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www.newcastlepost.com.au What’s on the... GAME I


f ever you needed an example of quantity over quality in the gaming world, you need look no further than the indie smash-hit, Minecraft.


While titles like Call of Duty and Mass Effect regale gamers with cutting-edge graphics and in-depth storytelling, Markus “Notch” Persson’s development epiphany eschews these conventions in favour of some unexpectedly addictive gameplay. Essentially, Minecraft is a massive


sandbox game that allows players to construct virtually anything from textured, 8-bit cubes. Players must mine various materials – dirt, cobblestone, wood, gold, etc to build a variety of things


Minecraft - Microsoft / Mojang XBLA


from tools to shelters and everything in between. The catch,


on anything but “peaceful” mode, is that an array of beasties – zombies, spiders and exploding malcontents called creepers come out at night, intent on ending your life. That’s it. There’s no story, no missions,


just one sprawling 8-bit world for you to explore. This port, from the PC version,


while not as expansive, is still a highly immersive experience.


DVD T


his reboot of


Sam


Peckinpah’s masterclass in tension is not a bad fi lm, per se, it’s just that, like Gus Van Sant’s shot-for-shot remake of Hitchcock’s Psycho, you have to wonder if a remake is at all necessary. Los Angeles screenwriter David


Sumner (James Marsden) relocates with his wife to her hometown in the deep, dark South. Upon their arrival, tensions quickly build in their marriage with old confl icts re-emerging with the locals, most of all Amy’s ex-boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard), leading to an explosive climax. On its own, without the Peckinpah


original, isn’t such a bad fi lm – with some genuine tense moments – but with Peckinpah in the picture, this pales in comparison. Marsden’s screenwriter Sumner is


a mere shadow of Dustin Hoffman’s mathematician – what could be considered Hoffman’s fi nest performance outside of Midnight Cowboy’s Ratso Rizzo. James Woods brings a certain menace to the role of football coach Tom Heddon.


Straw Dogs Out Now


The Night of the Hunter Saturday, 8.30pm ABC2


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WITH STEPHEN BISSET BOX


T


his brooding fi lm noir, directed by stage and screen legend Charles Laughton, in his only big screen directorial outing,


might have slipped under the radar when released in 1955, but, thankfully, now stands as one of the defi ning classics in the genre. Robert Mitchum stars as Harry


Powell – a religious zealot and killer who marries and murders widows for their money. On being arrested for car theft, Powell tries to get his condemned cellmate (Peter Graves) to reveal the location of the $10,000 he stole. Only the cellmate’s children know


the location of the money and, after he is executed, Powell heads to the cellmate’s home to court his widow, Willa (Shelly Winters). Mitchum is absolutely fantastic as


the evil Powell, turning in possibly the best performance of his career. Who could forget those iconic love and hate tattoos scrawled across his knuckles? It’s a pity that Charles Laughton did not make more of a directorial career as he created nothing short of a masterpiece with Night of the Hunter.


28


Wednesday, May 16, 2012


The Newcastle Post


THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT


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