Magic Mike

Have your beefcake and eat it too!

This is a story inspired by real life.  Mike takes a young dancer under his wing and schools him in the fine arts of picking up women and making easy money.

Tatum's performance is worthy of a star. He sure does give his all to the energetic stripper routines which I might add ring close to home for Tatum as this is indeed a semi-autobiographical account of Tatum's past as a male stripper.  His fusion of B-boy, hip hop, pop and lock is excitingly choreographed and executed.

What's worthy of noting is the surprising emotional punch added to the drama.

It gets a 4 thumbs up from us!

The Amazing Spider-Man

We all know the story of Peter Parker so no introduction is necessary. Even though this saga is 50 years old there is still so much freshness to be spun.

In this reboot you can expect loads of action, romance, imagination and smart writing.

The Amazing Spider-Man has updated the story for a very young audience however I wish it would stick to the comic book source material more. It even deviates more from the source material than the Raimi trilogy which is unfortunate as a great chance to do so was missed out on.

That being said, Andrew Garfield has enough charm and charisma to avoid the same character pitfalls as Tobey Maguire. As for Emma Stone... well, she can do no wrong.


Jason Kok tweeted: "Spider man is amazing without the horrible Toby McGuire. Needs more witty banter though."


Abigail Goh Tian-I also shared some thoughts on the movie: "Caught The Amazing Spider-Man in 2D, today! Everything was beyond amazing. Despite that, Tobey Maguire will always be my favorite Spidey."    

It is an entirely unnecessary remake, but a good one. The tweeps concur:

 "The Amazing Spider-Man. 7/12. Spidey bcomes less funny, great fight, new swing, though lack of actions. Andrew is good."  menantu idaman ibumu  

 "The Amazing Spider-Man was even better the second time! :)" Brett Douglas


Our popcorn pick of the week gets 4 thumbs up!

The Dictator

Baron Cohen is always best when he jumps the comedy fence.

Even though The Dictator is entirely scripted it leaves you laughing helplessly.

The character, Aladeen, is different to Baron Cohen's past three personas. Aladeen is a combination of Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein and is a truly dangerous person.

The plot: A usurper in the Wadiya government (Ben Kingsley) arranges an assassination attempt on General Aladeen. This has the result of replacing Aladeen with a  dim-witted double. The temporarily deposed Aladeen having his trademark beard shaved off is now presumed dead and is left to wander NYC.

What do the tweeps think:

Rajen Palsingh - “the speech near the end of the movie "Dictator" is the most amazing speech ever :)” 

Ruan Angel – “there was literally a grand total of 30 seconds i didnt laugh during the dictator funniest movie of”

Ice Age: Continental Drift

In this fourth instalment of this hilarious series, new characters are introduced.

The humour does lacks the subtlety of the first and best Ice Age, but it still offers some wholesome fun for the entire family.

The plot: Scrat's continuous pursuit of the ever elusive acorn causes a massive seismic schisms of the landmasses.Manny is marooned on an iceberg and is seperated from his wife and daughter. As they drift along they encounter the maniacal Captain Gutt and his motley pirate crew of animals who are fleeing the splitting of the continents. Manny's sole aim is to get back to his family, whatever it takes.

The pure nuttiness of what's on the screen makes up for the somewhat weak plot and episodic feel of the action.
Sid the goofy, buck-toothed Sloth remains my favourite character.

Scrat's show-stopper finale is worth the price of the admission ticket alone. We give it a 4 thumbs up!

Leon Schuster's Mad Buddies

Starring Kenneth Nkosi, Leon Schuster, Alfred Ntombela and Tanit Phoenix.

In the latest Schuster, two sworn enemies are forced to embark on a trek to Jozi together by foot. They soon band together after realising that they have been conned by the TV Exec who had a hidden agenda for bringing them together. The pair decide to put aside their mutual hatred of each other in order to get their revenge. 

Madagascar 3 - Europe's Most Wanted

In this third entry these loveable animals join a travelling circus in order to get back home.
This for us has to be the best of the series so far as it now contains more adult humour to keep all us younger adults in the audience smiling from ear to ear.

This one is definitely fun for the entire family.
The movie series as moved from solely kid-friendly mediocrity to visually imaginative, witty all-ages entertainment which we applaud them for.

Kudos Dreamworks!

Prometheus

This movie captivates and intrigues because it raises the question "where did we come from?". 

The movie begins with the ship, Prometheus, en route to a distant world which the humans have learnt about from prehistoric cave paintings. They believe that human life may have originated there. 

Straight lines are noticed on the surface of the strange planet which lead to a vast dome. The crew find Alien humanoids in the dome which possess the same DNA as humans. Could these beings somehow have brought life to Earth? 

As the movie unfolds the humans are faced with fighting a terrifying battle to save the future of the entire human race.

This movie is a must-see simply because it is science fiction at its finest.

Possibly the best movie of 2012!