STACK NZ Dec #58

DVD&BD

REVIEWS

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Once upon a time... BEGIN AGAIN

It’s what’s inside that counts THE MULE

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Release Date: 11/12/14

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Release Date: 03/12/14

COMEDY

Two lost souls united through music – if Once comes to mind, that’s because Begin Again is from the same writer-director, John Carney. Keira Knightley is a Brit in New York, whose boyfriend (Maroon 5’s Adam Levine) has dumped her for a fame as a rock star. Mark Ruffalo is an out of touch music producer who’s been dumped by his record label. When he happens upon Knightley singing in a bar, a connection is made, giving both of them the opportunity to, well, begin again. It might sound

In 1983, the America’s Cup yacht race overshadowed what was transpiring in a Melbourne hotel room – a simple TV repairman named Ray (Angus Sampson) is being detained by the Federal Police until he moves his bowels. Say what? During an end of season footy trip to Thailand, Ray was roped into becoming a drug mule and is now carrying 20 condoms of heroin inside his stomach. That’s what the Feds are waiting for, but Ray defiantly refuses to go number two – and they can only hold him for a maximum of seven

corny, but Ruffalo and Knightley sell it, and the latter even does her own singing (well, we might add). As he demonstrated with Once , Carney has a knack for fusing the power of music and the power of love in a way that uplifts rather than nauseates; Begin Again is this summer’s feel-good movie.

days without evidence. But can he hold on that long? Co-directed by Sampson from a script he wrote with Leigh Whannell ( Saw ) and Jaime Browne, The Mule is a blackly amusing crime drama that wrings suspense from a simple premise and builds to a potentially explosive climax.

When Diane met Douglas AND SO IT GOES

Woody’s latest enchants MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT

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Release Date: 03/12/14

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Release Date: 31/12/14

Rob Reiner has directed romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally and seniors’ comedy The Bucket List . Now he’s combined the two in grey market rom-com And So It Goes , pairing Diane Keaton’s widow with Michael Douglas’s cantankerous realtor. “I’ve sold houses older than you, in a lot worse condition,” he tells her. Throw in a granddaughter he never knew he had and hey presto – instant family. Fortunately, Douglas’s butt-baring days (circa Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct ) are, er, behind him,

Woody Allen returns to France – the location of his most successful film, Midnight in Paris – for another whimsical mixture of magic realism and romance. A period piece set during the late 1920s, Magic in the Moonlight follows Stanley (Colin Firth), a stage magician and debunker of phony spiritualists, in his attempts to expose Sophie (Emma Stone), an American medium who’s been holding seances for a wealthy family in the Riviera. Whether or not she’s the real deal soon becomes incidental; you don’t

but he can still play obnoxious characters with gusto. Keaton’s already a pro at this kind of film, having romanced Jack Nicholson in Something’s Gotta Give . Together, they add spark to a predictable but winsome rom-com for sixtysomethings.

need to be clairvoyant to realise that Stanley will be won over by the lovely Sophie’s charms. Firth and Stone prove a great match, and they’re supported by seasoned pros like Jacki Weaver and Eileen Atkins. It’s whimsical. It’s Woody.

DECEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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