Win a double pass to see THE SHALLOWS

Win a double pass to see THE SHALLOWS

In the taut thriller The Shallows, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra when Nancy (Blake Lively) is surfing on a secluded beach, she finds herself on the feeding ground of a great white shark.

Though she is stranded only 200 yards from shore, survival proves to be the ultimate test of wills

It will require all of Nancy's ingenuity, resourcefulness, and fortitude.

The Shallows hits cinemas August 18th

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and starring Blake Lively




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

Please include your name and address and good luck!

Competition closes August 18th and is exclusive to New Zealand only!  

THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK trailer

THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK trailer

THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK, a film with an unprecedented insight into the touring years of the world’s biggest band, will be screening in cinemas across New Zealand from September 16, 2016.

Xbox One S launches in NZ

Xbox One S launches in NZ

The new slimline XBox One S has hit stores around the country.

Key features include:

Slimmer and sleeker. With a fresh new design built from the ground up and “robot white” color, the Xbox One S is 40 percent smaller than the original Xbox One, creating the most compact Xbox yet. It also includes a built-in power supply and, in response to fan requests worldwide, can be placed horizontally or vertically with an optional stand. With fans at the core of what we do, Xbox One S offers exceptional games and entertainment value.

4K Ultra HD media. With Xbox One S, you will be able to watch Blu-ray movies and stream video in stunning 4K Ultra HD.

 4K content from Netflix is available starting 7/29 with the Xbox Update and content from partners like Amazon Video will be available shortly after launch.

To review the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray experience, please download the Ultra HD Blu-ray Player app from the Store. 

High Dynamic Range (HDR) support for video and gaming. With a higher contrast ratio between lights and darks, HDR brings out the true visual depth of your games and media so you can experience richer, more luminous colors as you play your favorite games like Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3 and Scalebound. Xbox One S supports HDR10 standards.

Increased accessibility. We shifted one of the three USB ports and the pairing button to the front of the Xbox One S alongside the newly added IR blaster, allowing for better accessibility.

New Xbox Wireless Controller. Every Xbox One S comes with a newly designed Xbox Wireless Controller featuring a sleek, streamlined design in white, textured grip for enhanced comfort and an updated thumbstick design that significantly reduces wear. An added Bluetooth radio gives you easy wireless connection to your Windows 10 PCs and tablets. The new controller features our most reliable wireless signal ever, with up to two times the wireless range compared to previous controllers when used with Xbox One S. You can also purchase as a standalone product for $99.95 NZD.

Various hard drive options to fit your needs. With Xbox One S, you can choose the hard drive that’s right for you, with 500GB and 1TB consoles as well as the special launch edition of Xbox One S that lets you store more games with a 2TB hard drive.

Xbox Summer Update. Starting July 30, Xbox One and the Xbox app will receive the first of two updates this year that will help you stay connected with friends on Xbox Live and enjoy even more games across your favorite devices. Cortana comes to Xbox One, as your digital gaming assistant, use Cortana to help you complete tasks while staying focused in the game; we’re updating the Game Collection interface to make it faster and easier to find and launch the games you’re looking for; Facebook Friend Finder is expanding from the Xbox app to Xbox One and is a great way to find and add your Facebook friends on Xbox; the Xbox and Windows Stores will start to become unified; in addition, the top PC games on Windows now show up in Xbox Live, complete with Game Hubs; and more.

Xbox One S will also be available soon with 1TB and 500GB hard drives.

• 500GB Console bundles – RRP $499 launches August 23rd
• 1TB Console bundles – RRP $599 launches August 23rd

Newstalk ZB Review - Jason Bourne, Under The Shadow and 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Newstalk ZB Review - Jason Bourne, Under The Shadow and 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

This week on the Newstalk ZB Review with Jack Tame, I take a look at Jason Bourne, Under The Shadow and 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Take a listen below :

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-jason-bourne-under-the-shadow/

Elle: NZIFF Review

Elle: NZIFF Review

Like some kind of balancing act between bleak darkness and dark humour, Paul Verhoeven’s ELLE walks a singular tightrope through the audience, caring not for the view below as it drops its extraordinary bombs.

A simply stellar Isabelle Huppert stars as Michele the head of a video game company whose life is targeted when she’s viciously sexually assaulted in her home. (A fact that Verhoeven doesn’t shy away from as he instigates the film by unleashing it right at the very beginning.)

But rather than head to the police to report the rape, Michele shockingly shuns the legal avenue (for reasons that become clearer as the film unfurls, just one of Verhoeven's strength as he concocts the cinematic web) for a bath and to simply get on with life. Verhoeven’s use of blood in bubble bath before it’s casually swept to one side by Michele is one of the film’s over-riding stark and shocking images.

With a cold laissez faire approach, Michele casually announces over dinner with some friends that she’s been assaulted; the response from one friend is to ask the waiter to hold the champagne being opened – yep, it’s Verhoeven through and through using the pristine veneer of the French language and attitude to prod and provoke his audience from the get go.

As the story progresses in Elle, you’re better off not knowing what’s due to happen, as part of the devilish delight in the film comes from the gradual teasing of details in this psychological thriller that picks at you like a cinematic scab, daring you to pull it off and delighting in the equal waves of pleasure and pain as you do so.

In this adaptation of Philippe Djian’s 2012 novel “Oh…”,  78 year old provocateur  Paul Verhoeven certainly knows how to press the buttons of those watching, and how to give the whole thing a kind of amoral sheen that’s steeped in both complexity and a twisted veneer.

Huppert helps in large parts too, making Michele a character which it’s hard to get a grip on.

On the one hand, her ordeal implies elicit sympathy for her plight, but on the other, her immediate behaviour post-event sees you unsure of where your allegiances and sympathies should lie. It helps that she’s incredibly commanding from go to woah as this disturbed journey plays out. One character tells her, “You never give anything truly of yourself” and perhaps this is the best summation of the character, thanks to a subtly nuanced turn from Huppert as the shocks and the twisted, yet empowering, scenario plays out.

Ultimately, Elle is one hell of a firecracker of a film - a cinematic amoral powderkeg that's due to explode under the weight of such provocation but whose explosion ends up in the safe hands of Paul Verhoeven. There'll be debate aplenty about what you've seen on the screen, but there'll be no debate about the performance of Isabelle Huppert and the bravura of Verhoeven.

Paterson: NZIFF Review

Paterson: NZIFF Review

Jim Jarmusch's reflective and languid approach suits Adam Driver's rhythms in Paterson, a thematic companion piece to Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake in its salutations of the common man.

Driver is Paterson, a routine bus driver in the burb of Paterson, who has a daily routine. His watch wakes him around 610am daily, he eats the same breakfast, heads to work at the bus depot and finds time to write poetry before his shift and during. Heading home every day at 6, he corrects a leaning post-box that moves daily, has dinner, walks his shared bulldog Marvin and goes to the local watering hole.

So far, so familiar as Jarmusch's patented loops play out over an 8 day period. But as the days progress, small variations crop up towards the end of the week in Paterson's life - from a girlfriend whose borderline OCD and creative obsession with black and white mean each return home is random to a cataclysmic moment involving his bus.

These are the beats of Paterson, where the ordinary is celebrated and the pace is languid to prosaic. As this ode to the mundane progresses, there are visual tics and tricks that Jarmusch throws into the mix to almost test as if you are paying attention to what's transpiring as the story's more lyrical edges wax and wane with time progressing.

Throwing in a cute scene stealing dog also helps proceedings (when the deliberate pace slows a little too much) as well with Marvin the bulldog (sadly RIP now) proving to be the juxtaposition to Paterson's life in a small way to many, but devastating to the celebration of the mundane. Driver's a relatively blank canvas throughout, with his small intrusions into life being catalogued more by the outre behaviour of others - from the bus depot boss whose life is full of dramas to the dreams of his cup-cake empire dreaming partner, his calmness gives the yin to everyone's extraordinary yang.

Blessed with dry humour and quiet reflections on life, Paterson's simplicity and gorgeousness is in its execution. Its rhythms and wry humour may not be for everyone, but for those who fall for the loops of life and the idiosyncracies within, this slow celebration of the mundanities of it all works wonders.

The Red Turtle: NZIFF Review

The Red Turtle: NZIFF Review

Studio Ghibli's latest sees Dutch British director Michael Dudok de Witt taking on the story of a castaway on an island.

As the film begins, in greying waters and stormy seas, the man is tossed asunder, his boat ripped from him. Clutching onto it, he makes it to shore - albeit on a completely deserted island. Woken the next day by a crab running up his leg, the man plots to escape, using bamboo canes to make a raft.

But his attempts are thwarted by something smashing the raft.... with desperation setting in, the castaway tries again; this time, his nemesis is revealed - a red turtle...

Mixing existentialism, some sumptuous hand drawn and painted animation, facials that look similar to Herge's Tintin executions and all scored to a lushly mournful and occasionally soaring soundtrack, the animation The Red Turtle is wordless and will leave you breathless.

While comedy of the occasion is provided by a clutch of crabs scuttling back and forth in the castaway's world, the soar-away visuals of the castaway's plight, his midnight delusions and what happens may have a propensity to hit where it counts - in the heartstrings.

As the survival tale plays out over its 80 minute duration, there's Laurent Perez del Mar's soundtrack to send you into orchestrated orbit as the simple story unfurls.

It's a meditation of existence and of soul-searching as the castaway adapts to the rhythms of the island and the machinations of survival - but some of this may go over younger minds heads even if they are willing to go with the animated flow.

Ultimately though, The Red Turtle is a film that has deeper meaning, and will be a personal tale to each member of the audience.

It's a rumination on our place in the world, and acceptance thereof; all beautifully encapsulated in a Studio Ghibli  hand-drawn co-production that once again hits the heart strings and engages the brain so much - even when it offers so little by way of execution.