Testament of Youth: Film Review

Testament of Youth: Film Review

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Kit Harrington, Colin Morgan, Taron Egerton, Dominic West, Miranda Richardson, Emily Watson
Director: James Kent

The spectre and horrors of the first World War hang heavy in this adaptation of the iconic memoir of Vera Brittain which opens in time for ANZAC commemorations.

A powerful and tenacious Alicia Vikander stars as Brittain, who in the months leading to the outbreak of war, is waging her own fight to be allowed to sit the Oxford entrance exam against the wishes of her father.

Orbiting her quest for intellectual stimulation are her brother Edward (Kingsman: The Secret Service star Egerton), long time crush Victor (Merlin star Colin Morgan) and potential love interest, sensitive Roland (Game of Thrones star Kit Harrington aka Jon Snow).

As Brittain forms a relationship with Roland through a shared love of poetry across the miles, war breaks out and the effect on a generation is nothing short of seismic. But through it all, Brittain fights for her place in the world, her right to be on the battlefields and her grief at the terrible losses she suffers.

Testament Of Youth is a strong, poignant piece that shirks none of the responsibility of showing the true horrors of war on the young; stiff British upper lips quiver in the face of conscription and Kent does a sensitive job of using small moments to convey the naievete and horror in equal measure.

A tremendous Vikander outshines most on screen, imbuing her Battle of Brittain with an emotional depth and resonance from the outset, even if the script threatens to sideline such strengths. While the initial petulance and settling of Brittain into a Blue Stocking, looking for nothing more in life than a husband seems to clash with her headstrong desire to be educated and yet also be one of the boys, sections which turn her into a hopeful romantic rankle, seemingly at odds with all that's gone before and threatening to turn our heroine into a simpering girl whose only purpose in life is to conform to the social mores.

Those feelings are only compounded by the amount of screen time given to the relationship with a particularly insipid and wet Harrington as Roland, which threatens to derail the whole thing, rather than providing the strong emotional touchstone needed for the film.

In fact, Testament of Youth is a much better piece when it heads to the fields of France and leaves the aloof and dreary romance behind, and stops desperately from trying to make you connect to the star crossed lovers.

The true appalling consequences of war and human nature are laid bare in the warzone that Brittain experienced first hand emotionally and personally. It's here the cameras don't shy from the drab wet conditions, so clogged in mud and blood and lay bare the wounded, the wailing and the frightened. The film gathers its strength from its final third and it's here really that the film grips on the heartstrings.

Sadly though, the final sections see a sudden shift to pacifism that comes from left-field; granted, Brittain's seen more than her fair share of horror but the move doesn't work as well, due to the lack of connection to a weak wet romance and a cold emotionless series of scenes, which is a real shame.

While Testament of Youth looks beautiful and benefits from Vikander's presence, its central message is somewhat muddled and it loses the power that it should really pack given its material.

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New Fantastic Four trailer is here

New Fantastic Four trailer is here

The new trailer for Fantastic Four by Josh Trank has just dropped.

Take a look at the Fantastic Four trailer.

Love, Rosie: Blu Ray Review

Love, Rosie: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Sony Home Ent

From the "One time this lead would have been played by Hugh Grant" file comes this latest Brit romantic comedy, based on the Cecilia Ahern book, Where Rainbows End.

Alex (Sam Claflin) and Rosie (Lily Collins) have been best friends since they were 5 years old, but on Rosie's 18th birthday, a drunken kiss changes everything between them. Orbiting a will-they, won't-they trajectory, life and other loves find a way of setting their trajectories on other paths...

Love, Rosie follows the well-worn path of most romantic comedies; a pair of winsome leads, who try to generate chemistry by lots of stolen glances, aching near-lingering kisses and the fluffiest of situations.

It begins at a wedding with Collins' Rosie teetering on heartbreak and winds its way back through the most predictable and bland narrative fare you'd expect from the author of tear-jerker PS I Love You.

