Win Jemaine Clement's film People, Places, Things on DVD

Win Jemaine Clement's film People, Places, Things on DVD

Thanks to Madman Home Ent, I'm giving you the chance to win Flight of The Conchords star Jemaine Clement's film People Places Things!

Will (Jemaine Clement) is a graphic novelist, a professor at the School of Visual Arts and the father of beautiful twin girls. 

His seemingly picture-perfect Brooklyn life is turned upside down when he walks in on the mother of his children and long-time girlfriend, Charlie, with another man at their daughters' over-the-top fifth birthday party. 

Flash forward one year later, Will is a single father, living alone, trying to put his life back together with the help of his student, Kat (Jessica Williams), and her mother (Regina Hall). 

In this thoughtful comedy, Will is forced to navigate the unknown landscape of single fatherhood and dating in New York City, while coming to terms with himself both as a father and artist

To enter simply email to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com  and in the subject line put JEMAINE. Please include your name and address and good luck!

Win Girlhood

Win Girlhood

Thanks to the lovely peeps at Madman Home Ent, I've got a copy of one of the best French films of last year to give away - GIRLHOOD

About Girlhood:

Mariame is a shy 16-year-old who lives with her mostly absent mother, a domineering older brother, and two younger sisters of whom she largely takes responsibility for caring. 

Left behind at high school where she's told her grades are too poor to continue, Mariame is soon lured out of her shell by three vivacious neighborhood teens. Enthralled by their bravado and brash energy, Mariame quickly adopts their flashier look and adapts to their bolder and often reckless behaviour, making both foolish and brave choices as she struggles towards independence. 

Critically acclaimed and emotionally affecting, GIRLHOOD is an empowering story of female friendship. 

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

Please include your name and address and good luck!

Oscars 2016: Full nominations list

Oscars 2016: Full nominations list

The full list of Oscar nominations for 2016 has been unveiled this morning.

The Revenant and The Big Short lead the way with 12 and 10 nominations each

Here is a full list of nominations for the 2016 Academy Awards, to be held in Los Angeles on 28 February.

Best picture

The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Best actor

Bryan Cranston - Trumbo
Matt Damon - The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant
Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl

Best actress

Cate Blanchett - Carol
Brie Larson - Room
Jennifer Lawrence - Joy
Charlotte Rampling - 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn

Best supporting actor

Christian Bale - The Big Short
Tom Hardy - The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo - Spotlight
Mark Rylance - Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone - Creed

Best supporting actress

Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara - Carol
Rachel McAdams - Spotlight
Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs

Best director

Lenny Abrahamson - Room
Alejandro G Inarritu - The Revenant
Tom McCarthy - Spotlight
Adam McKay - The Big Short
George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road

Best adapted screenplay

The Big Short
Brooklyn
Carol
The Martian
Room

Best original screenplay

Bridge of Spies
Ex Machina
Inside Out
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton

Best animated film

Anomalisa
Boy and the World
Inside Out
Shaun the Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There

Best foreign language film

Embrace of the Serpent - Colombia
Mustang - France
Son of Saul - Hungary
Theeb - Jordan
A War - Denmark

Best animated short

Bear Story
Prologue
Sanjay's Super Team
We Can't Live without Cosmos
World of Tomorrow

Best cinematography

Carol
The Hateful Eight
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Sicario

Best costume design

Carol
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant

Best documentary feature

Amy
Cartel Land
The Look of Silence
What Happened, Miss Simone?
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

Best documentary short

Body Team 12
Chau, Beyond the Lines
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Last Day of Freedom

Best editing

The Big Short
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best live action short

Ave Maria
Day One
Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
Shok
Stutterer

Best make-up and hair

Mad Max: Fury Road
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
The Revenant

Best original score

Bridge of Spies
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best original song

Earned It, The Weeknd - Fifty Shades of Grey
Manta Ray, J Ralph & Antony - Racing Extinction
Simple Song #3, Sumi Jo - Youth
Til It Happens To You, Lady Gaga - The Hunting Ground
Writing's On the Wall, Sam Smith - Spectre

Best production design

Bridge of Spies
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant

Best sound editing

Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best sound mixing

Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best visual effects

Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Ted 2: DVD Review

Ted 2: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

The amount of enjoyment you get from the longer, less charming sequel to Ted will be directly proportional to how high your tolerance for having your buttons pressed is.

