The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales: PS5 Review

Developed by Team Asano
Published by Bandai Namco and Square Enix
Platform: PS5

There's a refreshing innocence to The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, a game that's about venturing through your own kingdom and saving it, by helping others.

It's not a game for the cynical in many ways, and given how devastatingly insular our world has become, that's no bad thing.

You play the aforementioned Elliot, who must travel through the world of Philabieldia, a continent overrun by beast tribes, and try and stop it from falling. But after an incident involving a minister and his own death, Elliott suddenly finds himself hoping between time zones and facing different perils.

As a HD 2D game, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is beautifully presented, a game that feels as magical as the likes of Zelda but which gains itself its own personality and look and feel. Mixing hack and slash sentiment with RPG gaming, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales feels like a relative breath of fresh air into the genre, one that embraces its point of difference and gets on with engaging its audience.

However, given a lot of the engagement is done through text-heavy exposition, it does occasionally feel like it's slowing to a crawl, an unavoidable consequence of the storytelling that could have been tightened during play.

With access to a wide array of weapons, combat is never as boring as you'd worry and the game pushes on nicely because of that very fact - this is a game that recognises some of the slower turn-based JRPGs put many off, and the move toward countering that is very welcome.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales won't sadly win any Game of the Year awards, but for casual players of the genre, worried about how heavy the lore of others can be, this is a welcome light touch that makes a great fist of its elements - but needs to learn a little how to shut up and get on with it.

Win a double pass to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day!

Win a double pass to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day in cinemas!

To celebrate the release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in cinemas July 30, thanks to Sony Pictures New Zealand, you can win a double pass!

About Spider-Man: Brand New Day

It's a Brand New Day for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him—and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him—sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control. 

But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves - a powerful villain no one can even see.

The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando and Mark Ruffalo and is directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton.

Spider-Man is based on the MARVEL Comic Book by: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in cinemas July 30.

Nirvanna The Band The Show- The Movie: Disney+ Movie Review

Cast: Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol
Director: Matt Johnson

There's a warm goofiness to Nirvanna The Band The Show- The Movie that may be catnip to some and anathema to others.

Based on a cult Canadian comedy series that began way back in 2007, it followed the duo Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol, a pair of would-be musicians desperate to score a gig at a local club - and concocting plenty of out-there plans to do so, rather than simply contacting their dream venue.

The film version of that series follows a template that mixes mockumentary with time-travel shenanigans riffing on Back To The Future while never holding back from acknowledging the fact it's directly like it.

When they end up back in 2008, the duo tries to work out how to get back - and if indeed, they can or should do so.

To say Nirvanna The Band The Show- The Movie is a little niche is perhaps to undersell it.

In parts, it feels like a fly-on-the-wall documentary that's in the style of hidden camera pranks as they bumble through their life - though, when the moments hit, they land with a conviction and a humour that's amusing, if not outright hilarious.

Perhaps more effective riffing on perceived Canadian politeness (a running gag literally sees Matt running through the streets and continually apologising to those in the way) and the Toronto way of life, Nirvanna The Band The Show- The Movie feels in parts like a series of sketches stitched together with the loosest of threads.

But there are audacious moments too.

One sequence early on which sees them apparently jumping from Toronto's CN Tower and skydiving into a local stadium (because it's their plan to get noticed) benefits greatly for a WTF feeling of "Did they actually do that?". 

And there's no denying a DIY storehand's comment of "I'm a Libertarian, but I wouldn't do that" when the pair talks of using pliers to cut wires is laugh-out loud funny - even if you're not sure whether it's been scripted.

It also has a huge heart too, capturing some of the uncertainties of mid-life male relationships and the ennui that comes with continual disappointment. Its deeply philosophical line of "if you got a best friend, you won’t even notice getting older", may be one of the cinema's truest ever moments, that will land with its core audience as the final third dips into maudlin melancholy and an examination of what life really is about.

Nirvanna The Band The Show- The Movie is one of those films that will benefit from fans poring over it and picking out the sight gags and running jokes. But it still can't escape the feeling of being overlong and for a certain core audience, rather than mass appeal.

Mortal Kombat II: HBO Max Movie Review

Cast: Karl Urban, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada, Adeline Rudolph Tati Gabrielle
Director: Simon McQuoid

Five years ago, the first Mortal Kombat delivered a movie that pitched perfectly to its core game audience, but did nothing to satiate a general audience and bring in new fans. So in terms of cinematic success, it's almost unthinkable to believe the sequel would double down on what made the first work and yet somehow also prove equally as unqualified in trying to garner a wider audience while threatening an Avengers: Doomsday style sequel at the end.

Yet that's exactly what McQuoid's follow-up does, despite mixing in a story of Kitana's creation (she saw her father killed before Shao Khan, an evil monster who enslaved her kingdom) and introducing weary former martial arts expert Johnny Cage (Urban) on whose shoulders the fate of EarthRealm rests.

With a side-story of a MacGuffin about an amulet that grants its bonded wearer immortality, the preposterous levels of Mortal Kombat are set in stone before the very first fight takes place.

