Drenge review: (Just over) a half hour of power

In a year dominated by mega-albums from music’s big names, the self titled debut album by Derbyshire duo Drenge may have slipped under your radar. Despite this, Drenge is a strikingly confident album which stands tall against the likes of The Arctic Monkey’s AM and Biffy Clyro’s Opposites as one of the best records of 2013.

The moment you hear the name, it’s obvious that Drenge is not going to be easy on the ear. And as soon as songs like I Wanna Break You In Half storm out of your CD player like a high speed train on steroids, the album’s tectonic heaviness seizes you and rarely loosens its grip for just over half an hour. The music is often phenomenally heavy for a band that lacks a bass player and features only one guitar, but the melodic strength favoured by other notable two-pieces such as The White Stripes can still be heard amongst the shattering riffs. The stripped down, no nonsense ethic of the band harks back to the early 90s grunge scene, and the lack of lyrical compromise, with themes of animal cruelty and violence, links to scene leaders Nirvana circa third album In Utero. Nirvana is clearly a huge influence, the loud-then-quiet dynamic honed by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is widely used, in addition to the fuzzy power chord riffs the band employed to such great effect on the iconic Nevermind. Despite the influence, the music rarely feels derived, with singer and guitarist Eoin Loveless (a remarkably appropriate, and genuine name) providing a unique vocal style and younger brother Rory giving a pounding, explosive performance on drums.     

Despite its uncompromising heaviness, Drenge features intelligent, thematic lyrical content dealing brutally with isolation, suppressed anger and a distain for emotion, particularly love. Indeed, this distain becomes such a theme that the final words of closer Fuckabout: “I don’t give a fuck about people in love/they don’t piss me off they just make me give up”, perfectly link to the opener People In Love Make Me Feel Yuck, bringing the record full circle in a shockingly bleak twist. Fuckabout is actually the antithesis of its title; the only point when the piece really slows down in a raw, acoustic number containing some of the most striking lyrics written all year. It’s by no means the only musical highlight though; 8 minute stomper Let’s Pretend and the brilliantly violent I Wanna Break You In Half are two of the year’s best tracks.

It’s always a shame when excellent albums from smaller bands fail to attract the attention they deserve, and no more so than with Drenge. It’s a brilliantly original and brutal album, featuring some of the best riffs and lyrics written by any band this year. It’s certainly a challenger to Biffy Clyro’s Opposites as my album of the year, and I’ve no doubt that we’ll be seeing a lot more of the brothers Loveless in the near future.

9/10

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug review: A pathetic part two

Adapting a children’s novel scarcely over 200 pages long into three mega-budget movies was always going to be a questionable decision on the part of Warner Brothers, but that’s by no means the only problem with Peter Jackson’s latest trilogy thus far. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug lacks almost everything that made Jackson’s incredible Lord of the Rings so fantastic, and as a film it’s about as close to an insult to J.R.R Tolkien’s iconic works as a movie that cost $225 million to make was going to be.  

Assuming that everyone has seen the first Hobbit anyway, the script jumps straight back into the story as mild mannered hobbit Bilbo Baggins and a company of dwarves continue their quest to take back the treasure stolen from their ancestors by the dragon Smaug. While Tolkien’s book didn’t spend too long dawdling on plot details, it’s immediately obvious that The Desolation of Smaug is taking it’s time, inevitable considering the combined films will clock in at over eight hours long. Individual scenes are gratuitously extended, culminating in the never-ending conclusion, which results in the movie overstaying its welcome by at least an hour. The sublime editing that made The Lord of the Rings coherent is totally missing here, removing all traces of excitement and tension from the affair and resulting in even the book’s strongest sequences becoming dull and predictable. It’s a disappointing mark of a sub-par script combined with lazy direction on Jackson’s part, and let’s face it: a fantasy film on such an obscene budget should not have been boring.

And being too long is not The Desolation of Smaug’s only issue. Character development is near nonexistent due to a reliance on soft jokes and lack of screen time rendering the majority of the twelve dwarves cardboard cut-outs, and the leads don’t fare much better with Martin Freeman’s excellent Bilbo underused and Ian McKellan’s Gandalf largely unseen. This results in total viewer indifference to the fates of the characters, so scenes which ought to wring with emotion become bland and clumsy. Compare this to Boromir’s shocking self-sacrifice in The Fellowship of the Ring and it’s obvious that Jackson has failed to recreate the bond between character and viewer during the transition between The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

And it doesn’t end there, as even the smallest problems are amplified due to the movie’s underserved hype and weight of anticipation. Cinematography has suffered; yes the aerial views of New Zealand’s mountain ranges are as stunning as ever but an occasional weak shot instantly destroys any sense of atmosphere; with several scenes which look like they were recorded on an iPhone submerged in water making for particularly grim viewing. Even the famed visual effects occasionally stumble, as several uses of magic look rather outdated by comparison to the phenomenally animated Smaug, also an excellent turn of voice acting by the great Benedict Cumberbatch. And a dire attempt to make the tale a little less sexist by introducing an utterly pointless female character seems completely contrived and near idiotic.

The Desolation of Smaug utterly fails to recapture the magic which rendered The Lord of the Rings trilogy three of the best films ever made, and is a colossal disappointment for any fan of Tolkien’s novels. It utterly misses the mark even more than the first Hobbit did, and it’s going to take something very special indeed from part three to save this inferior cinematic trio.

3/10

Strangeways Here We Come review: Is The Smith's final album their greatest work?

Following The Queen is Dead, without a doubt one of the best albums of all time, was always going be a tough job for Manchester quintet The Smiths. Strangeways Here We Come, their fourth and final record released in 1987, was a darker, more subtle piece of music, dividing critics but selling millions. Whether it ended The Smith’s short career with their best album is a debate which continues today, but there’s no doubt that Strangeways Here We Come features some of the best musical moments of the 1980’s.

By the time Strangeways Here We Come was released, The Smith’s had split up after years of tension between legendary singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr. But while you might expect this posthumous album to leak with the sound of a band falling apart, the record mysteriously represents The Smith’s at their most musically united. The songs are tight and generally short, several clocking in at less than three minutes long, creating a quick and fast-paced experience.  Musically this is the band at their best, with Morrissey’s dark lyrics and Marr’s soft, harmless music violently clashing in principle but creating a deep, rich sound which has been regularly imitated but never equalled.  This is particularly obvious on the album’s lead single, Girlfriend in a Coma, but it appears on the vast majority of the ten tracks in a less blatant form. The sardonic subtlety in Morrissey’s lyrics leads to some of the most striking moments of The Smith’s career, as “I still love you only slightly less than I used to” on Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before quietly mocking traditional ballads, and “If you should die I may feel slightly sad but I won’t cry” on Unhappy Birthday feeling as shocking and surprising as any expletive driven stanza from your run-off-the-mill heavy metal band.

