JamesHurleyII
Joined Jan 2010
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JamesHurleyII's rating
In 2021 there were 96 recorded CIT incidents in the United States over 12 months and for 333 million people. In South African population is 60 million so we divide 333 million by 60 million and that means 17 incidents per 60 million people in USA. In South Africa they have 289 CIT incidents per year for 60 Million. 17 Incidents in USA versus 289 Incidents in Republic of South Africa each year. In other words Cash in Transit robberies is a way of life in South Africa. Xavier_Stone obviously knows nothing about South Africa because he says the TV Series starts with a rip off of the movie Heat (1995). Actually Heat is most probably based on the real South African Cash in Transit heists which have been occurring in South Africa since the 1980's. Ask any South African and they will confirm this.
The murder scene in the first episode is also not ripped off from a movie, this could easily be a real life scene, which happens too often in South Africa. Also the political and corruption aspects of the series are accurate. As well as the use of Sangoma's to ward off evil spirits and gangsters wild spinning of cars. This Netflix original, Soon Comes Night, isn't stolen from other movies, this is actually a pretty realistic portrayal of cash in transit gangsters living in South Africa.
No, this isn't the best TV series you will ever watch but it is a lot better than you might expect as long as you don't compare apples to oranges. This is an African TV series made for Africans, telling an African crime drama story. You cannot compare it to American TV; doing so would be unfair. The South African producers have done a great job, and it's evident that their skills are on the rise. Yes, there will be familiar crime drama plot elements and dialogue however the production team have crafted a worthy piece of work with good sets, cinematography, colouring, and well-chosen music.
The actors are believable and the story is engaging enough. The gangsters are stylised, muscle bound and acting cool, on purpose because they need to be palatable to the wider audience and this is a TV series not a documentary. The story lines are not unrealistic and over the top like too many American TV series.
What the production team has achieved on a small budget is impressive and obviously this TV series can not compete with big budget productions, remember "it's done with a $200 budget", that is $200k not $20 million.
If you have an interest in an African crime drama, you'll find this series intriguing.
The murder scene in the first episode is also not ripped off from a movie, this could easily be a real life scene, which happens too often in South Africa. Also the political and corruption aspects of the series are accurate. As well as the use of Sangoma's to ward off evil spirits and gangsters wild spinning of cars. This Netflix original, Soon Comes Night, isn't stolen from other movies, this is actually a pretty realistic portrayal of cash in transit gangsters living in South Africa.
No, this isn't the best TV series you will ever watch but it is a lot better than you might expect as long as you don't compare apples to oranges. This is an African TV series made for Africans, telling an African crime drama story. You cannot compare it to American TV; doing so would be unfair. The South African producers have done a great job, and it's evident that their skills are on the rise. Yes, there will be familiar crime drama plot elements and dialogue however the production team have crafted a worthy piece of work with good sets, cinematography, colouring, and well-chosen music.
The actors are believable and the story is engaging enough. The gangsters are stylised, muscle bound and acting cool, on purpose because they need to be palatable to the wider audience and this is a TV series not a documentary. The story lines are not unrealistic and over the top like too many American TV series.
What the production team has achieved on a small budget is impressive and obviously this TV series can not compete with big budget productions, remember "it's done with a $200 budget", that is $200k not $20 million.
If you have an interest in an African crime drama, you'll find this series intriguing.
One other reviewer said this was gripping, oh my, I was bored to tears. For most of the movie, nothing significant happens. The acting feels wooden and lifeless. Please do not waste your time. I can not believe that this movie got a rating of 7 on IMDb, that is ridiculous. This is why I gave the movie a 3 just to bring down that inflated rating. Actually I think the movie is worth about a 5 at best. I wish I could get back the last hour and a half of my life. I keep reading that Jack Nicholson's performance is widely praised, but I don't see it. Have seen Jack in some good movies but in this one he is basically mumbling, fishing, and smoking. As for the other actors, they each got about 90 seconds of air time. I guarantee that if this was the only movie showing on an airplane trip, most people would fall asleep. If this movie were shown on an airplane, people would want to jump out. Sean Penn takes what could have been one of Jack Nicholson's best performances and ruins it with a slow, dragging narrative. It's beyond bad-it's boring, stupid, and has a terrible script. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
This film was totally unexpected, on the surface it is another simple story of youth gone wrong, but behind all these gritty characters and realistic dialogue is a deep complex story line dealing with many themes. The filming and editing techniques help to explore these themes resulting in an Cult Australian hit. Granted this film is not for everyone. Many people will miss the complexity of this film and end up simply judging the story superficially or they will not enjoy the setting of impoverished youth in Melbourne, Australia. The story concerns a group of disenfranchised youth. Joe, who lives with his insane father, gets a job at a wholesale warehouse where he meets Dazey, the local playboy, and Savina, a Satan-worshipping shoplifter. Joe, Savina, Dazey and Rosalyn, Dazey's girlfriend, are inextricably bound in a love, lust, obsession, insanity, death, guns and street drag racers.
