NZ is still PlayStation Nation

NZ is still PlayStation Nation

New Zealand Continues to be a PlayStation Nation

• PlayStation is the number one interactive entertainment brand in 2013
• PlayStation®4 takes lead in next generation consoles
• PlayStation®3 biggest selling platform for 2013
• PlayStation largest brand in portable consoles (*1)

Auckland, New Zealand, 17 February 2014 – Sony Computer Entertainment New Zealand (SCENZ) today revealed that, according to data from NPD Group Australia, the PlayStation brand maintained the market leadership in the total interactive entertainment category for 2013 (*2), a position it has held for over 10 years. For the third year running, PlayStation®3 (PS3™) was the number one selling home console in 2013.  Following the much hyped next-gen console battle at Christmas, SCENZ can reveal that the PlayStation®4 (PS4™) took the lead at launch and to date continues to be the highest selling next generation console (*3).

SCE NZ secured the results following a hugely successful 2013. Highlights for the year included the release of hit titles The Last of Us™ along with the latest instalment of the Gran Turismo® franchise, Gran Turismo®6 for PS3 and, of course, the release of the brand new PS4 system in November.  

“It has been an enormous 12 months for PlayStation in New Zealand,” says David Hine, Sales and Marketing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment New Zealand. “These results in 2013 not only truly underpin New Zealand as a PlayStation Nation, but also the strength of the individual platforms we have. For PS3 to perform so well, nearly seven years after its launch, is testament to the features, entertainment services and quality gaming titles delivered throughout its lifecycle and in 2013.” 

“The arrival of PS4 at the end of 2013 has further strengthened PlayStation’s position with Kiwi gamers.  PS4 has been a phenomenal success in New Zealand; a story that is replicated around the globe. As the world’s most powerful home console, PS4 clearly represents the next generation in gaming.  It is the best place to play.”

Full list of the 2014 BAFTA Winners

Full list of the 2014 BAFTA Winners

Here's the full list of the 2014 BAFTA winners...

BEST FILM

** WINNER: 12 YEARS A SLAVE **

AMERICAN HUSTLE

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

GRAVITY

PHILOMENA


DIRECTOR

Steve McQueen - 12 YEARS A SLAVE

David O. Russell - AMERICAN HUSTLE 

Paul Greengrass - CAPTAIN PHILLIPS 

** WINNER: Alfonso Cuarón - GRAVITY **

Martin Scorsese - THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

LEADING ACTOR

Bruce Dern - NEBRASKA

** WINNER: Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 YEARS A SLAVE **

Christian Bale - AMERICAN HUSTLE

Leonardo DiCaprio - THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
Tom Hanks - CAPTAIN PHILLIPS


LEADING ACTRESS 

Amy Adams - AMERICAN HUSTLE

** WINNER: Cate Blanchett - BLUE JASMINE **

Emma Thompson - SAVING MR. BANKS

Judi Dench - PHILOMENA
Sandra Bullock - GRAVITY


SUPPORTING ACTOR

** WINNER: Barkhad Abdi - CAPTAIN PHILLIPS **

Bradley Cooper - AMERICAN HUSTLE

Daniel Bruhl - RUSH

Matt Damon - BEHIND THE CANDELABRA 

Michael Fassbender - 12 YEARS A SLAVE


SUPPORTING ACTRESS

** WINNER: Jennifer Lawrence - AMERICAN HUSTLE**

Julia Roberts - AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY

Lupita Nyong’o - 12 YEARS A SLAVE

Oprah Winfrey - THE BUTLER

Sally Hawkins - BLUE JASMINE


OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

** WINNER: GRAVITY **
MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM

PHILOMENA

RUSH

SAVING MR. BANKS

THE SELFISH GIANT


OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

Colin Carberry (Writer), Glenn Patterson (Writer) GOOD VIBRATIONS

Kelly Marcel (Writer) SAVING MR. BANKS

** WINNER: Kieran Evans (Director/Writer) KELLY + VICTOR **

Pauk Wright (Director/Writer), Polly Stokes (Producer) FOR THOSE IN PERIL

Scott Graham (Director/Writer) SHELL


FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

THE ACT OF KILLING - Joshua Oppenheimer, Signe Byrge Sørensen

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR - Abdellatif Kechiche, Brahim Chioua, Vincent Maraval

** WINNER: THE GREAT BEAUTY - Paolo Sorrentino, Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima **

METRO MANILA  - Sean Ellis, Mathilde Charpentier

WADJDA - Haifaa Al-Mansour, Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul

DOCUMENTARY

** WINNER: THE ACT OF KILLING - Joshua Oppenheimer **

THE ARMSTRONG LIE - Alex Gibney

BLACKFISH - Gabriela Cowperthwaite

TIM’S VERMEER - Penn Jillette, Teller, Farley Ziegler

WE STEAL SECRETS: THE STORY OF WIKILEAKS - Alex Gibney


ANIMATED FILM

DESPICABLE ME 2 - Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin

** WINNER: FROZEN - Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee **

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY - Dan Scanlon


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

** WINNER: AMERICAN HUSTLE - Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell **

BLUE JASMINE - Woody Allen

GRAVITY - Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

NEBRASKA - Bob Nelson


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

12 YEARS A SLAVE - John Ridley

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA - Richard LaGravenese

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS - Billy Ray

** WINNER: PHILOMENA - Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope **

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET - Terence Winter


ORIGINAL MUSIC

12 YEARS A SLAVE  - Hans Zimmer

THE BOOK THIEF - John Williams

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS - Henry Jackman

** WINNER: GRAVITY - Steven Price **

SAVING MR. BANKS - Thomas Newman


CINEMATOGRAPHY

12 YEARS A SLAVE - Sean Bobbitt

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS - Barry Ackroyd

** WINNER: GRAVITY - Emmanuel Lubezki **

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS - Bruno Delbonnel

NEBRASKA - Phedon Papamichael


EDITING

12 YEARS A SLAVE - Joe Walker

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS - Christopher Rouse

GRAVITY - Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger

** WINNER: RUSH - Dan Hanley, Mike Hill **

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET - Thelma Schoonmaker


PRODUCTION DESIGN

12 YEARS A SLAVE - Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker

AMERICAN HUSTLE - Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA - Howard Cummings

GRAVITY - Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, Joanne Woodlard

** WINNER: THE GREAT GATSBY - Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn **

COSTUME DESIGN

AMERICAN HUSTLE - Michael Wilkinson

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA - Ellen Mirojnick

** WINNER: THE GREAT GATSBY - Catherine Martin **

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN - Michael O’Connor

SAVING MR. BANKS - Daniel Orlandi

MAKE UP & HAIR

** WINNER: AMERICAN HUSTLE - Evelyne Noraz, Lori McCoy-Bell **

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA - Kate Biscoe, Marie Larkin

THE BUTLER - Debra Denson, Beverly Jo Pryor, Candace Neal

THE GREAT GATSBY - Maurizio Silvi, Kerry Warn

THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG - Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Rick Findlater


SOUND

ALL IS LOST - Richard Hymns, Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor, Micah Bloomberg, Gillian Arthur

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS - Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro, Oliver Tarney

** WINNER: GRAVITY - Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro **

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS - Peter F. Kurland, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff

RUSH - Danny Hambrook, Martin Steyer, Stefan Korte, Markus Stemler, Frank Kruse


SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

** WINNER: GRAVITY - Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny **

THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG - Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds

IRON MAN 3 - Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick

PACIFIC RIM - Hal Hickel, John Knoll, Lindy De Quattro, Nigel Sumner

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS - Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton, Patrick Tubach, Roger Guyett


BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION

EVERYTHING I CAN SEE FROM HERE

I AM TOM MOODY** WINNER: SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES **


BRITISH SHORT FILM

ISLAND QUEEN

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES

ORBIT EVER AFTER

** WINNER: ROOM 8 **

SEA VIEW

THE EE RISING STAR AWARD 

Dane DeHaan

George Mackay

Lupita Nyong’o      

** WINNER: Will Poulter **

Lea Seydoux

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO BRITISH CINEMA

Awarded to Peter Greenaway

BAFTA Fellowship

Helen Mirren

Rush: Blu Ray Review

Rush: Blu Ray Review

Rating: R13
Released by Universal Home Ent

This latest drama, from director Ron Howard, takes a look at the prolonged rivalry between  British Formula One driver James Hunt (a blonde mopped Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian driver Niki Lauda (stunningly played by actor Daniel Bruhl) which ran from 1971 to 1976.

Howard chooses to tell the story as a battle between two rivals who are cut from the same cloth but are diametrically opposed in outlooks on life and attitudes.

Hunt is a playboy, who's as interested in notching up marks on his bedpost as he is in winning races. He works his way up the Formula 3 tracks to win and gradually ends up in the big league. Lauda, in contrast, uses precision and calculating psychology to achieve his goals - and some money to buy his way into the Formula One world. Their rivalry is formed in their formative years on a formula 3 track and culminates in a disastrous race in 1976 at the Nurburgring track.

