Change Your Image
roblaingjoeblog
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
3 Idiots (2009)
Before studying engineering, watch this
I just finished watching my first Bollywood movie via Netflix, and think it's the best movie I've ever watched. Partly because it really resonated with my own life story as someone forced to do engineering because of family tradition, and then much to the chagrin of both my grandfathers and father, ditched my job in an engineering multinational to work for a newspaper.
Sad thing is, my father and grandfathers were all frustrated journalists.
Something this movie makes explicit is many people sign up for engineering because they are creative, and unfortunately any creativity is killed by rote learning.
Justice Served (2022)
Some good ideas seem to have got mangled by a committee
I sat all through all six episodes of Justice Served since I'm a proponent of local content (though preferably not government enforced).
Is it as bad as the 3.9/10 stars on imdb? Unfortunately yes.
I watched this soon after Silverton Siege, which made the series worse since there seems to have been a plot heist -- exactly the same ideas of a hostage drama with a "good cop" getting over-ridden by a politically appointed boss gets regurgitated here.
Whereas Silverton Siege played a little bit with Pretoria geography, Jusice Served is utterly confusing to a South African audience since it uses the very familiar Cape Town parliament as a setting, and one has to figure out the building is supposed to be a high court in Hillbrow.
The screen writers had some interesting ideas on contemporary South Africa and the general malaise of government corruption etc. The fictional freedom fighters use some of Julius's actual quotes, such as calling a journalist a "bloody agent".
But ultimately, this seems to be the product of a committee where whatever individual good ideas were originally thought up got completely garbled along the way.
Silverton Siege (2022)
Great showcase for South African talent
This movie lends itself to a lot of criticism about historical accuracy. It doesn't claim to be journalism, and it catches the "vibe" of the times very well.
I Care a Lot (2020)
In trivialising a serious problem, it helps raise some awareness
Anyone hoping for a dramatised version of a serious issue better covered by Netflix's documentary Dirty Money in Season 2, Episode 5 "Guardians, Inc." will be disappointed, as the many negative reviews of this movie attest.
I happened to watch both shortly after my mom got widowed and being horrified at how the corporations my dad had entrusted his estate to promptly started circling like a pack of vultures and hyenas. There are a lot of really important lessons in the Dirty Money documentary series, and The Laundromat was a good effort at dramatising some of these.
Back to I Care A lot, I'm repeating what many have already said: an important topic has been turned into mush by getting blended with a computer-generated gangster movie script. It could have been great, but it's still watchable.
Lída Baarová (2016)
On Netflix, just swith to German?
Many of the one star reviews I've seen complain about Hitler and Goebbels speaking Czech, the language it was originally filmed in.
German is my second language, so initially abandoned watching this until someone pointed out Netflix offers a dubbed version. When I rewatched it in German, it was brilliant.
it's a conflicted story (how could anyone sleep with the Nazi's top propagandist?) which makes it interesting.
Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu (2016)
Far more than just another "anti-Apartheid" film
I'd never heard of this film before stumbling onto it on Netflix, and it's a must watch for all South Africans.
The story told brought to mind John Lennon's quote: "When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you - pull your beard, flick your face - to make you fight. Because once they've got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor."
The well documented brutality of Apartheid cops makes this grizzly viewing. The film also doesn't shy away from portraying the bumbling MK in an unflattering light, sending woefully badly trained and instructed every-day-guys to pointless tragedy.
It's a sad story of an everyman, a sensitive sole who in a better world have simply enjoyed jazz albums and raised a family, crushed by a brutal system.
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
Lots of wisdom about relationships, journalism, and advertising in this romcom
Learning what not to do is a valuable lesson, and what this rom-com is ultimately about is to teach women not to make the common mistakes early in a relationship which women often do. It's mainly aimed at educating women. But as a guy, I found it enlightening in that back when I was young and handsome, various women did exactly these things to me which made me run a mile, and now that I'm old and lonely, wish I'd given them a second chance.
The romantic female lead, a Cosmo-based magazine hack called Andie played by Kate Hudson, is essentially bullied into tricking some "poor schmuck" into getting tortured by all these mistakes by her bitchy editor for a laugh-a-minute article.
Unknown to her, the romantic male lead, called Ben played by Matthew McConaughey, has a strong insentive to persevere since his promotion at an advertising agency he works for has been tied to wooing a stranger within 10 days sufficiently so that when she comes as his date to a gala event for a luxury brands group, she will tell his boss she loves him. Two of Ben's female colleagues, who happened to have been at the Cosmo-clone's offices when the story was pitched, make it a condition they get to pick the loudmouth's target, so maximum hilarity ensues.
There are some pretty awful reviews on IMDB of this movie from people who find this plot cliched and predictable. But as someone who has worked in journalism most of his life and hates the damage these kinds of articles do to both their writers and their subjects, I found this a very wise story (and grealy admire the writers Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long who I suspect know what their talking about here).
ReMastered: The Lion's Share (2018)
A wonderful weaving of modern history around a song
This is the second Netflix's ReMastered series I've watched. The first was the Johnny Cash story "Tricky Dicky and the Man in Black" which I gave 10/10 to, and I'd give this one 11/10 if I could.
Disclosure: I'm an acquaintance of Rian Malan and Rob Allingham (I'd like to say friend, but we only bump into each other irregularly) and only became aware of this fantastic documentary via finding the above one on Johnny Cash.
I'm also acquainted (not in a friendly way) with some of the executives and other shysters put in the spotlight here. As Rian explains, this is an ambiguous tale with no clear heroes (other than the deceased composer) or villains, so not an easy story in which to pick the goodies or baddies (except if, like me, you've had personal experience with some of these crooks, but even then we're talking generations down the line.)
Long story short, this is a documentary I can't recommend highly enough.
ReMastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black (2018)
A fantastic telling of modern history through music
From the existing reviews of this documentary, I wasn't expecting much, but ended up giving it 10/10 and am writing this quick justification for that high score here.
This could be described as the story behind Johnny Cash's song "What is truth?" which at least one other reviewer picked up on, pointing out the documentary makers implied some footage of Cash performing was from his White House show when apparently it was filmed elsewhere.
Nitpicking over the veracity of some details aside, this is a great story told well. I've mainly listened to the last albums Johnny Cash made produced by Rick Rubin, dismissing his earlier work as too generic country & western.
This documentary was a huge eye opener for someone who's never heard the song "What is truth?" before, along with weaving in the stories behind "Route #1, Box 144", "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", and other Cash songs which I never realised were controversial, blacklisted from midwest radio stations in their day.
Even if you're not a Johnny Cash fan, this is a great slice of modern history, leading to interesting thoughts of Nixon's America vs Trump's America without being preachy or didactic.