What We Do In The Shadows: Hobbies Clip released

What We Do In The Shadows: Hobbies Clip released

The first clip - aside from the What We Do In The Shadows Trailer - has been released this morning by the Delicious Necks Youtube channel.

Those involved in Taika Waititi's new film have revealed the movie will release on June 19th after an Auckland premiere on June 13th

Take a look at the What We Do In The Shadows: Hobbies Clip below:




There's also been a TRADE ME auction released, which purports to be from Viago, the subject of the documentary.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/antiques-collectables/other/auction-727258059.htm

Looking like it'll be a massive homegrown hit, here's the first look at new comedy What We Do In The Shadows.

The brand new film from local comedy heavyweights Taikia Waititi and Jemaine Clement comes next month with the release of the trailer of their feature film ‘What We Do In The Shadows’

The soon-to-be cult classic follows a Mockumentry crew as they go inside the lives of four vampires living in a flat in Wellington. 

The film is loosely based on a short film the pair created eight years ago. It premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January and has since shown to critical acclaim at the Berlin, SXSW and recently the Stany (Kubrick) festival where it picked up the audience award.    

Taika Waititi is thrilled to be able to share the trailer with Kiwi fans first.

"We've been working on this film a long time and are excited to finally bring it to New Zealand audiences,” says Waititi. “We made this film for fans of Boy and Flight of the Conchords - we think Kiwis appreciate our style of comedy more than anyone and it's our job to please them. Not physically, that's too hard with our busy schedules and could cause problems in our personal lives. We aim to please them... entertainmentingly. If that's a word. It is now."    

‘What We Do In The Shadows’ opens with an Auckland premiere on June 6th before being released in 19th June 

Brand new Dawn of the Planet of The Apes trailer drops

Brand new Dawn of the Planet of The Apes trailer drops

The latest trailer for Dawn of the Planet of The Apes is here.

A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. 

They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes hits next year.






Check out the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes posters

Fruitvale Station: DVD Review

Fruitvale Station: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Another shocking crime makes for a compelling drama in Fruitvale Station.

Largely unheard of outside of the USA, this is the story of Oscar Grant who was gunned down by a policeman during an altercation at a train station on New Year's Day 2009.

Michael B Jordan's brings a downbeat freshness to Grant, who's trying to turn his life around after a spell in jail - unable to get work and with a new year on the horizon, he's determined to do the right thing. From organising his mother's birthday party to helping a dog injured in an accident, but with a hint of something boiling under the surface, Grant's struggling. But his ultimate fate is a tragedy...

Fruitvale Station is a compelling, simply told, no thrills added piece of drama that shows how quickly life can change. But it's Jordan's performance that is so watchable - a downplayed turn and one which relies more on the physical and showing the mental struggle etched on his face.

Fruitvale Station shows restraint and as a result, its effect is a powerful one.

Recommended.

Rating:

First NZIFF Films Revealed

First NZIFF Films Revealed

FIRST FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR 2014

The New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) today revealed the first four films confirmed for 2014.

All four films have a musical theme and are the first insight into the latest international cinema planned for screenings in July, August and September around New Zealand with NZIFF.

“Music has always been a crucial part of the celebration at NZIFF. The evidence to date makes it very clear that 2014 will be no exception. I could not be happier that one of these first announcements is the work of our very own Florian Habicht, whose Love Story opened NZIFF in 2012,” says NZIFF director Bill Gosden.

The first films are:

20,000 Days On Earth

Referring to the number of days he has been alive, this engrossing experimental documentary takes a sly, sideways look at the musician and sometimes filmmaker Nick Cave. Cave plays subject, narrator and master of ceremonies, with directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard following as he talks to his on-screen shrink, discusses meaningful life-changing events and chauffeurs friends around Brighton. Winner - Sundance Film Festival 2014, Directing Award and Editing Award (World Cinema)

Pulp

Kiwi director Florian Habicht (Love Story) collaborates with Jarvis Cocker as UK pop rockers Pulp head in to their triumphant 2012 concert, giving a career best performance documented exclusively by the film. Weaving together the band’s personal offerings, Habicht accosts down-to-earth Sheffielders with questions about fame, love, mortality and the meaning of Jarvis. Pulp is a music-film like no other – by turns funny, moving and life-affirming.

Frank

In this offbeat comedy a young wannabe musician, Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), finds himself out of his depth when he joins an avant-garde pop band led by the bizarre and enigmatic Frank (Michael Fassbender), a musical genius who hides himself inside a large fake head. A knowing satire of its wilfully obscure musicians, Irish director Lenny Abrahamson’s film ultimately comes down very much in their favour.

Jimi: All Is By My Side

Described as one of the most rarely told stories in rock history, Academy Award-winning writer-director John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) shows us Jimi Hendrix before he was Jimi Hendrix. In a portrait of the icon as a young man from 1966–1967, charismatic hip-hop star André Benjamin (one half of Outkast) stars as Jimmy James, an unknown backup guitarist playing New York’s Cheetah Club. The film presents an intimate portrayal of the sensitive, struggling guitarist on the verge of becoming a rock legend.

Further announcements will continue to follow in May and June, with the latest information updated regularly on NZIFF’s new website. The website revealed today has been designed and created by Auckland company Cactus Lab.

http://www.nziff.co.nz/2014/wellington/20000-days-on-earth/

http://www.nziff.co.nz/2014/wellington/pulp-a-film-about-life-death-and-supermarkets/

http://www.nziff.co.nz/2014/wellington/frank/

http://www.nziff.co.nz/2014/wellington/jimi-all-is-by-my-side/

In 2014, NZIFF will screen from mid-July through to late September. Previously, NZIFF continued to screen around NZ until the end of November. The advance of digital technology means that a film can now play in more than one venue at exactly the same time.

The following dates are confirmed:

Auckland 17 July – 3 August

Wellington 25 July – 10 August

Dunedin (with Gore) 31 July – 17 August, Gore 13 – 24 August

Christchurch (with Nelson) 7 – 24 August, Nelson 6 – 24 August

Central North Island: 20 August – 14 September

(Napier 20 August – 7 September | Tauranga 21 August – 14 September | Hamilton 21 August – 14 September)

Lower North Island: 3 – 21 September

(Masterton 3 – 17 September | New Plymouth and Palmerston North 4 – 21 September)

The NZIFF programme for Auckland will be announced on Monday 23 June and for Wellington on Thursday 26 June. Tickets will be on sale in Auckland from Friday 27 June via Ticketmaster, and in Wellington from Tuesday 1 July via the NZIFF website. For NZIFF updates visit www.nziff.co.nz and register to receive e-newsletters.

Weekend of a Champion: DVD Review

Weekend of a Champion: DVD Review

Rating: PG
Released by Madman Home Ent

Roman Polanski's 1972 film has been updated and remastered for this release, which got its premiere last year at the NZ International Film Festival.

Following a weekend with world champion driver Jackie Stewart as he tries to win the Monaco Grand Prix, Polanski got an insight and intimate access to Stewart's world. But what emerges feels rather perfunctory, lacking in thrills and very straight laced.

Taking in the track and following Stewart is all very well, but there's little to fully engage here unless you're a petrol head and motorsports enthusiast. Then, the movie becomes something else.

Rating:

Jamie Bowen: Heart Goes Boom: Comedy Festival Review

Jamie Bowen: Heart Goes Boom: Comedy Festival Review

The old saying goes that out of tragedy, comedy emerges.

Well, in Kiwi comic Jamie Bowen's new show, there's so much tragedy that it's inevitable that you end up with laughter.

Heart Goes Boom sees Jamie really bring his A game in one of the most personal shows I've ever seen him deliver. Which is perhaps inevitable given this show is about the loss of his father, his girlfriend and his professional path - it's a darkly comic look at one man's slide into an unenviable pit of despair.

But yet, thanks to a masterful performance from Bowen himself, and a fizzing energy that effervesces forth from the moment he understatedly walks out into a sold out Basement crowd on a grey drizzly Auckland night, it's a riotous - and well deserved -success.

Blending physicality and killer material, Jamie takes us on a journey that will leave you with aching sides and also an aching heart as he clutches the black humour from life's continual jabs.

From the bittersweet irony of his London career going so well to being brought back down to Earth by a single phone call from New Zealand, to the manner in which his father embraced the bleakest of news, this is a deeply personal show that touches the heart as much as it touches the funny bone.

And such a performer as Jamie is, he never loses sight of the fact that it's a show aimed at making you laugh as he ruminates on the absurdities of the hand life can deal you.

From his philosophy on how life is like a series of boxes (beautifully expanded from the 4 minute killer set he delivered at the Comedy Gala) to a lovely throwaway turn of phrase to a story on how he tried to help a homeless man on London, Heart Goes Boom never veers away from its MO - to leave you amused as well as thinking about life's more bizarre moments.

The at times manic Bowen manages to elicit huge amounts of empathy on the stage without ever directly seeking our sympathy; he's a masterful storyteller, stand-up and a man whose devilish twinkle in his eye is never lost when things get bad. It's an epic - yet deeply personal - journey, but one which never loses sight of the minutiae of life, reminding you of the moments which are there to savour, as well as bringing plenty of heart within the heartache. He's previously inherited character work but when it comes down to it, his comedy chops shine out because you just couldn't make this stuff up.

While Heart Goes Boom doesn't exactly lead to a massive epiphany (there are plenty of little ones dropped throughout the show, meaning you don't feel the massive cathartic release at the end), it does strike a chord thanks to Jamie's timing, extremely strong material and a willingness to laugh at himself as well as others. Audience interaction is thrown in - but it's restrained, amusing and makes Jamie seem highly approachable both on and off the stage.

In Heart Goes Boom, Jamie's delivered his finest hour of stand up - deftly blending richly resonant and bittersweet material with a physically infectious presence that's hard to deny.

Make no mistake - your heart will break for Jamie on this journey, but your funny bone and belly laughs will assure you that he's laughing along with it too.

Read a Q&A with Jamie Bowen on Heart Goes Boom

Heart Goes Boom continues at Auckland's Basement Upstairs until Saturday May 10th at 8.45pm

Octodad: The Dadliest Catch: PS4 Review

Octodad: The Dadliest Catch: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4

Have you ever wanted to play a computer game where it appears you control a character that's like a jelly that's not quite set yet?

Because that's how I felt playing Octodad: the Dadliest Catch, a slightly bizarre and at times, utterly fruit loop game that revels in its nuttiness.

You play the Octodad of the title, in this squid out of water game, which sees you trying to master the controls as the tentacles flail everywhere. The game starts with you trying to negotiate your own wedding, as Octodad has to get down the aisle.

Using the L2 and R2 buttons of the DualShock pad and how much strength you press down on them, defines how far the tentacles go. It's a clever touch as essentially you are using these buttons as left and right legs, but it doesn't half take a while to master, leaving you crashing in to all and sundry around you as you try to act normally.

You can pick things up by moving a tentacle around and using the X button to grab it as it's highlighted. But that also becomes a little difficult as you try to make your way around the world within - using that skill to master opening locks can be tricky to say the very least.

Essentially, the catch is that you're trying to fit in and convince others that you're a human - which is more than a task in itself. So, I have to admit that I just gave up at this early point in the game and began to flounder around as much as I could - crashing into parts of the aisle as I walked down it despite being told not to do so as I'd stand out.

The vagueness of the controls makes this game fun, but it also makes the tasks that require precision ticking time bombs. After you've waved your tentacles around trying to grasp something and all your doing is failing, it's fair to say a degree of frustration threatens to boil your squid ink over.  Coupled with the fact the camera angles don't assist you with Octodad fading out as you try and negotiate your way around, there's a chance that extreme irritation can set in if you're not careful.

Thankfully though, Octodad: The Dadliest Catch has a quirky humour which propels it through its various mini games and a cartoony feel which gets on your right side. It's not the easiest of games to play, but it's to be applauded for the fact that it tries something different and makes the most of the technology with an innovative way of making the character walk.

Rating: