Borderlands 3 - Out Now on Steam

Borderlands 3 - Out Now on Steam

Borderlands 3 Out Now on Steam, Featuring Innovative PC Cross-Play Functionality

Borderlands 3 is now available on Steam, complete with all updates to date, new PC Cross-Play functionality, and limited-time launch pricing

It’s the day you’ve been waiting for, Vault Hunters! Borderlands 3 is now available on Steam, giving even more PC players the opportunity to shoot and loot their way across the exotic worlds of the Borderlands universe. Better still, Borderlands 3 is available at the following introductory prices on Steam for a limited time*:

• Standard Edition: $44.97;
• Deluxe Edition: $54.97;
• Super Deluxe Edition: $64.97.

Early adopters on Steam can also download the Gold Weapons Skin Pack for free from now until April 1, 2020 by navigating to the Borderlands 3 DLC product page on Steam and adding the pack to their accounts**.

Today also marks the launch of PC Cross-Play between Steam and the Epic Games Launcher. Thanks to some exciting new SHiFT matchmaking functionality, Borderlands 3 PC players can add friends to their Friends Lists, join co-op parties, and play together online regardless of which PC platform each player is using. As mentioned during its PAX East panel, Gearbox also plans to roll out additional PC Cross-Play features – such as the ability to mail weapons between PC platforms – in the coming weeks.

The Steam version of Borderlands 3 includes all of Borderlands 3’s updates and bonus add-on content to date, including Takedown at the Maliwan Blacksite. Those who purchase the Borderlands 3 Season Pass or Super Deluxe Edition can also immediately access the first paid campaign expansion, Moxxi's Heist of The Handsome Jackpot.

Additionally, on March 26, Super Deluxe Edition owners and Season Pass holders across all platforms can dive into Borderlands 3's second paid campaign expansion for a surprisingly dangerous engagement party in Guns, Love, and Tentacles: The Marriage of Wainwright & Hammerlock. This content will also be available for individual purchase as an add-on to the base game.

And of course, all players can look forward to future free content updates and events like Mayhem Mode 2.0 and the Revenge of the Cartels seasonal event, both of which are coming in April. You can read more about those, as well as the next campaign expansion, in greater detail right here. For answers to other frequently asked questions regarding Borderlands 3’s launch on Steam, please refer to this helpful FAQ.

PlayStation 5 explained

PlayStation 5 explained

Watch the presentation to get a deep dive into PS5's system architecture, how it is designed to benefit developers and the games they create.

Presented by PS5 lead system architect Mark Cerny

The Making of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE: Episode 1

The Making of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE: Episode 1

REIMAGINING A LEGEND

– INSIDE THE MAKING OF FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE

Ahead of the 10^th April  launch of FINAL FANTASY® VII REMAKE, Square Enix Ltd., today unveiled the first in a series of videos which gives viewers an unmissable deep-dive into the creation of one of the most anticipated videogames of all time. 

Bringing together interviews with the game’s creators, artists and developers, the series gives an exclusive look at some of the secrets behind the creation of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE - from the game’s story, characters, combat and action to its stunning music and spectacular visual design. The first video features interviews with renowned developers including;

• Yoshinori Kitase (Producer)
• Tetsuya Nomura (Director & Concept Design)
• Kazushige Nojima (Story & Scenario)
• Naoki Hamaguchi (Co-Director – Game Design / Programming)
• Motomu Toriyama (Co-Director – Scenario Design)

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE will be available for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system on 10^th April 2020.

Emma: Film Review

Emma: Film Review

Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Miranda Hart, Bill Nighy, Mia Goth
Director: Autumn de Wilde

The latest take on Jane Austen's Emma is an admittedly starched and almost military execution of the overly familiar tale.

The VVitch star Anya Taylor-Joy delivers an initially icy take on Emma Woodhouse, the meddling socialite who dabbles in others' lives before realising she's hopelessly out of her own depth.

Guiding Mia Goth's Harriet Smith, Emma tries her best to matchmake for a local vicar. But she fails to notice the attentions of a neighbour (Flynn) until it's too late.

The overly-mannered Emma, delivered by Kiwi Eleanor Catton, is a prissy and primped affair, that teeters dangerously close to boredom levels early on.

Despite some truly sumptuous costuming and some vividly executed moments  such as red-caped women recalling The Handmaid's Tale (it's clear director de Wilde comes from a promo background), the film's warmth is severely lacking early on, despite the comedy of Woodhouse Sr (the ever-wonderful Bill Nighy).

It unfortunately leads to a detachment early in proceedings, which nearly proves fatal when the moments of heart are due to overtake matters, and Catton's writing really does make it difficult to sympathise for the precocious Emma when she realises she's gone too far. (The interaction with Miranda Hart proving to be the only breath-taking moment and deeply upsetting one of the entire film.)

While it skirts around social mores and hints at class divides, there's an aloofness to this Emma that robs it of its charm (Alicia Silverstone's Clueless still remains a market leader in terms of spiky adaptations) and deprives it of an enduring appeal.

Sure, this version of Emma has some stunning visuals, and despite Taylor-Joy coming to life toward the end of the film, it's a hard journey to go on - and one that sadly offers limited rewards when considered among the pantheon of other adaptations of Austen's work.

Queen & Slim: Film Review

Queen & Slim: Film Review 

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya,  Jodie Turner Smith 
Director: Melina Matsoukas

Queen and Slim desperately wants to be a classic, a "black Bonnie and Clyde" as they even refer to themselves but in truth the rambling drama feels more like a missed opportunity than a gritty timely social commentary.Kaluuya and Smith are strong enough as the two leads and the film early on has a kind of intimacy that a good relationship drama requires as we first meet the pair on a first date.

Soon after that, their date takes a disastrous turn when they're pulled over by a police car....

However, the film's leaps of logic and suspensions of disbelief prove almost fatal after the initial horror of the police assault takes place. 

Shot in an almost verite style the unfolding drama grips as the duo are caught in an all too familiar scenario, and one that would provide a rich source for drama.

Yet once they set out on the run, the detours prove to be more of a distraction and threads of the two being the touch paper for a societal revolution jar more than cohesively gel.

Though the divisions between the community over whether to support or condemn are a worthwhile thread, they’re always secondary to the proceedings with the film's style being the sole raison d’être as it plays out amid moody shots, music-video stylings and intriguing camera angles.

There’s an easy charm and charisma to Kaluuya's character as he negotiates his way through the maelstrom; equally Smith goes from spiky to soft and back again with speed and the emotional whiplash is giddying, but finally satsifying.

Ultimately though Queen & Slim is more about style than great substance; sure, there's some commentary going on under the hood, but this is far from the classic it could be - despite the work of the talented cast, thanks to a messy approach and a need to fine tune the script.

Color Out of Space: Film Review

Color Out of Space: Film Review

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson
Director: Richard Stanley

Nicolas Cage goes uncaged in Richard Stanley's adaptation of HP Lovecraft's short story.

Cage is Nathan Gardener, who moves his entire family to a rural farm after his wife's breast cancer treatment. His two children are slowly and begrudgingly adjusting, his wife is fighting to stay in business and he's invested in a herd of alpacas.

One night, a mysterious noise in the sky bathes everything in purple, and the Gardeners' lives are changed forever as what dwells within the meteorite starts to poison their world.

Color Out Of Space may be rich in atmosphere, but it's light on character and coherence.

Certainly Stanley puts together a film that uses its colours to otherworldly effect, and its temperament to ethereal. The blurring of the visual lines and the use of colour cues is trippy to endure - but what goes on within the confines of the characters is what detracts.

Underwriting for the Gardeners doesn't help - and certainly when Cage starts to go unhinged, it draws attention away from the film and seems to simply exist to service fan desires. Sure, there's an undercurrent of the rot infecting the family as much as the out-of-space rot infecting the land, but it's barely expanded upon.

Extraneous characters pop up simply to drop exposition and then move out; there's a distinct lack of narrative coherence here that flounders parts of Color Out Of Space and ground it sorely in frustrating territory.

However, the atmospherics help ease out the unevenness that exists within - and while the film's certainly flawed, it brings on the feeling of dread with both competence and the sensation of dropping LSD.

Bloodshot: Film Review

Bloodshot: Film Review

Cast: Vin Diesel, Guy Pearce, Eiza Gonzalez, Sam Heughan, Lamorne Norris
Director: David Whilson

With Vin Diesel packing his usual charisma, Bloodshot's super-soldier manipulation story is more about freeze-frame action and slow mo than superhero sense and sensibilities.

Diesel is hotshot soldier Ray Garrison, whose life is changed when he's captured and his wife killed in front of him. Left for dead, Garrison wakes up in an Avengers-style building and hi-tech facility where Pearce's Dr Emil Harting says they've rebuilt him with nanites.

However, when Garrison has flashbacks, he sets out on a revenge mission.

It'd be good to report that Bloodshot lives up to the premise and promise of the smartly edited trailer.

But disappointingly, Bloodshot falls into the category of anaemic formulaic sci-fi thriller that you've seen way back when Universal Soldier first arrived on the scene.

Whilson has a formative background in VFX and it shows in his limited direction.

Everything is geared towards either a cool tech scene (the early reveal of the nanites is deftly executed) or to moody murky action sequences where Diesel's Terminator style stalker comes out of the dark and kills.

It's blandly familiar, and disappointingly dull - a film that sets up its premise well before falling into deja vu territory and cliched tropes to get it over the finish line. A final battle sequence feels like a redo of Spider-man versus Doc Ock, and the CGI creaks a little in the frenetic scenes.

Quick cut edits mar fights, and some action sequences are soaked in blood-red flares, simply because it looks cool once and Whilson decides to overuse.

While Diesel appears on auto-pilot, and Morris' Cockney hacker has jokes which fall flat, Gonzalez brings a humanity to proceedings that's desperately needed, and enlivens scenes with Diesel, lifting him out of the simply here to get a paycheck that gifts his performance with ennui.

Ultimately, Bloodshot needs a transfusion of sorts - it had the promise to launch a franchise, but now it's simply left exposed on the celluloid floor, bleeding out.

PlayStation Back Button: Tech review

PlayStation Back Button: Tech review

PlayStation’s back button is a smart piece of kit.

Sure, with a few months to go until the launch of the PS5, you could argue if it’s necessary or ponder if this is going to be built into any new controller and we are being conditioned early on.

Regardless of that, it’s testament to how easy it is to handle and set up that it fits and sits so easily in the hands just moments after you’ve opened the package.

Clipping into the headphone jack of the handheld, the back button sits tightly and snugly into the controller’s form without feeling chunky.

A LCD display in the back helps you set up the controller to how you want it to be. Jumping around in platformers or blasting the X button in shooters, you can configure one of the back paddles to how you want it.

The problem with the set up display is that if you miss your desired coordinate, you have to scroll all the way back through, rather than simply rolling it back. It’s a minor flaw in a relatively smooth set up but it’s one that niggles rather than majorly irritates.

And that’s really it - after hours of playing, the ergonomics make sense and probably will help long term with RSI.

But for a reasonable price, the back button is a nice to have, rather than a need to have immediately- it’s not exactly a game changer, but it does add up to something that long term will be useful rather than consigned to the back of the gaming cupboard.

Dark Waters: Film Review

Dark Waters: Film Review

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Bill Camp, Tim Robbins
Director: Todd Haynes

Todd Haynes' safe and formulaic legal chiller Dark Waters is a solidly told tale, albeit one that never quite finds a way to rise into the upper echelons of drama, despite the presence of Mark Ruffalo.

Ruffalo is Robert Bilott, a newly-minted partner of a US legal firm that defends industrial companies.

When a farmer (Camp, in one of the more lively and complex roles of the film) shows up on his doorstep wanting to fight those who he believes have poisoned his land and his cows, Bilott finds himself torn between duty and a light familial connection to what's going on.

But as Bilott begins to investigate the malfeasance of local industrial giant Dupont (with Alias' Victor Gerber as their figurehead), he discovers the case has much more horrific wider consequences.

Dark Water is a solidly told film, anchored by the mutedly dogged performance of Ruffalo and supported by the growing outrage of Camp.

Yet, in telling it in a non-showy way, and scattering it across the timeline (A narrative necessity given how long Bilott's case has been going against Dupont), the film occasionally stutters to raise some real drama. It prefers a more quiet outrage that boils under as the reality of Dupont's shenanigans are gradually exposed.

There are moments that chill, and revelations that abhor, but Haynes' delivery of them is more restrained than perhaps it could be, as the effects on communities and even the world comes to light.

There are also times when the exposition floods some of the legal proceedings and montages of lawyering - and certainly Hathaway feels wasted after early promises threaten to expose the sexism within the boys' club industry.

