GAMES
ALIEN: ISOLATION, MULTIPLE PLATFORMS
As sci-fi fans we were pretty eager to get our hands on Isolation, which tells a new spin-off story set in a time period between Ridley Scott's original Alien film and the sequel, Aliens. When the first film's hero, Ripley, goes missing in deep space, the narrative picks up with her daughter setting out to find out what happened, winding up trapped on a clapped-out space station with - you guessed it - another of those infernal aliens. The game was apparently made with the blessing of the film-makers, who allowed access to the original sound effects tapes and set designs, and it has resulted in a wonderful, if bleak, version of the future as seen from 1979, complete with brown and orange decor, crappy pixellated computer screens and cassette players. Your job, basically, is to explore ... and survive. It's not a "shooter" game - you can't kill the alien. It's all about tension, not action, about creeping around, hiding, distracting the beast by offering up other humans as sacrifices, or, in desperate circumstances, scaring it off with fire. Younger gamers might find it too slow, but that would be missing the point. Note: our version had a weird glitch at the very beginning that - after consulting Google - required a restart. AH
FAMILY
THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN, Sony (G)
This 1984 musical comedy sees Kermit and the gang chasing the dream of success on Broadway, allowing director Frank Oz to spoof every cliche about starry-eyed youngsters facing the tough reality of New York. As Muppet movies go, this has a touch more edge than most; much of the impact depends on the use of actual New York locations, in an era when muggers were still assumed to lurk round every corner. There's also a bit more melancholy, with troupe members going their separate ways for the whole second act. Most of the celebrity guest stars are strictly D-list, adding to the down-at-heel charm – though when Miss Piggy gets a makeover from none other than Joan Rivers it's an encounter for the ages. JW
DVD
A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST, Universal/Sony (MA15+)
The spirit of Blazing Saddles is alive and well in Seth MacFarlane's Western homage-cum-parody, but the poo and fart jokes that seemed so liberating in 1974 here just come across as wet (literally, in one gross-out scene involving a villain, a laxative, a shoot-out and a hat). Writer-director MacFarlane stars as Albert, a nerdy sheep farmer whose girl (Amanda Seyfried) dumps him for the moustachioed barber Foy (Neil Patrick Harris). Lucky him, I say, as into the breach rides breeches-wearing tough-gal-with-a-heart-of-gold Anna (Charlize Theron). Inexplicably, she takes Albert to her bosom (again, literally). There are some great sight gags, a fairly amusing song-and-dance routine (about moustaches) and Theron reveals a real gift for comedy and a fetchingly raucous laugh. On the downside, some of the humour is impossibly juvenile and MacFarlane's smugness militates against any chance we might actually want Albert to succeed. KQ
FREE TO AIR
NOIRHOUSE, ABC iview - all episodes available from 10am, Sunday November 2
As the television landscape changes, web-based series are becoming a popular vehicle for up-and-coming filmmakers - Noirhouse is one of a handful commissioned by ABC's iview this year and each six-minute episode is available to binge-watch all at once through the site from Sunday morning, where it's running as something of a "prequel" ahead of its more traditional screening on ABC. This Australian take on hard-boiled 1940s noir sets the world of gritty violence and witty repartee in a share house in present-day suburbia shared by a hard-boiled detective (Nathan Spencer), a feisty femme fatale (Melanie Irons) and a Russian thug (Mick Davies). It's an odd mix but it works in this stylish, funny, parody of the noir genre. KN
DVD
MR THANK YOU, Criterion/Eclipse Unrated
As a Tokyo-bound bus winds round the steep hills of rural Japan, the smiling young driver (Ken Uehara) calls out thanks to all the foot travellers who step off the road: teams of workers, family groups, and others surviving any way they can in a country still rocked by the Depression. Shot on location and almost free of plot, Hiroshi Shimizu's 1936 adaptation of a short story by Yasunari Kawabata suggests at moments that Japanese society, like the bus, might be skirting an abyss. But the sorrowful implications are treated with the utmost lightness - a jaunty score accompanying the mostly comic squabbles between the bus passengers, intercut with views of the untroubled landscape as it flies by. JW
