Death Stranding: PS4 Review

Death Stranding: PS4 Review

Developed by Kojima Productions
Released by Sony Interactive

Maddening, mournful, elegaic, boring, tedious, pompous, eccentric, idiosyncratic and much more beyond, Death Stranding is the kind of game you can throw any adjective at and it'll stick.

It's polarising too.

Hideo Kojima's latest, three years in the making, Death Stranding is a rarity among AAA gaming - an almost indefinable and singular experience that infuriates as much as it amazes.

And it will irritate you to high hell and back, regardless of its top notch production values, because of the initial grind that's demanded of you.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world after the Death Stranding event shattered the US into fragments, you play Sam Porter Bridges, who uncannily looks like The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus (largely because he is).

Tasked with delivering various packages around various points of an open world, Sam is a glorified courier boy, a kind of riff on Kevin Costner's character in Waterworld, trudging from one delivery to the next.

But the job's not that easy as scattered around the open world are various problems to face - be it rain which Kojima has called Timefall and which erodes your parcels, or ghostly creatures known as BTs which can take hold of you, shake your luggage loose and then pull you down in a pit of tar. And there are even rogue couriers known as MULEs, who went mad and now just steal parcels for the hell of it.

It's easy to see why this all sounds either deeply pretentious or utterly bonkers.  Yet at the heart of it, it's incredibly familiar mix of combat and fetch quests.

Kojima's world serves as a metaphor for the disconnected we've all become, but the majority of the game is mostly fetch quests, peppered with combat the mechanics of which come from Horizon Zero Dawn to stealth ripped from the Metal Gear Solid days.

There's a strange likes system in play too, where other players can approve of buildings you make, or ladders you place, and you can do the same too. You're encouraged to leave signs a la Dark Souls' notes to help other players - it's all very well and good, but it does remove some of the elements of discovery in the open world, and there's certainly a feeling at times that successes can't all be your own.

Though it's part of Kojima's vision of connecting disparate gamers - and while servers have gone off until the game launches, it'll be interesting to see if players embrace or pervert his intentions of camaraderie. Collaboration could be the way forward, but it does rob the good feeling of solving a tough moment in an open world game - and it's divisive an idea at best.

Equally, there's a degree of having to maintain Sam's health and even clothes, the levels of which have not been seen since Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Again, this move will either irritate or you'll embrace it fully.

Kojima's cast is exceptional - there's no one in the contacts book who's not been raided, and while it's strange to hear famous actors voiced by others, it's as distinctive and as barmy as anything else in the game.

The game's product placement needs to be called out though - the ad for AMC's Ride with Norman Reedus reminds you you're not playing anything other than a character, and seems a demented choice. But far worse is the gratuitous Monster cans - it's a worrying sign for AAA Games if this is what sponsorship looks like, and it certainly disrupts some of the narrative flow, taking you outside of the world Kojima's set up.

Ultimately, how you'll feel about Death Stranding is tied up in how much you're willing to invest in Kojima's vision.

It's definitely singular and will polarise some, as the plaudits for Game of the Year rain down. It's not quite a home run on that front, and there's too much of a grind at times to be had to ever truly make it pleasurable.

However, if you're looking for an experience that's as eccentric as it is intriguing, Death Stranding is second to none.

Bellbird: Film Review

Bellbird: Film Review

Hamish Bennett's follow up to his award-winning short Ross and Beth from 2014 is a crowd-pleasing, quietly restrained film about life on a Northland farm.

Marshall Napier is Ross, the third generation farm owner, who's left devastated after a loss and who tries to find what's next in his life. Recently returned to his life is his son Bruce (a dramatic and poignant turn from Cohen Holloway, who shines throughout), who works in the local dump but who's gradually coaxed back onto the farm and into family life in general.

Bucolic and beautifully shot, Bennett's film is a small restrained movie about relationships and reconnections, that taps into the rural way of few words.

If Bennett overdoes it with the cutaway shots which depict life on the farm, it's seemingly about building an atmosphere and a sense of location within Northland that goes to explain Ross' connection to the land and his community.

Suffused with charm, and lovely wry one-liners (particularly from Rachel House), Bellbird has a heart that's hard to deny, as it negotiates grief in a typical she'll be right mentality.

Its leads are where the film's strength are, and Napier deserves as much credit as Holloway, for bringing to life a Kiwi type that's prevalent in the community. In truth, it's more about what's unsaid than said as this slow-paced family drama unfolds, but Bennett's wise enough to pepper his script with heartland humour that will prove a winner with audiences.

Newcomer Kahukura Retimana also deserves mention for neighbouring Marley who injects a level of care into how he tries to look after Ross; there's much of the film which speaks to how communities try to care for their own, something city dwellers may ruefully gaze upon as they view this low-key relationship piece.

Ultimately Bellbird wins by its gentle restraint, and its affectionate celebration of the quieter moments of life, and of what comes next when the worst happens.

Arctic Justice: Film Review

Arctic Justice: Film Review

Voice cast: Jeremy Renner, Heidi Klum, John Cleese, Alec Baldwin, Anjelica Houston
Director: Aaron Woodley

Sometimes, animated family fare is simply a story and some animation, no deeper message, and nothing more profound to espouse.

So it is with Arctic Justice (known globally as Arctic Dogs), a climate change awareness piece with lashings of self-belief served up for an audience.

Arctic fox Swifty (Renner) is a wannabe delivery dog in the small Arctic township of Taigasville.

Yearning to be "put to the test, so he can deliver his best", Swifty has gone most of his life unnoticed, other than by his polar bear friend PB (Baldwin, solid and gruffly warming) and by his potential love interest and town engineer, Jade (Klum, relatively one note).

When the dogs of the ABDS delivery service go AWOL, Swifty gets his chance to step up - but uncovers a wider conspiracy, masterminded by walrus OVW (Cleese, in raspy maniacal mood).

Arctic Justice feels very familiar, with its animation recalling many other elements of prior films.

A despot in the form of OVW with Puffin helpers? Very Minions and Despicable Me.

A mate who even looks like a whiter version of Sulley from Monsters Inc, lead foxes who look like they could come from Zootopia, there's a distinct feeling of deja vu in this animation.

There are some zanier touches from James Franco's Lemmy, an albatross who's a few fish short of a picnic, but they're few and far between and really needed more of them to be inserted throughout.

While the climate change message is present, it's hardly pushed down people's throats, but it becomes ever more clear toward the end as Swifty and his pals face an extinction event for their town.

Worthy messages of being more than "just" a somebody work nicely too, and while some adults will identify with the slight at the monotony of jobs, Arctic Justice does enough for the younger kids to keep them happy throughout - but potentially not the adults.

Win an Arctic Justice prize pack

Win an Arctic Justice prize pack

To celebrate the release of Arctic Justice, in cinemas November 7, you can win a prize pack, including tickets, bag, and a snowglobe!

About Arctic Justice

Swifty (Jeremy Renner) is a little fox with big dreams, working in the mailroom of the Arctic Blast Delivery Service. 

When Swifty accidentally stumbles upon the hidden fortress of evil genius Otto Von Walrus, he enlists the help of his friends - a ragtag group of Arctic misfits - to help stop Otto Von Walrus' sinister plan to become the world's supreme leader and save the planet – before it’s too late!   

Arctic Justice is in cinemas from November 7.

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

Email now to  darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com 
Or CLICK HERE NOW  

Child's Play: DVD Review

Child's Play: DVD Review

There's much to like in the 2019 retooling of the Child's Play series - but there's also much to grizzle about with the feeling that potential has been wasted.

Plaza plays single mom Karen, a shop employee who gives her son Andy (Bateman) a Buddi doll to help the transition to a new home and new life. Buddi is the latest design toy, that imprints on its owner and in this Buddi's case, fixates on him.

Renamed Chucky by Andy, the doll starts to take on a life of its own, mimicking those around, while dealing with defective programming. But things begin to take a murderous intent.

It's clear that Klevberg and co wanted to take some of the electronic paranoia we've been feeling with Black Mirror's technical obsessions and turn it into something that's on point, and through a horror prism.

But what emerges from the 2019 reboot of Child's Play, despite an inherent fear of AI, is just how much that potential is squandered.

Despite a great turn from Plaza, a strong performance from Bateman and some excellent vocal work from Hamill, Child's Play becomes a grubby rote horror that's content to deliver some average jump scares and some lo-fi moments, rather than to build on the idea of a murderous Alexa inspired doll.

The opening's great, inspiring some funny moments, and capturing a kind of 80s vibe that's at odds with the 21st century technology. However, the film's not content to do more with its talent, with a script that doesn't really thrill like it should, or scare like it ought.

There's still the malevolence that Chucky has, and the animatronic doll has some creepy edges, but the script mines every single cliche going before delivering a finale that lacks panache and originality.

That's perhaps the killer blow for Child's Play - it never reaches its potential, and feels a lot like every other 80s serial killer film you've seen before. They've chosen to swap Chucky's USP for a USB - and while parts of it feel like an upgrade, most of it feels, sadly, like a downgrade.

But it is worth it for Mark Hamill's unsettling singing over the final credits...

Little Woods: DVD Review

Little Woods: DVD Review

The "one last job before I retire" trope is as old as the hills themselves, but what director Nia DaCosta and actress Tessa Thompson bring to the hoary cliche is a degree of humanity and empathy in Little Woods.

Thompson is Ollie, a one time opioid dealer to the North Dakota fracking workers. Caught after a border run went wrong and under probation with just 10 days to go, Ollie finds herself facing desperate measures and multiple financial hardships.

But when her struggling adopted sister and solo mother Deb (Lily James) finds she's about to give birth again and needs a place to live, the clock's ticking to get together $3,000 cash to ensure their house isn't foreclosed on.

So, despite wanting a clean break, Ollie is forced back into the one thing she knows well, but doesn't want to do.

As mentioned, the plot isn't exactly original, but what DaCosta and Thompson - and to a large degree, James - bring to the table is a female perspective on middle America, the struggles of those under pressure, and the face of the Opioid crisis.

This is no Breaking Bad though, with Thompson providing subtle contrasts in her Ollie as she debates the morals of the right thing to do. It's very much a story of the times, and told in an unfussy manner, with tension being ratcheted up in a smaller, more intimate setting on the screen.

There's a great deal of empathy radiating from these characters, and while some of the dialogue doesn't feel natural, there's no denying Thompson's natural charm and appeal that she imbues Ollie with.

Refusing to give in, Ollie finds every path possible to explore, and the desperate scrabble to stay afloat has you in her camp from the get go.

The film's ambiguous end is a smart touch too - unsure of who gets a happy end, it's very much a crime tale told under a different lens - and all the better for it. Little Woods may hit a few of the cliche branches as it unspools, but with two extremely solid and plausible leads, it remains watchable from beginning to end. 

Tolkien: DVD Review

Tolkien: DVD Review

The Tolkien biopic is a quietly muted film about comradeship above all else.

It seems apt, given how Tolkien's most famous books are about fellowship, and Karukoski's at pains to repeatedly emphasise this point throughout.

Starting at a young age in J R R Tolkien's life, Hoult takes the mantle of the ultimately famous writer, whose early life is blighted by degrees of poverty and tragedy in equal measure.

When he gets into King Edwards College in Birmingham, he finds his outsider ways alienating him from others at the school, and thrusts him into fights. But gradually taken in under the wing of three fellow students, Tolkien forms a bond and group with fellow artists.

But their world is torn apart by the arrival of the war to end all wars.

Tolkien is a prestige pic, that's slightly hobbled by pacing and a degree of stiffness throughout.
Hoult isn't quite strong enough as the author, but he does convey an earnest turn, and his romance with Lily Collins' Edith Bratt appears to work better on the page than it does on the screen, imbued as it is with a sense of malaise throughout.

More successful is the fellowship that crops up between the college mates. It's here the pre-war bonds and tragedies emerge and flourish. Certainly when Derek Jacobi's linguistics professor shows up later in the piece, the film bursts vibrantly into life, instilling a degree of passion into proceedings that's been occasionally lacking throughout.

However, there are some truly impressive visual touches in the war sequences.

Clearly inspired by what's seen in the shadows and how the mind works, Karukoski brings menace to flames, giving them faces on the fields of war. Tendrils are added to smoke plumes that plague the trenches, delivering a real feeling of both menace and Tolkien's imagination at work.

It's here the film soars, lifted by by small flourishes aimed at providing plenty of insight into how Tolkien's mind has worked. It's just a shame that this relatively traditional biopic doesn't take more opportunities to soar, and grounds its fantastical author in a kind of stifling approach that's ultimately and sadly disengaging.