True Grit: Movie Review

True Grit: Movie Review

True Grit
Rating: 7/10
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin
Director: The Coen Brothers
Jeff Bridges stars as Rooster Cogburn in this remake of the 1969 Western which originally starred John Wayne.
Cogburn's a one-eyed US Marshall who's charged by Hailee Steinfeld's teenaged Mattie Ross to bring her father's killer, Tom Chaney (Brolin) to justice.
Initially reticent, Cogburn takes on the job - and ends up teaming up with Texas Ranger La Beouf (Damon) who's also tracking Chaney.
The three of them head out on the trail - with Ross determined to make sure Cogburn brings her father's killer home to face justice rather than see him swing in Texas (La Beouf's wishes).
But when Mattie accidentally stumbles across Chaney, the quest suddenly becomes deadly.
True Grit is a straight forward Western, which while sublime in places, in my humble opinion, is nowhere as outstanding as it's been made out to be. (Although I'm probably against the tide on this given the Academy's bestowed it with seven nominations).
Bridges and Damon are good but all in honesty, they're acted off the screen by Steinfeld, whose performance is astoundingly star making. Her Mattie is precocious, head strong and described by one character as "hard as nails". And yet once or twice, when the bravado slips, Steinfeld brings to the role a steely vulnerability and a humanity which it's hard not to warm to - or be impressed by.
Ethan Coen's said that if the kid didn't work in this film, there'd be no film - and he's completely right. Possibly that's some of the division I felt over this - Steinfeld's so good that Bridges and Damon seem merely adequate.
There's some of the usual Coen imagery here in the unexpected - a man wearing a bear skin walks up on a horse, a dead man swings from the trees in a misty forest; it's a film redolent of lasting imagery and sly humour.
And yet, this straight laced, at times slow, tale of 3 people searching for something didn't quite move me as much as I was expecting.

The reason to see True Grit is Steinfeld - she's a star in the making and her part in this film will be the best teen performance you see this year.

Secretariat: Movie Review

Secretariat: Movie Review

Secretariat

Rating: 6/10

Cast: Diane Lane, John Malkovich, James Cromwell

Director: Randall Wallace

This latest from Disney is the tale of a horse and of a woman who wouldn't let go.

Diane Lane stars as Penny Chenery, an 1960s American housewife, whose family has spent generations breeding racing horses on their Virginian farm.

When her father (Scott Glen) becomes too ill to continue on the farm, Penny, against the wishes of her family, takes over the business. With the help of maverick trainer Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich) this housewife with a passion for horses and honouring her family's legacy takes on the industry and leads her horse, Secretariat, to the challenge of winning the Triple Crown.

Secretariat is one of those to file under earnest and worthy but dull at times.

It's incredibly slow to get going - from its sombre opening to the final furlong two hours later, there's a bit of a slog here to be frank.

Sure, Diane Lane and John Malkovich turn in sturdy performances in this aspirational and inspirational film - but you can't help but feel your attention drifting when the focus moves away from the racetrack and the inevitable financial troubles faced by the family.

That said, when it's on the race track, that's where the film truly comes to life - and sees you on the edge of your seat.

Cameras take you right into the heart of the racing - be it on a horse or by the hooves, the filming of the races really does soar and gets your pulse going.

Secretariat won't win any awards, does exactly what you'd expect from an inspirational film and does at times feel like a little earnest TV Movie - which is a shame because the final 20 minutes sees the film come vividly to life with an injection of drama and tension.

