New Zealand television really does kinda suck. And hard at that. There are shows that we get which are shown in other parts of the world at the same time and then there’s… everything else. Like Survivors for instance. Survivors is exactly the type of stuff I love to watch and now that I have a brand new telly with freeview HD built in, I could easily spend time with my eyes glued to the box watching quality drama like this.

Survivors will eventually be broadcast on New Zealand television despite having been released two years ago… WTF is up with that? I really have no idea why we’re always consistently behind everyone else when it comes to certain TV shows and really up to date with others (like True Blood).

And for those wondering, I’m not referring to the 1975 classic BBC production of Survivors but the remake which aired in the UK in 2008. Post-apocalyptic plot based on the lives of survivors that manage to live through a life-threatening flu pandemic which kills 99 per cent of the world’s population. Yeah, exactly the type of thing I’d love to watch but two years after the rest of the world? That’s kinda sad. Will I still watch it? Absolutely. As I’ve previously admitted, Brit TV is my favourite and anything post-apocalyptic is worthy of my time.

Starring:Iddo Goldberg, Deborah Francois, Fernando Tielve Genre: Drama IMDb:Unmade Beds Released: July, 2009 NZFF (New Zealand)

For the first half of this movie, I was intrigued. I felt genuinely interested in finding out all about Axl and his life of reckless debauchery in the underground scene of London town. But somewhere along the way I got side-tracked and things seemed a little hazy. Random events ocurring in the lives of both Axl and Vera became intertwined. It was no longer a clear cut path and the Unmade Beds became a mish-mash of imagery – broken glimpses of two lives thrust together by chance.

I don’t like messy storylines. Watching Unmade Beds began as if a painter was about to embark on creating a masterpiece with a blank sheet of canvas. But it soon became a collage of messy images, alot of which seemed unsubstantial. I did however enjoy the part of Axl’s story as he tried desperately to piece together aspects of his life after locating his father. This gave the character of Axl some backbone, something deeper than drugs, orgies and dancing to crappy music.

Maybe I’m just not made for art-house movies. None-the-less the acting talent of our two main characters Vera and Axl (Deborah Francois and Fernando Tielve) is undeniable. Diary of a Call Girl’s Iddo Goldberg is also worth a mention – he’s just great.

Image via Vimooz

The NZFF is about to kick off here in New Zealand and I’ve long been a fan of the event and try to attend every year. This year I’ll be seeing The Runaways (next week) which I’m really looking forward to but I haven’t decided on any other movies as yet. If you’ve got any suggestions for what I should see, do let me know.

Speaking of film, the YouTube event Life in a Day is set to begin on the 24th of July. For all budding movie directors (and anyone that’s at all interested in being a part of video history), this event is sure to be an important one for you. How will you make history with your digicam? I’ve thought about what I would do if I was to make a submission. You can check out the website in the link above or better yet, watch the video clip of one of my favourite directors, Ridley Scott, talking about the event and how he got started in his career.

And just like Ridley says – if you want something bad enough “Just do it!”… just do it!

Starring: Adrian Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo Genre: Action/Sci-Fi/Thriller IMDb: Predators 2010 Released: July 8, 2010 (New Zealand)

SPOILER ALERT – There are spoilers herein, consider yourself warned!

The one thing you need to know before seeing this movie is that it’s not a sequel to any other movie associated with Predator. So essentially it’s a new storyline with new characters and vision from Nimrod Antal and the script writers.

In the previous Predator movie, commando and all-round tough guy ‘Dutch’ (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) adventured (and was eventually hunted) in the swaggering Amazonian heat with his tough-as-nails compadre’s. This time around it’s a group of complete strangers who seem to have one thing in common – they’re all predatory in their own right – all except one. Now, I dunno about you but if I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of killers and only my gun to keep me company, I wouldn’t be too trusting of anyone or anything. As it turns out, being marooned and left for dead in an unfamiliar environment is less appealing to our band of killers than working together as a group. They venture forth into the unknown, temporarily putting their trust issues (and kill-or-be-killed instincts) on hold.

So the premise is a bunch of criminals, ex-military types and a doctor are all stuck on a mysterious planet without any idea why. Adrian Brody makes his move early on as the ‘Alpha’ male and while he does an adequate job, he’s really nothing like the character Arnie represented in Predator. It’s difficult not to make comparisons afterall, Predator had to be one of my favourite action movies of the 80s.

Probably the weirdest casting call in this is Laurence Fishburne’s character who seems something of an erratic and misplaced individual. While the interlude provided by his appearance half-way through the movie is somewhat unexpected and entertaining to a point, again, it just didn’t seem to sit right with me and almost interferred entirely with the flow of the film. Almost.

Topher Grace’s character as the elusive and all-knowing ‘Doctor’ is an enigma and probably the one character that should have been fleshed out alot more than he was. Topher carried his character off very well and it’s a pity he didn’t get really interesting until the very end.

The Predators however were seriously just as awesome as I remember from the original if not even more menacing. I have to credit Nimrod Antal and the special effects/creative team here because there are some very well directed action sequences that keep the movie moving at a frantically delicious pace. The ‘Dog’ scene is a particularly exquisite action sequence which had me all tensed up in my seat!

Antal did a pretty good job of creating something literally out of nothing, blending some of the old with alot of the new and creating something fresh for us to fear all over again. It isn’t easy to do considering the history and cult following the Predator franchise has had over the years. I think Antal did the best anyone could without using someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger to carry the project forward.

Image via dietrichthrall

PCR’s rating:

Starring: Rain, Naomie Harris. Genre: Action/Martial Arts/Drama IMDb: Ninja Assassin Released: June, 2010 (New Zealand)

When the main actor in a movie’s first name is ‘Rain’, you might be forgiven for being just a tad dubious about the movie’s content. And honestly, when I first saw Ninja Assassin on the shelves at my local DVD store, I wasn’t jumping at the chance to watch it, which is kinda odd for me considering I love martial arts movies. The fact that Rain is actually a rock star in Korea and not really a serious actor didn’t help much either.

And my hunch was almost just about right. Rain’s acting ability is clearly something you really, really have to look for (with a microscope). Acting alongside Naomie Harris probably didn’t make things any easier for him considering Naomie is a seasoned actress and also one of my favourite Brit actresses (she was fantastic in 28 Days Later). But where Rain may have failed in the delivering of his lines department, he surely made up for it in spades in the action scenes and came across as something of quite a natural.

The Wachowski brothers along with Joel Silver were on production for Ninja Assassin and being the huge Matrix fan that I am, I try to look out for projects these chaps are associated to. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Ninja Assassin will make it into their top five movie projects but the martial arts sequences were actually pretty kick-ass. The only thing I couldn’t quite get a handle on was all the blood – I mean so much blood that any value the martial arts scenes may have had were unceremoniously buried under a sea of slurpy, messy, red stuff. Kinda fail.

However, all was redeemed when legendary Sho Kosugi took his place in front of the camera. I’m sorry but Sho F**CKIN Kosugi!!!!! This guy was a legend back in the day and ANY movie about ninja isn’t a movie without him in it. Yes, as you can guess, I’m a huge fan of Sho’s. I’ve seen all his movies and think he’s brilliant, even at the ripe old age of 62. His onstage presence is just so kick-ass and if you don’t believe me, try watching some of his earlier ninja movies – I recommend Enter the Ninja or Revenge of the Ninja.

So overall – Rain needs more acting lessons but kicks ass just fine and the director needs to understand that spraying everyone in the immediate area with fake blood until they’re drenched will over-shadow anything good a movie has to offer. Well almost anything – Sho Kosugi gives this movie serious brownie point cred.

PCR Rating:

Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz. Genre: Comedy/Action IMDb: Knight and Day (2010) NZ Release Date: July 15th, 2010

I wouldn’t exactly call myself a Tom Cruise fan but there’s no denying the guy can act. I’ve enjoyed quite a few of his movies but was never really a fan of his Mission Impossible days. That said, Knight and Day is Cruise doing what he does best – looking cool, calm and collect and in pretty good nick for a guy getting on in years. It’s amazing what good living (and scientology) can do for you.

I am however,  a huge fan of Len Grossman, Cruise’s alter-ego who is over-the-top funny and in-your-face. My type of character. If only Cruise would do more of this type of thing – he’s definitely got a funny bone hidden somewhere deep down – perfect for his latest blockbuster, Knight and Day.

Cruise and Diaz are both great in this movie which delivers a some-what humorous look at the ‘spy-gone-rogue’ type of scenario with Diaz finding her character passing out at the most inappropriate moments. Their on-screen chemistry is cheeky, playful and almost sincere and Diaz’s ‘girl-next-door’ sense of humour doesn’t go astray and in fact, shows off all of her comedic strengths as an actress.

It’s a very different type of movie to what you’d be expecting if you were thinking more Mission Impossible but it does have its over-the-top action moments, just to keep those thrill-seekers amongst the crowd happy (the motorbike chase is particularly cool).

Knight and Day is distributed by Fox in New Zealand and will be in theatres on July, 15th.

PCR Rating:

This month has been a great month for good comedy flicks. And when I say ‘good’ I mean movies that feature a really talented cast, a hip and funny storyline and fantastic dialogue. The worst type of comedy is one that doesn’t deliver the funny’s when you expect (afterall, a comedy is supposed to make you laugh, right?) and drags on without anything interesting happening. Hot Tub Time Machine gets big ticks in almost every area.

