The Hero: Film Review

The Hero: Film Review

Cast: Sam Elliott, Laura Prepon, Krysten Ritter, Nick Offerman
Director: Brett Haley

Mixing melancholy and offbeat humour as well as a great deal of heart, The Hero centres around Sam Elliott's gravel-voiced one time Western actor Lee Hayden.

With a career that's been defined largely by one great role in a film called The Hero, Hayden's world has been reduced to doing voiceovers for BBQ sauce (in a nod to perhaps UK comedy show Toast of London).

Estranged from his daughter (Ritter) and separated from his wife, Lee's life is hit by an unexpected terminal cancer diagnosis, Lee's spending time brooding and smoking weed with former fellow actor Jeremy (Parks and Rec's laconic Nick Offerman).

But when he meets Laura Prepon's Charlotte by chance and an acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award goes unexpectedly, his apparently over life changes in more ways than one...

The Hero's laid back ageing premise may hit differing audiences in differing ways.

However, Elliott's nuanced and rugged turn as Lee is emotionally resonant no matter how you view the film and its cliches.

Regardless of whether some of the film's plots follow an all-too familiar trajectory, there's something in Elliott's compellingly understated performance that's simply captivating.

Prepon plays enigmatic too, but there's a real sense of these two connecting despite a major age difference potentially in their way. Thanks to some sensitive direction, it just about works when, against all the odds, it really shouldn't.

Whether it's being lost in ruminations on his life, or being lost in a haze of drugs around Charlotte, Haley's script manages to coat everything in a forlorn fashion that plays to Elliott's silent strengths.

And there's something about this veteran actor that just fits the part.

There are elements of this which may seem almost autobiographical in many ways as the older generation of actors tries to find a place in Hollywood, and rides a revival, and at times, to be frank, the script treads an all too familiar line, but there's just something about this low-key indie from Sundance, with its drawling lead that makes The Hero a success in ways it shouldn't be.

LocoRoco 2 Remastered: PS4 Review

LocoRoco 2 Remastered: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4

The roly poly blobs are back in the sequel to the musical, slightly infantile and occasionally irritating LocoRoco Remastered that dropped earlier this year.

The latest doesn't see much of a variation on the themes of the first.

Using L1 and R1 you roll and jump your LocoRoco around various worlds, collecting fellow Locos from the berries from flowers, growing your number and avoiding the pesky black Moja as they try to swallow you up.

This latest sees tweaks on the theme, as the world around them is more musical than before - now collecting musical notes give the LocoRoco a chance to boost collectibles around the game as well as a rhythm mini-game.

They don't add heaps to it, allowing upgrades but unless you're dead-set on collecting the music notes early on in the level, most of these tend to hit the required amount towards the end, rendering the reasoning redundant at best.

There are a lot more Moja around the game as well, obscuring notes, obscuring the landscape and affecting creatures within. But a few bounces from the LocoRoco get rid of them, so they are more a temporary pest than a long term pain in the backside.

This latest will see you using a lot more of the environment to help you take on the Moja, and it's good to sink into a rock and then use it to nut against other baddies around.

There are plenty of collectibles too, from Mui Mui parts to notes, there's more than enough to keep you involved in the game.

And while it plays fluid and seems like Rayman's more colourful and blotchy cousin, LocoRoco2 Remastered's reason for being is slightly dampened by a feeling of repetition rather than reward and something that's adding a lot to the universe.

The Changeover: DVD Review

The Changeover: DVD Review

Cast: Erana James, Timothy Spall, Melanie Lynskey, Lucy Lawless
Director: Miranda Harcourt, Stuart Maconie

Mixing elements of The Tattooist and bizarrely, Twilight, The Changeover is the cinematic version of Margaret Mahy's Carnegie Medal winning book that dabbles in the supernatural.

Set in post-earthquake Christchurch, it's the story of school girl Laura Chant (a subtly nuanced Erana James) whose life has been wrecked by both the quake and personal circumstances.
With her mother (Melanie Lynskey) working long and late hours, Laura's forced to look after her younger brother Jacko.

But having premonitions something bad is about to occur to Jacko, Laura finds her worst fears confirmed when she meets Carmody Braque (Timothy Spall, suitably sinister and vaguely paedophilic) in the containers of downtown Christchurch.

When Jacko's given an ink stamp by Carmody, he mysteriously falls ill and Laura begins to suspect the worst.

However, she discovers there's more afoot in Christchurch than she realises....

The Changeover makes great fist of its post-earthquake Christchurch to give the Mahy novel a redolence that's both poignant and able to convey the turmoil in Chant's life.
Liquefaction bubbles up among the cherry blossoms of the town and when James intones that "the earthquake broke the city, and it broke my family", you can feel the melancholy seeping in.

Equally, the use of Bic Runga's Sway and Melanie Lynskey's sweet sing-along to the classic and containers and the rebuild ground this film firmly in the south island, but yet timelessly in the appeal.

Unfortunately, some of the clunkier dialogue between Laura and her beau (who's clearly been cast more for his looks than acting prowess) give The Changeover a horrible tingling feeling of a return to the corny overwrought dialogue of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga.

Saddled with reams of exposition about the supernatural, the film almost falters despite the directors' visual flourishes of the manifestation of the supernatural coming-of-age edges.

Equally unhelpful is an underwritten Lawless, whose screen time is squashed and whose presence is wasted.

But thanks to a sinister Spall, who channels both Childcatcher and slimy paedophilic edges as the bad guy, and an extremely impressive turn from newcomer James, The Changeover manages to stay afloat when other elements conspire to attempt to drag it down like a witch under water.

If anything, The Changeover will play to an audience under-served from the New Zealand film market for many years and bravely tries to position itself as something of a teen film with weightier darker issues around the edge. It sort of works and channels an era of yesteryear, but it's largely thanks to the truly impressive talents of James, whose natural presence and expression of the usual teenage tropes helps mark The Changeover out as something worth taking a punt on for an afternoon out.

Win a double pass to see DOWNSIZING

Win a double pass to see DOWNSIZING

To celebrate the release of Matt Damon's latest, Downsizing, you can win a double pass!

About Downsizing

Downsizing imagines what might happen if, as a solution to over-population, Norwegian scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall and propose a 200-year global transition from big to small.

People soon realize how much further money goes in a miniaturized world, and with the promise of a better life, everyman Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to abandon their stressed lives in Omaha in order to get small and move to a new downsized community — a choice that triggers life-changing adventures.

Downsizing releases 25 January, 2018

To win a pass, all you have to do is email  your details to this  address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Include your name and address and title your email DOWNSIZING!
Competition closes January 21st

Darkest Hour: Film Review

Darkest Hour: Film Review

Cast: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn, Lily James
Director: Joe Wright

Treading thematically similar territory as last year's Brian Cox-led Churchill, Darkest Hour sees Gary Oldman covered in liver spots and thrust into the political shenanigans and pressures of England's Darkest Hour in May 1940 during the second World War.

More inclined to seethe when it should roar, Joe "Atonement" Wright's film is more about visuals and framing of imagery than anything deeper within as the Anthony McCarten penned thriller follows Churchill as others swirl around him, unsure that their new leader could either negotiate a peace or deal with what's next.

Settling into a routine of plenty of scenes of old white men debating and discussing with a side of shouting thrown in for free, most of Darkest Hour is more about the machinations within the halls of power (but less of the West Wing snippy dialogue) than the human element.

It's hinted at in a few scenes here and there, but Wright and McCarten aren't as interested in pursuing that side of things.

Lily James' typist is troubled by the war for her brother, a woefully underused Scott Thomas' Clem worries her husband Winston isn't well enough for the job and concerns herself with money woes and one early scene with the children hint at the personal cost for Churchill's family, but it's slim pickings.

Central to all of this is Oldman's searing turn as Winston. With hints of vulnerability occasionally conveyed through the eyes and with thunderous emotion behind his speeches here and there, Oldman's immersed himself into the role and is all the better for it.

Equally as impressive is Mendelsohn as the stuttering King. Wisely underplaying, the Aussie's take on things is compelling, quiet and unassuming - and makes for great viewing.

Darkest Hour works best when it concentrates on him, but fails and falters when it casts the net wider.

Chiefly, a fanciful sequence on London's tube feels like something out of a propaganda piece and feels at odds with what's gone on - though is remedy for Winston's dark teatime of the soul.

In among all of Darkest Hour though are some wonderfully framed shots, some breathtakingly executed moments - including a whole room being soaked in red when Churchill delivers his first radio address and the 'Mic Live' bulb kicks in. It's here that Wright really grabs you and conveys the emotional heft which is needed.

With Nolan's Dunkirk being the perfect dessert to Darkest Hour's main meal, it's fair to see why Oldman is garnering some awards buzz for the role - he thunders when it's needed, but unfortunately the rest of the film feels lacking in his wake.

The Greatest Showman: Film Review

The Greatest Showman: Film Review

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Keala Settle
Director: Michael Gracey

If you're looking for a deep psychological take on PT Barnum, the infamous ringleader and potential exploiter of the outcasts, The Greatest Showman is not it.

If you're looking for a film where character forms the basis of the musical, rather than once over lightly characterisation, a film where the emotional attachment is formed because of the arc the leads are on, The Greatest Showman is not it.

But if you are looking for a sugar-coated, superficial, candy-rush of a spectacle, where toe-tapping songs are thrown in and which genuinely come close to pulling you out of your seat as you marvel at how white privilege can get you so far, then step right up, because The Greatest Showman is that - and then some.

