STACK NZ Jul #64

42 / 57

chwarzenegger in a zombie movie – it's about time! But
efore you get too excited at the prospect of big Arnie
rminating the living dead, it should be noted that Maggie
as more common with TV's In the Flesh than The Walking
ead, focusing on the intermediate stage of a zombie
irus, before a bitten victim is fully transformed. That's
hat's happening to Arnold's teenaged daughter (the
rrific Abigail Breslin), who is being held in a quarantine
cility awaiting execution. Determined that she spend
her final days as a human in his care, Arnie convinces the
doctors to release her, and struggles to come to terms with the inevitable
action he has to take. It's a twist on both the zombie film and terminal
illness drama, and a chance to see Arnie cast against type in a rare
dramatic role.
The human side to the walking dead
MAGGIE
Tommy Lee Jones' second
directorial outing confirms that
Clint Eastwood now has some
serious competition in the western
sakes. Beautifully played and shot,
it tells the story of a determined
spinster (Hilary Swank) who has
to take three women back east
after they are driven mad by the
harsh realities of pioneer life;
Jones plays a drunken drifter who
agrees to help her. The austere,
elegaic visuals recall both the
Coens’ recent remake of True Grit
and Eastwood’s classic Unforgiven ,
but oddly enough it’s also faintly
reminiscent of the Humphrey
Bogart/Katharine Hepburn classic
The African Queen, even if it is
much darker in tone.
THE HOMESMAN
Release Date:
09/07/15
Format:
It’s almost obligatory for comedy
stars to bemoan the fact they
are not taken seriously, but Chris
Rock brings enough mocking self-
humour to the subject to ensure
that his latest film – he also writes
and directs – avoids most of the
usual clichés. Rock plays Andre
Allen, a standup comic who has
found Hollywood fame playing
a cop in bear suit, but has just
made his first serious drama about
a Haitian slave uprising. Rosario
Dawson is equally good as the
journalist he reluctantly agrees
to spend a day with to promote
the film, while cameos from the
likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Cedric The
Entertainer, Tracy Morgan and
Adam Sandler add to the fun.
TOP FIVE
Release Date:
29/07/15
Format:
Release Date: 15/07/15 Format:
r their third collaboration, Liam Neeson and director
ume Collet-Serra have wisely dumped the high concept
nceits of Unknown and Non-Stop and have instead a
shioned a gritty thriller that owes more to the crime
assics of the ‘70s than the sleek actioners the Irishman
s become known for. Once a feared hitman for New
rk Irish mobster Ed Harris, Neeson’s drunken antics have
ade him a figure of fun for the newer gang members.
owever, when his estranged son (Joel Kinnaman,
Robocop) witnesses Harris’s oldest boy kills some Albanian
drug dealers, he has to call on all his lethal abilites to keep him safe from
both the police and his former best friend. Although the star’s action man
heroics still stretch credibility, the quality cast and the redemptive themes
of the story mark this out as one of his best late career thrillers.
The sins of fathers and sons
RUN ALL NIGHT
Adapted from a Stephen King
novella, Big Driver is basically
King's take on the rape-and-
revenge theme. But since it
was made for TV, don't expect
the harrowing horror of I Spit
on Your Grave. Maria Bello
plays a mystery writer who is
violated and left for dead by a
hulking, brutish trucker after
taking a backroad shortcut home
following a speaking gig. Using
her skills as a crime writer, she
manages to track him down
for some serious payback. It's
familiar territory, but King and
screenwriter Richard Christian
Matheson provide a couple of
unexpected twists, and Bello
delivers a gutsy performance.
BIG DRIVER
Release Date:
22/07/15
Format:
Release Date: 22/07/15 Format:
How Edward Snowdon came
to blow the whistle on the
American intelligence services’
unprecedented global snooping
activities is the subject of this
utterly absorbing documentary.
It’s not particularly cinematic,
mainly because much of the action
is restricted to the Hong Kong
hotel room he holed up in while
completing his groundbreaking
information dump with journalists
from The Guardian and filmmaker
Laura Poitras. But that’s also
why it’s so compelling: the
claustrophobic surrounding just
heighten the edge of paranoia as
the US authorities close in on the
whistleblower and turn up the heat
on his allies.
Citizenfour
Release Date:
09/07/15
Format:
JULY 2015 JB Hi-Fi
42
visit REVIEWS DVD&BD