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ISSUE 127 MAY’15

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY • TOM HARDY • THE WITCHER III: WILD HUNT

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Issue 127

MAY 2015

WELCOME H ollywood loves a true story, and so do audiences. While viewers’ fascination with reality onscreen has today mutated into an inexplicable obsession with watching people cooking, renovating, singing and dancing on television, you can’t deny the allure of a good old fashioned biopic. There are four fine examples out on DVD this month – Unbroken , American Sniper , The Imitation Game and Mr. Turner – and thanks to the actors and filmmakers involved, if we didn’t already know who Louie Zamperini, Chris Kyle, Alan Turing and J.M.W. Turner were, and why their incredible stories have attracted filmmakers like Clint Eastwood, Mike Leigh and Angelina Jolie, we do now. Adaptations of bestselling novels are also a mainstay at the box-office, especially if they’ve transcended the bestseller lists to become pop culture phenomena. In 2001 it was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone ; in 2006 it was The Da Vinci Code ; in 2008 it was Twilight . And this year it’s Fifty Shades of Grey . We’ll leave you to decide which one will stand the test of time.

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Issue 127 MAY 2015

YOUR ESSENTIALGUIDE TOMUSIC,CINEMA,DVDs&GAMES

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ISSUE 127 MAY '15

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ISSUE 127 MAY’15

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY THE IMITATIONGAME • UNBROKEN • DUMBANDDUMBERTO

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

A Little Wilder in Mind

In Cinemas MAY 14

CATHERINE BRITT • MILLENCOLIN • FAITH NO MORE

INSIDE:

FIFTYSHADESOFGREY • TOMHARDY • THEWITCHER III:WILDHUNT

S i g n u p

YOURMONTHLY GUIDE TOWHAT’S AT THEMOVIES HOT AVENGERS:AGEOFULTRON • FAST&FURIOUS7 • ITFOLLOWS

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Extras pg 10–20

Cinema pg 21–28

DVD & BD pg 29–60

Games pg 61–74

Music pg 77-99

Pg 10-14 News The latest news, including the unlikely heroes leaping onto the big screen, and the lowdown on this year’s Supanova. Pg 16-18 HOLLYWOOD’S COMEDY DUO The epic story of Laurel and Hardy continues, as the Great Depression hits, and America needs their dynamic comedy duo more than ever. Pg 20 COMPETITIONS We have some awesome prizes up for grabs, including a musical instrument signed by renowned Dutch violinist André Rieu. Pg 46-47 ACTORS SERIES George Clooney. He’s an absolute charmer with great charisma to match his looks. He’s also a filmmaker with a social conscience. And that’s just the start.

Pg 22-23 INTERVIEW Tom Hardy. He was the iconic badass in The Dark Knight Rises , an he’s about to strap into a role that comes with even bigger fan expectation – Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road . Pg 24-28 REVIEWS Avengers: Age of Ultron, It Follows, Fast & Furious 7, Ex Machina, Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, While We’re Young, Cobain: Montage of Heck

Pg 32-33 AMERICAN SNIPER Star Bradley Cooper and filmmaker Clint Eastwood on the heavy load of shooting a film about shooting to kill. Pg 34-36 FIFTY SHADES OF GREY Dakota Johnson submits to the role of Anastasia Steele in the highly anticipated adaptation of In choosing her second project as director, Angelina Jolie found inspiration close to home. Pg 40 THE IMITATION GAME The unheralded inventor of the computer, Alan Turing’s incredible life story is certainly stranger than fiction. Pg 48-56 REVIEWS American Sniper, Fifty Shades of Grey, Dumb and Dumber To, The Imitation Game, Mr. Turner, Coherence, The Gambler, Unbroken, Orange is the New Black: Season Two, and lots more... the kinky bestseller. Pg 38 UNBROKEN

Pg 62 games intro Pg 64-65 The Witcher Is here Delayed more times than Melbourne’s Metro trains, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is finally out this month. Pg 66 wolfenstein is back Thought you’d seen the last of Wofenstein for a while? Think again. It’s back. And we’re glad about that. Pg 68 PROJECT CARS LANDS The community has spoken – and helped make a racing game. Pg 70 WHAT WE DON’T WANT TO DO IN A VIDEO GAME There are many things that developers feel compelled to put in video games that we don’t particularly want to do – ever again. Here are some of them. Pg 72-74 PREVIEWS Check out what’s heading to the shelves at JB this month.

