The Jungle Book: DVD Review

The Jungle Book: DVD Review

1967's Jungle Book set the standards for family films.

The Disney film is so beloved by many that a live-action remake by Iron Man director Jon Favreau seems to be almost redundant.

It's the same story from Rudyard Kipling's books and sees newcomer Neel Sethi taking on the role of Mowgli. For years, Mowgli's lived under the tutelage of the wolves, raised as a man-cub by Akela and Raksha (Esposito and Nyong'o respectively) but the tiger Shere Khan (Elba) has been unhappy about it.

During a time of drought, there's a truce, but once the rains come, Khan decides it's time for Mowgli to die. Fearing for his life, Bagheera (Kingsley) sets out to escort the young man-cub to the village and to safety.

But the journey is a difficult one...

There's no denying the visual achievements that The Jungle Book has achieved.

Despite being shot downtown in LA, there's nary a street corner in sight and the whole thing actually manages to look like it was done on location in the African wilds. There's no disputing the immersive landscapes are redolent and reminiscent of the kind of design unleashed by James Cameron's Avatar all those years ago. The grounds are cluttered with all types of animals - from cute cub wolves to a porcupine (voiced by the late great Garry Shandling), this is a world that's perhaps over-stuffed with demonstrations of what the CGI can do.

Sethi has his moments as Mowgli, but the first time actor doesn't quite always hit the mark as the man-cub - though admittedly, it must have been tough acting a one kid show against CG creations. He's hampered by some dialogue issues and some scenes that don't quite pull together as well as perhaps Favreau had envisioned.

That said, there are moments when the CGI creatures and their relatively realistic talking (think Babe but a bit straighter) gels in a way that brings the charm of a family film to life. There are also plenty of darker moments too - from Scarlett Johansson's silky and sonorous snake Kaa's voice echoing around the cinema to Christopher Walken's King Louie (complete with Shatner-esque Dixie jazz version of I Wanna Be Like You), this is a film which will likely give the younger end of the Disney audience some discomfort in their seats, thanks to its nightmarish visuals.

And there's no disputing Murray's Baloo is a case of perfect casting and a sign that this anthropomorphic animal has been exquisitely rendered with its source material in mind.

Equally, Favreau's evocation of the "red flower" that blights the forest and Shere Khan's past are quite cleverly manifested too; visually, this film soars - even if the 3D seems to damage the effect by dimming it all.

But it's also a film that feels emotionally redundant and that lacks any real threat.

Elba has the menace of Shere Khan, but he lacks the script to back it up; certainly the sequence where Akela is casually despatched feels like it has no emotional ring to it and no oomph to satiate his cruelty.

Ultimately, The Jungle Book is a film that has plenty of charm but little edge.

Whether that is enough to satiate family audiences these days remains to be seen; there can be no denying the plaudits for the impressive digital work and the slavish devotion to the source material, but as an experience, The Jungle Book just manages to do the Bare Necessities to keep you entertained while the lights are down. 

David Brent: Life On The Road: Film Review

David Brent: Life On The Road: Film Review

Cast: Ricky Gervais, Doc Brown, Tom Bennett
Director: Ricky Gervais

Over a decade after the conclusion of the UK version of The Office, David Brent remains a comic icon.

Mining both tragedy and pathos in equal measure, as well as rolling in the awkwardness plied on with a trowel at times, Ricky Gervais' hapless and hopeless office manager returns in another road movie mockumentary outing.

Now, Brent's still a rep, selling cleaning wares as well as tampons, and still harbouring a dream of making it in the rock'n'roll world. So, cashing in both his holiday and a selection of pensions, Brent pours his heart, soul and money into a tour with his band Foregone Conclusion, taking along with him some session musicians and a rapper Dom Johnson, his token black friend.

Following a patented formula of sideways awkward glances at the camera and walking the line between non-PC and a few moments too late self-censoring, Gervais' Brent has not changed much. And as such the film feels like another extended episode of the sitcom that goes on a little too long and has some of the cringe factor stretched a little too thin throughout, despite the obvious pathos lurking in the wings.

