Win Fat Princess Adventures on PS4!

Win Fat Princess Adventures on PS4!

Let them all eat cake!

To celebrate Friday, I've got a nice little gift to give to you - a code for Fat Princess Adventures on PS4, thanks to the awesome guys at PlayStation!

Fat Princess Adventures on PS4
A cheeky, light-hearted humour is the order of the day in this comedy adventure. 

Go into battle with up to three friends in a quest to slay monsters, steal loot, rescue the princesses, gobble cake and defeat the evil Bitter Queen. 

Fat Princess Adventures is now available from PlayStation Store, but thanks to PlayStation New Zealand we have a copy to giveaway!

And to win all you have to do is one very simple thing which is easy to do if you're a princess! (Or not, I'm not discriminating)

To enter simply email to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com  and in the subject line put CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE.

Please include your name and address and good luck!

Golden Globes Nominations 2016

Golden Globes Nominations 2016

The 2016 Golden Globe Nominations are out - here's the complete list of who's up for what

Best Motion Picture, Drama
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Best Motion Picture, Musical, or Comedy
The Big Short
Joy
The Martian
Spy
Trainwreck

Best Performance By an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Rooney Mara, Carol
Saoirse Ronin, Brooklyn
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl


Best Performance By an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Melissa McCarthy, Spy
Amy Schumer, Trainwreck
Maggie Smith, The Lady in the Van
Lily Tomlin, Grandma

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Will Smith, Concussion

Best Performance By an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Paul Dano, Love
Idris Elba, Beast of No Nation
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Michael Shannon, 99 Homes
Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Best Performance by Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Jane Fonda, Youth
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hateful Eight
Helen Mirren, Trumbo
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Best Director, Motion Picture
Todd Haynes, Carol
Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Ridley Scott, The Martian

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical, or Comedy
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Steve Carell, The Big Short
Matt Damon, The Martian
Al Pacino, Danny Collins
Mark Ruffalo, Infinitely Polar Bear

Best Screenplay, Motion Picture
Emma Donoghue, Room
Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer, Spotlight
Charles Randolph & Adam McKay, The Big Short
Aaron Sorkin, Steve Jobs
Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight

Original Score, Motion Picture
Carter Burwell, Carol
Alexander Desplat, The Danish Girl
Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight
Daniel Pemberton, Steve Jobs
Ryuchi Sakamoto, The Revanant

Best Motion Picture, Animated
Anomalisa
The Good Dinosaur
Inside Out
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun the Sheep Movie

Best Original Song, Motion Picture
“Love Me Like You Do,” Fifty Shades of Grey
“One Kind of Love,” Love & Mercy
“See You Again,” Furious 7
“Simple Song #3,” Youth
“Writing’s on the Wall,” Spectre

Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language
The Brand New Testament
The Club
The Fencer
Mustang
Son of Saul

Best Television Series, Drama
Empire, Fox
Game of Thrones, HBO
Mr. Robot, USA
Narcos, Netflix
Outlander, Starz

Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy
Casual, Hulu
Mozart in the Jungle, Amazon Video
Orange Is the New Black, Netflix
Silicon Valley, HBO
Transparent, Amazon Video
Veep, HBO

Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
American Crime, ABC
American Horror Story: Hotel, FX
Fargo, FX
Flesh and Bone, Starz
Wolf Hall, PBS

Best Performance By an Actor in a Television Series, Drama
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Rami Malek, Mr. Robot
Wagner Moura, Narcos
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan

Best Performance By an Actor in a Television Series, Musical, or Comedy
Aziz Ansari, Master of None
Gael García Bernal, Mozart in the Jungle
Rob Lowe, The Grinder
Patrick Stewart, Blunt Talk
Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television
Idris Elba, Luther
Oscar Isaac, Show Me a Hero
David Oyelowo, Nightingale
Mark Rylance, Wolf Hall
Patrick Wilson, Fargo

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television
Alan Cumming, The Good Wife
Damien Lewis, Wolf Hall
Ben Mendelson, Bloodline
Tobias Menzies, Outlander
Christian Slater, Mr. Robot

Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series, Drama
Caitriona Balfe, Outlander
Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder
Eva Green, Penny Dreadful
Taraji P. Henson, Empire
Robin Wright, House of Cards

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Actress in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television
Uzo Aduba, Orange Is the New Black
Joanna Froggatt, Downton Abbey
Regina King, American Crime
Judith Light, Transparent
Maura Tierney, The Affair

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Kirsten Dunst, Fargo
Lady Gaga, American Horror Story: Hotel
Sarah Hay, Flesh and Bone
Felicity Huffman, American Crime
Queen Latifah, Bessie

Best Performance By an Actress in a Television Series, Musical, or Comedy
Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Jamie Lee Curtis, Scream Queens
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Gina Rodriguez, Jane the Virgin
Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie

Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace: DVD Review

Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace: DVD Review

Rating: G
Released by BBC and Roadshow Home Ent

So, here it is then, the very final classic series Doctor Who DVD Release.

