The Runaways: DVD Review

The Runaways: DVD Review

The Runaways

Rating: R16
Released by Sony Home Entertainment

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning leave their Twilight images behind in this tale of hedonism, hard rocking and harmonies.
Set in the 70s it's the true life coming of age tale of Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, how their rock and roll lives collided and they blazed the trail for women in rawk music.

But while Jett was always determined to be a rock star, Currie was more saddled with the problems of family life which seem to cause conflict within her - and unleash her inner demons.

This film belongs to Fanning as drug addled Currie and Michael Shannon as the maestro Kim Fowley who sees the potential of the female band-it's their relationship with everyone else which eclipses most of the film itself.

Punky and spunky, The Runaways is a hedonistic trip, fizzing with energy and humanity.

Extras: Commentary with Joan Jett, KStew and Dakota Fanning; featurette - nice touch on the commentary to keep the interest going. Blu ray offers exactly the same.

Rating: 7/10 

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: DVD Review

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: DVD Review

The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Released by Disney
Rating: PG
In the latest from Disney, Nicolas Cage stars as Balthazar Blake, a sorcerer who's fought his arch nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina complete with requisite English bad guy accent and goatee beard) throughout time - and since the time of Arthur and Merlin.

But Blake needs to find the Prime Merlinian, a sorcerer who has so much power that they can wield the power of Merlin and help vanquish Horvath.

Enter Jay Baruchel's Dave, a nerdy physics major who ten years ago met Blake, was told of his destiny and then watched Blake disappear into thin air.

However, when Blake reappears, Dave finds he is slap bang in the middle of Maxim's plans to use an ancient power to raise an army of the dead and take over the world&can Dave help Blake save the day?
The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a fresh, fun take on the world of sorcery and magic; it's fantastical family fun complete with its everyman central character played with humour and likeability by Jay Baruchel.
With some eye popping special effects (some of which hark back to the Mummy) and a script which is smart enough to throw cinematic nods to the older end of the audience (Star Wars and Indy are just two of them), the team behind this know how to keep all sections of the audience engaged.
Extras: A whole heap of behind the scenes stuff, deleted scenes and outtakes make this a reasonable, good looking package on Blu Ray.

Rating: 7/10 

Legends of The Guardians: DVD Review

Legends of The Guardians: DVD Review

Legend of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Rating: PG
Released by Roadshow Entertainment

In the latest animated fare to hit, Jim Sturgess plays Soren a young barn owl whose life is full of the tales of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, who, legend says are there to protect the kingdom.

But his brother Kludd (True Blood's Ryan Kwanten) isn't so impressed and is a little jealous of the way their father spends more time with Soren.

One day while the pair are learning how to fly, they're captured by two minions of the evil MetalBeak - and the brothers find their allegiances split as they take opposing sides in a battle against the owls.

Beautiful, sumptuous kingdoms are brought to life by stunning use of CGI; the owls themselves are given such depth and detail that they stand out. The landscapes and scenery are so wonderful that you're drawn into the kingdom of Gahoole with ease.
Coupled with a soaring soundtrack that evocatively captures every mood (from learning to fly to the final attack), it's clear the film makers have spared no expense.

Narratively though, it's a little lacking with some parts of the story slightly muddy in places and it's only thanks to the fact it looks so good and is well animated, that it's a success.

Extras: The new Wile E Coyote short which was on in cinemas and a doco about how important owls are.

Rating: 7/10 

Curry Munchers: Movie Review

Curry Munchers: Movie Review

Curry Munchers

Rating: 4/10

Cast: Anand Naidu, Alison Titulaer, Ajay Vasisht, Leela Patel, Ben Mitchell, Rajeev Varma, Tarun Mohanbhai

Director: Cristobal Araus Lobos

A New Zealand film about love, hope and some curry is how those behind Curry Munchers are advertising it.

Anand Naidu (who wrote) stars as Sid, who's forced (along with his sister and mother) to follow his father to Auckland and ditch his life in Delhi.

But when Sid gets there, he finds the house they're living in is a disappointment - and life's not what he'd expected for the promised new country.

Sid ends up working at Sargeet, the local curry house - where he forms a friendship with maitre d' Mary (Titulaer) and the kitchen workers (Varma and Mohanbhai). Sid doesn't want his parents to know about the job - and he's not the only one hiding a secret. Sid's dad isn't actually working as an accountant - he's a forecourt attendant.
The problem is all of these secrets threaten to come to light when Sargeet enters into Cook Off New Zealand and suddenly Sid finds his loyalties torn in many directions.
Curry Munchers has an admirable heart and a nice idea about how migration actually affects those involved.
But the execution is fudged and the end result is bitterly disappointing and slightly amateur in places. Every twist is signposted early on and plays out as predictably as you'd expect. This is also the kind of script where people get hit by a door opening and end up knocked out - the, at times, over the top antics mean that the script heads more to the puerile and silly which would alienate a certain section of the audience.

It's a shame because Anand Naidu actually offers up an engagaing and affable performance as Sid - and the story is earnest in places but it can't quite decide whether to break away from its Indian roots and occasional silliness and because of that, it's likely to not find the wide audience it craves.

Conviction: Movie Review

Conviction: Movie Review

Conviction
Rating: 4/10
Cast: Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver, Peter Gallagher, Melissa Leo
Director: Tony Goldwyn
Hilary Swank stars as Betty Ann Waters in this film which is based on a true story.
Waters is a drop out who's formed a close bond with her brother Kenny (the ever great Sam Rockwell) as they've been shunted from foster home to foster home in their childhoods.
But when Kenny's arrested for murder by Nancy Taylor (Melissa Leo)- and convicted two years after the crime's been committed- Betty Ann feels her life ripped from her.
So, she resolves to put herself through law school with the sole aim of doing whatever it takes to exonerate her brother.
Spurred on by her friend Abra (Driver), Waters contacts the Innocence project, determined to use DNA evidence to get her brother out of jail, despite overwhelming evidence.
Conviction would work better as a TV movie, rather than a big screen outing.
All involved give great performances and it seems unfair to diminish the true story nature of this, but the problem is the film offers nothing new or original to many other similar stories of their ilk.
Granted, it's made perfectly adequately and sees the main duo of Swank and Rockwell acquit themselves decently - but the emotional core of the film appears to have gone AWOL from script to screen.
The moments where you'd expect your heart to leap are curiously flat and presented in a very matter of fact way; and some of the most potentially engaging drama (Waters' marriage falling apart being one) takes place off screen, robbing you of any real involvement. That and the fact that it's not explored that this woman's spent her entire life trying to save her brother and it's cost her everything and you just feel nothing but detachment from what transpires in front of you.

At the end of the day, Conviction has plenty of its own title in it, but it really could have done with a little more courage of its convictions to have soared above the usual fare.

Love Birds: Movie Review

Love Birds: Movie Review

Love Birds
Rating: 7/10
Cast: Rhys Darby, Sally Hawkins, Emily Barclay, Bryan Brown, Faye Smythe, Craig Hall, Pierre the duck
Director: Paul Murphy
From the director of the Kiwi smash hit Second Hand Wedding, comes this new film aimed at showing us another side of Rhys Darby.
Darby stars as Doug, a council worker who's happy with his life, living at his parents' place and cruising along. One day, though, his long term girlfriend Susan (Smythe) decides enough is enough and takes flight.
Within moments of that, Doug suddenly finds an injured Paradise Shelduck dumped on his roof.
With no-one to care for the duck, Doug takes on the job - and his adventure brings him into contact with Sally Hawkins' zoo worker Holly.
Gradually, the injured animal learns to live and love again - and so does the duck....
To be honest, Love Birds is your fairly conventional rom com fare - guy meets girl, complications and problems follow.
But what sets this above from the rest is Rhys Darby.
This is a career redefining moment from the guy who's prone to playing (in his words I might add) a bit of a dick.
In Love Birds, Darby is a revelation - he's a forlorn, lost, vulnerable and romantic lead who proves to be very watchable in what is a traditional tale. Darby has to straddle that line of acting with animals too - as the majority of his scenes are with Pierre the duck. But with laughs thrown in and a generally charming tone, he manages to more than adequately get by.
The unexpectedly humourous moments are underplayed as well - and are a lot more enjoyable because of that.
Special mention needs to go to the cinematography as well - every shot of Auckland (from the swooping harbour bridge shots through to the night time street shots, once again, the City of Sails looks simply amazing.
A little disappointing is the underuse of the great Bryan Brown as a vet and narratively, it has to be said, Craig Hall adds little to the proceedings.
In all honesty, Love Birds won't win for originality of script; it's sweet and charming (but never overly so).
However, what it will win for is making you think twice about Rhys Darby.

He's an affable, believable and extremely convincing lead - and based on this alone, he's destined for even greater things.

Tamara Drewe: Movie Review

Tamara Drewe: Movie Review

Tamara Drewe
Rating: 5/10
Cast: Gemma Arterton, Tamsin Greig, Dominic Cooper, Luke Evans, Roger Allam
Director: Stephen Frears
Taken from a weekly UK comic strip in the Guardian newspaper, the big screen adaptation of Tamara Drewe finally hits New Zealand screens.
Gemma Arterton is Drewe, a journalist forced back into her sleepy English home town to sell the family home after the death of her mother. Tamara fled years ago after realizing there was life outside of the dull boring backwater she grew up in.
But not only has Tamara returned home, she's returned a different girl following cosmetic surgery for a gigantic nose issue.
Her arrival stirs up many feelings - a long dormant relationship with local handyman Andy (Luke Evans), a jealousy among the writers who frequent a retreat, as well as hatred from two of the local school girls after Drewe begins a relationship with a rocker (Dominic Cooper) adored by many the teen girl.
And things come to a head with the return - not all of them in a good way.
Tamara Drewe is a mixed film.
On the one hand, it's obvious that this version sticks very closely to the source material (with many of the characters looking incredibly close to what was inked on the page) and on the other, it's such a mish mash of so many different kinds of films with a central character whom you're kind of loathe to really route for. Plus throw in a mix of themes - romance, drama, kitchen sink dramas et al and it's an odd hotpot of narrative you end up with.
Arterton is good as Drewe - but the role calls for her to be alluring seductress, lost little girl and victim as well - and it's a lot which means you don't really end up routing for the heroine of the piece.
There's little real edge to the story with every character having a facet of their life which makes them unlikeable to varying - Andy the local handyman is weak-willed; Beth (the wonderful Tamsin Greig coming soon in TV ONE's new comedy Episodes) is spineless for not standing upto her crime writer husband's affairs; Ben (Dominic Cooper) is self centred as the rocker.
All in all, they're a fairly feckless bunch of characters and ones whom you don't really care about.

Tamara Drewe brilliantly captures the small countryside mentality as well as the simmering resentments, but there's something uniquely English about the portrayal which means some of the subtleties may be lost on other audiences.