Thanks for Sharing: Movie Review

Thanks for Sharing: Movie Review

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Gad, Tim Robbins, Joely Richardson, Alecia Moore
Director: Stuart Blumberg

Sex addiction - it's not a real thing, is it?

Tiger Woods, Russell Brand, David Duchovny and Charlie Sheen - they all claim to suffer from this disease.

In this comedy drama, three friends negotiate their way through the realities and temptations of being a sex addict; there's Ruffalo's Adam, who's five years sober, Gad's ER doctor who's attending meetings due to a court order and there's aphorism spouting Mike (Tim Robbins) who's been in rehab for a while and is a sponsee to Adam.

When Mike urges Adam to get back out there and start meeting people, he comes across Gwyneth Paltrow's perky but damaged Phoebe, who's had breast cancer and been in a relationship with an addict. Cautiously, the pair grow closer, acting on their initial attraction. But for Adam, the reality of his condition starts to intrude on his relationship.

Likewise, the arrival of Mike's addicted son causes friction between himself and his wife (Joely Richardson); and when Gad loses his job for inappropriate behaviour, he soon finds himself facing a harsh truth and needing the help of Alecia Moore AKA Pink's Dede, a fellow member of the group...

Thanks For Sharing is a rich piece, riddled with humour (mainly at Jonah Hill-esque Josh Gad) and fuelled by a powerful performance of addiction, which is grounded in reality by Ruffalo.

When he confesses to Phoebe, his thoughts are that "Cancer gets you sympathy, this gets you judgement" and it's probably the harsh reality of an addiction that's been thought of as simply a cover up for men cheating on their wives. But it's Ruffalo's honesty and earnesty as an actor while he's on this journey and its lucid insights which just manage to keep this on the right side of drama; while the comedy's amusing in places, it comes dangerously close to trivialising the addictions they face. Ruffalo excellently conveys the sympathy needed to root for this central character and his relationship with Phoebe as he battles with the addictions he's had. In fact, one scene where Paltrow delivers him a strip-tease is more completely inappropriate than tantalising given how it comes shortly after he confesses his condition.

But that scene alone is symptomatic of a few of the problems of Thanks for Sharing - some of the narrative feels rushed and dare I say it, predictable; Paltrow's act would have had more resonance had it happened later on in the film. Likewise, Mike's journey from sanctimonious bon motif spouting holier than thou to inevitably wrong father is one that can be seen coming from a mile off. He's a guy who's wrecked his family and would rather be there for others than for those around him and his lesson learning is entirely unsurprising.

It's perhaps Josh Gad and Alecia Moore (in her first role) who really rise from this film; Moore's tearful confession in her first scene at the addiction class is wonderfully moving and heartfelt - it shows she is an actor on the rise; and Gad, while endowing his out of control ER doc with some humour, rises to the occasion as well.

But a terribly Hollywood, neat resolution ending almost leaves the audience feeling cheated as it powers towards a sunnier day where all our protagonists are in a good place. It's a crass ending to a film that's worked so hard to show that sometimes being out of control isn't very easy to control.

All in all, Thanks for Sharing has moments of inevitability but due to the character work done - especially by a wonderful Ruffalo - while exploring this maligned of addictions, it does just about what it sets out to do.

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Beyond Two Souls: PS3 Review

Beyond Two Souls: PS3 Review

Platform: PS3
Released by Sony

More of an experience than a straight forward game, Beyond Two Souls is something to be part of rather than played.

Developed by Quantic Dream (the publishers of Rain) and utilising the acting skills of Willem Dafoe and Ellen Page, it's a non-linear story of Jodie (Ellen Page), a young girl with a secret. As the game begins, we find Jodie in a police station, but before long all hell breaks loose.

It's here that the narrative starts jumping back and forth in her timeline, taking in moments and different story elements come in; suddenly you are young Jodie, tasked with tidying her room up and coming through for some tests. It's at this stage that the traditional elements of the gaming world kick in - use the controller to move Jodie, get her to move things about etc.

But it's also at this stage that you start to get your first look at Aiden, the mysterious entity, which appears tied to Jodie, meaning that the two can't be separated by huge distances. Floating above her, Aiden can go through walls (all done through first person POV shots) and influence the world around- either in the form of knocking stuff about or later on, possessing people to do your bidding.

A lot of the gaming is done via QuickTime methods - press X to do this, press O to do that - which initially gives you the feeling of being somewhat distanced from the actual game itself and merely directing the talent involved to do your bidding. As ever, there are multiple options which obviously provide a plethora of outcomes, meaning you could go again if you wanted to.

There's also action as well - as I revealed earlier on this year with my hands on with Beyond: Two Souls - and it keeps the narrative changing tones and leaves you less with the feeling that you're ever so slightly aloof from the unfolding screen work.

What's great about Beyond: Two Souls is the motion capture work - seriously, the efforts to bring Willem Dafoe (as Jodie's kind of mentor) and Ellen Page to the small screen are utterly captivating. The younger Jodie looks uncannily like Ellen and it's incredible to behold. That's the thing with this - the movie side of Beyond: Two Souls is an unbelievably impressive experience, but as a gaming and fully immersive experience, some may find it wanting. It's an interesting choice of themes and ideas and a totally different way to have them play out.

