The Boys: Season 2 review

Released by Amazon Prime Video

New episodes released weekly from September 4, with three episodes arriving on Friday September 4

The Boys' first season was a kick in the balls of superhero worship movies and TV shows.

Opening with Erin Moriarty's superhero newcomer Starlight and her induction into the famed world of The Seven, a group of superheroes adored by the public, the show kicked off the idea that you should never meet your heroes.

Especially after one of them tries to molest you within moments of meeting. 

Coinciding with Starlight's journey was that of Jack Quaid's Hughie, whose world was destroyed when speedy superhero A-Train ploughed literally through his fiancee as they held hands - and then ran off with nary an apology.

The first season did a great job of tearing down expectations of superheroes, delivering them as flawed and dangerous narcissistic individuals, whose power delivered them delusions of grandeur, complete with the backing of a multi-conglomerate named Vought that abused them for their own economic ends.

Central to proceedings is Antony Starr's Homelander, a deluded and dangerous version of Superman who's adored by the public, but feared within the Seven due to his unpredictability, toxic masculinity and frail ego. Butting heads with Homelander and heading up a ragtag group determined to take the Seven down was Karl Urban's Billy Butcher, whose hatred of the so-called Supes was his sole driving force.

It was a potent and refreshing mix that Eric Kripke (Supernatural) had created - and its anti-hero worship was a welcome antidote to the cutesy superhero world fuelled by the likes of Marvel and its Avengers' franchise.

But where the first season fell down was in its portrayal of women. Thankfully, the first three episodes alone of season 2 do much to counter that and reverse the trend.

In the second, the answers to the first season's cliffhanger where Butcher was reunited with his long-believed dead wife and apparent son are not immediately forthcoming.

In fact, first up the second season of The Boys is a slower, less flashy opening than the first - almost a stiflingly glacial pace in its opening moments as the themes for the upcoming year are set out.

Yet, they begin to manifest in ways that are both dramatically and narratively thrilling, offering a mix of drama and machiavellian plots that are too compelling to miss. However, while there are moments of gore, The Boys S2 is a bit more of a psychological thriller, delivering up slices and ruminations on the fragility of family and the individual.

Jack Quaid's Hughie is suffering from a loss of his place in the world; elsewhere Homelander feels usurped by the new arrival to the Seven of Aya Cash's social-media loving and manipulating Storm Front.

It all culminates in a shocking denouement in episode 3, the last 10 minutes of which show various hands being finally played out, and which set ups the season's bigger picture nicely.

The creative team have wisely retooled a few of the characters behind the scenes this year - and early on, it appears to be paying off.

Worried that Karen Fukuhara's Kimiko was being sidelined as an Asian stereotype of a quiet woman, The Boys' team have taken great steps to ensure she's got more to do and say - and even Maeve of The Seven has more of an arc.

And add in Aya Cash's blistering turn as Storm Front, the cat among the pigeons that Antony Starr's Homelander needs to feel threatened. Starr reacts strongly to the challenge, and delivers some of his finest work in the opening episodes - as does Quaid as Hughie, as he teeters on a precipice.

The Boys works best when it plays with morality and imperils the characters with decisions that they really have no control over - certainly the first three episodes show the cost of victory and how easy it is to go sideways quickly in this universe.

In a world where superheroes never usually die and where everyone usually survives, the frisson of danger that's lurking at the start of Season 2 seems to hint in a cataclysm of catastrophe for everyone as episodes go on.

That makes it both a delight and a rate thing these days - it works better because of its unpredictability and a less showy feel than season 1 gives this sophomore outing a greater urgency and an essential sense of unease.

The Boys Season 2 launches on Amazon Prime Video on September 4. Episodes 1-3 were reviewed as part of this preview, and were offered up for review by Amazon Prime Video.

Win a copy of Flash Gordon Classics Remastered on Blu Ray 

To celebrate the release of the classic Flash Gordon on Blu Ray, thanks to Sony Home Entertainment, you can win a copy.

About Flash Gordon: Classics Remastered

Get ready to kick some Flash

A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.

Flash Gordon: Classics Remastered is in shops now.

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

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

Win The Boys S1 on Blu Ray

To celebrate the release of The Boys Season 1 on DVD and Blu Ray now, and ahead of the launch of season 2 on Friday September 4 on Amazon Prime Video, you can win a copy.

Thanks to Sony Home Entertainment, you can nab yourself a copy of The Boys Season 1 starring Antony Starr and Karl Urban.

About The Boys

The Boys, is an irreverent take on what happens when superheroes--as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians and as revered as gods--abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. 