The sequel, which circles around the idea of civil rights, centres on the idea that Mr Ted Goes To Court after the state of Massachusetts strips him of his rights in the wake of him trying to adopt a child, declaring him not to be a person but actually property. 

Calling in an inexperienced but pot-smoking lawyer (played with ease and earnest warmth by Amanda Seyfried) Samantha, John (a once again game and comic Wahlberg) along with Ted set out to try and recruit a top lawyer (Freeman) to their cause.

The sequel to the most successful R-rated comedy was only ever going to go further down the depravity drain and mine its vulgar excesses as far as it could go - and it's fair to say that on that journey, the mischievous MacFarlane fires off his scatological gun, taking aim at just about everybody and trying to push the envelope for edgy humour, with varying degrees of success.

Packing in celebrity cameos, a raft of crass one-liners that amuse and a sub-plot from the first film involving Hasbro and Donny (Ribisi), Ted 2 unfortunately feels in parts un-bear-able and bloa-ted. 

Legal scenes pack the proceedings and try to inject a degree of seriousness where it's not welcome -though an expeditious edit of the script could have resolved some of those problems. Equally, a Comic-Con final sequence seems unnecessarily shoe-horned in and appears to really only be a chance to give Patrick Warburton and Michael Dorn a visual gag that's serviced to the pop-culture savvy. 

But, it has to be argued that the bromance and banter between John and Ted (such a warm and earnest heart that it had in the first film) suffers the most in this sequel. The scenes where the pair bicker, harmonise over Law and Order's opening titles and generally bond with their puerile arrested adult humour are among the funniest and sweetest of the sequel, a reminder of what's missing from this and why the first film worked so well. 

However, it's MacFarlane's edgy comedic sensibilities which punctuate the lower moments of Ted 2, giving you a feeling that you're not sure what's coming next in some of the shoe-horned in non-sequitur moments within. A Lord of the Rings gag about Amanda Seyfried's eyes is perfectly on the money, and a sequence where Ted and John yell out sad suggestions at an improv night is remarkably close to the bone, but brings some shocking laughs. 

Overlong, about as stuffed as Ted's insides, Ted 2 proves to be a mixed affair; it's a story with bolted on bits of randomness which work better than the main plot. It's true the Family Guypuerile sensibilities soak through into this sequel, but it's not nearly enough to propel it through its near 2 hour run time, but side-lining the main reason the first film worked so well proves to be the fatal flaw.

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Land of The Giants: The Complete Collection: DVD Review

Land of The Giants: The Complete Collection: DVD Review

Rating: PG
Released by Madman Home Ent

There's just something special about Irwin Allen's small screen efforts.

From Lost in Space to The Time Tunnel, Allen pioneered the sci fi world of TV back in the 1960s and propelled the stories further than their FX Ever could.

In this latest 51 episode, 14 disc collection set, set in 1983, we follow the exploits of a group on a flight from NY to London that crash lands on a similar planet to Earth but with everything larger. Forced into a fight for survival, the series follows a tried and tested formula that straddles the capture and escape ethos to a tee, before bringing in some wider threats to our world.

Sure, it doesn't quite hold up these days with FX having moved on, but there's a charm and innocence to Land of the Giants that captures the imagination. More a testament to Allen's mark on the scifi world than a permanent place, this cult classic will be an essential release to some thanks to its remastered fare and its wealth of extras.

The Danish Girl: Film Review

The Danish Girl: Film Review

Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Matthias Schoenaerts, Amber Heard
Director: Tom Hooper

If there is any justice in the world, The Danish Girl will be up for Oscar glory later this year - but not for the reasons you'd expect.

From the director of The King's Speech and Les Miserables, this tale of transgender artist Einar Wegender (Redmayne) and his wife Gerde (Vikander) is as much a study of a marriage and of love, as a story of one man's discovery of his true nature.