The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell: Movie Review

The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell: Movie Review

The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell
Rating: 8/10
Cast: William McInnes, Robyn Malcolm, Joel Tobeck
Director: Brendan Donovan
Set in East Auckland's Howick, The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell is the story of William McInnes' manchild Gazza Snell, whose world is falling apart with a failing business.
All he's obsessed with is getting his eldest son to Milan for a karting championship in Milan.
However, when his youngest is seriously injured in a crash, Gazza loses all touch with the horrifying reality of what lies ahead - and instead becomes insistent on focussing solely on the karting.
That causes the family rift to widen.
The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell is a feelgood Kiwi battler kind of treat- despite the initial beginnings there's plenty of warmth in this tale of a suburban dad; thanks to good solid performances from McInnes and Robyn Malcolm as his desperate housewife, it succeeds - even with its sentimental ending.
It's thanks to the everyman feel of the film that it becomes a winner - the universal tale of Gazza needing to grow up is clearly based on the reality - and Donovan himself has admitted that the father figure is based on several dreamers he knows.
There's also the racial element as Snell's eldest begins dating an Asian girl - and with a sly script, it exposes some of the stereotypes that Howick (and parts of New Zealand itself) are prone to.
Robyn Malcolm gives a quiet solid desperation to her first leading woman role on the big screen - and there's unexpected laughs throughout. There's also a lot of honesty on display in this film - in the performances, the writing and the direction - it's an unashamedly crowd pleasing film which is easily identifiable to many of us.

The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell is packed full of heart, humour.. and Howick- and deserves to be a massive hit thanks to its essential Kiwi feel.

Black Swan: Movie Review

Black Swan: Movie Review

Black Swan
Rating: 8/10
Cast: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder
Director: Darren Aronofsky
It's the film which is generating Oscar buzz for Natalie Portman's portrayal of a ballet dancer.
Set in New York, this latest from The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky follows a ballet company which is about to put on a new version of Swan Lake.
Portman plays Nina Sayers, a control freak of a dancer who's pushed herself as far as she can go for her role; with an obsessive desire to be part of the new production, she's gone right to the physical edge.
In charge of casting, company director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) decides to replace Winona Ryder's Beth MacIntyre with Sayers for the lead of the Swan Queen, believing Nina can push herself further than before.
As Sayers starts to work on loosening up and getting in touch with her darker side, she forms a friendship with fellow dancer Lily (Mila Kunis). But as the show draws ever closer and she tries to channel the deeper more disturbed Black Swan, Nina's world starts to fall apart amid jealousy and paranoia.
Black Swan is astounding, confounding, audacious, confusing and compelling viewing in equal parts.
It's a dizzying head trip of a film at times - and with an awards worthy performance from Natalie Portman as the dancer on the edge. The swings as the psycho drama plays out are incredible and the compelling performance delivers in spades. She captures the fragility and the delicateness of the physicality of the dancing role as well as the mental tone too.

For example, the girl who breaks down in the toilet after being selected telling her mother on the phone in an almost babyish voice "He picked me, mommy" is a stark contrast to the ballerina who takes to the stage at the end.
Black Swan is one of those films which you'll have to watch multiple times to pick up on everything - thanks to the masterful web woven by Aronofsky. Everyone's the star of this film; from a good turn by Winona Ryder as the princess of the company who's on the way out to the impressive performances of Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel. Each does more than enough to feed the paranoia of the ego as well as propel the drama along apace.
But it's the odd moments, the nightmarish windows into Sayer's fragile soul which catch you unawares and deliver the WTF emotional punches as the horror moments appear unexpectedly.
Outrageous, insane and yet incredibly mesmerizing and impressive, Black Swan is an enigma, a riddle wrapped up in a deeply disturbing and tightly woven multi-layered script.

It's also bound for great things.

Dr Who: The Seeds of Doom: DVD Review

Dr Who: The Seeds of Doom: DVD Review

Dr Who - The Seeds of Doom

Released by BBC and Roadshow
Rating: G
This six parter from 1976 and the Tom Baker era is a firm fan favourite.

In it the 4th Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane (the ever popular Elisabeth Sladen) discover a threat to the Earth (again) with the finding of two seed pods in the arctic waste.

