The Clan: DVD Review

The Clan: DVD Review

Fresh from wowing the crowds at the New Zealand International Film Festival, Argentina's darkly polished crime drama The Clan finds its place into NZ small screens.

With its true crime edges and sheen, the slick - and sick - tale of the Puccio Clan case that rocked the country back in 1985 is worthy of entry into the pantheon of crim-flicks.

For those uninitiated with the work done by the Puccio and their notoriety, they were famed for kidnapping, holding hostages in their basement, waiting for ransoms to be paid and then executing their victims regardless. Our guide into this glossy story, complete with soundtrack gems from the likes of the Kinks is floppy haired son Alejandro (Lanzani), a rugby player, son and bait for the lures of many.

It's the usual kind of story of its ilk and Trapero doesn't shatter the boundaries with the delivery - a naive innocent gradually becomes aware of what is happening and the extent of it all. But in a slight twist, Alejandro is conflicted by his involvement and the growing insidious nature of what is happening.

If Trapero delivers something which is stylish and slickly executed, it's in his Secret In Their Eyes leading man Francella that the film soars. His calm exterior and delicious delivery of deviousness sets the tone for what's in - there's not been a family head this loveable since Tony Soprano graced our screens. Mixing domestic issues while screams erupt from scenes in the basement provide a bleakly black background to proceedings and give The Clan an edge that's hard to shake.

It may be provocative in parts with the extent of what's going on gradually revealed, and it's as stylishly executed as any Netflix true crime offering, but The Clan manages to continue to shock even up to its very final sequence and scenes, as the credits roll. 

Newstalk ZB Review - Sing, Finding Dory and Kubo and the Two Strings

Newstalk ZB Review - Sing, Finding Dory and Kubo and the Two Strings

This week it was an animation special with reviews of Sing at the cinema and at home, Finding Dory and Kubo And the Two Strings.

Take a listen below.

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-sing-finding-dory-and-kubo-and-the-two-strings/

Bad Moms: DVD Review

Bad Moms: DVD Review

There's no denying that Moms have it tough.

Or so the new comedy from the writers of The Hangover, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore would have you believe.

Mining the girls behaving badly oeuvre that Bridesmaids championed and the competitive streak that soared in Amy Poehler and Tina Fey's Sisters, Bad Moms is the tale of suburban mom Amy (a relatable Kunis).

In her eyes, she struggles with being a mom of two, holding down a job and dealing with a self centred husband. But when she has the mother of all days, she decides enough is enough and cuts loose in anger at the PTA, headed up by Christina Applegate's harpy in high heels, Gwendolyn.

Bad Moms is essentially about rebelling against expectations.


With the triumvirate of Kunis' everyday over-worked mom, Kristen Bell's put-upon mother of four Kiki and Kathryn Hahn's sex-crazed, foul-mouthed Carla, it's clear the girls behaving badly motif covers all the spectrum of the mothers out there, wanting to cut loose and throw off the shackles of societal expectations.

Mining the observational side of the put-upon parents delivers some solid if unspectacular laughs in this chaotic comedy, but there's no denying that the female elements of the audience will get more out of this than the males. Though, with the casting of a younger demographic as leads, it's clear the males who are dragged along won't mind.

While Kunis has warmth, it's frustrating to note that her empowerment crumbles when she falls into a romantic sub-plot with a hunky widower and she simply becomes a doe-eyed love interest rather than a kicking-loose lady.

Hahn delivers the wide berth of belly laughs as the crazed Carla (in particular, a great supermarket sequence)- and coupled with the film's insistence on using slow mo and freeze frames to showcase the bad behaviour, she has the requisite comedic chops to carry it off. She gels well with Bell's Kiki, whose under-the-thumb meek turn inevitably goes where you'd expect it.

At its heart, Bad Moms will generate a great deal of empathy with its predictable core message of it's okay to not be a great mom and have bad days, but we just keep going, though it could be loosely condemned for not doing anything more subversive in its expectedly weak empowerment message.

It garners great cinematic truck when the ladies go brazen and it's hard to imagine there won't be a few hollers among the women in the audience during certain points.

If you're willing to overlook the inevitable sappiness (which is largely staved off until the end) and underwritten males in this piece, Bad Moms will offer a potty mouthed comedy alternative for a slight night out with comedy of recognition - but perhaps the most genuine part of the film comes with the credits, where the stars and their real-life mothers impart some pearls of wisdom from their years of growing up.

It's here the earnestness, authenticity and humour winningly combine to make you wish this were a longer side-piece to accompany Bad Moms - as it lingers longer in the memory than the film itself after the lights go up. 

