STACK #146 Dec 2016

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DVD&BD REVIEWS

Revenge is a dangerous business. MECHANIC: RESURRECTION

Blind man's bluff. DON'T BREATHE

Release Date: 14/12/16

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Release Date: 30/12/16

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Santos is back! Who? Well, Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham), hitman extraordinaire, faked his death as he wanted out of the business, and is living a quiet aliased life in Rio. It’s soon made much louder, however, by the arrival of a woman toting innumerable expendable hired goons. She wants Bishop to perform three hits for her boss – without them actually looking like hits. Artie doesn’t dig this scene, so he quickly despatches said goons and hightails it to Thailand, Here he meets Gina (Jessica Alba), falls head over heels, finds out she’s involved, sees her kidnapped

A trio of teenaged thieves (Jane Levy, Dylan Minette and Daniel Zovatto) break into the home of a blind Gulf War veteran (Stephen Lang) to relieve him of a six- figure payout. But this seemingly soft target is far from helpless and the intruders soon find themselves trapped and pursued through his dark and decrepit dwelling. The second feature from director Fede Alvarez (following his respectable remake of Evil Dead ) offers a neat reversal on the 'blind victim stalked by psychopath' scenario from Wait Until Dark and Blind Terror , mixed with a liberal

and... Well, you can likely guess the rest. Statham remains the cream of the current action crop, and we lost count of the body, erm, count quickly in this extremely watchable travelogue action-fest, which is made even better due to bonus Tommy Lee Jones. AF

dose of Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs . If you can ignore the obvious implausibility of a sightless antagonist, this relentless game of cat and mouse delivers a nail-biting exercise in sustained suspense. It also features a gross-out moment that'll become a major talking point. SH

THE INFILTRATOR

yoga hosers

THE DUEL

RED BILLABONG

Release Date: 21/12/16 Format:

Release Date: 14/12/16 Format:

Release Date: 19/12/16 Format:

Release Date: 21/12/16 Format:

Well, well, well. Walter White has crossed over to the side of good, working against the drug trade rather than actively contributing to it! It’s the 1980s in Ronnie Reagan’s cocaine-fuelled America. Robert Mazur (Bryan Cranston) is a US Customs Service special agent who sniffs out a money laundering operation for infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. He goes undercover as a crooked businessman who can help them “clean” their illicit funds, making friends of dodgy types and influencing them. But ultimately there’ll be a sting. Based on the actual Mazur’s autobiography, Cranston elevates this crime flick from standard genre fare to riveting viewing. AF

What is Kevin Smith smoking these days? The second film in his Canadian trilogy – that began with Tusk and will conclude with Moose Jaws – features Canuck Nazis, mutant sausages and a golem monster. It also reunites the director's current favoured ensemble of Haley Joel Osment, Justin Long and Johnny Depp (in disguise) as detective Guy Lapointe. The Hosers are those convenience store teens from Tusk (played Smith and Depp's daughters), who must prevent an ancient evil from disrupting the senior high school party. As crazy and rambling as a Smith podcast, die hard fans will get it, while everyone else will be left thinking WTF? SH

It’s easy to believe that nowadays you don’t have a movie if you don’t have a Hemsworth, and he of the Liam variety plays brilliantly against Woody Harrelson in this modern western indulgence. It’s frontier times and he’s Texas Ranger David Kingston, who moseys on into the border town of Helena to investigate some suspicious goings-on. Not only have several murders of Mexicans gone down, but other townsfolk have just plain done gone and disappeared. It’s a vexing situation that you’d think the local pastor, Abraham Brant (Harrelson), might be keen to help solve, but this here preacher man ain’t talkin’. Kingston has an older score to settle, however. AF

At last, a fair dinkum Aussie monster movie. This slick feature debut from writer- director Luke Sparke begins traditionally, introducing a group of ridiculously good looking twentysomethings whom we assume will be picked off one by one by an unseen beast. But as it progresses, a strong focus on character and storytelling differentiates it from similar genre films, with subplots involving cryptozoology (google it), Aboriginal mythology and a shady property developer adding further layers. And the CGI creature (which is ultimately what you're here to see) is worth the wait. SH (See page 40)

DECEMBER 2016

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