SAG Award winners

21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Winners List:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture: Birdman
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture: Unbroken
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series: Downton Abbey
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series: Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series: Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series: Orange Is the New Black
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series: William H. Macy, Shameless
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series: Uzo Aduba, Orange Is the New Black
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries: Mark Ruffalo, The Normal Heart
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries: Frances McDormand, Olive Kitteridge
Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series: Game of Thrones
Life Achievement Award: Debbie Reynolds

Oculus: Blu Ray Review

Oculus: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Doctor Who star Karen Gillan stars in this parallel storylines horror movie that's already received genre acclaim.

Gillan is Kaylie, who believes a mirror is haunted by supernatural powers and that it's wreaked havoc within her life as well as others. Gathering her brother who was jailed for the deaths in their family, Kaylie sets out to change the future by delving into the past.

There are a few smart scares here and there, but Oculus isn't really an edge of your seat horror kind of film, more a psychologically unsettling piece set over two timelines. Based on the director's own short story, Oculus benefits from Karen Gillan's solid turn (even if her accent isn't quite convincing enough) and a restrained direction, aimed at unsettling you rather than scaring you outright.

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Monty Python Live Mostly: DVD review

Monty Python Live Mostly: DVD review

Rating: M
Released by Madman Home Ent

The Pythons' reunion tour was one of the stadia smashes of last year and this DVD captures the essence of the Pythons idiocy and surreality.

Over 10 nights, thousands saw them re-enact some of their most famous sketches from the parrot sketch to the Lumberjack song, to a nuns and all version of Every Sperm is Sacred.

Monty Python Live Mostly - One down Five To Go will offer no surprises to the fans and there's a real joie de vivre to seeing the faves being given a live outing - but it has to be said, those who are not fans of the Pythons won't be converted to their wacky outlook on life.

The stage show itself is fairly formulaic and there's very little anarchy on show with this polished performance and footage from the TV series. It's all very pleasant to watch and with guest appearances from the likes of Eddie Izzard, you can see why they're enduring to their fans, but if you're not a Python, don't expect this to convert you.

Project Almanac: Film Review

Project Almanac: Film Review

Cast: Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D'Elia, Virginia Gardner
Director: Dean Israelite

What would you do if you were a teenager with a time machine?

The go-pro, handheld cam obsession of the selfie generation provides the backbone of the latest found footage movie, which mixes in the glee of recent superhero found footage movie Chronicle and the pure hedonism of Project X.

Centred around David Raskin (Jonny Weston), a high schooler science genius who's on the brink of being accepted into MIT but is short on cash for the required scholarship, Project Almanac posits the theory that time travel is possible.

After David and his gang of (largely) intelligent friends find a video of David's 7th birthday and spot him in the mirror, they gradually try to work out exactly how he got there. A series of clues lead them to the basement and the discovery of a machine that helps them travel in time - and could be the answer to their various problems.

Project Almanac wears its influences on its sleeve and actually proves quite successful within the confines of its genre. Citing Looper, Doctor Who, Groundhog Day, Timecop, Terminator, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and even Argo, the writers have grasped the pop culture mettle fully by the hand and run with it. Plus the fact the central character's a science pro (and a relatable everyday type who struggles with girls, not your typical geek) helps with the set up and kicks the story along (though admittedly, David has to keep explaining things to his sister aka the audience proxy).

In fact, it's the fact that these characters are everyday types and relatable (the guy with the secret unrequited crush, the goofball of the group et al) that helps Project Almanac work in the ways it does. There's a dizzy joy as the group heads to Lollapalooza with backstage passes purchased after the event on eBay and do all the kinds of things you imagine you would do again - if you could.

The inevitable Butterfly Effect which hits the group impacts into proceedings late in the day; granted the theory is the slightest ripple causes the biggest problem but the script doesn't call for this to come into until the final stretch, making the film feel a little rushed as it throws emotional weight at the wall hoping it'll stick (and don't get me started on some of the time travel - it's paradoxical at best in places) and leaving audiences a little dizzied as the denouement tries to pack the weight on.

Overall, Project Almanac works best as a hedonistic mash up that stays within the confines of the rules it lays down; sure, some of the found footage moments creak and feel shoe-horned in but for the large part, the occasionally self-aware referencing and play-it-straight-but-within-teen-concerns means that this time travel flick doesn't give the feeling of deja vu you may have expected.

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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.

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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.
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