Win a double pass to see HIDDEN FIGURES

Win a double pass to see HIDDEN FIGURES

HIDDEN FIGURES is the remarkable untold true story of three brilliant mathematicians who were the behind-the-scenes brains of America’s triumphant launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit in 1962. 

And yet, until now, their story has been hidden in history.

Katherine Johnson (Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominated Taraji P Henson Empire), Dorothy Vaughan (Oscar winner Octavia Spencer The Help) and Mary Jackson (Grammy nominated Janelle Monae in her film debut), worked as “computers” in the pre-IBM world of NASA during America’s Space Race against Russia.

Inspirational, emotional and highly entertaining, HIDDEN FIGURES is directed by Theodore Melfi (St Vincent), based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly and also stars Kevin Costner, Jim Parsons and Kirsten Dunst.

See Hidden Figures in cinemas from January 26.

Rated (PG)  contains coarse language

To stand a chance of winning a double pass, all you have to do is drop me a line with your name and address!

To enter simply email HIDDEN FIGURES to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Please ensure you include your name and address - competition closes January 25th 

 

Win a double pass to see Resident Evil: The Final Chapter!

Win a double pass to see Resident Evil: The Final Chapter!

Based on Capcom’s hugely popular video game series comes the final installment in the most successful video game film franchise ever, which has grossed over $1 billion worldwide to date.

Picking up immediately after the events in Resident Evil: Retribution, Alice (Milla Jovovich) is the only survivor of what was meant to be humanity’s final stand against the undead.

Now, she must return to where the nightmare began – The Hive in Raccoon City, where the Umbrella Corporation is gathering its forces for a final strike against the only remaining survivors of the apocalypse.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter hits cinemas January 26th!

To stand a chance of winning a double pass, all you have to do is drop me a line with your name and address!

To enter simply email your answer to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Please ensure you include your name and address - competition closes January 25th 

 

Why Him? Film Review

Why Him? Film Review

Cast: Bryan Cranston, James Franco, Zoey Deutch, Megan Mullally, Keegan-Michael Key
Director: John Hamburg

It's the eternal dilemma.

Your beloved brings home a better half that is less than desirable in your eyes.

This is the crux of the latest comedy from director John Hamburg (Along Came Polly, I Love You Man) with Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston as Ned the dad threatened by his daughter Stephanie's choice of beau.

Stephanie's fallen for Silicon Valley CEO Laird Mayhew (a fully committed James Franco), a tats and all stoner slacker whose infatuation with Zoey Deutch's Stephanie is evident from the start. When Stephanie diverts the family on their Christmas vacation to spend the break getting to know her new other half.

But this is the last thing on Ned's mind with his paper company facing extinction and now his beloved daughter shacked up with the wrong man, the scene is set for conflict as Laird tries to win Ned over...

Why Him? sets its stock out in its first scene - there's a hint of raunch, a liberal dose of foul language and a feeling that low hanging fruit is the easiest option to go for.

From the uptight Cranston to the free and easy Franco, each commit fully to their roles but are never asked to deliver much by the lazy script.
The sense of opposition isn't trowelled on and any conflict is tantamount to nothing more than a few forced in scenes and moments which fail to garner much drama or humour.

Fortunately, Keegan-Michael Key's estate manager Gustav delivers the lion's share of some gags with some strait laced deadpan performance moments giving the film the energy it needs and the laughs it so desperately craves.Along with one scene where Ned tries to fend off his stoned wife (Mullally), there are a few scenes that genuinely offer some laughs and unexpected pleasures.

And there are no scenes which offer any depth to the main characters - particularly Zoey Deutch's Stephanie whose apparent rift with her father is given no rhyme or reason, and therefore no dramatic weight.

But they're too few and far in between in this patchy comedy that underuses all of its team players. There's a nice side element of the old versus the new conflict as is demonstrated by Ned's being in paper, Laird's being in the internet and Ned rolling out a Pink Panther reference that's lost on the younger end, but there's not enough to give any meat to the relatively thin bones.

The young and old conflict may be there and is woefully under-exploited - Why Him? ends up being a lazy, unfunny comedy that misses the mark so often and drags that the only nagging thought you're left with as you leave the cinema, is a resounding "Why me?"

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie: DVD Review

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie: DVD Review

There is perhaps something commendable about the way the Ab Fab film arrives decades after the show finished.

And given it opened big in wake of the BREXIT decision at the UK Box Office, there's still clearly an audience desperate for the nostalgia, the light-hearted silliness and for the beehived Patsy and the deluded Edina.

Tottering around the semblance of a plot too thin to ultimately bother with (loosely, the duo go on the run after Jennifer Saunders' Edina knocks Kate Moss into the Thames, drowning her), the film's MO is to simply provide a nostalgic blast of Ab Fab, an extended episode of the TV show stuffed full of cameos (some of whom are too young to have remembered the original.)