This is not a perfect album however; it may be lyrically stunning but it lacks the charisma and variety that made The Queen is Dead so fantastic. The tension between music and lyrics is overused and becomes predictable in the record’s later stages, making the music less memorable and captivating. It also lacks the range of themes and styles which filled The Queen is Dead, and the overbearingly morbid lyrics and less interesting guitar parts make the album rather samey and forgettable by comparison to their previous effort.

Strangeways Here We Come is still an excellent record with plenty of great moments and some of the best lyrics ever penned. However, its limited themes and musical diversity prevent it from becoming the iconic classic that The Queen is Dead was.

7/10

Carrie (2013) review: A true reimagining or a revised edition?

Why remake Carrie? It’s a question which was doubtless on the minds of every film buff and critic upon hearing the news of the reboot of the Stephen King’s iconic debut novel of 1974. Carrie’s story has been embedded upon almost all aspects of the arts; the book itself; the legendary cult film (and abysmal sequel); even a Broadway musical, so it’s remarkable that no entrepreneurial Hollywood studio has opted to film the inevitable remake until now. But could anything hope to top the perverse, Oscar nominated brilliance of the 1976 original?

Surely the area where this remake truly excels in the casting of its leads, with Chloë Grace Moretz playing the ill fortuned Carrie White and Julianne Moore as her terrifyingly fundamentalist mother Margret. While Moretz, who honed her style playing strongly willed women (notably vigilante Hit Girl in Kick-Ass), lacks the pathetic desperation illustrated so beautifully and pitifully by Sissy Spacek in the original film, she plays the role with an emotional intelligence suggesting a great respect for both the 1976 movie and King’s book. Her performance as the naive girl seen for the first three quarters of the film couples brilliantly with the monstrous presence she becomes towards the conclusion, when she unleashes the kind of confidence and power which stole the show in Kick-Ass. It’s an excellent and intelligent change of direction for a very promising young actress. If Moretz takes an iconic character and makes it her own, Julianne Moore’s Margret is a little too similar to the version Piper Laure portrayed in 1976, but scenes of mental instability and self-harm create a slightly more pitiable and relatable character. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the cast don’t seem to have been chosen as carefully, with bullying ringleaders Chris and Billy in particular lacking the charismatic awfulness exhibited so despicably by Nancy Allen and John Travolta in the original film.

Carrie’s principle failure is that it sticks far too closely to the original film in its scripting. While the 1976 version added various famous sections to the source material, this remake includes them but makes few alterations of its own, a shame considering the various ways in which it could have been updated to the present day. In keeping much of the plot and dialogue the same, the film feels like a movie made in the 1970s transported to the present day, which dramatically damages its authenticity (communal showers in schools and teachers slapping students seem rather out of place in the modern setting). In not keeping up with the present, director Kimberly Peirce has missed an opportunity to update a classic story for a new generation, and consequently this remake feels rather wasted. In fact, aside from the setting, almost the only point in which it is obvious that the film was made in 2013 rather than 1976 is the notorious “black prom” sequence, where modern special effects are employed to gloriously gory effect. And while the film is perhaps more bloody and graphic than the original, it fails to create the atmosphere of tension that made the original so terrifying. Peirce’s direction lacks the ambiance that made Brian DePalma’s film so intense, relying solely on gore rather than mixing the contrasting techniques of hammer horror and building tension.

It’s still an enjoyable film, but 2013’s Carrie lacks the distinctive style that made the original so chillingly tense. Despite superb performances from the leads, the director is so in thrall of DePalma’s Carrie that little is added, and this is more of a revised edition than a reimagining.  

6/10

 

Carrie (1976) review: A gratuitous cinema classic

As a fresh remake of Stephen King’s first novel Carrie hits screens, it’s an ideal time to look back at a film now regarded as a landmark in horror cinema: Brian DePalma’s original. Released way back in 1976 to universally popular reviews, does this supposed classic hold up today against the movies it inspired and the wealth of other pictures based on King’s books?

The story of Carrie White (Sissy Spacek), a social misfit cursed with telekinetic powers, has become so ingrained in pop culture since the publication of the book that it hardly seems worth giving a full synopsis. Spacek is utterly outstanding in the lead role, giving a dark and tearful portrayal of the character unequalled across the genre and deservedly accruing an Oscar nomination. Carrie’s descent  from a normal girl to violent insanity is perfectly illustrated by Spacek, who presents a character confused and terrified by her horrendous experiences. Piper Laurie is also superb as Carrie’s fanatically fundamentalist mother Margret, and Nancy Allen is brilliantly hateable as school bully Chris.

One of the joys of DePalma’s direction is in bringing new life to a story which, although wonderfully written, wasn’t particularly original in the first place. A wealth of innovative techniques are employed to great effect; lengthy scenes in slow-motion build tension to the breaking point; dizzyingly spinning cameras and swift focus changes provide intimacy; and even DePalma’s liberal use of Hammer Horror (including the legendary screech screech noise) feels inventive and intelligent rather than clichéd. The director rarely forgets he’s making a horror film though, adding several jump-scares, notably the notorious ending, and increasing the gratuitous nature of certain scenes.

Having said that, the movie’s best sequence involves the calmer minutes proceeding Carrie’s breakdown. Shots which might have come out of any rom-com are juxtaposed with a swelling, foreboding score (the music is consistently excellent) with culminates with Carrie murderously falling apart, in itself a DePalma tour-de-force. And it’s scenes like this where DePalma and scriptwriter Lawrence D. Cohen hammer home the message that the disaster Carrie caused could easily been averted. And it’s here that you forget that this is a cheaply made horror film about a girl with an impossible power, because Carrie becomes a heart-wrenching tragedy to rival Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth.

It’s not often that a brilliant book is made into a brilliant film, but Carrie is one of those rare occurrences. Through superb pacing and great cast performances DePalma creates a movie that entertains, terrifies and spreads a message on bullying and social isolation all at the same time. It’s almost unarguably the best film to be based on a Stephen King novel, and it remains the horror classic that it became more than 35 years ago. As Jaws irrevocably altered our perception of the ocean, I’ve no doubt that no senior high school prom has been without a worried glance to the rafters to check for a precariously balanced bucket of blood since the release of Carrie.  

910

 

Misfits Season 1 review: A brilliant slice of black comedy

There are silly ideas, and then there are silly ideas. But Misfits is one of the silliest of them all; as a group of young offenders are exposed to a bizarre lightning storm, gifting them with a range of supernatural powers. It might sound like one of Stan Lee’s wet dreams, but against all the odds it works. Misfits is dark, violent and hilarious, and it’s one of the best teen dramas of the last decade.

One of the great joys of the programme is in drawing fantastic performances from its young cast. While the characters initially seem somewhat forced and clichéd (Kelly the chav, Simon the loner, Nathan the cocky git), Misfits spends plenty of screen time developing them and fleshing out their back stories, an impressive feat for a short series of just six episodes. Nathan particularly (played by the wonderful Robert Sheehan) becomes are extremely interesting and likeable character.

Another of the best things about Misfits is that it’s brilliantly funny. The scripts are unusually crisp and sharp for a Channel 4 series, giving the cast plenty of opportunity to bounce off each other with delirious black humour. It’s exceptionally dark stuff too, with bizarre deaths and violent crimes being uncompromisingly brought to the screen. Violence is frequent and graphic, with no episode being quite complete without at least one inevitable killing. The show’s gritty suburban setting combine with this violence to forge an atmosphere that can be at times terrifying, but it rarely becomes too intense, the action being broken up by the programme’s trademark brand of humour.

For me, where Misfits really makes an improvement over similar programmes is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s got a silly storyline and it knows it, with the script regularly taking the mickey out of how ridiculous it is.

 Misfits is, impressively, a great series full of great moments. It’s got excellent acting, stellar scripts and lashings of dark humour. It’s a show so wonderful and addictive that, when Nathan prophesises “by this time next week, it’ll be back to the same old boring shit”, you don’t for one moment believe him.

8/10

Gravity review: Overbudget, overacted and overblown, is this the film of the year?

When a studio shells out $100 million to make a movie, they don’t like to take risks. With so much cash riding on the success of a film, all too often a pointless, predictable mega-movie is filmed, released and quickly forgotten. And that’s what makes Gravity so special; it’s got a massive budget, A-list stars and enough special effects to give Avatar a run for its money, and yet it’s fantastic. More than Avatar however, Gravity is a shining example of what a blockbuster can be, and is for me undoubtedly the best film of 2013.

Set around 250 miles above earth, Gravity is the story of two astronauts, Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), on a mission to perform repairs on the Hubble Space Station. When their space shuttle is (inevitably) destroyed by a cloud of space debris, the two begin a quest to return to earth with trials and dangers at every turn. Considering that the film features just two on-screen actors, it’s fitting that the roles are filled by performers of such talent and experience, with both Bullock and Clooney making for wonderfully believable portrayals of characters that the excellent script allow to develop and change of over the course of the film. Of course, the real star of Gravity is not the big name talent but the setting around them. It’s clear where much of the budget went as space stations, stars and astronauts gloriously come to life in the shadow of the ever present blue marble of planet earth. The visual effects are simply stunning; you’ll forget that it’s almost all CGI in what has to be the best portrayal of space in cinema history. The cinematography is gorgeous too, flitting between floating serenely through the heavens and spinning dizzyingly as the characters are tossed through the openness of space. It’s even better in 3D, the feeling of debris speeding towards you making for the best use of the technology since Life of Pi.

And while the effects are certainly part of it, beautiful views are not all the film has to offer. There’s a level of intensity brought on by music that shifts from Chopin-esque piano to heart stopping drums in the blink of an eye and a stellar sound design that ranges from the smash of debris striking a space station to, brilliantly, total silence. The music rises to dramatic crescendos to make the film that bit tenser, although Gravity does suffer from pacing issues towards the end as the action slows down to allow for compassionate overacting from Bullock. Despite this, Alfonso Cuarón’s direction is masterful, giving the characters time to develop while keeping the excitement flowing for the majority of the picture.

With the expectations riding on it, Gravity could have been a dire, seen-it-all-before space opera, but instead it marks a milestone for modern blockbusters, combing excellent direction with superb performances and the best space photography in cinematic memory. Whether it tops Apollo 13 as the greatest space movie ever is a debate for the hardiest film buffs, but one thing can’t be denied: Gravity is one of the best films of the year.   

9/10

1984 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse review: A classic adaption of a timeless novel

1984, George Orwell's bleak warning of the dangers of totalitarianism, has been told hundreds of times across almost every medium. The timelessness of its message and the genius of its storytelling have appealed to theatre directors and movie producers alike, although their adoptions, while sometimes excellent, have rarely matched the raw power of the dystopian novel  Orwell wrote in 1949. And while this new retelling from the West Yorkshire Playhouse won’t stand the test of time as the novel did, it is up there with the best of the plethora of plays based on 1984.
 
The story of a Winston Smith’s vain plight against the all pervading Party in a then-future England is a tale rooted popular culture, but while previous producers have chosen to stick rigidly to the original work, this adaption enhances the story through scenes of a present-day book group discussing Winston’s diary. This works superbly, adding a layer of depth rarely seen in theatrical adoptions. It also creates a focus on today’s world of governmental spying, and suggests the question of how different our civilization is to the one Orwell described. It’s not the only thing which has been added either; technology makes an appearance in the form of innovative use of huge screens; particularly effective in scenes such as the iconic two minutes of hate.
 
This adaption’s most major improvement over its peers is in its intensity. Violent use of lighting and blitzing background drones incur a thick atmosphere that becomes almost unbearable towards the end of the performance. The use of sound and music is truly superb, the dramatic noises of gunfire and helicopter blades keeping you on the edge of your seat. Graphic images including a traumatic torture scene, as well as an impressive piece of set demolition only add to the sheer intensity, and the lack of an interval is a sublime decision that keeps the pace nauseatingly fast towards the conclusion. And as if that wasn’t enough disturbia for you, let’s not forget the shocking themes of the original source material, brilliantly recreated here. And that's all without mentioning the acting, which is, on the whole, excellent, with Tim Dutton putting in a particularly convincing performance as the backstabbing O'Brian during the notorious room 101 sequence.
 
1984 is a book held in such high regard that it’s all too easy to stick to the story without taking any risks in a production like this. But this play is different; it features innovative use of technology, new scenes and an overbearing sense of atmosphere. It’s a superb piece of theatre; a classic adaption of a classic piece of literature.

9/10

The Queen Is Dead review: Is The Smith's greatest record the best album of all time?

Despite having broken up 26 years ago, there’s been a lot of talk about The Smiths over the past few weeks, largely due to the publication of iconic singer Morrissey’s new book Autobiography. The controversy and publicity surrounding the book might have led another Smiths related event to pass you by: NME ranked their seminal third album The Queen Is Dead as the greatest record of all time. But was the notoriously Morrissey-loving magazine being too nostalgic; hasn’t anything topped that staggering piece of alternative rock in the 27 years since its release in 1986?

The Queen Is Dead is an album of juxtapositions, flowing seamlessly from the pop silliness of a song like Frankly Mr. Shankly to lyrical darkness to rival Radiohead. This boils down to a set of 10 stunningly varied songs, creating an album that is, in many senses, bizarre. Another thing the Smiths excelled at during this period was satire, with the record mocking everything from religion to the press and, inevitably, royalty. This parody provides some of the finest lyrical moments of the group’s short career, with “Charles don’t you ever crave to appear on the front of the Daily Mail, dressed in your mother’s bridal veil” being a particular favourite.

So aside from princes cavorting in drag on the cover of national rags, what more does the album have to offer? Musically, it’s the Smith’s finest hour, the violent drums and bombastic bass lines of songs like The Queen Is Dead (Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty) contrasting with the subdued brilliance of Cemetery Gates to showcase a band who leading the indie-rock pack. Morrissey’s lyrics are regularly dark to the point of hopelessness, surely most so on penultimate track The Light That Never Goes Out, where he sings “if a double-decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die.” This turns from suicidal mania to pioneering musical technique when combined by the sweet and soft synthesisers of Marr’s music, an idea the band perfected on Girlfriend In A Coma on their fourth and final album Strangeways, Here We Come, in which Morrissey discusses his dying partner over a bubblegum melody.

The Queen Is Dead is a timeless album, its satire remaining sharp and its musicianship staying near unchallenged 27 years on. It’s almost undeniably the Smith’s best record, and while the greatest album of all time tag could be strapped to hundreds of others, The Queen Is Dead is undoubtedly a worthy choice.

10/10

Max Payne review: Innovative and impressive gothic noir in this classic shoot 'em up

It’s well over a decade since the release of the first Max Payne game, but his franchise is now a multimillion pound best seller, his character revered by critics and loved by fans. So what was it that made Max Payne so special way back in 2001? And, 12 years on, how much of the game’s legendarily gritty noir has been tarnished by the inevitable force of time?

It’s something of an understatement to say that Max Payne, of the New York Police Department, is not a lucky man. Just a few minutes into the game his wife and child are brutally slain and his best friend and colleague murdered. From there Max Payne becomes as bloodbath as our psychotic antihero sets out on a quest to avenge his family. It’s not an original or particularly interesting premise, but the game’s storytelling is intelligent enough for this to be easily forgivable. Payne’s tale is told through an impressionistic graphic novel format rather than animated cutscenes, with a dark, seedy art style and brooding voiceover performances from James McCaffrey as the lead.

Max Payne is, if nothing else, an action game.  Max is a near indestructible killing machine, wiping out waves of enemy thugs with a wide variety of weapons and dozens and stunningly effective painkillers. There’s no shortage of opponents; Max’s body count numbers in the hundreds by the game’s conclusion, but as shooting the same enemies in similar situations is the backbone of the game, it does become a little tedious. It doesn’t help that only a few enemy character models were built, and coming up against a clone army highly damages the game’s style and believability. It’s therefore fortunate that the actually gameplay mechanics are largely excellent, and the first ever use of Matrix esque bullet time in a video game proves to be a useful and impressive feature. The game’s graphics are certainly outdated, and there are sticky animations and utterly ridiculous stationary facial models, but this is forgivable considering Max Payne’s age and how excellent the recent Max Payne 3 looked.

Better than bullet time though is the game’s intense neo-noir style. Set in a snow-coated winter New York, Max Payne thrives on seedy hotels ridden with prostitutes and back alleys full of mobsters, creating a blackened atmosphere well ahead of its time. There are also some deliciously nasty supporting characters and a plot that twists and turns delightfully over its lengthy three parts, helping to add to this ambiance. The game is unafraid of displaying its influences too, there’s plenty of banter between guards as they discuss classic martial arts films, and the deliriously violent ending in which Max storms the headquarters of a villainous corporation seems a direct homage to the final shoot-out in The Matrix.

It might be visually showing its age, but Max Payne remains an expertly crafted slice of gothic entertainment, packed with pop culture, stained characters and levels of violence to rival Grand Theft Auto. Max’s character is both terrifying and oddly likeable, and it’s no wonder GTA’s creators Rockstar Games bought this iconic franchise.

8/10

 

 

Captain Phillips review: A gripping and intelligent American thriller (come again)!

It’s fair to say the film landscape has become dreadfully cluttered with movies featuring the line “based on a true story” over the past few years. In fact, I’ve recently noticed fewer films which lack those dreaded words than films that do, something that never ceases to depress me as Hollywood begins to give up on imagination in favour of unnecessary sequels and real-life pictures. But Captain Phillips is something different; it’s a film that truly demonstrates just how brilliant a movie can be. Even when it’s based on a true story.

Captain Phillips sets itself in 2009, as Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), captain of the Maersk Alabama, sets sail for Kenya laden with 17000 metric tons of cargo and twenty crew members. It’s not long before the inevitability of the “true story” sets in and the ship is hijacked by four Somali Pirates, led by the unsettling villainous Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi). Hanks is superb in the title role, but it’s Abdi who really steals the show as Muse, creating a character we can both empathize with and despise at the same time. The film is highly commendable for not just presenting these pirates as a series of foreign cardboard cutouts; taking screen time to flesh out their characters and even making the audience feel for their difficult predicaments.

What’s easily the best thing about Captain Phillips is its intensity, particularly towards the closing stages of the film. As the movie progresses, the screens shift from the vast establishing shots filling the exposition to confined, claustrophobic spaces and shaky camerawork, a technique expertly used to present the mounting desperation of the situation. It’s full of sounds too; the shouts of the Somalis; cries of pain and sprays of bullets build an atmospheric crescendo, enhanced by John Murphy’s powerful score (adored by myself for his work of the Kick-Ass soundtrack).

A blockbuster budgets of $55 million has been wisely spend as the film is luxuriously shot, particularly during the early stages with sweeping views of the ocean and impressive establishing shots.  The script is also intelligently written, a rare asset for most major Hollywood productions, and Paul Greengrass’s direction is excellent.  The script is perhaps guilty of becoming too overblown during the finale, but overall it sustains the viewer’s attention consistently throughout the movie.

It’s almost unheard of for a Hollywood biopic (if one can call it that) to be intelligent, well acted and entertaining all at once, but Captain Philips has it all. It’s a superb film that does full justice to a draw-dropping tale, wearing its “based on a true story” tag with pride and providing over two hours of gripping entertainment.

