5 To 7: Film Review

5 To 7: Film Review   

Cast: Anton Yelchin, Berenice Marlohe, Olivia Thirlby
Director: Victor Levin

There's plenty of wish-fulfillment in 5 To 7 for you to lose yourself in.

Anton Yelchin plays aspiring novelist Brian, a New York inhabitant whose writing career is stalled. All around him is inspiration - mainly as director Victor Levin shows us from written plaques scattered around the city.

But Brian finds his muse one day when he sees beautiful French lady Arielle (a sultry Marlohe) smoking outside and decides on a whim, to talk to her. The pair find a common ground and begin a relationship that's predicated on one thing - Brian can only see Arielle between the hours of 5 and 7pm...

Subverting some of the norms of the rom com genre and injecting them more with elements of drama and Woody Allen-esque two hander scenes, 5 To 7 is all about the glamour than the grit.

Yelchin's youthful outlook and his desperation to dive completely in stands in opposite to Marlohe's more European ways; and Levin's direction and the story certainly subvert your ideas of where the drama of this film could come from.

Traditionally a film like this would make great fist of the fact Arielle's married and build a drama around discovery but 5 To 7 is not your typical film. It's swathed in the contrasts between European and American views to love and relationships, but smart enough to use them as a prop rather than a crutch.

It's certainly exquisitely shot; the camera adores Marlohe and the more romantic elements of New York, with shots of people around the city and silhouetted sexy shadows as the pair consummate their desires to a brassy jazzy French beat.

Equally, Brian's parents (played to perfection by Glenn Close and Frank Langella) add a touch of humour and truth as the proceedings start to feel a little drawn out. Certainly, the dinner with all of them captures the frisson of tension and the keenness of learning as new relationships blossom and all parties meet.

But there's an occasional aloofness to both Brian and Arielle as well as the whole situation of the husband and the weirdness of the children simply accepting Brian as a boyfriend of their mother that some may find a little unusual. It's certainly a fact that being open-minded yields more pleasures from 5 To 7 but given there's little conflict between the duo, parts of the drama feels manufactured and as a result, a little more inconsequential.

5 to 7's lead duo ensure the film stays on the right side of the audience and while the film's sumptuously shot and precisely acted, its straying from traditional narrative alleyways help it along as well as hinder it.

Articulate and meticulously assembled, 5 To 7 is an indie that's full of love and its sentiments but in its final romantic / culture clash it curiously fails to hit the heart-strings in the way that you'd perhaps expect.

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Life is Strange: PS4 Review

Life is Strange: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by Dontnod Entertainment

Dontnod Entertainment is responsible for one of the most over-looked games of the past few years - Remember Me.

A clever mesh of thriller and time-twisting, Remember Me was a stylish game that never garnered the wider success it deserved. But it's served the execution of Life Is Strange in ways that perhaps couldn't have been seen.

With the news the Life Is Strange five episodic series is getting a physical release, it seems a good time to go back over the release.

Set in the world of Arcadia Bay, it's the story of photography student Maxine Caulfield who discovers that she has the ability to wind back time and thwart moments of the Butterfly effect. But as ever, with those kind of choices, there are still natural consequences to the actions.

The game opens with an apocalyptic vision of a lighthouse being destroyed by a tornado and follows it up with the murder of a friend in a bathroom. Rewinding time obviously prevents the death, but Maxine then goes all Veronica Mars and tries to solve the murders while protecting her friend and inextricably heading towards her own destiny.

Using the interactive world we've come to expect from the likes of the Telltale Games series, Life Is Strange follows a similar path, but weaves in deeper darker threads that are a lot stronger than you'd perhaps expect. With decisions having deeper emotional consequences further down the line, it takes a while for the ramifications of the Butterfly effect to really play out. But when they do, they really hit.

Maxine is a realistic protagonist, from her vulnerability to her awkwardness, the universal feeling she evokes is one many will have experienced at school or in college.  While you're confined to the areas around Arcadia Bay, the fact you revisit them time and time again makes you feel more connected to the narrative and the world within.

