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.
From
Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures comes Warcraft, an epic
adventure of world-colliding conflict based on Blizzard Entertainment’s global
phenomenon.
The
peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its civilization faces
a fearsome race of invaders: Orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonize
another. As a portal opens to connect
the two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a
collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people and
their home.
So
begins a spectacular saga of power and sacrifice in which war has many faces,
and everyone fights for something.
Directed
by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) and written by Charles
Leavitt and Jones, the film starring Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben
Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Rob Kazinsky and Daniel
Wu is a Legendary Pictures, Blizzard Entertainment and Atlas Entertainment
production.
WARCRAFT is in cinemas from June 16th. Rated M for Fantasy Violence To enter simply email to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com and in the subject line put WARCRAFT. Please include your name and address and good luck! NB Competition closes 16th June - editor's decision final!
Director: Laura Gabbert Serving up is certainly high on City of Gold's agenda.
This gentle doco from director Laura Gabbert tantalises us with the notion of a piece about food critic Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer prize winning writer who's more at home among the street food than the swanky restaurants. But what actually transpires is a long love letter to Los Angeles throughout the years, where Gold live, and to the people who give the food their love and serve to the man who loves their food. With a few details about Gold scattered throughout, this piece keeps on the right side of hagiography with various colleagues and compadres of the scene espousing the virtues of Gold, who comes replete with long shaggy white hair. One even laments the fact they had discovered an eaterie which they were determined to keep secret but that ambition was foiled by Gold's review pinned up in the corner. Along the journey, and in among the tantalising dishes served up by various smaller restaurants, Gold himself emerges as a critic of yore. There's very brief discussion of the place of the critic in this internet age and the value of opinion when it's blessed with experience (a thread I'm always, understandably, interested in) but this is really a piece about Los Angeles and the rich melting pot that lies within. City of Gold is a document and snapshot of culinary history guaranteed to titillate and salivate, but it also throws into the mix a meshing and dollop of LA lifestyle throughout the years. Culturally it may enlighten, but what it will also do for LA, as well as the debate over the place of food critic, is to put plenty of eateries and treasures on the map that hitherto have remained hidden. And at the end of the day, isn't that the job of the critic?
Telltale Publishing bringing the hit survival game '7 Days to Die' to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on June 28th
Developer Interview and Special Pre-Order Bonus
Telltale Publishing today announced that the hit survival horde crafting game 7 Days to Die will release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for the first time on June 28th as both a digital and retail product in North America, and digitally in Europe; and will be available on July 1st for the first time at retail in Europe. The recommended retail price is $29.99 USD or equivalent, and the game is currently available for pre-order at GameStop, Best Buy, GAME, and Amazon. 7 Days to Die is published in collaboration with the Dallas-based independent developer, The Fun Pimps.
Set in a brutally unforgiving post-apocalyptic world overrun by the undead, 7 Days to Die is an open-world survival game that is a unique combination of first person shooter, survival horror, tower defense, and role-playing games. It presents combat, crafting, looting, mining, exploration, and character growth, in a way that has seen a rapturous response from fans worldwide, generating hundreds of thousands of hours of community content on YouTube and other streaming video platforms.
Fans of Telltale's The Walking Dead series in partnership with Skybound will be excited to learn that pre-ordering 7 Days to Die will give them exclusive access to 5 character skins from Telltale's hit series, including Michonne and Lee Everett.
The console version of 7 Days to Die adds a new multiplayer mode supporting local split-screen for couch play, additional online multiplayer modes and features will be revealed in the coming weeks. The game will be supported by exciting DLC content, with details to be revealed in the near future.
This new interview with 7 Days to Die developers gives insight into what inspired the immensely popular "survival horde crafting game" , as well as what players can expect in the console version.
'7 Days to Die' Developer Interview
7 Days to Die is rated is rated 'M' (Mature) for Blood and Gore, Strong Language, and Violence by the ESRB. The game is published by Telltale Publishing in partnership with The Fun Pimps.
7 Days to Die is currently available for Windows, Mac OS X, and SteamOS and Linux in Early Access on the Steam platform.
Tom Clancy's The Division - Conflict Free Update Now Available
TOM CLANCY’S THE DIVISION™ CONFLICT FREE UPDATE NOW AVAILABLE
New High-End Weapons and Four New Gear Sets Introduced
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — May 25, 2016 — Ubisoft® has announced that the second content update for Tom Clancy’s The Division is now available for all players on Xbox One, PlayStation4 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. Conflict is part of the post-launch plan aimed at keeping the experience fresh for players by introducing new ongoing content. This second free update offers a new incursion, High Value Targets, and features to make the journey through mid-crisis New York even more challenging and intense.
NEW ACTIVITIES
·New Incursion Clear Sky: This new incursion takes players to Columbus Circle area, where they face an overwhelming force of Rikers who are now in full control of the Manhattan airspace. Players need to team up to take back the area and secure the supply route.
·Search and Destroy Missions: Once all side missions and encounters have been completed in a named zone, Search and Destroy missions lead players to group of enemies located in the open-world.
·High Value Targets: After completing Search and Destroy missions, players are granted with valuable intel to hunt down new enemy leaders who have appeared all over Manhattan.
