Movie and album reviews
By Thabiso Sihlali
The Bourne Legacy
13 LV
Action, Adventure, Thriller
2hrs 15min
Cast:Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton
DIRECTED BY Tony Gilroy
PRODUCED BY Henry Morrison,Jennifer Fox
Jeremy Renner takes up the leading man slot left vacant by Matt Damon for the 4th outing in the explosive Bourne series of spy films with the series' screenwriter Tony Gilroy taking the director's chair for the first time.
Renner stars as fellow Treadstone outcast Aaron Cross who is being similarly hunted by his own side and whose life-or-death stakes have been triggered by the events of the first three Bourne films.
The film co-stars Edward Norton, Rachel Weisz and albert Finney with Joan Allen reprising her role from the previous films as Pam Landy.
3D - Hotel Transylvania
10 MV
1hr 33min
Cast: Adam Sandler, AndySamberg, Cee Lo Green, DavidSpade, FranDrescher, KevinJames, MollyShannon, SelenaGomez, SteveBuscemi
3D, Animation, Comedy, SK Kids
DIRECTED BY GenndyTarkovsky
PRODUCED BY Michelle Murdocca
This animated comedy centres on Dracula's five-star resort, the Hotel Transylvania where monsters and their families, including Frankenstein (voiced by Kevin James) and his bride (Fran Drescher), the Mummy, the Invisible Man, and a family of werewolves, can live it up without worrying about frightening or offending anyone in the human world.
Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler), an overprotective dad, has a teenage daughter, Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez). He makes up stories about terrible dangers in order to keep her from wanting to leave the hotel. But his world may come crashing down when an ordinary guy (Andy Samberg), who just happens to walk into the hotel, falls for Mavis.
Damsels in Distress
Comedy,Drama,Romance
1hr 37min
Cast: Adam Brody and Analeigh Tipton,Greta Gerwig
DIRECTED BY WhitStillman
A trio of girls set out to change the male-dominated environment of the Seven Oaks college campus, and to rescue their fellow students from depression, grunge and low standards of every kind.
Movies
Nas
Life is Good
On his new album, Life Is Good, we’re hearing the most locked-in Nas has been in years, and the results are awe-inspiring. To return to that Complex interview, “With this album I’m saying what I’ve got to say, and that’s what it is.” I don’t know if it took a painful divorce or he has simply hit the point in his life when he’s thinking about his legacy, but goddamn then Nas, keep saying what you’ve got to say.
He first five tracks of Life is Good are so dope, so perfectly sequenced that I really feel like I have no choice. Perhaps Nas titled the album opener No Introduction because it’s far more than an introduction. Instead, it’s more of a manifesto, a warning shot, an announcement that God’s Son is back and he’s bringing his cinematic storytelling skills with him.
Even though the album was released months ago(July 2012), it expected to hit South Africa’s music stores by end of October 2012
Lupe Fiasco
Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1
"Hope my stories . . . keep your sons out the slums and your daughters out of orgies," raps Lupe Fiasco on his fourth album. Like a lot of firebrands, Lupe's got a messianic streak. But it's hard to begrudge his swelled head: What other chart-topping star packs his songs full of radical politics, black-history lessons and sci-fi visions of environmental catastrophe? Food & Liquor II has the usual Lupe deficiencies: a hectoring tone ("Bitch Bad") and bombastic beats that pile-drive messages home. He's better when he relaxes a little: Songs like "Hood Now," a celebration of black cultural takeover, have a lighter touch, and hit twice as hard.
Nelly Furtado
The Spirit Indestructible
On her fifth LP, Nelly Furtado tries awfully hard to be Rihanna – when she's not trying to be M.I.A. or Madonna. As for trying to be Nelly: That happens in songs like (gulp) "Bucket List" and (double gulp) "Believers (Arab Spring)" when Furtado lets her inner hippie emerge. Main producer Rodney Jerkins keeps the beats tight and hooks polished, but Furtado's flaming identity crisis makes this cringe listening.
Albums
