KNIVES OUT First Trailer & Teaser Poster

KNIVES OUT First Trailer & Teaser Poster

KNIVES OUT WE ARE SUPER EXCITED TO SHARE WITH YOU THE FIRST TRAILER AND TEASER POSTER FOR OUR UPCOMING "WHODUNNIT" CRIME/DRAMA FILM KNIVES OUT IN NZ CINEMAS NOVEMBER 28, 2019

Synopsis: Acclaimed writer and director Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, The Last Jedi) pays tribute to mystery mastermind Agatha Christie in KNIVES OUT, a fun, modern-day murder mystery where everyone is a suspect.   When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan’s dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan’s untimely death. With an all-star ensemble cast including Chris Evans, Ana De Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford and Jaeden Martell, KNIVES OUT is a witty and stylish whodunit guaranteed to keep audiences guessing until the very end.

Arctic: DVD Review

Arctic: DVD Review

Mixing elements of All Is Lost, The Revenant, 127 Hours and every other wilderness survival tale you've seen, director Joe Penna's Arctic benefits from a minimalist turn from Mads Mikkelsen and maximum use of the snowy world around him.

We join Mikkelsen's unnamed man Overgard atop a snowy peak, as he appears to be digging a trench. 

But as Penna's camera pulls back, the reveal is that of an SOS carved into the ground.

With time spent on there unknown, but with Mikkelsen's Overgard clearly ensconced in the icy peaks for a while, Arctic wastes no time in showcasing the climate and the measured approach of the leading man.

With no soundtrack to note initially, and with the sound of the wind howling, Mikkelsen's lost-in-the-snow man spends his time handcranking a beacon, hoping for a hit. But it doesn't turn out as he'd expect.

To say little happens in the sparse Arctic is perhaps an understatement.

But with Mikkelsen throwing everything into the performance, and when it becomes clear that it's not just him to consider, Arctic ramps up into a what would you do approach that's as icy as the climate surrounding it.

As Mikkelsen rages against the elements, throwing frustration to the wind only in the worst incidents and leading you to empathise with him for it, it becomes a question of who's keeping who alive in this, as he wrestles with more than just the harshness of the land but the potential futility of what he's doing.

It's a classic case of self-survival and the fight against the odds - a "we'll be fine" versus "you've got to be kidding me" and Mikkelsen channels it well, using silence for maximum effect and frustration sparingly.

Arctic may be destined for a debate over its ending (a la All is Lost), but the tension throughout, while not exactly palpable, is present, leading you to be kept in its icy grip.

Details don't need to be added in, back story doesn't need to be fleshed out and everything is garnered only from what's on screen - it's a compelling way to burrow in to the survival story and while Arctic may not be for everyone, given its pace, as a piece of survivalist cinema, it more than earns its place in the genre. 

Us: Blu Ray Review

Us: Blu Ray Review

Us emerges from the shadow of the success of Get Out, and with the weight of crippling expectation as well.

Jordan Peele's debut was a sweeping takedown of America and the societal oppression of African Americans.

For his sophomore effort, Peele's slightly sidelined some of the more overtly racial elements in favour of a more direct horror film that mixes elements of The Twilight Zone (the reboot of which he's helping helm) and doppelganger fears the likes of which haven't been seen since Twin Peaks.

Nyong'o stars as Adelaide, who in 1986, as a child was changed after a visit to a Santa Cruz funhouse at the beach. When she, along with her husband (Duke, the film's necessary and realistic comic relief) and son and daughter returns, the family finds themselves being stalked by four people who look exactly like them...

Espousing an uneasy atmosphere, dousing the whole thing in tension and pumping up the intrigue works well for the large part of Us, with Peele's eye for disorienting shots and moments of fear delivering some memorable big screen imagery.

While the story doesn't quite have as many of the multi-levelled nuances of Get Out, the mystery rides for as long as it can, before being saddled with a necessary exposition-heavy final act. But the disorienting works well throughout, with most of the guessing likely to fall into the "wrong" category even with seasoned genre veterans.

What does emerge from Us is something that has a voice to speak to society, but is hardly the film's driving raison d'etre. A multi-layered mystery, that in turns relies on horror for its propulsion, Peele's approach to the cinema of unease and discord is to be saluted.

Atmospherics help build the feeling of dread and suspense, but it's also thanks to a towering performance from Nyong'o that this smart film gets its human edge. Anchoring the insidious home invasion horror to the more ambitious swerves of the film in the final run, Nyong'o's skill and flair are evident from the get go, summoning two different characters with ease.

Us may riff on the likes of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Invaders from Mars's societal unease that we're being replaced, but its commitment throughout is to psychological edge-of-your-seat fare.

That it achieves that with such ease is a commendation for Peele, and even if the final act's reveals seem a little garbled and rushed with a tantalising hint of a wider mythology to be fleshed out, the overall effect is still a contemplative and relative gut punch that's well-worth sitting through. 

Spider-Man: Far From Home: Film Review

Spider-Man: Far From Home: Film Review

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau
Director: Jon Watts

More a film about fallout and fallen heroes, as well as father figures, Spider-Man: Far From Home thwips and zips around Europe as it unleashes the concluding picture in Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Peter Parker (Holland, lithe and offering depth in whatever's commanded of him) is grieving the loss of Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame and fielding calls to become the next Iron Man.

With the world reeling from the replacement of everyone who disappeared from Thanos' snap, and the social problems it poses, Parker just wants to concentrate on being a teen, go on holiday and tell MJ (Zendaya, nicely awkward and giving some resonance to their relationship) how he feels.

But when a new threat emerges, Nick Fury (a petulant and off-key Jackson) is determined to get Spider-Man to man up - however, even with the arrival of Jake Gyllenhaal's fatherly Quentin Blake (aka Mysterio), Parker has to deal once again with the fact that with great power, comes great responsibility.

While Spider-Man: Far From Home will proffer little surprises to those well-versed with their Spider-lore, what Watts and the team does is provide a wrap up capper that leans on the humour, builds on the heart and goes heavy on the action when it's needed.

The tone feels right for Spider-Man, and while the relationship between Peter and Jacob Batalon's Ned is sidelined when it sparkled in Homecoming, Far From Home is more interested in giving Parker surrogate father figure options to replace Stark's cold hard mentoring.

From Favreau's Happy via Jackson's sharp Fury to Gyllenhaal's soft and open-to-listening Blake, and taking in Parker's interactions with MJ as he struggles to say what matters, the human touches are welcome ones, as the film zips around its European settings before ending with an action-packed London finale that shows the CGI off to its highest capabilities. It's these moments which help Spider-Man: Far From Home soar to the heights it's trying to achieve.

Deftly being thrown around the screen, and leaping where necessary and pratfalling when required, Tom Holland's take on Parker now feels essential, both in the context of Spider-Man and in returning him to more high school related woes as he juggles his conscience and his desire to be normal.

The CGI shows no signs of creaking as the screen occasionally overfills with the action - something the biggest screen is required for. Some nightmarish scenes offer the kind of head trips last experienced by Doctor Strange, but never lose their intimate scope and subject in the mix as the film deftly dances around people's beliefs.

In many ways, Spider-Man: Far From Home is a fairly disposable, but supremely enjoyable piece of superhero fare.

It proffers an alternative to the heavy-laced edges of Avengers: Endgame and the doom-laden films it's led up to, but never loses sight of its place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It may conclude in the usual fashion with the expected CGI carnage, but thanks to the work done by Holland, it feels like it's light and lithe on its feet, a web-slinger that embraces its canon and identity but isn't afraid to play fast and loose with expectations.

(Oh, and it scores extra points for embracing one of the best parts of last year's Spider-Man PS4 game.)

King of Thieves: DVD Review

King of Thieves: DVD Review

As much a film about the fallout of a heist, than the execution thereof, the based-on-a-true-story King Of Thieves feels like a proposition that was better on the drawing board than on the screen.

Michael Caine is 77 year old widower Brian Reader, a former criminal who's urged by his wife to leave it all behind before her death. However, finding that there's nothing to live for, Reader pulls together a crew of former crims after he's approached by Basil (Daredevil star Cox) with a plan to rob the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit....

The thing with King Of Thieves is that it all unfurls in such a pedestrian way.

Underscored by scenes of jazzy music and digital cuts and quick cuts, the film's initially all about the subterfuge rather than anything else. It's not exactly an OAP version of the Ocean's Eleven series, but at times, it comes pretty close, thanks to a combination of one-note characters and a lack of real tension.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the back half of the film where it literally becomes about the audience watching cops listening to bugged conversations. Any sense of suspense dissipates at this stage as the big band music strikes up and the inevitable tears and fractures open up within the group.

A series of swipes at older people and their quirks seem a little more unfair towards the end and the characters simply end up shouting at each other, but Reader's earlier mournful tone as he reflects on his life is given nuanced life by Caine.

Most interestingly, Broadbent shows a crueller side oft kept buried and really plays against type - the rest of the crew are underwritten and do what they can with one-note performances. No more so than Cox whose enigma is clearly due to his character arc rather than writing (to say more is to spoil).

The one directorial flourish that Marsh brings to the table is an end sequence which displays the likes of Caine and Winstone from previous films and is a clever way to showcase their former worth.

Elsewhere, King Of Thieves may have its eye on diamonds as its central theme, but this ain't no shiner at all - it's dulled by the execution and what promised to be something different and cater to an older audience emerges as a rote formulaic and dull film that fizzles rather than sizzles. 

Five Feet Apart: DVD Review

Five Feet Apart: DVD Review

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. 

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled: PS4 Review

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled: PS4 Review

Released by Activision
Platform: PS4

The thirst for nostalgia continues with Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled, another remaster of the Bandicoot's trademark bran of cartoon insanity.

The original kart games were where Crash Bandicoot started to lose me, preferring as I did the narrative driven platform-based shenanigans which tested my button pressing, rather than my ability to read a race track.

That's not to say that Crash Bash and Crash Team Racing weren't iconic Naughty Dog properties, merely tastes lay elsewhere.

However, Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled is a karting fanboy's dream.

The remastered game fires on all cylinders as it dons a new coat of paint, and offers a slick, glitch-free blast around the tracks.

The one downside is the inordinate amount of time the game's loading screens take, compared to the amount of time you play on the track. It's almost as if the celebrations you're expected to have between each race will be enough to occupy gaming minds - well, that's not the case.

Much like the Crash Bandicoot remake last year, the game's difficulty settings will prove controversial too, with Medium being a chasm away from Easy in terms of being able to win. Easy is a breeze round the tracks; Medium, much less so.

The game's MO is the same as it always was - hurtle around the track, grab power ups, knock your opponents out of the way, and surge to victory.

From adventure mode where you're the sole player to online multiplayer, there's more fun to be had in the social elements of Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled, as the racing is better when you feel like there are actual stakes.

Yet, at the end of the day, it has to be said, very occasionally, this does just feel like a "Pick up, play, put it down, forget it" kind of game - underneath the slick look and the stellar graphics, the nostalgia's only going to get you so far.

But when the quality is this good, maybe you can forgive the fact that most gamers will be playing the same game they played in their youth, and recapturing the euphoric highs you had at the time.