Friday April 6
IMAGINE:IF YOU WILL- AN 88 STRING...STETSON HAT...THE MUSIC IS RATHER GOOD
Country Strong [M-Net.21.30]
Hereafter [M-Net.00.25]
Get Low [M-Net.03.00]
Honey [SABC3.00.00]
Day Watch [e.tv.22.30]
Saturday April 7
OH YEAH
Hop [M-Net.20.30]
Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming [M-Net.05.30]
Frost/Nixon [SABC3.21.35]
Shark Tale [e.tv.20.00]
Sunday April 8
Invictus [M-Net.00.05]
Role Models [SABC1.22.00]
These Old Broads [e.tv.22.15]
Monday April 9
CLINT AND HIS CAST
Hereafter [M-Net.01.15]
Changeling [SABC2.22.00]
Tuesday April 10
Hop [M-Net.00.00]
Get Low [M-Net.01.35]
Wednesday April 11
Country Strong [M-Net.00.00]
The Dilemma [M-Net.02.25]
***
HAPPY EASTER
Here are a few hot tips to enhance your viewing over this Easter weekend; starting with movies by two respected, award winning directors who both cut their early acting teeth on/in television.
RON HOWARD WITH TOM HANKS
Firstly, two from Ron, formally, Ronnie Howard, a teen/ child star who, as soon as he started loosing his hair, quickly gravitated towards the director's chair. Howard has often worked with close friend Tom Hanks, starting in 1984, when they made quite a Splash together, other notable collaborations include Apollo 13 and both the Da Vinci Code movies.
PERFECT CASTING-LANGELLA AND SHEEN
Frost/Nixon [SABC3.Saturday.21.35] dates from 2008, and stars Frank Langella as former President Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as Television Host David Frost. Sheen, although Welsh by birth, is rather adept at playing the quintessential Englishman, he has also appeared as both politician Tony Blair (twice) and comedian Kenneth Williams.
WRITER PETER MORGAN
Although it is hard to work with ‘talking heads’ Howard manages to flesh out Peter Morgan’s play and the result is an insightful examination of an important chapter in American political and social history.
JENNIFER CONNELLY IN HER OSCAR WINNING PERFORMANCE
Howard’s more recent movie The Dilemma [M-Net.Wednesday.02.25] is not in the same class, although it does star Jennifer Connelly, the actress who won an Oscar for her work in Howard’s A Beautiful Mind.
EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY
No plaudits for this mishmash unfortunately, Kevin James and Vince Vaughn fill the screen with oodles of smirking ‘buddy buddy boyo bonding’ while James agonizes over his dilemma.
RANCE AND CLINT HOWARD
In the Howard family tradition, Ron’s brother Clint and dad Rance are also featured, as are non family members Queen Latiefa and Winona Ryder.
EASTWOOD IN RAWHIDE
Clint Eastwood made his acting name; hatted, gunned and booted at a time when The Western was still a Hollywood staple.
FOREST WHITAKER AS CHARLIE (BIRD) PARKER
His directional work has been much more varied, ranging from revisionist American history (Flags of our Fathers) to a biopic of doomed jazz great Charlie Parker (Bird) to,more recently the story of Madiba using the rugby ball as a symbol of South Africa's frail unity. Invictus [M-Net.Sunday.00.05] is once again on screen this week
IS THERE ANYONE THERE?
Eastwood’s latest film offering is Hereafter [M-Net.Friday.00.25 and Monday.01.15], a peek through the chink in the curtain that swishes between this life and the next.
DAME MARGARET RUTHERFORD AS MADAM ARCARDI
Peter Morgan’s screenplay does not propound ‘a one tap for yes, two taps for no’ scenario at all; his story attempts to provides serious evidence of a hereafter that is not just a clever blend of shadow, smoke and slight of hand.
MATT DAMON AS GEORGE LONEGAN
Neither do all mediums sound and act like Madam Arcarti; Matt Damon does well in a difficult role as a simple man with a gift that he doesn’t really want or understand.
CECILE DE FRANCE
The supporting cast is intelligent and well cast; it is a rare treat to see Sir Derek Jacobi reading from Dickens. Ron Howard’s daughter Bryce Dallas has a small part, while Cecile de France is compelling as the woman who has survived a near death experience. As he often does, Eastwood has written the jazz tinged score. Hereafter is not perhaps great cinema, but it does provide tantalizing food for thought.
A STUNNING PERFORMANCE FROM ANGELINA JOLIE
Changeling [SABC2.Monday.22.00] is an Eastwood movie dating from 2008, starring a magnificent Angelina Jolie, risking her sanity, and indeed her life as she battles to find her lost child. This truly powerful drama, costarring John Malkovich, is all the more riviting because the story is based on fact.