9/10

What Did You Expect From The Vaccines review: Pure pop-rock fun

As the days get colder and the nights draw in, it’s sometimes nice to take your mind of the chilly outdoors with simple, happy music. And that’s why we need more bands like The Vaccines, whose debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines is not only jolly enough to thaw a snow covered football pitch but is also musically excellent. With strong beats and fuzzy power chords, this is as good an album as any for a cold, wet winter.


Clocking in at just over half an hour long, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines is a short album full of short songs. It’s therefore remarkable that most of it is extremely memorable, largely due to the band’s tremendous overreliance on colossal choruses. Indeed, the album’s most summery and simple song Nørgaarad repeats its “her mind’s made up she don’t wanna go steady/she’s only seventeen so she’s probably not ready” leading line four times in its 100 seconds, making use of just 3 chords in the process!

The Vaccines create a brash, unapologetic sound with Árni Árnason’s prominent bass lines merging with Pete Robertson’s powerful drumming, which helps to keep most of the songs so simple and joyful.  Justin Hayward-Young’s vocals are another matter however, as he regularly creates a darker undercurrent to songs like Post-Breakup Sex with murky lyrics and singing which sounds a little quieter in the mix than you would expect.

However, the album is best defined by songs like If You Wanna; short, sweet and featuring an undeniably overmilked chorus. It’s not complex, inventive or even particularly original, but it is great fun, and sometimes that’s all that’s needed.

6/10

  

Gran Torino review: Clint Eastwood orchestrates an entertainment masterpiece

When an established actor directs and stars in their own film, it’s sometimes the final symbol of decadence as they move, kicking and screaming, towards total irrelevance. Fortunately, this is not the case with Gran Torino, a film so deliciously entertaining that it rivals much of the brilliance of actor come-director-come-producer Clint Eastwood’s legendary past work.
 
Over the course of a career lasting more than 50 years, Eastwood has become a world famous macho symbol, but in Gran Torino he plays a man falling apart. Far from the iconic heroes and villains Eastwood portrayed in countless westerns, Walt Kowalski is an unpleasant alcoholic Korean War veteran with a bitter hatred for his Hmong community in his neighbourhood. As the film progresses however, Walt begins to see the error of his far-right views and befriends his young neighbour Thao and his family.
 
While it might sound like the classic redemption cliché, the film takes several dark turns and explores themes of intolerance and gang culture. Eastwood is superb as the grizzled Walt; his experience obvious as her swears and spits his way through every scene. That said, his direction seems someway self-obsessed, devoting most screen time to himself with few moments where he does not appear. The supporting cast is excellent, with Bee Vang playing a convincing Thao and Christopher Carley as the woefully underused priest Father Janovich who attempts to help Walt after the death of his beloved wife. This script is also sharp and crisp, merging tension and suppressed violence with flashes of wit perfectly conveyed by the cast.
 
Eastwood’s direction and the superb script make Walt’s redemption convincing through subtle changes in his character over the course of the film including language and facial expressions, and we again see the impressive wealth of Eastwood’s experience as he creates a believable and perversely likeable character. Indeed, Eastwood’s appearance makes the film, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else playing Walt.
 
Gran Torino is a wonderfully entertaining film, but its flashes of feeling make it an even better picture. It’s but no means perfect; you can complain of Eastwood’s overbearing direction and the occasional cliché; but even so it’s a funny and touching movie well worth its place in Eastwood’s catalogue.
 
8/10

Lincoln review: Daniel Day-Lewis can't save Spielberg's failed epic

It was with some trepidation that I finally brought myself to watch Lincoln. The legendary tale of 16th American president Abraham Lincoln and his battle to outlaw slavery in America has been told countless times on screen, stage and page, and I'd wondered if even the talents of Daniel Day-Lewis and Steven Spielberg could bring anything new to this crowded scene. Even when the film received its first glowing reviews and won its Oscars, my doubt continued, and while watching the film I soon realised that my original fears were completely correct.

Lincoln's biography has become so rooted in popular culture that attempting to avoid spoiling the plot of the film seems pointless; his Gettysburg Address is the most quoted speech in American history and his eventual assassination is one of the most famous killings of all time. However, Spielberg's film opts to almost totally ignore these iconic elements, and instead focuses entirely on Lincoln's quest to instate the thirteenth amendment to the American Constitution, thereby banning the ownership of slaves. While it's reasonable to assume that everyone knows most of Lincoln's story anyway and doesn't need it spoon fed to them, devoting an entire two hour movie to this single event creates the first of the film's problems: it's incredibly dull. Far from the sprawling epic of battles and bravery that the trailers would have you believe, the film largely resides in underlit rooms and long, unmoving camera shots while various political figures furiously argue their cases. While I have great respect to this total refusal to dumb down the plot, there's no denying that Lincoln is not an entertaining film. In fact, I almost found myself nodding off at several points, particularly a seeming endless sequence where the votes of the House of Representatives on the matter of amending the Constitution are read out.

The plot is also extremely slow, unsurprising considering the length of the movie and the lack of actual events, but this only adds to the general boredom. Despite the script being crisp and intelligent, most of the characters are simply two dimensional cut-outs, with Sally Field's Mary Lincoln proving especially predictable. Of course, Lincoln does get one thing very, very right: the casting of Daniel Day-Lewis as the president himself. Always an actor known for his utter commitment to his roles, Day-Lewis gives possibly the best performance of any Lincoln biopic, deservedly winning an Oscar for a showing that is both brilliantly witty and deadly serious, an utterly believable character. Tommy Lee-Jones also shines as radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens.

Phenomenal as these performances are, they can't rescue Lincoln. Day-Lewis' talents are wasted as Spielberg fails to recapture the excitement and tension that filled his earlier films, and Lincoln becomes dull, overlong and pointless. If it was not for Day Lewis himself, Lincoln would be lost among a sea of similar, all American pictures. As it is, Lincoln is saved from being an embarrassment, but that's simply not good enough considering how great it could have been.

5/10

The top 10 Grand Theft Auto radio stations

Any half-fan of Rockstar Games’ most popular franchise will tell you that radio stations are an integral part of the Grand Theft Auto experience. Since the original GTA was released in 1997, Rockstar has recorded dozens of stations crammed with superb licensed music, which don’t so much enhance gameplay as bring it to life. They’ve been in foreign languages, been hosted by world famous musicians and even catapulted real life DJ Lazlow to stardom through appearances on every GTA game since GTA III.  As an avid GTA fan myself, in this post I list my ten favourite GTA radio stations of all time.

