Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2016 i Empire Australasia

SUICIDE SQUAD is here. At last. The anticipation lobe in my brain was fatigued from making so much excitement-juice. (Yes, I did consider a career in medicine if the magazine thing didn’t work out.) And it looks just exactly as bonkers as we’d hoped – but the real surprise, over the gestation of the movie, is how Margot Robbie has taken pole position as fan favourite. When the Suicide Squad line-up was confirmed last year, Will Smith was the first name mentioned in every story. Since then, Robbie’s Harley has eclipsed Smith’s Deadshot as Midway’s most wanted. Robbie has become one of the hottest names on Earth right now, thanks in part to Harley Quinn: it’s one of those perfect moments when an actor just clicks with a role, and…

“HOW DO YOU know you’ve gone too far until you’ve gone too far?” ponders John Michael McDonagh. “There’s no way of knowing, so you might as well write what you want and hope to get away with it.” Given that McDonagh is the writer-director of The Guard, in which Brendan Gleeson gleefully offended anyone in sight, and Calvary, in which the Catholic Church came in for a kicking, he’s already gotten away with a lot. But his new movie, mordantly funny cop thriller War On Everyone, pushes the boundaries like never before. “There are a few religious gags which are going to make people wince,” says McDonagh with a grin. “You’re always trying to get as many dark jokes in there as you can.” While his first two films were…

“MARRIAGE IS BUYING A HOUSE FOR SOMEONE YOU HATE.” JACKSON HEALY (RUSSELL CROWE) IN THE NICE GUYS “WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK I'M GAY? I'VE GOT A SOFT VOICE AND I WORE PINK SHORTS ONCE ON A FRENCH EXCHANGE.” BRENDAN (BRETT GOLDSTEIN) IN ADULT LIFE SKILLS “FACTS ARE HORRID THINGS.” LADY SUSAN VERNON (KATE BECKINSALE) IN LOVE & FRIENDSHIP “GET READY FOR A CLOSE ENCOUNTER, BITCH!” DYLAN HILLER (JESSIE USHER) IN INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE “I DON’T LIKE TO USE THIS PHRASE BECAUSE IT’S OFFENSIVE TO OUR KIND, BUTYOU ARE A BAD DOG.” MAX (LOUIS CK) IN THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS “CAN I COUNT ONYOUR VOTE? OR DO I NEED TO SHOVE A BOX OF WHITE HOUSE M&MS UP YOUR STRETCHED-OUT,…

Do you have a nickname? Salmita. It means “little Salma”. Do you have a signature dish? I don’t. I like to go to the market and start putting ingredients in my head and inventing the food. I’ve been experimenting a lot with curries, and I also do a chicken with the juice of olives and pickled lemons. I mix French and Oriental and Mexican… a little bit of everything. Am I making you hungry? What is the worst smell in the world? This is a good one, I’m very keen on smells. My dog, Lupe, was fascinated by skunks. She’d always find them and I’d have to wash the smell off with tomato sauce. Only tomato sauce works. But then she’d shake and I’d be covered in it. Skunk with…

Embrace seems like the kind of film younger people really should go and see… The overwhelming response we had from test screenings was “oh my gosh, my daughter has to see this” or “my son needs to see this”, because they live in this landscape of social media and photoshopped imagery and nothing is what it seems, and this film is the reality of life and I think that it highlights what’s important and what’s not. The film does a good job of showing how widespread the issue has become. It really surprised me. When I put the photo up and it went viral and about 7000 messages hit my inbox, it was really full on. And I remember thinking “Gosh, here am I experiencing my problem, but…

ACID FLOWER The Joker’s Swiss Army knife. In 1975’s The Joker, he burns ropes with it; in Tim Burton’s 1989 film he uses it to drop a church bell on Batman; in TV’s 1997 series The New Batman Adventures it melts Superman’s Kryptonite-proof suit. A PENCIL “How about a magic trick?” says Heath Ledger’s Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. You know what happens next. Screenwriter Jonathan Nolan came up with the idea; Ledger insisted it stayed. Magic, indeed. BANG GUN Not as harmless as it seems. Take Batman #321 and the 2000 feature Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker, in which henchmen are relieved to see the flag pop out instead of bullets. Then the flag shoots out, killing them. JOY BUZZER “It’s my lethal Joker buzzer!” says…

