The Young and Prodigious TS Spivet: Movie Review

The Young and Prodigious TS Spivet: Movie Review

Cast: Kyle Catlett, Helena Bonham Carter, Callum Keith Rennie
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Mixing visual whimsy with the road trip genre, acclaimed director Jeunet concocts something nostalgic and yet timeless in The Young and Prodigious TS Spivet.

Newcomer Catlett is Spivet, the very definition of precociousness. Living on a ranch with his family in Montana, this prodigy finds his life changed when he's called by the Smithsonian Museum who ask to induct him because of an invention that he created.

Without telling his parents, Spivet packs a bag and sets out on a journey for the accolade - but also to claim some kind of personal redemption for events past.

The Young and Prodigious TS Spivet has a beautiful eye for nostalgic detail and moments of a childhood in America's mid-west, mixed in with perfect flights of fantasy and imbued with a sweetly tragic undercurrent.

Catlett is given a hard job for the final third of the film but manages the right mix of innocence and tragedy when called upon to deliver the Smithsonian speech. He also captures a vein of ribald childish cheekiness when needed such as with an encounter with a policeman where he corrects the cop for misuse of language, without realising his attitude could cause more trouble.

But The Young and Prodigious TS Spivet is more concerned with the visuals with Jeunet bringing his famed eye for beautiful vistas and also quirky visual tics. With maps, pop-up books and illustrations floating around the screen (and likely to look the full monty in 3D), there's plenty of visual treats to tickle the eyeballs. Jeunet regular Dominique Pinon adds to his repertoire of eccentric characters, completing the director's requirements.

All in all, The Young and Prodigious TS Spivet is a child-like road trip of visual whimsy in many ways; but when it comes down to it, it all stands on the shoulders of the Macauley Culkin-esque young Catlett who more than adequately rises to the occasion to give this the emotional pull and the gravitas that it needs.

Rating:

Transformers: Age Of Extinction: Blu Ray Review

Transformers: Age Of Extinction: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

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.

This time around, following the mass destruction in Chicago inTransformers 3, the Autobots are being hunted down in a series of black ops raids, headed by Kelsey Grammar's conniving Harold Attinger who's in cahoots with robot bounty hunter Lockdown.

When Mark Wahlberg's Cade Yeager, an inventor (go with it, it's Michael Bay's world) and single struggling father, finds the battered and beaten truck Optimus Prime, he inadvertently brings him back to life - and brings the fight directly to his door and his daughter Tessa....

Transformers : Age of Extinction is exactly what you would expect from the fourth in a series that's not exactly set the world alight in terms of character-driven plot.

In some ways, this latest is a reboot with a new group of humans brought into the fold; but it's the usual fare of noble speeches about what it means to be human, loyalty and mass scale destruction, packaged up in an overly bloated FX fest.

And this does go on; in its 2hour 45minute run time, it feels like the story will never end as one video game level moment is tenuously linked to the next, with each full stop being a set piece of destructive Bayhem.

Not content with smashing up Chicago and putting his humans in a post 9/11 world where humans are encouraged to dob in any robots they see (it can't be a coincidence that a lot of the early scenes have the American flag flying high wherever possible and the robots are on a pack of cards a la Saddam Hussein), Bay turns his attention to getting the gang into China under the most tenuous of circumstances but no doubt to appeal to the lucrative Far East market.

Lunk-headed it may be, and with an over-reliance on slow mo action shots and an ear-shattering score, but there's no denying Bay knows how to do a set piece (even if the pre-requisite tensions are missing due to good characters). Instead of speeding up the action, Bay gives some scenes the benefit of breathing and thereby providing the IMAX with some visual treats.

However, Bay brings his usual level of depth to the plot; bringing into the world a new element called Transformium, turning the initial bad guy of the piece Joshua Joyce (a great turn by the eminently watchable Stanley Tucci) into a comedy caricature full of ham and throwing into the father / daughter mix a boyfriend (Jack Reynor) who has zero charm and exists simply to shoe horn tension into the piece.

Granted, you don't do a Michael Bay film for characters and banal dialogue (One line - "Contracts are like humans - they expire"), but for the action and while Bay delivers the mechanical mayhem and catastrophic carnage in spades, there are moments when the film feels like it's going on for much longer than is remotely necessary. 

Certainly, there's a juncture where it feels like two films have been sandwiched together with a weak story plot and the dinosaur ex machina won't satisfy some as the Bayhem never ends and the Transformer legacy hokum is extended (a final sequence hinting at more to come)

The problem with Transformers: Age of Extinction is that it's a soulless experience, with the ideas that the human race has turned on the Autobots and their place in the universe is threatened wildly unexplored and traded for reams of action sequences that do nothing to really service the plot. 

While the human element (particularly Nicola Peltz - even if she is just in short shorts and spends most of the movie being leered at by Bay's camera) goes someway to expunge the likes of Megan Fox and Rosie Huntington-Whitely from the Transformers memory, this latest outing for the franchise doesn't feel like it actually brings anything radically new to the table. It lacks a real cohesion for the plot and as a result, makes the whole thing feel like a slog determined to visually beat you into submission rather than a blockbuster pleasure.

