Stray: DVD Review

Stray: DVD Review

Mixing in elements of Starred Up, the landscapes of New Zealand and edges of last year's great festival hit God's Own Country, Dustin Feneley's strikingly sparse Stray is a ferocious debut.

Focussing in on Kieran Charnock's Jack who finds himself on parole for GBH, it's the story of one man's attempted escape from the confines of his own tortured demons and prison. Trapped in central Otago and taunted by something within, Jack's routine is one of isolation above all else.

But that changes when he returns home one night to find Grace (Arta Dobroshi) in the woods - in one of the film's rare scenes of action. She's seeking refuge and Jack reluctantly agrees to provide shelter...

Stray is a feature in no hurry to get where it's going and it's all the better for it.

It takes at least half of the film before the protagonists meet, and there are very few words spoken, though Charnock offers up some extreme subtleties in how he changes his interactions when there's someone else, someone unknown in his orbit.

But it's in his interactions with others that the true pain starts to emerge, and Charnock channels the unease well. Equally Dobroshi, with her unfamiliarity and unease gives Grace an edge that makes their connection understandable and natural.

Feneley's made the film a lighting dream; from the clear crisp shots of the outside mountains to moments of intimacy within the cabin, the screen is rarely looked more enticing. The South Island's rarely looked better either, a combination of both desolation, isolation, beauty and despondency all wrapped up into one big screen parcel.

Its ending may seem abrupt and potentially up for debate, but Stray's connection and capability for exploring the human connection makes this debut a tenacious one and marks Feneley out as a Kiwi talent to watch. 

Overlord: Blu Ray Review

Overlord: Blu Ray Review

Drawing more in truth from Bethesda Studios' video game Wolfenstein (complete with side missions - raid the castle, kill the baddies) than Dod Sno and revelling in its B-movie aspirations, Overlord is here for nothing but a good time.

Even if it could, in honesty, have lost 20 minutes of its near 2 hour run time.

A truly stunning and visceral opening drops a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears US troopers into France on June 6th 1944 - their sole mission is to take out a radio tower built on top of a church so the Allied Invasion can take place.

But they're not prepared for what their small number finds in the village...

Overlord starts brilliantly - the tension's ratcheted up as the troops get ready to make their drop, and the inevitable plays out. Meshing the war tropes with the everyman soldiers (and their cursory dialogue to give a degree of sympathy when they're offed) works well for it - but once it hits the ground, it doesn't run, but slightly stumbles in terms of pacing.

And while the B-movie body horror aspirations are on show early on, it's a full two-thirds of the film before Avery unleashes all the monster mash elements into a series of set pieces that bring the gore and jump scares, but not the over-show.

The science falls by the way side, and the allegories over Nazis and hell (talk early on of jackals, a tracking shot of a Jesus statue burning in a fire) are ramped up. Its only interest is in dispatching the "rotten sons of bitches" and in truth, Avery does it well, neither scrimping on what's expected or overplaying what's hinted.

It's a mix that works largely well, thanks in part to Adepo's sensitive everyman, man-with-a-moral-compass trooper, who tries to do the right thing, but finds, that in war, that's not always the best thing to do.

The body horror ramps up for the finale, one which can ludicrously be seen a way off, and feels like a cross between Wolfenstein, creature feature and a 2000AD story, but still manages to deliver what's expected.

Overlord is very much a case of a film that does exactly what it says on the tin, even if it does feel occasionally like it's holding back as it treads a fine line on the genre tightropes it's walking. The atmosphere is sustained throughout (even though earlier mentioned expeditious trim could have helped) and to be frank, while there are threads that could build a universe, as a stand-alone, one-off Nazi-killin, war story, brothers-in-arms, supernatural mix, it all comes together for an entertaining, if disposable, good time. 

Anna and the Apocalypse: DVD Review

Anna and the Apocalypse: DVD Review

Christmas films are a notoriously tricky beast to negotiate; either they are a syrupy sentimental mix or they're loosely connected to the season and a miss.

So it's heartening to report that Anna and The Apocalypse is a mix of horror, High School Musical, Shaun of the Dead and Christmas edges.

A well cast, and down-to-earth Hunt is Anna, a teenager looking to get out of the small Scottish town she lives in. With a plan to take a gap year rather than go to university, but unable to tell her father (Benton) that that's what she wants, Anna's trapped.

But she finds her world changed when a pandemic suddenly sweeps her corner of Scotland...

In truth, Anna and The Apocalypse is more a fun that's a light and fluffy genre rejoinder to both horror and the musical. Meshing poppy power ballad songs that follow the usual trick of revealing feelings, some impressive choreography and throwing in pop culture references early on, the film's clearly hellbent on being a Buffy-style musical via John Hughes' sensibilities.

However, it kind of works, with a degree of joie de vivre and Edgar Wright quick cut editing homage carrying it through.

It helps greatly that Hunt's engaging and affable, as she negotiates a moping best friend who's in love with her, an ex who's gone from nice guy to bully and a father who doesn't want to see his daughter go. There's a heart and relatability to her performance that's hard to deny.

Occasionally, it lapses close to parody, and silliness, but in terms of the festive season, it sits nicely within the pantheon of Christmas films that are slightly awry from what's expected.

Its goofy edges and self-obsessed teens, wrapped up in their own issues, rather than the global concerns collide nicely to make a charming film that meshes genres to pleasing and surprisingly emotional effect. 

