STACK NZ Apr #61

DVD & BD

REVIEWS

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The sons of the father THE WATER DIVINER

The Prince of Egypt EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS

Release Date: 24/04/15

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Release Date: 29/04/15

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Russell Crowe has worked with some of the best filmmakers in the business, so it’s not surprising that he’s decided to step behind the camera for a shot at directing. Here, Crowe also stars as farmer Joshua Connor, who honours a promise to his late wife to bring home the bodies of their three sons, who were killed in action at Gallipoli. Travelling to Turkey four years after the battle, he’s confronted with the seemingly impossible task of finding and identifying his sons’ remains in the post-war chaos, but finds an unlikely ally in a Turkish Major (Yilmaz Erdogan). Comparisons with Peter Weir’s

If you're tired of watching The Ten Commandments and/ or Ben Hur every Easter, Ridley Scott's spectacular Old Testament epic arrives just in time for the religious holiday. The parting of the Red Sea has never looked so good in Scott's commercial and accessible retelling of the departure of the Israelites from Ancient Egypt, following the clash between Moses (Christian Bale) and the Pharoah Ramses (Joel Edgerton). Scott's penchant for ravishing visuals is in overdrive here; the film is awash in CGI plagues and majestic landscapes, while elsewhere, Bale talks to a

classic Gallipoli will be inevitable, but Crowe’s film is an altogether different beast that also looks at the war from the enemy’s perspective. Production values, period detail and cinematography are all top notch, too, making The Water Diviner an assured debut.

burning bush and carves out ten stone tablets. Following the recent Noah (from the Book of Genesis), Exodus could be viewed as the second film in an unofficial, chronological adaptation of the Bible, as told by Hollywood's most visionary filmmakers; although Leviticus has yet to be announced.

Once were warriors The Dead Lands

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Release Date: 15/04/15

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Release Date: 08/04/15

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Forget about Jake the Muss – he wouldn’t stand a chance against Lawrence Makoare's The Warrior, the fearsome star of this brutally brilliant Maori martial arts flick. Shot entirely in te reo – it was our official entry in this year’s Oscars’ foreign film category – the latest film from Toa Fraser ( No. 2 , Dean Spanley ) is a triumph, a mythical saga stacked with bone-crunching fight scenes. Boy star James Rolleston is excellent as Hongi, a callow warrior who travels into the forbidding Dead Lands to seek the help of its bloodthirsty guardian (Makoare) in avenging the murder of his father

Judith Viorst’s popular kids’ book gets a bit of a Freaky Friday makeover in this refreshingly old-fashioned family comedy. The original story stuck mainly to detailing the misfortunes that befall an ordinary young boy in the course of one day; in the film version, after a spectacularly bad day Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) makes a birthday wish that his parents and siblings – who all seem to be enjoying blissfully happy lives – to get a taste of what he experiences on a regular basis. To his amazement, his wish comes true, with the rest of the family suffering a

and most of his tribe at the hands of a mohawked war party led by Wirepa (the equally impressive Te Kohe Tuhaka). However, Makoare steals the show, investing his lethal warrior with both a sardonic line in dark humour and an almost Shakespearean melancholy.

succession of humiliations on his big day. The slapstick will go down a treat with kids, while grown-ups will appreciate nicely-judged turns from Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner as the parents, plus cameos from the likes of Community ’s Donald Glover, Dick Van Dyke and Jennifer Coolidge.

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