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Founder Nic Short Editor-in-Chief Paul Jones Film & DVD Editor Scott Hocking Music Editor Zoë Radas JuniorWriter Alesha Kolbe Creative Director Justin Buxton DVD Consultant Michelle Black Games Consultant Stuart Duncan

Issue 136

FEBRUARY 2016

WELCOME “And the Oscar goes to…”Chicago-based R.S. Owens & Company has already applied the finishing touches to this year’s Oscar statuettes, a contract it has fulfilled since 1982. Standing at 34 centimetres (13 and half inches in old money), and comprised of gold-plated britannium, it signifies the highest award obtainable in the film industry and can make, and occasionally break, careers. The history of the awards is of course littered with upsets. John Ford was famously overlooked for Best Director on The Searchers , arguably the greatest film of the Western genre; Kubrick’s groundbreaking 2001: A Space Odyssey lost to Oliver! ; and Star Wars was unforgivably pipped at the post by Woody Allen’s Annie Hall . The list of dubious winners goes on. Given how predictable the Oscars have now become, from the saccharine acceptance speeches and laboriously scripted parlance from forgettable hosts, to the obvious category winners, will the 88th Annual Academy Awards actually deliver a surprise or three? Our portentous film editor has already forecast his predictions in this issue – who do you think will win on Hollywood’s night of nights? Paul Jones, Editor-in-Chief

Music Consultants Mike Glynn, Fleur Parker Chief Contributors Bob Jones , Amy Flower Contributors John Ferguson, Graham Reid, Michael Dwyer, Jeff Jenkins, Emily Kelly, Simon Lukic, Chris Murray, Billy Pinnell, Denise Hylands, Simon Winkler, Gill Pringle, Ryan Huff, John Roebuck Social Media Manager Sally Carlier-Hull Photographer Chip Mooney Production Manager Craig Patterson Accounts Coordinator Tracy Kingman

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MUSIC

ISSUE136 FEB ’16

PRIDEANDPREJUDICEANDZOMBIES • RIDEALONG2 • SPOTLIGHT

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE • SIA • TY SEGALL

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M U S I C e N e w s l e t t e r FREE foryour

Extras Pg 10–16

Cinema Pg 18–24

DVD & BD Pg 29–48

Games Pg 49–62

Music From back Pg 1–19

Pg 10 NEWS Has Leo suffered enough to finally win his first Oscar? We attempt to predict the Academy Award winners, and say goodbye to Bowie, Alan Rickman and Glenn Frey. Pg 16 STACK AWARDS The winners of the best of the best in home entertainment for

Pg 18-19 INTERVIEW Burr Steers brings the walking dead to the world of Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies . Pg 20 CINEMA BUZZ Kevin Hart buckles in for Ride Along 2, and Joseph Fiennes finds Jesus in Risen . Pg 22-24 CINEMA REVIEWS The Hateful Eight, Spotlight, The Danish Girl, The Big Short, Room . Pg 26-28 BOB J. The epic power struggle at MGM results in a severely truncated cut of John Huston’s The Red Badge of Courage.

Pg 30 SICARIO Canadian character actor Victor Garber on his supporting role and the war on drugs. Pg 32 CUT SNAKE Tony Ayres helms this Australian crime feature with more twists than its dinkum namesake. Pg 34 THE MARTIAN Is there life on the red planet? In the movies and TV there’s plenty. Pg 36 SHERLOCK Special episode The Abominable Bride takes the super sleuth back to the Victorian era. Pg 38 ACTORS SERIES Ryan Reynolds – from Van Wilder to Deadpool. Pg 40-48 REVIEWS The Martian, Sicario, The Last Witch Hunter, Crimson Peak, The Dressmaker, Macbeth, The Walk, Black Mass, Legend, The Green Inferno, The Intern, From Dusk Till Dawn: Season 2 and more .

Pg 50 intro Pg 52-53 far cry primal Ubisoft are taking their acclaimed FPS franchise back to the Stone Age; we caught up with the lead game designer to talk cavemen and fire. Pg 54-56 street fighter v Revamped for 2015, the Street Fighter series is back for Round V. We spoke to the game’s executive producer about giving the series an extra kick. Pg 58 naruto Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is the final instalment in the series. Will it go out with a bang or a whimper? Pg 60 KNOW YOUR POKEMON? Our dummies’ guide to the Japanese critters. Pg 62 previews What’s in-store this month.