PAUL RUDD AND SEANN SCOTT WILLIAMS
Movie trends come and go, they always have; Coming of Age Tales, often fudged by buddy bonding and copious amounts of bodily emission are all the rage at the moment, some of them nasty, repetitive and in very poor taste.
CHRISTOPHER MINTZ PLASSE
Role Models [SABC1.Sunday.22.00] may sound more of the same, but actually the film is quite moving and very funny. Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott certainly pair well, but Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Augie effectively steals the show.
GWYNETH PALTROW
As I mentioned, The Western is very out of fashion right now, but the melody and the hats linger on.The Country Music movie, with guitars replacing the guns; often a mixture of country music and dramatic action can be superb and win Oscars or can be bad and come across like a bad ‘donk verdriet’ country song.
THE UNEASY QUARTET FROM COUNTRY STRONG
Alas, Country Strong [M-Net.Friday.21.30 and Wednesday.00.00] falls into the latter category; the acting from Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw and Garrett Hedlund is fair, the music pleasant, but the sadly inadequate plot remains jarring, pointless and muddled.
ROBERT DUVALL IN KEY- A SCENE FROM TENDER MERCIES
Both Sissy Spacek and Robert Duvall won Oscars in County Films, she, in 1970 when she played Loretta Lynn and he three years later in the underrated, aptly titled Tender Mercies.
DUVALL AND SPACEK IN GET LOW
Spacek and Duvall join Bill Murray in a terrific movie, set in the 30s, where life and death mingle in a more traditional way. Get Low [M-Net. Friday.03.00 and Tuesday.01.35] is pure film pleasure from beginning to end.
JESSICA ALBA IN HONEY
Musicals, too, in the traditional sense have also died the death, living on vicariously in Dance films, where Dance is often used as a tool for betterment and upliftment. Two examples on show this week, Honey [SABC3.Friday.00.00] and the second Stomp the Yard: The Homecoming [M-Net.Saturday.05.30], which was made for DVD release.
SEE WHAT I MEAN
While watching this kind of movie, it is useful to remember that Dance with a capital D comes first, storyline and acting coming second and maybe a bad third.
BUNNY WITH A BEAT
Hop [M-Net.Saturday.20.30 and Tuesday.00.00], as in Bunny is sweet rather than outstanding, but I was rather taken with the rabbity heir apparent who dreams of banging a professional drum.
WHO ELSE BUT WILL AND ANGIE
Shark Tale [e.tv.Saturday.20.00] is a fishy, animated underwater underworld adventure, with Will Smith as the quasi hero with armed with a broad gill, Robert de Niro sending himself up as a cold blooded Mr Big.
A FLICK OF THE FIN
Martin Scorsese, getting in on the act, sends himself up even higher or should that read lower. Angelina Jolie, Jack Black and Renee Zellweger are in for the swim, too.
RASPUTIN'S REVENGE
The fight between good and evil, light and dark, vodka and tonic has been going on forever; Day Watch [e.tv.Friday.22.30] is a sequel-suprise,suprise- to Night Watch. Don’t expect a 21st century version of Battleship Potemkin let alone, War and Peace.
MIKE TODD, HIS WIFE ELIZABETH TAYLOR, SINGER EDDIE FISHER AND HIS WIFE DEBBIE REYNOLDS
Long before Brad left Jen for Angie, back in 1959, crooner Eddie Fisher ditched Debbie Reynolds for newly widowed Elizabeth Taylor. The tabloids went nuts; Eddie left Debbie, who just happened to be Liz’s best friend, with two small children.
STARS COME AND GO-THE TABLOIDS REMAIN
Liz married her trophy;she always did, then later went to Rome to make Cleopatra, met Richard Burton and they gave the tabloids fodder for a decade.
CARRIE FISHER
Carrie Fisher was only three when Dad did a runner with Liz; Carrie is a tenacious lady, after decades of therapy; she has evolved into a very proficient and witty writer. Her One Woman Show is titled Wishful Drinking, a favourite title of mine.
JOAN, SHIRLEY AND DEBBIE.LIZ IN FOREGROUND
In 2001, Fisher threw mom Debbie, ex step mom Liz, Shirley Maclaine and ‘old shoulder pads’ herself, Joan Collins, into a pot, stirred a bit, and came up with Those Old Broads [e.tv.Sunday.22.15], where she allows the old girls have lots of croaky fun in a cheery piece of high camp. This bouncing ball of fluff is just the ticket Easter Sunday night.
FASHIONS FROM THE 30S FILM VERY WELL
My pick is that really lovely movie Get Low [M-Net.Friday.03.00 and Tuesday.01.35].