Alien: Covenant: Film Review

Alien: Covenant: Film Review

Cast: Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Danny McBride
Director: Ridley Scott

38 years after the original Alien film delivered the perfect blend of sci-fi and horror in space, director Ridley Scott continues to mine the world as he follows up the muddled pretensions of Prometheus, a film that looked to expand and explore the origins of the xenomorphs.

This time around, Scott tries to once again blend cod philosophy with abject moments of horror as he takes a new crew and plunges them against the perils of planetary exploration and the unknown.

Centring on the crew of the Covenant, an Ark-like project that's hurtling toward a new paradise home with 2000 colonists asleep on board, things start to go awry when the crew are awoken by the effects of a "random localised event."

With an uncertain newly-appointed captain at the helm (played by Crudup), the ship's taken off its course when it receives a transmission that hints at a better planet than the one they've had their sights on. Despite the protestations of Katherine Waterston's Daniels, the ship heads towards the potential new Eden - but on landing, survival becomes anything but certain.

Alien: Covenant mixes both the good and the bad as it tries to unspool its terror among the toe toe story.

But by shifting away from the claustrophobia of the likes of Alien and Aliens, the jump scares end up a little predictable (although nonetheless scary) and almost feeling like they're trying to hit beats and scenes we've seen before with more successful characters. It's a degree of fan service in the extreme, in some ways.

Continuing the prequel vibe that was so brilliantly realised in 2012's Prometheus, pristine white spaceship corridors and wondrous lighting give Alien: Covenant an inescapable sense of style while it's in space. But it's when the film shifts to the murky Milford Sounds that its darkness starts to come through, as large portions are swathed in muddied execution and lighting, as well as rote typical familial tropes.

It's also on the ground that the very familiar tropes of sensible people doing stupid things begins to manifest and the action, such as it is, takes a mind-dumbing turn. It's not massively helped by a a CGI alien that while modelled on HR Giger's original creatures, is less successful in its digital execution. (And subsequent scenes with the alien white make it look like a cross between Xenomorph and the Slenderman mythos, perhaps a nod to the internet sensation that's horrified many).

But to be fair, an early culling of relatively rote and underwritten crew members proves to be a blessing in disguise, an effective tonic to clear out the narrative chaff that would have undermined the story as went on. However, in doing so, the deaths prove to be inconsequential in terms of emotional heft, and serve only to showcase the body horror elements of the Alien's MO. There are nice apocalyptic touches (skeletal remains scatter the entrance to a city) that will fuel a lot of the fan debate after the lights have gone back up.

Elsewhere, while the cod-philosophical elements and talk of Byron/ Shelley/ Ozymandias et al continue to push the "Who am I, where do we all come from, playing God" debate that began in (and over-stuffed large parts of) Prometheus, it's Fassbender's continuing aloof and generally creepy synthetic that pushes a lot of the story forward (in ways that are many and spoilery here) as the story tries to build the myth of the Engineers and their place in Creation.

Fassbender works well as the nightmarish exploration vibe that's wrapped up in suspense and wilfully obtuse execution plays out, and Scott works his usual deft touches in the build-up of suspenseful moments that are peppered throughout. Waterston is initially quite fragile, a soul ripped apart by grief, but whose delicacy becomes hardened by the end, as she channels Ripley. (Though, this is also a problem, as there's really little else to do with the nuances of the character). And McBride does solid dramatic work as the pilot Tennessee, proving that Scott at least can turn expectations around of his actors - even if the script doesn't serve the characters as well.

By stripping out parts of the claustrophobia and trying to mesh parts of Aliens with Alien and mixing it with exposition, Alien:Covenant is a tonally jerky film. With moments of episodic action and sporadic exposition, it loses the primordial fear that the originals instilled, and while its technology and the execution thereof is second to none, the basics of what makes a solid Alien film feel lacking. The back half of it though, soars, with the confrontations that have been wanted and desired

While it's fair to say the Alien elements have teeth once again, the very essence of what made their virulence so terrifying is only slowly coming back to what makes the Alien franchise such a benchmark in sci-fi horror.

At the end of the day, it's simply a case of man versus the unknown that made the first films so iconic; by just adding layers of mythology and delusions of creators as well as their subsequent debate, is stopping the series from going back to its most terrifying basics.

MLB 17: The Show: PS4 Review

MLB 17: The Show: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by Sony San Diego

There's something about baseball that clearly resonates.

Given the Minor League Baseball series is now on its 12th iteration, there had to be something done to keep the game relatively fresh. And thankfully by adding in something similar to FIFA 17's The Journey and NBA 2K's Path picker game, the concept's a little fresher than it was last time around.