Pg 3-6 NEWS Bloc Party, Animal Collective, RÜFÜS, Basement, The Prettiots and more. Pg 8 ED’S JAMS You’re going to be floored by DMA’s Hills End , our Album of the Month; Ty Segall and David Bowie also made the cut. Pg 10-11 SYNTHIA ASCENDING The Jezabels’ vocalist Hayley Mary offers us her thoughts on how the band evolved into their astonishing new album Synthia . Pg 14-18 Music Reviews Henry Wagons, RÜFÜS and Idris Elba lead our reviews section, which also includes belters from DIIV, Sia, Sal Kimber and the Rollin’ Wheel, Dream Theater, Wet, Lucinda Williams, Panic! at the Disco and Wolfmother.

2015, as voted by you. Pg 64 COMPETITIONS

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Cinematography and Sound Editing will be a dead heat between Sicario, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant and too difficult to pick. Original Screenplay: Alex Garland’s ingenious insight into creating AI, Ex Machina , will face fierce competition from the equally inventive and emotionally resonant Inside Out . Adapted Screenplay: Another dead heat between The Martian , Room and Carol ; a photo finish. Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul (Hungary), a harrowing Holocaust drama. No contest. Animated Feature: Inside Out – Pixar’s best and most beloved film in years. Apologies to Shaun the Sheep . Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road' s hyperkinetic assembly vs. The Revenant ’s long takes. 'Max has the edge. Production Design: Mad Max: Fury Road – every frame is a work of art. Visual Effects: Mad Max: Fury Road – so shiny, so chrome. However, The Revenant does boast the first truly convincing CGI bear. Makeup and Hairstyling: High noon in the salon, as Mad Max: Fury Road 's bizarre makeups and The Revenant 's flowing locks and hipster beards face off. Original Score: Ennio Morricone’s moody music for The Hateful Eight will beat Johann Johannsson’s equally brooding score for Sicario . Best Song: How did Sam Smith’s bland Bond ballad make the list? And how did Fifty Shades of Grey score an Oscar nom?! That leaves the three unknowns, making it anyone’s guess. Sound Mixing: Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant duke it out again. However, this could be the one Oscar that Star Wars: The Force Awakens wins. Documentary Feature: The Look of Silence . Indonesian genocide survivors face their family’s killers. Enough said. Best Documentary Short, Animated Short and Live Action Short: Can be the difference between winning and losing an Oscars’ sweep.

Squinting into our crystal ball in a chamber redolent of sandalwood incense, we predict the winners of this year’s Academy Awards (and hedge our bets).

captive mum devoted to her five-year-old boy – she already has the Globe and will soon have an Oscar to sit beside it; she will cry during her acceptance speech. However, the consistently luminous Cate Blanchett is still a chance to claim her second Oscar in as many years. Jennifer Lawrence being nominated for a David O. Russell film is now as predictable as Meryl Streep being nominated for anything (although not this year). Sorry Charlotte and Saorise, maybe next time. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR The nominees: Christian Bale – The Big Short , Tom Hardy – The Revenant , Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight , Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies , Sylvester Stallone - Creed Can Stallone finally win an Oscar for playing Rocky Balboa? He missed out in 1977, but could get lucky this year after being awarded a Globe. Tom Hardy will win an Oscar, but it won’t be this year. Of the two Marks, Ruffalo and Rylance, the former is an outside chance, but Christian Bale is likely to claim it for simply getting his head around the dynamics of investment fund management. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS The nominees: Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight , Rooney Mara – Carol , Rachel McAdams – Spotlight , Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl , Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs Jennifer Jason Leigh makes a fantastic comeback, spitting blood and venomTarantino- style, however Academy elders could deem her performance too grotesque. Alicia Vikander should have been nominated for Ex Machina ; Rachel McAdams’ investigative journo stands out amongst a strong ensemble cast but is a long shot; and Kate Winslet already has the Globe for putting up with Steve Jobs. The Oscar goes to Rooney Mara , as Cate Blanchett’s lesbian lover.

Leo hunts an Oscar

BEST PICTURE The nominees: The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, Room, The Big Short, Brooklyn, Bridge of Spies, Spotlight This could be tougher to pick this year than it initially looks. The Revenant is the favourite, and The Academy love an epic, but the fact that Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman won the award last year could work against it. Genre films rarely win Best Picture Oscars (although The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was an exception in 2003), which reduces Mad Max: Fury Road ’s chances, even though it is undeniably the best movie of 2015. The brilliant Spotlight illuminates important and topical issues and could be the dark horse. The Martian was great popular entertainment, but not Best Picture material; Bridge of Spies is minor Spielberg; The Big Short has more chance in the Screenplay and Supporting Actor categories; captivity drama Room is an indie film; and Brooklyn is the one that nobody has seen. BEST DIRECTOR The nominees: Alejandro G. Iñárritu – The Revenant , George Miller – Mad Max: Fury Road , Lenny Abrahamson – Room , Tom McCarthy – Spotlight , Adam McKay – The Big Short Iñárritu won last year and already has a Golden Globe, so in a perfect world it will be a case of The Revenant winning Best Picture

and George Miller winning Best Director. Fury Road is a masterclass in filmmaking that deserves to win more than a handful of technical awards. Everyone else can remain seated. Okay, we're not living in a perfect world. Iñárritu will win. BEST ACTOR The nominees: Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant , Matt Damon – The Martian , Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs , Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl , Bryan Cranston - Trumbo Leo. The fact that his throat’s been torn out by a bear reduces his performance to a series of vengeful stares, grunts and gestures, but he is good. And adored. But the fact that The Revenant was such an arduous production for all involved, does actually living the survival experience whilst making the film really count as acting? Matt Damon is as amiable as ever as a stranded astronaut, but he’s already won the Golden Globe. Eddie Redmayne won last year as Steven Hawking, and although the Academy loves a transformation, he won't make it two in a row. Michael Fassbender is always Oscar-worthy, but should have been nominated for Macbeth . And while we love Bryan Cranston, he’s there to make up the numbers. BEST ACTRESS The nominees: Cate Blanchett – Carol , Brie Larson – Room , Jennifer Lawrence – Joy , Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years , Saorise Ronan - Brooklyn Brie Larson is heartbreaking as a

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GONE - BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

ALAN RICKMAN

A lan Rickman was a much loved screen icon and arguably one of the best movie villains of all time. As with many British stars, he first came to attention on the stage, winning global acclaim as the original star of Les Liaisons Dangereuses , which premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1985. He made his screen debut in Die Hard as Euro villain Hans Gruber in what would be the first of many movie-hijacking performances. All in all, Rickman made more than 70 film and TV appearances, as well as directing two films, The Winter Guest and last year’s A Little Chaos . There are also a few new films to come, including the drone thriller Eye In The Sky and the Tim Burton sequel Alice Through The Looking Glass , where he will once again voice the character of the Blue Caterpillar. It's hard to think of a poor Rickman performance, with memorable turns in Die Hard (1988), Truly Madly Deeply (1990), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) and Harry Potter (2001-2011) and films as diverse as Close My Eyes (1991), Sense & Sensibility (1995), Michael Collins (1996), Dogma (1999), Snow Cake (2006),and Love, Actually (2003). Then there is his TV work: he won a Golden Globe for the mini-series Rasputin and also made an early impression in the BBC period drama The Barchester Chronicles (1982). Rickman married his partner of 25 years, Rima Horton, last year.

DAVID BOWIE

GLENN FREY

i t's hard to imagine a more influential artist than David Bowie who passed away in January following an 18 month battle with cancer, a fight he insisted on keeping private. Born in Brixton in 1947, his family moved to Bromley in Kent, where, as a bored teenager Bowie learned to play the play the saxophone, dropped out from college and decided he wanted a career in rock music. He came to prominence in 1969 releasing Space Oddity aged only 22 years-old. A master of manipulating his public and stage persona, evident in his controversial portrayal of Ziggy Stardust in the early '70s that shocked media commentators and parents all over Britain, Bowie worked tirelessly throughout a career that spanned 50 years continuously experimenting with his sound and image. An insatiable creative, in his lifetime Bowie excelled within the arenas of music, drama, painting and visual arts. Reinvention and imagination were the cornerstones of a career that saw him release 26 studio albums (with 140 million sold), appear in more than 30 film and television roles (leading, supporting and documentary), and inspire millions of people around the world to proudly let their freak flag fly. His final album Blackstar was released two days before his death on January 8, his 69th birthday. He is survived by his wife Iman and two adult children.

T he founding member of the Eagles, Glenn Frey, also joined the roll call of dearly departed in January, aged 67. Frey, along with singer-drummer Don Henley, formed the Eagles in 1971 when the pair met in Los Angeles. From humble beginnings, Frey helped shape the band into a stadium-conquering giant that blazed a trail through the '70s, defining a generation with a sound that fused country with rock 'n' roll. The Eagles' success lay in the accessibility of their music; uncomplicated, well-produced, catchy melodies, and it was Frey together with Henley that penned the majority of the band's best sellers including Take It Easy , One Of These Nights and Desperado . However, with success came the trappings of fame, and Frey famously described his time in the Eagles during the '70s as “got crazy, got drunk, got high, had girls, played music and made money." Eventually in-fighting caused the band to implode and in 1980, the Eagles split up. Frey embarked on a successful solo career in the age of MTV, penning the '80s anthem The Heat is On from the 1984 film Beverley Hills Cop , and turned his hand to acting too. Eventually in 1994 the Eagles reunited and performed up until last year. Frey is survived by his wife of 26 years Cindy Millican, a daughter and two sons.