Ron Howard's crafted a racing film that's as much about the drama off the track as it is on. By choosing to keep the racing shots to a minimum until the final crucial race, he's ensured you're fully invested in the characters as the inevitable happens. Perfect attention to period detail throughout and some tautly put together racing ensures the feel of the Rush movie is epic and yet still intimate. While it's Hemsworth's larrikin Hunt, with his laddish bed-hopping ways and his braggadacio, whose face beams out from the film poster, this is actually more Daniel Bruhl's film and Lauda's story. Hemsworth's clipped English accent occasionally fades into Aussie drawl, but Bruhl's precision and the way he's captured Lauda's precision, apparent social ineptitude and veneer is second to none. In fact, Bruhl excels in this, using understated characterisation to bring the so called rat to life; whereas Hemsworth's handed a role which is the complete opposite - he takes the spoils of a posh boy ladette in a world looking for a racing hero - both are perfect examples of why F1 drivers are held in such high rockstar esteem and what drives them to risk their lives during every race.

But Howard's also had a hand in this, subtly building up the relationship over various encounters and stretched throughout the years; minor comments here and there craft together a relationship and rivalry which is relatable and utterly engrossing. Using archive footage here and there, he's also managed to capture the atmosphere of the races.

And talking of the races, Howard's recreation of the key moments is every petrol head's dream. From the sound of the engines revving to the pump of the pistons, by using sweeping camera shots and occasional driver point-of-view shots, he's captured the thrill of the race, the adrenalin rush and the reason the drivers do it. I'm not a Formula One fan by any stretch of the imagination, but what he's created on screen is utterly addictive.

Some other elements of the film, unfortunately, don't work quite as well.

A few characters here and there appear, seem to form part of the story and then simply disappear, leaving a narrative unfulfilled (Natalie Dormer's character being the chief culprit); he uses way too many voiceovers to service the film's exposition - and while it's clear he's trying to capture some of the psychology and inner thoughts, the over-use makes it feel tired and grating in places; the film feels a little overlong as well - it could have easily lost 20 minutes and still been as riveting.

All in all, Rush is a compelling and captivating piece of cinema - it's gripping, riveting and a superb insight into sporting rivalry both on and off the track.

Extras: Making of, featurettes, deleted scenes and trailers

Rating:

Keith Lemon: The Film: DVD Review

Keith Lemon: The Film: DVD Review

Rating: R16
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Unless you've watched Celebrity Juice on cable, chances are the name Keith Lemon will be unknown to you.

You would be better if it stayed that way.

This British "comedy" stars Leigh Francis as the titular Lemon, a moustachioed businessman who tries to make it big in London from his hometown of Leeds. When his invention The Lemon Phone hits the big time, Keith finds himself reaping the rewards. But trouble's soon on his tails.

Keith Lemon: The Film is one of the worst films I've seen for a long time - and that includes Movie 43. Blessed with a script that a teenage boy appears to have written (ooh, breasts) it lacks sophistication, humour and any form of jokes whatsoever. Packed with celeb cameos, and no sense of what it's doing, it's clearly aimed at those who find brain dead puerile fun amusing.

I had to see this film for review - do yourself a favour and don't make the same mistake, because, quite frankly, this Lemon sucks.

Extras: None - for which I am eternally grateful.

Rating

Dallas Buyers Club: Movie Review

Dallas Buyers Club: Movie Review

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Steve Zahn, Denis O'Hare
Director: Jean Marc-Vallee

With 6 Oscar nominations in tow, and already picking up trophy success for its lead actor, Matthew McConaughey (who's now clearly a front runner to scoop the Best Actor at the Oscars), Dallas Buyers Club now finally hits the NZ streets.

Based on a true story in 1985 Dallas, McConaughey stars as homophobic womaniser, a financial chancer, electrician and rodeo rider Ron Woodroof whose life is turned upside down when a random hospitalisation leads to the revelation that he has HIV and is given only 30 days left to live.

As he begins to sicken, Ron's ostracised from his friends and family who struggle with the stigma and ignorance of AIDS as the epidemic spreads across America. Initially he finds he's unable to obtain the new drug AZT, which is meant to help; but by bribing a hospital orderly he gets his hands on it - but, despite the promises from the doctors, it makes him sicker, putting him back in hospital.

