PLAYING WITH POWER – THE NINTENDO STORY

playing power

This 5-part documentary covers the long history of Nintendo. The well documented, but none the less interesting parts of video games history such as: the great video game crash of the early ‘80s, the console wars throughout the ‘90s, Nintendo’s public fallout with Sony and the rise of Pokémon.  Anyone who grew up during this time will feel a lot of nostalgia for what is on offer, getting to see old adverts, retro gameplay and the hype that came with them. Although the documentary is primarily interested in the story of Nintendo, is does cover rival consoles and the games industry in general.

There are talking heads from alumni of Nintendo of America as well as others such as Xbox’s Phil Spencer and Star Trek’s Will Wheaton, plus archive footage of news reports, adverts, and game footage, and a diorama of toy-like figures. This tells the story, starting in the late 19th century where Nintendo began life as a playing card company. Each episode mainly covers a certain point in history, although they do overlap frequently. Depending on when you grew up, or your own personal interest will determine which one you find most enjoyable. The initial episode seems the best from a historical perspective, however.

The main negative of the documentary is how long it is. Five one-hour episodes is simply far too long for the journey that it’s telling, and it has too much unnecessary filler that could easily be edited down. A lot of the archive footage used is obviously going to be standard definition, so is never going to look great, but then there’s too much in the early episodes that is poor quality. It looks like it has been uploaded from a chewed-up VHS tape in the lowest resolution possible. This is all fine if it’s being watch on something small like a phone, but can be pretty headache inducing on a TV.

Overall, there is no arguing that Playing with Power is very informative; however, it drags in a lot of places, and certainly isn’t going to be something you’d want to binge watch. For the casual viewer, this is going to be dull and painful to watch, although gamers with a keen interest in the history of video games will find various part of the series interesting and will enjoy the nostalgic clips it brings with it. There is a much better documentary in here, it just needs editing down a lot. Educational, but not that entertaining.

Available on Crackle.

COSMIC SIN

cosmic sin

A mere 482 years after colonising space (according to a confusing pre-credits info-dump), humanity is about to make first contact. Regrettably, considering the wait, these alien lifeforms aren’t particularly interested in being our friends, and would rather turn us into twitchy, acid-spitting space zombies instead. Not cool. For reasons the film struggles to ever fully articulate, the only two people equipped to deal with this new menace are Frank Grillo and Bruce Willis, and so the action heroes are dispatched alongside a squadron of assorted military minds 13368 light-years across the galaxy… to some dreary-looking woods up the road.

Cosmic Sin is an ambitious movie, always commendably stretching its clearly minuscule budget to breaking point. It’s unfortunate then that the biggest burden on the production’s finances is also the final product’s biggest handicap – its near-redundant star duo. Bruce Willis delivers a frankly shameful performance here, sleepwalking his way through his scenes, refusing to emote to the point where it’s sometimes hard not to question whether he actually knew the cameras were rolling. When he does muster the strength, line deliveries are depressingly fractured and flat, and can surely only have been recorded in a single take. (This is a far cry from Bruce in Die Hard, rather Bruce refusing to try harder.) Equally baffling is his minimal screen time – though Willis’s “Blood General” James Ford is projected as one of the film’s chief protagonists, he’s barely actually in it. A blessing for anybody who ever spent any time defending Hudson Hawk and is now watching through gritted teeth, but a curse for any narrative coherence. The same can largely be said of Grillo – while his performance is consistent with previous roles, there’s precious little for him to do either. The presence of Willis and Grillo no doubt helped get the film made and will increase its desirability in a crowded market, but once Cosmic Sin makes first contact with its audience, fans of either are likely to be just as hostile as those acid-spitting aliens.

On the plus side, a smattering of horror elements liven things up, there’s some impressive digital effects work (one space-based action sequence, in particular, is indistinguishable from bigger budget Hollywood fare), and the world-building efforts are admirable. There’s also strong performances from some of the key players (i.e. anyone not answering to Bruce and/or Frank), particularly Once Upon a Time’s Adelaide Kane. Ultimately, though, this is one Sin even Pope Francis would struggle to pardon.