Pg 84 The Music Room We catch up with Faith No More, Catherine Britt, Hiatus Kaiyote, Roisin Murphy, and Antagonist AD. Plus news and evergreen must-haves for your collection. Pg 86-87 Cover Story Mumford and Sons’ new album Wilder Mind sees the nu-folkies kick up their sound on an album that’s a tale of two cities. Pg 88 Revolutions Per Month The return of the mighty Faith No More, plus new music from Hot Chip, and Say Lou Lou! Pg 94 STACK Music Reviews New music from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Roisin Murphy, My Morning Jacket, Ruby Boots, The Wombats, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Wire, Surfer Blood, Django Django, Jeff the Brotherhood and more!

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UNLIKELY HEROES

Ant Man , in cinemas July 16

Our Idiot Brother

dude from Knocked Up , Wet Hot American Summer and I Love You, Man ? Ant Man is out at the cinemas July 16. Jesse Eisenberg In much the same way that experiencing Jack McBrayer as Felix in Wreck-It Ralph renders one uncomfortable watching 30 Rock , envisioning

Chris Pratt Until 2014, he was best known as adorable goofball Andy Dwyer on TV's Parks and Recreation . And much like his character, who became an entertainment sensation as the host of a show called Johnny Karate , Pratt himself Paul Rudd is the latest in some unconventional casting for superhero blockbusters.

Fantastic Four , in cinemas August 6

Suicide Squad

Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor in Suicide Squad – having heard him as Blu the bird in Rio – produces similar feelings of unease. Nevertheless, we're sure his experience in Zombieland will come in handy at some point. Right? Ryan Reynolds Having starred as the unwilling fiancé of Sandra Bullock in The Proposal , 'Party Liaison' Van Wilder , and a snail called Turbo , you might think Ryan Reynolds is venturing out of his comfort zone as the sassy Deadpool in this upcoming Marvel movie. But let's not forget that he's already played the character (briefly) in X-Men Origins: Wolverine , and has lit up the big screen as Hal Jordan in DC's Green Lantern . So this role at least is a perfect fit! And if you want to check out a serious side of Ryan Reynolds, make sure you check out Atom Egoyan's disturbing thriller The Captive , in JB Hi-Fi this month, and reviewed on page 52.

has become a superstar following a breakout 2014. Sure we could imagine him as the voice of

Billy Elliot

movie of the same name. We can only hope that Bendandsnap Carrotstick can bring his trademark witty indifference to this arcane role. Jamie Bell He started out as a young boy with a love of ballet in Billy Elliot , and was also the voice of the eponymous comic character in The Adventures of Tintin . There was also an edgy dalliance in Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac: Vol II. Now Bell is set to get hardcore in a different way, as The Thing in the latest revamp of Fantastic Four. A Thing with the twinkle toes of Billy Elliot ? We'd like to see that! Fantastic Four is in cinemas August 6. Paul Rudd

Parks and Recreation

Emmet Brickowski in The Lego Movie , but we weren't expecting a ripped Pratt as one of the Guardians of the Galaxy. With the lead role in Jurassic World (as a professional velociraptor trainer), and rumoured to be a reincarnation of Indiana Jones (should we ever need one), it seems Pratt is a wanted man in more ways than one. Benedict Cumberbatch Burgerking Scratchnsniff earned his keep after being cast in the BBC's surprisingly successful Sherlock . Apparently this translates into superhero material, because Buckingham Cheddarcheese has now been introduced as Doctor Strange, in Marvel's upcoming (2016)

Van Wilder

Seemingly destined to be 'that guy' who stars in rom-coms his entire life, Rudd will take his comedic prowess to a whole new level, literally, as the pint-sized Ant- Man, another superhero in the seemingly vast Marvel pantheon. Can this really be the same

Deadpool

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M eryl Streep revives her impeccable English accent for the new UK drama Suffragette . The film follows the story of the footsoldiers of the early feminist movement – women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State. Radicalised and turning to violence as the only route to change, they were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality – their jobs, their homes, their children and their lives. Joining forces with Alice in Wonderland 's Helena Bonham Carter, The Great Gatsby 's Carey Mulligan, and Skyfall 's Ben Whishaw, Streep plays the British activist and leader of the Suffragettes, Emmeline Pankhurst, another historically important British woman following her Oscar- winning role as Margaret Thatcher in 2011's The Iron Lady . Already the happy owner of three Oscars, will Streep be in line for a fourth? At the very least she'll pick up a nomination – she always does. MERYL STREEP'S NEXT OSCAR TRIUMPH?

