Life Is Strange is unveiled

SQUARE ENIX & DONTNOD ENTERTAINMENT

ANNOUNCE NEW TITLE

Episodic Narrative Experience with a Twist Heading to PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC

SYDNEY – August 12, 2014 – Square Enix today announced that the brand new, episodic, digitally delivered, narrative driven adventure game entitled LIFE IS STRANGE™ is coming to thePlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, the Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360 and Windows® PC.

Developed by DONTNOD Entertainment, the Paris-based studio who released their debut game REMEMBER ME™ last year the game takes place in the fictional town of Arcadia Bay, Oregon, where senior student Max Caulfield returns after a 5 year absence. Reunited with her former friend Chloe, the pair will attempt to uncover the uncomfortable truth behind the mysterious disappearance of fellow student Rachel Amber.

With high quality production values and a unique hand-drawn art style, LIFE IS STRANGE is a compelling, story-driven experience where choice and consequence play a key role in how the narrative unfolds. But there is a twist. At the beginning of the game Max discovers she has a remarkable power… the ability to rewind time. In LIFE IS STRANGE the player has the power to affect the game’s narrative and also change the course of history itself.

“Everybody at DONTNOD is excited to be working on such a refreshing title” said Jean-Max Moris, Creative Director at DONTNOD Entertainment. “We’re not only crafting the best game we possibly can, we also feel we’re providing the type of experience that perfectly fits today’s renewed taste for originality and diversity”.

“When we first saw LIFE IS STRANGE we immediately realised that DONTNOD have created a unique experience, something special” said Jon Brooke, VP Brand and European Marketing Square Enix Europe. “Everyone who’s seen the game has instantly fallen in love with its distinctive style and mood”.

The Expendables 3: Movie Review

The Expendables 3: Movie Review

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren
Director: Patrick Hughes

Once more unto the breach for these ageing OAPs of the action franchise with the latest outing of The Expendables (or as one wag's coined them - Stallone's geri-action franchise)

This time around, Stallone's Barney finds the mission's a little too personal when the man he co-founded The Expendables with, Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) comes back from the dead and is threatening the team.

Deciding not to put the risk on the shoulders of the old timers after one of their own is mowed down by Stonebanks, Barney recruits a newer younger bunch of Expendables to take him on...

Pitching itself as a new vs old installment would have been a great idea were there not so much bloated weight in this; excruciatingly long, The Expendables 3 is a turgidly slow action "thriller" that's lost some of its bite as it dials down the violence to achieve a wider reaching bloodless PG13 rating.

Half the problem is that Stallone, who wrote the piece, seems to have forgotten that the vicarious fun of this franchise is seeing all the old timers from the 80s back in action and kicking some ass, while touting some very big guns. Unwisely, he decides to sideline them for a bunch of newbies who would dearly benefit from a large dose of charisma that's sorely lacking when they head into the picture and are ultimately unmemorable for any future outings. (To be fair, though, the film introduces its first Expenda-belle, Luna played by UFC stalwart Ronda Rousey whose acting is laugha-belle, so clearly there's that side of the franchise about to expand)

But with far too many names on screen, the film becomes bogged down in its own self mocking and terminally unfunny banter (a dig at Wesley Snipes' internment for tax evasion, Stallone's stroke, how their plan to shoot everything was great if it were 1985) and almost cripples itself as it heads limply to a crowd-pleasing conclusion that's chock full of as much action as it is fraught with plotholes. (Most won't care though in the middle of all the guns being fired, exploding masonry and slow mo death defying running)

Mel Gibson is clearly still cinematically atoning for his rather public Hollywood sins, and is now destined to play bad guys (first Machete Kills, now this) but relishes the time he has in the spotlight as Stonebanks and at least brings the energy levels up; Antonio Banderas, by contrast goes too far the other way - he's brought into the fold as a babbling live action version of Puss in Boots; Harrison Ford steps gruffly into the vacated position once occupied by Bruce Willis' Church (who's been retired, ho ho). Snipes makes a memorable entrance in a pre-credits piece, suggesting his importance to the team but is largely sidelined thereafter, and some members of the old team barely register chalking up moments designed to see the crowd fist pumping but which end up hardly mustering any bluster as the film plods on and on.

Sure, the old adage of you can leave the team but the team never leaves you can be seen a mile off, but it's really only when the old gang head back into the fray that the chemistry once again clicks into place after nigh on 100 minutes of relatively flat delivery and relatively pointless detours.

While The Expendables 3 does deliver in the action stakes in its final set piece in an abandoned building in the region of Azmenistan, the thrills are too long coming in this over long, undercooked, stuffed-to-the-gills, totally unessential and utterly expendable mess of a threequel.

Rating:

300 Rise of an Empire: Blu Ray Review

300 Rise of an Empire: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Warner Home Video

This! Is! Sparta! (Again)

It's one of the iconic phrases from cinema over the past decade - and instantly calls to mind a six-packed Gerard Butler unleashing all kinds of hell in the 2007 movie, 300. So it was inevitable that a sequel would make its way to the movies - and here is said sequel.

