Mortal Engines: DVD Review

Mortal Engines: DVD Review

It may appear a Brexit parable written before the leave Europe campaign gathered steam, but Mortal Engines' pace is there from the get go - even if the subtleties of this revenge-driven tale are not.

Set in a future world after a 60-minute war, and where capitals now roam the world as moving cities hell-bent on devouring each other and resources, Mortal Engines is the tale of scarred orphan heroine Hester Shaw (Hilmar, who makes good fist of her softening from angry teen arc).

Driven by a thirst for revenge against Thaddeus Valentine (Weaving, in a growling, little else role), Shaw finds herself teaming up with Tom Natsworthy (Misfits star Sheehan, pushing for big screen charm) to try and prevent another all-out war.

Meshing steampunk aesthetics, a Terminator vibe, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and pushing it all through a prism of Mad Max Fury Road, games Bioshock and We Happy Few and young adult, Mortal Engines' commitment is to on screen action, rather than in depth character.

And on that front, Rivers and his visual team deliver in spades. The film starts at a rip-snorting pace, with an oversize steam driven "predator city" trying to snare its smaller victim. The cameras pan up and around, delivering a sense of scale that's second to none, and showing the incredible detail of the visual work done on Mortal Engines.

The world-building is also brilliantly visualised with it being clear that plenty of effort has gone into the details of the predator cities and their inhabitants.

Unfortunately, the same can't quite be said about the human characters who are largely underdeveloped and simply exist to shout "Run" or deliver exposition-heavy background dialogue or some of the usual Young Adult clangers. It's a stop/start/stop/start mentality that doesn't quite pay off for the film, especially if you're trying to be made to care about the characters within.

Hilmar delivers a solid turn, showcasing both the anger and suffering of her troubled past, but equally softening; and Sheehan makes a good bid for big screen stardom, even if some of the charisma of the character is underwritten, and saddled with the companion-asking-a-lot-of-questions trope.

Ultimately, on a narrative front, Mortal Engines doesn't do anything you wouldn't expect; at its heart, its core commitment is to action and nothing deeper, and sadly, it suffers a little because of it, feeling like pieces are being pushed together without the ease of a story to propel it along. It achieves the visual style with ease and offers much of the same chase ethic as Mad Max: Fury Road delivered.

More about spectacle than substance, Mortal Engines is sound and fury from the beginning - with just a hint more depth, it could have been the start of a new franchise rather than just some vicarious visuals.

Five Feet Apart: Film Review

Five Feet Apart: Film Review

Cast: Cole Sprouse, Haley Lu Richardson
Director: Justin Baldoni

At times, struggling to justify itself as anything other than an option to sell a MOR soundtrack, Five Feet Apart's particular brand of sick lit is to be lauded for one simple thing - Haley Lu Richardson.

She plays Stella, an OCD Cystic Fibrosis sufferer, who lives in a hospital ward, and suffers from guilt. Also on the ward is Will (Riverdale's Sprouse) a fellow sufferer who's trialling new drugs to see if he can be cured.

But the two grow an inseparable bond, despite initially niggling each other and despite warnings to stay apart as otherwise it could kill them...

Less Fault In Their Stars, more TV soapy medical drama, Five Feet Apart knows exactly what it wants to do - and to be fair, does it admirably enough.

Every dramatic moment and trope of the genre is ticked off as the aching star-cross lovers' duo form their bond from their initial bickering through to their inevitable clash against the authorities. And every moment is sequenced by a soundtrack aimed at amplifying their aching and intensifying the brooding looks between the duo.

Sprouse is fine; he's required to do little except look out from under his hair as he ploughs the vulenrable-yet-caring road laid out for him. But the film's power lies in Haley Lu Richardson, whose expressiveness and open-approach to an at times expository laden "This is what Cystic Fibrosis is" gives the film a kind of heart that it needs as it dives headlong through its overlong and obviously cliched execution.

Baldoni does little behind the camera to make this an essential young adult entrant into the pantheon of the sick-lit genre, but thankfully Richardson's performance guides you along the narrative bumps and cliched melodramatic stumbles as they happen.

Five Feet Apart will be destined to be loved by some teens, and there is a worry that at times the film does over-simplify the complexities of the illness, but it does an admirable job of raising awareness.

