Last night we went to go see the adaption to move of the book by John van de Ruit.In the days BC (before children) we saw movies regularly, but now a days catching more than one movie a year is a treat (at a movie house that is).
Likes
So first let me say what I liked:
- The movie's main character and of course the Gov (Clease) where well cast, even if John Milton had to grow on me. The Dad, Wombat and the Mom where also well cast.
- The use of original footage of the news of the announcement that Madiba is to be released, was fantastic
- The use of lots of South Africa music was great, would have like them to be specific to 1990, when the book is set though
- The Oliver Twist part is well done
- Setting was fantastic, go on Michael house for letting them use their grounds (I assume it was)
- Bonus: was the Dad's car
- The scenes with the narative where relatively well done
Irritations
To call them dislikes would be too strong a word, since it is a South African production and I would like to see more:
- The most irritating thing for me was the way the director of photography either zoomed in to much, chopped people's heads off, framed shots is such a way that I thought at more than once that perhaps the cinema screen was chopped off. The zooming in on Mermaid made her look hairy.
- Casting was not even close to age specific for the boys and girls, they need to take a leaf out of other school set movies and get this right, since otherwise it tends to distract from the main story
- I know it is not always getting it perfect for the big screen, but I missed the cricket, and ghost sub plot, especially since they survive into the rest of the series
I wish them good luck, I did notice that most of the audience fitted into the post 13 and pre 20 age group, and I remarked to my wife, that Spud is South Africa's American pie. The difference being that it has to end at matric.
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