Love Song: DVD Review

Love Song: DVD Review

The Girlfriend Experience star Riley Keough and Jena Malone take centre stage in this moving and quieter piece about female friendship.

Former college friends Sarah and Mindy have not seen each other for years. Keough's Sarah is estranged from her partner and struggling to cope with their child growing up. When Malone's Mindy comes to stay, an emotional whirlwind that is actually needed in Sarah's life.

With her carefree attitude and desire to shake Sarah out of the funk, the pair freewheel (with a kid in tow) and have fun. But as quickly as she came, Mindy is gone, leaving Sarah aflutter and something stirred up deep within after neglect from her husband and years of friendship.

Until 3 years later, when Sarah's invited to Mindy's wedding...

Director So Yong Kim's created a subtle film that may have a sedentary start that revels in its intimacies, but it's all the better for it as it builds time to pull the lyrical nature of this friendship together.

Keough has a presence that's magnetic and a style that says so much with so little; in terms of her facials, her less is more approach pays off immensely as this restrained tale plays out. But equally, Malone's joie de vivre and signal sending vitality adds much to the proceedings as well, which border on the ambiguous throughout and work all the better for it.

Dividing the film into two distinct parts helps immeasurably to continue proceedings and the addition of extra people to the cast give it a propulsion which is needed. But it does rob proceedings of the nature of the relationship of the pair that we've become so invested in. And the stakes feel a little more contrived and difficult to invest in in the second part of the film.

Perhaps it's So Yong Kim's comment on how life divides us and how complications ensue and abound while we're not looking.

While the observational almost detached tone can take a little getting used to, the honesty of the bond and the veracity of what's being explored on screen is as deep as you'd expect.

A final sequence leaves wondering whether tears shed are of regret or of joy and that's one of Love Song's true successes; thanks to its innate authenticity and its smartly observed intimate moments, this quiet film speaks at volume for the pair. Its minimalism pays off but only if you're willing to let the more lyrical edges wash over you and concentrate on the quite stunning turns delivered by Riley Keough and Jena Malone. 

A War: DVD Review

A War: DVD Review

Potentially devastating is Krigen (A War).

Tobias Lindholm's drama takes a look at life in Afghanistan for the boys serving there and also back home where the families have to negotiate life.

While the men tackle the constant threats of IEDs and uncertainty in an Afghan province, the women are dealing with no less volatile situations back on the domestic front that include kids accidentally swallowing pills.

A War

While Lindholm carefully orchestrates events by gradually building up back story, the flesh on the bones of this tale is one of the moral ambiguity of conflict when Game Of Thrones star Pilou Asbaek is forced to make a heat-of-the-moment decision that lands him back in court. 

Switching from war zone to war court may have crippled any other drama, but due to the gradual drawing out of suspense and the grounding of actual reality, what transpires is no less gripping than previous film fest fave A Hijacking and The Hunt (to which Lindholm contributed a screenplay).

The Mummy: Film Review

The Mummy: Film Review

Cast: Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Russell Crowe, Jake Johnson
Director: Alex Kurtzman

Based on The Mummy, it has to be said that Universal's plan for a Dark Universe monsters series is off to a shaky start, and unlike its titular baddie, may struggle to rise from the grave.

Tom Cruise stars as Nick Morton, who along with Jake Johnson's comedy sidekick Chris Vail, raid archaeological sites for their valuables. But it's ok because they have a motto, they're not "looters, they're liberators of precious antiquities."

However, when their Iraq mission unearths a major tomb, at the same time as a set of sarcophagi are unveiled in London, it soon becomes clear that they've found something sinister.

Especially when the mummified remains of wiped-from-Egyptian-existence-princess Ahmenet (Boutella in henna lettered face and body, complete with slinky moves) comes back to life....

A mix of tones, part origin for the Dark Universe and rehash of every Mummy story you've seen before, the 2017 version of The Mummy really doesn't quite know what it wants to be.

With elements of jump-scares horror from the Boris Karloff age, and a dose of silliness from the Brenda Fraser set of films, it plays fast and loose with what it wants to be. Which doesn't help it or engender a strong sense of its own identity.

Tom Cruise plays a variant of his usual confused WTF character as he finds himself trapped in a curse (much like the audience forced to sit through this sand-blasted resurrection of a film). It's this element of the film that's perhaps the best and ripe for exploration but it's thrown away by Kurtzman's workmanlike execution of a script that jumps from sequence to sequence without any real sense of purpose, logic or anything other than absurdity.

Cruise's Morton is more Boom Raider, than Tomb Raider as the guns start blazing post the usual origins-of-the-mummy pre-credits scene, and his Romancing the Stone style attempts at banter with Annabelle Wallis' Jenny generally fall flat throughout, and don't give the film the emotional anchor it's clearly hoping for.

It helps little that every sequence in the film is served up with a large dose of exposition - and no more so than when po-faced suited and booted Russell Crowe shows up as the apparent head of shadowy organisation Prodigium (no sign of his Nick Fury eyepatch though). And don't even get me started on the Ray Winstone Cock-er-nee touches he brings to a certain character...

It's here that the Dark Universe strongly falters, as it ejects subtlety of set-up for future franchises in favour of blatant show and tell. It's an approach that speaks volumes to how desperate those in charge are to ensure the franchise works, no matter what the narrative cost.

While a great majority of The Mummy lurches awkwardly like its remains are about to shatter, there are some moments that strongly work. Some of the action sequences, including that of the plane and an underwater chase are blessed with some good visuals (even though the latter looks like an cast-off from an episode of The Walking Dead at sea) and the mummy effects are quite well realised too.

More a frustration than a resounding success, the most horrifying thing about The Mummy is how weakly it executes the initiation of a franchise. Perhaps the scariest thing of all is that future films are incoming from this series - and with the bar not exactly set very high this early on, this Dark Universe series could be long best buried in the past before it's even begun.

Pork Pie: DVD Review

Pork Pie: DVD Review

An unabashed slice of Kiwi nostalgia writ large some 36 years after the 1981 film become a bona fide hit and cemented itself into the national consciousness, the 2017 version of Goodbye Pork Pie is very much a Top Gear meets Top Town hybrid road trip that's unashamedly feel-good but shallow as it aims for the Kiwiana audience washing over the Waitangi weekend.

O'Gorman is Jon, a broken man who's determined to meet up with Prebble's Susie after a split - spurred into action by an upcoming wedding, he sets out to recapture his love. But that nearly ends fatally, after Rolleston's Luke nearly bowls him in a yellow mini that he's stolen as the film starts. Offering Jon a ride, the pair soon find themselves caught up in a country-wide pursuit when Luke's boy-racing skills come to the fore. And with Ashleigh Cummings' vegan protestor in tow, the gang heads south.

Starting with a chase on-foot before transitioning to a chase in a car with Dave Dobbyn's Language blasting out, the chase movie's ethos comes to the fore, giving the start of the film a breakneck pace that's brisk and adrenaline-fuelled as the pedal to the metal antics kick into gear.

With Rolleston's restrained and hardly talkative Luke sandwiched with O'Gorman's cocksure wise cracking Jon, the Odd Couple vibe is there from the start, as the broader comedy elements set in.

Complete with countryside cutaways that capture the beauty of New Zealand's open roads (at times, it resembles some kind of subtle tourism campaign masquerading as a film) and a soundtrack that's inherently Kiwi, this Bonnie and Clyde road trip wannabe is bound to find an audience who remember the original and want to wallow in the 2017's easy-going nature.

But as the increasing farce grows (the original was compared to the Keystone Kops), some of the broader character elements don't quite gel as they should.

It's mainly due to less rounding and the thinly drawn characters of the trio as well as the occasional side-lining of them as Jon continues his road trip to find love. But it's a shame because Rolleston and Cummings make an endearing and easy couple, destined to be road trip lovers and simultaneously ships passing in the night.

All three of them have an ease of presence on screen and work reasonably well within the script's severely limited confines. After the uproarious opening, the film needs to slow to deliver the exposition and back-ground needed and unfortunately, proceedings hit a minor narrative bump when they do so.

But the action's never too far away as the infamous yellow mini continues to speed, slide and handbrake turn away from the clumsy cops and the confluence of coincidence that's in the story.

It's clear that Pork Pie is an homage to the film that spawned it - from the director being the son of the original man who made it Geoff Murphy, the whole thing is bathed in a love for its story and the faithful updating of it. However, it remains inessential in many ways, with its more shallower edges becoming more evident as the film powers to its end.

It's a shame that the underwritten central characters push Pork Pie into a more average footing and stop it from truly soaring. Because at its core, Pork Pie is about a car chase, a rambunctious road trip of revelling; this 2017 version of Pork Pie doesn't quite have the grunt of an engine to push it over the edge and that, ultimately, is a disappointment. 

Injustice 2: PS4 Review

Injustice 2: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by Warner Bros

The NetherRealm Studios Injustice 2 feels like the first fighting game that's got it all correct and present.

A crossover of epic proportions, the game's plentiful supply of both thrills, spills and DC faves along with smooth fighting moments and some great animation means fans of both DC and also fighting games as a whole will be satisfied.

A sequel of sorts to the 2013 Injustice Gods Among Us, the single player element of Injustice 2 pits Batman against the rest of the DC universe when Superman crosses a line. With the fate of the Justice League and friendships in the balance, it's up to you to win though various levels of combat and kick some serious superhero ass.

But really, that's the very basic elements of what Injustice 2 offers.

The game's deep gameplay fighting style and raft of gear upgrades, moves, and a plethora of online options (from a daily multiverse challenge to online multiplayer) mean that there's more than enough to sink your teeth into rather than simple fighting mechanics.

Adjusting your gear, fighting through challenges to unlock more gear and level up are all addictive rather than showing signs of the usual grind ethos that permeates plenty of fighters. Rewards are worth playing for, rather than pitiful and piecemeal.

It's worth noting that a range of some 30 characters add a wealth of fighting styles to the game, and while you're never going to be able to master all of the mechanics in play, there's a need to ensure that some of the skills are learned quickly to survive. Using environmental takedowns and also super meter combos, the game keeps each brief match fresh and gives you reason to fight on.

Injustice 2 is a game that knows what it needs to do to ensure single player engagement with a wealth of content and a raft of ways to drill down. But it also helps that the online world is worth exploring too - both from a single and multiplayer alternative.

All in all, Injustice 2 is a superlative fighting simulation. It'll appeal to the geeks alike and also fans of the fighting genre, thanks to its crossover ideals.

xXx: the Return of Xander Cage: Blu Ray Review

xXx: the Return of Xander Cage: Blu Ray Review

"Save the world, kill the bad guys, get the girl and look dope doing it."

This is the mantra espoused to muscle man Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) at the end of the latest spy-jinks chapter of the xXx series after numerous sequences of action, shooting, and explosions.

And perhaps it's appropriate too, but really in this latest adrenaline-filled rote outing, do they all have to look quite so bored doing it?

Given the cartoony nature of the xXx film franchise (it's honestly closer in tone to ACME meets James Bond than anything serious), perhaps the film shouldn't be taken too seriously, but given the fact it aims for ludicrous and tries to be as serious as possible, it has to be judged on those terms.

After going off the grid, Xander Cage is brought back into the fold by pouty ice-queen, the bleached blonde NSA big-wig Jane Marke (a wasted Toni Collette, who frankly looks bored at times) after a terrorist group reveals it has the power to bring down any of the 30,000 satellites currently in orbit onto any target with fatal consequences - via a piece of kit called "Pandora's Box."

And when a group steals the McGuffin to do so, Cage recruits his own trusted team (including Game Of Thrones' The Hound aka Rory McCann) to try and save the day.

It seems pointless to rail against the terribly by the numbers xXx: Return of Xander Cage because its knowing tone and continual plot holes all form to make an experience that will leave any rational brain dribbling at the door. You could also rail at the laughably offensive stereotype of a computer genius (embodied by a nattering glasses-wearing Nina Dobrev from The Vampire Diaries) within as this aimed-at-15-year-old boys flick plays out.

