The biggest movie in the world last weekend was The Bourne Ultimatum (US$47m on Thursday, Friday and Saturday alone) and it opens here tomorrow. The last of the big tent-pole franchise attractions of the (northern) summer, this Bourne brings Jason back home to New York (with a detour in Blighty). Playing at Readings, Regent-on-Manners, Sky City Queensgate and (probably the ultimate Bourne experience) the Embassy
Also opening tomorrow is Russian art-house weepy The Italian (direct from the Festival): Rialto and Lighthouse Petone only. The Singer (Quand j’étais chanteur) places one of France’s all-time greats (Gérard Depardieu) alongside one of her freshest new faces Cécile De France (Orchestra Seats) for some May-December romance. Depardieu plays a fading nightclub singer who woos De France’s single mother real estate agent. Also at Rialto and (unsurprisingly) the Penthouse.
Finally, The War Within opens at the Paramount: it’s a drama about a Pakistani terrorist in New York and it was made for dotcom billionaire Mark Cuban’s HDNet, the cable channel devoted to breaking down the established studio/distributor/exhibitor stranglehold. Other titles produced by Cuban include Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room, Bubble and Good Night, and Good Luck.
The Italian and The War Within are reviewed at Funerals & Snakes; reviews of the other two will appear there next Wednesday.
The industry is in an interesting state when a relatively small film like Breach can get a release at Readings and the Paramount across the road – and also at the suburban Empire and Lighthouse. Made and distributed in the US by major studio Universal, here it is being distributed by independent Rialto (no longer connected to the cinema chain), hence all the indie exhibitors. My understanding is that Readings, however, want everything and will simply hoover up any and all available titles and no one can afford to turn them down.
Breach is based on the true story of a CIA double-agent played by Chris Cooper and his ultimate exposure by ex-Mr Witherspoon Ryan Phillippe and one Imdb contributor calls it “the best of the year to date†although the comment was made in February…
Wellington gets a chance to say a fond farewell to All Black legend Tana Umaga on Saturday afternoon when he plays his final first-class game in New Zealand before heading off to start his coaching career at Toulon in France. The Wellington Lions play Manawatu at 2.35pm hoping to put their atrocious performance of last weekend behind them and give Tana the send off he deserves.
I was at Christian Cullen’s farewell, as well as the Auckland send-offs for Michael Jones and Zinzan Brooke. They were all amazing occasions and this one probably will be too.
My prediction (and feel free to ridicule me for it in the comments): Tana to be New Zealand’s first Samoan Prime Minister within 20 years.
An unanticipated great result in Melbourne on Saturday night has kept the Phoenix in the hunt for early scalps and, perhaps more importantly, given them another warm-up game to prepare for the forthcoming A‑League campaign.
The late goal from Brazilian import Daniel that surprised last year’s champions Melbourne Victory means the Phoenix play the Newcastle Jets at the Stadium tomorrow (Friday) in a playoff for 5th or 6th place in the Pre-Season Cup. It will be the first time the team have played under lights at the Stadium and they’ll be hoping for a turnout that equals or exceeds the 6,000 that cheered them to their first win less than three weeks ago.
Tickets are on sale from the Stadium only (from noon at the kiosk on the concourse; all the booths will be live from 6.00pm) and the game kicks off at 7.30pm. Adults pay $10 and kids and students get in free. Let’s make some noise, people.
Once described by Terry Gilliam as “a monument to cranial architectureâ€, Bruce Willis’ shiny bonce is on full display in Die Hard 4.0 (known in US-centric territories as Live Free or Die Hard), playing at Readings, Regent-on-Manners, Empire, Sky City Queensgate and the Embassy where it looked kind of murky this evening.
Adam Sandler does his bit to fill the gap left by Ingmar Bergman with I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry: he and the guy from “The King of Queens†play two firefighters who pretend to be gay to get the marriage benefits (any relationship to the limp Australian comedy Strange Bedfellows starring Paul Hogan is entirely coincidental): Readings and Sky City Queensgate. Aside: I saw a film in one of the two Gold Lounges at Queensgate on Tuesday night and an usher stopped by my seat to ask me if I wanted popcorn or a soft drink which was nice except THE FEATURE HAD JUST STARTED! And for health and safety reasons they don’t dim the lights fully so it was an experience I can’t recommend. The film was good though (more on that in another post).
