Tag: review

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

Anoth­er light-ish week of cin­e­ma releas­es to report: Read­ings have so much con­fi­dence in the new Rob Schnei­der prison-com­e­dy Big Stan that the only evening ses­sions are at a dead­en­ing 9.20pm at night. Accord­ing to IMDb this is the first film direct­ed by the Deuce Bigelow star which means we now have the phrase “a film by Rob Schnei­der” to ter­ri­fy and depress us. Also Sky City Queens­gate.

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

With most Welling­ton screens grown­ing under the weight of Oscar-bait, only Read­ings (and Sky City Queens­gate if you are so inclined) is open­ing any­thing new this week. My Bloody Valen­tine 3D was well attend­ed at sneak pre­views last week but sad­ly isn’t much of a film. It’s a remake of a beloved hor­ror of the same ear­ly-80s (same vin­tage as last week’s Fri­day the 13th). Apart from the title though there isn’t any­thing ter­ri­bly ‘Valentine‑y’ about it.

A poten­tial date movie (for a cer­tain kind of date, maybe) is Zack and Miri Make a Porno, the new film by Clerks’ Kevin Smith. Love­able schlub Seth Rogen (Knocked Up) stars with Eliz­a­beth Banks in a com­e­dy about flat­mates need­ing to find mon­ey for the rent.

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

This has to be the most mid­dle-of-the-road week for new cin­e­ma since I start­ed these lit­tle updates. Check these out:

First up Mar­ley & Me, a rom-com-weepy best-sell­er adap­ta­tion star­ring Jen­nifer Anis­ton and Owen Wil­son as a cou­ple who adopt a pup­py. Click here for the Defamer.com spoil­er. Read­ings, Empire, Light­house Petone, Sky City Queens­gate. Then we have He’s Just Not That Into You, the first film to be based on a best-sell­ing book based on a throw­away line of dia­logue from “Sex and the City”: Read­ings, Empire and Sky City Queens­gate.

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

More Oscar con­tenders hit our screens this week­end. Gus Van San­t’s biopic of the first open­ly gay elect­ed politi­cian in the USA, Milk opens today at Read­ings, Pent­house and Light­house Petone. Sean Penn plays San Fran­cis­co city super­vi­sor Har­vey Milk who was assas­si­nat­ed by fel­low city offi­cial Dan White in 1978. Penn is sup­port­ed by Josh Brolin (No Coun­try for Old Men), Emile Hirsch (Into the Willd) and James Fran­co (Pineap­ple Express).

I got to see Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire last Fri­day at the Embassy - if it does­n’t romp home with the best pic­ture Oscar I’ll be very sur­prised. Kinet­ic, colour­ful and heart­felt, it’s an object of great beau­ty. Slum­dog is also play­ing Read­ings, Pent­house and Light­house Petone.

[The rest of this week’s releas­es — and there’s heaps — after the jump]

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

As Oscar night approach­es anoth­er of the expect­ed heavy­weight con­tenders goes into cin­e­mas: Sam Mendes’ Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Road reunites Kate Winslet and Leonar­do DiCaprio for the first time since Titan­ic (still the high­est gross­ing film of all time fact-fans) in a sto­ry of a mid­dle-class 1950s cou­ple dis­sat­is­fied with the Amer­i­can sub­ur­ban dream. Based on (what I under­stand to be) an awe­some nov­el by Richard Yates. Play­ing at Light­house Petone, Regent-on-Man­ners, Read­ings, Pent­house and Sky City Queens­gate.

Road­show will be hop­ing that Clint East­wood light­ning will strike twice at the Oscars and are using that rare tac­tic, the sneak pre­view, to launch his new film (and his last as an actor) Gran Tori­no. His last per­for­mance was in the mul­ti-award-win­ning Mil­lion Dol­lar Baby in 2004. You can see Gran Tori­no ear­ly at Empire, Read­ings, Pent­house and Sky City Queens­gate. (East­wood’s oth­er new film Changeling opens on Feb 12)

For those inclined toward the crap­pi­er end of the mar­ket there’s Bride Wars, a “com­e­dy” star­ring Anne Hath­away and the woe­ful­ly-man­aged Kate Hud­son. Please note that I total­ly have an open mind about this film — I just don’t have any hope or faith: Empire, Regent-on-Man­ners, Read­ings, Sky City Queens­gate.

The Pent­house keeps it classy with a big­gish-bud­get French WWII movie called Female Agents about some young French women enlist­ed into the British Spe­cial Forces and sent on a sui­cide mis­sion to res­cue a British geol­o­gist. True sto­ry appar­ent­ly. Mean­while the Para­moun­t’s eclec­tic run con­tin­ues with a Czech com­e­dy-dra­ma called Beau­ty in Trou­ble. It’s by one of my favourite film­mak­ers, Jan Hre­be­jk who made the fan­tas­tic Divid­ed We Fall from 2000. Also at the Para­mount, for just a few ses­sions, is a surf­ing movie called Bustin’ Down the Door.

