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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Man must be crazy not to see this, August 23, 2003
While the Kalahari Desert looks like a paradise, it's the most treacherous desert in the world, where there is no water for nine of the twelve months of the year. Much of the first twenty or so minutes is spent documentary-style, contrasting the lifestyles between the "pretty, dainty, small, and graceful" Bushmen and "civilized" man. They've adapted to their environment. There's no sense of ownership--what's there to own?--and wood is the hardest thing there. There's also no crime, punishment, violence, laws, police, judges, rules, or bosses. It sounds like a utopia. Compare that with "civilized man", who adapts his environment to suit him, builds power lines to run his labour-saving devices and didn't know where to stop. More improvements mean more complications, which is why all of us are sentenced to twelve years at school to survive in this complex habitat.So when a Coke bottle tossed from an airplane is found by Xi, a Bushmen, it disrupts their concept of the gods giving them good and useful things, as clearly, there wasn't enough of those given them. Xi, played by real Bushmen (N!xau) sets out to get rid of the bottle. In Botswana, there's biologist Andrew Steyn who's assigned to pick up Kate Thompson, a reporter who's tired of the rat race in Pretoria and decides to become a teacher in Botswana. Comedic disaster results in two forms. One is Steyn's becoming a complete bumbler around beautiful women, and the blonde Kate is quite a looker. The other involves his driving a land rover, dubbed by his African friend Mpudi as the anti-christ, as there's nothing but trouble with this vehicle. Mpudi's cursing at the rover is funny. Needless to say, calamity results on her first day with him. And a band of armed terrorists led by the bearded Sam Boja make their way from the republic of Burani (fictional, of course) down to Botswana. The seriousness is lightened by two of his members, who when they aren't shooting their automatics, are busy playing cards. Some comedic moments involve repeated lines. Steyn's chosen one is "Ai yai yai!" at some predicament. However, a lot of comedy involves people out of their element, i.e. Steyn with women, Kate in the wild, and of course Xi far away from the Kalahari and his simple ways--or a real laugh, see him trying to drive the anti-christ. I would say this is a one-of-a-kind film, but there was a sequel that followed four years later. Jamie Uys, who produced and directed the film, has a small cameo in the beginning as the reverend who asks Steyn to go pick up Ms. Thompson. The fastly-run film harkens to the old silent slapstick comedies. So remember, Monday morning at 8:00 AM, when everyone has to look busy, think of the pit we dug ourselves in, and think how simple those bushmen have it, take a page from Steyn and say "Ai yai yai!" because the gods, i.e. us people, must be crazy.
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DVD ~ Jamie Uys
DVD ~ Debbie Brown
DVD ~ Ian Bannen
DVD ~ Charlie Sheen
DVD ~ Hurichabilike
