Gold: DVD Review

Gold: DVD Review

All that glitters isn't necessarily Gold as director Stephen Gaghan (Syriana and the upcoming The Division movie) spins the "inspired by true events" story of Kenny Wells and his gold-digging exploits.

Matthew McConaughey dons a bald patch and a paunch to portray a city prospector who has a dream of where gold lies in Indonesia. (His character even reveals that the dream literally happened in one of the film's more average exposition dumps.)

Teaming up with Edgar Ramirez's geologist Michael Acosta, Wells sinks every last cent into the bore-ing dream. With it all about to hit the wall and when no backers come forward, Wells pulls together a bar-situated group of bankers to help mine for financial prospects.

However, against the odds, Wells and Acosta strike gold, changing all their lives forever.

Embracing shades of the David Walsh and Bre-X scandal and aspiring to be a sub-par Wolf of Wall Street via way of the American dream pursuit, Gold curiously lacks any real shine.

Its scenes of 90s-set excesses are pretty limp, and are devoid of any joie de vivre or fervour as the soundtrack pumps out some badly edited indie hits to try and inject a point of difference into proceedings in the execution of a story you've seen many times before.

It helps little that the main characters are severely underwritten.

Bryce Dallas Howard has an entirely thankless role as Wells' other half, written in only to show his distance from reality and to opine and provide an emotional storyline that withers on the vine; equally Ramirez's Acosta is a relatively dour enigma, prone to spouting serious aphorisms while gazing off into the distance.

McConaughey gives his all to the character of Wells, a man who's half shyster and half dreamer, all hard-smoking, hard-drinking and snaggle-toothed, trapped between the determination to honour his father's legacy and the gold fever that envelops the prospectors.

At times, it feels like McConaughey's acting rather than leading us down the path of empathy and there's little to latch on to as his plight plays out. But it's also symptomatic of how muted the rest of the cast of Gold is that his intensity feels, at times, like he's over-acting.

The Indonesian set bromance between Wells and Acosta comes some way to revelling in the extreme highs and utter lows of the mundanity of the mining world and giving the film an edge that it sorely needs, but they're never quite capitalised on to build much dramatic tension or excitement.

It's a shame because Traffic scribe Gaghan brings little life to the 90s pursuit of the American dream, and some split screen sequences are reminiscent of Dallas' opening titles. But there's little dramatic flair on show here in a story that's unleashed very by the numbers and perfectly serviceable as it meanders and tries to rip off The Wolf of Wall Street.

There's a nugget of a fascinating story here in Gold, a tale that's been mined many times before and with varying degrees of success. But when all is said and done, and stripped of the energetic filibuster of its lead actor, it's buried in an underwhelming haze of disinterest as the two hours play out. 

Murder on the Orient Express trailer lands

Murder on the Orient Express trailer lands

Here's your first look at the brand new Murder on the Orient Express trailer.

What starts out as a lavish train ride through Europe quickly unfolds into one of the most stylish, suspenseful and thrilling mysteries ever told. From the novel by best-selling author Agatha Christie, “Murder on the Orient Express” tells the tale of thirteen strangers stranded on a train, where everyone’s a suspect. One man must race against time to solve the puzzle before the murderer strikes again. Kenneth Branagh directs and leads an all-star cast including Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley and Josh Gad.

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Cast: Tom Bateman, Kenneth Branagh, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom, Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley, Marwan Kenzari, Olivia Colman, Lucy Boynton, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Sergei Polunin.

In cinemas November 9.

Farpoint: PS4 VR Review

Farpoint: PS4 VR Review

Studio: SIEA/Impulse Gear

Platform: PS4

Stranded in space, with only a gun for company on an unknown planet, and creatures out to get you.

It's a familiar sci-fi premise that's as cliched as they come.
But the good news is that Farpoint, using the VR technology and some reasonable pacing, makes the familiar feel fresh.

When it begins, it starts in space, near an anomaly. As the inevitable begins to happen, and the space station The Pilgrim near you starts to be ripped apart by forces unknown from within, you're pulled through.

Stranded on the extra-terrestrial planet, with only hints that your colleagues have survived, it's up to you to fight waves of critters and get to the centre of what's going on and survive at the same time.

In terms of first person shooter, Farpoint works incredibly well with its VR AIM Gun counterpart. It's the first time that the tech has fully aligned with the game's raison d'etre, and it provides a smooth companion to proceedings.

With laser sighting, it really does feel like you have a gun in your arms and are using it to take down the creatures coming toward you. Using the movement stick on the Farpoint gun controller, you get to move forward. But unlike other games of their ilk which induce motion sickness within moments, this smooth flow of play actually works and stops you feeling nauseous. (Though there were a few wobbles when traversing major precipices).

Gun play is very familiar and surprisingly intuitive to anyone who's ever lifted a gun in a game to take down the bad guys.

With secondary weapons, the ability to scan memory fragments left scattered around the planet, and a responsive trigger finger, the VR AIM controller's Farpoint counterpart is nothing short of revolutionary in terms of gameplay.

It feels like a natural extension of a controller and playing either seated or standing, it works well to ensure you can shoot your way out of trouble.

The game operates in a shooting gallery somewhat similar to Until Dawn: Rush of Blood's carnival gameplay. Scuttling creatures and big critters a la Starship Troopers come hurtling toward you, and you have to kill them off. It's a jump scare tenet and it's well-executed, even if occasionally, it does feel a little repetitive.

There's a degree of skill required too, as the gun can overheat leaving you overwhelmed, surrounded and prone to being killed. Bigger boss creatures require a bit more in terms of tactics, but they prove to be easier prey if you're smart enough.

The game itself plays as you'd want - but there have been a few technical snafus that occasionally take you out of the immersiveness of Farpoint, which is a great shame.

A lack of ability to turn around and view behind you without the flashing PS Camera bringing up a grid to show you are out of range is a disappointment; especially when the 3D sound is so clever. There's little point demonstrating enemies are behind when you can't do anything against them.
Some of the more static edges are shown up because of how immersive the game tries to be. Initially, in your spaceship, you're unable to interact with anything around you - which seems odd given how brilliantly visualised it is.

And somehow, you can manage to twist your entire arm around when pointing the VR Aim controller at your face and the game manages to do the impossible and give you 360 degree wrists.

Granted, these are minor niggles in a beautifully realised VR game that really gets the FPS ethos totally right. But they do have a disappointing tendency to remove you from the mindset and paranoia of being trapped potentially alone on another world.

All in all, Farpoint is a great step forward for VR in many ways. Combined with some stronger story-telling elements and a great integration of the gun, it shows that VR is finally moving into territory which feels fresh and exciting, rather than static experiences that force simple interactions.

Baywatch: Film Review

Baywatch: Film Review

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Priyanka Chopra, Kelly Rohrbach, Alexandra Daddario, Jon Bass
Director: Seth Gordon

First CHIPS, now Baywatch.

The Hollywood drive to remake cult TV favourites that are more fondly remembered in the haze of nostalgia than for plots, acting and storylines depressingly continues to be a Hollywood trend.

After the utterly irredeemable CHIPS earlier this year, and with the success of the smartly funny 21 Jump Street seeming a long way in the past, Baywatch, with its boobs, bros, boners and beaches ethos tries to inject a bit of fun into the US Summer blockbuster season.

But it fails utterly and miserably, doling out a laugh-free film that drags in its 2 hour run time.

Whereas the TV series was purely a combination of cheesy guilty pleasure and slow-mo running / bouncing boobs, this update centres around a bro-comedy that's lacking in laughs.
Man mountain Dwayne Johnson stars as Mitch Buchannon, the head lifeguard of Baywatch. When he discovers drugs washing up on his shore, he suspects local property magnate (and not Bond villain yet) Victoria Leeds (Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra) is behind it.

With a new batch of recruits, including Zac Efron's disgraced selfish former Gold athlete Matt Brody, Mitch and the team try to save the Bay.

So far, so generic rip-off of 21 Jump Street.

But whereas 21 Jump Street had a meta-touch and some solid comedy scripting, all Baywatch has going for it is bronzed bodies and a barrage of insults fired at Brody from Johnson's alpha-bro.
Women exist either to be ogled at (step forward Rohrbach) or provide wide-eyed reaction shots (hello, Daddario) to the antics and squabbling of Brody and Buchannon.

Largely, Johnson's charisma and easy-going lighter touch has saved fare such as this in the past, but this time, with a muddled script that doesn't know if it's crime caper or comedy to negotiate, not even his mega-watt smile and muscled up physique can save the day.
Chopra chews the scenery as a villainess, but her blander character lacks the claws to take the guys on, though that's squarely the fault of the writers, rather than of Chopra's work.

It doesn't help that the obvious arc of the self-loathing pity-fest Brody (courtesy of a buffed-up to the max Efron) that manifests itself as a spoiled brat who secretly does want to be part of a team or Bass' tubby tech guy all feel incredibly familiar and underwritten, lending a feeling to Baywatch that it really has nothing to say for its audience - unless they're liquored up to the max.
There's no edginess in Baywatch and some lines feel mean-spirited rather than pushing the envelope.

Ultimately, when the cameos come, the film's got nothing to say or do with them.

And despite everything that Johnson throws at it, this Baywatch remake, quite frankly, deserves to be lost at sea. This version of Baywatch is the worst day out at the beach ever.

Wonder Woman: Film Review

Wonder Woman: Film Review

Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, David Thewlis, Danny Huston
Director: Patty Jenkins

The internet's already exploded with outrage at a "Women only" screening of the latest entrant into the DC Extended Universe.

Equally, there have already been calls to hail the two-and-a-half-hour film one of the best of the DC big screeners, thanks to its all-woman pairing of Monster director Jenkins and Gadot's Amazonian Princess.

After Suicide Squad (one complete with leering camera lingering uncomfortably on Margot Robbie's behind as Harley Quinn overtook the screen) and the all-boys fight club of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, complete with its pomposity and nonsensical plot, the DC Comics world had some way to go to catch up with the levity of its comrade-in-arms the Marvel films.

Particularly, given that current the social climate apparently sidelines women as leads and we live in a world populated by Women's Marches.

By necessity an origins story (yet again), Wonder Woman, stripped of the campery of the original Lynda Carter's stars and stripes TV show, manages to bring to life a slice of wish fulfillment as America, by way of Chris Pine's spy and Wonder Woman's patented red, white and blue garb, manage to save the day in the dying moments of World War I. (And 2000AD fan boys will notice similarities to Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell's superhero vs Nazis Zenith stories of 1987)

Though while DC's universe and track record of films within isn't exactly great, thanks to the assured directorial eye of Patty Jenkins (whose Monster revitalised Charlize Theron), this is one comic book origins story that largely gets the bigger picture right - and also goes some way to satiating the furore that women are under-represented on film and in certain genres.

Starting on the mystical island of Themyscira where nobody but teutonic athletic Amazons train in perpetual slow-mo and live, Gal Gadot's early Diana years centre on her world being uprooted when plucky spy Steve Trevor (an earnest, likeable and restrained Pine) literally falls out of the sky and onto the island.

Once Diana learns of the world beyond her shores from her dude-in-distress Trevor and believes there is the very real possibility that Amazon-banished god Ares, the god of War is at work in the wider world, she teams up with Steve to do her sworn duty and save the world from destruction.

Book-ended by two different action sequences (one a rote obligatory superhero CGI-heavy spectacle and clash of the titans that lacks the personal, the other an athletic and graceful balletic sequence that showcases the fighting skills complete with usual slow-mo), the film feels like a mesh of war-time adventure and expected conventions.

Playing up the comic naivety in the real world schtick, as made popular by Chris Hemsworth's culture -clash Thor in Marvel counterpart films, Gadot and Pine form an easy bond early on, and imbue their burgeoning relationship with a heart and earnestness that makes for easy watching.
(Though, in fairness, Diana's naivety begins to grate thanks to a continuing number of speeches on the horrors of war as she navigates the world). Demonstrating that comedy and humour are the best way to create heart makes for an easy bedfellow as the drama gets underway, and it helps that Pine underplays to a terrific degree, ensuring that his Steve Trevor is seen as a genuine good-guy in all of this.

Gal Gadot also impresses, even if so many of her close-ups seem to fall straight from the shooting of a pouting lip-gloss commercial.

Wisely eschewing the lecherous cameras that plagued Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad and any female in a Michael Bay Transformers movie, Jenkins and Gadot manage to bring to life an icon that's perhaps as empowering as she is important.

There's no denying that in a patriarchal hegemony, Diana, the Queen of the Amazons breaks through, but she manages to do it in such a way that it's hard now for future films to belittle or sideline female leads.
It helps that Gadot manages to deliver a turn that strips away some of the woodenness of her prior roles (see Keeping Up With the Joneses) and parts of the wooden script.

This is a heroine for our times, and while there's a nagging feeling that Diana becomes slightly rote in the messy third act, there's no denying that Gadot's turn here is going to inspire many.

But if plenty of effort's been poured into Gadot's Diana and Pine's Trevor, it's clear that other parts of Wonder Woman are sadly left wanting.(Though these feel less significant than quibbles in films like Suicide Squad and Batman vs Superman.)

Danny Huston's German villain and Dr Poison (aka The Skin I Live In's Elena Anaya, once again wearing a Phantom of the Opera style facials) are bereft of anything other than a once-over villain stereotyping, a charge often laid at both Marvel and DC's door. In fact at times, the maniacal duo are reminiscent of Rocky and Bullwinkle's Natasha and Boris in their cartoon villainy and machinations.
Equally, the rest of Trevor's squad, selected for a suicide mission in France's trenches, are fairly rote, given a few scenes of enforced bonding and ultimately add little to proceedings, other than comedy.
While former The Office star Lucy Davis proffers some comedy chops as Trevor's secretary and Diana's guide to women-in-wartime, there's a distinct feeling that bit players in this piece could have been handed more.

