2oceans Vibe

I hate it when a movie trailer turns out to be a 2 minute highlights reel. The Rum Diary is one such movie that promises a Dagwood and serves up a crouton. On paper, The Rum Diary should have been all that and more, reuniting the legendary actor-writer team behind Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Johnny Depp and Hunter S. Thompson are like hand and glove, but The Rum Diary will be remembered as the one that didn’t quite gel. Continue Reading

Wuthering Heights… the title demands a sigh and conjures up women fainting and swooning on mountain tops. Emily Bronte wrote the book with the protagonist of Heathcliff modeled on her brother, Branwell, which would suggest she had incestuous tendencies. It’s difficult to blame the girl, who lost her mother as a toddler, dreamed of imaginary kingdoms and spent a bit too much time with her “creative” siblings before taking a dirt nap at age 30. Continue Reading

Transformers was essentially a 20 minute advert for the collectible figurines, which went on to become a series of Michael Bay blockbusters. While merchandise is probably the main reason George Lucas gave Star Wars a 3D overhaul. Just when you thought Hollywood had milked the “toy” department dry… Hasbro smashes a mini champagne bottle on Battleship, a popular table top game and now $200 million blockbuster. Continue Reading

The most anticipated superhero movie of the year is here! Marvel’s The Avengers has received plenty of hype ahead of its release and the bottom line is that it won’t disappoint… much. This superheroes-on-steroids spectacle manages to do the near-impossible, containing several of the world’s biggest superheroes and Hollywood egos in one literal blockbuster. Continue Reading

If you’ve never survived a plane crash only to be pursued by a pack of bloodthirsty wolves whilst bracing a bitter Alaskan blizzard, tired, afraid and hungry… you need to see The Grey. It may not be as informative as Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls, but it’s fascinating in a White Fang meets Alive kind of way. Continue Reading

The Hunger Games is old hat. We’ve seen our fair share of films involving a group of children, forced to do combat in a confined area in a kill-or-be-killed situation. Suzanne Collins has just commericialised the format made famous by William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, writing a novel that has enough human interest and viral appeal to capture a young adult readership and broader film audience. Continue Reading

American Pie followed four young high school students as they tossed their wild oats to the wind in a last ditch effort to enter college without their virginity. The mix of gross out comedy and spirited coming-of-age school nostalgia was infectious, instantly igniting film careers and spurning several sequels with diminishing returns, until American Reunion… Continue Reading

Clash of the Titans was disappointing. The action-adventure relied too heavily on visual effects, offering a tired video game script, wooden performances and substandard post-production 3D in the face of much anticipation. Yet as tarnished as it was, the blockbuster made enough money at the box office to warrant a sequel. It’s no secret, Greek mythology is getting the Hollywood treatment with competition from another Greek hero franchise in Immortals, making it only a matter of time before Wrath of the Titans was unleashed upon us mere mortals. Continue Reading

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are not a match made in buddy cop heaven. Hill, best known for comedy, got a tip of the hat when he received an Oscar nomination for his role in Moneyball, while Channing Tatum’s range is best encapsulated by boxing legend Muhammed Ali’s mantra: float like a butterfly (romance) and sting like a bee (action). They seem worlds apart, yet these two Hollywood hopefuls bring a surprising chemistry to screen in the TV series film adaptation, 21 Jump Street. Continue Reading

A bearded man with extraordinary powers, savior of a planet, died and buried in a tomb only to rise again with the initials J.C. The life of Jesus Christ inspired the character of John Carter and Edgar Rice Burroughs inspired hundreds of writers and film-makers with the Barsoom series of science-fiction novels, which have been adapted into the film, John Carter of Mars. Continue Reading

If a nice cup of tea, a dry scone and a fascinating game of chess against one of those electronic Kasparov chessboards sounds like a great night in… Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is your movie. Slow-moving, dull, dreary and stoney-faced – this Cold War club for stiff cigar room suits makes the dense two hour plod as inviting as having root canal on a rocking chair… and the worst part is, it’s intentional. Continue Reading

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is a miracle. Why? There’s no other way you could explain it being nominated for a Best Picture at the 84th Academy Awards. Grant 2012 hasn’t been the strongest year for Hollywood with only a handful of truly excellent films, but let’s call it what it is… extremely long & incredibly irritating. Continue Reading

Stephen Spielberg loves a good war drama and it shows, having directed Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, Empire of the Sunand Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. All of these epic dramas were set in and around World War II, which is just one reason the Best Picture nominated War Horse is so different… Continue Reading

Material is one of the smartest, most heartwarming movies to originate from South Africa, telling the story of a young Muslim man whose love for stand-up comedy leads to conflict when his father expects him to take over the family business. You will love it! Continue Reading

Safe House is one helluva ride! Man-on-the-run movies have always been popular. They carry the thrill of the chase, the drama of a man wrongfully accused, the natural ebb-and-flow of a road trip movie and the narrative equivalent of an ant, a magnifying glass and a hot day. Continue Reading

Man on a Ledge stars Sam Worthington, whose robotic acting is best forgotten in blockbusters such as Avatar, Clash of the Titans and best remembered in Terminator: Salvation, where he was actually part cyborg. As you can imagine with any movie where the lead character wants to commit robot suicide off a high-rise building – expectations were low… Continue Reading

Skin… everyone’s got one, except that guy dangling from the tree in Predator. The word has developed a stigma and a deviant curiosity in Hollywood: Mysterious Skin, Skinwalkers, ‘skin flicks’ – and it would be rash to think The Skin I Live In, a film that nabbed a spot in Quentin Tarantino’s Top Ten Films of 2011, could cure that little niggling ‘skin’ problem. Continue Reading

David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo… didn’t they adapt the Millenium trilogy just two years ago? Why didn’t they cast Noomi Rapace, the ‘Girl’ from the original? Is it a faithful adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s novel? There’s an 8 minute movie trailer? Continue Reading

The award-winning documentary Inside Job drilled down into what caused the 2008 financial crisis by consulting some of the finest financial experts. Margin Call creates a fictionalised account of the most critical 24 hour period of the meltdown, featuring some of Hollywood’s most respected actors. Continue Reading