Titty Bar Ha Ha: Comedy Festival Review

Titty Bar Ha Ha: Comedy Festival Review

Cabaret and late night with a title like this could suggest only one thing.

Smut and plenty of it.

Except to say that Titty Bar Ha Ha is not quite the balls and all rude ribaldry that you might perhaps be expecting. Set in a 1943 England, it's the time of Hope and Gloria, two burlesquely clad girls, working to make an honest living as the planes fly over above them.

There's a dead ex under the floorboards and the authorities are closing in but it doesn't stop Hope and Gloria from having a good time - and what pairs of lungs these girls have got. (Easy at the back there)

There's plenty of singing, dancing and a lot of audience interaction in this piece which is a real late night treat. With more innuendo and double entendre than outright smut (although buppetry provides the obligatory XXX treat at the end of the show), Titty Bar Ha Ha is actually a damn good night out - and not in a completely dirty mac at the back kind of way.

With some deftly clever lyrics and some brilliant rhyming couplets, the duo weave a bloody good night out. Sure there's innuendo - "He was prone to come but not stay" being one of the cleaner moments, but there's also a great gathering of songs, fizzing audience participation and ribaldry as it plays out over its 60 minutes running time. A mash up of Tainted Love, some games involving coke and a fizzy sweet, training in burlesque dancing and a chance to get up on stage proves the entire thing is nothing short of pure wartime entertainment.

Both Hope and Gloria have amazing voices and the way they seamlessly riff on some stories of abuse and cheated upon girls in the wartime world certainly resonates here and there - but overall, this cabaret is well worth staying up late for and making sure you catch it in its last week at the festival.

To Rome With Love: Blu Ray Review

To Rome With Love: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Entertainment

After his recent fantastical offering in Paris, Woody Allen returns.

This time, he and an ensemble cast head to la bella Italia, Rome, for another fantasy magical comedy offering - To Rome With Love.

Visitors to and residents of Rome find their lives changed by the adventures and predicaments they find themselves in. From Jesse Eisenberg's trainee architect, Jack, who's tempted by his girlfriend's best friend Monica (Ellen Page) to Roberto Benigni's Leopoldo, who awakes one day to find his life has been turned into that of a celebrity, chased at every turn by the paparazzi, this is a mix of farcical and the comedic, with a pinch of the serious thrown in.

Allen himself is back in his usual neurotic form as a frustrated former opera director whose daughter is engaged following a whirlwind romance to one of Rome's locals. When he heads there, he discovers his daughter's father-in-law is a talented singer - but only when he sings in the shower... It's full of whimsy, fantasy and light-heartedness - but it didn't half rub me up the wrong way. Allen seemed to be a parody of himself and all his neuroses wound up to 11; with comments like "I have an IQ of 150 - you're thinking in euros, in dollars, it's a lot less" and "Don't psychoanalyse me! Many have tried. All have failed.", it's like he's rolling out his best lines.

Like any series of stories, some fly, whereas others falter and fail, proving their flimsy coincidence is all a little too much to bear - from the farce of the newly married husband whose wife wanders off only for him to be left with Penelope Cruz's call girl and his parents thinking that's his wife, it's an intriguing mix which doesn't quite work out as well as perhaps it should.

It's a shame because Allen's eye for the beauty and majesty of Rome from behind the camera is once again magnificent - even if his writing is stereotyped and a little too farcical and fantastical to take seriously. But then, perhaps that's some of the reason for To Rome With Love - it's a postcard and declaration of amour for the city and one which will resonate with those looking for light and flouncy Woody Allen.

Rating:

Latest ZB movie review

Latest ZB movie review

This week, Jack was back from Mexico - and we got to talk the latest movie releases on Newstalk ZB.

Under the spotlight this week was the new JJ Abrams Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Colin Firth's latest, Gambit and also the controversial Spring Breakers.

Take a listen below:

http://newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/player/ondemand/343337446-darren-bevan-at-the-movies--may-11

Rebelle: Movie Review

Rebelle: Movie Review

Cast: Rachel Mwanza
Director: Kim Nguyen

It's the rather hard-hitting world of child soldiers we go with this Canadian film, also known as Rebelle.

Mwanza plays Komona, a child whose African village is ransacked by rebels at the start of the movie and who's forced to join the forces and kill her own parents as her first act as a child soldier.


When she survives a confrontation, the powers that be believe she is a witch and a lucky charm for their leader, The Great Tiger. But Komona decides the life is not for her and plots running away, with one other.

