Star Wars range of KeepCups launches in NZ

Star Wars range of KeepCups launches in NZ

A long time ago in a cafe far far away... a simple barista just trying to make her way in the world felt a deep concern for cafe culture’s waste problem. In 2010 she decided to come back from the dark side of single-use cups and join the reusable rebel cause.

Abigail Forsyth founded KeepCup – the original reusable coffee cup that kickstarted the movement to reduce waste, bringing A New Hope to the global move towards a more conscious way of life. 

To celebrate The Rise of Skywalker in cinemas now, KeepCup has a limited edition Star Wars collection that’ll have you feeling like the mysterious baby Yoda every time you drink your morning coffee.


Disclaimer - This blog was sent a cup for consideration of onsite inclusion.  

A Quiet Place Part 2 First trailer

A Quiet Place Part 2 First trailer

The first trailer for the sequel to A Quiet Place is here.

A QUIET PLACE PART II IS IN THEATRES, DOLBY CINEMA AND IMAX ON MARCH 19

Paramount Pictures Presents

In Association with Michael Bay

A Platinum Dunes / Sunday Night Production

A John Krasinski Film

“A Quiet Place Part II”

Executive Producers Allyson Seeger, Joann Perritano, Aaron Janus

Produced by Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, John Krasinski

Based on Characters Created by Bryan Woods & Scott Beck

Written and Directed by John Krasinski

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe) must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY

John Krasinski

Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Sizzle

Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Sizzle

To celebrate the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the long-awaited conclusion to the saga, we want to share with you the LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Sizzle. 

The upcoming game from TT Games arrives in 2020 and will feature all nine Skywalker saga films reimagined with iconic and irreverent LEGO gameplay and humour. 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

All the best for 2020

Space Pioneer: Nintendo Switch review

Space Pioneer: Nintendo Switch review

Developed by Vivid Games
Platform: Nintendo Switch

The run and gun is a simple concept.

Fire your weapon, defeat the bad guys, avoid being killed - it's a basic formula, easy to master, and yet also easy to mess up.

Space Pioneer on the Switch, in truth, falls somewhere in the middle.

It's a basic concept - you're a kind of ranger, mercenary type, who's tasked with simply going to different worlds during various chapters, firing your weapon, killing the creatures and performing simple tasks like taking artifacts, destroying hives and defeating marauding waves before warping out.

Objectives are filtered in to secondary and primary, but all essential to get the relevant stars to open up other planets for you to explore and to try and stop the intergalactic threat that awaits in the background.

Space Pioneer is kind of disposable fun, but yet it also sometimes too shallow to play long term - it's definitely here for the bitesize audience to enjoy, and offers some chances of easy progression because of the short nature of the levels.

Yet once you begin to upgrade, the game takes on newer forms and better weapons aid you in your quests - it's all fairly by the numbers kind of stuff, but it takes on a sort of compulsion that you'd least expect once the need to level up comes in, and the required amount of stars fall short.

Graphically the game is nothing inspirational, but it is fairly passable fare, it's a port that's clearly been smoothed over and one which offers the fun it needs. Upgrades to the weapons and robots are nicely done, and the game itself gives enough of itself as it gets going.

Ultimately, Space Pioneer is a handheld pleasure. It may not reinvent the wheel, or challenge the format, but it delivers what it needs to on the tin.

Gears 5: XBox One Review

Gears 5: XBox One Review

Platform: Xbox One
Developer: The Coalition

The latest iteration of Gears of War series brings much to the table.

Exceptional graphics and cut scenes, a female lead in a shooter (sadly too uncommon) and a sense that the Gears series knows what it wants to do.

Putting you in the shoes of Kait,who's haunted by visions of the Locust triggered in the last game, Gears 5 sets you off on a mission that allows you to explore, rather than follow a traditional linear path.

Swarm attacks, exploration and just general mayhem with chainsaws and guns make the formula pop again this time around - but it's the sense of character that shines amid some of the chaos. The campaign's storyline is what makes the difference this time around, and gives you the reward of the sense of investment.

There are also other modes which makes Gears 5 worthy of time, and while the multiplayer isn't as good as the main storyline, it does still add an element of fun to proceedings, as well as doubling down on the need for tactics later on.

The murkier edges of the moral tones make the story more compelling ultimately and the fact characters are less of a stereotype proves a great boon for the Gears series, giving the player a reason to carry on.

All in all Gears 5 offers great promise for the franchise and for a series which has been ongoing since 2006 - it never loses its sense of what it should be, but it also has the smarts to evolve as it goes on.

Herbs: Songs of Freedom: DVD Review

Herbs: Songs of Freedom: DVD Review

Much like Tearepa Kahi's Poi E documentary did, Herbs: Songs of Freedom looks to pitch New Zealand of your youth against the socioeconomic backdrop of the reggae freedom fighters, Herbs.

Taking in the politics of the 80s in Bastion Point, against a background of a reforming Herbs, some four decades after they began, Kahi's doco has geniality written through as much as it has L&P coursing through its veins.

That is to say, initially, this is a nostalgia blast in some ways, a film that makes you remember those glorious never-ending summers and sets out an OST to your youth that hits you where it should.

However, more than just context,  some flashy graphics (a neon coloured tape illustration is just one of the wonderful images that Kahi drops on to the screen) and some gorgeously shot images from Auckland's Harbour Bridge, is what's needed for Herbs: Songs of Freedom.

And for a large part, the doco fulfills that remit, capturing the intimate moments of the band then and now coming back together, seizing on moments from within the rehearsal hall and detailing how the band came to prominence when Stevie Wonder wouldn't play Western Springs in the 70s as a deluge blew in.

Yet, despite the vim and vigour of the start of the piece, the doco frustratingly fails to capture some of the more interesting narrative threads available. Hints of a bust up and some sour grapes that befell members of the band are alluded to, and not expanded upon. (Though it must be said that Kahi teases details out of various members, chiefly Dilworth Karaka, as if this is some great musical stoush the whole world already knew of.)

The final 30 minutes of the film drift into discord as well, turning the proceedings into Auckland's reunion concert and providing some incredible musical moments, but leaving you feeling like the doco's run out of things to say, but equally leaving you feeling extremely grateful for the music, and for the timelessness of the performers.

Ultimately, Herbs: Songs of Freedom does much to capture the zeitgeist of 80s New Zealand and once again demonstrates Kahi's heartland approach is a voice much needed in the film-making community.

But frustratingly the doco's overall feeling is one of could have been, and one which lacks the full coherence demonstrated by Poi E: The Story of Our Song.

That said it is one which will leave you tapping your toes in the aisle for two thirds of its generous heart.