At Darren's World of Entertainment - a movie, DVD and game review blog.
The latest movie and DVD reviews - plus game reviews as well. And cool stuff thrown in when I see it.
Thanks to Madman Home Ent, I'm unleashing the apocalypse on you. Well, Deathgasm any way. I've got a copy of Deathgasm on Blu to give away - To enter simply email to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com and in the subject line put DEATHGASSSSSM. Please include your name and address and good luck! Brodie is the new kid in town. With a crack-addicted mum and an obsession with all things metal, he doesn't fit in to his white-bread neighbourhood or with his religious relatives. Even sightings of the gorgeous Medina aren't enough to shake Brodie from his belief that he has landed in small-town hell.
But when he meets fellow metalhead Zakk while picking through vinyls at the local record store he knows he's found a mate for life. Together with their equally socially-outcast friends Dion and Giles they form a band, Deathgasm, and when they find a mysterious piece of sheet music at the house of their metal hero Rikki Daggers they dedicate themselves to learning to play it...Little did they know, the mystical music is actually a spell to summon malevolent forces, and very soon everyone in the town has been infected by the demon curse. Now, our thrashing losers must man up to save the day.
With shades of early Peter Jackson and schlock-horror classics EVIL DEAD and SHAUN OF THE DEAD, DEATHGASM is a blood-soaked, hilarious trip set to killer guitar riffs. Get ready to rock
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Chiwetel Eijofor, Julia Roberts, Dean Norris, Alfred Molina
Director: Billy Ray
Back in 2009, an Argentinian film surprised the world when it took home the Oscar beating out the favourites.
At the time, The Secret In Their Eyes was hardly well known, but it began to garner a reputation as a drama that was explosive and emotionally involving.
Sadly, the remake is unfortunately a reasonable, rather than gripping, drama.
Set against the backdrop of a post 9/11 world (making for an odd experience as prism viewing in the week of events of Paris), the narrative flips back and forth between 2002 and present day as a Eijofor's Ray investigates a murder.
13 years after the crime was never solved, Ray turns up with a new lead having devoted over a decade of his life post the case trying to get answers. Despite the protestations of DA Claire (Kidman) and because it's contra to the counter-terrorism team he worked on in 2002, Ray believes this is the lead they've been missing and could now solve the case in 2015....
To say more about Secret In Their Eyes is to dip your toes in spoiler territory and to those unfamiliar with the original Argentinian flick, the key part of the film is the unfurling like a narrative onion of the layers of the plot.
Slow, drawn-out and to a degree, dawdling, Secret In Their Eyes is never as engaging as perhaps it should be. Not exactly a crime thriller, this is a movie about regrets, politics, the passage of time and the horrific bonds between Ray, Claire and Juliet Roberts' detective Jess.
Against a continual backdrop of 9/11 imagery and potential overkill of the fact the terrorists are really bad people, the film's inability to escape from its inevitability hampers it. Flashbacks are fine, but the reveal early on of how that investigation plays out causes narrative impotence, garnering the film with a laissez-faire sheen that audiences won't fully invest in.
It's not helped by a lack of chemistry between Eijofor's Ray and Kidman's Claire. We're supposed to believe the duo shared a spark that was left unexplored and burned bright for 13 years but scenes with the duo don't garner the fizz or hints of a fizz that would have helped propel any potential powderkeg along.
It's a shame because Eijofor chiefly delivers some great dramatic moments; his reaction on the discovery of the body simmers with tragedy and horror; equally Roberts' grieving mum is as restrained a turn as she's ever given - but she's not on screen for as much as is required during the melancholy maudlin movie. Kidman and Molina stand out for the wrong reasons and while Breaking Bad star Dean Norris adds a degree of humanity to the film, there's simply not enough to help you through the darkness.
Ray's direction is workmanlike with no real moments standing out - but this is a thriller that rarely thrills as it should and whose emotional candles burn on mute.