Rating:

Housebound: DVD Review

Housebound: DVD Review

Rating: R13
Released by Vendetta Home

Writer / director Gerard Johnstone's inventively witty Housebound is already picking up accolades - both here and abroad.

With SXSW success and NZIFF Festival director Bill Gosden's praise ringing in its ears, the mash up of horror and comedy stars Morgana O'Reilly as Kylie, a sullen woman placed on home detention after a particularly Kiwi robbery goes somewhat awry.

Confined to the house with her mother Miriam (a sensational Rima Te Wiata), rebel without a cause Kylie discovers there are more horrors than just dial up broadband and regular dollops of Coro to contend with after she hears her mum talking about how she believes the house is haunted.

With a security guard Amos in tow, Kylie begins to investigate the spooky goings on...

Housebound serves up a riotous mix of shock moments, suspenseful scenes and bang on gags.

With a delicious premise and an awe-inspiring treatment of the genres, director Johnstone's infused his script by way of The Innkeepers, The Frighteners, a hint of Beetlejuice and a gory dollop of Kiwi blood and guts' homage to Sir Peter Jackson's earlier works.

But as well as infusing these all together, he's done something uniquely kiwi as well as making a film which universally accessible, thanks to O'Reilly's sullen Kylie, Glen Paul-Waru's brilliant Amos and Te Wiata's perfectly shrill and cuckolding mother.

With an eye for great one-liners ("You can't punch ectoplasm" to name but one) and a burgeoning trademark in suspenseful set ups and masterfully subtle execution, Housebound is an absolute riot, an unashamed blockbuster treat and a triumph of film-making (let's leave the New Zealand out of this one, eh?)

The pay-off is cleverly constructed and the final sequences deliver and wrap up everything that was promised so deliciously throughout the comic beats.

As infectious as Ghostbusters was all those years ago, Johnstone's flair for the comic paranormal and grip on the various genres he's paying homage to treads the right balance between out and out scares and good time humour.

Housebound's spookily and truly unmissable - it's assured massive success and shows that Kiwi film-makers don't always have to examine their own navel to create some great cinema.

Extras: Deleted scenes, Commentary

Rating:

Guardians of the Galaxy: Blu Ray Review

Guardians of the Galaxy: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Sony Home Ent

Finally, after the Marvel Universe has spent its last few outings hinting at a world beyond our own, it heads out into the Universe - and as a result, breathes new life into the Marvel franchiseafter the likes of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers threaten to become too Earth-bound with their obsessions.

Chris Pratt stars as brash adventurer Peter Quill aka Star Lord, abducted by aliens when he was young and had just lost his mother. Complete with a Walkman full of 80s tunes and a cocky swagger (Han Solo / Indiana Jones anyone?), Quill finds himself the object of a bounty hunt after making off with an orb sought by Lee Pace's Ronan, a despot who wants to destroy everything in his path.

It's this hunt which puts him in the sights of beautiful green skinned assassin Gamora (a kick-ass Saldana), psychopathically enhanced Rocket Raccoon (a CGI creation voiced by Bradley Cooper), his protector the tree Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), as well as Drax The Destroyer (Bautista).

Forced to team up, this ragtag bunch of squabbling and quipping misfits are determined to save the day when Ronan's ambitions threaten the entire galaxy...

Essentially, the plot of Star Wars redux with a mash of every 80s film you can think of (even the legend of Footloose is tossed in there), Guardians of the Galaxy is a space adventure which benefits from not taking itself too seriously at all.

Eschewing the brooding of the Earth set Avengers in favour of plenty of action, humour and general lightness of tone, Guardians of the Galaxy simultaneously succeeds in expanding the Marvel Universe and introducing a great new set of characters to it, who bristle with unpredictability and hints of chaos. This is not a team that has superpowers to fall back on most of the time, may not succeed with their plans and bicker affectionately along the way.

But it also benefits from a large dose of heart in places; Quill's determination to cling to the Walkman and the mix tapes his mother made for him is a lovingly poignant touch, a way into his past and a nostalgia the older parts of the audience will recognise.

The group have a great chemistry (particularly thanks to Bradley Cooper's scene-stealing Rocket Raccoon) and synergy together and off-set the po-faced and overly serious nature of Ronan and his gang. Former Doctor Who companion Karen Gillan impresses as cyborg Nebula, even if she is slightly underwritten. Even Thanos shows up to link the last lot of film, but he's casually tossed aside as an irrelevance to the plot and inadvertently loses some of his menace because of it.

If there are echoes of previous film's denouements and big final act action pieces, it's probably to be expected given how Marvel is all about spectacle and team building. A final sequence of ramming home the message very nearly chokes the film - but even with this cinematic deja vu, former Troma director James Gunn handles it all with a certain directorial aplomb, never losing sight of the fun and action of the piece throughout - and creating some truly stunning space visuals.

