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.
I am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story: DVD Review
Rating: PG
Released by Vendetta Films
The story of Big Bird is perhaps not an original one if you've seen the likes of Being Elmo.
Amiably told, this is the tale of Caroll Spinney, a man whose dreams of being a muppeteer were made real by a coincidental meeting with Frank Oz. But his tale of success and of performing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch is not an easy route to success; Spinney never really fitted in with the other performers and was close to leaving when he stumbled across the idea of Big Bird.
The story's pleasantly told and with plenty of input from Spinney and those around him, but the anecdotes that have the real edge (Big Bird on the Challenger space shuttle and a murder on his estate) are never really fully explored to the frustration of the viewer looking for a deeper experience.
As an insight and a jog down memory lane for those Sesame Street characters and people you remember, I am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story is perfectly perfunctory - it's never as inspirational as you'd hope, but it's certainly not a badly constructed doco.
Murderous goons meet their match in a downhome Minnesota
cop, the inimitable Frances McDormand as Detective Marge Gunderson, chirpy,
relentless and seven months pregnant. Landmark ‘true crime’ comedy from the
Coens.
The
Iron Giant: Signature Edition
In Brad Bird’s beautifully animated adaptation of Ted Hughes’ anti-Cold
War children's book, young Hogarth Hughes befriends a gigantic robot from outer
space, and hides him from wily government agents.
Deborah
Kerr and Yul Brynner are the definitive Anna and the King of Siam in the
dazzling movie of the evergreen Rogers and Hammerstein musical, spectacularly
transferred to digital for its 60th anniversary.
The Philadelphia Story
Katharine Hepburn spoofs her blue blood image as the spoiled
bride-to-be in the definitive high society romcom. Sardonic ex-husband Cary
Grant and scandal-mongering journo Jimmy Stewart vie to divert her from the
altar.
“Kurosawa’s
late-period masterpiece, transposing King Lear to period Japan, is one
of the most exquisite spectacles ever made, a color-coordinated epic tragedy of
carnage and betrayal – passionate, somber, and profound.” — New York
Magazine
Stop
Making Sense
Jonathan
Demme’s celebrated concert movie remains a conceptual and audiovisual triumph,
capturing David Byrne and Talking Heads in infectious peak form.
The NZIFF Autumn Events
Premieres are:
Bolshoi Babylon (A+W
only)
Russia’s
world-famous Bolshoi Ballet weathers the fallout from the notorious 2013 acid
attack on its artistic director. Brit filmmakers Nick Read and Mark Franchetti
gain remarkable access.
Ingrid Bergman in her Own Words (A+W only)
Actress
Ingrid Bergman shines in this compendium of her letters, movie clips, visits
with family members, and – best of all – lots of beautiful home movies, mostly
shot by the star herself.
An admiring, perceptive, richly
researched and performance-studded celebration of 60s icon and white soul
singer supreme, Janis Joplin, beautifully crafted by Amy Berg (West of
Memphis).
Putuparri and the
Rainmakers (A+W only)
(with filmmaker in attendance
at Auckland and Wellington screenings)
An
emotional journey to meet the traditional rainmakers of Australia's Great Sandy
Desert. The film spans 20 years in the life of Tom "Putuparri"
Lawford as he navigates the chasm between his Western upbringing and the need
to keep his traditional culture alive.
In
his sunniest most upbeat film yet, the activist/director of Fahrenheit 911
and Bowling for Columbine mounts a comic assault on the good citizens of
several of the world’s most liberal social welfare states.
Puritan terrors of devilry and damnation come screaming to
life in this impeccably crafted and thrillingly scary debut. “The Witch is
one of the most genuinely unnerving horror films in recent memory.” — David
Ehrlich, Time Out
And the big New Zealand premiere on Wednesday 13th April at 7pm will be TICKLED.
When pop-culture journalist
David Farrier came across a website seeking young men to travel to Los Angeles
to participate in endurance tickling competitions, he sensed a good story for
TV3’s Newsworthy.
He didn’t know he’d just bought himself a fight with a clutch of “bullies with
too much money.” That fight and the investigation it provoked make for gripping
viewing in his remarkably deft debut feature film, co-directed with Dylan
Reeve.
To celebrate the release of the sequel, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, which comes out March 24 2016, we're giving you the chance to win a double pass to head to the movies and see the film
Gold Circle Entertainment and HBO
present a Playtone production of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, the
long-awaited follow-up to the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all
time. Written by Academy Award® nominee Nia Vardalos, who
stars alongside the entire returning cast of favorites, the film reveals a
Portokalos family secret that will bring the beloved characters back together
for an even bigger and Greeker wedding.
