Downton Abbey: Season 5: Blu Ray Review

Downton Abbey: Season 5: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

Another year, another outing on the estate.

This time it's 1924 and the Crawley family faces new challenges as a new Labour government comes to power. The threat this time is to the future of the estate, and their very way of life, causing ripples between the downstairs and upstairs groups.

The whole tone of this year's outing is one of the past coming back to haunt them, particularly for Anna Bates who ends the year clapped up in chains. The fact this beloved character's facing issues should give you some idea of the overall feel of this year's piece; a relatively sanitised and entirely predictable plot thread that's woven throughout.

Unfortunately, it's starting to feel like time needs to be called on this estate, with the series' writers really starting to suffer from a real lack of originality or real development from within the cast. Granted, it's all acted well and looks delightful, but dare I say it, Downton's starting to feel a little tired and lacking the fizz (which as ever is played by Maggie Smith's dowager) that it needs to sustain itself.

While not exactly a vintage year for the estate, Downton Abbey: Season 5 will delight the fans who simply wish to wallow in yesteryear.

Rating:

Cold In July: DVD Review

Cold In July: DVD Review

Rating: R18
Released by Vendetta Home

Dexter star Michael C Hall exchanges splatter and gore for the victim side of things in the synth drenched Cold In July.

He's Richard Dane, mulleted and mustachioed in East Texas in 1989 and who's awoken one night by the sounds of an intruder downstairs. Heading down to see what the commotion is and with a wife and child in the house, Dane lets off a single shot killing the intruder outright.

And he believes that's the end of his problems - with the law clearly on his side and the victim buried, there's nothing else left to worry about.

However, things get complicated for Dane when the burglar's father Ben (a softly spoken but menacing Sam Shepard) is paroled and comes looking for Dane...

Cold In July has an old school vibe about it in many ways - and that's not just the looks of the leads.

With its synth based score, and outfits, it feels like an 80s murky revenge thriller, with secrets of the town thrown in for good measure. But the mystery takes several twists and that's really where the strength of this film lies.

It becomes a greater film when Don Johnson shows up, as he brings an energy and skewed take on things that's needed after a minor slump - as the riddles unravel and the reasons are explained, it's clearer that this is more a film about the bonds which strengthen and divide families.

Director Jim Mickle delivers some tension filled scenes including a great jump moment during a home invasion that even though you've seen it coming delivers such a visceral punch, you don't recover straight away.

As the murkier aspects of Texas are explored, it builds to an explosive end that's really needed to help deliver on what was promised before. It's not as strong as it could be, but the trio's chemistry works well and guides you through the weaker parts of the narrative.  It takes a while to get there and you are either on board or you're not, but Cold In July smacks you upside the head - just not in ways you'd quite expect it to. 

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The Fault in Our Stars: Blu Ray Review

The Fault in Our Stars: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by 20th century fox Home Ent

Stand by, because here comes a tear jerker based on a successful "sick-lit" novel.

Divergent star Shailene Woodley is Hazel Grace, a teenager, stricken with cancer and permanently strapped to an oxygen tank to help her breathe. Cynical and dismissive of the positivity around her, Hazel finds her life turned upside down when she meets a fellow survivor, Augustus (Elgort) at a support meeting.

The two form a bond and a flirtation leads to love - but as ever, with the story of star-crossed lovers, tragedy is waiting in the wings.

The Fault In the Stars is going to prove fatal to some audiences of a certain age and certain disposition, as it mixes heartbreak, heartache and first love - as well as loss.

It's got sardonic wit on its side too, as these teens live with the constant threat of death in their wings - which is remarkable when lines like "It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you" are espoused on the screen.
In amid the preppy, perky relationship of the book smart Hazel Grace and Augustus, there's a rich vein of non-exploitative cynicism running throughout that adds welcome touch of an adult feel to this movie. The world-weariness they both display is a refreshing touch and wavers more on the side of levity than wallowing - which is perhaps a blessing given the subject matter contained within.

Woodley sparkles as Hazel Grace, a girl for whom life has provided disappointment after disappointment and who carries around an oxygen tank as if it were the latest accessory; Elgort provides ample support and Dern and Trammell are functional as parents of Hazel Grace. Perhaps the only bum note really is Willem Dafoe, whose pyjama clad, booze soaked author, idolised by Hazel Grace, who tonally feels at odds with the film. And a final last act appearance from him really stretches the credibility of the movie.

Inevitably the weepy tone overtakes the final third of this movie and you're either all in or left unmoved by this - but either way, you can't fail to be impressed on what's put up on the screen for this bittersweet and endearing romance thanks to near faultless performances from the young leads.