Yet for all its dialled down touches, Dark Water does present a compelling story - albeit one that is good, rather than great.

Knives Out: DVD Review

Knives Out: DVD Review

Director Rian Johnson is no newcomer to the mystery genre.

His earliest Brick dabbled in similar territory, but for this latest, a slickly produced and polished piece of Poirot-esque fare, he heads to subvert some of the conventions while following others of the murder mystery.

When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Plummer) is found dead the day after his 85th birthday, there's a house full of family suspects. Enter southern fried detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) who was given an anonymous envelope stuffed with cash to solve the case, and who always gets his man.

Knives Out comes out the door firing on all cylinders, like most murder mysteries do.

Flash editing, quick cuts, a series of suspects given a moment in the glare of the spotlight and a whodunnit to relish all pull you in to the whimsical world Johnson's set up.

Yet within moments Johnson plays a trump card, swiftly pulling the rug from under your cinematic feet, giving the film its heart and its emotional in, and signalling his intentions to subvert everything. To say more is to derail the film, but suffice to say the commitment to the story while playing with the genre tropes, and plying it with laugh-out-loud one liners makes a big difference. (An early Murder She Wrote moment is guffawable).

Slickly edited, exquisitely shot and reminiscent of Agatha Christie, Jonathan Creek and most other crime series, Johnson knows a quirky detective is the glue to hold the story together. On this charge, Daniel Craig makes for a watchable lead, a dogged investigator with a drawl.

Sure, there's the usual let's-get-everyone-together-in-one-room-to-reveal-it moment, and the multi-talented cast are too many and too sidelined in the back half of the movie, but for the large part Knives Out is a good time at the movies, a film that's not as clever as it initially thinks it is, but which commits to its premise and carries you along on a rollicking good ride.

Military Wives: Film Review

Military Wives: Film Review

Cast: Kristin Scott-Thomas, Sharon Horgan, Amy James-Kelly, Laura Checkley, Jason Flemyng
Director: Peter Cattaneo

The Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo knows exactly where he wants to go with this tale of a group of army wives who're left on base and killing time when their husbands are deployed to Afghanistan.

And to be fair, he should - after all, he achieved the same level of crowd-pleasing success with The Full Monty in 1997, a tale of seemingly polar opposites and shambolic group of amateurs coming together to achieve glory under duress. (Even in Military Wives, there's someone within the group who's hopelessly out of their depth, but whose underdog enthusiasm wins through.)

Catastrophe's Horgan is Lisa, a freewheeling mum of a troubled daughter who butts heads with Scott-Thomas' prissy and uptight Kate, the wife of the base's brigadier.

Scorning the usual ideas from the icy Kate of knitting to pass the time and keep the Brit morale up ("It's a bit Little Women, innit" she decries), Lisa assembles the group into a singing group, despite opposition from Kate, who sees it more as a choir and the usual parade of stuffy numbers.

However, Lisa's more keen on drawing from the hit parade of her musical youth and the group finds a common bond - but when their boys are ambushed, tensions that have already been simmering inevitably blow over.

It seems churlish to dismiss Military Wives as anything but predictable formulaic fare, but in truth, that's exactly what Cattaneo achieves here. With a penchant for the obvious, the film falters into "could be a BBC four part drama where the wives face fractures and conflict before ultimately rising to the occasion and the bigger picture" territory.

There are no surprises here and the playing safe causes a slice of tonal whiplash when the drama explodes like a well-timed bomb in the middle of proceedings - it's all very simply telegraphed and signposted early on.

And yet, underneath its fluffy fuzz and cloak of familiarity, Horgan and Scott Thomas elevate the film's penchant for predictability to a more acceptably amiable level.

From the visual cue of the opposition of their outfits (Lisa's more laissez-faire, and Kate's more buttoned up and prissy) to the acerbic banter and bickering, both Scott Thomas and Horgan turn the banalities of females fighting and picking at each other into something more humane - even as the cliches come tumbling forward in their direction. In truth, they elevate the film, and give it more credit than it is sometimes due.

It may sing a good tune for a crowdpleasing piece, and may aspire to easy (and occasionally well-earned) laughs throughout, but Military Wives, in parts, is surprisingly moving.

Just don't be surprised if at the end of all the opposition to the comfortably familiar and eye-rollingly obvious as the film follows its crowd-pleasing zero-to-hero algorithm, you leave singing from its admittedly corny songbook.