Pave Your Path is the major plus side of the baseball simulation's outing this time around, adding in cutscenes to help you define your journey as you try to head to the top. Adding  in personality to the simulator is always a good thing, and many a sports sim has simply fallen by expecting the game mechanics and their relative facelessness to save the day.

But thankfully, the game mechanics are also impressive this time around, with a better representation of the AI and an improvement in the ball physics, the game plays easier than it should. And complete with a comprehensive list of teams and players, major fans of the game will be satiated with their desired choosings. The game's also more welcoming to non-baseball fans this year, ensuring that accessibility is also as important as the regular fans.

All in all, for a sports simulator to come out swinging as much as this one does nearly a decade on is a great thing. For those a bit reticent to the charms before, it's now time to step up to the plate.

A Dog's Purpose: Film Review

A Dog's Purpose: Film Review

Cast: Dennis Quaid, A golden retriever puppy, KJ Apa, Britt Robertson, Peggy Lipton
Director: Lasse Halstrom

Mixing sappy family film and a fluffy dog tail should be movie kryptonite, but A Dog's Purpose feels like it slightly misses the mark.

Adapted from the 2010 W. Bruce Cameron novel of the same name, the Amblin Entertainment flick follows the story of a dog that's reincarnated several times, before discovering what his reason for life is.

Starting in the 1950s, Josh Gad is the voice of the dog in this live-action fare that feels like a Saturday morning TV-movie writ large.

After a very brief and shockingly terminated life, Gad's dog is reborn as a golden retriever named Bailey who's saved from a hot car in 1961 by Ethan. As the pair bond, Bailey discovers Ethan is his soul-mate and the pair get into the sort of scrapes you'd expect from a fluffy story of its ilk.

From romancing a girl (played by Britt Robertson) to dealing with an abusive father, the 1960s set story is perhaps the more successful of the film, but also the one which showcases the most of what to expect of this film.

Tugging on heart-strings, touching on well-worn tropes of animal films and the familiar scrapes the plucky pair find themselves in, the Nicholas Sparks for animal lovers flick, A Dog's Purpose is likely to find favour with audiences looking to get their quota of sappiness filled.

And while Lasse Halstrom's film may have been dogged with some negative pre-publicity over the apparent treatment of its animal leads in one sequence that's since been debunked, it's more than likely to curry a great deal of favour with anyone who's ever owned a pet or shared a bond with said animal.

This is not a film that skirts over the heartache and heartbreak of losing a pet, and it's here the film takes great strides to really avoid milking the sentiment and hitting some of the emotional moments more successfully than many would want to admit to.

The reincarnation angle of the film is handled without fuss, and while its edges could have made for Nicholas Sparks' style tear-jerker territory, it simply gets on with it happening and lets the poignancy of the moment drown the work. But the rest of the film is predominantly every other film you've ever seen of its kind - coming of age mixed with family tension, all nicely brought to life in the world that's been created.

At least one of the dog's lives, the one with a police partner, is over so briefly, its inclusion seems relatively pointless, other than to showcase another relationship with a dog. But such is the film's MO; it simply passes over the middle part of the film to skip back to Ethan and Bailey's bond.

It's here that the heart of this film lies deep within the connection that's shared with a canine; and while Gad's occasionally childish narration distracts, the sentiment is clearly there from the beginning.

A Dog's Purpose is not a movie for critics, nor a movie that goes deeper or tries to do anything other than push a fuzzy, feel-good agenda.

It'll give comfort to many a pet owner who's believed their current furry charge has similarities to their previous ones, but the human elements of the film will remain infinitely more forgettable than the doggy goings on long after the lights of the cinemas have gone up.

Meat: Film Review

Meat: Film Review

Director: David White

David White's lovingly shot documentary purports to be the modern story of the animals we eat.

But what emerges from this 75 minute amble through bucolic life, is an often philosophical look at life on the farm and in the hills, with differing points of view on why their chosen lifestyle's the best.

Covering four different meat producers, from a hunter who kills and eats his own, a retiree who is a chicken farmer, a pig farmer who's produced around 400 tonnes of pork a year and a one-woman farmer, this is an amiable look at what goes into creating the food chain that New Zealand's been so famous for at times.

And while White's got an eye for the perfectly beautiful shots (it's no surprise to find he's grown up on a farm), be it rows of chickens in the farm or a drone shot of pigs being carted off to the abattoir that makes them look like packed sausages on the back of a truck, the doco's desire to be provocative and make people think about where their meat comes from never quite scratches below the surface.