COME TRUE

come true

Back in the early nineties, weirdy-indie band Daisy Chainsaw released their third single Hope All Your Dreams Come True, a song from the more bizarre end of their already-oddball musical spectrum.  It was neither a chart nor a critical success, and the indifference that greeted it hastened the group’s demise. It was however a freakishly disturbing and unsettling listen, as a haunting melody unfolds over jagged, fractured sonics.

It’s a record that’s come back to this reviewer’s mind because the song’s emotive atmosphere shares much in common with the mood of a new independent Canadian psychological horror-thriller. Come True is an assured, and extremely unnerving, exploration of how individuals’ perception of their identity, and their anxieties about the things that threaten them, are revealed through the experience of dreaming.

Sarah Dunn is an unhappy and disaffected eighteen-year-old loner. Alienated from her parents, she’s sleeping rough, couch surfing and hanging out with her very few friends. When she learns of a new research project, willing to pay people to monitor them sleeping, she’s instinctively suspicious but she signs up. She soon learns that these researchers have found a way to generate real-time visualisations of sleepers’ dreams. And those dreams include disturbing nightmares, something that Sarah is all too familiar with.

The film steps through the theories of psychologist Carl Jung and his notion of the ‘collective unconscious’, which he believed connects all humans in a shared memory. The story is punctuated by chapter plates that refer to the different ‘archetypes’ that Jung devised to populate his theory. Name-checking Jung in an indie-thriller might invite accusations of pretentiousness and, as it’s not a perspective that the movie relies on consistently, it’s far from an essential inclusion.

The recurring dream sequences at the core of Come True’s narrative are the movie’s boldest moments. Shot in monochrome, with a first-person viewpoint that drifts through near-darkness illuminated only by flickering light, and amplified by scratchy and jarring noises, their effect is cumulatively impressive. And as time goes on, they become ever more alarming. These dreams are experienced first-hand by the sleeping volunteers and observed on monitors by the research team, as the barriers between sleeping and wakefulness become blurred. The ‘real world’ sections of the film also become stranger and less explicable as the film unfolds, and Sarah’s world becomes more disjointed.

Sleep terrors, and the sense that something is waiting for you to close your eyes have featured in films as different as Paperhouse and A Nightmare on Elm Street. But in Come True, the purpose of the premise is not to deliver outright terror but a sickening sense of foreboding. The plot builds towards a finale that, while surprising and unpredictable, is unlikely to please everyone who’s come along for the journey through this dreamscape. And at key moments, the dialogue is not always quite so polished as the cleverly-constructed visuals and soundscape.

But where Come True succeeds completely is in building an atmosphere of mounting dread, and of evoking a sense of a fragile young woman struggling with her dissociation from the world. In a strong ensemble cast, Skylar Radzion shines as the brittle Sarah, while the spectres that appear as ‘the stuff of nightmares’ are more than enough to discourage anyone from taking a quick forty winks.

Release Date: March 15th (digital) / April 5th (UK Limited Edition Blu-ray)

DREAMCATCHER

dreamcatcher

Jacob Johnston’s directorial debut starts with a head stomp, to make you sit up and take notice of his supernatural, serial killer feature. Although the film never revisits such brutality again, it does snare you into an intriguing plot, where we aren’t quite sure how mystical things really are.

After the killer (who wears a featureless bird mask and hoodie) dispatches a nasty publicist in a car park, with said boot, we are introduced to Pierce (Niki Koss). She is hanging out, watching horror movies with best mate Jake (Zachary Gordon), when they are interrupted by her estranged sister Ivy (Elizabeth Posey) and her best mate from medical school. Ivy has bought them all tickets to a music festival headlined by DJ Dreamcatcher (akin to Deadmau5 in this universe). Unfortunately, it turns out our resident DJ, who uses the killer’s mask on stage, has a habit of getting young girls killed when he invites them backstage. After a member of the group commits suicide after taking a hallucinogen, Dreamcatcher’s uber bitch manager forces them all into silence, while everyone starts getting killed off one-by-one, by our masked killer.

