Race The Sun: PS4 Review

Race The Sun: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4

It's the simplest games which hook you in.

And indie title Race The Sun falls squarely into that camp, mixing simple graphics with great gameplay for a perfectly compelling experience.

Simply put, you control a craft that flies through landscapes, rushing to get to the end of each region before you run out of power. The reason you can lose power is simple - your craft is powered by the sun, and you need the rays to stay in the race.

But, it's not quite that easy - with various buildings around casting shadows and other structures that you can smash into, there are plenty of obstacles to negotiate to slow your progress. Collecting light orbs known as Tris (not the character from Insurgent) and completing various challenges within the levels give you access to various power ups which you need to further your progress.

From jumps to speed ups, to magnets to battery to install on your craft, there's plenty to aim for - and the fact the worlds change every 24 hours means, there's plenty of variety to get you well and truly hooked in; there's no way you can learn the short cuts because 24 hours later, that entire landscape is gone. 25 challenges litter the game with you aiming to achieve all of those for completion - which take maybe a day to do, depending on your play. It's now a game which is ripe for further DLC and more content, and given the game was a Kickstarter, we can but hope that is the case

Graphically, the game goes for minimal with greys washing the screen in a monochrome colour, but giving life to the coloured elements of power ups and the sun in the background.

Simple and eminently playable, Race The Sun is a great title that deserves to be in your account to wile away a fiendish amount of pleasurable fun.

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Unbroken: Blu Ray Review

Unbroken: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

The fact that after a gruelling 2 hours and 20 minutes director Angelina Jolie chose to endUnbroken with a Coldplay song (Miracles) speaks volumes to what she's trying (and just failing) to strive for here with this passion project.

Unbroken is the remarkably powerful (in parts) true story of Louis "Louie" Zamperini (Starred Up's Jack O'Connell) an immigrant whose fortunes changed for the worst when he was shot down during a 1943 bombing raid. With only two fellow survivors, the former Olympic athlete Zamperini survived 47 days lost at sea only to be rescued by the Japanese and thrown into a Prisoner of War camp and consequently brutalised by the guard's sneering commandant (Miyavi).

Aiming for inspirational but thanks to the over-use of bon mots such as "Forgive the sin, smile on the sinner" and "If I can take it, I can make it" (a couple of many sayings espoused rather thickly at the beginning), Unbroken is a curious beast, preferring to go for cliche and many war film tropes rather than demonstrate directorial flair.

The first half is unwisely consumed with Zamperini's running (something akin to Chariots of Fireas he pounds the track and trounces both the opposition and timings) and talking philosophy, cooking and religion while being lost at sea in a surreal spin on Life Of Pi. It's a move which nearly fatally derails the film; while the intention is clearly to demonstrate how Zamperini is a true survivor and was at his lowest when he was subjected to even more in the camps.

However, if Jolie had perhaps restrained that hour and peppered it more with flashbacks, it may have worked; particularly given how powerful and horrific some of the imagery she commands in the second half is, showing her eye for the gruesome detail.

It's ironic because the second half of Unbroken which focuses on Zamperini's internment is actually where the power of the film lies but the confines of the genre and the cliches come to the fore.

The real issue is the focus of the film - it's so squarely on Zamperini that nobody else gets a look in; the camp leader known as the Bird (played by Miyavi) is your dyed-in-the-wool bad guy and all those around Zamperini (colleagues, crew-members) are so lightly written and sketched that they barely register on the dramatic scale.

Thankfully, O'Connell continues to show why he's a fast rising star by giving Zamperini the pluck, resilience and humanity needed while enduring what he's had to. There's no denying that Louie suffered greatly and was denied the closure he needed as his war experiences accrued; and there's also no denying that O'Connell imbues his character with a much needed in point to help endure the occasionally over-wrought and lumpen drama.

I had wanted to leave Unbroken with a sense of inspiration; what I left feeling is that it was more a conventional war film that I had to endure in parts rather than salute the spirit of a man who suffered more than any human ever should.

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The Imitation Game: Blu Ray Review

The Imitation Game: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Perhaps it's fitting that a movie about the cracking of the Enigma code tries to serves up the cracking of a character who's an enigma himself to many.

Benedict Cumberbatch is Alan Turing in this biopic that never really scratches the surface of the character as it chooses to concentrate on Turing and his peers trying to save the day at Bletchley Park during World War II.

The film starts with Turing being investigated by police (headed up by sympathetic Rory Kinnear) after a burglary at his home - Turing's stand-offish behaviour and insistence that nothing's been stolen actually provokes the police to dig deeper into the case and his background.

While the kernel of the story focuses on Turing's initiation into the Bletchley Park world and his inability to work with others thanks to a sense of superiority, flashbacks to Turing's early days and love at a boarding school and flashforwards to the police investigation dizzy up the narrative, that's swamped with newsreel footage of the war effort and Hitler's relentless push towards dear old Blighty.

And that's the majority of the problem of The Imitation Game.

The first half of the film is formulaic, by-the-numbers Oscar-baiting period piece which lacks a frisson of excitement and a depth of character. While Cumberbatch soars as Turing (more on that in a moment), those who swirl around him are lazy stereotypes ripped from a Boys' Own novella.

There's the suave mysterious head of an unknown MI6 (Mark Strong), the suave cad that clashes with Turning (played by Matthew Goode), the military leader who answers to nobody but Churchill (Charles Dance) and the woman who's better than the men (Keira Knightley) - all of these are simply sketched dancers who pirouette around Turing's troubled genius and ultimately, end up dancing to the mad man's tune.

But amongst it all is a truly impressive character turn by the chameleonic Benedict Cumberbatch. To say that he inhabits the role and overtakes the screen is a massive understatement. Essentially playing a variant of Sherlock's intellectual superiority, inability to suffer those whom he perceives as fools and arrogance with a dash of A Beautiful Mind's genius thrown in, Cumberbatch's fiery genius Turing tears up the screen - but at the cost of those around him unfortunately, who thanks to formulaic underwriting fare less well.

And it is parts of the writing that really make the film suffer; the flashbacks to the youth and flashforwards narratively don't mesh and integrate as well as they could, leaving a dramatic frisson and depth unexplored. Equally, Turning's homosexuality is merely subtly hinted at which is fine for some but for a picture that aims to expunge history's view of him seems like a major oversight thanks to hints and broad brush strokes. The single moment of drama only comes with the cracking of the Enigma code - though you suspect here the drama is piled on for drama's sake and artistic licence.

The Imitation Game really feels like an imitation of a formulaic biopic; there are manipulative moments of swelling music that seek to orchestrate your feelings and the decision to hold off from truly delving deeply into its subject proves to be a crippling flaw. It's only thanks to Benedict Cumberbatch's dizzyingly mesmeric turn that the film rises out of a potential mire.

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Batman Arkham Knight - When We Go To War

Batman Arkham Knight - When We Go To War

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment today released a new gameplay video for Batman: Arkham Knight.  The Official Batman: Arkham Knight Gameplay Video – “Time To Go To War” is a continuation of the Official Batman: Arkham Knight Gameplay Video – “Officer Down.” See more of the Dark Knight in action in this extended gameplay walkthrough, as he pays a visit to Scarecrow’s safe house and battles the forces of the Arkham Knight’s militia. 

Batman: Arkham Knight is based on DC Comics’ core Batman license and will be available in New Zealand on June 24, 2015 exclusively for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system,Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Windows PC. 