Part of the philosophy of the film is clearly to educate, and perhaps, it's a reflection on current society that many grow up not knowing where the food they eat comes from or how it's produced. Certainly those who've had a modicum of education and are a bit wiser (and maybe a generation older) will find nothing new in this, which plays like an extended episode of TV long-stay Country Calendar.

Although, perhaps, that's part of the film's raison d'etre, what emerges more as the film goes through its 75 minutes cycle, are the philosophies of those who till the land and rear the creatures.

With a choice of four fairly similar characters, it's in the subtleties that Meat beats its own drum as it casts an eye into the world within and the attitudes of the farmers.

This is no hard-hitting expose of farming practices, and does, for the large part, feel like an extended advertorial for the Meat sector, with the various particpiants extolling the virtues of their varying practices and in Ian, the pig farmer, refuting some of the claims levelled against their industry. Certainly, for those fearing a full-on trip to the abattoir, complete with screeching animals as the death blow rains down, Meat doesn't deliver the goods.

It's a sensitive piece that handles deftly (or perhaps too tentatively and lightly) the final process of the chain - it's only the chickens whose fates are shown to the camera as White interviews one of those who's made it their livelihood to kill for a living. There will, however, be some who feel the view of a pig being killed and kicking and twitching as it dies may be a step too far, but in all honesty, White simply lets the camera capture the reality of what happens on a farm - and if you're going to educate, you can't hold back. Though, equally, claims can be levelled against the doco for not presenting a fuller picture of what happens once the meat moves on.

That said, as ever with New Zealand's docos, it's the characters within that stand out once the cameras are turned on.

From Tony, the chicken farmer who only hires retirees because they won't go anywhere (and who, in one of the more wryly Kiwi iconoclastic moments by our film-makers, has a group of people shown on screen and titled Ian's Death Squad to much amusement) to Josh the hunter who's determined to pass on his practices but whose hunt is him alone, it feels like there are moments that could have been explored further and a little deeper.

That said, there's a humanity on show here that's showcased in the intricacy of the connections within and the worlds that collide. From espousing different philosophies on their respective places within the food chain or in the pig farmer's case, railing against the perceptions of their industry, White's gone to great lengths to ensure that everyone's got their moment in the spotlight.

But there's a nagging sense of doubt that a bit more could have helped Meat in its post-film discussion.

Whether it's talking to the families about the decisions made or the stresses placed on others, there's a very real feeling at times that the movie's been slightly missing some elements for mass consumption and while that's not a major mark against it, it does leave you with the belief that Meat is not quite the full platter you'd have expected.

The Dark Tower trailer is here

The Dark Tower trailer is here

In a world full of superheroes, there’s only one Gunslinger. From the epic best-selling novels from Stephen King, comes #DarkTowerMovie - watch the brand-new trailer now. Only in cinemas.

The Dark Tower is due in cinemas August 4th

Handsome Devil: Film Review

Handsome Devil: Film Review

Cast: Fionn O'Shea, Nicholas Galitzine, Andrew Scott, Moe Dunford
Director: John Butler

Whilst it may be steeped in coming-of-age familiarity, writer / director John Butler's Handsome Devil packs a certain degree of charm into its story.

The tale centres around Fionn O'Shea's red-headed Ned who's sent to an Irish boarding school by his family. Bullied for not being into rugby and not getting behind the school's push to win a trophy for the first time in years, Ned forms a friendship with his roommate Conor (Galitzine), the star hopeful of the team, who's been shipped in from another school.

The two boys find themselves growing closer, and with the tutelage of Andrew Scott's English teacher Dan Sherry, they find their desire to be themselves blossoming.

But in a rugby mad school, homophobia's never far away...

Handsome Devil has elements of Dead Poets Society, Sing Street and great 80s music to set it apart.

While its familiarity of themes feels a little stale and predictable in parts (a macho school coach who's appalled at the burgeoning friendship between his star player and the teacher), there's a degree of warmth in the short run time to justify its existence.

It helps that it's sensitively acted and handled by a strong cast, with Scott's Sherry easily the early charismatic stand-out of the piece, recalling elements of Robin Williams' Captain, My Captain.

It's also helpful that both Galitzine and O'Shea play their characters with affable warmth and underpin their journey with a degree of plausibility that's engaging.

And that certainly helps given the film's denouement and conflict can be seen coming a mile off, its desire to be uplifting and feel-good almost crippling its intentions.

Handsome Devil won't spark a major renaissance in these types of films, but it can hold its head up high that this boarding school tale and its push for individuality does enough to bring its audience along for the ride, and leave them feeling slightly more uplifted than any cynical viewer has a right to have.

