Starred Up: Blu Ray Review

Starred Up: Blu Ray Review

Rating: R18
Released by Madman Home Ent

Prison dramas don't come searing than this.

Set in the UK, Jack O'Connell is Eric, a young offender who's transferred to a maximum security jail because of the danger he poses to others.

Within hours of being moved, he accidentally beats up a fellow inmate and puts himself on the radar as a troublemaker (even though his actions are instinctive rather than deliberate). Finding himself moved into a self-help group run by the apparently easy touch Oliver, he reluctantly begins to open up (to a degree) but it's his relationship with a fellow prisoner (played excellently by Ben Mendelsohn) causes more problems than he could ever imagine.

Starred Up is a brilliantly adrenaline filled drama that has you on the edge of your seat from the beginning sequence.

It's not your traditional arc for Eric - ie was a tough guy, but softens along the way - but is realistically handled in that he gradually lets down his guard only to come back out seething like a caged animal. O'Connell delivers a performance of searing ferocity that is both by turns terrifying and also occasionally vulnerable. It's the rare glimpses into the chinks underneath this armour that makes Starred Up so watchable and so unpredictable.

Likewise, Mendelsohn as one of the prison's top dogs is pretty damn good too; wanting the best for his kid but not wanting to see that harder edge softened at all. Gritty and exactly what you'd expect set in a male prison, this mix of volatile atmospherics and character insights makes for an undeniably edgy film that throws up many questions - can a man like Eric be rehabilitated, how soon will that powderkeg be lit and how does he survive day to day as well as outside?

But for all its dramatics and simply shot cinematics, Starred Up shows what an incredibly nuanced talent O'Connell is - it's his film and his alone in this father and son struggle that's undeniably powerful and utterly electrifying.

Extras: Interviews with cast and crew

Rating:

Be Mine Tonight - track by track analysis by the WIUO

Be Mine Tonight - track by track analysis by the WIUO

The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra is currently on tour with their first ever full-length album, Be Mine Tonight. (Full details of where they are playing are at www.ukulele.co.nz)
As they were on the road, I asked the band to take us through the album of Kiwi classics one by one....

Read the review of the album here - http://darrens-world-of-entertainment.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/be-mine-tonight-wellington.html

We did this track by track “analysis” of our new album for you over the past couple of weeks on the road. You can probably spot a bit of cabin fever. The people who were awake at the time answered the questions. See you in Auckland!

Cheers,

The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra

Be Mine Tonight (originally by Th’ Dudes)

Dan: There are lots of ukes on this one. And the whole album. Possibly too many.

Sam: We went with female lead vocals – that’s the nice juxtaposition I reckon we gave it. The outro by Steve on the electric uke is mind-blowing.

Bek: It really brings out the celtic mystic folk! When we played it in Dunedin I was standing on the stage thinking “This is folk! We’re a folk band!”

Amanda: You play the ukulele and you didn’t believe we were a folk band?

Andy: I’m leaving.

Wake Up (originally by Aaradhna)

Sam: This is a great song for the mornings. James Hill [the great Canadian ukulele star] carves up a great solo on the end of it.

Amanda: Is that the one he recorded in the bathroom?

Sam: Yep, a bathroom ukulele solo. 

Bek: This song is the insomniac’s power ballad.

Amanda: I love performing this one on stage because we’ve got our dance moves going.

Carmel: I love it because I get to bring some Aaradhna sauce and Sharon Jones sass. 

Dan: I want to put an Aaradhnaphiliac joke somewhere in there.

Counting The Beat (originally by The Swingers)

Dan: We’ve counted the beat so you don’t have to.

Gemma: A Kiwi classic and so much fun to sing. In the recording studio I was just laying down a guide vocal and we weren’t sure who was going to end up singing it. We auditioned everyone in the band! My guide vocal won out.

Team (by the great Lorde)

Dan: There’s no “i” in team. There’s no bass in this version, either. Well, I don’t “play” the bass. I hit the bass until it sounds like drums. I call it sound music.

