New Year's Eve: Movie Review

New Year's Eve: Movie Review

New Year's Eve
Rating: 4/10
Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Zac Efron, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Duhamel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert de Niro, Katherine Heigl, Sofia Vergara, Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin, Ryan Seacrest, New York
Director: Garry Marshall
Ah, New Year's Eve - the end of another 12 months and the endless possibilities of another 12 ahead.
But in reality, it's always a desperate scrabble to find a good party or make sure you're somewhere with a loved one.
So into the fray of New Year and with an ensemble cast that seems to have just about everyone involved comes the latest from the guy who brought us the slightly sappy Valentines Day. This latest is the intertwining tale of several New Yorkers coming together on that night, weighed down with expectation - and is once again, into chick flick territory we go.
All of the various stories are captured here; from Hilary Swank's Claire Morgan, who's in charge of ensuring the ball drops tradition in New York's Times Square goes ahead to Jessica Biel's Tess Byrne who's about to give birth; there's also Ashton Kutcher's New Year hating grinch Randy who ends up stuck in a lift with Lea Michele's singer Elise; and there's Robert de Niro's Stan who's dying alone in hospital - and Katherine Heigl's Laura who was dumped by Jon Bon Jovi's rockstar Jensen...the list really, really does go on. But to be fair, it's a truly stellar cast gathering for this romantic drama. And once again Sofia Vergara is playing the same role she does in the ever brilliant Modern Family.
The bottom line with a film like this is pitching it to the right audience - and I am not the right audience. And the right audience who were in the screening of this actually loved it. The intertwined nature of the stories actually works reasonably well. Sure, many of them are predictable and inevitable eg, two people in a lift who initially have differences but find common ground, a mum who finally bonds with her daughter, a father looking for forgiveness at the end of his life - you can see what's coming a mile off in this sentimental schmaltz fest.
When you're faced with a film which throws out the line "Second chances - they don't expire till midnight", you know exactly what you're going to get. And when it's set in New York and one of the characters has a wishlist of things to do, you can guarantee there'll be an ad for the city in some form or other...There's so much talk of that famous ball dropping in Times Square during this flick, it's almost as if the writers dropped the ball when it came to an original script.
On a final note though, the product placement is this is utterly shameless - and the closing shots which include a poster for an upcoming release from the same studio probably takes it to a new level.
Overall, personally, I found New Year's Eve one of those bland, nicely put together, over indulgent and quite manipulative at pulling at your heartstrings films which get made by Hollywood studios from time to time - but like the much (rightfully) maligned Valentines Day, it'll find its audience.

It just won't include me.

A Cat in Paris: DVD Review

A Cat in Paris: DVD Review

A Cat In Paris
Rating: PG
Released by Madman Home Ent

One cat + two lives = lots of laughs and loveliness in this sublimely hand drawn animation from France.

Dino is the perfect pet - by the day delivering lizards to her master Zoe but by night, she's aide to a cat burglar who runs atop the roofs of Paris.
However, Zoe's bereft of a father figure after he was murdered by local gangster Costa and her mother, the chief of police is determined to track him down and tie up the local art thefts which have been going on - but the two things are connected by one feline...

Beautifully presented with heart, warmth and humour, A Cat in Paris is an universal treat.

There's some original animation on show, more than on a par with anything CGI can achieve and the inventiveness sings from the screen as the story unfolds.

With an eye on fun and an adventurous story, this beautifully told tale is one for all the family and can be enjoyed by all ages-it's not very often one says that about film these days and it's great to do so about Cat In Paris.

Extras: English version (stick to the French one though), featurette and trailer

Rating: 8/10 

Game Review - Tekken: Hybrid

Game Review - Tekken: Hybrid

Tekken Hybrid
Rating: M
Platform: PS3
Released by Sony
So the granddaddy of the fight genre returns in a packed set.
Tekken Hybrid boasts a Tekken 3D movie, Blood Vengeance, Tekken Tag Tournament HD and a playable (if brief) demo of Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Prologue.
Tekken's not really moved on much from the arcade days where you'd bruise and wear out your fingers, jabbing buttons and move a joystick from side to side, while trying to smash in the face of your opponent.
And it's a shame to say there's little new added into this pack to be honest; while there's nothing inherently wrong with the gaming which has been remastered from its PS2 version, it's little more than a two on two fight against the clock as opponents like Roger the Kangaroo, Devil, True Ogre, Hwoarang et al face off against each other. Throwing in the option to tag in and tag out is a clever touch as well which gives it a feel of something a bit more akin to a street brawl.
Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed the games on several levels; be it due to the quality HD upgrade, or the pure one on one face to face fist fight or the survival mode where you plough on fighting to win as many bouts as you can in one go; it's just that I didn't see the need to go back to the game once the system was turned off. Which is a major blow for any game really.
The demo prologue is relatively playable too but a little too brief and feels like an extended teaser taking in characters from the film Blood Vengeance and is clearly a set up for a future release. It's a nice package though for fans of the genre with a bowling game thrown in too, but all in all this is a little too much of a leave you salivating for next release kind of piece, which is a bit frustrating. Unless you're a massive Tekken fan, of course.

