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ISSUE 128 JUNE ’15

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Games Editor Paul Jones Music Editor Jonathan Alley Creative Director Justin Buxton DVD Consultant Michelle Black Games Consultant Jeff Kuhl Cinema Consultant Chris Murray Music Consultants Mike Glynn, Fleur Parker Chief Contributors Bob Jones, Zoë Radas, Adam Colby Contributors Alesha Kolbe, Amy Flower, Rebecca Rowlands, Mark Ankucic, John Ferguson, Graham Reid, Michael Dwyer, Jeff Jenkins, Emily Kelly, Simon Lukic, Chris Murray, Billy Pinnell, Denise Hylands, Doug Wallen, Simon Winkler, John Roebuck, Gill Pringle Social Media Manager Sally Carlier-Hull Production Manager Craig Patterson Accounts Coordinator Tracy Kingman

Issue 128

JUNE 2015

WELCOME T he winners of this year’s major Oscar categories hit the JB shelves this month. Birdman beat the highly favoured Boyhood in the Best Picture race, with the film’s director Alejandro G. Iñárritu – a consistently great filmmaker – awarded Best Director. The best performances this year were a tighter contest and harder to pick, with the exception of Julianne Moore, who was always destined to claim a long overdue Best Actress honour for her performance as an Alzheimer’s patient in Still Alice . The guys, however, were all worthy of the award, with four of the nominees – Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Steve Carell and Eddie Redmayne – playing real-life characters and becoming them, rather than simply portraying them. Michael Keaton’s terrific comeback in Birdman was the hot tip, but when you watch The Theory of Everything (out June 4) you’ll realise the Academy got it right – Eddie Redmayne is Stephen Hawking. He’s also loads of fun as the villain in this month’s sci-fi spectacle from the Wachowskis, Jupiter Ascending , delivering a truly hilarious performance that’s as far removed from Hawking as the film is from reality.

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Issue 128 JUNE 2015

YOUR ESSENTIALGUIDE TOMUSIC,CINEMA,DVDs&GAMES

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YOUR ESSENTIALGUIDE TOCINEMA,DVDs,GAMES&MUSIC

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ISSUE 128 JUNE '15

ISSUE128 JUNE ’15

Big, Blue, Beautiful and BACK!

BIRDMAN THETHEORYOFEVERYTHING • FOXCATCHER • CHAPPIE

In Cinemas June 11

GIORGIOMORODER • JAMIE xx • KURT COBAIN:MONTAGE OF HECK

INSIDE:

BIRDMAN • MADMAX: FURYROAD • BATMAN:ARKHAMKNIGHT

S i g n u p

MADMAX:FURYROAD • TOMORROWLAND • PITCHPERFECT 2

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YOURMONTHLY GAMES GUIDE TOWHAT’S IN-STORE

HOT H

YOURMONTHLYDVD & BD GUIDE TOWHAT’S IN-STORE HOT

YOURMONTHLY GUIDE TOWHAT’S AT THEMOVIES HOT

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

Extras pg 10–20

Cinema pg 21–30

DVD & BD pg 31–58

Games pg 59–74

Music pg 79-99

Pg 10-14 News The latest news, including the hotly anticipated Entourage movie and STACK ’s visit to Whoniverse. Pg 16-18 HOLLYWOOD’S COMEDY DUO During the mid-1920s, Lou Costello became the busiest stuntman in Hollywood. Seriously! Pg 20 COMPETITIONS We have some awesome prizes up for grabs. As usual!

Pg 22 CINEMA BUZZ Bring the popcorn! It’s all

Pg 36 THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Professor Stephen Hawking

Pg 60 games intro Pg 62 It’s bATMAN Batman: Arkham Knight arrives this month. We dig up facts on the franchise that restored the Dark Knight’s reputation in video games. Pg 64 ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited arrives this month. What’s even better is that it’s free. Fill ya boots, console gamers! Pg 66 LEAGUE OF LEGENDS We chat with Dire Wolves’ Curtis Morgan. Pg 68 MOTOGP 15 Tap into your inner Casey Stoner this month with MotoGP 15 . Pg 70 AUDIO TECHNICA In the market for a new gaming headset? Got a $200 budget? Look no further. 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 Jamie xx, The Darkness, and Cobain: Montage of Heck director Brett Morgen and more. Pg 88 Cover Story Florence Welch returns with her magnificent Machine for new album How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. And it’s quite a trip. Pg 91 Revolutions Per Month Jamie xx delivers one of the albums of the year to date, we meet Leon Bridges, the Stones makeover Sticky Fingers, and we re-visit Nu Yorica. Pg 94 STACK Music Reviews New music from Franz Ferdinand and Sparks (FFS), Leftfield, Herbert, Shilpa Ray, Mark Seymour, Judith Owen, Tim Rogers & The Bamboos, and more!