War Witch aka Rebelle is a harrowing and somewhat fraught viewing experience, but one which is utterly incredible given how you are transfixed by what plays out. What begins with a voiceover, quickly turns into a massacre and leaves you with your heart in your mouth, which is agog with horror.

Thankfully this is not one of those flicks which becomes an unrelentingly difficult watch because of it - mainly due to the performance of Mwanza, whose innocence in the face of pure horror is captivating. 


It's not the easiest watch though and a very human performance grounds the piece in a reality which draws you in when you least expect it. Disturbing imagery pervades the film too - one shot sees the forests covered with white ghosts seen by Komona, it's certainly the kind of film for which the word haunting was coined.

Rating:

Monster Fest is coming

Monster Fest is coming

Just announced is something a little bit different for Auckland's Academy cinema....and it looks cool.


Academy Cinemas announce NZ’s first Monster Fest

In conjunction with Monster Pictures, Academy Cinemas is proud to announce that Monster Fest is coming to NZ. Founded by distributor Monster Pictures in Melbourne and brought to Auckland by Academy Cinemas, Monster Fest brings the best in quality gore, cult and boundary-pushing cinema to fans and provides a fun and exciting cinema-going experience.


Starting on June 6, the exciting 2 week line-up includes Norwegian folklore horror THALE, the follow up to the 2009 hit THE COLLECTOR, THE COLLECTION, the hilariously original Irish Sci-Fi hit GRABBERS, and crime thriller WELCOME TO THE PUNCH starring James McAvoy and Andrea Riseborough. Closing night will feature the NZ premier of THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION SHOW, a music documentary about legendary British post-punk band KILLING JOKE, which will be a followed up by an exclusive Q&A with the whole band and local director Shaun Pettigrew.

“Monster Fest is about the ultimate experience for an underground cinema like Academy” says Academy
Cinemas Managing Director Andy Miller. “We're a band of misfits and outcasts, and so are these films.
Academy Cinemas is a haven for film lovers and not some stuffy relic, we're a home for anyone looking for
something a little bit different.”

So far, the following films have been confirmed; THALE, GRABBERS, 25TH REICH, MANBORG, FATHER’S DAY, THE COLLECTION, DARK SKIES, WELCOME TO THE PUNCH, SMALL APARTMENTS and THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION SHOW. More titles are to be confirmed

Gravity first trailer is here

Gravity first trailer is here

The first look at Gravity starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock is here.

Gravity, from director Alfonso Cuaron hits in October.

Hedluv and Passman: Comedy Festival Review

Hedluv and Passman: Comedy Festival Review

You will see nothing else like it at the New Zealand International Comedy festival.

Hedluv and Passman are two young English rappers from Cornwall who've been brought over to the festival by Rhys Darby and his wife, Rosie.

The gag? They think they're musicians playing a festival. They are without doubt, initially nuts.

Rapping about Doing it Dreckly (dreckly is a Cornish word meaning later on) and getting caught in a riptide off a beach in North Cornwall, to say they're a bit bonkers is an understatement. 




But yet, with just a casio keyboard, the duo are geniuses. Lyrics fly past at such speed occasionally, it's hard to keep up (though album sales at the end offer a chance to dive deeper) but once you get used to them (taking all of five head scratching WTF moments) their sounds are incredibly catchy and their wordplay deft and dry.

Their on stage banter is relatively minimal but the shambolic nature of the live show (which is intentional) means they have time to talk here and there as they set up. Comments like "What are we going to do? Rap at you?" as an audience member goes to the loo show a quick wittedness that goes beyond the words they've put to beats.

But it's the energy on stage from the wiry Passman who resembles a lanky fair haired version of Freddie Mercury on a pogo stick as he bounds around the stage like Tigger on V that's contagious. Equally, a more sullen and dialled down Hedluv, who's a cross between actor Lee Ross and Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys as he stands behind the keyboard, makes a perfect foil to his mike-throwing manic OTT stage compadre.



A mental version of Black Hole Sun is a highlight, but the finale is an utterly addictive and totally infectious blast of bubble gum synth pop cum rap as the duo get all the audience up, jumping around and dancing to a song called The Future, (see at the end of this piece) which has the refrain of "turn left, turn right, go right round the roundabout." It's totally high energy addiction and an ending that leaves you grinning ear to ear - I'm still humming it hours after I heard it, a true testament to an earworm of a song.

Hedluv and Passman are a real breath of fresh air in among the stand up of the festival; a chance to catch something quite unique in these circles which is not really derivative or comparable to anything around. Defying and confounding expectations, they offer a comedy musical epiphany which marks them for either greatness or the looney bin.

Either way, I'm along for the ride.