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TEXT CRITIC

We review amongst ourselves via text every month. Here's Paul and Scott on The Gift.

online UNCHARTED

to the pace of the Uncharted universe that’s obviously not a Twitch-style multiplayer game; it's very slow and stealthy and deliberate. "So I think we’ve really gone to a unique place with it. We feel that it’s not only an important part of the game, it also feels very natural." Uncharted 4: A Thief's End , the concluding part in the compelling Nathan Drake series, will release on April 27.

and recently we spoke with Naughty Dog's community manager, Arne Meyer, who told us that the studio were happy with how it's shaping up. "With Uncharted 4 we think we’ve created multiplayer game, or mode, that is pretty unique in the space," says Meyer. "It's so unique to have high vertical environments that you can traverse and have this different viewpoint

T he final chapter in the Uncharted series, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End , was originally pitched to land in late 2015 before it slipped to March and then finally (hopefully) to April. Naughty Dog showcased the Uncharted 4 multiplayer in a December beta, and it was well- received. Multiplayer was introduced to the series in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves ,

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studio move

Brian Horton, the director of Rise of the Tomb Raider , has left Crystal Dynamics for a role at Californian studio Infinity Ward, the progenitors of the Call of Duty franchise. He joins Infinity Ward as studio art director, presumably to work on the developer's next Call of Duty title, due this year. This will be the first CoD game from the studio after it moved to Activision's new three-year development cycle for the series. Although little is known at this stage what the game will be, Infinity Ward's last CoD title was 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts .

Entertainment website TMZ has obtained a copy of Motorhead singer Ian 'Lemmy' Kilmister's death certificate and lists the cause of death as prostate cancer, cardiac arrhythmia and congestive heart failure. Known for his hard partying lifestyle, Lemmy was diagnosed with cancer on Boxing Day and died two days later. cause of death

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The people have voted! A massive thank you to everyone who took the time to cast their votes in the inaugural STACK Awards over the past month. We've had an unprecedented response from our readers keen to their register support for the Best Film, TV series, Album and Game of 2015, and see their winning review in print below. So without further ado,

THE WINNERS ARE...

BEST FILM MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

BEST GAME FALLOUT 4

BEST TV SERIES GAME OF THRONES: SEASON 4

BEST ALBUM ADELE: 25

NICK COWLING $250 WINNER JB Hi-Fi gift card

WINNING REVIEW by Nick Cowling With crazies in the desert, hundreds of modded and artistically decorated vehicles, amazing performances, and a guy wailing on a flamethrower guitar, Mad Max: Fury Road represents the most accurate portrayal of Australia ever put to film. Move over The Castle , we have found our national treasure.

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EXTREME PREJUDICE Director Burr Steers takes on the challenge of introducing the walking dead to the world of Jane Austen in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES . He tells Scott Hocking how he did it.

CINEMA

I t is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” declared Jane Austen in her 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice . It’s also a truth universally acknowledged that “a zombie in possession of brains, must be in want of more brains.” That’s the gist of Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2009 novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies , which adds a liberal dose of the walking dead – and some martial arts mayhem – to the 19 th century polite society depicted in Austen’s literary classic. Whilst screen adaptations of Austen’s book have been plenty, the film version of Grahame- Smith’s parody rotted in development hell for a number of years, passing through a

Director Burr Steers.

revolving door of directors (including David O. Russell and Craig Gillespie) before rising from the grave and landing in the lap of Burr Steers. “It didn’t land with me so much as I hijacked it,” laughs Steers. “The screenplay had gone through a few incarnations and had lost its momentum, so I came in and rewrote it and

things started rolling and we were able to get it made.” It wasn’t so much the cheeky mash-up promised by the novel as the book’s

cover art that attracted Steers to the project.

“That portrait of a Regency lady with half her jaw ripped off was

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FEATURE CINEMA

By remaining faithful to Austen’s story, Steers is confident that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will appeal to both horror fans and lovers of the original novel. “When we’ve screened it, it’s worked on both levels,” he says. However, all of this begs the question – would Jane Austen be turning in her own grave at this revision to her beloved masterpiece? “No, but I imagine the Janeites will be having kittens,” Steers offers. “I probably use more of Jane Austen in this than most of the recent versions of Pride and Prejudice , and actually went back to some of her other material. The fact that her characters and her themes are carried on in this, how could you not be proud of the fact that your novel could survive in any form?”

• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is in cinemas from Feb 25 and will be reviewed in the next issue.

the movie has to turn because of the zombie story, but I kept the scenes and the characters true to the original, as bizarre as that sounds. I had a very basic approach to it, which was the title, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – and that’s what the movie is.” Personal pride and social prejudice are cast aside when an army of the living dead disrupts the Bennet family and plans to wed Elizabeth (Lily James) and her sister Jane (Bella Heathcote) to Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley) and Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth), respectively.

something that stuck with me,” he recalls. So how did he go about integrating the living dead into Jane Austen’s classic for the big screen? “The way I approached it was to create this alternate England where a zombie plague had happened, and staging Pride and Prejudice within it,” he explains. “There’s a point where

“All that’s still going on,“ he adds, “the romance and the dynamics of Darcy and Elizabeth’s sparring are still there. “I went back and mined a lot of Austen’s work to get the interstitial dialogue, as well. The big wink in this movie is that there is no wink – everybody’s playing it straight. You have to play it straight, otherwise it runs out of gas. “We’ve stayed true to the characters,” he continues, “but instead of just being the smartest people in the room, the Bennet sisters are the most formidable fighters as well.”

CINEMA

Consequently, marriage takes a backseat to killing

zombies. “As it should,” laughs Steers.

OTHER CLASSIC LITERARY MASH-UPS WE’D LIKE TO SEE … THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA MONSTER

An elderly and obsessed Cuban fisherman struggles to land the catch of a lifetime – a Kraken – in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Florida.

WITHERING HEIGHTS Heathcliff’s gypsy ancestry sees him stricken by an ancient curse, which causes him to slowly waste away in the arms of lover Cathy on the Yorkshire moors. THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANKENSTEIN

WAR AND PIECES In an alternate 1812, it’s not Napoleon who invades Russia but rather a hungry zombie horde, leaving a trail of dismembered locals in their wake. • Apologies to Emily Bronte, Anne Frank, Ernest Hemingway and Leo Tolstoy

Hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic, a young Jewish girl attempts to create life in the form of an avenging Golem.

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W hile most actors might turn to the Bible for a movie about the resurrection of Christ, Joseph Fiennes instead checked in at the nearest police station and signed up for gladiator bootcamp. Cast as Clavius, a Roman military tribune tasked with locating the post-crucifixion body of Jesus Christ, Fiennes views Risen as a missing corpse mystery as much as a biblical epic. “My real way into Clavius came from sitting down with a detective and talking about what it’s like to question suspects,” says Fiennes. “Although this is a biblical story, I wanted to be pragmatic about what Clavius needs to do, because I really see this as a noir detective story.” On the flip side of the coin is Kiwi actor Cliff Curtis, cast as Jesus. “I’m usually asked to play terrorists so I thought it was a prank when I was offered this role,” laughs Curtis, currently starring in TV’s Walking Dead spin-off, Fear the Walking Dead . “I was a devout Catholic and an altar boy as a child. I served mass and had a little crucifix next to my bed. I used to joke about playing Jesus because I never thought I was fair-complexioned enough and didn’t have blue eyes,” says Curtis, referring to the traditional archetypes of Christ, an image since dismissed by historians. “I’m also in my late 40s and Jesus was apparently crucified when he was 33, so it was a miracle I was even cast!” Taking a self-imposed vow of silence while filming Risen in Malta and Spain, Curtis finally broke it when he volunteered to wash the feet of his Apostle cast-mates. “I had to set my ego aside in order to be of service to a very significant divine being on this planet. I talk a lot, a lot of unnecessary nonsense – and certainly not divine – so the only way I felt I could cleanse myself was through silence,” explains the actor, who also prepared by living alone for a month, making his own humble meals. “I lived monastically, allowing just an hour each day to talk to my wife and kids. Some may say it was unnecessary but I compare it to doing Hamlet on stage and then pulling out your phone and Facebooking. That would be all wrong, so I did what I thought was respectful for the role.” Gill Pringle FINDING JESUS

FROM THE HART Kevin Hart talks Ride Along 2 , cops, emojis, and why his wild days are now behind him. By Gill Pringle

A s a high school basketball player in Philadelphia, Kevin Hart’s diminutive height kept him from reaching his lofty goals. But instead of hanging up his dreams along with his jersey, he discovered his lack of inches to be his greatest asset. Transforming his short stature into comedy gold, he found punchlines in his underdog persona, first on the stand-up circuit and later in Hollywood, where his films Think Like a Man, Grudge Match and Get Hard have made him a household name. He may play the pushover on screen, but in real life he’s nobody’s fool, building a multi- million dollar empire from his comedy brand portraying himself as the “anti-manly man“. He found his first audience in his mum, Nancy, raising him alone while

buddy movie sequel, Ride Along 2 , we see Hart graduate from security guard to rookie cop, although he shudders when STACK asks if he researched with any real cops. “No. I know some, but I don’t go out of my way to spend time with cops,“ he laughs, at the end of a three-year probation after being arrested on DUI charges in 2013. “I don’t want to be in the back seat of a cop car ever again in my life. I’ve had moments where I had to be because of mistakes I made, and that’s not a place of fun for me.” In Ride Along 2 , his character Ben sends emoji-filled texts, something the real Hart also enjoys. “I think the purpose of emojis is to be creative and give examples of your excitement or your depression or what you don’t like. It's a way to guarantee a smile on the end.” His personal favourite emoji? “The black fist!”

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his cocaine-addicted father spent most of his childhood in and out of jail. “My mom was able to see a glimpse of greatness before she passed away. She was very religious, so she didn’t like to go places where there was alcohol, smoking or swearing, but she totally supported me on every level. She was my rock and the reason why I am who I am today. She raised me with a strong will to succeed,” reflects the 5-foot-2 former shoe salesman. Reuniting with Ice Cube for

Divorced with two children from his first marriage, Hart will walk down the aisle with model Eniko Parrish on August 8, although he has no wild bachelor party plans. “I’m 36 now. My wild days are kind of behind me. Right now it's more about getting married, taking advantage of this day and looking forward to life after.”

Ride Along 2 is in cinemas on Feb 18

Risen is in cinemas on Feb 18

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THE VISIONARY CRIME DRAMA FROM EXECUTIVE PRODUCER CURTIS ‘50 CENT’ JACKSON

THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

“DEEPLY BINGEABLE” Entertainment Weekly

“…PUTS THE GLITZ AND GANGSTER BACK INTO THE ANTIHERO DRAMA” TV Guide Magazine

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STEVE AUSTIN IS BACK!

“ Kick-ass! Delivers plenty of beatdowns! ” Examiner

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ALSO SCREENING IN FEBRUARY

If you don't know about this wisecracking Marvel mercenary, you've probably been on Mars with Matt Damon. Star Ryan Reynolds has been on the publicity trail – both real and virtual – during the last six months, aggressively promoting his superhero passion project, which promises to be more rude, crude, violent and edgy than most Marvel fare. But will it be “the most faithful adaptation of comic to film we’ve ever seen”? Find out on Feb 11 . DEADPOOL

THE HATEFUL EIGHT

RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Quentin Tarantino CAST: Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh RATING: R18+

Tarantino's best (and bloodiest) film since Kill Bill Vol. 1 .

T he 8th film by Quentin Tarantino (if you count Kill Bill as two separate films and Death Proof as part of the Grindhouse package) sees the ambitious auteur continue to experiment with Western/Civil War tropes following Django Unchained . Aboard a stagecoach bound for Red Rock are bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his captive/paycheque, the notorious outlaw Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh in a welcome return to the screen). Having gained two fellow travellers en route – fellow bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) and sheriff-in-waiting Chris Mannix (Walton Googins, who's now stealing Bill Paxton's roles) – this foursome are forced to take shelter from an oncoming blizzard in the cosy and remote outpost known as Minnie's Haberdashery. It's here that they meet the remainder of the titular eight – hangman Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth, channelling Christoph Waltz), cowboy Joe Gage (Michael Madsen, Reservoir Dogs ear-slicing Mr. Blonde), Mexican Bob (Demian Bichir) and a Confederate General (the great Bruce Dern). Tarantino's passion for writing colourful dialogue is both an asset and a detriment to his films, and the eight are by far his most loquacious ensemble to date. Indeed, the first half of the film's generous three-hour running time is devoted to verbal repartee and is a bit of a slog. Fortunately he's working with the best cast assembled since Pulp Fiction , and by the time the first shot is fired, we have a pretty good handle on who's who at Minnie's and their respective agendas.

Or do we? What is Daisy's secret? Is Major Marquis really in possession of a letter from pen pal Abraham Lincoln? Is Mannix really the new sheriff of Red Rock? And where is Minnie? Throw a pot of poisoned coffee, Agatha Christie and a surprise reveal into this pressure-cooker environment and all hell will invariably break loose, leaving Minnie's Haberdashery resembling the interior of the cabin from The Evil Dead . The Hateful Eight is Tarantino's best (and bloodiest) film since Kill Bill Vol. 1 . It's also his love letter to the grand widescreen epics of old, shot on film in Ultra Panavision 70 – the same format that so spectacularly framed Ben- Hur and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World . Although divided into chapters, the film actually plays as two distinctly different halves in terms of pacing and tone. It's like a reversal of Grindhouse : Rodriguez's Planet Terror was an insane bloodbath and Tarantino's own Death Proof more measured and sedate. The Hateful Eight is a similarly bipolar beast; talky, theatrical, incredibly violent, and R-rated for a good reason. Scott Hocking

Has it really been 15 years since Ben Stiller first shot us a glance of Blue Steel? Derek Zoolander returns – older but perhaps not necessarily wiser or as ridiculously good looking – on Feb 11 . ZOOLANDER 2

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Michael Fassbender gives what Ashton Kutcher couldn't – a convincing portrayal of the eponymous Apple guru. And with director Danny Boyle at the helm, how can you miss this? Feb 4 . STEVE JOBS

FURTHER VIEWING: Django Unchained

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES

Jane Austen meets The Walking Dead in this gleeful mash-up of highbrow literature, period romance, and B-movie zombie mayhem. Marriages and class struggles are put on hold in Regency England on Feb 25 .

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THE DANISH GIRL

SPOTLIGHT

Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl is superficially based on the lives of Danish painter Lili Elbe and her one-time wife, Gerda Wegener. In truth, the film is based on David Ebershoff’s novel of the same name, which was an almost fully fictionalised portrayal of Elbe and Wegener. Elbe, formally Einar Elbe, was one of the first people in the world to undergo sexual reassignment surgery. That’s fact, although much of the film isn’t. Which ultimately begs the question – why use Elbe and Wegener’s real names when so much of the film is fabricated? It’s a common misstep in cinema the world over, in which filmmakers fear truth so much they contrive events in order to make their work more palatable for a wide audience. In reality, it’s misleading. When are you watching a film about Einar Elbe that isn’t really about Einar Elbe? When you’re watching The Danish Girl . The production is proficient yet uninspired. Unfortunately, it’s exactly the variety of work you might expect from a film by the director of The King’s Speech , starring the lead from The Theory of Everything , about the world’s first gender realignment. However, there’s still a great deal to be admired about The Danish Girl , such is the professionalism of the people involved in the production. It’s just not particularly inspired filmmaking, and it smacks of prestige-mongering. John Roebuck RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Tom Hooper CAST: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard RATING: M

Good newspaper films demonstrate just how problematic truth can be. Great newspaper films pursue truth almost as much as the journalists that inspired them. Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men and David Fincher’s Zodiac are examples of films that largely jettisoned the sensationalism that’s usually synonymous with Hollywood productions in favour of fact and authenticity. Truth is stranger than fiction – and it’s certainly more compelling. Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight , which follows the story of a team of Boston-based investigative journalists exploring corruption in the Catholic church relating to priests molesting young children, is largely disinterested in embracing puffery. It might not be entirely devoid of stylistic embellishments, but it's never smothered by them. It’s not an easy topic for a film. “How do you say no to God, right?” one character quips. Spotlight engages intellectually, allowing the viewer to dictate their emotional response themselves. The risk of fostering sentimentality in a film that promotes thought is that it can disable any established educated authority. People don’t like to be told how to feel, and McCarthy avoids this pitfall entirely by embracing fact, not judgement. More remarkable is how effectively that fact is conveyed. There’s an enormous amount of complex information involved in Spotlight , yet the result is as illuminating as it is engrossing. John Roebuck RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Tom McCarthy CAST: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams RATING: M

THE BIG SHORT

ROOM

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RATING KEY: Wow! Good Not bad Meh Woof!

This is a film with the best of intentions and the most maddening of executions. Director Adam McKay, generally known for comedies like Anchorman and Talladega Nights, is undeniably attempting to make a convoluted and largely sluggish topic – finance – accessible and compelling. And yet the tools he employs to lend his film clarity ultimately have the opposite effect. The Big Short is largely concerned with three separate parties, each at varying degrees of involvement in Wall Street culture, who predicted the devastating financial crisis of 2007-08. There’s very little narrative, with the film favouring education over entertainment. That only becomes a problem with McKay suffocates his delivery of info with hyper-frenetic filmmaking; loud music and erratic cuts distract from important material. Celebrity cameos – designed to make the data more digestible – by-and- large mislead the viewer. By the time we’ve realised that Margot Robbie is playing herself, naked in a bath and drinking champagne, it’s too late to absorb the financial details that she’s explaining. There are no heroes on Wall Street. As one of the characters suggests late in the film, interest in money ultimately leads to a disinterest in the things that make life so wonderful. With the characters so unappealing and the details so murky, The Big Short leaves a broad impression of the financial crisis that ought to have been far more enlightening. John Roebuck RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Adam McKay CAST: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling RATING: M

A mother (Brie Larson) and her five-year-old son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay), live a cloistered existence in a small garden shed, with a skylight providing their only glimpse of the outside world. "Room" is the only world young Jack has ever known – his mother was abducted seven years ago by a psycho (Sean Bridgers, who's done this kind of thing before in The Woman ) and has been held captive in the shed ever since. When the opportunity for escape finally presents itself, their bid for freedom inevitably comes with life-changing consequences for both of them. It's the kind of story that far too often makes headlines, and is frequently the fodder of horror/torture thrillers. But Room is neither sensationalist nor exploitative – it's a sensitive, suspenseful and sometimes heartbreaking look at how such an experience impacts the lives of the victims after they re-enter society, beyond the tell-all interview to a talk-show host. Larson is terrific as the mother whose unconditional love for her son (despite the circumstances in which he was conceived) sustains her through years of captivity and abuse, and will most likely win the Oscar. But she's equally matched by Tremblay, who invests Jack with both wide-eyed wonder at the real world he's never known and a troubled countenance that hints at the psychological scars left by the ordeal. Give the boy an Oscar too. Scott Hocking RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Lenny Abrahamson CAST: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers RATING: M

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original blonde bombshell, Jean Harlow, and his exquisite and imaginative lighting of the actress proved instrumental in her acsent to stardom. (Rosson fell in love with Harlow and became her first husband; the marriage lasted a mere six months.) Huston showed Rosson a book of photographs by Matthew Brady (Brady had been the first to undertake photographic documentation of the American Civil War). “I want the look of the film to resemble Brady’s bleached wet plate photography,” explained

J ohn Huston’s script adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage followed author Stephen Crane’s narrative practically to the letter. The excitement and false bravado of young enlisted men marching to the sound of the guns quickly dissolves into a nightmare of fear and terror with their first real taste of combat. The young introspective Union soldier, Henry Fleming (portrayed in the film by Audie Murphy), controls his fear and anxieties when he and his regiment repel the initial Confederate attack. But when the yelling enemy charge for the second time, the chaos of battle proves too much for him. Unable to summon the courage again, he throws down his rifle and runs to the rear. Wandering through the woods, the youth, plagued with shame and guilt, is knocked unconscious with a rifle butt from another retreating Union soldier. When he awakens, he struggles back to his unit and tells his comrades that the wound to his head (his red badge of courage) was received during the fight. Now lauded as a wound-carrying veteran, when the regiment returns to the battlefield, young Henry suddenly finds the courage he thought had forsaken him. Leading the charge, he carries the regimental colours into the Confederate trenches, triumphant over both his enemy and his fear. All of this was realistically transformed into Huston’s script, and with his cast in place, the

Huston. Rosson flipped through the book of old photographs and then simply replied, “OK, John”. Between them, Huston and Rosson would create a motion picture of incredible atmosphere, with vivid contrast between the chaotic, smoke- filled battle scenes and the quiet, almost idyllic, interludes between the skirmishes. In fact, this was a movie that under different circumstances

writer-director was now ready to begin filming. However, the ideological battle raging at MGM during the summer of 1950 was now directly affecting Huston’s ability to concentrate on making his Civil War picture. He firmly believed his film was being held hostage in a power struggle between Louis B. Mayer and Dore Schary. Huston did not trust Mayer but thought it prudent to confront him face-to-face in an attempt to get a clear way forward for his movie. A meeting was arranged between the director and the movie mogul. “L.B., if my picture is causing problems I’ll drop the whole project and set up another,” said Huston. “John Huston, I’m ashamed of you,” roared Mayer. “Do you believe in this picture?” Huston nodded. “Then stick to your guns and never let me hear you talk like this again”. But over the coming months, Huston’s distrust of Mayer would be well founded. Huston had requested the services of the cinematographer who had filmed his last motion picture, The Asphalt Jungle (1950). Harold Rosson’s photography had already garnered him five Academy Award nominations including one for The Wizard of Oz (1939). In the early 1930s, he had filmed a number of movies starring the

Director John Huston and cinematographer Harold Rosson filming a sequence from The Red Badge of Courage , September, 1950

One of the realistic battle scenes from RBoC

could quite possibly have been recognised today as a cinematic masterpiece. Location filming of the battle scenes was shot at Huston’s ranch and interiors on the MGM backlot. The director had invited Lillian Ross, a journalist for The New Yorker magazine, to come to Hollywood and observe him making “a great artistic picture that will also make money”.

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At a time when Australia was finding its voice, Ian “Molly” Meldrum helped us find the music.

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