F1 2012: Game Review

F1 2012: Game Review

Released by Codemasters
Platform: PS3

Formula One - it's all about racing around in circles, right?

Not exactly in this latest annual outing from Codemasters, who've been given the job of updating the racing title on an annual basis and keeping the masses happy.

So, with this latest update, there's been a few tweaks and changes, but it's pretty much business as usual as you'd expect from the franchise. Once again, you're in the driver's seat but you'll need to take time out to learn the ropes before you get fully started.

Over two days of drivers' testing, you get to learn the basics of handling, using KERS and DRS and generally how to rewind time if you blow a tyre on the track (I kid you not - one of the features allows you to rewind the screw up and press a button just before to avoid it happening in the first place). If you've played before, this easily presented menu of reminisence will prove to be something of a brief chore but for all others, it's a handy and not too long intro to driving.

From there, it's on to the campaign trail and the hard task of actually doing a good job. It's quite a difficult game to master and may take even the die hard fans of F1 games a little time to build up a decent performance on the track as well as shave a bit of time off your laps. But it's a fully immersive experience with techs talking to you, emails flying around and commentary which is quite supportive as opposed to being a distraction.

Graphically, the game is slick and well-produced; backgrounds fly by in a well defined blur but show there's been plenty of work put into them and the cars themselves are polished and look good on the screen (right down to the sponsors' logos). With a new champions mode giving you the option to race head to head with some of the best, there's new content as well for those who may be wavering on whether to reinvest again in what's essentially the same concept.

I guess at the end of the day, how much you enjoy F1 2012 will really depend on how much you already enjoy the concept and franchise.

There's plenty of tension with the racing and also many chances for you to up your game and the simulation from its screeching tyres and howling engines is pretty top notch. The chance to go online and take on others extends this game's life a little longer (or until next year's update) but I think, unlike previous F1 games I've played before, this one feels more like a chance for newbies to jump in and get involved without getting lost in the intricacies and skills of the game. You will need real skill to progress but unlike previous titles, you'll get to earn that skill and if you're willing to invest a fair whack of time, see its benefits.

Hopefully, F1 2012 will garner a new audience of fans - because while Codemasters is doing a very good job of keeping the franchise fresh for its core fans, the casual gamer is still the key demo it needs to tap into to extend the franchise's reach even further.

Rating:

Delicacy: Movie Review

Delicacy: Movie Review

Cast: Audrey Tautou, Francois Damiens, Bruno Todeschini, Pio Marmai
Director: David Foenkinos

The hazel eyed French fondant Audrey Tautou returns in this latest romantic outing, guaranteed to leave you misty eyed by its end.

Tautou plays Nathalie, a woman deeply in love with her perfect husband Francois (Marmai) and their perfect live together- however, one day when Francois heads out on a run, he doesn't return. Nathalie is woken by a phone call, urging her to head to the hospital - but she is too late.

Mourning Francois, she throws herself into her work and three years pass. Suddenly, one day, and on a whim after a throwaway comment that she's not living her life, she kisses colleague Markus (Damiens), a Swedish schlub who's about a million miles away from her perfect previous husband in looks, charm and social grace.

But Markus is entranced by the kiss - and gradually, the pair begin to bond....Nathalie may once have found and lost the one, but is she now on the verge of finding another one.

Delicacy is as romantic a film as you'd expect from the hazel-eyed Tautou - it's also likely to garner the words sweet and charming. Not that those are bad things to aim for - and will certainly ensure a series of bums on seats for its release.

And yet, it's all froth and very little substance.

Once the film gets over its initial vein of sadness, there's little else for it to go except into ever-so-slightly quirky and lightly humorous territory as it explores the possibility that a fatter, balder Swedish man rather than Nathalie's original husband, who's chiselled to perfection, could offer some salvation to her extended mourning.

Tautou is as watchable as ever and the script is certainly peppered with humorous moments scattered throughout but the whole film, overall, feels slightly insubstantial. She certainly brings the emotion to the fore in her character but there's never any real depth which will deeply engage the audience. Damiens is a good foil to Tautou's good looks; his slightly scruffy, unkempt and jumper loving Swede is exactly the tonic which is needed to punctuate this romantic fluff - and his awkwardness will strike a chord with many watching on.

Overall, Delicacy has charm and humour - but the romantic swirl does exactly what you'd expect it to do and if that's what you're in the mood for, then dive on in - it's perfectly pleasant and diverting for a couple of hours in the cinema.

Rating:

The Sessions: Movie Review

The Sessions: Movie Review

Cast: John Hawkes, William H Macy,Helen Hunt, Moon Bloodgood
Director: Ben Lewin

Martha Marcy May Marlene's cult leader John Hawkes takes the lead in this film which broke out at the Sundance festival this year and is based on a true story.