Kirk Jones (Nanny McPhee, Waking
Ned Devine) directs the next chapter of the film that will be once again
produced by Rita Wilson and Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman.
Paul Brooks and Steve Shareshian return to executive produce alongside
Vardalos and Scott Niemeyer.
Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine James
Director: Andrew Haigh
With an Oscar nomination in tow for Charlotte Rampling's performance, 45 Years arrives with a certain amount of expectation surrounding it.
Essentially a two-hander, it's the acutely observed story of Kate and Geoff (Rampling and Courtenay respectively) in the week before they hit their 45th wedding anniversary. Geoff's world is changed (and subsequently Kate's) when he receives a letter from abroad telling him authorities have found the perfectly preserved body of his former girlfriend Katye in the ice after she fell into a crevasse.
This simple piece of news sends more than just ripples through their marriage and suddenly, the past threatens their future...
There's no denying the subtlety and the presence of these two powerhouse actors in this film, and there's a suggested history between the pair that's more often than not hinted at rather than explicitly explored (such as Geoff's heart bypass glimpsed in fleeting undressed shots, music choices pointing out the irony of what's ahead). It's in moments like these that 45 Years transcends and delivers something poignant without ever crossing the line.
The shocks that come within are smaller-scale but nevertheless devastating in their domestic destruction.
Kate's foundations are shaken by a withdrawing of Geoff who retreats into his memories and as the mistrust inevitably begins to permeate their very DNA, Haigh manages to keep each moment realistically shot and restrain his camera from invading and exploiting every scene.
From the opening shots which begin each day of the apparent calm of the English countryside where the pair lives (never has the country seemed so menacing, as if something rotten lies within its idyll) to the re-staging of their first dance, the cinematography remains a classy affair. Conversations are never glimpsed fully on and make the viewer complicit but never accountable in events as they transpire.
And yet, despite all of that, and the power of performances (why Courtenay has not been mentioned in the same award breath as Rampling is nothing short of a tragedy), there's an aloofness and an unanswered edge to the film that proves as much of a frustration to the viewer. It's never explained why the reveal is so devastating to Kate and why her reaction to the news and the regrets of the past are so likely to shake the foundations after some 40 plus years; sure, the past is the past, but it seems odd that the prism of the present is so dwarfed in what is happening.
Sure, Rampling delivers a turn that hinges on the quiver of an eye or a lip and in one scene alone a whimper conveys more than dialogue ever could, but sympathy for her's and Geoff's plight is remarkably short on materializing.
There's a muted atmosphere that is so entrenched in 45 Years and while it's no bad thing that everything's gleaned rather than outright discussed, when viewed under the microscope of awards talk, this subtle film comes up ever so slightly short.
Tour the World of Assassination in interactive 360-degree format
& The Real Life HITMAN Experience
SYDNEY, 10TH March 2016 - Io-Interactive today released a unique 360-degree video welcoming viewers into a world of killer fashion. Set in Paris, the Sanguine Fall Fashion Show is thered carpet event of the year and you are invited to join in this interactive video experience. Shot in 4K resolution, it shows off the Paris location from the first episode of the upcoming HITMAN game in stunning visual fidelity, allowing viewers to enter the fashion show itself and even inviting them backstage for a peak behind the curtains of mystery that surround this event.
From moment you move through the flashy entrance of Palais de Walewska to the second you see the outside fireworks setting off in the evening sky, the video gives you an immersive experience inside the secret World of Assassination unlike anything you’ve seen before in a Hitman game.
The HITMAN Sanguine Fall Fashion Show 360 video can be experienced here on YouTube. For a fully immersive experience, we recommend mobile as the preferred viewing platform.
Io-Interactive and Realm Pictures also recently invited a select group of people to become Agent 47’s handler as he goes on a mission to eliminate a Serbian arms dealer in a real life Hitman experience unlike anything created before. Among the participants were YouTubers AliA, NukemDukem, SUP3R KONAR and Pietsmiet as well as Jane Perry, the voice actress behind Agent 47’s handler Diana Burnwood. The full video experience is available here and you can go behind the scenes with Realm Pictures here to learn much more about the elaborate setup required to pull this off.
HITMAN will launch on March 11th for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and early on March 12thfor Windows PC (ANZ).
Rating: M Released by Universal Home Ent That the latest Bond outing starts off in Mexico with the Day of the Dead festival seems too pertinent - it's an apt observation, given how much of the film is haunted by ghosts from its own past.