That's not to say there aren't some moments when the youthful exuberance and absurdly comic situations manage to slightly defy your expectations (Rosie's loss of her virginity providing some much needed comedy early on before the sappiness sets in), but this entirely saccharine movie knows exactly how it wants to play you and your emotions from the schmaltz-laden get go.

Claflin channels some Hugh Grantisms and looks like a dead ringer for Kris Marshall in places; but, like Collins, is blandly inoffensive as he negotiates the back and forth of marriages, mistakes and mis-timings. In among the occasional screwball interludes and saccharine minefield of babies guaranteed to get certain sections of the female audience cooing, there's the feeling that it's all too familiar to really stand out in the pantheon of rom-coms.

That, coupled with the fact that the peripherary characters that come in and out of our protagonists' orbit are so badly underwritten and cliched (probably a fault of the source material) that they never feel like a real threat or choice to Alex and Rosie's life decisions, means that Love, Rosie is as bland a romcom offering as you'd expect.

It's all perfectly pleasant and will hit its core audience squarely and perfectly, but I can't help shake the nagging feeling that it's not as sophisticated or as smart as rom-coms used to be back in the day...

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Newstalk ZB Review - Talking movies with Jack Tame

Newstalk ZB Review - Talking movies with Jack Tame

It's a quiet release week this week on the big screen but that didn't mean there was a lack of small screen entertainment.

This week on Saturdays with Jack Tame, I had a chat over Nightcrawler, Big Hero 6 and Alexander and the terribly long title.

Take a listen below:

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-big-hero-6-nightcrawler/

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-big-hero-6-nightcrawler/

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Blu Ray Review

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Blu Ray Review

Rating: G
Released by SonyHome Ent/ Disney DVD

Disney fires off a school hols cannon shot in the form of Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, a safe, relatively inoffensive piece of family fare.

Predicated on the idea that Alexander (a lispy Aussie Oxenbould) is always having bad days, while his family's life is going to perfection.

His mom (an uptight And underused Jennifer Garner) is on the verge of scoring a VP role with a book launch, his stay-at-home dad is about to score a much-needed job interview, his brother Anthony (an Alan Ruckish Dylan Minnette) is about to take his driving test and take his girl to the prom and his sister is about to storm the stage as the star of Peter Pan.

Whereas the Aussie-obsessed Alexander is feeling neglected since a baby was born into the brood, rejected as his birthday party is happening at the same time as a popular kid and is struggling to vocalise his feelings to his school crush.

On his 12th birthday, he makes a wish they'd all have a bad day like him...

Which, of course, this being a Disney comedy about family and values, they subsequently do.

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day does exactly what it sets out to do and makes the journey along the way a relatively pleasant one to endure.

With some silly laughs for the kids and a couple of adult-only zingers, as well as Dick van Dyke making a cameo, it's all fairly safe family fare that never deviates into dangerous territory or is in danger of having parents dive for to cover their children's ears.

Carell provides the laughs in his usual deadpan and nonsensical way and while the kids aren't overly cute moppets with perfection in range, they are perfectly relatable and watchable in this relatively toothless family comedy which doesn't outstay its welcome with a zippy run time.

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day won't be the biggest Christmas hit here from the studio (that accolade's likely to go to the animated Big Hero 6) but it is a timely reminder as we head into the holidays of the power of family pulling together and the fact that no good, very bad, horrible days sometimes pan out quite well if you stay positive.

Rating:

Bloodborne: PS4 Review

Bloodborne: PS4 Review

Developed by From Software
Published exclusively by PlayStation

I'd already had a hands-on with Bloodborne and had been killed a lot.

So I'd expected the full game to be a little tougher. And I wasn't disappointed. In fact, the challenge of Bloodborne is one of perseverance to be honest - and given that it's from the same studio who brought the punishing Dark Souls into my life, I'd expected there to be some form of gaming challenge ahead.

Set in the fictional hamlet of Yharnam, you're an unnamed hunter, who has to discover what went on, why the inhabitants are suffering with a disease that's been transmitted through their blood, turning them into rabid killers with you in their sights.

