TOP MOVIES
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen e.tv, Channel 194, Saturday, 22:05 This is another of those movies that I wanted to like more than I actually did. Unlike The Brothers Grimm, in which I was able to pinpoint exactly what stopped the film from being great, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’s problems are something I can’t quite put my finger on.
It’s based on the graphic novel series of the same name which brings together several Victorian-era fictional characters, such as adventurer Allan Quartermain from King Solomon’s Mine; Captain Nemo from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; The Invisible Man; Mina Harker from Bram Stoker’s Dracula; the titular immortal from The Picture of Dorian Gray; the grown-up, gun-toting Tom Sawyer; and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic criminal mastermind, Professor Moriarty. You know, all the goodold adventure stories when everything was fresh and original.
I’m immensely tickled by the idea of a group of Victorian-era Englishmen discussing plans in a musty study over a glass of scotch before heading out on a grand adventure, wot. And this movie delivers that to some extent.
Adventurer Quartermain (Sean Connery) leads his crew of uniquely skilled hunters to track down Moriarty (Richard Roxburgh), whom they believe is trying to start another world war so he can profit from weapon production — but that turns out to be only the tip of the iceberg.
Watch it and see if you agree that there’s something imperceptible stopping it from being great.
Billy Elliot
SABC3, Channel 193, Friday, 20:30 It seems as if the local channels can’t get enough of this movie, so I may as well write about it.
Billy Elliot is one of those feel-good movies about following your dreams no matter how much they might conflict with societal norms or your family’s plans for your future. In reality, that doesn’t often turn out so well, but that’s why we need light-hearted comedies like this so we can experience that kind of triumph vicariously from time to time.
Billy (Jamie Bell) is the son of a striking British coal miner. His dad (Gary Lewis) sends him to learn boxing at a local gym, but he ends up joining a ballet class that takes place at the same venue. He quickly realises that dance is his true passion.
Most of the laughs come from the uphill Billy gets for wanting to dance, because ballet is for “poofs”. Can Billy bring his disapproving father around?