STACK April 2017 Issue 150

38 / 97

38 APRIL 2017
The much-missed Douglas Adams duly noted, “Space
is big.” As such, it takes a mind-bogglingly long time
to get anywhere. The starship Avalon is on a 120-year
journey to the colony of Homestead II, so its manifest
of 5,000-plus passengers has been put into stasis,
to be woken four months out from arrival. But an
asteroid storm has other ideas, damaging the ship
and causing one stasis pod to prematurely evacuate.
Its contents, Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), soon realises
that he’s alone, and he makes do. But when he sees
fellow passenger Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), his loneliness
wins through and he takes her life into his hands by waking her. He
doesn’t tell her this, naturally, and they bond. But she’s probably
going to find out... Titanic sees stars in this romantic drama that
masquerades as a slick sci-fi adventure. AF
Rude awakening.
PASSENGERS
Release Date: 12/04/17 Format:
This lavish, big budget adaptation of Ubisoft's best-
selling video game franchise was assassinated by
critics during its cinema run. However, viewers should
take a leap of faith and trust us – Australian director
Justin Kurzel (Snowtown, Macbeth) has done for video
game movies what Christopher Nolan did for Batman
comics, delivering a dark and dazzling fantasy-adventure
grounded in the real world. Michael Fassbender plays
a death row inmate who mind-melds with his 15th
century Assassin ancestor using a device called the
Animus – his mission being to retrieve a powerful artifact before the
Knights Templar can use it to eliminate free will. Like a Dan Brown
thriller packed with parkour, Assassin's Creed is a rare breed – a smart
and sophisticated video game adaptation that's destined to find an
appreciative audience on DVD and Blu-ray. SH (See page 28)
Creed is good.
ASSASSIN'S CREED
Release Date: 12/04/17 Format:
A nostalgic blend of romance and Second World War
heroics, this old school melodrama is just the thing
for fans of classics like Casablanca. It's 1942 and
Wing Commander Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) has arrived
in French Morocco to meet Marianne Beausejour
(Marion Cotillard), a high ranking member of the
French Resistance who will impersonate his wife and
assist in the assassination of the German ambassador.
This sham marriage quickly becomes the real deal,
but things get complicated when leaked intelligence
suggests that his wife might actually be a Nazi spy. The period detail
– especially the early scenes set in Casablanca – is impressively
recreated by director Robert Zemeckis, while Pitt and Cotillard make
for attractive stand-ins for Bogart and Bergman. AC
As time goes by...
ALLIED
Release Date: 26/04/17 Format:
hilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín's portrait of iconic
irst Lady Jacqueline Kennedy is less a biopic than
n intensely intimate character study. There's a lot
f life to cover, but like The Queen, which took place
n the aftermath of Princess Diana's death, Jackie
arrows its focus to the week immediately following
he assassination of JFK, and its devastating impact
n his widow (Natalie Portman). With her striking
hysical resemblance and distinctive diction, Portman
owns the role, personifying a woman both fragile and
strong, and fiercely resolute in her desire to preserve the Kennedy
legacy. Jackie keeps us in the immediate sphere of its subject
and the result is a melancholic experience that runs contrary to
expectations for a film of this type. Highly recommended. SH
Portrait of a First Lady.
JACKIE
Release Date: 19/04/17 Format:
visit DVD&BD REVIEWS