A United Kingdom: DVD Review

A United Kingdom: DVD Review

The director of Belle returns with another piece that looks at the strife caused by interracial relations in this period piece about King Seretse Khama (Oyelowo), who caused a stir and a division of nations in the late 40s when he fell for - and married - a white woman.

Seretse is a law student, whose life is about to change as his uncle recalls him to take his rightful place as the heir of Bechaunaland (aka Botswana). But within days of departing London, he meets and falls for Rosamund Pike's Ruth.

Determined to marry and despite protestations from their homeland, and British government concerns, the duo's relationship creates divides at home and abroad. As the political storms threaten to engulf the pair and Seretse's land, they find their Apartheid naivete coming to the fore - and hoping their love can save the day.

A United Kingdom is a slice of prime prestige picture, served largely up by BBC Films.

It's centred by an earnestness and two leads who gel (though, arguably, a more stoic Oyelowo is the stronger of the pair) while the political machinations whirl around them.

The film's attention to period detail is beyond stunning and the cinematography early on of London is beyond eye-catching. But for the necessity of the narrative, the England side of events is matter of factly dismissed and dispatched so the action, such as it is, can relocate to Bechauanaland. It's here the film anchors itself and the colonial sneery machinations of Jack Davenport and Tom Felton's characters come to the fore, promising barrier after barrier to this relationship.

Pike, who's initially a bit of a blank sheet of paper, rises in the second half as the compassion for the power of her new people infects her - and an impassioned Oyelowo really raises the bar when the exile of Seretse kicks in.

But while the parts are all there, and the pieces all assembled correctly, there's a distinct lack of anything really making the film soar. Its earnestness is obvious in the way the nicely told story unfolds, but the political drama crushes the emotional edges that should hit harder than they do.

There's a clarity of story to A United Kingdom, and it's a story which is worth expounding on; Oyelowo and Pike remain the reasons to view this tale - but you may feel that it never quite hits the heights it was aiming for and should have fully achieved. 

Table 19: Film Review

Table 19: Film Review

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Lisa Kudrow, Craig Robinson, Stephen Merchant, Margo Martindale, Tony Revolori, June Squibb
Director: Jeffrey Blitz

Stretching it as thinly as its premise will allow, Table 19 invites you to a bittersweet tale that has elements of Tales of The Unexpected.

Centring around Anna Kendrick's Eloise, who's invited to a wedding and finds herself at the aforementioned Table 19 with a group of randoms, this bittersweet sitcom-cum-drama has the trappings of something solid.

Dumped as maid of honour and now a guest at the table that's closer to the bathrooms than the bridal party, Eloise regrets attending.
But as the group begins to question each other, they find a common bond as the night goes on.

With an instantly recognisable and relatable premise (After all, who hasn't dreaded the seating arrangements of a wedding and the necessity to make endless small talk?), Blitz's film trades on the awkwardness and unease of randoms at a table with fine gusto at the start.

Throwing in some sitcom elements and some more farcical edges, the majority of the heavy lifting is left to Stephen Merchant's usual deadpan delivery, gangliness and odd-looks and Kendrick's sweetly downbeat affability to convey the tone.

But once the "action" moves away from the table and the group re-locate from the wedding itself, the narrative loses a little of its steam and the uneven edges of the tone come to the fore.

Whilst there are some bittersweet truth bombs dropped throughout (largely courtesy of Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson, who play a bickering married couple) and some recurring gags, the pay-off for portions of Table 19 don't feel earned.

Primarily for Kendrick's character Eloise, the revelations, at times, feel a little obvious and with conclusions that can be seen from a mile off. And while there's a universality to parts of what transpires that the Duplass brothers, along with Blitz, have tapped into, there's simply a feeling that a lot of it has been saved from some great one-liners throughout.

The film can't resist a happy ending and it's here that perhaps the realities of life and authenticities of the issues raised through the film feel slightly betrayed. Life isn't always so easily resolved, but Table 19, having thrown up all the idiosyncracies of relationships for examination, neatly folds them back together at the end and serves up something as sickly sweet as a third piece of wedding cake.

While it's just a pinch under 90 minutes long, and quite bearable, it's a shame that Table 19 betrays its initial focus and premise for something that feels predictable and unnecessarily overly saccharine and sentimental.

Assassins Creed: Blu Ray Review

Assassins Creed: Blu Ray Review

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.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter: DVD Review

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter: DVD Review

Much like the Underworld series, the Resident Evil movie franchise staggers on with no sign of abating, thanks largely to industrial sized box office returns.

As the sixth film in the Resident Evil series, The Final Chapter at least dangles the prospect of closure in audiences' faces by way of its title. (But this turns out to be a lie.)

