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060 AUGUST 2015 JB Hi-Fi
Terry Gilliam's 1995 sci-fi film gets the TV treatment.
X-Men's Aaron Stanford is in the Bruce Willis role,
as the guy sent from the future to prevent a killer
disease from wiping out humanity. Amanda Schull
is the doctor he joins forces with to stop the radical
group known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys.
Comparisons to the film are inevitable; this ambitious
reboot is gritty rather than visionary (a la Gilliam),
and the Brad Pitt character is now a woman. But
rather than simply rehash the events of the movie
for several episodes as an entry point, the series takes the central
concept and charts a different course. Time travel is a great device
for episodic drama, and 12 Monkeys sees Stanford's hero moving
backwards and forwards through time, providing plenty of twists.
Quantum leap.
12 MONKEYS: SEASON ONE
This sequel to the atmospheric
2012 Hammer horror film is set
during World War II, with a new
group of characters encountering
the eponymous apparition. Children
evacuated from London during the
Blitz are relocated to the sinister Eel
Marsh House – which isn't a good
idea, given its ghostly resident's
habit of making kids suffer a horrible
fate. The Woman in Black quickly
makes her presence known to a
mute orphan boy, and before long,
bodies are being dragged from the
surrounding marshland. The Woman
in Black 2: Angel of Death delivers
some genuinely creepy moments,
but ultimately lacks the scares and
dream-like quality that made the
original so effective.
THE WOMAN IN
BLACK 2
Release Date:
12/08/15
Format:
What would you do if you won the
lottery? Buy a house maybe? Go
on a holiday? Start a 100-episode
talk show? Kristen Wiig chooses
the latter in Welcome to Me. As a
woman on psychiatric medication
who scores big on a lottery
ticket, decides to embrace her
inner Oprah, and stop taking her
meds, Wiig is the quintessential
eccentric, whose bonkers ideas
would certainly make compelling
television these days (meatloaf
cake, anyone?). Co-starring
Linda Cardellini, Joan Cusack,
Jennifer Jason Leigh and James
Marsden, this is an ambitious and
refreshingly different experience to
most films that explore the subject
of mental illness.
WELCOME TO ME
Release Date:
20/08/15
Format:
Release Date: 06/08/15 Format:
There are buckets of new political machinations and
surreptitious characters in season three of House of
Cards; Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright remain utterly
compelling as Frank and Claire Underwood – POTUS
and FLOTUS, respectively – and the season follows
their attempts to ascend their own power ladders while
divulging their true schemes only to one another. Frank
launches a new jobs program, meets with the President
of the Russian Federation, and pretends to his colleagues
he doesn't intend to run for President in 2016; Claire's
bid to become US Ambassador to the United Nations looks rocky when
her temper flares during a Senate committee meeting, and she also
ignites tensions between herself and her husband after making some
questionable public comments. Still potent and solid television.
Poised to topple?
HOUSE OF CARDS: SEASON 3
The 2009 Kevin James comedy
vehicle was successful enough
to give fans the sequel they've
been waiting six long years
for. After his mother is run
over by a milk truck, James's
portly security guard takes a
break from the mall to attend a
Vegas convention (with teenage
daughter in tow), where all
manner of hilarity ensues as
he fends off a flirtatious hotel
manager, fights a pissed-off
peacock, and butts heads with
an art thief and a bunch of gun-
toting goons. Once again it's
the affable James who makes
all this funnier than it should be.
Now bring back Seth Rogen for
Observe and Report 2.
PAUL BLART:
MALL COP 2
Release Date:
20/08/15
Format:
More zombie mayhem erupts
in this adaptation of the popular
Capcom game series. Jesse
Metcalfe plays a reporter in the
zombie quarantine zone, where
a drug called Zombrex is being
administered to cure the infected.
But it doesn't seem to be working,
and the walking dead quickly
increase their numbers and overrun
the facility. The game took its cues
from George A. Romero's classic
Dawn of the Dead, but the film
more closely resembles Escape
from New York – with zombies. The
tone veers between the horrific and
humorous, and lots of POV shots
acknowledge the film's video game
origins. The disc includes Collector
Cards exclusive to JB Hi-Fi.
DEAD RISING:
WATCHTOWER
Release Date:
29/07/15
Format:
Release Date: 06/08/15 Format:
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