‘It’s very l attering to have started a subgenre’
th i t
th
th A further into the Amazon than f anyone making a i lm ever has before. We found a village so off the grid that there was no electricity. They lived in grass huts, no running water, and so out of contact with the outside world they didn’t even know what a movie was: we had to explain conceptually to them what a movie was. We bought a generator and a television and we showed them Cannibal Holocaust and they thought it was hilarious and they all signed up to be in the i lm.’
Aftershock (Studiocanal) is available on DVD and Blu-Ray now; The Last Exorcism II (Studiocanal) is released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 30 Sep.
STAYING IN
STAYING IN REVIEWS TV and video games to enjoy from the comfort of your sofa DVD BOXSET GLEE SEASON 4 (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) ●●●●●
After the shocking news that Cory Monteith was found dead, aged just 31, in his hotel room back in July, the boxset of Glee Season 4 is a strange, unexpected epitaph. He played male lead, Finn Hudson, in this high school tale of students bursting into show tunes and pop covers to express their emotions or win those all important regionals. Glee is a typical underdogs story as the geeks and outsiders band together to triumph over adversity. Watching Season 4, you can’t help but focus on Monteith’s character, who has now graduated and, after a failed stint in the army, is looking for his place in the world. It’s easy to read too much into Finn’s feelings of loss and displacement as he searches for a sense of belonging.
The main problem with this season is that many of the major characters have left William McKinley High, meaning the story lacks focus. For example, we still follow Rachel Berry (Lea Michele, Monteith’s on-screen love interest and real-life girlfriend) and Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) as they search for fame on Broadway in New York, cutting back to the high school dramas and show choir dilemmas. There are some distinctly clunky storylines employed to bring back yet more old characters for cameos and there’s a definite lack of screen time for Sue Sylvester (the wonderfully acerbic Jane Lynch). The musical numbers are undoubtedly cheesy but the majority still are effervescently entertaining fluff, even if the story does take the occasional wrong turn (the high school shooting episode, in particular, is a weird misstep). (Henry Northmore)
DVD EXTRACTION (Signature) ●●●●● VIDEOGAME MARIO & LUIGI: DREAM TEAM BROS. (Nintendo) 3DS ●●●●●
In this low budget sci-fi, Sasha Roiz plays Tom, a scientist working on a revolutionary system allowing individuals to enter another person’s memories; a technique allowing two linked users to dip into, explore and experience their recollections – with an obvious application being to enter the mind of an accused criminal to find out if they are actually guilty. However, during a test run on Anthony (Dominic Bogart), a junkie suspected of murder, Tom gets lost within his drug- ravaged mind, trapped in a computer glitch that he can’t escape. For his first feature, writer/director Nir Paniry
has come up with a smart, well thought-out central concept that plays with theories of how memory works (and can be tricked) as Tom drifts through the past trying to latch onto the truth. It’s not perfect, and stumbles a few times along the way, but the plot is worthy of, and often plays like, The Twilight Zone (though unfortunately the 80s reboot rather than the peerless 50s incarnation). (Henry Northmore)
It takes a long time for this Mario / Luigi team-up to become enjoyable. After a procession of wordy tutorials dominates the first few hours, the core gameplay finally emerges. And what springs forth is a surprisingly involving RPG adventure. You take control of the titular duo across Pi’illo Island, a holiday retreat for Princess Peach and friends. Much of the time is spent controlling both characters simultaneously around a series of 3D and 2.5D environments, battling monsters and solving puzzles. The breadth of gameplay is impressive, and the duality of the central pairing is often used in interesting ways. But it can be a real slog having to control both characters at once, especially when navigating platform sections.
While the backgrounds lack scale and it generally fails to impress visually, the jaunty soundtrack and quirky set of characters ensures the journey is an entertaining one. Unlike most 3DS titles, this is a deep and complex slow- burning adventure, best picked up when you have plenty of time on your hands. (Murray Robertson)
22 Aug–19 Sep 2013 THE LIST 29