Starring Sullivan Stapleton as Greek general Themistokles, it's the story of the charge against the invading Persian forces as the Greeks try to unite and stop demi-god Xerxes (Santoro) and Artemisia (Eva Green) the leader of the Persian navy.

And that's about it for plot...

Based on a graphic novel, this Zack Snyder-influenced hollow blockbuster spectacle offers everything you'd seen in the first 300 movie and more of the same. More gore, more nudity (step forward a topless Eva Green wielding a sword), more slow-mo than you can shake a stick at and more visceral thrills that fall short of any kind of character growth.

During the hyper-stylised fighting, each slash unleashes a volcano of blood splatters as hordes of buffed up men shout on the battle fields - but it proffers up nothing more than an empty vessel, lacking in the kind of iconic moments the first film had.

Part of the problem with 300: Rise of an Empire is due to the writing of Themistokles - delivering serious speeches about turning young men into memories before trying to stir the troops into action once again doesn't provide a well-sketched out hero and certainly doesn't go anywhere near making him into the icon that Gerard Butler's Leonidas became. Stapleton tries as best as he can in amid his earnestness but he pales on the screen in comparison to the original Scot's presence.

Likewise, while Eva Green's Artemisia borders on the pantomime dame, she still manages more of a screen presence as her cold-hearted bitch sneers and eviscerates her way through hordes of Greeks. A powerplay sex scene is so over the top that it's more laughable than erotic and is deeply suited to the graphic novel pages and genre than on the big screen. Headey barely registers as Queen Gorgo, serving to deliver portentous pompous narrative that has no hint of self-parody in among the ludicrous seriousness of it all.

Similarly, director Murro's over-reliance on slow mo shots becomes tiring and uninspired as the soulless swords and sandals wannabe epic carries on. Granted, a few of the scenes really bring the epic and use the green screen to brutally magnificent life - a scene of Xerxes towering over his army is breathless with scale - but there's never really a moment in among the action that screens originality in among the never-ending battle scenes.

300: Rise Of An Empire may satiate those teen boys with a blood lust, but there's nothing to engage with among the big screen carnage - and there's certainly nothing to match the influence that 300 exerted over the cinematic world.

Extras: Battle brought to sea feature

Rating:

Pompeii: Blu Ray Review

Pompeii: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

From the master of the CGI disaster Paul W S Anderson comes the latest epic - a historical tale of computer mayhem in the days running up to the eruption of Mt Vesuvius.

Game of Thrones star Kit Harrington (aka Jon Snow) stars as Milo, an enslaved gladiator, who has revenge on his mind after seeing his family slaughtered by the Romans.But his quest for justice is thwarted when he's placed in the arena to fight Atticus (Lost's Mr Eko, Akinnuoye-Agbaje) - to make matters worse, the woman he's fallen for, Cassia (Sucker Punch star Emily Browning) is out of his reach, being potentially palmed off to a villainous Senator Corvus (a British accented and lacking-a-moustache-to-twirl-while-doing-his-evil Kiefer Sutherland) as part of a deal to revamp the seaside town of Pompeii with Roman backers.

So, with swords drawn, enemies made and paths crossed, they're all set for a showdown.

Until Mt Vesuvius steps in with other plans...

What would you expect from Pompeii, a B-movie with aspirations higher than an erupting mountain?

With a story completely lacking in anything other than character brush strokes, drawn out thanks to plenty of slow-motion fighting and posturing, and some over-acting (Step forward Kiefer Sutherland, who's chewing as much of the scenery as it crumbles around in as fireballs from the volcano take it down) all helmed by the guy who's done most of the Resident Evil movies, Pompeii is a disaster movie in more ways than one.

You're not expecting much, and after many aerial shots of the Mount and a bit of rumbling, the thing <Spoiler alert> finally explodes in an apocalyptic blast that's actually quite visually impressive (though darkened a little by the 3D glasses) but utterly OTT.

The problem comes that the script takes itself too seriously as the stakes are raised perilously high for the leads with all the cliched dialogue - and not all of them rise to the challenge. Harrington spends the majority of the film looking pained and uncomfortable; Browning is more or less a wet blank canvas, who's drawn only to the slave with the six pack and because he can talk to the animals (seriously, he's a horse whisperer), and Sutherland is the only one appearing to have some fun, while bordering on the edge of parody. It's left to Jessica Lucas as Cassia's slave and Akinnuoye-Agbaje's gladiator Atticus to save the day, with their solidly impressive and relatively dignified turns being the stand-outs of the piece. And it's surprisingly bloodless for a film that takes in some of the most brutal Roman tactics of the time.

As the destruction starts, you'll find yourself glad that the end is in sight, though the cheese can't be held off by the molten lava and some truly laughable moments emerge - particularly at the very last shot which tries for emotional and dramatic but ends up being clunky and laughable. I know it's supposed to be nothing more than a disaster movie, but in among the falling ash, there's no emotion, no hint of a connection and ultimately no relief as history plays out.

The FX don't add anything to this hollow spectacle and any attempts at pathos or putting the pomp into Pompeii by using a portentous quote from Pliny to start with merely adds up the feeling the melodrama is simply not worth it - and the tide of lava needs to come quicker to end this tale of doomed love.

Rating:

Sunlight Jr: DVD Review

Sunlight Jr: DVD Review

Rating: R16
Released by Madman Home Ent

Matt Dillon, Naomi Watts and The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus star in this grim and depressing drama about a couple barely making the poverty line.

Dillon is Richie, a disabled man who's deeply in love with Melissa (Watts), who works at a local convenience store. Barely getting by on their pitiful income, the pair's life is sent into a spiral when a restraining order on her ex (Reedus in true sleazy style) is lifted, causing problems for the two.

Dreary, grim and gritty, Sunlight Jr makes for ever so slightly depressing watching, save for the fact Dillon and Watts give the film their all and burn brightly within. Capturing the humanity within can be difficult but these two manage to do so and deliver an understated turn that helps you through the bleak film. There's a hope within, but it takes a while to get there, but if you're willing to undergo the journey, Sunlight Jr proves an indie film with a reward.

Extras: None

Rating:

The Hundred-Foot Journey: Movie Review

The Hundred-Foot Journey: Movie Review

Cast: Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte LeBon
Director: Lasse Halstrom

For a film about an Indian family setting up a restaurant in France, this crowd-pleasing piece certainly served up something rather bland on my palate.

Based on book from 2010 by Richard C Morais, it's the story of the Kadam family, renowned restaurant owners forced to leave their native India when politically motivated riots see their business burned down and their mother killed.

Lead by the stubborn Papa (a genial and gentle Om Puri), they settle in a small French town and decide to open up shop opposite the Michelin starred restaurant run by the haughty harridan Madame Mallory (played with Allo Allo accented Helen Mirren).

As if that conflict wasn't enough, the Kadam family houses a culinary genius in Hassan (Dayal) whose natural tendency for flavour and cooking sparks the interest of one of Mallory's sous chefs Margueritte (Charlotte LeBon) as well as her heart...

The Hundred Foot Journey is a crowd-pleasing sentimental affair that essentially has nothing inherently wrong with it; in fact it is as pleasant as a walk in the French countryside. 

Every single character is relatively one-note, and aside from the 4 main characters, is underwritten to the point of them being redundant on the screen. The one moment of potential ugliness which added a frisson of danger to this safe souffle cinematic concoction of saccharine proportions is dispensed as quickly as an under-cooked rack of lamb back to the chef.

Puri and Mirren have a sweet back and forth in their hostility but it never threatens to boil over into anything but the predictable; the gentle humour at the onset of the movie infects the whole dish, and Hassan and Margueritte's flirtation feels natural as it winds its way through the countryside, into the kitchen and into the inevitable problems.

A final third of the film is distinctly unnecessary and the whole movie verges on outstaying its welcome with a dark tea-time of the soul for Hassan a tired, predictable and inexorable narrative necessity that should have been exorcised.

All in all, The Hundred Foot Journey is unashamedly saccharine, crowd-pleasing and one note. It's the kind of film the word "pleasant" was invented for and as it winds its path to its end, it's likely to tick all the boxes and satisfy the more mature end of the audience.

They say every journey begins with a step, then several more - just be wary on this one, as there are no obvious detours in place en route to the conclusion.

Rating:

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Collection details revealed

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Collection details revealed

DOCTOR WHO 50TH  ANNIVERSARY  COLLECTION
Available on DVD and Blu Ray from 10th
September 2014

For the ultimate Doctor Who fan comes a special collection of highlights from the groundbreaking 50th  anniversary of Doctor Who, including Mark Gatiss’ award winning drama An Adventure in Space and Time on Blu Ray for the first time, and the hilarious Five-ish Doctors– starring Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and a host of special guests – available on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time.

The limited edition numbered collector’s set (500 DVD, 575 BD in New Zealand) also features the 50th Anniversary Special The Day of the Doctor, Matt Smith’s Farewell The Time of the Doctor, the Series 7 finale The Name of the Doctor, and the Eighth Doctor’s (Paul McGann) surprise regeneration into John Hurt’s War Doctor in The Night of the Doctor.

The collection is packed full of special features including an exclusive cut of the read-through of The Day of the Doctor featuring Matt Smith and David Tennant (‘Script to Screen’), deleted scenes, Doctor Who at the Proms 2013 and the mini-episodes The Last Day & Night of the Doctor.

Special Features:
 Behind the Scenes
 Night of the Doctor
 Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide
 Behind the Lens
 The Last Day
 The Day of the Doctor – Script to Screen
 Cinema Intros – Strax & The Doctor
 50th cinema trails
 Deleted Scenes – from The Time of the
Doctor & An Adventure in Space and Time.
 Tales from the TARDIS
 Farewell to Matt Smith
 A Night with the Stars - The Science of Doctor
Who
 William Hartnell: The Original
 The making of an Adventure
 Reconstructions
 Title Sequences
 The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
 Doctor Who at the Proms 2013