STACK NZ June 2015 Issue 63

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38 JUNE 2015 JB Hi-Fi
r to this year, the fact that Nicole Kidman had
n an Oscar and Julianne Moore hadn't was
of the Academy's biggest injustices. Moore's
sistently brilliant thesping was finally rewarded
her performance as Alice Howland, a 50-year-old
uistics professor who is diagnosed with early-onset
heimer's disease. Having dedicated her life to the
cess of communication, to be robbed of these skills
her memory (naturally) weighs heavily on Alice, her
band (Alec Baldwin) and their three adult children,
and the steps she takes to retain her sense of self make for compelling
and affecting viewing. Still Alice is heavy stuff, but its unsentimental
approach to its subject is as far removed from a generic disease-of-the-
week telemovie as Moore's talent is from Kidman's.
Moore's overdue Oscar
STILL ALICE
Release Date: 03/06/15 Format:
rmer CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), the
an with the “very particular set of skills”, returns for the
ird and final film in the phenomenally successful Taken
ries. Directed once again by director Olivier Megaton,
ken 3 continues Mills’s seemingly neverending struggle
protect his ever-endangered family, but prepare to
taken elsewhere in this trilogy closer. This time Mills
fleeing from the authorities, determined to clear his
me after being wrongly accused of a murder in LA,
hilst at the same time playing guardian to his now
pregnant daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace). After three Taken films (and a
couple of wannabes), Neeson has well and truly cemented his action-hero
credentials and knows how to point a pistol – it’s now time for him to
return to the kind of solid, dramatic roles he was doing in the ‘90s.
The final chapter
TAKEN 3
Release Date: 03/06/15 Format:
ore accessible than their recent Cloud Atlas and more
joyable than those Matrix sequels, the Wachowski siblings’
est sci-fi epic concerns ordinary Earth girl Jupiter Jones
ila Kunis), who discovers she’s a genetic “recurrence”
the powerful matriarch of an intergalactic dynasty, and
nsequently the legal heir to their fortune. This of course
sets the eldest son, Balem (a hilarious Eddie Redmayne),
o makes it his mission to destroy her. With a genetically
gineered dog soldier (Channing Tatum) as her guardian,
piter’s ascension proves to be quite a convoluted affair.
This is one of those big, dazzling, FX-laden and overly ambitious science
fiction films whose erratic tone alternates between serious and screwball –
often in the same scene. And like the similarly bonkers The Fifth Element, the
Wachowski’s space opera is destined to attract its own cult following.
The Wachowskis reloaded
JUPITER ASCENDING
Release Date: 24/06/15 Format:
Johannesburg, 2016, a robotic police force fights crime.
hen one of these droids is damaged and reprogrammed, it
comes capable of learning. Unfortunately it doesn't have
e best teachers, having been kidnapped by a pair of ghetto
nks (played by South African hip-hop duo Die Antwoord)
o name him 'Chappie', decorate him with bling, teach him
talk dirty and steal cars. If this sounds like Short Circuit
eets RoboCop, it sort of is. Had Chappie been a Hollywood
, it would be horrible. But this is a Neill Blomkamp
ovie, and the District 9 and Elysium director's trademarks
(fetishised tech, slums, social commentary and Sharlto Copley) guarantee
an offbeat ride. Chappie himself winds up being far more believable than his
flesh and blood counterparts, including Hugh Jackman giving Aussies a bad
name. Now let's wait and see what Blomkamp does with the Alien franchise.
District 10
CHAPPIE
Release Date: 17/06/15 Format:
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