STACK #130 Aug 2016

DVD & BD

REVIEWS

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Quantum leap. 12 MONKEYS: SEASON ONE

Poised to topple? HOUSE OF CARDS: SEASON 3

Release Date: 06/08/15

Release Date: 06/08/15

Format:

Format:

Terry Gilliam's 1995 sci-fi film gets the TV treatment. X-Men 's Aaron Stanford is in the Bruce Willis role, as the guy sent from the future to prevent a killer disease from wiping out humanity. Amanda Schull is the doctor he joins forces with to stop the radical group known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. Comparisons to the film are inevitable; this ambitious reboot is gritty rather than visionary (a la Gilliam), and the Brad Pitt character is now a woman. But rather than simply rehash the events of the movie

There are buckets of new political machinations and surreptitious characters in season three of House of Cards ; Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright remain utterly compelling as Frank and Claire Underwood – POTUS and FLOTUS, respectively – and the season follows their attempts to ascend their own power ladders while divulging their true schemes only to one another. Frank launches a new jobs program, meets with the President of the Russian Federation, and pretends to his colleagues he doesn't intend to run for President in 2016; Claire's

for several episodes as an entry point, the series takes the central concept and charts a different course. Time travel is a great device for episodic drama, and 12 Monkeys sees Stanford's hero moving backwards and forwards through time, providing plenty of twists.

bid to become US Ambassador to the United Nations looks rocky when her temper flares during a Senate committee meeting, and she also ignites tensions between herself and her husband after making some questionable public comments. Still potent and solid television.

THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2

WELCOME TO ME

PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2

DEAD RISING: WATCHTOWER

Release Date: 12/08/15 Format:

Release Date: 20/08/15 Format:

Release Date: 20/08/15 Format:

Release Date: 29/07/15 Format:

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

What would you do if you won the lottery? Buy a house maybe? Go on a holiday? Start a 100-episode talk show? Kristen Wiig chooses the latter in Welcome to Me. As a woman on psychiatric medication who scores big on a lottery ticket, decides to embrace her inner Oprah, and stop taking her meds, Wiig is the quintessential eccentric, whose bonkers ideas would certainly make compelling television these days (meatloaf cake, anyone?). Co-starring Linda Cardellini, Joan Cusack, Jennifer Jason Leigh and James Marsden, this is an ambitious and refreshingly different experience to most films that explore the subject of mental illness.

The 2009 Kevin James comedy vehicle was successful enough to give fans the sequel they've been waiting six long years for. After his mother is run over by a milk truck, James's portly security guard takes a break from the mall to attend a Vegas convention (with teenage daughter in tow), where all manner of hilarity ensues as he fends off a flirtatious hotel manager, fights a pissed-off peacock, and butts heads with an art thief and a bunch of gun- toting goons. Once again it's the affable James who makes all this funnier than it should be. Now bring back Seth Rogen for Observe and Report 2 .

More zombie mayhem erupts in this adaptation of the popular Capcom game series. Jesse Metcalfe plays a reporter in the zombie quarantine zone, where a drug called Zombrex is being administered to cure the infected. But it doesn't seem to be working, and the walking dead quickly increase their numbers and overrun the facility. The game took its cues from George A. Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead , but the film more closely resembles Escape from New York – with zombies. The tone veers between the horrific and humorous, and lots of POV shots acknowledge the film's video game origins. The disc includes Collector Cards exclusive to JB Hi-Fi.

AUGUST 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au

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