Ron manages to get word of a clinic down in Mexico which could treat him and heading there, he discovers the damage that AZT is causing to his health and others. Consequently he begins an alternative treatment which he starts to smuggle into America - and a happenstance meeting with transgender Rayon (Leto in a wonderfully compassionate turn) convinces him there is a market for these drugs and the hope they bring....so, setting up a Buyers Club, Ron begins his fight for non-FDA approved drugs, those who need them and his own fight for life.

Dallas Buyers Club delivers a career best performance from McConaughey - while his physical form initially shocks, thanks to a wiry and almost skeletal physique, he also delivers something more than the transformation which has real bluster, lust for life and is a searing turn which stays with you long after the film has finished. There's just something award-worthy about McConaughey, who's electric from the moment he hits the screen and who commands your sympathy despite his initially abhorrent homophobic nature as he begins his quest toward redemption.

While Woodroof sees the Buyers Club as a chance to make some money off the sick while saving himself, it's the interaction with Rayon that leads to the epiphany that the hustler Ron can play a greater part in the AIDS epidemic. But it's McConaughey and Leto who totally convince us of this rather than relying on mawkish sentimentality and overacting to push the narrative along. It's their Odd Couple vibe which makes all the difference - and when that falls apart towards the end, the movie suffers a little of a lull as the dynamic falters.

Leto in particular brings a softness to Rayon, which is needed to smooth off the rougher edges of Woodroof's character, and he brings a heartbreaking performance to the screen which has been rightly applauded.

The film itself has a vein of humour running throughout and for the most part, it hits the right note between delivering slightly irreverent laughs and the obvious conflict of Jennifer Garner's Doctor Saks wanting the best for her patients. While that side of the film lets it down slightly, Marc-Vallee keeps the pace zipping along and avoids a maudlin tone creeping in. The only wrong note it really hits is in the final moments when a crucial player is lost - it's here that the sentimentality creeps in unnecessarily, miring the film in a mawkish slop.

Dallas Buyers Club delivers an experience that's unforgettable - once you get past the physicalities of what Leto and McConaughey did, you'll realise the film is about one man's redemption, a rejection of greed over altruism and a celebration of how in the darkest days, even some can shine a bright light of hope to many.

Rating:

GTA Valentine's Day Massacre is here....

GTA Valentine's Day Massacre is here....

GTA Online Valentine’s Day Massacre Special Is Now Available

Valentine’s Day in Los Santos is almost here, and the Valentine's Day Massacre Special update for GTA Online is now available, featuring some surprise gifts for all you lovers and lotharios. This includes a variety of fun Valentine's themed extras for Story Mode and GTA Online like the Gusenberg Sweepermachine gun, the new Albany Roosevelt ride and a host of new attire options like double breasted suits, flapper dresses, sexy undergarments, novelty t-shirts, hats, masks and more. These items are all available to purchase in GTA Online right now until the end of February - and once acquired they're yours to keep in your inventory for good.

NEW JOBS

This update also has 10 new Jobs across a variety of modes. Here are details on a few of our Valentine's-themed faves:

• "Shotgun Wedding" (Team Deathmatch): The title says it all. Small-scale Deathmatch around the church in Paleto Bay that’s locked to shotguns. It’ll be a lot less bloody than divorce.
   
• "Property Values" (Deathmatch): Forget about love, nothing’s going to break your heart like the price of real estate. Free for all Deathmatch on an unaffordable cul-de-sac near Mirror Park. Look out for the sniper on the grassy knoll.
   
• "Creek" (Parachuting): Nothing says ‘I’m in love’ like throwing yourself out of a chopper with up to seven other idiots. A steep dive, almost skirting the side of the Raton Canyon, gliding into Cassidy Creek.
   
• "Vinewood Tours" (Race): Who needs love when you’ve got booze in your belly and stars in your eyes? Lap race for cars and bikes taking in all the tourist sights of Vinewood and Rockford Hills.
   
• "Motorboating" (Sea Race): A good motorboating is all anyone wants for Valentine’s Day. Take your love for a trip around buoys and over jumps to the North of Mount Gordo.
   
• "Heart Breaker" (Bike Race): Make your feelings known by carving a love heart into the Grand Senora Desert. Hills and jumps in this mainly off-road lap race for bikes on a heart-shaped track.
   

VALENTINE'S MASSACRE SOCIAL CLUB EVENT WEEKEND

To help celebrate, we'll be hosting a special Valentine's Massacre Social Club Event Weekend that will include special in-game RP bonuses, Crate Drops, a live stream broadcast on Friday afternoon and much more. Stay tuned for more details later today.

