Straight Outta Benoni

The movie is about two South African chaps, living in the suburban limbo that many young South Africans find them in a post-Apartheid era where Affirmative Action has cut their options down. The actors are mostly accomplished at their art, the cinematography is quite good, but the script and editing lets the whole thing down. Although supposed to be a comedy, the chuckles can be counted on one hand. Wry smiles are the best that I could generate. Extensive use of slow motion slows the movie down to a crawl at times, and it somehow never gets going. This may be deliberate, reflecting the lives of our protagonists who also never seem to get going, but it does not compel the viewer used to fast paced Hollywood action.

Low budget? Definitely. But low budget is a challenge to film makers, and should not be a death knell.

On the bright side, their are no cheap politically correct themes, and no pie-in-the-face scenes a la Schuster to get cheap ratings.

A huge pity that the actor who plays Brett was recently killed in a senseless killing. This will probably give the movie undeserved cult status. Judged on it's own merits, it does not deserve cult status.

The only way that anyone enjoyed this movie, or found it remotely amusing, was by being so drugged out of their mind that they were actually laughing at the stage curtains moving in the breeze.

Bad, bad, bad, in Malories immortal words! Damn right that the only place money got spent was on the marketing - it was the only way they could get people into the movie house.

This entirely justifies the pirating of movies - it's actually criminal to expect people to pay to be exposed to this drivel! Do not rent this movie - rather convince your worst enemy to do so, in fact steal a copy and post it to him.

This is the worst movie ever made anywhere on planet earth. Zero out of ten is flattery. They should allow minus numbers. The two main characters are a Wayne's world lookalike and his sidekick who tries to model his role on Chevy Chase. If you think their acting is bad, it gets worse with the cop who models his role on Jim Carey and fails, miserably. Occasional attempts at American accents. It is quite a difficult accent for South Africans and impossible for any of this cast.

Was there a plot?. I don't think so. The only faint glimmer of humour was the high school address by the head-boy, Idols compère Colin Moss, also acting the role of a Joe Kool Fonzarelli character, which he did OK with. Danny Kaye also sang a song or two and these two guys's personal fan club obviously raised the vote count to what looks like a respectable rating. Waste of time. Waste of money. No laughs.

This happens to be the only South African movie containing really clever and witty type of humor (unlike moronic Leon Shuster movies) - comic timing is perfect :-) Also, us South Africans are sick and tired of seeing blood, crime, and anything AIDS related - this has been shoved down our throats all the time, on the news, in the print media as well as with other SA movies. Straight outta Benoni is a real breath of fresh air!

You have to be south African to truly appreciate it. There is also a need for your brain cells to make contact at least once in a while - viewers who dislike the movie are simply too dumb to get it. WELL DONE BOYS :-) WE WANT MORE

I think fans of more "dialogue" driven comedy, often the type that improves with multiple viewings, as opposed to frat boy gross out humor, will really enjoy this movie. I liked it the first time, and really loved it the second and the third was ridiculously funny. There's a lot of subtlety in there that can be missed. Being a South African, I feel this is a brave, foolish step in the right direction for filmic comedy in this country.

And the movie works on quite a subversive level I found. It really highlights the whole "instant fame" society we live in where everyone believes they can make it. It's about following your dreams in a really haphazard way. Awesome.