Hitman 2: PS4 Review

Hitman 2: PS4 Review

Developed by IO Interactive
Platform: PS4

Agent 47 is back.

And this time, he's out to kill.

Much like last time, and the time before that. Well, maybe not like last time.

The previous game carved up 47's shenanigans into episodes, giving you time to feel the thrill of the planning and the execution of the kill as well - plus the wait between missions made you realise how well planned all of it was.

This latest, in truth, feels a little episodic, given you can choose where you carry on after the first mission. It's strange to report that as the whole game's been released at once.

Loosely, the game follows on from the last, with Agent 47 hunting out the Shadow Client and his shadowy group, setting him on a collision course with his past.

Beginning on the sandy shores of Hawke's Bay, the globe trotting carries on again, with 47's missions taking him to the shores of Mumbai, Colombia and other parts of Europe.
Hitman 2 works in some ways, and fails in others.

But largely, it's as fun as you want to make it. Again, it's not a game for patience and if you've got no desire to work out plans, set traps and reap the rewards, it's probably best you head off somewhere else. However, watching targets scatter, moving closer to your execution of them can provide a vicarious thrill.

The New Zealand opener in Hawke's Bay is piecemeal; its location could be anywhere, but it's a nice moody opener to set the conspiracy tone going, and the beach front locale means you really do have to plan stuff out to escape. But again, going full tilt can mean the level can be cleared with a minimum of fuss.

That's the thing with Hitman 2; it's as complicated as you want to make it.

Smart people will spend time planning, and others (like me) will just go in, all guns blazing, and missing out on the nods to the Agent 47 series and the score that comes from executing something smart and clever.

Graphically, the game's fine. Its locations are what sets it apart, with lots of detail going into the scene-setting; and a little less in terms of the facial distinctions. And in some ways, the gameplay feels scattered; particularly some of the static nature of the sequences does make it feel like there could be more to do.

In terms of the final product, Hitman 2 does exactly what it says on the tin; there are multiplayer propositions too, and the return of the elusive targets to take in. But in terms of standing out from the crowd in a very busy season, Hitman 2 takes its shot, but doesn't quite hit a bullseye for anyone other than the fans of Agent 47's ongoing story.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: DVD Review

Ant-Man and The Wasp: DVD Review

That Ant-Man and The Wasp manages to be a self-contained caper, much like the first outing three years ago, is both a credit and an albatross to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It's understandable that following the "heavier" material tackled in Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel would want to put something out which was a little more knockabout and which only very loosely fed in to the ongoing threads.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Film Review

However, the danger is that Ant-Man (and, by extension, The Wasp) is becoming the outlier of the franchise, a film series where the stakes never quite feel high enough, and the levity is almost derailing.

As a self-contained piece, the return of Paul Rudd's comedic chops as Scott Lang is semi-welcome, but there's a feeling early on the film is trying a little too hard to flex said muscles.

In the latest, Lang is still under house arrest following his escapades in Civil War - and consequently, Hank Pym (Douglas, in a beefed up supporting role) and his daughter Hope (Lilly, easily this film's MVP) are on the run from the authorities.

But when Lang experiences visions of the Quantum Realm and somehow connects with Pym's long-lost wife Janet (Pfeiffer, in an ethereal role), the two's worlds collide once again. With Hope desperate to see her mother, and Pym keen to reunite with his wife, they team up to try and break on through to the other side.

However, their plans are thrown into jeopardy when a new threat (with echoes of the Winter Soldier) emerges...

It's interesting that Ant-Man and The Wasp demotes its titular hero to almost a supporting role in his own film, with Rudd definitively sidelined by Lilly's new heroine taking the lead.

And it's a most welcome touch in this cautionary tale of the Father / Daughter relationships, that even ties in with elements of the "Freak of the Week" early vibe of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Lilly leads most of the action scenes with such undeniable chutzpah that not even the overuse of deliberate pop-culture references to the 90s can derail. (Ant-Man and The Wasp perversely holds off from mentioning any time line to avoid the Infinity War question throughout).

It's a move Marvel have been too slow making, and Lilly seizes every opportunity to shine, imbuing her Hope with the fragility that's needed and the inspirational leading heroine that's been sorely lacking in the MCU for way too long.

Equally, the film's commitment to beefing up Douglas' role and giving Pym stakes is welcome, even if it comes at the cost of Rudd's own involvement in proceedings. IT's rare for older actors to be given such beefy roles, and Douglas (and to a lesser extent, Pfeiffer) grab them with gusto.

If Ant-Man and The Wasp is guilty of anything, it's that its central self-contained plot is entangled in sci-fi bunkum (one character even remarks that they're just throwing Quantum in front of everything) and feels slighter than anything proffered up before.

Sure, Ant-Man and The Wasp is solid enough, popcorn fare, gleefully executed by all and with crisp action sequences, but its charm only goes skin deep to feeling you're invested in the stakes. (And, whisper it, parts of it feel like a repetition of the origin story of the first in terms of antagonists, some action sequences.) It's slight, knockabout cinema, that shrinks its hero to a supporting role, but does wonders for female representation in a franchise that's been woefully short of taking the lead.

