The Razzies are here

Worst Picture
Saving Christmas
Left Behind
The Legend of Hercules
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Transformers: Age of Extinction

Worst Actor
Nicolas Cage, Left Behind
Kirk Cameron, Saving Christmas
Kellan Lutz, The Legend of Hercules
Seth MacFarlane, A Million Ways to Die in the West
Adam Sandler, Blended

Worst Actress
Drew Barrymore, Blended
Cameron Diaz, The Other Woman and Sex Tape
Melissa McCarthy, Tammy
Charlize Theron, A Million Ways to Die in the West
Gaia Weiss, The Legend of Hercules

Razzie Redeemer Award
Ben Affleck, Gone Girl
Jennifer Aniston, Cake
Mike Myers, Supermensch
Keanu Reeves, John Wick
Kristen Stewart, Camp X-Ray

Worst Supporting Actress
Cameron Diaz, Annie
Megan Fox, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Nicola Peltz, Transformers: Age of Extinction
Brigitte Ridenour, Saving Christmas
Susan Sarandon, Tammy

Worst Supporting Actor
Mel Gibson, Expendables 3
Kelsey Grammer, Expendables 3, Legends of Oz, Think Like a Man Too, and Transformers: Age of Extinction
Shaquille O’Neal, Blended
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Expendables 3
Kiefer Sutherland, Pompeii

Worst Director
Michael Bay, Transformers: Age of Extinction
Darren Doane , Saving Christmas
Renny Harlin, The Legend of Hercules
Jonathan Liebesman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Seth MacFarlane, A Million Ways to Die in the West

Worst Screen Combo
Any Two Robots, Actors or Robotic Actors, Transformers: Age of Extinction
Kirk Cameron & His Ego, Saving Christmas
Cameron Diaz & Jason Segel, Sex Tape
Kellan Lutz & Either His Abs, His Pecs, or His Glutes, The Legend of Hercules
Seth MacFarlane & Charlize Theron, A Million Ways to Die in the West

Worst Screenplay
Saving Christmas
Sex Tape
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Transformers: Age of Extinction

Worst Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequel
Annie
Atlas Shrugged #3: Who Is John Galt?
The Legend of Hercules
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Transformers: Age of Extinction

52 Tuesdays: DVD Review

52 Tuesdays: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Vendetta Films

A central conceit of shooting over every Tuesday for a year forms the spine of Aussie director Sophie Hyde's drama 52 Tuesdays.

Set in Adelaide it follows the life of teen Beth (Tilda Cobham-Hervey in an alarmingly assured performance) as she comes to terms with her mother's decision to transition genders. Dispatched to live with her father, Tuesdays becomes the only day which Billie spends with her mother - for better or for worse.

As her mother transitions from Jane to James (in a sensitively and nuanced turn by Del Herbert-Jane), Billie traverses her own sexual awakening as she begins to hang out with a pair of school friends, Josh and Jas. Filming their liaisons as the same time as her mother films her own journey, the two veer dangerously close to each other and simultaneously become distanced.

Hyde's framing device of shooting over a year and only for one day feels terrifically natural; some Tuesdays last seconds, a blur of mediocrity and mundanity that showcase the ups and downs of life; others, for dramatic purposes, last longer. Ultimately, the idea proves fertile ground for a drama that's thoughtful, skillfully and yet carefully handled and one which feels naturalistic and deftly coming of age than anything which has gone before.

While the final set of Tuesdays perhaps inevitably rise to form a dramatic crescendo that feels a little out of leftfield, the majority of 52 Tuesdays gives plenty of food for thought about identity and how grow closer yet further apart to our siblings as life goes on. With two terrific lead performances (I wouldn't be surprised if Cobham-Hervey's star is about to go into serious overdrive) 52 Tuesdays is a dramatic revelation wrapped within a genuinely natural premise.

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The Hundred Foot Journey: Blu Ray Review

The Hundred Foot Journey: Blu Ray Review

Rating: PG

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.

Extras: Various mini pieces

Rating:

Lucy: Blu Ray Review

Lucy: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

Part lecture on human evolution and part chase thriller, Luc Besson's Lucy is a curious hybrid, a mesh of didacticism and destruction.

