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What's it about?
Blitz Patrollie is the South African story of two police officers, Rummy and Ace, stationed at Johannesburg’s "central" Police station. The duo, played by comedians David Kau and Joey Rasdien, embark on an adventure of a lifetime trying to bust the biggest drug deal in South African history.
What we thought:
The cast is made up of some of South Africa's most loved stand-up comedians but somehow fails to deliver on the laughs it so eagerly promises its audience.
Written by Kagiso Lediga, previously of the Pure Monate Show, the movie is quintessentially South African. Lediga relies on overcooked stereotypes for laughs taking every joke as far as he possibly can, plying the story-line with unnecessary subplots just in case a joke about race was missing from the main plot.
The result: an unoriginal, over-the-top Leon Schuster style movie.
That is not to say that Schuster isn't funny, and the same goes for Blitz Patrollie. Even though most of the movie fails to raise more than the occasional snigger, there are definitely a few laugh-out-loud moments and it is clear that the cast and crew had a lot of fun putting the movie together.
With a cast jam-packed with famous South African comedians from Chris Forrest to David Kibuuka, I would have loved to have been a fly-on-the wall on set. As comedians, the cast is superb, but as actors, they seem to fall short. The jokes seem written for a comedy-show, not a feature length movie and what would seem hilarious in a show at the Baxter doesn’t necessarily translate well on-screen.
South African films like Material and Tsotsi succeeded because they were able to move away from a Hollywood-style blueprint and managed to find their own voice for South African society’s complexities. Blitz Patrollie on the other hand gets stuck trying to create the South African version of Starsky & Hutch.
So not to be entirely negative as it’s always heartening to see a South African movie on the big screen, if you’re a fan of the Pure Monate Show and want to support South African comedy, Blitz Patrollie will be worth the watch.
Blitz Patrollie is the South African story of two police officers, Rummy and Ace, stationed at Johannesburg’s "central" Police station. The duo, played by comedians David Kau and Joey Rasdien, embark on an adventure of a lifetime trying to bust the biggest drug deal in South African history.
What we thought:
The cast is made up of some of South Africa's most loved stand-up comedians but somehow fails to deliver on the laughs it so eagerly promises its audience.
Written by Kagiso Lediga, previously of the Pure Monate Show, the movie is quintessentially South African. Lediga relies on overcooked stereotypes for laughs taking every joke as far as he possibly can, plying the story-line with unnecessary subplots just in case a joke about race was missing from the main plot.
The result: an unoriginal, over-the-top Leon Schuster style movie.
That is not to say that Schuster isn't funny, and the same goes for Blitz Patrollie. Even though most of the movie fails to raise more than the occasional snigger, there are definitely a few laugh-out-loud moments and it is clear that the cast and crew had a lot of fun putting the movie together.
With a cast jam-packed with famous South African comedians from Chris Forrest to David Kibuuka, I would have loved to have been a fly-on-the wall on set. As comedians, the cast is superb, but as actors, they seem to fall short. The jokes seem written for a comedy-show, not a feature length movie and what would seem hilarious in a show at the Baxter doesn’t necessarily translate well on-screen.
South African films like Material and Tsotsi succeeded because they were able to move away from a Hollywood-style blueprint and managed to find their own voice for South African society’s complexities. Blitz Patrollie on the other hand gets stuck trying to create the South African version of Starsky & Hutch.
So not to be entirely negative as it’s always heartening to see a South African movie on the big screen, if you’re a fan of the Pure Monate Show and want to support South African comedy, Blitz Patrollie will be worth the watch.
