I’ve not been able to get to cinemas for a while due to a large work commitment over the last two months. So I have not been able to catch many of the new releases as I would have liked. However, I have finally gotten a chance to get back into the movies, and wow, what a film to come back to.
So to set the scene, Zoe (Rose Matafeo) and Tim (Matthew Lewis) are a couple who work together as arborists. Zoe spends most of her days climbing trees and she is good at it, as in she qualified for internationals for climbing trees. They are the last of their group of friends to have a baby, which is fine for them because they have a lot of work and internationals to look forward to … which of course means that it is the perfect time for Zoe to discover that she is expecting.
Do you know what I needed this week? I needed a bit of fun, you know what I think a lot of people need this week, a little fun, well, have I got news for you. It has been great over the last couple of years to see Pasifika Cinema go from strength to strength and today we get to look at another entry into the great canon.
So to set the scene, we open in on the great Baron To’a (John Tui) himself as he does a tour of his home and local cul–de–sac Kinlock Ave. He is the heart of the local community and he is most proud of his son Fritz (Lotima Pome’e). However, it cannot last and twenty years later when Fritz (Uli Latukefu) returns to help sell his house after his uncle Otto (Nathaniel Lees) stops returning his calls he finds that the sac is a very different place than what he remembered.
TL;DR – A look at what happens when the competing interests of money and family collide
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
Today we get to dive back into the world of Pasifika Cinema as we explore a
film that takes on themes like tradition v modernity, brother v brother, money
v family, and honour v fun. However, all of this is tempered by a comedic style
that is unique to this part of the world and a heart that just shines.
So to set the scene, Popo (Ronnie Taulafo) and Alama (Vito Vito) are brothers
living in rural Samoa working for their father planting, harvesting, and
selling taro. Alama dreams of ways to make things easier for his family, even
if it does not always go right, and Popo just dreams of getting out of the
country. Well that opportunity arrives when they need labourers in New Zealand
and both Alama and Popo get the chance to earn some more money for home. They
spend their days picking kiwifruit and all is going well until the day they
have to leave and Popo runs off, with both his and all of Alama’s money.
As time marches on there are three things that remain inevitable, death, taxes,
and Netflix will drop another adorable romantic comedy on you when you least
expect it. Now while we hope your day is not filled with the first two, the
question that we will try to answer is if it should be filled with the third.
So to set the scene, Gabriela (Christina Milian) works in an investment firm in
San Francisco and is getting ready for her first big pitch only to get stuffed
over by her dude-frat-bro colleagues. Well, time to regroup, but then the company
she works just collapsed and then she finally realised that her wanker of a boyfriend
has severe commitment issues. Well time to smother your sorrows in ice cream
and then sign up to what is clearly a scam to win an inn in New Zealand. Well
surprise she won the inn, but like all things the profile pictures on the
internet can be misleading.
Civilization Leader: Kupe Civilization Capital: Te Hokianga-nui-a-kupe Civilization Bonus: Mana – Begin the game with Sailing and Shipbuilding unlocked, +Stregth & Movement to Embarked Units, Bonus production to unimproved Woods and Rainforest. Fishing Boats provide +food and culture bomb adjacent tiles, but can not build Great Writers. Leader Bonus: Kupe’s Voyage – Begin the game on an Ocean Tile, first city gets a free builder + 1 population, Palace gets bonus Housing and Amenity, Science and Culture production starts before you settle your first city. Unique Unit: Toa – Enemy units adjacent get – Combat Strength. Can build the Pā – Built on Hills, + Defence Bonus and Healing for units that end their turn on it. Unique Building: Marae – +Culture and Faith to a city tiles with a passable feature. +Tourism after Flight. No Great Art Slots Mountain Ranges: Tiritiri-o-te-moana,
Māori Analysis
Today the Maori join Civilization 6 in the Gathering Storm expansion.
The Maori have appeared before in Civilization 5 as part of the Polynesian Civ, with both Maori Warriors as their unique unit and several locations appeared on the Polynesian City List. However, this is the first time they have been the focus of a civilization in the Civilization series.
Their big bonus is that you can get some time to float around the ocean and pick your best first city site without being penalised, this gives the Māori an incredible flexibility.
Māori First Look
You can check out all the Features in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm HERE and join in the discussions at the Civfanatics Forums
By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.
What Civs would you like to see in Civ 6 Gathering Storm?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.
TL;DR – At times hilarious, at times incredible farcical, and at times a deeply moving look at the trials of friendship.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene
Review –
For a long time, there has been this growing bubble of particular dry absurdist comedy coming out of New Zealand. You see it in the work of Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, Rhys Darby, Rachel House, and also some of Peter Jackson’s early films. These are films that mix comedy and emotional understanding in equal measures. Whenever one of these movies like Hunt for the Wilderpeople (see review) or Hibiscus & Ruthless (see review) make it across the ditch I always really look forward to seeing it. Well, today we get the chance to look at a new entry into this wonderful genre The Breaker Upperers, from the comedic team of Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek.
TL;DR – A beautiful, funny film of charting family expectations
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit sequence as the credits roll
Review –
‘Families are complicated’, I think that is a phrase that just about anyone in the world can relate to. There is pressure to conform to your parents wants, and there is pressure to try and help the next generation succeed more than you did, and sometimes those two drives crash into each other in explosive fashion. Today we will be looking at a film that deals with just this very issue, as we explore this fascinating film from New Zealand from the same creative team behind Three Wise Cousins. There will be laughter, there will be tears, and there will be bread rolls on people’s heads for some reason.
TL;DR – Some of the best car chases I have seen, but this is coupled with a story that just doesn’t work all that well
Score – 3 out of 5 stars
Review –
So this is a bit of a perplexing film because there are some parts that really work, they pull you into this world, and you be sitting there having a ball watching it unfold. However, then the story, or lack of story, or some other factor rears its head and yanks you right out of the film. This creates a dissidence that on the one hand makes it difficult to review, but on the other makes the film interesting to dissect. So since I’m a cup half full kind of person, we will look at what worked before explore some of the film’s issues, however, before we dive into all that jazz, let’s set the scene.
TL;DR – A beautifully filmed story, with real depth and heart, a great cast, and more so since the Lord of the Rings makes the most out of its New Zealand setting
Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars
Review – Wow, people had recommended ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’ to me, but nothing prepared me for just how good it would be. It runs the gamut of emotions from humour to sadness, from absurdity to quiet contemplation, from grief to rejoicing. Wilderpeople tells the story of Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) who is a general problem child and on his last chance when he is sent out into the bush to live with Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and Hec (Sam Neill). Bella is a loving woman who takes an immediate shine to Ricky even though Paula (Rachel House) the social worker insists he is a problem case. Hec is a more gruff character that seems to more tolerate than actual like Ricky. It is within this framework that we get the motivation for act two and three when people are propelled forward and have to fight for what they believe in.
TL;DR – It is a film that treads over very familiar ground, the ‘fish out of water’ scenario, however, it has a sense of humour and identity that elevates it above many of its contemporaries.
Score – 3 out of 5 stars
Review –
This is an interesting little film, I didn’t really know anything about it going in and had not seen a single trailer, so I was intrigued to see how it would end up. Three Wise Cousins tells the story of Adam (Neil Amituanai) who lives in suburban Auckland with his parents and is doing pretty much nothing other than playing his PlayStation and sleep. One day he stumbles across the woman of his dreams Mary (Gloria Ofa Blake) and overhears that she is only interested in island boys. So Adam decides to drop everything and visit his cousins Tavita (Fesuiai Viliamu) and Mose (Vito Vito) in Samoa to learn how to be an island boy so he can impress Mary. Of course, once Adam gets there he finds out it is more than he bargained on as Mose and Tavita play a kind of good cop, bad cop, to get Adam to … well then that is the crux of the film so I won’t spoil it here.
TL;DR Movie Reviews and Analysis 