Star Wars Battlefront 2 leaks

Star Wars Battlefront 2 leaks

Is this your first look at the brand new Star Wars Battlefront 2?

bf2 from TheSpicinberg on Vimeo.

The Fate of the Furious: Film Review

The Fate of the Furious: Film Review

Cast: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Charlize Theron, Luke Evans, Scott Eastwood, Michelle Rodriguez, Luadcris, Tyrese Gibson, Jason Statham, Kurt Russell, Helen Mirren
Director: F Gary Gray

There are certain things you expect from a Fast and Furious film.

From the shots of scantily clad girls gyrating in barely any clothing, lots of insane racing and endless speeches about family made throughout.

Pretty much all of those are present and correct in the eighth instalment of the franchise which shows no sense of dying.

But what's missing in this latest is a sense of soul and heart that's bound together the other films to varying degrees of success.

In Fate of the Furious, Vin Diesel's emoting potato of a folk hero Dom Toretto is forced to betray his crew and his family when braided cyber-terrorist Cypher (an icy Charlize Theron whose cold presence bodes well for the upcoming Atomic Blonde and who's likely to spawn several Fast and Furiosa memes) exerts some mysterious leverage over him.

Forced into the reality they've been betrayed by the one they trusted the most, Dwayne Johnson's Luke Hobbs is compelled to assemble the usual good guys ( including an expanded role for Game Of Thrones' Nathalie Emmanuel's hacker) and some bad guys (hello, Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw imprisoned in Furious 7) to save the day.

Mixing in global terrorism, cyber-hacking and occasional set pieces with relative ease appear to be the MO for this latest Furious outing, but despite Straight Outta Compton helmer F Gary Gray's eye behind the lens, the whole thing feels like a flat formulaic piece of cinema when compared to some of the other outings for this franchise.

Granted, with its ACME style shenanigans and fights and car-flips where nobody ever emerges with the slightest hint of a cut or graze on their fetishized buff bodies, the Fast franchise has never aimed for the levels of Shakespearean dialogue or any attempts at a cerebral outing.

The usual reason to endure and enjoy one of these outings is in the spectacularly over-the-top stunt work and high-octane sequences - and in Fast 5, great amounts of heart and surprising humanity was fuel-injected into the characters. As one character says in The Fate Of The Furious: "It's not what's under the hood, it's about who's behind the wheel". And that motif certainly feels like it infects large swathes of this occasionally bloated and soulless action thriller, with the growing feeling that those in charge didn't really invest as much into the script as they should have.

The mid-section of the 2 hour 15 minute dumb beast is slowed by endless amounts of techno-banter masquerading as exposition and it almost cripples what you'd want from a film like this. After a thrilling street race in Havana, reminiscent of the very best of the Forza Horizon driving game series, which showcases both the best and worst of what the series offers (cliched dialogue, gyrating car bunnies and pacy well-choreographed but sensibly cut action), the film hits a speed bump after the introduction of self-assured Theron's Cipher.

Diesel is his usual monosyllabic gruff pouting self as Toretto, but this time, even Diesel struggles to reach the basic level of emotion needed to invest in the character's plight and his attempts at showing struggle and conflict come across as more a petulant teen outburst mixed with the emotional range of a potato. It's not his best charismatic work in the series as other entries will attest.

Fortunately, some of the slack is picked up by the usual charism of Dwayne Johnson, the man mountain who was brought on as a cop a few entrants back to track down Toretto. There's even a scene that will appeal to the home crowd as Johnson leads a female kids football team into a rousing haka pre-game (though, it does feel slightly odd and unexpected as a throwaway moment but it's good to see perhaps that his recent Moana outing's stirred up some sense of culture).

But the script confines most of Toretto's team to the sidelines, grounding their arcs in neutral rather than full-speed ahead - and even the banter between Ludacris' Tej and Tyrese Gibson's Roman is hit by a lack of under-writing.

Thankfully, the British invasion brings the best signs of life in this flagging actioner - a wonderful cameo from Helen Mirren as an East-end mucky-mouthed matriarch greatly enlivens proceedings, and a final plane-confined homage to the 1992 action flick Hard Boiled from Yun-Fat Chow involving Statham is nothing short of deranged brilliance and great fun.

However, all in all The Fate Of The Furious is stuffed to the gills and would have greatly benefited from an expeditious trim to make it leaner and more taut in its ultimate execution.

Set pieces within don't feel as exciting as they could be, and while there are moments, such as a World War Z style zombie car attack in New York (yes, that sentence was just written) that stand out, most of the action feels arbitrary and relatively unengaging.

Equally, the fact the cast of main actors, and their supporting charges, is growing to ever-increasing numbers doesn't help things. Its one more cameo mentality feels like a troupe of am dram players who are too afraid to sort the wheat from the chaff and whose numbers swell greatly with little to do; a culling of the Fast family would greatly enhance parts of this franchise and bring some much needed emotional range too.

