Film review: Mega Time Squad

Film review 
Mega Time Squad
Stars Anton Tennet, Hetty Gaskell Hahn, Jonathan Brugh
Director Tim van Dammen
Certificate 18

’Thames, New Zealand. Population: 7,518 – and falling. Unless you’re Johnny, the new member of a local gang led by Shelton. He’s multiplying’.
That’s the attractive pitch for this microbudget comedy. 
Johnny is foiled in an attempt to double-cross Shelton at his own game of masterminding the sleepy town’s criminal underbelly. 
Our hero accidentally pinches an ancient bracelet with which he can turn back time – and creates multiple clones of himself. Johnny forms his own gang against Shelton’s and what unfolds is sporadically funny. 

Put another way, if Taika Waititi and Edgar Wright ever joined forces to make a movie for a few thousand dollars, the result might look like Mega Time Squad. 
It starts off wanting to be as cool and eccentric as Waititi’s Eagle vs Shark, or Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and eventually finds its feet. 
The cast are likeable, especially the hero and heroine, Anton Tennet and Hetty Gaskell Hahn, and the time travel element helps enormously. 
It’s a slacker comedy that could have done with more energy at times. And while the subtext abut a bullying gangster is so-so, it has a charm that grows on you. Seen after a few pints down the pub, I can see this developing a cult following. 
Writer/director Tim Van Dammen makes the best of a modest budget, and I imagine in a few years when he’s making studio pictures, this will be re-screened as one of those ’Look where he started out,’ films. 

The blu-ray is pretty crisp, and the director’s commentary should inspire anyone who wants to get a bunch of mates together and make a fun comedy. Cast and crew obviously had more fun making the movie than I did watching it, but that’s not a criticism. As a lover of New Zealand movies, this is an intriguing chapter in their booming film industry and I’ll be intrigued to see what van Dammen and his cast do next. 
7/10

Restaurant review: Moondance restaurant, Bonus Arena, Hull

Restaurant review 

Moondance restaurant, Bonus Arena, Hull

Roger Crow/@RogerCrow

“Well, it’s a marvellous night for a moondance…”.

For some that will be inextricably linked with Van Morrison, the first act at Hull’s Bonus Arena in the summer of 2018. For me it’s synonymous with one of my favourite films, An American Werewolf in London. But after one of those days where there’s barely five minutes for a break at work, and it seems to have been raining for 48 hours straight, I’m more than ready to try out the menu at their recently opened Moondance restaurant. 

We’re first to arrive at 6.30, and after being shown to said eatery, I’m impressed by the cool lighting, framed photos of recent acts (complete with tickets), and that opening sentence adorning one wall. It’s simple, elegant and very inviting. 

The fact the table numbers are displayed at the centre of vinyl singles is a great idea, and perfect for selfies, especially for those of us who are happy to hide behind such props. 

But what of the food? Well, as it’s one of those wet, bleak nights, steak and ale pie is a perfect choice on the set menu. Comfort food, with mash and vegetables. Simple and heartwarming. The shortcrust pastry is delicious, there’s no gristle in the chunks of steak and the gravy is excellent. No problems with the mash either. Creamy and moreish, while a superb counterpoint are the al dente carrots and broccoli. Gary, the head chef, really knows his stuff, and it’s not long before I’ve cleared my plate. Don’t get me wrong. I love a fancy dish with all the trimmings that pushes the culinary envelope. But sometimes you just want the old classics, and this ticks the boxes admirably. 

My partner Rachel’s vegetarian dish is a little more controversial, for her at least. 

When I cook I like to try different flavours, juxtaposing one with another to hopefully come up with something different. So she’s used to occasionally unusual dishes. 

I like her portobello mushrooms served with linguine and avocado pesto. It’s an interesting mix of flavours, and though pickled walnuts are a bold move which I like, Rachel’s not 100 per cent. It needs a little seasoning. Then again no two palates are the same, as the Marmite effect has proved. She admits she has meal envy, and I’m guessing if there was a veggie version of the pie, she’d have wolfed it. Personally I’d have been happy with hers, even though my dish was to die for. 

Dessert is homemade brownie and vanilla ice cream, and as someone who takes their chocolate-based puddings pretty seriously, I’m happy to say that’s a triumph also. Judging by Rachel’s empty plate, she agrees. The dessert is perfectly balanced with the brownie having just the right consistency, and the ice cream a great palate-cleanser in between mouthfuls. 

With a much needed cuppa, for me it’s the perfect meal. Portion control is spot on, the ambience is excellent, and the waitresses do a terrific job. 

As we head downstairs for our gig, I have that warm and fuzzy feeling which should pre-empt any show rather than the post-stress of queuing and security checks. If you like to make a night of it at any venue, then a meal beforehand on site is a great touch, and Moondance is a terrific place to experience. The fact we’d quite happily come back before the next gig speaks volumes. 

Obviously the menu varies throughout the week, and if you are vegetarian like Rachel, then the dishes need to be pre-ordered in advance, like the tables themselves. 

It’s one of the most engaging dining experiences of the year, and all the more welcome after days of rain. 

The legend on the wall was right. Regardless of the weather, it was a marvellous night for a Moondance. 

Film review: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

Film review

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

Starring Lily Collins, Zac Efron, Kayla Scodelario

Certificate 15

Director Joe Berlinger

In the late 1980s, Phil Collins starred in a biopic of ’Great Train Robber’ Buster Edwards. That ’feelgood’ bittersweet love story peppered with hit songs rightly incurred the wrath of many critics for the fact Buster sort of glossed over the devastating impact it had on the innocent folks involved. 

Now Phil’s daughter Lily Collins stars in Sky Cinema’s Ted Bundy biopic, a bittersweet love story which feels like the very poor relation to director Joe Berlinger’s amazing documentary Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. 

This is also peppered with the odd song, but while giving it a flavour of the era, it also gives the movie a sense of ’fun’. 

It’s a horribly misguided move which means whether intentional or not, you actually start rooting for the psychopath. And Bundy was definitely not some anti-hero robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. 

Obviously in a four-part doc there’s plenty of time to take a deep dive into the cesspool of Bundy’s mind, a man I knew nothing about until a few months ago when I sat through the Netflix series twice. 

With 105 minutes you can only deliver an edited ’lowlights version of Bundy’s life, and presenting it mostly from the point of view of his girlfriend Liz Kendall (Collins) was a good move. 

For the most part, Zac Efron gives a good turn as Bundy, the charming, crowd-pleasing serial killer whose crimes were so heinous and inhuman, it’s just a shame he was able to get away with anything more serious than a parking violation for so long. 

However, in an era when the US police didn’t have the benefit of the tech and resources they have now, not to mention the fact that they gave Bundy the sort of relaxed ’do what you like’ privilege while at a Colorado courthouse, Ted was allowed to continue with his pursuits. His leap from a second-storey library window and ability to vanish is shocking but true. 

And on that subject, any credibility this film might have had also goes out the window when Jim Parsons turns up as Larry Simpson, the Floridian legal eagle attempting to get the killer sent down. 

Now like many of the cast, he’s a fine actor who gives a great turn, but the baggage of playing Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory is so immense, it jeopardises what little suspension of disbelief the audience had. Unless of course they’d never seen the ubiquitous sitcom, in which case no problem. 

By the third act, John Malkovich shows up as Edward D Cowart, the judge presiding over the first televised legal trial of its type. Malkovich looks nothing like the actual judge, though he does sell the part well. 

(Actors of a certain age must love playing judges for the fact they can spend the whole shoot sat down). 

The trial turns into a media circus as Bundy plays to the cameras, and the court proceedings morph into a reality show years before the term was even coined. 

Haley Joel Osment, who wowed the world two decades ago in The Sixth Sense, also stars as Liz’s co-worker Jerry, along with Maze Runner/Pirates of the Caribbean veteran Kayla Scodelario as Bundy’s besotted lover Carol Anne Boone. 

Certain questions raised by the documentary are filled in here, such as how did Bundy and Boone manage to conceive a child while he was locked up. Maybe it did happen the way it’s depicted here, with the aid of a bribe, but that’s the thing about Bundy’s life. Regardless of his horrific crimes, and they were off the scale, so much of his deeds seem so fantastic and unbelievable that it’s hard to imagine it ever happened. 

It would be easy to call this Extremely Average, Shockingly Mediocre and Vile, but if it does nothing else but provide a gateway to the phenomenal Conversations with a Killer, then it’s not a complete waste after all. 

There is a good drama about Ted Bundy waiting to be made, but this isn’t it. 

5/10