Johansson plays the titular Lucy, an American who finds herself thrust into the criminal underworld of Taipei when her new beau insists she deliver a case stuffed with goodness knows what to Mr Jang (Choi). The contents of the case are a synthetic drug, CPH4 - and along with three others, Lucy is turned into an unwitting drug mule,with the contents sown into her stomach for delivery.

However, when the contents of the drug split in Lucy's stomach after a beating from Jang's goons (one of the logical missteps in the piece), she finds her brain opens up for use to more than the usual 10% - and her consciousness begins to expand, giving her powers she'd never had before.

So, using those powers, she decides to get revenge on those who wronged her before her brain reaches the previous uncharted domain of 100% capacity.

Eschewing philosophy into the narrative as well as defying an kind of logic, Besson's Lucy is determined to get to his audacious goal without stopping for breath to explain how or why. Intercutting with scenes of evolution, gazelles being stalked by hunters as Lucy heads into the gang-world, and using CGI molecules (some of ILM's finest work to show Lucy's cortexes opening up), Besson's created something trippy throughout.

Johansson's eminently watchable and her transcendence from American good time girl to badass to something else entirely at the end works because you're gunning for her the moment you see her, despite any form of character development being thrown out of the window (which to be frank, would have slowed the pace of this slick mash up of Transcendence / Limitless / The Matrix). Ironically, she appears to go the other way from what she's portrayed in Under The Skin; there, her alien started off aloof before gradually becoming more human. Here, Lucy takes the opposite journey, gradually becoming more machine-like the further her brain edges toward the 100%.

Morgan Freeman cements his status as the go-to actor for any kind of voice of reason / scientist trying to explain things (more or less exactly mirroring his recent outing in Transcendence) as the sci-fi action thriller heads towards its hyper-visual logic-confounding conclusion.

With its Euro-stylings, visual brilliance (even if it defies any kind of reasoning) constant cutting philosophical interludes (to Freeman's lecturing or evolution, apes and dinosaurs), Besson's given us something that's the complete opposite of what you'd expect; leaps of logic bound a little too far and at some point, you have to decide if you're on board with it all or out.

The central premise is an intriguing one and perhaps, in some perverse ways, benefits from not being explained and dulled down with long scenes of exposition, but nevertheless Lucy remains one of the most intriguing pieces committed to celluloid this year, destined to polarise but also destined to provoke debate.

Rating:

The Order 1886: Hands on PS4 Preview

The Order 1886: Hands on PS4 Preview

Platform: PS4
Released by Santa Monica Studios

It's a risky move showcasing out of context just one portion of a game that's hotly anticipated.

But The Order 1886 is one of the big titles for the first quarter of 2014 (due out in February) and it's fair to say there's a degree of expectation on the game.

Set in an alternate Victorian London where knights keep a watchful eye over the world, this preview runs for about an hour and sees the knights storming an airship, as well as showcasing some of the other gameplay elements.

Firstly, when the preview starts, the thing you notice most is how incredibly cinematic it looks. Running at 30FPS, the game looks like a HD movie and feels dramatic and more like a film than anything else you've seen recently. It's a trait that runs through the preview with cut scenes looking more incredible than anything else recently on the PS4 - proof if needed that visually this game will strike more than a chord when it's played.

The airship takeover and setting makes The Order 1886 feel like it's from Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow, with steampunk ethos sloshed deeply into the mix. Certainly as you rappel down the side of the airship, it becomes clear that the game's out to impress with the visuals. Definition of the Knights is more than clear; with the whole thing looking like a performance capture piece of acting rather than a game design element.

Which is perhaps a good thing, as the rest of the game so far, doesn't exactly look to offer anything more than we've seen before.

Once you're in the airship, it's about stealth as you negotiate your way to the cockpit. Smartly the game didn't offer a map to help on this task - and while that's fun to negotiate your way through the labyrinthine corridors below (there's not too many, so don't panic) I did like the idea that this was new territory so wouldn't be mapped. Less successful though is the stealth side, with taking cover (done by pressing the X button) being a bit hit and miss, leading to occasionally being spotted and having to restart. It's a frustration, and perhaps in the full game, there will be some tweaking or some indication of when cover is available and when not.

When into the cockpit, it's a series of Quick Time Events to deal with combat; again with the cutscenes and animation taking precedence over the gaming itself (Beyond Two Souls suffered quite heavily from this last year, with the over-reliance crippling the gameplay to a degree). Having dispatched those guys, it's back to a ballroom for a shoot-out.

