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Ty Keogh: homeward bound

For Ty Keogh, 2013 is a year of change. He’s seen the sun set on M-Net series ‘The Wild’. He’s said goodbye to Jack van Reenen, the character he played for two years. He’s moved back to Cape Town. He’s returned to the world of film production. He’s cleansed his life.

“When I finished ‘The Wild’ and left Johannesburg, I went through a purge period where I got rid of everything that wasn’t completely necessary in my life – a lot of clothes, magazines and books, and stuff I didn’t really need,” the 31-year-old reveals.

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Movies Reviews

‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’ scales new heights

Good thing IMF agent Ethan Hunt isn’t afraid of heights. He’s already leapt from a speeding train onto a helicopter inside the Channel Tunnel. He’s gone free-climbing up a 600-metre cliff-face. He’s leapt between Shaghai’s skyscrapers. So scaling the outside of the world’s highest building, Dubai’s 163-storey Bhurj Khalifa, without ropes, is all in a day’s work.

The epic action centrepiece of ‘Ghost Protocol’ easily surpasses its predecessors in terms of sheer scale and white knuckle thrills. But – with comedian Simon Pegg in tow to explain how Hunt’s adhesive climbing gloves work (“blue means glue, red means dead”) – the sequence also highlights the differences between the ‘Mission: Impossible’ films.

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Interviews Movies

Terry Pheto: snapped up

‘I’ve always had big dreams, but I’ve been blessed beyond my expectations,’ says Terry Pheto, actress, role model, face of L’Oréal and … storyteller?

‘My grandmother was an amazing storyteller and, because we didn’t have TV at home, she would tell stories every night. I would recite them to my friends the next day and I think that’s where my love and passion for storytelling started,’ recounts Terry.

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Interviews Movies

Sharlto Copley escapes District 9

‘District 9’ star Sharlto Copley tells us about the dark side of Hollywood, being recognised at the gym, Wikus and Charlize, ‘Braveheart’, befriending Rampage Jackson, prawns, acting crazy, his primary school gang, and being a member of ‘The A-Team’.

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Movies Reviews

Sherlock Holmes gets a kick up the arse

SHERLOCK HOLMES [US / BR / GER 2009] ROBERT DOWNEY JR as Sherlock Holmes, JUDE LAW as Dr John Watson

Everything you know is wrong. Sherlock Holmes doesn’t own a deerstalker hat. Or puff one of those calabash pipes. And never in four novels and 56 short stories does he actually say: “Elementary, my dear Watson.”

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s writings, he’s a tortured neurotic reclusive coke-head martial artist. And, after almost 200 film appearances as a stuffy bore, that’s who finally shows up here.

Robert Downey Jr brings the quirks. Guy Ritchie supplies the grit. Together the star and director give the detective a much needed kick up the arse. Reimagining the super sleuth as reluctant superhero (a la Batman, Spider Man, Superman, and, yes, Ironman) their ‘Sherlock Holmes’ trades tweed for TNT.

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Movies Reviews

‘Up’ truly soars

Cranky septuagenarian widowers are supposed to play bowls on Wednesday afternoons, drive as slowly as they speak, and send handwritten letters to the local community newspaper complaining about the quality of the toilet paper in shopping mall restrooms.

They’re not expected to tie thousands of helium balloons to their house and float off to the untamed jungles of South America, encountering chocolate-loving oversized birds and talking dogs on arrival.

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Movies Reviews

‘Public Enemies’ takes a hit

John Dillinger: legendary Depression-era outlaw, audacious bank robber, cavalier jailbreaker, hero of the common people, and — in Michael Mann’s ‘Public Enemies’ — speed dating pioneer.

“I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars, and you,” he tells a hard-to-get Billie Frechette when she first catches his eye. “What else do you need to know?”

Not much, reckons Mann.

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Movies Reviews

‘The Half-Blood Prince’ raises the stakes

HP6-VFX-00423r DANIEL RADCLIFFE as Harry Potter and MICHAEL GAMBON as Professor Albus Dumbledore in Warner Bros. PicturesÕ fantasy adventure ÒHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

There’s an odd hint of familiarity as two figures – cloaks flapping the wind – stand on a rocky outcrop, the camera swooping over the waves towards them. Moments later, inside a cave, the wizened old man bellows a spell, his flowing white hair and matching beard silhouetted against a sea of flames. And when a mass of pale, skeletal figures with big eyes creep up from the water (is that you Gollum?), it’s clear that ‘The Half-Blood Prince’ has ‘Lord Of The Rings’-scale ambitions.

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Movies Reviews

‘Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen’ is bigger, not better

ORG XMIT: NYET593 In this film publicity image released by Paramount Pictures, Megan Fox, left, and Shia LaBeouf are shown in a scene from "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Jaimie Trueblood) ** NO SALES **

Amid a blurred frenzy of helicopter gunships, airborne cars, cluster bombs, barked military orders, missiles, scattered brick and mortar, tanks, frantic shouting, the wanton destruction of ancient landmarks, that patriotic American music, and giant robots auditioning for the WWE, somewhere in the Egyptian desert, balding, overweight 50-something suburban dad Ron Witwicky runs for his life.

“I don’t know what’s going on!” he gasps.

Don’t worry, man, nor do we. And don’t even bother asking the director.

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Movies Reviews

‘The Hangover’ keeps the party going

Hangovers suck. Your eyeballs raped by sunlight. The shagpile-carpet tongue. The squash court inside your skull. That urge to gulp all the water in the toilet bowl. The acid whirlpool spiralling in your belly. The urgent need to die.

Still, it’s nothing a greasy breakfast, another bottle of vodka, or Romanian tripe soup can’t fix.

Less easy to deal with: waking up in a trashed Las Vegas hotel room, a tiger in the loo, unknown baby in the closet, a friend disappeared, no recollection of the wild night before, and help from Gil Grisom’s CSI team strangely unforthcoming.

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