Jurassic Park still holds up 20 years later
You’d think that 20 years of progress in computer-generated imagery (CGI) would make Jurassic Park look like, well, a dinosaur. But Steven Spielberg’s summer blockbuster, re-released this weekend with a 3D makeover, is just as captivating and thrilling now as it was in 1993. It remains a great example of the director’s ability
Iron Man 3: an avenger disassembled
The Avengers last year assembled four of Marvel’s biggest heroes in a single film, where an army of aliens led by a Norse god laid utter waste to New York City. That’s a tough act to follow, but Iron Man 3 does so by focusing on the character of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) rather than on the superhero firepower
Promised Land: pastoral polemic
Few topics inspire as much heated debate as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which makes it surprising that the subject should fuel a film as tepid as Promised Land. As much morality tale as green polemic, the film reunites Matt Damon with Good Will Hunting director Gus van Sant after 15 years
‘No heroes’ in consumer commission saga
The department of trade & industry violated the operational independence of the head of the National Consumer Commission, public protector Thuli Madonsela said on Wednesday. “The signed shareholder compact between the commission and the department indicates that the commissioner
Seven Psychopaths: maze of meta-ness
Serial killers kill serial killers in Seven Psychopaths, a Hollywood film about an Irish screenwriter in Hollywood written by an Irish screenwriter. It is yet another snarky movie about the movies, a meta-meta-film that borrows liberally from the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Charlie Kaufman and the Coen brothers
Why Icasa went after WBS
Wireless Business Solutions (WBS), the company that owns iBurst and Broadlink, owes the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) R57,9m in spectrum licence fees, the telecommunications regulator has claimed in court documents. According to the
BioShock Infinite: castles in the sky
Bathed in celestial light, and with the wholesome aroma of carnival popcorn in its air, BioShock Infinite’s airborne city of Columbia is as far from the water-sodden Objectivist dystopia of BioShock in atmosphere as it is in geography. But under its turn-of-the-century fairground Americana, Columbia churns with currents
Jack the Giant Slayer: big budget, small returns
Bryan Singer directed one of the best films of the 1990s in The Usual Suspects and set the blueprint for cinematic treatments of superheroes with his two Xmen movies. Even his less successful efforts such as The Apt Pupil and Valkyrie are brave, interesting movies that bear the fingerprints of a talented and individual
The irony of Samsung’s dominance
Let’s make a mobile OS that will rival Apple’s iOS, and let’s give it away for free. Clever thinking by Google, at the time. As of early 2013, Google’s Android operating system has come to dominate smartphones worldwide, with Samsung taking the lion’s share of this dominance. The irony is
Tomb Raider: the rebirth of Lara Croft
There are two ways to see Tomb Raider: as a much-needed reinvention of an ageing franchise, or as dumbing down and actioning up of a much-loved series in a sop to the latest fads in a fickle gaming market. It’s a game that is extremely good at what it does