/ 18 April 2008

A taste of Croatia on screen

ON CIRCUIT: The Croatian Film Festival, How She Move, Mad Money and Street Kings, starring Forrest Whitaker.

Croatian Film Festival
Showing at Brooklyn Mall, Pretoria, from April 18 to 20, and Cinema Nouveau, Rosebank, Johannesburg, from April 25 to 28, this festival includes prize-winners and box-office hits from Croatia. Movies on show include the hit comedy What Is a Man without a Moustache?, the historical epic The Horseman and the urban drama Here. Films show at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. Entrance is free and tickets can be collected an hour before each show time. Go to www.sterkinekor.com or http://za.mfa.hr for listings.

How She Move
An energetic film about the rising street culture of step dancing in Canada. The life of aspiring medical student Raya (Rutina Wesley) is turned upside down after the death of her sister. She is now forced to move back to her old neighbourhood, unable to afford the private-school education that was supposed to get her into medical school. When she hears of a national step-dancing contest, she sees it as an opportunity to lift herself out of the seemingly downward spiral she faces. Although the title sounds suspiciously similar to quite a few other dance movies, the movie still grips the viewer in spite of the evident clichés. The formulatic plot is lifted through the energetic dancing and honest acting of the lead characters, which ends up making the movie enjoyable enough. — Surika van Schalkwyk

Mad Money
Diane Keaton loses the plot again in this underwhelming comedy about three US reserve bank janitors who hatch a scheme to steal money from their employer without being noticed. Katie Holmes and Queen Latifah co-star. Somewhere between the extreme over-acting and gags, which try way too hard, is a story of the folly of greed. It’s not worth the price of a film ticket though. — Warren Foster

Street Kings
This is a classic cop drama about corruption. It stars Keanu Reeves as Tom Ludlow, a veteran LAPD cop, a man dealing with many demons, both in the real world and within himself. He twists the law with the blessing of his commanding officer, the enigmatic Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker), his mentor and superior. This makes them the target of internal investigations. Even Ludlow’s old partner, Terrence Washington (Terry Crews), believes the group is out of control and he’s willing to spill the beans to Internal Affairs. Street Kings has an intriguing plot, it’s fast-paced and has solid and interesting characters, with Reeves and Whitaker both giving good performances. — Zodidi Mhlana