Christopher Walken is in love with the movies It explains why he’s in so many: 112 at the last count, starting with TV film Barefoot In Athens in 1966, right up to his upcoming comedy Nine Lives. That’s more than two a year, for 50 years — and doesn’t include the TV shows, plays, and even the occasional music video. And when he’s not making them? “I watch… a lot of… them,” he admits in distinctive staccato sentences (which we’ll only attempt to imitate that one time). “It’s almost always what I do on my day off. I like to go in the afternoon, when everyone else is having lunch. I like to get my popcorn, and just sit and watch. When I was shooting in Montreal. I saw the…

FROM NOW / RATED M / DIRECTOR Dan Trachtenberg / CAST Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, John Gallagher Jr Forget arthouse, this is real underground filmmaking JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you. When Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wakes up after a car accident, she finds herself inside a bunker built by survivalist Howard (John Goodman, or in this case John Badman.) He has rescued her, and another stranger, from a global catastrophe — or has he? Howard is clearly a nut. But is he also right? Is the bunker a haven, or a prison? Which is the frying pan, and which is the fire? Debut director Dan Trachtenberg keeps ratcheting up the tension, and if he’s perhaps less successful in building characters, he’s helped by some…

What attracted you to the role? I liked the character first and foremost. There’s a lot of depth and a lot of truth and a lot of backstory for me to delve into. At the same time I think it’s a commercially appealing genre. I like that it has all these heightened elements and they’re really fun to play. It’s about ghosts but it’s also grounded. Stories about a man coming to terms with loss and guilt, these are things that we all have to experience. It’s moving and smart storytelling. Is location also a big reason why you choose a project? It’s a bonus but I won’t not do a movie, at this point in my life, because it is in an undesirable place. It’s great if I’m dodging…

As a married couple, when you’re setting out to write something, do you set aside special time, or is it just something you knock out after breakfast? McCarthy: Yes, both. We finally got an office, so we finally feel like grown-ups. Usually we were writing on the dining room table, and we have two small kids, so there’s two creatures, actually, physically on the table while we’re trying to write. Or we would usually end up in our car, either in the drive-way or right down the street, literally like writing on napkins. Falcone: You know Melissa’s gotten very busy, which is amazing, and we’re so grateful for that — but now we do have to make the occasional appointment as well. So you’ve been performing the character of Michelle…

FROM AUGUST 25 / RATED PG / DIRECTOR OLIVER PARKER / CAST TOBY JONES, BLAKE HARRISON, MICHAEL GAMBON, CATHERINE ZETA-JONES Dud’s Army OVER NINE YEARS’ worth of Dad’s Army episodes, Captain Mainwaring attempted to turn a bunch of fools, kooks and geriatrics into a deadly fighting unit. Oliver Parker, director of this reboot, faced an even more formidable task. How to handle a brand viewed by many as fuddy-duddy, and by fans as untouchable? Rather than reinvent the roles, Parker and his team cast stars who closely resemble the original ensemble. Several of the picks are inspired. Toby Jones tones down Mainwaring’s meanness and plays up the physical comedy, displaying a hitherto untapped aptitude for chalkboard-based slapstick. Blake Harrison has a ball as iconic twit Pike. And Michael Gambon is…

FROM NOW / RATED MA15+ DIRECTED BY COLIN and Cameron Cairnes, the siblings behind horror-comedy 100 Bloody Acres, Scare Campaign is an altogether more serious affair as the crew of a TV prank show find themselves at the pointy end of proceedings when the cameras are turned on them. Channelling Peeping Tom at its most warped and throwing in a bunch of Slipknot lookalike snuff film fiends, Scare Campaign delights in twisting its You’ve Been Maimed set-up. Bonus star for the chainsaw-cam. EXTRAS Making-of, Q&A, more.…

1959 / FROM NOW / RATED PG A SAUCY, SWINGING remake of the 1958 musical, set amongst the strip clubs, street life and “expresso clubs” (teen hangouts) of 1950s London. Johnny Jackson (Laurence Harvey, from The Manchurian Candidate and father of bounty hunter Domino Harvey) is a talent scout who tricks teenage singer (and bongo player, thus the title) Bert Rudge (Cliff Richard) into a dodgy contract; Jackson turns out to be the less slippery of the two. But where the musical was a straight-up satire of the music industry, the movie is less biting, in part because songs written as mockeries are delivered as the genuine article from the tender pipes of a 19-year-old Richard. The movie veers from a teen flick to a screen musical in offputting ways;…

