WWE 2K20 - Roman Reigns Towers Mode

WWE 2K20 - Roman Reigns Towers Mode

WWE 2K20 Cover Superstar Roman Reigns Featured in 2K Towers Mode

Now in its second year for the franchise, WWE 2K20’s 2K Towers invites players to take a WWE Superstar or created MyPLAYER into one of several different towers, each with a unique gauntlet of matches that boast different challenges, match stipulations and player modifications. 

WWE 2K20 will shine a spotlight on Roman Reigns, who shares the game cover with WWE Superstar Becky Lynch. In 2K Towers: Roman’s Reign, players will follow “The Big Dog” through his early days in WWE, including his time as a member of The Shield to his rivalries with Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Undertaker and more. Overall, players will compete in 16 matches and live out key chapters in Reigns’ impressive mark on WWE history, all while claiming championships and igniting the WWE Universe along the way. Every match includes a live action introduction from “The Big Dog” himself in exclusive, never-before-seen footage.

To view the trailer click the image below

Check out the complete list of matches in 2K Towers: Roman’s Reign:

·        Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins vs. Team Hell No

·        Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton

·        Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan

·        Roman Reigns vs. Big Show

·        Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt

·        Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus

·        Roman Reigns vs. Triple H

·        Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles

·        Roman Reigns vs. Rusev

·        Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

·        Roman Reigns vs. Undertaker

·        Roman Reigns vs. John Cena

·        Roman Reigns vs. The Miz

·        Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe

·        Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar

·        Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre

Swimming With Men: DVD Review

Swimming With Men: DVD Review

Cast: Rob Brydon, Jane Horrocks, Daniel Mays, Jim Carter, Thomas Turgoose, Rupert Graves, Adeel Aktar, Charlotte Riley
Director: Oliver Parker

There's a kernel of a decent movie trying to rise to the surface in this tale about a male synchronised swimming team.

Easily dismissed as The Full Monty under water, Parker's take on the male midlife crisis movie is fairly middle of the road.

Brydon plays Eric, an accountant who's been in the job since forever. Tired and jaded of it all, and insecure after his wife (Horrocks, wasted in a minor role) finds her second wind as a local councillor.
His only reprieve from the tedium of spreadsheets and nondescript lift journeys is in the pool, where one day he finds a group of men practising their moves.

Asked to join by the members ('It's not just a club, it's an idea, a protest against who we've become" one says), Eric finds his second wind also.

Swimming With Men is the kind of film that works best on TV, rather than the big screen, offering as it does little that's not been seen before.

But it's also not above using a poo in a pool at a kids' event to promote some laughs.

Based on a true story it may be (about a Swedish male swim team), and while there's something about the indefatigable Brydon doing his everyman thing again, the film doesn't offer much of life outside the pool to really grab you.

Each of the fellow swimmers is fairly loosely sketched, with a little more afforded to Rupert Graves' character as he bonds with Eric (despite the warnings that lives outside stay private). It's not that that's a bad thing, but the speed bumps when they come, can be seen miles off as the relatively pedestrian comedy tries to hit its stride.

It's all about the feelgood factor, and midlife crisis of friendships - and while Swimming With Men doesn't exactly do anything sensational with those ideas, it does present them pleasantly, albeit occasionally in a pedestrian fashion.

It's almost as if Parker was afraid to do anything radical with this tale, and lumped for the basic approach rather than something memorable.

As it is, Swimming With Men doesn't exactly swim to the top, but it doesn't also sink to the bottom without a trace - it's probably safer in the shallow part of the pool, than the emotionally deeper quarters. 

Celia: DVD Review

Celia: DVD Review

"We ignore the yearning of our spirit."

These words, coupled with Harry Dean Stanton's "I'm scared", sum up the general feeling of many on their deathbeds, but often go ignored or long buried.

Such it is with director Amanda Millar's Celia, a documentary about the impassioned social advocate Celia Lashlie, known more colloquially as Ces to her friends.

And yet, despite some powerful touches within, Celia feels a little too drawn out to achieve the power it desperately wants - even though it is really a rallying cry for a change.

Some of the problem with Celia is that it assumes you know Celia Lashlie before you go in; and therefore fails as a doco in general about her for the uneducated masses - how would a foreign audience see this subject is one niggle worth pondering on viewing and after.

Even though it's well-shot and the director's got the best of the single 90 minute interview she was able to achieve before life cruelly intervened and Celia Lashlie died, the film feels a little eclipsed by its own archive material and by its subject itself.

Stripped of too much of Celia's back story (one suspects further interviews could have added a lot more), the film relies a lot on the facts it deals with over social injustices in New Zealand, the mothers' place to raise children and prevent future criminals and an intriguingly didactic news doco.

Complete with shocking stats on a darkened background while slow mo reenactments follow after, the style of the doco is primarily one which feels suited to a TV news expose, rather than a fuller portrait of what the woman involved was.

It also relies way too much on nature shots for segues, and feels a little strung out in parts as the pieces are tied together.

And yet, when it uses the right material from the one 90 minute interview Millar got combined with archive footage, it shines fiercely and brightly; a towering beacon lit under our collective asses thanks to Lashlie's no prisoners taken approach to the truths society is sometimes too cowardly to face.

But there's humility in Celia's courage in the face of death and, much like Stanton's simply delivered line "I'm scared" in Lucky, her regrets so late in the day hit a level of poignancy that are powerful and undeniable.

Even through it all, Celia's humanity and the simplicity of her universal struggle is deeply affecting - Millar manages to capture that via moments of honesty rarely committed to screen and by non-intrusive interviewing.

Celia could be a useful as a change piece for government agencies and those looking to educate, as was Celia's vision for the film - an extension of her crusading work inside and outside the system.

Yet one can't help but side with the film commission and TV execs who advised doing it differently, even though I'm not privy to those discussions or director Amanda Millar's desire not to do so. (She divulged these early on in the pre-presentation of the film.)

One suspects, given the fullness of the auditorium and the fact extra screenings have been put on, Celia will find a life that it needs to - though potentially, its best life lies not on the big screen, but rather within the smaller screen within institutions.

Lashlie herself says near the end "If you're standing at my funeral, then my work is done" - and given the attendance at the festival, one quite easily can attest - and agree - to such thoughts.

But on reflection, Celia could have used an expeditious edit in parts, a trimming of some of the obvious stylings which become a narrative crutch.

It should also be said that a little more context to her own past and life would have fulfilled many of the questions foreigners may have.

Celia will have a life as a teaching document, but as a wider piece of cinema, a documentary to inform, it is unfortunately wanting - even though in parts, it easily and powerfully confers Celia Lashlie's ideals and attitudes for change.

Pokémon Detective Pikachu: Blu Ray Review

Pokémon Detective Pikachu: Blu Ray Review

How you feel about the family friendly Pokémon Detective Pikachu will depend largely on how you feel about the crazed cult of Pokémon.

The uninitiated may struggle with the film, which is set in a world where both Pokémon and humans co-exist, thanks to the benevolent Howard Clifford (Nighy) who believes co-existence and betterment is possible.

One who doesn't agree is 21-year-old Tim (an awkward Justice Smith) who resents the Pokémon and refuses to be paired up with them like others. When he discovers his dad is missing after a car accident, Tim goes to Ryme City, the hub of the human Pokémon harmony, and ends up working with Ryan Reynolds' Pikachu to try and solve the case.

If you're a Pokémon fan, you will adore this film, packed as it is with creatures from the cards and the TV series, and no doubt riddled with Easter eggs.

But, to be honest, for all others, it's kind of middling, narratively flat fare that's more about its nostalgia than a degree of coherence, and its plot is saddled with exposition for character development and sees a lurching plot stop and start while someone drops reams of necessary explanation.

There are elements of everything that's gone before here, with a Zootopia mesh, some Roger Rabbit hating of the opposites, X-Men, a film of fathers and sons and other all-too familiar sci-fi DNA tropes that can be seen a mile off. It unfortunately cripples part of the movie, as you can see what's coming before it hits, lacking weight and heft when it should.

In fairness, Ryme City is wonderfully realised, a kind of cartoony Blade Runner cityscape that shows the co-existence with ease. And Reynolds' trademark motormouth may be dialled down this time, but it still gives the over-caffeinated Pikachu some much needed laughs here and there. The buddy cop relationship between Pikachu and Tim makes for amiable fare as well.

But Pokémon Detective Pikachu lacks the noir edges it's clearly aspiring to, saddling everything with heavy flashbacks early on to paint the portraits and relying on audience love and nostalgia to forego the repetitive simplicities of the plot. And that could be fatal, seeing as newer audiences are what will continue this series.

In truth, Pokémon Detective Pikachu is less gumshoe, more candy coloured gum stuck to your cinematic shoe. The series' refrain may be that you "gotta catch them all", but if you're not in the in-crowd, you should be happy to let this one go free. 

Angel Has Fallen: Film Review

Angel Has Fallen: Film Review

Cast: Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Danny Huston, Nick Nolte
Director: Ric Roman Waugh

It was inevitable, really.

Given he'd saved the President, saved London and had a happyish ending, it should be no surprise that Presidential lucky charm Mike Banning (Butler) would be in the firing line.

And given three years has passed in each of the release cycles of Olympus Has Fallen (2013) and London Has Fallen (2016), it's time for Angel Has Fallen.

Bruised, battered and addicted to pills after the rollercoasters of the job of the Secret Service in the previous two outings, Banning is starting to feel mortal. Tempted by the possibility of the top job at the Secret Service, his world's turned upside down when the entire Presidential secret service team is wiped out - leaving him as the sole survivor.

Framed for the attempted murder of the US President, Banning goes on the run, determined to prove his innocence...

Reviving cold war politics, throwing in some "timely" barbs about Russian collusion, and dumping some machismo on the idea of private contractors benefiting from war, Angel Has Fallen does little to build on its surprise success of the first film.

Choosing instead to go for elements of The Fugitive and a bad episode of 24, Butler deals with lots of pained close ups to show his ailing state, and deals out plenty of killshots as sense and sensibilities go out the window.

Beginning with what seems like a gun porn secret service recruitment Call of Duty style video and ending with an extremely passable and well-executed finale, Angel Has Fallen has glimpses of something beyond the C-grade action banal genre it's clearly pitching for.

Butler's Banning looks shabby, like he may not make it (though really, there's never any true doubt) but yet in his interactions with Danny Huston's quietly calm mate-turned-bad-guy, there's a feeling of two veterans lost in a world that no longer needs them in the way they were needed first time around.

The action sequences are, in truth, executed in a fairly workmanlike way; there's nothing special or spectacular in the explosion porn that's on display - complete with slowmo. And yet, in its finale, Angel Has Fallen delivers a sequence that may be familiar in many ways, but is nonetheless compelling to enjoy.

And then there's Nick Nolte.

As Banning's dad, and at his shaggiest, this doomsday prepper off-the-grid paranoic is one of Nolte's most grizzled and begotten roles. But it's worth it alone for some of the lines he dishes out, which have to be seen to be heard.

Ultimately, Angel Has Fallen isn't smart enough to be taken seriously, and never really rises against its rote execution. It's flabby too, with its 120 minutes run time being the longest of the trilogy and also the most needlessly long.

Angel Has Fallen may wrap up the surprise trilogy, but in truth, this series was done with the first one - it may try to be contemporary here, but you've seen it all before. It's time this Angel had its wings clipped.

Blinded by the Light: Film Review

Blinded by the Light: Film Review

Cast: Viveik Cara, Kulvinder Ghir, Nell Williams, Hayley Atwell
Director: Gurinder Chadha

You've seen Blinded by the Light many times before, and in many different iterations.

The very familiar coming of age tale, set in Luton in England in 1987 centres around Cara's Javed, a young Pakistani man who yearns to be his own person, but who's stuck at a crossroads.

When Javed ends up going to college, he finds his world is irrevocably changed when he's gifted two Bruce Springsteen tapes, and being at the age of discovery, the doors of his perception are blown wide open by the Boss' music and lyrics.

But in the background of Javed's life lurk the National Front, the possibility of love, and the inevitability of a showdown over his desires and his dad's directives...

Blinded by the Light has an energy that bursts through the bubbling cheesiness which seeps in almost immediately.

Chadha is less interested in reinventing the wheel in this music-inspired movie, and more interested in perhaps showcasing a story that was prevalent in 1980s UK life, but rarely recorded. The indolence and ugliness of racism lurks casually in Javed's life, and while Chadha's only interested in occasionally using it for drama, the evocative montage of 80s Britain under Thatcher which begins the film serves only to showcase the good and the bad of the era.

Elsewhere, the film's cornball and corny dialogue sags a little in the excessive 2 hour run time - an expeditious edit could have given the film a pep and zap that it needed in parts as it spins its all-too-familiar tale.

There's a heart here, but rather than leading with the drama, the film hits every dramatic cliche and and services its leads ahead of the script; yet there are moments when the film excels, such as Chadha's reveal of a daytime club, and the heady thrill of youth within. These are the moments that Blinded by the Light could have had more of, not ones which feel rote and almost ridiculous.

It may be sweet, and crowd-pleasing at times, but Blinded by the Light does little exciting with the musical genre except to pillage someone else's back catalogue to sell nostalgia and probably Spotify soundtracks (in this case, the Boss) .

However, don't be surprised that in the year Rocketman soared to audience success and Bohemian Rhapsody won big, Blinded by the Light will have your heart tapping away in your seat, even if your head is warning you repeatedly against doing so.

2040: Film Review

2040: Film Review

Director: Damon Gameau

Idealism seeps through the veins of That Sugar Film's follow up.

Damon Gameau returns with a self-professed optimistic piece of what life could be like in 2040 that's squarely aimed at showing his 4-year-old daughter Velvet that there is hope among the doom and gloom of climate change reporting and global concerns over the planet's future.

The tone for this film is set in the opening moments as a title board reveals that carbon credits used in making this film have been offset.

It's genially put together, and should be commended for its eternal optimism, but despite Gameau deploying visual tactics such as shrinking down commentators and experts to wee tiny levels so they can be dwarfed on the screen, the film's really only interested in presenting a utopian side of the argument.

"We have everything we need right now to make it happen," Gameau intones at one point.

And as he demonstrates how farming can do its bit, how self-driving cars will provide transport peace and how energy can be shared with others, it's easy to buy into. But Gameau shies away from getting any of the critical answers why this isn't happening yet or won't in future - whether it's out of a desire to make the film so positive that it doesn't make you want to scream at politicians and their global politicking or whether it's through lack of trying, it's never really clear.

The end result is that frustrations bubble up - despite the cutesy use of kids' vox pops talking about what they want to see in 2040. Sure, it's amusing in parts, and is as hollow as a once over lightly global approach, but much like the director's predilection in That Sugar Film, it's all about shallow rushes to the head.

In truth, the narrative naivete cloys, and while it's understandable that Gameau's trying to inspire rather than put obstacles up, its occasional head in the sands' approach does nothing to dispel a nagging sense of frustration and a feeling that everyone in the film is living in Fantasyland.

Crowd-pleasing it may be; inspiring it may also be, but based on any kind of reality and giving any steps forward to making it a reality, it is not.

Don't let the politics get in the way of a good dream, eh.