However, in providing a generic awfully muddy and dark action zombie set film, The Final Chapter ends up feeling like a bridge too far.
Picking up right after events from Retribution, Milla Jovovich's Alice is forced into taking a chance to wipe out the T virus that mutated the world  once and for all.

The twist is she has only 48 hours to do it and needs to race across a Mad Max style landscape to head back into Raccoon City to get the antidote.

But standing in her way once again is Game of Thrones' Iain Glen's villainous religious zealot Dr Isaacs, who chews as much scenery as the undead do flesh. (However, he gets points for inadvertently invoking one of the great lines about the Winchester and a pint in one laughably cheesy shot toward the end)...

So with the clock racing and the fate of all humanity in her hands, Alice faces her last great battle...

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is a muddied mess of a video game film that feels limp in comparison to the rest of its series. Thanks to a dark aesthetic and a continual desire to visually soak everything in a blackness, it's hard to remotely care about proceedings - nowhere more so than when fight sequences happen and characters are picked off.

There's no emotional gut punch to this film where there should be; and there's no feeling of closure or an epic end when there should be either. It's just a mesh of video game stylings (big boss battle atop a tank, rescue the colleagues from traps, escape the bad guys) and some awfully frenetic editing in the action sequences which mar proceedings.

Anderson's desire to put in repeated rapid cuts during fight sections leads to a feeling of choppiness and robs them of the fluidity needed to give admiration to the work going on. In this aspect, he's his own worst enemy of the film - a director with clear signs of ADD desiring nothing more than yet another angle on the same section.

Jovovich is convincing enough as Alice, and there's a certain weariness to her outlook that's endearing as the film and its fight against an evil mega-conglomerate go on. There are answers coming in this "last" part but they're not worth the investment to be frank.

However, not nearly enough has been done to flesh out the characters around her and it shows, lending no sense of suspense or tension to various quandaries and no feelings at all when they're dispatched.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is not quite in stinker territory, but it dangerously dips its toes into the water.

3D adds nothing to it, making the action murky as the talk of clones, zombies and shooting gets underway after the starting recap. There aren't enough nods to the creatures of the iconic series and while some of the earlier action sequences pack a punch, there's no freshness in this as it trudges wearily on.

To make matters worse, the ending makes it patently clear that this is not a franchise the box office wants to die and you can't help but feel cheated as it ends. But that said, there's also a palpable sense of relief it's over, because Resident Evil: The Final Chapter squanders a lot of its promise and brings you nothing you've not seen before. 

Sing: Blu Ray Review

Sing: Blu Ray Review

With a note saying Sing contains 85 songs during its 110 minute duration, you could be forgiven for feigning apathy after doing the maths of how often they'd appear.

(Maths purists - it's about 1 every 1 minute or so)

But Illumination's latest animated foray manages to pack in some zaniness around the music and the relatively 2 dimensional characters in this thinly veiled tribute to vaudeville and music audition shows.

Matthew McConaughey plays Buster Moon, a koala theatre impresario whose love of the boards has seen him put on several less than successful shows. With the bank about to foreclose on his theatre and with ideas running out, Moon decides to put on a singing audition competition to attract some interest. But things go further than planned when his lizard secretary accidentally puts onto the fliers that there's a $100K at stake...

It's easy to see why Sing's crammed its run time with classic songs - it's simply because there's nothing more than a terribly basic plot to flesh proceedings out. But that's not to take away from the fun moments that permeate the screen - from auditions with endlessly familiar pop songs blasting out to wacky sight gags, there's enough to keep the younger end happy and enough to ensure the adults recognise the music.

However, it's not quite enough.

Given Zootopia made real its anthropomorphic world with depth and insight, this tale feels lacking in anything other than a simple bubblegum formulaic animation that ticks the boxes and does little else as it zips between what feels like episodic moments stuck loosely together.

It's a shame as the vocal talent is more than sensational - McConaughey's laid back drawl makes Moon an affable and perky presence, MacFarlane's parlance is perfectly suited to a jazz playing mouse, whose rat-pack pretensions and sass are on display from the beginning and John C Reilly's perfectly cast as the slacker mate of Moon.

But it all feels so by the numbers, a medley of melodies being its only real saving grace. And to be frank, the idea of putting one last show on with a menagerie of oddballs has repeatedly been done to death by The Muppet Show.

There are no messages here other than a little self-belief and a hastily bolting on bonding between a father and son gorilla - but Sing is perfectly happy to carry on regardless.

Where it wins is once again indulging the wackiness of the Illumination brand, pioneered by Despicable Me and expanded by Minions. Simple wacky moments add a levity to the film but also serve to highlight the weaknesses in the overall story and lack of real personality.

When Moon announces his intention to put on a singing audition, there's a meta moment where one character intones "Who wants to see another one of those?"

It's a prescient moment, and if the world-weary and slightly cynical among us nod our heads in agreement, there's an almost tacit acknowledgement that younger audiences will lap up the unabashed feel-good simplicity of it all and its formulaic edges, because it all comes wrapped in a perfectly dayglo blast of music and well-visualised fluffy characters.

Sing may aspire to hit the high notes, but in truth, it actually manages to solidly hit a mid-range, never quite veering into essential territory but never quite making itself feel unwanted.

Win an Alien: Covenant prize pack!

Win an ALIEN: COVENANT prize pack!

To celebrate the unmissable big screen release of ALIEN: COVENANT, out in cinemas May 11th, you can win a prize pack!

Alien: Covenant, from Ridley Scott, in cinemas May 11

The thrilling prize pack includes:

An Alien Covenant Double pass

Alien Day poster

An Alien Covenant T.Shirt

An Alien Covenant  Mobile Phone cover

About  ALIEN: COVENANT

Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created, with ALIEN: COVENANT, a new chapter in his ground-breaking ALIEN franchise. The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.

IN CINEMAS MAY 11

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterson, Danny McBride

Rating: TBC

Web:www.AlienMovie.co.nz

To win a Alien Covenant 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 COVENANT!
Competition closes May 11th

Good luck!

Play with your childhood fears with LITTLE NIGHTMARES™ available today

Play with your childhood fears with LITTLE NIGHTMARES™ available today

 

Play with your childhood fears with LITTLE NIGHTMARES™ available today

Will you be able to save the girl in the yellow raincoat from her watch?

To celebrate the release of LITTLE NIGHTMARES, BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe and Tarsier Studios are delighted to reveal their launch trailer introducing the graceful Lady, the ruler of The Maw and the biggest threat to Six’s survival ensuring the smooth running of the place from her private quarters. Will you be able to save the girl in the yellow raincoat from her watch?

LITTLE NIGHTMARES is now available in digital and physical format on PlayStation®4, Xbox One, STEAM® and GOG.com for PC. For all players who have pre-purchased the game*, they receive The Scarecrow Sack and the Upside-down Teapot Masks. PS4™ and PC users also get the original soundtrack in digital format, an exclusive PS4™ theme or a PC wallpaper featuring The Janitor. The standard boxed version includes the Original Soundtrack composed by Tobias Lilja from Tarsier Studios and the Six Edition, available at GAME retailers, contains a 10 cm high figurine trapped in a themed cage box as well as the original soundtrack, an exclusive A3 poster and a sticker board.

Autumn Events Q&A - with Bill Gosden

Autumn Events Q&A - with Bill Gosden

It's here - the Autumn Events spectacular from the New Zealand International Film Festival!
You can get all the dates of the events in Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland here - www.nziff.co.nz

Festival director Bill Gosden was happy enough to brave a brief Q&A about the programming - so read on to see what he reckons will be worth slipping into the warmth of a cinema for as winter approaches.

Welcome back, we've missed you - what have you been doing since the end of the festival?
The lousy summer weather was perfect for getting a head start on film selection for Autumn Events and for NZIFF 2017.

Autumn events is now here, and there's a bit of difference with the regional arenas with Christchurch getting the local premiere of Pecking Order. How exciting! (And appreciate how I avoid the clucking puns)

You’ve spotted the major difference. We’d have loved to have toured the chickens, but if you’re not living in Christchurch your first chance to catch Pecking Order is on release on May 18. It’s a hoot.

The premiere of Terrence Malick's latest too - what can you tell us about this - is it Tree of Life-esque? And how stunning does it look on the big screen?

Stunning? Totally. It mixes the microcosmic and the macrocosmic to quite dizzying effect. The ‘history of life’ sections of Tree of Life only hint at the extravaganza on display here.

It seems appropriate that in these escalating times of potential nuclear war, we're heading back to the hedonism and freedom of Woodstock too...

Woodstock is so often cited as a pivotal cultural moment that it seemed worth revisiting in a present that is almost the polar opposite of the future it envisaged. The legendary performances have kept the film permanently in the Home Ent repertory, but the documentary content now feels more captivating than ever. It provides a vivid picture of a time when the American middle class was ascendant and the boomers began to feel their oats. There’s no shortage of conscious myth making going on in the film, but plenty of evidence too of some uncomfortable realities. The film’s release was a massive affair – the big sound and the multi-screens. Without those there’s no way to appreciate the original impact.

Le Roi et L'Oiseau has had quite a journey to the screen, and having seen, it's a gorgeous animation with all ages appeal - how would you best describe it?

Surreal is a word I seldom use, but it fits here. Children can explain the delightfully perplexing interplay of fiction and reality to their literal-minded adult companions.

Woody Allen's Manhattan too - perhaps the epitome of what he's achieved...?

It’s such a movie-movie, overflowing with references to the Hollywood past: the luminous B&W imagery, the shamelessly romantic settings – even a horse and carriage ride in Central Park - and the George Gershwin score. It’s easy to forget that it was made at a time when the world’s idea of New York City looked a lot more like Taxi Driver. But within this beautifully wrought setting and a roundelay of romantic dilemmas befitting a screwball comedy, the insecurities and missteps of the wise-cracker characters feel authentic, and ultimately quite isolating and painful. Is there another Woody Allen film where that is true?

And Werner Herzog, Judy Garland - really, we're being spoilt...

I’m looking forward very much to Fitzcarraldo. I remember we had to wait a whole year for it in New Zealand after Les Blank and Chris Simon had already been to the festival with Burden of Dreams. In the day the cool thing to say was that Burden of Dreams was better anyway, but who’d want to be without either of these ?

What's the plan for the main festival - give us a tease of what lies ahead....

Aha! It’s not too soon to say that the releases this month of Meat and Pecking Order mark the beginning of a great year for New Zealand documentaries on New Zealand cinema screens.

Get more about the Autumn Events and find the dates for the annual New Zealand International Film Festival at nziff.co.nz

Jackie: Blu Ray Review

Jackie: Blu Ray Review

Natalie Portman shines as Jackie Kennedy in this intriguing and at times, unconventional, biopic about the President's wife after the death of her husband JFK.

In an unusual move, it feels at times like a coming of age film as Jackie negotiates the treachery of life afterwards as people swarm around her suggesting what's best for both her and her husband's immediate legacy.

The film though, begins with Jackie welcoming a reporter (Billy Crudup, based on biographer Theodore H White) to her retreat and who's clearly there to get her side of the story (in perhaps a nod to the article which appeared a week after JFK's death in Life).

But flashbacks, and present day flashes mean that Jackie's also shown gaining her White House legs as well as her exposure to television by bringing cameras into the White House to demonstrate how their home is. In a move that simulates both the desire to be accepted by the public and into the history of the White House, Portman's Jackie tentatively begins a journey into our collective consciousness.

Mixing archival footage along with Portman's powerful vocal affectations (which, admittedly, take time to get accustomed to) as Kennedy proves to be a heady mix for Jackie. With its drained aesthetics and faded looks, Larrain's strength in the film comes from the subtleties of the scenes and the rhythmic feel of the prose played out on the screen.

From blood stains on Jackie's dress to the absolutely earth-shattering visceral sound of the bullet ringing out across the motorcade when the inevitable flashback occurs, everything about this film screams detail.

It's undoubtedly a classy affair, albeit one which takes a little time to adjust to as its groove begins to wash over you with its funereal feel.

As the ebbs and flows of post JFK life come into sharp focus, the initial portrait of a fragile and vulnerable First Lady drains away to present a figure borne of fire, and bereft initially of power but content once again to rise from the ashes.

Portman commits to this wholeheartedly as a mother struggling to tell her kids what's happened, as a stateswoman determined to not be undermined and as a newly crowned widow, fighting to ensure her husband is fairly farewelled (NB - a lot of time is spent on funeral arrangements).

But as she staggers out into the cinematic light and from the screen, Portman emerges as the character building her own myth; it's clear to see why she's been nominated for an award in this almost chameleonic turn.

While there are moments when it feels showy initially, once the bluster is stripped away, the ebbs and flows of the character portrayal are laid down and the bombastic OST silences itself, Jackie becomes a clear portrait of power, led by an utterly commanding turn.

Chilean director Pablo Larrain's film frees itself from the shackles of a conventional biopic and emerges as a hauntingly different and striking way to tell a story that's so familiar to so many. And with a central powerhouse of a performance, it lingers long in the mind after the lights have gone up.