But given it's assembled a cross cultural cast (potentially a cynical cash grab to include Indian and Chinese stars to attack multiple markets at the quieter time of the release year)  it genuinely does deserve applause for such diversity - and giving Donnie Yen as much screen time as Diesel is a commendable touch from this otherwise lunatic and frankly absurd and occasionally dumb as a bag of spanners actioner.xXx: Return of Xander Cage delivers only formulaic action sequences for the most part - though a freeway underpass fight and Donnie Yen's fists of fury on a plane sequence more than deliver enough to make up for it. It's a shame because the movie starts out with its tongue so far in its cheek thanks to onscreen subtitles and nods and winks (one potential xXx recruits profile proclaims he thought he was being recruited for the Avengers) that it almost seems worthwhile.

But it's then stymied by the fact the writers don't seem to care for their characters or the predicament, so consequently why should you? As a result, the mid-section feels bloated and saddled with two fresher and edgier book-ends, the tone of which would have been better to follow.

At the end of the day, xXx: Return of Xander Cage is a piece of mindless popcorn entertainment, that somehow manages to miss much of the low-hanging fruit it could aim for. If it had embraced more of the lunatic element into its own DNA, rather than plenty of Vin Diesel posturing and mumbling in between action scraps, it could have been a breath of fresh cinematic air. 

Silence: DVD Review

Silence: DVD Review

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, Adam Driver, Yosuke Kubozuka,
Director: Martin Scorsese

Rounding off Scorsese's religious trilogy (Kundun, The Last Temptation of Christ), the occasionally bum-numbing Silence, with its 162 minute run time, is very much a story of endurance.

Garfield and Driver play missionaries Rodrigues and Garupe, whose faith is severely tested when one of their own, Father Ferrera (Neeson) disappears bringing the word of the Bible and spreading faith in Japan in 1633.

With authorities determined to root out Catholicism before it even gained groundswell support, Rodrigues and Garupe are forced to scrabble around in darkness, hiding in hillside huts and administering to those seeking absolution by night.

But when the pair split up after learning authorities are on their tail, Rodrigues faces the deepest darkest night of his soul after he's betrayed.

Silence is Scorsese's cry out to a deity that so often many believe works through silence and offers little by way of absolution when great suffering is visited on so many.

It's a reflective and reflexive suffering piece about the purity of faith in the darkest of times and certainly in large parts of its second half, it becomes an internal piece rather than an action filled denouement to all that's passed.

It's distinctly blessed with some fairly visceral and extremely powerful imagery - from the opening scenes of Neeson's Ferrera watching fellow priests tortured by boiling water as the mists of Japan waft mythically through proceedings to striking shots of those convicted of Catholicism strung up on crosses and left on the sea's edge to be broken by the continual flow of waves, this is a film that doesn't shy away from the realities of what the authorities would do.

And yet in among the philosophical edges, and the increasing likeness that a bearded, long haired and bedraggled Garfield bears to the allegory made real of a 1633 Jesus undergoing trials, there's an emotional devastation that's hard to shake. It helps that there's a lack of soundtrack ( a crushing nod to the silence that bedevils our protagonists) and few of Scorsese's trademark zooming shots - this is a stripped back version of the meister's behind the camera work)

Garfield delivers a powerful and haunted performance as the wise Rodrigues (standing in juxtaposition to Driver's brash and impetuous Garcia whose patience is in short shrift);  and he manages to convey the internal struggle with heartbreaking ease and nuance. From the continual requests of confession from the Judas-like Kimichi (Kubozuka) whose family was killed because he was Catholic that test his patience and his resolve to the desire to find Ferrara, Garfield shoulders a large portion of this film and more than suitably delivers.

Neeson also delivers strong scenes as Ferrera as the price of martyrdom weighs heavily down (and to say more is to offer spoilers) and as the adaptation of the 1966 novel by Japanese Catholic author Shūsaku Endō resolves.

Silence is a demanding film in many ways; and while the reward is certainly not in the on-screen pay-off, it's perhaps more Scorsese's intention that this soul-searching film stays with you and nudges you to question it and yourself in the days after viewing.