Sorry To Bother You: Film Review

Sorry To Bother You: Film Review

Cast: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Steven Yeun, Patton Oswalt, David Cross
Director: Boots Riley

Possibly this year's most biting satire, Sorry To Bother You's ramshackle approach to its story wields unlikely dividends for an audience looking for more beneath the surface.

Get Out's Stanfield plays Cassius Green, a down on his luck unemployed man searching for work.

Conning his way into a telemarketing job, sakjfdsfds learns that there's money to be had by putting on a white man's voice and selling. So against the odds, and desperate to get out of living in his garage
with his supportive girlfriend Detroit (Thompson, on fire form), Green takes the advice on board - and it works.

Swiftly rising in the corporate world, Cassius finds his life at odds due to his former telemarketer colleagues protesting conditions. But there's much more going on at the mysterious company than Green realises...

There's a lot to digest in Sorry To Bother You, a savage indictment of the underclasses in America and also building on the work done by last year's Get Out.

Boots Riley's frankly indefinable film offers many joys in many ways, and will reward a second viewing with more finer details to be picked up. Suffice to say that Stanfield anchors it with a great deal of heart and innate likeability as the gonzo approach to the film veers into both creative and lunatic territory with veritable aplomb.

There's something of a Twilight Zone here, and an alternate universe as tsadjdsakdsak's world descends into a place of utter disbelief - be it the reality of what's going on where he works, or the commentary on the dumbing down of TV and the reality TV craze that continues unabated.

But Riley's smart enough to pepper these elements throughout, causing viewers to find much for discussion once the lights have gone and once the unease over what's happened has cleared.

Ultimately, Sorry To Bother You may be 2018's most unconformist and subversive ride, but it's also one of 2018's most compelling too - just don't be surprised if the final feeling is one of sickening nausea as you begin to accept reality's coming as close to anything insane produced within.

Bumblebee: Film Review

Bumblebee: Film Review

Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Dylan O'Brien, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr
Director: Travis Knight

Essentially an origin story for everyone's favourite Transformer, the clumsy Bumblebee, Kubo and The Two Strings director Travis Knight's relatively stripped back approach to the noise and bombast of the Transformers series actually pays charming dividends.

Set in 1987, with Cybertron fallen, Optimus Prime sends Bumblebee to Earth to set up a base for the Autobots to stop the Decepticons. But when Bumblebee loses his memory, he finds himself in a town near San Francisco and stuck in a VW form. Stumbling across Bumblebee is Charlie (Steinfeld), a on-the-cusp of eighteen outsider, who's struggling after losing her dad.

These two form a friendship, but the Decepticons are soon hot on their tail, intent on wiping out the Autobots for good....

It's easy to be cynical about Bumblebee, a film that really doesn't need to be made.

Starting with the fall of Cybertron, and then grounding Bee on Earth and saddling him with an 80s setting, complete with the tropes of an eighties alien invasion film, it's easy to dismiss Travis Knight's intentions as puerile for a franchise that's largely until now, been clothed in sturm and drang.

Yet, there's something pleasingly earnest and charming about Bumblebee, a film that embraces its innocence and gives it a kind of Spielbergian 80s family vibe throughout, and meshes it with the Herbie overtones.

Sure, there are one too many triggers here and there from the overuse of 80s music, to the shoehorning in of references, but the clearly ET influenced plot works nicely as this earnestly acted, occasionally underwritten and oddly cliched here and there buddy movie progresses along.

Smartly settling on less Transformers and subsequent clutter and feeling like an episode of the 80s TV cartoon delivers a stripped back approach for Bumblebee; one which feels like a pleasant ride in many ways, as it juggles the comedy (largely from Cena's gung ho military jock) to the heartfelt relationship between the two. Equally, the actual transforming action benefits from a crisp clarity of vision and not so much overkill - and there's much to love from the expressive CGI eye work too.

