38
JUNE 2015
JB Hi-Fi
www.jbhifi.co.nz Prior to this year, the fact that Nicole Kidman had
won an Oscar and Julianne Moore hadn't was
oneof the Academy's biggest injustices. Moore's
consistently brilliant thesping was finally rewarded
forher performance as Alice Howland, a 50-year-old
linguistics professor who is diagnosed with early-onset
Alzheimer's disease. Having dedicated her life to the
process of communication, to be robbed of these skills
andher memory (naturally) weighs heavily on Alice, her
husband (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:
Former CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), the
man with the “very particular set of skills”, returns for the
third and final film in the phenomenally successful
Taken
series. Directed once again by director Olivier Megaton,
Taken 3
continues Mills’s seemingly neverending struggle
toprotect his ever-endangered family, but prepare to
betaken elsewhere in this trilogy closer. This time Mills
isfleeing from the authorities, determined to clear his
name after being wrongly accused of a murder in LA,
whilst 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:
More accessible than their recent
Cloud Atlas
and more
enjoyable than those Matrix sequels, the Wachowski siblings’
latest sci-fi epic concerns ordinary Earth girl Jupiter Jones
(Mila Kunis), who discovers she’s a genetic “recurrence”
ofthe powerful matriarch of an intergalactic dynasty, and
consequently the legal heir to their fortune. This of course
upsets the eldest son, Balem (a hilarious Eddie Redmayne),
who makes it his mission to destroy her. With a genetically
engineered dog soldier (Channing Tatum) as her guardian,
Jupiter’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:
InJohannesburg, 2016, a robotic police force fights crime.
When one of these droids is damaged and reprogrammed, it
becomes capable of learning. Unfortunately it doesn't have
the best teachers, having been kidnapped by a pair of ghetto
punks (played by South African hip-hop duo Die Antwoord)
who name him 'Chappie', decorate him with bling, teach him
totalk dirty and steal cars. If this sounds like
Short Circuit
meets
RoboCop
, it sort of is. Had
Chappie
been a Hollywood
film, it would be horrible. But this is a Neill Blomkamp
movie, 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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