WIN! THE PEOPLE VS. O.J. SIMPSON ON BLU-RAY IT’S ALL HERE! THE highway chase that changed television, that glove, the dirty tricks, John Travolta’s eyebrows. Ten lucky winners will witness all in this epic event TV... erm, event. But do they reveal whodunnit? TO ENTER, TELL US WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE BIOPIC, AND WHY WIN! DAVID BOWIE: THE MAN WHO STOLE THE WORLD ON DVD PAYING TRIBUTE TO the life and career of the legendary David Bowie, this new doco explores the singer’s musical personas, his legacy and his final masterpiece Blackstar. We have 10 copies on DVD to give away to all the young dudes. TO ENTER, TELL US WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE DAVID BOWIE SONG, AND WHY WIN! TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES TICKETS AND PIZZA! COWABUNGA DUDES! On September 9…

IT THINKS IT’S PEOPLE Firstly, thank you. Your magazine keeps me firing along and dedicated to filmmaking. I have a suggestion for your thoroughly enjoyable ‘50 Greatest Sci-Fi Moments’ (issue #184). At #18 you have the T-1000 walking through bars from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Indeed it is a crafty moment and we all felt the squish, but T2 has another moment — among many — which I truly believe is in the top five greatest moments in sci-fi film history: the phone call between the two machines (T-800 and the T-1000) pretending to be John Connor and his foster mother. It’s subtle and it almost slips by because there are no explosions, aliens or CGI effects (except the great milk carton lancing). With every viewing it grows more spine-tingling…

1_ IT’S UNFILTERED Last time director Paul Schrader made a film with Cage, Dying Of The Light, he claims it was taken away from him and re-edited by the financiers. This time, Schrader had full control, and the result is a lurid, low-budget, splashy riot, featuring exploding heads, piles of corpses and a coke-addled Willem Dafoe. “The moment you say, ‘Let’s think outside the box,’ you’re already in the box,” says Schrader, enigmatically. “So I wanted to put together a team that didn’t know there was a box. I had final cut and nothing was forbidden.” 2_ IT UNLEASHES CAGE For the second time (after Face/Off), Cage plays a man named Troy. For the second time (after Raising Arizona), he’s involved in a plot to steal a baby. Here,…

EXCELLENT GOOD OKAY POOR AWFUL OUT NOW RATED TBC / 120 MINS. DIRECTOR Justin Lin CAST Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin PLOT After answering a distress call in deep space, the Starship Enterprise is drawn into a trap by the mysterious Krall (Elba). Stranded on a barren planet, can Captain Kirk (Pine) and his crew find a way to save the universe? ROSES RARELY LOSE their bloom as quickly as Star Trek Into Darkness. Well received on release, JJ Abrams’ sequel has since undergone a re-evaluation. It was voted worst Trek movie ever by one group of Trekkers, and has been criticised for being too dark, and for simply not feeling like a Star Trek movie. Star…

OUT AUGUST 4 / RATED TBC / 90 MINS. DIRECTOR Rachel Tunnard CAST Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Jane Horrocks, Julia Sawalha, Jon Hamm, Mark Gatiss, Celia Imrie BRITISH SITCOMS FACE particular challenges when they attempt the big screen, since the charm of UK comedy is that it tends to be small scale, low-budget and full of interestingly unglamorous people. Ab Fab largely escapes that parochial feel thanks to its implausibly wealthy fashion setting, yet this chaotic stumble onto the big screen somehow still comes close to disaster. A one-two of fashion shows set up the plot and bristle with celebrity cameos. But as with Zoolander 2, quantity does not guarantee quality. Given that the stars involved seem willing to send themselves up it’s a shame that it feels haphazardly improvised…

What drew you to Newton Knight’s story? He was a man who fought injustice where he found it, whatever the consequences. One of the important things the film does is to show that when the Civil War ended, instead of freedom being attained, there was an attempt to reinstate the plantation system and freedom had to be fought for all over again. It’s a period of American history that a lot of people don’t know about. How has the Civil War has been served by Hollywood? It was a lot easier for us to deal with Vietnam, even 10 years later, than it has been for us to deal with the Civil War. Do you think Free State Of Jones will help dispel preconceptions from movies…

