A Walk Among The Tombstones: Blu Ray Review

A Walk Among The Tombstones: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Mixing 70s detective ethics and visuals with a bit of the ole Neeson Taken "special skills" DNA, A Walk Among The Tombstones (from the Lawrence Block books) is a curiously dark beast.

Neeson is Matt Scudder, a former hard-drinking cop on the New York streets in the 90s who's forced to turn his life around after a street shoot-out. Years later, with Y2K hanging over the nation's conscience, he's working as an unlicensed PI when he's approached by drug dealer Kenny (Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens) to help him solve the kidnapping and murder of his wife.

But, as Scudder investigates, he discovers a murkier world within.

A Walk Among The Tombstones is very much Taken, PI - but without the action.

Taking its cue from 70s detective noir films, writer / director Scott Frank's crafted together an at times nasty piece that feels like it's a mix of this genre and Scandi-noir. In among the grime and run-down city vistas, something insidious is lurking and Frank's brought a lo-fi low key feel to this which, at times, borders on plodding and a little dull.

So, to combat that, Frank's relied on Neeson's usual brand of stoically grim countenance and innate likeability to see you through the darkly grim proceedings. Neeson's watchable throughout - from the start when he's dispatching justice to those who've robbed a bar through to the final scenes of claustrophobic tension (via a series of talky sequences), you're simply drawn to the character and his innate struggle to make his way through the murk of the world. Though, it has to be said, at times, Neeson feels like he's sleepwalking given how relatively emotionless he is on screen, and how nasty the sociopaths are that are committing these crimes.

There's also some light relief in the form of a street kid TJ (Astro) whom Scudder decides to befriend and protect and with whom he shares some laconic banter. In among the Sam Spade references and bleakness, this ray of light is a welcome, if occasionally over-used, touch.

As the urban decay and moral decline reaches a peak, there's a final act shoot-out which feels symptomatic of the potboiler that Frank's tried to stir and which doesn't quite come together as it should (with Frank freeze-framing the action at moments to fit in with a voice-over about the 12 steps programme).

However,  the slightly overlong A Walk Among The Tombstones doesn't quite hit the retro film noir highs it's going for - but it does prove to be a nostalgic reminder of what used to be.

Rating:

Newstalk ZB Audio - Film Review of Jupiter Ascending, The Interview and The Judge

Newstalk ZB Audio - Film Review of Jupiter Ascending, The Interview and The Judge

Here's the very latest Newstalk ZB Review

I talked to Jack Tame about Jupiter Ascending, The Interview and The Judge

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-jupiter-ascending-going-down/

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: Film Review

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: Film Review

Cast: Dev Patel, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Richard Gere, Tamsin Greig
Director: John Madden

There was always going to be reservations about checking in for a second time to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

The OAP themed first outing was perhaps a massive success thanks to its gentle humour and the sum of its parts rather than its fresh and original idea. So, a second return visit would pose more of a challenge to fulfill the larger cast's dramatic ambitions and to welcome newcomers into the fold.

This time around, Sonny (an energetic Dev Patel) is trying to expand his hotel business while contemplating the finer details of marriage to his impending wife Sunaina. Meanwhile Evelyn and Douglas (Judi Dench and Bill Nighy) are part of the local workforce and wondering if their relationship is meant to be; Norman and Carol (Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle) are looking at being exclusive and Madge (Celia Imrie) is facing a double hit of commitment; negotiating Sonny on his way is Muriel (Maggie Smith) who's now the co-owner of the hotel.

But problems arise when Sonny's potential investor sends an unknown hotel inspector to check them out at the same time as newcomers Guy (Richard Gere) and Lavinia (Tamsin Greig) show up... will the strain be too much?

To say The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a disappointment is perhaps an understatement and is also perhaps underselling a film which will be so popular with so many.

It feels incredibly lazily written, and despite being breezily directed in parts, it's overlong and unnecessarily drawn out.

Sure, there will be fans who'll lap up the gently predictable humour and react to moments where Muriel is asked by an American if her accent is Australian and watch as the second chance love story between Evelyn and Douglas evolves into a twilight of their lives love story.

But the film feels dramatically sold short. Set ups for consequences emerge only to be cast asunder because the dramatic conclusions wouldn't suit the film's outlook on life; too much happens off screen (to discuss would be to stray into spoilers) and it sells the characters short and the audience's involvement and investment is wasted.  Its strength may be its cast, because it certainly isn't the writing for this second outing in the Indian hotel.

There are some joys to behold; for the first half of the film, Sonny's boundless energy leads to several amusing moments and watching Judi Dench and Maggie Smith's characters banter back and forth is akin to a BAFTA celebration, but the weaker sub-plots as the writers try to cast their nets to all of the cast make it feel stretched terribly thin.

Gere and Greig have very little to do - with Gere simply going more for the charm and charisma but ending up a little smarmy; and Greig is more-or-less sidelined as the ensemble cast get their time in the twilight sun. A series of repeated gags pepper the film and leave it feeling as tired and worn out as perhaps some of the relics on the screen.

But, I don't doubt this will be a success with its target audience and it's nicely filmed using India's vistas (and very little else) and put together with a cast who give it their all.

The problem with The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is it just feels incredibly unadventurous as it tries to negotiate the final stages of life and love; it's afraid to show any dramatic consequence and feels frustratingly limp in comparison to the first.

In short, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is one hotel I couldn't wait to check out of.

Rating:

The Oscars 2015 Winners

The Oscars 2015 Winners

The Oscars are upon us, so as everyone does at this time of year, here are my predictions for who's going to walk away with the statues on the big day in Hollywood in the main categories.

Best Picture
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

WINNER - Boyhood

Best Director
Alexandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

WINNER - This one's tight between Linklater for a body of work and Inarritu for something different; and I wouldn't be inclined to rule Anderson out either for the same Linklater reasons. Ultimately, though, I think the winner on the night will be Richard Linklater

Best Actor
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

WINNER - I think this is Eddie Redmayne's Daniel Day Lewis moment. He's got the momentum from the previous awards ceremonies, so I think the tide of support is on his side. I'd really like to see Michael Keaton win it though as he actually showed the fire in the acting gut that's been hiding for a while. But I don't believe the Academy will go with it (I'd love to be surprised) 



Best Actress
Marion Cotillard, Two Days One Night
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

WINNER - Again, I think the tide of previous wins and a body of work will give it to Julianne Moore (for one of her weakest performances though) However, I'd love to see Reese or Rosamund pick it up as like Keaton, they did something unusual with their craft.

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Birdman
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

WINNER - Vern Schillinger. Erm, I mean JK Simmons - an excellent searing turn and a strong category but Simmons deserves this.

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Laura Dern, Wild
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

WINNER - Much like Highlander, there can be only one - and for this one it's Patricia Arquette. Not to disrespect the actresses in this category, but for my mind, most of these nominations were a surprise given the fact it feels like a weaker year for women. I think Patricia Arquette will take home another for Boyhood.

Over to you - what do you reckon?

Doctor Who: Last Christmas: Blu Ray Review

Doctor Who: Last Christmas: Blu Ray Review

Rating: PG
Released by BBC And Roadshow Home Ent

The Doctor and Clara reunite following their apparent break up at the end of the last series in this somewhat traditional base under fire story from the annals of Doctor Who.

When Peter Capaldi's Doctor intercepts Jenna Coleman's Clara as she meets Santa Claus (portrayed with genial joviality by Nick Frost, a perfect piece of casting), the duo's swept into an Arctic base and a seeming conundrum of bizarre proportions as a horde of creatures attacks.

The annual Christmas outing is always a lighter affair for Dr Who, but Last Christmas packs some of the scientific punch as it wraps itself up in its own riddles. Capaldi's softer touch (with occasionally punchy interaction with Nick Frost) is a delight this time around, and once the true reasons for the Doctor and Clara's parting is revealed to each, there's a sense the series has freed itself from its defining shackles of last year - and could go anywhere from now. (Even though to some extent the ending feels abruptly tacked on)

Extras: Bonus BTS features and commentary

Rating:

Annabelle: Blu Ray Review

Annabelle: Blu Ray Review

Rating: R16
Released by Warner Home Video

After The Conjuring scared up a major box office success, it was no surprise some kind of follow up would be creeping out of the shadows for us.

But it's into prequel land we go, with the story of how the creepy doll Annabelle ended up in a glass case and being regularly blessed by priests after being handed off to the paranormal investigators The Warrens.

The origins tale focuses on soon-to-be American parents Mia (Wallis) and John (Horton) whose lives are turned upside down when their neighbours are attacked by a Satanic Cult and murdered. The pair are also attacked with one of the would-be-killers shot dead in the soon-to-be nursery clutching a doll given to Mia by her husband.

Shortly afterwards, with Mia recovering from the assault, spooky things begin to happen around the house, forcing the duo to move on. But, despite discarding Annabelle in the dumpster, the pair are spooked when the doll finds its way to their new home...

Annabelle's already been a massive US box office hit, smashing its budget several times over and scaring up totals that some films only aspire to ever reach.

Which is disappointing, given how predictably dull, tedious and unoriginal this latest horror outing is. (And given that horror dolls when used properly, like Chucky, can be the stuff of nightmares)

Annabelle is a list of lazy horror movie cliches which seem to have been thrown into the mix, blended up and served to audiences who are looking for cheap jolts, dire jump scares and an overblown soundtrack building ominously to very little at all.

The problem with Annabelle comes down to really how sidelined the actual doll is - confined to merely getting copious amounts of close ups, sitting on chairs and looking more sinister than it actually is. It's hard to see why this is the doll that's scared so many, but it's clearly wasted in this outing.

Both Wallis and Horton are sadly too bland to remotely stand out either, with Wallis' character Mia prone to going into dark rooms during storms and doing the kinds of things that these days feel cliched, unoriginal and stultifyingly dumb.

While the background story of Charles Manson and satanic cults simmers away (left unexploited), the unoriginality on display does little to create an atmosphere of foreboding, with doors being slammed, creaky noises and close ups of Annabelle being over-exploited to try and build something suspenseful and horrifying. But what emerges is a long series of scenes that are drawn out to tediously predictable effect and which fail to remotely psychologically scare.

Perhaps exploring Mia's potential post-natal depression to a greater effect would have worked better (albeit derivative of other horror tropes) - and while Leonetti manages a couple of effective jump-scare moments (in a basement and with a child running towards a door), there's simply not enough to justify the hype.

Quite simply, Annabelle is dull, massively disappointing and a tedious, monotonously formulaic horror that in no way shape or form hits the mark.

Rating:

The Judge: Blu Ray Review

The Judge: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Robert Downey Jr moves away from his iron-clad superhero counterpart for more human concerns in this drama outing that's as much about fathers and sons as it is justice.

Robert Downey Jr is cocksure lawyer Hank Palmer, who's the epitome of a big city lawyer; flashy home, flashy court antics, quick fire verbosity and a trophy wife. But when he gets a call that his mother's died, he's forced to head home to a world he left behind years ago - and an estranged father (Robert Duvall) who's also the home town judge.

Things go from bad to worse for this big city fish in the small town pond when his father's accused of murder on the day of his mother's funeral - and soon, Hank's forced into begrudgingly giving his services to try and ensure his father doesn't spend his final days behind bars.

The Judge is less courtroom drama, more matters-of-the-heart kind of piece / home-coming dramatics , with Downey Jr's quick-fire rapid skills taking a dial down for more emotional intensity as we negotiate the waters of home-spun sentimentality.

Sure, all the borderline sentimental / schmaltzy cliches are there - the rift between father and son, the chequered past between a trio of brothers, a home-town love that never really left, a question over paternity and a distant daughter to reconnect to - but Downey Jr's relatively restrained and charismatic turn helps you negotiate through the potential mire of predictability of an ever-so slightly overlong two-and-a-half hour drama.

Duvall and Downey Jr have a good chemistry as the decades-old tension is played out and the hostility of estrangement is worked through; certainly as resentments bubble up and boil over, they're nicely played out (even if they're lazily worked into the narrative and unsubtly hammered home; one major row / metaphor comes just as a storm hits the town and is done by the time it all blows over the next day) but there's never anything short of entirely obvious on the screen.

If there's anything objectionable about The Judge, it's really down to how extraneous some characters end up being; a questionable tryst with Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester's bar keep is glossed over and used only dramatically toward the end, the other two brothers fare the worst, with Mark Strong's mentally handicapped Dale apparently on hand to just ask questions, help the audience out and play-out some home movies to ramp up the sentimentality of the past montages; equally D'Onofrio's towering performance largely being sidelined after some initial promise and Farmiga's love interest is there simply when it suits.

At the end of the day, any objections to abject button-pushing and rank sentimentality are over-ruled by the eminently watchable Duvall and Downey Jr show in their third outing together; their headstrong head-butting proves the main drive and focus for this melodrama and while the outcome is never anything less than obvious, the occasionally meandering journey to the final destination is what (just) raises The Judge above its mawkishness.

Rating:


Extras: BTS featurettes