STACK NZ May #73

DVD & BD REVIEWS

visit stack.net.nz

No one to trust – everyone to hate THE HATEFUL EIGHT

Release Date: 25/05/16 Format:

TOP HITS

DVD & BD EXTRAS

Beyond the Eight: A Behind the Scenes Look Sam Jackson’s Guide to Glorious 70mm

JB HI-FI EXCLUSIVE

Limited Edition Blu-ray with 30-page Collector’s Booklet & Alternate Artwork

Quentin Tarantino has assembled his best cast since Pulp Fiction for this ultraviolent post-Civil War epic that strands eight unsavoury characters (including Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Dern) in a remote mountain outpost during a blizzard. The Hateful Eight is a slow burner; Tarantino’s passion

DID YOU KNOW...

Quentin Tarantino still plans to call it quits after ten films. “I do kind of like the idea of ten and done, there’s a neat thing about that,” he says. “I usually make about three movies a decade, so this is like number two for this decade. If I can’t shoot a film or release it to some degree on film, I may not make ten. We’ll see what happens.”

an Evil Dead -style bloodbath. With most of the film set indoors, The Hateful Eight plays like a stage production in Ultra Panavision 70, with Ennio Morricone’s moody, Oscar-winning score evoking his work for The Thing , as does the snowbound setting, the distrust and paranoia, and of course Kurt Russell. This is easily Tarantino’s best (and bloodiest) film since Kill Bill Vol. 1 , and the super widescreen framing and enhanced detail of 70mm makes viewing it on Blu-ray essential. Scott Hocking

for colourful dialogue has always been both an asset and a detriment to his films, and the eight are his most loquacious ensemble to date. The first hour is largely devoted to verbal repartee, but when the bullets and blood finally begin to fly, the film becomes relentlessly entertaining. Throw a pot of poisoned coffee and a surprise twist into this pressure-cooker environment and the result is an Agatha Christie-like mystery crossed with

Django Unchained FURTHER VIEWING

DVD&BD

Man in the wilderness THE REVENANT

Release Date: 18/05/16 Format:

TOP HITS

EXTRAS

BD ONLY

Documentary: A World Unseen Image Gallery

DID YOU KNOW...

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s temperamental nature, along with the high-pressure schedule and unpleasant filming conditions, made it a very difficult shoot and caused several crew members to leave the project, or were fired. Iñárritu explained, “As a director, if I identify a violin that is out of tune, I have to take that from the orchestra.” The origin of the title is rooted in the French verb “revenir,” which means “to return.” Revenant in French also means (reverting to) “spirit” or “ghost.”

In the harsh frozen wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is viciously mauled by a bear and left in the company of his half- Pawnee son and a surly mountain man, Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). When Fitzgerald murders Glass’s son and leaves the wounded man for dead, Glass’s survival instincts kick in. He begins an endurance-testing journey across a forbidding landscape to seek revenge – a dish that is best served cold, after all. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s bleak and beautiful frontier survival story is far removed from his theatre- set Oscar-winner Birdman and the fractured narratives of his Mexican productions, but no less technically astounding. In moving to Hollywood, the director

hasn’t sold out to the mainstream; filming in long unbroken takes and using only natural light and remote locations, he achieves the sense of verisimilitude that has been his forte since Amores Perros . Moreover, Oscar-winner DiCaprio, whose performance is limited to grunts, gestures and vengeful stares, makes us feel every chilly moment of this primal homage to old school wilderness adventures. SH

FURTHER VIEWING

Everest

MAY 2016

24

jbhifi.co.nz