Perhaps on occasion more could have been given to the gameplay (parts feel confused and leave you uncertain over what to do), but Beyond: Two Souls, with its multiple endings, is a reminder that choices do have consequences; the developers Quantic Dream have created something which stands alone in the current environment and presented something which is utterly different - and that deserves to be applauded.

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Puppeteer: PS3 Review

Puppeteer: PS3 Review

Platform; PS3
Released by Sony Computer Entertainment

Side-scrolling platforms with relatively cute characters are always likely to get my attention.

I'm a huge fan of the Sackboy series, and while Puppeteer has elements of that which look the same, it certainly deserves to be viewed on its own merits.

In this latest, you play a boy called Kutaro, who's been turned into a puppet after the Moonbear King has smashed the moon stone and scattered throughout the kingdom ( I know, bear with me). But along with a kind of cat that dangles from a web like a spider called Ying Yang, and a pair of magical scissors, Kutaro can negotiate his way through the worlds and perils that face him.

But, when Kutaro finds extra heads around the world (as he's had his original head torn off when he became a puppet), he unlocks different kinds of abilities. Coupled with the ability to fly in the skies thanks to the snipping magical scissors, it's suddenly not as difficult as it seems.

Side scrolling through a theatrical set up, Puppeteer is a dark, macabre yet somehow family friendly title which is going to appeal to all. Scenes change back and forth in this dark castle world in the kind of way you'd expect to see in a pantomime. The scissors serve to help solve puzzles in one game and then must be used against cloth baddies in the next; it's a brilliant touch which is cartoonish yet deeply troubling in other moments.

The whole thing manages to work as it seems to be set inside a puppet theatre (like you'd get with the old style Romeo and Juliet boothes) complete with audience "oohs" and "aahs" throughout, meaning that the whole game has a lighter touch than some of its darker material may hint at (ripped off heads, cutting out baddies etc etc).

There's a creative uniqueness to Puppeteer, which won't take you very long to adapt to or to play, but it can be picked up with ease and settled into without any difficulty at all. Wonderful visuals and a deftness of touch give it a playable and easily addictive edge.

Imagination is the only limit on games these days on the PlayStation and it appears that Puppeteer has it in spades - and it doesn't disappoint at all.

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Lee Daniels' The Butler: Movie Review

Lee Daniels' The Butler: Movie Review

Cast: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding Jr, Lenny Kravitz
Director: Lee Daniels

And so an Oscar contender is revealed.

In The Butler, Forest Whitaker plays Cecil Gaines, an African-American butler in the White House. Gaines served 34 years in the employ of various presidents. It begins with Gaines reflecting back on his life as he waits to meet Barack Obama.

Taking in his father's death at a cotton plantation and then being taught the ways of servitude before ending up in Washington after being hand picked by a White House head-hunter. Gaines finds his place in the serving world and forms a relationship with fellow butlers (played by Cuba Gooding Jr and Lenny Kravitz).

Against this backdrop of serving eight Presidents from 1957 to the 1980s, The Butler also focuses on the tempestuous Civil Rights movement and race relations as Gaines negotiates his own family woes - from a growing alcoholic wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) to a politically active son Louis (a tremendous performance by former Spooks star David Oyelowo), who can't stay away from the fight for the African-American quest for independence.

Lee Daniels' The Butler is of the ilk of The Help; it showcases an ugly chapter in America's history and attempts to use Hollywood to bring to life certain moments which have been swept under the carpet. Based on the life of Eugene Allen, it's nothing short of unsubtle in places to be honest; once again, the message is repeatedly sledge-hammered home when a simple more understated approach would have worked wonders.

Whitaker is venerable as Gaines, and Winfrey is stoic as his wife; but Lee Daniels' The Butler belongs more to Oyelowo who captures the antagonism of the father/ son / Civil Rights conflict perfectly and subtly with a performance that's captivating in among the sentimental, plodding mush of the predictable story.

It's weird as well as thanks to the various castings of the different presidents (Robin Williams as Eisenhower, John Cusack as Nixon, James Marsden as JFK, Alan Rickman as Reagan), you start to become distracted by who will be next in the presidential parade.

Overall, Lee Daniels' The Butler is one of those kind of cloying, race relations, Oscar-baiting films which is servicably made, but lacks the tenacity to bring the subtlety at strong moments, resulting in the direction feeling more heavy handed than anything. It's a shame because after a while, the plodding nature of parts of the film begin to grate and irritate, rather than inspire and appal as it should do.

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The Turning: Movie Review

The Turning: Movie Review

Cast: Rose Byrne, Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxborough, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto, Dan Wyllie
Directors: 17 of them - including Mia Wasikowska

Based on Australian writer Tim Winton's best-selling short story collection of the same name, The Turning is a collection of 17 shorts, each made by 17 different film-makers.

Pulling together a wealth of acting talent, and a three hour running time, the shorts are chapters from the book and cover a myriad of different stories. With each lasting roughly 10 minutes or so, the push through is quite an impressive one.

