Director's New Releases Film Review

Last weekend me and some buddies entered the 48 Hour Film Competition. Each city has its own mini contest and then the winners go on to the national contest. You have 48 hours (duh) to write, shoot, and edit a 4-7 minute film. Everyone has to include a specific character, a prop, and a line, but get a random genre. We got Superhero. You can see the result here. Winners to be announced friday night. Now on to the review...

DISTRICT 9 -- This is the feature debut by the guy who was supposed to direct the Halo movie. His Halo short film -- I probably showed it to everyone when it came out -- can be seen here. Basically, District 9 is about these aliens who are stranded in South Africa and have been forced to live in slums and are generally treated like shit (a not too subtle nod to apartheid). They've traded all their weapons and technology for food, but none of it works unless an alien is using it, so the government is trying to figure out how to get them to work and make the big bucks. The main character, Wikus, is a government worker who by bad luck becomes the most wanted man around for reasons I won't spoil. The first half of this movie starts a bit slow but it builds to an action packed second half. There are lots of alien guns, explosions, and exploding people. Let's just say that the alien's weapon of choice 'splodes bad guys real good. It's obvious that this isn't a Hollywood film. There are plenty of f-bombs, violence, and just weird things going on. In the end, I found myself rooting for the aliens, which is a funny thing when you think about it. This is recommended.