Marvel need to handle Scott Lang carefully in future, because otherwise, they risk turning Ant-Man into the minute character of its namesake - and that genuinely would be a crying shame. 

Pick Of the Litter: Film Review

Pick Of the Litter: Film Review

So, here it is - this year's Kedi.

Whereas the tale of Turkish kitties was a story of animals, their surroundings and the people that adopt them, Pick Of the Litter is an unashamed piece of furry kryptonite, determined to deliver some close ups of adorable puppies.

Choosing to follow five Labrador puppies as they undergo training for guide dogs for the blind in the USA is not the most taxing of intentions.

However, Dana Nachman and Don Hardy's documentary is unashamed in its desires and is oblivious to the notion of going deeper in this once-over-lightly piece that just about entertains for its 80 minute run time.

Primrose, Poppet, Phil, Potomac and Patriot are all born within the walls of a Guide Dogs building in California and all have the potential to change future owners lives. But not if they fail basic training and their puppy raisers don't meet the mark.

With a couple of the pups passed around different trainers, the interesting parts of the film and the dilemmas which reside within are largely ignored in a brisk and brutally cute piece that's aiming for Hallmark thrills rather than in-depth investigations.

Perhaps the more interesting and knottier elements of the film are dropped in amid the cutesier touches as the dogs are "career changed" (lingo for being moved out of the programme) and disappear from our immediate view.

Questions over the ethics of in-house breeding, what kind of a life that must be, the cost of doing it, both financially and emotionally for the organisation and more specifically the trainers are vaulted over at such speed that it's dizzying.

It's a shame as there are hints of some darkness here that are genuinely worth exploring, and which linger rather than being dug into. Some trainers have the dogs taken from them with a disconnect between the administration and the owners unable to be reconciled; issues over whether there are problems with expectations are hinted at - there's a lot more meat to be explored here, but doesn't get done so.

It's not to say that Pick Of The Litter isn't engaging - certainly, if you're an animal lover, you'll adore it, and you'll end up invested in which of the five pups - if any, given the high rate of failure - make it to the end of the training.

And there's certainly no denying the power of the simplicity of seeing the joy on new owners' faces and prospective lives being changed just by having a dog get through this.

But Pick Of The Litter is very much a once-over-lightly kind of pleasantly presented doco, that lacks deep insight but gives cutesy cuddles - not a bad thing for the winter months, but certainly there's a nagging feeling that a stronger documentary definitely lies within, waiting to be coaxed to the surface. 

Tetris Effect: PS4 Review

Tetris Effect: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4/ PSVR

The return of Tetris in Tetris: Effect feels like a loving tribute to the game which sucked so many of our lives over three decades ago.

It's essentially Tetris, without the annoying soundtrack of the past, and feels very much like a recognition of the simplicity of the first original game.

But in many ways, this is a Tetris that's bathed in an Ibiza Chill-out album, set to a pulsing strand of imagery, and then locked into a floatation tank with you via the route of Sound Shapes gameplay which incorporated music and rhythm.

Pulling in some of the vibe of Pac-Man Championship Arcade and Pac-Man 256 in terms of look, the game's built on clearing lines of the classic drop-a-block gameplay, before allowing you to move onto the next level.

Set over a cosmos of worlds, each level sees you graded for your efforts.

But each level is also blessed with a whole series of moving effects around the central game too which sits in the middle of your screen. It's a more engaging effect in the VR environment, but doesn't lose any of the benefit when it's on a normal screen. In truth, as the relaxed soundtrack plays out, the images are absorbing, reflecting the nature of what you're doing.

Some levels see horses move quicker the faster you drop the blocks; others see birds flying, dolphins jumping out of waters, and worshippers getting more and more frenzied the quicker you clear. Very occasionally, it's distracting, and paying not enough attention to the actual Tetriminos could cost; but when the windmills turn as you rotate blocks or blobs pulse with each line, it's beautiful to behold.

It's a sensory onslaught in many ways - albeit a welcome one as the swirling patterns, growing creatures form around the sides of the game, pulsing, whirling and living breathing digital dots which grow as the levels go on, and as your gameplay improves.

It's never a sensory overload - and Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi's made sure the game appears to embrace the past as well as the future, with its focus on the simple gameplay and fiendish ease of the original. It's sucked more of my life again, and I wouldn't change a thing.

New touches include a series of random levels where various effects strike your chance of clearing, and an inclusion of something called The Zone, which effectively stops the clock, giving you a chance to score points and clear lines in a limited time. This is triggered by the more chains of cleared levels you get and it's a canny way to clear the building blocks to help when the clock restarts.

Online levels, classic levels, the chance to play random parts again - there's much replay in this, and there's also much that will give itself joyously to disposable pleasures.

All in all, Tetris Effect is a trippy update of the past, a clever nod to the future, and a game that never loses sight of what made the original Tetris such a fiendish knotty game to put down.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: Film Review

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: Film Review

Directors: The Coen Brothers
Cast: Tim Blake Nelson, Liam Neeson, Zoe Kazan, Tom Waits, James Franco, Bill Heck, Tyne Daly

Boasting an all-star cast, and an ensemble to impress, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs takes on the wild west in an anthology from the Coen Brothers.

Comprising six stories, of varying quality in truth, the Coens' take on the Wild West is one that plays to the violence of the times, while also offering a wide scope of stories.

The end result is somewhat of a mixed bag, with some hitting the mark, and others misfiring. And given each short's differing time duration, when it misfires, it can feel longer than it should.

Successful outings include Blake Nelson's singing cowboy Buster Scruggs who is as deadly as the notes which come flying from his mouth and also a prospecting tale with Tom Waits, panning for gold on a lonely quest for riches.

Less successful are Liam Neeson's vaudeville tale of a showman exploiting a quadriplegic raconteur and a meditative piece on Stagecoach that ends proceedings, but manages to feel like the whole thing's not quite wrapped up.

If the shorts are of differing quality throughout, the production values of this multi-faceted take on the wild west are not.

Linked by a book flipping pages between stories, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs embraces its old time roots with veritable gusto.

Looking stunning throughout, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs feels authentic to the time, without ever playing up the edges of the genre; and once again, the Coen Brothers' eye for brutality in all its forms, and human tragedy, as well as black humour are all present.

Much like panning for gold, there will be some nuggets, and some almost nuggets - the anthology nature of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs makes for an intriguing companion on the road to original movies, even if it's not quite as settled a tone throughout as you'd hope for.

Dogs: Netflix Review

Dogs: Review

If a show is called Dogs you can pretty much guarantee what it will be about.

But Netflix's Dogs, while packed to the gills with good boys, is about more than the bond with human and pooch.

This six part series, from Deliver Us From Evil's Amy Berg and Glen Zipper, is also about society and the subtleties that live within.

While it starts with the cute, the opening episode treads much of the same lines as recent cinema release Pick of the Litter, in that it tackles service dogs. But whereas the film keeps things fluffy, the doco chooses to go deeper into what the dogs mean to their various charges, in this case young Corinne whose epilepsy means her mum continually sleeps in the same room, but what also their presence does to the rest of the family - hint, it's no family pet (much to the consternation of one sibling whose constant queries over the dog show how she's bonded beforehand).

More powerful I'd wager is the second episode which tells the tale of a Syrian refugee desperate to get his dog Zeus out of there and into Berlin where he now lives. There's much more going on with Dogs than pure cuteness at a surface level. 

This tale is pertinent, globally acute and is as much about the refugee cost as a case of reuniting owner with dog.

It's some smart doco making that finds all the deeper facets and avoids the obvious easy routes - and Dogs does it well, with panache and pooches in equal measure.

For animal lovers in the know it's not exactly eye-opening stuff in some ways, but given people will be piqued by the cute pitch (Dogs!), the scope for education on more global issues is an opportunity well worth bingeing on.

You Were Never Really Here: Film Review

You Were Never Really Here: Film Review

Director Lynne Ramsay's thriller is bathed in brutality, but also beaten down in humanity.

A hooded, hulking and haunted Joaquin Phoenix is Joe, a hitman former veteran, whose specialty is saving children from sex rings.

Aside from the repugnance of his day job, Joe spends the time outside of the job looking after his mother, who's ailing and in need of care.

But when Joe's called in to a kidnapping of a US senator, what he believes is a cut-and-dry job turns into something a lot more personal - and potentially fatal.

Based on the 2013 Jonathan Ames' novel, Ramsay's sparsity with the camera work and the hallucinatory material within works masterfully for You Were Never Really Here.

It's aided by a sterling turn by Phoenix, whose intensity is suited to the anger contained within Joe as he dispatches his law-breakers with a hammer. But Phoenix also makes a case for real tenderness in terms of his interaction with his mother and also the victims of the child sex rings.

It's these touches which lift You Were Never Really Here out of the darkness that it inhabits.

Ramsay (who did We Need To Talk About Kevin) keeps things taut and interesting throughout - rather than fixating on the violent means of despatching, she angles the camera away from proceedings.

When Joe breaks into a hotel to free his victims, CCTV footage shows the scene but cuts just before the method of murder is revealed; equally a desperate fight on the floor is depicted through a ceiling mirror - it's impressive stuff that's not too showy, but very effective.

It helps with the disorientation too, as You Were Never Really Here has an overall feeling of thrilling wooziness as it plays out.

Greatly enhanced by a turn from Phoenix that keeps you riveted as the conspiracy plays out, You Were Never Really Here is as much of a trip for the audience as it is on screen.

It may be a trip to a seedy underbelly, but thanks to Ramsay and Phoenix, it's a trip that's well worth taking.