The Hustle: DVD Review

The Hustle: DVD Review

Remaking Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with female leads isn't a bad idea, it's just that The Hustle doesn't really do much with its central conceit.

Meshing both the original through a prism of The Taming of The Shrew with This Means War mentalities and throwing in Rebel Wilson's freewheeling ways and Anne Hathaway's uptight English accent doesn't quite deliver the requisite goods, even if it does proffer a few belly laughs.

With their odd couple vibe (Wilson plays a low rent hustler, Hathaway a more society-obsessed scammer), the duo forge a bet against each other after Hathaway's Josephine's offended by the arrival of Wilson's Penny in her patch. Landing on a scam that's a winner takes all, the battle lines are drawn...

To be fair, the banter between Josephine and Penny makes part of the film worthwhile. From decrying Hathaway's Josephine to a "librarian's corpse, but less lively" to referring to Wilson as a "big titted Russell Crowe", there are some moments that really land in this continually flat and formulaic mess.

But they're outweighed by Wilson once again debasing herself in weight gags and the fact nobody can love her (relatively fresh in Pitch Perfect, but starting to depressingly stink in 2019) and a script that's nonsensical and keen to drop storylines for the hell of it, despite giving them weighting early on.

Hathaway's game for comedy proves fruitful once again, with a deft light touch benefiting proceedings.

While The Hustle doesn't outstay its welcome at a relatively tight 90 minutes, it can be summed up in one interaction between Wilson's Penny, who's pretending to be blind, and Sharp's benevolent tech guy who befriends her, unaware he's her mark.

"You've got hysterical blindness," he says; to which she remarks quickly "It's not that funny to me."

So say we all, Rebel Wilson, so say we all.

The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps: DVD Review

The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps: DVD Review

Director: Julia Parnell

A good documentary piques your interest in your subject, answers your questions and gives you insight; a great documentary makes you fall in love with your subject, makes you aware of something you never knew of before, and sends you scuttling to find out more.

Sadly, to those outside of New Zealand and never around for the key moments of the Chills, The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps is a documentary that falls into the slightly lacking if you don't already have pre-knowledge of your subject.

What director..... is aiming to do is at best, present a tale of someone who went through the musical machine and has hit the highs and the lows, and get them to reflect back on it. Throw in a medical character arc for Phillipps as well as the feeling there's a lot of unfinished business and it could, in all honesty, have been an intriguing meditation on the merits and perils of the industry and those who are chewed up and spit out.

But what The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps doesn't manage to do is fully convey the reasons why the band were so beloved, other than to show repeated amounts of concert footage attended by hardly anyone and have members of the band state they were so great. Earlier contributions from the likes of Neil Finn are quickly phased out, in lieu of spending time with Phillipps as he deals with the fallout from Hepatitis C and reflections back on some of his work.

It's here the humanity of the piece comes out; of a man who's lost his way a little, who's filled his house with inexorable amounts of junk masquerading as collections, and of a man whose desire to be arty sees him spray painting mummified cats. And it's here the most interesting kernels of the film emerge, only to be left - upon leaving this film, I still have no full idea why Phillipps is so alone in his darkest days, other than hints of how his behaviour pushed others away.

That's the prime gripe of The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps: it forces you to make assumptions about its enigmatic subject and proffers you hints of what artistry demands of you within the business.

Whilst it's nicely shot, conveys both the merits and perils of its Dunedin setting thanks to Phillipps' cluttered house and the pressure cooker weather elements, The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps is a frustratingly indecisive watch; by failing to take a stance on its subject, it's sadly too obtuse to be anything more than niche appeal. 

Win a double pass to see AMAZING GRACE

Win a double pass to see AMAZING GRACE

To celebrate the release of Amazing Grace, in cinemas September 5, you can win a double pass to see the concert film starring Aretha Franklin.

About Amazing Grace

In 1972, 29-year-old Aretha Franklin, ‘Queen of Soul’, wishing to return to her gospel roots, chose to record an album live at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church, a disused movie theatre, in Watts, Los Angeles. 

She was ably accompanied by the accomplished musicians of her regular touring band; the heavenly Southern California Community Choir, conducted by a rocking Alexander Hamilton; mighty Reverend James Cleveland, himself a gospel singer, songwriter and arranger, who taught Franklin piano; and her own father, the great preacher C.L. Franklin.

Warner Bros. brought in Sydney Pollack to shoot the recording, which took place over two nights and resulted in a double album that went on to become the highest-selling live gospel music album of all time.

To win a double pass, simply enter below!

Wolfenstein: Young Blood: PS4 Review

Wolfenstein: Young Blood: PS4 Review

Released by Bethesda
Developed by Machine Games, Arkane Studios
Platform: PS4

This Wolfenstein spin off is a co-op shooter that works best with your friends, not as well with the AI.

Assuming the role of either Jess or Soph Blazkowicz, the twin daughters of BJ Blazkowicz, it's up to you to do what the family's done for years - killing Nazis. When their father mysteriously disappears, the girls throw on power suits and start to try and track him down in Neu Paris, where he was last seen.

Wolfenstein Youngblood goes someway to keeping the hedonistic blasting of bad guys in tact, but most of the game relies on the second person to help you out to progress.

Which is fine for when a mate's playing along with you, but is occasionally more problematic when it comes to the computer side of things helping you out. It's perhaps pertinent the game is more committed to the gameplay rather than offering up new and surprising twists on the patented Wolfenstein formula.

That's not to say it's not playable - quite the opposite in fact.

The game's committed to its lunacy, but at its heart, Wolfenstein Youngblood is still just a simple run and gun game from the first person perspective. Stealth is a weaker element this time around, but in fairness, it's still playable enough.

It seems a crime to label Wolfenstein: Youngblood as fine, but that's all it really is. A simple levelling up system, a game whose core MO hasn't changed, and a plot that's not as outrageous as it should or could be with two protagonists who make the journey bearable (aside from annoying dance moves in lifts), Wolfenstein Youngblood is a solid spinoff, but an inessential one.

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.