From my favorite movies..

A different way of telling a story

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I don't care about who produces a movie or how old it is, for me its just about entertainment. One minute into the movie it starts with a guy in the prison talking about his past....very creative. So I realized "this is just a copycat of all the other random gangster movies". And I was damn right.There are lots of scenes that are just dull and unrealistic, without being funny or cool at all. The whole story is too predictable, boring and also kind of nonsensical.Don't watch this, if you like clever, funny or realistic gangster movies. This movie has a 2 point bonus for being from Africa. If this had been a Hollywood flick, it would have reached a 6 at max. So be warned.

I saw this in the Pan-African Images Sidebar at the 33rd Cleveland International Film Festival.It's an interesting mix of local South African dialect and English, with Rapulana Seiphemo extending his lead role from "Tsotsi" which is appropriate, since the story line is derivative of that film. This is about the adult Tsotsi could readily become: an ambitious gangster, a Sowetan Robin Hood whose crimes often mirror what the legal ethic endorses, but for the character Kunene it's more about his community.A couple of historical quotes figure large in this. Although Marx is attributed as the author of the "all property is theft" line in the movie, Marx considered this statement by Proudhon as "self-refuting". But it does seem an apt theme to the story of a culture in flux after its colonial disenfranchisement. Al Capone's "the bigger the crime the bigger the payoff" summarizes the operational ethic quite well.A somewhat raw film (which is why I gave it a 5… I grade "bell-curve") this is still an interesting movie from a developing South African market. See it if you get the chance!

This film was such a disappointment. It sensationalizes crime, celebrates materialism, denigrates Black Africans in general, debases Black women in particular, and glorifies Whites in the same subliminal ways that are so prevalent in Hollywood. As "entertainment" it merely serves to perpetuate all that is bad about South Africa today. I am totally bewildered by those who claim it is better than Tsotsie. No, it is a cheap, trashy, commercial, gangster movie with no morally redeeming value at all. That said, the acting was good, as were some of the technical aspects of the very violent scenes. But the violence was way too gratuitous, as was the excessive footage of half-naked Black women hanging out in the Nigerian drug dealers' den. Sadly, the fact that so many young South Africans seem drawn to the film says more about the present state of social and political consciousness of young South Africans than about the quality of the film.

Tsotsi is nothing compared to Jerusalema. Finally a real South African movie that can hold its head up high. Totally authentic, all respect to those involved. A mirror on Jozi and what our lives are really like. I hope other film makers will take note and pull their sox up. It's time to stop being embarrassed about being South African and take pride in our local industry. I strongly recommend all South Africans and go and see it on the big screen as the producers intended. I'm gonna spread the word. And please, do not by pirated DVD's; help enable the local movie industry to grow... I loved this movie. I cannot say it enough times. I am speechless. KUDOS MZANSI.