The rest of the new releases after the jump, including Black Snake Moan and Ten Canoes.
Strange things are afoot concerning the release of the film License to Wed (the trailer for which has been torturing audiences for weeks). The radio preview was at Readings tonight, they have been trailering it heavily and it’s got a start date of Thursday on their web site. But they don’t have any sessions listed for Courtenay Central.
It wouldn’t be the first time that Readings have dropped a film at the last minute as a bargaining position (they have been known to throw their weight around with distributors) or maybe they just wanted to give The Simpsons Movie triple the usual number of sessions (which they have done).
Then again, they might have seen the film and exercised some critical judgement. No, of course not, how stupid of me.
License to Wed is therefore only playing at the Empire in Island Bay so to experience it at the multiplex you’ll have to trek out to the aircraft hangar at Queensgate.
[Because I Said So and Catch a Fire after the jump.]
The highlights of the Northern Hemisphere blockbuster summer keep on arriving, led this week by the long-awaited Simpsons Movie. I previewed it today and I recommend that you stay through all the credits. Playing Readings, Empire Island Bay, Sky City Queensgate and Regent-on-Manners which despite the best efforts of some enthusiastic staff is complete pants.
Lindsay Lohan teams up with Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman for the inter-generational comedy-drama Georgia Rule. Love interest is provided by Dermot Mulroney and Garrett Hedlund (Eragon). Again all over town: Readings, Regent-on-Manners and Sky City Queensgate.
More after the jump
A reliable informant tells me that former hobbit and tv star Dominic Monaghan is in town, spotted browsing the fine fare at Whitcoulls in Courtenay Central.
I wonder whether he’ll be around long enough to have Sunday brunch at Fidel’s like the old days.
Wellington Phoenix 3 Sydney FC 0
The Phoenix made a lot of friends on Sunday afternoon with a confident display against an out of sorts Sydney side. Rarely troubled at the back, showing good enterprise and pace going forward, and superbly marshalled by the experienced Ross Aloisi in central midfield, the Phoenix looked better than both the Rufer-era Kingz and the woeful Knights put together.
The official attendance was just over 6,000 (which is sensational for a pre-season match) and the organisers sensibly stuck us all on one side of the ground to help harness the atmosphere. The official site has yet to be updated with the result and Stuff don’t have a match report so I’ll tell you that there were two goals for Shane Smeltz plus an own goal from an unknown Sydney player.
The Brazilian number 4 Cleberson is going to be a definite crowd favourite — he’s a big lump of a bloke and he totally bossed the central defence, winning everything in the air — and compatriot Cortes looked pretty lively down the right wing.
Phoenix match tickets go on sale on August 13 and I’d recommend getting into them early, particularly as more than half the games are kid-friendly Sunday afternoon affairs and it won’t stay this cold forever.
The first Wellington Phoenix home pre-season game has been moved for the second time. Originally announced for the Basin Reserve, at some point it was switched to Newtown Park and now, according to the official site it has been moved to Westpac Stadium due to “concerns that Newtown Park would not have the capacity to cope with the big crowd expected.â€
Sunday at 2.00pm is kick-off time and the tickets are only $10 (and free for under 16s). Opposition Sydney FC are one of the A‑League glamour sides (former Liverpool and England star Robbie Fowler was over there discussing terms for a move last week) and should give the Phoenix a test.
I’m gutted the match has been moved from the Basin as I wanted to tell the story of the last time there was a major football match there back in 1994 (maybe). The All Whites were playing an exhibition match against top German outfit Werder Bremen and legend Wynton Rufer was going to play a half for each side. As is so often the case, far more people turned up than expected and most of us were still queuing outside when the game kicked off. Anyway, a young lady in one of the flats above the trophy shop opposite decided to ease our pain a little by lifting her t‑shirt over her head and giving us a flash. But, I’ll have to tell that story some other time.
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