FAST & FURIOUS CROSSROADS VIDEO GAME AVAILABLE NOW

FAST & FURIOUS CROSSROADS VIDEO GAME AVAILABLE NOW  
 

Fast & Furious Crossroads, a team-based, vehicular-heist action game set in the adrenaline-fueled Fast & Furious universe, developed by Slightly Mad Studios and published by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe in collaboration with Universal Games and Digital Platforms, is now available for  PlayStation® 4, Xbox One and PC.

The Fast & Furious Crossroads story mode expands the Fast & Furious universe—with Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Tyrese Gibson reprising their roles as Dom Toretto, Letty Ortiz, and Roman Pearce in an action-packed adventure set across stunning global locations, including Athens, Barcelona, Morocco and New Orleans. Joining the cast are Sonequa Martin-Green (Star Trek: Discovery, The Walking Dead), Asia Kate Dillon (Billions, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum) and Peter Stormare (Fargo, Prison Break).

Players who purchase the game before September 7, 2020 will receive the Launch Pack,* which includes the inimitable Mitsubishi Eclipse, along with three unique wraps. This content will add to the novel 3 vs 3 vs 3 multiplayer mode that features three-faction, team-based, vehicular action in a variety of high-stakes missions.

Packed with gadgets, high-octane heists and iconic vehicles, Fast & Furious Crossroads puts players in the driver’s seat of the non-stop cinematic-style action of the Fast & Furious saga and is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC Digital.

 

For more information, or to keep up with the latest news, please visit: 

 

Website: www.fastandfuriouscrossroads.com 
Facebook: http://facebook.com/FastandFuriousCrossroads 
Instagram: http://instagram.com/FastandFuriousCrossroads 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FastFuriousCR

The Legend of Baron To'a: DVD review

The Legend of Baron To'a: DVD review

Ambition on a budget meets a degree of heart and family legacy in director Kiel McNaughton's debut.

It's the story of Latukefu's Fritz, an Aussie-based businessman who needs to sell the old family home in New Zealand to finance a deal back home. Landing in his old cul-de-sac, he finds some things have changed since the days when his wrestling father, Baron To'a, ruled the roost.

But when a local gang makes off with his dad's prize wrestling belt, Fritz's uncle refuses to sell the home until it's returned - sending Fritz on a collision course with his own personal and troubled history.

The Legend of Baron To'a starts with two of the actors (Latukefu and Tui) apologising to the Tongan King for what they're about to see, but exalting him that they wanted to show a true to life story.

In truth, the cul-de-sac where the story takes place could be anywhere where bad apples have set in and the rot's begun, and where family and community have been torn apart by crime and deliquency.

On that front, McNaughton and his writing team have seized on a vein of veracity that's got plenty to be mined for dramatic effect.

Yet in parts, The Legend of Baron To'a lacks some of the dramatic KO that it's clearly going for - largely in part due to the writing of Latukefu's Fritz. Prone to going all Beautiful Mind and writing on windows, Fritz is a hard character to really care about, despite the Robbie Magasiva-like Latukefu's best acting intentions. And certainly when the chips are down, there's more a sense that he was entitled to what was coming, rather than favouring this underdog.

A cartoon-like element underpins some of the brutal beatdowns, with not one ounce of blood spilled throughout, despite some of the violence on show - it's moments like this that take the film out of the reality and grittiness it aspires to.

And yet, in its flaws, this genial pic packs in heart when it needs to - particularly with moments of Tui's To'a, a legend in his own cul-de-sac. Glimpsed in flashbacks and in old videos of wrestling, it's clear there's a legacy here, and Tui makes the absolute most of the limited screentime.

Equally, Laga'aia's subtle and simple portrait of the long-time dweller offering advice to the newcomer is a stellar performance, one doused in subtlety. Laga'aia lifts some of The Legend of Baron To'a's shortcomings when it truly counts. Billed as a comedy, the laughs are, to be frank, in short shrift, and The Legend of Baron To'a is more a family dramedy than anything else.

