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Games Editor Paul Jones Music Editor Zoë Radas
Issue 132
OCTOBER 2015
Creative Director Justin Buxton DVD Consultant Michelle Black Games Consultant Jeff Kuhl Cinema Consultant Chris Murray Music Consultants Mike Glynn, Fleur Parker Chief Contributors Bob Jones, Alesha Kolbe, Adam Colby Contributors Amy Flower, John Ferguson, Graham Reid, Michael Dwyer, Jeff Jenkins, Emily Kelly, Simon Lukic, Chris Murray, Billy Pinnell, Denise Hylands, Doug Wallen, Simon Winkler, Gill Pringle Social Media Manager Sally Carlier-Hull Photographer Chip Mooney Production Manager Craig Patterson Accounts Coordinator Tracy Kingman
WELCOME E verything old is new again. There’s a Bush running for President in the US and dinosaurs, Terminators and poltergeists at the movies. What year is it again? As Hollywood continues to recycle bankable franchises both old and new, rather than taking a punt on something daring and original, it’s television where you’ll find exciting risks being taken, like in new HBO series The Leftovers . This month is a big one for TV on DVD and October also means it’s Assassin’s Creed time again for gamers, and Halloween for horror fans. It’s also a massive month at the cinema with new films from Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro and Robert Zemeckis, not to mention the return of Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel ( Snowtown ) with one of the best adaptations of Shakespeare’s Macbeth you’ll ever see on the screen. Kurzel is also at the helm of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie, which means we might finally see a fantastic video game to film adaptation in our lifetime.
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Issue 132 OCTOBER 2015
YOUR ESSENTIALGUIDE TOMUSIC,CINEMA,DVDs&GAMES
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ISSUE 132 OCT ’15
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MUSIC
ISSUE 132 OCT '15
THE MARTIAN
MACBETH • SICARIO • EVEREST • PAN
PEACHES • KURT VILE • BOY & BEAR
TERMINATORGENISYS • AMY • MAGICMIKEXXL
TERMINATORGENISYS • MICHAEL FASSBENDER • ASSASSIN’SCREED:SYNDICATE
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Extras pg 10–20
Cinema pg 21–34
DVD & BD pg 35–58
Games pg 59–78
Music pg 81-104
Pg 10–12 News Guillermo del Toro’s gothic horror Crimson Peak arrives in time for Halloween; Robert De Niro plays senior intern; Back to the Future in 2015; and a massive STACK Star Wars celebration is coming... Pg 14–16 HOLLYWOOD’S COMEDY DUO The penultimate chapter in the fascinating Abbott and Costello story sees the pair part company. Pg 18 ACTORS SERIES From The Princess Diaries to The Intern , we’ve watched the talented Anne Hathaway grow up on screen. Pg 22 COMPETITIONS We have some awesome prizes up for grabs as usual! Win Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate and Sharknado 3 prize-packs, a replica Back to the Future II hover board, and a Magic Mike XXL bed accessory – say what?
Pg 23–24 INTERVIEW Michael Fassbender likes taking risks, that’s why he couldn’t pass up the lead role in Shakespeare’s Macbeth . Pg 26–32 REVIEWS Macbeth, The Martian, Sicario, Everest, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, The Walk, Straight Outta Compton, Pan Pg 34 Q&A Director Robert Zemeckis talks The Walk .
Pg 38 JURASSIC WORLD Director Colin Trevorrow and executive producer Steven Spielberg didn’t want just another film with “people running from dinosaurs and screaming”. Pg 40 TERMINATOR GENISYS Producer David Ellison describes the new Terminator film as “a reimagining based on the James Cameron source material”. Pg 42 AMY Asif Kapadia’s acclaimed documentary feature provides a startling insight into the life and music of the late Amy Winehouse. Pg 44 WALTON GOGGINS You may not recognise the Justified star as transgender prostitute Venus Van Dam in Sons of Anarchy .
Pg 60 intro Pg 62–63 london town The Assassin’s Creed franchise takes its first step into modernity when it heads to London during the Industrial Revolution. Pg 64-66 The Lore man Frank O’Connor is the man in charge of all the Halo lore. We talk to him about what is exactly involved in keeping the lore. Pg 68 nathan drake Before we set sail into new-gen Uncharted waters, it’s time to get reacquainted with the first three in the series. On PS4! Pg 70 a brief history We take a super quick look at the history of rhythm-based games, and pick three games that influenced the Uncharted series. Pg 74-78 previews What’s in-store this month.
Pg 84–88 NEWS Interviews with The Meanies, Kurt Vile, Julia Holter, Silversun Pickups, Boy & Bear and more. Pg 90–91 AMy WINEHOUSE We use the lyrical template from Asif Kapadia’s doco to look a little closer at the music of the late Ms. Winehouse. Pg 92 ED’S JAMS Boy & Bear, Beach Slang, Julia Holter and the brilliant Kurt Vile are this month’s top picks. Pg 96–102 Music Reviews Low, Terrible Truths, and the new deluxe Garbage release lead our jam-packed reviews section.
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THE FORCE WILL BE WITH US It’s a good year to be a Star Wars fan. Not only do we have a new movie on the way, that, at this stage, looks to be constructed from all the right materials, but we also get a new-gen resurrection of the Star Wars: Battlefront video game franchise. And this isn’t even touching on the explosion of toys and ephemera we can expect around Christmas time [It’s already started! – Ed]. To celebrate, we’re cramming a plethora of Star Wars editorial into the November and December issues of STACK – particularly the latter, when the Force finally awakens in cinemas. We’ll spill some mega Star Wars facts, take a look at what we know about The Force Awakens so far, revisit the prequels (were they really all that bad?) and the original trilogy prior to Lucas's digital enhancements, and spotlight Star Wars in video games. We’ve even tracked down one of the world’s leading authorities on vintage Star Wars collectibles for a chat. So, as the releases of Battlefront and The Force Awakens draw ever closer, rest assured that the Force will be with you. Always. Let's kick it off right here with five facts you may or may not know about Star Wars. 1 In the original Star Wars , Darth Vader is only on screen for a total of 12 minutes despite being one of the film's leading characters. 2 Peter Mayhew, the 7ft 3" giant who played Chewbacca, was paid just $450 a week for his work on A New Hope. 3 Ever wondered what sound designer Ben Burtt used to make the iconic TIE Fighter sound? It's an elephant call mixed together with a car driving past a microphone in the wet. 4 The Stormtrooper helmets used in A New Hope were made from High Density Polyethylene - the same material used today to make plastic milk cartons. 5 James Earl Jones was paid just $7,000 to voice Darth Vader in A New Hope.
SNEAK Peak
As Halloween approaches, Guillermo del Toro’s gothic horror film Crimson Peak will send shivers down your spine.
A s a species we seem to enjoy being scared, and Crimson Peak ’s star Jessica Chastain has some interesting theories why. “I think that being scared is a reminder of being alive,” muses the actress, who last teamed up with Guillermo del Toro for the creepy Mama . “In that sense, horror movies have a lot in common with roller coasters. I was having dinner with a friend recently who told me how he went down the YouTube rabbit hole of watching roller coaster accidents; people filming the roller coaster, not knowing, and then someone flies off. It’s awful. I’m not gonna go on a roller coaster anymore,” she says with a shudder. But she does enjoy a good ghost story. “I think maybe it’s because we’re all questioning what happens after death. Do we continue to roam the earth, do we get to visit our relatives, and ring the phone or turn the lights on and off? That’s the question.” Growing up in California, Chastain recalls seeing The Exorcist at an alarmingly early age, and still enjoys the supernatural genre. “You definitely get a jolt of energy from a horror movie, although I am that person in the audience that, if it becomes too scary, will completely close my eyes,” says the actress, who presumably hopes her
Jessica Chastain
Crimson Peak audience keep their eyes wide open as she prowls the halls of the haunted mansion. The film also stars Australia’s own Mia Wasikowska, whom director del Toro confesses to falling in love with after seeing her in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland . “She brought such an integrity and intelligence to the part,” he says. “In person she is incredibly shy and at the same time very social. It’s an odd mixture. She’s also very curious and is almost incapable of faking a moment.” Gill Pringle
Crimson Peak is in cinemas on October 15.
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THE FUTURE IS HERE! W ay back in 1989, we were amused by the vision of the future conjured
by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale in Back to the Future Part II , when Marty McFly found himself in Hill Valley on the 21st of October 2015. Cars were airborne, coin-sized pizzas were
quickly "hydrated" to feed the family, hover boards and self-lacing kicks were the must-have youth accessories, and Max Spielberg's Jaws 19 ("This time it's really really personal!")was playing at the local Holomax Theatre. Great Scott! It's hard to believe that October 2015 is actually here, and while the Jaws franchise never progressed past part four and cars are still earthbound (although hover boards and self-lacing sneakers aren't too far away, apparently), the Back to the Future Trilogy remains a firm favourite with audiences young and old. So what better time to re-release it on DVD and Blu-ray than this landmark year, which also coincides with the 30th anniversary of the original film. This Anniversary set includes all three films plus a bonus disc with two hours of content, including a 9-part retrospective documentary from 2009 and two episodes of the 1991 animated series. There's also an all-new bonus feature that sees Christopher Lloyd reprising his iconic role in the short film Doc Brown Saves the World .
ARE YOU TEXTING TO ME? Screen legend Robert De Niro picked up a few techno tips from his Intern co-star Anne Hathaway.
L ike many of his contemporaries, Robert De Niro admits it's a struggle keeping up with technology. Portraying a senior intern at an online fashion site in comedy The Intern , he soon got up to speed, thanks to co-star Anne Hathaway. “He was still using a flip phone when we met,” teases Hathaway when Stack meets with the Oscar-winning duo. The veteran actor has been through something of a transformation since then. “I can use a computer and an iPhone, send emails, texts and Google,” says De
Forever old-school, he adds: “But if I’m going to have a communication about something, and consummate it, I want to consummate it verbally and face to face.” For her role, Hathaway visited several major online shopping sites including Nasty Girl and Moda Operandi, happily admitting to her own shopping addiction. “Net-a-Porter was having a 70 per cent off sale this week and I was like ‘Nice! Time to buy the row!’” De Niro shakes his head and smiles. “I don’t
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do any of that. People in my office get stuff for me on the internet. I prefer to go see something and see if it’s right and that it fits.” Hathaway doesn’t mind admitting she’s still a little starstruck by her esteemed co-star. “When Robert talks, everyone is transfixed by him. He’s a legend for a reason.” Gill Pringle
Niro, 72. “I resisted for a while, until I was getting so many messages, I realised that it was easier to learn. It’s a little bit annoying that nobody talks on the phone any more, they just text. My own kids included.”
The Intern is in cinemas now.
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ABBOTT & COSTELLO Part 5 THE Story
H ollywood in the 1930s/40s was a small town with a close-knit community, and consequently, there were few secrets there. Everything about every movie studio and its contracted stars was generally known to those who made it their business to amass that most valuable of commodities – Hollywood gossip and rumour. This information would then inevitably find its way to the typewriter keys of either Louella Parsons or Hedda Hopper, the top two Hollywood gossip columnists of their day. In October 1945, both of their columns carried reports that all was not well with the Abbott and Costello partnership, with Miss Hopper's article further stating that Bud and Lou were about to break up and go their separate ways. Universal Pictures immediately released a communique categorically refuting this "misinformation" by announcing that Abbott and Costello's next film project, titled Little Giant , would begin filming in a few months time. This was followed by both Bud and Lou making a public declaration of solidarity at a press conference hastily arranged by the studio. However, the rumour of the team's break- up was based on fact, for since Costello's long confined illness and the tragic death of his infant son, Lou "Butch" Jr, tension between Lou and Bud had increased dramatically. The growing animosity between them finally blew up – into a year-long feud – over the triviality of a domestic maid that Lou had fired and whom Bud had then re-employed at his own residence. Lou was furious, considering it a breach of friendship for Bud to hire a housemaid that he had sacked. As a consequence, Lou informed their agent, Eddie Sherman, that the A&C partnership was over and from now on he would work alone. Sherman had to remind Lou that both he and Abbott were still under a dual contract with the studios, which had another 26 months to run. Furthermore, if Lou insisted on going ahead with the split, Universal would have no choice but to sue Costello, who at the time could ill afford expensive lawyer fees. Reluctantly acquiescing to Sherman's sound
"Ghosts" Horatio (Lou Costello) and Melody (Marjorie Reynolds in the The Time of Their Lives (1946)
advice, Lou demanded that their next film, Little Giant (aka On the Carpet ), be character/situation rather than gag driven, as he refused to perform any comedy routines with Abbott. Lou's demand forced a complete rewrite of the script – made more difficult for the production team by Lou and Bud only communicating with each other through their agent. Costello continued his campaign for change and disharmony with their next movie, The Time of Their Lives (the title certainly did not
William Goetz, Head of Production at Universal-International
This was brought home to them when they dropped off the list of top-ten money-making stars for three consecutive years: 1945-1947. Whether the failure of these two particular movies at the box office was the catalyst for Costello burying the hatchet with Abbott is debatable. But it no doubt played a part in their decision to kiss and make up at the end of 1946. Their reconciliation also coincided with the old Universal management team being ousted in a merger with the International Pictures Corporation. The new company, now rebranded Universal- International, was headed by William Goetz, whose father-in-law was Louis B. Mayer – head honcho at M-G-M. Goetz despised the "tits-and-sand", cheap westerns and low comedy movies that had been the staple of the previous Universal regime. On his first day in charge, he announced to his staff that UI would dispense with cheap potboilers and instead concentrate on making prestige films that were both intelligent and commercial. Following the poor financial performance of A&C's last two movies, Goetz wanted both Bud and Lou ushered out of the studio
Lou informed their agent that the A&C partnership was over and from now on he would work alone
reflect the atmosphere on the set), in which Lou played a Revolutionary tinker who returns to the present day as a ghost. Their feud resulted in two rather odd A&C movies – bereft of their usual smartarse and dimwit routines. In fact, the duo appeared together only briefly in both productions. Needless to say the films performed badly at the box office, as moviegoers simply did not take to the new A&C format.