But mining deeper into Gervais' aspirations with Life On The Road (banal song lyrics aside, the toe tapping MOR tunes blasted out by Foregone Conclusion are annoyingly ear-worm worthy), it appears to be a portrait of mental illness and delusion writ large, with a few scenes painting a painful honesty and portrait of a sad and lonely man who just wants to be loved above all. With therapy and admissions of Profzac use, there are elements of the second series of Steve Coogan's I Am Alan Partridge here again to add the required level of tragedy to the character.

It has to be said though that Gervais proves winningly adept at slipping back into the role as the very English version of This Is Spinal Tap rolls out. By turning the spotlight solely on himself and eschewing the rest of the Office cronies, how you feel about David Brent will largely rest on whether you can take the cringe and awkwardness of the character and humiliations visited upon him. Gervais knows what he's doing and while another director may have reined in some of the indulgences and tightened things up, fans of The Office won't be disappointed.

Of the supporting characters, only Doc Brown's deadpan and would-rather-be-somewhere-else Dom Johnson is given any more depth to combat the incessant squirming but the rest get short shrift - without doubt this is Gervais' show and he's determined, like Brent, to get the most out of the spotlight.

In the final act, the sentiment's piled on as the veneer cracks and David Brent: Life On The Road ramshackles disappointingly into bittersweet sentiment, a frank admission and tacit nod to the British sitcoms that at the end of the day, we all just love the losers, that we don't want to see them unhappy and that if there's hope for them, then there's sure as hell hope for us.

Perhaps this at times scrappy affair is Gervais' final swansong as Brent, and while the meanness of a society that welcomes and then scorns its reality stars is occasionally touched upon, David Brent: Life On The Road is not perhaps the incisive laugh riot you'd want from such a beloved comedy character.

Less one louder and more muted comic fanfare of the commonly annoying man, this attempt at Brentertainment meanders where it could have been tighter and frustrates where it could have been sharper.

The Angry Birds Movie: DVD Review

The Angry Birds Movie: DVD Review

So, who remembers Angry Birds?

That game we were all so addicted to way back when and then it suddenly died a death overtaken by consoles, Candy Crush and other such time-sucks.

Well, the film version of Angry Birds doesn't care that you've abandoned it, nor does it care that it's essentially got the feel of a one-shot and gone animation, aimed squarely at throwing all its eggs in giving you a cinematic take on the game's simple MO - destroy the towers.

Long story short, Jason Sudeikis is Red, the original Angry bird, who's ostracised cos of his grumpy ways (even though he's lonely from having been bullied in his younger years). Sentenced to Anger Management by a judge after erupting during a hatchday party, he meets Josh Gad's hyper-active Chuck, McBride's explosive Bomb and Sean Penn's non-verbal Terrence.

But his world - and along with all those other flightless ones on his homeland of Bird Island -  is further threatened when a ship of Pigs turn up on their shores, headed by Bill Hader's Leonard. Everyone welcomes the Pigs except Red, who discovers a sinister plot by the porcine expedition....

The Angry Birds Movie is a hyper-kinetic, colourful mix of cartoonish one-shot sight gags that almost threatens to fall apart due to the lack of anything more than a thin or coherent thread running through.

The whole thing's essentially structured to lead to a cinematic version of a game as the residents of Bird Island take on the Pigs by hurling themselves through the air and assaulting the towers within.

It's a shame that the first half of the film is little more than a few strong gags threaded through with the thinnest story that those older members watching almost threaten to disengage.

Youngsters will adore the bright coloured animation and the vivid colours (and fans of the animated genre will appreciate the depth and detail that's gone into the creation of the critters, from feathers bristling to a furriness that's adorably executed), even if they never stop to question why these critters can't fly.
At times, during the Pig invasion, the whole thing seems to hint at an allegory for refugees, tolerance, child kidnapping and xenophobia - it never digs any deeper into this darkness, preferring to leave the allusions there for anyone who wants to draw on them.

Sudeikis is affable as Red, and much of the younger end of the audience will be drawn to the hyperactive looney tunes nature of Chuck, but simply The Angry Birds Movie's MO is to be nothing more than to shoe-horn in the game and its mechanics into the narrative.

It just about succeeds with a wilful stubbornness as it slingshots birds across the screen and shoe horns in the game mechanics - but even thanks to some truly impressive animation, it's just a little above a fleeting distraction at the movies. 

Nerve: Film Review

Nerve: Film Review

Cast: Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Juliette Lewis, Emily Meade
Director: Ariel Schuman and Henry Joost

If anything, directors Ariel Schuman and Henry Joost have already plied us with the perils of the internet with the 2010 film Catfish, so it's perhaps no surprise they jump back into the online world with Nerve, based on the novel by Jeanne Ryan.

Emma Roberts is Vee, a shy wallflower of a girl who doesn't want to go to college and who harbours a crush on the high school football jock, who's never noticed her. Living in the shadow of both her boisterous BFF Sydney (Meade) and in the death of her brother, she decides after rejection to join a secretive online game of dare called Nerve.

Controlled by watchers who set dares for money, Vee is sucked into the game, initially propelled by the adrenaline of rebellion and also because of her hunky co-gamer Ian (Dave Franco). But as the games escalate and become more life threatening (shifting from kissing a random stranger to driving blindfolded on a bike in NYC streets), she finds the thrill a little too much - but she's too far in to be able to pull out...

With its neon soaked aesthetics and hyper-kinetic pace, Nerve is another cautionary tale of the internet; a kind of truth or dare game spliced through the prism of Unfriended and The Purge, with elements of Rome's gladiatorial hubris and Battle Royale thrown in for good measure.

Roberts sells the shift from wild recklessness to genuine fear as the stalker level of this warped Pokemon Go style game escalates. Her innocence gels with Franco's solid but one note performance and the pair fast become the heroes of the piece, but side characters ultimately become predictable genre tropes and wither under manufactured circumstances.

From Meade's insecure BFF, Lewis' mum who appears in 2016 to have no idea what the internet is or how banking works to the best friend crush via some of the worst iteration of internet hackers since Hackers (the collective group cries include "Let's take this game down!" and "I spend lots of time on the dark web"), the film's weaker elements come to the fore as the film amps up its adrenaline filled stunts and action sequences as it edges towards its more OTT elements.

Despite a progressively sillier escalation and an ending that relies on Roberts' crowd exhorting plea for the watchers to abandon their anonymous voyeurism and predictably preaching about the perils of the internet, Nerve is an energetic film with a fair degree of verve. Its kinetic pace will appeal to the screen obsessed youth and still manages to fire barbs at those youngsters who possess a mob mentality online.

There's perhaps an irony that its younger target audience who find themselves caught up in crazes like Pokemon Go and the narcissism of online will probably stream this film rather than head to the cinema, but in a world of screenagers, Nerve's cautionary edges and likeable leads, fuelled with its hedonistic pleasures, make it a surprise cinematic outing that's worth logging on for.

Captain America: Civil War: Blu Ray Review

Captain America: Civil War: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Sony Home Ent


That the latest Captain America is perhaps one of the better Marvel entrants should come as no surprise, given how strong the first two of this trilogy have been.

That it achieves this with a taut mix of action, thrills, a re-invented Spider-man and a film of some degree of consequence should be no surprise either.

But that it manages to blindside you in its final act is the real surprise of the piece, whipping the carpet with such aplomb from under your weary cynical expectations of where the story may go.

Taking a lead from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the 13th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is all about collateral damage, both of the physical and emotional variety.

When Captain America's team inadvertently cause a series of deaths and destruction while trying to save the world, pressure grows to build a system of accountability for the Avengers and their ilk. But the proposed status quo fractures the Avengers, with Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark in favour of it after his conscience is pricked by a mother whose son died in the events of Age of Ultron.  

However, Chris Evans' plucky straight arrow Steve Rogers isn't as in favour, fearing the bureaucracy could limit their abilities to save the world... and so, a show down is set between long time friends and new potential enemies.

Distraction is the name of a lot of the game here (complete with plenty of globe-trotting and juggling many balls in the air): and while many will head to this slightly overlong flick with the delicious anticipation of an Avengers internal clash (which delivers in a set piece that does what you'd expect), the larger joy in among all the buzz of the clearly and concisely executed CGI clashing, is that Captain America Civil War has the smarts to realise the smaller emotional moments of devastation as sides are drawn and friendships tested are where the true strength of the red white and blue lie. 

Captain America: Civil War is a film where the veracity of character moments shine and where the strength lies (something perhapsGuardians of the Galaxy realised earlier on and went to more comic extremes thereof) and not a routine rote CGI Smash-and-grab ending that has blighted the rest of these films.

It's in the heart of the film and the heart within the film that the success of this one lies - Cap's main raison d'etre is to do right by his old pal Bucky aka The Winter Soldier (Stan in an expanded role from previous outings) and his ethics come into direct contrast and clash with Stark's ideologies. The series has been building to this - and that it pays that set up off well is perhaps testament to not only the investment we've had in the characters but that also our patience to get to this point was tested too.

Both Evans and Downey Jr rise to the occasion, underplaying their hands respectively and helping ground the film in a more human edge that it needs.

It also helps that Captain America: Civil War proffers up some thrilling set pieces of action that dazzle with effortless ease, as well as some throwaway humour to enhance the engagement. 

When the visceral action is shorn of the CGI trickery, there are chase scenes that elicit gasps and dazzle with their freshness of execution - both Joe and Anthony Russo have managed to up the game once again with a clear concise vision of what the audience wants and what will engage the non-fans. (Although there is perhaps one or two mano-a-mano sequences too many).

Juggling the introduction of new characters into the MCU with ease and lack of distraction is not easy, but there won't be many who will come away feeling that the new faces are under-served (and perhaps Tom Holland as Spider-Man is the real find of the piece; a Peter Parker who is a kid from the comic-books). And don't even get me started on the energy that Paul Rudd brings to the piece with his spiky electric Ant-Man.

Daniel Bruhl also deserves commendation for his mournful role - it's a smaller, more subtle touch that he brings and his involvement in the piece provides more than can be discussed in this spoiler-free review.

That said, Captain America: Civil War is not perfect.

For a film about consequence, there are still troublingly less than realistic physical ramifications for the central gang - while there are thrills to see Cap and Iron-Man go at it, there's never really a feeling that either will fall (and perhaps nor should there be) but there is a feeling of seeding of buds of emotional unrest that will continue to ripple out.

And some characters fall by the wayside as the third act plays out, simply fading away into the peripherary as their narrative use loses traction.

Equally, at 2 hours 27 minutes, it's overlong in the final stretch but it's hard to say where the trim could have come from. This is a film that feels full, but never bloated; an important distinction as the past transgressions storylines come to a head and the Captain America trilogy wraps up.

Ultimately, while there had been signs of apathy threatening to overtake the onslaught of Marvel Cinematic Universe films (stand by for Doctor Strange, coming soon), Captain America: Civil War emerges as a contender as one of the best of the run, thanks to character moments, limited chaos and a concisely executed and fresher vision of what a genuine action blockbuster can offer.

Win a double pass to see The Secret Life Of Pets

Win a double pass to see The Secret Life Of Pets

For their fifth fully-animated feature-film collaboration, Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures present The Secret Life of Pets, a comedy about the lives our pets lead after we leave for work or school each day. 

Comedy superstars Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet and Kevin Hart make their animated feature-film debuts in The Secret Life of Pets, which co-stars Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Jenny Slate, Bobby Moynihan, Hannibal Buress and Albert Brooks. 

Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and his longtime collaborator Janet Healy produce the film directed by Chris Renaud (Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2), co-directed by Yarrow Cheney and written by Brian Lynch and Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio.

To celebrate the release of The Secret Life Of Pets, which is in cinemas September 15th, I'm giving you a chance to win a double pass to see the film at the movies!

To enter simply email to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com - simply CLICK HERE darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com and in the subject line put PETS. 

Please include your name and address and good luck! 
NB Competition closes 15 September- editor's decision final!

Chasing Great: Film Review

Chasing Great: Film Review

Directors: Justin Pemberton, Michelle Walshe

The ultimate film about rugby in New Zealand has already been made - and that film is The Ground We Won about the team in the heartland of the Bay of Plenty.

But Chasing Great aims to be more a film about the one man some would believe to be New Zealand's greatest ever rugby player - Richie McCaw.

And it faces a major hurdle too - it's not as if Richie himself is not an unknown figure, blessed with enigma and living life in the shadows. Most of what is known about Richie is already there in the media, as he lived the rugby life in the spotlight and in the glare of the camera both on and off the field.

So this is the nature of the challenge facing Pemberton and Walshe who followed McCaw around for a year; and in the run up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup with the hope that the All Blacks would lift the Webb Ellis trophy for the second time in a row and Richie would call time on his career.

With over 700 hours of footage on hand, what emerges in Chasing Great is predominantly more a film about rugby than the man himself - and perhaps is indicative of the fact how synonymous with rugby Richie has become (though whether that makes a great doco is, in this case, extremely subjective).

While there's use of home video footage from the McCaw family, showing a young but big unit Richie on the Otago rugby fields, in the early part of the film, there is plenty of insight into the guy that may surprise and delight his already mountainous number of fans.

From doing exceptionally well at school to capturing the moment when his family sat huddled in the front room around a radio waiting to hear if Richie gets the call up to the All Blacks, there's a degree of personal intimacy that's welcomed and offers a newer side to the man so over-exposed in the media.

But there's no escaping the line uttered at one point  - "We're an unemotional bunch, the McCaws".

And it's a flaw which shatters the second half of the film as it becomes like a sporting autobiography writ large on the big screen, as we are forced to relive the fatal loss to France in 2007, and various other games including the ultimate win in 2015 (itself a foregone conclusion that is still quite recent in our memories).

It's understandable that these moments should feature as it goes some way to explaining McCaw's mindset and shift in mental fortitude with the involvement of psychologist Dr Ceri Evans (shadowy room meetings leading to feelings of a cult-like abduction), but it still feels like a sports highlights package, with edited game moments and pumping music puncturing the changing room scenes and sporting celebrations, as well as talking heads either praising his field performance or criticising it.

There's no further insight into the man, and it's not as if pre-game brief interviews are enough to give a greater reading of McCaw.

To their credit, the directors have committed some truly impressive imagery to celluloid - from shots high over the Otago hills as Richie cruises in his glider to scene setting slow mo track shots across stadia seats, every moment sings quality and aims for epic.

But equally, there are moments writ large from the cinematic sporting cliches shot book - slow mos on the field, slow mo running through corridors et al.

Frustratingly the film ends abruptly after the victory and with the very Kiwi "Yeah I'm done" as Richie flies off in his glider. This is already the story we knew, albeit fleshed out with some younger days Richie insights - and it's tantamount to feeling underwhelming in its denouement.

Ultimately, that is Chasing Great.

If you're after a film that celebrates and mythologises the man on the field as well as wanting to relive some of rugby's spectacular highs and lows, then this is that film for you, delivered just in time for Father's Day and with the release of Richie's book.

But unfortunately, if you're after a warts and all insight into the man who's been dubbed one of the nicest in sport, then you may feel it's somewhat wanting as a rounded picture.