Bad Boys For Life: Blu Ray Review

Bad Boys For Life: Blu Ray Review

17 years after Bad Boys 2 exploded onto screens, the apparently final outing for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence's buddy cops series has arrived.

In all honesty, it may have been better to be shelved than to try to relive and recapture some of the former glories of the franchise.

In this latest, Mike Lowery (Smith, still looking flash as the Miami cop) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence, appearing in some scenes like he's struggling) are forced to reassess their lives when the past comes calling - and brings with it the Grim Reaper.

With one apparently last score to settle, the duo's forced back into a world not all of them want to be in...

Bad Boys For Life's elongated script drawing out moments doesn't help matters here.

It's rarely better than when both Smith and Lawrence are allowed to get back to their bickering best, but even that feels a little muted in parts, when really it should have soared higher because of the obvious chemistry between them.

Sure, there's a tale here of personal demons coming back to haunt and of looking to family and friends as being more important than your legacy, but Bad Boys For Life doesn't really build on that promise, preferring to go with racial stereotypes for the villain that's as outdated as ever in the current climates (but which some Trump supporters will adore, and those still smarting from Rambo's outing last year will groan at) and action that's solid but never spectacular.

As mentioned, Lawrence looks in parts like he's struggling to deliver a flat script, and where there should be comedy, there are, aside from one genuine laugh-out-loud moment from within a plane, warning signs of tumbleweeds lumbering into view.

Had 20 minutes of the Gemini Man style script been excised and the pace tightened along with some of it being beefed up, Bad Boys for Life would have been passable action movie fare.

As it is, it's less than memorable thanks to feeling stale and forced, and in parts more risible than it should be - instead of sending these bad boys off into the sunset, Bad Boys For Life has seen them hobble into retirement like some lame mules desperately in need of being put into pasture.

Win Little Women

Win Little Women

To celebrate the release of Little Women on Blu Ray and DVD,thanks to Sony Home Entertainment, you can win a copy.

About Little Women

Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters – four young women each determined to live life on their own terms.

Little Women is directed by Greta Gerwig

To win, all you have to do is email your details and the word WOMEN!

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

Ghost of Tsushima: 18 minutes of exclusive gameplay

Ghost of Tsushima: 18 minutes of exclusive gameplay

PlayStation has today unveiled 18 minutes of exclusive gameplay from their upcoming Sucker Punch release, Ghost of Tsushima.

In an exclusive State of Play presentation, the team showed off more from the July release.

Take a look at the Ghost of Tsushima state of play below

Win Jumanji: The Next Level

Win Jumanji: The Next Level

To celebrate the release of Jumanji: The Next Level on Blu Ray and DVD,thanks to Sony Home Entertainment, you can win a copy.

About Jumanji: The Next Level

In Jumanji: The Next Level, the gang is back but the game has changed. 

As they return to rescue one of their own, the players will have to brave parts unknown from arid deserts to snowy mountains, to escape the world's most dangerous game.

To win, all you have to do is email your details and the word JUMANJI!

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

First look at PlayStation 5 Unreal 5 game engine

First look at PlayStation 5 Unreal 5 game engine

Epic Games has unveiled a first look at what the PlayStation 5 can do.

Unreal Engine 5 empowers artists to achieve unprecedented levels of detail and interactivity, and brings these capabilities within practical reach of teams of all sizes through highly productive tools and content libraries.

Join Technical Director of Graphics Brian Karis and Special Projects Art Director Jerome Platteaux (filmed in March 2020) for an in-depth look at "Lumen in the Land of Nanite" - a real-time demonstration running live on PlayStation 5 showcasing two new core technologies that will debut in UE5: Nanite virtualized micropolygon geometry, which frees artists to create as much geometric detail as the eye can see, and Lumen, a fully dynamic global illumination solution that immediately reacts to scene and light changes.

Also present in the demo are next-gen features already available in Unreal Engine 4.25, such as Niagara VFX improvements, Chaos physics and destruction, animation system enhancements, and audio advancements. Unreal Engine 4.25 also includes support for next-gen consoles.

Spaceship Earth: Film Review

Spaceship Earth: Film Review

Director: Matt Wolf

Granted, there's a timely nature to this documentary release about how 8 men and women lock themselves into a biosphere for a two year "scientific" experiment.

In the 1990s, Biosphere 2, along with its self-sustaining ecosystem, was supposed to be the answer to a question that would become more urgent in the 21st century. However, Matt Wolf's documentary spends more than half of its time building background up than getting to the real meat of the inevitable conflict that would always show up in such an experiment.

Genial to a point of failing to really pick its subjects apart, the film begins with something reminiscent of a Galaxy Quest photoshoot as the group readies themselves to enter the Arizona-based dome and their rose-tinted perfect future.

While early elements hint at a sort of cult developing by a group of people who come together via theatre, the idea to build a ship and sail on leads to the development of the dome and the dreams of their apparently benevolent leader, John Allen.

And while Spaceship Earth uses a great deal of archive footage to demonstrate the bond between the initial players, the doco spends too long prevaricating with the background of its subjects, and not enough time examining some of the reasons for the cracks and their fall out.

It lacks a eureka moment that truly grips, and Wolf uses more candid moments to hint at the problems ahead - tensions over trying to even close the door to start the experiment show more than a contrived narrative could.

It may be "trendy ecological entertainment", but the hints of public deception charges, claims of help from outside, the negativity starts to showcase the fact there is a cracking story somewhere in the Spaceship Earth story - and the arrival of Steve Bannon late in the piece only seems to ramp up the more insane elements of the story that would have made a truly compelling and jaw-dropping story.

Instead, Spaceship Earth provides an intriguing peek inside what was going on, but it assumes a degree of familiarity with the subject and goes along with the idealism. Should there have been a little more of an intrusive interviewer edge, the film could have had a bite and veneer that's impossible to shake.

Spaceship Earth is streaming now on Docplay.

The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole: DVD Review

The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole: DVD Review

Released by Madman Home Ent

In the 80s, Sue Townsend's novels were iconic - and on the 80s TV circuit in the UK, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole was equally iconic, even if it was title star Gian Sammarco's biggest ever role.

In these six episodes, Mole is back with the love of his life Pandora as the Falklands War, and negotiating the passage into adulthood.

Sure, it doesn't shine as much as it did in more innocent times, but there is a purity of heart about this short run series.

It's not as good as the secret diary of Adrian Mole by a long shot, but for a short blast of nostalgia, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole will suffice.

Even if the tribulations faced by this teen feel like something out of yesteryear, with nary any technology in sight to mar this teenager's life.