Brand new Hobbit posters

Brand new Hobbit posters 

It's been a busy week for Peter Jackson.

What with the release of the brand new Hobbit trailer, there's new posters been released too to help promote the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

First up, there's one poster for The Hobbit with all of the dwarves on it.

And then there's the poster of Martin Freeman as Bilbo with Sting...

Dark Shadows: DVD Review

Dark Shadows: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Entertainment

The original Dark Shadow was a soapy series which ran from 1966 to 1971 and was a gothic soap opera around the Collins family, whose head is a 200 year old vampire. Taking in werewolves, vampires, time travel, parallel worlds and ghosts, it was a curio back then.

And really, when you consider its pedigree, it should come as no surprise that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp should reteam for an eighth time to take it on.

The film begins in Liverpool in 1760 with the Collins family relocating to North America to make their name. With riches, they set up Collinsport and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) grows up abroad. But when he scorns the love of a witch, Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) for another, he's cursed, turned into a vampire and buried for 200 years underground. 

Nearly 200 years later, Barnabas is accidentally awoken and returns to Collinsport to find the once great mansion in ruin, inhabited by relatives who don't care about the family name and finds the family fishing business is all but destroyed by competition from Angelique Bouchard's rival company.

So Collins sets about trying to recapture his former glory - as well as trying to win the heart of Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote) who's the spitting image of Barnabas' first true love.

Dark Shadows is an odd curio; it's an absolutely natural fit for the Tim Burton and Johnny Depp partnership, bathed as it is in off kilter moments and Gothic sensibilities. From its darkly chilling opening, it screams Burton's work - from the overly brightened colours to the pale washed out landscapes, it's clearly a horror joint with a backdrop of family tragedy and quirky misfits.

And yet, it's lashed with so much campy comedy that it's never really one thing or the other.

It's once again Johnny Depp's performance which keeps this going; his culture shock comedy at being revived some 200 years later is a blast, referencing the best of the 1970s and also Nosferatu as he skulks around in the shadows as the music of the 70s blasts from the soundtrack.

All in all, while Dark Shadows is true to its roots and ends on the prospect of a sequel, it'll really need to get more of a definitive mix of campy comedy/ horror and Gothic for any future outings. It's not quite Addams Family sensibilities and humour either, but you can mark this one up as a slightly undercooked, overlong, curio and oddity which doesn't quite hit the mark.


Extras: Behind scenes piece

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The Pirates Band of Misfits Blu Ray Review

The Pirates Band of Misfits Blu Ray Review

Vocal cast: Hugh Grant, David Tennant, Martin Freeman, Jeremy Piven, Salma Hayek, Imelda Staunton
Director: Peter Lord

Hoist the mainsail, grab your cutlasses and hold onto your gizzards - cos there's pirates about.

In this latest from the stunningly brilliant Aardman Animation, Hugh Grant stars as the Pirate Captain, the leader of a band of relatively inept pirates, who sail the sea having adventures, but not really grabbing the glory and the spoils.

So, when the Pirate Captain decides this is the year he will take out the famed Pirate of the Year trophy to show the lads and the world he's not an idiot, he realises he has to step up his game.

Out on the plunder, Pirate Captain and the gang come across Charles Darwin (David Tennant) who tells them that parrot Polly which the Cap keeps on his shoulder is actually an extinct dodo. And that if the dodo's presented to the world's scientists, the Cap could get the fame and reward he deserves.

With that in mind, the gang head for the presentation - but will the Captain give up everything for the pursuit of fame?

An unabashed joy, The Pirates!Band of Misfits is an animated family pleasure from beginning to end, replete with a belly full of mirth and laugh out loud moments.

There's an inspired lunacy in the lushly painstakingly done stop animation from Aardman - which to be honest, you would totally expect from a project like this one. There are jokes packed within the frames of the film as it plays out making it something for the adults as well as the kids.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits is good fun, a reminder of how simpler can still be effective and appealing to audiences of all ages.

Extras: Commentary, games, behind the scenes

Rating: 

Hotel Transylvania: Movie Review

Hotel Transylvania: Movie Review

Cast: Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, Kevin James, Fran Drescher
Director: Genndy Tartakovsky

In the latest animated offering for school holidays, it's off to Transylvania we go with the director of the truly awesome Samurai Jack TV series and the star of Jack and Jill, Adam Sandler.

Sandler plays Count Drac, who runs the Hotel Transylvania, a refuge for all the monsters of the world to holiday away from the hunt-them-down-and-kill-them attitudes of the humans out there.

But it's not just the monsters which Drac's protecting - it's also his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) who's turning 118 and desperately wants to fly the nest.

On the eve of Mavis' 118th birthday, Drac's gathered a whole heap of his best friends - Frankenstein, Frankie's bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the werewolf family - to help throw a lavish party for Mavis.

However, when a carefree backpacker, Jonathan (voiced by Andy Samberg) finds his way into the hotel, Drac finds his over-protective grip on life slipping and soon realises he could lose everything.

Hotel Transylvania is a case of great premise, weak story.

Sandler gives a hit and miss performance with an Romanian accent which is all over the place in this flick which has a frenetic pace to no doubt cover the fact there's a distinct lack of a really engaging story. In fact, if anything, the story is similar in places to Monsters, Inc, where a human accidentally ends up in the monsters' world and they try to return them.

While Tartakovsky has added a manic touch to the animation, it's done so at the expense of the other characters - Steve Buscemi is woefully wasted as Wolfman, as are the rest of the supporting cast, who are forced to the sidelines by Sandler and Samberg's double act.

That said, there are some great throwaway sight gags splattered throughout (and a spot on Twilight parody) but despite a touchingly Gothic flashback to how Drac met his wife, this tale of an overprotective dad who has to let his daughter find her way in the world, sadly offers nothing new to the animated genre. Even the 3D is relatively pointless throughout as well.

All in all, Hotel Transylvania is okay for a brief stopover during the school hols for the younger end of the audience, but to be honest, thanks to hardly any meat on the story's bones, you'd hardly consider coming back for another visit.

Rating:

Pitch Perfect: Movie Review

Pitch Perfect: Movie Review

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Aubrey Camp, Brittany Snow, Skylar Astin
Director: Jason Moore

It's off to the world of a capella singing we go for this latest female ensemble piece.

Anna Kendrick stars as Beca, a newbie to college and a wannabe DJ who'd rather be spinning the tunes than singing them with a slew of other ladies.

Cajoled into joining the all girl group The Bellas, whose past was rocked by one of their number vomiting everywhere at the finals, she finds herself in battle with the Treble Makers, the reigning boy band champs.

But Beca's attitude towards the a cappella world and the desire to mix it up using more upto date music puts her on a collision course with those running the Bellas...

Let's get this out of the way - Pitch Perfect is no big screen version of Glee. And for that, we should all be grateful.

In fact, early on during auditions, Christopher Mintz-Plasse makes an awesome cameo telling the auditionees that this is no place to work out social issues, that's high school, clearly cocking a snook at the sing-along antics of Glee.

It's a fairly throw away film though, but one which is packed with heaps of energy and singing obviously and is guaranteed to be a great night out at the cinema.

Plus it has one major thing going for it - Rebel Wilson. She steals every single scene she is in, with great delivery of great one-liners and put downs. If anything, Pitch Perfect is the breakthrough role she's been looking for for her unique brand of sarcastic awkwardness and the writers have catered excellently to her.

Anna Kendrick remains her perky and likeable self throughout as well; but it's more of a film which caters for the women rather than the other way round - the males of the piece are strapped for screen time and slightly underwritten.

But when you have an ensemble of women, I'm not sure what the push is to have them going for a bit of gross out behaviour - call it the Bridesmaids effect if you will - but once again vomiting plays a big part in this musical mash up piece. Throw in Elizabeth Banks as an aca-judge with some truly funny zingers though and this is clearly the oestrogen generation which is being targeted.

