BIG FELLAS – THE REVIEW

By Sivu Nobongoza

To BEE or not to BEE these Camp’s Bay yuppies, Jake and Zed don’t have a choice in the matter, let alone a hope in Kakstad to get to the Stop Abusing Models Ossociation of South Africa (S.A.M.O.O.S.A.) conference in Jozi. With the brutal Ray Whitehead, their arch nemesis trailing vindictively behind them, they’re probably going to peg* of sunstroke in the desert, if the Karoo serial killer doesn’t get them first. In 72 hours, they must finish the film they haven’t started, get the black girl, gooi* a road-trip from Cape to Jozi, get their movie screened and get a Black Economic Empowerment partner; all so they can sit on a beach and stir up martinis until their next big idea. Only these two buffoons can’t tell a stalker-boeremeisie from a schizophrenic, albino player serial killer.

With an all-star, all-talented South African cast featuring comic notables Cokey Falkow, Marc Lottering and Kagiso Lediga to name a few, this is a super hilarious homegrown flick that will have you rolling on your back and kicking your feet in the air with laughter. Truly one of the funnier modern-day South African films and probably the last until another all-star South African cast feels liberal enough to take a stab (excuse the pun) at it. Everything about this film is extreme. Each character is an extreme wannabe something their not, whether they’re an extreme black supremacist, an extreme bisexual policeman or an extreme white Indian receptionist wannabe fashion designer.

With carefully crafted characters this film is a ball of fun, but not suitable for your neighbourhood prude. Although it doesn’t cross the obscenity line, it can get a bietjie* vulgar with its sexual innuendos and kasi* slang. So for those who don’t like to hear words like #!@ (box) and #§*#&±% (masturbator), I suggest you take your beeper with you. This is old folk town.

The type of SA jargon you can expect to here from Big Fellas:

Peg = Die
Bietjie = little
Doos = Box
Kasi = Township
Gooi = Go at it, throw, lunge, do, etc…