STACK March 2017 Issue 149

Snowpiercer

meets

World War Z

in this full throttle

South Korean zombie thriller from director Yeon Sang-

ho. A passenger train bound for the titular station

manages to escape an outbreak of the living dead in

Seoul, and must speed to Busan before the city is

locked down and quarantined. That's not going to be

easy when the infection begins to spread onboard

and loved ones become separated by carriages full

of hungry zombies. Forget

The Walking Dead

, these

creatures move like Usain Bolt! Featuring an inspired

prelude to the apocalypse, characters you can actually care about, and

as relentless as a runaway locomotive,

Train to Busan

is a knockout

zombie flick from a country renowned for great genre films. Needless

to say, this is an essential purchase for horror fans.

Express to hell.

TRAIN TO BUSAN

Ned Kelly must have had a bloody

good press agent. Ask any Aussie

to name a bushranger and his

will likely be the only name

that springs forth. There were,

however, others who decided that

robbery under arms was the life

for them. After all, every 1800s

Aussie was a criminal, right?

Anyway, the final nine months

in the life of Ben Hall, renowned

for not actually killing anybody as

he went about his business, hit

the screen in this project which

began on Kickstarter. Claiming

historical accuracy, it combines

expected action with a look at

relationships in Hall’s gang, and

warrants space alongside Ned in

the bushrangers section of your

movie collection.

THE LEGEND OF

BEN HALL

elease Date:

2/03/17

ormat:

Keanu Reeves likely wouldn’t

be your first choice to play a

lawyer in a courtroom drama.

He wasn’t first choice for the

producers of

The Whole Truth

either, but when Daniel Craig

pulled out at the last minute,

Neo bravely stepped into the

briefs – erm, breach. He holds

his head high in this John

Grishamesque tale of a rich

bloke’s murder, too, defending

the deceased’s son. The only

problem is that the kid won’t

talk. At all. Not even to his

lawyer... Courtney Hunt (

Frozen

River

) directs and, as it scarcely

leaves the courtroom other

than for flashbacks, this really

is one for legal eagle whodunit

junkies.

THE WHOLE

TRUTH

Release Date:

08/03/17

Format:

Release Date:

15/03/17

Format:

We usually encounter various levels of bureaucracy daily.

But the circuitous inefficiency that unemployed 59-year-old

carpenter Daniel Blake (stand-up comedian Dave Johns) –

only out of work on doctor’s orders due to a recent heart

attack – encounters from Britain’s Jobcentre beggars belief.

It’s the first time in his life that he’s required government

assistance, yet he’s engulfed by a relentlessly frustrating

stream of petty officialdom overload. He finds some sanity

in father figure duty for a young single mother and her two

kids who are in a similar situation, but ultimately how far

can a system that’s supposed to assist when needed push a man, when

they appear to want to do anything but help? Worship-worthy cinematic

curmudgeon Ken Loach nabbed the Cannes Palme d’Or for this bleak yet

brilliantly witty and sadly relevant flick. He bloody well deserved it.

Welfare woes.

I, DANIEL BLAKE

Paul Verhoeven (

RoboCop

Basic Instinct

) has been absent

for too long, and his first

feature in ten years marks a

triumphant return. Isabelle

Huppert (in a Golden Globe-

winning performance) plays

a video game executive who

is sexually assaulted in her

Paris apartment by a masked

assailant. But rather than report

the incident, she decides to

play her own obsessive game

with her attacker. Verhoeven

and Huppert transform the

rape-and-revenge thriller

into a bold and classy affair

that constantly subverts

expectations. It's one Elle of

a ride. (French with English

subtitles.)

ELLE

Release Date:

22/03/17

Format:

Release Date:

22/03/17

Underworld: Blood Wars

isn't

your thing but you're still itching

for a Kate Beckinsale fix, then

this old dark house thriller won't,

err, disappoint. Relocating to a

rundown country estate in the

wake of a family tragedy, the

grief-stricken Beckinsale begins

to question her own sanity when

she's plagued by creepy visions

following the discovery of a hidden

room and an encounter with the

house's sinister former owner.

Ostensibly a haunted house

movie,

The Disappointments

Room

(the title refers to where

children with special needs

were shamefully locked away)

leans more towards the gothic

melodrama of

Crimson Peak

than

the scares of

Insidious

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS

ROOM

Release Date:

08/03/17

Format:

REVIEWS

DVD&BD