N eed a quick crash course in Mad Max mythology? Then you'll want to get your hands on an exclusive new High-Def box set from JB Hi-Fi. To coincide with the eagerly awaited cinema release of Mad Max: Fury Road , JB will be stocking The Mad Max Collection – an exclusive new Blu-ray set featuring all three movies – later this month. The original Mad Max (1979) was set in a ravaged near future, with Aussie cop Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) going on the rampage to avenge the death of his partner, his wife and his son. Mad Max 2 (aka The Road Warrior ) followed two years later, with Gibson's Max now a cynical drifter who agrees to help a small, gasoline-rich community escape a band of marauders. The sequel topped its predecessor and is still regarded today as a model for the perfect action film. Concluding the Gibson trilogy is Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985), in which Max faces off against Tina Turner, Frank Thring and Angry Anderson, eventually becoming a saviour to a community of wild children. And with Mad Max: Fury Road hitting the big screen on May 14, make sure you check out our interview with its star, Tom Hardy, on page 22. RELIVE THE ROAD WARRIOR LEGACY

Written by Abi Morgan and directed by Sarah Gavron, Suffragette is set for a cinema release late 2015.

Suffragette The Iron Lady

A pril was a good month for Star Wars fans. First up, we got the second teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens , a brief glimpse the standalone film Star Wars: Rogue One , and more importantly, if you're all the details were as accurate as possible. The release date was also unveiled: Star Wars: Battlefront will be in-store at your local JB on November 19 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. Feel the Force flow! BATTLEFRONT DUE NOVEMBER

D espite the current trend of film adaptations of YA novels being split in two for the finale (whether it be for more money or a more strict adherence to the plot), The Maze Runner won't be following suit. It was recently announced that The Maze Runner 3: The Death Cure will not be receiving the Part I & 2 treatment, with just a single film scheduled for release on February 17, 2017. Teen Wolf 's Dylan O'Brien will be looking to reprise his role as Thomas in the third movie, with the second installment – The Scorch Trials – coming to cinemas in September this year. WCKD IS GOOD FOR A SINGLE TRILOGY CLOSER

a fan of video games, the first proper look at EA's upcoming game, Star Wars: Battlefront . Rebooting the popular Battlefront series has been entrusted to DICE, creators of the acclaimed Battlefield franchise. The action will unfold across Hoth, Endor, Tatooine and Sullust, and gamers will be able to choose between playing on the side of the Rebels or the Empire. DICE actually has access to all the original Star Wars props and models from the original trilogy, and even sent members of the development team to the original shoot locations to ensure

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“FAST-MOVING… SHARP AND CLEVER.” DAILY MAIL

Strong coarse language, sexual references & nudity

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SUPANOVA 2015

I ron Man, Gnar and a Jedi walk into a bar... and as strange as that may sound, it’s not an uncommon occurrence when the annual Supanova pop culture expo comes around. This year’s show hit the Melbourne Showgrounds on April 10-12, and was full up to Superman’s cape of all things geek chic. Amongst the stars soaking up Melbourne’s admiring atmosphere were Back to the Future ’s Christopher Lloyd, Teen Wolf ’s Tyler Hoechlin, He-Man Dolph Lundgren, and The Walking Dead’ s Robin Lord Taylor. Pulling the biggest crowds – and the highest concentration of Marty McFly cosplayers you’ve ever seen – was Lloyd, although it wasn’t just the actors attracting attention. British sci-fi author Peter F. Hamilton had a decent queue, as did WETA modelmaker Richard Taylor, as well as RWBY’s Barbara Dunkelman over in the Hanabee booth. Every year the cosplayers come in higher numbers and more varying detail, and 2015 was no exception. With Riot Games’ League of Legends only getting bigger, it came as no surprise that most were dressed as “champions” from the game. Also not in short supply were Stormtroopers, Jedi, Batmen, Spirited Away No Faces, Lara Crofts, Deadpools, and Harley Quinn in all her variations. And of course the merchandise hall was chock full of everything from posters and remote control Daleks, to the latest figurine sensation sweeping the nation – Funko’s POP Vinyls.

Hitting Sydney and Perth in June, and landing in Adelaide and Brisbane in November, other Supanova guests joining the line-up include Firefly ’s Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin, and The Flash ’s Danielle Panabaker.