With fight scenes that resemble UK's World of Sport Wrestling TV series, McNaughton makes great fist of the small spaces to bring the action alive, clearly channeling Tongan Ninja and Kung Fu Hustle.

Overall, while The Legend of Baron To'a may lack a few killer KO moves throughout and would have benefited from a tighter script, it does proffer a solid night out for NZ cinemagoers.

Vivarium: Blu Ray Review

Irish director Lorcan Finnegan's Vivarium has been compared to Black Mirror, because of look and tone.

Though this tale of two would-be surbanites (Jesse Eisenberg, Imogen Poots) finding themselves stranded in a housing estate after a visit to an oddball estate agent's, has more in common with a darker Tales of The Unexpected or Inside No 9 via Escher.

Gemma (Poots, digging deep when needed and yielding great rewards) and Tom (Eisenberg, increasingly detached and desperate) are wannabe homeowners, given the chance to visit a new housing estate called "Yonder".

When their creepy estate agent disappears while they're looking around the house which is "near enough and yet far enough away", the pair find themselves stuck when they can't escape Yonder....

Finnegan creates an atmosphere of unease early on in the piece, after a cutesy opening showcases both Gemma and Tom's relationship and their approach to life.

But with some digital trickery and some genuinely unsettling moments (it's wise to go into this unspoiled, and with a blank mind approach), what Finnegan crafts is something that haunts you after you've seen it.

Colour palettes add to the cinema of unease, and the sense of suspense as the rug threatens to be pulled out from under you at any moment. Parts of the film occasionally feel like the idea's been stretched as far as it can with its essentially two-hander cast, but just when the film seems to be out of breath, an audacious third act moment visually jolts you back into it.

There's a satire in Vivarium here both of suburban expectations and family expectations - albeit poured through a prism of genuine discomfort.

It's heady, thrilling, exciting, frustrating and audacious - Vivarium truly messes with you - but its ride is well worth hopping on.

This Town: Film Review

Cast: David White, Robyn Malcolm, Rima Te Wiata, Alice May Connolly

Director: David White

The most frustrating thing about David White's dramedy about a killer who's trying to find love in a rural town is that it never quite leans into what exactly it wants to be.

Blending goofy romance a la Eagle vs Shark while ignoring the fact it's heavily based on the David Bain story (a family's found shot dead, one sole survivor and a lot of questions dogging them through the years), This Town had some real potential to launch New Zealand cinema after the onset of Coronavirus crippled the cinematic world.

But This Town doesn't own enough of its ingredients to get it out of the country of quirky characters mire it sets itself into.

It's the tale of Sean (White, a fairly solid and deadpan when needed lead), a suspected murderer who wants to simply find the one. Signing up to a dating app on the advice of mates, Sean meets Alice May Connolly's Casey, one of the few girls who's unaware of Sean's past...

However, in smalltown New Zealand, the past is always around the corner...

Initially, This Town proffers some solid laughs, thanks to the deadpan delivery of lines and actions of a man who's clearly socially at odds with what's expected of him - and some inspired sight gags.

Yet once Robyn Malcolm's determined-to-get-her-man former police officer Pam comes in, the film loses a bit of focus and goes slightly off the rails as the weaker material starts to flail in the wind. It's not to pour scorn on Malcolm's performance, as she shows some strong comedy chops when required - her pairing with Rima Te Wiata as a local crime writer is inspired, but there's not enough of it in the film.

Hints of the comedy potential arrive towards the end with some clearly improvised dialogue poitning frustratingly to what could have been. 

This Town never quite knows what it wants to be, and none more so than when the truth comes out, and the dramatic reveal is played too quickly to have the heft it needed. 

Despite some wonderfully realised bucolic shots, and some adroit capturing of the small-town vibe, some of the issue with This Town lies with the character who should be the lead in it is frequently sidelined, gradually robbing them of the screen time that's needed and emotional arc that's necessary.

Working better for character moments, rather than a cohesive whole, This Town feels more suited to a finely honed web series, rather than a full-length film. It's certainly not a Town you want to reside in long-term.

The Girl on the Bridge: NZIFF Review

Director Leanne Pooley's sensitively handled doco about suicide is a painfully honest affair that deserves all the oxygen it can muster.

Centring around 21-year-old Jazz Thornton, who herself tried repeated suicide attempts, Pooley's piece starts a conversation about the stigmatised issue.

Jazz created the webseries Jessica's Tree in 2019 after the death of a friend she couldn't save - Pooley decided to come along to document the process of the making of the piece.

Thanks to Thornton's honesty and the camera's unswerving eye, The Girl on the Bridge almost feels insufferably intrusive. 

The resilience shines through, though and while the documentary occasionally feels like it could do with a bit more of a trim to avoid repetition, the fact it starts the conversation deserves to be applauded and supported.

In among it all is Jazz Thornton, a young woman who has put it all on the line and out in the public eye.

Heartbreaking scenes show the continual pressure she's under, with people constantly messaging her threatening to take their own lives. Pooley's camerawork uses a lot of Thornton's confessional footage, but in moments where Thornton is on the edge and breaks down at her frustration at the system, the film does feel like it's on the edge and teetering.

But it's here that Pooley shows her strength and her clever approach to the film - it's sensitively handled in its use of unflinching honesty.

The Girl On The Bridge is an important documentary to view, as it gives a window into a world that's all too common and all too rarely discussed in the wider media world. 

However, it would be nothing without Jazz Thornton - she may refute the fact her resilience is the key factor here, and that it's important to have the conversations. 

But by showing her own heart and soul, coupled with Pooley's calm and methodical approach to the material, The Girl on the Bridge is a powerful piece that demonstrates the complexities and the flaws of a system, but never loses sight of the humanity of its central subject and its painfully raw subject matter.

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band: NZIFF Review

Those not familiar with Robbie Robertson and The Band will get a great intro with this doco from director Daniel Roher.

Unfortunately, it's somewhat one-sided given Robbie is the only surviving member of the band who chooses to engage publicly.

However, what emerges from Roher's somewhat hagiographic piece is the feeling that Robertson has grown extremely reflective later in life as he looks back over what occurred.

Using Robertson's Canadian drawl to the maximum effect and some quality archive footage of the invention of rockabilly and the dawning of rock'n'roll, the doco spools out with some high profile fans emerging.

The likes of Martin Scorsese talk of how their lives have been changed by the rockers, but that's all supplementary to proceedings as Robertson takes the floor to amuse us all with stories of The Band's rising and inevitable fall.

It may be one-sided throughout, but with a veritable swagger of a soundtrack and a series of vignettes worth engaging with, Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band is an amiable enough amble through the annals of a band's rise and downfall.

Ema: NZIFF Review

Director Pablo Larrain's fiery Ema is a film where bad people struggle for your support.

A bleach-blonde Mariana Di Girolamo is Ema, a dancer whose marriage to Gael Garcia Bernal's Gaston is on the rocks after a child they adopted was taken away from them.

Self-destructive in extremis, but looking for the need to become a mother, Ema decides to throw everything up into the air, and pursue her own desires and dreams...

Ema is supposed to be a film of a soul of a fiery nature burning brightly and looking out for number one, but the narcissistic Ema is a distinctly unlikeable protagonist, with a way of rankling and needling viewers rather than getting support.

Fortunately, in Mariana Di Girolamo, Larrain has found a mesmerising actor who transcends the darker nastier edges of the material and who elicits sympathy in less obvious circumstances.

Which is a good thing, because large swathes of Ema fight very hard to get you offside

From character motivations that are hard to fathom to narrative leaps which are utterly ludicrous and almost contemptible, Ema is a film that's stretching credibility to say the least.

However, Larrain's eye for some stunning visuals and outstanding colours ensure Ema is worth enduring - and certainly while realism takes a battering, Mariana Di Girolamo's burning star makes it just about worth sitting through.