Sam: The ukulele arrangement (it’s mainly plucking) makes it feel like Andy is singing in a jewellery box – you know the ones you open up and the ballerina spins around? Andy’s the ballerina.

Long Ago (a Herbs classic)

Steve: Long Ago has a subtle shift in the shuffle.

Gemma: Our friend Pi’ikea Clark came in with his six-string ukulele and showed us a crisp rhythm that echoes the reggae of the original but in a ukulele kinda way.

Dan: Lisa Tomlins sings it. What can you say about Lisa? Jesus. How many takes did it take her to do it? One take, two takes? That’s Lisa.

Sam: She’s pretty incredible. She nails it.

READ A REVIEW OF BE MINE TONIGHT HERE

Today Is Gonna Be Mine (from David Kilgour’s album A Feather in the Engine)

Gemma: Quite a challenge turning a David Kilgour twelve-string guitar epic into a ukulele anthem, but I hope we did him proud. This song is a recipe for a good day!

Sam: It’s quite an epic song. When we first recorded it I remember thinking oh man this sounds too much like a choir, but in the final mix it came up really rocking.

Gemma: James Hill plays ukulele on this one, too. He slams it.

Howzat (originally by Sherbert)

Steve: I play the baritone part – it was diabolical fun. Age rocked the solo out.

Gemma: Age’s solo sounds really dirty in a good way. And the choruses are just too much fun to sing. Over the whole album we were going for a general vibe of beloved Kiwi hits, but also songs that are great fun to do on the ukulele and reflect our sense of humour. That’s why a few of these songs crept in.

Jezebel (made into a hit by Jon Stevens)

Gemma: This song made a star of Jon Stevens back in 1980, with his high waisted leather pants and all. As a Hutt girl, I’m thrilled we’ve done a ukulele version.

Sam: I can’t hit Jon Stevens’ vocal heights so I took it down a few notches. If you can’t hit the heights, go Barry White.  

E Ipo (written by Prince Tui Teka and Ngoi Pewhairangi)

Bek: I’ve never seen Prince Tui Teka in the form of such a beautiful woman before.

Amanda: We had to transpose it to a new key so that I could sing it. We wondered about changing the gender – it’s a love song to Tui Teka’s wife Missy – but we decided to keep it in its pure form. The words are so beautiful, but you don’t need to know what they mean – it’ll still get ya.

Bek: If you’re a Kiwi, you’ll love this song.

Slippin’ Away (a Max Merritt classic)

Bek: This is an absolute classic, a total 4.00am song.

Andy: I love the way Age and Steve’s voices work together. It’s not a combo we’d heard before in the band.

Gemma: Steve’s voice suits that particular harmony. He’s our most-decorated rock star in the band and you can really hear the years in his voice, in a good way. I love the simple repetition in the song.

Something in the Water (Brooke Fraser)

Amanda: Our version makes me want to have a glass of wine or two and swing in a hammock on a balmy evening.

Carmel: There’s nothing cynical about it. It’s pure sweetness and it’s a lovely thing to fall into. And I love watching Megan bang the back of the double bass on stage.

Dan: I don’t love that.

Amanda: I love watching Dan’s face while Megan hits the crap out of his bass.

Second Chance (From Liam Finn’s album I’ll Be Lightning)

Gemma: I have loved this song since Liam first released it. I wondered if it would be possible to do it on ukulele because the most exciting thing about it when Liam performs it live is all the wild looping. We figure it out.

Amanda: Gemma and Age are my Linda Rondstadt and my Aaron Neville, my Kenny Rogers and my Dolly Parton. They make a song that’s bitter and twisted sound beautiful. And bitter and twisted.

Gemma: I asked Age to freak out on his ukulele at the end. He went there! It’s exhausting to sing, but worth it.

Till We Kissed (made famous by Ray Columbus in 1965)

Bek: Thanks, Ray Columbus.

Amanda: I like hearing that one sung by a chick.

Bek: I’m really drawn to songs that have the same chords over and over. This song has the same chord progression all the way through but it builds and builds and drops and climbs again. Like a mountain range.