NEW ITEMS
·Clear Sky introduces new top-of-the-line gear sets. Players will be able to try out these new powerful sets to match their gameplay style:
-Hunter’s Faith – Powerful long range set, deals severe damages to enemies.
-Lone Star – Damage per second gear set, increases the ammo capacity.
-Predator’s Mark – Support set, enables players to fight enemies at range and increases damage.
NEW FEATURES
·Hijack Extractions: Now players have the ability to interrupt an extraction by cutting the rope and attempt to acquire the fallen loot bags. But this is not without risk, as this action will instantly mark them as Rogue.
·Sealed Cache: Sealed Caches can now be dropped by named enemies in the Dark Zone. The content of these caches remains mysterious until they are extracted and can include gear, Division Tech, and Dark Zone funds.
·Player Stashes: Player stashes are now available in every Dark Zone checkpoint.
·ISAC Assignments: These weekly assignments are now included in the map overview. Also with this update, weekly exclusive rewards will be introduced as well as free vanity items
As one of the industry’s best-selling new game franchise to date with a current total of 9.5 million registered users, Tom Clancy’s The Division takes place weeks after a devastating pandemic sweeps through New York City on Black Friday. One by one, basic services fail and in only days, without food or water, society collapses into chaos. The Division, an autonomous unit of tactical agents leading seemingly ordinary lives among us, is activated to save society. Team up with other players to investigate the source of the virus, protect civilians from dangerous factions, and reclaim the city from the overwhelming turmoil.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt -- Blood and Wine “Final Quest” Trailer
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt -- Blood and Wine “Final Quest” Trailer
Become professional monster slayer Geralt of Rivia and explore Toussaint, a remote land untouched by war, where you will unravel the horrifying secret behind a beast terrorizing the kingdom. With all trails leading to dead ends, only a witcher can solve the mystery and survive the evil lurking in the night. Introducing an entirely new realm to traverse, new characters and monsters, Blood and Wine is a 30+ hour adventure full of dark deeds, unexpected twists, romance and deceit.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Launch Trailer – Why We Run
Times are about to change in the city of Glass. Barely out of juvenile detention, skilled Runner Faith Connors stirs things up with the city's Conglomerate and the evil Gabriel Kruger. Faith is forced to start running for something far more important than herself.
Experience the origin story of Faith and master her momentum to traverse the city and fight back against the oppressive powers. Exploring the pristine city districts you'll discover new friends, exciting missions, and hidden secrets. With Social Play you can challenge your friends by creating time trials among the rooftops.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst will be available on June 9thin Australia and New Zealand for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and on Origin for PC.
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Russell Crowe, Angourie Rice, Kim Basinger
Director: Shane Black
A veritable shaggy dog crime story, The Nice Guys sees Iron Man 3 director Shane Black given carte blanche to run riot on a canvas that's decked out in 70s life writ large on the big screen.
Gosling and Crowe star as down on his luck PI Holland March and literal heavy weight street enforcer Jackson Healy respectively, whose paths cross when Healy warns March off a case he's investigating.
But forced to team up by a twist of fate, the duo end up looking into the death of a porn star in 70s Los Angeles and finding their initial line of enquiry leads them deep into the heart of a conspiracy.
There's a goofiness and a Shane Black meta approach that nearly overwhelms The Nice Guys, covering its smarts and dumbness in equal knowing nods and winks that at times, detracts from what's going on on the big screen.
Swathed in gorgeous period detail (from the 70s fashion to billboards for Jaws 2 and Airport 77), this is a film that gets great parts of its execution spot on, even if the central story is as thin and its ultimate reveal as obvious as you'd suspect.
Fortunately though, the chemistry between the mismatched duo is impeccable.
Gosling demonstrates a gift for goofier physical comedy and pratfalls that's well utilised - but Black's smart enough to have ensured that the sensitive yet easily scared March is no dumb klutz caught in the middle of it all (even if the power of coincidence propels large swathes of the actual plot along for great stretches of it for no real reason other than to ensure the narrative continues). Equally, March's interactions with his slightly smarter than him daughter (played with a great amount of heart by Rice) are charming and round off March's character nicely.
But if Gosling's jokier edges are as successful, it's due in large part to Crowe's heavier set straight guy.
As Healy, with a substantial bulk around the stomach, Crowe's weariness and hinted-at-back story is used lightly and consequently more effectively, as he moves into the family unit of March and his daughter.
It gives him greater dramatic weight, but also feels perfect for an enforcer lost in a city that's on the edge of change. (And the allegory of being stuck in a smog ridden LA is not lost on the guy, who's clearly choking for resonance in a changing world and who opines poignantly at one point that "just for a moment, I felt useful").
However, The Nice Guys is a film that's never below peppering its dialogue with laugh-out-loud zingers, physical comedy and typical Black dialogue and banter between the leads to power proceedings.
(Even if Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Black's treatment of the women in this time period is slightly off-putting and panders to lazy sleazy stereotypes, his encapsulation of the era is spot on and perhaps in channeling that vibe, and under today's watchful eyes, potentially is why its anti-PCness stands out a little more).
Ultimately, The Nice Guys is an impressively retro throwback to the buddy-cop movies of yesteryear and is buoyed by some meta touches and some sizzling comic chemistry. It's just a shame that the film noir central story is merely the garnish on the side of this dish, rather than the dramatic meat to nourish what is a good time at the cinema.
