Five Teams in the Running for Overwatch League’s Stage 2 Finals this Monday AEDT/NZDT

Five Teams in the Running for Overwatch League’s Stage 2 Finals this Monday AEDT/NZDT

Five Teams in the Running for Overwatch League’s Stage 2 Finals this Monday AEDT/NZDT

Stage 2 of the inaugural season of the Overwatch League is approaching its nail-biting conclusion. With less than one week to go before the Stage 2 Finals, five of the league’s 12 teams are still in the running for playoff seedings, with each team having two games remaining.

The New York Excelsior (7-1 in Stage 2) currently hold the No. 1 seed and can stay on top if they win out, clinching a spot in the Stage 2 title match. This leaves four teams (three 6-2 teams and one 5-3 team) to vie for the final two playoff spots, with Stage 2 map differential serving as the first tiebreaker.

The London Spitfire is primed for second seed with a +14 map differential and games against the Shanghai Dragons (0-8) and Dallas Fuel (2-6) this week. The red-hot Los Angeles Gladiators sit just behind them with a +12 map differential, with Week 5 games against the Philadelphia Fusion (5-3) and Boston Uprising (4-4) this week. Seoul Dynasty sit just outside of the current playoff picture with an identical 6-2 record but a +9 map differential and will square off with the Houston Outlaws (3-5) and Florida Mayhem (2-6) in the final week of Stage 2.

The Fusion is the final team still in the playoff chase and can help their chances by decisively beating the Gladiators on Thursday in the day’s opening tilt. They’ll need teams ahead of them to lose a match to have a shot at advancing, but like Seoul, they currently own a +9 map differential. Philadelphia’s second game this week is with the Los Angeles Valiant (4-4).

It's going to be a massive week for the Overwatch League, so make sure you tune in: https://www.twitch.tv/overwatchleague

For a more in-depth breakdown of Stage 2 playoff probabilities, visit https://overwatchleague.com/en-us/news/21647857/setting-the-stage-2

EXPERIENCE A NEW LEVEL OF COMBAT WITH TEKKEN 7 – DLC3: NOCTIS LUCIS CAELUM PACK AVAILABLE TODAY

EXPERIENCE A NEW LEVEL OF COMBAT WITH TEKKEN 7 – DLC3: NOCTIS LUCIS CAELUM PACK AVAILABLE TODAY

EXPERIENCE A NEW LEVEL OF COMBAT WITH

TEKKEN 7 – DLC3: NOCTIS LUCIS CAELUM PACK

AVAILABLE TODAY

1.12 Patch also arrives today

Noctis Lucis Caelum is now a playable character with TEKKEN 7 – DLC3: NOCTIS LUCIS CAELUM PACK available today as well as the exclusive stage "HAMMERHEAD," the BGM "Stand Your Ground / FINAL FANTASY XV," the BGM "APOCALYPSIS NOCTIS Remix / TEKKEN 7" and five Noctis costumes! Wielding his signature Engine Blade, Noctis is ready to deal heavy hard-hitting blows as he takes on the likes of Yoshimitsu, Devil Jin, Jack 7, and the rest of the TEKKEN 7 fighters. Noctis Lucis Caelum is also playable in DLC1's new mode, "Ultimate TEKKEN BOWL."

TEKKEN 7 is also now updated with the 1.12 patch which includes several improvements such as improved ONLINE matching functionality and the whole performance of the game for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and STEAM. In addition, NVIDIA ShadowPlay Highlights™ gets available on Steam*. Highlight scenes will be captured automatically on specific conditions for the Versus Battles, Ranked Match, Player Match and Tournament mode.

In TEKKEN 7, all fights are personal! Prepare to enter the ring as TEKKEN 7 is available for the PlayStation®4, Xbox One, and STEAM® for PC. To find out more about TEKKEN 7, please head over to the official website: https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/tekken/tekken-7.

Pacific Rim: Uprising: Film Review

Pacific Rim: Uprising: Film Review

Cast: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Tian Jing, Rinko Kikuchi
Director: Steven S DeKnight

It's not the easiest of tasks these days to unleash a sequel to a film that somewhat underwhelmed at the global box office.

However, that's not troubling Pacific Rim Uprising, a film that simply goes about the business of carrying on and moving on the series after an apparent conclusion of the threat facing humanity.

But it does it all without a great deal of emotional heft, heart and depth.

Star Wars' John Boyega is the roguish Jake Pentecost, son of Idris Elba's Pacific Rim hero Stacker and who seems to be trapped in his father's shadow, endowed with a legacy he neither wants nor can avoid.

Having abandoned the corp of Jaeger pilots, Jake is a raffish con-man, trading in the second hand business of illegal Jaeger parts. Stumbling across young kid Cailee Spaeny's Namani (a cross between spunkish sidekick, and questioning exposition deliverer), he finds himself dragged back into the corps, just around the time a new Kaiju threat begins to rise.

Pacific Rim: Uprising isn't surprising at all.

Director and Spartacus and Daredevil helmer DeKnight delivers crisp, clear and clean CGI action sequences with a degree of workmanlike aplomb, something which needs to be commended in the days of blurred action (something which dogged Del Toro's first Rim) and there's much to be said for the diversity of the cast on display.

But despite Boyega's considerable charisma and presence during the film (something which keeps large portions of it all afloat), there's little else round the edges to nourish the lulls between set pieces.

What there is feels hoary and rote.

A squabbling group of grunts (see Ender's Game, Starship Troopers) with little characterisation on show, a weakly written reason for doing it all again and a growing feeling of being underwhelmed don't do Pacific Rim: Uprising much to distinguish it from the soulless vapidity of the Transformers franchise.

Granted, you don't expect Shakespeare from a B-movie about essentially, robots fighting monsters and smashing CGI cities to pieces, but there's a nagging feeling that more narrative heft could have added a great deal to Pacific Rim: Uprising, especially with the threat of a third franchise piece being teased pre-credits end.

It's supposed to be big dumb, pulpy and trashy, but Pacific Rim: Uprising manages to bestow a sense of tedium in the final round of proceedings, even though it's carried out its promise of robots vs monsters, thanks to a lack of emotional involvement.

Younger kids with parents will probably have a just-about-passable time at this - and that's to damn it with feint praise.

Boyega lends much credence and charisma to proceedings, and while daddy issues clearly appear to be the current crop of blockbusters' raison d'etre, (see Tomb Raider) the lack of emotional stakes is keenly felt as the script writers clearly desired their film to be about hitting a series of beats rather than deepening the engagement, widening the franchise and upending the scale.

At the end of the day, Pacific Rim: Uprising does what it says on the tin - and perhaps, just perhaps, we should be grateful said tin isn't a Hasbro branded one. Although, in truth, it isn't too far off it...

Paddington 2: DVD Review

Paddington 2: DVD Review

Those looking for deeper meaning in Paddington 2, the sequel to the thoroughly charming first outing in 2014, could argue it's a tale of tolerance and the difference made by an immigrant in pre-Brexit Britain viewed with post-Brexit eyes.

But those looking for a familial romp, ripped and slightly bastardised from Michael Bond's original writings will also be deeply satiated too.

Loosely this magical tale, with its deft visuals and genuinely naïve Whishaw lilting vocals, concerns itself with Paddington's desire to get his Aunt Lucy the perfect birthday present.

Settling on a pop-up book in the local antiques shop, the bear takes a series of jobs to obtain the right amount of cash.

But when he sees the book stolen one night, he's framed for the crime he didn't commit, jailed and left hoping the Brown family can save the day.

It's easy to dismiss the likes of Paddington in the cynical CGI world we currently live in, but the fact that it takes the simple things and does them well is very much to the film's credit and definitely not to its detriment.

With its raft of cameos (perhaps more familiar to British audiences than international ones) and its simple tale brilliantly executed, it's the ultimate family fare in more ways than one.

There's a great heart to Paddington 2 - and the director's smart enough to ensure that there are plenty of laughs as well.

From pratfalling Paddington (channeling his very best CGI Chaplin in early scenes) to Brendan Gleeson gleefully delivering lines that are amusingly written and fall shy of stereotypes, there's a feel-good air which permeates Paddington 2 and makes it thoroughly charismatic.

As well as Whishaw's heartfelt delivery of the innocent bear's lines, much of the credit has to go to Hugh Grant, the villain of the piece. Playing a luvvie who's fallen from grace, and who's got a tendency to drop into other characters at the drop of a hat, Grant's deft delivery and definitively hammy (but not overly so)'s Phoenix Buchanan is as much a villain as a misunderstood hero.

Throughout, Paddington 2 treads a fine line between reverence and going its own way - it's to King's credit that it all emerges and blurs into one generally well-intentioned final product. It may be sentimental in many ways, but Paddington 2's view of a fantasy Britain where everyone gets along has both a basis in reality and the dreamworld.

Ultimately, Paddington 2 is perfect family holiday entertainment.

Bathed in a warm glow of fun, with a generous helping of holiday heart, this bear is likely to offer you a big cinematic hug from beginning to end. 

The Killing of a Sacred Deer:DVD Review

The Killing of a Sacred Deer:DVD Review

As darkly black as they come and as uncomfortable as you may expect from the director of The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is an unmissable experience.

In other hands this could easily have been a horror, but under Lanthimos' unswerving eye, it's his usual combination of both the weird and also the devilish, which cause you to squirm uncomfortably in your seat. As demonstrated with The Lobster and Dogtooth, Lanthimos has a way of creating a world that's self-contained and populated with a veneer that doesn't quite feel right, but feels drily plausible.

A heavily-bearded Colin Farrell plays heart surgeon Steven, whose journey begins post-surgery discussing the banality of a new watch that he needs with his colleague. As they stalk the halls of the immeasurably clinical hospital where they work, Steven talks in a staccato robotic turn of phrase, with the inane sounding incredibly offbeat, almost as if a robot synthesiser programme has followed a series of sub-routines and thrown out something that could pass for conversation.

Steven's life appears fine - he has a wife Anna (Nicole Kidman) and a daughter and son. He also has a friendship with a young boy Martin (Dunkirk star Barry Keoghan) that seems a little unusual at best.

But as the black humour and the film plays out, that relationship with Martin becomes key to proceedings as retribution, guilt and Greek tragedy begins to bite. To say more is to spoil the reveals of the film, which come gradually and powerfully as it unspools.

Lanthimos isn't interested in moralising in his latest - and it's clear that pretty much everyone has something to hide in the film, giving it a dangerous edge and a warped sense of desperation. As Martin's obsession grows, the long slow shots that Lanthimos injects into the film and the darker edges become almost unbearable, blessing proceedings with a quite horrific dread that spreads malignantly and quickly.

Many spend time remarking on Steven's hands in this film and how clean they are. It's a delicious irony that they're anything but, and with Farrell's cool veneer losing its grip the more it carries on, the film's more absurdist edges actually become more plausible and all the more horrific because of it.

If Farrell and Kidman are unswervingly staunch, it's Keoghan's malicious Martin that impresses most. With a cold, clear sense of warped logic, his path to the punishing plays out with an underplayed edge; his calmness makes everything seem that more sinister and disquieting.

Ultimately, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a bold film - it pushes some buttons excellently, but Lanthimos knows when to hold off, when to hold his nerve and when to put the audience through the wringer. Much like The Lobster set things with a bittersweet off-kilter feel, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is truly knuckle-clenching. Like a master, Lanthimos leads us to the final destination and we arrive at it, breathless and wrought with the horror of the ride. It's compellingly grim cinema at its dark unpunishable best.  

Win a double pass to Early Man

Win a double pass to Early Man

To celebrate the release of Nick Park's Early Man on March 29, you can win a double pass!

About Early Man

Set at the dawn of time, when prehistoric creatures roamed the earth, EARLY MAN tells the story of courageous caveman hero Dug (EDDIE REDMAYNE) and his best friend Hognob

Join them as they unite his tribe against a mighty enemy, Lord Nooth (TOM HIDDLESTON), and his Bronze Age City to save their home.            

Early Man hits cinemas March 29th!

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

Please label your entry EARLY

Competition closes March 29th

Win a double pass to see Peter Rabbit

Win a double pass to see Peter Rabbit

To celebrate the release of Peter Rabbit, you can win a double pass.

About Peter Rabbit

Peter Rabbit and family take over the manor house of Old McGregor when he dies, but McGregor’s nephew arrives to claim his inheritance (on leave from his job at Harrod’s), so bunnies wreak havoc to win it back. 

McGregor begins dating neighbor Bea (loyal friend of bunnies) to learn bunny vulnerabilities, but a raging war ends up destroying Bea’s cottage instead.

 The factions make amends while winning Bea back, and wage peace in the end.

Peter Rabbit hits cinemas March 29

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

Please label your entry PETER RABBIT

Competition closes March 29th