Archive

The Expendables 3

Posted 5:55pm Sunday 31st August 2014 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: C+ In the long tradition of The Expendables series repackaging the exact same action-hero products you have seen before in 80s’ movies, comes The Expendables 3, a film with no original dialogue. Some might say that the way they rework each action actor’s iconic catchphrases (such as Read more...

Housebound

Posted 5:55pm Sunday 31st August 2014 by Rosie Howells

Rating: A- Does anyone else feel the pressure to love any film made in New Zealand? Like there’s a special place in hell for those that don’t support Kiwi comedy? What I’m saying is, I do. So when reviewers and punters alike starting raving about Kiwi-made horror-comedy Housebound, a voice Read more...

Burial Rites

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Imogen Davis

I am a wide reader, and will read just about anything; I have even been known to read the phone book in those moments of bibliographic desperation. Hannah Kent’s debut novel Burial Rites, however, finally stumped me. I have had no motivation to read this book. Zip. Nada. Zilcharooney. On paper Read more...

White Fence - For the Recently Found Innocent

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Oscar Francis

Rating: B- Gentle, psychedelic rock music with some great guitar moments – the penultimate track “Raven on White Cadillic” really shines. Frontman Tim Presley sounds like a world-weary Syd Barrett, nightingale-singing through a warm, beautifully mastered mix. However, as a whole, For Read more...

FKA Twigs - LP1

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A+ "I love another, and thus I hate myself,” Tahliah Barnett (FKA Twigs) chants over the first two minutes of LP1. Her delivery is bold. Her voice warped and affected. Layer upon layer, resembling a sort of Kate Bush, alien choir. If there is a phrase or message that conveys the Read more...

Download of the week: Two Cartoons - Tiny Terrors

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Adrian Ng

Two Cartoons are Dunedin pop heroes Isaac McFarlane and Brad Craig, who, as of this year, are based in London. Their music is a mixture of summery indie-pop, pop-punk revelry and overall fun and good vibes. You can download both their EPs for free from their bandcamp page, twocartoons.bandcamp.com, Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Adrian Ng

Merchandise - Green Lady Merchandise are a trio from Tampa, Florida. “Green Lady” is the second single from their upcoming album After The End. The track is a shameless rock ballad, in the same trajectory as Oasis' “Champagne Supernova” or Suede's “Beautiful Ones.” With the grandiose Read more...

Rogue Legacy

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: A We are currently living in the midst of the Renaissance period for the platforming genre. Over the past couple of years Indie developers have created a litany of amazing new platforming experiences, which is incredible when you consider that at its core platforming games really only Read more...

Vegetable and Blue Cheese Hipster Soup

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

I decided to call this soup hipster soup as when made in its purest form, from the sad-looking veges at the bottom of your fridge, it costs you next you nothing but somehow taste delicious. You can also make it wannabe hipster soup by buying and making it with new veges and then dressing it up in Read more...

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Mandy Te

Classic Film I once asked my family if I could skip school and stay at home; unfortunately, they said no. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off always makes me wonder if my hypothetical day off would have been as cool as his. Probably not. I mean, I asked if I could stay at home. Sooo not “choice” of me. Read more...

The Dark Horse

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Sydney Lehman

Rating: A+ The Dark Horse echoes the conversation around Maori urbanisation started by Once Were Warriors and, in my opinion, supersedes it. Set in Gisborne, The Dark Horse tells the based-on-life story of Genesis Potini, who is a one-time chess champion. Released from Read more...

Under the Skin

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: A+ Harvesting human flesh for your alien homeworld’s meat industry is a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. Scarlett Johansson (or ScarJo, as she likes to be called) plays an enigmatic seductress that has a disgusting job to do here on Earth: luring local Glaswegian men into her Read more...