ADDITIONAL UPDATES TO GTA ONLINE

Today's automatic title update includes the triumphant return of the Rat Loader pickup truck to GTA Online. This vehicle and all its mods are available for free until the next title update, so anyone who might have lost one from their garage previously can now re-create it at no cost. Just grab it from the southernsanandreassuperautos.com in-game website and modify it at any Los Santos Customs location.

The Rat Loader returns to GTA Online. Snapmatic photo taken by jBhIpS.

This title update also enables solo players in Races to earn GTA$, plus provides fixes for numerous issues, including incorrect time displays for some players in the Bad Sport pool, issues with the Cornrows haircut and situations where characters would become bald after using a mask. For a complete list of fixes in this update, please check out the article on our support site.

To get today's update, just power up your online-connected PS3 or Xbox 360 and load up GTAV, and you'll be prompted to download the automatic update (Xbox 360 players will also be required to download an additional compatibility pack). From there, head to the in-game store from the pause menu to access and download the Valentine’s Day Massacre Special.

All Is Lost: Movie Review

All Is Lost: Movie Review

Cast: Robert Redford, The Sea
Director: J C Chandor

It seems survival stories are de rigeur.

What with the likes of Captain Phillips, and the heady rush of Gravity in space, this latest sees Robert Redford in a more earthbound attempt to simply survive and endure.

Redford is an unnamed man who's on a solo voyage on the water. 1700 miles off the Sumatra Straits and amid calm seas and rippling water, his boat strikes a floating shipping container, ripping a hole in the side of the hull. As it begins to leak in water, the man realises his boat's been crippled by the strike, with radio, navigation and engine power gone.

Despite managing to patch up the hole, he sails directly into a storm and faces a survival struggle that he'd never prepared for, having to draw on skills he could never have imagined using in this day and age.

For 105 minutes, All Is Lost is dialogue free - it begins with Redford's voiceover dictating his final travelogue, and delivering a "I tried" speech as well as revealing that he fought, though he's "not sure what that's worth." Following that, it's silence on the ocean wave, except for one extremely loud and extremely frustrated profanity into the piece.

All Is Lost succeeds on the strength of Redford's performance, a textured and nuanced turn that delivers so much despite saying so little. As you watch him battle the elements and face mortality and reality, you realise you've spent over 90 minutes watching Redford give his all, performing underwater stunts, looking rugged and older than you remember and sympathising with his frustrations over the implications of decisions he'd made. A lack of back-story is also a bonus, because the emotional involvement is here and now and instantaneous rather than due to mawkish and manipulative cuts back and forth to those missing him on land. It's a hard ask to invest initially in him when we know little about him but it's a major benefit to Redford's understated performance that we don't get manipulated both by his mesmerising performance and Chandor's pared back direction and story.

A relative lack of a OST also greatly benefits the idea of man against nature in this dialogue free adventure - the sounds come from the lapping of the waves, a reminder of the calm deadliness of the sea life and how quickly change can pivot and turn when nature's involved. The sound work is utterly mesmerising and in a darkened theatre does so much to build atmosphere as the hulls creak, the storms blow and the silence hits.

All of these are components which need to be factored in - because there are no end of frustrations at some of the decisions made by the man at crucial dramatic moments in the film, which unfortunately end up being cripplingly distracting.

Redford's character never once wears a life jacket when venturing out on deck in storms, seems to make decisions that baffle the mind such as applying plasters to his face in a sinking ship and leaves equipment out when a storm approaches.

For the most part, Chandor lets the natural elements take the charge; a refusal to signpost which day is which into the endurance (he merely says it's 8 days earlier) means you suffer the disorientation of Redford's man, who's lost on the waves; one major disappointment is having done such sterling work with the soundscapes of the storm, he chooses to rely on a booming blast of synthesiser music to convey the danger rather than let the elements toss our aural tones around.

As for the ending, once again, a la Gravity, it's as if the Hollywood machine triumphed. Sure, you can argue it's ambiguous, but an expeditious edit would have delivered a crippling narrative blow that would have ensured the final scenes were left to linger. Instead, the inference is that the director didn't have the courage of his narrative convictions and the need to satiate the audience a little too much after 105 minutes of endurance triumphed.

All in all, All Is Lost is flawed in places but soars high in others; thanks to a powerhouse turn by Redford, it's a sign that even in his later years, with scant dialogue but impressive amounts to do, he can rule the cinematic roost.

Rating: