Newstalk ZB Review - Unbroken

Newstalk ZB Review - Unbroken

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-wait-for-dvd-of-unbroken/

Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie: Blu Ray Review

Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

Brendan O'Carroll's perenially popular Agnes Brown hits the big screen in this latest outing following series upon series of hits.

In this big screen spin-off, Mrs Brown has to do everything in her power to help protect the market stall she runs after a business-man reveals plans to knock it all down for a shopping centre.

I'll admit it - the Mrs Brown's Boys "comedy phenomenon" has somewhat passed me by.

I'm aware of the mass audience for the sitcom and those will be the fans who'll lap up this flick and its generally unfunny stylings. The jokes are predictable, can be seen a mile off and are distinctly unamusing. Sample line - a letter shows from the Tax office, which is in a brown envelope and cue Mrs Brown saying "at least it's the right colour for when I wipe my arse with it."

The problem is that you can rail all you want against this, but it'll find its viewers with its 1970s attitudes - it's a throwback in many ways, but you can't help but feel a little more effort in the scripts, its gags and a little less racism may have worked.

Rating:

The Giver: Blu Ray Review

The Giver: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

A canny cross between Utopia and Dystopia, The Giver is a slightly aloof adaptation of the 1993 Lois Lowry social sci-fi novel, where scratching the surface reveals something deeply nasty within.

It's the story of Jonas, a young man who lives the colourless community in the late 21st century. It's a world of conformity, order and seemingly perfect - and whose young citizens are given designated stations in life at the point of adulthood.

One of those is Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), who is given the role of Receiver of Memory, a title which forces him to meet Jeff Bridges' wizened The Giver, who helps bestow on Jonas a view into a life before the drab community came to life.

But with these visions of the horrors that mankind does, as well as the benefits, Jonas finds his outlook on life and those around him irrevocably changed.

The Giver deserves plaudits for covering some big meaty ideas - albeit within the trappings of parts of the Young Adult genre. The idea that a community could be washed clean of its emotions and life so sanitised isn't a bad one at all; and it certainly leads to one of the most emotionally horrific scenes ever committed to celluloid involving True Blood star Alexander Skarsgaard and a baby.

Despite outcry over how old Thwaites was for the role, he manages to convey Jonas' dawning awareness of life before quite well; Katie Holmes is almost emotionless as the mother of the piece, urging her children to use "precision of language"; Skarsgaard is practically buck toothed and goofy as the unaware father whose job is horrific; and Taylor Swift is a smart piece of stunt casting as The Giver's former protege. Bridges seems to spend a lot of the movie as if he's got marbles in his mouth and appears to be sleep walking in parts - as does Streep as the austere leader of the community.

However, in among those dystopian trappings, there's also a great deal of mawkishness which proves a bit of a disconnect here and there. Noyce uses flashes of colour so brilliantly and so vividly as Jonas begins to explore the outside world (it's all so reminiscent of Pleasantville's colour interludes all those years ago) in a new light; but towards the end, as Jonas gets more of a feeling of the evil that men have done through the years, Noyce's mixture of swelling music and deliberately emotive imagery (Nelson Mandela, tanks in Tiananmen Square) over-eggs the pudding.

Add onto that an utterly ridiculous ending that's got a neat and simple resolution which defies belief and logic, and The Giver starts to fail its at times utterly haunting and morally complex philosophical premise.
Rating:

Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For: Blu Ray Review

Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

The original Sin City, which bowed in 2005, was a blast, a graphic novel brought to life on the screen and drenched in pastiche and noir.

So, it's a surprise to see that a sequel's taken nearly 10 years to be made; in this latest, there's another raft of adaptations from Frank Miller's books and a few new sequences written especially for the neo noir anthology film all interlaced into one piece.

The kernel of the movie centres around a flesh-baring Eva Green as femme fatale Ava Lord who manipulates her former lover and world weary Dwight (Josh Brolin) to help her out; fashioned around this tale of sex, lies and betrayal is a story about Joseph Gordon Levitt's card shark Johnny out for revenge on Powers Boothe's corrupt senator and Jessica Alba's Nancy seeking to finish off what started years ago with "That Yellow Bastard".

