The Invitation: DVD Review

The Invitation: DVD Review

Rating: R16
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Creepy and unsettling, The Invitation's psychological thriller stars Logan Marshall-Green as Will, who's invited to a dinner party by his ex-wife Eden and her new husband after 2 years disappearing from their lives.

With a group of other friends and house guests, Will begins to grow suspicious of what's going on and finds cause for concern at every angle. But with a shared past and a common tragedy, Will's unsure of what's unfolding...

Trading on paranoia and unnerving, The Invitation's simplicity lies in its MO and its layers of dealing with depression and grief. Marshall-Green may look like Tom Hardy's Revenant character but the underplaying and the haunted tragedy within him is cleverly manifested and made real.

While it's a dinner party from hell scenario, and being killed by kindness, director Karyn Kusama delivers a taut piece that is really quite troubling. While Marshall-Green delivers as Will, it's American Horror Story's John Carroll Lynch who ups the ante as a mysterious entrant into the proceedings. The end may feel like it's got Purge elements to it, and suggest other similar avenues given the reveal, but it's to be hoped The Invitation's subtle study of grief and of friends and family coping is a one-off, a slow burning descent into misery and a reminder of how a chamber piece can shock when effectively deployed.

Minecraft Story Mode Continues - ep 6 details unveiled

'Minecraft: Story Mode - A Telltale Games Series' Continues the Adventure with Special Community Guest Stars in Episode 6: 'A Portal to Mystery' First of Three All-New Adventures Premieres June 7th

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., and STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 31st, 2016 -- Leading and award-winning developer and publisher of digital entertainment Telltale Games, and world-renowned game developer Mojang, today announced the release date and special community guest stars for the sixth episode in Minecraft: Story Mode - A Telltale Games Series.   The first episode in an add-on series of three new adventures, Episode 6: 'A Portal to Mystery' will be available digitally worldwide starting Tuesday June 7th on PC and Mac from the Telltale Online Store, Steam, and other digital distribution services, on the PlayStation®Network for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3, on the Xbox Games Store for Xbox One® and Xbox 360®, for compatible iOS devices via the App Store, and for compatible Android-based devices via Google Play and the Amazon Appstore. The episode will also be coming to the Windows Store.   This episode may be purchased digitally as part of the new Adventure Pass for $14.99 USD or equivalent, which includes access to Episodes 6, 7, and 8 as they release. The episode will also be available individually for $4.99 USD or equivalent. Players will need to own at least Episode 1 in the series, or the season pass disc, in order to purchase Episodes 6, 7, and 8.   Several special guest stars from the Minecraft community join the cast in this new episode, all playing characters from their own YouTube videos. Players will get to interact with Joseph Garrett as Stampy Cat, Stacy Hinojosa as Stacy Plays, Dan Middleton as DanTDM (The Diamond Minecart), Lizzie Dwyer as LDShadowLady,and Jordan Maron as CaptainSparklez. Episode 6 Behind the Scenes Interview Featuring Community Guest Cast   In Episode 6: 'A Portal to Mystery', continuing their journey through the portal hallway, Jesse and crew land themselves in another strange new world - one completely overrun by zombies. With a timely invitation to take refuge in a spooky mansion, they find themselves thrown into a thrilling mystery alongside famous members of the Minecraft community.   Minecraft: Story Mode - A Telltale Games Series - Episode 6: 'A Portal to Mystery' is rated 'E10+' (Everyone 10+) for Fantasy Violence by the ESRB. Future content in the season is yet to be rated by the ESRB. The series is published by Telltale Games in partnership with Mojang. For more information on Telltale Games, visit the official website, Facebook, and follow @TelltaleGames on Twitter. For more information on Mojang, visit the official website, follow @Mojang and@Minecraft on Twitter, and like Minecraft on Facebook.

Overwatch: PS4 Review

Overwatch: PS4 Review

Developed by Blizzard
Released by Activision
Platform: PS4

With 21 characters to choose from, a handful of scenarios to explore and a family friendly approach to the online shooter, it's fair to say that Overwatch, from the Warcraft developers, is a game that's more than worth playing.

As its recent BETA demonstrated, the game's tremendous strengths lie in the ability to see you working as a team to carry out a common goal and celebrate that victory or defeat.

Set in a technologically advanced future Earth, an international task force of soldiers, scientists, adventurers and oddballs have formed the Overwatch movement. But that lies ruined now - however, there's still a call for heroes.

Let's get this out of the way now - Overwatch's weakness is a lack of a campaign mode. Much like the maligned Battlefront, it's a shame that the Blizzard team didn't look further into this for the first person shooter and expanded the world without question.

And the reason for that disappointment is that the game is so much fun in its positivity soaked multiplayer that it's a shame it's not more widely explorable. As the developers have announced, they wanted this Overwatch game to be a plus experience for many, and based on the short bursts of multiplayer, it's easy to see why.

Assembling a group of players for a 6 versus 6 play-off in modes such as Assault (does what it says on the tin), Escort (where you guard a moving payload), Assault/  Escort (a mixture of the two) and Control (your typical seize and defend), the online FPS is fun to be part of - thanks to its wide variety of heroes and ease of play.

Powering up the heroes' special defence / attack capabilities relies on time more than anything and patience but unleashing their super-powers can be deadly if used well. However, the ethos is definitively on team-based co-operation - even at the menu stage, when selecting teams, you're advised against having too many of one type of character and unbalancing everything within.

The scope is purely on emphasising team goals, and potentially, that's where a traditional single player may feel a little disadvantaged. You may feel alienated without the technology to communicate and if one person decides to be part of a team that blocks the opposition from leaving their safe house without unleashing weapons upon them, your game is pretty much screwed before it's even begun. (This choking point is perhaps the single biggest bug-bear of Overwatch - it's easy to win when you don't play by the rules).

That said, and the lack of campaign grumble aside (bringing with it the threat of the game becoming obsolete without new content other than a weekly challenge), it's actually easily accessible, colourful and fun.

Bright, breezy graphics combined with immense playability and the desire to start all over again with a whole new cast of characters make Overwatch quite the game to dive into. Including doling out medals at the end and selecting a play of the game give you something to strive for other than victory and its general warmth and fuzziness makes levelling up and the inevitable grind something less than a chore.

All in all, Overwatch is on the cusp of brilliance.

Its online mode is fast, colourful fun that rewards immersion and there's no denying the pick up and playability of the title - it's to be hoped that outside of the weekly challenge, more will be added in - it'd be a shame if this was consigned to obsolete a few months down the track - especially when it's a welcome breath of positivity in FPS.

(Also you should check out the wealth of content including hero profiles, comics and more at the official Overwatch site)

The Hateful Eight: Blu Ray Review

The Hateful Eight: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Cinema's enfant terrible returns with his eighth outing, a sprawling epic yet intimate film about justice, simmering tensions and life after the Civil War.

It's the story of bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his prisoner Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who are powering through the wintry Wyoming landscape in a stagecoach on their way to Daisy's appointment with the ultimate hangman.

But as the storm sets in deeper, Ruth finds two others on the road seeking shelter; one is former union soldier turned bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson in usual commanding form) and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins) the soon-to-be new sheriff of Red Rock where both Ruth and Domergue are bound.

Holing up in a stopover cabin until the storm passes, the quartet find a bunch of new unexpected faces. Forced to seek shelter, Ruth begins to feel uneasy as the pot starts to boil over with mistrust...

Age has not diminished Tarantino's cinematic fire and The Hateful Eight is further proof that he intends to rattle the cage and polarise the audience for as long as he can.

This potboiler chamber piece, so beautifully shot with its evocative use of the Wyoming landscapes in the opening moments, rattles with as much Tarantino DNA as you'd expect - and indeed hope for.

With his trademark dialogue in full effect, this film feels like his most mature take on character and does much to build a world that's pretty much set in one place (in fact, great swathes of The Hateful Eight feel like a stage play painted on a bigger canvas).

But here's the kicker with The Hateful Eight - it appears that everybody lies and everybody is particularly nasty.

Whereas previous films have had edges that help you latch onto those you're watching in some way or other, The Hateful Eight has a delightful penchant for ripping your sympathies from asunder.

With the very briefest of back stories for some of the characters, Tarantino delights in presenting you with eight people who are only there to be hated and whose ultimate fates are all tangled up in the post-Civil War resentments that will linger for years to come.

Ultimately, as with most Tarantino flicks, the film becomes swathed in as much blood as there is raging bile below the surface of all of these men. They are antagonists more than anti-heroes in the truest sense, with each layer of nastiness revealing yet more below the surface of every single one of them. And as the story evolves over its six wryly dark chapters, it's clear Tarantino's desire is to subvert audience expectations and draw on various TV western genres to paint this tapestry with more than just blood, and instead infuse it with gallows humour.

As ever with Mr Tarantino, depending on your tolerance for violence and colourful language, The Hateful Eight will be as much a personal film for everyone watching it. It's quintessential Tarantino though as it pours all the ingredients into a pot, stirs them around and stands well back ready for the powderkeg to ignite.

Of the cast, Jackson provides his usual commanding presence as the Major and steals the scene with one story which may or may not be true, but is certainly likely to never be forgotten; Goggins and Dern gel in a generational way and give the Confederate conflict a face that's never likely to be forgotten, thanks to Goggins' hillbilly stylings. Tim Roth channels Terry Thomas with his turn as Red Rock's hangman. As the sole woman (for most of the film) Jennifer Jason Leigh impresses with a turn that is more about what's unsaid than actually said - and her final scenes give rise to the meshing of the western with traces of horror as she stands like a Carrie figure in your traditional cabin-in-the-snowy-woods.

Mixing mystery, Cluedo,  post Civil War politics, elements of The Thing (thanks to evocatively shot and lit exteriors in the wintry surrounds), a terrific Ennio Morricone score, some stunning cinematography courtesy of long time Tarantino aide Robert Richardson, a deeply verbose script which borders on shaggy dog story and teeters dangerously close to needing an edit at times, historical elements of justice on the frontier and post the War, and an ensemble which work incredibly well together, The Hateful Eight is nothing short of a seething experience that makes you work for its rich rewards.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out Of the Shadows: Film Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out Of the Shadows: Film Review

Cast: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Stephen Amell, Tyler Perry, Laura Linney
Director: Dave Green

If the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was more of a surprise than expected, then the second, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out Of the Shadows is perhaps a depressing sign that this series has already lost its way.

This time around, as Leo, Donatello, Raphael and Michaelango live underground unable to take the credit for their takedown of arch enemy Shredder last time, sinister plans are underway to break Shredder out.

However, things get more complicated for the quartet when it turns out top scientist Baxter Stockman (Perry) is behind the break and a scientific purple goo that activates primordial DNA within humans. So with Manhattan facing a greater danger than ever before, the team is on the case - but with fractures growing between the four, is the danger more threatening to their own future than just the city?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out Of the Shadows is a film that skews incredibly young and that stays true to its comic book roots / kids TV cartoon.

The problem is that the resultant on-screen hotpotch feels like a film that shows its 2 hour run time.

While the Michael Bay produced first film was a definite popcorn brain at the door type flick, this latest is more of an action film that simply shifts from one set piece to the next, with brain whirring going through the motions to stop you thinking too deeply about anything going on.

Whether it's sidelining the bad guy Shredder (already an empty cypher) or turning too goons into CGI warthog and rhinoceros, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out Of the Shadows lacks a coherence of execution that's galling to sit through.

Action sequences are shown from multiple takes, with explosions given precedence for the multi camera approach as if to dull your brain into submission. Equally, the turtles free-wheeling through the Manhattan skies at the start seems to exist solely to ensure that you can see what the CGI does, rather than emphasise their growing unhappiness at being confined to the shadows.

This is a film that sacrifices the main characters and moments for spectacle - and the great majority of those sequences are jettisoned to show off the Orc-like Rocksteady and Bebop's CGI creations. It's a shame as the turtles' existential dilemma is quite a meaty one, with them finding themselves torn between a life in the shadows as unknown heroes or stepping out into a world of judgement.

But this thread is squandered in favour of more dunder-headed CGI antics of a pair of farting animals. It's understandable that the makers have gone younger for this film, but they still stop short of going the whole hog and embracing the younger market it's clearly aimed at. It's a tonal mish-mash that feels like it's struggling for an identity and a relevance in today's market-place where action blockbusters offer more smarts than simply eye-candy.

With mentions of other franchises with Raph intoning "What would Vin Diesel do?" and Michaelangelo coming across a Bumblebee Transformer in a Hallowe'en parade, this film isn't interested in feathering anything other than its own nest and universes, and consequently feels like it's yet another franchise that's lacking in soul.

Fox and Arnett are forgettable and without any kind of spark at best, Arrow star Stephen Amell is simply boisterously shouty as Casey Jones and Laura Linney looks detached at best as a police chief. Equally, Perry comes dangerously close to mugging as a Nutty Professor type boffin. These are humans who are second fiddle to the turtle teenagers, and it shows throughout.

While fans of the TV series and comics may be happier with this Turtle outing as well as younger members of the audience, but quite frankly, the turtles have come out of the sewers and so has the overall soulless execution and story of this film.

NZFF Reveal a May Title

NZFF Reveal a May Title

The First Monday in May confirmed for NZIFF 2016

Good afternoon, on Monday, the last Monday in May, we reveal the exciting news that the latest documentary from Andrew Rossi (director of Page One: Inside the New York Times) will screen as part of NZIFF in Auckland and Wellington.

Announced online Monday 30 May

The First Monday in May

Needing a good fix of Anna Wintour ever since The September Issue? This behind-the-scenes documentary covers her oversight of the 2015 Met Gala, a celebrity extravaganza that raised $12,000,000 for (and at) New York’s Metropolitan Museum and launched the Met Costume Institute’s blockbuster exhibition, ‘China: Through the Looking Glass’. Wintour shares the film with Andrew Bolton, the engaging, confessedly starstruck Brit who curated the exhibition with filmmaker Wong Kar-wai as guest creative director.

With Costume admitted to the Museum’s pantheon, some ask how much space can there be at the Met for the commercialism and celebrity culture that accompany it? The more the better, we discover, at least on the first Monday of May each year. Produced in part by Condé Nast, First Monday touches lightly on the cultural and political quandaries negotiated by the curators of a show that celebrates Orientalism in Western fashion. What filmmaker Andrew Rossi does best is observe the meticulous organisation behind so much sheer opulence, revel in the flamboyance of one percenters at play – and harken closely as the imperious Ms Wintour gets it all so very right. 

“Catnip for fashionistas… Andrew Rossi’s dishy documentary goes behind the scenes of the lavish and star-filled annual Met Ball (otherwise known as the ‘Super Bowl of fashion events’).” — Frank Sheck, Hollywood Reporter

http://www.nziff.co.nz/2016/film/the-first-monday-in-may/

http://www.nziff.co.nz/2016/auckland/the-first-monday-in-may/

http://www.nziff.co.nz/2016/wellington/the-first-monday-in-may/

The full NZIFF programme will be available online from Monday 20 June 7pm, and on the streets from Tuesday 21 June for Auckland and Friday 24 June for Wellington. NZIFF starts in Auckland on 14 July and in Wellington from 22 July in 2016.

GTA Online: Further Adventures in Finance and Felony Coming June 7th

GTA Online: Further Adventures in Finance and Felony Coming June 7th

GTA Online: Further Adventures in Finance and Felony Coming June 7th

In Further Adventures in Finance and Felony, become a proper boss – and climb to the top of the GTA Online criminal hierarchy with your own Organization HQ.

Further Adventures in Finance and Felony continues a player’s mission to become the ultimate criminal kingpin of Los Santos and Blaine County in one of GTA Online’s biggest and deepest updates yet.

A giant leap up the corporate ladder following the VIP experience of Executives and Other Criminals, the Finance and Felony update gives players the opportunity to expand their organization and become CEO of their own Criminal Enterprise.

The Pegassi Reaper, one of the new vehicles befitting your elite status.

Acquire a high-rise office and special warehouse properties to begin buying and selling a range of contraband across the city, all the while fighting the LSPD and the rest of the southern San Andreas criminal underworld for access to the rarest items and the biggest profits.

Further Adventures in Finance and Felony combines all new gameplay with a host of special new vehicles, exciting new features and much more.

Associates recover Special Cargo in Buy missions arranged by the CEO.

Look out for more details along with the official trailer coming next week.