The energy levels dip somewhat towards the end as we near the frantic finale as it concentrates on Beca's love story but overall, even if it is slightly overlong, Pitch Perfect is a fine piece of celluloid fun; it'll have you leaving the cinema giggling and with a song running through your head.

But, above all, Pitch Perfect will have you believing a comedy star in the form of Rebel Wilson is well and truly on the ascent.

Rating:

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Tokyo Jungle: PS3 Review

Tokyo Jungle: PS3 Review

Platform: PS3
Released by Sony Computer Entertainment

Never before has the phrase It's a Dog Eat Dog World been so spot on.

In this latest game, Tokyo has been devoid of humankind and the animals have gone feral, feeding on whatever they can to survive. No-one's got a clue what's happened to the men and women of the region, but as the story mode of the game plays out, clues are dropped in and out to start to build up an idea.

Tokyo is now a decaying region with various pockets of different animals roaming and picking whatever they can to eat and survive.

This is where you come in - initially, you start off as either a meat-eating Pomeranian dog or a herbivore Silka deer (bear with me) and scroll left and right through the terrain, finding what food you can, marking territory and eating and fighting your fellow predators/ creatures in a fight for survival.

Gradually, as you build up your rank, mark enough territory and complete enough missions, you get the chance to mate and breed another generation. That means your life span is extended by passing on your skills to your progeny and you get to roam around, build up packs and explore a very wide world.

Tokyo Jungle is an odd sort of a game to be honest. Survival is the aim of the game and you really have to learn whether to eat, run, fight or hide when necessary. It's a tactical survivalist game which, while not looking graphically stunning or originally presented, actually is fiendishly playable. (It's also not for the animal lover as well, so if you're a bit squeamish about the circle of life, it may be one to pass on).

With unlockable playable animals like chickens, deer, cats and a whole range of critters, it may seem a bit a bizarre to be playing as these creatures but as you start to understand the tactics of it all, the different selections make sense; herbivores are easier to build packs up for meaning that some of your group can be picked off while you survive. Likewise, with carnivores, packs can help you survive by getting them to act as decoys while you run for cover.

It's a peculiar concept and idea but it's actually so engrossing a game that you can lose hours playing; that said, it's not without a couple of flaws. A lack of being able to continue the game when it ends and having to start again is a little frustrating particularly when you have to repeat a lot of the same challenges you've already completed in a previous game during survival mode. Though there is an argument that perhaps by doing that, you rethink some of your original decisions and survive a bit longer.

Tokyo Jungle represents an intriguing level of stealth and fiendish simplicity but it is a game that may not appeal to all. If you're after an original idea, simply presented and with a depth that can suck hours of your life, then it's time to join the animals and see if you've got what it takes to survive.

Rating:

Being Elmo: DVD Review

Being Elmo: DVD Review

Rating: G
Released by Madman Home Entertainment

Unknown to many outside the industry, this is the tale of Kevin Clash.

He may be an anonymous name to many; particularly those outside of puppeteering, but if I say the word, Elmo, to you, you'll know instantly what I am talking about.

Simply shot, using archive footage of Clash's early days, Being Elmo this joyous film will leave you smiling from the moment it begins to the very end. There's an infectious innocence to this tale which will leave you inspired by the man who dreamed of Muppets in his hometown of Baltimore and went on to create one of the most beloved characters of the fuzzy felt world.

Believe it or not, that wasn't just by chance.

There's the irony though of Clash losing time with his daughter growing up because of the demands of Elmo and the continual on the road commitments to the red furry loveable character.

Director Constance Marks has fashioned a simply marvellous tale which is undoubtedly feel good and will leave you with a really fuzzy glow.

It's an inspiration to some and just plain enjoyable to all.

Wholeheartedly recommended for all the family.

Extras: Q&A from Sundance, Thoughts from filmmakers, trailer, and performances from Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

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