Tuesday, 23 April 2013

Brand new Star Trek Into Darkness clip

Brand new Star Trek Into Darkness clip


As we edge ever closer to the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, a brand new clip featuring the crew on board the Enterprise bridge has been released...

 It follows from last week's first look at a clip from Star Trek: Into Darkness starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

It comes with just a few weeks to go until Zoe Saldana, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood and Peter Weller all report for duty as Star Trek Into Darkness lands here on May 9

With just a couple of weeks' launch to the May 9th outing for Star Trek Into Darkness, we've got one final trailer released for JJ Abrams upcoming piece.

Here is the brand new Star Trek Into Darkness trailer...complete with a look at Benedict Cumberbatch's character...and Klingons???




It follows on from the brand new Star Trek Into Darkness trailer which has just played on the MTV Movie Awards.

Check out the latest look at Into Darkness here...









And new Star Trek Into Darkness poster too






Here's a wrap up of all we know so far for Star Trek Into Darkness:


























A new Star Trek Into Darkness trailer is here - and a brand new viral campaign for Star Trek Into Darkness has been unveiled too. AreYouthe1701.com has launched - see if you can spot it in the trailer...


See who the villain of Star Trek Into Darkness is here....

The announcement Star Trek Into Darkness trailer has landed....

Watch the Star Trek Into Darkness trailer.



And as if that wasn't exciting enough, the Japanese trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness has 15 seconds more footage - here it is...including a rather worrying homage to Star Trek The Wrath of Khan - is this where we see the demise of Zachary Quinto's Spock???


Star Trek Into Darkness synopsis

In 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness.

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.

With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.

As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

Returning again will be NZ’s own Karl Urban, along with a cast that includes Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg and Benedict Cumberbatch.  

Star Trek Into Darkness: releases in NZ on 16 May 2013.

Latest NewsTalk ZB Movie review with Jack Tame

Latest NewsTalk ZB Movie review with Jack Tame


This week on Newstalk ZB Saturday mornings with Jack Tame, I was talking the latest Gerard Butler movie, Olympus Has Fallen, kids animated fare Escape from Planet Earth and also The Croods.

Plus Jack shared the story of when he met Nic Cage - and delivered his killer opening question....





Monday, 22 April 2013

MLB 13: The Show: PS Vita Review

MLB 13: The Show: PS Vita Review


Released by Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform: PS Vita
Released on the PlayStation Network

Baseball - it's as American as apple pie and yankee doodle dandy.

This latest sports sim hits the handheld console and sees you given a stack of options for running a baseball team and, more importantly, heading out onto the field and fulfilling some of your Kevin Costner/ Field of Dreams fantasies. (Or is that just me?)


It's like any sports sim, really. You spend a little time pulling together the team you want - which will depend on how strong your knowledge of baseball actually is. Personally, I know zip all about the game and its players, so chose to rely on the statistics to help pull together a team of hitters and pitchers who could help me win the day.

I know there's a PS3 version of this around too, which explains why there's a little cross play functionality available with the game as well - but that's untested in this review I'm afraid.

MLB 13 - The Show is really a case of trying and testing methods as you aim balls at your opponents or press buttons with just the right amount of time to connect with the fastball which has been thrown your way. Graphically, it's not too bad for the OLED screen with its close up of players looking not too far off a decent computer resemblance; there are no crowd shots but they lurk in the back of the stadium like animated dots, wobbling with excitement and colour as the batter readies his swing.

And in all honesty, the atmosphere is there too - decent commentary works well to make you feel part of the stadium buzz - as opposed to some simulations where all that can be mustered is a random collection of repeated phrases and trite bon mots. It's the minor details which work well in this game - a stadium clock ticks in real time, animation works well - it sounds simplistic but for the non fan of the actual sport, these are the kind of things you look at as you negotiate your way through the moves. There's hardly any use of the touch screen tech at all, which is a shame, but the relatively simplistic controls mean even a rookie or seasoned pro can pick up the game and become addicted to the gameplay and given the format's portability and occasionally short soundbite style play, it's sure to hit a home run for fans of good solid sports simulations.

