PlayStation 5 showcase

Get a look at the future games and hardware of the upcoming PlayStation 5 with Sony!

James Bond: No Time To Die - Meet Safin

No Time To Die - Meet Safin

Ahead of the most anticipated film of the year, No Time To Die, ahead of its release on November 12. 

Let us introduce you to the villainous Safin – played by Academy Award®-winner Rami Malek - who might be 007’s most terrifying adversary yet.

 The Trip To Greece: DVD Review

Cast: Rob Brydon, Steve Coogan, the wonders of Greece
Director: Michael Winterbottom

Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan reprise their Trip persona for the fourth time.

And while the third time is apparently the charm (not so in The Trip To Spain's case), it feels like now really is the time to wind up this over-inflated travelogue series for good.

It's something which those involved have said will happen with this Hellenic outing, but in parts, this film feels like a retread of everything that's gone before and a greatest hits package of the Coogan-Brydon relationship.

Except in parts, this trip around Greece, as the pair follow Odysseus' journey, delves more in the maudlin and melancholy, a welcome touch from the incessant one upmanship that's been seen so many times before. Sure, the banter between Brydon and Coogan becomes more desperate as the duo tackle more impressions, but it really does start to grate the fourth time around.

This time, it's peppered with touches of the portentous as Coogan trumpets being known for his BAFTA for Stan Laurel, but hints at being tired of only ever being awarded for work playing other people; and Brydon's continual talk of being a light entertainer feels more savage as the legacy suffocates him rather than leaving him feeling fulfilled.

As with the previous films, this has been crafted out of the 3 hour TV version, and most of the intricacies and rhythms of the food tasting and the locations have been scythed through - which is a great shame.

The star of the Trip is still Winterbottom, whose eye for magnificent shots is evident once again.

But Brydon and Coogan prove to be game enough company - from a swimming competition that's more an old man's pissing contest to the constant jabs, their exploration of friendship is a more poignant and potent affair to spend time with, rather than a tiresome retread of who can do the best impression.

If this Trip to Greece truly is the last, it's a welcome end to the series which should have been a two course menu, rather than an endless degustation of middle-aged mimcry and midlife melancholy.

Cut Throat City: Film Review

Cast: Shameik Moore, Kat Graham, Demetrius Shipp Jr, Eiza Gonzalez, T.I., Ethan Hawke, Terrence Howard.

Director: RZA

It's easy to see what director RZA is trying to do with Cut Throat City.

Combining the controversial topics of life for the African-American community after Hurricane Katrina and police violence against black people, the story of four childhood friends is clearly aiming to push some buttons as it spins a very familiar story.

Moore and Graham are newlyweds Blink and Demyra, who've been "underwater long before Katrina came" and are struggling. Blink wants to be a comic artist, but when his last attempt is thrown back in his face, and facing economic reality, Blink's sent down a path of desperation to provide for his family.

As the quartet scrabble to survive, they turn to robbery and the criminal world of Cousin Bass (played with calm and menace by T.I.) but find themselves in over their heads....

Cut Throat City has some fresh things to say in its story, and occasionally RZA brings it to the fore with its clever use of framing it all within Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

But for the most part, this is a familiar retread of old themes, wrapped up in street and rapper stylings of dialogue that are more about posturing than emotional depth.

Thankfully Shameik Moore has a magnetic presence that makes his character feel soulful and his plight and desperation feel tangible. But to be frank, he is the only one of the cast that feels as fully fleshed out as is necessary for any level of investment.

Yet, as the film continues its overlong journey to an inevitable denouement of tragedy, there's little new here except a series of Hollywood big name cameos and some mightily impressive tailoring.

Narratively, things aren't helped by some logic loops - especially in the film's final sequence where one last heist takes place. It's here that RZA shows his hand with his anti-police message in a way that feels heavy-handed, clumsy and to be frank, unbelievable in its execution.

It's moments like these that prevent Cut Throat City from truly soaring above - even with the hard work of its mainly likeable cast. There is a fire in this gangster film that works best when it's restrained, and works powerfully when it's centred around the frame of Hurricane Katrina and its after effects, and of the power vacuum that's filled by undesirables.

When it tries too hard, the bluster is sadly evident, and ultimately distracting.

 The Chaperone: Neon Film Review

With touches of a script from Downton Abbey's Julian Fellowes and adapted from a book by Laura Moriarty, The Chaperone is a classy affair.

Set in 1922, when the teenaged Louise Brooks (Richardson, in another impressive performance) was given the chance to go to dance school in New York, The Chaperone's more the story of McGovern's Norma.

Norma is a Wichita native, who yearns to spread her wings. So when she sees the opportunity to accompany Brooks to the big apple, she seizes on the chance. Along the way, there is rediscovery and also challenges for both.

The Chaperone may tread a familiar path in terms of coming-of-age films and social mores, but what it offers up is a chance to revel in the brevity of Richardson's precocious turn as the sparkling Brooks and stay for the more nuanced subtle journey of McGovern's Norma.

The trouble is the film's more obsessed with Norma's story, than Brooks herself.

It's not that McGovern doesn't deliver in a somewhat starched story, but more that it feels like something aimed at the older crowd, rather than a younger generation steeped in the Downton world.

The period detail is wonderfully evocative, and there's much to admire in the visualisation of the Jazz age, but there's a dialled down feel to The Chaperone which suggests a more buttoned up affair than is narratively worth investing in.

Ultimately, The Chaperone walks you through a period of history and a story, rather than letting you experience it. It's not a fatal flaw, granted, but it is one which stops the familiar tropes from soaring and hitting an emotional level you'd want to be more fully engaged.

John Wick: Chapter 3: Neon Movie Review

Keanu's back picking up his besuited assassin John Wick just moments after the end of John Wick 2, where he was declared excommunicado and a multi-million dollar bounty placed on his head.

With everyone apparently after him, Wick has to try and clear his name, and set the record straight as he deals with the consequences to his actions...

For the first half of the film, John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum is a taut, inventive brawler that finds new ways to breathe life into the genre.

Its commitment to bone-crunching beat downs delivered with tightly choreographed almost balletic fights are visually and kinetically thrilling.

But when the film tries to incorporate a mystical and mysterious edge, striving to flesh out the nefarious High Table organisation, it wallows in its pomposity, much to the detriment of why Wick worked before - a man on the run, or a man desperate to get out. It meanders when it should be sleek, and goes for lazy gunplay in one elongated section, when stripped back offers more pleasure.

In fact the fleshing out of the universe is almost criminal, a wider context not needed within the framework of why these films work.

Add to that a need to throw in some comedy with potential assassins turning out to be fans of Wick and the film testers dangerously into unwarranted self-knowing, winking territory .

It’s fatal to the vibe that’s gone previously and does little to stop the script dipping into campy one liners and dialogue delivery.

Reeves however excels, his Wick looking beaten, fragile and trapped when needed- but reeves digs deep to allow Wick the physical and emotional heft to fight back.

John Wick: Chaper 3 - Parabellum isn’t a full disaster. It’s a film of two halves and those involved in future elements would be wise to step back, regroup and reassess why the series was working and to build on those foundations, and stick to the basics, rather than trying to flesh it all out.

 The Kitchen: Neon NZ Movie Review

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss, Tiffany Haddish, Domnhall Gleeson, Bill Camp
Director: Andrea Berloff

Melissa McCarthy digs deep once again from the well of seriousness which served her so well and nabbed her an Academy Award nomination.

McCarthy stars as Kathy, the wife of an Irish mobster in Hells Kitchen in New York in the 70s. When Kathy's husband, along with his two co-conspirators, are jailed, Kathy, along with her friends Ruby and Claire (Haddish and Handmaid's Tale's Moss respectively) decide enough's enough and look to take over business.

But their desire to do the right thing and also make some money on the side puts them in the eyeline of the police and the Mafia.

The Kitchen's approach to drama is piecemeal at best.

Whereas Widows had dramatic heft, emotional bite and weight, The Kitchen flounders in comparison.

Sadly, by dipping in and dipping out of the characters, and even with a restrained McCarthy trying to build on Can You Ever Forgive Me, The Kitchen doesn't hit any of the straps it wants to.

Opening with James Brown's It's A Man's World over shots of NYC, as well as mobsters, it's clear that this is a male perspective and those in charge are determined to smash it. But underwriting, as well as scenes that fly by quicker than they should, those involved really don't know how to construct a drama that has tension and suspense.

Shouting stereotypes and with dialogue that's ham-fisted as the characters' so-called intentions, this attempt at gender-flipping falls massively short.

Humorous moments that are supposed to be dark and gallows are delivered with such heavy-handedness they fall flatter than they should or deserve to. There's a lack of nerve, and even moments of violence, brief as they are in their brutality, fail to deliver the punch they could have.

IT's almost as if The Kitchen were too afraid to go as dark as it could, to deeply enrich its characters and to blur the moral lines that the best gangster films do - because of that, it ends up feeling inconsequential, a waste of the talents within and a flight of empowerment that's grounded before it even begins.