But help is at hand, in the form of the Messengers, who equip you with weapons via trading to help you negotiate this Gothic Hell on Earth. A gun, an axe which can be extended out will become your go-to-weapons of choice, as you try to survive the streets. And you do need to survive because exploration will reveal many, many different ways to die and threats to deal with.

Self-preservation is a handy tool to have for Bloodborne; fighting a group of infected is not a great idea, given that they can easily overwhelm you and stop you dead in your tracks. Swinging an axe is a good way to despatch them, but you need time to re-engage the axe, gather your strength and hurtle it at them.

An early challenge sees you having to get past a wolf like dog creature that's hellbent on killing you. And given you have light weapons at that point, there's a choice - fight or flight. Sometimes, the decisions are simple, but other times, it's worth dying to visit the Hunter's Dream realm where clues unfold and tooling up happens. But it also pays to make sure you're aware of everything around you as you try to harvest extra Blood Echoes, the game's currency.

The Regain system works too - as you negotiate battles and use the chance to get back some of the health stolen from you in combat from your enemy. It takes a little time to master, but pays off in droves when it needs to.

The fun of Bloodborne (and there is fun in among all the dying and occasional frustration) is seeing how it unfolds before you.

Early stages require a patience of learning, a touch so often ignored these days as we head into games, with everything so sign-posted. A challenge is one thing these days on consoles but a lot of the time, the reward is negligible given what you go through. Like Dark Souls before it, the joy that you get for making the breakthrough is tangible and lets you feel like you've achieved something.

There is an online presence with Bloodborne too as fellow players can leave you notes to help - or hinder - you on your quest. It's a nice touch and it's up to you if you want to exploit it or use it for posterity. There are also Chalice dungeons which are randomly spawned which offer rewards (and which I have to confess, I've not had a load of time with yet) - there's already enough to do with the basics of the game, the tooling up and the exploration of it all rather than just to follow the more random elements.

It's not all positives; there's issues with loading times which have you waiting around twiddling your thumbs a lot as the game gets ready to off you again - and it's a niggling frustration that From Software is promising to fix.

The nightmarish touches of the game really give it a ghoulish edge, a fevered landscape to conquer and end of level bosses that are not easy to dispatch. It's a real feeling of satisfaction in the completion, a sense of achievement that's not been offered in quite as many titles on the PS4 since launch; everything's felt disposable to a degree and Bloodborne is not like that at all.

Bloodborne is mightily and scarily impressive.  Stick with it, immerse yourself in it and relish the challenges it presents - you'll feel something as you progress and that, in a game, is worth the hours that you pore into its ilk.

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Battlefield Hardline: PS4 Review

Battlefield Hardline: PS4 Review

Released by EA Games
Platform: PS4

Battlefield : Hardline feels like Cops: The Next Gen version.

It's refreshing to see Visceral Games moving away from the military aspects of the previous games and into the realm of Cops and Robbers with Hardline. And it feels like a franchise that's ready for the development should they wish to revisit it in future.

You get to play Officer Nick Mendoza, who finds himself in the middle of a gang war, cop corruption and a whole heap of trouble. That is if you choose to follow the story mode of the game which is split up into episodes and feels like a cop show from the 80s - right down to the cheesy dialogue that's not as distracting as you'd expect and if you're wanting to go with the flow.

But it feels authentic. There's no guns blazing approach here to get results; you need to use stealth, smarts and the occasional flashing of the police badge to ensure success. Any attempt to go gung-ho sees back up called in and your plans falling to pieces.

Story mode is relatively fun; a simple case of progression through the story and a nicely graphically executed campaign, that glistens with HD touches and looks hyper-real with its shiny cars and fast paced action.

However, with Battlefield, it's all about the online, given that that is what people love to indulge in.

With new modes, like Hotwire, a car-based time piece, and plenty of smash and grab speeding activity to be had, there's plenty to keep you engaged. Heists see criminals taking down vaults and you're despatched to stop them.

Overall, pulse-pounding adrenaline is mainly what you'll find in Battlefield Hardline; a nice reinvention of the franchise that really crackles with online creativity and fun.

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