The Most Fun You Can Have Dying
For many people (I am about to alienate New Zealand’s fourth largest urban centre) being told that you only had a matter of months to live would come as a sweet relief if you lived in Hamilton. But lead character Michael, played charmingly by Matt Whelan (Go Girls, My Wedding and Other Secrets) in writer/director Kirstin Marcon’s feature debut The Most Fun You Can Have Dying takes it next level as he steals the money raised by the community for… [More...]
Antics Roadshow
Banksy said of this TV special he made “‘Basically I just thought it was a good name for a TV programme and I’ve been working back from there.”… [More...]
James Cameron’s The FInal Word (on Titanic) screens tonight on Sky’s National Geographic
Everyone’s jumping on board (excuse the reverse-pun) the whole Titanic sank 100 years ago this month buzz – and none more so than James Cameron who obviously, with the release of the 3D version of his DiCaprio / Winslet love-story blockbuster from 1997 – has a cash-cow to milk as much as possible from it’s murky depths.… [More...]
Temple Grandin
Claire Daines plays the title role in this 2010 HBO biopic directed by Mick Jackon ( Chattahoochee, LA Story, The Body Guard). Daines had seemingly disappeared until her recent and most excellent portrayal of Carrie Mathison in Homeland – but she totally nailed this performance with compassion and guts a year prior.
Temple Grandin is a person with high functioning autistism and she is doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the… [More...]
Game Change
I dare say that politically-right leaning viewers might claim that the film is heavily biased. It is guilty, perhaps, of being so realistic in this age of journo-tainment, that it’s easy to forget that you are not watching a documentary and that Julianne Moore is not actually the hockey-mum-slash-gobsmackingly-stupid Sarah Palin. HBO’s Game Change which is based on one third of the book by political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin about the 2008 United States presidential election; which has,… [More...]
The Shadow Line
I started watching the BBC thriller, dubbed by some as ‘the British Killing” over the weekend – Sky hooked Cheese on Toast up with the first two episodes.
It’s a paced and somewhat mysterious crime thriller; and over the first two episodes it laid the ground work for something that seems like it’s just going to get more and more complex and interesting.
Rafe Spall plays an awesome sociopathic, Jay Wratten – the nephew of the opining scene’s murder victim… [More...]
Warm Springs
I confess that the knowledge that Franlkin D Roosevelt was was buried somewhere in my sub-conscious was a paraplegic to the point that if you had asked me last week I’d only guess that it was a fact because it’d be a weird thing to ask someone if he wasn’t.… [More...]
THE KILLING
Apparently it rains all the time in Seattle. Not just on the TV version, where The Killing is set, but actually, really. Like, even more than in Auckland.
The Killing was initially aired on AMC in the US April-June last year – the first two weeks of a murder investigation is spread gracefully over 13 episodes. It’s paced, compelling and enthralling viewing; as the detective in charge and her newly assigned partner get to know each-others imperfections and do their… [More...]
Lizzie & Sarah
The pilot episode to this British sit-com screened on BBC in 2010 at 11.45pm on a Saturday night. The series was never produced any further.
If you were/are a fan of League of Gentlemen or Julia Davis’ Nighty Night – or dare I suggest even the deeply dark Chris Morris’ Jam then this is’ll be right up your proverbial ally.
Take dark humour, put it into a room with black-out curtains then drop that darkened room into a black hole.… [More...]
127 Hours to screen on Sky Movies
This weeks Blockbuster Premiere on Sky Movies is 127 Hours starring James Franco.
It screens Sunday 19 February, 8.30pm (Second Chance Thursday 23rd February)… [More...]
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
You have possibly already heard about the West Memphis Three. In 1993 Damien Wayne Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were arrested and charged with the murder of three 8 year old boys. Echols was charged with murder in the first degree and had been sentenced to death; the others to life imprisonment for their alleged involvements. Despite the lack of evidence, and indeed the post-trial forensic evidence which proved that none of them were involved in the crime, they… [More...]
The Only Way Is Essex hits NZ screens
If you like a bit of trash-tv then The Only Way is Essex (abbreviated to TOWIE by it’s fans) has hit NZ screen – on Sky TV’s UKTV on Wednesdays – starting last night. It’s a dramality show. That’s a thing.… [More...]
HOMELAND
Homeland screened on US’s Showtime from Oct to December last year and is about to hit NZ network television on TV3 - screening Mondays at 9.30pm from Feb 13th.
The dramatic thriller centres around a CIA agent Carrie Mathison played, excellently, by Claire Danes who believes that a returned US Marine, Nicholas Brody (played by Damian Lewis), previously assumed dead, who had been held captive by Al-Qaeda as a prisoner of war for eight years, was turned by the enemy and… [More...]
The Artist – review
I’m going on a limb and calling Emperor’s new clothes on the much applauded The Artist.… [More...]
J EDGAR
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer and Naomi Watts
Directed by Clint Eastwood… [More...]
Sherlock Holmes : A Game of Shadows
We checked out a preview of the new Sherlock Holmes flick just before Christmas – and can report it’s an enjoyable not-much-of-a-brainer kind of affair – smart lines; easy-to-follow plot line that springs no real surprises and enjoyable performances from Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. Noomi Rapace (watch out for her in the Alien-prequel-of-sorts Prometheus late this year / she starred in the Girl With Dragon Tattoo / Played With Fire / Kicked The Hornets Nest) makes her first… [More...]
Headhunters – movie review
I watched a screener of the 2011 Norwegian crime-thriller Headhunters on the weekend; it’s due to hit NZ cinemas on 8 March 2012 – and it’s a solid watch indeed. The unlikely named main protagonist, Roger Brown (who is even called Roger in English speaking countries these days, let alone in Norway) is a well to do recruiter for big business who lives, seemingly beyond his means in order to appease is gorgeous art dealer wife who is taller than… [More...]
The Inbetweeners Movie
If you haven’t seen the British TV series The Inbetweeners you have sorely missed out on some of the best television comedy to come out of Britain in years; it’s snappy, irreverent and downright juvenile in the very best way. The Tv show won Best Sitcom at the 2011 British Comedy Awards and has been nominated twice for BAFTAs. Typically, NZ network television scheduled it late night on a week day and hoped no-one would notice – keeping shows about… [More...]