Ultimately, when the end comes, it feels more of a deflation than an elation of shock; where Secret In Their Eyes should have raged, it merely blows pathetically in the wind when compared to the original's power and ability to shock.
The annual iteration of the wrestling franchise gets its 2015 update.
And for fans of the series, it's probably already likely to be a top buy.
Thanks to its expanded roster and the fact Stone Cold Steve Austin is starring, it's going to appeal to some more than others.
Sadly in parts, the game's distinctive playable problems don't really help it toward being a smackdown.
Creation of superstars remains so that you can navigate the game how you want and with a player you feel you deserve. But you can't bring them across to Career Mode, so it almost seems pointless. But there will be many for whom the drawcard of making their own is enough of a reason to play.
Combat is reasonable too, and you will require some idea of what you're doing to get the most out of the game and its career. But to the newcomer, it's all a bit of a head-scratching game; combat's been simplified this time around, but that doesn't always make it easier to get into the ring and start throwing down.
Graphically, the game occasionally seems over-produced and almost veers on being a little cartoony, rather than realistic. Some wrestlers look like they have spent hours in the baby oil rub down and veritably glisten in their time in the ring.
But at the end of the day, the big killer for WWE 2K16 is just how formulaic it is and how at times joyless the whole thing can be. Crowds are given little life, that's confined to the ring, but even there at times, the game fails to find the joy and the showmanship of wrestling.
Rating: M Released by Universal Home Ent "Old, but not obsolete" is a line thrown out by Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 (and meta-nod) in the latest soulless blockbuster from the Terminator franchise.
Yet in many ways, it's also symbolic of the film itself, but sadly not quite as obsolete as perhaps it should be.
This time around, at a pivotal point in the war against the machines, Skynet and pretty much any of the logical senses, Jai Courtney's Kyle Reese is sent back in time to 1984 by John Connor (Jason Clarke) to protect his mother Sarah Connor (Game of Thrones' Khaleesi Emilia Clarke). But the rub this time around is that Connor's not quite the innocent Reese is expecting and the timeline as he's remembered it has altered. (Let's not bother addressing the logic of time-travel in sci-fi, because as one character shouts at one point - "Time travel makes my head hurt")
Soon, Connor, Reese and The Guardian (Schwarzenegger) are back on the run, facing off against the might of a Terminator sent back to take them out and fighting for their survival as well as the world's.
A relentless juggernaut of unoriginal action sequences follow in Terminator Genisys, each attempting to dull your senses and defy any kind of logic or any of the laws of physics; it's all connected together with a plot that becomes more and more muddled as each moment transpires. It's not that these action moments are thrown in, more that Thor: The Dark World's director Alan Taylor has produced nothing that's memorable in their execution.
A clutch of running gags about Arnie's age, his attempts to blend in by awkwardly smiling give the Austrian Oak a chance to flex those comic muscles, reminding us that the action hero of yore has been replaced with an almost cuddly caricature (he's even called Pops throughout the film by his Connor charge). Nods to the original iconic moments from the first two Terminators including a younger digitised Arnie Terminator only serve to remind you of how good the earlier installments of this series actually were. Equally, a liquid T-1000 reminds you of Robert Patrick from T2 and again proves that this film has simply taken the best bits of the prior flicks and bundled them in with an absence of new ideas or a new direction to take the series.
It's a problem of balance in this film - there are unnecessary comic moments that take you out of the film. One such problematic scene is a mugshots inspired riff on the COPS reality series that tips way too much of a wink to the audience to make you feel you're watching a film anymore, merely a parody of what once was.
Thankfully, JK Simmons' turn as a cop caught in years of conspiracy, veers on the right side of the humour, while espousing such lines as "Goddamned time travelling robots - always covering their tracks" and injecting them with a self-deprecation that's welcome. (Less welcome is the gratuitous product placement of a certain brand of footwear)
Emilia Clarke acquits herself reasonably, even if she has none of the internal turmoil of Connor downpat, Courtney serves only to be a vessel for the endless garbled exposition and imbues his Reese with a workmanlike sheen - thankfully, Jason Clarke makes a memorable job of a scarred John Connor, even if his best moments have been ruined with the trailers for the film.
