STACK NZ February 2017 Issue 81

18 / 30

Linguistics professor Louise
Banks (Amy Adams) is recruited
by a US military colonel (Forest
Whitaker) after 12 shell-like
spacecraft appear in seemingly
random locations across
the globe. The alien visitors’
intentions are unknown, and
with China and Russia eager
to fire the first shot, she faces
a race against time to discover
whether they are friend or foe.
Working with a theoretical physicist (Jeremy Renner),
Banks realises that the loss of her young daughter
could hold the key to deciphering the alien language.
Reducing cities and major landmarks to CGI rubble
are not on the agenda here; Arrival is a film about big
ideas not big effects, although it has those too. The
sci-fi genre is at its best when exploring philosophical
themes and the human condition, and this haunting
addition is as much about love, loss and the paths
we choose in life as it is about making contact with
an alien species. Denis Villeneuve’s films (Incendies,
Prisoners, Sicario)all possess a moody ambience,
which translates well to science fiction – Blade Runner
2049 is in very capable hands. SH
Close encounters of the lingual kind.
ARRIVAL
Cops show up at a diner where
a brawl’s gone down, with one
guy taking down all comers.
That guy is Jack Reacher (Tom
Cruise), and he’s not the one
who’ll be leaving the scene
in handcuffs... A former US
Army major, Reacher’s living
a transient life as he tries to
get things together. A dinner
date with current major Susan
Turner (The Avengers’ Cobie
Smulders) may help him turn his life around, but
when he discovers that she’s been accused of
espionage and detained – and if that isn’t enough,
he also learns of a possible ghost from his past
– it’s time for this ex-military man to do his thing.
This involves everything from going on the lam
with Turner to prove her innocence, to a spot of
teenager babysitting, time in prison, and a rollicking
rooftop rumble. If – despite innumerable Mission:
Impossible flicks – you still can’t quite buy Cruise
as an action hero, then Jack Reacher: Never Go
Back isn’t likely to change your mind. But if you
can open it a little, you’ll discover a disarming and
often genuinely exciting action romp. AF
Cruising for a bruising.
JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK
DVD & BD
Xenolinguistics:
Understanding Arrival
Eternal Recurrence: The Score
BD ONLY
Acoustic Signatures: The
Sound Design
Nonlinear Thinking:
The Editing Process
Principles of Time, Memory and
Language
JB HI-FI EXCLUSIVE
Alternative Slipcase Artwork
Contact
EXTRAS
FURTHER VIEWING
Release Date: 22/02/17
Format:
Jack Reacher
EXTRAS
FURTHER VIEWING
Release Date: 22/02/17
TOP
HITS
TOP
HITS
DVD & BD
Reacher Returns
No Quarter Given: Rooftop
Battle
BD ONLY
An Unexpected Family
Relentless: On Location
in Louisiana
Take Your Revenge First:
Lethal Combat
Reacher in Focus: With Tom
Cruise and Photographer David
James
Format:
Never Go Back is based on
the eighteenth Jack Reacher
novel by Lee Child. ‘One Shot’,
the basis of the first film, Jack
Reacher (2012), is the ninth
book in the series.
DID YOU KNOW...
A fully functioning, visual, alien
language was created for the film,
along with a “logogram bible,”
which included over a hundred
different, completely operative
logograms – seventy-one of which
are actually featured in the movie.
DID YOU KNOW...
18 FEBRUARY 2017
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