A good 30 minutes of the 150 minute run time could have been chopped in the edit suite, and Wonder Woman would have been a testament to oestrogen-fuelled film-making.

As it is, and thanks largely to Gadot's work, and Jenkins' smart handling of re-jigged source material, there's little denying that Wonder Woman has given very real life to the DC Extended Universe.

Here's hoping the future films continue to build on this development and this beacon of superhero light is the start of better things to come within the genre.

McLaren: Film Review

McLaren: Film Review

Director: Roger Donaldson

To Formula 1 fans, there's no disputing the dominance of the McLaren racing team.

Time after time, the team's taken countless victories and launched many a driver into pole position on the track and in fans' hearts.

Matthew Metcalfe's documentary about New Zealander Bruce McLaren though may find it a slightly more taxing ask to push past the critical acclaim of Senna, perhaps the ultimate racing documentary ever committed to celluloid.

But for those not really in the know, McLaren's thrill of the race really does still lie in what happens on the track, rather than what goes on off it.

Unfortunately, it's here that this brisk and pacy doco ever so slightly comes up wanting.

Focussing on Bruce McLaren's early years initially, Metcalfe's movie lines up plenty of work colleagues and grease monkey buddies to extol his virtues. And they do an admirable job of passionately explaining why McLaren's attitude and ethos saw so much success on the track.

With drivers referred to as "the Spitfire pilots of the 50s and 60s", Metcalfe cleverly assembles archive footage and stages recreations of the era to create a tapestry of a man who went from the crippled kid with Perthes disease to trailblazer behind the wheel.

There's a great fist to be had from the recollections and recreations, but, at times, this doco doesn't give the more personal moments the chance to breathe and take on their own life during the story. It probably doesn't help that this covers a lot in its 90 minute run-time, and perhaps a more distinct focus on either the man or the team's evolution may have proved slightly more thrilling.

McLaren: Film Review

It's the personal side of McLaren that feels sadly wanting.

Granted, excerpts of letters back home from McLaren to his parents while he was away in the UK in the late 50s give tantalising glimpses into his psyche, and McLaren's wife (Miss Caroline Bay from Timaru) fills in some of the blanks, but there is clearly more to be gleaned from the man's personal history. A great amount of footage lingers on the daughter that was born to the racing legacy, but nothing is heard from her, a glaring omission from a voice that could have breathed life into how the family felt with Bruce always being away from home or workaholic.

And McLaren's initial health issues which saw him confined to a gurney, with weights strapped on his legs to deal with a hip issue are simply glossed over after being laid bare. It's a bit of a leap to see this and then a few frames later, McLaren's behind the wheel of a car, racing away. There's no doubting his passion, but sometimes the journey doesn't quite hit all the relevant destinations.

More successful though is the life on the track ethos and story which the film-makers are clearly more interested in bringing to light. With a frenetic speed and some in cockpit camera work, the thrill of the race-track and the adrenaline of the driving is brought vividly to life, and the breakneck danger cleverly realised.

But McLaren never fully glorifies the racing, and the solemnity of one driver's death, before McLaren's own untimely passing, are given the space needed to lend this movie some of the emotional heft that is lacking earlier on. Much like Senna's awful and unnecessary death that happens with a simple crunching sound in the original doco, the tragic demise of McLaren packs a powerful wallop later on. And certainly, as the engineers of the team recount the moments after his fatal crash at Goodwood Circuit in June 1970 weigh heavy with such openness and raw recollections that it almost feels intrusive to see them suffer still.

McLaren is by no means a disaster - it's a solid tale of the Kiwi mentality and pluck behind the wheel that gives voice to one of perhaps our lesser known stories and heroes. But by making this doco gloss over the moments that would more fully define the man at the centre, the film still leaves you feeling he's a nice guy, but an enigma to anyone other than those who knew him.

Win a double pass to see The Mummy

Win a double pass to see The Mummy

Tom Cruise headlines a spectacular, all-new cinematic version of the legend that has fascinated cultures all over the world since the dawn of civilization: The Mummy.

Thought safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen (Sofia Boutella of Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek Beyond) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia and terrors that defy human comprehension.

From the sweeping sands of the Middle East through hidden labyrinths under modern-day London, The Mummy brings a surprising intensity and balance of wonder and thrills in an imaginative new take that ushers in a new world of gods and monsters.

The Mummy hits cinemas June 8th To win a double pass to see THE MUMMY 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 MUMMY!
Competition closes June 8th

Good luck!