Arnie may be back in Terminator Genisys, but ultimately the machines of Hollywood have won this battle - what's transpired on screen is a muddled, messy flick that lurches through the rhythms of action, exposition ad nauseum before leaving you with a feeling that this series needs to be Terminated.
With the fifth year since the Christchurch earthquakes just around the corner, it's fair to say the events of what's happened are still rumbling on as much as the emotional and physical aftershocks continue.
Opening with the still numbing scenes of what happened on that fateful day in February 2011, Young's doco clearly is going to be as evocative as it is provocative in places.
Starting off on familiar ground of what people were doing on that day and how it changed, Young sensitively shifts gear into a degree of buoyancy as he looks at how the city's artists are faring in the wake of events. And it's not just the artists in this doco that shine, it's also the innovators as well.
With an attitude of it's an empty glass, so just fill it up, the battler Kiwi attitude is clearly still around, but the politics hinted at in this piece show a growing discord and distance between Government plans via CERA and community desires.
And it's here that doco captures something resplendant - though arguments that these would inevitably be sided with the people are perhaps fair - the growing resilience of Christchurch and the fact it remains a City at odds with what its future could be.
Shots of flowers in traffic cones, of restaurants where burgers fly through tubes like something from The Huduscker Proxy to people simply ecstatically dancing in the outside because they want to, Young pulls a tapestry together of a city looking to reform its identity and the love they have for the city that's endured so much.
It's packed full of healing sentiment, from herbs that grow under the board stating "Herbs that grow here can heal you" to chairs that are painted for people simply because they're there. But there's a danger of the doco bordering on the slightly twee elements around the city; thanks to Young's eye and his fleet of foot direction, nothing is dwelt on for too long and the result is that he ends up throwing a light on a side too rarely explored - that of the people and what they want.
It's perhaps a little too simply explored and people touched upon at a surface level - but it's almost as if it's still too raw in people's minds to be pointing fingers. For that, Young may be vilified - though admittedly it won't be by Christchurch's inhabitants. It does occasionally lack a killer edge but it never loses focus on the city.
There's a clear split between business expectations and art belief, and to document what happens next could perhaps be the true statement of where Christchurch is going, but The Art of Recovery offers up a pleasant enough snapshot of a community in rebuild mode, and captures a moment that needs to be chronicled. The Art of Recovery brings power back to the people, and while it demonstrates a potentially threatening divide between CERA and Chch itself, its sensitively handled and lovingly executed approach means that The Art of Recovery is worth investing your time in.
Rating: M Released by Vendetta Films Mixing the same horrific themes and locations as True Detective but eschewing the philosophical debate, Spanish thriller Marshland arrives with accolades ringing in its ears.
Already the recipient of 10 GOYA Awards, it's the 1980s story of two detectives Juan and Pedro, unwillingly paired together and both serving a penance of sorts for past sins. Called to a small Spanish village to investigate the disappearance of two girls, it soon becomes clear that their going missing covers a wider net of conspiracy than was first believed.
Rodriguez has crafted something dour, grim and atmospheric which makes the best of its moody locations, characters and situation.
Revelling in the fact this pair are outsiders from the outset to both the community they're investigating and even their own attitudes, there's certainly overtones of True Detective's MO - even down to Arevalo's outward similarity to McConaughey's look in the series - which prove hard to shake from the DNA of the thriller.
There are also moments of lucidity and writing which is spot on with its veracity, wringing the drops of horror from the situation.