A hugely charismatic Hugh Jackman leads the pack as PT Barnum, a dreamer whose desire to make a life for his wife Charity (Williams, all smiles and little else) and children is his driving force.

Hitting upon the notion of pulling together a troupe of outcasts, Barnum finds himself a ringmaster of success in the lower rent world. But chancing across a singer of class, Jenny Lind (Ferguson), Barnum feels he can win the acceptance he's never had his whole life - yet, at what cost...

The Greatest Showman aims to tackle bigotry, welcoming minorities and the whole pursuing your dreams angle but manages to do it all under a cloud of smoke and a hint of mirrors.

That's not to deny this typical rags to riches and then back to rags before back to riches story doesn't have some truly impressive toe-tapping songs to carry you from one distraction to the next. There's the wondrous This Is Me and Come Alive which really wind up the energy and give the film a pizazz and verve that are hard to deny.

And Jackman is perfectly cast, with a great deal of charisma and charm to carry you along this superficial journey. His is a Barnum who faces problems with a song and a dance, and this infectious attitude may well help you to paper over the weaker narrative cracks.

Principally, the invented conflict that appears in the film feels thrown in rather than earned; there are meta touches about a theatre critic picking away at what Barnum's doing and how a critic's job is a joyless one.

Racial tensions are thrown into the fore, because that's what The Greatest Showman wants to do and damned if you can stop them with your rational thinking.

And yet, much like Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge and La La Land, there's an infectious beat to all this which is hard to deny in its frippery and flippancy. Although unlike those two, there's not the emotional depth to carry it all along - but it's impossible to deny that you won't be carried along by it.

In many ways, The Greatest Showman is perhaps the perfect film for this time of the year - it's light, fluffy, family-oriented, brain-be-damned, blessed with only a small hint of danger and is an easy antidote to seasonal excess. It offers simple easy solutions to bigger problems facing its protagonists and is hell bent on sending you on your merry way with a song in your heart and not a care in your world.

It's admirable after what 2017 has thrown at us from Hollywood, but much like any big show and musical with Barnum as its lead, The Greatest Showman is all about the conman whirling his baton and seducing us - to which, one suspects, many will willingly submit.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie: DVD Review

The LEGO Ninjago Movie: DVD Review

Vocal cast: Jackie Chan, Dave Franco, Fred Armisen, Zach Woods, Kumail Nanjiani, Justin Theroux
Director: Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher

Those unfamiliar with the Lego Ninjago World aren't likely to be too left behind with this film that pushes the blocky zaniness as much as it pushes the paternal message.

While the Lego movie and Lego Batman movie concentrated largely on the zanier antics, this latest follows the Ninjago team as they continue to fight Lord Garmadon (Theroux) who's determined to conquer their metropolis.

Standing in their way of doing this though, is Lloyd (Franco), aka the Green Ninja, whose life has been ruined by Garmadon in more ways than one - because Garmadon is his father.

When the threat becomes too real, Lloyd, along with fellow ninjas and their grand Master Wu (Jackie Chan) are forced on a quest to try and save the city from the ultimate weapon.

Whereas the prior Lego movies have offered strong stories with doses of zaniness, it has to be said The LEGO Ninjago Movie doesn't differ too much from the formula, treads a lot of familiar ground and consequently does offer up a film of diminishing returns, feeling like the weaker of the recent releases in terms of story ideas, but not pace.

That's not to say its target youngster audience won't enjoy the story and the animation, but the attempts to shoehorn in the message veer dangerously close to brow-beating and crowbarring it in as the film heads towards its conclusion.

The story-within-a-story premise works well and Chan's certainly got the heart to carry it off, but in between the humiliations for Lloyd as he deals with his past and the fact everyone knows his dad is the Worst Guy Ever, there's a feeling perhaps that some of the story's nowhere near as strong as it could be to carry the film through its run time.

Elements of Joe Vs The Volcano creep in toward the end as the sentimental starts to edge in, and the meta touches this time around are kept to a minimum, giving the feeling the film is overall fine, but lacks some of the edge that was pioneered by 2014's Lego Movie under the helmsmanship of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

With school holidays on the way, it's not that The LEGO Ninjago Movie is a weaker prospect at all, merely a feeling that adults in the audience may feel a little restless while the younger ones enjoy what's transpiring. L-loyd (as his father continually refers to him as) needs to bring a few more l-laughs to the table for the film to have been able to hit all levels.

There's nothing inherently wrong with The LEGO Ninjago Movie, it offers solid blocks of fun here and there and the dad bonding message is a good one to hammer home.

But it has to be said, despite the strong single narrative of Lloyd and his dad Garmadon and when compared to previous blocky outings, it feels like there's unfortunately little else fleshing out the story to make it a truly transcendant experience.