Movie Review - Bypass

The Zone, Rosebank was the venue on Wednesday, 10^th May, when yet another local flick made its official debut. Thanks to my friends at Ster-Kinekor I was one of the lucky few who was invited to the official screening of Bypass. Following the great impression Kalushi left on me, I was more than happy to check out yet another original intriguing flick. Upon first coming across it I originally thought it was an international movie and was genuinely surprised to see that it was South African based and produced – that’s pretty cool in my book.

Its storyline is also what makes it even more intriguing, became aware of this once I did some research on it. According to this post on Cape Talk online, director and co-writer, Shane Vermooten said that “the movie deals with the problem of underground organ trafficking.” If that’s not enough to get you interested then maybe the below might.

Cast – Natalie Becker, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Greg Kriek, Deon Lotz, Shoki Mokgapa & Matthew Dylan Roberts

Director – Shane Vermooten

Genre – Thriller

Running Time – 1h 32m

The Plot

Officially in cinemas tomorrow, the premise for Bypass is set around Cape Town’s top cardiac surgeon Dr. Lisa Miller who is faced with the devastating news that the last chance for her son’s liver transplant has been destroyed. When presented with the alternative of using an illegal organ transplant, she ignores reason, willing to do whatever it takes to save the life of her only son. Secretly she takes Sam to Jalloh Africa. Once locked behind the derelict walls of the New Life Clinic she discovers the full extent of an international black market organ syndicate, that harvests organs from poor and vulnerable donors, selling them for profit to desperate often wealthy recipients.

The movie is a great idea in trying to get a message across, more people need to be organ donors, that’s very commendable especially when you consider (according to what I heard whilst watching) that less than 2% of people are registered organ donors in South Africa, something that might now improve as a result of countless efforts by the Organ Donor Foundation, this flick included.

I’m not going to lie, it really was a difficult one to watch and not in a good way.

Now, as for the movie itself and from a general watch, I’m not going to lie, it really was a difficult one to watch and not in a good way. What started out as an OK and promising start quickly turned into a not so great watch…to put it politely. Bypass is all over the place and most parts feel very forced and awkward which eventually led to me becoming very confused by it all. It has a lot of holes and stuff that just doesn’t add up across the different scenes. It’s sad especially since the level of movie making locally is improving – Bypass just isn’t it I’m afraid, not by a long shot.

Definitely not the best movie I’ve watched and to be honest it might have made the list of the worst I’ve watched. The idea behind it is admirable but the overall execution could have been done way better. Sadly it wasn’t great and for once I can’t see a reason to recommend it, however, surprisingly, some (at the screening) really enjoyed it so it may be a personal thing. It gets a very disappointing 1 out 5 rating from me.

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#Bypass #Bypass movie #Bypass movie review #Deon Lotz #Greg Kriek #Hakeem Kae-Kazim #Matthew Dylan Roberts #Natalie Becker #Shoki Mokgapa

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Thabiso Moloi

With many, many years of PR, digital & influencer marketing work under his belt, Thabiso has worked on a great number of technology, business and consumer brands. In addition, he has become obsessed with most things under the sun including music, series, sports, movies etc which he now regularly writes about. You can find him on Twitter: @Thabz_14