Maze Runner: The Death Cure - Trailer 1

Maze Runner: The Death Cure - Trailer 1

The very first trailer for Maze Runner: The Death Cure is here  – the thrilling conclusion of the Maze Runner trilogy - ahead of its release on January 25^th, 2018.

CAST & CREW

Director: Wes Ball (The Maze Runner, Maze Runner: Scorch Trials)

Written By: James Dashner (novel), T.S. Nowlin (screenplay)

Cast: Dylan O'Brien (American Assassin), Kaya Scodelario (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales), Nathalie Emmanuel (The Fate of the Furious), Walton Goggins (Django Unchained)

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

In the epic finale to the Maze Runner saga, Thomas leads his group of escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary Last City, a WCKD-controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get answers to the questions the Gladers have been asking since they first arrived in the maze.

Pitch Perfect 3 - Final Trailer

Pitch Perfect 3 - Final Trailer

The Bellas are at it again in the final trailer for Pitch Perfect 3, ahead of its release on January 1^st 2018.

CAST & CREW

Director: Trish Sie (Step Up: All In)

Written By: Kay Cannon (Pitch Perfect, Pitch Perfect 2)

Returning Cast: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Hana Mae Lee, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Camp

New Cast Additions: Ruby Rose (xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Orange is the New Black), John Lithgow

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

After the highs of winning the World Championships, the Bellas find themselves split apart and discovering there aren’t job prospects for making music with your mouth. But when they get the chance to reunite for an overseas USO tour, this group of awesome nerds will come together to make some music, and some questionable decisions, one last time.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: DVD Review

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: DVD Review

Six years after the excreable Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides stank up the cinema, Johnny Depp's besozzled pirate buffoon Captain Jack Sparrow is back.

This time, when Henry Turner (Thwaites), the son of Orlando Bloom's Will Turner, finds Jack, it's a desperate race against time.  Henry wants to save his father by finding the mythical Trident of Poseidon and using it to lift the curse on his seabound father, but for Jack it's a matter of life and death as he's being pursued by undead nemesis Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem, a welcome presence to the franchise).

With a crew of undead sailors on his trail, and some familiar faces along for the ride, it'll take all of Jack's wits to escape this predicament.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales has moments of life that energise the flagging franchise.

But unfortunately, it also has large swathes of sequences that really stop this latest (and potentially final) entrant finding its own sea legs.

With an overly-convoluted plot, and some murky scenes that are ruined by the curse of the dark 3D projection, the film, despite the work of its Kon-Tiki directors, struggles to really make much of a case for carrying on the franchise and yet also proffers barely any reason why this would remotely feel like closure for all bar two of the characters.
Depp once again channels some pratfalls and sight comedy as he works a pirate version of mumbling and bumbling like a Rowley Burkin QC out-take, and there's a wildly indulgent cameo from Paul McCartney shoe-horned in for no real gain, other than to tip a wink to the audience.

Coupled with a truly atrocious sequence of ginger fat-shaming, there are large sections of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales which fall flat and feel unnecessarily stale, adding to a nagging feeling that this series is definitively lost at sea.

However, there are some moments of gold within the film.

A late sequence where Depp, Thwaites and Scodelerio are pursued by a combination of ghost pirates and ghost sharks showcases what has made portions of the series so endearing. With its mix of quick quips, speedy wordplay, and a sense of derring-do, amid large lashings of spectacle, this is one piece that really stands head and shoulders above and showcase exactly why when Pirates is given some levity, it's got wind in its dramatic sails and a heart and soul which are hard to beat.

But there's not enough of this ensemble action to power the film along, with Depp's Sparrow at varying points being the lead or circling the action; it's this inconsistency that lags throughout and marks the writing of this one as a bit lazier and a little weaker than is to be expected.

Bardem and Rush bring the dramatic edges to the fore and their gravitas and dignity stop the whole thing from falling into chaos; unfortunately, Thwaites isn't strong enough to leave a lasting impression as Turner's son and Scodelario's scientist woman, labelled a witch, is given a fair bit to do at the start and has some great scenes where she holds her own, but becomes lost at sea in the latter sequences, before being saddled with an unlikely coincidence too far.

For a fifth outing in the franchise, this isn't as bad as some of the others which have sailed into multiplexes from the series, but at the end, with a few loose ends wrapped up, it does feel like it's not disingenuous to say it's time to put this pirate to rest, before all goodwill generated is drained quicker than a quart of rum amongst a group of swashbucklers. 

Personal Shopper: DVD Review

Personal Shopper: DVD Review

Olivier Assayas reteams with Kristen Stewart after last year's NZIFF outing The Clouds of Sils Maria, a surprising film that won the erstwhile Twilight star a prestigious acting award.

This time, Stewart plays Maureen, a twin whose other half Lewis has died from a heart condition which she shares. However, Maureen is a medium too, who spends her night trying to contact her dead brother, believing his spirit still to be in the house.

By day, Maureen is a personal shopper for a model, who's never home and who exchanges notes with her charge. But Maureen's unhappy with her lot, decrying that spends her days "doing bullshit".

Her life changes though when she encounters a spirit in the house - and then starts to get anonymous texts...

Mixing a concoction of atmospheric ghost story (via the likes of The Others and The Orphanage) with a psychological sideline in stalking proves to be an intriguing proposition for Personal Shopper. It's a film that very much benefits from Stewart's performance and subtleties.

As the medium  negotiating the spiritual world, she's very much a Ghostbuster, desperate to connect to ensure closure as she begins to give way at the edges. Spending nights alone and days equally alone in her haute couture job, her dissatisfied detachment from the world around her is well played by Stewart, who uses fraying mentality and fragility to beneficial effect. She conveys the degradation of her mental condition with the slightest of tics, twitching fingers et al.

Sequences in the home at the start of the film are well orchestrated by Assayas who creates a soundscape and atmosphere that's easy to buy into - even if occasionally frustratingly, he decides to cut a scene short by fading to black unexpectedly. But the unease and discord that's unleashed on Maureen early on is nothing compared to how suspenseful a text conversation becomes in Assayas' hands.

With the deftness of simply holding the camera on the phone as messages fly back and forth with various pauses, the whole thing becomes a bizarre masterclass in the art of suspense as this portrait of grief and yearning for more (both in this life and the next) unfolds.

Stewart's unease is palpable within the looping rhythms of tedium within her day and while some may feel in comparison to the broader emotional strokes that Assayas achieved in Clouds of Sils Maria this is lacking. But that's to dismiss Stewart's presence throughout and to do a disservice to Assayas' tale of disconnection.

It's essentially a spooker of a film, a film that builds to crescendo within its oeuvre and a film that defies convention or easy definition.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie: Film Review

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie: Film Review

Vocal Cast: Ed Helms, Thomas Middleditch, Kevin Hart
Director: David Soren

Based on Dave Pilkey's phenomenally successful book series, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie actually proves to be the best offering this school holiday period for those looking for a bit of inconsequential fun.

Director David Soren guides this computer-animated outing from Dreamworks into the same kind of territory as the Peanuts Movie in terms of look and feel, with the rounder animation looking squishy and enticing, and enveloping its whole outlook in a familiar and welcoming vibe.

For those unfamiliar with the Captain Underpants book series, the film centres on the inter-racial friendship of a pair of eternal school pranksters George and Harold (comedian Hart and Silicon Valley star Middleditch) and their eternal fight with their school prinicpal (Ed Helms).

When George hypnotises the principal one day into believing he's their mythical hero Captain Underpants, it all gets out of hand. And things are further complicated when a new science teacher comes in, threatening to rid the world of laughter.

Set purely on the madcap scale, with some great interludes that encompass traditional pencil animation to sock puppetry, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is only interested in providing a good time for those watching.

With poop jokes, fart noises and a noteable silliness permeating most of the run, this is actually terrifically zippy fun that skirts with zaniness as much as it tries to push a "laughter is the best medicine" mantra to all of life's ills.

While there are a few moments in the 89 minute run time that lull (predominantly when the message is rammed home a little), most of the target audience will fully get its issues of dealing with school problems, feeling alienated from any but your best friend and the daily grind and living for the weekend.

It helps the writing doesn't dwell too much on any of its more serious edges and there are always amusing moments just seconds away from what transpires. Reverence to the books helps greatly and the general desire to ensure that the audience is amused, while the hearts are occasionally hit by some solid vocal work from Hart, Helms and Middleditch.

You can't help but leave the animated Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie with a smile on your face. It's certainly enough of a success creatively to ensure that a sequel should be on the way, and while you may be uncertain to see what else could be mined a second time around, this is actually first class straight-down-the-line animated fare that deserves your time and money.

Rough Night: Blu Ray Review

Rough Night: Blu Ray Review

Owing more than just a spiritual debt to Peter Berg's 1998's Very Bad Things and 2011's Bridesmaids, and coming off the back of the sisters-are-doing-it-for-themselves Wonder Woman the new Scar Jo ensemble comedy Rough Night starts strongly before faltering in the back half.

Scarlett Johansson flexes her comedy chops as Jess, one time party girl and now political hopeful. On the eve of her wedding to Peter (Downs), she's pulled into a bachelorette party organised by college friend Alice (Bell, initially amusing and loud, latterly loud and screeching) in Miami.

Along with former college friends Frankie (Broad City's Ilana Glazer) and Blair (Zoe Kravitz) as well as Jess' new Aussie chum Pippa (McKinnon, the film's MVP) the quintet hit the clubs and party.

But things spiral out of control back at their rented beachside house when a stripper they've booked is accidentally killed...

There are some genuinely funny moments in the front-loaded first half of Rough Night, as director Lucia Anello (also known for Broad City) plies the film with some crafty, yet familiar, nods to female rivalries and friendships, as well as demonstrating that the girls can be just as bad as the boys.

In particular, the pre-credits sequence set in 2006 when the gang was at college, sets Rough Night's stall out in the raunch and rude stakes in a way that will appeal either to the chicks night out at the flicks or to those liquored up and looking for some easy laughs.

A clever off-the-cuff gag involving a champagne bottle and an airport setting elicits a genuine belly laugh, while simultaneously demonstrating how on edge society's become.

However, once Alice's jealousy over Aussie Pippa is explored, and the stripper dispatched, the film settles for borderline average tropes and predictable laughs as it tries to untangle the mess it's created and push the envelope a bit further.

Easily the film's MVP, McKinnon's mix of dodgy Aussie accent along with unexpected one-liners keeps the unpredictability stakes high and provides the lion's share of the film's amusement as the screeching and hysteria sets in from the girls.

Bell's an easy contender for being irritating as the shouting starts, but manages to keep just on the right side of amusing and quirky.  Johansson plays it relatively straight, keeping the glue of the group together after some earlier quirks are established and displayed, but she's less the star of the film than you'd expect. Grazer and Kravitz feel a little sidelined as the film goes on, being more interested in exploring the three-way between Jillian Bell, Scarlett Johansson and Kate McKinnon as its main dynamic.

Rough Night is not a savage skewering of stereotypes or a clever flipping of premises (even though the male bachelor party is more set against a backdrop of wine tasting), but it's a solid comedy that starts to run desperately out of steam as the film goes on.

It ends up in the inevitable sap and predictable sentimental gloop that you'd expect and that, to some degree, the target market will possibly want.

It's nowhere near as raunchy as it could get, and perhaps feels watered down as the squabbles come to the fore - it does occasionally work for the absurdism that permeates but disappoints that it doesn't demand more of all of its relatively likeable ensemble.

Less likely to give a cinematic hangover and more likely to struggle to be remembered after the lights go up, Rough Night, amongst its dysfunctional diatribes, makes a case that this kind of comedy film is still in rude health, even if trail-blazing isn't in its ambitions or execution. 

Project Cars 2 launches today

Project Cars 2 launches today

Your ultimate driver journey begins Friday, September 22^nd

Project CARS 2 brings home all the authenticity, beauty, and passion of racing action as never before.

On Friday September 22^nd Project CARS 2 powers its way onto the PlayStation 4 system, Xbox One, and PC for the much-anticipated worldwide release of gamescom 2017’s “Best Simulation Game”.

Project CARS 2, the second installment in the critically-acclaimed Project CARS motorsport franchise developed by Slightly Mad Studios, takes the franchise and its fans into a blistering new era of motorsport racing simulation.

With the largest track roster ever seen on console, 29 motorsport series featuring 180+ cars from dozens of elite brands, and four full seasons of grip-altering weather across 140 revolutionary “living” tracks, Project CARS 2 brings home all the authenticity, beauty, and passion of racing action as never before.

To celebrate the September 22nd release comes the Project CARS 2 Launch Trailer that features “Silence”, a track that has been hailed as one of the greatest Trance Anthems of all time, and which has now been revisited by Rhys Fulber, co-founder of the electronica band Delerium, specifically for the Launch Trailer.

Taking the song's tempo down to 100 BPM to highlight Sarah McLachlan's sublime vocals, Rhys Fulber has created a new cinematic techno dub remix of “Silence” to welcome 2017’s definitive racing game, Project CARS 2.

Project CARS 2 is rated G. The game will be released on 22^nd September 2017 for the PlayStation 4 system, Xbox One, and PC. Find out more and keep up-to-date at the official Project CARS 2 website: http://www.projectcarsgame.com/