Office Christmas Party: Film Review

Office Christmas Party: Film Review

Cast: TJ Miller, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, Courtenay B Vance, Kate McKinnon
Director: Josh Gordon, Will Speck

It's the time of the year.

It's the season for excessive partying and generally letting everything fly.

So it's no surprise that Office Christmas Party looks to fill the seasonal blow-out with a comedy aimed at the fun-loving audiences seeking an R rated raunch fest.

Essentially, with a threadbare plot, it's the story of Silicon Valley star TJ Miller's Clay, who's the local branch manager of a computer company handed down to him by his father. But the company's facing tough times and when Clay's sister Carol (Jennifer Aniston in boss bitch mode, already pioneered in elements of Horrible Bosses) shows up with the threat of closing down their branch, Clay's determined to land a big client and save the day.

His plan - to woo Courtenay B Vance's Walter Davis with the biggest office bash they've ever seen - and despite Carol's refusal to let them party with redundancy around the corner...

Office Christmas Party sets its stall out early on.

It's actually quite tame in comparison to prior R Rated fare like The Hangover that wore its crudity and boorishness on its sleeve. There's a real feeling of family in the film, from the family of workers to the bickering family dynamic between Carol and Clay, and it softens proceedings from what you may be expecting.

Miller does a version of his Pied Piper CEO character Erlich Bachman, and at times, feels constrained by the script and story. (Miller's always at his best in a loose approach or improvising, and it distinctly feels like he's been reined in).

Bateman and Munn have a tentative romance brewing and dynamic that's sweet but never cloying, though equally it never feels riveting and lively, with the softness more at the fore. Bateman plays his usual laconic everyman, Munn plays a computer genius who's human, Aniston plays icy cold to perfection, and Miller gets goofball manchild down pat.

But there's little zing where there could be more - and even when the party kicks in, the chance to ramp up the raunch is squandered. It should have been more Crass-mas than anything else.

It ends up once again being a film that's stolen by Ghostbusters star Kate McKinnon's performance. This time, she's an uptight oddball HR rep who's determined to squash the fun, while secretly harbouring a desire to be involved.

In among the awkward moments and the obligatory pushing the attempts to make this Project X in an Office block, Office Christmas Party never quite fully hits the vibe it should. Sidelined by the sweetness and stunted by the lack of some strong frat elements and not enough laugh out loud gags, this is, unfortunately, one Office Christmas Party that delivers a hangover and needed many more of the boozy highs.

Kubo and The Two Strings: Blu Ray Review

Kubo and The Two Strings: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Art Parkinson, Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Rooney Mara, Ralph Fiennes
Director: Travis Knight

The library of Laika's contribution to the animated cinematic world is scattered with greatness.

From the button eyes of Coraline through to the madcap world of The Boxtrolls, via ParaNorman, each of the studio's stop motion films have stood out visually from the CGI generated fare from the likes of Pixar and other contenders.

But Kubo and The Two Strings may be their greatest success yet, a story that is visually dazzling.

Game of Thrones star Art Parkinson lends his vocal talents to Kubo, a one-eyed young boy who tends to his ailing mother by night, and visits the local town's market by day to earn money by telling stories. Wowing the crowds with his tales of a samurai (brought to life by the magic of paper and music), and keeping a wooden monkey protective charm close at his mother's urging, Kubo is not allowed to stay out at night.

Because Kubo's family is steeped in tragedy, with his mother having fled to escape her vengeful sisters... however, Kubo inadvertently disobeys his mother and sets in motion a chain of events that manifests itself in a quest against evil involving a monkey (voiced by Theron), a beetle (McConaughey) and Kubo....

Suffusing the familial with the fantastical and blending in a great deal of emotion, Kubo and The Two Strings is a great success, even if its desire to explain and expound its themes ties it up a little in its own intricate web toward the end.

Wrapping the mystical trappings of Japanese culture, this samurai quest tale is both a celebration of the art of story-telling, rendered popular by oral histories from the likes of Homer, and a complete story of its own, with Kurosawa elements fused inexorably into its DNA. While parts of the narrative take a nightmarish turn, there are questions as to whether this fable is more aimed to adults rather than children - and its desire to remind us about relatives gone and ancestors past is a noble and worthy cause that leads to a emotionally powerful conclusion.

And yet, despite its perfection in stop-motion execution, there are moments within Kubo and The Two Strings which feel flawed narratively. A confused outpouring of the story initially fuses the film with muddled moments and leave the epic quest slightly floundering as you try to work out some of the darker story elements and familial conflict. And the arrival of Matthew McConaughey's Beetle sees the film flounder into more comedy than perhaps is welcome given the darker tones of what has progressed (Though perhaps that's cos it's aiming toward the kiddies).

