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REVIEWS
DVD&BD
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
was a seriously brilliant
reboot of the Fox franchise, and a hard act to follow.
Fortunately, director Matt Reeves (
Cloverfield
) has
delivered a follow-up that’s every bit as impressive and
manages to surpass its predecessor technically, thanks
to advances in performance capture. Your jaw will hit
the floor when you discover just how real Caesar (Andy
Serkis) and his tribe of primates look. They aren’t ‘special effects’, they’re
fully-fledged characters with their own distinctive personalities. When we
last left the apes they’d headed into the hills of San Francisco, leaving
humanity to be wiped out by a lethal virus.Ten years later, a group of
human survivors stumble across Caesar’s village, triggering interspecies
conflict that inevitably leads to war. Compelling, philosophical and
emotionally resonant,
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
is a blockbuster
every bit as intelligent as its simian stars. Highly recommended.
Hail Caesar!
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Whether you love or hate the Transformers movies, you
have to admit that the sight of Optimus Prime riding
on the back a Dinobot is pretty cool. But is it enough to
make you want to see the fourth film in a franchise that
has copped its fair share of flak since the dire second
sequel,
Revenge of the Fallen
? Need further incentive?
There’s no Shia LaBeouf! He’s been replaced by the
more affable Mark Wahlberg, who acquires an old truck that happens
to be Optimus in disguise. In the wake of the destruction of Chicago in
Dark of the Moon
, the Transformers are now considered the bad guys
by the CIA, whose chief techno whiz (Stanley Tucci) has created a new
breed of robots to beat up on Optimus and the Autobots. Michael Bay,
having apologised for past sequels, approaches
Age of Extinction
as a
‘reboot’, effectively transforming the franchise with a new cast, bigger
explosions, better CGI, a longer running time, and Dinobots.
Prime target.
TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION
Director Scott Derrickson (
Sinister
) returns to the
themes of his breakthrough movie
The Exorcism of
Emily Rose
in this mix of cop thriller and demonic
possession movie. Loosely based on true events –
yeah, right! –
Deliver Us From Evil
finds NewYork cop
Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana) investigating a series of brutal
crimes that appear to be linked to an Iraq war veteran
(Sean Harris). Édgar Ramírez (soon to be seen in the
remake of
Point Break
) is the hip Jesuit priest who is convinced that
Harris became possessed by a demon while on his last tour of duty,
while Joel McHale (
Community
) is surprisingly good in rare straight
role as Bana’s tough partner. It’s a very dark movie, both in tone and
visual style, and while it occasionally descends into cliché, Derrickson
nevertheless delivers all the requisite jumps, shocks and frights.
Up jumped the devil
DELIVER US FROM EVIL
Foreign auteurs often come unstuck when they try their
hands at English-language features but South Korean
maestro Bong Joon-ho (
The Host)
is at his dazzling best
in this moving post-apocalypse parable.
Snowpiercer
is set in the near future in which the Earth’s population
has been virtually wiped out in a global freeze, with the
surviving humans now trapped aboard the remarkable
self-sufficient train of the title. However, the passengers
have been ruthlessly divided into the haves and have-nots, and revolution
breaks out when Chris Evans (
Captain America
) leads the oppressed
inhabitants of the train’s final carriage in an attack on the upper classes.
The claustrophobic action set-pieces are vividly executed by Ho, while
his steampunk vision of a new society divided on passenger class lines
recalls the surreal style of Terry Gilliam’s dystopian masterpiece
Brazil
.
Little light at the end of the tunnel
SNOWPIERCER
Format:
Release Date:
19/11/14
Format:
Release Date:
26/11/14
Format:
Release Date:
26/11/14
Format:
Release Date:
26/11/14
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