Category: Film

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

After last week’s pathet­ic attempt at weath­er fore­cast­ing, I will refrain from sug­gest­ing any­thing oth­er than there are three new films at the movies this week.

First up, slip­ping in to the wee cinemas at the back of the Para­mount is French romantic com­edy Change of Address. Musi­cian Emmanuel Mouret has arrived in Par­is without accom­mod­a­tion and is approached by Fre­derique Bel about shar­ing her flat. Ignor­ing the life-rule that goes “Don’t f*ck your flat­mates, don’t mix your drinks” they become, er, acquain­ted. Com­plic­a­tions ensue. Change of Address is described by Urb­an Cine­file in Aus­tralia as “play­ful and amus­ing”. Para­mount only.

I saw Nev­er Back Down yes­ter­day and I’m not giv­ing too much away if I tell you that it is then most repuls­ive and objec­tion­able film I have wit­nessed in a long time. As Ken Duncum once said (in anoth­er con­text) not only should this film nev­er have been made but all those respons­ible should have to atone for hav­ing made it. Read­ings (and maybe Regent-on-Man­ners but their web site is down).

Finally Def­in­itely, Maybe is a romantic com­edy star­ring Ryan Reyn­olds and Abi­gail Breslin (relax, they’re not the romantic­ally entwined couple – give her a few more years yet). Breslin plays Reyn­old’s 11-year-old daugh­ter who wants to know why Daddy is get­ting divorced. Through the medi­um of exten­ded flash­back, Reyn­olds then tries to explain his life and how he and her moth­er fell in love. The twist: we don’t find out which of his three sig­ni­fic­ant former lov­ers is his one true love until the end. Read­ings.

I’ve slipped a bit behind in review­ing cur­rent releases thanks to the Show­case but these three plus Rambo, Bon­neville and The Eye will be reviewed at Funer­als & Snakes next Wed­nes­day.

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

Looks like the week­end is going to be beau­ti­ful, again. Per­fect weath­er for, ahem, sit­ting in a darkened air-con­di­tioned room watch­ing a flick­er­ing light on a screen. And Hol­ly­wood has come to the party with a couple of films that are going to make sit­ting in the sun­shine seem like the most nat­ur­al thing in the world.

Sly Stal­lone brings John Rambo out of retire­ment for his first film since 1988 at Read­ings and Regent-on-Man­ners. Liv­ing in quiet retire­ment in Thai­l­and, Rambo is forced back into action to res­cue Chris­ti­an mis­sion­ar­ies in Burma. In Rambo tra­di­tion it’s rated R18 for viol­ence and offens­ive lan­guage.

The second asia-hor­ror-remake to come out in two weeks (Shut­ter was last week) is The Eye. Jes­sica Alba plays a blind woman who gets a haunted cornea trans­plant and can see more than she bar­gained for. Read­ings and Regent-on-Man­ners.

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

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

The Fest­iv­al of the Arts has been soak­ing up almost every spare minute of my work­ing day so this is going to be a bare bones update.My high­light: Simon “Shaun of the Dead” Pegg back on screen in Run Fat­boy Run about a mar­riage-shy waster who tries to win the love of his life (Than­die New­ton) back by run­ning the Lon­don Mara­thon. Read­ings, Empire, Regent-on-Man­ners, Light­house Petone, Pent­house.

For the kids who like those dance-as-a-sub­sti­tute-for-gang-war­fare movies we have Step Up 2 The Streets, sequel to the massive 2006 hit that launched Chan­ning Tatum on an unsus­pect­ing world. He returns for the sequel. Read­ings only.

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

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

After the excite­ment of the pre-Oscar rush it’s anoth­er quiet week at the cinema. Open­ing all over town (that’s Read­ings, Empire, Pent­house, Regent-on-Man­ners and Light­house Petone) is the his­tor­ic­al drama The Oth­er Boleyn Girl fea­tur­ing the dream team of Nat­alie Port­man and Scar­lett Johans­son along with Eric Bana as ‘Enery the Eighth.

Even more his­tor­ic­al (at least in terms of dis­tance if not accur­acy) is 10,000 B.C. which stars our own Cliff Curtis as a char­ac­ter called Tic’T­ic (I kid you not). Dir­ec­ted by Inde­pend­ence Day’s Roland Emmerich, 10,000 B.C. was par­tially filmed in New Zea­l­and last year and tells the story of a young mam­moth hunter­’s des­per­ate efforts to save his tribe. There’s no sign of Raquel Welch but Cam­illa Belle (When a Stranger Calls) comes off the bench to play eye-candy: Read­ings and Regent-on-Man­ners.

If neither of these take your fancy, there are sneak pre­views again this week­end of the Simon Pegg rom-com Run Fat­boy Run (dir­ec­ted by his good mate Dav­id Schwim­mer). You’ll find that at Read­ings, Empire, Regent-on-Man­ners and Pent­house today, Sat­urday and Sunday only.

All three of these titles will be reviewed at Funer­als & Snakes next Wed­nes­day (and in the Cap­it­al Times on the same day). Mean­while, tick­ets have gone on sale for the 2008 World Cinema Show­case which is an abso­lute doozy this year – a worthy com­pet­it­or to the main Fest­iv­al. And the Film Soci­ety got under way on Monday which must mean that Sum­mer is nearly over.

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

Just in time for the week­end, here’s a quick run down of the films open­ing this week in cinemas across town.

Return­ing from last year’s Film Fest­iv­al is Lady Chat­ter­ley, a French adapt­a­tion of an earli­er (“kinder, gentler” accord­ing to Ebert) ver­sion of D. H. Lawrence’s fam­ous erot­ic nov­el Lady Chat­ter­ley’s Lov­er. It sounds like it could have been titled There Will Be Sex: Rialto only.

Also return­ing, but from the more recent French Film Fest­iv­al is big-budget cos­tume drama Molière, about the great dram­at­ist played by Romain Duris.That one is a Pent­house exclus­ive.

Finally this week, 300’s Ger­ard But­ler romances Hil­ary Swank from the dead in P.S., I Love You. Described by one review­er as hav­ing a “high ick factor”. Read­ings and Regent-on-Man­ners.

All these films will be reviewed at Funer­als & Snakes by next Wed­nes­day (and in the Cap­it­al Times on the same day).

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

In 1998 Wern­er Herzog made an acclaimed doc­u­ment­ary called Little Dieter Needs to Fly about Ger­man-born Viet­nam hero Dieter Den­gler and his adven­tures as a US Navy pilot. He obvi­ously had a big con­nec­tion to that story as he has now gone back and made a fea­ture about the most amaz­ing chapter of Dengler’s life: the escape from a jungle-bound Viet Cong pris­on camp after 6 months of near star­va­tion. The Dark Knight’s Chris­ti­an Bale stars. Rialto exclus­ive.

Jack Nich­olson and Mor­gan Free­man star togeth­er as two old men on their last legs in The Buck­et List, dir­ec­ted by Rob Rein­er. It opens today at Read­ings, Empire, Light­house Petone and Pent­house. Also, from the com­mer­cial depart­ment is tele­port­ing adven­ture Jump­er star­ring Hay­den Christensen and Samuel L. Jack­son. Rumours that the pro­posed sequels to Jump­er will be called Sweat­er and Pullover are simply reck­less. Read­ings, Empire, Regent-on-Man­ners.

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