Ultimately, there are moments within Life Is Strange that stand out and others that slightly fall short, it's good to see another developer take some chances within the genre. It's worth taking the risk, because much like Remember Me, one suspects that Life Is Strange will come to be regarded as a title that shaped a different way of episodic gaming.

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Tales from the Borderlands: PS4 Review

Tales from the Borderlands: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by Telltale Games

The Tales from the Borderlands series is being touted as a contender for Game of the year by many.

It's an interesting idea that 2K's world could have been made into an episodic story and dished out over 5 parts - something that you suspect Handsome Jack would have scoffed at.

But if anyone could make it work, it was always going to be Telltale Games, whose Walking Dead, Wolf Among Us and Game of Thrones series showed there's plenty in these worlds to explore.

Pulling together a ragtaggle bunch of misfits and setting them after Borderlands 2, Tales from the Borderlands retains the quirk of the original game, while bringing some more depth to the protagonists. Set between two leads, Rhys and conwoman Fiona, the story's shared and is a similar tale of a deal gone wrong and a quest to get back what's thought to be rightfully theirs.

Embellishments, exaggerations and explosive revelations form the majority of this series - and it's a blast to play through all of those potential scenarios. IT's also helped by supporting characters who add edges to the story and nuances to the characters, while maintaining the world that 2K has constructed.

Comedic edges blur the story and are welcome, but the choices still figure highly in this series; while the cartoony execution of the world within is perfectly in keeping with the tone of the game.

As ever, a bit of familiarity with the Borderlands world will be welcomed and perhaps in this title, that's what feels the most lost to newcomers, but it's made up for by story and by character.

Ultimately, Tales from the Borderlands is another fine series from Telltale Games. It balances light with dark and with liberal dashings of comedy, it ensures that a new genre has been created. And bloody successfully too.

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Over 30 million now own PS4

Over 30 million now own PS4

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that the PlayStation®4 (PS4™) computer entertainment system has cumulatively sold through  ore than 30.2 million units*1 worldwide as of November 22.  PS4 continues to demonstrate the fastest and strongest growth in PlayStation® hardware history.

PS4 is a uniform system on which gamers everywhere can enjoy the same high-quality digital entertainment experiences.  The rapid expansion of the PS4 platform further reinforces the foundation of delivering compelling entertainment experiences.  Customers can choose from multiple offerings available on this most favored platform that ranges from games on discs or through digital download to a variety of services available on PlayStation™Network, including PlayStation®Plus membership service, apps for streaming video, music and TV content.  The 30.2 million PS4 owners around the world are spending more time playing games and enjoying entertainment content as the company further enriches content and services.
 
“We are sincerely grateful that gamers across the globe have continued to choose PS4 as the best place to play since launch two years ago,” said Andrew House, President and Global CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “We are committed to bringing engaging games and entertainment services to users worldwide. Thanks to the support of our partners, PS4 continues to be the premier platform for game and interactive entertainment innovation.”

The PS4 system’s games portfolio will continue to broaden this holiday season and beyond with highly anticipated titles such as DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS (SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.), Ryu Ga Gotoku KIWAMI (SEGA Games Co., Ltd.), Bloodborne The Old Hunters Edition, Gravity Rush Remastered, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (SCE Worldwide Studios).  The independent development community will also continue to deliver innovative new titles for PS4 including GALAK-Z (17-BIT) and Super Time Force Ultra (Capybara Games).*2

SCE will continue to expand the world of PS4 to deliver entertainment experiences that are only possible on PlayStation. The PS4 system is currently available in 124 countries and regions*3 worldwide.

New Running Back Adversary Mode in GTA Online Today

New Running Back Adversary Mode in GTA Online Today

Hi all,

Today, we've got a brand-new addition to the permanent roster of GTA Online Adversary Modes for PS4, Xbox One and PC. 

In the spirit and tradition of American Football this Thanksgiving week, we present a new mode entitled “Running Back”.

Two teams (a total of 4-8 players) square off from opposing sides of a roadway. The elusive Runner, behind the wheel of a Benefactor Panto, must go the distance and get across the end zone line at the far end of the highway with the help of their offensive teammates in BF Biftas. Meanwhile, their defensive-minded opponents (also in Biftas) must ruthlessly block, crash and pummel their way to try to stop them. 

