Batman: Arkham VR: PS4 Review

Batman: Arkham VR: PS4 Review

Developed by Rocksteady Games
Platform: PS4 VR

Hands down perhaps the closest thing PlayStation's released for the VR that is more than just an experience, Batman Arkham VR is a credit to Rocksteady's dealing with the franchise.

Completely immersive and utterly thrilling, the game puts you in the cowl and boots of the Bat (literally in the case of the cowl) and gets you into the world of Gotham like never before.

Following Bats through one Dark (K)night of the soul, it's a clever spin to get you around Gotham and meeting up with some of the Bat's most famous faces. It all begins with a flashback (which we've all seen time and time again) and a chain of events that put other things in motion.

But the thrill of Batman Arkham VR is the level of immersion that Rocksteady and the VR headset brings to you. From initially putting it on and getting calibrated, the game plunges you into the world of WayneTech and the excitement of transitioning from Bruce Wayne to Batman.

From grabbing a Batarang and hurling it around the Bat-cave with the use of Move controllers (which never gets tiring) to using the Batclaw and a scanning device at the side of your belt, this is a game that literally lets you become the bat.

Using the trigger motions of the Move Controllers, you can move from point to point in scenes and get into the story that way. With a floating hand (the only visual downside to this game) you can fire up the Batcomputer and dig into the story - it's totally immersive in a deeply satisfying way.

Interestingly, the only portion of the Bat world not fully explored is the vehicular side of Batman - there's no hurtling around in the Batmobile early on; everything is done via a cut-scene fade and may be a reaction to nausea hitting parts of the motion games of VR. It's a minor niggle that sort of takes you out of the full experience created by Rocksteady, but it is one that stands out.

Attention to detail is prevalent here - from the detail within the Bat-cave to the grime and grit of Gotham's seedy streets, just looking around gives a real tingle down your neck. The depth of the world is incredible and while it's perhaps a little off-putting that you simply can't fly off into the night, the scenery is well-worth taking in and shows that immersiveness is a real boon to this hybrid of experience and game.

It's perhaps prescient that so much of the VR takes in so much of the tech and deploys it so well, as this is what the headset does completely. In reality, you don a mask to don the virtual mask of the Bat - the synergy is impressive and the final result is nothing short of sensational.

Ultimately, Batman: Arkham VR is a great experience and demonstrator of what the VR simulations can do - it'll add weight greatly to the reveal of the tech and lend credence to the start of the pathway to a totally original and 360 degree gaming experience.

First look: T2 Trainspotting trailer

First look: T2 Trainspotting trailer

Here's your first look at the full T2 Trainspotting trailer which has premiered overnight.

Featuring the return of Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, Begbie et al, the gang's back in the T2 film which hits cinemas next year!

First Wonder Woman trailer drops

First Wonder Woman trailer drops

Here's your first look at the brand new Wonder Woman trailer.

Featuring Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, the trailer's one of the most hotly anticipated of the year after her very first appearance alongside Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill in Batman v Superman

Doctor Who Power of the Daleks hits cinemas

Doctor Who Power of the Daleks hits cinemas

A special cinema event in New Zealand from Saturday 12 November

Featuring Patrick Troughton’s debut as the Doctor BBC Worldwide ANZ and Rialto Cinemas today announced a limited-run theatrical screening of Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks animated series from Saturday 12 November for one week only.

 The cinema event will also feature exclusive bonus content including interviews with members of the original cast. Fans throughout New Zealand will be able to enjoy the event in select Rialto Cinemas.

Tickets for Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks can be purchased by visiting www.rialto.co.nz for further information on participating cinemas, or at the cinema box offices.

 The Power of the Daleks is one of the most celebrated Doctor Who adventures, and yet no complete film recordings are known to have survived. The master negatives were destroyed in an archive purge in 1974. This brand new animation, being released 50 years after its only UK broadcast, is based on the programme’s original audio recordings, surviving photographs, and film clips. 

The six- part adventure features the regeneration - or as it was then called “renewal” - of First Doctor, William Hartnell, into Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, and follows the Time Lord and his companions Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben (Michael Craze) as they do battle with the Daleks on the planet Vulcan.