Hawkes plays journalist and writer Mark O'Brien, who's been paralysed from the neck down due to contracting polio when he was younger. O'Brien lives his days in an iron lung, and one day after falling in love and being rejected by his carer, and when researching an article on Sex and the Disabled at an editor's request, he decides he wants to lose his virginity after 38 years of life.

So, to that end, via a friend and with the blessing of his priest (brilliantly played by a shaggy haired William H Macy) O'Brien contacts sex surrogate, Cheryl (Helen Hunt) to help out.

Cheryl begins a series of six sessions with O'Brien to help him achieve his goal....

The Sessions will knock you sideways.

John Hawkes is frankly a revelation in this film; it's a role which has little physical presence other than moving his head and speaking  but Hawkes imbues his O'Brien with a real strength of character, charm and humour and delivers such an affecting performance that you can't help but be moved by it. Don't get me wrong - this is no mawkish, dragged down into the mire piece - it's the very opposite in fact thanks to Hawkes' performance and a very sharp and witty script.

It's also a film about celebrating a full life whatever the limitations placed on you are - be they physical, mental or religious - and Hawkes delivers that conviction in spades thanks to some greatly amusing lines, a brilliantly warm, witty and real friendship between him and William H Macy's priest and a relationship between himself and his carer Vera (a supporting role played with sensitivity and heart by Moon Bloodgood).

Also Helen Hunt delivers a bravura performance as well - stripping down literally and metaphorically for the audience. Gently played and sensitively handled, Cheryl feels like a real character rather than a sleazy stereotype.

The Sessions is a deeply engaging and powerfully accessible film which has been carefully put together by Lewin, a former polio sufferer. But it's a film which stands or falls on the performance of its lead - and Hawkes delivers in spades despite the physical limitations of what's demanded of him. It's really one of the strongest performances of its ilk that I've seen on the screen in a long time.

Don't miss The Sessions - it may make you re-evaluate your life and will deliver you a film which is mature, thoughtful, funny and hauntingly good.

Rating:

Brand new pics from The Wolverine

Brand new pics from The Wolverine

The Daily Telegraph's been busy.

They've snapped a couple of shots of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine on the set of The Wolverine, during filming in Sydney.

Logan's got his claws out in one and there appears to be a fair amount of snow too... as well as ninjas.

The Wolverine is due for release next year.

New character posters for The Hobbit

New character posters for The Hobbit

With the clock ticking towards the world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Wellington in just about three weeks time, anticipation is rising.

And to satiate that, 15 new Hobbit character posters have been revealed for the Hobbit.

Take a look at the new character images from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey below

Last Will: DVD Review

Last Will: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Vendetta Films and Rialto

From the crime capital of the publishing world (apparently) comes this latest attempt at launching a Swedish crime franchise (and from a book series of six which pre-dates The Millennium Trilogy by some three years, published as it was in 2002).

The blonde Malin Crepin stars Annika Bengtzon, a crime reporter trying to get a break on tabloid paper Kvaillspressen who's also a mother of two and workaholic.

While Bengtzon is attending the annual Nobel banquet, she witnesses the attempted murder of the latest winner and the death of a high ranking Nobel committee member, Caroline von Behring. Gagged by the police for reporting on the crime as she's a direct witness to what happened, Bengtzon finds herself sidelined by the paper's editors and legal eagles.

However, the journalistic drive is strong in this one - and believing that the police and press are concentrating on the wrong shooting victim, she starts her own investigation...

And unsurprisingly that leads to corruption, intrigue, global mystery and threats.

Plus on top of that, Annika's having trouble with her youngest son, who's being bullied.

Nobel's Last Will is inevitably going to end up being compared with The Millennium Trilogy - and I'm sorry to say, when pitted against that, it will be found wanting.

Let's just say that crime solving has never looked so glamorous and flashy.

Nobel's Last Will opens with a slick and stylish section at the Nobel awards and then hurtles into traditional action film territory - it's a very odd mix and kind of sets out where this film is going.

It's more of a pulpy trash novel than a high faluting, wide reaching conspiracy piece to be honest; it's the Swedish crime sensibilities mixed in with a good looking Hollywood lead (Crepin even looks a little like Maria Bello) and some Hollywood style action rather than slow burning reveals.

Sure, there's plot holes aplenty (wouldn't someone actually notice that a key witness to a crime was investigating a death?) and with mixes of montages and flashbacks as Annika pieces together the clues (along with scenes of her underlining key names) it's not exactly challenging stuff. Granted it is watchable, well made pacy fluff, despite being a challenge to logic and pushing more for ludicrous than serious but whether I'd want to sit through another five adaptations of the Annika Bengtzon cases, I'm not so sure.

Rating:

The Hobbit takes to the air

The Hobbit takes to the air

It was only a matter of time really....

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has now got an airline behind it.

National carrier, Air New Zealand's today launched its An Unexpected Briefing: Hobbit safety video, with a cameo appearance from Sir Peter Jackson.
Air NZ partnered with WETA workshop on the brand new Hobbit inspired safety video.

Take a peek below.