When the alien Krynoid pods find their way into the hands of a deranged botanist, the Doc's got a fight on his hands to ensure life on Earth doesn't end - and the plants don't take over.
Classic, revered and well acted, The Seeds of Doom is Who firing on all cylinders - it's gritty, and a serial which is the very best of Who - thanks in part to the acting of Baker and Sladen.

The pair here deliver a masterclass in Who - and there's a real edginess to this; a feeling that the stakes are higher than ever.

A lively commentary with Baker (but sadly missing Sladen) enriches the affair - and the extras on this two disc set continue the high quality of recent releases. A short doco looking at the birth of the Dr Who Magazine is a welcome addition.

All in all, if you were ever looking for a jumping off point and a reason to watch Dr Who pre its 2005 relaunch, this is it.

Extras: Commentary, Doco on the making of the serial, doco on the comic adventures of Dr Who, Easter eggs - a good bunch.

Rating: 8/10

Farscape: The Complete Collection: DVD Review

Farscape: The Complete Collection: DVD Review

Farscape - The Complete Collection

Released by Magna Home Ent
Rating: R13
The Aussie/ American scifi Jim Henson TV series finally gets a complete box release which pulls together the four series and the spin off TV movie, The Peacekeeper Wars.

Ben Browder acquired plenty of devoted fans in this series - he's John Crichton, an American astronaut, who ends up in the wrong part of space after traversing a worm hole (always the way).

Picked up by a living spaceship, Crichton finds himself forced to live with the aliens as he tries to get home. But his quest to get back puts him into direct conflict with Scorpius, the leader of the Peacekeepers, a bunch of alien baddies.

Farscape was innovative for its time - and this collection, complete with a range of special features, interviews and docos explains why. With some top of the range animatronic puppetry, the series certainly offered something different to the genre - and thanks to some pretty impressive writing, the stories proffered up something different.

But where the creators succeeded in this was the characters - their humanity (despite the fact they're primarily aliens) gave the show the credence it needed - and because of that, the writing rarely dropped in quality (although as ever with a series like this, there are exceptions). Plus later seasons become a little inpenetrable if you've not been there from the start.

An impressively culled together set,The Farscape Collection offers hours of entertainment and a reminder of why Jim Henson was such the visionary.

Rating: 8/10

Game review: The Sly Trilogy

Game review: The Sly Trilogy

The Sly Trilogy
Released by Sony for PS3
Nearly a decade after its original release on PlayStation 2, this classic HD remastering of the Sly Trilogy has hit PS3.
The Sly Trilogy collects together the platforming games Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Sly 2: Band of Thieves and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, a trio of extremely playable games.
The hero is Sly Cooper, who's a pastiche of film noir/ comic book - Cooper is a master thief, with a question mark style cane, who vaults through the air, sneaks about and generally does the theft stuff pretty well.
In the first game, Sly's on the hunt for a book which collects together his family's thieving tricks of the trade - which ironically has been stolen. The second sees him tracking down parts of a clock which has super powers - and the final outing sees him trying to break into a family vault.
The Sly Trilogy is immensely playable third person stuff marred only by a minor problem.
Across mini levels within each, the game plays well and zips along with ease - there's occasional frustrations with the viewpoint of the character not always being the easiest to negotiate - but it's a minor niggle. There's also the bonus that this game can be played with PlayStation Move too - adding to the original on many levels.
This version's been ported over from the original trilogy and the HD quality is pretty impressive with cartoon segueways into each adventure - voiceovers and characters add humour and amusement to the proceedings.
It's challenging in parts but with ways to boost your immunity during levels and a bit of memory, you can beat most of the threats and end of level bosses fairly quickly during each heist mini-adventure.
The collection of three games is a brilliant move which allows you to flit between adventures and pick up wherever you want. With extra moves to be learned, and a depth of gaming, plus with mini games within, there's certainly hours and hours of entertainment here.
The Sly Trilogy is a welcome remastering - it's true to the original and expands the fun element to all gamers of any age.

Rating: 8/10