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“… A CRAFTY, CLEVER, MODERN ROMANCE.” Sarah Ward – FILMINK THEONE I LOVE

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Part 5

T he rise of the double-feature The Classic Feature Films

extremely costly and Roach soon realised it would not make a profit as a three-reel movie unless it was extended to feature length. Laurel was reluctant to increase from three reels to seven as he considered it difficult to sustain the comedy antics beyond 30 minutes of running time. Nevertheless, when Pardon Us was released with a running time of 56 minutes, it proved another L&H box-office hit. A year later they followed it up with their second feature, Pack Up Your Troubles (1932), before falling back to Stan's favourite projects – the three-reel shorts.

programme was a direct result of the Great Depression. The Wall Street

crash in 1929 and the subsequent mass unemployment had a negative impact on the profits of all the Hollywood studios. Cinema audiences plummeted from 110 million a week in 1930 to around 55 million by 1933, which forced the studios to close over one third of its US theatres. A conglomerate of theatre managers informed the major film studios that they wanted to show two features per programme in an attempt to lure audiences back into their theatres. This initiative – showing two features, a cartoon and a newsreel – would offer three hours of entertainment for a patron's 35 cent admission ticket. They also proposed that the programmes be changed twice a week,

Stan and Ollie take direction from Harry Lachman whilst filming a scene from Our Relations

Now with an MGM order for more feature length films, they began filming Fra Diavolo in early 1933. Based on Daniel Auber's 18th century comic operetta and personally directed by Hal Roach, it featured the

instead of once, to try and double their weekly ticket sales.  These suggestions were swiftly adopted by the majors and as a direct consequence, the Budget (B) feature movie was established, which diminished the necessity of the two/three-reel shorts. This then was the catalyst that prompted MGM to amount of comedy shorts and concentrate instead on full length Laurel and Hardy feature films.  The boys had already made a couple of feature films prior to 1933; the first, Pardon Us (1931), almost by accident. Originally written as a short titled The Rap , Hal Roach had failed to obtain the use of the huge MGM prison sets as seen in the award- winning movie  The Big House (1930), so he decided to build his own. This, however, proved request Hal Roach to begin cutting back the

boys as Stanlio and Ollio, who are robbed of their life savings by a gang of bandits. At Stan's urging, Ollie masquerades as the notorious brigand leader Fra Diavolo (The Devil's Brother) and they begin a career of bungling robberies until they hold up Diavolo himself, who makes them his servants. The frequent operatic songs sung by the rest of the cast and the base story unfortunately distracted from L&H's usual comedy antics. Although a huge success when released (and one of Stan's favourite films), Fra Diavolo has not aged as well as the rest of the boys' films. But their next project, Sons of the Desert (1933) , was – and remains today – pure Laurel and Hardy magic. Along with Our Relations (1936) and Way Out West (1937) , it's probably the funniest and the best of all of their feature films.

The boys famous soft shoe shuffle from Way Out West

Sons of the Desert has a classic battle of the sexes theme, featuring Dorothy Christy and Mae Busch as Stan and Ollie's formidable wives. The boys want to attend their Sons of the Desert lodge convention in Chicago, but their wives demand they take them on a mountain retreat vacation instead. Ollie feigns a chronic illness, for which the doctor (in fact a veterinarian found by Stan) prescribes a long ocean voyage so that he may recover. The boys announce they are following doctor's orders and are sailing to Hawaii, but instead sneak off to Chicago where they have a whale of a time, completely unaware that the boat they are supposed to have sailed on has sank. Their now distraught wives see a newsreel of the Chicago convention parade and guess who is in the front playing to the camera? Now exposed, they dream up the ruse that they had "ship-hiked" in an attempt to placate their furious wives, but as usual, Stan blows the story. In Our Relations , Stan and Ollie's identical twin brothers, Bert and Alf (also played by

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the boys) are sailors who arrive in town on leave. Pandemonium ensues when each set of twins is mistaken for the other. The mistaken identities gag works throughout the 74-minute running time because the duos don't discover

Stan performs his lighted thumb routine in Way Out West.

The Laurel and Hardy appreciation society, which today has thousands of members worldwide and its own coat of arms

picture titled Atoll K, released in France in 1951, Laurel and Hardy's film career came to an end. After several triumphant tours of Britain with their music hall act, they finally called it a day and formally retired in 1954. Oliver Hardy died aged 65 in August 1957. In 1961, Stan Laurel, who never recovered from his dear friend's death, was awarded an honorary Oscar for his lifetime contribution to films. His one regret was that his friend Ollie was not alive to share the award. Stan died in 1965, aged 74. Through television and DVD, Laurel and Hardy's legacy of laughter lives on as each new generation discover and enjoy their timeless comedy routines. And no doubt, whatever the viewing medium will be in another hundred years, the childlike curiosity of Stan and the false pomposity of Ollie will still be generating laughter from their future audience. End note: The opening scene of the Laurel and Hardy 1927 silent short The Battle of the Century features Stan as a prize fighter and Ollie as his trainer- manager. In the front row of the boxing ring crowd, just to the right of Hardy, can be seen a slightly rotund, dark haired young man. His name was Louis Francis Cristillo and in 1927 he was a freelance film extra and stuntman who yearned to be a movie comedian. Ten years later he would link up with the best vaudeville straight man in the business, and together they would become known to moviegoers as the comedy duo- Abbot and Costello.

their contracts with Roach expired. As the new decade began, both Stan and Ollie found they owed serious back taxes to the US Government. Adding to their financial woes, their ex-wives (Stan was married five times and Ollie three times) were publicly claiming they had been left destitute and were now chasing them for huge amounts of alimony. Consequently, they did not renew their contracts with Roach but instead formed their own corporation, Laurel and Hardy Feature Productions, and signed a ten-picture deal with 20th Century Fox. Stan would later state that signing the Fox contract was the worst career decision he ever made. At the small independent Roach studios, Stan had always insisted that the L&H films were shot in sequence, which allowed him to seamlessly integrate the gags in line with the plot. However, at the vast Fox studios, every film was shot out of sequence to save production costs. And much to his annoyance, Stan was not allowed to contribute to the storyline or the dialogue. But much worse, just as MGM had tried to reinvent Buster Keaton (which destroyed his movie career), Fox attempted to reinvent Laurel and Hardy by discarding most of their trademarks. Their unique magical comedy routine was gradually stifled with each Fox picture they made, and although they were still able to raise plenty of laughs, their scenes were now no more than episodic asides to the main story, and the boys knew it. Subsequently in 1945, when Fox offered them a further five year extension to their contract, they both declined. Following a disastrous European motion

each others' presence until the final minutes of the film. In 1937 MGM released Laurel and Hardy's full length masterpiece, the comedy western Way Out West . Stan and Ollie have to locate the daughter of a deceased gold prospector and present her with her inheritance – the deeds to a gold mine. The superb mix of visual and verbal gags is truly masterful, inventive filmmaking. An example of this is when they cross a lake (actually situated on the Roach lot and named the Laurel and Hardy lake). Stan crosses it without incident but Ollie always manages to find the deepest part, leaving just his bowler hat floating on the surface. When the prospector's daughter asks what her father died of, a vacant looking Stan replies, "I think he died of a Tuesday, or was it of a Wednesday?". This and Stan and Ollie's dainty soft shoe shuffle to the Avalon Boys rendition of At the Ball, That's All are absolutely timeless cinematic moments. Between 1933 and 1939, Laurel and Hardy made 14 full length feature films and 12 shorts at the Roach studios, the last, Saps at Sea (1940) was completed just before

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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 What you've been loving on social this month:

WIN A VIOLIN SIGNED BY ANDRE RIEU!

André Rieu’s Magic of the Violin on CD and DVD takes you on a journey through the rousing soundscape of inspiring classical and pop favourites! To celebrate this wonderful release, STACK is offering you the opportunity to win a violin signed by the Dutch violinist, conductor and showman.

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Coppers. Plods. The Old Bill. London’s police force – the oldest in the world – is in need of a public image revamp. And Chief Constable Richard Miller (James Nesbitt, The Hobbit ) has found just the woman to do it. Babylon: Season 1 lands in JB stores on May 27. GIVEAWAY, PLUS 10 RUNNER-UP PRIZES BABYLON: SEASON 1 AND MINI TABLET

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Q1 Which two films released in 1952 & 1968, respectively, were both loosely based on the WWII raid on St Nazaire? Q2 Merle Oberon, Vanessa Redgrave, Charlotte Rampling and Natalie Portman. What's the link? Q3 Which 1974 movie – and the 2014 remake – owes its origins to a short story written by Dostoyevsky? Q4 Who appeared to play a trumpet in a scene from the

Q9 Which Hollywood star, when his debut movie was shown on television, placed an apology for his performance in the Los Angeles Times ? Q10 A Warner Bros. movie released in 1952 was the fourth remake of the same story, but with a different title than the previous three. Name the film and its starring actor.

British movie Genevieve (1953)? Q5 A family with IRA links leads to coercion by MI5. Name the 2012 political thriller. Q6 What did Bette Davis do that was unusual for her in the movie Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)? Q7 In what detective film does James Stewart play the murderer? Q8 And whilst on unusual behaviour, in what movie do we find Humphrey Bogart as a vampire?

QUIZ

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(1956) A10. Film titles pre-fixed with American... Sniper, Graffiti, Beauty, Psycho

A9. Bachelor Mother

(1972) A8. Last Man Standing

A7. Donovan in The Pied Piper

(1939) A6. Woody Allen – Stardust Memories

and Hustle

(1939) and Bundle of Joy

Hunchback of Notre Dame

(1969) A5. Maureen O'Hara in

The Last Wave A4. Sam Peckinpah describing his western 

A3. Richard Chamberlain in

A2. All Good Things

A1. They have all played the Apache leader Cochise on the big screen

The

The Wild Bunch

Quiz Answers April 2015 (Issue 126) -

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stack.net.au

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

In Cinemas MAY 14

YOUR MONTHLY GUIDE TO WHAT’S AT THE MOVIES HOT AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON • FAST & FURIOUS 7 • IT FOLLOWS

CINEMA

interview

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interview

CINEMA

Bronson

Inception

Hardy and CharlizeTheron in Mad Max: Fury Road

British actor Tom Hardy is known for his brawn, his looks, and his ever accelerating ascent into the Hollywood elite.

With director George Miller

A fter a rocky start, which included drinking at 13, being expelled from school and developing substance addiction problems, Tom Hardy was first nudged into the world of showbiz at age 19, when he won a modelling competition and secured himself a contract. He studied at the Drama Centre in London, before ambitiously cutting his studies short in favour of a part in HBO's mini-series Band of Brothers . A retrospective Hardy admits that he has had a “naughty” past – and was even arrested for car theft and gun possession. But after checking into rehab in 2003, Hardy gradually secured himself larger parts, and over the years has gained critical acclaim for his work in films like Bronson , Inception , Lawless and Locke . Today, at 37, Hardy has adjusted to the Hollywood lifestyle, but it’s still not something he takes for granted. “I'm lucky to be where I am now after messing up things when I first arrived in Hollywood,” he says. “It took me a while to earn back people's respect and find good roles again. I still feel like I'm a character actor who's getting the shot at playing lead roles, which is great.” In fact, this ‘character actor’ now has a franchise to call his own. While he lives in London with his fiancée, actress Charlotte Riley, and has a three-year-old son, Louis, from a previous relationship, he recently

clamouring for the role, but Hardy had his personal reasons behind vying for the lead. "When I saw the first Mad Max , I remember feeling the same way that I felt when I began listening to Jimi Hendrix records," he recalls. "There was too much to understand, and the sounds and images were very disturbing to me, but now I love them madly." The childhood links don’t end there: “When I was 17, I was given a dog named Mad Max, although I wasn't that fond of the name because the dog was so friendly! Then 17 years later, my dog died and I got the call that I'm going to playing Mad Max... That was kind of eerie.” Max’s canine namesake was a friendly pup, but the film’s protagonist is certainly not. Hardy found getting to grips with his character an intense experience, though explains he’s often drawn to characters who

spent six months in the Namibian desert shooting the wildly anticipated blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road . Three decades after director George Miller first brought the post-apocalyptic franchise to life, Hardy has taken over the role that put a young Mel Gibson on the map. Hardy becomes Max Rockatansky, crossing a bleak When I saw the first Mad Max , I remember feeling the same way that I felt when I began listening to Jimi Hendrix records

frighten him. “I like to play people who are opposite or very different from who I am, whoever that is!” he laughs. “I find it much simpler to interpret people who make me wonder what it's like to be in their skin, maybe to be tougher than I am.” Mad Max may be

desert wasteland, trying to survive, and fighting enemies armed with spectacularly scary vehicles. Any actor would be

quite the tough cookie, but this actor is made of hard stuff himself.

Mad Max: Fury Road is in cinemas on May 14 and will be reviewed next issue

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CINEMA

REVIEWS

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DOWNLOAD THE FREE STACK APP FOR EXTRA CONTENT

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that applies to the Marvel movie universe. Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and the Cap have all had variable solo outings, but together as the Avengers, they raise the bar for comic book movies. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON RELEASED: April 23 DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon CAST: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo RATING: M

T he new Avengers film is bigger, busier and more chaotic than the 2012 assemblage under the direction of Joss Whedon, who returns for this second round. We all know that with great power comes great responsibility, and steering this mighty Marvel flagship comes with even greater responsibility, expectation and pressure. This is a massive movie for the Buffy creator (or any filmmaker for that matter), and fortunately Whedon has the fanboy smarts to maintain control of this comic book behemoth. Just. Age of Ultron opens in the midst of a frenetic battle between the Avengers and HYDRA, as the former attempt to reclaim Loki's scepter. Once in possession of the arcane artifact, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner play Frankenstein and use it to create an Artificial Intelligence program named Ultron (voiced by James Spader), designed to keep the peace so these weary superheroes can all take a well deserved break. The pair have obviously never seen any Terminator movies, and before long Ultron is following in Skynet's digital footprints and plotting an extinction level event that will wipe out humanity and ensure world peace. Joining the Avengers in the battle

against this megalomaniac machine are the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and the nimble Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor- Johnson) – the latter not as fleet-footed as his X-Men: Days of Future Past incarnation – as well as a red-skinned hybrid of Tony Stark's techno-butler Jarvis and Ultron's AI program (Paul Bettany). Marvel have never been shy when it comes to world-building. In a market currently crowded with superheroes and big screen spectacle, what's refreshing about this Marvel bunch is that, unlike the Transformers and the Man of Steel, they actually give a damn about civilian lives as everything is being reduced to rubble. Sometimes it's the little things that count. And as in The Avengers , Whedon manages to find time for some quieter, character- focused moments, including backstories for Hawkeye and Black Widow. Despite so many characters, villains and CGI FX vying for screen time, everyone gets their moment in the spotlight. There's even a cameo by those mechanical dinoshark things from the first film. In terms of Marvel movie rankings , Avengers: Age of Ultron is like Iron Man 3 – bigger and busier, but not necessarily better than the original. Scott Hocking

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NEW ARTWORK.

NEW TO DIGITAL ULTRAVIOLET ™ .

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*WHILE STOCKS LAST

CTC

IN CINEMAS 11 JUNE

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CINEMA

REVIEWS

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Have-sex-and-die was a staple of '80s teen slasher films and this theme is given a frightening new twist in writer-director David Robert Mitchell's terrific arthouse horror film. IT FOLLOWS RELEASED: Out Now DIRECTOR: David Robert Mitchell CAST: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Olivia Luccardi RATING: MA15+

F ollowing a one night stand, than an STI; her date has passed on a curse in the form of a malevolent shapeshifting entity which relentlessly shadows her with homicidal intent. In a neat riff on the body-snatching theme, 'it' can look like anyone – a family member, a friend, a dead person, a naked person – and the only way to get rid of it is to pass it on to your next sexual partner. There's a wealth of subtext here, particularly for fans of Cronenberg's early work, but It Follows more closely resembles an arthouse version of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street , sans gore and flashy visual effects. It also evokes John Carpenter's classic Halloween ; autumnal suburban streets are captured with wide angles and long tracking shots, and evil can be lurking anywhere within the widescreen frame. And the synth-like score is pure '80s/Carpenter. The emphasis here is on mood and atmosphere; the film conjures a palpable and sustained sense of dread, with the ordinary and everyday oozing malevolence – a device that fans of Ramsey Campbell's horror 19-year-old Jay (Maika Monroe) is left with something worse

fiction will immediately recognise. Moreover, a weirdly anachronistic setting – where black and white TVs and e-readers co-exist – in a Detroit landscape of derelict buildings and urban decay adds further to the inherently creepy vibe. What's also impressive, and refreshing, is that the protagonists are real teenagers with real hopes and fears about growing up, and not the gorgeous-looking, self-centred social media addicts who populate today's horror films. Director David Robert Mitchell has transformed the adolescent angst that propelled his moody 2010 film The Myth of the American Sleepover into a new kind of boogeyman. While Hollywood continues to churn out endless remakes and found- footage horror films, it's indie gems like It Follows that offer something new, exciting, and most importantly, scary. It's a crime that movies like this struggle to make it on to cinema screens, and if they do, they're granted a very limited release, while Paranormal Activity: Part Whatever can dominate the multiplexes for an extended run. See It Follows at your earliest opportunity. Scott Hocking

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REVIEWS

CINEMA

RATING KEY:

Wow!

Good

Not bad

Meh Woof!

EX MACHINA

KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER

A lucky employee of the biggest Internet company is invited to spend a week with the reclusive guru/owner at a remote undisclosed location, where the ultimate dream-come-true soon descends into a deadly nightmare of wits, philosophy and ethics… oh, and an extremely sexy robot called Ava, possessing the most advanced AI known to mankind. Science fiction, when done with creative abandon and stripped of the philosophical duality of humanity, can indeed affect audiences with a power few other genres can ever muster. AI being the new black, with ideals of nature versus nurture and whether humans need to be around at all, has been tackled well via Spielberg, Duncan Jones, and way back when to Kubrick’s HAL in 2001 ; whereas Alex Proyas' effort ( I, Robot ) was more akin to a Fast & Furious flick with no sense of humour. Writer Alex Garland ( 28 Days Later , Dredd ), making his directing debut here, dances between a Kubrickian clinical unease and a Richard Kelly head-f**k. An unpredictable thriller is welcomed, one that utilises the amazing acting talent on offer and tones down the CGI element in favour of raw sensuality, big questions we could debate for weeks, and a Hitchcock sting that tickles the dreamer in all of us. Bar the last two minutes, this may be the best sci-fi film you’ll see in quite a while. No, I didn’t tell you much – just bloody well see it! Chris Murray RELEASED: May 7 DIRECTOR: Alex Garland CAST: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac RATING: MA15+

This is a true story, via a dream-like lens, of the troubled Japanese woman who ran away to Fargo, USA in search of the fictional suitcase of cash she believes is still buried deep in the snow within the Coen Bros’ cinematic masterpiece of the same name. Sure, the idea of this real-life tale of a batty Japanese woman convinced – via her VHS copy of Fargo – that Steve Buscemi really left a suitcase of greenbacks in the bitter-cold of North Dakota is most likely to be directed by the Farrelly Bros. and sponsored by Funny or Die. That this is instead a heartbreaking artistic masterpiece conjuring childhood wonder, terror and tackling the abyss of mental illness all at once, makes it a filmmaking triumph beyond comparison. From her menial, lifeless and loveless existence in Tokyo, we watch the tragic beauty and joy within young Kumiko emerge only in her obsession with ‘the treasure’ and her pet bunny, Bunzo. A shockingly accurate portrait of depression and isolation juxtaposed with offbeat encounters with humanity and painted with cinematography where every frame should be mounted on a wall, Kumiko will leave you giggling, awestruck, weeping, and afterwards debating the underlying narrative with peers well into the night. Suffice to say, you’ve never seen anything like it. Chris Murray RELEASED: Out Now DIRECTOR: David Zellner CAST: Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube RATING: M

WHILE WE'RE YOUNG

COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK

Midlife crisis presents itself to a fortysomething, no kids, filmmaking couple in New York City. Yet the mood changes drastically upon befriending two vibrant hipsters, reigniting some much needed spark – then things get complicated. Noah Baumbach has a knack for presenting middle-aged fear somewhere between Woody Allen’s relentless self-deprecation and Wes Anderson’s melancholic charm. However here, with the forced ‘did you all see what I really mean?’ talents of Ben Stiller, perpetually offering his neglected puppy face to 21st century male stereotypes, the gag wears terribly thin. While he’s the anchor in this ‘just who are these hipsters and why are they enjoying my childhood memories better than me?’ fable on the changing of the creative guard in middle-class NYC, he’s also the annoying reason this film will polarise the desired fortysomething audience. Bogged down in its own self-awareness, one feels they’re watching a parody beneath the overtones of insecure aging. But we’re not, and this film's honest belief that it represents any type of reality is about as radical as processed cheese slices. Even with the few glimmers of giggle and wit (mostly via Watts' strong presence) – this is a disappointing and amazingly shallow experience, no doubt lapped-up by critics with parallel personalities. Chris Murray RELEASED: Out Now DIRECTOR: Noah Baumbach CAST: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver RATING: M

Kurt Cobain was the lead singer of Nirvana, a band that seemingly came out of nowhere to become the biggest rock act in the world, capturing the angst and rage of an entire generation. Then he took his life at 27… but just who was he, really? With much hoopla and anticipation of a new flick on a most misunderstood rock icon, from the director of the Rolling Stones' doco Crossfire Hurricane and the Oscar-nominated bio of Hollywood producer Robert Evans, The Kid Stays in the Picture , it’s almost impossible to distance yourself from an emotional connection to the never-seen home vids, candid pics, illustrations and audio offerings in this exhaustive portrait. Created with the blessing of ex-wife Courtney Love, it’s refreshing to see there’s certainly no homogenisation or punches pulled. Perhaps even the opposite, as we see the bare tragedy of an artist lost in popularity, escaping via isolation amidst a bubble of comfort with wife and child. Clever manipulation via smart use of stock footage, incredible cinematography, clever graphics and an aural onslaught of stimuli mirroring the mindset of our subject, it’s hair-on-the-arm raising to feel so intimate and voyeuristic. Presented without judgement and merely offering the materials available is the secret to this engrossing last word on a troubled man struggling to be emotionally satisfied. Chris Murray RELEASED: May 7 DIRECTOR: Brett Morgen CAST: Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, Courtney Love RATING: M

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