Amazonia: DVD Review

Amazonia: DVD Review

Rating: G
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

A plane crashes in the forest, the sole survivor is trapped in a cell, but makes an escape - only to have to traverse strange foreign climes with no idea of what danger is lurking around the next corner.

It all sounds very familiar, doesn't it?

Yet this film has a unique MO to a tale which is all too familiar - its protagonist is a capuchin monkey with the most expressively natural face committed to celluloid in a long while. (Discounting those damned dirty apes from San Fran earlier in the year or since Marcel annoyed Ross).

With nary a line of dialogue and only the natural parameters of the Amazonian rain-forest and all who dwell within to bring it to some form of vivid life, Amazonia is an interesting hybrid of survival story and nature documentary.

From toucans hurling discarded half-eaten fruit at the monkey to various bugs filmed in extreme close up, Ragobert's created something wildly unique and at times, strangely compelling, as the monkey's story is crushed into the usual survival tropes and human type situations.

It's the lush contours of the Amazon rain forest and the life within which makes Amazonia worth your time; younger audiences will be enlightened by this foray into a microscopic world we're unlikely to experience - and older adults will be impressed at its brevity, if they can stomach the pro-environmental message that is threaded through.

All in all, Amazonia works as a window into a world we're unlikely to glimpse and for an animal star who's likely to delight and amuse as he takes on his most dangerous role ever.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Blu Ray Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Blu Ray Review

T-U-R-T-L-E Power returns to the big screen with the reincarnation of those heroes in a half shell which were so instrumental to so many growing up.

In this Michael Bay produced blockbuster popcorn piece, it's the aeons old fashioned tale of good versus evil. In New York, the evil gang The Foot Clans, headed by Shredder (voiced by Tony Shaloub) is trying to take over the city - but when Megan Fox's reporter April O'Neill discovers a connection between the gangs and a well to do businessman, she inadvertently puts herself in harm's way.

However, thankfully there are four hidden friends on hand to save the day - Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo and Michaelangelo....

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn't made by Michael Bay per se, but it has his trademark elements of Bay-hem and product placement throughout (a Pizza Hutt placement being the absolute worst). As parts of the city are taken out by the paramilitary Foot Clan and the robot Samurai Shredder, the destruction is on a Transformers level of chaos (complete with obligatory lens flare).

But, despite those paw marks, Liebesman has actually put together a fairly decent (if occasionally violent) kids' flick with one-dimensional baddies and some fairly low level dialogue that all hangs together coherently.

Wise-cracking Arnett sticks to his trademark schtick as O'Neil's cameraman, and even Fox starts off well as the frustrated reporter before sliding into simple damsel in distress. The baddies hit that one note level well with Shredder being little more than a dramatic cypher, and Fichtner lacking all but a moustache to twirl as his machinations come to the fore.

And while the Turtles don't initially have their personalities shine out (despite a very cool graphic novel style intro extolling their back-story), there are scenes which showcase their dynamic; an elevator scene that sees them beat-boxing reminds us they're just kids, a set piece de resistance atop a snowy mountain taps their bond very well in between all the whirling FX wizardry) all serve to remind you why you fell in love with these half-shells years ago.

Popcorn entertainment at its best, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles won't trouble your grey matter in the slightest. While there are holes here and there in the movie and it skews a little more towards the young, (why it's not been positioned as a kids movie defeats me), but overall, the reinvention of the turtles is simply - and surprisingly - disposably-leave-your-brain-at-the-door-dumb-fun.
Rating:

The ABCs of Death 2: DVD Review

The ABCs of Death 2: DVD Review

Rating: R18
Released by Vendetta Films

Ant Timpson and Tim League's idea for an anthology of death following the alphabet gets a second outing, with a whole new range of directors taking the helm for the gruesome chaos.

As ever, with 26 directors and 26 visions of death, there's going to be a widening variety on show - and it's never more obvious than with this release. Some segments impress - from Julian Barratt's B is for Badger and Robert Morgan's stop motion D is for Deloused; but others fail to hit any kind of mark and just make you grateful there's a brevity to all of them.

The highlight though is U is For Utopia, a short which takes the obsession and quest for perfection to a natural conclusion and impresses with its simplicity of vision - but then what would you expect from the director of Cube and Cypher?

All in all, The ABCs of Death 2 will appeal if you're a horror fan and can appreciate short-form creativity; otherwise, viewers will be repulsed by some of the lo-fi imagery and depths of depravity on display here. (So, Ant and Tim have achieved what they set out to do)

Magic in the Moonlight: Blu Ray Review

Magic in the Moonlight: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

Director Woody Allen stays in Europe for his latest outing.

This time it's 1920s France, where famous illusionist (and monstrous man) Wei Ling Soo aka Stanley (an unlikeable Colin Firth) has been called in by his friend Howard (Rev star Simon McBurney) to debunk a clairvoyant Sophie (Emma Stone), who could be part of a scam.

Famously outspoken against clairvoyants, Stanley's determined to remove Sophie from the scene but his plans are derailed when she stuns him with the depth of her knowledge and apparent insight into the spirit world.

And his world view is thrown further into disarray when he starts to spend more time with Sophie.

Magic In the Moonlight follows a typical formula of a man being set up for a fall; with bluster and strong self belief, the skeptic Stanley goes through the motions of vehemently not believing, suddenly believing and then ultimately not believing again as he tries to negotiate his own questions of life beyond the pale.

Brash, abrasive, and generally grumpy, Firth's Stanley is a difficult man to get behind in this piece from Allen, that's about as light and unchallenging as anything he's recently put out. Add to that though, the fact that this Allen flick is as lifeless as one of the spirits Sophie's trying to channel throughout and Magic In the Moonlight starts to lose some of its real shine.

Allen's trademark talkiness is still in play, but the dialogue doesn't sparkle at all; none of the repartie or banter has any hidden levels or revelling in any kind of joy; most of Firth's renunciations and retorts are laced with a cruelty and harshness that means you fail to generate any empathy for what's transpiring. And over time, while the continual digs provide a scoffing from the audience, the overall effect is one of tedium, not medium. Even Stone feels downplayed a little as the waif-like Sophie, the psychic unable to really channel anything other than unfortunately feeling slightly miscast and out of place.

Allen uses the gorgeous setting of southern France to maximum effect but he demonstrates an over-reliance on jazz tunes to segue each scene; it's not enough to lift Magic In the Moonlight in ways you'd be hoping for; a final sequence adds in a clever use of a motif demonstrated early on and offers one delight, but an abrupt ending is shorn of any emotion or pull, with Allen leaving you with the feeling of a rushed screenplay and resolution.

Questions and ruminations on a life after may have been the thrust for this, with even potential discussions and viewpoints of cynicism and vehement denial forming more of a drive for any verbal jousting between Stanley, Sophie and even Howard, but Allen eschews all of that in favour of plenty of scenes of Stanley merely musing out loud.

All in all, Magic In the Moonlight is a film that has no real lasting magic once the lights have gone up even if it is pleasant enough - albeit frustrating - to watch transpire in parts.
Rating:

Still Alice: Film Review

Still Alice: Film Review

Cast: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth
Director: Richard Glatzer

With Golden Globe success for Julianne Moore and a warning that Still Alice was likely to crumble even the hardest of facades, the adaptation of Lisa Genova's book had a lot to live upto.

Sadly, it plays out like a TV Movie of the week with every emotional mawkish moment milked for effect.

Moore plays Alice Howland, a renowned linguistics professor who finds she's forgetting words during a presentation and teaching. Perturbed by this turn of events, Alice visits a neurologist who surmises that she has early onset Alzheimers and in a tragic turn of events, this disease is a rare familial strain that can be passed on.

As Alice struggles to deal with this and the implications, her family try to come to terms with what's playing out before them - and the inevitability of what lies ahead.

Still Alice has an impressive performance from Moore, whose Alice is really a study in understatement and whose fight is subtly and effectively brought to light and life by the simplest of deliveries.

But the problem is that Still Alice isn't content with letting the true tragedy of what's ahead shape the outcome; it needs to push, prod and provoke through an overly bombastic piano soundtrack that feels formulaic, as well as guilty of pulling on your heart strings.

In Moore's finest moment, the actress is supposed to be extolling the virtues of living with a debilitating disease but the tide of emotion which is intended to sweep you off your feet is derailed by a torrent of piano music twinkling and swelling underneath, leaving you feeling manipulated and hollow.

Equally, some of the more fascinating elements of the film are underdeveloped; potential tension with her husband (solidly played by Baldwin) becomes easily melodramatic - and the fact one daughter chooses to go ahead with a birth despite there being a high chance the disease could be passed on is swept under the carpet, a dramatic morsel left to wither and die by the wayside.

While Still Alice brings out the best in Moore and gives her predicament a relatability that's dire and devastating, the formulaic beats and predictable patter of the movie leaves you feeling very little (regardless of how cynical you may be), derails Moore's work by grounding it in the overtly simplistic and sentimental and that you've simply seen a TV movie up on the big screen.

Rating:


 

The Maze Runner: Blu Ray Review

The Maze Runner: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by 20th Century Fox Home Ent

Mixing up Ender's Game, Survivor, The Village and hints of Lord of The Flies, The Maze Runner is the latest Young Adult slice of entertainment to be served up at the cinema - and it's overall a rather superlative one.

Dylan O'Brien is Thomas, who finds himself deposited into The Glade, an enclosure of a community of boys trapped within a maze. With no memory of who he is, why he's there or how to escape, Thomas tries to fit in with the "Gladers" as they're known - but before long, he's desperate to escape the mysteries of the Maze and get out.

However, Thomas' arrival into this post-apocalyptic world stirs up more than just a few disgruntled issues and rivalries within this utopian dystopia. And that's not the only problem he faces - outside of the walls, the Maze is patrolled by mysterious creatures called Grievers which will kill them if they try to escape.

Things get even more complicated when a girl called Teresa (Kaya Scodelerio) arrives and Thomas begins to get flashes of memory of a life before the Glade...

The Maze Runner is a largely effective thriller that serves up suspense, tension and thrills as director Ball etches out the novel's mysteries with a dollop of portentous talk and ever-lurking danger.

The boys group and their dynamic works exceptionally well and the set up of the world within the Glade is brilliantly and concisely espoused so that it all feels so natural. Likewise, O'Brien's bond with the rest of the group - including the friction with Poulter's edgy Gally, who's fearful of the world that Thomas has brought with him.

It leads to some tense situations, including a thrilling Maze showdown with a nightmarish Griever (a mechanically mounted spider bug like creature) that crackles with edge of your seat nerves. Plus, the divide and rift that opens up with Teresa's arrival is nicely handled.

But, by dragging out the mysteries for the majority of the run time in the first of this trilogy, there's an inevitable price to be paid - and that comes in the final 15 minutes of the movie as a mass of garbled exposition is spouted and not all answers are revealed. It requires a few leaps of faith and some logic holes to be traversed as the story plays out. And a bond with one of the others in the group is a predictable trip to disaster, that lacks originality.

Equally, some of the fight sequences are choreographed too confusingly and shot too darkly leading to a sense of bewilderment and potentially emotionally charged moments to be dramatically squandered.

But all in all, The Maze Runner is a thrilling start to the series - it's worth getting lost in this maze, because from what transpires in the first segment, the journey's likely to be an interestingly intriguing one.
Rating:

Newstalk ZB Review - Wild and Foxcatcher

Newstalk ZB Review - Wild and Foxcatcher

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-wild-and-foxcatcher/