Blue the colour of sadness, depression, gloom and doom follows Joe like a shadow from which he can not escape. It may be debated but for me the primary theme of this film was psychological. How the characters are affected by the presence of lack love in their lives. What happens when they reach breaking point. Relationships between fathers and sons, friends, and lovers are all examined. The psychological theme is also examined from the point of view of control. We see how the characters try to affect control on the world around and fail miserably while unintentionally setting chains of events in motion with ramifications for all those around them. The characters are trapped by there very nature, they can not change, and it is there failure to change and there failure to see and understand the world as it is, that inevitably leads to their fate.
Another prominent theme is of this Melbourne underworld, a world that is off balance, a place where the darker parts of the human mind are never far off. We are made to see, hear and feel this world. The director desire to document the marginalised, the outcast, the fringe-dwellers of society does not extend to offer hope, solutions, where there are none.
Director Geoffrey Wright is one of the very few directors are willing to go to the lengths that he does, refusing to tell a story that involves conventional moralities and cardboard characters, nor does he balk at portraying the violence perpetrated by these unhappy youths in their quest for identity and meaning. This is a disturbing film and not for the morally squeamish. The fact that the director dared to cast actors who are NOT the Matt Dillon or Brad Pitts of this world makes the characters of this film so believable. Even though Dazey is cast as "Matt Dillon" of this film it is quiet clear that he is a big fish in a very small pond. Remember this is not a story of the super cool and tough guys at the top, this is a story of the guys at the bottom. So relative to the situation and surroundings I would say that the characters are perfectly cast. Dazey might have been tougher but that would have made him too stereotyped and I feel that he is more of a playboy then a fighter.
The sounds and images of Metal Skin remained with me for many days after first viewing, and would return unbidden like dream fragments in the weeks that followed. The bleakness of the environment inhabited by Metal Skin's characters is emphasised by the almost complete lack of sunlight in the film; daytime scenes are shot against unforgiving grey skies, or at twilight, or in the rain. Industrial, dockside or suburban scenes are de-saturated of colour, with occasional flashes of maroon or lime green in the characters' clothing serving as occasional contrast. Much of the film is shot at night to emphasise the characters' separation from the mainstream and lack of interaction with "normal" city life; as their night work at the supermarket indicates, they are not even full members of the economy, but are marginal even here. Incessant and intrusive sound and visual editing and confounding time shifts, work to disorient the viewer and constantly put you on edge and into their world.
Blue the colour of sadness, depression, gloom and doom follows Joe like a shadow from which he can not escape. It may be debated but for me the primary theme of this film was psychological. How the characters are affected by the presence of lack love in their lives. What happens when they reach breaking point. Relationships between fathers and sons, friends, and lovers are all examined. The psychological theme is also examined from the point of view of control. We see how the characters try to affect control on the world around and fail miserably while unintentionally setting chains of events in motion with ramifications for all those around them. The characters are trapped by there very nature, they can not change, and it is there failure to change and there failure to see and understand the world as it is, that inevitably leads to their fate.
Another prominent theme is of this Melbourne underworld, a world that is off balance, a place where the darker parts of the human mind are never far off. We are made to see, hear and feel this world. The director desire to document the marginalised, the outcast, the fringe-dwellers of society does not extend to offer hope, solutions, where there are none.
Director Geoffrey Wright is one of the very few directors are willing to go to the lengths that he does, refusing to tell a story that involves conventional moralities and cardboard characters, nor does he balk at portraying the violence perpetrated by these unhappy youths in their quest for identity and meaning. This is a disturbing film and not for the morally squeamish. The fact that the director dared to cast actors who are NOT the Matt Dillon or Brad Pitts of this world makes the characters of this film so believable. Even though Dazey is cast as "Matt Dillon" of this film it is quiet clear that he is a big fish in a very small pond. Remember this is not a story of the super cool and tough guys at the top, this is a story of the guys at the bottom. So relative to the situation and surroundings I would say that the characters are perfectly cast. Dazey might have been tougher but that would have made him too stereotyped and I feel that he is more of a playboy then a fighter.
The sounds and images of Metal Skin remained with me for many days after first viewing, and would return unbidden like dream fragments in the weeks that followed. The bleakness of the environment inhabited by Metal Skin's characters is emphasised by the almost complete lack of sunlight in the film; daytime scenes are shot against unforgiving grey skies, or at twilight, or in the rain. Industrial, dockside or suburban scenes are de-saturated of colour, with occasional flashes of maroon or lime green in the characters' clothing serving as occasional contrast. Much of the film is shot at night to emphasise the characters' separation from the mainstream and lack of interaction with "normal" city life; as their night work at the supermarket indicates, they are not even full members of the economy, but are marginal even here. Incessant and intrusive sound and visual editing and confounding time shifts, work to disorient the viewer and constantly put you on edge and into their world.