10. Double Clef FM (GTA III)

I sometimes wonder why Rockstar never added an operatic radio station to a game after GTA III and GTA Liberty City Stories, especially when Double Clef FM works so well. Hosted by Liberty Tree columnist Morgan Merryweather, Double Clef pokes fun at the pretentions of classical opera in its short 20 minutes of music and commercials. They may have never made another, but in Double Clef FM Rockstar created an absolute gem.

9. Channel X (GTA V)

It’s remarkable that Rockstar never made a station devoted completely to punk before the recent GTA V, the genre’s violent and rebellious nature fits right into the games the company builds. Hosted by legendary singer Keith Morris, who worked with many of the bands featured on the track list, Channel X includes classics by Black Flag and Circle Jerks, making for a superb playlist for the (albeit virtual) long and winding road.

8.  Chatterbox FM (GTA III)

Chatterbox was the first GTA radio station to be hosted by DJ Lazlow, who became an iconic figure in the GTA universe and appeared in every game in the series since.  Lazlow, who co-wrote the station’s script, presents a witty and sarcastic hour of talk as he interviews pacifist martial artist Reed Tucker and “cheap pimp” Fernando Martinez (a character who has also made an appearance in every game since GTA III).

7. West Coast Classics (GTA V)

Taking its cues from San Andreas’s brilliant Radio Lost Santos, West Coast Classics features an excellent, expletive-ridden set of 80s and 90s hip hop tracks. Hosted by the bizarrely named DH Pooh, the station makes a great backdrop for GTA V’s scenes of gang violence (also inspired by San Andreas) with songs from such legendary artists as 2Pac, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube.

6.  Flashback FM (GTA III)

Gosh, there’s a bit of a pattern developing here! Even so, Flashback FM is well worthy of its position here, being possibly the best 80’s pop station in the game’s history. Hosted by the brilliant Toni, the station’s use of songs from the Scarface soundtrack really shows the developer’s influences. Uses of She’s On Fire and I’m Hot Tonight are particularly effective.

5.  Radio X (GTA San Andreas)

Simply as a set of songs, Radio X presents possibly my favourite radio station in GTA history. As an alternative rock and heavy metal station, Radio X features superb tracks from world-famous bands including Depeche Mode, Guns N’ Roses and Rage Against the Machine (the use of Killing in the Name being surely one of the best musical decisions in gaming history). There’s excellent talk to be heard here too, with the station being hosted by escaped mental patient Sage. For me, only Nirvana is missing from this musical classic.

4. Radio Los Santos (GTA San Andreas)

Often cited as San Andreas’s best radio station, the gangsta rap and hip hop provided by Radio Lost Santos was the main inspiration for West Coast Classics and the modern incarnation of the station heard in GTA V. As the favourite station of the iconic Grove Street gang, Radio Los Santos provided much of the soundtrack for the Balla Vs Grove Street violence seen in the game. Packed with brilliant songs from rappers including 2Pac and Dr Dre, it remains a firm fan favourite.

3. VCPR (GTA Vice City)

I’m surprised that I’ve managed to go this long without listing a station from GTA Vice City, which surely has the best soundtrack of any GTA game. VCPR is, without a doubt, the best talk station ever recorded for a GTA game; it’s brilliantly entertaining, utterly hilarious and regularly bizarre. Hosted by the wonderful Maurice Chavez (who made it onto my list of favourite GTA characters), VCPR satirises everything from religious fundamentalism to protective parenting to public radio in its Pressing Issues program. Maurice meets some great characters along the way too, including the quite insane Pastor Richards.

2. K-Rose (GTA San Andreas)

The surprise favourite of GTA San Andreas, this country station hosted by the murderous Mary-Beth Maybell was a hit with players worldwide. Mary, who is believed to have killed all of her six previous husbands, intersperses a brilliant playlist including The Desert Rose Band and Mickey Gilley with frequently hilarious dialogue. But K-Rose (and San Andreas itself) is best remembered for George Strait’s All My Ex’s Live in Texas, a song that became synonymous with Rockstar’s games achieved iconic status among GTA players.

1.   V-Rock (GTA Vice City)

The second station to be hosted by DJ Lazlow, V-Rock provides one of the best GTA playlists featuring heavy; thrash and glam metal, and is also hilarious in its dialogue. Made all the more amusing by the fact that Lazlow knows essentially nothing about metal music, V-Rock became an iconic station and soundtracked much of my GTA Vice City playthrough.  Packed with metal classics from Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Slayer, Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet  Riot and even GTA’s fiction rockers Love Fist, the station was an instant hit with gamers. Rockstar clearly loved it too, creating the V-Rock Hotel in San Andreas and referencing the station regularly after Vice City.

As ever, be sure to comment if you agree with (or despise) my choices! 

Carrie book review: Stephen King's terrifying first masterpiece

It's rare for the first novel of a writer who’s been in the business as long as Stephen King to top the majority of the author’s future work, but Carrie is one of those rare debut novels that retains the incredible power it possessed on the day it was published almost 40 years ago. In a way, Carrie encompasses much of King’s early work; it’s dark; disturbing and massively influential. And with a new film just around the corner, what better time to revisit one of the most important works of horror fiction ever written?

Written over a period of just two weeks, the book tells the story of Carrie White, a teenage girl who develops telekinetic powers. But this is no Matilda; Carrie is violently bullied by her classmates and is physically abused by her fundamentalist mother. When Carrie harnesses her power to hurt others, dramatic events are set in motion culminating at her high school prom.

 King himself described Carrie as “raw”, and reading it today it’s obvious why. Compared to the sophistication of much of his later work, the book is often downright unpleasant to read, with grotesque scenes of pain and violence making for excruciating reading. Its clear why Carrie is one of the most commonly banned books in American schools, but if you persevere with the book it’s equally clear that it shouldn’t be.  Like Ian Banks’ The Wasp Factory, for all the novel’s sickening nature it’s truly a gripping read, and for a debut novel King’s writing style is remarkably accomplished, his technique of interspersing storytelling with extracts from books and interviews with the characters being especially effective.

Perhaps more than any of his other books, Carrie's characters generate emotions of the strongest kind. You don't just feel sorry for Carrie, you pity her from the bottom of your heart. You don't just hate her fanatical mother or bullying ringleader Chris, you HATE them. King achieves this not with stereotypes (although he does come dangerously close), but by creating characters that we can all associate with because they exist all around us. In fact, the level of torment taken by Carrie herself is such that by the conclusion we view her prom night actions as being almost justified. Almost.

