STACK NZ Oct #67

CINEMA

REVIEWS

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PAN

THE MARTIAN

In 1991, Steven Spielberg pretty much put the 'never again' into Neverland for a lot of viewers with the horrible Hook , and we didn't see J.M. Barrie's boy who could fly on the big screen again until 2003, in P.J. Hogan's Peter Pan . Now the timeless tale has been revisited by Joe Wright ( Atonement ) and while the trailer makes it look every bit as cringeworthy as Spielberg's pantomime, Pan is so far removed from the candy-coloured Neverland of Disney and Hook, it exists in an entirely different universe. The dark cinematography of the opening act, in which Peter Pan (newcomer Levi Miller) is kidnapped from an orphanage run by monstrous nuns during the London Blitz, is sustained throughout the entire film. There's no colouful transition when we reach Neverland as per The Wizard of Oz , rather things get progressively more bizarre. Peter ends up on a floating cloud island ruled by the flamboyant pirate Blackbeard, played with obvious relish by an Hugh Jackman, who replaces Hook as the villain; the latter is now a charming Irogue (Garret Hedlund) who helps Peter escape to the forest where he meets Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara) and her tribe. Ah, so it's an origin story! Kudos to Wright and co. for creating a Tim Burtonesque, steampunk version of Peter Pan quite unlike what has gone before. Scott Hocking FURTHER VIEWING: Hook, Peter Pan RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Joe Wright CAST: Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund, Rooney Mara RATING: PG

Mars movies have generally failed to engage audiences, unless it's the red planet attacking us. Even big name directors have crashed and burned on its rocky surface, like Brian De Palma with the miserable Mission to Mars in 2000. Enter Ridley Scott, who makes amends for the hash that was Prometheus with a far more satisfying return to the genre. Recently stranded on a planet in another universe in Interstellar , Matt Damon again finds himself as an astronaut cast away, albeit this time closer to home. Left behind and presumed dead after the Ares III mission is forced to make an emergency lift off from the Martian surface, Damon is faced with the predicament of how he's going to survive, and more importantly, contact NASA to arrange a rescue mission. Rather than dwell on the hopelessness of his situation, he's an optimistic chap and it's his humorous outlook and determination to "science the shit" out of his dilemma that makes The Martian so damn entertaining. This is an atypical Ridley Scott movie: the spectacle and detail is all there, only this time there's also a sense that Scott knows he's making a big, crowd-pleasing blockbuster. A survival story that celebrates the endurance of the human spirit without the obligatory spoonful of sugar, it's got all the right stuff. Scott Hocking FURTHER VIEWING: Interstellar, Robinson Crusoe on Mars RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott CAST: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels RATING: TBC

SICARIO

THE WALK

RATING KEY: Wow! Good Not bad Meh Woof!

From its opening frame, Sicario is a masterful experience. Employing equal measures of intense sound, engaging cinematography and no-nonsense acting usually reserved for high-end TV, you’ll be on the edge of your seat for the majority of the two hour ride on this violent roller coaster. Emily Blunt is the capable FBI agent who wants to play fair, but also wants satisfaction for losing members of her team after a booby-trapped raid. With this as a carrot, she agrees to be a part of a somewhat confusing taskforce (Brolin, del Toro) whose mission, alongside a menagerie of mercenaries, is to infiltrate the higher echelons of a Mexican drug cartel. What will soon be clear is playing fair gets no results, and perhaps not all members of the crew have the same objective. No, this isn’t a ‘I knew that guy was a baddie!’ style twist-and-turn affair. It’s instead a nail-biting slow reveal of the machinations behind crime fighting when the rules don’t apply, or are ineffective. With set pieces to rival anything Ridley Scott or Michael Mann have ever achieved (a Mexican border crossing sequence you will never forget) and an ever-present sense of doom, excitement and amazing sensory immersion, Sicario is a hard-boiled triumph of frenetic filmmaking. Chris Murray FURTHER VIEWING: Traffic, Prisoners RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Denis Villeneuve CAST: Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio del Toro RATING: R16

Robert Zemeckis made the amazing Back to the Future trilogy, but he also made the self-important horror that was Forrest Gump . Thus while capable of brilliance, he’s also able to deliver slices of over-sweet sponge cake you know you’ll be vomiting up later. Somewhere in the middle is this visual spectacle that's being sold on the popularity of the award-winning 2008 doco Man on Wire – the story of a crazy Frenchman who pulled off an illegal high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. Squinty talent-bucket Joseph Gordon-Levitt is perfect as the over-the-top French annoyance, Philippe Petit. An ‘always-on’ performer, Petit is the kind of guy you don’t mind meeting at a party, but you want him (and his unicycle) out the door after an hour. A love story is explored, then quickly abandoned, and it’s full steam ahead to the greatest coup of all – sneaking up the World Trade Centre and setting this mad caper up. This is where the film shines brightest; played with such solid tension and panache, you can forgive the ‘oh my, isn’t this quaint’ hour or so leading up to it. The 3D and FX are brilliant, and the fact we know this actually happened stops us from thinking the scale is way too far fetched. The Walk is safe, A-grade family fun all the way, unless you’re scared of heights . Chris Murray FURTHER VIEWING: Man on Wire RELEASED: Oct 22 DIRECTOR: Robert Zemeckis CAST: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon RATING: PG

OCTOBER 2015

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