OUT 18 AUGUST / RATED TBC / 89 MINS DIRECTOR János Edelényi CAST Brian Cox, Coco König, Anna Chancellor, Emilia Fox, Karl Johnson, Andrew Havill THE STORY OF the bond between a theatrical knight suffering from a rare form of Parkinson’s and his Hungarian cleaner with stage aspirations is ideal Sunday night drama — if only it had the courage to maintain its convictions. The cantankerous Cox and no-BS König work well together, with Cox relishing the reams of Shakespeare in a script he’d worked on. Sadly their relationship drama reaches its full potential halfway into the film, and from then it descends into whether he’ll accept a lifetime achievement award where the main obstacle is an unusually stark depiction of incontinence. There’s good stuff here, but the filmmakers seem…

50. DRACULA CHRISTOPHER LEE (DRACULA, 1958) Hammer’s suave, ruthless Dracula was in many ways the defining role of Christopher Lee’s career: most of his life would be spent playing versions of the Count, elegant figures capable of terrifying violence. His towering height and deep voice made his Dracula an intimidating presence even before the blood started to flow. WICKED WORDS: “Sleep well, Mr Harker.” 49. VITO CORLEONE ROBERT DE NIRO (THE GODFATHER PART II, 1974) The Godfather vote was split between Brando, Pacino, De Niro, James Caan and Gastone Moschin, so it’s intriguing that only Young Vito scrapes the Top 50. But perhaps it’s the spiky energy and unstoppable drive that De Niro brings to the focused gangster as he violently rises to the challenges of a life of crime.…

DAVID BERNT IS SORELY MISUNDERSTOOD. At least that’s what Ricky Gervais believes. During its brief, perfect existence The Office (2001-2003) redefined the tone and language of sitcoms, fast-tracked its unknown creator to comedy’s top table and made the Wernham Hogg branch manager Britain’s most memorable comic grotesque since Basil Fawlty. For Gervais, however, Brent was never the man you love to hate. His sympathetic moments, such as when he was made redundant, may have been few and far between, but they were essential. “I always wanted to pull the rug out from under people,” says Gervais, drinking tea in a London hotel. He’s trim and energetic in his usual off-duty uniform of black T-shirt and jeans. “When people said, ‘Oh, he’s the boss from hell,’ well, he’s not. Hitler was…

AMID THE SNOW-CAPPED MOUNTAINS and sprawling pine forests of Valdez, Alaska, in May 1993, Steven Seagal was taking charge. For the first time in his career, the martial artist-turned-action star commanded his own crew, having been handed the reins to a $50 million Warner Bros picture, On Deadly Ground. This was a passion project for Seagal: an action movie with an environmental conscience, combining the martial-arts aggression for which he had become renowned, with a political cause that was close to his heart. It was also an ambitious balancing act, involving an arduous five-week location shoot requiring explosions, gun battles, oil fires and sled chases. The locations were remote, often inaccessible by road and in a subarctic environment where the snowfall averaged 300 inches a year. Seagal and his crew…

FROM AUGUST 17 / RATED R18+ / DIRECTOR Jeremy Saulnier / CAST Patrick Stewart, Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shakat When green turns a very bloody shade of red… PATRICK STEWART’S chillingly controlled performance in Blue Ruin helmer Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room obliterates Captain Picard into space: Trekkies, you’ve been warned. Playing Darcy, the bespectacled, softly spoken owner of a neo-Nazi punk venue draped in confederate flags, his conflict resolution method is unleashing ravenous attack dogs. Playing a deadshit gig at said venue, hard-drinking rapscallions The Ain’t Rights (Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, Callum Turner) poke the bear playing The Dead Kennedy’s Nazi Punks Fuck Off. Afterwards in the green room, unease moves to pants-shitting fear, as the unsuspecting musos witness a brutal murder. The killers lock the door.…

FROM NOW / RATED MA15+ / DIRECTOR Robert Eggers / CAST Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger Something wickedly good this way comes… UPON ITS RELEASE, The Witch was hailed by many as a modern horror masterpiece. The only people it didn’t seem to impress, however, were self-described “horror fans”: The Witch was too slow; not scary enough. While the film didn’t jive with purists’ definition of the genre — jump scares, gore, a hefty body count — it did manage to tap into a vein of horror that has been dormant: one that pushes psychological torment and a slow build of dread until it conjures a nightmarish bridge between our world and a much darker one that lays just underneath. Think more The Shining;…