Rating: 6/10

Game Review - Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7

Game Review - Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7

Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7
Platform: PS3
Released by Warner Games
Once again, and for one final time in this series anyway, it's back to the world of the bricks we go.
Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 is the latest from Travellers' Tale Games, who've excelled in this series of Lego crossovers - from Star Wars to Indiana Jones, Batman to Pirates of the Caribbean, there's little they can't do in this arena without a few cheeky moments and some relatively easy gameplay.
This latest collects together the final chapters of the Harry Potter franchise and is an extremely rewarding game for you if you're going to put in the hard yards.
Once again, Harry has to collect studs, solve puzzles, collect spells and rescue other students in various elements of peril in this pulled together storyline from the final three books. Each chapter's broken down into other chapters and there's certainly plenty of reasons to go back and replay each one as you try to achieve the true wizard level on each by collecting as many Lego studs as you can and collect Gold bricks and school emblems which are scattered fiendishly throughout. Add onto that the need to get every character unlocked from within the game and you can see why it's fiendishly addictive.
But what is also apparent is just how charming it is as well. There's certainly a lot of humour throughout with the cut scenes, despite the darker nature of these final chapters of the Potterverse. It also makes it a joy to watch these scenes rather than pushing buttons to get them to hurry on. There's plenty of detail to the backgrounds and the worlds in which Potter finds himself and one early flying sequence on brooms through London's skyline is just brilliantly good fun.
All in all, Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 is one of the perfect Christmas presents for this year; while it's true to say the LEGO series is aimed a little more at the younger end of the market, it's certainly bound to give all ages hours of entertainment thanks to its charming feel and clever, deeply rewarding gameplay.

Rating: 8/10

Game Review - Saints Row: The Third

Game Review - Saints Row: The Third

Saints Row - The Third
Rating: R18
Released by THQ
Sometimes, when you're playing a game, you really just have to put any grip on reality into the far recesses of your mind.
And with Saints Row - The Third, it's more about hyper reality than any other kind.
An open world action game - kind of like Grand Theft Auto in many ways, but a little more violent and intellectually lacking, Saints Row The Third is actually a hell of a lot of fun.
It begins with the Saints gang being forced into a neighbouring suburb and from there on, it's all on as the new gangs on the block find their quest for turf is to be threatened on many levels.
Sure, there's a series of missions and things to be done but man, you sure can have a blast (at times literally) doing them.
Saints Row - The Third doesn't really take itself too seriously; it's so over the top that it's ludicrous and any prudes will really not want to be playing a game like this. But to be brutally honest, it's pure intellectually challenged escapism, with character, humour and plenty of bang for your buck.
Within minutes of starting this game, you're plunged into scenarios which see you taking hostages and shooting your way out of situations as well as flying through the air trying to save colleagues and smashing through aeroplanes to try and land them. It's a real visceral thrill and engrossing right from the get go.
Throw in the chance to customize your characters, downloadable content, multiple outcomes for missions and the option to go online and have others involved in the mayhem and you've pretty much got a recipe for pure escapism and unlimited hours of juvenile entertainment.

Rating: 8/10

Super 8: Blu Ray Review

Super 8: Blu Ray Review

Super 8
Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent
Small town America - Ohio to be precise - in 1979: Following an incident at the town mill, young Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) is left bereft of a mother.
Joe's solution to cope with the loss is to throw himself into his friends' movie-making project; despite his police deputy father's insistence that once summer is done, it's off to camp for him.

When the group ends up filming their amateur zombie flick at a train station one night, their movie-making is rudely interrupted by a massive train crash, which they soon realise was not an accident.
To make matters worse, when the US Air Force move in with the might of the military and people start disappearing, they begin to suspect something is seriously wrong....and something nasty is loose in the town
Super 8 is clearly a film that wears its influences on its sleeve - and those are many; the fact it's by Amblin Entertainment (Steven Spielberg's production company) shows all the way through - with the whole film having a feel of the Goonies, Stand By Me, ET, Close Encounters et al inevitably dripped throughout.

Yet, you really shouldn't be put off by the fact it's a film about an alien loose in small town America; at its heart Super 8 is a nostalgically tinged relationship film with broad strokes of tenderness brushed through.

There's a wonderful camaraderie between the young kids as they make their film - how Joe copes with the loss of his mother and falls in love for the first time with Alice (the prodigiously talented Elle Fanning) and plenty of intimately played character moments throughout

Super 8 is a great piece of cinematic entertainment with some beautifully played intimate human moments; if director JJ Abrams had pulled back a little on the influences and symbolism and added a bit more subtlety, this ride would have been perfect; as it is though, it's one of the better thrills of the year.

Extras: Commentary, docos

Rating: 8/10

Meek's Cutoff: DVD Review

Meek's Cutoff: DVD Review

Meek's Cutoff
Rating: PG
Released by Madman Home Ent
Slow cinema,this drama from Kelly Reichardt sees three families braving their way through 19th Century pioneer life as they traipse through the Oregon plains with no clue of where they're going and placing their only hope in the shaggy bearded leader Meek.
It starts with two trucks going through water and ends with no real resolution but it's a fascinating peek into a life from yonder,where the journey was wracked with uncertainty and worry.When these would be settlers capture an Indian,tensions increase as rations dwindle,tempers fray and suspicion abounds.
Beautifully shot with cinematography which will leave you breathless,this is superior film from Reichardt which benefits immensely from Bruce Greenwood and Michelle Williams' superior involvement;their interaction fuels much of the film.
We learn little about either the men or the women but the film compellingly draws you into their plight. Sure to provoke debate at the end,this is one to be seen and appreciated on its cinematic merits.
Extras: Doco

Rating: 7/10