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For continues the cinematic trend laid down by the first flick a decade ago - through a sleazy world brought to life in all its monochrome glory, with splashes of colour - and even brings some welcome new additions in the form of a vampy and trampy Eva Green, who provides much needed life to this second outing which sags into tedium at times despite its shallowly stylistic exterior.

Green's perhaps one of the only reasons that the second works in places; her seductively exposed energy fizzles the black and white world with colour (particularly her green eyes) and sparkles in among the moody lurid stylings painted up on the screen. Noir has thrived on the femme fatale trope, and Green certainly earns her place in the pantheon of the past. But she's one of only two well written women in the piece (along with Alba's troubled exotic dancer Nancy) and the film feels bereft when it shifts its compromised morals to other targets and stories.

Stylistically, Rodriguez carries on the great work pioneered nearly a decade ago, with bold colors imbuing the cinematic palette with striking visuals; reds, greens and blues jump out of the monochrome world and give the eyes a dazzling feast to gorge upon. But it's nowhere near as visually bold as it was many years ago, and unfortunately leads to some of the feeling that Sin City : A Dame to Kill For is simply going through the motions.

The old timers from the first get varying degrees of success in their second outings with Rourke's Marv being the best served. But Willis' Hartigan is denied much time and as such, being a pivotal driving force for the narrative of the final serving, the emotional impetus is weakened by his relative absence.

Granted, there's some life in these streets (Eva Green, a cameo from Christopher Lloyd as a heroin using doctor, Gordon-Levitt as the card shark) but there's just not quite enough to breathe any kind of real cinematic colour into the stylishly created black and white world of Sin City.

Rating:

The Lost Lords release date unveiled

The Lost Lords release date unveiled

The second part of TellTale Games Game Of Thrones series will release on February 3rd.

Based on the award-winning HBO television drama series, Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series tells the story of House Forrester. Caught up in the events of The War of the Five Kings, they are placed in a precarious position where members of the household must do everything they can to prevent the house from meeting its doom. 

 "The Lost Lords," the second episode in the critically-acclaimed game series, will be available Tuesday, February 3rd on PC and Mac from the Telltale Online Store, Steam, and other digital distribution services, and on the PlayStation®Network for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3. The episode will be available on Wednesday, February 4th on the Xbox Games Store for Xbox One® and Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The series will also be coming to compatible iOS devices via the App Store on Thursday, February 5th and to compatible Android-based devices. 

The game series is based on the world, characters and events seen in HBO's TV show, which in turn is based on George R. R. Martin's books (A Song of Ice and Fire). The events in the game series begin towards the end of Season Three of the series, and end right before the beginning of Season Five. Players will visit familiar locations such as King's Landing and The Wall, as well as unfamiliar locations such as Ironrath, the home of House Forrester.

House Forrester is a noble house from the Wolfswood in the north of Westeros. Bannermen to House Glover, they have always offered unswerving loyalty to the ruling great house of the North - the Starks. The Forresters are seated at Ironrath, an imposing stronghold surrounded by towering ironwood trees. Built over fifteen hundred years ago by Cedric Forrester and his triplet sons, Ironrath is a testament to the strength and endurance of ironwood. The Forrester house words are 'Iron from Ice', which echoes their belief that - like the ironwood itself - the adverse conditions and unforgiving landscape of the North only makes them stronger.

The game will be played from five different points of view. Each is a member of House Forrester; either a direct family member, or a person in service to the House. Scattered across Westeros and Essos, each will play their part in seeking to save House Forrester from destruction.

Playing as five characters not only reflects the epic scope of Game of Thrones, but is also something that the player needs to be mindful of. This is because the actions of one character can ripple out to affect the rest of House Forrester. Multiply the actions of one character by five, and you're truly playing the Game of Thrones... where you win, or you die.

Spandau Ballet: Soul Boys of the Western World: DVD Review

Spandau Ballet: Soul Boys of the Western World: DVD Review

Released by Madman Home Ent

One of the best musical docos from last year, Spandau Ballet: Soul Boys of the Western World is essential home viewing material for anyone who experienced the 80s boom of the UK music scene.