All of the above will be reviewed in next week’s Cap­i­tal Times (and online at Funer­als & Snakes), although I may draw the line at the surf­ing flick.

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

Fol­low­ing the flur­ry of Christ­mas and New Year releas­es (all of which are still play­ing), there are only two new titles to report this week. First­ly, The Tale of Des­per­aux an ani­mat­ed adap­ta­tion of a sup­pos­ed­ly beloved chil­dren’s book. Matthew Brod­er­ick plays a noble lit­tle mouse with enor­mous ears who teams up with a kitchen-lov­ing rat (Dustin Hoff­man) to res­cue a lone­ly Princess (Emma Wat­son) — sounds a bit like Dum­bo meets Rata­touille. The rest of the voice cast is sim­i­lar­ly pres­ti­gious includ­ing two gen­tle­men prob­a­bly on the the Acad­e­my long-list for Best Actor this year: Frank Lan­gel­la (Frost/Nixon) and Richard Jenk­ins (The Vis­i­tor). Play­ing at the Empire, Regent-on-Man­ners, Read­ings Courte­nay and Sky City Queens­gate (does any­one go there?).

Frank Miller is a hero to com­ic book afi­ciona­dos every­where. He cre­at­ed The Dark Knight Returns, 300 and Sin City (and co-direct­ed the Sin City movie along with Robert Rodriguez). Now he has both hands on the wheel of anoth­er com­ic book adap­ta­tion, Will Eis­ner’s The Spir­it and the pro­mo­tion­al mate­r­i­al makes it look like a long-lost cousin of Sin City. US reviews have not been kind but you can check it out at either Read­ings or Sky City.

The Para­mount’s Sum­mer “Best of” series con­tin­ues: Adam’s Apples, The Edge of Heav­en, I’m Not There. and Lars and the Real Girl get a sec­ond chance and they’re also raid­ing the vault with rare oppor­tu­ni­ties to see West Side Sto­ry, The Con­ver­sa­tion, Elvis: That’s The Way It Is and North by North­west.

Along with a run­down of all the Christ­mas releas­es, Des­per­aux and The Spir­it will be reviewed next week at Funer­als & Snakes (and in the Cap­i­tal Times on Wednes­day).

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

Too late to be of any use for Fri­day night enter­tain­ment, here’s a sum­ma­ry of the films open­ing this week across the city.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (Read­ings, Sky City Queens­gate and Empire). That’s it. The calm before the inevitable Box­ing Day storm.

But if Keanu Reeves play­ing a dead­pan alien isn’t enough there’s always the annu­al ‘V’ Movie Marathon at the Para­mount, kick­ing off at 4.00pm on Sat­ur­day. Organ­is­er Ant Timp­son has been some­what scathing of Welling­ton’s abil­i­ty (or inabil­i­ty) to hack the Marathon and is offer­ing a spe­cial mini-Marathon tick­et valid for 12 hours. Only prob­lem, is you have a wear a nap­py for the whole 12 hours ’cause you’d be a big baby.

On a dif­fer­ent kind of kick, this week­end sees the first Kore­an Film Fes­ti­val in Welling­ton — (only) three screen­ings of recent Kore­an movies, all at the Light­house in Petone on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day.

The Day the Earth Stood Still will get a review in the Cap­i­tal Times on Weds (and online at Funer­als & Snakes soon after).

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

If you are con­sid­er­ing going to the cin­e­ma this week­end, and you’ve already seen Bond and the oth­er 21 films cur­rent­ly play­ing in Welling­ton, here’s a quick guide to the new releas­es.

Cin­e­ma own­ers all over the city are breath­ing a lit­tle eas­i­er now that two of the biggest box office releas­es from the States have opened at the same time. High School Musi­cal 3: Senior Year is the third in the tril­o­gy and the first to get a full cin­e­ma release: Read­ings, Empire, Sky City Queens­gate. I saw it tonight at the Empire and my eyes and ears are still hurt­ing.

Knock­ing Bond off his perch last week­end in the US was the Christ­mas rom-com Four Hol­i­days star­ring  Vince Vaugh­an and Reese With­er­spoon. I believe I am out of step with most crit­ics but I actu­al­ly quite enjoyed it — and so did US$31m worth of oth­er peo­ple. Read­ings, Empire, Sky City Queens­gate.

Quar­an­tine is a very quick-out-of-the-blocks Hol­ly­wood remake of the Span­ish hor­ror film [REC] that Ant Timp­son was pro­mot­ing ear­li­er this year. It’s a Read­ings exclu­sive. Might be worth a look if, like me, you found it hard to read the sub­ti­tles in the orig­i­nal with your hands over your eyes.