My only reservation about HTTM resides with the script – it’s a very out there concept so you’ve really got to be onboard with the idea of a hot tub that has the power to transport its occupants to another time dimension but hey, Dr Who does it in a telephone box so…

The casting however is awesome with John Cusack (who seems to be making a huge come-back lately after disaster flick 2012 and now this) nailing it in every way in his role as Adam, the unlikely ‘leader’ of a group of friends that have grown apart. I thoroughly enjoyed the upbeat flow of the movie. John Cusack’s uncanny ability to mix comedy with an edge of seriousness was one of the reasons why I enjoyed this movie so much.

If you’re thinking of taking kids be aware that Hot Tub Time Machine deals with adult issues of drug taking, alcohol consumption, sex and also contains excessive amounts of swearing (which really added to the atmosphere of the movie). So it’s not really a family flick unless of course, you’re OK with your youngsters being exposed to this sort of thing. However, if you meet the age restriction (which is R16 in New Zealand) then you’re good to go!

Hot Tub Time Machine releases in New Zealand on April 22nd, 2010.

PCR Rating - 3.5/5

I <3 Zombies, I cannot lie. So when I was asked if I was interested in reviewing ‘Zombieland’ for blu-ray, it was a no-brainer! Who am I to deny the coolness of zombies and Woody Harrelson as the gun-toting zombie-killer from Tallahassee?

Zombieland is a very funny take on how to survive if the entire planet (or in this case, country) had become overrun by zombies. With Jesse Eisenberg as the narrator and ‘WoW playing nerd-cum-zombie survivor’ “Columbus”, Zombieland is a survival of the fittest (or craziest, take your pick) journey of four strangers trying to survive, with often hilarious results. It all starts with rules – there are rules to surviving the zombie holocaust and Columbus has them all figured out. If you follow these rules to the letter, you’re bound to survive… or at least live a little longer.

After meeting up with zombie-killing bad-ass ‘Tallahassee’, Columbus realises that there are times when rules don’t apply and survival really is all about who gets the best ‘Zombie Kill of the Week’. After falling victim to a cleverly orchestrated scam by two sisters named ‘Wichita’ and ‘Little Rock’, Tallahassee and Columbus find themselves without transport and weapons until as luck would have it, they run into the same girls again and again, they are made to feel like chumps and are taken hostage. After a few disagreements and exchanges, it is tentatively decided that the group must stick together to survive (well, as far as the girls are willing to go, that is).

Zombieland is an extremely entertaining ride wrapped up with some very smart humour and great dialogue. Admittedly, the best parts of the movie are all about blowing zombies away but hey, that’s what you kind of expect in a zombie movie with Woody Harrelson at the helm. Jesse Eisenberg brings some ‘nerd-lovin’ to the table, as only he can and proves to be one of the least obvious leading men in an action movie I’ve ever seen.

The blu-ray disk comes with additional features which are pretty interesting including how the crew reacted to creating Zombieland and how first-time director Ruben Fleischer envisioned the creation of Zombieland.

<3 Thanks to Danny at Metroexp PR for the review disk.

Zombieland is not due out until the 19th of May but it’s zombie-tastic!

Crazy Heart heralds the return of Jeff Bridges. Not that he hasn’t already produced fine work prior to this (his creepy and way too convincing psycho-killer Barney in ‘The Vanishing’ springs to mind). In Crazy Heart however, Jeff Bridges takes control of the role with the ease of a seasoned pro and nails it 110 percent.

And don’t be put off by the fact that Crazy Heart is a movie about a country/western singer. Although Crazy Heart is about music (you can’t really have the man without the music since Jeff Bridges protrays a musician afterall), it’s also the story of a man with nothing left to live for, down and out and looking at life through a whisky bottle. All is not lost however, when his character Bad Blake meets the younger and charming local reporter Jean (portrayed wonderfully by Maggie Gyllenhaal) in Sante Fe while on the road. Bad Blake and Jean begin a relationship and it seems things might be finally looking up for the aging musician. But life has other plans for Bad and throws him a bit of a curve ball that lands pretty much right in his face.

You don’t have to be a fan of country/western music to appreciate the struggle of a man who has nothing left to live for but eventually finds himself renewed through the love of a good woman and the revival of his musical talent. Jeff Bridges is Bad Blake and represents the life and soul of so many musicians who find that life has somehow passed them by. And when all the glamour and fame finally wears off and the well of creativity runs dry, what do you live for? This is the story of Crazy Heart. I highly recommend this to fans of Jeff Bridges and to anyone who enjoys a well dramatised and well scripted movie about life, love and music.

Kiwi actors Lucy Lawless and Craig Parker will be appearing in the upcoming Starz TV series ‘Spartacus: Blood and Sand’ which looks extremely kick ass, I might add. With executive producer Sam Raimi behind the scenes, I have a good feeling about the show. Checking out the trailer gives me a distinctly ’300′-cum-’Gladiator’ type feel about it with the grittiness of ‘Rome’. And of course, anything that showcases homegrown talent such as Lucy Lawless and Craig Parker deserves support from me You can visit the official Starz website here.

Check out the trailer: