Detectorists: Season 3: DVD Review

Detectorists: Season 3: DVD Review

The final season of delightful dramedy Detectorists maintains its bittersweet edges as it looks to wrap up the whole series.

Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones once again return as Andy and Lance, the pair of hapless but lovable metal detector enthusiasts. Picking up after Toby Jones' Lance discovered a piece of gold, the final run of six episodes has the pair facing devastation when their beloved farm is threatened with redevelopment.

And for Andy, home life proves to be more chaotic than expected.

There's a small beauty to these final wistful episodes where nothing much happens, but everything hangs in the balance.

There's a joy in the little edges that Detectorists holds which makes it worth investing in.
Understated performances, a script that delves in perfection and relationships that are worth investing in, this is a series to savour.

And it's further proof, if it's needed, that the Brits do beautifully nuanced comedy in short bursts.

Highly recommended.

Win a double pass to see Zombieland: Double Tap in cinemas

Win a double pass to see Zombieland: Double Tap in cinemas

To celebrate the release of Zombieland: Double Tap, in cinemas October 17, thanks to Sony Pictures, you can win a double pass.

About Zombieland: Double Tap

A decade after Zombieland became a hit film and a cult classic, the lead cast (Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, and Emma Stone) have reunited with director Ruben Fleischer (Venom) and writers Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick (Deadpool) for Zombieland 2. 

In the sequel, through comic mayhem that stretches from the White House and through the heartland, these four slayers must face off against the many new kinds of zombies that have evolved since the first movie, as well as some new human survivors. 

But most of all, they have to face the growing pains of their own snarky, makeshift family.

Zombieland: Double Tap is in cinemas October 17, Rating TBC.


All you have to do is email your details and the word ZOMBIELAND2!

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Competition closes October 18

Borderlands 3: PS4 Review

Borderlands 3: PS4 Review

Developed by Gearbox
Released by 2K Games
Platform: PS4

Borderlands 3 is exactly what you'd expect from a Borderlands game.

That sounds like both praise and also damnation of the title, and in fairness, it is.

The FPS returns to its roots, proving that everything old is new again, but still leaves you feeling that what's worth it as a game is worth sinking your time into it.

This time, the action's set across a few planets as baddies and cult-leading twins Tyson and Tyreen Calypso look to use the powers from hidden vaults on various planets to rule the cosmos. And as usual, it's up to you to stop it.

New playable characters, with expansive abilities and skills, make Borderlands 3 feel fresh, but for anyone who's already played (and no doubt, loved) the Borderlands games, (and to some extent this year's Rage 2) there's much that feels familiar here.

From comic interludes from Claptrap to cartoony shooter action, Borderlands 3 offers enough to keep loot hunters interested, and yet also feels occasionally like an episodic put-it-down-pick-it-up game that's also benefiting from short bursts of player interest.

The misfits banding together edges work well, and the cartoony graphics and nature also feels enticing enough, and there are plenty of fights which are tough enough to carry out to keep the most ardent Borderlands fan engaged.

Yet newcomers to the franchise may feel there's not quite enough to feel fresh for those willing to dip their toes in. Certainly the more juvenile edges of the dialogue stand out, as does the constant waves of characters that exist simply to be shot and use up your ammo, before sending you to face a final big boss.

That said, Borderlands 3 offers enough to entice vault hunters back to Pandora. And the fact it's been one of the biggest launches in 2K's history would have history more on the positive side than the naysayers.

Win a double pass to see Gemini Man

Win a double pass to see Gemini Man

To celebrate the release of Gemini Man, and thanks to Paramount Pictures NZ, you can win a double pass.

About Gemini Man

Gemini Man is an innovative action-thriller starring Will Smith as Henry Brogan, an elite assassin, who is suddenly targeted and pursued by a mysterious young operative that seemingly can predict his every move.  

The film is directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Ang Lee and produced by renowned producers Jerry Bruckheimer, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger.  Also starring are Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen and Benedict Wong.  

Gemini Man opens in theaters October 10, 2019.

All you have to do is email your details and the word GEMINI!

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Medi Evil: Short Lived Demo: PS4 Review

Medi Evil: Short Lived Demo: PS4 Review

Format: PlayStation

A demo is supposed to entice, to tease what's ahead, show some of the mechanics of the game and, if it's a remake, wow you with what it's done.

Medi Evil's Short-Lived Demo does some of that admittedly, but it's a bit lacking on the wow factor, frankly.

For those unaware of the 1998 original game, MediEvil concentrates on you taking control of Sir Daniel Fortesque, a skeleton that wouldn't look out of place within Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas.

Set in the kingdom of Gallomere, and with an evil sorcerer called Zarok returning, it's up to Sir Dan to save the day once again as zombies and magic runs amok.

MediEvil :Short Lived Demo is sad to say, just ok.

It cruises by on nostalgia during the first level it allows you play, hacking and slashing your way through the hordes and collecting various runes to unlock gates of the next area and so on. Honestly, it's very much like a more Tim Burton Gauntlet game than anything else.

Graphically the cut scenes are cartoony, yet perfunctory. They look polished, but little else to be frank. The combat is adequate enough and the movement of Sir Dan comical as it needs to be.

Yet the most irritating thing of Medi Evil: Short Lived Demo is the camera that grates as it gyrates around the screen on a simple twist and touch. It's as bad as Spyro was, and shows really that that may have cut it back in the late 90s but right now, it's close to irritating. IT could be fixed prior to release, but whether that will happen remains to be seen - however, it's the one thing holding the remaster back.

It'd be beneficial if Medi Evil's demo showed a little more, but the single level only shows the revamp and remaster has done little but spit and polish the game.

Ultimately, the proof will be in the final release - but right now, while MediEvil for PS4 looks like it should, it's yet to convince of its necessity.

Win Men In Black International on Blu Ray

Win Men In Black International on Blu Ray

Men in Black International is out now on Blu Ray, and to celebrate its release, thanks to Sony Home Entertainment, you can win a copy!

About Men in Black International

The Universe is Expanding

The Men in Black have always protected the Earth from the scum of the universe. 

In this new adventure, they tackle their biggest, most global threat to date: a mole in the Men in Black organisation.

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson and Emma Thompson

All you have to do is email your details and the word MENINBLACK!

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X-Men: Dark Phoenix: Blu Ray Review

X-Men: Dark Phoenix: Blu Ray Review

Not every comic book movie works on the big screen.

Not every X-Men film has been a success, but over the past 20 years, the mutants have been ever present in a series of films that have had a level amount of hits and misses.

In Dark Phoenix, the series comes to an end with a franchise capper that misses all its major moments, and delivers a movie that offers some thrills, but barely enough to sustain it.

During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean Grey (Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner) is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all. 

Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet.

In all honesty, elements of Captain Marvel's all powerful deus ex machina and how to suppress it come to the fore again, and while moments early on hint at Charles Xavier's morality falling apart in a MeToo kind of nod, the film's only interested in rushing headlong to its conclusion via way of an admittedly excellent train-set final showdown.

But it's in the emotional beats where X- Men: Dark Phoenix falls apart.

A major death doesn't land like it should, and the elements of conflict feel forced rather than natural. It's the emotional detachment that harms the film the most, and while a majority of it is a film we've seen before, the latest incarnation of Dark Phoenix does little to take wings and soar as it should.

Elements of a MeToo control issue aside ("She's not your little girl anymore," one character intones at one point), the film has little to say except to try and transpose comic book panels to the big screen. By opening it up to a wider world midway through, the film loses any hope of intimacy as it looks to tick some character beats and fan hopes.

Chastain, in her audition for an emotion-free Terminator, is saddled with little as the baddie of the piece, and barely hits any of the necessary strides before the script goes down the gurgler. Turner sells some of the conflict of the anger and resentment bubbling up, but in truth, little is required of her other than to look tortured in her close ups. The tragedy doesn't land as it should, and it's fatal at times. MacAvoy and Fassbender impress as ever, and Hoult manages competently with stronger material.

On the visual side, the FX are superbly executed, with early scenes within space brimming with visual flair and excellence; and in the final showdown on a train (before it descends into the usual rote CGI tedium), the film finds a life that's been lacking beforehand.

Ultimately, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is an asinine blockbuster, one that fails in its MO as a franchise finale, and one that shows there was frustrating potential, if it had dared to do something different. As it stands, it's more an X marks the spot where something could have risen from the ashes of a consistently uneven series.