Fast 8 - First trailer drops

Fast 8 - First trailer drops

It's here - your first look at Fast 8!

The brand new trailer featuring Vin Diesel as Dom Toretto and Dwayne Johnson has dropped.

Don't wait now - take the first look at The Fate of the Furious.

La La Land: Film Review

La La Land: Film Review

Cast: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling
Director: Damien Chazelle

The director of Whiplash delivers an homage to love and musicals that's all rush and very little drag, while reuniting stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling for the third time (after Crazy Stupid Love and Gangster Squad).

Stone is Mia, an aspiring actress stuck in the role of a barista on the WB lot and frustrated in auditions; Gosling is Seb, a jazz enthusiast and purist piano player who dreams of setting up a club in the crummy dive which threw him out, but whose ambition is thwarted by bosses who want him to play the set list and nothing more.

The pair meet by chance a couple of times in the kind of coincidence that some would garner as fate and over the period of a year, told via Chazelle's four-seasons-in-one-film on screen titles, begin a gentle romance that's threatened by ambitions, reality and life itself.

La La Land is a bright, breezy, colourful homage to musicals of the past and a Hollywood of yesteryear.

It sets its store out in its very first opening moments, where a crowded LA freeway is turned into a free-wheeling fully choreographed dance number where car residents frolick on bonnets, in the road and on rooves with such abandon that it's impossible not to be carried along with the Another Day of Sun song.

Bathed in retro primary colours and nods to the Hollywood of the past (Mia's apartment has an Ingrid Bergman mural and The Black Cat poster), Chazelle's attempted to recapture the joie de vivre of the great musicals and the spectacles that were once so common place, but are now sneered at. Even throwing in some meta lines about whether people will love it or not, to which one character retorts "F*** them", La La Land is a throw everything at it piece, where a great amount brilliantly sticks.

This is cinema to swoon at, cinema to fall in love to and a film where the leads have the chemistry that's needed to pull through some of the slightly dodgier singing numbers they're gifted. They don't make movies like this anymore, and it's good they don't - because when one like this comes along, it knocks your cinematic socks off.

But while La La Land is a film of dreamers, it's also bathed in a sad melancholy that ebbs and flows with the tide of life as the year of their romance plays out and reality comes heartbreakingly knocking.

Stone and Gosling make the perfect pair, even if the second half of the film grounds their romance in tensions and drama as the rows grow between following your heart and your dream and dealing with the harsh realities of life. They are the dreamers many of us wish to be, and their ease of chemistry and tonic of romance feels beautiful to behold.

Consequently, it's the nostalgic escapism of Broadway swathed in the visual opulence of the past - but more crucially, La La Land is the tonic to the festive season - a timeless romance, swept up in the romance of dreaming, and all wrapped in a bright colour palette and with such heart, that it's impossible not to fall in love with La La Land - and fall hard.

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier' Epic Two-Episode Premiere Dec 20th - official trailer

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier' Epic Two-Episode Premiere Dec 20th - official trailer

Full Trailer for 'The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier'  Epic Two-Episode Premiere Debuts December 20th with 'Ties That Bind' Part I & Part II

Fellow Survivors, Today we can share the full launch trailer for The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier, the all-new season in the critically-acclaimed series. The season debuts on December 20th taking form of a special two-part premiere with two episodes debuting on the same day: Episode One: 'Ties That Bind' Part I & Episode Two: 'Ties That Bind' Part II. In the full launch trailer for the two-part premiere, we further explore the dire situation that brings newcomer Javier and his family together with the young survivor Clementine. We also catch a glimpse of familiar faces from The Walking Dead universe such as Jesus, while also getting some clues on exactly what this 'New Frontier' represents... The first TWO of five episodes in The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier will premiere digitally worldwide starting Tuesday December 20th on PC from the Telltale Online Store, Steam, and other digital distribution services, on the Xbox Games Store for Xbox One®, and on the PlayStation®Network for PlayStation 4. The episode will be available the same day for compatible iOS devices via the App Store, and for compatible Android-based devices via Google Play. Release dates for additional platforms will be announced in the near future.  Beginning in February, the series will also be available for purchase on a special 'Season Pass Disc' for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles, which will include the premiere episodes for the third season, as well as access to all subsequent episodes in the five episode season for download as they become available.  Users can pre-order the season for their favorite platform now by visiting https://telltale.com/series/the-walking-dead-a-new-frontier/#buy. As a special bonus, PlayStation 4 digital preorders also receive a complimentary copy of The Walking Dead: Season Two and The Walking Dead: Michonne; while Steam users receive a discount of 10% for preordering.   When family is all you have left... how far will you go to protect it? Years after society was ripped apart by undead hands, pockets of civilization emerge from the chaos. But at what cost? Can the living be trusted on this new frontier? As Javier, a young man determined to protect his family, you meet a young girl who has experienced her own unimaginable loss. Her name is Clementine, and your fates are bound together in a story where every choice you make could be your last. The Walking Dead: A New Frontier will act as both a new beginning for players fresh to the series and unfamiliar with Clementine, as well as a continuation for players who have experienced Seasons One and Two. Players new to the series will be able to start a story that is tailored to this new beginning. Players continuing onward from prior seasons will have multiple options for quickly configuring their tailored backstory, or importing past save files from various platforms. Additional information on this feature will be detailed in the coming week.

Cartoon Network Battle Crashers: PS4 Review

Cartoon Network Battle Crashers: PS4 Review

Cartoon Network Battle Crashers is definitely one for the fans.

Essentially a side-scrolling beat-em-up, the game's not really for those who can't get engrossed with repetition. Taking in characters from Adventure Time, Clarence and Regular Show, you have to traverse differing landscapes and simply beat down anything that shows up.

While collecting jewels and traversing three levels within six worlds.

Cartoon Network Battle Crashers very much feels like an arcade game exposed largely on a console as characters can be swapped in and out, and bring different propositions to the table, be it environmental saviours or pure powers of defeating waves of marauding baddies.

Switching characters mid-game is fluid and a clever touch to that side of things, but it does little to switch up the excitement of the game, which fails to fully utilise the colour and excitement of its characters, preferring instead to suck all the personality out of them in favour of nothing more than button mashing.

Ultimately, Cartoon Network Battle Crashers is a relative crushing bore that fails to garner any real excitement or much reason to continue playing level after level.

Love & Friendship: DVD Review

Love & Friendship: DVD Review

There can be no denying that Whit Stilman's Love and Friendship is a dizzying take on the meshing of an Austen novella, first published back in 1871.

Occasionally aloof and wrapped up in its own whimsical way with prose and the machinations of Beckinsale's Lady Susan, this piece is a pacy comedy mocking manners and cocking a snook at stuffy period pieces of the time, while still enjoying the trappings of such tropes of the genre.

For the period comedy, it’s off to the 1790s and to the world of “most accomplished flirt” and recently widowed Lady Susan Vernon (a good Beckinsale, revelling in the wicked ways of the word and general dispatches of disdain) whose desires to find a husband for herself and her daughter consume her daily interactions.

And that’s really rather it for the plot of Love and Friendship, a film that’s more concerned with a once over-lightly approach to many of its characters – and an approach which bizarrely suits Stillman’s execution rather masterfully. 

Employing the actors to stand directly facing the camera while posing and posting sarcastic text on the screen is one of the more bravura touches of the piece, simultaneously acknowledging the source material and also negating the need for expositionary introductions that would waste time in an already slim and taut running time.

Beckinsale excels in the role and demonstrates a lighter touch which has hitherto been unexplored and could see her destined for awards season if some are to be believed. While her Lady Susan moves from one portion of the chess board of life to another, it’s clear she has her intentions in focus, even if sometimes, the script demands more from the audience. This is not a film which stops to let you catch up or stoops to pander to the common denominator. And it’s also not a film that has a traditional Austen heroine, with Beckinsale’s Lady Susan having more in common with Clueless than other period fare.

If Beckinsale impresses, it’s clearly Tom Bennett as the blithering fool Sir James Martin who steals the comic limelight. His rambling and delight at the simplest of things suggests a naïvete that borders on idiot and is reminiscent of Hugh Laurie’s bumbling in Blackadder. However, his introduction comes at a great point for the film which begins to feel lost to anyone thanks to lighter characters and brief dalliances with them. And certainly his belief that there are 12 commandments is a delight to watch as he struggles with the idea that it could be anything different.

Perhaps though the lack of stronger male characters gives this piece a feminist watch that’s har  d  to escape and yet also delightful to revel in. This is a world where the women conduct the affairs and twirl around society with the men struggling to keep up – on this front, Stillman’s embracing cameras and sweeping dialogue shots do much to keep the viewer engaged.

Ultimately, Love and Friendship is a film of froth; a light adaptation that is a dizzying but slightly sophisticated affair, a film that revels in language and character and one that's grounded by a performance from Kate Beckinsale that will have you thinking twice about what she's done before.

16th Nov

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/