about what we discovered at CinemaCon, featuring Clint Eastwood, Seth MacFarlane, Vin Diesel and more. Pg 24-25 INTERVIEW Chris Pratt. Once he was the fat friend sidekick, now this go-to action guy is set to fill some T-rex sized shoes in Jurassic World . Pg 26-30 REVIEWS Mad Max: Fury Road, Tomorrowland, Spy, Poltergeist, Partisan, Slow West, Pitch Perfect 2

has shown us the secrets of the universe. His life is also a story of eternal truths, about the power of love. Screenwriter Anthony McCarten explains. Pg 38 BIRDMAN Filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu steps out of the arthouse shadows and into the Oscar limelight, with the acclaimed black comedy Birdman . And revives Michael Keaton’s career to boot. Pg 40 FOXCATCHER Two brothers join an eccentric millionaire to train for Olympic glory, with tragic results. This is Steve Carell as you’ve never seen him before. Pg 48-56 REVIEWS Taken 3, Jupiter Ascending, Focus, Paper Planes, Mortdecai, The Interview, Chappie, Still Alice, Lost River, Black Sails S2 and lots more...

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That was then, the last episode of Entourage , 2011

This is now, Entourage , The Movie, out now!

LOOK WHO'S BACK!

A fter playing a fictional movie idol on TV for eight years, Entourage ’s Adrian Grenier confesses he still feels like he is Vinnie Chase: “Sometimes I’m in a meeting and I have a déjà vu, where I start looking for the cameras. Am I in the show or am I in real life?” As a TV series, Entourage ran for seven years, a sort of Sex and the City for blokes. After four years off the air, the guys have finally reunited on the big screen, alongside a slew of guest cameos including Jessica Alba, Liam Neeson and of course Mark Wahlberg,

necessarily loyal, but that’s not me,” he says. “When people don’t know me, they get

whose Hollywood lifestyle inspired the original series. Of all of Entourage ’s stars, including Jerry Ferrara’s Turtle, Kevin Connolly’s E and Kevin Dillon’s Johnny Drama, Jeremy Piven’s brash agent Ari Gold is perhaps the most memorable for his tantrums and expletive-ridden insensitivity. Meeting with a meek Piven today, he says he’s still fighting against public perception that he and Gold are one and the same. “In real life I’m just a softy. There are yellers and screamers in the business and folks who are not

reveals. "One time there was a girl I was dating and it didn’t work out but the guys were all offended on my behalf and were freezing her out when they saw her. It was touching that they cared so much but I had to call off the dogs and tell them to cool it." Gill Pringle • Entourage is in cinemas June 4 Check out more Cinema Buzz and cinema reviews on page 22

confused why I’m not a rageholic, why I’m not this offensive, fast talking, abrasive Hollywood agent. Some of the lines I have to say to Lloyd, I would blush just saying out loud in front of you.” It comes as no surprise to learn that the actors have become as close in real life as their screen alter-egos. “There is this brotherly rapport. They have my back, sometimes to a fault," Grenier

INTO THE WILD

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Leonardo DiCaprio on set in The Revenant

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the Oscar-winning director of Birdman , takes an all-star cast deep into uncharted territory in his next eagerly anticipated film, The Revenant . Set in the 1820s, Leonardo DiCaprio saddles up as frontiersman Hugh Glass, who suffers a mishap and is left for dead by his companion John Fitzgerald, played by Tom Hardy. With steely resolve, Glass undertakes an epic journey through hostile terrain to exact revenge on Fitzgerald. This grim tale of obsession and survival is based on a true story, and with Iñárritu at the helm, it's already been tipped as a 2016 Oscar contender. The Revenant is set to hit Australian cinemas in the first week of 2016.

In the meantime, don't miss Alejandro G. Iñárritu's dazzling, Oscar-winning triumph Birdman , set to hit JB Hi-Fi shelves on June 11. Check out our feature in this issue, on page 38, and the review on page 48.

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JON STEWART'S FILMMAKING DEBUT: 5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

CHASTAIN PEAKS

1. It's based on the actual experiences of Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-born journalist working for Newsweek , who spent 118 days detained by Iranian authorities, on charges of espionage. 2. The charges against Maziar Bahari arose from

J on Stewart, longtime host of news commentary and comedy series The Daily Show has made his directorial debut. It's called Rosewater , and it's out on DVD and Blu-ray on June 24. Here are five things that will make you wholeheartedly curious.

his appearance on The Daily Show , during a segment reporting on the Iranian presidential elections of 2009. 3. The title comes from the name of Bahari's interrogator and tormentor, a man known only to Bahari as 'Rosewater'. 4. This edgy psychological thriller is based on Maziar Bahari's memoir entitled Then They Came for Me , a treatise on human rights and seeking the truth which borrows from the prescient quote, 'Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.' 5. if you want proof of the life affirming power of humour and Leonard Cohen, make sure you check out Rosewater .

She's got the lead role on Guillermo del Toro's eagerly anticipated return to horror, Crimson Peak . She's received Oscar noms twice, for The Help and Zero Dark Thirty . She's Jessica Chastain, and if you're a fan like us, June is a month for a double dose of this über talented actress on DVD and Blu-ray: she's starring in the love-gone-wrong drama The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby , out on June 17, as well as the critically acclaimed and brutal crime saga A Most Violent Year , out a week later on June 25. Check out our review of the latter on page 52.