Guardians of the Galaxy

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: A It was a big risk for Marvel to move their massive franchise into space. After all, the Space Opera is a swing-or-miss genre that began with one colossal hit, in the form of Star Wars, but has been predominantly misses in the 40 years since. The coming weeks will tell if Guardians Read more...

Gary Currin

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Hannah Collier

Milford Gallery Exhibited until 27 August 2014 Gary Currin was in Wanganui in 1952 and has been exhibiting his work since 1976. His paintings and exhibitions have gained national momentum, placing Currin within the sphere of significant New Zealand artists alongside people like McCahon, Read more...

Guardians of the Galaxy: Legacy

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Brandon Johnstone

Guardians of the Galaxy: Legacy is the first volume of the 2008 comics reboot of the ragtag space-team. The writers, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, or “DnA” as they are known collaboratively, have been writing comics since the mid-80s and have a solid legacy as a team. Together they have worked Read more...

Jenny Lewis - The Voyager

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: B+ The Voyager is the third full-length release from Jenny Lewis, the former co-songwriter of the now deceased Rilo Kiley. With albums such as Take Offs and Landings and More Adventurous, Rilo Kiley were certainly a leading presence during that weird, semi-commercialisation of Read more...

Spoon - They Want My Soul

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A- I’ve been a Spoon fan for quite some time now. I found their music mesmerising for its meticulousness. I appreciated the mastery they had over their sound, from each guitar stab, to each drum fill Jim Eno decided not to play. Their music seemed to ruminate in this pent up Read more...

NZ Download of the week: Clemintine - Kate Moss EP

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Adrian Ng

Clemintine is a local project based around the songwriting talents of Jamie Russell, and features the fearsome duo of Max Lake and Oscar Parker. The Kate Moss EP is four tracks ridden with angst and self-loathing. It’s driving, distorted pop-punk. You can get the release at a name-your-price Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Adrian Ng

Dope Body - Hired Gun Dope Body are a four-piece rock bandbased in Baltimore, USA. “Hired Gun” is the first single from the group’s third full- length album, Lifer. Known for their heavy yet intricate sound and referencing of 90s hardcore-influenced riffs, the band pretty much cover a Read more...

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee - New 'N' Tasty

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: A- Have you ever finished a book/film/TV series and felt totally devastated by the loss? That feeling of emptiness created when you have become so utterly entranced and involved in a fictional universe that for a time after finishing the series you don’t know how you can function Read more...

God help the girl

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

God Help the Girl follows three youngsters around the streets and music halls of Glasgow, in one of those “perfect carefree summer” kind of romps. Eve is recovering from a self-harm episode and decides to chase her musical dreams, enlisting the help of mega-cutie James, one of those insufferable Read more...

Pulp: A film about life, death & supermarkets

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Ashley Anderson

This documentary-style film is an en- dearing tribute to the ‘80–‘90s Sheffield- based band, Pulp. While probably not a well-known rock group in New Zealand, they have had many hits, including “Common People” (1995). Unlike many band-based movies, the members (now in their 50s) seem like genuinely Read more...

Robocop (1987)

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Ben Tomsett

Classic Film I can imagine watching the blood-soaked ridiculousness that is Robocop would be an incredibly rewarding experience while high. Peter Weller plays Alex Murphy, a police officer that is brutally and graphically blown to pieces by criminals, his life saved when he is rebuilt Read more...

Begin Again

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Sydney Lehman

Rating: B- Begin Again, a modern music film in which the music felt terribly dated, and scored by The New Radicals, who haven’t released an album since 1999. I don’t understand this bizarre choice in musicians for the score of a film about the current music industry. The whole thing felt Read more...

Pacific Rim

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Cult Film For various reasons, in this day and age there is often a certain scorn for so-called “blockbusters,” like it is incredibly passé to find enjoyment in anything mainstream. It probably doesn’t help that, in the days of mass film production, unique plot lines are often few and Read more...