Set in Copehagen in the 1920s, Einar is a successful artist and his wife lives in his shadow. Despite the two talents in the relationship, only one has the spotlight - and while Gerde does her best to nurture this talent, it's clear she is frustrated. When a model doesn't come in for a sitting one day, Gerde asks Einar to throw on her costume and sit for the portrait; but what she doesn't bargain on is that Einar re-discovers a long dormant penchant for the clothes and struggle within.

Initially thinking Einar's dressing up is to reinject some spice into a marriage under strain due to lack of children, Gerde supports it - and even benefits from painting his picture. But it soon becomes clear that Einar, who is now masquerading as Lili, has other plans, which could signal the end of their marriage.

Undoubtedly a prestige picture which ticks all the boxes and sensitively handles the subject matter, The Danish Girl is a curiously emotion-free film, lacking any of the beats of anything other than pure Oscar-bait material.

Redmayne impresses as Einar / Lili and there will be many who are transfixed by his androgynous transformation but with trembling lips and lingering cameras, his performance is a more showy one than you'd perhaps expect - or in many ways, hope for. That's not to detract from the subject matter, but its portrayal is more about providing a platform for Redmayne, rather than letting his work on the story and character stand out. Shots of Lili studying affectations within crowds seem shoe-horned in rather than naturally given room to breathe.

In contrast, Vikander deserves some Oscar love for her role as Gerde; hers is a turn of remarkable complexity, of a love so deep and supportive that its final destination is nothing short of magnificence. She impresses with a performance which is steeped in subtlety and whose complex reactions and inner conflict is more suitably portrayed as her muse reveals herself and her talent begins to soar. The conflict is here in the film as she struggles to find her own inspiration at the cost of the loss of her marriage, and Vikander conveys it wonderfully.

The problem with The Danish Girl is while it's beautifully shot, wonderfully framed and perfectly acted, it's all a little stiff, and consequently lacking some of the power it should inevitably wield in its final frames. Preferring to go through the tropes and trials, the film emerges as some what of a muted piece that does what it's supposed to but lacks the vision to accompany and deliver its journey.

Rating:

Brooklyn: Film Review

Brooklyn: Film Review

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters
Director: John Crowley

Saoirse Ronan's star is most definitely in the ascent with Boy A director's John Crowley's Brooklyn.

It's not an original story by any stretch of the imagination as Ronan's young Irish immigrant Eilis heads to Brooklyn for a new life at the behest of her sister who believes she has more going for her life than she has in Ireland.

Inevitably Eilis suffers from crippling home-sickness as she adjusts to a new country, filled with her own ex-pats but still feeling alienated by those around her. Stuck in a boarding house ran by Julie Walters' Mammy, Eilis worries she has made the right decision, but finds her life is turned around when she meets Italian nice guy Tony (Cohen) who woos her, and ultimately wins her heart.

But when tragedy hits at home, Eilis feels the familial bond stretched as far as it will go...

That Brooklyn follows a predictable route is no surprise, (the film cruises along with a genial vibe before a bad thing happens) but what emerges is that Saoirse Ronan makes the journey of Eilis' coming of age so damn approachable.

From the subtle clothing choices - Eilis wears dowdy dull colours in Ireland before donning more luminous and bright garb as she begins to blossom in Brooklyn - to the social history made real, this old fashioned feel good film is likely to hit as many in its audience as it intends to.

Ronan lifts the film from its mediocre roots with a rounded performance that feels like a credible arc; from naive homesick Irish girl to woman of the world, she sells the journey with an earnestness that is deeply watchable and transcends the material as well as getting you to believe the immigrant experience and the blossoming of a young woman. Eilis may appear to dither at times, and certainly in the second half of the film when she heads back to Ireland, the reasons for her actions are more obtuse than you'd expect due to a passive turn that's perfectly crafted and wonderfully understated.

However, sensitively executed with a troupe of solid performers (Jim Broadbent's turn as the benevolent and benefactor priest is a highlight) Brooklyn's timeless and universal story of coming of age and starting anew seems destined for awards - and marks a real turning point in Ronan's career.

Sometimes labelling a film as lovely and pleasant seems like a back-handed compliment, but Brooklyn manages the fine line between both as it juggles the emotive with the dramatic; richly resonant and likely to hit the majority of the audience - even if cynics will dismiss its naivete and intentions - it deserves to be a talking point during awards season.

Rating: