HITMAN Bangkok 360 Trailer

HITMAN Bangkok 360 Trailer

HITMAN Episode 4: Bangkok – 360 Trailer

Take a virtual tour around the Himmapan luxury hotel and resort, the location for the “Club 27” mission in HITMAN.  

Travel through the halls and rooms and learn about Episode 4 with a fully 360 degree trailer.

Keep your eyes open for some lesser known clues for how to take out your targets as well - anyone fancy a coconut…?

Watch the HITMAN: A 360 degree visit to Bangkok 

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2: DVD Review

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2: DVD Review

Released by Universal Home Ent

It's not easy being Greek, as a paraphrased amphibian might once have intoned.

And it's certainly not easy following up a sleeper hit from nearly a decade and a half ago (just askZoolander 2 about that same problem).

This time around, Nia Vardalos' Toula is suffering from feeling like she is in a rut, is smothering her own daughter Paris and is struggling with a lack of spark within her marriage to John Corbett's Ian as she tries to juggle the incessant chirping entourage of her family.

But, she barely has time to herself, when it is revealed her parents Gus and Maria weren't actually married properly a half century ago.

So, when Maria decides to enjoy some freedom and Gus decides to pursue the route to arrogance, it is up to Toula to work on the old adage of family and that "just when she thought she was out, they pulled her back in again". 

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is a Greek tragedy by all accounts, a retro movie that is of its time and that fails in its quest to achieve its former glories.

Sure, the old messages and time honoured tropes of finding time for yourselves later in life, of letting your siblings free to live their own lives and of loving family for all their foibles are all there on show. There are even lines like "We Greeks see no difference between hugging and strangulation" to give insights into the over-bearing nature of family and Toula's in particular.

But they are whipped together and put through the tiresome microscope of attempts to reflect Greek cultures that feels particularly strained and weak this time around. The biggest problem is a script that appears over-stuffed yet bizarrely enough, under developed. Also it's the weak humour that relies on punch line of extended family appearing to embarrass and it soon becomes increasingly tiresome. It really is a case of "Abandon all Opa ye who enter".

If anything, even Vardalos looks tired and weary in parts of the film that increasingly relies on the older end of the family to drive any semblance of a paper-thin plot and they flounder, delivering growing elements of an entirely weak and utterly predictable sentimental plot that fails to hit any of the right notes. The world has moved on and in many ways, this film feels like it's been left behind.

I'm willing to concede that perhaps an older audience looking to be mildly engaged by the likes of this retro film will find something in it to enjoy.

But the escalating squabbling and over-bearing nature of the whole family in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 helps it shake off the earnestness and charm of the first film, and leaves you with a feeling that this is one Greek feast you don't want to repeat on you. 

Coming Soon to GTA Online: BIKERS and More

Coming Soon to GTA Online: BIKERS and More

Coming Soon to GTA Online: BIKERS and More

Bikers, the next big addition to GTA Online, brings the eagerly-anticipated ability to form and lead your very own Motorcycle Club for up to 8 players. Bikers will introduce new roles to play from fresh Prospects to club Presidents with a massive slate of new competitive and co-op gameplay, along with a range of new motorcycles, properties that include MC Clubhouses with a special custom Biker mechanic, and venues for seedy business ventures. 

MC work is dangerous, sometimes requiring a helping hand from your full Chapter.

Beyond a range of opportunities to climb the ranks within a gang and build lucrative businesses as a formidable MC, Bikers also includes a selection of appropriately-themed new modes for bikers of all kinds, along with new weapons, styles, tattoos and features to make this a huge addition to the world of GTA Online.

Seize vertically integrated growth opportunities across a range of sectors with Businesses.

And while loyal MCs will fight to expand their foothold alongside black-collar CEOs and Organizations, there’s always another opportunity to make your mark just around the corner. Keep an eye out for high-level, high-risk vehicle based business ventures to spring up across Los Santos and Blaine County soon.

