GAMES
ANGRY BIRDS 2, iOS, Android, free
Call it difficult second album syndrome. Yes, there have been many Angry Birds derivatives since the original, but if you consider them minor upgrades, or themed spin-offs, then this is indeed the first "proper" sequel. It may look familiar to casual players: once again, you fling birds at pigs and towers, but the graphics are vastly superior to the original, there are numerous interesting tweaks in the gameplay, and it offers a vast 140 levels, with the prospect of more to come in the future. Great fun, then, and if you still have an appetite for Angry Birds there's plenty to explore. What's not so much fun is the new "freemium" business model. It's free to download and play, but when you run out of lives (by failing to complete a level multiple times) you can either wait 30 minutes for a single life to regenerate (for free) - or pay to stock up on more lives to play immediately. It seems a bit calculated and is particularly problematic for children who may not have access to in-app purchases, or, worse, end up accidentally spending large amounts of mum and dad's money in the app store. AH
FREE-TO–AIR
BESPOKE, THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 3, ABC, 10pm
When arts writer and presenter (and Fairfax contributor) Marcus Westbury began his Renew Newcastle project in 2008, filling his hometown's many vacant shops and office spaces with artists and 'makers', he thought what his project was doing - bringing artisan and small-batch makers back into the 21st century - was "completely original". Turns out Australia's obsession with the return of "makers", creating handmade, bespoke, locally produced products, is widespread; there are, he tells us, more than two million small-scale producers around the nation. Westbury investigates what this revival means - is it merely nostalgia, a reaction against technology or in fact a product thereof? Tonight he's in Newcastle, Hobart and Melbourne meeting a diverse bunch of makers. Bespoke is genuinely thought provoking, intent on digging deeper and exploring the potentially profound cultural shift and its effects on our communities. KN
FAMILY
THAT DARN CAT!, Disney (G)
A change of pace for the team who gave us Mary Poppins, this 1965 comedy-thriller must be one of the slyest films ever released by anyone - let alone Walt Disney - under the banner of "family entertainment". The plot centres on a kidnapping case in the Los Angeles suburbs, but the real subject is how the imaginative yet practical young heroine (Hayley Mills) negotiates her entry into adulthood, aided by the cat of the title, a Siamese tom known as D.C. who keeps very busy after dark. Like D.C., the director Robert Stevenson isn't in a hurry to get anywhere: between the obligatory interludes of broad slapstick, the movie often seems to coast on the considerable charms of Mills and her feline co-star. Scratch the surface, though, and this is Disney's tribute to Hitchcock, with a spying-on-the-neighbours theme out of Rear Window, innuendos to rival To Catch A Thief, and a gallery of satirical caricatures of the sexless older generation including Elsa Lanchester as a malicious gossip and Roddy McDowall as a pigeon-fancying mama's boy not unlike Anthony Perkins in Psycho. JW
SERIES
WAYWARD PINES, Twentieth Century Fox Season One (MA15+)
Quirky and addictive, this mysterious show has hit a nerve with viewers in its first season, capturing classic Americana in its look but pushing the mental limits with its "captive" aura. Think Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure with a heavy shot of M. Night Shyamalan intrigue; Shyamalan directs the show. It stars Matt Dillon, in the lead role of Secret Service agent Ethan Burke, plus Juliette Lewis, Carla Gugino and Melissa Leo. Wayward Pines, Idaho, is a small town with a Hotel California vibe - nobody leaves. It's a teasing slow-burner, hitting its straps about midway through the 10 episodes. The show is based on a novel series by Blake Couch, with the plot revolving around agent Burke, who is sent there to find two missing agents. Nothing is what it seems and trying to ascertain who the good guys are is almost impossible. Captivating. JK
DVD
I HEART HUCKABEES, Fox (M)
Still the funniest, craziest and wisest film by the great David O. Russell, this 2004 philosophical comedy plays by the rules of classic farce while seeking to deconstruct the viewer's understanding of reality, with frequent success. Jason Schwartzman plays a short-fused environmental activist whose life is marked by perplexing coincidences, leading him to engage a pair of "existential detectives" (Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman) to solve the riddle. Others caught in the web include a smarmy retail executive (Jude Law), his spokeswoman girlfriend (Naomi Watts), a cynical French guru (Isabelle Huppert) and a fireman (Mark Wahlberg) who has grown obsessed with the evils of petrol following the event referred to in passing as "that big September thing". Brilliantly acted and full of dizzying non-sequiturs, the film is governed by a self-undermining irony that springs from Russell's witty way of illustrating abstract concepts in literal, physical terms: as the characters zoom on their bikes from one location to another, they seem to be living out the notion that the universe consists equally of significant objects and the nothingness in between. JW