 At just over 200 pages long, Carrie’s pacing is nauseatingly fast, but rather than making the story feel rushed this actually works wonderfully with King’s brutal, unharnessed writing style. The crescendo leading to the book's shocking climax is superbly orchestrated, with the ending still coming as a surprise despite being heavily hinted at throughout the book.  Because of King’s masterful use of tension, the book is almost impossible to put down and reading Carrie is the work of a few hours, but it leaves behind a disturbing lasting impression. On one level, Carrie is a critique of scapegoating and religious fundamentalism, on another it’s the idea of the huge consequences of a small change. But more than these things, Carrie is a simple yet expertly crafted novel that hooks you in and never let’s go. It’s terrifying, violent and sometimes horrific. And it’s fantastic.

 

10/10

 

 

 

ILL Manors Review: Dark politics from Britain's best rapper

Protest music is dying. Despite the myriad of political conflicts and issues occurring all around the world, musicians are becoming increasing reliant of anecdotal lyrics, refusing to take an interest of the world revolving around them. It’s particularly uncommon that rap, forever the genre of dull artists moaning about their daily lives, comes up with an outspokenly political album. And you’d expect it even less of Ben Drew, whose first record Who Needs Action When You Got Words was an expletive-ridden, bratty affair and whose second, The Defamation of Strickland Banks, was essentially a soul album. But remarkably, Drew (commonalty known as Plan B), has actually recorded a third record full of dark political undertones. And, even more remarkably, it’s superb.

Inspired by Drew’s own experiences of growing up on a violent London council estate Ill Manors weaves a number of musically tabooed themes into its eleven tracks. Ranging from drug culture and poverty to prostitution and gang warfare, you’re unlikely to find many uplifting moments on Ill Manors. Like Radiohead’s OK Computer, the ostentatious darkness of songs like Drug Dealer and Pity the Plight make Ill Manors a decidedly uncomfortable album to listen to on first hearing. Listening to the record for the first time, lyrics including and if we see any rich kids on the way/we’ll make them wish they stayed inside on title track Ill Manors present the image of simple thugishness, but examine lines in the same song like keep on believing what you read in the papers/council estate kids, scum of the earth and you’ll notice Drew already challenging modern perceptions of youth culture.

Drew’s lyrics have improved immeasurably since his humble beginnings on his 2006 debut, and writing about topics he clearly feels strongly about bring out the best in his words. As he’d likely struggle to hold an album as ambitious as Ill Manors together on his own, he’s aided by an impressive cast of featured artists including Labrinth and legendary punk poet John Cooper Clarke. While this does add a range to the tracks, the album still feels oppressively dark; it’s certainly not easy listening. Interspersing the music with dialogue from the Drew directed film of the same name helps the album to tell a story in its songs, but it also makes the tracks still darker, with the song Pity the Plight being particularly shocking in this respect.

Even so, Drew is musically on top of his game throughout the record, but the overarching dark atmosphere of the album make it difficult to listen too without having to take a break in favour of hearing something more jolly. It’s still probably Plan B’s best record yet, and his stance against society’s treatment of the disadvantage youth is commendable, but Ill Manors is a case of a little too much.

Dishonoured Review: Steampunk, stealth and swordplay

There aren't many games like Dishonoured. With the endless rise of first person shooters into mainstream gaming, stealth titles have been shoved aside and forgotten, but Dishonoured attempts to challenge and change this ruination of a superb genre. It's a tale with big ideas and big plans, but is it a truly great game?

Dishonoured makes it's home in the city of Dunwall, a one proud Victorian metropolis tearing itself apart with crime and corruption in the wake of a disastrous plague. You play as the unspeaking Corvo Attano, proud warrior and bodyguard to the Empress, whose world collapses when she is murdered and you are framed for her killing. Inevitably, you are released from prison by unseen benefactors and begin a quest to rescue the Empress's young daughter Emily and to take revenge on those who betrayed you.

It's a superb setup, but what really makes the game is the developers' phenomenal style and attention to detail in creating an amazing game world full of unpleasant characters. Dishonoured features a stunning voice cast including Susan Sarandon, Carrie Fisher and the brilliant Chloë Grace Moretz, who add a wonderful depth and development to a great set of characters. Not only are the characters exquisitely written and acted, the city of Dunwall itself is one of the best game worlds of recent years. Despite relatively small levels, developers Arkane Studios have created an incredibly stylised and believable city in Dunwall, which flits between locations as varied as royal places, shady back streets and colossal military fortresses. This variety is made believable by the almost unbelievable detail poured into everything from buildings to books and costumes to weapons. Dunwall merges Victorian London with a steampunk-esque look, creating an amazing fantasy city that is both gorgeous and disgusting at once, with little separating the deserted, rat infested streets from the glorious mansions of the most wealthy.

Of course, a dark, stylish world and wonderful characters would be little without strong gameplay, but fortunately there's a remarkable balance between presentation and gameplay at work in Dishonoured. As a general rule, each level sets you in a different environment with a task to assassinate a corrupt politician or some such unsavoury character, often with a bonus objective to consider too. How you go about taking out your target is where the game really gets interesting. Dishonoured gives you the usual tools of knife and pistol, with some additional weapons available including a crossbow with various attachments and bolt types. In addition to this, a number of supernatural powers become available as you collect runes throughout each level, and it's these powers that are your most useful tools in the game. Ranging through bending time to conjuring ravenous rats, each ability can be invaluable at many stages of the game. Blink, a short range teleport, is particularly useful for reaching high vantage points and evading the eyes of increasing murderous guards.

The great thing about Dishonoured's gameplay is the staggering level of choice available to the player, including dozens of routes location and scores of methods of taking out your target. Want to possess a rat and enter a building through a gutter, or clamber onto the roof, break a window and drop silently in? You can. In fact, it's actually possible to complete the whole game without a single kill, as non-lethal methods of removing your enemies always present themselves. The game actually contains a level of morality; violently wiping out everyone in your path in the early levels will lead to enemies being more alert in later stages, the Empress's impressionable young daughter Emily growing to despise you and you receiving the darker of the game's two endings. It's a superb system, and it's effects are noticeable even in the tiniest details, such as conversations between guards and Emily's facial expressions. It really adds a layer of depth to the story, and makes Corvo feel more like a real person than a mindless killer.

It's not quite a perfect game; a new game plus mode would be a supreme addition, the inevitable plot twist is somewhat predictable and the whole tale feels a little too short, but this doesn't matter. With Dishonoured, Arkane Studios have built a stylish, dark and brilliantly enjoyable game, which may just reignite the production of stealth games and give the genre back its deserved name.

9/10

August montly question results

So as Autumn draws in it's time for a new monthly question, lets have a look at the results for last month's "who is the best Kick Ass character"

4th is Red Mist, a with shocking 0% of the results (I always found him quite amusing).

3rd is Big Daddy with a decent 18% of votes (my second favourite).

2nd is Kick Ass with a solid 27% of all votes (he's not as cool as the others).

1st is, of course, the wonderful Hit Girl with 54% of all votes (a well deserved win, she's so lovely).

Thanks for voting, I believe in the spirit of the new one this month's question will be "which is the best Grand Theft Auto."
















Who else?

Grand Theft Auto Five Review: The greatest Grand Theft Auto?

Oh where to begin? It's been five years since the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful game of 2008. The phenomenal success of the story of Russian immigrant Niko Bellic trying to achieve the elusive American dream shoved the anticipation for it's successor up to breaking point, and by it's release date almost two weeks ago the gaming community's excitement was about to explode. Shops opened at midnight, selling out in a matter of hours. Critics went crazy and GTA V became the highest reviewed gaming release of all time. The game made a staggering eight hundred million dollars on it's first day on sale. But was it truly worth the arduously long wait? Is it really as good as the reviewers claimed? Is it genuinely developer Rockstar's finest game to date when they've produced such classics as Max Payne, Red Dead Redemption and of course the legendary previous GTA games? Of course it is.


GTA V, actually the fifteenth game in the long running series, is the first title in Rockstar's favourite franchise to feature not one, not two but three playable characters. Michael is a retired bank robber who faked his own death and now lives out an unhappy existence in  Los Santos, the largest city in the game's fictional state of San Andreas, with a huge house and a family that hates him. It's not long before he meets Franklin, a young thug in a Los Santos gang who inspires to be a big time criminal. Together they plan a major heist to pay off Michael's debts and create a little spending money, before making contact with the game's third protagonist Trevor, an psychopathic ex-associate of Michael's who runs a meth production business from his hillbilly home in Sandy Shores, a small town in the north of San Andreas. While each of these characters sound like predictable clichés in a crime movie, the player spends enough time with them to explore their dark personalities and develop their feelings for them. By the game's conclusion we care about Michael, Franklin and Trevor more than any characters in past GTA games, a quite staggering achievement. To deal with the use of three protagonists, Rockstar have employed a superb character switching system that allows the player to change character at will while free roaming or at certain points during missions. Like Max Payne's bullet time mechanic, what might have ended up as a useless gimmick is actually a great system that becomes vital to progressing in the story. Questions have been raised as to the lack of female protagonist and I'd like to see this happen in a future GTA game, but to be honest the three characters the developers have given life to are so interesting and well developed that this minor sexist flaw can be easily ignored.

It's not so easy to see past the blatant sexism  that riddles the entire campaign, from the ever present prostitutes to the violent mick taking on feminism. GTA games have flirted with controversy in the past, and sexism isn't the only thing that will cause anger against GTA V. A mission which forces the player to partake in torture is particular shocking and will doubtless cause anger in the wider community, and of course there's the usual suspects of drugs and violence at work too. Still, if you can ignore these issues you'll realise that GTA V is simply a deliriously fun game to play and it's really not worth reading too much into these problems.

Every aspect of gameplay has been redesigned since GTA IV, from the basic game mechanics up. Shooting and driving have been noticeably improved, with a superb cover system and more realistic guns combining with more fluid steering to make simply driving or walking around considerably more realistic and enjoyable. There's not a whiff of the "drive here, kill someone, drive back" mission structure that haunted previous GTA's; the missions of GTA V are cinematic, multi structured affairs which stand up to any Hollywood blockbuster set piece. One mission that really illustrates this from early on in the game's narrative involves the long running feud between Trevor and biker gang The Lost (previously featured in the GTA IV expansion The Lost and Damned). Playing as Trevor, I used a high powered sniper rifle to pick off bike guards while my friend Ron planted explosives in the gang's hideout. When Ron ran into trouble, I leaped onto a quad bike and raced into the fray. An exhilarating shoot out followed, culminating in the two of us escaping into the air in stunt planes as the base exploded below us, the mission finishing as I raced Ron back to our airstrip. And there are tens of missions like it over the course of the main story (not to mention the myriad of side quests available), perfectly conveying just how much the mission design of GTA has improved since the game's humble beginnings in 1997. The missions are based around six major heists, multi-storied jobs requiring thought, decision making and many preliminary tasks before they can be executed. These heists are brilliantly structured and really feel like they've been pulled out of action movies, expertly mixing planning and tension with stunning levels of violence culminating in a huge payoff if competed correctly. Heists also add a little player freedom to the mix by allowing you to choose between two methods of robbery for each job and also letting you pick your own crew. A massively improved stealth system also means that there are often two ways of tackling each mission.

And I've said all this practically without mentioning the beautiful world the game is set in. While GTA San Andreas was set in a similar location and featured locations found in GTA V including Los Santos, Blaine County and the towering Mount Chiliad, the latest instalment takes it to a new level. The map is not only huge but it's dense too, and full of things to do. The level of detail put in by the stellar team at Rockstar North is nothing short of incredible, and it's remarkable that every area of such a massive world feels different. From the posters on the walls of Franklin's house to the stunning view at the summit of Mount Chiliad to the many in-references to past GTA games, this is possibly the greatest game world ever created, reminding me more of the intricate detail of Arkham City (not in size) than the empty expanses of Just Cause 2's Panau. And the team have clearly spent a lot of time adding things to do, from side quests and collectables to surprisingly excellent tennis and golf games to base jumping, flying, racing and hunting, the wealth of mini-activities is simply awesome. And of course, just exploring the enormous open world taking in the scenery (and maybe causing a little mayhem in the process) is fantastic fun too. The game plays extremely well too; the frame rate is high and consistent; the draw distance is remarkable and bugs are practically non-existent, a remarkable feat considering it's running on eight year old hardware.  And as ever it's backed up by a brilliant soundtrack that, for the first time, not only features hours of real music but also a dynamic score that plays when the character is not in a car. There's a great range of songs from artists as varied as Britney Spears and Black Flag, and while it's not quite as inspired in it's look at contemporary music as Vice City was to the eighties, it's still full of spine-tingling moments. The game is also drenched with biting satire in it's story and on the radio, parodying topics including America's love affair with firearms, the financial crisis and even modern video games.

We'd waited so long for GTA V that anything other than a near perfect game was going to be a disappointment, but fortunately for us the team from Rockstar North have truly delivered this time around. GTA V feels like a culmination of all Rockstar's previous work, and while a game like The Last of Us says more about humanity in a few minutes than this £175 million blockbuster manages in it's entire 70+ missions, there's no denying that GTA V is, quite simply, brilliant fun to play. And after all, that's what games are for in the first place. It's one of the greatest video games of all time.

10/10
Reviewed for Xbox 360