When the duo find the girls, the local cops implore them to be the ones to tell the parents what has happened, given that they see them every day. It's a peeling back of the veneer and a peeking below the surface that's queasy to watch.Visually, the film is a claustrophobic treat with Rodriguez making great fist of the marshlands locations, the 80s drained look and some aerial shots as transitioning from the scenes which seem like Google Maps or the pull backs from Grand Theft Auto V as it switches between characters. Every sequence is meticulously crafted, tightly executed and tautly directed. There's a sense of grim realism that permeates so much of the movie and leads to moments that are truly gripping.
But it's not without its faults - the final reveal of who's behind it all is muddily executed in the middle of a rain storm swamping the screen and hiding the unveiling, leading to some feeling ripped off. Equally, a side thread about Franco's army, a wage dispute between workers are jumbled and disjointed, feeling like they've been woven in and left a little under-developed and extraneous to the narrative.
Overall, Marshland brings together a sticky fear of dread throughout, thanks to a dour, grim atmosphere, dripping with unease and queasy revelations bubbling under a surface. Its ending is downbeat and troubling, a sign that atonement comes at a price and leaves you feeling unsettled - something which is well worth celebrating.
Rating: M Released by 20th Century Fox Home Ent After stinkers like Tammy and The Heat, the prospect of another Melissa McCarthy helmed comedy is not one that many may relish.
So, it's more than pleasing to report that, for the large part, Spy is a brilliantly funny and engaging comedy that sees McCarthy present her most likable showcase of comedy and character, replete with gross out moments that you'd expect from the re-teaming of the Bridesmaids director and star. McCarthy is Susan Cooper, a deskbound CIA agent, who works in a vermin infested basement guiding her James Bond-style spy, Bradley Fine (Jude Law), on various dangerous missions. The rub is that Cooper was top of all her classes and was always sidelined from active duty, but has now the intelligence to work the desk, and practically save the day via satellite and ear-piece. However, when a rogue nuke and a highly coiffured, tightly wound baddie Rayna, played with bitchy chutzpah by Rose Byrne, threatens the entire world, Coop's got no choice but to head into the field...
As already mentioned, this farcical pastiche of all of those spy films from your youth, works a lot better than your deepest fears would suggest, thanks in no small way to McCarthy's performance and Feig's realisation that an ensemble comedy with individual moments is the right way to go. (Peter Serafinowicz as a handsy Italian compadre and Miranda Hart's channeling of her own klutzy TV character also complement the team feel) It's also very funny too, with Statham brilliantly sending up the action man career choices he's made and roundly mocking the genre with his character Ford, a spy who believes Coop's out of her depth and will blow the mission because she doesn't have the skills he's mastered. Feig's wise enough to know that by limiting Statham's presence and utilising his action skills sparingly, he superbly contributes to the feel of Spy. There are a few moments when perhaps the R-rated humour borders on going too far and the crass could have been dialled back - but seeing Cooper blow chunks over a downed assassin is perhaps the icing on the edgy cake, as opposed to some lazy fart gags deployed on a falling plane as the global trot continues. But it's McCarthy's film through and through; she's imbued Cooper with a sympathetic edge that's appealing from the get-go. Whether it's railing against the mousey disguises the agency's given her ("I look like someone's homophobic aunt" she decries at one point - a sly mocking of the glamour of spy films and also of the perception of her) or keeping the riffing under control, she really does shine through. It's a timely reminder that with the right material and clearly the right director in Feig, she's less irritating than the material of other films have afforded her.
Feig gets the pastiche of the spy genre down pat from Bond style credits to a feel at times of Get Smart, but he doesn't border too far on parody choosing to slyly mock the conventions of the genre, and pepper it with some, at times unnecessary, R-rated gags. He's tapped brilliantly again into the rivalries and insecurities of his female leads (a la Bridesmaids) and they get to rule the roost. Roundly mixing the bawdy with the bluster, Spy is a pleasant surprise; it's a chance for McCarthy to cement her position as a comedienne who excels when the material is right. Your mission - should you choose to accept it - is to go into Spy, with an open mind. You may well be pleasantly surprised. Rating:
I've got a copy of Deathgasm on Blu to give away - 