New romanticism was at its heights but even more than that, Spandau Ballet: Soul Boys of the Western World is a look at the journey of five working lads from the UK who became global sensations thanks to songs like Gold and True, as well as anthem Through The Barricades.

Expertly weaving together a plethora of archive footage as well as commentary from Tony Hadley and the rest of the band, Spandau Ballet: Soul Boys of the Western World is a riveting watch.

Simply told, and with an energy that catches a music scene in gestation and a band in ultimate birth, this doco should have broader appeal than just what you will know about the group. The only time the film stumbles slightly is when it concentrates on the cracks and fall-out within the group over writing, but it's a brief falter before a final musical flourish.

Director George Hencken's to be commended for this - Spandau Ballet: Soul Boys of the Western World should have had a wider audience than it did. Now here's hoping a small screen release will prove as infectious to the masses as Spandau's greatest hits.

Rating:

Elder Scrolls Online launches for next gen consoles

Elder Scrolls Online launches for next gen consoles

BETHESDA SOFTWORKS ANNOUNCES

THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE®: TAMRIEL UNLIMITED™

 ARRIVING ON CONSOLES 9^TH JUNE

No Game Subscription Required for Console, PC or Mac

21^st January, 2015 (London, UK) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, today announced that its long awaited, award-winning multiplayer roleplaying game, The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, will release worldwide on 9^th June, 2015 for the PlayStation®4 system and Xbox One®, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft. For the first time in history, players will explore the legendary world of Tamriel with their friends on console. In the latest and biggest Elder Scrolls game ever made, players will be able to adventure alone, quest with friends, or join an army of hundreds in epic player vs. player battles as they explore and discover the secrets of a persistent Tamriel.

We are also pleased to announce that The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited players will no longer be required to pay a monthly game subscription for extended play. Players will make a one-time purchase of the game and can then enjoy hundreds of hours of content without the requirement of a monthly game subscription fee when The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited becomes available on console in June and beginning 17^th March for PC/Mac players.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited includes all the great gameplay from the original PC/Mac game, plus all the updates and content additions, including the exciting new Justice and Champion systems.  All existing PC/Mac game accounts, open or closed, will be updated to the Tamriel Unlimited edition in March and former players will be invited back to the game at that time to experience all that is new in the world. New players will make a one-time purchase of the game and play, without restrictions, for as long as they like – without game subscription fees. Tamriel Unlimited will be supported with special, optional downloadable content available for purchase and an in-game Crown Store for convenience and customization items. Regular updates and new gameplay will be offered to all players to enjoy free of additional charges.

In addition, Bethesda will offer ESO Plus™ to players who wish to pay a single monthly charge for  a premium membership service, providing exclusive in-game bonuses, a monthly allotment of crowns to use in the store and access to all DLC game packs while a member. PC/Mac players with active subscriptions on 17^th March will be automatically enrolled into ESO Plus and begin enjoying its membership privileges. 

“Our fans are our biggest inspiration, and we’ve listened to their feedback on the entertainment experience they want,” said Matt Firor, Game Director of The Elder Scrolls Online. “We know that Elder Scrolls fans want choice when it comes to how they play and how they pay, and that is what they will get. We have made numerous changes to the game over the past year, and are confident this is a game that Elder Scrolls fans will love to play. Players can explore Tamriel with friends, battle creatures, craft, fish, steal, or siege. The choice is theirs. The game offers hundreds of hours of gameplay with unlimited adventures with one single game purchase. We can’t wait for everyone, whether they’ve played before or will be experiencing it for the first time, to begin adventuring in The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited.”  

For more information on the different ways players will be able to experience The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, please visit: www.elderscrollsonline.com/faq.  

The Elder Scrolls Online, named Best Role Playing Game at E3 2013 by the Game Critics, was released for PC/Mac on 4^thApril, 2014. The previous chapter in this franchise was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim® which was released in November 2011 and enjoyed worldwide critical and commercial success. As the sequel to the 2002 Role-Playing Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind®, and the 2006 Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion®, Skyrim earned hundreds of ‘Game of the Year’ awards and sold over 20 million copies.