The Young and Prodigious T S Spivet: Blu Ray Review

The Young and Prodigious T S Spivet: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Madman Home Ent

Mixing visual whimsy with the road trip genre, acclaimed director Jeunet concocts something nostalgic and yet timeless in The Young and Prodigious TS Spivet.

Newcomer Kyle Catlett is Spivet, the very definition of precociousness. Living on a ranch with his family in Montana, this prodigy finds his life changed when he's called by the Smithsonian Museum who ask to induct him because of an invention that he created.

Without telling his parents, Spivet packs a bag and sets out on a journey for the accolade - but also to claim some kind of personal redemption for events past.

The Young and Prodigious TS Spivet has a beautiful eye for nostalgic detail and moments of a childhood in America's mid-west, mixed in with perfect flights of fantasy and imbued with a sweetly tragic undercurrent.

Catlett is given a hard job for the final third of the film but manages the right mix of innocence and tragedy when called upon to deliver the Smithsonian speech. He also captures a vein of ribald childish cheekiness when needed such as with an encounter with a policeman where he corrects the cop for misuse of language, without realising his attitude could cause more trouble.

But The Young and Prodigious TS Spivet is more concerned with the visuals with Jeunet bringing his famed eye for beautiful vistas and also quirky visual tics. With maps, pop-up books and illustrations floating around the screen (and likely to look the full monty in 3D), there's plenty of visual treats to tickle the eyeballs. Jeunet regular Dominique Pinon adds to his repertoire of eccentric characters, completing the director's requirements.

All in all, The Young and Prodigious TS Spivet is a child-like road trip of visual whimsy in many ways; but when it comes down to it, it all stands on the shoulders of the Macauley Culkin-esque young Catlett who more than adequately rises to the occasion to give this the emotional pull and the gravitas that it needs.

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Nightcrawler: Blu Ray Review

Nightcrawler: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Madman Home Ent

It's to the underbelly of Los Angeles we go in this terrific thriller set against a backdrop of nights and shady activity.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a man desperate for work and hungry for a pay off. When we first meet him, he's stealing copper wire (and in an ensuing struggle with a security guard, his watch) and trying to sell it on, while simultaneously trying to ingratiate himself into a position for a job.

After being rejected, he sees a camera crew taking footage of a dramatic rescue on a highway. Learning how much they get for this and that TV's saturated news networks will pay for anything that works under the old journalism mantra of "If it bleeds, it leads", Lou decides to join the freelance camera crew game.

Hiring a homeless person Rick (played by Four Lions star Riz Ahmed), and decking out his car with police scanning equipment, Lou finds an ally and buyer in the form of news director Nina (Russo) whose station is in ratings slump....

Nightcrawler is a compulsively thrilling film, one which trawls through the moral sludge and delights with ethical and moral issues just being part of the attraction.

The main attraction though - aside from the terrific cinematography and slick sheen of the mainly night-time production - is Gyllenhaal as the misfit Bloom, a sociopathic driven parasite of an anti-hero whose outlook is as complex as it is compelling. With a slimmed down frame and piercing eyes, his delusion is as contagious as it is frightening - in his skewed take of the world (with hints of Asperger's implied) everything makes a perfect logical sense with the kind of self-delusional belief that we've seen in the likes of Travis Bickle and William Foster in Falling Down. He's a twisted businessman perfect for a 21st Century where narcissism and selfies are the norm, and selfishness is sadly the raison d'etre. But more than just that, Gyllenhaal commands the screen from beginning to ebullient end, with nary a breath drawn in between as he pursues and bastardises his own American dream.

His interactions with Four Lions star Riz Ahmed are also electrifying too; from initial interview scenes to negotiations later on, there's a frisson of uncertainty about where it's all going that adds an edge to an already superior and tense thriller.

Equally, the up-for-the-highest-bidder values of late night US news-stations chasing ratings are under the microscope too; with Russo's news chief becoming compromised and entangled both in Bloom's web and the desire to be number one in a way that seems all too sentient of how TV ratings are warping people's sense of propriety. (Though, there are moments within that stretch credibility of a newsroom's operation).

Meshing satire and life through LA's dark gauze is a potent brew, Nightcrawler is a can't-take-your-eyes-off-it thriller that maybe could have lived larger if there had been some tighter editing ( it could be argued that the current denouement feels like a tacked-on epilogue that saps the prior scenes' potency and shock factor) but is already a superior slice of cinema, thanks to Gyllenhaal. He may be behind the camera throughout as the footage-chasing and obseqious Bloom, but throughout, he's very definitely front and centre of the screen - and in your mind long after Nightcrawler has ended.

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Jack Tame Movie Review: Woman in Gold, Book Of Life and Interstellar

Jack Tame Movie Review: Woman in Gold, Book Of Life and Interstellar

Check out the latest review with Jack here -

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-woman-in-gold-book-of-life/

Samba: Film Review

Samba: Film Review

Cast: Omar Sy, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Director: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano

The directors of The Intouchables re-team with the star of that film, Omar Sy, for this new flick, that promises comedy but wallows in its own earnestness.

Ten years ago, Samba (Sy) migrated from Senegal to Paris and has been doing lowly paid jobs to get by, slowly shuffling cash back home. But when he's caught in an immigration sting, he comes across Charlotte Gainsbourg's Alice, an immigration worker who's a little lost in life.

The two form a friendship thanks to Samba's flirting and big brown eyes hitting the spot with Alice, his case worker who's getting involved where she shouldn't. But the relationship that shouldn't be faces all kinds of problems and stumbling blocks...

Samba starts with a dancing club- flapper style hijinks, with the camera pulling back to reveal a wedding and then looping into the backrooms and the solitude of Samba working in the kitchen. It's a burst of energy from the high life to the backlot but it's symptomatic of the hiss and the roar that Samba starts with and then fizzles out.

Granted, there are comic moments here and there, with Samba working a window cleaning job atop a tall building providing the best laughs of the film, but Samba the movie struggles to find an engaging footing throughout despite the work of the two leads. There's a nice softening of the relationship which is carried along by a modicum of gentle charm, but the movie tries to mix the earnestness and cliche to create a commentary on migration in these times.

It's nowhere near as successful as it wants to be, which is a real shame, and Samba consequently struggles to find its own path, meaning the message is lost, and the film, like Samba adrift in the system, fails to really capitalise on its own identity.

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Interstellar: Blu Ray Review

Interstellar: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Pompous, po-faced, ultra-serious and disappearing up its own 5 dimensional ass over an extended run time.

These are all accusations that can be levelled at Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated new film, Interstellar, starring Matthew McConaughey as a pilot-turned-farmer-turned-astronaut, who heads to space to save the planet's future. (The Earth's barren, remote and dying after nature turned on us in the biggest uprising since those plants had a chat with Marky Mark in The Happening)

But in doing so, you also have to counter with the words dizzying, visual symphony, mesmerising, intelligent and awe-inspiring - as well as a lesson in quantum physics and wormholes that potentially even Stephen Hawking would have fun taking a look at.

Dialling down his Texan swagger but upping his considerable charm to help him spout cod trite bon-mots over how we used to look to the stars but now stare down at the ground, McConaughey's Coop and his relationship with his daughter Murph (played in early years by MacKenzie Foy and in latter by Jessica Chastain) prove to be the much-needed and occasionally absent emotional centre of this extended space-operatic meditation on love across the dimensions.

In this three hour space-set epic (that occasionally lags back down to earth), Nolan's crafted something of a scale that's reminiscent of the 70s Kubrickian look and feel of 2001: A Space Odyssey and recent Oscar-winning outing Gravity; the space interiors are a pristine dirty white and feel realistic (as if some kind of NASA video training programme) as Hans Zimmer's occasionally OTT organ-based and Tubular Bells-reminiscent score blasts from the screen, building to a crescendo as Nolan tries to orchestrate drama on earth and in space.