It is the powerless against the super-powerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to exposed the truth about "The Seven" and their formidable Vought backing.

The Boys is out now on DVD and Blu Ray

All you have to do is email your details and the word BOYS! Competition ends September 15th.

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

Tenet is in Auckland's IMAX cinema now

It's been a long wait for new movies since the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Some have been postponed from the schedules and moved to next year, or released straight to streaming sites, so 2020 has been a difficult year for movie-lovers.

However, one of the biggest films of the year has released in New Zealand, ahead of the rest of the world.

Earlier this year, there was speculation director Christopher Nolan's Tenet would lead the most unusual blockbuster season yet.

But when the US decided to postpone their release of the film, it was questionable New Zealand would get to see it.

A decision to screen Tenet first overseas meant New Zealand is one of the first countries in the world to view the new movie from Christopher Nolan.

And now Auckland has dropped down its Covid-19 Alert Level, there's a chance to see the film in its best possible presentation - the IMAX Theatre at Event Cinemas in Auckland's CBD.

 

Acclaimed director Christopher Nolan's latest has an all star cast including John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki and Michael Caine.

About Tenet

Armed with only one word, Tenet, and fighting for the survival of the entire world, a Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.

With special footage shot for IMAX cinemas, Tenet cries out to be seen on Auckland's biggest screen - the IMAX theatre.

Those running the IMAX and Event Cinemas around the country have ensured cinemas are adhering to Government guidelines concerning the Covid-19 pandemic.

"To maintain a high standard of cleanliness across our locations, all cinemas are regularly cleaned and maintained during operating hours, with professional cleaning teams conducting detailed cleans every single night, in every single Cinema.

"Cleaning and sanitising processes have also been increased as well as a higher frequency of surface cleaning and sterilisation in public areas.

"Seating maps have been reconfigured to ensure adequate distance between guests in every session. Our cinemas now have a capacity limit of 100 guests. We encourage you to use your own device to book digital tickets and choose your own seats via the EVENT Cinemas App or on the EVENT Cinemas website.

Book now to see Tenet in IMAX at Event Cinemas - click here to find out more.

The above article is part of a collaboration with Darren's World of Entertainment and Event Cinemas.

 Neon Movie Review - Jojo Rabbit

Marketed as an anti-hate satire, and facing unprecedented levels of hype out of wins at the Toronto International Film Festival and talk of Oscar buzz, director Taika Waititi's latest, Jojo Rabbit, is more a damp quietly burning squib than sensational fizzer.

Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit

It's the story of Jojo "Rabbit" Betzler (a superb turn from Roman Griffin Davis, who exudes confidence in every scene), a wannabe Hitler Youth whose days are haunted by imaginary best friend, a dimwitted Hitler (Waititi) and whose world is turned upside down when he finds his single mum Rosie (Johansson, soft and nurturing) is harbouring a Jew Elsa (a quiet McKenzie, aching with loss, fear, uncertainty and touches of bitterness) in the attic.

Confused and conflicted over what to do thanks to his core inner beliefs, Jojo finds his inner turmoil tough to deal with in the final days of the Third Reich.

While Jojo Rabbit opens with Waititi's trademark fantasy edges and comic touches, the film soon settles into something that resembles a form of disappointment as the satire fails to hit anything resembling scathing.

Perhaps more a soothing bittersweet love story, Waititi's Jojo Rabbit fails to touch on anything that verges on satire's sharpness, making the Nazis buffoons, or buffoons with heart, in something that seems to resemble great British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo (certainly in the case of Stephen Merchant's appallingly Bristolian Gestapo officer).

It's a film that revels in the quirks to start off with, before settling for this more cutesy and softer approach rather than revealing the horror of what transpired.

Whether it's enough to do this because it's through the eyes of a child is debatable, but it's perhaps somewhat morally reprehensible to try and pierce current climates and leanings with its weaker message, as perhaps those involved with the film want to do.

At its heart, Jojo Rabbit lacks the courage of some of its convictions, favouring whimsy over showing Jojo struggling more with his core Nazi beliefs, and making his inevitable epiphany feel unearned.

That's not to say it's without some successes though.

Davis is an incredible lead, a wide-eyed innocent who's able to carry the lighter comedic edges with ease, and who has the requisite softness for the more dramatic interactions with an equally strong McKenzie. Their relationship is obviously key to the film, and the love message that Waititi clearly wants to convey. Equally scenes with McKenzie and Johansson conversing, reflecting and hoping, are quietly enticing.

Rockwell's laissez-faire Nazi, complete with regret over an injury, is endearing, a resentment bubbling under for reasons that are again too spoilery to discuss; and McKenzie's quiet sadness as Elsa is genuinely heartbreaking, a fragility laid bare by an actress unafraid to let the silence speak for her.

There's one moment in the film that's truly devastatingly breathtaking - to say more is to ruin Waititi's directorial flair for the dramatic, but it is easily one of 2019's best on screen sequences.

Elements of Moone Boy and Moonrise Kingdom permeate Jojo Rabbit, but its reluctance to tackle fanaticism, and dogma with anything more than surface level whimsy is disappointing. Conversely, the film truly misses Waititi when he's not on screen, a sign perhaps of the confusion the tones mix.(His final appearances go someway to espousing some of the bilious hate of Hitler, and are terrifying to watch).

Make no mistake, there is a darker version of this film to be made, a film that fulfills more of the promise of Johansson's lamentations that she has lost her son to blind fanaticism as she opines at one point; a film that tackles the horror of the Nazis and overcomes it with the heart of a child and their burgeoning take on reality.

Jojo Rabbit is not it though - while Waititi may have been played into a corner with the best way to develop this passion project, there's much that leaves Jojo Rabbit wanting, a film that promises so much, and buckles, sadly, under the weight of expectation and ultimate execution.

PGA Tour 2K21: PS4 Review

Developed by HB Studios

Published by 2K Games

Platform: PS4

Stepping up to the hole to get a desperately needed par on a hole that should have easily been a birdie, it only needs a gentle tap to push the ball into its natural home.

A simple task, granted, and one that shouldn't elude the most basic of players.

But an over-egging of the PlayStation 4's right joystick and the ball sails past the hole, a par is missed and there's a nagging feeling there should be the option to see a player swear and toss his club way into the air.

Spurned on by commentary wondering how this happened, and with Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore's breakdown in the background, PGA Tour 2K21 has a way of really getting under your skin.

It's probably due in large part to the fact this polished game is one of the most accessible golfing simulators there is out there. A lushly produced, slick-looking game that keeps the controls basic and gives you as much control of what you do with the golf club as being out on a course yourself.

It's what one should expect - given HB Games developed The Golf Club series and put the playing back at the front and centre of the experience. Whereas the more cartoony, but infinitely playable Everybody's Golf, made the silly sensible, PGA Tour 2K21 opens up the game to everyone and benefits greatly from doing so.

Granted, the more proficient players and the seasoned pros may be at a loss why some of the bigger names and some of the more well-known courses aren't part of this release, but to the everyman player, PGA Tour 2K21 represents a real chance to immerse yourself in the golfing experience.

From customising clothes (earned through tournaments and XP finishes) to progression, via way of some easy to follow tutorials, PGA Tour 2K21's strength lies in the solid nature of its gameplay.

In all honesty, graphically, the gameplay is nothing new. But it's golf - the sport itself has never been revolutionary; it's not about cheerleaders, exploding fireworks in the crowd or whooping crowds. This is a demure game, a game of skill and patience and PGA Tour 2K21 reflects that.

Complete with course designers and an option to retool your player, the customisable elements of PGA Tour 2K21 prove to be worthy. The further you progress, the more sponsors will become interested in you and the fairway does become your oyster.

Yet at the end of the day, it's about whether the swing makes you sing.

And PGA Tour 2K21 delivers on this with relative ease. While commentary occasionally may suffer from repetition and annoyance, the gameplay itself is totally relaxing, weirdly compelling and downright addictive.

All in all, PGA Tour 2K21 is as close to a hole-in-one as you can get. It rewards patience, it uplifts skill and it proves that virtual golf is still as much fun as the real thing.

PGA Tour 2K21 was reviewed on PlayStation 4 and a code was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart debuts PlayStation 5 footage and will be a launch title

One of the PlayStation's most iconic duos is back.

Ratchet & Clank will be a launch title for the PlayStation 5 in a few months' time.

Gamescom has debuted 7 minutes of gameplay from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

Ratchet and Clank find themselves at odds with their archnemesis, Dr. Nefarious. 

Only this time, he’s equipped with the dangerous Dimensionator, a device with the power to travel to other dimensions. 

The duo fights their way through an army of hired Goons in Megalopolis until something happens and they are ripped apart. 

Where are they now? 

From acclaimed studio Insomniac Games, enjoy a visually dazzling, interdimensional adventure, complete with familiar faces and some new allies and enemies in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – exclusively on the PlayStation®5 console.