At Darren's World of Entertainment - a movie, DVD and game review blog.
The latest movie and DVD reviews - plus game reviews as well. And cool stuff thrown in when I see it.
Epic Tale of Legendary Chinese Warrior Directed by Niki Caro
Features a Celebrated International Cast, Including
Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee with Gong Li and Jet Li
The teaser trailer and poster for Disney’s “Mulan” are here! Please check them out and share with your readers. The epic tale of a fearless young woman who risks everything out of love for her family and her country to become one of the greatest warriors China has ever known, opens in NZ cinemas in March, 2020.
When the Emperor of China issues a decree that one man per family must serve in the Imperial Army to defend the country from Northern invaders, Hua Mulan, the eldest daughter of an honored warrior, steps in to take the place of her ailing father. Masquerading as a man, Hua Jun, she is tested every step of the way and must harness her inner-strength and embrace her true potential. It is an epic journey that will transform her into an honored warrior and earn her the respect of a grateful nation…and a proud father. “Mulan” features a celebrated international cast that includes: Yifei Liu as Mulan; Donnie Yen as Commander Tung; Jason Scott Lee as Böri Khan; Yoson An as Cheng Honghui; with Gong Li as Xianniang and Jet Li as the Emperor. The film is directed by Niki Caro from a screenplay by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver and Elizabeth Martin & Lauren Hynek based on the narrative poem “The Ballad of Mulan.”
A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon - Teaser Trailer
Shaun the Sheep’s highly anticipated return to the big screen will herald the arrival of a mystery visitor from far across the galaxy… …an impish and adorable alien called LU-LA who crash-lands near Mossy Bottom Farm, Shaun soon sees an opportunity for alien-powered fun and adventure as he sets off on a mission to shepherd LU-LA home. Her magical alien powers, irrepressible mischief and galactic sized burps – showcased in today’s trailer - soon have the flock enchanted. Can Shaun and the flock avert Farmageddon on Mossy Bottom Farm before it’s too late? “LAZY” is written by Justin Hayward-Young, Yoann Intonti, Timothy Lanham, Freddie Cowan, Arni Hjorvar Arnason,and Cole M. Greif-Neil. Published by Universal Music Publishing Ltd, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd, Beggars Music Publishing Ltd. Produced and mixed by Dan Grech-Marguerat. Recorded The Pool Studios, London and Sarm Music Village Studios, London SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON continues the production partnership with AARDMAN and STUDIOCANAL following the success of SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak, which grossed $106 million worldwide and Nick Park’s prehistoric comedy adventure, EARLY MAN. STUDIOCANAL is financing and will distribute in its own territories, the UK, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand in Autumn 2019.
Get Ready to Floor It – Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled’s Grand Prix Has Arrived!
Crash™ Team Racing Nitro-Fueled has officially launched and is showing no signs of slowing down. Currently rated an 80+ on Metacritic and GameRankings, Beenox’s remastered experience has fans all around the world revving up their engines. And, starting this week, the race continues with the release of the game’s first ever Grand Prix!
From now, all Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled players that purchased the game will get the first Grand Prix* season called Nitro Tour pushed to their consoles for free – which gives fans more game to love, including a brand-new track, Twilight Tour,to conquer.
Twilight Tour will take players on an epic ride through a middle east-inspired track! Players will enjoy racing through the track that shifts from day to night during gameplay. What’s more, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled players will be able to compete in Grand Prix challenges* and fuel up their “Nitro Gauge” (XP) with Nitro points, to earn rewards, such as a new character (Tawna), new character skins, new karts, and new kart customisation items.
Also, as part of the content being offered during the Nitro Tour Grand Prix, the in-game Pit Stop is being updated with new characters, skins, karts, and kart customisation items. Players can use the Wumpa Coins* that they earn by playing the game to unlock additional cool items, such as the Nitro Squad as playable characters for the first time. Formerly known as the Trophy Girls in the original CTR, the Nitro Squad have come to compete as some of the fiercest racers around!
For more information, players can head over to CTR TV, the in-game news channel where hosts Chick and Stew revealed some of the fun awaiting players in the Grand Prix and more.
*Requires players to be connected to the internet.
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 inKNIVES 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.
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 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.
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.)
