GAMES
VELOCITY 2X
PS4
While the big release out there right now is Destiny, a sprawling multiplayer science-fiction shooter than reportedly cost $500 million to develop, the response so far has been a little lukewarm: epic, yes, but where are the startlingly original ideas? Put it down to difficult second album syndrome: bettering Halo was always going to be difficult, and clearly throwing money and vast teams of people at the problem doesn't necessarily do the trick. Which is why a game like Velocity 2X stands out. It's another sci-fi shooter – but this one is resolutely old-school with 2D graphics that wouldn't have looked out of place in a 1980s amusement arcade. The "story"? You run around, teleport through walls, shoot stuff, navigate maze-like maps and pick up goodies along the way … and like Sonic, Super Mario, the Metroid games and the original Velocity (which debuted on PSP in 2012) it's a slightly insane rollercoaster ride that's super-fast and absorbing without relying on shock and gore to keep your attention. AH
DVD
DRAFT DAY
Roadshow (M)
Kevin Costner always gets to play the dominant male – it's his default position. How else do you explain the 59-year-old actor getting to claim Jennifer Garner, 42, as his secret love interest in this movie? Ok, that point made, let's dive into this flick based on the politics of gridiron. If you don't care about American football or have no idea what it's about, this movie is not for you. This is an intense film about the events that occur on one day: the annual pro football "draft" of American college football stars. It's the day fortunes are made, team futures are decided and wheeling and dealing is the name of the game. Costner plays Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver jnr, who is faced with strategic manoeuvrings worthy of a top-level chess game. The awkward liaisons between Costner and Garner, who plays Ali, the Browns' in-house salary cap auditor, are the personal sub-plot; as well as Costner having fired his father as coach, and now his dad is dead. There are several real pro players in various roles, and many familiar faces, including Sean Combs, Sam Elliott and Rosanna Arquette. JK
CLASSIC
STAGE DOOR
Turner (PG)
Starring Katharine Hepburn as an heiress who moves into a New York boarding house for aspiring actresses, Gregory La Cava's 1937 comedy-drama contains more snappy comebacks per minute than just about anything you've ever seen. It's relevant that two of the writers, playwright George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, had worked with the Marx Brothers and, equally, that La Cava reportedly used transcripts of actual backstage conversations for "additional dialogue". The mood is that Depression-era mix of camaraderie and desperation, but more unusual is that the important relationships are between women: Ginger Rogers as a wised-up dancer brings the patrician Hepburn down to earth; precisely the service she had performed for Fred Astaire. JW
MUSIC DVD
Luke Escombe And The Corporation
Chronic Symphonic
MGM
What's not to like? Luke Escombe is funny and brave, a showman and an artist, a brilliantly engaging lyricist, expert tunesmith, fine guitarist and exceptional singer. Seldom is such sophistication wrapped in a coating of such overt fun. Even Escombe's most savage satire evokes a laugh rather than a snarl. The brilliant, heart-warming, rocking or funking songs are realised by a band that coats all it touches in class, capped by ingenious parts for string trio the Noise, penned by guitarist Aaron Flower. Chronic Symphonic is suite-like with its through thread of the sad, mad state we call the human condition. This live DVD includes the amusing videos that garnished the show, and is accompanied by a CD of the same material. Escombe has simultaneously released another highly recommended disc, Live On The Coast. Buy both. Hear him. I'd ask why he is not a major star if I didn't already know it was a lottery. JS
DVD
RUBY GENTRY
MGM (Unrated)
Conceived with a boldness that belies its low budget, this 1952 pocket epic belongs to a cycle of late career melodramas by King Vidor centred on passionate, unruly women. Jennifer Jones stars as Ruby, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks, who's proudly virtuous yet unapologetically sexual; a young Charlton Heston plays her paramour, ambitious property developer Boake Tackman, a role well-matched to his screen image as a carnivorous block of wood. Vidor's storytelling methods are anything but subtle, yet the meanings implied by his symbols are complex and startling, especially when the spurned Ruby wreaks revenge by despoiling the swamp land, owned by Boake, that is both her rival and a mirror of herself. JW