Rating:

The Expendables 3: Blu Ray Review

The Expendables 3: Blu Ray Review

Rating:M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

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.

Extras: Extended cut, making of, various mini features, gag reel

Rating:

The Evil Dead Anthology: Review

The Evil Dead Anthology: Review

Rating: R18
Released by Madman

Collecting together the original trilogy and the 2013 re-imagining of the Evil Dead (filmed in Auckland), the anthology is the definitive set for films of Sam Raimi's cult classic - and is only being released in Australasia.

With Bruce Campbell as the hero of the piece, you pretty much know the story - possession of the woods, an army of darkness from skeletons and a chainsaw for an arm - it's all the trappings of a cult and it's endured for years.

Pulling together the films onto Blu Ray and throwing in 3 extra DVDs of documentary and featurette stuff really does the set justice and warrants the extra cash. Complete with a book of drawings and a sculpted Kandarian dagger that's a testament to model-making, the set is designed to drive the true fan into a frenzy.

The transition to HD looks great and Invaluable a doco about the series is guaranteed to hook people in to this groovy and seriously genre-defining series.

If you're a fan of horror and serious about the Evil Dead series, then this set can't afford not to sit on your shelf. With a HD remaster that looks the business, an inside look at its enduring appeal, Madman's gone all out to ensure that finally a set dedicated to a film or its series feels like the definitive article.

Extras: Too numerous to mention, making of, trailers, outtakes, life after Death doco, commentaries - a wealth of material.

Rating:

Night At The Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb: Film Review

Night At The Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb: Film Review

Cast: Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Ben Kingsley, Ricky Gervais, Owen Wilson, Dan Stevens
Director: Shawn Levy

So, the final installment of the Night At The Museum trilogy is unleashed, with the deaths of both Mickey Rooney and Robin Williams hanging over them (to whom the film is dedicated).

Ben Stiller returns as museum night guard Larry, who finds that the magic tablet of Ahkmenrah is decaying for no discernible reason, threatening the very existence of everyone in the museum. Convincing his boss (an uptight Ricky Gervais) to send him and the tablet to the British museum to reunite with the other half of the expedition that discovered it, Larry, his son and a gang from the museum head abroad.

But as they head to the British museum, their presence brings to life everything there - causing problems for Larry and the gang.

Night At The Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb is an uneven film, mixing in some nice emotional beats with a glut of CGI shenanigans and an OTT performance from a dashingly deluded Sir Lancelot played by former Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens.

Granted, a film that has a giant monkey peeing on Steve Coogan and Owen Wilson's mini-characters (to stave off lava from Pompeii) isn't promising to deliver much, but at times, it feels like Stiller et al are really phoning it in as they essentially go through a retread of the first film and the CGI shenanigans you've seen before.

And yet, in parts, the creatures in the British museum offer a degree of freshness even if the cast are simply moving from one corridor to the next, going through the episodic motions of a familiar farce. There are also some amusingly adult elements to the dialogue too with Larry remarking on how Attila the Hun was hacking into a dolphin like it was in The Cove and a certain cameo near the end offering up some smartly silly laughs. Equally, a showdown within an Escher painting brings a vital shot of cinematic creativity to the fore, an all too brief interlude before the cliched film resets to its default.

But too many of the scenes throughout drag on with strained banter that goes back and forth without any real punchline; too many opportunities feel wasted and the characters you know and love from the series are simply trotted out one last time because it's the end of the road.

There's no denying the poignancy of Robin Williams' final scene as Teddy Roosevelt, a last blast of sincerity and warmth which is punctuated with a manic rug-pull so endemic of Williams' own approach. It's a more than fitting send off which is then cruelly robbed of its emotional resonance just moments later in a lazy epilogue scene guaranteed to provide the sap and sentiment needed to wrap everything up happily ever after.

There's something to be said for Night At The Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb: its CGI (while over-used) brings real life into the creatures and will amaze the younger generation (much like David Attenborough's recent Natural History Alive special). But the lack of any real freshness or fizz within the cliched story and its execution (Larry's strained relationship with his son, everyone coming to terms with their place in life) lets down Night At The Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb quite badly, and leaves you with a feeling that you're quite glad that this exhibition is now being shut down.

Rating:

Merry Christmas to all

Merry Christmas to all

It is of course, Christmas Day today - and to wish you all a very Merry Christmas is of course, an obligation.

However, whether you're with family, without family, working or away from those you love or have had a difficult year, this shot of Baymax and Hiro from Big Hero 6 will give you the festive impetus you need to get through the day.

A very Merry Christmas to all of the readers of Darren's World of Entertainment - I really appreciate the support and wish you all the best festive tidings of the year.

Stand by for 2015 - it's going to be massive for films and games!