Beirut: NZIFF Review

Beirut: NZIFF Review

A formulaic spy thriller about a flawed hero called in to resolve a kidnapping that has a personal connection, Beirut is a solid but unspectacular thriller that ticks all the boxes and hits all the beats.

Mad Men's Jon Hamm is Mason Skiles, a former diplomat, who despite all the schmoozing and boozing is unable to prevent an event at his pad in Beirut turning into a tragedy in 1972.

Wounded emotionally by what occurs and having left the region, Skiles is forced to return when a colleague is kidnapped - and he finds himself entangled in the clandestine goings on of the political uprisings and the American intentions for them.

Beirut is that typical story, one of you not knowing whose side is whose, and which person is to be trusted.

In many ways, it feels all too familiar, just set in a different world we're used to seeing.
But the war torn Beirut feels gritty and grimy, and when Skiles returns a decade after leaving to see the evidence of civil uprising and the destruction, Hamm plays it excellently as Skiles steps out of the airport. At once shocked and simultaneously trying to work out how best to negotiate survival, the nuances of Hamm's flawed hero are thrown sharply into focus.

In fact, Hamm largely is the presence which keeps Beirut going; the conflict's cost is etched deep within his drawn face, his eyes puffy from decades of alcoholism and regret.

Elsewhere, Beirut's hoary tropes feel like they exist simply to hit dramatic beats, and it's not helped in parts by a script that largely feels ripped from plenty of other sources. The drama's at its best when it's invested in the personal, and it's never better than when Hamm elevates it.

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4 MULTIPLAYER BETA NOW LIVE ON PLAYSTATION 4

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4 MULTIPLAYER BETA NOW LIVE ON PLAYSTATION 4

Good afternoon,

Beginning today, the highly-anticipated Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4 Private Multiplayer Beta is live around the world, available first on the PlayStation 4.

Players who pre-ordered the game at participating retailers can jump into the first weekend of multiplayer testing, now through 5am NZST, Tuesday, August 7. A second Beta weekend commences August 11 to 14 in New Zealand on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Private Multiplayer Beta participants will experience a sampling of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 multiplayer mode, which features gritty, grounded combat, along with new levels of customisation and tactical gameplay, and a variety of new weaponry, maps and modes for the ultimate Black Ops multiplayer experience.

The Private Multiplayer Beta is an important stress test of game systems at scale and serves as a critical development function offering real-time analytics and feedback prior to the final game release worldwide on October 12.

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4 MULTIPLAYER BETA NOW LIVE ON PLAYSTATION 4

First of Two Beta Weekends Underway on PS4; Second Beta Weekend Commences August 11 to 14 in Australia and New Zealand on PS4, Xbox One and PC

All Beta Participants Receive In-Game Calling Card, and Those Who Reach Max Rank Receive Permanent Unlock Token to Use in Multiplayer at Launch

Additional Blackout Beta Launches in September Where Fans Can First Experience Black Ops 4’s All-New Battle Royale Mode

Aug. 4, 2018 – Beginning today, the highly-anticipated Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4 Private Multiplayer Beta is live around the world, available first on the PlayStation 4. Players who pre-ordered the game at participating retailers can jump into the first weekend of multiplayer testing, now through 5am NZST , Tuesday, August 7. Private Multiplayer Beta participants will experience a sampling of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 multiplayer mode, which features gritty, grounded combat, along with new levels of customisation and tactical gameplay, and a variety of new weaponry, maps and modes for the ultimate Black Ops multiplayer experience. The Private Multiplayer Beta is an important stress test of game systems at scale and serves as a critical development function offering real-time analytics and feedback prior to the final game release worldwide on October 12.

“We built Black Ops 4 for the community, which is why getting the game early into players’ hands through the Beta is so important to us, especially as we hit the home stretch and polish the game for launch,” said Dan Bunting, Co-Studio Head, Treyarch. “The team at the studio is dedicated to delivering the deepest and most rewarding multiplayer we’ve ever made, and we want community feedback to make the game’s launch the best it can be – we can’t wait for fans to jump in and let us know what they think.”

The Multiplayer Beta schedule is split into two weekends as follows:

• Multiplayer Beta Weekend 1:
  • Saturday, August 4 at 5am NZST - Tuesday, August 7 at 5am NZST

(PlayStation 4 only)

• Multiplayer Beta Weekend 2:
  •  Saturday, August 11 at 5am NZST - Tuesday, August 14 at 5am NZST (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC)
  • Sunday, August 12, 5am NZST - Tuesday, August 14, 5am NZST (PC Only Open Beta)

The Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4 Private Multiplayer Beta* features six maps, several game modes including the all-new Control mode, and the opportunity to play as ten different Specialists. The Beta content represents just a portion of the multiplayer content that will be available at launch October 12^th. In Black Ops 4, Specialists each have their own unique weapons, equipment and playstyles. Players can be powerful alone or devastating as a team working together. The Beta also features the return of the iconic Pick 10 system, along with a series of innovations in weapon handling, combat flow and health regeneration. Players will have the opportunity to strategise with their team through tactical teamplay while discovering unique and powerful ways to combine Specialist skills and dominate their opponents. 

If PlayStation 4 players are unable to join the first Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Private Multiplayer weekend they will have another opportunity to join the Private Multiplayer Beta during its second weekend of testing, as it opens to players that have pre-ordered the game at participating retailers of either PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. The second Private Multiplayer Beta weekend begins on Saturday, August 11 at 5am NZST , and runs through Tuesday, August 14 at 5am NZST . Additionally, PC players will have their own PC Open Beta** which will take place from 5am NZST Sunday, August 12  until 5am NZST Tuesday, August 14. Players will need a Blizzard Battle.net® account to access it, and those who pre-purchase the game through Battle.net will get a full extra day – beginning at 5am NZST on Saturday, August 11– to play with their friends and fellow community members.

Players who partake in the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Private Multiplayer Beta will receive in-game rewards that will activate at the time of launch. All players will be gifted a unique, one-of-a-kind commemorative calling card to display in-game. Additionally, players who achieve total max rank during the Beta will be awarded one permanent unlock token that will unlock any item from the Create-A-Class menu at launch.

Treyarch will be actively gathering community feedback throughout both Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Private Multiplayer Beta weekends. The data gathered will be used to fine-tune gameplay balance, stress-test servers and optimise the online experience ahead of the game’s launch this October. Private Multiplayer Beta participants will have the opportunity to share their feedback and join in an active dialogue with the development team across a variety of outlets, including player surveys and online forums, with frequent Beta update posts planned from Treyach.

The Black Ops series has become the most played in Call of Duty® history as well as a cultural phenomenon around the globe. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is the deepest, most engaging Black Ops game ever that offers more ways to have fun with friends. It features a gritty, grounded, all-out combat experience that raises the bar for Multiplayer mode with greater tactical gameplay and player choice; the biggest Zombies offering ever with three full experiences at launch; and Blackout, where the Black Ops universe comes to life in a massive battle royale experience featuring iconic characters and locations from all four Black Ops games in a one-of-a-kind offering that is uniquely Black Ops. A separate Blackout Beta is planned in September, with dates to be announced soon.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is published by Activision and developed by Treyarch with additional development support from Raven Software and PC development with Beenox. The title is scheduled for release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on October 12^th. Black Ops 4 for the PC delivers a fully-optimised experience, which for the first time in Call of Duty’s history will be available exclusively on Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment’s online gaming service.  For more information and the latest intel check out: www.callofduty.com, www.youtube.com/callofduty and follow @CallofDuty and @Treyarch on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is scheduled for release on PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One, and PC. Check the Classification (CTC).

About Treyarch

Treyarch is an award-winning video game studio, driven by the desire to create epic gameplay experiences that are enjoyed by as many video game fans as possible. It is an approach that has helped to make the studio behind the Call of Duty®: Black Ops series of games, an industry-leading developer. Call of Duty: Black Ops set an entertainment launch opening record upon its release in 2010 and continues to be one of the best-selling games of all time, according to NPD and GfK Chart-Track; Call of Duty®: Black Ops II set world-wide launch day records; and the studio’s most recent Call of Duty®: Black Ops III held the biggest entertainment opening weekend of 2015, and was the #1 console game globally for the calendar year. Additionally, Treyarch is the birthplace of Call of Duty’s Zombies. Treyarch is wholly owned by Activision.

Puzzle: NZIFF Review

Puzzle: NZIFF Review

Generally sweet-natured, but prone to cliches like 'getting all the wrong pieces right', Puzzle's gentle domestic drama is anchored by a rather muted Kelly MacDonald and a typically charismatic Irrfan Khan.

Macdonald is Agnes, a stay-at-home mum, who never went to college and has never left home.

Surrounded by her Bible group church friends and catering to her loving, but oblivious, husband, Agnes is a shrew, ignored largely by all.

The dynamic's set early on, when Agnes is fussing around a birthday party, apparently for her husband - but a clever twist reveals the truth.

However, at that party, Agnes gets a 1000 piece jigsaw and sitting down with it one day, discovers she has the ability to piece it together easily and quickly. This awakens something in her, shaking her from her dull bubble to a degree and she heads to buy more.

Her interest's piqued in an ad for a puzzle companion, leading her to meet Irrfan Khan's Robert, a charming man. Hiding the visits to prepare for a competition from her husband, Agnes begins a clandestine life.

Puzzle is entirely predictable and while one of the narrative moments is a bit of a leap, the coming alive of the subdued American housewife is not a new path to tread.

But it's done with such geniality and such refusal to label all the parties as anything less than human that when the shocks come (such as they are), they do pack the required resonance.

Macdonald's dialled down housewife feels largely rounded, and the opening of this flower into the puzzle sun is handled nicely. Equally, Khan's charm and delicious way with some of the script swathes the whole thing in a reality that's both engaging and surprisingly pedestrian.

Director Marc Turteltaub is not interested in pulling any real punches (until the end, which feels a little cheap and quick) and the result is that Puzzle is perhaps more a collection of its parts, than the overall picture.

Puzzle's less a film about competition, and more a piece about finding a place in life (spot the parallels, kids) but as a gentle genial outing at the movies, it does what it needs to do - but it does little more than this, despite a very human performance from Kelly Macdonald and Irrfan Khan.

Climax: NZIFF Review

Climax: NZIFF Review

Where the hell do you start with Gaspar Noe's latest?

Climax is a sensory assault, a nervy, twisting, paranoid horrifying wet dream of cultivated chaos.

Centring on a bunch of dancers who are coming to the end of a retreat somewhere in Paris' forests, the film's electrifying from the start.

As the dancers wind down and party, things start to go wildly awry with all of them having some kind of collective freak-out that builds to epidemic levels.

Really, that's it for plot - but Climax is not really about plot.

Opening with a scene of someone staggering through the snow via way of an aerial shot, and then launching into credits and a claim that this happened in 1996, Noe's unsettling from the start, but also visually arresting.

Following a series of vox-pop interviews with the dancers, Climax continues with a one take electrifying dance sequence that was done in one take and is simply incredible - a co-ordinated collection of limbs that choreographs brilliantly before segueing in to the post-party.

With pulsing EuroBeat music pounding away, the film's descent into darkness is wildly evocative and yet utterly terrifying. Quick cuts capture dialogue here and there as various groups splinter, and various conversations cover the usual machinations and mentalities of parties.

But as the dread of what's transpiring kicks in, Climax really grabs, a vision of hell spiralling through the corridors of the dance floor. It resembles some kind of purgatory as delusions bubble up, emotions spill out and everything escalates in utterly terrifying fashion.

Unlike most of Noe's back catalogue, this film's perhaps nowhere near as provocative (aside from its A French Film and Proud Of It title boards) as you'd expect, but its mental toll is much more horrific.

Feeling like a cinematic claustrophobic vice for the most part, Climax is simply a director in complete control of the chaos from beginning to end - whether you're in for the ride is upto you, but it's a celluloid trip of dancehall dread that won't let go from the most basic of premises.

Border: NZIFF Review

Border: NZIFF Review

Riffing on the actual borders of a country and also the borders of what lengths humanity will go to, Swedish drama Border is a curio of a film, anchored by a tenacious lead.

Based on a short story by Let The Right One In's John Ajvide Lindqvist, it's the story of Tina, a misfit integrated into society, who literally has a nose for trouble, but who sits on the fringes of the outside world.

Working as a border agent, and with an ability to sniff out guilt on people, Tina's a loner, separated by her looks from others, and with a father whose spiralling illness and dementia is further heightening her feeling of separation.

However, one day when Tina sniffs out another like her at the border, she finds her world changed.

Border is an intriguing mix of supernatural edges and drama as well as an interesting look at identity.
Eva Melander imbues Tina and her overbite neanderthal look with a great deal of heart and hesitancy.

Sniffing the air, second guessing herself and also using a sixth sense to connect to animals around her, Tina is a character out of place, but Melander's portrayal of her is never anything less than a lost soul trapped in a world she appears at odds with.

Themes of identity and embracing your own imperfections sit alongside Border's darker grittier edges (the likes of which are sadly spoilers to discuss) but director Ali Abbasi keeps the mystery rattling along - but never at the cost of the "human" element.

While the back third of the film suffers a little from some of its reveals, the tenacious performance of Melander helps overcome some of the narrative foibles, added in by a series of writers (including Holiday's director Isabella Eklof) and expanding from the original story.

At its heart, Border is about the borders between light and dark; but equally, it's actually more about the borders of the self and identity.

It's one of the more genre audacious films in the festival and proffers an intriguing insight into another world - and our own humanity.

F1 2018 Official Gameplay

F1 2018 Official Gameplay

MAKE HEADLINES IN F1® 2018

FIRST OFFICIAL GAMEPLAY TRAILER SHOWCASES

STUNNING VISUALS, NEW FEATURES AND GAME DEPTH

SYDNEY, 1^st August 2018 - Codemasters® has today released the first full gameplay video for F1® 2018, the official videogame of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship™, which reveals the incredible depth and feature set of this year’s game. Launching onto PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, the Xbox One family of devices including the Xbox One X and Windows PC (via Steam) worldwide on Friday 24^th August 2018, F1® 2018 lets you live the life of an F1® driver like never before.

Featuring the most in-depth career mode ever seen in the franchise, 20 classic cars from the history of the sport, and new stunning visuals, F1® 2018 takes F1® gaming to the next level. The new trailer is available to view now at www.youtube.com/formula1game.

“This is the most complete F1® experience that Codemasters has ever created,” said Game Director, Lee Mather. “The Career mode is the central point of the game and has been greatly expanded with the inclusion of pressurised press interviews that will directly affect your path through the sport. There is also far more flexibility for the player, including the ability to select your own rival and negotiate team moves during the season. The Career mode also expands the player's research and development options, with each F1® team now having its own unique technology tree with differing strengths and weaknesses. What's more, F1® 2018's Career will also feature significant rule changes between seasons during the Career for the first time.

“The game’s handling has also been reworked using real world F1® data to give us new suspension and chassis physics, as well as the introduction of manually deployed ERS. This all means that the cars feel great to drive and you can really feel the difference between the modern cars and the 20 classics there are in the game. There is a huge contrast between the low aero, low grip cars from the 1970s compared to the 2018 cars.”

As well as improvements to the career, classics and simulation, F1® 2018 has also undergone a significant graphical uplift with the inclusion of new visual elements, including environmental mist, heat haze, track mirage effects, new engine heat haze and off racing line dirt kick-up which brings it even closer to the real sport.

When playing online, the game’s new Super License system is designed to minimise the effects of poor driving in multiplayer races. Players are rated on their skill levels and driver etiquette and then matched with other gamers of a similar ability and driving style.

F1® 2018 is the official game of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship™ and features all of the official teams, drivers and circuits from the thrilling season. This includes the return of the iconic Hockenheimring and the addition of the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

Follow Codemasters F1® games blog and social channels on Twitter and Facebook for future updates.

New to GTA Online: After Hours - Tale Of Us, Los Santos Underground Radio, New Vehicles, Guest List Rewards & More

New to GTA Online: After Hours - Tale Of Us, Los Santos Underground Radio, New Vehicles, Guest List Rewards & More

As your new Nightclub sends shockwaves through the San Andreas party scene, English Dave is busy recruiting the best new talent to ensure your club’s reputation is top notch. The latest rumor? Tale Of Us, Italy’s finest purveyors of lush and melodic techno, are available for hire and ready to step up as resident DJs in your Nightclub.

In a major coup for the Los Santos nightlife scene, Tale Of Us is debuting new, exclusive music they produced for their upcoming artist album, Afterlight (also coming soon to LSUR, Apple Music, Spotify and more).

The sound of the afterhours is starting to hit the LS airwaves as well, with the launch of Los Santos Underground Radio. Kicking things off this week is an LSUR-exclusive mix – Solomun, recorded live from the hottest club in Los Santos, with more mixes set to arrive in the coming weeks.

Whether you’re in the mood for the sublime or the ridiculous, this week's two new vehicles are just for you: the Enus Stafford is a four-door superiority complex on wheels, while the new Blimp is the slow-moving, livery-covered, highly explosive nightclub advertisement of your wildest dreams.

Nothing says "I once met the guy who owns this place" like the Studio Los Santos T-Shirt. Log in now through August 6th to add it to your collection and get that much closer to the VIP lounge.

This week, Guest List Members skip the line to pocket a GTA$100,000 cash bonus and slip into the exclusive Galaxy & Los Santos Underground Radio T-Shirts— because cool tees are sometimes the only way to remember last night's party.

Plus, flaunt your VIP status with the exclusive Oh Enus! Livery for the Enus Stafford, and the Sessanta Nove Multi-Color and Pink & Green Camo Liveries for the Mammoth Patriot Stretch.

While the rest of Los Santos is busy trying to bribe the bouncer, budding entrepreneurs can jump on 25% off the following Select Properties, Add-Ons & Renovations to shake up their portfolios:

The return of a lost relic from the old frontier is on the horizon. Keep a lookout for the first clue to unlocking this unique totem later this week.

Don't miss out on this week's streams in the exclusive Facebook Gaming x Social Club: After Hours Live Stream Series on Facebook Gaming Creator friends’ channels with your chance to earn in-stream GTA$ rewards of GTA$50K all the way up to a possible GTA$500K per drop, when you join live chat with a Facebook connected Social Club account.