Well, until they find more missing episodes that is.

This release from Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor years sees the Doctor taking on a mad professor who's hell-bent on raising Atlantis from the seas.

Given that the two stories before this are of the new Doctor, The Underwater Menace is the first real look at Mr Troughton's cosmic hobo and even though half of it's missing and replaced with telesnaps, it still provides a tale worth diving into.

If you know 60s Doctor Who, you know what to expect - a raft of great ideas with some wobbly execution, but The Underwater Menace proves to be a serial that's worth diving into the waters of home viewing for - and is essential for collectors of Who alike.

Love: Blu Ray Review

Love: Blu Ray Review

Rating: R18
Released by GDE

The most provocative title this year actually ends up being the one that's perhaps the tamest when weighed up against expectation.

Cinema's enfant terrible Gaspar Noe (Enter the Void, Irreversible) has filed a chamber piece for the festival scene, riddled with pornography and ruminations on relationships.

It's the cautionary story of American film-maker Murray (Karl Glusman) who ends up in Paris and in a passionate relationship with Electra (Aomi Muyock) - but that's not where the story begins; it takes up on New Year's Day with Murray waking up with another girl Omi and his baby.

As he gets up, he gets a call from Electra's mother, telling him she's not heard from her daughter in a while and worrying. This sets Murray off in a spiral of memory and regret which we're party to.

Love 3D is a polarising experience, but it's actually a triumph of atmosphere over substance, of insecurities and regrets over a road less travelled.

Sure, there's plenty of love-making on show (some of it which is literally in your face thanks to the 3D element) and Noe is clearly trying to push buttons given the number of scenes and frequency in which he injects them into the admittedly slight narrative. But Noe's claimed that he's looking at what love does to people and how they experience it and that the sex is an integral part of it. No doubt some will dispute that, and there's certainly a feeling that these scenes lose any kind of perverse appeal by being so prevalent.


However, when Noe moves away from this side of things, there are parts of the narrative which work and others which don't. The reflections and ruminations on the relationship as Murray prowls his flat feeling trapped make him a difficult and selfish protagonist to care about - and certainly, his behaviour to Electra and other women reinforce that idea; is Noe commenting on the behaviour of men or Murray in particular? It's hard to tell because no commentary is forthcoming and no judgement is either. But in showing Murray with Electra, Noe does a wondrous job of collecting the fervour and fever of young love, though sadly not in enough scenes, preferring to show their indulging in carnal desires as a profession of this - again, making it difficult to really grasp onto either as perfect partners.

Ultimately, Love 3D is no Irreversible; there's maybe one singular moment when you feel like Noe's gone as far as he can in reaching his cinematic climax, but the scorn of the prior films feels softened with this latest. It's not for everyone's tastes and there are times when you wish Noe had smoothed off some of the edges and created more than just atmosphere - but perhaps we get the love story our society reflects these days. 

Spring: DVD Review

Spring: DVD Review

Rating: R16
Released by Madman Home Ent

Spring may have one of the most generic titles, but don't let that put you off this - going into this one blind without the benefit of the blurb served me brilliantly giving me a genuine "What was that?" moment that jolted me out of the viewing malaise that I feared was setting in.

Lou Taylor Pucci is drifter Evan whose life is upended by the death of his mother. Heading into a tailspin and realising he's about to self-destruct, Evan heads to Bologna on a whim. Attaching himself to a couple of holiday makers, he divorces himself from their stereotypical holidaymakers abroad boorishness and falls in with the mysterious Louise (an enigmatic and intoxicating Nadia Hilker).