Like any collection of shorts, there are ones which stand out and ones which don't quite hit the mark. Even the ones which aren't quite as emotionally resounding are still visually impressive and beautifully shot. Inevitably the segments with the bigger names stand out - Rose Byrne's practically unrecognisable as a trailer park dweller who's a domestic violence survivor and who is verging on being born again; and Cate Blanchett's turn as a woman whose Christmas plans are initially scuppered by the appearance of her mother-in-law.

Ambition shines through in The Turning; certainly there's an epic feel and emotional subtlety which is resonant throughout the three hour event. Normal screenings provide a break, and I have to confess around the two hour mark, there was a need for some down time to process what's been seen and what could be ahead.

A lack of familiarity with Winton's tome proved fatal to me and I missed the subtle variations on the same character played at different stages and in different incarnations - it's best to be aware of these links (similar names, some recurring motifs) before you go in - and you'll certainly be richly rewarded. Innocence, love, jealousy, resentment, anger and regret - all are explored, revealed and laid raw.

All in all, The Turning is something epic in scope, each inter-connected story beautiful in execution and rich in emotion; while it presents a unique view of Australia and contemporary themes, there's a universality and a desperation which resonates within the soul. It's a bravura film and one which elevates the work of short film makers to the fore - and certainly issues a rallying cry for any short-film makers to really up their game.

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Doctor Who hits 50 years - and NZ celebrates its biggest Who haul

Doctor Who hits 50 years - and NZ celebrates its biggest Who haul

It's coming soon - and it's almost time to celebrate the Day of The Doctor.

BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who hits its 50th anniversary this very month on November 23rd and there are global celebrations planned.

But it's also a massive month - one of the biggest ever - for Doctor Who releases on the small screen.

BBC and Roadshow Home Entertainment have got a huge slate of Doctor Who releases planned for the celebrations - and it's great to see the show is being taken seriously over here.

First up though, there are three volumes of Doctor Who: Revisited out on November 6th:

A special 50th anniversary DVD series
The first volume in this restrospective series showcases Doctor Who's first four doctors - William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, spanning from 1963-1981.

The Doctors Revisited includes a half hour profile and a classic story for each Doctor introduced by Steven Moffat (the current Lead Writer & Executive Producer). Each classic story is available to view as a widescreen, feature-length version or in its episodic, original format.

Featuring The Aztecs (William Hartnell), The Tomb of the Cybermen (Patrick Troughton) Spearhead from
Space (Jon Pertwee) and Pyramid of Mars Tom Baker.
RELEASED: 6 NOVEMBER * RRP: $39.99 * DISCS: 4 *

DOCTOR WHO REVISITED VOLUME 2
The years 1981-1996 saw four new actors portray the Doctor, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester
McCoy and Paul McGann, the focus of the second volume in The Doctors Revisited. Featuring 30 minute
restrospectives per Doctor, a Steven Moffat introduction.. Each classic story is available to view as a
widescreen, feature-length version or in its episodic, original format.

Featuring the stories: Earthshock (Peter Davison), Vengeance on Varos (Colin Baker), Remembrance of the Daleks (Sylvester McCoy), and Doctor Who: The Movie (Paul McGann).

Then 2 weeks later, in the year that Doctor Who celebrates its 50th anniversary, the very first regeneration story gets a release too - The Tenth Planet.

DOCTOR WHO: THE TENTH PLANET
• Contains a newly animated fourth episode (the original is currently missing from the BBC Archives)
• The very first regeneration story

The TARDIS lands at the South Pole in 1986. The arrival coincides with the appearance of Earth’s forgotten twin planet Mondas along with visitors from that world – the emotionless Cybermen. It’s up
to the Doctor (William Hartnell) and his friends to stop the creatures before they convert Earth’s population into similar cyber creations – but the encounter will have a devastating effect on the Doctor...

Special Features: • Commentary • Frozen Out Making Of • Episode 4 Reconstruction • William Hartnell
Interview • Doctor Who Stories – Anneke Wills • The Golden Age • Boys! Boys! Boys! Peter Purves, Frazer Hines and Mark Strickson reminisce about their time as companions • Companion Piece • Blue Peter Tenth anniversary retrospective on Doctor Who’s history • Radio Times Listings • English Subtitles • Photo
Gallery • Digitally Remastered Picture and Sound Quality •

Perhaps the biggest release this month though, comes from the recent haul of 11 recovered previously missing episodes - and is a global day and date release - The Enemy of The World.

The Enemy of the World, is the fourth six-part tale of the original fifth series which first broadcast in the
UK December 1967. Alongside Patrick Troughton, who plays both the Time Lord, and his antagonist
(Ramon Salamander) are his companions Frazer Hines (Jamie) and Deborah Watling (Victoria). Episodes 1,  2, 4, 5 and 6 had been missing from the BBC archives, until now. All episodes have been re-mastered.

27 Doctor Who stories still remain missing or have incomplete episodes, after a number were lost as a
result of BBC Archive space-saving measures.

RELEASED: 27 NOVEMBER * RRP: $TBA * DISCS: TBA

Don't forget also, you can see the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, The Day of The Doctor in cinemas on November the 24th - check your local cinemas for details.