STACK NZ Jul #64

DVD & BD

REVIEWS

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The sweetest thing THAT SUGAR FILM

Tim Burton's back, but where's Johnny? BIG EYES

Release Date: 09/07/15

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Release Date: 22/07/15

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If you fancy eating something sweet, have it before you watch this film, because you won’t want to afterwards. Australian actor and documentary-maker Damon Gameau embarks on a 60-day experiment to reveal the havoc sugar wreaks on the body. Over two months, the normally health-conscious Gameau sets out to eat the equivalent of 40 teaspoons of sugar every day –- the amount the average Australian consumes. But, and this is the really scary part, he does so not by wolfing down junk food but by eating products branded as healthy, such as low-fat

Big Eyes is one of the few Tim Burton films that doesn't star Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter (yes, really!). Moreover, there are no magical worlds being explored in this biopic of American artist Margaret Keane (played by the always fantastic Amy Adams), who achieved fame during the 1950s and '60s for her creepy paintings of big- eyed kids (which are certainly Burtonesque). But it was her unscrupulous husband Walter (Christoph Waltz) who took all the credit, passing off her artworks as his own and making a fortune through their mass production. The film

yoghurts, muesli bars and smoothies. He rapidly puts on weight, but the other effects are more alarming – he develops a dangerously fatty liver, has dramatic mood swings and finds it hard to concentrate. In a breezy, entertaining way, personable Gameau gives us plenty of food for thought.

also follows their subsequent divorce and legal proceedings, and it's not hard to see why Burton was attracted to the story; the Keanes are the kind of big-dreaming eccentrics he's always loved, and Adams and Waltz deliver performances to match.

An excellent adventure PROJECT ALMANAC

Starting over ALEX OF VENICE

Release Date: 08/07/15

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Release Date: 22/07/15

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'Hot Teen Time Machine' best describes this Michael Bay- produced found-footage film (that doesn't really need to be a found-footage film) in which physics student David (Jonny Weston) discovers his dad's blueprint for a time machine in the basement. Building the contraption out of a cannibalised gaming console, car batteries, a hydrogen (not Plutonium) power source and a smartphone to dial up time and date, David and his mates embark on an excellent adventure to the Lollapalooza music festival, get better grades, win the lottery and David gets the girl (Sofia

Mary Elizabeth Winstead gives a strong performance in the title role of a dedicated environmental lawyer living in Venice, California, whose life is upended when her artist turned stay-at-home husband announces that he is leaving. In this gently unfolding indie drama, Winstead exquisitely conveys Alex’s development from a workaholic to a woman who re-discovers the important things in life, such as spending time with her young son. There is lovely support, too, from Don Johnson as Alex’s once-famous actor father, who might be in the early stages of Alzhiemer’s, and Katie

Black-D'Elia). But with time travel comes paradoxes, and Project Almanac ultimately echoes The Butterfly Effect , with David learning the hard way that the more you try and change things back to the way they were, the more screwed up they become.

Nehra (who co-wrote the script) as her hippy sister. Chris Messina, who plays Alex’s husband, makes an impressive directorial debut with a film that deftly shows that,in dealing with the day-to-day struggles of life, people really find out what they're made of.

JULY 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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