FROM AUGUST 11 / RATED MA15+ MICHELLE DARNELL REPRESENTS the kind of boundary-free characters Melissa McCarthy does well and the tale of a Trump-alike braggart mogul rebranding after an insider trading scandal does offer some funny moments. Kristen Bell brings her typical charm to ex-PA Claire as a reliable straight woman for McCarthy to generally abuse, Peter Dinklage goes full ham as preening one-time-lover-turned-corporate-nemesis and there’s a great, mad street clash between competing cookie selling factions. But like a poorly mixed batch of biscuits, the varied tones leave a bitter taste in the mouth. EXTRAS Extended edtion.…

WEAPON I love weapons, so it’s tough to really pick a favourite. There are some pistols that I’ve loved, but man… Machete’s machete. It’s such a close weapon, and so much a part of him. I did a French movie called Le Jaguar , with Jean Reno and Patrick Bruel. I had to throw this spear, and it was a lot harder than we thought. The damn thing weighed 25kg. Not my favourite, but still fun! AUDITION I walked into Robert Rodriguez’s office when I first met him, for Desperado. He said, “Wow, you remind me of the bad guys in my high school!” I said, “I am the bad guys in your high school!” That was the start for us. I’ve done 11 films with him…

LOUIS JOLIN – 10 CITIZEN KANE What did you think of Citizen Kane ? I thought it was pretty good and interesting. I liked how you find out what Rosebud is and the story behind it, but the characters don’t necessarily do. It’s not exactly tragedy, but it’s not like, “Yay happy Hollywood ending.” Why did you think it was important that Rosebud was the sled? ’Cause it was the last thing he did before he was taken from his family and he never saw them again. I liked the Kylo Ren-style strop he throws when his wife left him. Who does the best strop — Kylo Ren or Charles Foster Kane? Well, Kylo Ren does have a lightsaber. He’s colourful and when he does it he’s in…

1974 / FROM NOW / RATED R18+ RELEASED UNDER THE reprehensible moniker Rape Squad back in 1974, trashy Act Of Vengeance, directed by Robert Kelljan (Count Yorga, Scream Blacula Scream), puts the grind back into grindhouse with a sleazy revenge tale that pre-dates “classics” of the sub-genre I Spit On Your Grave and Abel Ferrera’s Ms. 45. Featuring a hockey mask wearing rapist called Jingle Bells, this exploitative proto-Charlie’s Angels has a girl power message lurking beneath the queasy melodrama, in particular male chauvinist police response to sexual assault, but all this evaporates when the scantily clad squad begin their violent crusade against pimps, rapists and men in general. Sticking it to the man was never meant to be like this. EXTRAS Jennifer Lee-Prior interview, commentary, trailers, deluxe 48-page booklet.…

FROM AUGUST 3 / RATED M BASED ON THE MEMOIR by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, The Untouchables stoked controversy when it was broadcast into homes in the late-’50s / early-’60s. Hard-boiled wisecracks, tough-talking hoodlums, prostitution and burlesque delights weren’t the norm, and The Untouchables unapologetically revels in the seedy underbelly of prohibition-era Chicago. Robert Stack, who won an Emmy for his role as do-gooder Ness, leads a crack team of “untouchable” agents to clean the streets of The Windy City from booze in a show that still thrills in its execution, driven by Walter Winchell’s histrionic voiceover. Pacy, exciting and surprisingly gritty, The Untouchables never loses its grip over four seasons, and that deserves a drink. Cheers. EXTRAS None.…

OUT NOW / PS4, XB1 DIRECTOR Dave Hosier CERTAIN THINGS, SUCH as Global Hypercolor T-shirts and the Spice Girls, are ’90s relics that are happily yet to be revived in the modern day. Sadly, the same thing cannot be said about Carmageddon. Pitched as a video-game take on Death Race 2000 on its release in 1997 (albeit without the licence), this fourth game in the series is as gleefully violent as ever — bodies explode in a mass of blood and limbs as you hit them. The problem is, it still lacks any attempt at satire to justify this carnage. Instead its raison d’être seems to be simply to offend — witnessed in the names of the power ups and the gameplay, which has you mowing down pedestrians, cows or…

I FIND IT IRONIC that with this month’s issue of Empire (issue #184) you had a short article in ‘Premiere’ on magazine articles that were turned into movies. Because if there was any article that I’ve read in your magazine that should at least get a documentary film, it’s your article on the competing stuntmen, ‘The Fall Guys’. Well written with drama, tragedy and two men competing in the macho adrenaline world of who can do the biggest fall. Compelling reading and such a shame it lead to the deaths of two masters of their craft. MITCHELL HALL, ASQUITH, NSW EVERY letter printed this month scores a DVD of Pelé: Birth Of A Legend, about the childhood of the soccer legend. Gooooooooal!…

“PEOPLE ALWAYS WANTED more of those characters,” says producer Andrew Macdonald, midway through production on the long-awaited sequel T2: Trainspotting 2. “But it took a while for the distance to be sufficiently interesting. It’s not just a straight sequel. It needed everybody to be ready for that.” Bolstered by Danny Boyle’s scintillating, Scorsese-meets-Alan Clarke visuals and the dark wit of John Hodge’s script, Trainspotting’s study of the nihilistic lifestyle choices of Edinburgh heroin addicts burst into the zeitgeist in 1996. The film’s devotees have long itched to see more of Renton (Ewan McGregor), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Spud (Ewen Bremner) and ultra-violent Begbie (Robert Carlyle), but Boyle remained insistent that none of them, actors nor filmmakers, were yet old enough. “You are dealing with characters 20 years later,” says…

BUSTER MOON __ MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY “Buster owns a theatre which isn’t doing so well, so he decides to put on a big singing competition. His main personality trait is this unbelievable optimism. Everything’s out of his league, but that does not stop him at all. Which is why I went for a small animal, and [Illumination Entertainment boss] Chris Meledandri and I just flipping love koalas. I wanted Matthew because he’s got this lyrical, colourful voice that I hadn’t heard before in animation. There’s also a lot of energy: he’s a pretty fierce bloke.” ASH __ SCARLETT JOHANSSON “Ash begins the film in a relationship with another porcupine: they’re this punky-goth duo. But her boyfriend is just a jerk who takes every opportunity to crush her enthusiasm. Ash was inspired…

OUT 19 AUGUST / CERT 15 / 80 MINS DIRECTOR David F Sandberg CAST Teresa Palmer, Maria Bello, Alexander DiPersia, Billy Burke LIGHTS OUT, GHOST appears. Lights on, it’s gone. Building on the simple, strobing premise of his viral YouTube short, David F Sandberg’s fear-of-the-dark debut is a lean, mean scare-machine that torches the nerves for 80 memorable minutes. Under attack: Teresa Palmer’s dysfunctional family, mercilessly stalked by a shadow-dwelling spirit — a lurking silhouette with glowing eyes, Nosferatu nails and a punishing backstory to justify the malevolence. While Sandberg has a wicked gift for ambushing audiences with jump-scares, it’s his human touch that really strikes: all his characters are flawed and damaged but hugely likeable, making the ordeal cut all the harder. One of the year’s best horrors.…

HISTORY Midway is a bustling hub in the state of Michigan. We can trace our roots all the way back to the 17th century when we were a trading post for fur trappers, growing exponentially through the Industrial Revolution until it became the Midway City we know today. Our vibrant, diverse population (800,000 at the last census) even includes prominent citizens from the planet Thanagar. FAMOUS RESIDENTS Gotham has the Batman and Metropolis has Superman. Here in Midway we’re proud to be the base for the various heroes to have adopted the mantles of Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Hawkwoman. The city was also the former home of the controversial Doom Patrol. For sports fans, Midway is proud to host the Chiefs (baseball), the Cardinals (football), the Sprints (basketball) and the Wolverines…

OOH LA LA There’s a ’70s campfire warmth to this folk-rock opener. Travelling salesman Brent is keen to show off his worldly wisdom: the Skynyrd-style Southern rock recollects a romantic road trip from Memphis to Acapulco. Brent doesn’t seem to treat his “Señorita” that well, but it’s tuneful. 3/5 FREE LOVE FREEWAY The Fleetwood Mac-influenced Free Love Freeway is another tale of Brent’s seductive charms. His soulful voice and sunshine harmonies are great, but the sexual metaphors — all purring engines and pumped tyres — are a little dated. 3/5 LIFE ON THE ROAD The title track’s jagged rock ’n’ roll is reminiscent of early Oasis. It marks a shift from the tales of breezy US escapades to a frantic tour of B-grade UK towns: Sidcup, Ipswich and Gloucester are…

