The school holidays get under way on Monday and the major movie distributors are making sure you have plenty of choice about where to drop the sprogs while you head off to play the pokies. First up British fantasy film Stardust, based on a Neil Gaiman novel and featuring a catalogue of famous names, from Robert De Niro and Ricky Gervais to Sienna Miller and Michelle Pfeiffer. In the tradition of The Princess Bride (as the saying goes), Stardust is directed by Matthew Vaughan who produced Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch and directed Layer Cake so expect plenty of swearing and gunfights (perhaps not). Readings, Empire, Regent-on-Manners, Queensgate.
[The rest of this week’s new films after the jump.]
After a disappointing week of un-suspenseful suspense films we welcome a couple of potentially comedic comedies this week. Firstly, from Judd Apatow, creator of The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, comes Super Bad. Co-written by Knocked Up star (and funny guy) Seth Rogen with childhood friend Evan Goldberg when they were about 14, it follows two High School kids (who at one point were going to be called Seth and Evan) on a search for booze and girls so they can lose their virginity before they go to college. Playing at Readings, Regent-on-Manners, Sky City Queensgate.
The 40 Year Old Virgin himself, Steve Carell, stars in an un-anticipated sequel to Jim Carrey’s Bruce Almighty: Evan Almighty. Carell returns as Evan Baxter: egotistical newscaster in the original; egotistical Congressman in this one and Morgan Freeman is also back as God. Readings, Regent-on-Manners, Sky City Queensgate.
[The rest of this week’s releases after the jump]
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.
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.]
At the Wellingtonista we don’t often give props to less consciously hipster places like One Red Dog, even though their continued success shows they have a devoted following. Today we discovered one of the reasons why this devoted following might exist.
Review after the jump.
Longxiang Restaurant, on Dixon St opposite the cowboy (or where the Cowboy
And if real Chinese people from China like it, it must be good, authentic, and tasty, right? I decided to test it out for myself, having previously only tried takeaways that suffered from long delays before we got to eat them, which is hardly a sporting chance.
So after the Beckon VIP night, I grabbed my constant restaurant buddy/sister Karen, as well as the Wellingtonista’s Hadyn and the delightful Amy and set out to give it a go.
Review after the jump.