Along with various intonations of Michael Caine spouting Dylan Thomas' "Rage against the dying of the light" and him decrying that by the time Coop returns he "will have solved the problem of gravity", there's a danger that the script pitches its way into an overload of drama as the cod philosophical musings reach a feverish level about two thirds of the way in. To say more is to reveal spoilers and the Nolan MO is to gradually leak out moments designed for hysterical detonation as they all converge and for the internet to dissect at a later stage.

However, in among all that heavy sci-fi exposition and relativity jargon that's espoused on screen (which demonstrates how much research Jonathan Nolan did on the subject), there's a truly wondrous spectacle to behold in Interstellar.

The space scenes provoke much awe and wonder as the crew (along with wise-cracking robot) negotiates a black hole in a manner akin to what we witnessed back in the 1970s - but it's the emotional scenes where the McConnaissance continues and which give Interstellar its heart and soul that's lacking elsewhere in the film due to underdeveloped characters who merely orbit his Coop (no worse offender than Casey Affleck's son who barely registers - and Anne Hathaway who delivers a terribly corny speech about the values of love from high above.)

A scene where Coop views 23 years of recorded messages from his family and Nolan fixes on his tearful visage is a moment which defies you not to finally feel something as the survival instinct and sentimental love for the family finds its much needed footing (something which is left floundering in parts due to lengthy exposition and little else). It's McConaughey who carries this mission without a shadow of a doubt as Interstellar goes beyond its pro-space race / pioneers message (even taking on the theory the Moon landings were faked) and into matters of the heart and abandonment, albeit with varying degrees of success.

You can't deny Christopher Nolan's ambition with Interstellar - even though what transpires is a flawed masterpiece in many ways that reignites a nostalgic passion so lost over space exploration and yet so steeped in hokum.

But you be wrong to ignore the fact Interstellar is an exhilarating masterpiece that delivers a lot to ponder on (despite its predominantly gooey centre, potentially polarising play-out, occasionally cold core and out-there ending) and proffers up a thoughtful philosophical space-age opera and event movie that's surprisingly grounded in matters closer to earth than the stars above us.

Rating:

Karen Gillan comes to New Zealand

Karen Gillan comes to  New Zealand

Doctor Who Star Karen Gillan Headlines Huge Lineup for Wellington Armageddon and Comic Con

Lookout Wellington, this show just got serious, with the lineup of visiting stars and guests for Wellington Armageddon Expo (July 17th to 19^th) and Comic Con Festival growing to epic proportions.

Organisers today announced that Doctor Who companion Karen Gillan will headline the Wellington edition of New Zealand’s favourite pulp-culture showcase, flanked by a strong line-up of television and movie stars, plus anime, comic and fantasy guests.

Event founder William Geradts says he is delighted to be able to bring such a popular and contemporary guest to appear exclusively in Wellington.

“Doctor Who is one of the most important Sci Fi genres and being such a recent character on the show, we know that Karen is going to be hugely popular with Wellington fans,” Geradts said.

Gillan performed alongside Matt Smith as a sassy, funny and passionate Amy Pond in a role that spanned two and a half seasons as the Doctor’s companion.

Gillan’s resume doesn’t just end with Doctor Who, however, she also appeared in the terrifying horror hit, Oculus and more recently in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, as the nefarious Nebula – a role she is set to reprise in the upcoming sequel.

The line-up of stars of this edition of Armageddon continues with: Robert Maschio, Scrubs, Cougartown; Ty Olsson, Supernatural;  Jim Beaver, Supernatural, Deadwood; Sebastian Roché The Vampire Diaries, The Originals; Dean Haglund, The X-Files, Bones; Rick Mora, Twilight; Rick Worthy, Supernatural, Star Trek, Stargate SG-1, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes; and Corin Nemec, Supernatural, Stargate SG1 and Parker Lewis Can't Lose.

Local actors also get a showing with Jed Brophy, William Kircher and Graham McTavish from The Hobbit doing panels and signings.

Animation and comic artist guests appearing in Wellington include Joshua Seth, Digimon; Courtenay Taylor, Regular Show; Matthew Mercer, Attack on Titan; Veronica Taylor, Pokémon; and DC Comics artist Stephen Bissette.

Wresting fans will get a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet WWE hall-of-famer, the Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase.

And showing that Sci Fi fans can laugh at themselves, Australian comedian Rob Lloyd, best known for his hilarious routines based on the characters and Time Lords of Doctor Who, joins the Wellington Armageddon cast.

The growing sub-culture of Cosplay where fans dress in the style of their favorite anime and fantasy characters, gets special treatment in Wellington with three international guests attending Riddle, Riddle’s Messy Wardrobe) and Monika Lee, both from the USA and Kamui, a European Cosplay guest.

And in a completely new category for Armageddon, two of the world’s best know Native Americans Saginaw Grant and Rick Mora will present a ) thought provoking, educational and inspiring session on the true History of the Native American people.

All guests attending will take part in panels, signings and photos, so fans can hear their stories, get photos and autographs and meet them in person –  fans are advised to go to the website and check for times and venues.

And in addition to the big names, events such as Cosplay contests, Fear Factor Challenge, gaming demonstrations, exhibitors and the nation’s biggest display of costumed cult-fans will keep the entertainment flowing throughout the weekend.

Armageddon has already outgrown two venues in Wellington and this year Armageddon is bursting out of the Westpac Arena and takes on the entire Wellington City with the first Comic Con Festival. Comic Con sees $5 Grand Scavenger Hunt, Craft Beer Bar Crawls (with Celebrity Guests), Cosplay Photo Shoots, Geek Comedy show, Horror House, Weta Workshop special tours, Mentalist/Hypnosis Theatre show, Sci-fi film festival, Celebrity parties, Game of Thrones Art Display and more!

“Wellington is the movie capital of New Zealand, so it is fitting that it is the first place in the country to feature a city-wide festival,” says Geradts.

“We’re confident that with the big line-up of stars, quirky features and special events, that for one big weekend, we’re going to take over Wellington - prepare for Awesomenessness,” he said.

To see a full list of stars and events happening at the expos go to www.armageddonexpo.com/nz

To see a full list of activities and events happening as part of Comic Con, see: http://comiccon.co.nz/

Tickets for all events now on-sale now from iticket.co.nz  

#awesomenessness 

Run All Night: Film Review

Run All Night: Film Review

Cast: Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman, Boyd Holbrook
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

There's a grizzly broody weariness around Neeson as he reteams with his Unknown and Non-Stop director for another entry into the older action genre with Run All Night.

Neeson is Jimmy the Gravedigger a former enforcer for Ed Harris' Shawn Maguire. When Jimmy's estranged son Michael (a simply scowling Kinnaman) witnesses the murder of two Albanian gangsters by Shawn's son, Danny, it's up to Jimmy, who's versed in the ways of the old, to ensure Michael doesn't spill the beans. But when Jimmy shows up on Mike's door after years away, not only is the son not pleased to see the father, but it sets a chain in motion which sees both men forced on the run, with the might of the mob, a bounty hunter (played with steely determination by Common) and a detective determined to nail Jimmy for prior unpunished sins on their trail....

Run All Night has an urban grit to it and a wearied sheen that's eminently watchable.

Once again, Neeson whores out his very particular set of skills to the genre, but there's something of a right fit about this role that doesn't see the heroics of Bryan Mills channelled pointlessly. Equally the scenes Neeson shares with Harris crackle with the reality of the passing of time and are tinged with the sadness of regret about the circumstances the two find themselves in.

Director Collet-Serra keeps the action predictable and taut as the plot plays out; but it's a lack of real warmth that could cause some to disconnect from Neeson's aged performance - and certainly will see many finding Kinnaman's character too aloof and simply bitter. Equally, street kid Legs is wasted serving only a deus ex machine purpose when the story heads down a cul de sac with nowhere to go.

Ultimately Run All Night may not have the crackle it needs to be massive, but a combination of Neeson's empathy, Harris' subtlety and plenty of grit give this movie more of an edge than you'd initially expect.

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