All in all, Bumblebee is a film that benefits from being about a Transformer, not about the Transformers - it's an important distinction, and while it won't win any creativity awards, the decision to make a film in this franchise breathe a little more is a more than welcome change of robot pace.

Mandy: Blu Ray Review

Mandy: Blu Ray Review

Placing the psycho among the psychotropic, Panos Cosmatos' Mandy is a curious beast, likely to satiate an Incredibly Strange audience, but unlikely to burst out of its cult bubble.

Starting with Nic Cage in full lumberjack mode felling a tree (not a euphemism), Cosmatos's under siege piece takes its 80s vibe and fully runs with it.

Cage is Red, who lives with Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) in a remote cabin. Their dream existence is granted a rude awakening when the Children of the New Dawn pass Mandy on a path one day, determining that she should be with them.

Their leader (Linus Roach, in full messianic mode) orders his followers to steal her away - needless to say Red ain't having that.

It's a case of 80s style over substance with Mandy, which is no bad thing if that's what you're looking for. Drenched in a Johann Johannsson score, the film's atmospherics hit every level they're intending to, but it's a case of genre style ahead of anything else in effect here.

Cosmatos makes his piece a masterclass in lighting, soaking many scenes in red and backlighting the fight scenes with spotlights - it's a visual lunacy that's worth embracing.

Mandy may drag a little in parts, a fever dream that's extended beyond need, but Cage's fans will be happy to see their hero, in his tighty-whiteys, doing what he does best - chewing up the scenery (and doing a large amount of cocaine at the end of one scene).

Mandy fulfills its exploitation vibe well, but beyond the deaths and gore it proffers up, it offers little more.

Avengers: Endgame: First Look

Avengers: Endgame: First Look

The first look at the brand new Avengers movie has dropped.

Avengers: Endgame will debut on April  26, 2019.


The film follows on from Avengers: Infinity War and picks up after Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe people out.

BlackKKlansman: Blu Ray Review

BlackKKlansman: Blu Ray Review

As much a blaxploitation piece cum shaggy dog story as a "Is that really true?" story, BlacKkKlansman is as exaggerated a story piece as it is unsubtle.

Director Spike Lee shines in large swathes of the film, but the final 4 minutes, which chooses to insert real life Charlottesville footage into proceedings, shows how cancerous the insertion of real-life footage is proving to be in dramas and documentaries.

BlacKkKlansman is the story of a rookie Colorado Springs cop, Ron Stallworth (Washington, in a mesmerising and yet grounded turn) who in the 1970s wanted to join the police force. After being subjected to a rather degrading interview, Stallworth finds himself working the evidence room, but pushes his bosses to join other divisions.

That's granted and he's sent undercover to a Black Power meeting on a surveillance job. It's here that he meets Laura Harrier's Patrice and finds himself going deeper into the movement than he expected as he wrestles with the idea that he can change their world outlook from within.

However, things get spookier for Stallworth when jokingly one day he decides to call the Ku Klux Klan and gets co-opted in. But, he can't attend meetings so he sends Detective Flip Zimmerman as his body double (Driver, in a suitably stoic turn) - but things get more complicated the longer the ruse goes on...

"Dis joint based on some real fo'sure shit" is Lee's opening gambit - and once past the use of Gone With The Wind and Alec Baldwin's weirdly out of place ranting, BlacKkKlansman becomes a film that feels like Superfly got mixed in with the DNA of a buddy cop movie and a undercover cop falling in love film that you've seen a million times before.

However, that's also where Lee's ability to subvert your expectations works best - he shuns the cliched and presents a film that crackles with contemporary commentary (Make America Great, America would never elect someone like that are lines mentioned a few times in throwaway lines) and seethes with indignation when it should.

Which is why it's a shame that later in proceedings, this black humour film where no one is really laughing drops the ball in favour of less subtle forms of visual protest. A sequence involving Harry Belafonte recounting a real life racist situation as he addresses Black Power activists and the aforementioned Charlottesville footage feel like a hammer being used to crack a nut.

Perhaps there's an argument stating that desperate times resort to desperate measures, but it's infinitely irritating to see a master craftsman like Lee stepping back from letting his work do the talking.

It's the only thing which derails Lee's BlacKkKlansman - perhaps if he'd been reined in a little, the glorious dialogue, utterly ludicrous reality and the subtleties would have been more powerful; instead, the over-egging leaves a bad taste in your mouth, a feeling that Lee's vitriol has got the better of his creative edges.

Washington is mightily impressive, imbuing Stallworth with both heart, indignation and naivete; equally Driver's turn shows why his dependable performances are becoming the most important assets he brings to films he's in.

Sure, there are shocks throughout, and rightly so, but Lee never presents the KKK as anything other than inept, crippled by their bigotry and sidelined by their stupidity of belief.

Ultimately, for the most part, BlacKkKlansman is a film that ripples with unease, humour and gallows jokes in a mix that proves potent. It's just a shame that the hammer - nut approach employed at the end makes you feel like it's less Fight The Power, more Shout the Power down and then keep doing so. 

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled - first look trailer

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled - first look trailer

Crash is back in the driver’s seat! Go fur-throttle with Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, available June 21, 2019.

UBISOFT BRINGS A SPECTACULAR POST-APOCALYPTIC SETTING TO FAR CRY UNVEILING FAR CRY® NEW DAWN

UBISOFT BRINGS A SPECTACULAR POST-APOCALYPTIC SETTING TO FAR CRY UNVEILING FAR CRY® NEW DAWN

UBISOFT BRINGS A SPECTACULAR POST-APOCALYPTIC SETTING TO FAR CRY UNVEILING FAR CRY® NEW DAWN

Sydney, Australia — December 7, 2018 — Today at The Game Awards, Ubisoft unveiled Far Cry^® New Dawn, the newest installment of the award-winning Far Cry franchise. Set in a breathtaking post-apocalyptic world, Far Cry New Dawn will release on February 15, 2019 for PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, the Xbox One family of devices including Xbox One X and Windows PC. Players can pre-order Far Cry New Dawn now for $69.95 AUD.

To watch the announcement trailer please click image below

Set seventeen years after a global nuclear catastrophe, Far Cry New Dawn brings players into a wildly beautiful and radically transformed Hope County, Montana. Life has begun to emerge from the chaos, but the survivors now face a new threat – the merciless Highwaymen and their leaders The Twins, Mickey and Lou. Raised in a lawless frontier, the twin sisters and their band of scavengers live only for today and have descended upon Hope County to take all available resources. To push back this devastating threat, players must help the Survivors grow stronger, craft a makeshift arsenal and form unexpected alliances to fight for survival in a dangerous new frontier.

At the Homebase, players will prepare to face off against the threat of the Highwaymen. The Homebase, called Prosperity, is the stronghold of the Survivors. Here, players can craft makeshift weapons and vehicles and train their Guns for Hire – including new and familiar faces. As players progress, they can upgrade the Homebase for more powerful weapons and gear. The Homebase is also a launch-pad to Expeditions, where for the first time in Far Cry, the adventure is more than local. Set in memorable locations across the US, from wetlands to canyons and more, Expeditions drop players into unique locations where they must grab a package of valuable materials and get out, quickly.

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal with support from Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Kiev and Ubisoft Bucharest, Far Cry New Dawn is a first-person shooter set in a completely open world. The standalone sequel to Far Cry^® 5, Far Cry New Dawn thrusts players into a brilliant post-apocalyptic setting where they will encounter a dual threat – The Twins, Mickey and Lou. Players can recruit an eclectic cast of Guns and Fangs for Hire, or a Friend for Hire for co-op play, to experience unpredictable, unforgettable Far Cry Moments where anything can happen.

For more information about Far Cry New Dawn, please visit farcry.com and follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/farcry and on Twitter attwitter.com/farcrygame or hashtag #FarCryNewDawn.

For the latest on Far Cry New Dawn and other Ubisoft games, please visit news.ubisoft.com.