Shazam!: Film Review

Shazam!: Film Review

Cast: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Asher Angel
Director: David F Sandberg

The DC Extended Universe goes as light and as goofy as it ever has before with the unveiling of the story of Billy Batson aka Shazam!

Teenage Batson (Angel) has been bouncing from foster home to foster home, trying to find the mother who he lost at a carnival when he was younger. Pushed into one more home in Philadelphia, where five other foster kids live, Batson's resentful and decides he doesn't need anyone but himself.

Befriended by superhero obsessed Freddy (Grazer) from within the clan, Billy finds himself literally transformed when he's given the powers of Shazam by a wizard (Djimon Hounsou) who's searching for a champion.

But Batson's still a kid at heart, and when confronted by Mark Strong's evil Dr Sivana who wants his power, he needs more than just puerile intentions to save the day.

Shazam! is essentially Superman vs Lex Luthor, poured through a prism of Big, Harry Potter and Instant Family.

It's fair to say that the DCEU has gone a bit goofier with this origin story, and Chuck star Levi exudes the qualities needed for the big kid in a superhero suit that will resonate with youngsters, who are likely to run round shouting Shazam for their own needs.

Levi packs in the charm, and the innocence while adhering to the conventions of the origin movie as well. But it's left to DC-obsessed Freddy (Grazer) to present the exposition of the mechanics of being  a superhero as the film plays out.

It's here that Shazam! falls into a few problems.

A choppy pre-titles start is flat, the final act showdown goes on way too long and the stakes feel (perhaps refreshingly) low key throughout, with only Shazam and his family being threatened by Sivana - despite earlier hints that Sivana would unleash the seven deadly sins to ravish the world. And a plot line about Batson finding his mother is not only oddly written, but wobbily executed.

Yet the film stays true to its sweet family vibe throughout, and messages of relying on siblings, family et al are nicely contrasted in our the protagonist and his antagonist.

There's an occasional flippancy about the way the extended universe is treated, and given how other films can be, that's no bad thing - but it does make feeling like Shazam could be a long term standalone proposition hard to swallow.

In many ways, this feels like a one-and-done kind of film, with Shazam simply brought in to provide comic relief for other team ups further down the line.

Ultimately, Shazam is a one size fits all superhero family film that packs a friendly vibe, and has fun doing what it does - whether that's enough to sustain a longtime proposition though remains to be seen - it'll need more than just a magic trick to pull that off.

Suspiria: Blu Ray Review

Suspiria: Blu Ray Review

Feeling a lot like a contemporary cinematic bedfellow / brother to Gaspar Noe's Climax, Guadagnino's Suspiria is an odd beast to say the very least.

50 Shades of Grey star Dakota Johnson plays Susan Bannion, a dancer summoned to Berlin during post Cold war times to audition for a company run by Madame Blanc (Swinton, in icy enigmatic turn).

Initially holding back, Bannion rises to the star pupil role, as her roommate Sara (Goth) begins to grow suspicious of what's going on at the Tanz Academy.

While Suspiria offers one of the most uncomfortable scenes set to celluloid this year, Guadagnino's homage, less remake, has more of the feel of an art film, rather than a full on horror.

With contorting bodies, some truly impressive choreographed dance scenes and a general feeling of unease early on, Suspiria sets the scene well as it ramps up the feminist vibe.

But it begins to fudge the execution of the film, failing to deliver much suspense and horror in equal measures as it unspools. Leading to a finale that's more ludicrous than terrifying is the final blow for this, thanks to some truly weak prosthetics and laughable dialogue. (Which is baffling given that some of the earlier work on this front is more than laudable, and the hints of the madness of possession that swirl early on.)

Mixing in allegories for the East vs West confrontation in Germany, an ongoing series of radio reports about the Baader Meinhof hostage crisis and an old man's quest to find his wife, the film's tendency to hardly deliver on any of these dallies very close to feeling it's undercooked rather than fully formed. It doesn't help the characters field a once over lightly approach either.

That said, Swinton and Johnson impress mightily; from Johnson's naif lost in the pull of something she doesn't understand to Swinton's performance that is evocative and subtle (to say more is to spoil), there is something to admire about the female led Suspiria (and doubtless there will be treatises on the women-led power piece and how it handles men).

Ultimately though, the 2018 remake of Suspiria is as polarising as you'd expect; it fails as a horror film, succeeds as an art piece, and consequently, feels insubstantial and almost inconsequential. The 1977 film from Dario Argento would be slightly appalled.

What We Do In The Shadows: TV Review

What We Do In The Shadows: TV Review

Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's seminal What We Do In The Shadows movie was unshakable in its commitment to the absurd and the mundane.

Spawning a TV spinoff in the form of TVNZ's Wellington Paranormal, starring the two inept cops O'Leary and Minogue, the 2014 film has been ripe for a spinoff itself, with talk of a werewolves show evolving, but not quite coming to fruition.

However, the Soho screening What We Do In the Shadows US TV series is every bit as funny as the original movie was - and it's no surprise that Clement and Waititi return (albeit behind the scenes) for the first episode.

Set in Staten Island, and with Brit comedians Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou and Kayvan Novak taking the leads, the fresh blood approach to widening the universe out works rather well.
Novak is Nandor The Relentless, the de facto head of the household and whose quibbling reminds very much of Waititi's Viago from the movies. His fellow housemates include the ever brilliant Matt Berry and Nastasia Demetriou as husband and wife Laszlo and Nadia.

The series also brings new life to the sidekicks, in the form of Nandor's familiar Guillermo (Guillen, the series' human edge) and the energy vampire Colin. Colin in particular is one of the best additions to the show - a spoof in many ways of the US Office's HR rep Toby, Colin's Mark Proksch is a genius touch.

The show's MO kicks in when after 200 years on Staten Island, the oldest vampire arrives to ask if they've conquered the country, sending Nandor and the group into a tailspin and fearing for their own lives.

It's here that What We Do In The Shadows earns its place as a spinoff; while the first episode feels a little like a compressed version of the film in terms of moments and plot, the subsequent three episodes show a more impressive approach to the mundane humour that's permeated the deadpan ways of the original film.

Laconic, demonic and moronic, the US remake of What We Do In The Shadows is hands down still incredibly funny. While the initial thrust of conquering America falls a little by the wayside in prior episodes, the scripts show real promise and humorous bite in expanding the universe.

Largely overshadowed by Berry's foppishness, Novak brings an A game to the head vampire, and his ineptness. In the first episode alone he uses glitter so that he can shine like the Twilight vampires to impress others. There's a feeling of comedic hubris here which is well-exploited and has been seen in the likes of The Office and Parks And Recreation.

Fangtastically funny, and hopefully worth every episode of its ten episode run, What We Do In The
Shadows US is well worth watching and treasuring. It deserves more than cult love, and thanks to its adaptation of the workplace comedy and the great British sitcoms of oddfellows, it's easily one of the best shows of 2019.

Borderlands 3 is announced

Borderlands 3 is announced

Get ready vault hunters, because here comes Borderlands 3

Win a copy of Wreck It Ralph 2

Win a copy of Wreck It Ralph 2

Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet”

Access Granted on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray™ & DVD on March 27

Fans can browse exclusive extras revealing the creation of the film’s eye-popping internet

and its off-the-wall content, deleted scenes, hidden Easter eggs and much more!

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” the animated adventure featuring video-game bad guy Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) and fellow misfit Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Sarah Silverman), raced to No. 1 opening weekend (the second biggest Thanksgiving opening of all time), winning the top spot at the domestic box office for three consistent weeks and grossing more than $435.1 million to date. 

In the hilarious, highspeed sequel to 2012’s Oscar®-nominated “Wreck-It Ralph,” the besties risk it all by traveling to the expansive, fast-paced world of the internet in an action-packed attempt to save Vanellope’s game Sugar Rush. “Ralph Breaks the Internet” is available on Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD and DVD Mar 27

“Ralph Breaks the Internet” arrives home with a wide-range of exclusive extras, taking fans behind the scenes at Walt Disney Animation Studios to explore how artists created the film’s vibrant version of the internet — from comical cat videos to the intense online game Slaughter Race to shady characters on the Dark Net.

Features also reveal some Easter eggs — inside jokes and references to other Disney films and characters hidden throughout the film — and filmmakers introduce some never before revealed deleted scenes.