If this all sounds a little convoluted, it is. The film is too long and suffers from middle section sagging, Ivy reciting Macbeth coming over as pretentious. However, the film toys with the audience, not knowing if the killer is a ghost or a human being, and the opening and closing scenes are hugely effective in creating an atmosphere of dread and doubt. With a little more focus and some trimming of the fat, Dreamcatcher could have been truly great rather than decent.

ARCHENEMY

Archenemy

The superhero genre is one that has been endlessly rebooting and re-imagining itself for decades. Part of its charm is the inherent ability to comment on the human condition through hyperbole and parody; Superman’s invulnerability causes us to consider our own frailty,  Spider-Man’s courage allows us to consider our fears and so on. Archenemy embraces the human aspect of these modern myths whole-heartedly, creating a super-hero that has both gritty realism and comic book wonder in equal measure.

Joe Manganiello play Max Fist, a homeless man who claims to have come from another reality. In this world, he is a burnt out drunk but he talks about his past-live in a vivid, engaging way. A young journalist sees Max as a way to gain social media popularity but of course, things go wrong and our protagonists find themselves taking on very real threats in the form of drug dealers and other low-lives.

Skylan Brooks is mesmerising as the reporter and Zolee Griggs almost steals the show as his street smart sister. However it’s  Manganiello who is a revelation here; the performance is simply brilliant. He is utterly compelling as either a super-hero cast out of his reality or as a drunk so caught up in his own fictional reality that it feels real.

Director Adam Egypt Mortimer is no stranger to reality bending stories, as fans of his previous movie, Daniel Isn’t Real, will know. In this movie he excels himself, blending the world of the graphic novel with a low-budget crime move style to create something truly memorable.

Archenemy is a compelling blend of Don Quixote,  The Maxx and Flexx Mentallo with a sprinkling of true crime drama for good measure. It suffers a little bit from its low budget but makes up for it with outstanding performances, a fascinating premise and some stunning set-pieces.This is not only a movie for people who want to see super-hero movies move on, but also a movie likely to delight comic book fans who delight in the more bizarre tales that this much maligned genre can deliver.Recommended.

THE OWNERS

owners

Three scrotes look to make out like bandits by robbing the safe in an old couple’s house. That’s the initial premise in this shocker that is the feature debut for Julius Berg. The story is loosely based on a French graphic novel Une nuit de pleine lune by Yves H. Hermann, and swings from being tense and traumatic to ludicrous in minutes.

The thugs – Nathan (Ian Kenny), dim-witted Terry (Andrew Ellis), and Gaz (Jake Curran), the latter being a borderline psychopath – are joined inadvertently by Nathan’s girlfriend Mary (Maisie Williams), who just wants the car to get to work. When they can’t get into the safe, Gaz spends time trashing as much as he can while Terry sits and watched Pipkins on the TV. When the titular owners return, things begin to get really nasty. The older couple are played Sylvester McCoy (as a very different type of doctor that we’re used to) and Rita Tushingham (A Taste of Honey), and their reluctance to give up the code for the safe leads them to being tied up under the threat of torture. Over the course of the night, the balance of power takes a severe shift.

Sometimes it’s difficult to enjoy a film including such unlikeable characters, in fact, with The Owners, we’re practically willing them to get their just deserts at the hands of the elders. What happens, though, is something quite different. Rather than painful revenge, there’s something much more sinister at play. McCoy and Tushingham are superb in their roles as the doddery doctor and his wife, who despite suffering from dementia has a vicious streak. Despite being pivotal to the plot, Maisie Williams seems a little underused and isn’t given the chance to display the talent so evident in Game of Thrones. After showing great promise as a cat-and-mouse home invasion caper, the result is a tad muddled and a damp squib, but by no means a disaster.

Release Date: Out Now (VOD) March 1st (DVD) check out our interview with Sylvester McCoy here.

BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR

barb star

DIRECTOR: JOSH GREENBAUM | SCREENPLAY: ANNIE MUMOLO & KRISTEN WIIG | STARRING: ANNIE MUMOLO, KRISTEN WIIG, JAMIE DORNAN, REYN DOI & ANDY GARCIA | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

A film about two middle-aged best friends setting off for an adventure-filled holiday feels a little like a slap in the face when most people can’t go anywhere right now. But such things are quickly forgotten in this farcical comedy romp that combines surreal humour with brazen stupidity. And for the most part it is glorious fun. Much like your typical sun-soaked resort, Barb and Star is tacky, over the top thrill ride complete with cheap jokes and bewildering characters. But you wouldn’t expect anything less.

Some of the jokes land far better than others, helped along by Wiig and Mumolo’s irresistible chemistry and spark. Ten years since they co-wrote Bridesmaids, the pair prove that they can still command laughs and attention, even if they are obviously trying much harder with a film that at times delves towards clumsiness. Barb and Star somehow feel fake and real at the same time, their caricatured but heartfelt personas given plenty of time to shine. If anything the film would be much stronger with the confidence to focus squarely on their friendship, rather than shoehorn them into some ridiculous villainous plot that too often feels unwelcome.

Sophisticated it is not, lacking the emotional core of comparable comedies like Booksmart or Spy. But Barb and Star keeps you smiling along almost from the word go. Against your better judgement, this journey of escapism and self-discovery indulges you with every corny aside and ridiculous set piece you could hope for. This is far from Wiig and Mumolo’s finest hour, but even so it is as colourful a demonstration of their talent that you could ask for. 

RAGE

rage

Things are not going well between husband and wife Noah (Matthew Theodorou) and Madeline (Hayley Beveridge). Despite their seemingly successful life and nice house, they are distant. Madeline is forever calling on her sister Jessica (Nic Stevens) for a shoulder to cry on – and drink with – while Noah continually works late. Unfortunately, she begins to suspect his real reason a little too late: he’s been having an affair with a woman from the office. On one of these nights, however, there’s a break-in at the house, Jessica is killed and Madeline brutally raped. Noah returns home only to be attacked by one the thugs. When he recovers from a lengthy coma, he tries to patch things up with a deeply traumatised Madeline. She makes progress until she sees the man who attacked her, and the pair seek their revenge.

Rage is a long film; don’t let that put you off. Think of it as a three-episode TV show, and you’ll binge it no problem. Even during the domestic scenes, this is compelling viewing. It’s also disturbing viewing, particularly in the home invasion scene. We see a lot of the violence and abuse inflicted on Madeline, but this is balanced by the stark depiction of the effects of the trauma. Beveridge is fantastic and conveys her suffering perfectly. This isn’t a Death Wish-style revenge, though. The motivation is completely understandable, but they don’t go into it guns-blazing. It’s made clear that this pair are not Liam Neeson, and fumble their way through things as real people likely would.

There’s a lot to recommend with Rage, and those with patience and a strong stomach for nastiness will get plenty out of it.

Release Date: February 23rd (US)

SCHOOL’S OUT FOREVER

schools out

Writer/director Oliver Milburn first came to our attention nearly a decade ago with his promising low budget vampire/home invasion thriller Harsh Light of Day. Now he’s back with his second full-length feature based on Rebellion Publishing’s YA novel of the same name by Scott K. Andrews and he’s inadvertently caught the current and enduring zeitgeist in this bleak, gnarly story of a worldwide ‘superflu’ pandemic that devastates the planet’s population.

15-year-old Lee Keegan (Oscar Kennedy) has been expelled from St Mark’s, his private boarding school, due to a childish prank that has finally exhausted the patience of the institution’s headmaster (Anthony Head). Before he can explain his situation to his father (Steve Oram) a devastating pandemic sweeps across the world and Lee is instructed by his mother, trapped abroad and promising to get back to him, to return to the safety of St Mark’s. But the school isn’t the sanctuary he might have hoped. A local militia attacks the school and the end of the world is bringing out the worst in his former best friend.

Don’t be fooled by School’s Out Forever’s trailer, which suggests a knockabout Shaun of the Dead-style comedy (as does the presence of Head in a brief cameo and Alex McQueen from The Inbetweeners as the remaining voice-of-reason teacher); this is dark brutal, nihilistic stuff, a plausible story of social and moral decay set in an ugly, violent and almost utterly pessimistic new world. Despite telling his story on a broader canvas than his previous movie – and with clearly quite a bit more money – Milburn’s School’s Out Forever is still a fairly small story set in a restricted location (apart from a few ‘outside world’ scenes that effectively demonstrate the ravages of the disease). The script is clipped and to the point and Milburn is clearly at home in the grim world he has created and action scenes are uncompromising and occasionally shocking. Technically, School’s Out Forever is hard to fault – but it’s not an easy film to really enjoy, much less love. Most apocalyptic movies navigate their distressing scenarios by populating them with likeable, upbeat characters the audience can root for an invest in and at least try to offer a bit of optimism for the survival of the human spirit. But the young cast in Schools Out Forever are a pretty grim and unsympathetic bunch, especially Lee’s friend Mac (Liam Lau Fernandez) who turns into something of a power-crazed maniac turning the school’s pupils – some of them worryingly young – into his own personal disposable army. Lee struggles to remain measured and moral amidst the carnage that ultimately ensues but he too is often painted in shades of grey that turn him into something of a reluctant anti-hero figure not above indulging in the violence he (and we) might find a little abhorrent. The film builds up a commendable sense of dread and unease but the final explosion of violence takes the film into Lord of the Flies territory with the school’s surviving adults swept aside and the kids, now whipped up into a frenzy by Mac, setting off on a killing rampage when the school gated are breached by the militia, led by Samantha Bond’s Georgina.

It’s great to see Oliver Milburn’s filmmaking finally stepping up a notch but there’s very little of the sense of fragile humanity displayed in Harsh Light of Day in School’s Out Forever (although this is almost certainly a product of the source material). It’s a tough, ruthless film spending a little too much time in the dark corners of human nature and even though it does perk up in its final sequence (offering the hope for a slightly brighter future and possibly even a sequel) it’s sometimes a little too close to the bone for comfort as it offers up a very downbeat British view of a scenario often brought to the screen through rose-tinted Hollywood spectacles.

THE BLOODHOUND

the bloodhound

Fans of Edgar Allan Poe are being spoilt with another movie adaptation of “The Fall of the House of Usher”. As we await a release date for George Adams’ Lady Usher, first-time feature writer-director Patrick Picard offers his take on the famed gothic story with The Bloodhound.

This austere and haunting modern-day adaptation opens with a text message from Jean Paul (Joe Adler, The Maze Runner) to his old friend Francis (Liam Aiken, A Series of Unfortunate Events) telling him he’s “not well and could use a little help.” It soon becomes clear that the two had been out of touch for a while, but Francis’ current living situation means he eagerly accepts J.P.’s invitation to join him and his twin sister Vivian (a mostly unused Annalise Basso, Snowpiercer) at their secluded home.

Strange events unfold within the increasingly alienating interior, from J.P. forbidding Francis speak to Vivian, to the two men’s uneasy and unbalanced dynamic, and the suggestion of the Bloodhound (Chad Kotz) crawling through the house, face completely obscured. It is never clear whether this creature is real, an allegory, or just a stylistic choice. Either way, The Bloodhound relies greatly on an atmosphere of suffocating menace, which makes this psychodrama a draining watch – even at just 72 minutes.

And while the movie’s slow burn works for the most part, the narrative itself ultimately feels too thin to leave its audience with any lasting impression. The characters’ lack of backstory or personal depth means there are no emotional or intellectual stakes in their fate (the closing act falls completely flat as a result); meanwhile, the mystery of the Bloodhound fails to be compelling enough to demand answers.

The Bloodhound is undoubtedly best appreciated as an exercise in style. The aesthetic, score, dialogue, and acting choices work well to keep the audience off-kilter throughout the film’s run time, and just curious enough to keep viewers watching until the end credits. It’s also enough to keep us intrigued as to what Picard might do next.

Out now on Arrow Video.