Metro Exodus: PS4 Review

Metro Exodus: PS4 Review

Developed by 4A Games
Platform: PS4

Metro: Last Light was a riveting experience.

But Metro: Exodus has taken that to another level, with the latest game from Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels revelling in the atmospherics and diving deeper into the world.

In the latest first person shooter, you find yourself as Artyom in the Russian post-apocalyptic wastelands, where shooting and horror are the only constants. As if dealing with post rag-tag humans isn't bad enough, there are also mutated horrific creatures to deal with as well.

But as if survival isn't enough, this game is not your typical run and gun and hope to survive. Pulling in elements of maintenance as well, Metro: Exodus delights in keeping you aware of the surroundings and ensuring your equipment is always in tiptop condition.

Beginning within a nuclear winter and spanning a year, it's about survival and dealing with more unstable elements than ever before as you begin to search for life beyond the Metro...

Beautifully realised and with some truly edge-of-the-seat jump scares, Metro Exodus makes a case for one of the best survivalist shooters out there - from the small details like dirt on your gas mask to some real jolts, the game's prided itself on being atmospheric in extremis, and engrossing as it plays out.

There's the usual QTEs in place, and the game does style over substance at times, but that doesn't detract from what Deep Silver is trying to achieve with it. In some ways, in terms of style, it's a mix of Far Cry's New Dawn post-apocalypse world and Doom style creatures piling in on you as it swirls up stealth and gunplay in equal amount. There are a few issues with long load times here and there, but with a game looking like this, it's to be expected - though one can only hope long term, it's sorted.

All in all, Metro: Exodus is an engrossing game, one which shows that once the story mechanics are truly realised and the game elements folded in, a post-apocalyptic world can be more than its cliches would suggest.

New Avengers Endgame trailer drops

New Avengers Endgame trailer drops

A Brand new Avengers Endgame trailer has released, showing new suits for the gang and a new look for Captain Marvel.

Watch it below

Destroyer: Film Review

Destroyer: Film Review

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell, Tatiana Maslany, Scoot McNairy, Sebastian Stan, Bradley Whitford
Director: Karyn Kusama

As thrilling as it can be to see Nicole Kidman completely transformed in this role of Erin Bell, the intricacies of what Karyn Kusama has constructed may lead some to recall the winding narrative of True Detective.

Kidman is detective Erin Bell, who discovers at a crime scene that a body has a connection to a case from her past, and the possibility that a gang boss (Kebbell) she once believed dead is somehow back.

Setting out on a dogged trail, Bell finds the dots from her past reconnecting as the former LAPD detective gets more deeply involved.

Destroyer is a hard film to endure at times, such is its unrelenting commitment to bleakness.

And despite a transformed Kidman's tenacious grip on proceedings, she's occasionally  a hard emotional and unempathetic character to latch on to, no matter how intriguing proceedings are.

But where Destroyer triumphs is in layering a narrative that takes a little time to crack.

As the pieces on the board shift and re-align, things start to fall into place as they should, eventually rewarding you for your efforts. And it's here that Destroyer's strength seems to appear, thanks to
Kidman's gritty turn and the fact she's shuffling through past mistakes of her life.

It may be difficult to love, but it's not difficult to salute Destroyer for doing something that feels different, even if parts of the story are traditional in many ways. It could have done with some more urgency at times, but for now Destroyer shows that a combination of killer acting and material are no bad thing.

Hotel Mumbai: Film Review

Hotel Mumbai: Film Review

Cast: Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Jason Isaacs, Anupam Kher
Director: Anthony Maras

Tense, claustrophobic and never once exploitative, Hotel Mumbai's recreation of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks is simultaneously nail-biting and verging on the factual.

Dev Patel is a worker at the Taj Hotel, one of those places targeted by Pakistani militants who launch a series of attacks to wreak chaos. Trapped inside and with time running out, a group of disparate guests and hotel workers try to survive.

Hotel Mumbai has a sense of claustrophobia, a sense of terror and a sense of the unending mercilessness of terrorism. As the almost robotic servants carry out their master's bidding communicated to them via phone lines, there's a true feeling of horror as the attacks take place, a relentless march against the perversion and hatred of other's ways of life.

But Maras, while delivering an almost workman-like and straight forward retelling of events, never once slips into the exploitative, giving it a feeling of something sickening growing with dread throughout.

The thing with Hotel Mumbai is that the film's unswerving dedication to the unfolding reality of a terrorist attack helps it to grip, and leaving you twisting in its grimmer edges.

What Maras is smart enough to do is to realise that within the horror of every crisis, there is humanity to be found at every level.

While he does use the story of Hammer and  Boniadi's baby being trapped and separated with their sitter to promote some tension, he's wise enough to not milk it for all it's worth and just leave you teetering on the edge of your seat. Slivers of background provide enough to guide an audience in, and don't feel like sentimental set-up sap.

It's this element of sensitivity with the film's truly awful premise that helps ground Hotel Mumbai into a gripping and sickening watch.

Equally Patel and Kher show the humanity of the staff and the humility of their approach that the guest comes first, no matter what the situation. It's horrifying in many ways, but like any disaster film, it's the human elements which shine through in Hotel Mumbai to keep the light burning.

Ultimately, Hotel Mumbai's commitment to the reality of the Mumbai terror attacks means the film passes without direct judgement on those perpetrating them. There's a subtlety in the condemnation that does play out, but not an overtness - it's a key difference in making this disaster movie crowd-pleasing and turning tragedy into gripping drama.