A harrowing dark comedy about a collapsed marriage. A savage satire of media sensationalism. A meticulous police procedural. And a sleek neo-noir thriller. Gone Girl from director David Fincher confidently splices
Browsing: Weekend
Sony’s PlayStation 4 (PS4) has sold more than 10m units to consumers since its launch in November last year, while Microsoft’s Xbox One has struggled to muster 5m sales to retailers during the same time. Is Microsoft still being unfairly punished for
In The Equalizer, the life of a Russian mafia henchman is nasty, brutish, short, and often terminated at the sharp end of a gardening tool wielded by its 60-year old star, Denzel Washington. As a retired secret service operative who protects the helpless
In the world of videogames, few companies have as long or vivid a history as Nintendo, which turns 125 years old this week. Founded in 1889 as a producer of toys and playing cards, the company is quite distinct from the typical perception of Japanese firms that have become global players
Much of the excitement of fantastical and science fictional worlds is the sense of history they have, their depth, and the joy of sharing them with others. Whether it be Star Trek, Star Wars or Back to the Future, they remain sacred spaces, oases of magic to which we can escape. And if these worlds are
As the UK’s largest gaming festival, Insomnia, wrapped up its latest event on 25 August, I watched a short piece of BBC Breakfast news reporting from the festival. The reporter and some of the interviewees appeared baffled at the huge popularity of “videogame livestreaming”, otherwise
In June 2013, at a University of Southern California event with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg predicted an implosion of the film industry. The failure at the box office of “tentpoles”, mega-budget movies that are designed with potential sequels in mind and anchor a studio’s release
Based on a relatively obscure crew of characters in the Marvel comic book universe and made for a reputed budget of US$170m, Guardians of the Galaxy qualifies as a brave bet in today’s world of blockbuster film-making. It’s an exuberant B-movie with A-scale production values; a goofy cosmic adventure that disarms cynicism through
I’m trying to figure out why I’m so disheartened with the movies this season. It’s true that the northern hemisphere summer began badly. Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a disappointment. The aerial sequences at the
Though it’s not directly based on a videogame, the new Tom Cruise vehicle Edge of Tomorrow nails the aesthetics and feel of one more accurately than any film to come before it. It’s a variant on the Normandy landing level so favoured by designers of first-person shooters, but handled with enough