STACK NZ Aug #65

REVIEWS

DVD & BD

Garden state A Little Chaos

Back from the dead THE LAZARUS EFFECT

Release Date: 19/08/15

Release Date: 12/08/15

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Kate Winslet, who can also be seen this month reprising her villainous role in the second chapter of the Divergent Series , is on a more familiar ground in this classy period piece, co-written and directed by Alan Rickman. It’s loosely inspired by the expansion of the fabulous gardens at Versailles overseen by the 17th century French ruler Louis XIV (essayed in his usual sardonic fashion by Rickman), with Winslet playing Sabine De Barra, a gardener hired by royal landscape artist André Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts) to create a new mini-amphitheatre. The widowed De Barra,

Films like Re-Animator and Pet Sematary have taught us that bringing things back from the dead is a bad idea, but that doesn't stop scientist Mark Duplass from making the same mistake in The Lazarus Effect . After successfully reviving a dead dog (which of course soon begins behaving aggressively), Duplass uses his milky "Lazarus serum" on electrocuted research assistant and fiancée Olivia Wilde, who promptly returns to life with black eyes, a gravelly voice and supernatural powers. There's a stream of technobabble and debate

who wants to freshen up the rather staid royal gardens, quickly makes her mark at court, but Le Notre's growing attraction for her incurs the wrath of his aristocratic wife (Helen McCrory). The impeccable playing and lush design more than compensate for the occasionally stodgy plotting.

over science, religion and the ethics of playing God, but instead of a thought-provoking examination of the questions it raises, The Lazarus Effect is simply content to deliver jump-scare shocks. It's Flatliners for the Paranormal Activity / Insidious / Sinister audience.

Monsters: Dark Continent

Cake

THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2

Burying The Ex

Release Date: 09/07/15 Format:

Release Date: 12/08/15 Format:

Release Date: 12/08/15 Format:

Release Date: 05/08/15 Format:

If the first Monsters film was more indie romance than creature feature, the sequel is an out-and- out war film that just happens to be set against the backdrop of an alien invasion. Monsters: Dark Continent sees the action switch to the Middle East where the US’s indiscriminate war on aliens means local insurgents pose just as much of a threat as the ET invaders. A unit of young untrained troops, led by a psychotic NCO (Johnny Harris), find themselves stranded behind enemy lines after a rescue mission goes wrong, and face a perilous journey back to safety. Both an intriguing spin on the alien invasion genre and a sobering allegory on current Midde Eastern events.

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 delivers some genuinely creepy moments, but ultimately lacks the scares and dream-like quality that made the original so effective.

Anything with cult director Joe Dante's name attached is worth a look in our opinion, especially a zom-com. Burying the Ex has more in common with Life After Beth than Warm Bodies ; horror store clerk Anton Yelchin's girlfriend (Ashley Greene) is hit by a bus, returns from the grave, and isn't happy to discover he's since hooked up with the lovely Alexandra Daddario. Yelchin's attempts to conceal his ex's resurrection from his new love give Dante free reign to indulge in the slapstick set-pieces, pitch black humour and nods to the B-movies of old that are his forte – and it's a return to form after the disappointing The Hole .

Jennifer Aniston can consider herself a little unlucky to miss out on at least an Oscar nomination this year for her superbly understated turn in this low-key, offbeat study of depression. Shorn of her usual glamour, Aniston plays Claire Bennett, a middle- aged woman who suffers from crippling back pain and takes out her bitterness on those unlucky enough to be around her. Anna Kendrick is equally good as Nina, a member of one of Claire’s support groups who has just committed suicide but whose ghost now regularly pops up to harangue her, while SamWorthington also scores as her grieving partner, who forms a tentative bond with Claire.

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