This new mode is available at three different locations: Raton Canyon Bridge, La Mesa Bridge and Zancudo Tunnel.

Just Cause 3: First 60 mins released

Just Cause 3: First 60 mins released

FIRST 60 MINUTES OF GAMEPLAY RELEASED
PLAYED BY AVALANCHE STUDIOS

Hi there,

Square Enix and Avalanche Studios are excited to broadcast the first hour of gameplay from JUST CAUSE 3. With a game world as vast, varied and as open as Medici - with its 400 square miles of beautiful beaches, towering mountain peaks and Mediterranean inspired towns - your first hour of play might be wildly different to ours. That said, we thought we’d focus on some of the early missions and content to whet your appetite ahead of next week’s launch.

Enjoy.

 

Creed: Film Review

Creed: Film Review

Cast: Michael B Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Graham McTavish\
Director: Ryan Coogler

Legacy hangs heavy over Creed.

Not only is its titular protagonist (played by Fruitvale Station star Michael B Jordan who reteams with the same director)  trying to escape the legacy of a father he never knew, but the film tries to simultaneously embrace the Rocky legacy and forge its own identity.

Thanks in large part to Jordan's straight down the line character and the film's largely realistic tone (even though it struggles with injecting some unnecessary melodrama in its back half) Creed emerges as a relative triumph, rather than ending in a major KO for anyone involved.

To all intents and purposes, Creed is the seventh Rocky film and follows the path you’ve come to expect these boxing films would do. Turning his back on a corporate job to pursue his dream of being a fighter, Adonis Johnson (Jordan) tracks down Rocky Balboa (an understated and suitably ageing Sylvester Stallone) to see if he will train him. But Balboa’s reticent, crippled by the beating that life’s given him (one of the best lines sees Stallone intoning that Time takes everyone out, it’s undefeated) and isn’t keen to get back into that world.

Creed works best as a film that revels in its realism.

While its second half piles on the melodrama a little too hard and the narrative conflicts border on contrivances rather than feeling organic, the film’s first half is nothing short of sensational, grounded as they are by the wearying realities of life and Coogler's virtuoso camera touches within the ring.

Stallone (in the first Rocky film he's not written) underplays his hand and goes for poignancy rather than over-blown emoting (but a later development for his character stretches belief too far); as a result, Stallone’s wearied Balboa is a real presence in the film from beginning to end - even if he is saddled with an unwelcome and unnecessary story that's poorly executed in the second half.

Equally, Michael B Jordan pulls together a great mix of bravado, gusto and pure terror as he edges into the reality of what he wants.  All through out the film, it's clear that Creed's enemy isn't the one-note Liverpool boxing champion facing one last fight, but his own expectations, his own self-doubt and his inability to embrace his own legacy and all that it entails as he tries to make it on his own.

A couple of moments in Creed see Jordan really soar and a couple of moments don't fire as perhaps they should or could. (One sequence involving bikes, Creed, a street and Rocky is almost laughable)

Sadly, the underwriting and effective dumping of the burgeoning relationship with his neighbour Bianca (a singer losing her hearing played with empathy by Tessa Thompson) affects part of the film and feels rather unwelcomely like that side of the film was knocked out at the early script level. Also, a plot thread with Rocky's former gym manager dangles deliciously before losing the momentum it had early on.

But it's Cooglar's execution of an at times rough around the edges story which help Creed to soar.

One fight sequence is shot all in one take with the camera inveigling its way unobtrusively into the ring and works wonders at bringing the emotion and brutality of the fighters to life. Complete with shouts and noises from behind in the cinema, it's a bravura execution that exceeds the obligatory cornball and OTT final fight that's so cliched, overblown and yet incredibly redolent of this pugilistic genre.

Creed effectively shames Jake Gyllenhaal's leaden Southpaw from earlier this year by constantly underplaying its own hand and realistically playing out its drama against a muted and almost melancholy backdrop. There are swathes of nostalgia for the series and yet it's also smart enough to not wallow in these moments.

Crucially, it ends up seeing the Rocky franchise unexpectedly re-vitalised; it emerges from its own shadow and against all the odds, ends up being this year's could be critical - and hopefully - box office contender.

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