A more introspective piece set against a backdrop of an ongoing discussion about intelligence sharing, mergers and the place of archaic spies, the 24th Bond sees James Bond engaging in a more personal quest and forgetting about global concerns to mixed results. Setting out in Mexico on a rogue mission to track a man called Sciarra, Bond's globe-trotting finally leads him into the world of shadowy organisation Spectre - and a discovery that shakes his very core.
The new Bond film is steeped in the tentacles of its past and really struggles to garner a new identity for itself, with shades of deja vu a la Star Trek Into Darkness spilling in for reasons that verge on spoiler territory.
Half the problem of the film is that throughout, the sense of threat and urgency is rather misplaced within the long drawn-out pacing.
The film's opening in Mexico is breath-taking, with a gorgeous tracking shot that weaves between the crowds of The Day Of The Dead festival and along the rooftops as Bond precisely tracks his prey. Sharply suited throughout like some kind of walking GQ shoot and clad in Tom Ford (just one of many sponsors), Craig cuts an arrogantly icy figure as the Bond who's more aloof spy in the cold this time around; but the pre-credits teaser lacks some of the spectacle you'd expect even if some of the helicopter based stunt work borders on impressive and solid, rather than edge of your seat.
There's the obligatory globe-trotting too to Tangiers, Rome and Austria but as the story plays out the Snowden-esque elements of the global conspiracy end up being confined to the sidelines after propelling the narrative forward. Equally, Andrew Scott's C, who's the driver for the merger ends up being sidelined and part of a too obvious twist - even if he does play nicely off Ralph Fiennes' expanded M, with Fiennes delivering a quip that sounds like it could have come from the Roger Moore era (something which Craig also revels in to wry effect).
Confining to the fringes is a charge which could be laid against Christoph Waltz's villain too. His mellifluous tones light up the start of the film but then is damned to the back 30 minutes as the machinations and revelations come quickly. And however hard Waltz may try, he ends up feeling the victim of an extended set-up, as well as Austin Powersstyle parallels - even if foundations are laid for the future kind of character. (There are no spoilers here, but plenty of speculation on the character is already out there - and if you're a Bond afficionado, the film's title offers delicious hints of where exactly it could be going).
To be frank, the film very much teeters on reminding you why the series needed rebooting in the first place - it lacks the edge and gritty urgency of Casino Royale and sorely misses an emotional punch a la Skyfall as the potential finality of Daniel Craig's tenure as Bond plays out.
Revelling in its past (an original Aston Martin, an Odd Job type nemesis for Bond in the form of Dave Bautista and the other films from Craig's time as 007), Spectre never really finds a moment to definitively call its own. The stakes never feel high enough and the action sequences border on perfunctorily thrilling rather than edge of your seat gripping. It also dangerously edges back towards underwritten female protagonists too that simply fall under Bond's thrall. Belucci is completely wasted and is simply there to be bedded and Seydoux who brings a hardened edge starts off strong and feisty before falling into cliched Bond girl in peril territory.
But there are moments when Spectre hits its straps; chiefly, while it falls down on pushing the wonderfully energetic Harris and Fiennes to the outer edges of the action, bringing Ben Whishaw's Q into the field delivers the flick some much needed points of difference and a sense of unpredictability - future outings could benefit from more of Whishaw's clipped precise tones and fish-out-of-water vibes as Q.And while the action is tightly pulled together, its choreography almost strangles it of any danger, any life and any edge - almost as if Mendes and his team have story-boarded it to death.
Consequently the final verdict on Spectre is it's not exactly a Bond at its best but neither is at its worst; even though Craig makes the role definitively his own, the extended glut of the film, the resolution of past threads you didn't even know were loose and the lack of any urgency and threat make it more a ho-hum entry into the canon. It's easy to target Bond, but as the rebooted franchise has shown, it can play successfully with expectations while still delivering a spectacle that's rich in emotional resonance as it is flying bullets.
The credits promise that James Bond will return, but to really radically overhaul this film series again, it needs to shake off the ghosts of its own past, its own feeling of rote tropes and ensure that business as usual for this spy is nothing short of constantly thrilling - even if it is a more slightly traditional road to follow.
Amiably told, this is the tale of Caroll Spinney, a man whose dreams of being a muppeteer were made real by a coincidental meeting with Frank Oz. But his tale of success and of performing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch is not an easy route to success; Spinney never really fitted in with the other performers and was close to leaving when he stumbled across the idea of Big Bird.