“This is a great opportunity for Doctor Who fans to see all six-parts of Power of the Daleks brought to life using modern animation techniques, and to experience this as a shared event,” said Louise Hill, Live Entertainment Executive for BBC Worldwide ANZ. Kevin Gordon, Rialto Distribution Sales Manager, said: “This will be a landmark event in the world of Doctor Who, and we are hugely excited for Kiwi fans to discover the iconic lost episodes on the big screen.” Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks is produced and directed by Charles Norton, with character designs from acclaimed comic book artists Martin Geraghty and Adrian Salmon.

Arrival: Film Review

Arrival: Film Review

Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
Director: Denis Villeneuve

Director Denis Villeneuve returns with a masterfully heady mystery puzzle box film that's simultaneously a slice of sci-fi but also a meditation on love and communication.

Amy Adams is linguistics Professor Louise Banks, who's called in to help the army when a series of giant objects (12 in total) touch down around the world in a first contact situation. As various superpowers scramble both their weaponry and experts to work out what's wanted, Banks and a team work with their alien visitors to try and crack the code.

But with escalating tension and paranoia, is the world about to be pushed to the limit and react in a way that's apocalyptic?

As usual, Villeneuve brings his eye for suspense and teetering edge of your seat moments with measured and controlled story-telling that appears to be in no rush to reveal its hand.

Eloquently and elegantly shot with some impressive cinematography and an atmosphere of brooding, Arrival is both reverent of its genres and simultaneously new as well. With the language of the heptapod visitors expressed in inky black circles, the film exudes a rudimentary look that's compelling as it plays out. Equally, the soundscape created in the creatures' inner sanctum is audacious and embracing, giving a feeling of the other-worldly as well.

But Incendies, Enemy, Sicario and Prisoners director Villeneuve is never in any rush to hurry along the proceedings, preferring to use long slow shots to build elements of uncertainty and foreboding - it's easy to see why the anticipation is so delicious throughout. It may be based on the short story "Story of Your Life" and straddled with sci fi tropes (mysterious obelisks et al), but it becomes its own beast. (Though a visual nod to another of Villeneuve's films' ending Enemy is perhaps a moment and an Easter Egg only connoisseurs of his films will appreciate)

Stripped of its sci-fi elements and the rather cliched Chinese super-power meltdown / human panic, Arrival is at its heart a meditation on love and language, as well as communication, that's difficult to discuss without spoilers.

Anchored by an impressive Adams who imbues the film with an earthiness that's needed and a fragility that's obvious as her story plays out, it's a trip that's masterful in its execution and gripping in equal measure.

The star of the piece though is once again Villeneuve. As with previous ventures (Sicario, Incendies, Enemy and Prisoners), he demonstrates great flair in adapting the short Story of Your Life novella and turning it into an exercise in anticipation that never manages to over-stay its welcome, and imbues the genre with a freshness that's both reverential and feeling new. Whether it's stretching out Banks' first meeting with the heptapod aliens in an audacious sequence that grips and gives you a sense of the fear, excitement and trepidation that Banks must be feeling.

Ultimately, Arrival does concern itself with aliens and their appearance, but its themes are predominantly more human as it loops around its timelines in its Ouroboros way; love, language, connection, fate and the propensity to take a chance on what's potentially ahead. They're not new themes in the sci-fi world, but they're certainly given a fresh inventiveness and a polish that renders them compelling, intriguing and palpably exciting.

Driveclub VR: PS4 Review

Driveclub VR: PS4 Review

Platform: PSVR

I'd love to be able to review Driveclub VR for you.

But, after 2 laps of the game, with its usual super visuals and incredible detailed sense of the cars and the world around, the arcade nature of the game actually induced horrific nausea as the motion sickness kicked in.

It's a shame, as the visuals of the game are mightily impressive - before you've even started the racing, the fact you can look all around your car shows how much scope there is here.

But ultimately, I couldn't help but nearly blow chunks as I stopped the game midway through its first race.

The Accountant: Film Review

The Accountant: Film Review

Cast: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, John Lithgow, Jon Bernthal, JK Simmons
Director: Gavin O'Connor

In an attempt to make accountants seem like more than just numbers guys, director Gavin O'Connor's movie with a dour faced Ben Affleck as the titular accountant aims for thrills, but on most occasions misses.

