Home: Blu Ray Review

Home: Blu Ray Review

Rating: PG
Released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment


The fact an email nearly causes the end of the world in Home, the full length film based on the book and extended out from the short that played before the release of Peabody and Mr Sherman, should come as no surprise to anyone who's had Outlook issues.

Jim Parsons is perfectly cast as Oh, a little purple alien of the race known as the Boov. The Boov is a race which is constantly on the run, always searching for a new place to call home thanks to their race being threatened.

When the Boov arrive and relocate the entire Earth populace, one human is left behind - Tip (Rihanna). But Oh inadvertently sets in chain of events which see the bad guys coming to threaten their new Utopia - on the run, Oh meets Tip and the pair work together to try and save the day...

Essentially, Home's central character is the Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper shrunk down to size into one colourful mini-blimp. Sheldon's penchant for taking things literally and annoying those around him has been transposed into Oh and magnified.

Parsons breathes a limited life into the little blob with curious syntax that younger kids may find endearing and amusing in equal parts, though one suspects if you're a Big Bang Theory watcher, you've already seen his schtick.

There's also an overuse of music to punctuate scenes, manipulate people into feeling and also encouraging you to buy the latest music from both JLo and Rihanna, who both appear in the film.

Occasionally, as well, the film stutters to an end with natural conclusions to the arcs showing up - but bizarrely, those endings signify even more beginnings to new threads, leading to the feeling of a lack of coherence all the way through.

The animation is pretty standard all the way through with nice hues of blues and purples setting parts of the screen alight and the tale of the misfits banding together gives somewhat of a diverting thrill to the younger end of the audience.

The problem with Home is that it doesn't proffer anything up that feels new and exciting; it feels somewhat formulaic and perhaps not mined for as much pathos and heart as it could have been.

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The Spongebob Movie - Sponge out of Water: Blu Ray Review

The Spongebob Movie - Sponge out of Water: Blu Ray Review

Rating: PG
Released by Universal Home Ent

Proving you don't necessarily need to have a message to tout, the animated antics ofSpongebob Squarepants on the big screen is nothing more than being here for a zany time.

It's back to Bikini Bottom for a second time in this latest that blends time travel, real life and animated antics into one zany goofball fritter.

It all starts when maligned restaurant owner Plankton tries to make off with Krusty Krabs' secret formula. Continually annoyed that the Krabby patties keep flying out of the doors, Plankton's determined to get his paws on it, and somehow manages to succeed.

However, that brings around the apocalypse (complete with bondage gear for Mr Krabs) and suddenly, Spongebob's world is transformed when he has to work with Plankton to reinstate what relative order there was before.

The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water is little more than zaniness thrown together with some touches of surreality.

If you're a fan of the Sponge, you'll know what to expect, and to be frank, this is nothing more than an extended episode of the show with a plot stretched so thin, it's practically non-existent. Instead, a series of brightly coloured gags, moments and insanity is poured forth from the screen in a non-stop barrage of lunacy aimed at winning you over.

Mixing in some of Ren and Stimpy's visuals works for the flick, and Antonio Banderas' live action performance as a pirate that's hiding more than you realise, there's little to rail against as the story pours forth. The simple message is one of teamwork, but to be frank, it's neither here nor there as the time passes. Though the motif of the story within a story nicely collides together at the end of the piece, in a touch that's welcome but hardly original.

Nods to The Shining, The Avengers and Mad Max all play out fine; but at the end of the day, this is a film that hits its nadir with the moment when Matt Berry appears and voices a dolphin from the future who shoots a laser from his blowhole and helps Spongebob and his pals to take on Antonio Banderas' pirate in real life. ( A move which recalls the animation style of The Simpsons' venture in the real world all those years ago)

Suitably lunatic, anarchic, occasionally subversive, mercifully short and stretched about as far as it can go, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water will appeal to Spongebob's legion of fans; there's little new for those unaware of the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom even though there's just enough adult moments to amuse - but not on a par with the likes of The Lego Movie, the Toy Storys or the recent Shaun The Sheep Movie.

Goofball and day-glo, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water will amuse the youngsters over the holiday - it serves its core audience brilliantly; nothing more, nothing less.

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Rare Replay: Xbox One Review

Rare Replay: Xbox One Review

Platform: Xbox One

Back in the late 1980s, a game called Underwurlde haunted me.

On the ZX Spectrum this title was simply about negotiating a maze, collecting some weapons, timing some jumps and surviving some falls with some creatures annoyingly wafting around you. It was the pinnacle of gaming back then - and it was the stuff of nightmares for me for years, as I never conquered it.

With the release of Rare Replay on the Xbox One, that nightmare is back to haunt me again, thanks to the power of nostalgia.

Collecting together some 30 titles from the Rare developers, Rare Replay is a calculated slice of nostalgia, that will appeal to gamers of yore and potentially some newer recruits. From the likes of Jetpac to the more recent Perfect Dark, this collection is a lovingly curated slice of sentiment masquerading on the pristine next generation console. And that's not to detract from it at all, because it's immensely playable and utterly addictive - all over again.

Not all of the games are as memorable though. Even though the Xbox One has done a great job of making the games shine and is 100% accurate to their originals (even down to the blocking issues that used to plague Underwurlde), not all of them are as good as other titles. Slalom for example is simply a downhill slope skier that looks like someone took the basics of Outrun and put snow on there instead. The good thing though is that for some of the greater frustrations, there is a rewind facility to give you the chance to dial it all back and work on those errors. I'd settle for a continue button at the end of some of the games, but this is a fair start.

Though, it has to be said, if you're curating a collection from the past, the good and the bad need to end up on the release - games from early consoles, games from Nintendo (though not Goldeneye due to various issues) and some Xbox 360 titles all give this collection a sense of completion which is to be applauded to a point.

As you wander through the halls of the game, there's the history of each one, with each title getting details of release, some information on it and a graphic background that makes it feel like you're in a gaming museum and that gives each title its due reverence. Plus collectibles and stickers unlock development scenes and information - a brilliant building up of an archive.

And if you fancy simply diving in to a few challenges from within the game, it's great too - a Snapshot facility means you can tear off bite size challenges and simply try and achieve some goals. It's a clever touch to expand the lifetimes of some of the games and helps you unlock the hefty amount of stickers within the game (some 330 in total).

Granted, there won't be a game on this collection that people don't enjoy - there's pretty much something for everyone, and thanks to impressive recreations, they all play well. Some titles (I'm looking at you Underwurlde) will get played again and others will get barely a once over (Hello, Slalom) - but I can guarantee you one thing; for the price you pay for these titles (around $1 a go), you'd be a hard person not to remotely even give it a try.

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Game titles on Rare Replay are as follows - Jetpac, Atic Atac, Lunar Jetman, Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde, Knight Lore, Gunfright, Slalom,R.C. Pro-Am, Cobra Triangle, Snake Rattle N Roll, Digger T. Rock, Solar Jetman, Battletoads,R.C. Pro-Am II, Battletoads Arcade, Killer Instinct Gold, Blast Corps, Banjo-Kazooie, Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Tooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo: Elements of Power, Viva Piñata, Jetpac Refuelled, Banjo-Kaooie: Nuts & Bolts, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise.

Southpaw: Film Review

Southpaw: Film Review

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker, Naomie Harris, 50 Cent, Oona Lawrence
Director: Antoine Fuqua

A new contender squares up to the pantheon of pugilism in the form of Training Day director Antoine Fuqua's Southpaw.

But the problem with Southpaw is that it ends up being a coulda-been as it trips through the cliches of the genre and seems to be more concerned with ticking off the tropes rather than injecting something fresh into the blood, sweat and tears redemption story that most sports films fall prey to.

A buffed up and physically transformed Gyllenhaal plays bad-kid-done-good Billy Hope, a 43-0 volatile fighter whose calming heart and soul is his wife Maureen (a brief bright spot from a luminous Rachel McAdams) and daughter Leila (Lawrence).