Batman: Arkham Knight brings the award-winning Batman: Arkham trilogy from Rocksteady Studios to its epic conclusion. Developed exclusively for the new generation of consoles and PCs,Batman: Arkham Knight introduces Rocksteady's uniquely designed version of the Batmobile. The highly anticipated addition of this legendary vehicle, combined with the acclaimed gameplay of the Batman: Arkham series, offers gamers the ultimate and complete Batman experience as they tear through the streets and soar across the skyline of the entirety of Gotham City. In this explosive finale, Batman faces the ultimate threat against the city that he is sworn to protect, as Scarecrow returns to unite the super criminals of Gotham City and destroy the Batman forever.

Aloha: Film Review

Aloha: Film Review

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, Alec Baldwin, Danny McBride, John Krasinski
Director: Cameron Crowe

Hawai'i is a place for dreamers, so perhaps it's pertinent that Almost Famous director Cameron Crowe dreamed up this latest redemption flick and set it in the islands.

Assembling a multi-talented cast as well would appear to be the icing on the cake in this flick, which centres around Bradley Cooper's blue-eyed, lost at sea morally, defence contractor, Brian Gilcrest, who's brought to the islands to oversee negotiations of the blessing of a gateway for a new airfield.

However, when Brian heads back, he finds himself surrounded by his ex, Tracy (a woefully under-used and under-written McAdams) and under the charge of hotshot, star-in-ascendant Air Force pilot Alison Ng (a perky Emma Stone).

Thrown into that mix is billionaire private sector contractor Carson Welch (Bill Murray) whom Brian is now working for and who may have slightly-less-than-altruistic reasons for being on the island - will Brian find the redemption he needs?

With dialogue that seems like it's written more for the page than to be spoken, Cameron Crowe's latest is somewhat of a muddle. Mixing Hawai'ian mysticism in as Gilcrest negotiates with the islanders (a series of scenes which seem to be ripped from a tourism video in an attempt for Crowe to Show me the mana rather than fully develop them) and domestic twaddle, Crowe's badly misfired with the heart and soul of this piece.

The problem is that the characters almost feel like caricatures for the most part, espousing dialogue that feels unnatural and is a perception of how relationships should be - particularly for Ng and Gilcrest whose future is never anything but assured.

Equally, McBride's character, Fingers, is so called because he twitches his fingers repeatedly, a bolted on quirk to little else; Baldwin's General is essentially a frustrated drill-sergeant; Murray is a weird presence lurking on the sidelines, Krasinski is near-silent (something that works to the story's advantage it has to be admitted) and McAdams is merely a plot device to enable Cooper's Gilcrest to his final moment of clarity.

An ongoing "is he the father" story element is fudged, glossed over and resolution shoe-horned in so much that it has re-write and re-shoot written all over it; just one of the scripted moments that should have emotion in but don't manage to do so.

In amongst the spiritual leanings of Aloha and the great soundtrack, there's nothing iconic or long-lasting in Crowe's story, the likes of which he has penned before; it's meandering fluff of the highest order that has glaring tonal lurches and "do the right thing" written all over it but it never feels like a journey, merely a formulaic path to a screen-writer's perception of an emotional arc.

No Aloha indeed.

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NZIFF Live Cinema announced

NZIFF Live Cinema announced Live Cinema Shines at The Civic Because more is never enough, we are pleased to announce two glorious Live Cinema Events for NZIFF 2015. Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 heart-warming classic The Kid, preceded by his 1917 short The Immigrant, amps up the delights of our annual engagement with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra; and the rarely-screened Lonesome (1928) from Hungarian director Paul Fejos, boasts a World Premiere score by New Zealand's pop maestro Lawrence Arabia with cinematic jazz ensembleCarnivorous Plant Society. Moving, funny and affectingly personal, The Kid was Charlie Chaplin’s first feature-length film. The already world-famous Little Tramp is accompanied by a smaller, spirited foil and dependent in the form of a newsboy-capped kid (Jackie Coogan). The blend of agile physical comedy and unabashed sentiment in his portrayal of Victorian London street life is still stirring to this day, never more so than when experienced with the gloriously symphonic score Chaplin composed for the film in 1981. The Kid is preceded by The Immigrant, one of the last shorts Chaplin made before stepping up to feature-length films, and one of his most gob-smackingly inventive. The Little Tramp causes havoc on board a crowded ship from Europe; then on the mean streets of New York. A long buried treasure from Hollywood’s golden age, Lonesome (1928) was only unearthed in the 1980s, a remarkable piece of cinema from the little-known but audaciously creative Hungarian émigré, Paul Fejos. A lavish New York City tale set amidst the mass mania of Coney Island during the Fourth of July holiday, Lonesome pulls out all the stops for a film of its era: colour tinting, superimpositions, experimental editing, and a roving camera, plus three dialogue scenes, belatedly added to satisfy the new craze for talkies. At the heart is a winning love story - making their way through the visual pandemonium are two shy and lonely young city folk falling in love. New Zealand's pop maestro Lawrence Arabia will be joined by cinematic jazz ensemble Carnivorous Plant Society to perform a World Premiere score for Lonesome. Tickets for our one-off screenings of The Kid and Lonesome are now on sale through Ticketmaster (links below) and at the Civic box office.

The Kid USA 1921 | 68 minutes | G cert Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Live Cinema at NZIFF drinks from the headwaters of classic cinema with a pair of Charlie Chaplin masterpieces. The moving, funny and affectingly personal The Kid is preceded by one of his most anarchic shorts, The Immigrant, in which the penniless Tramp wreaks brilliantly choreographed chaos in a restaurant. Marc Taddei conducts Chaplin’s own gloriously symphonic score for The Kid, as arranged by Carl Davis, and a feisty new score for The Immigrant by Timothy Brock. Sunday 2 August at 6.00pm, Civic Theatre BUY TICKETS

Lonesome USA 1928 | 69 minutes | G cert New Zealand indie pop maestro Lawrence Arabia and collaborators Carnivorous Plant Society bring new life to a long buried treasure from 1920s New York. Unearthed in the 80s, and as kinetic as the metropolis itself, Lonesome is the creation of the little-known but remarkable Hungarian émigré Paul Fejos. Lonesome is a lavish city symphony, set amidst the mania of Coney Island during the Fourth of July holiday. Two shy and lonely young city folk meet, fall for each other, then get separated in the course of a frantic afternoon. Sunday 26 July at 6.00pm, Civic Theatre BUY TICKETS The full Auckland programme will be announced on the evening of Monday 22 June, with tickets on sale from Friday 26 June. NZIFF screens in Auckland from 16 July to 2 August.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood: PS4 Review

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood: PS4 Review

Released by Bethesda
Platform: PS4

First person shooter meets Nazis, robotised dogs and uses big guns to deploy mayhem after stalking around various locations?

Sold.

In a nutshell that's Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, the prequel to Wolfenstein: the New Order. In this lower-priced, shorter running companion piece, you reprise your role as the killing machine that is BJ Blazkowicz in this alternate history.

Your mission is to get back into Castle Wolfenstein, steal some documents which offer up secret details into a top bigwig's whereabouts and get out alive with them. Only, it doesn't quite go to plan and after one jackboot in the face, Blazkowicz finds himself trapped in the dungeons of the Castle and plotting to escape.

There's something relatively simplistic about The Old Blood, but it's utterly appealing.

Skulking around taking down Nazis that have been powered up thanks to mega suits that are attached to electrical lines is actually tremendous fun and thanks to the speedy intentions of The Old Blood, the game rattles along at a fair pace. Even the moments when the game busts out from the prison are as entertaining too, mixing B movie sensibilities with gun-blasting madness.

Graphically, the game bizarrely feels like parts of Bioshock Infinite with its first person feel and occasional steampunk sensibilities but that soon becomes a thing of the past once the blasting sets in.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood certainly feels like a breezy prequel, a disposable pick up and play element being the major part of the game, but equally, if you want to invest hours in the latest escapades of Blazkowicz, there's still plenty to do and plenty of blood left in this Nazi-zombie killing series.

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