Category Archives: Movies

Hail to the kings of movie soundtracks

Last Saturday I closed a loop that had started 40 years ago: I saw the movie Footloose. You ought to know that the movie as well its soundtrack were huge hits in 1984; the catchy title song, in particular, was all over the radio and TV. It was almost as big as Flashdance from the year before. Kenny may have been dubbed the “King of Movie Soundtracks” in the eighties but it was ultimately Giorgio Moroder and Harold Faltermeyer who were pulling the strings. Continue reading

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Blade Runner 2019

It is November 2019. This is when the classic 1982 film Blade Runner takes place. For over three decades I’ve wondered what the year 2019 would really be like. Continue reading

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The Matrix remembered

2019 rings in yet another anniversary. The Matrix movie is twenty years old. Had the film been released now, in 2019, it would still be a terrific actioner and perhaps even more relevant than it was then: the matrix will be instantly recognised as an obvious allegory to the always-connected, domesticated, utilitarian social media of today. Surveillance by machines is a pervasive theme, and much of the computer jargon that would have befuddled viewers two decades ago has since entered mainstream speak. Continue reading

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My mother? Let me tell you about my mother…

2017 is a year filled with anniversaries. 2017 happens to be the “incept date” of Leon Kowalski, the replicant in the original Blade Runner movie from 1982. This year is also the one where fans would finally be treated to the unnecessary sequel, Blade Runner 2049. Furthermore, 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of my mother’s passing.
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Remembering the Mini Cine One

If you wanted to see a movie you would go to a cinema. Early-eighties Johannesburg offered several, and many were well within walking distance or along the bus route back after school. One of these was the Mini Cine One in Hillbrow. Continue reading

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The future is today

Today is “Marty McFly Day” or, alternatively, “Back to the Future Day”. Today is the day when Doc and Marty will encounter hoverboards, flying cars, video conferencing, food hydrators, news drones, fingerprint readers, voice-controlled home automation and mosaic-view multi-channel large-screen flat-panel TV sets, motion controlled arcade games, power laces, augmented reality visors, holographic 3D movies, and a black Michael Jackson giving cooking advice — Max Headroom-style. Continue reading

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Of dinosaurs and cinemas

Some movies you just have to see in the cinema, when they come out, munching overpriced popcorn while sitting in a large auditorium with a group of total strangers. It’s just a part of the experience. Jurassic World is a children’s movie. Continue reading

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Han shot first

It shouldn’t surprise me then that it would be on “Star Wars Day”, May the fourth, that — as a matter of sheer and utter coincidence — today would be the day when I start ripping my old VHS copies. Honestly, I didn’t realise this until later! Continue reading

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