Rating:


Sunday, 21 April 2013

Comedy Fest Questionnaire: Wilson Dixon

Comedy Fest Questionnaire: Wilson Dixon



1) What is your show is called this year?
Wilson Dixon Greatest Hits


2)  Why?
Because I did a show a few years back called Wilson Dixon Seldom Heard Songs You Probably Won’t Like and it seemed like a logical step

3) Can you give us a few hints as to what broadly your festival show is about?
It’s all my hit songs together in one show. It runs for an hour. My Daddy was surprised it was running that long. He’s not that supportive



4) How much time have you spent crafting the show over the past 12 months since the end of the last festival?
Honestly? Less than 3 minutes

5) The comedy festival is turning 21 this year – it’s a big age 21 – what are your memories of being 21? Or if you’re not old enough yet, you lucky person, what are your hopes for being 21?
When I turned 21 I decided to grow the fingernail on the little finger on my right hand as long as I could. It got up to about an inch long. It had a lot of uses. Keeping it clean was an issue

6) The Comedy festival is one big party and catch up for a month - is there anyone you’re looking forward to seeing over here either socially or on stage?
Not really. I wouldn’t mind seeing Willie Nelson, but I doubt he’ll be around

7) What’s the comedy scene like at the moment who do you rate and why?
I have no idea

8)  What’s the best piece of audience interaction you’ve had?
At a show in Darlington, Mississippi, a guy in the crowd yelled out “I named one of my rabbits after you!” Afterwards he met me backstage and he had the rabbit with him, and he says “here he is, little William Daschian.” I said that I wasn’t William Daschian. He was really confused. It got pretty awkward after that. Mainly because he wouldn’t leave, and insisted he show me the rabbit’s party trick. After I while I said ok go ahead, and he puts the rabbit on the toilet and it poops in it like a human. I feel angry because I’ve got that in my head now and it’ll always be there

9) What’s the most memorable part of performing for you within the last 12 months?
I shared the bill at a show last August with a lady choral quartet in Wyoming. They sang a bunch of Tammy Wynette covers. One of the ladies was 95 years old and mean and bitter as they come. After the show she came into my dressing room and accused me of stealing one of her beers. I denied it, so she threw a cup of hot coffee at me. The inevitable tussle ensued and I ended up spending the night at the Sherriff’s dept. and had to share the cell with the local madman who’d been caught sending parcels of his own faeces to local community leaders. It’s not a happy memory, but certainly the most memorable over the last year

10) When we say New Zealand International Comedy Festival to you, what’s the first thing you think of?
A bowl of custard… is this some kind of word association psychology test?

11) How would you persuade people to come and see your show?

By telling them I sing a song about a horse. If that doesn’t get them, then I don’t want them

Comedy Fest Questionnaire: Eli Mathewson

Comedy Fest Questionnaire: Eli Mathewson



1) Tell us what your show is called this year?
Proposition: Great!

2)  Why?
The show is kind of sprung from the marriage equality debate from the last few years. Why are there ‘Propostions’ to ban things and make people unhappy when we could just forge ahead and build a better world?


3) Can you give us a few hints as to what broadly your festival show is about?
It’s about me being 24 and in a serious relationship and suddenly having the option of marriage and how scary that is. Also about my awkward sexual encounters with girls. Also about dinosaurs.

4) How much time have you spent crafting the show over the past 12 months since the end of the last festival?
I started thinking about my solo right after the festival, but it didn’t begin to form itself properly until the moment I was in Edinburgh live streaming NZ Parliament TV to see what they were going to decide about my future.

5) The comedy festival is turning 21 this year – it’s a big age 21 – what you’re your memories of being 21? Or if you’re not old enough yet, you lucky person, what are your hopes for being 21?
When I was 21 I moved out of home for the first time, moved to Auckland, lived in a terrible cold flat, ate lots of sizzlers and mashed potatoes and had heaps of dress up parties. But by the end of the year I’d worked myself out alright. Sort of.