The Vis­i­tor is going to be pop­u­lar, mark my words. From Thomas McCarthy, writer-direc­tor of The Sta­tion Agent (which did more busi­ness per capi­ta here than any­where else in the world), this one is about a depressed mid­dle-aged eco­nom­ics pro­fes­sor who redis­cov­ers life when he meets an ille­gal immi­grant cou­ple in New York City. Oh man, it is so much bet­ter than I just made it sound. Pent­house, Para­mount, Light­house Petone.

The acclaimed doc­u­men­tary The Sur­vivors (about the final year of the Holo­caust) gets two screen­ings at the Film Archive on Fri­day and Sat­ur­day respec­tive­ly as part of their Human Rights series and final­ly, a Pent­house exclu­sive: Sud­den­ly, a Swedish dra­ma about a man and his son recov­er­ing from the death of the moth­er and broth­er. “A qui­et and beau­ti­ful film,” says IMDb.

The Vis­i­tor has already been reviewed at Funer­als & Snakes, with the oth­ers fol­low­ing next week (and in the Cap­i­tal Times next Wednes­day).

UPDATE: My inter­view with The Vis­i­tor star Richard Jenk­ins is up at F&S

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

So, this is the week I come out of hiber­na­tion to resume post­ing and what do I have to report? Only the bleed­ing obvi­ous infor­ma­tion that the new Bond (Quan­tum of Solace) is every­where this week­end and that the only cin­e­ma dar­ing to go up against the behe­moth is plucky lit­tle Para­mount which is play­ing Amer­i­can Teen from today.

QoS is the mid­dle film of an expect­ed tril­o­gy so don’t expect much in the way of res­o­lu­tion. And despite being the most expen­sive Bond film in his­to­ry it’s a wel­come half an hour short­er than the pre­vi­ous Casi­no Royale: More ses­sions = more mon­ey. Play­ing at Read­ings, Empire, Pent­house, Regent-on-Man­ners, Embassy and Light­house Petone.

A big win­ner at Sun­dance this year, Amer­i­can Teen is a doc­u­men­tary sur­vey­ing a cross-sec­tion of cur­rent US young-adult-hood in the town of War­saw, Indi­ana. The char­ac­ters are stock (which is sort of the point): the Jock, the Nerd, The Queen and the Out­sider. You’ve got to love a film with this poster though. Para­mount exclu­sive.

Quan­tum of Solace was reviewed this week at Funer­als & Snakes and Amer­i­can Teen will join it next week (and in the Cap­i­tal Times if you pre­fer ink and paper).

Cinephilia: Film Festival preview

The Film Fes­ti­val has been a fix­ture of Welling­ton’s win­ter cal­en­dar for near­ly 40 years and for those of us who organ­ise our lives around glow­ing rec­tan­gles of one kind or anoth­er there is no bet­ter way to spend a cold and wet after­noon than in the com­fy leather chairs at the Embassy, engrossed in a work of art.

Pro­gram­ming a Fes­ti­val like Welling­ton may seem easy but I can assure you it’s get­ting tougher every year. The sheer vol­ume of inde­pen­dent film is grow­ing beyond all rea­son (I read that there were around 5,000 films sub­mit­ted to Sun­dance last year) and atten­tion must be paid to all four cor­ners of the globe nowa­days.

The glossy pro­gramme (doing dou­ble-duty this year as Fes­ti­val Guide Book and Sou­venir Pro­gramme) is 90 pages long and I direct you to it forth­with — my role here is, with the help of some pre­views from the Fes­ti­val office, to point your atten­tion towards some of the unher­ald­ed titles avail­able amongst the hun­dreds on offer. This year I only men­tion films I have seen and read­ers are asked to add their picks/hopes/reports in the com­ments.

The first thing to point out is that, unlike the old days, there is noth­ing to be gained in try­ing to guess which films will return for a com­mer­cial sea­son. With the loss of the three (oth­er­wise unla­ment­ed) Rial­to screens in June, there is even less chance of a film com­ing back than before and the gen­er­al down­turn in atten­dance this year has made dis­trib­u­tors wary. At the moment there are no plans to release The Sav­ages (a well-observed, superbly act­ed dra­ma with plen­ty of black humour star­ring Philip Sey­mour Hoff­man and Lau­ra Lin­ney) and even the Jack Black — Michel Gondry com­e­dy Be Kind Rewind is expect­ed to go straight to DVD post-Fes­ti­val (although strong local sales may pro­voke a change of mind). Rec­om­men­da­tion: if the big screen expe­ri­ence is impor­tant to you, don’t wait.

[Pre­view con­tin­ues after the jump]