#OntheBigScreen: Christmas & comedians

Jonathan
In this hilarious local romp from writer-director Sallas de Jager, Jonathan, a dreamer and wannabe stand-up comedian in his late 20s, still lives with parents. After another failed open mic performance, he gets drunk and crashes his father’s dream car on the way home. This is the last straw for his loving but fed up parents and his father kicks him out of the house. Sitting at a restaurant not knowing where to go, he watches car guards in the parking lot and decides that he will become a car guard just to stay afloat until the next big stand-up comedy completion that he firmly believes he can win. After a very hostile reception by the other car cards, the eldest car guard decides to take Johnathan under his wing and teaches him the finer art of being a car guard and, more importantly, he teaches Jonathan about life and how to survive as an outcast. Jonathan also falls in love with a girl way out of his league. Life takes a massive turn when Jonathan and his mentor’s LOTTO- ticket wins the lottery. Jonathan however manages to lose all the money in a matter of days. This put Johnathan on a journey to try and redeem himself. Will he be able to apply the lessons learned to make peace with his family, earn the forgiveness of his mentor and win the heart of the most beautiful girl he ever met?

Moana

Celebrate Pacific Island storytelling culture with this latest adventure from Disney. An adventurous teenager sails out on a daring mission to save her people. During her journey, Moana meets the once-mighty demigod Maui, who guides her in her quest to become a master way-finder. Together they sail across the open ocean on an action-packed voyage, encountering enormous monsters and impossible odds. Along the way, Moana fulfills the ancient quest of her ancestors and discovers the one thing she always sought: her own identity. Deeply inspired by their time in the Pacific Islands, filmmakers assembled a group of advisors the filmmakers named the Oceanic Story Trust (OST). The Trust includes anthropologists, educators, linguists, expert tattooists, choreographers, haka specialists, master navigators and cultural advisors who collaborated with Disney’s creative team. South African singer-songwriter and performing artist Lira, has recorded her own version of How Far I’ll Go, from Disney’s upcoming animation comedy adventure film Moana. Lira’s recording will feature on the South African version of the film as the first end-credit song when Moana hits cinemas from Friday 2 December nationwide. In addition, fans will be able to purchase the single from the South Africa iTunes Store from 9 December. For the track, Lira recorded a special music video and behind the scenes exploration that delves into how the track came to life.

Almost Christmas

A new comedy from writer/director David E. Talbert (Baggage Claim) and producer Will Packer (Ride Along, Think Like a Man series, This Christmas), it tells the festive story of a beloved patriarch who asks his family for one gift this holiday season: to get along. If they can honor that wish and spend five days under the same roof without killing one another, it will be a Christmas miracle.

Underworld: Blood Wars

The newest instalment of the blockbuster franchise finds Vampire Death Dealer Selene (Kate Beckinsale) fending off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction that has betrayed her. Aided by her only allies, David (Theo James) and his father Thomas (Charles Dance), she must end the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice. The fifth film in the hugely successful action-horror series picks up the action where Underworld Awakening left off. The Lycans have found a powerful new leader in Marius (Tobias Menzies), who has injected a fanatical sense of purpose and discipline into their previously ragtag ranks. Marius will stop at nothing to track down Selene in order to learn the whereabouts of her daughter Eve, a Vampire-Lycan hybrid. Joined by David, Selene barely manages to elude her Lycan trackers until a truce negotiated by David’s father Thomas allows her to take refuge at the Eastern Coven, ruled by the ambitious Semira (Lara Pulver). In abject fear of the escalating Lycan threat, Selene’s former Vampire adversaries hope her legendary fighting skills will help them eradicate the Lycan scourge once and for all. But when Selene discovers that some of her Eastern protectors have traitorous agendas of their own, she and David are on the run again, forced to seek sanctuary behind the walls of the mysterious Nordic Coven, a peaceful sect of Vampires living in monk-like seclusion in the northernmost regions of the earth. But their newfound sense of security in the snow-covered lands of Var Dohr is fleeting, for wherever Selene goes, the centuries-old war between Vampires and Lycans always follows.

Keep Watching

In this horror directed by Sean Carter and written by Joseph Dembner, Jamie (Bella Thorne) is a confused and problematic girl, hiding a secret. Her parents Carl (Ioan Gruffudd) and Betty (April McCullough) are divorced, but she never accepted her new stepmother, Nicole (Natalie Martinez). During a weekend her family are imprisoned inside their own home by three psychopaths – anonymously under the names Mysterious (Leigh Whannell), Terror (Matthew Willig) and Creator (Christopher James Baker). Jamie must play a life-and-death game to save her family.

Tristan Und Isolde (Met HD Live Opera)

The second opera in the current 2016/17 Met: Live in HD season, filmed for broadcast into cinemas from The Metropolitan Opera in New York, is a powerful new staging of Richard Wagner’s epic tragedy, Tristan und Isolde from Saturday, 03 December, for limited screenings at Cinema Nouveau and select Ster-Kinekor cinemas. With its world premiere at Munich Court Theater in 1865, Wagner’s breathtaking meditation on love and death holds a unique place in the opera world.The opera is conducted by Sir Simon Rattle in his first Live in HD performance, and is directed by Mariusz Treliński. Nina Stemme stars as the world’s pre-eminent Isolde, a touchstone role she has sung with major opera companies around the world. Her Tristan is Australian heldentenor Stuart Skelton, who sang Siegmund in the Met’s Ring cycle in 2013. The approximate running time is 4hrs 47mins, including two intervals.

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