Perhaps it's the fact that Fast 7's $1.5billion global box office take in wake of Paul Walker's death necessitated yet one more ride, even though thematically the narrative tank was empty and everything had been neatly resolved in the last, but The Fate of the Furious actually feels surplus to requirements in the series' canon.

While the precision of the action sequences is neatly handled by Gray as the lunacy and ridiculousness increases, climaxing with an ice-capade set to the backdrop of a Russian nuclear sub heist, it really doesn't feel like the emotional range needed to ground this dumb, bloated actioner is even close to hitting the spot.

The Fate Of The Furious is a lacklustre spectacle that feels constrained and that betrays some of the franchise's prior heart and soul in among the car-nage. It's perhaps the ultimate Easter treat - looks good, shiny and promises much, but in its centre, it's hollow and empty and you'll feel guilty as hell afterwards.

Watch it do absolutely insane numbers at the box office though - this has never, ever been a series which has pandered to the critical mass; it's more a demented extreme version of Top Gear for the masses, who'll lap up every second of its excess and ensure that come Diesel's retirement age, he'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

Win a Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 prize pack!

Win a  Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 prize pack!

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 is coming soon!



To celebrate the release of the hotly anticipated sequel to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, I've got three prize packs to give away!

Packs include

Mini Groot

Phone card wallets

Star lord keychains

Cap

Retro headphones

Groot T shirts

Double in-season pass to see the movie!

From Marvel Studios, the studio that brought you the cinematic global blockbuster franchises of “Iron Man,” “Captain America,” “Thor,” “Ant-Man,” “Doctor Strange” and the “Avengers,” comes the highly anticipated sequel, featuring the world’s favorite band of intergalactic misfits—the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Picking up where “Guardians of the Galaxy”—2014’s highest grossing film of the summer—left off, Marvel Studios’ “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” continues the action-packed, irreverent, epic space adventures of Peter Quill aka Star-Lord and his gang of eccentric characters as they patrol and protect the universe, doing mercenary work in the wake of the popularity and fame they garnered from saving Xandar.

Set to the backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, the story follows the team as they fight to keep their newfound family together while traversing the outer reaches of the cosmos to unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 Starring Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel is in Cinemas April 25

Rating : TBC

To win a Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 prize pack, all you have to do is enter simply email your details to this  address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Include your name and address and title your email GOTG2!
Competition closes April 25th

Good luck!

Raw: Film Review

Raw: Film Review

Cast: Garrance Mareillier, Ella Rumpf
Director: Julia Ducournau

Already the enfant terrible of the festival scene after viewers at Cannes apparently fainted and vomited during screenings, French director Julia Ducournau's stylistically nourishing body horror may have already put some off.

However, this tale is more one of coming-of-age, self-acceptance, sibling rivalry and the usual outsider trying to fit in story that cinema so often delivers.

The waif-like Garrance Mareillier (who carries more than a passing visual reference to Zoey Deutch via way of Isabelle Adjani) is Justine, who, as the film begins, is heading to enrol in the veterinary college frequented by generations of her family.

At a roadside cafe, there's uproar when her mother discovers the slop mashed potatoes Justine's been served come with a sausage within. Surely, no cause for concern - however, Justine and all her family shun the carnivorous ways and are staunch vegetarians.

Dropped at the college, Justine is thrown into a brutal hazeing ceremony that afflicts all newcomers - forced on all fours, and herded like cattle to an abattoir, the first year students are dropped deep into a world of work, partying, hedonistic almost Bacchanial excess and plenty of flesh on show.

Justine reunites with her sister, Alexia (Rumpf) who's also there and has been for a few years. Initially reticent, the duo reform and repair some of the brittle bridges that scatter siblings - before an unlikely bond is discovered and a hunger awoken in Justine...

Raw may have at its core a tale of cannibalism, and there's certainly enough pleasures of the flesh put upon the screen, but the hybrid of horror and occasional shocks is more riddled with an atmosphere of unease and suspense than an outright desire to induce nausea in its audience.

It's perhaps pertinent if you are of a queasy disposition to take degrees of caution, but certainly the gore on the screen is a lot less effective or bloody than Raw's reputation would suggest.

More startling is director Julia Ducournau's commitment to this fearless debut; it pulls together elements of every coming of age film you've seen. From elements of Ginger Snaps to the hedonism of Trainspotting, via way of startling and striking imagery (some of it ripped from Carrie), the film crackles with visual flair throughout.

It helps that Mareiller's aloofness sells the other-worldly edges of what plays out, and as the rapacious hunger within is awoken, she manages to sell the almost feral transformation incredibly well and sympathetically as the principles tangle and conflict with the primal urges within.

From hints of her being seduced into the almost cult-like world of the pledges to looking at meat on a counter, Mareiller does more with little than you'd expect to see and the restraint adds much to her character who's simultaneously coming of age and trying to find her place in the world. It helps that these themes are not new, and have been explored before - but rarely with the pertinence and female point of view leading the way.