6) The Comedy festival is one big party and catch up for a month - is there anyone you’re looking forward to seeing over here either socially or on stage?
So many! Can’t wait to spend lots of time hanging with the FanFiction crew and seeing what awesome guest we have this year. Looking so forward to Josie Long’s show.  My best mate James Roque is doing his first solo show and it’s going to be awesome. My friends Chris Parker and Hayley Sproull are doing some kind of crazy sketch show that is going to be heaps of fun. Chris Martin is bringing his show that I saw in Edinburgh last year – it’s a great show and he is SUPER cute. Can’t wait to see what the other Billy T nominees come up with – 4 ridiculously good comedians I am honoured to be recognised with. But most of all Hedluv + Passman – I saw their show 4 times in Edinburgh and I’m hoping to see them so many more times well they are here; phenomenal, upstoppable Cornish casio rap.

7) What’s the comedy scene like at the moment who do you rate and why?
I think comedy in New Zealand is in really good shape – so many awesome people are making a living out of comedy and there’s so much more NZ comedians  everywhere, especially on TV, where they are all killing it. I think Urzila Carlsen is a seriously one of kind, there’s no one else like her and she is on top of her game. Rhys Darby’s last show was pretty much a perfect stand-up hour. There’s a really fresh wave of new young comedians doing things their own way that’s really exciting – I think Heidi O’Loughlin is one of the funniest people ever, plus the originator and producer of FanFiction comedy which she has done an INCREDIBLE job. Stephen Boyce, Brendon Green, Pax, Joseph, Tom, Rose, Guy, Jamaine Ross – too many to choose from!

8)  What’s the best piece of audience interaction you’ve had?
I very recently did a gig at a high school and someone threw their giant Pikachu backpack onto the stage when I was talking about Pokémon. It was huge and they found it on the side of the road. I really wanted to steal it.

9) What’s the most memorable part of performing for you within the last 12 months? The Billy T Showcase with the fifteen applicants for the award was out of this world. Everyone slayed it, somehow a two and a half hour show felt lightning fast. 

10) When we say New Zealand International Comedy Festival to you, what’s the first thing you think of?
Stalking babin’ comedians at the Classic. Too many beers. Too many ice creams. Too many hot dogs.

11) How would you persuade people to come and see your show? I just hope they like narwhals cause there’s one on my poster and I think they are the coolest animal alive. Also I might give away a car. (I won’t).

Comedy Fest Questionnaire: Idiot of Ants

Comedy Fest Questionnaire: Idiot of Ants



1) Tell us what your show is called this year?
Our show this year is called ‘Idiots Of Ants, Model Citizens’


2)  Why?
Comedy festivals always ask for the title of your show six months in advance so as they can start compiling their brochures. Six months before the Edinburgh festival where we first performed ‘Model Citizens’ we planned to write a show about air fix models that came to life and took over the world. It was a terrible idea, terrible. We binned it and just wrote an hour of the funniest sketches we could think of. Only the name remains.

3) Can you give us a few hints as to what broadly your festival show is about?
Sketch comedy is what we do best. Fast moving, joke filled big silly comic ideas performed slickly and with maximum razzmatazz. There is no story as such, it’s just the best stuff that fell out of our comedy brains over twelve months.




4) How much time have you spent crafting the show over the past 12 months since the end of the last festival?
It’s been a tough year.
Because we won the NZ Comedy Festival Best International Act Award last year we felt a tremendous pressure to bring back the best show that we could muster. We spent eleven months panicking and one month writing funny bombs. All we gotta do is light da fuse a dem funny bombs gonna blow your butts off.


5) The comedy festival is turning 21 this year – it’s a big age 21 – what you’re your memories of being 21?
Wow! 21! Old enough to drink alcohol in Fiji! Congratulations Comedy Fest!


6) The Comedy festival is one big party and catch up for a month - is there anyone you’re looking forward to seeing over here either socially or on stage?
We met so many lovely people at last years festival. It seems that NZ folk are super generous, last year two people allowed us to stay in their house when we messed up our hotel reservations and girl lent us her car.

We had a fantastic festival last year and we are eager to return. We will be drinking at the Q bar, join us, bring snacks.

7) What’s the comedy scene like at the moment who do you rate and why?
There is so much great work being created at the moment and so much of it is coming to NZ. Check out Ellis James and James Acaster, two acts who had amazing Edinburgh Festivals.

And please please please see clown Dr Brown. There is nothing better than good clowning, hilarious.

8)  What’s the best piece of audience interaction you’ve had?
Once, at a gig in London, we were doing a sketch in which we picked on a man in the third row. It was only when he stood up that we realised how big this guy was, he was seven foot tall and built like a brick shit house. It turned out that he was a professional wrestler. The night ended with this guy on stage demonstrating wrestling moves on us. We spend a long time trying to write sketches that are funny… but nothing is as funny as watching Elliott squealing and giggling simultaneously as he is put into a wrestling move called the ‘double chicken wing’.


9) What’s the most memorable part of performing for you within the last 12 months?
There is a sketch in this show where Jim drops his trousers. At a gig in a full 400 seat theatre one of Jim's nuts escaped his undercrackers. Jim has very dangly nuts, like the nuts a very old man might have . Half the audience was treated to this monstrosity… The others could not work out what all of the giggling was about. Andy got very close to the nut. It was very traumatic.


10) When we say New Zealand International Comedy Festival to you, what’s the first thing you think of?
Last year's trip to the festival was our first time visiting New Zealand, so when we think of our trip we think of bungee jumping on lake Taupo, the Skyjump at the Auckland Skytower and the Fear Fall at the Rainbows End theme park. We did a lot of plummeting in New Zealand… all except for Elliott, who was too scared and spent the whole trip holding the coats.


11) How would you persuade people to come and see your show?
We think that this is the best show that we have ever written. We love it, and we have n awful lot of fun performing it. We honestly think that, if you come along, you will have a good time.

Also, we have booked a really big venue for our show this year. The cost of putting on this show is very very high. If you don’t come then we stand to lose a lot of money. So do come. Please. Please please please come. Our children need shoes. 

Comedy Fest Questionnaire: Tom Furniss

Comedy Fest Questionnaire: Tom Furniss



1) Tell us what your show is called this year? The Diary of Gordon Leaf Cooper


2)  Why? Because it’s based on a diary I found that belonged to a 16-year-old called Gordon Leaf-Cooper in 1984. I’ve crafted most of the really sad things from his diary/life into comedy.

3) Can you give us a few hints as to what broadly your festival show is about?
Tragedy, heartache, and dysfunctional families, set against a backdrop of 1984 Whakatane.


4) How much time have you spent crafting the show over the past 12 months since the end of the last festival? A long time. It has occupied my thoughts for maybe 20 hours a week for the last 6 months. But in actuality, this story has been 29 years in the making (since 1984).

5) The comedy festival is turning 21 this year – it’s a big age 21 – what are your memories of being 21? Or if you’re not old enough yet, you lucky person, what are your hopes for being 21?
I loved 21. I was probably at my most prolific with women (3) and dangerously good at drinking beer (averaging about 7 a Saturday). It’s a much simpler time now, but my body and my facebook timeline will never forget 2009/10.




6) The Comedy festival is one big party and catch up for a month - is there anyone you’re looking forward to seeing over here either socially or on stage?
My friends who come to my show. Unfortunately I don’t see them much anymore, such is life (c’est la vie). But they always come out for my show and I love their support/making them laugh.


7) What’s the comedy scene like at the moment who do you rate and why?
It’s good. There’s a young Italian woman named Shem who is doing fantastic things ATM. She’s legally blind and missing her right arm from her elbow down, and the way she turns that misfortune to comedy is masterful. Also, Whitecliff the Dog man, this old guy who does puppetry with taxidermied dogs—weird but wonderful.


8)  What’s the best piece of audience interaction you’ve had?
I once put a heckler down really good in the front row. But he got the better of me. He just waited and waited, then ‘pow!’ out of the blue he jumped up and down trailed me when I wasn’t looking. It was a 60% successful down trail, and I think the front 3 rows may have got a glimpse of the tip. Full credit to him.


9) What’s the most memorable part of performing for you within the last 12 months?
Last Laughs at last year’s festival. Getting to perform with the likes of Rhys Darby, Boy with Tape, Brendhan Lovegrove, in front of a big audience of my peers was super cool.


10) When we say New Zealand International Comedy Festival to you, what’s the first thing you think of?
Shem, the blind one armed Italian comedian. Probably cause I mentioned her 3 questions ago, but she’s also on my mind.

11) How would you persuade people to come and see your show?
Well, I probably shouldn’t promise anything, because it’s tentative, but I believe Shem is going to do 5 minutes at the top of my show. Not to be missed if it goes down.

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