But when Hope loses his wife in a charity scuffle that turns nasty, he finds himself on the way down. Stripped of his assets and thanks to the self-destructive grief of his daughter, Hope (get the subtle sledgehammering of his name?) finds himself facing either oblivion or a long road to redemption.

Falling in to a street gym run by former trainer Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker, in subdued mode but in full on Karate Kid Mr Miyagi mode), Hope begins his journey back to himself.

From the writer of the Sons of Anarchy series, Kurt Sutter, and originally slated for Eminem as a lead, Southpaw would appear to have the street-smarts and edge that it needs.

But what emerges is an overwrought, cliched hollow movie that's more interested in going through the motions rather than delivering a killer knock-out punch. Especially when you look at the emotive likes of Rocky and Raging Bull, both of which pack a presence years after they first appeared.

Fuqua's melodramatic film is functional at best, and soul-numbing at worst.

He appears to have little consideration toward developing the characters outside of Hope's immediate circle. Even a street kid called Hoppy that Hope forms a fledging friendship with at the gym is tossed casually aside like an unwanted rag-doll, denying what could have been a powerfully insightful side-story the emotional uppercut it needed.

Equally, broad brush story-telling strokes are thrown onto the ropes, dismissed as surplus to requirements.

Against the backdrop of the slow-mo boxing ring shots and obligatory training montages is an at times fiery Gyllenhaal but it appears his director's denied him the splashes of charisma needed to back this underdog. Outside of the ring, he's dour and downbeat, finding only his sizzle and energy in a few fight sequences (and only occasionally when Fuqua smartly get POV with his boxers) as if to signify this is where the simmering rage boils over and is the outlet to express it.

Mawkish, formulaic and riddled with all the boxing / underdog cliches you could imagine, Southpaw delivers more of an uppercut to itself than to the audience - it lacks heart and the story's denied the majesty it needed to transcend its been-there-seen-it-all-before ethos and it flails rather than punches above its weight.

It's an unsubtle sledgehammer in and out of the ring unfortunately, and despite Gyllenhaal's efforts, Southpaw remains firmly a contender rather than a knock out.

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Vacation: Film Review

Vacation: Film Review

Cast: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Chris Hemsworth, Leslie Mann, Chevy Chase
Director: John Francis Daley, Jonathan M Goldstein

There's a moment in Vacation where the holidaying Griswold family, led by the put-upon dad of the group Rusty (Ed Helms) inadvertently bathe in raw sewage, mistaking the pools for a secret getaway.

It's something akin to how I felt at moments during the extremely patchy retake of the original Vacation film from the National Lampoon series.

The aforementioned Rusty is a pilot for low-rent air operator EconoAir - determined to shake his vacation time up after hearing his wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) dismiss their continual trips to their holiday cabin, he rounds up his wife and two sons and bundles them in a car for a 2500 mile road trip to Walley World.

But, everything that can go wrong for Rusty and his clan does on the cross-country journey.

Vacation has its moments.

It's just that they are too few and far in between - and unfortunately, even though this has some nods to the original film, it's just not enough to carry them through and the punchlines are more often than not a weak denouement to the set up.

Both Helms and Applegate bring their all to the physical comedy elements of the script. Applegate herself excels at a scene at her former sorority where she's required to down a pitcher of beer and take on a Wipeout style course, and I won't deny there are laughs within, but the conclusion is similar to the air being let out of a balloon.

The dynamic between the bickering sons is nicely twisted, with the younger being more of a bully to the older bringing some meaner and welcome edges to the uneven script. But those in charge just don't seem to know what they want for the film and there's definitely a feeling that some of this potentially looked better on paper than in execution.

Certainly, Hemsworth's Southern drawl and six pack with prosthesis shows he's game as Rusty's brother in law, but the over-playing of that sequence suggests the kind of moment that's funny once, got a laugh and the directors decided to repeat the gag ad nauseum for no comic relief. More successful is Charlie Day's appearance as a white-water rafting guide, a sequence whose comic brevity speaks volumes to the ethos that punchy rather than paunchy comedy would have been the way to go.

