Parental Guidance: Blu Ray Review

Parental Guidance: Blu Ray Review

Rating: PG (The irony)
Released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

It's been a decade since Billy Crystal graced the screen with Analyze That and now he's back in this family comedy, along with Bette Midler.

Crystal plays Artie Decker, an ageing baseball announcer, whose time on the side of the field is called out by his bosses. When his estranged daughter Alice (Tomei) calls asking Artie and wife Diane (Midler) to babysit the kids for a week while she heads out of town, chaos ensues.


The reason? Alice is a strict parent who has rules and boundaries for her three children and whose political correctness version of parenting clashes directly with Artie and Diane's somewhat more liberal and relaxed approach to letting them do what they want....

Parental Guidance is predictable family fare which will amuse the younger end of the audience more than the older. Certainly, with its fart gags and obvious humour and situations, it's going for low hanging fruit - and yet, its target will definitely love parts of it despite the fact we've seen it all before. And while it's great to see Crystal back on the screen, he's constrained by a film script which aims low and then manages to dig deeper everytime.

Somewhere in among all the misfires is a social commentary, waiting to rise to the surface; a look at how parenting values have changed over the years and how in some ways, the old methods of a sharp slap and rebuke are the best rather than having your child "use their words" to express their anger. But these oft-unspoken truths are lost among the deeply uninspiring and highly unoriginal story we've all seen before. Don't get me wrong, as a piece of holiday entertainment, families with young kids will be amused by the antics and the occasional slapstick.

However, on a personal level, Parental Guidance remains a disappointment for the return of Billy Crystal - how he could waste himself in such a cliched movie and deliver a performance which offers up more than the material given to him is a real headscratcher.

Extras: Commentary, deleted scenes and gag reel.

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Compliance: DVD Review

Compliance: DVD Review

Rating: R16
Released by Vendetta Films

Based on actual events, Compliance is an insidious watch.

It centres on a fast food chain in middle America - it's a busy store and one which is facing a hectic Friday night with the possibility of soiled stock, a secret shopper and plenty of customers. So, when manager Sandra (Ann Dowd) receives a call from an officer Daniels, telling her that one of her employees was believed to have stolen money from a customer, who was currently at the police station. With only a vague description of the employee, Sandra assumes it's the quiet Becky (Dreama Walker) and follows out the policeman's request to hold her in a back room until they get there.

And that's when things start to take a turn for the bizarre.

The officer tells them he won't be able to get there for a while - and they will have to strip search her for the cash. Gradually, the requests escalate into the utterly unbelievable - and the depraved.

Compliance is an uneasy, queasy watch.

There's revulsion that it is based on a real event (some 70 calls were made of a similar nature in America) and a sickening claustrophobia which pervades the whole thing. Using slow, swooping camera movements, Zobel manages to convey the atmosphere in the restaurant and the tense nature of the enclosed environment. Essentially, as you watch it unfold in a fixed space, it feels as if you are there - a fact made all the more uncomfortable in that actual CCTV footage exists of the real life incident.

Burrowing into your mind, Compliance taunts you with the nagging thought of "What would you do" as it unfolds - a surefire sign that the film works on a psychologically disturbing level and on a level which every instinct in your brain screams at you to deny.

A tangled mix of empowerment and ethical dilemmas, awash with a morally queasy investigation into why we don't question authority or what compels us to do what we do, Compliance demands you watch. But just don't be surprised if you feel like taking a wash afterwards thanks to its queasy and unsettling, but compelling nature.

Extras: None

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I Anna Director Barnaby Southcombe talks about the film-making process

I Anna Director Barnaby Southcombe talks about the film-making process

I Anna stars Charlotte Rampling and Gabriel Byrne as a pair of people locked in an investigation into a murder. She knows something and Gabriel Byrne's the cop who's investigating. But the pair are mysteriously drawn together. Director Barnaby Southcombe took some time to answer our questions about the film and the film-making process.

You’d been working as a director on a fair few TV series, how difficult was the transition to film? 

The way the film industry works, your TV experience doesn’t seem to count for anything. You may as well have worked as a butcher before – So I was grateful I managed to make this. I didn’t realise how long the process would be though. 4 years from start to finish and it’s still going!

What were the obstacles you faced and how did you overcome them?

Charlotte broke her wrist 3 days before we started filming and turned up for final costume fittings with a huge plaster cast. I had a choice: push the film and claim insurance but risk not getting all the actors back together again or go away and see if I could incorporate it into the story. In the end, I was a little upset that I hadn’t thought of it myself as I thought it added an interesting layer.

I’m imagining the biggest obstacle would have been getting your mother, Charlotte Rampling....?

I thought it would be a shoo­‐in, seeing as you know, we’re like... whanau, but she turned me down when I sent her a short treatment: thought the character was too dark. So I had to go away with my tail between my legs and actually write the script before she saw what it was I was trying to do. Thankfully she saw the light then.

How awkward were some of the grittier, darker scenes to direct with her?

Ah, she’s a pro. She’s done it before. I was the one who was beet-­‐red in the corner not knowing what to say. Her and Ralph Brown were great. They just took things in hand and said “right, shall we do this?”

What was her feedback like on set?

She’s very trusting in her directors. It takes her a while to gauge whether she’s going to agree to a film but once she’s made that decision she hands over responsibility– it’s kind of liberating for her because then she’s prepared to go anywhere emotionally, there’s no safety net. It’s what makes her still such an exciting actress. So it’s a very collaborative relationship.

A noir thriller is quite a debut – and with quite an auspicious cast as well?

Noir isn’t what we necessarily associate with British films and so I was keen to set the story here. The book on which this is based is set in New York and I wanted to bring a European flavour to this familiar hard boiled scenario. I knew casting Charlotte and Gabriel would bring this feeling of displacement, as they are more familiar in French and American cinema. I liked the idea of these two lost souls, searching for love in this foreign looking city and finding each other.

It’s rare to see an older cast these days in a film like this?

Yes that’s true, and certainly it was when I was trying to pull the film together, but now it seems films are starting to come out with older cast and finding an audience too, which is great. Marigold Hotel and Quartet are testaments to that. The baby boomers are such an iconic and successful generation, whose cinematic legacy in front and behind the camera is so defining, who wouldn’t want to make films with them?

What was the best part of shooting this?

The German catering. We had to shoot a few of the interiors of the movie in Germany for financing reasons and the on-set food was simply the best I have ever had.

Looking back on the film, what would you do differently and what did you do that actually surprised you?

Sounds a bit smug but I wouldn’t change anything. I’m sure this film has many weaknesses but I like them as they are. I’d like to think I would direct this very differently if I had another crack at it but only because I wouldn’t want to repeat myself. I hope I’ve learnt a lot. It’s too early to tell. It’s certainly been a hell of an emotional ride.

What’s next for you?I’m writing at the moment. I’ll let you know when I finish... promise.

I Anna is out now on DVD from Transmission Films.

New Wolverine trailer

New Wolverine trailer

A brand new Wolverine trailer is here.

Footage of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine has been released from CinemaCon. It gives a little more away about the Silver Samurai too....


And there's also a brand new The Wolverine poster out as well.

The brand new full length The Wolverine trailer is also here

The Company You Keep: Movie Review

The Company You Keep: Movie Review

Cast: Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Julie Christie
Director: Robert Redford

Based on the novel by Neil Gordon, Robert Redford directs and stars in this film about the Weather Underground, a radical protest group in America back in the late 60s plotted to overthrow the government.

When a former member of the group, Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) hands herself into the FBI after 30 years in hiding following a bank robbery in which one person was murdered, local journalist Ben Shepard (LaBeouf) finds his interest piqued.

A series of clues and a tip off from the FBI leads Shepard to uncover Jim Grant (Robert Redford) a former Weatherman who's wanted for murder. But when the web starts to get closer to netting Grant, he goes on the run.

However, Shepard doesn't believe he's guilty of the crime he's accused of...

The Company You Keep is a solid, if unspectacular thriller which benefits from a truly great ensemble cast.

The likes of Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Chris Cooper, Terrence Howard, Anna Kendrick, Sarandon, Brendan Gleeson and Nick Nolte to name but a few show the depth of the cast which can give a story the venerability and reliance it needs as it unspools. It's a mix of putting 1960s idealism into a modern day setting while muddying the waters with old age - and it works well with the likes of Robert Redford at the helm. Occasionally though, it feels like these actors are simply rolled out, with little to work with - a series of extended cameos if you will. Certainly, Howard's Cornelius, an agent in charge of the hunt, seems to do little other than bark out traditional FBI cliches - and Anna Kendrick is woefully underused.

And yet, it never fully seems to grasp the mettle of thriller and give you as much tension or suspense as you'd expect as it chops and changes back and forth to Redford being on the run and Shepard doing the research.

There's a real lack of suspense as the story unfolds despite some killer scenes. One of those sees Sarandon's Solarz in a cell with LaBeouf's reporter as she espouses some regret for what happened but not at the cost of her principles. Sarandon plays it with such clarity of vision and purpose, that it's one of a handful of scenes which linger on in the memory after this worthy film's done.

LaBeouf displays moments of cockiness and punkish arrogance as Shepard investigates, but his character somewhat sits at odds with the quieter and more thoughtful elements of the film. Brit Marling's impressive as the daughter with ties to what's happened but it's primarily the constant parade of elder actors who appear which really give this the impetus the messy story needs as its slightly overlong running time edges closer to the end.

Restrained and reasonable, The Company You Keep is a great movie for an afternoon's viewing indoors on the small screen with its knotty conundrum of moral principles years down the line. While not quintessentially gripping Redford, it's just a shame that the source material hasn't transcribed better to the big screen, given the fact there's such a stunning cast involved.

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New Fast and Furious 6 Trailer hits the road

New Fast and Furious 6 Trailer hits the road

A brand new Fast and Furious 6 trailer has dropped.

Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson lead the returning cast of all-stars as the global blockbuster franchise built on speed races to its next continent in Fast & Furious 6.

Reuniting for their most high-stakes adventure yet, fan favorites Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Elsa Pataky are joined by badass series newcomers Luke Evans and Gina Carano.

Since Dom (Diesel) and Brian’s (Walker) Rio heist toppled a kingpin’s empire and left their crew with $100 million, our heroes have scattered across the globe. But their inability to return home and living forever on the lam have left their lives incomplete.

Meanwhile, Hobbs (Johnson) has been tracking an organization of lethally skilled mercenary drivers across 12 countries, whose mastermind (Evans) is aided by a ruthless second-in-command revealed to be the love Dom thought was dead, Letty (Rodriguez). The only way to stop the criminal outfit is to outmatch them at street level, so Hobbs asks Dom to assemble his elite team in London. Payment? Full pardons for all of them so they can return home and make their families whole again....

Fast & Furious 6 is releasing on 30^th May in NZ

Spring Breakers: Movie Review

Spring Breakers: Movie Review

Cast: Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Rachel Korine, James Franco
Director: Harmony Korine

Babes, boobs, bikinis, bongs and beer.

And then some.

That about sums up the lurid and somewhat trashy Spring Breakers, which is busting out into cinemas and is more of an experience than a fully-formed story. Opening with bright pink titles and a slow-mo, extreme close up of plenty of amply bosomed half-naked nubile young women partying with the boys on a Bacchanal-style beach, Spring Breakers is anything but subtle.

Brit, (Ashley Benson) Candy, (Vanessa Hudgens) Faith (Selena Gomez) and Cotty (Korine) are four college girls who are wanting to head to Florida for the annual American debauch-fest that is spring break. Faith is the only one who's slightly different in their group, coming from a loosely Catholic upbringing and who spends her spare time in college in prayer groups, rather than Brit and Candy who swap crude grafitti notes during lectures.

When Brit, Candy and Cotty rob a local diner with water pistols, the group suddenly has enough to head to Florida - and party down, believing the booze-fest will offer them some kind of escape from their miserable existence.

However, while initially the group has fun in party central, the quartet end up in jail during a bust on a party. But that's when gold-toothed, corn-rowed rapper Alien (Franco in a loopy performance) bails them out in the hope they'll do some dirty work for him....

But fractions form within the group as the excesses of Spring Break and the reality of their lifestyle choices come crashing in.

Spring Breakers is an intriguing film; it's been a while since I've seen it now, but to be honest, I can't quite get it out of my head, which is always an interesting phenomenon for a movie. Like the ladies contained within, there's scant plot, and hardly any real characterisation from the main four girls and James Franco's dealer. I think that's intentional from Harmony Korine, but it makes it somewhat difficult to latch on to any of the emotional plight of the characters.

It's quite an hypnotic experience too as the group chants such mantras as "Pretend like it's a video game" when robbing the diner - (GTA Spring Break, anyone?) and "Pretend like it's a movie" and "Spring Break, spring break forever" are looped like a sampled record.

Is it caricature or is it condemning or celebrating spring break and the lifestyles there? I don't quite know - it's a hollow sleazy experience, yet one which stays with you for good or bad reasons.

Gomez and Hudgens do plenty to dispel their past as the teen Disney queens, but there's very little full on acting for them to do - Hudgens trashes her carefully constructed image with a part in a threesome, and Gomez drinks to excess while others writhe around on the floor, wearing very little; Ashley Benson (from TV's Pretty Little Liars) impresses. A general feeling of everything being unresolved for two of the characters annoys, given that one at least has had some investment in her journey from naive college girl to finding her faith and belief in life tested.

And yet, for Franco, the drug dealer role is one perhaps of a lifetime, a repulsive and repugnant character whose take on life is skewed by perceptions from TV shows and video games; so is Korine condemning us and the younger generation for aspiring to this lifestyle? I'm not sure, but it's a testament to his film making and the final product that I'm still as confused on this film now as I was in the hours after I first viewed it.

The Spring Breakers movie will repulse some, will anger others and will shock - but it should do; it's a film which confounds and defies expectation; a rare feat in today's popcorn world.

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