It's fair to say the jokes are spread pretty thinly from the get go, but Joanna Lumley as Patsy utterly owns her time back on screen with every scene devoured by her snarling, smudged lipstick look. Her opening sequence where she's injecting Botox as part of a morning routine is everything you'd expect from the character

Saunders does her usual pratfalls and selfish antics as Edina, a monstrous mum clinging desperately to the ghost of PR past and unwilling to go into the dark of the night unless she has champagne and her hare-brained friend with her. There's the inevitable sappiness too that always hit parts of the sitcom with the relationship between her and daughter Saffy (Julia Sawalha).

There's no disputing the slapstick caper could do with a swathe more laughs as parts of it feel scrappy and underwhelming, but there's equally no denying that the film is faithful to the show's ethos of excess and no learning policy. 

It carries on wilfully and regardless in gloriously OTT fashion, and while the model cameos may feel reminiscent of Zoolander 2 given their volume, they serve little purpose other than to exist. Perhaps the best of them come towards the end at a swimming pool in Cannes, revelling in the anarchic sense the show used to have and embracing the zaniness of a Brit-com on the continent that fuelled so many 70s TV series' movie outings.

The catch with Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is that the film's broadness will appeal probably more to fans of the original show; its faithfulness and desire to resurface all the characters from the 90s sitcom is laudable, but its desire to wilfully ignore the satire it could hit in a world where we all do our own PR online is a minor disappointment. (There are several jabs at the UK media obsessions and 24 hours news which provoke a guffaw or two - a scathing admission from Saunders perhaps how times have changed.)

This tale of women behaving badly may be a film of indulgence and cameos, but it lacks the sparkle of a Bolly in many ways. That said though, fans of the original series will adore its reverence to the source material and think it's still Absolutely Fabulous. 

7th Dec

Bridget Jones' Baby: DVD Review

Bridget Jones' Baby: DVD Review

What to expect when Bridget is expecting is perhaps the greatest fear facing many fans of Helen Fielding's titular beloved singleton.

But based on Bridget Jones' Baby which comes some 12 years after The Edge of Reason, there's every need to keep calm and carry on.

In this broad but occasionally bloated crowd pleasing comedy, Renee Zellweger's Bridget Jones's back and negotiating life in her own inimitable fashion.

The world may have changed plenty since we've seen her last - Hugh Grant's caddish Daniel Cleaver is disappeared, Darcy and Bridget have split - but, on her 43rd birthday, Bridget's solo and celebrating all by herself. However, that changes when work colleague Miranda (a scene stealing Sarah Solemani) takes her to a music festival to get laid. 

Stumbling drunkenly into the wrong tent and a sordid tryst, Bridge hooks up with dating guru and dishy Jack (played by ole McDreamy himself Patrick Dempsey). Running off after, she ends up having another unexpected dalliance with Colin Firth's starched Mr Darcy at a christening a few days later.

Things get further complicated when she finds out she's pregnant but with no clue who the father is...

Swathed in an affectionate nostalgic glow for the character and playing up the usual neuroses and tics that made Bridget so relatable to so many, Zellweger steps back into the role - and its clipped English tones - with ease. 

(Let's not dwell on the slight cosmetic change as other media have been wont to do; this is still the same Bridget but slightly tweaked.) She's the perky comedy glue that holds this together and with some flippantly funny one liners, the film zings when she's around. (A line about glamping and Adolf Hitler garners unexpected laughs)

And even though it's not really much of a departure of a film from the usual choices of men that Bridget has to face as well as the predictable playing out of the klutzier edges and hitting a lull at about 80 mins in, the whole thing comes off as funny, warm and surprisingly familiar - and a potentially a saccharine riff on US and UK relations.

By making both males seem normal, the script wisely steers away from making Bridget's choice obvious or one of them kooky and nicely muddies the waters by playing with viewers' affections - even if the gloop and sentiment kicks in toward the end in this time honoured riff on the old trope two women/ one man.

Both Firth and Dempsey play their roles well, with Firth's humour coming off the more effective as he riffs on the social awkwardness that's always been at Darcy's core. Dempsey's a little blander, but still pleasant and helps sell the emotional quandary rather than over-egging it.

In a year that has already seen some middling 90s revivals (from Ab Fab to David Brent), it's refreshing to report that Bridget's latest (and hopefully last, even if a final scene pan teases something else) is both nostalgic and a little forward-looking. 

With its moments of honesty and its continuing depiction of one woman's messy life, Bridget Jones' Baby is no pregnant pause for the franchise. It's better than it could have been and consequently infinitely more enjoyable than you would have remotely expected. If you'll forgive the pun, this baby truly delivers in unexpected ways.

The Rehearsal: DVD Review

The Rehearsal: DVD Review

Eleanor Catton's first book gets the big screen treatment with this Emily Perkins/ Alison McLean cinematic outing, starring national treasure James Rolleston.

Rolleston is Stanley, a naive newcomer to the bright lights of the big city and who's got a desire to end up on the stage. In his innocence, Stanley falls for a 15 year old schoolgirl called Isolde (Ella Edward). But Isolde's sister is part of a national scandal having been seduced by her much older tennis coach.

However, this soon proves to be inspiration for the drama school he attends after they're all chopped up into groups and deconstructed as both actors and at times, human beings. Drawing on his beau's sister's predicament, Stanley finds himself treading a dangerous path. between what's right and what right for his career....

The Rehearsal is a stiffly starch kind of film.

Its coldness is at times, off putting, and there's certainly a lack of engagement with many of the characters around the peripheries. One key moment in the story is supposed to resonate but because it comes so far out of leftfield (and is even remarked on by the brute of the head of the school played by Kerry Fox as coming out of nowhere), you don't feel anything at all - which is somewhat of a fatal move.

While The Rehearsal's swathed in ambiguity, its aloofness at times makes it hard to guess what exactly is going on and why some relationships either flourish or continue.

Consequently, while the audience is made to work for parts of the film's rewards, some may feel the effort is not worth it. Secrets may abound, but in this Lolita in the suburbs story, the opaqueness is almost oppressive.

Fortunately, blessed with a James Rolleston performance that's at both ends of his character's spectrum, there is a slightly commanding presence on screen that makes the Rehearsal worthwhile. Rolleston has the power to know when to dial down the acting and equally when to ramp it back up and makes some of his scenes all the more delicious for it (certainly in one sequence with Kerry Fox's character).

But overall, The Rehearsal is a muddled film of execution and one that may lack the broader appeal despite its oh-so-familiar story. It's not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination, and perhaps its refusal to conform makes it laudable, but by the same token, it makes it less embraceable. 

Chasing Great: DVD Review

Chasing Great: DVD Review

Directors: Justin Pemberton, Michelle Walshe

The ultimate film about rugby in New Zealand has already been made - and that film is The Ground We Won about the team in the heartland of the Bay of Plenty.

But Chasing Great aims to be more a film about the one man some would believe to be New Zealand's greatest ever rugby player - Richie McCaw.

And it faces a major hurdle too - it's not as if Richie himself is not an unknown figure, blessed with enigma and living life in the shadows. Most of what is known about Richie is already there in the media, as he lived the rugby life in the spotlight and in the glare of the camera both on and off the field.

So this is the nature of the challenge facing Pemberton and Walshe who followed McCaw around for a year; and in the run up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup with the hope that the All Blacks would lift the Webb Ellis trophy for the second time in a row and Richie would call time on his career.

With over 700 hours of footage on hand, what emerges in Chasing Great is predominantly more a film about rugby than the man himself - and perhaps is indicative of the fact how synonymous with rugby Richie has become (though whether that makes a great doco is, in this case, extremely subjective).

While there's use of home video footage from the McCaw family, showing a young but big unit Richie on the Otago rugby fields, in the early part of the film, there is plenty of insight into the guy that may surprise and delight his already mountainous number of fans.

From doing exceptionally well at school to capturing the moment when his family sat huddled in the front room around a radio waiting to hear if Richie gets the call up to the All Blacks, there's a degree of personal intimacy that's welcomed and offers a newer side to the man so over-exposed in the media.

But there's no escaping the line uttered at one point  - "We're an unemotional bunch, the McCaws".

And it's a flaw which shatters the second half of the film as it becomes like a sporting autobiography writ large on the big screen, as we are forced to relive the fatal loss to France in 2007, and various other games including the ultimate win in 2015 (itself a foregone conclusion that is still quite recent in our memories).

It's understandable that these moments should feature as it goes some way to explaining McCaw's mindset and shift in mental fortitude with the involvement of psychologist Dr Ceri Evans (shadowy room meetings leading to feelings of a cult-like abduction), but it still feels like a sports highlights package, with edited game moments and pumping music puncturing the changing room scenes and sporting celebrations, as well as talking heads either praising his field performance or criticising it.

There's no further insight into the man, and it's not as if pre-game brief interviews are enough to give a greater reading of McCaw.

To their credit, the directors have committed some truly impressive imagery to celluloid - from shots high over the Otago hills as Richie cruises in his glider to scene setting slow mo track shots across stadia seats, every moment sings quality and aims for epic.

But equally, there are moments writ large from the cinematic sporting cliches shot book - slow mos on the field, slow mo running through corridors et al.

Frustratingly the film ends abruptly after the victory and with the very Kiwi "Yeah I'm done" as Richie flies off in his glider. This is already the story we knew, albeit fleshed out with some younger days Richie insights - and it's tantamount to feeling underwhelming in its denouement.

Ultimately, that is Chasing Great.

If you're after a film that celebrates and mythologises the man on the field as well as wanting to relive some of rugby's spectacular highs and lows, then this is that film for you, delivered just in time for Father's Day and with the release of Richie's book.

But unfortunately, if you're after a warts and all insight into the man who's been dubbed one of the nicest in sport, then you may feel it's somewhat wanting as a rounded picture.