Amanda: Speaking of ranges, it’s just the right place in her vocal range for Bek to sound vulnerable and strong at the same time.

Gemma: Our version is faster than the original – we wanted to give it a tango feel. I love it. I think it will be the wedding hit of the summer.

Hine e Hine (Princess Te Rangi Pai, 1907)

Bek: One of the most beautiful ballads ever written, and it’s from Aotearoa! Goodnight, Kiwi. 

Be Mine Tonight: The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra album review

Be Mine Tonight: The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra album review

As sure as summer rolls around, and as thoughts turn more to outdoor pursuits as we New Zealanders end our self-inflicted hibernation from the cruelty of winter, it can only mean one thing – the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra.

As perennial as Backyard cricket, beaches and togs, the band is usually to be found on the road for the pre-build up to summer, ready to ply us with good times and a soundtrack to the long days.

And this time, after a series of EPs, they’ve decided to take the plunge and release a full scale album – a thing that fans (myself included) have been clamouring for for years.

But, when I heard that the album Be Mine Tonight was to be an album of Kiwi songs, my heart ever-so slightly sank. Predominantly because these wouldn’t be songs that I, as an ex-pat, wouldn’t be instantly familiar with, and that I couldn’t instantly sing along to.

Well, what a fool I was.

I’ve had this album (available on iTunes for a relative pittance here https://itunes.apple.com/nz/album/be-mine-tonight/id924749218?ign-mpt=uo%3D4 ) for a wee while and I’m glad my minor niggling doubts didn’t manifest into full-blown monsters of angst.

Because this album is as polished and as accomplished as all of their other work – and their blistering live shows (they’re touring at the moment too – check out the dates at www.ukulele.co.nz so you can get your blast of summer sunshine on stage).

Effortless is a phrase that seems trite to bandy at musicians, given how much we know they practise, prep and spend time in a studio. But effortless is a word I’m happy to throw at this slice of summer which if there’s any justice, will be blasting out from the best BBQs over the coming months.

From Lorde’s Team to Th'Dudes’s Be Mine Tonight, the band’s harmonious vocals are lushly mixed with the wonderfully relaxed orchestrations of these well-known (to Kiwi) songs. Counting the Beat proves to be infectious and is likely to be a stalwart of their upcoming live shows, Brooke Fraser’s Something In The Water is as gentle as a summer breeze and David Kilgour’s Today Is Gonna Be Mine has sent goosebumps firing up my neck every time its quietly insidious earworm begins.

Summer’s soundtrack has arrived – resistance is futile; give yourself to the heart in this album and take it to your bosom.

There’s a maturity to this album, a polished production which is a testament to the band’s universal appeal. By selecting the very cream of our musical crop, the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra has ensured this first album of theirs deserves to be massive. Mellowed, and mellifluous harmonies sing out proving catchy and contagious to brighten even the greyest of days (as I write this, a thick grey blanket hangs over the skies, threatening the moods the country over)

Sure, these are New Zealand’s songs – which I’m convinced will have a global appeal, but the WIUO is now, without a doubt, New Zealand’s band.

They are a troupe of musical troubadors destined to ride into your time, give you a damn good time and leave you revelling in their talent for months to come.

Halo: the MasterChief Collection: XBox One Review

Halo: The MasterChief Collection: XBox One Review

Released by 343 Industries
Platform: XBox One

I've a confession to make.

Being a long time PlayStationer, I've never ever touched a HALO game. I'm aware that in some quarters, this is close to sacrilege, but I feel honesty is the best policy.

Having got my hands on the mighty remastered version (somewhere in the region of 50GB all up), I can safely say I've really quite enjoyed the majority of my time with the MasterChief and all he entails.

Collecting together all four of the games ahead of the launch of HALO 5: Guardians next year, this remastered package is quite the exercise in dutiful enjoyment. It's pretty much dutifully ported over from its early iterations on the XBox 360 too, with the gameplay and quality improved for the next gen console.

