This ia friendly public service announcement that the object of much lust is the subject of a documentary about his being such an object of lust that screens tomorrow night on Prime at 8.30pm. According to the IMDB entry, Frodo Is Great… Who Is That?!!,
The documentary looks at the rise to celebrity status of NZ actor and musician Bret McKenzie, who appeared for 3 seconds as an extra in "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", during the Council of Elrond scene. His brief appearance sparked a huge internet fan-base dedicated to his "brooding pout" and "elvish good looks". McKenzie has been dubbed "FIGWIT", an acronym of "Frodo is Great; Who is That!!?"
So that’s probably quite a nice warmup to when Flight of the Conchords finally start screening here on the 17th.
Our annual opportunity to worship at the feet of Pixar arrives this week in the shape of Ratatouille (I’m a fan, can you tell?). Written and directed by Brad Bird, who made The Incredibles and Iron Giant, Ratatouille is about a rat named Remy with a talent for fine cuisine but who, obviously, isn’t welcome in the kitchen. Voices include Peter O’Toole, Ian Holm and the lovely Janeane Garofalo. Readings, Empire, Regent-on-Manners, Lighthouse Petone, Sky City Queensgate.
Writer and director of Waitress (Empire, Lighthouse Petone, Penthouse), Adrienne Shelly (alumni of the once-great Hal Hartley), was sadly murdered soon after finishing the film – as pointless and random an act as you can imagine. There aren’t enough women film directors in the world as it is without losing them like that.
[The rest of this week’s new releases after the jump.]
A fairly insane week for new releases is headed by NZ horror-feature The Tattooist, about Samoan tattoos that take on a life of their own and turn their owners into blood-thirsty zombies – or something like that: Readings and Sky City Queensgate only.
Also Readings and Queensgate is Sandra Bullock’s new mystery Premonition about a woman who may have foreseen her husband’s death in a car accident. I get to see this one tomorrow but the 8% rating on the Tomatometer doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm.
[Remaining new releases listed after the jump.]
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…
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.
Well, if you happen to be a fan of the big man and are wanting to go see his latest mockdocumentary then you know, you just might be in luck.
We here at Wellingtonista towers, in all our munificence, are giving away three double passes to see SiCKO.
To win, you’ll need to be one of the first three people to send an email to the.wellingtonista@gmail.com and make some appreciative sounding noises.
The tickets are only for this Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights.
Enjoy.
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.