On the way over to this location, I was struck by how constrained you are to head into other areas; leaving the cockpit, I wanted to negotiate the empty seats of the passengers and look out of the windows, but couldn't stray from the marked path. It's not exactly open world here.

In the final section, you had access to some of the more normal guns you'd associate with a shooter, which is perhaps a shame given that half of the hook of The Order 1886 is a steampunk alt- London where tech is more prevalent. The section concentrates on you needing to identify rebels on the airship through the cross hairs of a sniper gun and to liaise with your colleagues before taking them out and erupting into all guns blazing. The idea of liaising is a clever one, a touch that gives it more of a feel of a world within and that you're part of a team, although when push comes to shove, you're still on your own taking them down.

As an overall experience, The Order 1886 preview level has left me relatively muted; there are elements that I really loved (the look being the major one) and others which didn't (the constraints); but as I say, taking one section from the game, out of context, with no rapport or relationship built with your character is always a major risk. I'm still intrigued to see what The Order 1886 will do in February to allay my fears - it's more a case of piqued curiosity but I'm confident that Santa Monica Studio will be able to present something that proves to be one of 2015's major first quarter highlights for the PS4.

The IT Crowd: Version 4.0 DVD Review

The IT Crowd: Version 4.0 DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

The last full series of the comedy The IT Crowd shows once again that absurdist silliness can pay off.

6 episodes of comedy mayhem with Chris O'Dowd's Roy, Richard Ayoade's Moss and Katherine Parkinson's Jen are all glorious in their own way. Concentrating on the group's IT world and then thrusting them into the real world and watching them flounder in various ways proves to be a tonic.

From Moss getting involved in Street Countdown (a parody of the long-running word and number based UK gameshow for intellectuals) to Roy being caught in a bomb scare, there's so much to enjoy about this series which showcases Father Ted writer Graham Linehan at his very best.

These episodes were made back in 2010 but have shown no sign of ageing in the slightest and while the show is purely at its peak, it's sad to say this (aside from the finale) is the last season shout. But it's well worth your time and is sitcom fun at its best.

Extras: On location, outtakes, hidden extras

Rating:

Taken 3: Film Review

Taken 3: Film Review

Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace, Dougray Scott
Director: Olivier Megaton

It all ends here.

Well, so the marketing for Taken 3 promises anyway.

Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, who finds his life is once again thrown into disarray by violence and mobsters in this latest outing.

Mills is forced on the run and becomes the hunted (The Fugitive anyone?) after he finds his ex-wife murdered in his own house. The police, led by Forest Whitaker's Inspector Franck Dotzler, are closing in, but Mills is determined to clear his name and protect his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).

The geriaction franchise promised this time around that nobody would be Taken again - and that it would be a different story.

But this time around with the hook of the series removed, Taken manages to feel flat, soulless and completely formulaic.

Neeson manages some warmth as the gruff but softly spoken and exhausted Mills; and in a nice touch, he appears to show his weary age during some of the fight scenes giving this latest slice of preposterousness a touch of much needed grounded reality. In fact, his is the sole reason to watch.

The problem with Taken 3 comes in those who orbit around Mills; every single cop - aside from Dotzler - is a complete dunce who lack the basic skills to even remotely do their job competently. Even Whitaker's Dotzler is majorly underwritten - a genius detective who spends his time looking left and right, while twirling either an elastic band or handling a white knight chess piece; he's less an enigma, more a barely fleshed-out cliche.

Equally Megaton has hardly made things enticing to watch - choppy brisk editing during action sequences using a bevvy of cameras and an abundance of over-shaky cam means that you can't actually focus on what's happening without the director's ADD kicking in and showing you 17 different angles simultaneously rather than showing us something impressive.

Formulaic and lacking any real tension, the flat Taken 3 even finally resorts to having someone taken (again) - but in between you'll have to endure Neeson's talking to a stuffed panda (the SNL sketch Mark Wahlberg talks to animals springs to mind), Neeson's dispatching of relationship advice or talking puppies.

Believe it or not, the seeds for a fourth Taken (T4ken anyone?) are sown, with a potential new generation of Mills' family siblings possibly facing threat, but when all is said and done, the uninspired, unexciting and over-long Taken 3 is quite simply Taken The Mickey.

Rating: