New Arkham Knight gameplay footage emerges

New Arkham Knight gameplay footage emerges

Rocksteady's revealed Arkham Knight is being pushed back 3 weeks but has tempered the news with an incredible 7 minute video of in-game footage.

Here's what Rocksteady had to say:

Batman: Arkham Knight will now launch in New Zealand on June 24, 2015. We're a developer that hates to make any compromises, so we are sorry to say this means it's going to be just a little bit longer until you can play the epic conclusion to the Arkham trilogy. As a reward for your patience and understanding, and to make the wait even more unbearable, we are pleased to whet your appetite with a new gameplay video of Batman: Arkham Knight.

Get Hard: Film Review

Get Hard: Film Review

Cast: Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Alison Brie, Craig T Nelson
Director: Etan Cohen

It's perhaps a brutal coincidence that Get Hard's central premise is about prepping Will Ferrell's white collar stockbroker for jail time because watching this comedy is like doing a prison sentence for anyone in the audience.

Ferrell is James King, a man whose life appears to be going well; he's scored a hot fiancee (Community star Alison Brie) and is about to be made partner of his stock-broker firm, led by his soon-to-be-father-in-law (Craig T Nelson).

But it all falls apart when he's arrested at his engagement party and charged with fraud and embezzlement, leading to a court appearance where he's sentenced to 10 years jail by a judge who's over Wall Street types walking free.

So, with 30 days to get ready for jail, King engages the services of Darnell (Kevin Hart) a car wash attendant at his company who he believes, because he's African-American, has been to jail and can ready him....

Get Hard trades on offensively unoriginal stereotypes, a raft of dick jokes that just aren't funny, gay stereotyping, homophobia and over-uses a "gag" that there will be plenty of rape in prison for King, given how he's not tough enough to survive.

Be still, my aching sides.

The central premise of the film could have been a majorly impressive satire, but instead three screenwriters (!) cash all of that in for lazy scenes that lack jokes or any kind of punch-line humour.

The gag is that Darnell is as middle-class as they come, using his riffs on Boyz'n'The Hood to provide the wealthy but idiotically naive King with his insights into what jail time could proffer. Thankfully, though, in yet another lazy stereotypical moment, Darnell has a gang brother who can conveniently help.

One of the worst scenes sees Darnell taking King to a prominent gay hang-out to help him train to offer another service in prison which will help him survive. It's deeply unfunny as well as offensive, given that the writers don't actually have a point or punchline for Ferrell to make. I'm betting the writers would see that they're pushing the envelope but what they're actually doing is failing to raise anything satirical or remotely amusing.

Sure, Get Hard is supposed to be a buddy comedy, with Hart taking the role that would have been Eddie Murphy's or Chris Rock's a few years ago, but the film has nothing new or original - or even funny - to say, leading it to feel dated within seconds of it starting.

Get Hard is flaccid, unfunny and a waste of everyone's time. It's a betrayal of Ferrell's comic talents and Hart's motor-mouth tendencies. While the duo has a reasonable comic rapport and some riffs work unexpectedly well, it's again a case of this seeming funnier on paper than in actual execution.

Quite frankly, all of those involved really should be given a prison sentence - for crimes against comedy and for lazy stereotyping.

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The Gunman: Film Review

The Gunman: Film Review

Cast: Sean Penn, Jasmine Trinca, Javier Bardem, Ray Winstone
Director: Pierre Morel

The geri-action franchise gets a new entrant in the form of Sean Penn who's teamed up with the director of Taken. Well, with the news that Liam Neeson's stepping down from the action game, a new contender had to emerge.

Penn stars as Jim Terrier, an international operative working undercover in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006, whose assassination mission sees him forced to leave the country, his friend Felix (Bardem) and lover Annie (Trinca).

Resurfacing 8 years later, Terrier's back in the DRC now with for a humanitarian organisation but finds himself in the gun when an attack where he's working takes place. Suddenly finding he's part of a conspiracy that relates back to his actions in 2006, Terrier begins to revisit his old life to find out exactly what's going on.

In its initial scenes, The Gunman appears to be an intelligent piece about potential sins of the past coming back to haunt before betraying its set up and settling for a generic geriatric action thriller that has some impressive stunt work and set ups but ultimately blunts your senses.

Penn's wiry and intent outlook gets you through the exposition heavy sequences to start off before the bullets start to fly, the explosions begin to shake the screen and the globe-hopping kicks in to dizzy you out of any intelligent thought you had about the issues being explored.  If anything Penn makes a good case for his entrant into the pantheon of oldie action heroes, looking better than most, puzzled when the conspiracy kicks in and suffers through the many indignities of the script with utter commitment.

And it is the script that causes issues - a life threatening illness for our hero only kicks in when the circumstances necessitate (and therefore irritates), a bull fight is leaned upon too heavily as an allegory for the final showdown and Trinca's character serves only to become the damsel in distress after a strong start.

Coupled with a near unwatchable Bardem and a bloated Winstone wearing a bizarre wig, The Gunman betrays any pretence towards grandeur and settles for a cliched unoriginal action thriller and pulpy trashy conspiracy novel.

Quite simply, this Gunman is shooting blanks.

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Life is Strange Episode 2 out tomorrow!

Life is Strange Episode 2 out tomorrow!

Episode 1: Chrysalis was just the beginning of our story, it was an introduction to the characters, to Blackwell Academy and to Arcadia Bay, but there is much more to come. Will Max and Chloe discover what has happened to Rachel Amber? Why does Max have this vision of a tornado? And what is the weird snow storm about? There are plenty of secrets lurking in Arcadia Bay…

In Episode 2: Out of Time you will start to see much of your choices affecting the story in a lot of different ways, be prepared for some surprises! You will also discover new locations as Max will go outside of Blackwell Academy and start exploring new areas in Arcadia Bay. You'll be able to learn more about the town, its inhabitants, and the social issues it’s facing. On top of this, new and important characters will be introduced, as well as having a lot of difficult choices to make.

For those have already purchased Episode 1, you can pick up episodes 2-5 separately on console or via the ‘Season Pass’ on console and PC. Alternatively, you can purchase all episodes with the ‘Complete Season’ bundle. If you have yet to play Life is Strange, there is a free trial available for you to try out the game too.

Shaun The Sheep: The Movie: Film Review

Shaun The Sheep: The Movie: Film Review

Vocal cast: Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Omid Djalili
Director: Mark Burton, Richard Starzak

If there's anywhere that a movie about sheep is likely to succeed, it's here in good ole New Zealand.

The latest from Aardman Animations sees the titular Shaun The Sheep garnering his five minutes of big screen fame to produce a warmly comic and family outing that's nothing less than shear fun (if a little wooly in places), and which recalls in parts Chicken Run.

Expanded out from the 7 minute shorts that have been so successful on TV, the movie sees Shaun determined to break out from his normal routine down on the farm with Bitzer the dog and the Farmer.

But when Shaun's attempts to get a day off go awry and the farmer ends up in the big city with amnesia, the group flocks to try and find their owner and restore the balance down the farm.

However, standing in their way is the unfamiliarity with the city life and an animal control inspector determined to lock Shaun and his pals up.

Shaun The Sheep: The Movie is a blast, a sign that innocence and simplicity can triumph over any kind of cinematic cynicism.

Packing in some truly brilliant sight gags that appeal universally is no mean feat, but as Aardman's shown in the past with Wallace and Gromit et al, their MO is clearly aimed at the original and amusing, with this latest outing raising the baa quite considerably while never forgetting the heart.

Essentially, this is a silent movie, with no dialogue other than grunts and a few bleats here and there; but make no mistake, this silence of the lambs speaks louder than any of its ilk, thanks to an understanding of classic silent films, slapstick humour and just a great self-awareness over the British way of life.

Highlights include a baa-bershop quartet, various gags involving the ongoing divide between town and country, a great trick to get everyone to fall asleep (involving counting sheep), mocking celebrity stylings and a Hannibal Lecter gag.

Shaun The Sheep: The Movie has just an insistence on ensuring everyone has a good time, with heart and humour well placed throughout. Aardman's excelled themselves again with the love pouring from every frame and with every single expression saying more than a thousand words ever could.

Laced with charm and charisma, worries that Shaun skews young and with a smaller scale are misplaced; this family movie hits all the highs and never outstays its 85 minute duration. It's a bright, breezy breath of uncomplicated cinematic fresh air.

When it comes to Shaun The Sheep: The Movie, ewe'd be utterly baa-rmy to miss it.

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Mission Impossible Rogue Nation trailer drops

Mission Impossible Rogue Nation trailer drops

The first trailer for Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible Rogue Nation has just dropped.

Get On Up: Blu Ray Review

Get On Up: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

The godfather of Soul cast a long shadow over the musical world – and this musical biopic aims to do the same.

Charting James Brown’s life and times, from his childhood traumas to the rise to the top of the charts, the latest from The Help director Tate Taylor is a splintered affair, that revels in the funk, but scats over the darker side and nature of the man.

Choosing to bounce around the timelines of his life more than the sex machine did on stage, Taylor’s attempts at a non-linear, non-conventional biopic is a choppy affair, stripped of any narrative cohesion and exercise in not joining the dots and pandering to its audience. Glossing over any social context and history means that the film feels removed from the times (which so mired parts of Taylor’s last the award-winning The Help) and serves to lift the audience out of Brown’s story.

Starting with Brown walking out to the stage and reflecting on his abused past, the tone of the film is set with Taylor taking in three different time-jumps in as many moments, giving the viewer nary a chance to settle in and begin to connect. Plus, with Brown breaking the fourth wall occasionally and talking in the third person, the tonal shifts actually end up taking you out of the film that shows some warts (fleetingly) of its subject.

Thankfully, it's Boseman's commanding portrayal of Brown - along with some blisteringly electric live performances and a soulful OST - that really elevates Get On Up to the heights that it deserves to scale. Boseman is never anything less than compelling as The Godfather of Soul throughout – from the man moved by gospel to the soulless tyrannical monster who causes wedges in his own band through their mistreatment; from channeling Brown's slitheringly funky dance moves to his vocal intonations, this is as chameleonic and watchable a turn as you're likely to see this year.

Boseman breathes real life livewire energy into Brown from beginning to end (in the way that Joaquin Phoenix did in Walk The Line and Jamie Foxx did in Ray) – as well as giving some life to the monstrously paranoid and uglier side of the man (even though the script cheats as it skirts around the edgier moments and offers glimpses rather than full on dives into the man’s psyche).

Equally as impressive is True Blood star Nelsan Ellis as Bobby Byrd, the man who recognised Brown's talent and did all he could to bolster that. Scenes between the pair give the film a warmth that's needed and a heart that’s necessary - and is lacking in other parts due to the compulsion to jump around narratively more than Brown would ever do on stage. Likewise, Dan Ackroyd seems to get some of the vim and vigour he had in the Blues Brothers as Ben Bart, the manager who aided Brown’s ascent – a fact that’s glossed over in this flick in favour of Brown apparently displaying business acumen.

But it's Taylor's insistence on presenting the James Brown story without the darkness that's the most cloying aspect of the film – and a touch that sanitises this tale of rock and roll; a moment of domestic violence hits off screen and is then followed by Boseman directly looking into the lens, a jarring touch that seems to prefer to skirt over the more tormented side of Brown. Equally, there's hardly any time spent on his youth to explain why Brown ended up as driven as he did and as insecure of others, other than brief snapshots here and there. It's the lack of this that stops Get On Up from really getting you into the mind of the man. Perhaps, a decision to give the film more of a focus would have prevented such a cinematic and narrative discord.

That said, Get On Up is worth the price of admission alone because of Boseman's star-making performance as the troubled singer. He brings the funk to the James Brown story and stops the large part of this movie from lapsing into a funk of its own.

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