Sausage Party: Blu Ray Review

Sausage Party: Blu Ray Review

Possibly one of the most messed up adult animations of its generation, Sausage Party is a Seth Rogen idea 10 years in the making.

Mixing Pixar and Disney through the potty-mouthed prism of South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut, it's the at times anarchic story of sausage Frank (Rogen) and bun Brenda (Wiig) who live in a supermarket and who long to be selected by shoppers and taken to the nirvana of the Great Beyond (aka outside the store).

But when Frank and Brenda are separated from their bagged colleagues trying to save a suicidal mustard jar who says the Great Beyond is a lie, they have to get back to their shelves in time to be sold for July 4th celebrations....

Puns, profanity, philosophy and puerility collide in this animated flick which thanks to one scene towards the end gives new meanings to the phrases food porn and root vegetables.

And yet in among the clearly deranged lust for frat boy crudity and puns, there's also a story of religious tolerance, beliefs and commentary on the Israel / Palestine situation thanks to a squabbling friendship between a lavash and a bagel. It's a paradigm of Sausage Party that it covers such higher topics while pursuing such baser ideals and potty-mouthed leanings.

At its heart, it's a simple take on the Toy Story style get home adventure of the first film as Frank and Brenda muddle their way through the shopping aisles being chased by a bad guy, while one fellow sausage negotiates the horrors of reality of being cooked out in the real world.

But it's certainly plenty of food for thought during this culturally diverse and occasionally subversive piece that embraces all and points out the absurdity of conflicts and differences with the use of puns and a polemic pushing of the envelope. From God hates Figs to Exterminating Juice, there's plenty to keep you guffawing here as the inevitable lulls start to hit the scatological highs. An all-out orgy scene goes as far as it can and a clever use of Meatloaf helps the film to hit parodies of films like Terminator 2 and slasher films.

All in all the Adult Swim-like Sausage Party is perhaps not quite as clever as it aims to be in parts, but with Rogen adding an animated sausage to his pot-headed frat boy filmography, there are signs that he's doing what he does best and to great comic effect with this CGI outing.

Funny, riotous, ribald and a bit deeper than you'd expect despite its filthy sheen, Sausage Party sizzles more than you'd expect it to do so. 

Jason Bourne: Blu Ray Review

Jason Bourne: Blu Ray  Review

Solid, yet formulaic and workman like, the latest Bourne is anything but spectacular.

In the latest non-essential part of the series, which unpicks all the neatly tied up threads of the series, Damon is a dogged Bourne, a machine-like automaton of assassination that's lacking any kind of real dialogue whatsoever.

When former comrade Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) finds Bourne and tells him there's more to his past than he actually realises, Jason Bourne is forced on to a quest to make those pay for the truth...

Nearly 10 years have passed since the The Bourne Ultimatum, and in a world where Wikileaks, Edward Snowden and security have become major issues, it feels like Jason Bourne does a token amount to address such things this time around.

Even with the apparently personal level of this mission this time around, Bourne himself may pull no punches (as a Greece-Albanian fight club sequence demonstrates) but the script is lacking in any kind of real elements of either mystery or urgency.

Throwing in Riz Ahmed as the head of a Facebook style company for little reason other than to facilitate the finale is a missed opportunity; it's a disposable plot thread which dangles undernourished on the narrative vine. 

And unfortunately, despite the re-teaming of Greengrass and Damon to the series, there's much of Jason Bourne which feels similarly wanting and in parts, and sees the film fall into an entirely predictable rut of action and flashbacks.

Despite getting things underway with a simmering riot bubbling out of hand and a hunt for Bourne in Greece at the start, the story loses its impetus soon after as Matt Damon's scarred Jason Bourne walks from place to place, avoiding the bad guys. It's repetitive and hardly builds tension at all as Vincent Cassel's Asset tries to hunt him down at the behest of Tommy Lee Jones' hang-faced CIA director.

The action sequences are assured and measured, but never fully thrilling (with the exception of the aforementioned Greece sequence). Greengrass is more than competent in their execution, with his shaky cam and quick cuts pervading proceedings, but never threatening to derail them. It's a shame that the Vegas finale feels like a rote chase, with car-nage aplenty and muted thrills, rather than edge of your seat stuff.

Fortunately, the addition of Alicia Vikander as Heather Lee, an analyst whose motives are questionable gives the film a bit of spark and stoicism that it needs (as well as a puncture through the old boys club mentality that pervades Bourne). And Damon himself, looking aged and still capable of taking the physical workload, does great things, giving his character a wearied edge of someone lost in the world and trying to find his place within it.

But that's the thing with Jason Bourne; in among the talk of assets, chases, betrayals, fake outs and action, nothing ever feels fresh or enticing in the self imposed sense of seriousness and the idea of solely providing a blast of Bourne nostalgia. 

Fans of the series may get a kick out of the franchise's return, but that's possibly about it. (Also, the fact these former CIA assets don't quite know how to disguise themselves in crowds simply beggars belief...)

Ironically, for a film about an amnesiac assassin, the whole thing about Jason Bourne is that it's instantly forgettable the minutes the lights go up - it's formulaic where it should be fresh, and in parts, flat where it should burst with energy. 

7th Dec

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Film Review

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: Film Review

Cast: Felicity Jones, Riz Ahmed, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Ben Mendelsohn, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk
Director: Gareth Edwards

It was always going to be a hard ask.

Tell a self-contained story where everyone knows the conclusion and where it leads.

For the uninitiated, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is essentially Star Wars 3.5, offering an entry point into A New Hope and leading into the Rebels getting their hands on the plans to destroy the Death Star.

So, in many ways, the conclusion is assured - the journey there perhaps a little less so.

Brit Jones stars as Jyn Erso, whose Oppenheimer father Galen (Hannibal star Mads Mikkelsen) works for the Empire and who's been helping to build a planet killer (aka Death star). However, Galen has put in place a weak point to ensure the Empire's evil plans don't come to fruition.

Angry and disillusioned from seeing her mother murdered in front of her, Jyn is determined to get the plans - and with the Rebel Alliance growing weaker as the might of the Empire rises, it's a race against time...

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is as dark an entry into the Star Wars universe as Empire Strikes Back, even though it lacks the rich emotion of that film.

The rag tag band of fighters come together with a level of grit, betrayal and mistrust and there are scrappier elements in place as they do so. A fiery and determined, though unshowy, Jones leads the pack fairly well, but is occasionally constrained and saddled with some Rebellion based bon mots to trot out ("Rebellions are based on hope!" being just one) and as a result, the rest of the cohorts fade really in comparison.

It's a shame, because characters have traditionally been what defined the Star Wars universe - from the swagger of Han Solo to the garrulous charm of Lando Calrissian, the more rogueish elements have always fired on a greater scale.

Ahmed threatens to make a presence early on, but is wasted in the wash; a blind Bulletproof Force Monk (played by Donnie Yen) becomes the mystical waffler who gets to kick ass by using the Force (and appears to be part of a gay inter-racial relationship with Wen Jiang's Baze Malbus in a bit of a welcome Star Wars first); Mikkelsen's usual terrific presence is consigned to scrappier moments; Whitaker is a version of Blue Velvet's Frank Booth with gas mask and Luna is slightly bent out of shape as the rebel tasked with doing the unthinkable.

Yet in amongst it all, Mendelsohn shines as a Nazi-esque Empire commander whose ambitions are being thwarted and who exudes menace.

But Edwards' Star Wars is a grittier film - this is a flick where terrorism is de rigeur, where market places are scenes of discord, car bombs and street fights. Planet-hopping, politics and a rebellion worn down are all dangled teasingly in front of fans and sit alongside a sarcastically dry droid (played by Alan Tudyk) and a CGI character (reminiscent of PlayStation cut scenes) that may polarise as many as Jar Jar Binks did but for different (and spoilery) reasons.

Fan service inevitably comes into play. Whether it's the slight tweaks to the classic John Williams' score or the cameos as well as the line call-backs, the pay-off proves to be too disappointingly juicy to resist once again, and shows the film-makers are mainly those who need to be reined in. And humour becomes an increasing crutch as the back half of the film plays out.

All that said, there's a grubbiness to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Hope is crumbling and it infects large frames of the film. And while you can't deny the power of the characters' ultimate fates is weakened by a lack of time with them and overall chemistry and flatter roundings of them all, this was perhaps one hurdle the film-makers (and consequent reshoots) were never going to be able to overcome in this pre-ordained film that had to tread a certain path.

Ultimately though, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story brings the fans what they want - a controlled final battle sequence that swaps chaos for calmness of execution on the beaches and is reminiscent of Churchill's assertion that they will fight them on the beaches. It is perhaps testament to Edwards' strength in previous entrants (the soldiers falling from the sky in Godzilla, the appearance of the Monsters in Monsters) as the battle reaches fever pitch that these sequences don't feel cluttered or overdone.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a Star Wars film aimed at the adult fans who grew up with the first saga and were so let down by the prequels. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and with a first portion that muddles a little and meanders, it lacks the immediate grabbing of the throat that those originals had.

But as an entrant into the Star Wars universe and as a film that refuses to follow the over-indulgent fan service and pathetic nostalgia that The Force Awakens was so bathed in, it revels in its darkness and occasionally borders on stuttering uncertainty.

Definitely lacking a little bit of character of its own and wallowing in its own exposition that stifles some of the potential, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is undoubtedly a solid Star Wars experience and a sign that given a bit more freedom to go their own way and maybe take some chances - go rogue even - this galaxy far, far away still could have a lot of excitement to offer.

Nerve: DVD Review

Nerve: DVD Review

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.

Assassins' Creed: The Ezio Collection: PS4 Review

Assassins' Creed: The Ezio Collection: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by UBISOFT

Assassin's Creed is so hot right now.

What with the upcoming New Year's Day release for the Assassin's Creed movie starring Michael Fassbender, and the fact the main series is taking a year off, it's down to nostalgia to stoke those fires.

And it does so with the release of Ezio Auditore's adventures in the Assassin's Creed - Ezio Collection, collecting together Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and pulling in the Templars' fight.

If you're not versed with these games already, they remain some of the franchise's best, pitting action, suspense and downright treachery together in one great concoction that proves engaging and entertaining at the time.

It's a nice move to collect this trio of games together, as they form one large narrative thread that loops through and gives a sense of completion to the story. But at times, it appears the game's very much lost some of its edge by vaulting onto the next generation machines. Especially when it comes to graphics and load times.

Occasionally, there's an interminable wait as the game boots up and it proves a little frustrating. Combat's quite archaic too, as you have to continue to strike while people continue to attack - it's a throwback in many ways, but given these games are port-overs, it'd be hard to expect anything radically being done in the back-end.

If anything, the three games for the price of one makes this collection a definite own - and while graphically the game's slightly aged and lost some of its shine, the core gameplay and story-telling continue to shine through.

Here's to next year's Assassin's Creed - and seeing what's next for the saga.

Steep: PS4 Review

Steep: PS4 Review

Released by Ubisoft
Platform: PS4

There's something cool, clear and crisp about life in the mountains.

And it's something that Steep, the first major winter game simulator of the next generation consoles manages to get right.

Ubisoft's game may be all about the mountain and may have some graphical glitches and flaws, but the experience of hurtling through the white stuff is as smooth as anything.

Setting you mountainside and with a board and wing suit, Steep's MO is about soaring to the bottom and unlocking different areas and challenges as the game progresses.

Tricks, twists and turns all combine to gift you points as the gameplay evolves. Scouting through binoculars opens up new challenges as sites become available when sighted and experience unlocks races and further options as the game goes on.

A 3D map helps you negotiate the mountain and various base camps as the game progresses and other racers appear eager to take you on and garner something from hanging onto the coat tails of your reputation.

But there's nothing more primal in Steep than the basic gear being correctly used to hurtle through the powder.

From skis to snowboard, wingsuits to paragliding, the journey through the white stuff is easily done and plays out smoothly. A few of the glitches encountered happened after races as my player found himself ensconced in the ski ranks or wedged into a tree, necessitating a restart. But these are minor niggles and proved a distraction rather than a constant irritation.

There's more than enough to do to keep yourself entertained with Steep and there are definitely thrills to be had during the gameplay as this open world sim expands its boundaries.

Steep's strength lies in its simplicity of execution rather than in its longevity of play. 

This is a game that offers up simple adrenaline fuelled pleasures rather than sinking hundreds of hours into life on the slopes.

And that's no bad thing at all for this beautifully executed game that stands out from a recent glut of shooters as we head to the end of 2016.

Moana: Film Review

Moana: Film Review

Cast: Auli'i Cravalho, Rachel House, Dwayne Johnson, Jemaine Clement, Temuera Morrison
Director: Ron Clements, Don Hall

There's something definitively empowering about Disney's latest, Moana.

Not only does its trip into Polynesian culture and beliefs navigate sensitively through potentially choppy waters, but it's head strong independent heroine is likely to appeal to many.

It's highly likely that Disney's found a new entrant into its pantheon of endless classics, with this tale of Moana, a princess whose heart belongs to the sea but whose father wants to keep her on shore.

With songs from Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show-stopping tunes are in full effect early on as the paean to the Polynesian traveller plays out.

When Moana's desire to take to the seas to save her land from being overtaken by an ecological disaster sees her ignore her father's bidding, she sets off an adventure that any young girl will be excited to see play out - and any audience seeking a feel-good family film will utterly adore.

When she learns that the demi-god Maui (played with warmth, laddishness and goofiness by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) stole the Heart of Te Fiti, she pledges to recruit him and restore the heart to its rightful owner.

But Maui's got other more selfish ideas - he wants simply to be reunited with his fish hook and wants nothing to do with Moana's quest...

There's an Odd Couple bickering vibe that is at the heart of Moana and Maui's relationship and despite its banter, there's nothing but good nature from start to finish with this. Negotiating the mysticism of the Polynesian ancestors with ease and relative sensitivity, the spiritual edges of Moana are largely confined to the sidelines as the slap-about storyline progresses.

From a Mad Max-esque attack by some coconut pirates to the Jiminy Cricket / Greek vase painting vibes of Maui's talking tattoos and conscience via the Abyss-like tendrils of the sea that guide Moana, there's a lot of cinematic history swathed in the proceedings.

By the time Maui appears in the story, some 35 minutes in, a new Disney heroine has already been entrenched in the narrative and thanks to a combination of Miranda's show tunes and the depth of character and animation displayed, Moana is clearly a timeless character, destined for the hearts and minds of young girls, so often deprived of a heroine to admire in Hollywood.

But here's the crux with Moana - not once is her ethnicity or her spirit defined by a male or by others' judgement. She stands alone, a virtue of pluck and heart from beginning to end - there's a distinctly female feel to the story from the start with Rachel House's grandmother leading Moana's voyage of self-discovery.

That's not to say the usual Disney trappings aren't present either.

From a clucking chicken side-kick stowaway on Moana's boat to Jemaine Clement's show-stopping turn as Tamatoa, a crustacean delivering an ode to shiny things (very reminiscent of a jazzed up version of Flight of The Conchords' Bowie's in Space) via some truly photo-realistic animation, this is a Disney film that hits on all cylinders and gets the little details right.

As we celebrate the summer months and family time, Moana's box office is guaranteed, largely due to wider themes about self-belief and the ever-important self-discovery.

Granted, these are not new themes in the animation world and while there has already been some criticisms levelled at Johnson's demi-god's portrayal as slightly buffonish, Moana's joie de vivre comes bursting from the screen in a mix of colourful animation, show-stopping tunes and a heroine to embrace.

In many ways, Moana feels like a progressive step into the future - its central heroine is diverse, has no need of male intervention or behest and isn't defined by a patriarchy or a male side-kick.
And as we head into 2017, that's something to shout about and hope it's the start of a new trend.

Ludicrously feel-good, with some belting toe-tapping musical numbers, this is one sea to surrender yourself to - Moana's enthusiasm is infectious, and it's pointless to resist.