In the first game, Combat Evolved Anniversary, you can flick back and forth between the original game graphics and the new too, so that if you're a purist, you can relive the old days. Or if you're like me, you can appreciate the work and way the next gen console's changed things. One superb example of this is on ground near a waterfall; the original version is a relatively static sheet of water pouring out of the side of a mountain. In the new version the droplets are clear, the steam gathers from the cascading water and the effect is astounding.

But you don't play Halo for the graphics, it's for the playability and its first person shooter mentality, which are all pretty much in tact here with combat being relatively easy to engage in. Even better is the chance for you to drop in and out of the games, or play them cumulatively as one long engaging narrative - it's great to have a compendium to drop in and out of and to indulge as and when you want.

Not so great though - and the game's been out for a little while is the multiplayer which has been blighted with connectivity issues since launch, which have rendered the matchmaking side of the game somewhat of a major chore and at worst, a non-functioning option. A patch has been dropped this week to try and satiate these server issues which 343 Industries have been unable to deal with at their side, but as yet, that patch isn't fully in my hands so I have to go with a jury out on this - for now.

All in all, though, The Halo: MasterChief collection is the kind of nostalgic game blast which really serves to remind you why some games are classics. Having been so taken with Destiny this year, I can see the comparisons with Halo - and now having been spending time with the game, I can appreciate it for what it's worth; an influential shooter that shaped the console and defined a gaming generation.

Rating:

The Double: Blu Ray Review

The Double: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Madman Home Ent

It's another case of double identity at Madman Home Entertainment with Jesse Eisenberg standing in for the doppelganger treatment (with Jake Gyllenhaal in Enemy pulling similar duties).

This time, Eisenberg stars in Richard Ayoade's interpretation of Dostoyevsky's The Double as Simon James, an office worker, who's having a bad day. Things get worse when James discovers he's been usurped in the office by his exact double - who exudes more confidence, is less nervous and is on his way to the top.

Caught up in this web is Mia Wasikowska's Hannah, who falls for the double much to Simon's horror - and it's here that Simon starts to lose control of it all.

IT Crowd actor and Submarine director Richard Ayoade's already demonstrated a great eye for highly stylised film and he follows this trend in The Double, with some terrifically framed shots and some stunning visuals that bring the drab colours of greens to life in ways which leap off the screen. There's a real sense of the absurd here as Simon's world starts to disintegrate and Eisenberg does enough to balance the differences between the two - it's great to finally see Eisenberg break away from the usual neurotic fare and playing a stronger character.

But it's the visuals which are really the triumph of the film; Ayoade's captured an essence of a nightmare that seems just close enough to reality with the dark, dingy landscapes and attitudes. Patches of dry humour scatter throughout and bring a degree of levity to the dystopian proceedings. 

Stylistically, The Double is a triumph - though I do begin to worry that Ayoade's painting himself into an admittedly wonderful corner here; I look forward to seeing what he can do with a relatively straight story in the future.

Rating:

The Drop: Movie Review

The Drop: Movie Review

Cast: Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, Noomi Rapace, John Ortiz
Director: Michael R Roskam

Destined to be known forever as The Sopranos star James Gandolfini's last ever film role, The Drop is a hard-hitting crime drama set on the streets of Brooklyn from Dennis Lehane.

Tom Hardy stars as soft-spoken bartender Bob Saginowski, who works at Cousin Marv's bar (run by Cousin Marv played by James Gandolfini). But the bar is one of a series of bars that operates in the criminal underworld as a "drop bar", where money's funnelled to the local gangsters.

When Cousin Marv's bar is robbed, the ensuing investigation and twists - as well as the complications caused by picking up a pitbull pup found on the cusp of death in a bin at a woman's house - and Bob's got all manner of problems in Dennis Lehane's adaptation of his own short story.

The Drop is a solid crime thriller, with an understated Gandolfini and a restrained Hardy (replete with adorable puppy guaranteed to melt the internet with the subsequent memes) proving to be the main draw-cards. Theirs is the bond which binds us through the streets of Brooklyn and negotiates the complications and vice-tightening draw of the underworld.

