Archive

Lego City Undercover (WiiU)

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Baz Macdonald

The Wii U was launched a year earlier than it should have been. Nintendo denies it, but the truth is that they sold their consoles with promises of games, promises that have now been revealed as lies. When the Wii U was announced at E3 2012 it had a wide variety of launch titles, including Pikmin 3, Read more...

Mefisto by John Banville

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Lucy Hunter

What would you sacrifice to have everything you ever wanted? What happens if you sell your soul, but there is no afterlife to suffer in? John Banville recreates Goethe’s Mephistopheles in twentieth-century Ireland, bringing the old religious parable into a modern, secular setting, where God and the Read more...

Rust and Bone

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Sam McChesney

Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), an unemployed man in his mid-twenties, hitches into town with his five-year-old son. He crashes at his sister’s squalid abode, and finds work as a nightclub bouncer. One night he breaks up a fight – a girl, Stéphanie (Marion Cotillard), is bleeding, so he gives her a ride Read more...

Trance

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Lyle Skipsey

Danny Boyle’s latest movie is a mind-bender. Starring James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, and Vincent Cassel, the movie follows an art heist gone wrong. Simon (McAvoy) is an auctioneer of fine art. He is charged with selling the rarest of paintings to the world’s wealthiest people. When an attempt Read more...

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Ella Booray

Perks is a coming-of-age story with a surprising absence of acne and angst. Charlie (Logan Lerman) is a misfit lost in the labyrinth of high school. Enter Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson), who envelop him into their warm bosom of friendship. The film follows the group as they grow up, Read more...

Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Basti Menkes

Though never previously a fan of Justin Timberlake and his music, I always considered him to have a lot of potential. Admiring his vocal talent and the reverence with which he channels his influences (namely Michael Jackson and Prince), I hoped that one day the planets would align and he would come Read more...

Badd Energy - Underwater Pyramids

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Charlotte Doyle

When writing a review, it can be extremely difficult to take an objective, non-partisan perspective and put my own personal taste to one side. Especially with the album Underwater Pyramids by Badd Energy, as it is a style of music that sits at the lower end of my music-enjoyment spectrum. Initially Read more...

Autechre - Exai

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Basti Menkes

Anybody familiar with Mancunian duo Autechre will know they make some of the most complex, unconventional, inaccessible electronic music in the world. Their trademark sound is of stranded synth melodies, eerie digital drones, and pieces of electronic shrapnel ricocheting off one another to form Read more...

The Strokes - Comedown Machine

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Basti Menkes

At this point in their career, The Strokes really don’t have much to lose. After releasing two near-perfect, critically-acclaimed albums in quick succession, the New York quintet stumbled on their overlong third LP First Impressions Of Earth, and have since failed to reignite the music world’s faith Read more...

David Bowie - The Next Day

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Basti Menkes

Upon learning that David Bowie was to release his twenty-fourth studio album this year, my expectations weren’t altogether very high. With Bowie recently entering his sixty-sixth year on this planet, my mind instantly feared a lifeless and desperate-sounding record, the sound of an old man trying in Read more...

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Kathleen Hanna

Russ Meyer really liked boobs. His favourite Hollywood actress was Dolly Parton, he described 39DD-toting Anita Ekberg as “the most beautiful woman I ever photographed,” he had a penchant for casting women in their first trimester of pregnancy (gross), and his two favourite expressions were Read more...

The Host

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Fionnuala Bulman

Considering the Twilight saga brought over 10 hours of sparkly humans and pained expressions to our cinema screens, it’s fair to say I didn’t have huge hopes for The Host, the film adaptation of the sci-fi/romance novel written by Stephanie Meyer in 2008. It didn’t help that it was a Sunday morning, Read more...

No

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Gerard Barbalich

Those movies nominated for the illustrious Oscars are a typical bunch of tales (many think there are only seven tales) that take us on similar journeys, all similar but slightly different, and return us safely at the end. And for No, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, it Read more...

Jack the Giant Slayer

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Rosie Howells

Don’t we bloody love our expensive fairytale re-boots? Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman – all released within 18 months. And I think it’s fair to say they’ve hardly been instant classics, despite the obnoxious lineup of stars that sign on (I would assume Read more...

Bioshock Infinite

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Baz Macdonald

I could have written this review in five words: fucking awesome, go play it! However, it’s probably my responsibility to explain what exactly about Ken Levine’s new masterpiece Bioshock Infinite elicits this response. Despite the massive steps the video game industry has taken in the past 20 Read more...

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Thomas Thomson

“You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s latest novel. Relax. Concentrate … Let the world around you fade.” So begins Italo Calvino’s masterful, polyphonic novel If on a winter’s night a traveller. Published in 1979, self-referential and perfectly postmodern, this book is an examination Read more...

Cinnamon Buns

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Ines Shennan

I adapted a pizza dough recipe from blog The Londoner to create the buns. The result is a pile of fluffy, sweet cinnamon-laden goodness. Citrus peel adds welcome bitterness, but leave it out if it ain’t your thing. Throw in a handful of slivered almonds for crunch, if you wish. Most importantly, try Read more...

Pulled Pork (Round Two)

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Ines Shennan

This pulled pork with a naughty black pepper crust is so tender it should be illegal. Juniper berries, which are typically used to flavour gin, are lovingly bashed to release their fragrant pepperiness and are combined with tropical, flirty pineapple. Hours upon hours of cooking time gently allow Read more...

Leek, Chicken And Balsamic Pasta

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Ines Shennan

Pasta is easy to prepare and always filling – cheers carbs. Chicken and leek paired together with a splash of cream makes for a comforting and indulgent meal, with balsamic vinegar offsetting the richness with a slight tang. It’s easy to adjust the quantity to feed a large group of people too, and Read more...

Six60 Interview

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Basti Menkes

Six60 is everybody’s favourite New Zealand roots band. Born and bred right here in Dunedin, the whanau-loving, roots-remembering bunch of bros have recently been enjoying some international success, with audiences in the US and UK reportedly finding them “amazing,” “awesome,” and “incredible” Read more...