Reviews

What I was hoping would be a thought-provoking trip into the psychology of the heart of bloody conflict instead becomes a pompous, boring, weighted thing of mediocrity. It's almost as if the director believes that the seriousness of the subject matter is enough to make the film compelling to audiences - which it isn't.

Unfortunately an important theme still requires pacing - which is not best accomplished by long silences and slow-mo ad-nauseum. The cardboard supporting cast display all the range of a TV commercial trying to inspire sympathy, and there's some atrocious child acting.

I know many people will feel compelled to like this because of the subject matter and the strong female lead, but beyond the façade of great cinematography and overly emotional music this is simply not well made.

Self-importance sinks this film.

The big problem with the local film industry is that for too long it has relied on easy-sell toilet humour or depressing AIDS and poverty epics.

It's refreshing to finally see a competently made local flick that aims to entertain the locals rather than scoop awards at foreign film festivals with deeply serious afro-pessimistic themes (such as Yesterday and Tsotsi.

Basically the story follows 2 male characters from their high school days into their adulthood. They get involved in lives of crime and must choose their own destinies.

This is a generally good and entertaining film. Ordinarily I would point out the negatives, such as the pacing, which drags a bit, especially towards the second half, some uninspired cinematography, some poor acting (especially from the female love interest). BUT, the problem with the SA movie going public is that we compare everything local to Hollywood. I assume this was made on a very limited budget and with pretty inexperienced people so it cannot possibly come close to matching those films for production values.

This film should be judged on its accomplishments taking into account the restrictions, and it does very well.

Jerusalema is, taken in context, an excellent film with plenty of local content and in-jokes. I believe it is important for all South Africans (able to) to support the local film industry to allow more true SA films to be made.

I don't know if I'm completely qualified to write this review as I walked out after about an hour, but this has to be one of the most recycled, uninspired sorry excuses for a real movie I've seen in a long time.

The actors, including Johnny Depp, seem to just be completing their contract obligations, and the director has absolutely NO, em, direction. Nothing makes sense, everything is overdone and the jokes are all parodically rubbish.

This is a classic example of fitting the plot around the characters and effects, rather than the other way around.

This is one of the most profoundly honest, real and emotional movies I have ever seen. I feel all the characters deserved oscars for their performances. The problem, of course, is that the oscars don't cater for films of this caliber and style.

It doesn't have any typical film structure, such as tension build-up, which is subsequently released, or comic moments balancing out the sad parts. This movie is fully and trully based around the emotional beings of the main characters, and that's what you must expect, and judge it through. It is very hard on you if you allow yourself to be drawn in by it's haunting performances, I left the movie emotionally drained. It does not have a happy ending, and soundtrack only appears a few times.

This may not be the kind of movie you allways want to see, but if you're ready for it it will reward you with an unparalleled experience, and leave you thinking about it for a long time.

This movie has some pretty good acting, and is a 'proper', professional horror movie, and most horror movies made in the 70's aren't.

But now for the bad things: 1. The p..ac...e and jerkyness really killed me. It would go from a very tense scene in the bedroom and straight back to normal, largely weak dialogue in other locations. I really got rather bored. 2. The time that passes before it attempts to be scary. 3. The fact that this movie thinks it's too scary to have a soundtrack. It slows to a crawl in the first hour in particular without any music. Only the best of movies, the first one that comes to mind is "saving private ryan", can keep your attention all the time largely without music. And the best horror movie ever, in my opinion "The Shining (Kubrick), had a soundtrack which made it even scarier. 4. The mainly silly makeup that was used in the bedroom made me feel as if this was one of those clay animation things at times. 5. It's not scary.

To summarise, this simply doesn't live up to the hype, for me.

I went to see this movie with low overall expectations, knowing that it was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer who I knew was somehow connected to "Armageddon", which I thought was an absolutely horrendous American patriotic bullcrap movie. I was hoping it would be pretty empty and bearable leaving me free to ignore it and enjoy the action scenes, which looked pretty impressive in the trailer.

What I saw though, increased my distrust for any film connected to Hollywood more than after seeing "Armageddon" or "The Patriot". The glaringly formulaic scripting (and acting) of the love story left me gasping in amazement at how unpicky (and dare I say unintelligent) Americans have become when watching movies, knowing how much it's making, and especially after reading the numerous "This is the best, most touching movie I've ever seen!" reviews on this site. I simply cannot grasp how anyone could be touched by the predictable clichés deployed to give the film an "epic", deep outfit. It was just so silly, it reminded me of the stories you expect from cheap paperback novels and daytime tv soaps. I could have bared it if only a small percentage, say less than 75% of the film, were pure love-story. After all it's hollywood, and it's a blockbuster. But what shocked and angered me was how seriously it took itself, as if the director and scriptwriters really felt they were creating art. There were no unpredictable twists, the acting was cold with no chemistry between the actors, and music is employed ALL THE TIME in an attempt to control our emotions. Real movies don't need constant orchestral mood-changing music, they manage to convey feelings to the audience by using picture and dialogue.

Now for the other parts of the movie. I found the Pearl Harbor bombing sequence pretty impressive as I am easily impressed by special effects and cool sound in movies. But again I cannot understand how people can avoid seeing and being annoyed by the glaring clichés in the story. Sure, the Japanese did kick some American butt, everyone knows that from history books, so the filmmakers couldn't really change the hard facts. Instead they showed that at least they were actually better than the Japanese, as is shown in the idiotic dogfighting and retaliation bombing sequence, or the "simple cook shows that pure patriotism can help shoot down some Japanese planes" scene.

"One on one the Americans would have prevailed because they are better", the movie seems to say, because that's the patriotic feeling Americans have and the movie works at that level to make its countrymen like it. Americans that can't tell the difference between a movie that makes them cry a little and feel good about their country, and a movie that has genuine artistic qualities.

Some say this is simply entertainment, but it annoys me and insults my intelligence when a movie takes itself as seriously while being so glaringly made for the sole purpose of making money.

I saw this movie sitting up late one night, I was bored, REAL bored, so I figured I'd give it a shot, given the pretty decent actors and all. Turned out after an hour of this horse-$#IT I was still bored. Terrible acting performances from practically everyone, TERRIBLE sets (never knew Gotham was a theme-park), and of course there was the script...

Watch this for 10 minutes and be amused by the pure ridicule, then go do something else. A clear 1/10