A romance begins between the pair, but along the way, not all is as it appears...and chemistry proves to be a double edged-sword

With the idyll of Bologna in the background and the relatively languid pace of writer-directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead settled in, the whiplash moment of this Before Sunrise style romance comes at just the right moment, fuelling a fire that's hard to quell before the tricky denouement tries to seal the deal.

Both the young leads are mesmerising, gelling wonderfully together, capturing the frailty of lives which have been battered and yet engendering a hope eternal in love; but while the film's ultimate reveal may be polarising, I, for one, appreciated it on another level because of how my expectations were subverted. Granted. I wasn't fully on board with the film's raison d'etre, but I was swept away with how it played out. It's best not to read too much about Spring before going in, and afterwards, you'll understand why I was coy about this romance and why it's so much more than its awful title suggests.

Extras: Behind the scenes, alternate ending, deleted scenes

The Gallows: DVD Review

The Gallows: DVD Review

Rating M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

The play's the thing in this found footage horror set in a small town school 20 years after a tragedy hit.

During the performance of a Crucible-like play called The Gallows, Charlie, one of the students was accidentally hanged - and now in honour of that anniversary, the play's being put on again. But on the eve of the show, three students from the current production creep into the hall to wreak havoc - however, it looks like a spirit haunting the building has other plans.

To say The Gallows is a feeble attempt at the horror genre is to undersell it.

Some utterly terrible acting from the main cast doesn't help matters; the worst offender being Reese Mishler whose array of acting seems to consist only looking horrified and wide-eyed when things go bump in the night as the phantoms of the opera play up.

But it's the way the story unfolds though its brief 81 minute run time and its characters that really make this revenge tale fall short of what it could do.

The teens are prone to dumb actions, shouting and fumbling around in the dark rather than ever using any of their sensibilities to help them get through. And to make matters worse, the high school stereotypes are something from the 80s with it divided up into jocks and nerds...

The found footage doesn't quite work either with lots of darkness, distortion and convenient lapses of logic dropped in thoughout - inevitably perhaps the directors and writers were using the low battery of the cameras to help provoke some dread, but when they fire up seconds later without any changes, it's clear they're making the rules up as they go along. (Plus, don't even get me started with the way it chops and changes - for a so-called found footage film, the spooky spirit sure does have a way with editing tools).

It's a shame because the premise is one to be mined - there's a neat twist in the middle that comes out of nowhere, and the idea of MacBeth level of superstition striking fear when people mention Charlie's name on stage is a clever updating of the worries actors have.

Things bang, shut and slam closed with the ferocity that you'd expect, but it all feels so piecemeal and uneventfully exciting, that even 81 minutes seems too long - The Gallows clearly wanted to launch a new boogeyman onto the scene with Hangman Charlie, but this sub-parBlair Witch wannabe should have been strung up before it even got started.

Rating:

American Horror Story: Freak Show: Blu Ray Review

American Horror Story: Freak Show: Blu Ray Review

Rating: R18
Released by Universal Home Ent

Released in time for Hallowe'en and also with the arrival of American Horror Story: Hotel, the fourth in Ryan Murphy's anthology series boasts one of the series' best nightmares.

Set in a Florida hamlet, and following the escapades of a travelling troupe of curiosities in the year 1952, this carny-set tale has a canny way of getting under your skin in its early episodes, before the mid-season slump hits and the season limps to a weak ending.

Tapping into the fears of clowns and the fears of what freaks you out that's different, the story of the performers and their lives is a great tableau and portrait of the horrors that men do. First up a smiling clown, who kills people and abducts others (aka Twisty the clown) is one of the greatest most unsettling creatures the series has given us since Rubberman of Season 1.

But as ever, there's tragedy lurking under the horror of all of these stories and the push for survival in a world that doesn't want them remains as pertinent a tale now as it ever did in 1950s America. Paranoia and mistrust blend together with a curiosities hunter who's trying to kill the freaks off and sell them for money, while hiding his own secrets.

With Sarah Paulson as a two-headed freak and Jessica Lange as the carny's leader fighting to stay relevant, there's much set up for rivalry and division. As the melodrama is ramped up to OTT, the series forgets its simple frightening MO and loses its effect and somewhat of its appeal in the second half of its execution.

For the most part though, American Horror Story: Freak Show is one of the anthology's best; its 13 episodes rivals the first season for shocks, but also delivers a story that while dripping with tragedy and tapestry, doesn't quite sustain its horrific thrust for fame and fortune and relevancy in a world that's ever changing.