Hercules

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B When you’ve heard a story told the same way 100 times, you never expect the 101st retelling to be different. Which is why Brett Ratner’s Hercules was a pleasant surprise, if not your usual action blockbuster fare. Hercules is one of humankind’s oldest legends, and Ratner’s Read more...

John Ward Knox & Sophie Bannan

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Hannah Collier

Blue Oyster Art Space Exhibited until 23 August 2014 The Optimists is a new work by Christchurch-based artist Sophie Bannan and Auckland-based artist John Ward Knox, and is currently being exhibited at The Blue Oyster Art Project Space. While each artist presents a series of work unique to Read more...

Pork and Coriander Dumplings

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

Hi, my name is Sophie and i am a dumpling fiend. Steamed dumplings, fried dumplings – all the dumplings! I spend a lot of time sourcing out the best dumpling stalls and night markets and frequently venture into D-graded food establishments to find premium offerings. I had tried making Read more...

Drowning City

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Bridget Vosburgh

Other reviews i’ve read of Ben Atkins’ first novel Drowning City tended to sound something like: “ZOMG this teenager wrote a book when he was like 17 and then it was published when he was 19 ZOMG and it sounds just like a real person wrote it, this is incredible!” The problem with this is that his Read more...

Shamir - Northtown EP

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A- Shamir Bailey is a nineteen-year-old musician from Las Vegas, USA. The Northtown EP is his debut release, and it is definitely a promising one. The first thing that becomes immediately apparent is Bailey’s voice. It is silky smooth, and seems to sit at quite a unique Read more...

Radiator Hospital - Torch Song

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A- Radiator hospital is a self-described DIY band based in Philadelphia and centres around the twitchy, heartfelt, pop-punk songwriting of frontman Sam Cook-Parrott. Clocking in at just over 30 minutes, this spry collection of 15 songs is upbeat. Well, you know, as upbeat as Read more...

NZ Download of the Week: Dinosaur Sanctuary

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Adrian Ng

Dinosaur Sanctuary is a Dunedin four- piece made up of Kane Strang, Joshua Hunter, Rassani Tolovaa and Isaac Hickey. Together they make sort of sonic, stoner rock. A kind of Black Sabbath fused with Queens of the Stone Age, plus a dash of Arctic Monkeys. You can download their album from Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Adrian Ng

Weezer - Back to the Shack Not many bands face such loathing from their own fan base. Since their apparent fall from glory around the new millennium, the group have remained prolific. However, every album seems to breed a sense of, “oh no, you’re just making it worse, guys.” Read more...

Divinity: Original Sin

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B- There are so many gaming arguments that I am sick to death of hearing about, but more than any other, I am tired of people whining about games not being hard enough anymore. Not because I think it is a completely baseless complaint, but because people don’t understand the Read more...

At Berkeley

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Rosie Howells

At Berkeley is an in-depth, atmospheric documentary study of what life is like at the University of California, one of the most prestigious universities in the world today. Any movie that examines a famous academic institution with amazing facilities, scarily intelligent students, and incredible Read more...

Cap Bocage

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Baz Macdonald

New Caledonia is one of the world’s richest sources of the metal nickel, making it a target for mining companies. In the early ‘70s the Ballande mining group procured much of the New Caledonian indigenous land to begin mining the precious metal. In 2008, mismanagement of mining sites and heavy rain Read more...

Jacob's Ladder

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Cult Film To call Jacob’s Ladder a horror movie would be selling it short. It doesn’t only rely on frightening images, it also gets inside your head. Tim Robbins plays Jacob Singer, a soldier who returns from Vietnam and begins to experience terrifying demonic visions. His girlfriend Read more...

A Promise

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: B+ Have you ever had one of those love affairs that was spine-tinglingly perfect in every way – except, perhaps, for that tiny, insignificant detail, that one of you is not technically “available?” Maybe the other person was married to your boss? Then has Patrice Leconte got a film Read more...