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to clean up the town. Throughout the film he carries a photo of the widow and her brood to scare off the bad guys, who, if they shoot Lou, will automatically become responsible for the widow Hawkins and her family. This western spoof is one of the boys' better films, and the dinner sequence in which the widow's kids put a frog into the unsuspecting Lou's soup is simply priceless. Whilst A&C were making these two movies, William Goetz had ploughed ahead with producing the first batch of UI's "prestigious films". During its first year UI released A Double Life (which won star Ronald Colman an Academy Award for Best Actor), Great Expectations , Odd Man Out and Black Narcissus . But when UI's money men worked out the box office returns for the year, they (and especially Goetz) were astonished with the bottom line results. They clearly showed that A&C's Buck Privates Come Home and The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap had completely out-grossed the total profits of the rest of UI's product released in 1947. The boys' original contract with Universal had now expired and Lou told their agent, Eddie Sherman, to immediately begin negotiating a contract with any other Hollywood studio except M-G-M. Bud and Lou were aware that Goetz had wanted them out of UI, which Lou believed was down to the influence of Goetz's father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer. Mayer had never forgiven them for not signing with M-G-M at the beginning of their film careers. But before Sherman could engage with any of the other studios, Goetz – who never understood A&C's mass appeal but realised their films could still make money – offered the pair a new contract. Sherman argued (with sound logic) that as A&C pictures now appeared to be financing UI's so called prestige productions, they wanted a better offer. The boys' return to form and Sherman's argument led Goetz to offer them a more lucrative contract for two UI films each year, with an option to also make an independent production. A&C's first UI film under their new contract (which had the working title of The Brain of Frankenstein) would become the studio's top profit-making production of 1948, grossing over $3.2 million worldwide ($45 million in today's money). Furthermore,
Poster for Buck Privates Come Home (1947)
employment so they can get the orphan legally adopted. Following the usual frenetic and hilarious A&C finale, the film ends happily for the boys and little Evey. For the second film, producer Robert Arthur found a script originally intended for James Stewart, who was unable to commit due to his work schedule. The story was inspired by an obscure 19th century Montana law that made the survivor of a gunfight responsible for the family and debts of the person he shot. In The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947), Bud and Lou are once again travelling salesmen who arrive in the lawless town of the title. When Lou fires his gun in the air to get the townsfolk's attention, notorious outlaw Fred Hawkins drops dead. Lou is framed for his murder and by law inherits the deceased wife (played by the formidable Marjorie Main) and her seven children. Lou is then made sheriff and ordered
gates as soon as their contract expired. In the meantime, he assigned associate producer Robert Arthur to seek out a couple of motion pictures for the comedy team to make that would see out their contract. Hollywood had always found it difficult to resurrect the careers of stars once they began to fade at the box office. This was more prevalent with comedy teams, whose shelf life in the movies tended to be rather short. Arthur now faced the challenge of finding a movie script that the public could identify as a typical knockabout Abbott and Costello comedy, and that unlike the previous two, would make some money. A number of motion pictures, that became almost a trend during 1946/7, were based on stories of returning war veterans adjusting to civilian life, such as the award-winning classic The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Noting the popularity of these movies, Arthur came up with the idea of returning to the film that had originally made A&C stars. The boys were now able to re-establish their straight man/funny man formula by reprising their original Buck Privates characters – Slicker Smith and Herbie Brown – in Buck Privates Come Home (1947). In this, their only sequel, A&C's characters return home from their tour of duty in WWII Europe. Herbie (Costello) is carrying contraband in his kit bag – a six- year-old French orphan girl named "Evey", played by Shirley Temple lookalike Beverly Simmons. A series of comical situations ensue as the boys attempt to find civilian
the movie is considered by many film historians to be the greatest Hollywood horror-comedy spoof ever made.
To be concluded...
Lou Costello, Marjorie Main and Bud Abbott in The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947)
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survivors in the little-seen supernatural thriller Passengers (2008) before starring as Kate Hudson's BFF in the awful BrideWars (2009), a film she describes as "hideously commercial – gloriously so". Hathaway joined the ensemble cast of shamelessly tailormade "date movie" Valentine's Day (2010) and returned to the House of Mouse in 2010 as the White Queen in Tim Burton's lurid Alice inWonderland . She will also appear in the upcoming (and Burton-free) sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass , which has just wrapped for release in 2016. The raunchy Love & Other Drugs (2010) reunited her with Jake Gyllenhaal, as a Hathaway was ecstatic to land the role of Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises (2012) – after believing she would be auditioning for Harley Quinn – and received praise from US President Barack Obama, no less, who considered her “the best thing” about the film. She would team up again with Nolan for Interstellar in 2014. The plum role of Fantine in Les Misérables (2012) had special significance for the actress, having been played by her mother on the stage. Recommended for the part by co-star Hugh Jackman, Hathaway managed to bury memories of Susan Boyle with her emotional rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream", and her 100 per cent commitment to a tough role was duly rewarded with an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress the following year. It's been almost a decade since Hathaway was memorably menaced by Meryl in The Devil Wears Prada , but that hasn't stopped her from returning to the world of fashion with another Oscar-winning Hollywood icon at her side in The Intern (2015). As the founder and CEO of an online company who reluctantly takes on a senior intern in the form of Robert De Niro, Hathaway finds herself bridging the generation gap in this sweet comedy from writer-director Nancy Meyers. Parkinson's sufferer who falls for his drug company rep, and indie flick One Day (2011) paired her with Brit Jim Sturgess in a relationship that's revisited on the same day every year.
ANNE HATHAWAY From Disney Princess to Catwoman.
B rooklyn-born Anne Jacqueline Hathaway has been favourably compared to Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn. With her doe eyes and prim demeanour, Hathaway was a perfect fit for Disney films and period dramas, and since her film debut in The Princess Diaries in 2001, she has matured into an appealing and versatile star. Her Disney audience has effectively grown up with her. Having started out in school productions and stage plays, Hathaway progressed to television in 1999 as a member of the dysfunctional Green family in Get Real , alongside Jesse Eisenberg. Her feature debut in Disney's The Princess Diaries (2001) immediately launched her as a Hollywood star. Playing a shy schoolgirl who discovers she's royalty, Hathaway shared the screen with the legendary Julie Andrews and her luminous presence became an inspiration to teenage girls everywhere. Consequently, she found herself pigeonholed in similar fare like the faith-based The Other Side of Heaven (2001), Ella Enchanted (2004), and sequel The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). Hathaway has described her teen princess phase as something of a "brick wall" in terms of career advancement, so it was no surprise that her nude scenes in Havoc (2005) were perceived as an attempt to escape family film typecasting, despite her insistence that they were simply part of the job. "Anybody who was a role model for children needs a reprieve," she said. "Films are letting me get older, which is really nice, because there was always this fear of what happens when
Rachel Getting Married
The Dark Knight Rises
I stop being a teenager. But for everyone else, it was kind of a sharp left." Brokeback Mountain (2005) had a profound impact on Hathaway's subsequent career path; cast as Lurleen Newsome, the wife of Jake Gyllenhaal's sexually confused Jack, she had finally discovered the kind of film she wanted to make. "I'm more proud of that film than anything I have created," she has said. The Princess Diaries was Hathaway's big break, but it was The DevilWears Prada (2006) – in which she played the assistant to Meryl Streep's monstrous fashion mag editor – that relaunched her as an adult star and onto the Hollywood A-list, After playing Jane Austen in the biopic Becoming Jane (2007), she revealed a flair for comedy as Agent 99 in Get Smart (2008), opposite Steve Carell, and followed that with one of her best dramatic performances to date: as a recovering drug addict in Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married (2008). She appeared as a counsellor to air crash
Oscar
debut
Breakthrough
Anne Hathaway career path
The Princess Diaries
The Devil Wears Prada
Les Misérables
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STACK SOCIAL Listening to you lot chatting and interacting with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is all kinds of awesome! Make sure you get involved and follow us on: STACK Magazine @STACKMag stackmagazine
As we celebrate Back to the Future day on 21 October 2015, one lucky STACK reader will take home their very own replica Hover Board, Back to the Future 30th WIN A BACK TO THE FUTURE REPLICA HOVER BOARD – PLUS NINE RUNNER-UP PRIZES
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Anniversary Trilogy on DVD, and a double pass to the Hoyts Cinema special event: Back to the Future on the big screen! PLUS Nine runner-up prizes of the DVD and double passes.
The Blood & Steel Edition contains the game on your platform of choice.
What you've been loving on social this month:
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Star Wars Itty Bittys : want these you do – have them you must!
AUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-PG1 GAMING HEADSET GIVEAWAY
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#JokeOfTheDay Rick Astley will let you borrow any movie from his collection of Pixar films except one. He's never going to give you Up .
lets you stay there as long as you want.
HappyBirthday Hugh Jackman
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born on October 12th, 1968. Did you know, before Hugh became a Hollywood actor, he worked as a gas station attendant and a birthday party clown. #STACKBirthday
Unfortunately we cannot guarantee the real Magic Mike will ever be on your bed, but we can give you a pillow to snuggle up to instead! Five Magic Mike XXL pillows and the movie on Blu-ray are up for grabs. visit stack.net.au to enter MAGIC MIKE XXL ON YOUR BED!
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STACK ’s Fave Movie Quote: “Wait a minute, Doc, are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?” Marty McFly, Back to the Future
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Q1 Who directed the 1945 movie that tells the story of a headstrong woman who travels to Scotland to marry a rich old industrialist, only for her head to be turned by a dashing young laird? Q2 In which 2014 movie does a mother and son unwittingly invite a mythical monster into their home? Q3 Who plays the "designated ugly fat friend" in an appropriately titled 2015 movie? Q4 Which 1951 movie was based on Booth Tarkington's Penrod stories?
Q5 In this 1968 musical, a charming gambler con-man slowly grows to resent his entertainer wife's all-consuming success. Title please. Q6 Which director claimed that inspiration for his 1999 movie was the fatwa declared on Salman Rushdie following the publication of his book The Satanic Verses ? Q7 Name the beautiful (and five times married) silent screen actress who died of a drug overdose, only to have the cause "Hollywoodised" for the press as death by "over rigorous dieting".
Q8 Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Lopez, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Michelle Pfeiffer and Sandra Bullock. What's the link? Q9 In order to raise money to finance his 1979 debut feature, which director worked as an ER doctor and also drew inspiration for his film from the grisly sights he saw? Q10 Which actress described her legendary actor ex-husband as "a balding, paunchy hypochondriac, an egomaniac, a rock upon which other egos founder"?
QUIZ
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Caprice (1967) A10. Red River (1948), quoted by Thomas Dunson (John Wayne)
(2008) A9. Richard Harris in
A8. Dean Spanley
A7. Gambit
A6. Russell Crowe in Romper Stomper
(1973) A5. Sam Peckinpah –
A4. Lee Marvin in Emperor of the North
A3. Anna Sten
A1. Lucy A2. The Man from the Alamo (1953) starring Glenn Ford
Straw Dogs
Quiz Answers September 2015 (Issue 131) -
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THE MARTIAN
MACBETH • SICARIO • EVEREST • PAN
YOUR MONTHLY GUIDE TO WHAT’S AT THE MOVIES HOT
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interview
CINEMA
AN IRISHMAN IN THE SCOTTISH PLAY
Witty, charming and successful on a global level, if anyone can play Macbeth, a man driven to madness by his own ambition, it’s Michael Fassbender.
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interview
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“I 'm happy in my skin, and I never think about whether my characters are unsympathetic or tormented in terms of wanting to play those kinds of roles. I look at every part as a way of expressing different aspects of their humanity,” explains Michael Fassbender, when asked about the contradiction of being seen as a sex symbol, when most of the characters he plays are complex and even contemptible. “The whole notion of being a sex symbol is a bit frightening and ridiculous – although it suits me!” he adds, laughing. His next role is certainly no different, as he takes on one of Shakespeare’s most tragic anti- heroes: Macbeth. Directed by Australia’s own Justin Kurzel and starring Gallic goddess Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth, it is a rare opportunity to bring one of The Bard’s most famous plays to the big screen. Since his 2006 Hollywood debut as a young Spartan warrior in 300 , Fassbender’s career has gone from strength to strength. From embarking on a 600 calories-a-day diet to play hunger-striking IRA prisoner Bobby Sands in Hunger , for which he won a British Independent Film Award for Best Actor, to taking on the world as the younger incarnation of super mutant Magneto in the blockbuster X-Men franchise, Fassbender has the kind of bankability and diversity that is incredibly rare. Shakespeare, however, is a new challenge altogether. "It was a rare privilege for me to be able to do a Shakespeare play, and Macbeth happens to be my favourite of his works. Both the language itself and the character are so daunting that it's almost as if you're being dared to take it on. I like taking risks, and this was one I couldn't pass up," says the actor. `Challenges don’t phase Fassbender, and even when he’s
• Macbeth is in cinemas on October 1 and reviewed on page 26
Macbeth
300
Hunger
Steve Jobs
I like taking risks, and [Macbeth] was one I couldn't pass up.
not acting, the daredevil star loves chasing adrenalin highs. Often seen riding his motorbike, he was recently spotted at the Monaco Grand Prix with his stunning Swedish actress girlfriend, Alicia Vikander. For him, motorsports are more than just a thrill: he uses speed as a survival tool to find control and calm amidst the intense chaos of Hollywood superstardom. “Being on a motorbike and concentrating while you're going as fast as possible is also a
as reprising his role as Magneto in X-Men: Apocalypse , we can expect to see more much more of this charming and mercurial actor over the coming year. But just what is it that draws him to playing men who seem forever doomed? “It might be because I'm really mad myself!” he laughs. “But I'm not mad enough to allow that to destroy myself. I think we're all a little mad and it's more interesting to acknowledge and portray madness than to ignore it. If you look at how we behave on this planet, there is no doubt that madness is everywhere...”
strange form of relaxation – your mind just adapts to what you're doing and you stop worrying about everything else that's going on in your life,” he explains. With several major
films in post-production, including the lead role in Steve Jobs , who Fassbender says was “an extraordinary man,
who changed the way we live on so many levels,” as well
X-Men: Days of Future Past
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RELEASED: Oct 1 DIRECTOR: Justin Kurzel CAST: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Paddy Considine RATING: CTC
MACBETH
A film full of sound and fury, signifying a great Shakespeare adaptation.
M ichael Fassbender as director Justin Kurzel tackling Shakespeare’s great tragedy. If
Highlands; much of the action unfolds in a dreamlike landscape beneath a blood-red sky, filled with smoke, mist, witches, and soldiers being “unseamed from knave to chops”. In this kingdom, chaos and madness reigns. Shakespeare’s works ultimately live or die on the strength of the performances, and Michael Fassbender was born to play the former Thane of Glamis turned tyrant King of Scotland, whose ambition to ascend the throne leads to murder most foul, civil war and his ultimate downfall. Tormented, intense and mumbling into his ginger beard, he’s a charismatic and volatile despot. Marion Cotillard’s scheming Lady Macbeth is more subdued than expected but still as ruthless as her husband, and underplaying her anguished attempt to assuage her guilt (“Out damn spot!) works beautifully. A triumph in every department, "The Scottish Film" is bleak, brutal and brilliant. Scott Hocking
Macbeth. Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth. Snowtown
Macbeth isn’t already on your must- see list for these reasons, put it there, pronto. There’s nothing more satisfying for a moviegoer than going into a film with high expectations and having them met. Surrounded by positive buzz following its premiere at Cannes, Kurzel’s Macbeth is the best cinematic take of the Bard’s play to date – yes, even better than Roman Polanski’s 1971 version, which it will no doubt replace as the go-to film for students come exam time. Few would have expected Kurzel to follow Snowtown with Shakespeare, and the South Australian filmmaker has delivered another incredibly austere interpretation of material that demands a dark touch. Nobody does grim like this guy. Stark visuals and a moody minimalist score (from Kurzel’s brother Jed) create a sustained sense of doom and gloom which hangs over the film like the fog that shrouds the
FURTHER VIEWING: Macbeth (1971) , Coriolanus
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CINEMA
REVIEWS
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Gritty, intense, cinematic and explosive – this is the serious actioner you’ve always wanted on dirty tactics employed to deal with the most violent drug cartels in Mexico. SICARIO RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Denis Villeneuve CAST: Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio del Toro RATING: MA15+
M ars movies have generally failed to engage audiences, unless it's the red planet attacking us. Even big name directors have crashed and burned on its rocky surface, like Brian De Palma with the miserable Mission to Mars in 2000. Enter Ridley Scott, who makes amends for the hash that was Prometheus with a far more satisfying return to the genre. Recently stranded on a planet in another universe in Interstellar , Matt Damon again finds himself as an astronaut cast away, albeit this time closer to home. Left behind and presumed dead after the Ares III mission is forced to make an emergency lift off from the Martian surface, Damon is faced with the predicament of how he's going to survive, and more importantly, contact NASA to arrange a rescue mission. Fortunately the habitat base is still operational, and even more fortunately, he's a botanist who can get potatoes to grow in human waste. And rather than dwell on the hopelessness of his situation, he's an optimistic and cheery chap, and it's his humorous outlook (when most of us would curl up in a corner and wait for the oxygen to run F rom its opening frame, Sicario is a masterful experience. Employing equal measures of intense sound, engaging cinematography (this is how you use ‘drones’, people!) and no-nonsense acting usually reserved for high-end TV, you’ll be on the edge of your seat for the majority of the two hour ride on this violent rollercoaster. Emily Blunt is the capable FBI agent who wants to play fair, but also wants satisfaction for losing members of her team after a booby-trapped raid. With this as a carrot, she agrees to be a part of a somewhat confusing taskforce (Brolin, del Toro) whose mission, alongside a menagerie of mercenaries, is to infiltrate the higher echelons of a Mexican drug cartel. What will soon be clear is playing fair gets no results, and perhaps not all members of the crew have the same objective. No, this isn’t a ‘I knew that guy was a baddie!’ style twist-and-turn affair. It’s instead a nail-biting slow reveal of the machinations behind crime fighting when the rules don’t apply, or are ineffective. With set pieces to THE MARTIAN
rival anything Ridley Scott or Michael Mann have ever achieved (a Mexican border crossing sequence you will never forget) and an ever-present sense of doom, excitement and amazing sensory immersion (if the sound design doesn’t win an Oscar, they're all deaf), Sicario is a hard-boiled triumph of frenetic filmmaking which has seemingly popped up out of the blue when lesser films get all the media attention. To know that director Denis Villeneuve ( Incendies , Prisoners ) is at the helm of the upcoming Untitled Blade Runner Project should give all naysayers a sense of calm and reassurance. This guy makes cinema that holds you by the throat, beats you up a little bit, and cuts you loose when it’s had enough with you. Yes! Oh, and ‘Sicario’ means ‘hitman’ in Spanish – we’ll just leave that there. Chris Murray
FURTHER VIEWING: Traffic, Prisoners
RELEASED: Oct 1 DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott CAST: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels RATING: CTC
Is there life on Mars? Yes – Matt Damon, in Ridley Scott's hugely entertaining return to sci-fi.
out), resourcefulness and determination to "science the shit" out of his dilemma that makes The Martian so damn entertaining. Moreover, the addition of a soundtrack full of disco hits (left behind by the mission's commander, Jessica Chastain) adds a quirky and incongruous touch to the proceedings. This is an atypical Ridley Scott movie: the spectacle and detail is all there (the Martian landscape, rovers, spacecraft and orbital sequences), only this time there's also a sense that Scott knows he's making a big, crowd-pleasing blockbuster, one that feels more like Ron Howard than the man who gave us Alien and Blade Runner . The Martian is more than just Robinson Crusoe on Mars without the monkey – like Saving Private Ryan, it never lets us forget that "the mission is a man". A survival story that celebrates the endurance of the human spirit without the obligatory spoonful of sugar, it's got all the right stuff. Scott Hocking
FURTHER VIEWING: Interstellar, Robinson Crusoe on Mars
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CINEMA
REVIEWS
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MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS
EVEREST
RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Wes Ball CAST: Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Aidan Gillen RATING: M
Everest might look like a traditional Hollywood disaster movie with an all-star cast in a mountain of trouble, but once you strap in for the ascent, you'll realise it's anything but. Based on the 1996 true-life tragedy that befell a group of climbers led by Kiwi Rob Hall (Jason Clarke in one of his finest performances to date), this is the cinematic equivalent of scaling Everest, right down to the minutiae involved in reaching the summit from base camp. In the hands of a more flashy filmmaker, Everest would have been a disaster of a movie, but Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur balances the spectacle and high adventure with verisimilitude and the most immersive use of 3D since Gravity. This dedication to realism makes several scenes particularly difficult to watch ; flesh blackening from frostbite, bodies freezing solid on the mountainside, and the debilitating and life-threatening effects of high altitude. Moreover, the time taken to get to know the characters (from Jake Gyllenhaal's hippie guide to Josh Brolin's rich Texan) before the mother of all blizzards sweeps in and disaster strikes makes their respective fates all the more impactful. You'll exit the theatre exhausted and with a newfound respect for those with the fortitude to conquer the world's highest peak. Scott Hocking FURTHER VIEWING: Touching the Void, Cliffhanger RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Baltasar Kormákur CAST: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Keira Knightley RATING: M
When we last left Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers, they’d successfully completed the maze trials and discovered that the Earth has been scorched by a solar flare that also unleashed a deadly virus, to which they are all immune. And that WCKD – the World Catastrophe Killzone Department – is every bit as sinister as its acronym. Transferred to a way station, Thomas discovers the true nature of WCKD’s possible cure and what it means for his group (it's not good), necessitating an escape into the “Scorch” where they must negotiate a desert wasteland and the ruins of civilisation in order to reach the mountains and a revolutionary group opposed to WCKD, who offer sanctuary for the immune. The Scorch Trials is a much bigger and more visually impressive film than its predecessor, and for the most part delivers a familiar but rousing trip across a blasted landscape overrun by hordes of zombie-like infected (known as Cranks). But it ultimately slips into the familiar groove established by prior YA adventures. The Maze Runner raised more questions than it answered. The Scorch Trials provides the answers, as well as the realisation that it’s time for the young adult dystopian sci-fi genre to diverge from formula and play a different kind of game. Scott Hocking FURTHER VIEWING: Divergent, The Hunger Games
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON
THE WALK
RATING KEY: Wow! Good Not bad Meh Woof!
"F*** the Police!" we hear you cry as director F. Gary Gray delivers his epic opus on the true story behind NWA, the group that forged new roads into rap/gangster popular culture. It’s all here in glorious colour and no punches pulled (well, maybe a few) as we watch Ezy E, Dr Dre and Ice Cube change the face of American popular music during the late ‘80s, early ‘90s; complete with automatic weapons, copious drugs, countless women dancing near pools in bikinis, and crooks aplenty. Clocking in at just over two hours, SOC packs in as much as possible between a young Cube writing lyrics on a school bus and Dre walking out of Death Row (records, that is). To say the young actors portraying these figures of legend are ‘good’ is a gross understatement; uncanny physical resemblances aside, they are simply amazing. The tone, texture and delivery of this piece is worthy of any mega-budget offering you’re likely to see, with set-pieces that are intimidating to say the least. Drama and cinematic tension does take a back seat to the ‘factual displays’ we all want to see, but hey, that’s the biz, yo! Yes, you need to see it, even just for the feeling of that bass during the live performances alone. Chris Murray FURTHER VIEWING: Boyz n the Hood, 8 Mile RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: F. Gary Gray CAST: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell RATING: MA15+
Robert Zemeckis made the amazing Back to the Future trilogy, but he also made the self-important horror that was Forrest Gump . Thus while capable of brilliance, he’s also able to deliver slices of over-sweet sponge cake you know you’ll be vomiting up later. Somewhere in the middle is this visual spectacle that's being sold on the popularity of the award-winning 2008 doco Man on Wire – the story of a crazy Frenchman who pulled off an illegal high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. Squinty talent-bucket Joseph Gordon-Levitt is perfect as the over-the-top French annoyance, Philippe Petit. An ‘always-on’ performer, Petit is the kind of guy you don’t mind meeting at a party, but you want him (and his unicycle) out the door after an hour. A love story is explored, then quickly abandoned, and it’s full steam ahead to the greatest coup of all – sneaking up the World Trade Centre and setting this mad caper up. This is where the film shines brightest; played with such solid tension and panache, you can forgive the ‘oh my, isn’t this quaint’ hour or so leading up to it. The 3D and FX are brilliant, and the fact we know this actually happened stops us from thinking the scale is way too far fetched. The Walk is safe, A-grade family fun all the way, unless you’re scared of heights. Chris Murray FURTHER VIEWING: Man on Wire RELEASED: Oct 15 DIRECTOR: Robert Zemeckis CAST: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon RATING: PG
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