10 Cloverfield Lane: Film Review

10 Cloverfield Lane: Film Review

Cast: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr
Director: Dan Trachtenberg

"People are strange creatures - you can't always convince them safety is in their best interests".

It's this line from John Goodman's character that really sets the tone for the mystery that is 10 Cloverfield Lane, a film described as a blood relative to 2008's Cloverfield by JJ Abrams, rather than a direct sequel to the handy shaky-cam, found footage monster flick.

If anything this subterranean set film is best described as a taut chamber piece that you're better off knowing little about before viewing.

Loosely, Winstead is Michelle, who at the start of the film, is desperately scrabbling around, packing a bag and leaving her other half, for reasons unknown. Fleeing in her car, Michelle's involved in a car accident and wakes to find herself in a dingy room, her leg shackled to the wall, and with no idea where she is or how she got there. So far, so Saw (or so Room).

Enter into proceedings, Goodman's twitchy doomsday prepper Howard whose reasons for dragging Michelle down to the bunker appear to her to be less than clear. Also in this bunker is John Gallager Jr's Emmet, who's injured and appears to be captive too....

10 Cloverfield Lane is a masterful execution in suspense and a masterclass of Hitchcockian nail-biting drama in a three-hander setting.

Taut and lean, its strengths really are in the way it plays out, as well as the performances of both Goodman and Winstead. As Michelle does, the audience is drip fed potential reasons for her predicament and as a result, the ensuing paranoia is built as we gain empathy for her plight and her mistrust. There's a duality of trust at play here and no one knows who is telling the truth, even though at various stages, we swing the pendulum of doubt either way.

But smartly, Goodman's Hector is not just a one dimensional nutbar whose underground plans and murky reasonings make a kind of unnerving sense to the audience. The way the needle keeps flipping back and forth between believing him and distrusting him is sparingly but effectively used and is redolent of the lean story-telling on hand.

Thanks to Goodman's relative underplaying of the role (essentially a psychological bully who may or may not be blessed with a dose of veracity) coupled with his implied menace and Winstead's rounded pluck as she goes through her arc of vulnerability to strength, 10 Cloverfield Lane emerges as a thriller filled with dread that rewards as the onion peels back its layers. Hell is very much other people as they say, and in this Fallout Shelter-esque claustrophobic flick, that's evident from the nail-biting beginning.

It helps that the Twilight Zone-esque post Cold War vibe is severely amped up by a mood-ratcheting score from The Walking Dead's Bear McCreary, leading to an atmosphere of unease, mistrust and even in its most domestic scenes, distinctly unsettling overtones.

If the final act hints at more and sees the expected route taken for a Cloverfield film, then the tense and nervy journey there is nothing short of compelling as the mystery box is opened wide.

Unsettling, unease and uncertainty are redolent throughout and Trachtenberg manipulates these well throughout the lean run time (even if there are some mysteries which are never fully resolved). It's dramatic and rare to see a film these days surprise, but thanks to grounding 10 Cloverfield Lane in a relatable humanity and spinning the dial of doubt while simultaneously dredging every last drop of tension, it's one of the best genre films of the year.

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New DOOM trailer unveiled

New DOOM trailer unveiled

This morning we released a new multiplayer gameplay trailer to prepare players for DOOM’s upcoming Closed Beta!

The Closed Beta will run from April 1 - 4 in Australia and New Zealand on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, and will be available to those that pre-ordered Wolfenstein: The New Order and redeemed their Beta code. For more information about the Closed Beta, please visit http://doom.com/beta .  

DOOM is under development at id Software, the studio that pioneered the first-person shooter genre and invented multiplayer Deathmatch. Relentless demons, impossibly destructive guns, and fast, fluid movement provide the foundation for intense, first-person combat – whether you’re obliterating demon hordes through the depths of Hell in the single-player campaign, or competing against your friends in numerous multiplayer modes. Expand your gameplay experience using DOOM SnapMap game editor to easily create, play, and share your content with the world.

DOOM will launch worldwide on May 13, 2016 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. For more information about the game please visit www.DOOM.com

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir skills and combat trailer

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir skills and combat trailer

ODIN SPHERE® LEIFTHRASIR SKILLS AND COMBAT TRAILER RELEASED!

NIS America have already announced that Odin Sphere Leifthrasir will be joining its European RPG lineup in June 2016 and now they have released the new ‘Skills and Combat’ trailer. 

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is a 2D sidescrolling action RPG, steeped in Norse mythology or a Wagnerian opera. The new game is a complete HD remake of the original PS2 classic Odin Sphere from Vanillaware, the team behind the hit side-scrolling action game Dragon’s Crown and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Atlus U.S.A. will be publishing this game in North America.

About the story:

The kingdom of Valentine was the most powerful country on the continent of Erion. Its people thrived using the magical power of the Crystallization Cauldron, but it was destroyed in one fateful night. And so, a war over the now master-less Cauldron has begun, involving all the nations of the land and growing more intense by the day. Is the End near, as the Prophecy states?

For more information about Odin Sphere Leifthrasir visit: http://atlus.com/osl/

The Night Before: Blu Ray Review

The Night Before: Blu Ray Review

Rating: R16
Released by Sony Home Ent

Putting the crass into the Christmas holidays, Seth Rogen returns for an annual assault on the season after last year's near apocalyptic The Interview.

This time ploughing rather more frat frantics than low brow political satire, Rogen is Jewish Isaac, who along with Anthony Mackie's Chris, has every year for the past 13 years spent Christmas with their mutual friend Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) after he was orphaned at this time of the year.

However, this Christmas is going to be different as Isaac's on the cusp of fatherhood and Chris is a growing athlete juggling success and sponsorship. In search of the Holy Grail of Christmas parties, the trio decides this year will be their last of bad behaviour and ho-ho-hos under the tree.

The Night Before is a patchy film that goes for low-hanging fruit and picks every one of them off the tree without fail but without any kind of flair.

These three less-than-wise men booze, sniff and inhale their way through New York as each of them takes on their own personal quest and demons. Mixing in this with the obligatory holiday spirit and eventual mush of the season with a large portion of other white stuff, this film's about as irreverent as it can get - as you'd no doubt expect from a Rogen / Goldberg screenplay.

There's a degree of heart from Gordon-Levitt's character as he battles a bit of holiday blues and post-break up depression from Lizzy Caplan's Diana, but to be frank, this film aims for hedonism mixed in withIt's a Wonderful Life / Christmas Carol and barely strays too far from where it's aiming.

Despite Michael Shannon's brilliantly comic turn as a high school teacher turned drug dealer / pothead, and the obligatory showbiz cameos - and a great return from Tracy Morgan, The Night Before runs out of gags and steam by barely half-way through. Rogen's increasingly deranged Isaac's on the run from himself, fuelled by drugs given him by his wife - moments of humour are wrung from this set up but they all ultimately feel aimless and scabrously scatter-shot (even if one pay-off involving the crucifixion shows some residual smarts) when placed in the overall context of a 1hr 40 min movie.

As the film descends into an inevitable cornucopia of cameos and the inevitable happy ending mush is piled on, this Christmas Carol riff on friendship through the years lays out its message to the kids - it's hard to stay in touch as time goes on, but make the effort one character intones. Something that no doubt its mainly frat boy puerile audience will nod vehemently at before life takes hold.

It may sound like a Christmas Grinch to dismiss The Night Before and there's no denying there are some laughs to be had, but the stop-start ramshackle nature of this drug-fuelled nightmare before Christmas is more no-no-no than ho-ho-ho; it's nothing short of seasonal excess with a terrible cinematic hangover once the lights go up.

Rating:

Grimsby: Film Review

Grimsby: Film Review

Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson, Penelope Cruz
Director: Louis Letterier

2012 marked the last time we saw provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen attempting to push the envelope with The Dictator.

So he's back with another character and more of a spy action comedy film than a mockumentary in the style of Borat or Bruno.

This time, Baron Cohen is taking on the North of England but also hinting at a softer more sentimental style with his story of Nobby (Baron Cohen) and Sebastian (Mark Strong, surprisingly game and willing to debase himself), who've been separated for 28 years.

But when Sebastian, who's now working for MI6, finds his cover blown by his England tattoo-sporting football shirt-wearing brother as he tries to foil an assassination, he's forced on the run and to co-opt his brother Nobby into helping stop the murder of WorldCure (played by Penelope Cruz).

If Bruno and Borat had the ability to shock and provoke, Grimsby is a tamer affair, a sort of spy caper that is more obsessed with the puerile and promotes gay panic with wild abandon.

And yet by entrusting the proceedings to Now You Can See director Louis Leterrier, what emerges is a slick, pacy piece that doesn't stay still long enough for you to pick fault with its sub par-Kingsman leanings.

Emerging as a kind of knob and AIDS-obsessed spiritual successor to Melissa McCarthy and Paul Feig's Spy, Grimsby is doused with Baron Cohen's DNA and a Viz style anal fixation that's cyclical with the beginning leading you by the hand to its closing crowd capper.

However, despite appearing to be mocking the Northern scum of the hive of council flat dwelling working classes, Grimsby is doused in a blanket of sentiment that's as gooey as Baron Cohen has ever got.

Fear not though, there are the usual scatological minings of proceedings that you would expect and Baron Cohen unwelcomely revives HIV and AIDS jokes with nothing more than a reason to offend. This is not smart satire by any stretch of the imagination and there's a guarantee you won't feel good for for laughing at what transpires.

There's an obvious topical reference or two that pokes fun at the US elections, and one sequenceset in South Africa will see you either on its side or wondering how much lower the bar can go.

Character is lacking; no one emerges as fully rounded and is there simply to debase themselves in one way or another.

Strong deserves some accolade for playing it straight before giving into the lunacy of proceedings and even strengthens the case for an older spy franchise with him as the lead.

And Leterrier deserves some kudos for the initial POV action pieces which echo Hardcore Henry and many FPS video games. His zip and fast pace propels everything along nicely too, though it's fair to admit the 84 mins starts to feel stretched thin as time wears on.

Ultimately, in among the Liam Gallagher mocking swagger and the butthole obsession that tends to low hanging fruit, Grimsby is a puerile film that occasionally produces some unexpected laughs. It's not art, but to be frank, it never professes to be and gleefully and perversely soldiers on its mission to attempt to offend as well as riff on the spy/ mismatched buddy genre that's proven so fruitful in the past. Though admittedly, it's more Bourne Stupid, than Bourne Supremacy.

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A Bigger Splash: Film Review

A Bigger Splash: Film Review

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, Matthias Schoenaerts
Director: Luca Guadagnino

There's nothing worse than a gatecrasher.

And in I Am Love director Luca Guadagnino's latest, a remake of the French 1969 thriller La Piscine, even though the gate-crasher is a tremendous Ralph Fiennes, the after effects of this arrival fail to really lift the so-called sexual thriller.

Swinton is Marianne Lane, a Bowie-esque rock singer, who's recuperating from throat surgery that's rendered her all but mute. While she's factored in some serious R&R with her current beau, Paul (a wearied and disconnected Schoenaerts), the peace is rudely shattered by the arrival of Lane's former manager and one time lover Harry (Fiennes), who shows with his newly-discovered daughter Penny (50 Shades of Grey's Dakota Johnson) in tow.

And it's not just the fragile peace that's ripped asunder with this visit, as old feelings between Lane and Harry simmer away; coupled with the Lolita-esque trappings of Penny as she eyes up Paul, nothing will ever be the same again.

It may be beautifully shot and evocatively dressed in the Italian countryside but Gaudagnino's latest is nothing more than an arthouse snooze-fest that does little to indulge the brain as much as it does to indulge the senses.

It's fair to say that were it not for Fiennes' overly boisterous and frequently hilarious (not to mention constantly naked) performance, A Bigger Splash would fall considerably flatter than it does.

Fiennes breathes life into the relative caricature of the man whose dancing to the Rolling Stones' Emotional Rescue proves that he does indeed have the moves like Jagger - albeit on the dad front. But Fiennes brings a positively lustrous and infectious energy to the screen that's missing when he's not there.

Swinton's a degree of class, giving her relatively mute songstress a sophistication that's needed and she manages to do so much with so little; equally, Johnson proves to have some cinematic balls giving her Penny the dangerous edge of flirtation that comes so often on holiday.

Unfortunately, Schoenaerts has neither the lustre or life to bring anything to the table as the damaged Paul - even in flashbacks, where Swinton's character comes alive, he brings hardly anything to the table, which ensures the denouement of this so called Dangerous Liaisons piece is lacking the emotional intensity which is required to ignite the powderkeg that's supposed to have been smouldering.

Instead, it's a damp fizzer of a film, that wallows wilfully and indulgently in its arthouse trappings and rarely rises above its jealousy soaked aspirations.

Win a double pass to see A BIGGER SPLASH

Win a double pass to see A BIGGER SPLASH

From the director of the Academy Award® nominated I AM LOVE comes a psychological suspense drama that will invite audiences into the fragile and dangerous world of relationships.

When a glamorous couple decide to vacation on a remote Italian island, their rest is disrupted by the sudden visit of an old friend and his luscious daughter. Suddenly, what was supposed to be a perfect romantic getaway turns into a whirlwind of jealousy, passion and danger, sparking some flames that should not necessarily be ignited.

Starring Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson, Matthias Schoenaerts.

A Bigger Splash is in cinemas from March 10th

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

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