Newstalk ZB Movie Review - What We Do In The Shadows, Million Dollar Arm and 12 Years a Slave

Newstalk ZB Movie Review - What We Do In The Shadows, Million Dollar Arm and 12 Years a Slave

Here's the latest review from Newstalk ZB with Jack Tame:

Talking What We Do In The Shadows, Million Dollar Arm and 12 Years A Slave:

Take a listen below:

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/listen-on-demand/audio/1521548509-darren-bevan--at-the-movies

Adult World: DVD Review

Adult World: DVD Review

Rating: R16
Released by Madman Home Ent

Emma Roberts stars as a naive uni grad and wannabe poet in this indie about a girl trying to make her way in life.

When her financial help is cut off and saddled with $90K worth of debt, she heads to work at Adult World, a local sex shop staffed by a few offbeats. At the same time, she tries desperately to become the protege of writer Rat Billings (John Cusack) to get her career going.

Adult World does really live upto its premise, delivering a movie which is undercooked, overly kooky and lacking in real emotion. Roberts, Cusack and American Horror Story star Evan Peters are fine within but don't have enough to work with - and Roberts particularly starts to grate after a while, wanting you to deliver more of a slap to her than empathy.

All in all, Adult World lacks the charm of an indie film and under-delivers.

Rating:

NZIFF reveals its Cannes do attitude

NZIFF reveals its Cannes do attitude

The full list of the 20 Cannes films playing at this year's New Zealand International Film Festival has been revealed.

Read on to see what lies ahead:

Cannes Official Competition

In addition to Winter Sleep, NZIFF will be screening Grand Prix winner The Wonders, Best Screenplay winner Leviathan, Jury Prize winner Jean-Luc Godard’sGoodbye to Language in remarkable 3D, and David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars which won the award for Best Actress (Julianne Moore). 

From the same category comes Cannes-veteran Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Halland the compelling new African feature Timbuktu, as well as Wild Tales from Argentina and the Dardenne Brothers’ Two Days, One Night featuring a stellar performance from Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard.

Un Certain Regard

We have a number of exciting titles from the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes, which supplements the competition selection by recognising fresh talent and daring new films. 

Dog enthusiasts will be captivated by top Prize winner White God ‘s depiction of a canine uprising (which also won Cannes' most endearing film award, the Palm Dog). We can’t wait to screen Jury Prize winner Force Majeure, Special Prize winner The Salt of the Earth, Wim Wenders’ spectacular documentary portrait of photographer Sebastião Salgado; and from Australian director Rolf de Heer, Charlie’s Country which collected the award for Best Actor (David Gulpilil).

Directors’ Fortnight

Ant Timpson has selected Jim Mickle’s indie thriller Cold In July for Incredibly Strange. Elsewhere on the programme you will find Frederick Wiseman’s insightful documentary National Gallery and from Japan, the new Studio Ghibli animationThe Tale of The Princess Kaguya - a gorgeously animated interpretation of the ancient Japanese folk tale.

Critics’ Week

The creepy and suspenseful It Follows also features in Incredibly Strange. You’ll find art-house werewolf horror When Animals Dream in our juicy line-up of genre thrills. 

We’re also featuring two films that screened out of competition: Ukraine’sMaïdan, and starring Robert Pattinson in a fantastic performance, we’ve got The Rover from Australian director David Michôd (Animal Kingdom), which looks at powerful human connections within the bleakness of a post-economic collapse in Western Australia.

All of these films are confirmed to screen in Auckland and Wellington. Further location listings will be advised on our website once availability and distributor arrangements are confirmed as NZIFF travels around New Zealand. 

The complete NZIFF programme will be available in Auckland from Tuesday 24 June and in Wellington from Friday 27 June. NZIFF screens in Auckland from 17 July to 3 August, and in Wellington from 25 July to 10 August

The Returned: DVD Review

The Returned: DVD Review

Rating: R16
Released by Madman Home Entertainment

French series Les Revenants is one of the spookiest supernatural dramas committed to the small screen.

The 8 part series, which has already been commissioned for a second run, is a character driven piece set in a French mountain village where people previously thought dead start re-appearing. From a child missing in a bus crash (a freaky opening sequence) to a man's wife who died 30 years ago, this is not a zombie piece in the slightest.

By choosing to follow their reintegration into normal life, the series follows the turmoil that's instigated by their return. Spookily put together and atmospherically acted, Les Revenants is an excellent piece of genre TV that has intelligence as well as mystery.

Rating:

Brand new final Dawn of The Planet of the Apes trailer drops

Brand new final 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

Transformers: Age of Extinction plot revealed

Transformers: Age of Extinction plot revealed

Details of the Transformers: Age of Extinction plot have just dropped.

The official word from the production notes ahead of the launch of the movie globally next week is as follows:

TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION begins after an epic battle left a great city torn, but with the world saved.  As humanity picks up the pieces, a shadowy group reveals itself in an attempt to control the direction of history…while an ancient, powerful new menace sets Earth in its crosshairs.

With help from a new cast of humans (led by Mark Wahlberg), Optimus Prime and the Autobots rise to meet their most fearsome challenge yet.  In an incredible adventure, they are swept up in a war of good and evil, ultimately leading to a climactic battle across the world.

Transformers: Age of Extinction hits cinemas June 26th


There's a brand new trailer for Transformers: Age Of Extinction out now.

It looks like the latest Transformers movie is going to be bringing all of the bang for your buck.

Watch the Transformers: Age of Extinction trailer here.

Blended: Movie Review

Blended: Movie Review

Cast: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Terry Crews, Kevin Nealon, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Joel McHale
Director: Frank Coraci

Re-teaming after the success of The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates, you'd think Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore could knock it out of the park as the third time rolls around.

Barrymore is uptight organiser and single mom of two boys Lauren and Sandler is sports shop worker and single dad of three girls Jim, a pair who meet on a blind date at reputable establishment Hooter's at his behest. Needless to say the date doesn't go well and the pair vow never to meet again.

However, in true romcom style, that's not what transpires and through a series of massive coincidences, the pair - and their respective siblings - end up on a holiday together in Africa.

Stuck together at a blended relationships hotel (a place where mixed families go to strengthen their bond), the pair's mutual dissatisfaction and initial frostiness begins to thaw....

Blended has a kernel of a good solid story idea within, but thanks to all involved, that nugget of an idea is wasted in the kind of unfunny sugar-coated slop that betrays all the talent. At its heart, the story of two single parents with mismatched siblings (she yearns for a girl to do girly things, he pushes his eldest into playing sport cos he wants a boy) and the innate sadness could have mined for a neat cross of tragedy and pathos, as both parents learn to let go.

Instead, what's served up in this mix, is a tonally mismatched piece that throws in broad "comedy" (a term used extremely lightly in this case) and a sentimental story; elements that could have worked in tandem a lot better had the effort been put in at a script level. With not enough laughs and not enough heart, it just doesn't gel.

Barrymore and Sandler have chemistry and sell the relationship well (even if Sandler goes from relatively downbeat sad-sack to usual shouting schtick) but it's not enough to pull Blended out of the mire. Scenes with the kids have a tenderness and heart (particularly on Sandler's part, whose Jim has a valid reason for the innate sadness) but it's not enough to spread the love during the 2 hour run time, thanks to a lack of jokes that are anything but predictable, strong set ups or pay-offs.

Terry Crews brings an OTT manic touch to the leader of an African style Greek chorus that interject for no reason whatsoever throughout the proceedings - and produce an earbleeding set of puns from "Love is a many Blended thing" to "My Blended love" as the whole thing creaks to a close.

The fact that even long time Sandler cameoist/ collaborator Rob Schneider doesn't even deign to appear should give you all you need to know about Blended - quite frankly, this bomb skimps on way too many of the elements to even guarantee you a modicum of a good time at the cinema. It's clear that the third time of teaming up just isn't the charm.

Rating: