kurosawa’s Dreams [SABC3.22.30]
Friday April 29
Precious Etc. [M-Net.21.30]
Serenity [SABC1.22.00]
Saturday April 30
VERY LIKE HER FAMOUS BROTHER
Why Did I get Married? [M-Net.05.00]
Octopussy [e.tv.13.30]
Just My Luck [SABC3.19.30]
HIP,HIP HORRAY!
Madagascar [e.tv.20.00]
Rendez-Vous [e.tv.21.50]
Sunday May 1
The Blind Side [20.05]
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice [M-Net.23.15]
Where the Heart is [e.tv.12.35]
Ghost Rider [e.tv.20.00]
The China Syndrome [e.tv.22.15 and 02.30]
Monday May 2
Ghost Rider [e.tv.11.20]
Tuesday May 3
DragonBall: Evolution [M-Net.03.00]
Wednesday May 4
The Blind Side [M-Net.22.30]
Precious Etc. [M-Net.01.10]
GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS
For those not making cucumber sandwiches or stocking up on pork pies...
THE NOVEL BY A POET
As I predicted a few weeks back, M-Net is showing some more the Oscar winners and nominees from 2009. This week there are two; not that dissimilar both in plot and execution. They are both richly textured urban dramas, Precious [M-Net. Friday.21.30 and Wednesday.01.10] and The Blind Side [M-Net.Sunday.20.05 and Wednesday.22.30].
GEOFFREY FLETCHER TURNED THE NOVEL INTO A SCREENPLAY
Precious; or to give it the full title, Precious (Based on a novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire) was adapted by Oscar winning Geoffrey Fletcher from the gritty novel where hope and despair live side by side.
AN UNFORGETTABLE PERFORMANCE
Comedian Mo’Nique steps out of character and is quite outstanding in a demanding and difficult role; the audience feels both abhorrence and a certain kind of pity for her, as the woman and mother scarred and defeated by life, lashing out at those around her in the only way she knows.
SHE HAS MUCH TO RISE ABOVE
Gagourey Sidible, on debut, is poignant and infinitely touching as the teenaged daughter, a misfit who has every deck stacked against her yet manages to turn her life around in a world that barely gives her a chance. The movie examines issues all too familiar to South Africans; abuse, poverty, discrimination, crime and a lack of education.
LEE DANIELS
Director Lee Daniels became one of half a handful of black directors to be Oscar nominated; he lost out to another minority group—a woman-- Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to be honored in this category for directing The Hurt Locker. This is the kind of movie that engenders hope, a commodity badly needed by society today.
A MOMENT OF TRUTH IN THE BLIND SIDE
Sandra Bullock is a perky, lightly flavored actress— like MoNique, unlikely Oscar winning ability; but, when the perfect part came along for her, she rose beautifully to the occasion. In The Blind Side, she plays a woman who nurtures the talent of a young black ball player; the story would sound fanciful if it were not based on a true story; that of football star Michael Oher.
SANDRA BULLOCK AND HER YOUNG COSTAR
Like so many ‘sport as a metaphor for life’ movies, you don’t have to understand the rules of the game to appreciate its taste of victory and triumph. Quinton Aaron, like Gagourey Sidible is, to quote that old Soul Classic; Young, Gifted and Black.
NOT MUCH CHEMISTRY HERE
When someone wins an Oscar, the aunties in charge of acquisition rampage through the actor in question’s back catalogue, looking for other films they might have made. Snap…Up pops this year’s winner Natalie Portman in Where the Heart Is [e.tv.Sunday.12.35], a lovely idea, except she is horribly miscast in an uneasy little drama, directed by sit com director, Mark Williams. The movie doesn’t work at all, even though it is based on the novel by Billie Letts.
A PRETTY SCARY PROSPECT-THE JUDDS EN MASSE
In the movie, one of Portman’s fellow travelers is Ashley Judd who has just published a ‘tell- all’ biography, fingering, among others, those poison ivy country stars, her mom Naomi and her and sister Wyonna. Where The Heart Is is almost salvaged by the participation of stalwarts Sally Field, Stockard Channing and Joan Cusack. Remember, I said almost!
JOHN BARRYMORE WITH GARBO IN GRAND HOTEL
Show business Families are not easy organisms; Drew Barrymore comes from one of the famous of them all. Her Grandfather was John Barrymore, a silent and early talkie star, known as The Great Profile who acted, drank and caroused his way trough the early part of the last century.
STEVEN SPIELBERG IS HER GODFATHER
Fortunately or unfortunately, Drew seems to have inherited both his talent and self destructive ways. She has always turned in some extremely likeable performances, never more so than in Never Been Kissed [e.tv.Thursday.20.30] which dates from 1999.
AN ACTING TRADITION THAT GOES BACK OVER 100 YEARS
She plays a journalist who goes undercover to high school where she relives her nerdy past; such is Barrymore’s charisma that she is able to charm this flimsy idea into a gossamer treat.
THE JACKSON FAMILY
Janet Jackson is one the Jackson Family of Gary, Indiana; she has several famous brothers and a fairly well known sister. Apart from megastar Michael, Janet has been the most successful singing Jackson.
TYLER PERRY
Over the years, she has turned her hand to acting as well, in Why Did I Get Married ? [M-Net.Saturday.05.00] she teams with Tyler Perry in a frothy piece, light as pastry, easily digested and forgotten. Actor/ Director Perry is less lavatorial than usual, for that, be grateful. I must apologize for mentioning food and bodily functions in one sentence.Sorry, two!
DAD WITH A DASH OF CLINT EASTWOOD
The entire Fonda Family is rich in acting tradition. Peter, looking more like his father Henry than ever, plays the Devil in Ghost Rider [e.tv.Sunday.20.00 and Monday.11.20], based on a Marvel Comic series.
ONE WAY OF ENSURING THAT BAD HAIR DAYS ARE A THING OF THE PAST!
Nicholas Cage, whose real sirname is Coppola, rides around with a circle of fire flickering around his head; one of the many ways he has found to disguise a bad hair day.
WAS MICHAEL DOUGLAS EVER THAT YOUNG?
Jane stars with Michael Douglas and the late Jack Lemmon in The China Syndrome [e.tv.22.15 and 02.30] which dates from 1977, the film takes a sobering look at nuclear mishaps and how they are covered up by interested parties.
EVEN MORE SCARY THAN THE JUDDS
That threat still lives with us today but what I found equally fascinating was the idea of investigative journalism and how it has changed and grown since the 70s, the technique was a tentative pussycat back then, a roaring lion now.
JANE INTERVIEWS JACK LEMMON
The film is tense and taunt, with no soundtrack, Fonda and another second generation star Michael Douglas are well matched; but it is Jack Lemmon who gives one of the best performances of his late career.
JUST BEFORE HER LUCK GOT LOST- SHE'S RUNNING ON EMPTY NOW
A word on Just My Luck [SABC3.Saturday.19.30] made before Lindsay Lohan ran out of hers; Lohan is a spunky little actress, but is more famous for imploding these days. When Oprah asked Jane Fonda to describe Lohan in one word, Jane Fonda shook her head slightly and said of her one time costar ‘Sad’. Yes, it is sad.
ON THE RUN
In the movie, Madagascar [ e.tv.Saturday.20.00] a zebra, hippo a lion and a giraffe leave the confining safety of N.Y.C.’S Central Park Zoo and end up in Madagascar, where Computer- Animation enhance their adventures.
THE SMITHS
Some famous family members provide the voices— Ben Stiller, more famous son of comedian Jerry Stiller and Jada Pincket Smith less famous wife of Will Smith and mother to two of the most precocious children on the planet do voice overs; also to be heard are David Schwimmer and Chris Rock.
MICKEY
Once upon a time, Mickey Mouse did wonderful things to The Sorcerer's Apprentice, with music by Paul Dukas in Walt Disney’s 1940 classic Fantasia.
NICKY( WITH JAY BARUCHEL)
The updated, swirling, modern interpretation [M-Net.Sunday.23.15] of Goethe’s poem/parable; set in New York, with Nicky Coppola and Jay Baruchel is much ado about not much at all; I wonder what Disney, Dukas or Mickey Mouse, for that matter would have thought?
THE STARSHIP SERENITY
Serenity [SABC1.Friday.22.00] wraps up the loose ends that were left when the cult television sci-fi cult series Firefly was cancelled in 2002; this is a movie for fans of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactia etc. I do have a soft spot for a spacecraft in deep space, in deep trouble and loaded with malfunctioning robots and genetically enhanced mortals who turn rogue and attack their masters.
IT'S A COMIC BOOK, TOO
DragonBall : Evolution [M-Net.Tuesday.03.00] hails from Hong Kong and has a huge and loyal following which I wouldn’t presume to question, let alone make comment on.
KUROSAWA AS A YOUNG MAN
A very different Bar of Sushi is Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams [SABC3.Thursday.22.30], a contemplative piece made by Japanese director, Kurosawa when he was 80 years old; Martin Scorsese appears in one of the segments, paying homage to the great man who made Rashamon and The Seven Samurai.
THE SEVEN SAMURAI BECAME THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Kurosawa’s work shows just how much cultural cross pollination can take place, he has made films based on work by Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky and Maxim Gorky, while Western filmmakers have used his work to inspire The Magnificent Seven, A Fist Full of Dollars, Last Man Standing and a whole clutch of films based on Rashamon.
JEAN LOUIS TRINTIGNANT
Rendez-Vous [e.tv.Saturday.21.30] is a French movie, made by award winning director Andre Techine and starring Juliet Binoche.The film is a stark melodrama littered with generous dollops of sex, it is always nice to see Jean Louis Trintignant, pretty leathery by 1985; but still a man to watch. Trintignant, very popular in France, is best remembered by English audiences for his performance in Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman.
RITA COOLIDGE
For oulaas, Octopussy [e.tv.Saturday.13.30] is a back to basics Bond, with a really tuneful theme song, All Time High sung the rather wonderful Rita Coolidge.
STONG STUFF
The movie might be old but the subject matter is still very relevant indeed, my pick is The China Syndrome [e.tv.Sunday.22.15].