Beowulf posterIf you are at all inter­est­ed in the future of cin­e­ma tech­nol­o­gy, the ener­getic retelling of dark age Norse Anglosax­on Anglo-Sax­on leg­ends or theme park rides then Beowulf 3D is the thing for you this week­end. The 3D ver­sion only screens at Read­ings and I under­stand from Road­show, the dis­trib­u­tor, that only two cin­e­mas in New Zealand are equipped to screen it: Read­ings at Courte­nay Cen­tral and Hoyts Sylvia Park in Auck­land.

The dig­i­tal equip­ment required to screen Beowulf in 3D cost upwards of $100k and is only in Cin­e­ma 5 (i.e. not one of the big ones). That cost puts it out of reach of all Welling­ton cin­e­mas apart from Read­ings (and pos­si­bly Sky City at Queens­gate) until the eco­nom­ic dri­vers to replace 35mm film become over­whelm­ing. Check the list­ings care­ful­ly as the 3D ver­sion is def­i­nite­ly the one to see. The flat ver­sion can also be found at Regent-on-Man­ners and Sky City Queens­gate.

The rest of this week’s new releas­es after the jump…

Also open­ing this week is Joshua , a super­nat­ur­al thriller in the tra­di­tion of The Omen : that one is at Rial­to only. For art-house fans French, the Pent­house has The Page Turn­er about a young woman who takes revenge on the con­cert pianist who (she believes) ruined her own career. It stars Deb­o­rah François from The Dar­d­ennes Broth­er­s’ film The Child which we saw in Welling­ton last year.

Return­ing from the World Cin­e­ma Show­case is the Cuban/Spanish co-pro­duc­tion Habana Blues, of which this review­er said: “Boisterous, good natured but real­is­tic. Do see it, because when Cas­tro dies a lot about Cuba is going to change — both good and bad.” Para­mount.

Also at the Para­mount is the Show Me Shorts short film fes­ti­val fea­tur­ing many of the best indie short films from Aus­tralia and New Zealand pro­duced in the last year. There are 39 films screen­ing over 6 ses­sions, includ­ing Night of the Hell Ham­sters co-writ­ten by Welling­ton­ista Hadyn.

Beowulf and Habana Blues have already been reviewed at Funer­als & Snakes. The oth­er fea­tures will appear at the site next week, and in the Cap­i­tal Times next Wednes­day.