It’s already been an exciting year for GTA Online. Further Adventures in Finance and Felony brought new, challenging work opportunities and high-rise office spaces for CEOs willing to risk everything to keep climbing the criminal ranks. New Adversary Modes like Power Play and Trading Places added an exciting new dimension to team-based games. Cunning Stunts took stunt racing to a new level with a radical new set of Races and vehicles, alongside Creator tools that allow the infinitely creative community to build and share their own Stunt Races well into the future. 

And ongoing weekly GTA Online bonuses highlight the enormous breadth of available undertakings. Be on the lookout for more of these throughout the fall as well, including continued opportunities for bonus GTA$ and RP in select activities, valuable discounts and new weekly Premium Stunt Races.

The Boss: DVD Review

The Boss: DVD Review

Re-teaming with her director husband andTammy cohort, and reviving a character from 15 years ago in comedy troupe The Groundlings, Melissa McCarthy stars as the brash businesswoman Michelle Darnell.

Abandoned repeatedly when she was but a nipper, and thrown into various foster carers before being rejected time and time again, Darnell's grown up to be America's 47th Wealthiest woman but isn't much loved by her staff, chiefly Kristen Bell's long suffering single mom and assistant Claire.

When Darnell's incarcerated for insider trading, she emerges from prison determined to get back to the top - and finding only Claire's begrudgingly willing to let her stay, she insinuates her way into her life.

The Boss ain't exactly top dog.

Granted, if you've seen Melissa McCarthy's previous fare (and specifically Tammy) you will know what to expect - a pinch of raunchy (aka foul language) mixed in with some sweet saccharine fare to help you invest in the character's arc.

Clad in high neck turtleneck jumpers and clearly a spoof of Martha Stewart via Donald Trump, McCarthy invests fully into this character and it feels like a second skin to her without a shadow of a doubt as she inhabits the monstrous caricature.

With her push to create a brownie empire via Girl Guides named the Darnell Darlings (vaguely resembling a female troop of Black Power candidates, clothed in red berets), there are certainly moments when McCarthy sells what she's offering with ease and gusto.

But that mix of potty-mouth below par script and physical comedy soon provides a meal of diminishing returns.

There's only so often the apparently improvised and under-written script can fall back on a lazy dick joke to hit the highs it's aiming for. Granted, it ain't anything other than low-hanging fruit, but it soon becomes tiresome. And when the humour runs out, a third act over-dollop of sentiment as saccharine and as sickly as the brownies Darnell's Darlings are selling really thrusts things over the edge.

Bell proves fair game and gives a great straight performance as the frustrated mother of a kid and a monster (Darnell) but her sweet-natured turn goes to prove the diamond to Darnell's rough. That said, it's clear McCarthy has lived the character of the self-made millionaire before and there are moments when the monstrous and unexpected gives way to some funny laughs.

Dinklage is one-note Blue Steel and wasted, but then no-one in The Boss acquits themselves well and the whole thing suffers when compared to more amusing fare like Spy.

Fudging the final act and abandoning the crass proves very much to be The Boss' tonal Achilles heel, as it feels like extended sketches have been padded with very little idea of what to do and where to go.

Melissa McCarthy may get some modest returns for The Boss, as she clearly strikes a chord with the audience at times, but the film's insistence on following an oddly uneven journey and a woefully weak script does nothing to get this boss out of the cinematic boardroom and back to the floor.

In fact, quite simply, this Boss deserves to be fired.

The Divergent Series: Allegiant: DVD Review

The Divergent Series: Allegiant: DVD Review

Released by Universal Home Ent

The latest young adult cum dystopian cum split finale in two a la Hunger Games / Harry Potterfilm has nary a hiss nor a roar as it beats onward to the end.

In Allegiant, Shailene Woodley's rather bland Tris Pryor sleepwalks her way through the story as she and pouty love interest Four (the always pursed lipped Theo James) make a break for freedom.

At the end of the lacklustre Insurgent, the gang found out that everything they had been told was a lie and there was life outside the ruins of Chicago. 

Setting out to scale the wall and break free into the beyond, Tris and her troupe encounter a group of geneticists and a shadowy cabal who reveal she is the key to the future... and that only Tris can save the world from factions and the fractures within. Can they be trusted?

Allegiant feels like a reboot of the series and once again packs some pretty impressive space age visuals and some great visualisations of a world just beyond our own. (A building that houses the geneticists is a DNA helix)  But this futuristic sheen comes at a price - and that cost is the caring about any of the characters or giving them enough to do.

While the action is ramped up in parts with Schwentke giving life to clear-cut sequences, the continual muddling and muddying of obtuse concepts like The Damaged, The Pure, The Fringe and eugenics themselves in po-faced dialogue spouted by the cast does little to breathe life into proceedings.

In fact, it does the opposite.

The dramatic cypher Tris seems devoid of any punch this time around, and Woodley works with what she has on offer, but it's scant pickings. She's not well served by symbolism either with her purity seeing her clothed in white while everyone else has varying degrees of washed out pastels.  While James gets to run around a little and bust out some gung-ho action sequences, these choreographed pieces are more a momentary indulgence, rather than a full narrative necessity.

Unfortunately, opening up the world has ironically robbed The Divergent Series of any real life - the conflicts between Octavia Spencer and Naomi Watts' warring factions is touched on only too briefly and any tension there feels manufactured and under-explored.

Daniels makes a reasonable fist of ambiguity with the presence of a benevolent leader, but there's little for him to really do as the film heads to a much underwhelming ending. Perhaps the desire to split the film has robbed it of any kind of urgency from the book and undercut the drama that was due to unfurl. 

When compared to the work done by The Hunger Games franchise, Woodley's Tris is a heroine that's found wanting and whose very definition is weaker. Considering both series explore similar themes, they couldn't really be much farther apart with their executions and central characters.

Ultimately, The Divergent Series will end with Ascendant - but whether it will garner a place in the pantheon of YA films is very much up for debate.

Rating:

Newstalk ZB Review - discussing Blair Witch, Pete's Dragon and The Secret Life Of Pets

Newstalk ZB Review - discussing Blair Witch, Pete's Dragon and The Secret Life Of Pets

This week, it was the frightening Blair Witch, the updated Pete's Dragon and the zany Secret Life Of Pets.

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-blair-witch-petes-dragon/

Don't Breathe: Film Review

Don't Breathe: Film Review

Cast: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Stephen Lang, Daniel Zovatto
Director: Fede Alvarez

"There is nothing a man cannot do once he accepts the fact there is no God."

After splattering up the woods with blood in the Evil Dead remake, Fede Alvarez turns his twisted attention to a siege thriller, that's more about suspense than outright horror.

Desperation haunts Don't Breathe's characters in more ways than one.

Minnette, Levy and Zovatto play a trio of teens casually robbing houses and searching for a pay-off. Determined that one last raid will help them out of the Detroit hell-hole they inhabit, the trio of Rocky, Alex and Money decide to hit the house of a Gulf War vet (Lang), who is apparently sitting on a fortune in his house after a pay-out from the death of his daughter.

But the trio finds the break-in is far from what's expected - and soon, the tables are turned on the crims...

To say Don't Breathe is a taut thriller that grabs you by the throat and sends you to the edge of your seat is perhaps an understatement. (As Marge Gunderson once said "All this for a little bit of money" - it's quite appropriate in this case).

Best viewed fresh and without any of the twists spoiled, the film subverts your expectations and turns it on its head - while Minnette  spends a lot of the film wide-eyed and looking shocked, it's Levy and Lang's underplaying of their roles that speak volumes.

Coupled with Alvarez's smart directorial touches (low camera shots and swooping cameras add to the sense of claustrophobia and tension), there's plenty to dive into in this film. A bravura basement sequence early on is fiendishly unfurled and smartly executed and perhaps one of the high points of this suspense thriller.

Using the briefest touches of character (Levy's Alex is afforded the most hints of a life outside of the house) proves to be wise, giving a sparing yet simple reason to sympathise with the gang. But, Alvarez is also clever enough to use some brief moments to make you re-think your loyalties with Stephen Lang's dweller. (Though one final sequence may seem a tad too far).

Ultimately visceral and quite suspenseful, Don't Breathe is a thrill-ride worth strapping in for.

Taut and lean, its 90 minutes run time seems just about right, and with a slightly warped viewpoint, the genre flick is insidiously clever in its growing ever tighter grip of suspense.