Affleck is Christian Wolff the accountant, a maths genius who is afflicted with high-functioning autism and whose social interactions are awkward at best. Called into a robotics company to try and work out where $70 million has gone AWOL, Christian solves the case overnight but his resolution causes a chain of events to unfold.

With a series of killers on his back and the Treasury Department closing in on Wolff after his links to cleaning dodgy books, Wolff's on the back foot - and with a nerdy fellow accountant from the robotics company in tow (Kendrick in usual preppy and perky mode), the chase is on.

Skipping some of the emotional beats needed to make this land proves fatal for The Accountant, which in parts feels perfunctory, drab and dour.

While a frowny Affleck manages to imbue Wolff with the social awkwardness needed, which allows for some comic interludes between him and Kendrick's Dayna, he's pretty much rendered relatively mute. And outside of action sequences, Affleck's got little to do except revel in the vulnerability and physicality- though admittedly, he does it well.

If anything's wrong with The Accountant, it's more a case of the threads not quite tying as tightly together as perhaps they should without characters indulging in serious amounts of exposition to help you through. Worst offender is JK Simmons' Treasury head, who's (cliche alert) determined to crack Wolff's identity before he retires - in one scene alone, he literally espouses the whole story in an attempt to get people up to speed. Thankfully, he's such a great actor that he just manages to lift the material higher than it deserves.

While there's something to be said for having an autism heavy hero on the screen (according to one character 1 in 68 US kids suffer) and there's a feeling that this is the launch of a Littlest Hobo style assassin franchise, The Accountant never quite fires on all cylinders as it trudges through its 2 hour run time, thanks largely to flashbacks that jolt proceedings and disparate multi-threads that aren't particularly engaging or original.

The final fight sequence is precise in its execution and brings a punch that's been lacking, but it's hard to fully invest in proceedings as they play out prior to this point, with some of the threads feeling not quite as well sketched out as they could be.

While relatively solid overall, thanks mainly to Affleck's performance, The Accountant ultimately and unfortunately doesn't quite add up.

Rating:

Alice Through The Looking Glass: Blu Ray Review

Alice Through The Looking Glass: Blu Ray Review

If 2010's Alice In Wonderland was a mish-mash of concepts and colours, this sequel six years after the last is a drab dour psychological piece.

When Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returns to land after years away at sea, she finds that she has to head back to Wonderland to escape the confines of Victorian life. However, when she arrives there, she discovers her friend the Hatter (Depp) is no longer the man he used to be due to deep-rooted psychological issues.

When told by the White Queen (Hathaway) and her chums that she may be able to save things if she heads back in time. So setting out to steal the Chronosphere, guarded by time himself (Sacha Baron Cohen), Alice heads off on a dangerous mission to change the past and future.

Essentially riffing on Back To The Future 2, and feeling like every time travel cliche you've seen, the FX laden fantasy Alice Through The Looking Glass is anything but a colourful blast back into Lewis Carroll's world, preferring more to be a Daddy issues film and a sibling rivalry exploration.

With Baron Cohen providing an extended riff on Werner Herzog / Christoph Waltz as Time (and his minions coming together likeTransformers when it's needed), and Depp looking like a sullen faced Beetlejuice reject, the film has Tim Burton's breath all over it, even if the Muppets and Flight of The Conchords' James Bobin is directing it.

The themes of escape for Alice and of damage for The Hatter are perfectly fine, but give the whole thing a wash of deep darkness whose hues it's hard to escape. It's a psychologically oppressive piece that darts back and forth through time and is anchored by a relatively strong Wasikowska who has little to really work with.

Despite being told she could do six impossible things before breakfast, Alice this time around is slightly thwarted by a plot that's more about showcasing its effects and costumes than it is about delving into character. Consequently, characters like Hathaway's White Queen waft ethereally in and out without much depth or commanding much attention.Depp's nicely muted and forlorn as the Hatter whose world is crumbling at the loss of his family, but really he looks like Edward Scissorhands in another get up, and his zaniness that zinged the first film is much missed here.

Moving away from the book's original story was perhaps a brave and bold move, but the fact the film hardly stays in one place for long enough as the protagonists zoom through time in gyroscopes does little to fully engage, despite period details and settings doing much to create an atmosphere that's almost stifled by the over-complicated yet somehow underwritten moments.

Even though the darker and dourer elements of this Alice, What's The Hatter piece are welcome, the film's whole lasting impression, despite the politics of Alice wanting more from her life than conforming or what society sets down for her (a commendable message to young girls), is one of missing Burton's original vision for - and his whimsical touches on - the cinematic Wonderland.

Hitman Season Finale Out Now + Launch Trailer

Hitman Season Finale Out Now + Launch Trailer

THE HITMAN SEASON FINALE IS HERE

Travel to Hokkaido, Japan Today

SYDNEY, 1^ST November 2016 – The Season Finale for HITMAN Season One is here with a mission called “Situs Inversus”, and is the culmination of everything players will have learnt in terms of both gameplay and story.

A journey which began with a Prologue and Paris location in March, continued with Episode 2: Sapienza in April, Episode 3: Marrakesh in May, the Summer Bonus Episode in July, Episode 4: Bangkok in August, Episode 5: Colorado in September as we reach the season finale, Episode 6: Hokkaido today.

“It was a brave decision to go fully digital episodic with Hitman, fundamentally changing how we make the game, and for us it has been a major success,” said Hannes Seifert, Studio Head, Io-Interactive. “I want to say a big thank you to all the players for making this possible! Together we’ve built and run the biggest and most replayable locations of any Hitman game and added new live content every single week since launch. And although we’re now completing season one, this is only the beginning for our ever expanding World of Assassination.”

The Hokkaido location is set within the grounds of the hyper-exclusive GAMA private hospital and resort. This secluded facility is a fusion of Japanese beauty and cutting-edge technology, featuring its own Zen gardens, organic sushi restaurant and traditional Japanese hot spring. Agent 47 must locate two targets in this climactic Season Finale. 

Battlefield 1: PS4 Review

Battlefield 1: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by EA And developed by DICE

Battlefield 1 is no ordinary shooter.

And it's no ordinary emotional experience.

It's the first first person shooter that's been played that leaves a feeling of despair each time you die - perhaps it's the setting in World War I and the reality that many, many people died during the carnage, or perhaps it's the fact that each time you die, a different character name appears on the screen.

Set over an anthology of stories, this immersive shooter gives you the chance to play different parts of the campaign over the turn of the War.

From a British tank crew to an Italian fighter, the choice is yours - but war itself is very real. And regardless of which order you play the campaign in and in which chapter, the carnage and chaos is utterly terrifying as it spools out in front of you.

It's the 1918 leg of the war, and DICE has opted for reality rather than hyper reality, meaning you're saddled with the primitive weapons of the time. From clunky grenades to guns that need reloading and take time, the weaponry is difficult to use if you don't plan your approaches and ideas.

Granted the sections themselves feel occasionally repetitive (stealth, shoot, kill and steal) being the traits you can expect, but there's a deep emotional connection to this collection that remains rewarding and surprising. Never before has there been the urgent need to invest in the lives of those on the screen and it's Battlefield 1's biggest surprise.

Some of the cut scenes have an epic quality to them as well - giving the whole game a sheen that's welcome.

Multiplayer is massive too - from conquest mode to the chance to play an Operations mode, there's more than enough to keep you alive on the gaming front. While the multiplayer still suffers from the usual issues, spawning you too far away from the action to make it frustration when you arrive and are shot, the game's beauty is evident as well in its surroundings. Plenty of work's gone into the landscapes and the war-torn elements - and in parts, it looks like hell on earth.

While the multiplayer has its trademark DICE issues, the campaign is the greatest reason to play Battlefield 1. Deeply involving, more emotional than expected and with a compulsion that borders on addiction, this shooter is a reminder of the horrors of war, and a game that stays away from glorification of it all.

As a result, it's compelling and gritty as hell.

The Light Between Oceans: Film Review

The Light Between Oceans: Film Review

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, Rachel Weisz, Emily Barclay, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson
Director: Derek Cianfrance

Making great fist of the desolate New Zealand coast and aiming for emotional devastation but landing somewhere nearer trying experience, Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance's The Light Between Oceans aims big in its period affectations.

Beautifully shot and framed, The Light Between Oceans is the film adaptation of ML Steadman's post war story. Fassbender stars as Tom, a World War I veteran who simply wants to recover from the horrors of the Great War (or as he understates he's "just looking to get away from things"). Ending up in the Lighthouse service and asking for a posting on Janus Rock which overlooks the oceans, Tom meets Vikander's Isabel on the mainland and despite his withdrawn nature, an instant attraction blossoms.

The pair's marital bliss is hit by double tragedy with miscarriages and when a boat washes up with a dead man on board and a crying baby, Isabel pleads with Tom to raise the child as their own. Reluctantly, he agrees and the pair settle into a familial life, blissfully happy.

But years later, on the mainland, Tom meets the widow and grieving mother (a dignified and gravitas-filled Weisz) and a chain of events is guiltily set in motion.

The Light Between Oceans benefits from a great solemn first half, that hits all the emotional beats required.

In among some stunning cinematography and some melancholy moments that border on the darkness, Cianfrance draws the best from Vikander with some truly heartbreaking and devastating sequences playing out as Isabel loses two children (the first in the most harrowing of circumstances). But the film hits a stumbling block as it saunters towards the end (which no doubt is in large part the fault of source material) and negotiates both time jumps and desperation for closure, sacrificing the emotional heft that's needed to allow the choices to feel quite so cataclysmic for all involved.

Of the two actors, Vikander's the strongest and most adept at translating her arc to the screen, and while Fassbender's stoic outlook on Tom is nigh on aloof, he's helped by some choice morsels of dialogue that provide insight where characterisation on screen can not.

His ethos of "I just try to keep the light burning for whoever needs it" is laden with tragedy and selflessness but the implications of this lightkeeper doing more than his duty unfortunately never feel fully fleshed out on screen as the film slips into melodrama and divergent endings.

With Cianfrance using cutaways to the rolling oceans and the cruelty of nature a little too often to segue between it all, The Light Between Oceans struggles to really find its own voice in its back half. Granted, the emotion is there initially and it's hard not to get swept up in the bleak unfolding tragedy of Tom and Isabel; but the final strait and its long dawdling route to get there mean its emotional effectiveness is muted and stilted, despite some of the finest efforts of its central cast.

Never as devastating or as provocative as it should be, this effective translation of Steadman's source material may look rich on the exterior, but its core is flawed when others come into the picture and its attempts at emotional resonance are thwarted.

Rating:

Stranger Things: Season 1 Review

Stranger Things: Season 1 Review

Episodes : 8
Released on Netflix

Mixing up Stand By Me, Poltergeist, Spielberg, Stephen King and a dash of horror, the 8 episode series Stranger Things is a nostalgic blast of addictive mystery.

Set in 1983, it's the story of four kids who find one of their number go missing in middle America. As the search begins, a mysterious and relatively mute little girl is found - and a shadowy government agency comes looking...

Nicely paced, this mystery series works well and is cleverly constructed by the Duffer Brothers. Pulling in genres of the time, mixing in some spookier elements and providing a chapter narrative works brilliantly for Stranger Things.

It also works as it's generational; choosing to concentrate on three groups - the young kids, the teens and romances thereof and the grieving mother (played by Winona Ryder) and damaged policeman (David Harbour) - works well and when all three sides intersect, it feels naturalistic and in keeping with what's already passed.

Ultimately, Strange Things is a show that's worthy of a binge and worthy of sticking with. It remains to be seen whether season 2 of Stranger Things will still hold the attention for as long and or whether it'll benefit as an American Horror Story style anthology; but for now, this original Netflix series is up there with the best the small screen has to offer.

Win a double pass to see Nocturnal Animals

Win a double pass to see Nocturnal Animals

Nocturnal Animals In Cinemas November 10

Rating R16

Susan Morrow, a Los Angeles art dealer (portrayed by Ms. Adams), lives an incredibly privileged yet unfulfilled life with her husband Hutton Morrow (Armie Hammer).

One weekend, as Hutton departs on one of his too-frequent business trips, Susan receives an unsolicited package that has been left in her mailbox. It is a novel, Nocturnal Animals, written by her ex-husband Edward Sheffield (Mr. Gyllenhaal), with whom she has had no contact for years. 

Edward’s note accompanying the manuscript encourages Susan to read the work and then to contact him during his visit to the city. Alone at night, in bed, Susan begins reading. 

The novel is dedicated to her…

 …but its content is violent and devastating. While Susan reads, she is deeply moved by Edward’s writing and cannot help but reminisce over the most private moments from her own love story with the author. 

Trying to look within herself and beyond the glossy surface of the life and career that she has made, Susan increasingly interprets the book as a tale of revenge, a tale that forces her to re-evaluate the choices that she has made, and re-awakens a love that she feared was lost – as the story builds to a reckoning that will define both the novel’s hero and her own.  

To enter simply email to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or click here  and in the subject line put NOCTURNAL! 

Hacksaw Ridge: Film Review

Hacksaw Ridge: Film Review

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Hugo Weaving, Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington, Teresa Palmer, Rachel Griffiths
Director: Mel Gibson

It's perhaps easy to see why Mel Gibson would be drawn to the true story of conscientious objector Desmond Doss, a man whose unconventional ways saw him save 75 of his colleagues during the battle of Okinawa in May 1945.

Once on the outside of Hollywood, director Gibson's had a bit of a comeback, with a recent starring role in B movie Blood Father and now with Oscar talk for a war film about the attack on Hacksaw Ridge during the height of the campaign.

But opting to take more of a cheesy biopic route for Hacksaw Ridge lends the film more to a feeling of Christian Forrest Gump goes to war, rather than a war film destined for the ages.

Garfield plays Doss, an almost simpleton hick of a man whose pacifism and world view was shaped by accidentally nearly bashing his brother to death in a play fight. With a fragile father suffering from PTSD from the Great War (an excellently nuanced turn from Weaving who pitches it perfectly between pathos and faltering abuse), Doss decides he wants to go to war - but to save lives rather than take them.

Despite his father's refusal to endorse this route for either of his sons, and with the army resolutely against Doss' denial of weapons, the fight between values and principles forms the large part of this film, complete with corny dialogue and cliched moments of imposed conflict with fellow trainees.

Facing a court martial, Doss is saved at the last moment unexpectedly from spending the war in prison and ships out to Okinawa to face the Japanese, swarming like locusts from underground and into direct conflict with Doss' ideologies and comrades.

It's perhaps during a ferocious 15 minute fight sequence atop Hacksaw Ridge that Gibson's film comes to life, spinning multiple brutal attacks and displaying the true horrors of war (and comes at a welcome relief from the onslaught of over-wrought and slow-mo shots of burned and battered bodies - subtlety is not Gibson's strong point here).

But in the final third of the film, Gibson's content to over-saturate proceedings with Christian elements, complete with overtly religious iconography (no worse than Doss' messianic final shot as he ascends in a stretcher from atop the Ridge with a Bible clutched in one hand and another hanging over the edge as the score rouses higher and higher) that feels as brutally obvious as some of the earlier elements of this relatively rote war film.

Doss' story is supposed to inspire and while Garfield gives good hick and earnestness to the man, he's not well served by the screenplay which wrings as much pathos as it can from an over-use and over-reliance on an unsubtle approach. Perhaps the final nail in the coffin is the inclusion of documentary footage and interviews from the real-life Doss to hammer home the point of it all - an unnecessary touch that removes any remaining power from what's already transpired.

Ultimately, Hacksaw Ridge eviscerates the heart of its own story by heading down a cliched route that's well trodden by others before it; its heavy-handed direction cripples its ultimate goal and what should be an inspiring true story depicting the horrors of war and the heroism of some is ham-fisted and hackneyed.

Shots from Big Boys Toys

Shots from Big Boys Toys

Big Boys Toys hit Auckland's ASB Showgrounds this weekend.

Check out some shots from the event here

James White: DVD Review

James White: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Madman Home Ent

Financed via Kickstarter and brought to life when writer Josh Mond wanted to explore his feelings over his own mother's death, James White is clearly a labour of love for all involved.

White (played with rawness by Girls star Christopher Abbott) is a New Yorker, whose life is spiralling out of selfishness. But things change when his mother's cancer returns.

Intensely raw, and shot in close ups throughout, Mond manages to bring a claustrophobic intensity to the screen as he explores the story of self-destruction. Both Abbott and Sex and The City star Cynthia Nixon bring a degree of complexity to proceedings as White and his mother respectively.

You can't help but get swept up in proceedings, given the emotional levels mined here, and while the film has a universality that's likely to hit with more resonance for anyone who's ever been touched by cancer, the film's uncompromising and brisk approach to a sparsity of story-telling is to be applauded.

NewsTalk ZB Review - Doctor Strange, Hell Or High Water and Ghostbusters

NewsTalk ZB Review - Doctor Strange, Hell Or High Water and Ghostbusters

This week, we're talking the 14th Marvel film, Doctor Strange, the brilliant Hell or High Water and take a look on Ghostbusters.

Take a listen below

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-doctor-strange-hell-or-high-water/

I, Daniel Blake: Film Review

I, Daniel Blake: Film Review

Cast: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires
Director: Ken Loach

That I Daniel Blake is book-ended with the voice of its titular hero is no shock.

But that its ending and beginning convey such a dichotomy of feelings is equally no surprise.

The Palme D'Or winner from Brit socialist director Ken Loach is riddled with his usual concerns and stylistic touches. This time tackling the failings of society from two singular viewpoints, Loach has once again exacerbated the increasing common human condition in a world where the state is failing those around them, and they in turn are losing their grip on humanity.

Dave Johns is the ordinary everyman widower and Newcastle resident Daniel Blake stuck in a swirling vortex of increasing lunatic bureaucracy, swimming against a tide of pencil pushers and call centre bound helpers who seem determined to break his spirit.

Set against a backdrop of a council estate where grey is the default colour setting, and recovering from a heart attack and facing the prospect of his benefit being stopped, Daniel finds he is out of touch with the world after spending umpteen years working as a carpenter.

Now faced with online forms, the incessant tide of red tape and a lack of human compassion, Blake's trip to a job centre sees him help a just-moved-to Tyneside Londoner Katie ( Hayley Squires) whose facing similar issues with benefits agencies.

A burgeoning friendship grows between the pair, but the forces of the world are conspiring against them - and despite rallying cries to each for support, this is a battle that only the state can appear to win.

Blessed with a quiet determination and a rallying fanfare for the common man and decency all round, I, Daniel Blake is a study of society teetering, albeit one that's peppered with Loach's masterful eye for humour in the absurdity of life.

Much like 2014 NZIFF entry Still Life with the wonderful Eddie Marsan, I, Daniel Blake presents a salutary look to the solitary man, doing the decent thing when the world around him conspires against him.

You'd have to be a complete Loach virgin to not know where the story is going, but its strength lies in its central performance; Johns is very much the man we all aspire to be. A good neighbour, a friend when in need and a thoroughly decent bloke, the gradual beating down of the man is the film's rallying cry and it's all the more tragic for it.

It would be easy to milk I Daniel Blake for easy wins, and Loach never takes that approach; the impending pathos of the situations as they unfold proffer unsettling parallels in the world we all currently find ourselves in. Granted, there's the protestor toward the end who unleashes a mouthful at the incumbent Tory UK government, but Loach's strength at this point is how incredibly restrained this tirade is - and how the audience would be baying for more as it plays out.

But the ultimate victory of I Daniel Blake is the central performances of the duo. Theirs is a relationship that basks in earnestness, that tries to weather the incoming storm and that provides a quiet poignancy as the denouement rumbles around.

Make no mistake though, this is a polemic of the common man through a prism of Loach - a warning and tribute of what a little dignity can achieve and a harkening back to a time when neighbours were to be treated with open arms, not viewed with suspicion and mistrust.

