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) .