Archive

Dunedin’s Gig Heydey

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Caleb Wicks

Whenever I go to a gig these days I leave feeling a little disappointed. It’s not that the bands can’t play, or that the venue is shit, or even that I can’t stand the people who are at the gig, even though those are often problems too. What I am continually disappointed by is the lack of atmosphere Read more...

Total Recall

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Sam McChesney

Going into this, I was very sceptical. The original Total Recall (1990) was a classic Paul Verhoeven glossy violence-fest, not to mention one of Arnie’s best films (though admittedly this is a bit like saying that Harry is one of the hottest royals); remaking it was a dangerous game. Plus I’d heard Read more...

Hope Springs

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Michaela Hunter

Hope Springs is best described as a quirky comedy for the 30-plus demographic. Meryl Streep is a dazzling yet obvious choice as housewife Kay, and Tommy Lee is well cast as her somewhat dim-witted husband Arnold. The plot is simple: Kay feels trapped in their stale marriage, but Arnold is Read more...

Bernie

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Sam McChesney

Lots of films get laughs by poking fun at hicks. However, few do so in as affectionate and poignant a way as Bernie, a quirky sleeper hit in the vein of Juno or Little Miss Sunshine. Set in Carthage, Texas – which, as its townsfolk reliably inform us, is in the non-liberal, non-Mexican part of the Read more...

Little Sister

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Feby Idrus

There are two sentences – or beginnings of sentences, anyway – in Julian Novitz’s psychological thriller Little Sister that encapsulate everything this novel is about. The first, “To live is to battle with trollfolk”, from Henrik Ibsen, is quoted by the alarmingly volatile teenager Shane. The second Read more...

White Noise

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Beaurey Chan

Do you guys know about the iTunes visualiser? If you do, nod vigorously – we are on the same page. For those who don’t, I am about to change your life. Press Ctrl+T the next time you’re playing a song in iTunes, and VOILA! Colours, sunbursts, fireworks, rainbows galore! The first time I was Read more...

Heroes

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Directed by Lara Macgregor | Written by Gerald Sibleyras | Translated by Tom Stoppard | Featuring Peter Hayden, Geoffrey Heath and Simon O’Connor The Fortune Theatre does a fantastic job of balancing out the programming for its seasons, making sure there’s something for everyone, and Read more...

Resident Evil 6 - PREVIEW

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Toby Hills

Resident Evil 5 was like a rousing game of impromptu beach volleyball: sand underfoot, a baking sun above, and a loyal partner by your side at all times. No matter how many prolapsed eyeballs and massive crocodiles it contained, the game had a hard time invoking fear in the bones of its players. It Read more...

Coconut Chicken

Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Ines Shennan

My mother would often quip that “necessity is the mother of invention”. I vehemently hated this phrase when I was younger, mostly because it meant things weren’t going my way and a novel solution was needed. That old idiom came to mind one evening when my pantry was bereft of spices and I was Read more...

Darksiders II

Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Toby Hills

Darksiders II is the The Amazing Spider-Man of the video game world: endlessly derivative, and pretty unnecessary, but undeniably effective nonetheless. It is an action-adventure, beat-em-up puzzle game with RPG and platform elements – a pick’n’mix of fundamental mechanics that everyone finds Read more...