Evidently it’s the season for action thrillers… especially those starring Nicolas Cage! (Seeking Justice and Trespass both debut in SA cinemas over the coming fortnight). If you can’t stomach the thought of watching the Horrifically Haired One but sill crave some big screen brutality, you may want to check out Safe House. Safe House releases on 10 February in the …

If you go into Machine Gun Preacher expecting another Blood Diamond – a powerful, socially conscious action-adventure set against a backdrop of African Civil War – you’ll be disappointed. If you go into the film expecting an Africanised Blind Side, a feel-good tale where persistence against the odds leads to a happy ending for the disadvantaged, you’ll also be let …

Four new releases bring the action, drama and trauma this week to South African cinemas. Machine Gun Preacher: My pick of today’s new movies is this action drama based on a true story. Gerard “This is Sparta” Butler plays Sam Childers, a biker and drug addict turned preacher and relief worker. Childers’s work in Uganda and the Sudan culminates with …

Perhaps it was foolish not to instantly realise that director Steven Spielberg and Hergé’s much beloved comic book Tintin would be a natural fit for one another. The similarities between Spielberg’s world-weary archaeologist Indiana Jones and Herge’s intrepid young reporter are obvious – both men travel the pre-1950s globe on the hunt for mystery-shrouded historical treasures. Both characters are also …