Once again, the movie remains faithful to the gameplay and locations, even if some of its choreographed fights are more like dances around the subject. The brutality seems lacking this time around and if anything compared to what can unfold on TV screens these days, it almost seems tame in its execution - particularly for a game famed for its OTT Fatality final kills.

The action is serviceable enough, directed as it is in a perfunctory way by McQuiod as he swirls around characters and takes in the video game-style backgrounds. But in among the CGI fare and taunts, there's little that suggests flair and certainly little that's memorable.

More successful - though once again, very familiar - is the Cobra Kai-style arc of Urban's Johnny Cage, a washed-up fighter turned actor who starred in some questionably bad 80s and 90s movies, such as Citizen Cage, that became cult hits for the wrong reasons. Sidelined at a convention, Cage's weariness and cynicism is expertly captured by Urban, even if in truth, he's played a dialled down version of Billy Butcher from The Boys. 

The film's more enjoyable when it leans on the more humorous edges of the set-up and sequences where Cage has to fight against Baraka, a multi-toothed creature in a Mad Max-themed dustbowl show glimpses of what the franchise could be if it stopped taking itself just too seriously.

Once again Josh Lawson's Kano gets the best lines. From labelling an albino necromancer a "bleached dildo" to calling him "Pennywise", the chuckles are a welcome addition to a film that just doesn't want to appeal to everyone.

At nearly 1 hour 50 minutes, Mortal Kombat II is a test of patience in many ways. It's not a disastrous video game adaptation and takes what makes the fight series work and transposes it to a big screen. 

It's just that it now risks becoming the kind of movie franchise that Cage himself is mocked for doing - a dinosaur doing a bunch of karate poses - and the fact it looks likely to continue on to a third film is a fatality for any audience wanting some kind of thrill at the cinema.

What's on AMC+ in August

Here's what's streaming on AMC+ in August 2026.

The Walking Dead: Dead City – AMC Original Series

Season 3 Episodes Premiere Sundays Until the Season Finale 13 September on AMC+ 

In season three, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) finally put aside their differences to build the first thriving community in Manhattan since the apocalypse, but when chaos in the city begins to arise, they are forced to question: have they learned from their old wounds or will their dark past spell doom for the entire city?  

Also starring Jimmi Simpson, Raúl Castillo, Aimee Garcia, Logan Kim and Michael Emery. 

The Vampire Lestat: One Night Only Live – AMC+ Exclusive Special

New Special Premieres Sunday 23 August on AMC+ 

Filmed earlier this summer at the legendary Beacon Theatre in New York City, Vampire Lestat, the world’s first immortal rock star, makes his final tour stop. 

Played by Sam Reid, Lestat takes the stage to perform original music from The Vampire Lestat by series Composer Daniel Hart for a live performance.

Age Inappropriate – AMC+ Exclusive Series

New Series Premieres Friday, August 7 on AMC+ 

New unscripted series offers an unfiltered look inside the lives of five couples navigating extreme age‑gap relationships. 

The eight‑episode series reveals the complexities of power dynamics, family pressure, stereotypes, financial imbalance and yes, true love, when it comes to May-December romances. 

Experience, money and life stage are powerful forces that can turn passion into pressure, sexual chemistry into combustion and ultimately, love into hate. Can couples separated by decades truly build a lasting love, or is the writing already on the wall? 

What's on Shudder in August

Here's everything that's streaming on Shudder in August 2026.

Hellcat – Shudder Original Film

New Film Premieres Exclusively on Shudder and AMC+ Friday 14 August

Lena wakes in a moving camper trailer with a horrifying wound. She’s warned by the driver that they have one hour to get to a doctor, or she’ll succumb to an unimaginable fate. As the pain sets in and reality begins to fray, who should really be afraid? Starring Dakota Gorman (Natural Disasters). 

Queens of the Dead – Shudder Exclusive Film

New Film Premieres Exclusively on Shudder and AMC+ Friday 7 August

A zombie apocalypse breaks out in Brooklyn on the night of a giant warehouse party, where an eclectic group of drag queens, club kids, and frenemies must put aside their drama and use their unique skills to fight against the brain-thirsty, scrolling undead. Director Tina Romero’s feature debut.

Shudder’s Library Highlights: 

What Happened to Dorothy Bell? – premieres Saturday 1 August 

Ozzie Gray video documents her investigation into the traumatic events from her early childhood, which involve her late grandmother, Dorothy Bell. 

Deerskin – premieres Saturday 1 August

A man’s obsession with his designer deerskin jacket causes him to blow his life savings and turn to crime.

Hatchet – premieres Saturday 1 August

When a group of tourists in a New Orleans haunted swamp tour find themselves stranded in the wilderness, their evening of fun and spooks turns into a horrific nightmare. 

Hatchet 2 – premieres Saturday 1 August

Marybeth escapes the clutches of the bayou-butcher Victor Crowley and returns to the swamp with an army of hunters and gunmen, determined to end Crowley’s reign of horror.

Deadland (2023) – premieres Saturday 1 August

U.S. Border Patrol Agent, Angel Waters, makes a routine apprehension that will haunt him forever.

Exorcismo – premieres Monday 3 August

A young woman participates (unknowingly) in a satanic ceremony and gets possessed by the spirit of her late father.