Mamma Mia posterThe big guns still dominate proceedings at our cinemas (at least until Thursday when the little art-house films all gang up for the Festival). Last week was hardly worth writing a column about as all the big distributors sensibly made way for Will Smith’s annual 4th of July blockbuster, Hancock (Readings, Empire, Regent-on-Manners & Embassy).

This week, the ABBA musical (that had a season at the Civic in Auckland a couple of years ago) Mamma Mia! leads the pack. Justifiably described as a phenomenon since the stage show launched in London in 1996, the film features Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan SkarsgÃ¥rd and Colin Firth singing and dancing their way through the ABBA back catalogue. It’s been trailered for months now, so awareness should be pretty high and it’s playing everywhere: Readings, Empire, Penthouse, Embassy, Lighthouse Petone, Regent-on-Manners.

[The rest of this week’s new releases summarised after the jump]

Trailing in Mamma Mia!‘s wake is the latest classic tv remake, Get Smart starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway (Readings, Regent & Empire) and Meet Dave, Eddie Murphy in family-friendly mode as a starship built to look like a human that arrives on Earth and falls in love. As you do. You can find Meet Dave at Readings, Regent & Empire).

Almost invisible to the naked eye is a documentary called Allan Wilson, Evolutionary which has a short pre-Festival season at the Paramount. I couldn’t find anything about it, not even at the Paramount site itself.

These won’t get reviewed at Funerals & Snakes (or Capital Times) until a week on Wednesday as next week I’m doing a Film Festival preview – which I will cross-post here at about the same time. So, you’re on your own until then, people.