Orphans and Kingdoms: Film Review

Orphans and Kingdoms: Film Review

Cast: Colin Moy, Calae Hignett-Morgan, Hanelle Harris, Jesse James Rehu Pickery
Director: Paolo Rotondo

Made on a micro-budget and set entirely in a house on Auckland's Waiheke Island, Shortland Street actor Paolo Rotondo's Orphans and Kingdoms is a subtly damning indictment of social services and how we're failing children.

Essentially, it's the tale of three kids running riot on the island, stealing from dairies. But when the trio breaks in to a house and the owner Jeremy (Colin Moy) comes home, their plan to lie low hits a major speed bump....

Orphans and Kingdoms achieves a lot more than its limited setting would suggest.

While there are moments that come together nicely, there are moments that feel a little strained.

Fortunately, there's a powerhouse performance from Calae Hignett-Morgan as Kenae, the firecracker of a youngster whose bravado embraces the street smarts but whose frailty of a lack of family and a bouncing between foster homes lies just beneath the surface. He's also responsible for the most shocking scene of the film which includes Jeremy and a knife.

In many ways, Rotondo's used him as a vessel to condemn the life of the youngster and the system that has failed him. The message is all the more powerful due to its subtlety.

If Kenae is the fire of the trio, Colin Moy's Jeremy is slightly hamstrung by a vein of sadness and a central mystery that's only solved in the final third act - hampered by a series of flashbacks, Jeremy feels a little underwritten and relies too heavily on the emotional weight it's supposed to be given. (Though a shot that serves as a call back to the opening sequence at the house is given a tighter emotional edge by its framing and execution).

These suffer in comparison because they feel slightly over-wrought; perhaps, less reliance on them would have rendered them more powerful. And certainly in comparison with the subtle dialogue and script shift for Kenae, Rotondo's clearly got an eye for what's required.

Potentially, the story structure of Orphans and Kingdoms and the fact it relies on contrivances while in the house to power the drama, rather than a more natural approach, slightly scupper this commendable film.

But undoubtedly when the film is lighter of touch, Orphans and Kingdoms soars. It's a reminder of what can be done on a budget, but also serves as a reminder of where strengths should be played to.

Dark Souls III is here

Dark Souls III is here

BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe today released DARKS SOULS III!

Embrace the Darkness

Leading interactive entertainment company BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe launched today the long-awaited DARK SOULS III for the Xbox One, PlayStation®4 and STEAM for PC. As the Champion of Ash trying to bring back the five Lords of Cinder, players will dive into the twisted and apocalyptical world of Lothric where deadly enemies stand alongside devious traps and hidden secrets.

Developed by the famous Japanese studio FROMSOFTWARE and directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, DARK SOULS III is the latest chapter of the critically acclaimed DARK SOULS series. This last opus allows players to experience a dark fantasy adventure across a wide variety of locations in an interconnected world renowned for its sword and sorcery combat and its typical rewarding action-RPG gameplay.

“With DARK SOULS III, our dear partner FromSoftware offers the fans the worthy heir of DARK SOULS series!” said Herve Hoerdt, Vice President of Marketing & Digital at BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe. “And we are very proud here, at BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe, to have worked on such license and to have participated to the creation of this masterpiece!”

DARK SOULS™ III is now available on Xbox One, PlayStation®4 and PC via STEAM in Europe, Middle-East, Africa and Australasia. First DLC will be available in Winter 2016.

Fallout 4: Wasteland Workshop is here!

Fallout 4: Wasteland Workshop is here!

Fallout 4’s second add-on, Wasteland Workshop, is available now for download worldwide on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC for $6.95 AUD / $7.45 NZD! 

With the Wasteland Workshop, design and set cages to capture live creatures – from raiders to Deathclaws! Tame them or have them face off in battle, even against your fellow settlers. The Wasteland Workshop also includes a suite of new design options for your settlements like nixie tube lighting, letter kits, taxidermy and more!

Expand the capabilities of settlements with Wasteland Workshop, then in May, travel beyond the Commonwealth to Maine for Far Harbor – the largest landmass Bethesda Game Studios has ever created for post-release content.

Stay tuned for more details on even more add-ons to be released in 2016 and on free updates like the Creation Kit, which will allow you to create mods on the PC and then share and play them across all platforms, including consoles.

For more information visit www.fallout4.com.

Creed: Blu Ray Review

Creed: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

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.

Rating:

Destiny: April update

Destiny: April update

Destiny Update 2.2.0 launches tomorrow bringing players new challenges, rewards, and updates for their Guardian.

In celebration of the April Update, Bungie’s Live team released the Official Destiny: The Taken King April Update Preview trailer.

The Assassin: Blu Ray Review

The Assassin: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Vendetta Films

An exercise in patience, albeit a not entirely successful one, The Assassin, from director Hou Hsiao-hsien, is likely to polarise audiences.

Set in 7th Century China at the decline of the Tang dynasty, it's the story of Yinniang (Shu Qi) a general's daughter who was taken away by a nun when young and who returns to carry out an assassination mission that could have far-reaching consequences for the political future of the Weibo region.

The fact that it takes 1 hour 20 minutes before the lead actually speaks gives you an insight into the slow, ponderous pace of The Assassin. It's a film that favours visual aesthetics over any kind of semblance of plot and long-sweeping character development. In fact, one story line involving a pregnancy of a character and her faking to avoid detection is thrown in with such weight that it's clearly important to the film's arc but is introduced so randomly and executed so poorly that it fails to provide any narrative heft whatsoever.

An impassive, emotionless lead of Yinniang doesn't help matters either; if you're expecting a film chock full of fight sequences that are long and extended, you'll also be disappointed in what transpires. Short bursts of fight scenes happen but with little or no consequence; in fact, director Hou Hsiao-hsien has left it for you to do the work, to engage with the film and provide the emotional heft that's needed - and unfortunately, that's not always a trade-off that works to his advantage I'm afraid to say, as not once did I care about anyone involved in this.

The Assassin though succeeds in its visuals; perhaps, a little too much so. Conversations are snatched from a distance and shot with veils floating in front of the camera, as if we are spying in on them like Yinniang; a couple of sequences flit by until you realise that she is lurking in the background as well. It's masterful, if not involving, stuff.

But ultimately The Assassin feels muddled; its slow languid, almost stultifying pace is crippling and its narrative and back-story is lacking; whether it's the subtitles that didn't convey everything they needed to or the script was muddled at an earlier stage, this Assassin is a killer of a film - but for all the wrong reasons. 

Phoenix: Film Review

Phoenix: Film Review

Cast: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf
Director: Christian Petzold

From the director of the critically acclaimed Barbara, Phoenix is a tale that aims for powerful and gets there - for the most part.

Hoss plays Nelly, a survivor of the concentration camps, who's badly disfigured and needs reconstruction surgery after the war to start to rebuild her life. Choosing to ignore surgeons' advice and seeking her own face be restored, Nelly's determined to find her husband Johnny, who was arrested the same time she was and the thought of whom kept her going in the camps. However, Johnny didn't sustain that hope and believed she was dead, killed at the hands of the Nazis.

But when Nelly discovers Johnny's working in a local cabaret club as a busboy, and despite the advice from long term friend Lene, she ingratiates her way back into his life as he concocts a scheme to get her inheritance, believing Nelly to be the spitting image of his wife...

With its weighty subject matter and universal concerns, Phoenix could so easily gone for overblown sentiment and mawkishness,

But what Petzold does is strive for subtlety and for a more intimate drama that really becomes more about Johnny and Nelly than it does its global implications, which is where the suspension and suspense start to diverge.

By scattering elements through the story of a post World War II life and of Jews trying to deal with their PTSD and of a nation trying to rebuild, but by concentrating on the struggle between the duo, Petzold creates a film that's as much Hitchcock as it is post-Holocaust tale.

Evocatively lit and carefully choreographed, this is a film that relies on its cinematography for its atmosphere and one which demonstrates a proliferation of victims by concentrating on a singular one. But it's also a story which requires a leap of faith that Johnny wouldn't become suspicious of Nelly and the incredible coincidence that the tale pivots on.

Granted, it's the stuff of film noir, but Phoenix doesn't quite convince on that front and the eventual denouement of the piece lacks the real shock factor that it should have. And nowhere is this more evident than in Lene's ultimate fate, coming as it does like a shot out of the blue and with no resonance.

If anything, Phoenix is more of a film of survivors, of trying to find one's way again and of a nation trying to find a new face, as well as an individual. It's here that the power of Phoenix lies and it's here that the story is perhaps more desperate to be told.

As it is, Phoenix is beautifully and masterfully executed, but one can't help but feel its vision should have been better placed.