STACK #153 Jul 2017

REVIEWS DVD&BD

He means business. THE BOSS BABY

The smurfs get animated. SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE

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Release Date: 12/07/17

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Release Date: 05/07/17

Gaga-goo gurgle, blurpl- oops, sorry – we forgot to turn our translator on. We are the babies. You may know us as ever-so-cute emissions machines, but there’s actually more to us than giggles, burps and tantalisingly ticklish tummies. For starters, we can talk, we just choose not to around you. We’re currently on a mission from dog – more specifically, puppies are winning the affection wars, and we just cannot have this. As such, we’ve sent an emissary into the home of two Puppy Co. employees so as to infiltrate the company and shut

Get ready to smurf your smurfing smu- oh goodness, we can’t keep that up! It is, obviously, time to venture back to the Smurfs’ village, where the word ‘smurf’ can be many a verb – or noun. This third recent big screen outing for the little creatures who are but three apples high is a smu- AGH! Ahem. It’s a reboot, ditching the cast from the live/animated concoctions and going full smurfimation. In a peachy move, the main protagonist is one of the few girlie Smurfs, Smurfette. She finds a curious map, so grabs her pals Brainy, Clumsy and

down their secret weapon. But there’s a bubble in the bottle, as their kid Tim is onto us... The latest Dreamworks animated feature, The Boss Baby craftily casts Alec Baldwin as the voice of the titular tot. Full of two-tiered kid/adult humour, it’s worth making goo-goo eyes at. AF

Hefty and sets out on a big adventure through the Forbidden Forest. The smurfy posse’s aim? To find the Lost Village before creepy old Gargamel does. Secrets will be revealed! If you’re a Smurf fan of any age then Smurfs: The Lost Village is just, well, smurfy. AF

JASPER JONES

DENIAL

DRONE

ALONE IN BERLIN

Release Date: 05/07/17 Format:

Release Date: 26/07/17 Format:

Release Date: 19/07/17 Format:

Release Date: 05/07/17 Format:

14-year-old Charlie (Levi Miller) becomes involved in a murder mystery in a rural WA town after rebellious, mixed-race outcast Jasper Jones (Aaron L. McGrath) leads him to the body of a dead girl in the woods. The burden of keeping this big secret gradually takes its toll, and Charlie's sheltered life begins to unravel, along with his innocence. Based on the novel by Craig Silvey, this coming-of-age story explores themes of racism and betrayal from a youthful perspective. Anchored by fine performances from its young leads (and Toni Collette), it's a good fit for director Rachel Perkins, who has championed indigenous outcasts in Bran Nue Dae and Radiance . SD

Holocaust denier David Irving's outrageous claims and his brief period of notoriety forms the basis of this moving (albeit formulaic) courtroom drama. Rachel Weisz plays a US academic who accuses Irving (Timothy Spall) of lying in a book refuting his claims that the Holocaust never happened. Much to her surprise, he sues her for libel in the UK, where the defamation laws place a burden of proof on the defendant. Bewildered by the eccentricities of the British legal system, she becomes determined to reveal Irving as a charlatan. Denial is a timely reminder of the danger hatemongers pose when given the oxygen of media attention. JF

Sean Bean covertly remote-pilots combat drones for the CIA, but his family believe he's just an ordinary IT guy. When a stranger (Patrick Sabongui) knocks on his door to purchase the boat for sale out front, he's invited to stay for dinner. But the man has an ulterior motive which becomes apparent when he reveals his wife and teenage daughter were killed in a missile strike in Pakistan, fired from a drone aircraft – and this is the anniversary of their deaths. No prizes for guessing who pulled the trigger. Although circling the morals of remote warfare that informed Eye in the Sky and Good Kill , this slow burn revenge tale is more domestic drama than political thriller. AC

This World War II drama zeroes in on a small but brave act of defiance against the Nazis, carried out by an ordinary couple (Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson) who have lost their only son during the invasion of France. The grief stricken pair spread postcards bearing anti- Nazi slogans throughout the city, creating a minor disruption in the war machine and attracting the attention of a smug detective (Daniel Brühl) determined to track them down. Actor-turned-director Vincent Perez ratchets up the tension as the net slowly closes on the couple, and Gleeson is superb as the gruff rebel who knows this small act of resistance is ultimately doomed to fail. JF

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