GI Joe: Retaliation: DVD Review

GI Joe: Retaliation: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Entertainment

The GI Joes are back.

When the GI Joes are tasked with getting back a nuclear weapon by the US President, they find themselves thrown into a conspiracy when they're framed for crimes against the country. As their mortal enemies Cobra try to take advantage of the power hole, it's up to Roadblock (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) and his team of two surviving Joes to expose the conspiracy, save the day and the world...

GI Joe 2: Retaliation is all guns, gadgets and gung-ho. As you'd perhaps expect from a film based on a toy franchise....And yet, the first half of GI Joe 2 is a great mix of seriousness and excellently put together action sequences. One such set piece, atop mountains and scaling Himalyan cliff faces, is simply one of the best bits of choreographed kick-ass fight scenes committed to celluloid in a long time. Director Chu uses the 3D so cleverly during it that you get a real scale and sense of depth as it plays out its thrilling premise and set piece.

But, that's the thing with this film - for the most part, with good solid characters, bad guys a-plenty and blockbuster thrills, it really does up its game and give you a damn entertaining popcorn treat. Which is why it's a real shame to note that in the last 30 minutes, the goofiness and cheesy one liners which have been so absent from the start, are thrown willy-nilly into the mix amid a hail of bullets and explosions as a new Hasbro line of GI Joe action vehicles are launched into the collective cinema conscience. Characterisation is secondary to the action in G.I. Joe Retaliation - and once you're willing to sacrifice that and go with the action, then this piece of high class hokum with its first rate action sequences will keep the big kid in you entertained for a couple of hours.

Extras: True face of evil, commentary

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Escape from Planet Earth: Blu Ray Review

Escape From Planet Earth: Blu Ray Review

Rating: PG
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

In the latest CGI outing, Brendan Fraser stars as little blue man, Scorch Supernova (Brendan Fraser). He's a brash, blue, bolshy big head Buzz Lightyear type and the hero of the Planet Baab. Much to the chagrin of his brother, Gary (Rob Corddry) who runs the mission control and saves Scorch's bacon every time. When Scorch heads to the "Dark Planet" aka Earth, he's caught by evil general Shanker Saunderson (William Shatner) after straying into Area 51 - and his brother Gary decides he must do all he can to try and save him, whatever the cost....

Escape From Planet Earth is disposably good fun which skews to the younger end of the spectrum.
With its hues of blues and occasional sci-fi nods, it's certainly fun despite being a little plot light. There's a degree of lunacy here and there as well as a menagerie of creatures is revealed in Area 51. Fraser gives good idiot as Scorch; Rob Corddry builds his growing reputation as the nerdier, brainier one of the pair - and Shatner seems to riff on his own personality / back catalogue with his portrayal of the General; but it has to be said Alba and Jessica Parker are hardly noticed in their time on screen.

Escape from Planet Earth passes by relatively quickly and with plenty of moments which will amuse here and there - with some adult nods to sci-fi to keep the older end of the spectrum amused as well as a very obvious poke at Pixar Animation, there's certainly a bit of depth here and there in this story of brawns vs brains.


As one character says at one point, "Turn off your brain and hang on", it's probably a fair analogy for anyone else along for the ride, which packs in colourful animation and a relatively lightweight throwaway story

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Spring Breakers: Blu Ray Review

Spring Breakers: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by ICON And Roadshow Home Entertainment

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 graffiti 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. 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.

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Prisoners: Movie Review

Prisoners: Movie Review

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Terrence Howard, Paul Dano, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo, Viola Davis
Director: Denis Villeneuve

From the "What would you do?" file, comes this brand new bleak thriller which is edge of your seat stuff from the moment it begins.

Hugh Jackman stars as blue collar worker Keller Dover whose motto is "Be ready"; his basement is prepped for the worst - be it hurricane or nuclear incident. But Keller and his wife (Maria Bello) are not prepared for what happens when they go to their neighbours Nancy and Franklin (Davis and Howard) on Thanksgiving.

When Keller's daughter Anna and their friends' daughter Joy go missing, their worlds are thrown into utter disarray. The only lead is a ramshackle RV seen lurking around the neighbourhood prior to their disappearance. But when the police, lead by detective Loki (Gyllenhaal in commanding form) have to let go their only suspect, the mentally retarded Alex (a creepy Paul Dano), Keller goes into overdrive, vowing to do whatever it takes to rescue his daughter.