Choosing not to mire these two in back-story, Lehane's script teases out details and insinuates a past that's both perceivable and implied; there's a menace among the threats that works infinitely better thanks to the use of the casual overtones. Noomi Rapace's Nadia (from whose bin Bob rescues the dog) is perhaps the weak link though - her damaged persona serving only to offer up a limited amount of tension and suspense as the final act plays out.

Maudlin and melancholy, Roskam's steeped this movie in parts which are occasionally hard to engage in. While Hardy's impressive as the soft-hearted thug throughout, his character's aloofness makes it difficult to engage with as the dourness builds to an inevitable conclusion. Gandolfini seems to play a version of Tony Soprano, albeit one that's dipped in melancholy weariness, a street cynicism that suggests he's seen it all before but can't find his way out or to the top. It's a symbolic end for him / Cousin Marv, but a sign the actor was likely to further deliver greatness had he continued.

As brooding disparate threads pull tightly together at the end, the simmering mix that's been bubbling away merely comes together in a fizzle rather than the emotional crack that's really needed  - and that's despite Hardy's magnetic presence.

The Drop's impressive in parts but overall, its story-telling doesn't quite come together in the way you'd hope or expect to raise it into the echelons of truly great crime dramas.

Rating:

Nightcrawler: Movie Review

Nightcrawler: Movie Review

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton
Director: Dan Gilroy

It's to the underbelly of Los Angeles we go in this terrific thriller set against a backdrop of nights and shady activity.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a man desperate for work and hungry for a pay off. When we first meet him, he's stealing copper wire (and in an ensuing struggle with a security guard, his watch) and trying to sell it on, while simultaneously trying to ingratiate himself into a position for a job.

After being rejected, he sees a camera crew taking footage of a dramatic rescue on a highway. Learning how much they get for this and that TV's saturated news networks will pay for anything that works under the old journalism mantra of "If it bleeds, it leads", Lou decides to join the freelance camera crew game.

Hiring a homeless person Rick (played by Four Lions star Riz Ahmed), and decking out his car with police scanning equipment, Lou finds an ally and buyer in the form of news director Nina (Russo) whose station is in ratings slump....

Nightcrawler is a compulsively thrilling film, one which trawls through the moral sludge and delights with ethical and moral issues just being part of the attraction.

The main attraction though - aside from the terrific cinematography and slick sheen of the mainly night-time production - is Gyllenhaal as the misfit Bloom, a sociopathic driven parasite of an anti-hero whose outlook is as complex as it is compelling. With a slimmed down frame and piercing eyes, his delusion is as contagious as it is frightening - in his skewed take of the world (with hints of Asperger's implied) everything makes a perfect logical sense with the kind of self-delusional belief that we've seen in the likes of Travis Bickle and William Foster in Falling Down. He's a twisted businessman perfect for a 21st Century where narcissism and selfies are the norm, and selfishness is sadly the raison d'etre. But more than just that, Gyllenhaal commands the screen from beginning to ebullient end, with nary a breath drawn in between as he pursues and bastardises his own American dream.

His interactions with Four Lions star Riz Ahmed are also electrifying too; from initial interview scenes to negotiations later on, there's a frisson of uncertainty about where it's all going that adds an edge to an already superior and tense thriller.

Equally, the up-for-the-highest-bidder values of late night US news-stations chasing ratings are under the microscope too; with Russo's news chief becoming compromised and entangled both in Bloom's web and the desire to be number one in a way that seems all too sentient of how TV ratings are warping people's sense of propriety. (Though, there are moments within that stretch credibility of a newsroom's operation).

Meshing satire and life through LA's dark gauze is a potent brew, Nightcrawler is a can't-take-your-eyes-off-it thriller that maybe could have lived larger if there had been some tighter editing ( it could be argued that the current denouement feels like a tacked-on epilogue that saps the prior scenes' potency and shock factor) but is already a superior slice of cinema, thanks to Gyllenhaal. He may be behind the camera throughout as the footage-chasing and obseqious Bloom, but throughout, he's very definitely front and centre of the screen - and in your mind long after Nightcrawler has ended.

Rating: