STAYING IN
STAYING IN REVIEWS DVDs, videogames and podcasts to enjoy from the comfort of your sofa
SCI-FI MANBORG (15) 70 min ●●●●● VIDEOGAME CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II (PC/PS3/Xbox 360) ●●●●●
Can you really make a movie for $1000? Director/writer/ editor/actor Steven Kostanski certainly gives it his best shot with the ultra low budget Manborg. Made with a lot of love and sticky back plastic over three years it’s purposefully ridiculous – this is the kind of bizarre future distopia where the half man/ half machine Manborg (Matthew Kennedy) and his companions are forced to fight in the Terror-Octogon for the amusement of Draculon (Adam Brooks) and his evil hell hordes. The effects (also by Kostanski) are an amalgam of stop motion, models, plasticine, prosthetic masks and computer graphics giving the entire film a weird superimposed look. It’s a strange and unique movie, frequently funny but never boring, it plays on the clichés amping them to absurd levels of insanity. Manborg isn’t supposed to be convincing but creates its own hyper world cobbled together from elements of Mortal Kombat, Robocop, Evil Dead and Power Rangers all served up with a dash of trashy 80s cheese. The colour scheme is garish and nausea-inducing but somehow Manborg is endearingly lo-fi DIY entertainment and Kostanski should be applauded for what he’s achieved on this minimal budget. (Henry Northmore)
After EA’s furiously po-faced Medal of Honor: Warfighter, it’s nice to see Activision countering with their annual package of unashamed nonsense. Following
on from events in the first game, the sequel jumps around time and space as a team of special forces agents race to thwart the apocalyptic plans of some guy. It’s the same story we’ve heard a dozen
times before but when Black Ops II ventures into the future (2025) it’s afforded a refreshing freedom, employing gadgets such as wingsuits, drones and mechs. The requisite set-pieces are a step-up from developer Treyarch’s previous efforts and the revamped game engine distinctly benefits character models and environments, although some of the interiors look bland and lack detail. Multiplayer revisions include an arsenal of
futuristic weaponry and a competitive league mode. The Zombie mode has also been expanded to further ape Left 4 Dead. It’s some way off that benchmark but as a bonus it represents good value.
By dispensing with its predecessor’s irritatingly convoluted structure and eye-rolling twists, Black Ops II gets the series back on track as a thoroughly entertaining blast of fun. (Murray Robertson)
DRAMA FORBIDDEN GAMES (JEUX INTERDITS) (12) 83 mins ●●●●● PODCAST THE BUGLE (thebuglepodcast.com) ●●●●●
Despite picking up an Oscar (Best Foreign Language Film), a BAFTA and the Golden Lion in Venice on release in 1952, Forbidden Games has slipped off the radar. It’s ‘Some people were born to create this technology,’ declared John Oliver to his old shock haired sparring partner Andy Zaltzman at the start of The Bugle’s last
unsurprising in some ways as it’s a beautiful but melancholy film. Fleeing war torn Paris in 1940 Paulette’s
(Brigitte Fossey) parents are killed in a hail of gunfire. She’s taken in by local farmers and instantly strikes up a strong relationship with Michel (Georges Poujouly). This might seem like a cute tale of triumph
over adversity but the main theme is the comprehension and acceptance of death in a child’s mind. Boasting wonderful, believable performances from the two young leads the pair become obsessed with burying animals and stealing crosses, mixing half formed thoughts of superstition, magic and religion. What should be an idealistic rural life is corrupted by the grim realities of war.
Also released are Gervaise (1956), The Deadly Trap (1971) and And Hope to Die (1972) shedding light on the work of much overlooked French director René Clément. (Henry Northmore)
weekly edition, ‘and others were born to piss it up the wall. You and I were picked by Team B from day one.’ It’s the wonder of the internet, though, that’s
kept the pair’s biting political humour on the road since Oliver’s move to the States to work on The Daily Show five years ago, first with backing from The Times and since the turn of 2012 as a fan-funded venture. Fortunately they are getting their money’s
worth. Much like Oliver’s day job and their previous radio work together, Political Animal and The Department, this is sharp incisive comedy with a solid grasp of world events. It’s a show with one hand on the political pulse and the other jagging viciously at the comedy jugular, where insight takes second place to a tightly scripted succession of devastating punchlines blended with a winning anarchic energy. For fans of Have I Got News For You and swearing. (David Pollock)
13 Dec 2012–24 Jan 2013 THE LIST 53
removing scene in Poe’s The Black Cat).
Within
the first half-hour, there’s an astonishing amount of gore as Carroll (possibly aided by some like-minded souls) goes on a bloody campaign of vengeance including brainwashing one heavily tattooed woman to do something unspeakable to herself in a very public venue.
Other than the chance to get a slice of his own ‘water cooler’ telly, Bacon was drawn to The Following for the opportunity to play a multifaceted character. ‘I see Ryan as complicated and flawed, and the lines between being a good guy and not being a good guy will get a little bit blurred,’ Bacon insists. ‘You get a sense of that in the pilot episode, but down the line we’ll see more in his back-story and maybe in the way he handles things that will be a little bit grey. I get offered a lot of bad guys in the movie world and I like playing villains, but I wanted to find something heroic. I get to be heroic in a complex, flawed and damaged way.’ The Following starts on Sky Atlantic, Tue 22 Jan.