Cinephilia: Opening This Week

The Iron Giant posterSchool holidays start on Monday and Hollywood is doing its bit to turn your kids’ brains to mush with Transformers, an enormo-budget extravaganza about cars that turn in to robots (or the other way around). Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Michael Bay, Transformers should give the boys plenty of bang for your buck (while the girls get to swoon over current heart-throb Shia LaBeouf). Playing all over town including Readings Courtenay Central; Sky City Queensgate; Embassy; Regent-on-Manners.

Sensible-shoe wearing girls may well get more out of the latest incarnation of teen detective Nancy Drew, this time starring Julia Roberts’ niece Emma. A slightly smaller release this one, at Readings Courtenay Central and Sky City Queensgate only.

After the jump: Heartbreak Hotel, Starter for Ten, Francesca and Nunziata and The Iron Giant.

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

Paris je t'aime posterIt’s as if the gurus in Hollywood know that here in Wellington the Film Festival approaches and they’re trying to get the popcorn material out of the way before it is overpowered by more cerebral delights. Actually, that can’t be true, pretty much every week is like this…

The latest in the seemingly endless series of Will Ferrell sports movies in which our the star improvs himself a feature film while playing an emotionally stunted man-child is Blades of Glory and the sport this time is – Ice Skating! Figure Skating to be exact. Ferrell is joined by Napoleon Dynamite‘s Jon Heder as the two pair up to be the first all-male Olympic Ice Dancing champions (Readings and Sky City Queensgate).

After the jump: Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Paris je t’aime, Eden and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

UPDATE: How Much Do You Love Me? is also playing at the Lighthouse in Petone.

Ocean's 13 posterThis week’s blockbuster is the third installment in the Pitt/ Clooney/ Damon/ Soderbergh smug-fest, Ocean’s 13. This time the 11 from the first picture are joined by Ellen Barkin and Mr Hoo-Haa himself, Al Pacino. Diminishing returns? You be the judge at Readings, Sky City Queensgate, Penthouse or Empire Island Bay.

More down-to-earth is the messed-up Aussie no-budget romance Puppy (Paramount), described as a “weird and wonderful journey”. Another messed-up romance starts Thursday at the Paramount: How Much Do You Love Me? stars Monica Belluci as a prostitute who gets paid 100,00 euros a month to live with a lottery winner – until the money runs out. Also starring Gérard Depardieu.

Bridge to Terabithia, Pierrepoint, Scenes of a Sexual Nature and Off the Grid – after the jump.