2K Announces Carnival Games® VR Now Available on HTC Vive™ and PlayStation®VR

2K Announces Carnival Games® VR Now Available on HTC Vive™ and PlayStation®VR

2K Announces Carnival Games® VR Now Available on HTC Vive™ and PlayStation®VR

2K’s first virtual reality offering challenges consumers to step right up and play their favorite carnival games; Coming to Oculus Rift on 6^th December, 2016

Join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #CarnivalGamesVR

Sydney, Australia – October 28, 2016 – 2K today announced that Carnival Games® VR, a new take on the hit franchise created by Cat Daddy Games that has sold-in more than 9 million copies worldwide, is now available as a AUD$29.95/NZD$31.95 digital download for PlayStation®VR and USD$19.99/NZD$31.95 for HTC Vive™. Carnival Games VR marks 2K’s first virtual reality offering, bringing the thrill of 12 different carnival games into living rooms in an engaging entertainment experience for all ages.

“2K is proud to make our debut in the exciting world of VR with an accessible and light-hearted entertainment experience,” said Sarah Anderson, SVP of Marketing at 2K. “Carnival Games VR’s stylized interactive environments and mini-games make it the perfect way to enjoy virtual reality with family and friends.”

Carnival Games VR immerses players in a theme park, allowing them to explore, interact with patrons and play up to 12 unique games. Whether scaling a castle in Climbing Wall, or rolling for a high score in Alley Ball – everyone will find a favorite. In each of these games, players will have the opportunity to collect tickets for fun virtual prizes when they enter one of four different Carnival Alleys. All prizes are held in the Play Room where they can be used to unlock unique achievements. In addition, players can challenge their friends and see if they can earn the top spot on the online leaderboard. For full details on all 12 games, please see the Official 2K Blog.

Carnival Games VR is rated ‘G’ in Australia and New Zealand, is available now for the HTC Vive™ and PlayStation®VR, and will be available for Oculus Rift worldwide on 6^th December, 2016. For more information on Carnival Games VR, subscribe on YouTube, follow us on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook and visit http://www.2K.com/carnivalgames.

*Users should consult the operating instructions provided with their VR hardware for safety guidelines and age restrictions. 

Oculus and Rift are trademarks of Oculus VR, LLC.

Steep Open Beta Weekend announced

Steep Open Beta Weekend announced

UBISOFT® ANNOUNCES STEEP™ OPEN BETA WEEKEND ON NOVEMBER 18

Players can Register Online by November 9 for an Early Access Beta Weekend

Sydney, Australia — October 28, 2016 — Today, Ubisoft announced that Steep™ will have two Beta phases from November 10^th to 14^th and from November 18^th to 21^st on Xbox One, PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. The beta phases let players hit slopes of the Alps ahead of the Steep worldwide launch on December 2^nd. 

To watch trailer please click the image below

Access for the November 18 open beta will be available via digital download on consoles and PC giving access to all players wanting to explore Steep’s massive open-world. For those looking to start snow season sooner, early access to the beta will be available to some of the players who register at steepgame.com by November 9.

These beta phases will allow players to discover the diversity of Steep’s world by exploring, riding and completing dozens of challenges through three of the seven regions composing Steep’s massive open world inspired from the Alps –  the Aravis, the Tyrol and the Needles. Players will also find nine Mountain Stories – narrative-based challenges that will delve deeper into unique moments in the world of Steep – throughout their journey. Completing these challenges and Mountain Stories will also unlock new gear for players to customize their characters.

Finally, as they play and share their favourite lines taken from the beta, players will test Steep in a first-person view on top of the third-person view.

With development led by Ubisoft Annecy*, Steep drops players onto the peaks of mountains with exhilarating experiences that include skiing, wing-suiting, snowboarding and paragliding. These sports establish a never seen before freedom to explore the game’s open world, allowing players to choose the way they ride and play. Riders can traverse the Alps solo or drop in side-by-side with friends to record and share the most insane tricks ever captured on the slopes. Designed for a generation that’s all about sharing their experiences with the world, Steep encourages players to challenge their friends to see who truly comes out on top of the world.

For a chance to play during the first beta phase, players can still register at http://www.steepgame.com.

For more information about Steep, please visit http://www.ubisoft.com, follow us on http://www.facebook.com/steepgame or http://www.twitter.com/Steep_Game.