Dean Spanley UK posterAnother light-ish week of cinema releases to report: Readings have so much confidence in the new Rob Schneider prison-comedy Big Stan that the only evening sessions are at a deadening 9.20pm at night. According to IMDb this is the first film directed by the Deuce Bigelow star which means we now have the phrase "a film by Rob Schneider" to terrify and depress us. Also Sky City Queensgate.

Of much more interest is the new film by Wellington export Toa Fraser (No. 2): Dean Spanley is a UK-NZ co-pro featuring the great Peter O’Toole, Aussie legend Bryan Brown and our own Sam Neill. It’s an adaptation of a beloved, if slightly obscure, Irish novel by Lord Dunsany called "My Talks with Dean Spanley" and from such unpromising beginnings a delightful film appears. Dean Spanley is playing all over town this weekend: Readings, Empire, Lighthouse Petone, Penthouse and the Embassy.

I’m back filing reviews for the Capital Times next Wednesday and the lovingly annotated and hyper-linked version will be posted to Funerals & Snakes soon after.