Empire_Australasia_-_February_2017

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JANUARY ANSWERS

ACROSS: 7 Lolita, 8 Ed Wood, 9 Gere, 10 Polanski, 11/13 Sausage Party, 15

17 Del Toro, 20 Angry Men, 21 Nemo, 23 Rififi, 24 Thelma. DOWN: 1 Code,

3 Rampage, 4 Belle, 5 Rwanda, 6 Rock Star, 12 Atlantic, 14 Kenneth, 16 Ca

Tender, 19 Imrie, 22 Mama. ANAGRAM MICHAEL FASSBENDER

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910

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11 12 13

14 15

15 16 17 18

19 21

20 21

22 23

ACROSS

7/17 Benedict Cumberbatch’s part surgeon, part

sorcerer superhero (6,7)

8 — Than Bombs for Jesse Eisenberg and

Isabelle Huppert (6)

9 Simon, known to the dead as Shaun (4)

10 The location of Wes Anderson’s Grand Hotel

(8)

11 Top Gun-style fun for Josh Lucas (7)

13 For which Michael Fassbender donned

a papier-mâché head (5)

15 Hawke lost amid Kenneth Anger (5)

17 See 7 Across

20 Director who launched the Fast And

The Furious film franchise (3,5)

21 Sodium chloride — or an Angelina

Jolie-starrer (4)

22 Could be Beatty, could be Oates (6)

23 “You see what it wants you to see” ran

the tagline for this 2013 horror movie (6)

DOWN

1 Pattinson or a 2015 horror movie (6)

2 This 1997 thriller starred Mario Van Peebles

and Andrew McCarthy (4)

3 Film for which Jack Lemmon won

a Best Actor Oscar nomination in 1981 (7)

4 Wesley Snipe’s vampire superhero (5)

5 Dario Argento’s classic Italian horror release

(8)

6 Could be Judd, could be Willie (6)

12 Federico Fellini’s 1973 classic (8)

14 Harry Dean seen in The Green Mile (7)

16 Pierce Brosnan found himself entangled in

The — Crown Affair (6)

18 The bad side of Andy Serkis’ The Lord Of The

Rings character (6)

19 Ashen, like George Stevens’ great gunfighter

Western (5)

21 Sounds twisted, this

John Leguizamo releas

crossword

VERDICT Hitman’s clutch of missions offers not
only tremendous variety, but also supreme
depth. Each locale provides a rich seam of
interactive possibility for the imaginative, or
more specifically, the imaginatively murderous.

To help inspire you, the game lists a number
of ‘Opportunities’. Track one of these, and you’ll
be prodded along a certain path and timetable,
where you’ll be able to catch your mark in
a vulnerable moment. The emphasis is on
replaying each mission over and over again in
order to wheedle out the many creative options
in which you can assassinate or incapacitate your
targets, often in troublingly hilarious ways. Then,
of course, there’s the challenge of executing your
plan without being spotted or causing collateral
damage. The buzz that comes from planning
a unique execution, and then carrying it out
as planned and without a mistake, is peerless.
For players who were frustrated by the
previous game in the series, Hitman: Absolution,
with its lunge towards prescribed plot lines and
predeined murders, this freedom is exhilarating
if sometimes daunting. With each new locale you
feel the frisson of the newly landed tourist: the
thrill of the unfamiliar. The urge to see and do
it all and, in doing so, to understand the new
rules, limits and challenges of the place. Unlike
tourism, however, you always leave with blood on
your gloves. The challenge is to ensure that
nobody else notices. SIMON PARKIN

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Alice,

Pixels,

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on Schwartzman

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