Despite that, Laika's eye for stop-motion and the seamless crafting of the Eastern elements more than make up for any short-comings that are present in this wondrous tale. (And don't even stop to consider that once again Laika has an obsession with eyes in this latest).

The originality of the mix of the Japanese fables and mythology, along with an Asian influenced OST,  are what carries this film and the visual execution of these elements see Laika soar - and despite the feeling that honing some of the narrative elements for more clarity, Kubo and The Two Strings is easily a contender for one of the films of the year.

It's a sure sign this studio Laika is achieving greatness and is only about to unleash more on the world - and that is no bad thing whatsoever. The film starts by uttering the words "If you must blink, do it now". You'd be wise to heed that warning, because once it begins, you won't be able to tear your eyes away from a second of it. 

The Shallows: Blu Ray Review

The Shallows: Blu Ray Review

Ever since Jaws terrified the world, there's always been an inherent and undeniable phobia of open water and sharks.

And cinema's been trying to recapture that lightning in a bottle effect again - in some forms of success, with the likes of the darkness of Open Water to the ongoing schlockiness of the Sharknado series.

So the latest contender is a trim 85 minute thriller starring former Gossip Girl star Blake Lively as Nancy, a former med student who's dealing with the death of her mother and dropping out of college by way of coping. Heading to a hidden beach in Mexico that her mother surfed at the day she found out she was pregnant, Nancy's determined to catch some waves and reconnect spiritually to her.

But when a shark attacks, her journey soon shifts away from the spiritual to a desperate fight to ensure she survives the night stranded on a reef, and can work out what to do when high tide comes in....

The Shallows largely dramatically paints itself into a corner.

However, for the most part of the film, Collet-Serra (known for Liam Neeson thrillers Unknownand Non-Stop) and Lively manage to convince of the isolation and creeping fear.

It helps that Collet-Serra's cinematographer, Flavio Labiano has done an excellent job, with some truly stunningly lit underwater sequences (a jellyfish minefield stands out) and sweeping shots of the beauty of the beach around Nancy. In parts, The Shallows feels like a surfer's piece of wave porn then mixed with the National Geographic shark porn elements as the CGI beast circles around. With others caught in the shark's sights, the blues and azures turn into a blood-soaked red water that fill the screen; an early shadowy shot of the shark in a wave tube that's being surfed - visually, it's hard to fault the work this film does.

Some directorial flourishes mark out the film's B-movie pretensions and there are one too many shots of Lively's svelte figure slipping into a wet suit or through the waves to hang 10, but in its early stages, The Shallows largely achieves what it's aspiring to do.

It helps that Lively's subtle facials and the short running time sell the basic concept of survival, even if the narrative conveniences threaten to put all out to sea (a med student who's seriously injured just being one of the more obvious and helpful when she's chomped on and needs to use her own jewellery as a sewing kit). Her bonding with an injured seagull on the coral is as much akin to Wilson in Castaway as you're likely to get and could be someone else if you're looking deep into this, but not once when in the water, does Lively lose sight of what makes Nancy human and fallible in this battle against nature.

An over-reliance on clunky exposition at the start, via a clever use of smartphones on screen or Nancy's American tourist babbling to her definitely-not-interested guide seem to be trying to inject some character that's not really there, weird time jumps and a terribly pointless saccharine coda are just a couple of the problems of The Shallows.

Ultimately though, the film lapses into silliness and growing ludicrous touches which is what a schlockbuster audience want but which betrays what the film has spent a lot of time aspiring to, with its more spiritual edges and its fight for resilience and survival giving some of the suspense early on.

Losing sight of the fact that shark films work best when they're hardly seen, Collet-Serra's conclusion to the film is dangerously silly and works against it.

In the final wash, The Shallows has parts that betray its own title, but an insistence on going for the hoorah shark porn moments on the screen sink the film back into more than adequate B-movie territory and ultimately leave you feeling you've been treading cinematic water. 

Horror Comes Home in 3 New Gameplay Videos for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Horror Comes Home in 3 New Gameplay Videos for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Three new videos have been released today for Resident Evil 7 biohazard. Download and watch the videos below for a detailed look at the terrifying Baker family home: where its twisted residents stalk the player through a maze of corridors, traps and inventive puzzles.

About Resident Evil 7 biohazard

Players experience the terror directly from the first person perspective for the first time in the Resident Evil series. Embodying the iconic gameplay elements of exploration and tense atmosphere that first coined “survival horror” some twenty years ago, Resident Evil 7 biohazard delivers a disturbingly realistic experience that will define the next era in horror entertainment. Returning to the series roots, signature gameplay features including exploration, puzzles and a realistic tense atmosphere awaits players. The classic inventory system returns but with limited space meaning players must choose what they carry with them carefully, making sure they remember to pack their green herbs!