E3 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER

I ncredibly, it's that time again where we pack up the laptop, throw a notebook in the pack and procure a box full of headache

conference, and they wouldn't be pulling that without some stellar announcements ready to be made. With so much promised, we're

T ame Impala unleash their highly anticipated

pills and Beroccas. Yes, we're heading to E3 in mid-June and will bring you all the news and views in our next issue, in- store on July 3.

particularly looking forward to spending time with Halo 5: Guardians , busting to get in front of

new album Currents on July 17. Kevin Parker (right) has written, performed, produced and mixed the entire album. Kiwi ex-pat GinWigmore (now based in LA) has a new album entitled Blood to Bone released in July, with cover photography by noted UK snapper Lee Jeffries. The new Radiohead album is called Alraune, but it has no release date as yet. Neil Young releases a protest album called The Monsanto Years in mid-June. Strokes member Albert Hammond Jr. releases his new solo album Momentary Masters in late July. Prefuse 73 return with Every Colour of Darkness in mid-July, and '90s icons Veruca Salt have a new album called Ghost Notes coming out that month.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End , Just Cause 3 , Star Wars: Battlefront , Assassin's Creed: Victory , Mass Effect 4 and

What can we expect from the show this year? Well, there's been plenty of talk about Microsoft's line-up being strong and the existing evidence already supports that. Bethesda are beating everyone to the punch on the Sunday before E3 week with its very own press

MGS5: TPP to name a few.

Make sure you keep an eye on our social media channels for regular E3 updates during that week.

ONE DREAM CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

THE GRIPPING STORY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’S HISTORIC STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY

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possessed a relaxed attitude you rarely see in celebrities. We discovered that he finds long pauses between questions awkward and would prefer to sing to fill them. He used his time to talk about what inspired him in his acting, as well as what he’s doing now that his role as TV’s Time Lord is over. (Smith can be seen in the film Lost River , out this month on DVD.) Still spinning from having breathed the same air as those considered Royalty to us Whovians, there was an opportunity to grab autographs from the trio before heading home to revisit their onscreen personas in the comfort of our own living rooms. Come along, Pond.

6 for your enjoyment, enabling you to sit back and hype yourself up for the moment when you’d be in the same room as the stars. Then, the time came. Just after lunch, Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston were introduced to rapturous applause for an hour-long Q&A with fans. Rocking up in their true-blue cork hats, the pair answered questions on everything from their behind- the-scenes interaction and mother-

daughter relationships, to what their favourite outfits were. The onscreen mother and daughter revealed their saddest on-set moment was filming The Angels

Matt Smith

Take Manhattan , when Matt was sitting on a tombstone in a graveyard listening to Close to You by The Carpenters. Typical. Naturally Gillan was also quizzed about her role as Nebula in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy , while Kingston revealed how she had convinced Scottish actor Iain Glen to take the role of Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones , when he was still unsure. “I’d read the first three books and I said to him, ‘you have to do this,’” she laughed. Then it was time for ‘The Oncoming Storm’ to enter, centre stage. As cool in real life as he is as the Doctor, Matt Smith

O n May 16, the Hub Productions brought us to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), where we spent the entire day revelling in Doctor Who magnificence. Headlining the national tour were stars of the long-running sci-fi series: Matt Smith (The 11th Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), and Alex Kingston (River Song). The day kicked off with the trio making themselves available for photo opportunities, offering fans the chance to get up close and personal with their heroes. If forking out for photos with overwhelmed celebs wasn’t your thing, the Plenary at MCEC offered a run of episodes from Seasons 5 and

Alex Kingston and Karen Gillan

Photos taken by Aleisha Hobson, edited by Mark Jennaway of MJenn Photography

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ABBOTT & COSTELLO Part 1

THE

Story

change his family name, Lou's father finally relented and even managed to find $200 for his son's journey. Lou began his trek across country to California by hitching lifts with motorists or jumping aboard freight trains, until finally, in early 1926, he arrived in Los Angeles. The wide, palm tree-lined avenues and the sun-kissed gardens appeared to be paradise to Lou after the urban jungle of New Jersey, which only further convinced him that he had

T he good looking, cherubic young man sat amongst the other film extras and waited for his cue from director Clyde Bruckman. The film set at the Hal Roach studios had been constructed to look like a boxing hall. Centre stage was a square boxing ring and on one side of the ring, rows of wooden seats had been erected for the extras who had been hired as the scene's spectators.  The two-reel silent short being shot was The Battle of the Century  (1927), a comedy take-off of the controversial "long count" Jack Dempsey vs. Gene Tunney heavyweight boxing match. The film featured Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, with Stan playing the part of prize fighter Canvasback Clump and Hardy as his manager. As the young man intently studied how both Laurel and Hardy prepared themselves for the scene, the director shouted "Action". The crowd of extras began hollering and gesticulating as Stan Laurel ran around the ring in an attempt to escape from his opponent, the scary Thunder-Clap Callahan (played by Noah Young). The young extra reacted incredulously as he leapt from the second row to a ringside seat between shots before the director called "Cut and Print" This silent short is a fascinating piece of film history and film buff trivia, for it unites Laurel and Hardy with half of the film comedy

team that would eventually eclipse them in the 1940s.   The young would-be actor was the second son of an Italian immigrant family and was born Louis Francis Cristillo in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1906. From an early age Lou became fascinated with the world of entertainment and whenever he could, frequented the vaudeville and nickelodeon houses of Paterson. He was also a keen sportsman and had made the basketball and boxing team at high school, but

Lou Costello's first movie as a stuntman 

MGM Studios in the late 1920s, around the time Lou Costello started work there

made the right move.  However, much like the hundreds of young hopefuls who had all flocked to Hollywood to be discovered, no-one noticed the boy from New Jersey. As his money dwindled, a dejected Lou was too proud to write home and admit his failure to make it in Tinseltown. Exhausted from surviving on stolen fruit from the plentiful neighbourhood orchards and sleeping in overnight parked cars, Costello was about to start hitch-hiking back to Paterson when he landed a job at the MGM studios – as a carpenter building film sets.  It was not what he had predicted but at least he was employed by a major film studio. During his lunch breaks, the mesmerised Costello roamed around the MGM lots watching movies being filmed. One day he wandered onto Lot 2, where the studio's major star, John Gilbert, was starring in the swashbuckler Bardleys the Magnificent

because of his diminutive size – five foot, four inches – realised he was never going to make it as a professional ball player or prizefighter. Chasing the American Dream, he decided he would become a comedy movie star and would base his act on his idol, Charlie Chaplin. Lou went to see Chaplin's Shoulder Arms (1918) dozens of times, until he could repeat every scene and every Chaplin gesture. Consequently, when he reached the age of 20, he announced to his family that he was leaving home. "And where do you think you're going?" his exasperated father asked. "To Hollywood," Lou replied resolutely, quickly adding, "Pop, I ain't no academic but I'm not gonna be just a floorwalker in a department store. I'm gonna go out to Hollywood, change my name to Lou Costello and become a movie star. I know I can do it." Following weeks of family arguments over why he wanted to go and why he wanted to

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello

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(1926). King Vidor, the director, had reached a scene in the script where one of Gilbert's swordsman victims had to fall from the top of a high structure. "Damn", shouted Vidor to his AD. "We'll have to get a stuntman for this shot and that means we'll lose time while they prepare the ground to cushion the fall." "I'll do it Mr. Vidor," volunteered Costello, and without waiting for an answer, he scrambled up the back of the false structure and jumped. Both Vidor and Gilbert winced as Costello fell to the ground, rolled and sat up. "OK?" he asked. Vidor hired him on the spot and called for wardrobe. An extra playing a guard in the film helped Costello to his feet and said, "That was a helluva fall fellah". The extra's name was Duke Morrison, which he would soon change to John Wayne. Over the next two years Costello became the busiest and most daring stuntman at MGM, doubling for a number of stars including Joan Crawford and Dolores Del Rio. In between stunts he appeared as an extra in various films such as the L&H two-reeler. However, the end of his stunt

eventually he reached the East coast. One night, whilst Lou was on stage in New York working his act with a guy named Joe Lyons, he was watched from the wings by a tall, well dressed man. As Lou exited the stage, the man said, "Nice act kid, but your straight man's letting you down". "Oh! Yeah, and who the hell are you?" replied a belligerent Costello. The tall man extended his hand and said, "The name's Abbott, Bud Abbott."

dried up for the limping ex-stuntman, forcing the distraught Costello to head for home, back to New Jersey. He got as far as St.Joseph, Kansas, before his cash ran out and he noticed a sign on a burlesque theatre marquee: Comic Required, Apply Within. Bluffing the manager that he had been out in Hollywood making motion pictures and was now on his way to New York for a vaudeville engagement, he asked for the job. The burlesque manager was desperate enough to hire the inexperienced youngster, and Costello's previous study of Chaplin and other film comedians now served him well. He learnt fast, soaking up all the expertise of the other comics and straight men he watched on stage. Now with a hastily thrown together act, he moved from theatre to theatre, playing a week at a time until

Lou Costello performing his burlesque act with an unknown piano player

career came when he was seriously injured whilst impersonating actor William Haines in a football movie. Hospitalised, suffering numerous broken bones, Costello realised that he had pushed his luck too far as a stuntman. It was now 1928 and the film industry was hysterical over the addition of audio; studios had finally realised that "talkies" were not just a novelty but were here to stay. Film work

To be continued...

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J UL I ANNE MOORE ALEC BALDWIN KR I STEN STEWART

HHHH “A heartbreaking performance by Moore” – THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD HHHH “An effortlessly excellent film” – THE GUARDIAN HHHH “This film affected me enormously” – MARGARET POMERANZ, AT THE MOVIES

ACADEMY AWARD ® AND OSCAR ® ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS AND SERVICE MARKS OF THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES.

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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

AMERICAN SNIPER PRIZE-PACK

THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE: TAMRIEL UNLIMITED SWAG PACKS!

Bradley Cooper stunned audiences in American Sniper , and now you can relive his powerful performance on DVD and Blu-ray. We have three great prize- packs to give away, each including American Sniper  on Blu-ray, the American Sniper  novel, and a Grizzly Ripstop sleeping bag.

Five lucky adventurers will be taking home an Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited swag pack, including official soundtrack, shirt, map and lanyard.

Thanks to Roadshow

Thanks to Bethesda

What you've been loving on social this month:

Get your cosplay on, as Oz Comic-Con is coming to Melbourne this June, and we want YOU to attend. Like STACK Magazine on Facebook for your chance to win one of five weekend double passes. OZ COMIC-CON – MELBOURNE

WIN A BLACK SAILS PRIZE-PACK

Black Sails: Season 2 sees The Walrus crew stranded, with an army of Spanish soldiers standing between them and the precious Urca gold. Sail to stack.net.au to get your hands on one of three Black Sails prize-packs.

Head here for more shenanigans...

STACK 's Fave Movie Quote: "All those moments will be lost in time…

like tears in rain. Time to die." Roy Batty, Blade Runner (1982)

#JokeOfTheDay Hmm... at what age will Ryan Gosling become Ryan Goose?

Thanks to Defiant

Thanks to Oz Comic-Con

Follow @STACKmag on Twitter and like STACK Magazine on Facebook for more giveaways

Happy Birthday Johnny Depp (June 9, 1963)

As the exhilarating, heart-rending final season of Glee dances into JB this month, you can feel like one of the New Directions when you win an OFFICIAL McKinley High Football Jersey! GET YOUR INSTAGRAM GLEEK ON AND WIN

SUPERB AUDIO-TECHNICA DJ STYLE HEADPHONES GIVEAWAY

Did you know, in the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records , Depp was recorded as the highest paid actor, netting a total of $75 million in 2011. #STACKBirthday

We’ve managed to get our hot little hands on six Audio-Technica DJ-style headsets and we’re giving all STACK eNewsletter subscribers an exclusive chance to win them. Make sure you’re signed up to STACK ’s eNewsletter to receive exclusive details on how to enter throughout the month of June.

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Thumbs up to this Cosplay

dude dressed as ALL Johnny Depp characters.

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Thanks to Audio-Technica

in

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Q1 What do the movies American Graffiti , Die Hard , Clue and Attack the Block have in common, plot-wise? Q2 Who, following his death, was described as "that rarity of rarities, a Method Action Hero"? Q3 In which movie was the fictional educational establishment 'Welton Academy' featured?  Q4 Who starred in a 1985 mega-flop that was so savaged by the critics that the actor waited four years before he

appeared on the big screen again? Q5 Which film is narrated by a fully clothed dead man floating in a swimming pool? Q6 Who, in 2000, made a cameo appearance in the remake of his 1971 movie, but not in his original role? Q7 In which movie were the gangs The Baseball Furies, The Saracens and The Lizzies featured? Q8 Ginger Rogers and Jerry Lewis played the same key role in different

movie versions of the same story. Titles of both movies please. Q9 What film involves a businessman and a salesman trying to get home for Thanksgiving and running into adversity at every turn? Q10 Who played the part of a movie soundman, who whilst standing on a bridge recording night sounds, witnesses a car plunging into the river, an incident which drags him into a web of intrigue and murder?

QUIZ

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The Valley of the Giants, released in 1919, 1929 and 1938 respectively

song "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" The 4th remake of 3 previous versions of

A10. The Big Trees starring Kirk Douglas:

(1939) A9. Paul Newman, who considered his debut movie

(1936) A8. The Return of Dr X

A7. After The Thin Man

The Silver Chalice to have been the worst movie ever made in Hollywood

A6. She sang a

A5. Shadow Dancer

A3. The Gambler A4. Kay Kendall (but played off-screen by trumpeter Kenny Baker)

A1. Gift Horse & Attack on the Iron Coast JUNE 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au A2. They have all portrayed Anne Boleyn onscreen

Quiz Answers May 2015 (Issue 127) -

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In Cinemas June 11

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD • TOMORROWLAND • PITCH PERFECT 2

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STACK 's Hollywood correspondent Gill Pringle brings you the latest from Tinseltown.

A t CinemaCon, we hung out with Australians Luke Bracey and Teresa Palmer, both giddy from filming the hotly-anticipated remake of 1991’s extreme sports thriller Point Break . Adelaide-born Palmer talked about how she finally conquered her fear of the ocean with the help of shark swimmer Ocean Ramsey and free dive female champion Marina Kazankova. “Growing up I didn’t have a pool and we didn’t live very close to the beach so I wasn’t a confident swimmer. I’d only been in the waves a

His most scary moment on set? “The most terrifying time was the last day of filming next to Petit

handful of times in Australia.” In fact, when she first accepted the role, she had no idea how much of her work would be in the ocean. “I was very anxious when I learned I would be very far down beneath the surface of the water with large marine creatures in Tahiti.” Enter Ramsey and Kazankova. “Ocean lives in Hawaii. She grew up in the water and swims with great white sharks. She taught me how to relax. And then Marina doubled me and also taught me how to follow my heart rate and hold by breathe for longer. I started by only being able to hold my breath for 30 seconds and ended holding it for almost two minutes, which was a pretty epic thing for me. The whole thing was really liberating,” says the actress, as surf legend Laird Hamilton joins us, giving her a big hug. Luke Bracey was already a confident surfer before the movie, although he had to train in snow boarding and rock climbing. “It's different going from a 10-minute inside rock wall to a real rock 3,000 feet up,” he tells STACK .

Mont Blanc, 4,000 metres above sea level – and 60 Celsius. The wind was blowing dogs off chains, absolutely howling, and I’m standing on a snow board with my feet locked into it with the front of the snow board off the edge of this cliff with a vertical drop of 150 metres. I was very scared and very cold,” he recalls with a shiver. The original Point Break starred Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, with Bracey and Edgar Ramirez

reprising their roles as Johnny Utah and Bodhi, respectively.

Luke Bracey

Teresa Palmer

7 THINGS WE LEARNED AT CINEMACON CinemaCon is the world’s largest gathering of cinema owners; an annual event where studios present their future fare, trotting out all their big movie stars. Held in Las Vegas, here are some of the most interesting highlights, live from CinemaCon.

Oh, and Mark Wahlberg too. Addressing an audience of besuited cinema owners,

about Cadbury Vegemite?- Ed.] 3. Matt Damon will return as Jason Bourne in 2016. 4. Let it snow! In addition to its list of movie effects, such as jerking seats, earthquake effects and smells, 4DX announced snow, rainstorm and warm air added to its menu. Better bring an umbrella. 5. At a hosted luncheon, Clint Eastwood was honoured with a Fandago award. Squinting at the unwieldy plastic trophy, he said, “I will put this on my fireplace and try

to make sure it doesn’t burn”. 6. Vin Diesel let out a few sobs for his dear departed friend Paul Walker while standing before a giant screen with the words 1 Billion – for that is the amount of money Fast & Furious 7 has already taken at the box office. Moments later he dried his eyes and leapt in the air as he announced there will be a Furious 8 in 2017. 7. Audiences were handcuffed to their seats as 50 Shades of Grey sequels were announced for Valentine's Day 2016 and 2017.

MacFarlane pointed out that stoners get the munchies, and suggested that theatre operators should consider their popcorn sales if they found patrons “toking up” in the bathroom prior to Ted 2 . 2. Speaking of popcorn, Cheetos

1. Always controversial, Seth MacFarlane showed a cheeky trailer from Ted 2 featuring everyone’s favourite potty- mouthed, pot-smoking stuffed animal.

flavored popcorn anyone? Coming soon to a cinema near you. Looks just like popcorn but sprinkled with Cheetos dust. [What

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interview

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MAN OF THE MOMENT

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interview

CINEMA

Guardians of the Galaxy

Parks and Recreation

Jurassic World

Three years ago, Chris Pratt was known only to Parks and Recreation fans, as the lovable, if dozy, Andy Dwyer. He’s since transformed from sitcom slacker to the hulking head of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy . Now, in Jurassic World , he’s set to rejuvenate the dinosaur franchise.

C hris Pratt’s success story could be a movie script in its own right. Aged 19, the struggling actor was living in a tent before managing to land minor roles in hit teen TV shows The O.C and Everwood . The ever ambitious Pratt auditioned for blockbusters Star Trek and Avatar but found his niche in the idiosyncratic Parks and Recreation . Then Zero Dark Thirty came along, and suddenly casting agents from Guardians of the Galaxy were knocking. Pratt’s career trajectory was subsequently revolutionised and frankly, he’s still getting his head around it. “I was the big comedy guy, the fat friend, sidekick, and I was working. I didn’t want to fix it if it wasn’t broken…Then Zero Dark Thirty came out and I suddenly saw myself as this believable badass.” Pratt the ‘badass’ is now taking on another beloved franchise, playing Owen Brady, a dinosaur behaviourist, in Jurassic World . He calls it a milestone role. “A milestone like it’s marked your journey into manhood. [ Jurassic Park ] is one of the most influential movies in my life,” he says, adding, “I’m precious about Jurassic Park, so I didn’t want this f–ed up.” For a childhood superfan, winning the lead was a “weird” experience. “Now I don’t just feel like a fan of the franchise. I feel like a peer of the artistic creators, which is really strange and surreal to think of.” His success is especially impressive considering the Hollywood heavyweights he was

association. “’Monkeyboy’ became my nickname in high school,” he confesses. “Every Monday I would do a comic strip of monkeys and that’s how it first started, and every time I would see a stuffed monkey, I would buy it. Even when I was a salesman, everyone had a nickname and I became Monkeyboy and it sort of stuck. Some of my closest friends still call me that. They say, ‘Monkeyboy done alright.’” Pratt – or ‘Monkeyboy’ – has definitely tasted success. But never fear; he promises not to let anything go to his head: “My brother said to me if I get ‘too Hollywood’, he will find me and fart on me or something,” he laughs. We imagine Parks and Rec ’s Andy Dwyer would approve.

up against, including Bradley Cooper, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eddie Redmayne and Aaron Paul. “Let me just pat my back here,” the down-to- earth actor jests. It’s been 22 years since the first Jurassic Park , and sixteen years since part three came out. Pratt’s lowdown of the Jurassic World plot sounds promising: “The Park is up and running, with 20,000 visitors a day. John Hammond’s dream came true and everything he dreamed of and more is there. But it’s been open long enough where people are no longer intrigued. It’s a sign of the times. Blasé attitude. Not impressed. So then they create this new attraction that will hopefully generate some new interest in the park… and things go horribly wrong.” Pratt and co. are bringing dinosaurs back into the limelight, but that’s not the actor’s only animal I was the big comedy guy, the fat friend, sidekick, and I was working

Jurassic World is in cinemas on June 11 and will be reviewed next issue

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True action cinema is displacement of belief combined with edge-of-the-seat, open-mouthed wonder and the sheer adrenaline one feels when on a rollercoaster drifting over the first precipice. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: George Miller CAST: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult RATING: MA15+

M ad Max: Fury Road is non-stop groin anxiety, the kind that causes the entire left side of your body to sound the alarm. Forget Fast & Furious set-piece safety or a Michael Bay CGI cartoon, Mad Max films have always been about danger; even in the audience, you feel you could die at any moment. Director Dr. George Miller, now in his 70th year, has once again raised the bar in what this genre can or can’t do in terms of pushing an audience’s tolerance, endurance and pre-conceived notions of good, bad, evil and the vast grey areas in-between. Max (Tom Hardy) is not a hero, he’s an angry snake coiled to kill instinctively. Villains from Francis Bacon’s nightmares overlord his world with more kinks than a knot-tying convention. We find Max captured, tortured and now used as a live blood bag to provide vitality to the willing ‘War Boys’ of the Skeletor-ish, Immorton Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), a self-proclaimed warlord controlling countless minions via his possession of precious water and ‘guzzolene’. When Joe’s trusted warrior, Furiosa (a one-armed Charlize Theron), goes rogue on a fuel mission to spirit away a semi-trailer full of his personal stash of Amazonian breeding stock, the chase is on, and boy-oh-boy you’d better

make sure you’re strapped into that cinema seat. Plot – you’ll work that out soon enough. This journey isn’t about interwoven narratives, it’s about total immersion into fantasy. It’s forgetting everything you know and embracing a new science and anthropology of a world where audacious machines are worshipped more than the maniacs who made them, life means nothing, morals are akin to Dr. Seuss on crack, and idiosyncratic cult Australiana rears its long-lost head to the enjoyment of those old enough to remember it. An American Mad Max film, some may query? Ha, no chance… this is old-school depravity, where insinuation of sins very bad, odd and of the backwater-two- headed-banjo-playing variety are more than hinted at. You are flung, hard, against a wall of carnage, chrome and insanity. A vivid reality conjured through pushing the furthest reaches of where this f–ed up world – with a language and religion all its own – could take you. CGI be damned; these cars are real, the stunts are real, the danger is real, and the tools of the digital age are merely a garnish to the main course of dirt being flicked from oversized tires and the whoosh of a shotgun pellet narrowly missing your head. Chris Murray

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Winner of Academy Award ® for best actor

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© 2014 Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia Pty Limited. All Rights Reserved. Academy Award ® and Oscar® are registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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A teenage girl with a social conscience is delivered a mysterious commemorative pin from the ‘64 World Fair which unlocks an alternate dimension from the future. Now all she has to do is save the world! TOMORROWLAND RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Brad Bird CAST: George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie RATING: PG

W hen you’re the director of one of Pixar’s greatest achievements in The Incredibles , not to mention the most successful of the Mission: Impossible series thus far, Ghost Protocol , the pressure to deliver another box office smash is well and truly on. With this, his second live-action feature, writer-director Brad Bird pulls out all the old-school ‘kid’s own adventure’ stops and thankfully delivers an action romp with far more bravado than a mere feel-good family sci-fi. George Clooney plays Frank Walker, a former child-genius with a heart full of dreams whom we witness in the intro of the film being lured by a mysterious young girl into a Twilight Zone -style alternate future through the ‘It’s a Small World After All’ ride at the 1964 World Fair (well, this is a Disney film!). This utopian paradise is eons ahead of our current reality, and young Frank, complete with his very own self-designed jetpack, eventually fits right in. Flash forward to present-

day and teen rebel Casey (Britt Robertson), hellbent on sabotaging the demolition of her father’s place of work (an abandoned NASA launch station), is soon in possession of pin similar to the one Frank acquired 50 years ago. A chain of events leads Casey to realise this acquisition has not only put her life in danger, but when introduced to Frank today, his conspiratorial paranoia (that has seen him reclusive and holed up in a techno fortress) is well- founded and the danger is very, very real. Packed with in-jokes, action aplenty (at times extremely violent for a kids flick) and a wicked sense of humour that dances between Back to the Future escapism and Goonies meets Da Vinci Code outlandish disbelief, Tomorrowland is a perfectly formed adventure romp for ages 10 and above. Smart, fun and full of naive wonder, this plays to the smarter end of town at that delicate age between packing up the Lego and moving into role-playing games. Chris Murray

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REVIEWS

CINEMA

RATING KEY:

Wow!

Good

Not bad

Meh Woof!

SPY

POLTERGEIST

Depending on how much you liked Bridesmaids and The Heat , you were either apathetic or ecstatic to hear that writer-director Paul Feig and actress Melissa McCarthy had teamed up again for the comedy crime-caper Spy . It turns out that even if you disliked those former two flicks, you'll doubtless find something to love in the latter. Feig's story – about a jovial deskbound analyst in the FBI who ends up having to go undercover when two field agents are compromised – is still full of dumb/hilarious absurdities, but manages to transcend its Big Momma's House -like premise with the most rewarding script McCarthy (who ain't no Martin Lawrence) has ever run with. Moreover, it's the best opportunity she's had to showcase her winning mix of dry and slapstick humour, not to mention her ability to wring real empathy from an audience. The support of Jude Law and Jason Statham lend it ample kudos (and who doesn't love seeing either of those two stretch their funny bones), and most of the biggest chortles you'll get come from our own ubiquitous and mega-talented Rose Byrne, whose haughty and uncomplicated delivery is totally enchanting. Definitely worth it (we're as surprised as you). Zoë Radas RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Paul Feig CAST: Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham RATING: MA15+

A modest family relocate due to financial troubles and soon find themselves knee- deep in a haunted house with a difference. When the youngest daughter is simply ‘taken’ by a poltergeist into an alternate dimension... cue the CGI and all manner of ridiculous mayhem modern cinema can conjure! Tobe Hooper’s Spielberg-produced 1982 original is a remarkable film that still to this day has people shuddering at the thought of a toy clown, a tree, a dwarf paranormal expert, and impending storms to trigger the other side into making contact most violent. To remake this film was of course a cash decision to generate cheap thrills and box office smash’n’grab to naïve teens, not to bring anything new, and actually drop some of the true resonance of the original masterpiece (kids counting the time between lightning and thunder, Indian burial mystique, dark humour instead of obvious gags). What we’re left with is a half-arsed attempt at chills forgoing the accessible WTF felt long after the lights come up in a cinema. Rockwell is miscast, hungover and bored as the disbelieving dad who quickly goes along with whatever’s put in front of him, and while the kids are solid enough, you simply don’t get scared after the first 20 mins. And as for the ‘clown’ sequence now being a ‘clowns’ sequence; poor form in extinguishing the potential thrill too quickly, whereas the original left the stamp inside an audience’s head for generations. No, you don’t really need to see this at all. Chris Murray RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Gil Kenan CAST: Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jared Harris RATING: M

PARTISAN

SLOW WEST

There’s a dreamlike quality to Ariel Kleiman’s Partisan , perhaps because it unites Australian cinematic sensibilities with a European setting and cast. Within the confines of a closed compound on the outskirts of a derelict European city, Gregori (Vincent Cassel) presides over a cult-like colony, the only man amidst a community of women and children. He fosters an atmosphere of fear and dependence, rejecting the curiosity for the outside world that the children inevitably develop, all the while exploiting the very congregation that he shepherds for his own financial gain. The perpetually fascinating Cassel is a powerful screen presence, here consolidating a simmering rage with charm. Jeremy Chabriel, as Gregori’s young son Alexander, has an eerie demeanor that illuminates the repercussions regarding his father’s hold over the unearthly community. Kleiman’s filmic space is fantasy, and Partisan has that pensive timelessness that Sofia Coppola accomplishes so effortlessly. There’s a sense that Kleiman is trying to say something, but may not be entirely sure of what that may be. There doesn't appear to be a sociopolitical agenda and Partisan might best be read on an entirely bizarre and superficial level. John Roebuck RELEASED: May 28 DIRECTOR: Ariel Kleiman CAST: Vincent Cassel, Nigel Barber, Jeremy Chabriel RATING: MA15+

A 16-year-old, lovesick British aristocrat travels across 19th century frontier America in search of his beloved, who happens to have a bounty on her head. When a strange Irish mercenary promises to see him through safely, he soon realises the Wild West takes no prisoners and trust is a very loose term. Former frontman for the Beta Band, this is director John Maclean’s first feature film, with ambitions set to ultra high. It's a Euro-Western ‘journey film’ with aesthetic sensibilities aimed between a Coen Bros offbeat/arthouse kink and a slow-burn Proposition with open scabbed morality and bloodlust. That it never quite achieves either is a letdown to the amazing cinematography, strong performances from Smit-McPhee and Fassbender, and a desire to evoke classic western iconography in every frame. One second you’re on the edge of your seat, the next you’re a little bored, confused at the character motivations and simply waiting for something interesting to happen. We simply don’t care enough for anyone to feel any emotional gravity – a sin in the Western genre. Two remarkable set-pieces aside (a general store heist gone awry and the eventual showdown with bullets aplenty), this feels as though it was green- lit too early in the script stage to fully flesh out what could have been an existential journey into the hearts of mad-men-on-missions, instead of some beautiful footage simply edited together in the hope of a rounded experience. Chris Murray RELEASED: June 4 DIRECTOR: John Maclean CAST: Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelsohn, Kodi Smit-McPhee RATING: M

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