Call of Duty WWII is revealed

Call of Duty WWII is revealed

CALL OF DUTY: WWII DELIVERS GRIPPING ACTION ON GLOBAL SCALE

Franchise Returns to its Roots in the

Definitive World War II Gaming Experience, Friday, November 3 

Multiplayer Features Boots-on-the-Ground Combat with All-New Ways to Play and Engage;

Pre-Order Now and Get Access to the Private Multiplayer Beta, First on PlayStation®4

Brand New, Unique Take on Nazi Zombies Cooperative Mode Brings an Original Storyline and

Heart-Pounding Experience to Call of Duty

April 27, 2017 – Call of Duty® is making a dramatic return to the greatest military conflict in history and where the franchise first began, World War II.  On Friday, November 3, Call of Duty®: WWIIplayers will enlist in an unforgettable journey of brotherhood across the European theatre in a mission vital to the success of the Allied powers.  The all-new Call of Duty delivers gritty realism, authenticity and cinematic intensity on an epic scale.  In addition to the game’s boots-on-the-ground combat, Multiplayer offers a host of new mode, system and gameplay innovations across iconic map locations; while an all-new Nazi Zombies Cooperative mode unleashes a startling, new storyline and adrenaline filled experience.  Published by Activision and developed by Sledgehammer Games, Call of Duty: WWII defines the World War II game experience for a new generation of consoles.

“More than two and a-half years ago we made the decision to return this franchise to its roots, and Call of Duty: WWII does so in epic fashion,” said Eric Hirshberg, Activision CEO. “The team at Sledgehammer Games is delivering an authentic, gritty, cinematic experience that honours both the epic scale, and the human struggle of the greatest war the world has ever known.  This game will let longtime fans experience World War II like never before, and will introduce this historic conflict to a whole new generation of gamers in the process.”

“Call of Duty: WWII has been a journey of inspiration and passion for everyone at Sledgehammer Games. The team is dedicated to delivering on the intense nature of war that focuses on the heroism and sacrifice of soldiers in WWII. Our rich narrative driven, action-packed campaign, and engaging and innovative multiplayer experience immerse players into the boots of a soldier fighting for freedom in a world on the brink of tyranny.  And, our co-operative mode delivers a unique storyline that’s an all-new take on Nazi Zombies that we think fans are going to love,” said Michael Condrey, Studio Head and Co-Founder of Sledgehammer Games. 

Added Glen Schofield, Studio Head and Co-Founder of Sledgehammer Games, “the story we’re telling is unlike anything that we’ve tackled before.  It’s such an amazing journey of common everyday people who became heroes. We want to respect this great generation of soldiers, tell a realistic story set in a true inflection point in human history, and deliver the best experience of our careers.”

Call of Duty: WWII takes the franchise back to its roots in a bold cinematic experience that captures the unforgettable heroism of the soldiers who fought together in a war that changed the world forever.  Activision’s gripping new title is an honest portrayal of World War II from the perspective of the famed 1st Infantry Division, with an ensemble cast of global and diverse characters. Through stunning visuals and intense audio, players storm the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, march across France to liberate Paris and ultimately push forward into Germany in some of the most monumental battles of all-time.

Call of Duty: WWII Multiplayer combat immerses players in grounded, fast-paced action featuring an arsenal of authentic weapons and equipment, set in some of the most iconic locations in World War II’s European theatre.  Multiplayer also delivers a new approach to character and create-a-class through Divisions, War, an all-new narrative multiplayer mode of play, and Headquarters, a first of its kind for the Call of Duty social community, designed for players to interact and socialise with friends.  The definitive World War II next generation experience also introduces Nazi Zombies, an all-new cooperative mode featuring a unique standalone storyline set during World War II that’s full of unexpected, adrenaline-pumping action.  Look for more information about Multiplayer at E3 and the Nazi Zombies cooperative experience at a later date.

Call of Duty: WWII pre-orders at participating retailers includes access to the Private Beta, available first on PlayStation®4, scheduled for later this year.  Call of Duty: WWII is available for pre-order in the following editions:

• Base Edition and Digital Base Edition – Suggested Retail Price AUD$99.95 / NZD$109.99.
• Digital Deluxe Edition – Season Pass** and more, AUD$149.95 / NZD$169.99.
• Pro Edition – Season Pass**, collectible Steelbook^TM and more, AUD$139.95 / NZD$159.99

Check local retailers for availability of all Call of Duty: WWII Editions.

**Season Pass purchasers receive 2018 Call of Duty: WWII Season Pass content.  Season Pass content is not final, is subject to change, and may not include all downloadable content available for the game.  Season Pass content may not be available in all countries, and pricing and release dates may vary by platform. Season Pass content should be downloaded from the in-game store only; do not purchase separately, or you will be charged again.  Season Pass content may be sold separately.

The title is published by Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), and developed by Sledgehammer Games. For the latest intel, check out:www.callofduty.com, www.youtube.com/callofduty or follow @CallofDuty and @SHGames on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.  Call of Duty: WWII is scheduled for release on PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One, and PC.  The title is not yet rated.