Avatar teaser posterRighto, back again with a quick run down of what’s new in cin­e­mas this week­end. First up, a spe­cial treat for film fans who want to some free enter­tain­ment tomor­row lunchtime — Read­ings are host­ing a spe­cial fif­teen minute pre­view of James Cameron’s Avatar in their dig­i­tal 3D Cin­e­ma 5. Three ses­sions (11.45am, 12.30pm & 1.15pm) are run­ning and tick­ets are avail­able on a first-come first-served. If you can’t sneak out for these you’ll have to wait until the whole film opens world­wide on 17th Decem­ber.

Quentin Taran­ti­no’s Inglou­ri­ous Bas­ter­ds is only play­ing at Read­ings and Sky City Queens­gate but don’t let that put you off. I saw it this evening and enjoyed myself tremen­dous­ly — there real­ly is a lot of enter­tain­ment to be had at the pic­tures at the moment. Brad Pitt plays the leader of a Dirty Dozen type squad of jew­ish sol­diers, para­chut­ed behind ene­my lines in WWII to extract extreme vengeance on the Nazis. Fea­tur­ing impec­ca­ble cast­ing (even the non-actors are some­how right) and his usu­al eclec­tic sound­track, Taran­ti­no is in fine form.

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

The win­ner of this year’s Oscar for Best For­eign Film was a sur­prise to a few com­men­ta­tors: lyri­cal Japan­ese dra­ma Depar­tures beat the ani­mat­ed doc­u­men­tary Waltz With Bashir which many locals loved. Now we get a chance to see that the fuss was all about as it opens at the Pent­house and the Light­house in Petone. Cel­list Masahi­ro Moto­ki los­es his job with the orches­tra and takes a job as an “encoffi­neer”. Graeme Tuck­ett reviews Depar­tures on Nine to Noon here.

Anoth­er in the long line of envi­ron­men­tal doc­u­men­taries, from An Incon­ve­nient Truth through The 11th Hour and Earth, The Age of Stu­pid is direct­ed by Fran­ny Arm­strong of McLi­bel fame so it should be pret­ty hard-hit­ting. You can hear Fran­ny McDon­ald on Kim Hill’s radio show here and the film is play­ing at the Para­mount and the Light­house Petone.

Final­ly, a spe­cial treat for nos­tal­gia fans. This year marks the 70th anniver­sary of the release of The Wiz­ard of Oz and the Embassy is play­ing a spe­cial­ly pro­duced new print of the tech­ni­col­or clas­sic this Sun­day. Fol­low the Yel­low Brick Road at 2.30 and 4.45pm and evi­dent­ly tick­ets are sell­ing fast. Now, if only some­one will bring back The Wiz in hon­our of Michael Jack­son’s pass­ing we could “ease on down the road” at the same time.

All these films will be reviewed in the Cap­i­tal Times next Wednes­day and online at Funer­als & Snakes when I can get the time to update.