The script hints a lot at what's going on, and there are delicious double entendres that come to life as the film ends - indeed Justine's told that "an animal that's tasted flesh isn't exactly safe", but there's a studious once over with Raw that almost veers into parody in the final cinematic furlong.

It's not that the gore hits a crescendo, more that the score hits a one louder approach that threatens to topple the audaciousness of what's already played out. Certainly, Ducournau would have benefited from being a little more hands-off as the film veers towards its darkly twisted denouement.

With escalating sibling rivalry at its core, Raw's feral and visceral in parts, drowning its coming of age observations and cannibalism in its female point of view.

Coupled with a fevered lead whose occasionally dead eyes hint at the conflict and the primal hunger within, Raw's certainly a film not for all tastes. But for those willing to surrender themselves to its deft stylish touches, and its hints of horrors as well as its outright taste for shocks, it's one hell of an experience, and one hell of a fiery debut.

Thor Ragnarok first trailer drops

Thor Ragnarok first trailer drops

In Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Ragnarok,” Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his mighty hammer and finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to stop Ragnarok—the destruction of his homeworld and the end of Asgardian civilization—at the hands of an all-powerful new threat, the ruthless Hela.

But first he must survive a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against his former ally and fellow Avenger—the Incredible Hulk!

“Thor: Ragnarok” is directed by Taika Waititi and returns Chris Hemsworth starring as Thor and Tom Hiddleston reprising his role as Loki. They are joined by Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson and Karl Urban, with Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins.

Kevin Feige is producing with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Thomas M. Hammel and Stan Lee serving as executive producers. The screenplay is by Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost and Stephany Folsom and Eric Pearson.

Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Ragnarok” thunders into NZ cinemas on October 26, 2017.

Win a double pass to see John Wick - Chapter 2!

Win a double pass to see John Wick - Chapter 2!

Retired super-assassin John Wick's plans to resume a quiet civilian life are cut short when Italian gangster Santino D'Antonio shows up on his doorstep with a gold marker, compelling him to repay past favours.

Ordered by Winston, kingpin of secret assassin society The Continental, to respect the organization's ancient code, Wick reluctantly accepts the assignment to travel to Rome to take out D'Antonio's sister, the ruthless capo atop the Italian Camorra crime syndicate.

Starring Keanu Reeves, Ruby Rose, Common, and Ian McShane

John Wick: Chapter 2 is in cinemas May 18.

To win a double pass to John Wick: Chapter 2, all you have to do is enter simply email your details to this  address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Include your name and address and title your email JOHN WICK 2!
Competition closes May 18th

Good luck!

Win a copy of Yooka-Laylee on PS4!

Win a copy of Yooka-Laylee on PS4!

Yooka-Laylee is an all-new open-world platformer from genre veterans Playtonic!

Explore huge, beautiful worlds, meet (and beat) an unforgettable cast of characters and horde a vault-load of collectibles as buddy-duo Yooka and Laylee embark on an epic adventure to thwart corporate creep Capital B!

Using their arsenal of special moves, our heroes will tackle a huge variety of challenges across stunning worlds, each jammed with oddball characters, hulking bosses and more!

Features:

INTRODUCING OUR NEW BUDDY DUO: Yooka and Laylee boast an awesome arsenal of abilities built for platforming fun and unlocked with added freedom from the serpent salesman Trowzer.

CARVE YOUR OWN PATH: Purchase and unlock moves with freedom, choose to expand your favourite worlds into even larger, more complex playgrounds and equip unique Tonic gameplay modifiers to customise your play style. Every player will have a unique experience.

A COLLECT-EM-UP FOR THE MODERN ERA: Seek out a roster of shiny collectibles with gameplay progression at their core (as well as other, more valuable materials), such as the dual action Butterfly Energy or tricky Ghost Writers!

A CAST TO LAST: Meet (or beat) a huge cast of memorable characters brought to life by the art and audio teams behind legendary platform games, and destined to endure in future adventures as part of Playtonic Universe. Expect all manner of grunts, squeaks and squawks.

A DREAM SOUNDTRACK: David Wise (Donkey Kong Country) and Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie) combine for a melodic masterpiece! Seriously, clean out your ears – they’re in for a treat.

BUDDY UP: Establish your own buddy-duo and adventure through Yooka-Laylee in co-op mode! Taking control of a unique co-op character, a second player can assist Yooka and Laylee by stunning enemies and helping them tackle tricky challenges. No piggyback required.

AND A WHOLE LOT MORE: Discover unique boss fights, mine cart challenges, retro-tastic Arcade games, quiz shows and more than 8 unique multiplayer games!

Please note - this is a promotional copy, and as such, whilst it is the full game, doesn't come in the full packaging!

To win  Yooka-Laylee, all you have to do is enter simply email your details to this  address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Include your name and address and title your email YOOKA-LAYLEE!
Competition closes April 25th

Good luck!

Yooka-Laylee is in stores now!