But Keller discovers desperation has a price - is he willing to pay it?

Prisoners is without a doubt, a film of dread and utter creepiness. Proffering up suspense, masterful acting and unbelievably mysterious twists as the tale is told, it's gripping in a sickening way as it unfurls. Mainly it's due to Hugh Jackman's Keller Dover; his character is pushed to the very edge and the film begins with him reciting the Lord's Prayer, seeking guidance for the day. When it's repeated again later in the film, it's to bear witness to a man on the edge, about to make a monumental defining move, but one which feels completely understandable and horrifically relatable. Jackman brings to the screen a soaring rage-filled performance which has set the standard for the wronged man and the man seeking vengeance. But it's never a showy turn merely one that shines due to its intensity and one which fills the screen with realism.

Likewise Gyllenhaal and Dano; their performances are more dialled down than Jackman but they don't lack any less of the intensity. Certainly Dano's quiet performance as the man child accused of the abduction is totally memorable and disturbing; Gyllenhaal brings a steely yet subtle determination to the rural cop uncovering a world of horror as he tackles every parents' worst nightmare. It's also an exploration of evil begetting evil as all involved spiral deeper down into the abyss.

So it's a shame to note that despite all this praise for a grim and gritty thriller that's relentless and captivating as it unspools in Mid-America that there comes a caveat to the film - its ending. Despite the suspense that's been built up over the 140 minutes of running time, a Hollywoodesque ending which sees the normal procedures jettisoned in favour of forced drama; likewise, a final sequence which would have ended the movie on a formidably downbeat and realistic moment is tossed out (no doubt on the whim of a test audience) to satiate the Hollywood machine.

Overall, Prisoners represents a crime thriller film which owes a debt to the darkness of the likes of The Killing and The Vanishing and its ilk - it sickens as it tightens its grip on you as the emotional complexity builds to fever pitch, leaving you clenched to the edge of your seat as its powerful yet realistic story reveals its twists and turns with unnerving yet breath-taking intensity.

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The Company You Keep: DVD Review

The Company You Keep: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Madman Home Entertainment

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 (Shia 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. 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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Doctor Who - The Green Death: Special Edition: DVD Review

Doctor Who - The Green Death: Special Edition: DVD Review

Rating: PG
Released by BBC and Roadshow Home Entertainment

The one with the maggots gets a special edition release in this latest from the 1970s cupboard of Classic Doctor Who.

Starring Jon Pertwee as the Doc, it's an eco-tale of mining gone wrong in a Welsh village, where the miners have been turned green. On his companion Jo's insistence (Katy Manning in fine form), he sets out to investigate.

Doctor Who - The Green Death: Special Edition is a good solid release with a fan favourite story forming the backbone of it. But it's the extras which have been bundled onto the special edition which make this such a quality release. A documentary looking at the return of the series in 2005 is the main piece, with Russell T Davies is a fascinating watch - the Sarah Jane Adventures episodes where Jo Grant returned are thrown on too; and a making of doco add a lot to the package.

It may not be the most robust of classic Who but it is popular and does showcase a show in its stride - and its sad ending is one of the most iconic in the show.

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Storage Wars: S4 DVD Review

Storage Wars: S4 DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Magna Home Entertainment

Jarrod, Brandi, Dave, Darrell, and Barry - along with Laura and Dan - are all back for another year of Storage Wars.

The show, where they bid against each other for the possessions within storage lockers is an addictive and totally guilty pleasure. Sure, you could argue this is a reality show in some ways with some of it feeling scripted in parts as they spar off each other.

There's a lack of Dave in this latest batch of episodes - while I know he had a big spat with the show's producers, it seems like he's being sidelined in these - but thankfully, a few other characters crop up here and there to fill some of the void.

But the fun of this show is predominantly what's unearthed in the lockers - be it hidden treasures or collectable trash - the fun is in the guessing and the estimating so on that front, the show scores as an education and an entertaining one at that.

While I'm not sure how much mileage is left in the show, this latest series is a welcome addition.

Extras: Extra scenes - a nice touch here and there.

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