And most embarrassingly, Chevy Chase's appearance at the end as the dad is nothing short of excruciatingly unfunny - it's painful to watch the comedy legend floundering around working a script that doesn't serve him well.

All in all, there just aren't enough laughs in Vacation, despite Helms' everyman touches and Applegate's willingness to humiliate herself, this is one cinematic holiday and road trip you should dread being dragged along on.

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Seventh Son: Blu Ray Review

Seventh Son: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

The fantasy genre gets another entrant with the potential start of new franchise being kicked off with Seventh Son, the first entrant in series The Wardstone Chronicles.

Though, based on the execution of the first one, it seems unlikely any further books in the series will be adapted onto the big screen.

Barnes is Tom Ward, a seventh son of a seventh son and who suffers from hallucinations. The main focus of those - Jeff Bridges' John Gregory, the local spook and knight protector of the vale whose raison d'etre is to fight the demons who haunt their kingdom.

When the previously imprisoned Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore, all crimped red hair and bedecked in Maleficent style garb) escapes, Gregory realises that their world is in mortal danger. And having lost an apprentice to Malkin, he seeks out Ward to join his quest and save the day...

Seventh Son is such a mash-up of other elements and CGI that it barely proffers enough to stand out on its own two feet.

Following familiar fantasy tropes is all very well and fine (and many others of a similar ilk have done the same) but Seventh Son relies too much on the VFX to help it negotiate through the muddied waters of its unoriginality. The problem comes in the writing with it feeling like it's seriously underdeveloped in places in favour of simply showcasing the FX once again.

Of the main cast, Barnes is forgettable as Ward (a crime for a leading man); Vikander puts a rare foot wrong with the love interest (due to a lack of chemistry even though there is a literal spark between the pair); Moore is two shades away from pantomime dame in her crimped hair and Gothic outfit (and suffers the indignity of being made out to be a major threat before being summarily dismissed with ease) and an eccentric Bridges seems to be channeling some kind of four score and ten years ago -Yoda-like voiceover for his character as the Spook, the last of his kind and prone to the few laugh-out-loud putdowns scattered throughout.

With its training ideas and set up, Seventh Son is very much a film that wants to launch a franchise, but it's unlikely we'll see more of The Wardstone Chronicles. While it's not badly executed overall, its distinct young adult tones are evident from the start and don't help it to soar when it should - and certainly by taking things too seriously, the film doesn't work.

There's very much the feeling that Seventh Son would sit among Harryhausen's catalogue if he was still alive, but a lack of script and character development cuts down Seventh Son before it's even had chance to reach its prime.

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Godzilla PS4 Review

Godzilla PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by Bandai Namco games

Godzilla.

The mighty name, the iconic monster and the symbol of destruction gets his latest outing on the PlayStation 4.

But sadly, it's not exactly a cerebral offering to challenge the core dynamics of the creature, which is to simply smash and grab everything around him. Doing so garners the creature a degree of G Energy, which helps him grow and gain mass as he unleashes his own unique level of destruction on cities around. Gaining in mass and letting loose with his toxic bad breath, this is a Godzilla that's really only about the destruction and little else.

Unfortunately, it ends up feeling something a little akin to Street Fighter or Tekken as you just smash and mash buttons to achieve various combos. Controls are simple but somehow manage to be difficult - and what should be easy to control becomes a bit of a behemoth - and it's clumsy to say the least.

There's no grace in the fighting, no chance to shift targets or to lock on so the whole thing becomes a bit of a crap shoot with varying degrees of success and growing levels of frustration.

Graphically, the game gets the look of the Kaiju spot on and that's perhaps the one thing where this Godzilla excels - it's lovingly crafted towards fans of the beast, even if the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired.

Godzilla may smash things and lack finesse but this latest update of the classic creature sells the creation short - it's not exactly the best iteration of what could be done and granted, it goes for the core dynamics with simply smash and bash, destroying everything in its path - but it's ultimately soulless, a raging monster that screams to no effect.

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