Elizabeth posterI was really hop­ing they were going to to call the Eliza­beth sequel Eliza­beth II but instead it is Eliza­beth: The Golden Age. Co-artist­ic-dir­ect­or-des­ig­nate of the Sydney Theatre Com­pany and Elf Queen, Cate Blanchett returns to play Eliza­beth. She’s still fight­ing cath­ol­ics but this time they are amassed off the coast in an Armada. Clive Owen plays Errol Flynn as Wal­ter Raleigh. Pent­house, Read­ings, Light­house Petone, Rialto, Sky City Queens­gate, Embassy

Christ­mas is here and the first “hol­i­day” movie off the rank is Fred Claus at Read­ings, Regent-on-Man­ners and Sky City Queens­gate. Paul Gia­matti is Santa and Vince Vaughan plays his lay­about little broth­er Fred (a bit like Billy Carter or Roger Clin­ton).

Older read­ers will remem­ber the days when Kev­in Cost­ner was the biggest star in the Hol­ly­wood firm­a­ment. Des­pite some career mis-steps he remains a watch­able per­former and this week he flicks the seri­al killer switch in Mr Brooks at Read­ings, Regent-on-Man­ners, Sky City Queens­gate. The twist is that Wil­li­am Hurt plays his alter-ego, a bit like Jekyll and Hyde.

Finally, a poten­tial art­house treat at the Para­mount. Golden Door fol­lows turn of the cen­tury immig­rants from Sicily to Ellis Island and stars Char­lotte Gains­bourg. It won six awards at the 2006 Venice Film Fest­iv­al includ­ing the Sil­ver Lion.

All these films will be reviewed at Funer­als & Snakes next Wed­nes­day (and in print in the Cap­it­al Times on the same day) .