ON THE POWER OF THE MIND “You can’t have a universe without the mind entering into it. Every thought has a frequency. Thoughts send out a magnetic energy.” ON DIVINE INTERVENTION “A white dog showed up in my dojo one day and just wouldn’t leave. He stayed for maybe a week, then one night he started barking. I came out and the front of the dojo was on fire. The next day he was gone. I don’t know who that dog was or what he was, but he saved my life.” ON GENGHIS KHAN “I don’t know that I have anything in common with Genghis Khan, other than that he was the most brilliant military strategist in the history of mankind. He was a very, very smart man.” ON SCREENWRITING…

01.05 CHILDREN IN THE CORN __The film begins with the band, The Ain’t Rights, waking to discover they have fallen asleep and driven off the road, crashing into a corn field. “That shot we planned for weeks,” explains Saulnier. “It was so important, visually, to get the crane that high in the middle of nowhere. That was no small feat for an indie film. We had to buy two acres of corn. We pushed the shoot to accommodate all the actors’ schedules, and we missed the harvest season! It was already rotting by the time we shot it!” 07.57 MEXI-CAN’T __Saulnier spent his youth in the punk/hardcore music scene. ”I certainly pulled from my own experiences,” he reminisces. “The Mexican restaurant for example. That was a gig I played personally.…

FROM AUGUST 3 / RATED M AN AUSTRALIAN WRITER-DIRECTOR with an affinity for the supernatural (he wrote The Rite and Possession), Michael Petroni skilfully teases out odd ghostly happenings in his latest directorial effort Backtrack. It’s a suitably creepy mystery-thriller whose paranormal elements may too closely evoke The Sixth Sense and/or prove too much for some to swallow, but a top-notch cast (Adrien Brody doing a commendable Aussie accent, Sam Neill, Jenni Baird) ensure this tale of buried family secrets and ghosts from the past offers genuine frights and intrigue. EXTRAS Behind-the-scenes, interviews.…

FROM AUGUST 3 / RATED R18+ / DIRECTOR Ilya Naishuller / CAST Sharlto Copley, Tim Roth Pointless of view FILMS WITH sections seen from a first-person viewpoint are nothing new. The Rock’s video game adaptation Doom did it more than a decade ago. Lady In The Lake, a Raymond Chandler adaptation, was shot entirely like that, and that was in 1947. Still, it’s rare enough to be proclaimed as a selling point, which is exactly what’s been done with Hardcore Henry — billed as the first action film to do it all the way through to avoid awkward Lady In The Lake pedantry. Henry, our protagonist (you, ostensibly), wakes up with no memory and no voice in a sci-fi operating room. The facility is attacked; Henry just manages to escape;…

FROM NOW / RATED PG MOVE OVER HARRISON Ford, the original fugitive is back! Running, quite literally, from 1963 to 1967, The Fugitive tells the redemption story of Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen): after being falsely convicted of murdering his wife, he goes underground to find the real killer, and run from Lt. Philip Gerard (Space 1999’s Barry Morse). Tight-lipped Janssen’s steely gaze perfectly complements this black and white production. With its voice of God narration provided by William Conrad (star of TV cop show Cannon), film noir style and everyman narrative drive, The Fugitive is a breath of fresh air in today’s CGI and superhero saturated market. EXTRAS Extended pilot episode with commentary, David Janssen on the Dinah Shore Show, interviews, featurettes, profile on composer Dominic Frontiere plus more.…

OUT NOW / 3DS DIRECTOR Yasunori Ichinose HUGE IN JAPAN in a ‘this game will sell your console’ kind of way, the Monster Hunter series has so far attained nothing more than cult status elsewhere. And while the 3DS-only Generations may not change that, it is a good starting point for newcomers wanting to test-drive the franchise as it incorporates some of the best elements from previous games. That’s not to say it’s a simple ride, as new players (or even ones who are a bit rusty) may find the first few hours daunting as they grapple with the game’s systems. But that’s all part of the challenge — and the enjoyment — as you strive to become a better hunter, able to tackle increasingly difficult beasts. And Generations is…