But it's Pratt's film for the taking. And it sees him seize his chance to soar as an occasionally vulnerable lead, who's always ready with a quick comment and a self-knowing wink (he describes the orb as a Ark of the Covenant / Maltese falcon type) in any given situation. For Star-Lord, this is a charismatic star-making turn - along with his colleagues - that suggest Quill's future is assured (even with hints of more personal discoveries to come).

Oh, and stick around for the now obligatory post-credits sequence - it fits perfectly with the 80s kitsch colourful vibe, even if it does little to advance the ongoing Marvel threads.

Rating:

The Water Diviner: Film Review

The Water Diviner: Film Review

Cast: Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Jai Courtney, Yilmaz Erdogen
Director: Russell Crowe

As we approach the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC involvement in Gallipoli, it's only natural that Aussie actor Russell Crowe would feel the pull of life behind the camera with this, his directorial debut.

Set four years after the devastation of Gallipoli in Turkey in World War I, Aussie farmer Connor (a bearded, understated and relatively muted Crowe) is struggling to cope with the loss of his three MIA sons. When his wife succumbs to her grief, Connor decides enough is enough and packs up to head to Turkey to try and find out once and for all what happened to them and to fulfill her dying wish they all be buried together.

Initially rejected by the army (including Dan Wyllie's stereotyped straight down the middle-chocks-away general), but with a cause taken on by Jai Courtney's moustachioed and stoic Lt-Colonel, Connor ignores the rebuttal and heads to Istanbul regardless - forging a relationship with Ayshe, a Turkish woman whose husband is also missing post- Gallipoli.

The Water Diviner is a heady mix of the creative and the occasionally cheesy.

Crowe's peppered his pictorial premiere behind the lens with a preponderance of war flashbacks and slow mo shots that somewhat pile on the emotion and manipulation as this bond of brothers story and overwrought melodrama plays out.

Olga Kurylenko feels a little wooden initially as Ayshe, taking time to settle in and awkwardly feeling like a potential romance / friendship was shoe-horned into proceedings that are based on true events, and their interactions slow down the piece. Equally, a scene where Connor uses that most Aussie of icons (currently), the cricket bat to take out a squadron of Greeks about to execute some Turkish soldiers rankles rather than triumphs. And Connor's ability to divine where his children have fallen (interlaced as it is with flashbacks to the sons at war) causes more head-scratching than actual emotional heft.

And yet, there are some flourishes in among the crowd-pleasing which really do mark The Water Diviner out as something a little different.

Crowe starts the film from behind the Turkish lines, wrong-footing you into believing we're watching Aussies; sequences in the actual trenches are visceral and like repeated blows to the stomach as they show the true horror of hand-to-hand combat; and throwaway shots like a mountain of bones clutch at more disgust than any lingering shot could ever achieve.

It's the understated moments which are the more moving and powerful within The Water Diviner.

Aided by a strong performance from Crowe as the father-on-a-mission and interactions with Turkish actor Yilmaz Erdogen have a resonance that's lacking in scenes with Kurylenko and the bureaucratic Wyllie, The Water Diviner proves to be a solid directorial debut from the usually brash Crowe.

However, a dialling down of the more manipulative elements, a pulling back of the over-egging of the emotional pudding and an avoidance of the cheesier could have seen this Water Diviner strike cinematic gold - instead, we're left with a film that's occasionally evocative and moving but fails to fully soar as it quests to be a fitting and different piece for the 100th commemorations of the ANZAC involvement in Gallipoli.

Rating:

ZB Movie Review - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

ZB Movie Review - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-at-the-flicks-december-13-2014/

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-at-the-flicks-december-13-2014/

Win a double to Big Hero 6

Win a double to Big Hero 6

To celebrate the release of the rather wonderful Big Hero 6, the big Christmas family movie, I'm giving you the chance to win 1 of 3 double passes to see the movie!

Disney’s Big Hero 6 – In Cinemas Boxing day. 

From Disney, the team behind “Frozen” and “Wreck-It Ralph,” comes “Big Hero 6,” an action-packed comedy-adventure about the special bond that develops between Baymax (voice of Scott Adsit), a plus-sized inflatable robot, and prodigy Hiro Hamada (voice of Ryan Potter). When a devastating event befalls the city of San Fransokyo and catapults Hiro into the midst of danger, he turns to Baymax and his close friends adrenaline junkie GoGo Tomago (voice of Jamie Chung), neatnik Wasabi (voice of Damon Wayans Jr.), chemistry whiz Honey Lemon (voice of Genesis Rodriguez) and fanboy Fred (voice of T.J. Miller). Determined to uncover the mystery, Hiro transforms his friends into a band of high-tech heroes called “Big Hero 6.”

Inspired by the Marvel comics of the same name, and featuring breathtaking action with all the heart and humor audiences expect from Walt Disney Animation Studios, “Big Hero 6” is directed by Don Hall (“Winnie the Pooh”) and Chris Williams (“Bolt”), and produced by Roy Conli (“Tangled”) 

We're giving you a chance to win a double to BIG HERO 6 - simply email to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com  and in the subject line put BAYMAX and then make sure you include your name and address! 

Competition will close December 18th - and editor's decision is final!