Sex Tape

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Ben Tomsett

Rating: C+ I have never come so close to walking out of a movie as I did in Sex Tape. A likable cast and an interesting premise were enticing enough to attend, but after sitting through an hour of the blandest humour imaginable, I just about lost it. Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz play Read more...

Quai D'Orsay (The French Minister)

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: A- The French Minster joins other works such as the US TV show Veep that have clearly taken their inspiration from the popular UKTV series The Thick of It. These shows and films all portray important government figures through a satirical lens, which simultaneously undermines many Read more...

Michael Parekowhai

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Hannah Collier

Dunedin Public Art Gallery Exhibited until 9 November 2014 Michael Parekowhai (born Porirua, 1968) is one of New Zealand’s most important contemporary artists. Parekowhai acquired his BFA (1990) and his MFA (2000) from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. In 2001 Read more...

New York style soft pretzels

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

The other Saturday i woke up. Well, i say “woke up” – in reality I was barely conscious and still a bit drunk from the night before. I felt like death. After a few more hours of remaining in the horizontal position, I dragged my tragic ass out of bed, put in my contacts and on some pants and Read more...

Profile: New Zealand Child Poverty 101

Posted 10:15pm Sunday 27th July 2014 by Stacey Kennedy of Choose Kids

“Child poverty;” “vulnerability;” “income gap.” Buzz words, right? Phrases thrown around by the radical lefties? There are 285,000 children living in poverty in New Zealand, yet so many of us New Zealanders seem content to ignore the problem, or worse, to deny it altogether. Unfortunately “us Read more...

Strange Harvest

Posted 10:15pm Sunday 27th July 2014 by Adrian Ng

Dunedin cold-wave duo Strange Harvest have been busy finishing their third full-length album. A few weeks removed from the studio Justin Walshaw catches up with Critic’s Adrian Ng. Did both of you come from musical backgrounds? Was there a particular moment that made you want to do music? Read more...

Download of the Week: The River Jones - The River Jones (NZ)

Posted 10:15pm Sunday 27th July 2014 by Adrian Ng

The River Jones are a four-piece from Christchurch. Noisy, post-punk, emo. Reminds me of a combination of Sonic Youth and Slint. Their live shows are spectacular. You can get their album at a name-your-price download from theriverjones.bandcamp.com. Read more...

A Sunny Day in Glasgow

Posted 10:15pm Sunday 27th July 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A- A Sunny Day In Glasgow began as a recording project in 2006, between friends Ben Daniels and Ever Nalens. Since their inception the band has seen countless line-up changes, albeit always centered around the songwriting prowess of Ben Daniels. Sea When Absent is the group’s third Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 10:15pm Sunday 27th July 2014 by Adrian Ng

Perfume Genius - Queen Perfume Genius is the moniker for Seattle musician Mike Hadreas. “Queen” is the lead single from his third album, Too Bright, set to be released in September later this year. A beautiful, sprawling ballad, “Queen” is grandiose and at the same time dangerous. Read more...

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Posted 10:15pm Sunday 27th July 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: A This year marks the 100-year anniversary of WWI, making it a crucial moment in our generation’s cultural memory. With the last veteran of the Great War having passed away in 2012, our memorials of this event become increasingly about remembrance instead of respect. As time moves on, Read more...

52 Tuesdays

Posted 10:15pm Sunday 27th July 2014 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Wow. Words almost fail me. 52 Tuesdays was filmed over the course of one year, entirely on Tuesdays, to watch the mother-daughter relationship evolve, as Billie’s mother becomes James, her second father. Teen Billie is fairly naive to begin with, but gets totally derailed from herself when Read more...

Locke

Posted 10:15pm Sunday 27th July 2014 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

I know what you are thinking. If the film is just Tom Hardy’s face as he drives and talks on hands-free, how interesting could it be? The answer: RIVETING. And, no, that’s not sarcasm. We follow Ivan Locke on a literal journey to a hospital one night, but more importantly on a figurative one Read more...