Win a double pass to see I Still Believe in cinemas

Win a double pass to see I Still Believe in cinemas

To celebrate the release of Riverdale star KJ Apa's new movie I Still Believe, thanks to Studiocanal NZ, you can win a double pass.

About I Still Believe

From the makers of I CAN ONLY IMAGINE comes the true life story of music star Jeremy Camp. 

Jeremy’s remarkable journey of love and loss proves there is always hope in the midst of tragedy. 

Love tested is the only love worth sharing.

Starring KJ Apa and Britt Robertson, I Still Believe is in cinemas from March 12.


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

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

Win a copy of Knives Out

Win a copy of Knives Out

To celebrate the release of the wonderful Knives Out on home entertainment, thanks to Sony Home Entertainment, you can win a copy.

About Knives Out

Everyone has a motive. No one has a clue.

A modern take on the classic detective genre.

When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. 

From Harlan's dysfun­ctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan's unti­mely death

Knives Out releases on March 11.

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

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

Win a double pass to see BLOODSHOT in cinemas

Win a double pass to see BLOODSHOT in cinemas

To celebrate the release of Vin Diesel in BLOODSHOT, you can win a double pass to see BLOODSHOT in cinemas, releasing March 12.

About Bloodshot

Based on the bestselling comic book, Vin Diesel stars as Ray Garrison, a soldier recently killed in action and brought back to life as the superhero Bloodshot by the RST corporation.  

With an army of nanotechnology in his veins, he’s an unstoppable force –stronger than ever and able to heal instantly.  

But in controlling his body, the company has sway over his mind and memories, too.  

Now, Ray doesn’t know what’s real and what’s not – but he’s on a mission to find out.

Bloodshot hits cinemas March 12.


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

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

Guns Akimbo: Film Review

Guns Akimbo: Film Review

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Samara Weaving, Ned Dennehy, Rhys Darby
Director: Jason Lei Howden

Frenetic edited and frantically paced, Jason Lei Howden's Guns Akimbo is the triumph of style over substance.

But it's nothing without the 110% commitment of its lead, Daniel Radcliffe, who proves terrifically game and fantastically physical in his pursuit of the story.

Radcliffe is Miles, a low-level coder who lives in Shrapnel City. Recently dumped and bored with his work, Miles stumbles onto the live fight site Skizm and delivers some high-level trolling of those dwelling within.

However, those in charge of Skizm aren't impressed and decide to make Miles the star of their next death match, bolting guns to his hands and pitting him against the current champion, psychotic killer Nix (Samara Weaving, in a sneery punkish role).

But Miles isn't ready to die yet...

Guns Akimbo is relatively shallow, a series of fight sequences set to heavy metal renditions of 80s pop music tunes. Quickly edited, with swirling cameras that seem to suffer from ADHD, the film rarely stops for a moment to breathe, delivering some impressive kill sequences, and some gun fu that's to be admired and enjoyed in a Friday night popcorn entertainment way.

There is some commentary of life in the social world versus the real world, but to be frank, it's not smartly delivered, nor is it radically challenging.

Meshing the juvenile with the video game shooter mentality works well for the film, elements of Crank and Death Match blended together, but it does struggle to deliver anything more than this as it breezes through its 90 minutes run time

Where Guns triumphs though is in its two leads - Radcliffe's overly committed to Miles' disastrous situation and delivers a performance that is comedic and impressive, his everyman schlub loser caught in the crossfires of his own doing. Samara Weaving is equally enjoyable as Nix, a drugged up psycho who's addicted to the kills, she gets to deliver the lion's share of the film's best lines.

In truth, the villains are a little vanilla, and some of the peripheral characters are merely there for exposition rather than to flesh things out, but Guns Akimbo mostly delivers a blast of neon-soaked bubblegum fun. Sure, it riffs on its own video game mentality (dispatch a load of bad guys, take on the final big boss), but there's a reasonably disposable ethos to Guns Akimbo that sees you through the repetitive nature

Win a double pass to see GUNS AKIMBO

Win a double pass to see GUNS AKIMBO

To celebrate the release of Jason Lei Howden's Guns Akimbo, starring Daniel Radcliffe, in cinemas now, you can win a double pass.

About Guns Akimbo

Miles is a video game developer who inadvertently becomes the next participant in a real-life death match that streams online. 

While Miles soon excels at running away from everything, that won't help him outlast Nix, a killer at the top of her game.

Guns Akimbo is in cinemas now.
 
All you have to do is email your details and the word GUNS!

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

Competition closes March 12.

Dreams: PS4 Review

Dreams: PS4 Review

Developed by Media Molecule - and the entire world
Published by Sony Interactive Entertainment

There was a game in the late 1980s that opened up the idea of game development to the public.

Initially released in 1987 for the Commodore 64 and Amiga consoles, the Shoot'Em Up Construction Kit worked on an MO which offered the elements to gamers to create their own shoot'em ups. A simple concept, and one bound only by system limitations of the time, the versatility on show show it embraced by the hoi polloi.

So it is with Little Big Planet and Tearaway creators Media Molecule.

Dreams, which appears to have been in BETA testing for a long while, is now on general sale, and is currently being mined by the Dreamiverse community to create, make and share.

The community's seized on the opportunity already - and remakes of the likes of Sonic through to arcade classics such as Arkanoid and Marble Madness already exist. But here's the thing with Dreams - in some ways, it's like fan fiction writ large and within the gaming sector. There's nothing wrong with using the tools to recreate the greatness of the past, and in many ways, it's a nostalgia-fest for those determined to seek it out.

But while it may enable a new generation of game devs, it will also prove to be a gaming boon for those looking to satiate a variety of genres.

And yet, so far, with the exception of what Media Molecule has created themselves, and bar a smattering of other users, most people seem to be playing inside their own sandbox, and recreating games of their youth.

It's no bad thing if you're a nostalgia addict, but it does make one wonder what the deal is with copyright and how Media Molecule is protected from it.

However, the interfaces for Dreams are, for the most part,easy to access and use - a floating sprite is used to scroll between games, search and play/ possess characters.

Creation is a lot tougher though, and while the use of the touchpad and a floating sprite seem relatively easy to negotiate for the games, it's in the making that a few niggly problems emerge.

The game presents creation as a series of mini games to "achieve" and while the premise of them seems fairly simple, some of the technical aspects of the moving and positioning is difficult at best, and takes perseverance to get through.



However, when it does come together, it's rewarding - and does really show that even if there are creators who are uploading Sonic levels, or recreating Arkanoids, the patience and skill is more than commendable.

Ultimately, Dreams will thrive on its community.

Media Molecule may have empowered many, and while they currently have yet to see a return on the potential, there's a chance that with all out involvement, this could be a hub for the future - as long as you're visionary.

It rewards patience, and given the breadth of what it's covering -from games to visual experiences - it's highly worth having. But as ever with any creative tools, how ever much you get out, will depend greatly on what you're willing to put in.

The Way Back: Film Review

The Way Back: Film Review

Cast: Ben Affleck, Janina Gavankar, Al Madrigal
Director: Gavin O'Connor

In many ways, The Way Back is a film you've seen before.

One of a broken sports person and alcoholic, not searching for redemption, who's offered the chance to get back in the game and tackle their own personal demons at the time.

But The Way Back suffers from the delicious irony that its central star has battled with these very demons and has slowly fought his way back.

Affleck is Jack Cunningham, a former high school basketball star, who's asked to coach the local team - for no real reason other than they're tanking and he was their next big thing. Initially reticent, the separated Cunningham takes on the mantle and begins his journey back.

Dour and rightfully downbeat, The Way Back sees Affleck reteaming with his The Accountant director to create the sort of sports underdog film that is all too rote and all too familiar. And yet, with a relative career best from Affleck, the film's certainly got some redeeming features.

Sequences wondering if Jack will hit the booze again may ooze familiarity, but tempered with scenes where Jack goes through a 30 pack of beer in one night, with a routine of picking one out of the freezer, returning a fresh one in there ready feeling raw and tempered with the kind of veracity Hollywood rarely siphons for films about alcoholics. There's no doubt Affleck brings a lot of himself to the role, and it wouldn't work without him.

And it's in the central relationships the film rises too - a needling sister who's only doing it out of love, and a coach and head coach relationship that's tinged with respect, admiration and awareness of failing.

Certainly, in the rest of the film, there are a few narrative jumps too many.

The team gets better somehow without any real conviction why, Jack decides to coach them without any real reason why he changes his mind so suddenly - these are the beats which feel off in The Way Back, and which ground the tale of a redemptive blue collar worker with moments that see you more questioning why and lifting you out of the moment.

In the final furlong, the film lapses into lamentable melodrama, and the maudlin elements threaten to topple Affleck's good work, rather than build on it; ending on mawkishness and a message of hope may be central to The Way Back's MO, but unfortunately, it leaves this final drink of drama stinging in your throat.

Downhill: Film Review

Downhill: Film Review

Cast: Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Miranda Otto, Zach Woods
Director: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash

Ruben Östlund's 2014 movie Force Majeure was beloved by many.

A film that excoriated a marriage, threw up questions of male ego and dialled up the discomfort, the near 3 hour movie was lauded as a masterpiece.

It seems unlikely Downhill, which is inspired by the film, and follows many of the beats but in half the time, will be mentioned in the same breath.

Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus are Pete and Billie, parents of two, all together on a skiing holiday. However, there are already frustrations inherent among them, with Billie's generally uptight nature clashing with Pete's insistence on being in the moment above all else.

When a controlled avalanche nearly overwhelms the family at a restaurant, Billie is left with the fall-out of the fact Pete grabs his phone and runs off, leaving her and the kids to ostensibly die. As the chasm grows, the family will never be the same again.

Downhill has a tonal mismatch which doesn't help matters.

While Force Majeure dabbled in subtlety (although admittedly took a long time going anywhere), Downhill's halved run time and desire to inject broad bawdy elements within its story means it adds up to feeling like a mix between cringe-worthy comedy and flat moments that simply don't add up.

And yet with Louis-Dreyfus turning in a performance that's somehow excellent beyond the material, Downhill's watchable enough fare - albeit muddled. Icy, muted laughs come as the cordial atmosphere dries up immediately, and the excruciating irritations boil over. Ferrell's downbeat, but his restrained performance doesn't match up to the needs of the film, and he feels at times, out of place.

It's the Euro-stereotypes that flunder the film, with Otto's amusing-to-watch laissez-faire hotel owner ramping it up to 11 and a ski instructor hunk feeling ripped from the pages of another movie. It's these moments that give Downhill a level of inconsistency that's hard to match.

Ultimately, feeling muddled and muddying the waters, Downhill does offer some good moments of comedy if you know where to look. But were it not for Julia Louis-Dreyfus' performance, this film would be more of a downhill experience that its name suggests.

Frozen II: Blu Ray Review

Frozen II: Blu Ray Review

How do you solve a problem like Frozen 2?

The first film was such a mega hit, and resolved all of its issues, that making a sequel complete with earworm songs like Let It Go was always going to be a fool's game.

But six years on from when Frozen melted our collective cinema-going hearts, Elsa and Anna return to life in Arendelle.

In this latest, Elsa (Menzel) finds herself lost, compelled to answer a song she keeps hearing from an ancient forest in an enchanted land she remembers from her childhood...

So the gang ventures into the woods to save their kingdom and Elsa's soul.

More emotionally resonant and darker than the first film, Frozen II offers vicarious delights that may well be lost on some of the younger end of the audience.

Yet, both Lee and Buck may well be banking on the fact their initial audience has grown up more and is more willing to tackle the darker themes of maturity and what life's about - and yet they're still willing to throw in Olaf goofing around to keep the younger ones entertained, and to show Elsa busting out superpowers like an animated Captain Marvel.

The film this time throws up some truly gorgeous animation, some scenes which technically excel - from a dancing darting water horse to an almost electric light-led power ballad from Menzel (Into The Unknown, one of the film's best), the animators aren't keen to rest on their laurels, even if some
of it may be lost on their audience.

While the songs have more of a Broadway feel this time, and are less interested in becoming the stuff of nightmares on car journeys, it's fair to note they're not as instantly memorable, even if they are enjoyably presented onscreen.

The film skirts with plenty of themes; it builds on the sisterhood from the first's subversion of true love, dabbles with climate change, and touches on colonialism.

However, its biggest disappointment is with the flirtation with giving Elsa a girlfriend - her only solid interaction outside of the core group is with a native female from within the enchanted forest, and there are hints of more. But it's frustratingly left on the vine, and only for the subtleties to be picked up on.

Ultimately Frozen II may leave those expecting a redo of the first a little cold. But for those wanting something more epic, something that moves on from the whimsicality of the first, Frozen II more than meets the expectation and delivers.