White Wedding

It is always a good thing that among a pile of mediocrity, one finds some positive aspect to focus on. I struggle sometimes. I struggled here and failed hopelessly. It is also good that if you have nothing good to say you should just shut up. I am failing hopelessly here too.

Yes, so I went to see White wedding last night. The biggest…, well the only laugh I had was the reaction of the audience to an interracial kiss. One guy actually said Hayibo!. My friend sitting next to me said, ‘oh, that’s just wrong’. It is after all 2009 and it amazed me that an interracial kiss still brings out that cringe reflex in us.

Safe to say that the movie gave me nothing to blog home about. And why do I bother? I bother because I also believe that constructive criticism can only help. South African movies are crap. It gives me no pleasure to say this as I really really want South African movies to step it up a notch. My favourite ‘South African’ movie remains Cry the Beloved Country. It was a beautiful movie based on a beautiful book, but it too would probably not feature on my all time top 10 favourites.

I think the problem with South African movies, other than the limited imagination and wooden characters, and lack of finesse and… okay, there is a lot wrong with it but for this particular movie I think the problem was the casting. Over and over again we see the same people in South African movies. There is an inability to cast outside of what we see in the daily soaps and television shows. It seems to be a very closed industry where new faces are incredibly hard to find. The same faces are squeezed into characters that, because they can not pull them off, they make them in their own image. Does that make sense?

The basic story line, it is a road trip movie. A groom-to-be needs to get to his wedding from Jo’burg to Cape Town. He needs to make a few stops along the way and one of them is an experience that I think most of us have had. They stop in a baie Afrikaans dorp where the bar is flying the old South African flag. I had that experience once, between Cape Town and Johannesburg. The dorpie was Leeu Gamka and it was a tragically comedic experience!

So most of us will identify with the various scenarios presented in the movie but the thing is, stating the obvious does not necessarily make for poignant story telling.

Discoveries: Dr Who and its amazing spin off Torchwood

So, I’ve never really been into the British sci fi. They always have poor effects. As good as the stories can be, their translation onto the screen tends to come across as a little amateurish compared to the big budget sleeker American versions of them. But I suppose as their effects budget tends to be lacking, they have to work that much harder on the story and the characters. Look at the hilarious ‘Sean of the dead’ and ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. Okay, these two are the ones that immediately come to mind so I googled ‘British sci fi movies’ and the results produced:
Quatermass and the Pit,
Day of the Triffids,
Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun,
The Day The Earth Caught Fire.

I’ve not even heard of these titles, but I will now make a point to find them and watch them.

Back to the subject at hand, 2009 has brought for me exposure to all the BBC DSTV channels and through this, I have discovered Dr Who and now, what has become my favourite thing on TV since hhhmmmm, Heroes?

Dr Who is one of those serieses that have been on air forever. In that time there’ve been about 10 actors that have portrayed the lead character who regenerates every single time to become, The Doctor. Currently on BBC Entertainment, the Doctor is being played by David Tennant whose appearance goes against everything a leading man should be. He is thin, tall and nerdy looking. The premise of the series is really that The Doctor is a time lord, is from a planet far far away and his race was killed off by their mortal enemy the Daleks. He travels the universe in a telephone booth called the Tardis, and has human companions, currently Martha Jones. He also has another companion called Captain Jack Harkness who is a Time Agent. He, is the hook that got me into this whole thing.

Torchwood is a spin off of Dr Who, Captain Jack puts together a team in Cardiff (situated right in the middle of a time/space rift, which makes it prone to having visitors from another time and space) to battle supernaturals in the area. Captain Jack is sometimes described as an omnisexual as opposed to bisexual, basically, he will do anything.

I suppose what I love the most about this series is that it is funny, gory, sexy, clever. And although the special effects leave a lot to e desired, the story lines make up for it 10 times. Take for example this one episode titled, the CountryCide. Very suspenseful and concludes that with everything that they’ve battled in the past, humans take the cake in being the most evil species. My personal favourite so far was the episode ‘Captain Jack Harkness’, very romantic.

Torchwood’s last episode of season one aired this past Sunday and I don’t see series 2 on the schedule. Dr Who on the other hand continues and airs on Sunday nights at 7pm. Its just the thing to get you going for the week ahead!

A vampire for all seasons…

My season, my vampire, was Louis, never a part of, but always observing and envious of the world that he could never be a part of again. Interview with a Vampire, envisaged by Anna Rice, also through a few of the other tales aptly known as the vampire chronicles. And… much respect to the woman for disagreeing with the choice for Tom Cruise to play the Vampire Lestat! The role needed a much more believable omnisexual, maybe Ralph Fiennes? Maybe Daniel day Louise. Surely any of these guys would have been a little more open to some 'bromance'?

But there is a new version that is emerging, going after the feeling of teenage angst and not belonging. A little bit dangerous for the time that we are living in…

So yes, tonight, I watched Twilight and mourned my Louis and Lestat and Armand who were my ultimate dark lords and who seem to be now replaced by younger, more heterosexuals immortals that to replicate their humanity as much as possible. The guys can even come out in broad day light!?

But let’s take a step back. Yes I watched Twilight and yes it was not immediately repulsive.

The step back is to the beginning of moving pictures. When Vampires, at least in our 2009 standard were repulsive and totally unattractive! Nosforatu, who gave us that iconoclastic image of what it should be to be a vampire, unattractive, animal and totally dejected for what it is to be human.

My next memory would be Bela Lugosi who I came to know through a little film called Gods and Monsters. Those images are not real for us anymore except maybe for those film appreciation classes that you one has to through in film school.

Gary Oldman, as Dracula, DRA-CU-LA! Scary shit! But also very interesting cinematic event. This particular vamp movie will always have a special place in my movie subconscious! As scary as it was it remains one of the ultimate vampire movies because it over rides my personal proclivity to the sexual ambiguity, because that, in itself will pass and be replaced by a far sexier combination of the species.

I jump now to the Wes Craven’s and the Quinton Tarantino’s From Dusk till Dawn. Hilarious and horrible at the same time. Tarantino is a genius but his take on the old Vampire, the undead genre, was not that fulfilling for me. It made me laugh but not much else. I have to admit that I’ve not had the chance yet to go through the Wes Craven ones.

And then there was I am Legend. The supposed to be, ‘Thinking man’s’ ultimate vampire movie. But the thing for me is, yes, you can fathom ways that the undead can be digitally made to be scarier? But I somehow think that jump has been coming for a while and so I will not jump if I get surprised, I will know that it is coming.

Interview with the Vampire, Daniel as Lestat (but if tm cruise is reading this, he di not do a bad job) is what I am waiting for...

On Twilight… yeah okay, next…. Three spoons.