Merry Christmas to you all!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Just a brief note to wish all my followers a very Merry Christmas!

May your Christmas be filled with family, fun and comforts - and if you know of others who are not in a similar situation, please take a moment to think of them, or if they happen to be nearby, pop in and say hello!

Merry Christmas to you all - and thanks for your support of my website this year - and in case you don't recognise the Raymond Briggs Snowman above, below you'll find a more well recognised movie snowman!

See you in 2017 for even more film, games, DVD and other reviews!

Passengers: Film Review

Passengers: Film Review

Cast: Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne
Director: Morten Tyldum

They say in space, no-one can hear you scream.

And that's perhaps a good thing, given that Morten Tyldum's space romance has a major twist in its tail, that was unshown in trailers and leaves a nasty taste in your mouth.

Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt plays engineer Jim Preston, who's in deep sleep on board the SS Aurora along with 5,000 other passengers. When his suspended animation pod malfunctions, he wakes up in the middle of the journey with no clue why. The real kicker is that the ship won't arrive at its destination, the newer version of Earth aka Homestead II, for another 90 years, effectively condemning him to death.

Stuck alone on the ship with no human interaction - the sole character Preston has to deal with is Michael Sheen's android bartender, Preston starts to go slowly mad as the reality of the situation kicks in - and he faces a moral dilemma - wake another passenger and condemn them to the same fate or spend a lifetime alone...

With production values that really reflect the space age look to a tee, and the loneliness of space is certainly evident early on in the piece as the ship hurtles to its destination and begins to malfunction.

Tyldum uses Pratt's charisma to great effect and showcases it well, with montages of the humdrum nature of his ship bound life setting the scenes excellently. But Pratt's charisma can only go so far - and while his interactions with Sheen are brilliantly dry, smarmy and deadpan, it takes the appearance of Jennifer Lawrence to really fire the dramatic spark that's needed.

Unfortunately, that spark is somewhat dimmed by the glossing over of the moral dilemma and the creepy state of affairs as this space-set ode to Stockholm Syndrome progresses. Tyldum and the script's desire to gloss over the implications of the decision that's made by the idealistic and desperate Preston prove to be slightly fatal in the ultimate wash.

There's something here about class divides as Lawrence's Aurora is clearly a step above Preston's engineer; from the quality of breakfasts she's doled out by the automated vending machines (standing in contrast to Pratt's faceless weetbix style lumps) to the quality of life, the writers could have made more of the divide between the two, rather than playing on the easy chemistry between the pair which isn't enough to weight the story.

Complete with narrative conveniences, such as malfunctions for no real reason and a sci-fi setting that's primarily doused in soapy romance rather than sci-fact, Passengers is only just a trip worth taking because of Pratt and Lawrence. It's their interaction in the coldness of space that just about will convince the romantic dreamers of the audience.

But for a high concept film, it fails to deliver on its premise unfortunately and relies on one moment that will polarise any rational member of the audience. Not exactly a disaster, but nowhere near a success, it remains a frustrating experience.

Assassin's Creed: Film Review

Assassin's Creed: Film Review

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling
Director: Justin Kurzel

Re-teaming with MacBeth director Justin Kurzel for their second outing together, not even the star power of Fassbender and Cotillard can save the Assassin's Creed movie from being a muddled mess that's slavish to the phenomenally popular Ubisoft computer game series.

Fassbender is criminal Cal Lynch, who's summarily executed via lethal injection as the movie begins.

When he awakes, he finds himself in a room inside a shadowy cabal who are hunting for the Apple of Eden as they desperately try to wipe out violence in the world. The Abstergo group of Templars believes that holds the secret to unlocking the DNA of all life and could change the face of the Earth for the better.

Leading Cal into a machine to regress him is scientist Sofia (Cotillard in severe wig and saddled with obligatory exposition) and soon Cal finds himself back in 15th Century Spain in the body of his own ancestor, a trained Assassin.

But the further Cal goes into this world, the more the truth appears out of the shadows - is Abstergo doing the right thing?

Assassin's Creed does little to break the chain of unsuccessful video games committed to the big screen.

While the game's trademark aesthetics and nods are wrapped up in a swathe of moments that fans of the games will recognise with ease (the Leap of Faith, the building top scrabbling, the parkour and the posing post fights), non-fans may feel the cursory solid action sequences are muddied and unspectacular.

Both Fassbender and Cotillard deliver video game dialogue and explanation with little to no emotion, and Rampling, Irons and Gleeson are completely wasted in their supporting roles.

With a bombastic OST, an eagle soaring high above used repeatedly to segue between scenes, there are plenty of nods to the video game series and the centuries old fight between the Assassins and the Templars, but there's never any scope or depth delivered to the weight of the fight, other than through rote explanatory dialogue.

If anything's successful in Assassin's Creed, it's the action sequences which stop the surge of sci-fi mumbo jumbo being clinically delivered, but the more they are rolled out, the more it's a diminishing return.

Ultimately, Assassin's Creed is a C-movie with A-listers - it fails to deliver on anything in terms of spectacle and a muddied plot doesn't help things. While the Spanish setting may have delivered more depth if it had been built up more, the chop and change aesthetics and flat denouement mark it out as the first major flop of 2017. Despite its insistence on using the Leap of Faith from the games, it seems unlikely many in the audience will take the Leap of Faith needed.

Final Fantasy XV: PS4 Review

Final Fantasy XV: PS4 Review

Released by Square Enix
Platform: PS4

The most anticipated game of the year is also one of the most sprawling and open world ever unleashed onto the console generation.

Delayed and hyped beyond belief, Final Fantasy XV is definitely an experience, and despite being a game that's in its 15th iteration, it also flashes up a title card that says it's a game for Final Fantasy fans and newcomers alike.

That's one hell of a thing to claim given the breadth and depth of the fanbase, but it has to be said, that Final Fantasy XV delivers.

It's essentially a road trip, as Prince Noctis heads across Eos to catch up and marry his fiancee Lunafreya Nox Fleuret and unite the kingdoms.

Gathering his chums together, Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto, it soon becomes a bro-fest as they all hit the road. They all have personalities and it makes the time with them a real pleasure - it's the distinct personalities which have the edge and add to the game.

The rapport is central to proceedings and also to your gaming as well with Final Fantasy as the threats begin to grow. During the night, Daemons attack the gang and the fighting comes to the fore.

It's here that you feel the initial investment in the characters beginning to pay off. And with photo-realistic interpretations of the leads, it's graphically mightily impressive.

As the threats grow, and the Daemons rise, the bond between the quartet starts to strengthen and the fights become more emotionally affecting. With the ability to chain attacks together and to help your buddies when the rest of the group goes down, there's a real sense of camaraderie that plays off and plays into the strengths of the game.

From magic attacks that draw on elements to simple smash and fight, there's a need for strategy to ensure survival and you can't simply go in all guns blazing.

From driving automatic cars to dealing with the NPCs and their world, there's a lot to explore in Final Fantasy XV and while occasionally, some of the game's elements falter a little under the pretensions of it all, it helps massively that the emotional investment into the core group comes early on.

Blessed with a beautiful OST as well as teleporting in fights and using your mates, Final Fantasy XV is at its heart, an experience and one that will engage for a long time as you head to the final credits.

 

The best films of 2016

The best films of 2016

In no particular order, here are my favourite films from 2016

Arrival

La La Land


Hunt For the Wilderpeople


Hell or High Water



10 Cloverfield Lane


Tickled


Kubo and the Two Strings


I, Daniel Blake

Suburra


Zootopia

The Witch

Swiss Army Man

Under The Shadow

Moana

Sing Street

Train To Busan

Personal Shopper

Paterson

Poi E

Weiner

Ben-Hur: DVD Review

Ben-Hur: DVD Review

Already a critical and commercial flop abroad, the 2016 remake of Ben Hur arrives on these shores with more a whimper than a roar.

For those not au fait with the 1959 11 Oscar winning original which starred Charlton Heston, it’s the story of Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince played by a Rufus Sewell like Jack Huston and Roman Messala, his adopted brother, played by Toby Kebbell.

When Ben-Hur takes the fall when accused of sedition and his brother does nothing to save him, Ben-Hur’s thrown on a slave ship and shipped off. But events conspire to return Ben-Hur back to the lands of Jerusalem and into a conflict and quest for revenge.

The 2016 version of Ben-Hur is already headed for a $100 million US flop at the box office and for the large part, it’s easy to understand why.

With its lack of a major star in the lead to bring some kind of presence (Freeman appears only as a dread-locked supporting player), it’s down to Huston to carry the piece, and unfortunately, he lacks any of the star presence required. His Judah is so saintly and well-intentioned, that he lacks anything other than blandness on the screen and it’s hard to care for a character whose lack of emotional range is his sole defining characteristic.

Mind you, Kebbell’s barely much better as Messala, looking for the most part like he’s simply seen the script moments before and then thrust in front of a camera. It’s no help the film spends an inordinate amount of time setting up the conflict between the two using clunky dialogue and heavy exposition as well as flashbacks to try and build the rift between the pair. 

But neither hold the dramatic heft necessary to shift away from their default Smell the Fart Friends acting philosophy setting pioneered by Joey Tribbiani. 

And matters aren’t much improved by Rodrigo Santoro as Jesus, who appears when the film needs an even more saintly presence than Judah. His first, which sees him doing carpentry in the market, slows proceedings and even veers dangerously toward guffaw-provoking territory. It’s here the film heads towards preaching a forgiveness ideology that becomes its raison d’etre as the denouement rumbles around.

If the script had spent a little more time building in some of the more moral areas needed, such as fleshing out Messala’s conflict over the family, it may have been more successful.

Instead it relies on an impressive below decks ship conflict and the inevitable chariot race to save the day. While the ships’ fracas is simply executed (though overly dark), the chariot race is a thundering creation that lacks any real emotional heft with the inclusion of other competitors who you ultimately don’t care about. Symbolism is overt with Messala riding black horses and Judah riding pure whites just in case you’re not sure who you want to win.

It’s perhaps sad the director of the excellent Night Watch film Timur Bekmambetov is attached to this – there’s little sign of any directorial flair here and the workmanlike pace coupled with undercooked script proves relatively fatal in the final wash.

The 2016 version of Ben-Hur lacks any emotional connection and while it tries for epic in places, it’s not a catastrophic mess of Biblical proportions but more of an epic fail, a chariots of dire. 

Dec 14th

Newstalk ZB Review - Moana, Rogue One - A Star Wars Story and La La Land

Newstalk ZB Review - Moana, Rogue One - A Star Wars Story and La La Land

This week, it was Jack Tame's final show and I decided to ruin his Christmas by dropping in to see him face to face.

It was also a chance to talk Rogue One - A Star Wars Story and look at the upcoming Boxing Day Releases, Moana from Disney and Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone's 7 Golden Globe nominated film La La Land.

Take a listen to the final Jack Tame review of the year below.

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-rogue-one-moana/

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-rogue-one-moana/