Archive

Thor

Posted 6:23am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Matt Chapman

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, (1.5/5). You might think that Viking gods, hammers of mass destruction, “Frost Giants”, and rainbow bridges to outer space would make for a pretty awesome movie. I thought that too. Damn. Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh, seemed poised to blow my mind with Read more...

Mars Needs Moms

Posted 6:22am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Directed by Simon Wells, (2.5/5). Mars is named after the Roman god of war and is often described as the "Red Planet" due to the iron oxide in its surface. A mother is a woman who has given birth to or raised a child in the role of a parent. Mars Needs Moms is a 3D computer-animated film about a Read more...

Arthur

Posted 6:20am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Alec Dawson

Directed by Jason Winer, (2/5). Russell Brand and Helen Mirren make for an intriguing pair to place in a film together. Given that one is famous for playing a drunk rock star and the other the Queen, I went into this film with some interest. Unfortunately they are given dull typecasts Read more...

Heartbreaker

Posted 6:18am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Tom Ainge-Roy

Directed by Pascal Chaumeil, (3.5/5). My first foreign rom-com, and it was simply charming. It’s no Love Actually or Notting Hill, but it sure was a pleasant way to spend two hours. Think afternoon delight; not necessary, but you’re really glad it happened.   A Read more...

Lesbian Vampire Killers

Posted 6:16am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Ben Blakely

Directed by Phil Claydon. Starring James Cordon, Mathew Horne, MyAnna Buring, Paul McGann. Having only heard the title of this film, I expected a B-grade movie with fairly low production values, lots of blood and gore, and acting that was a wee bit shit. I guess I was expecting something akin Read more...

The Mystique of Menswear

Posted 7:11am Thursday 19th May 2011 by Jonathan Jong

This last week, three things popped up in my RSS aggregator which have been in the back of my mind ever since. The first was an article about the appalling working conditions at a large Chinese factory, which had led seven workers to commit suicide. The second was Isaac Likes’s blog post entitled, Read more...

Tyranny – I Keep You Thin

Posted 6:40am Thursday 19th May 2011 by Stefan Fairfield

Author: Lesley Fairfield, Publisher: Walker Books, (3/5). This is a quick read, a graphic novel about a teenage girl’s battle with the eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. It’s a story of how a young woman spirals from a picture of good health to the depths of Read more...

Dragon Ball books 1-16

Posted 6:37am Thursday 19th May 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Author: Akira Toriyama, Publisher: Vizbig, (5/5). Dragon Ball is the creation of the prolific manga writer/illustrator Akira Toriyama. It was successful from the start and went on to sell a record-breaking 120 million copies, was made into a television series, continued with Dragon Ball Z and Read more...

Graffiti in Chernobyl

Posted 6:34am Thursday 19th May 2011 by Hana Aoake

In the last few years, images have surfaced of street art in the abandoned city of Chernobyl, which was victim to a nuclear explosion in 1986 after a reactor malfunctioned. Like Hiroshima, the desolate landscape in Chernobyl highlights the city’s process of being moulded and manipulated, but in a Read more...

Fiona Amundsen: First city in history.

Posted 6:33am Thursday 19th May 2011 by Hana Aoake

Dunedin Public Art Gallery At 2:45am on August 6, 1945 a B-29 under the command of Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, a twenty-nine year old veteran pilot, began to roll down a runway on Tinian Island to take off on its historic mission to Hiroshima.   The title of New Zealand artist Fiona Read more...

God of Carnage

Posted 5:04am Thursday 12th May 2011 by Jen Aitken

Directed by Lara MacGregor. Starring Phil Vaughn, John Glass, Claire Dougan and Barbara Power. Written by Yasmina Reza and translated by Christopher Hampton, (4/5). Carnage: the killing of a large number of people. Although God of Carnage did not actually present on stage the killing of a Read more...

Feastock; The Arrival of the Invercargill Sound

Posted 11:44pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Sam Valentine

Say the word “Invercargill” to many musicians, and you’ll probably get a rather mixed response. But standing amongst the damp, leafy surroundings of 3 Fea Street, in secluded Pine Hill, I was struck by an interesting concept. Has the country’s most southern city better known for, um, well let’s be Read more...

Outland

Posted 11:42pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: XBLA, PSN, (4/5). Outland is alchemy. Take a sickle's worth of Mario Bros 2D platforming, and heat in a geothermal pool with the polarity mechanic most famous in Ikaruga. Distill a generous ounce of Metroid's adventuring with a batch of art and sound design reminiscent  of Shadow Read more...

Hector: Badge of Carnage: Episode 1 - We Negotiate With Terrorists

Posted 11:41pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: IOS, MAC, PC, (3.5/5). A trend is developing, and it's kind of frustrating. Twice this year I've had to admit that - despite proudly displaying the juvenile shades that are kind-of-sort-of crippling the industry's artsy potential - I really appreciate it when games like Bulletstorm and Read more...

Three Mince Recipes

Posted 11:37pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Leah Hamilton

Mince is really cheap, isn't it? Doesn't taste too shabby either. Well, unless your flatmate, like mine, simply fries it and serves it plain on gooey rice. Mmmm. To save you all from Mincezilla, here are three delicious recipes that will put your mince to good use. Enjoy! Chilli Con Carne Read more...

Sarah’s Key

Posted 11:34pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Zane Pocock

Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, (4/5). I haven’t read the best-selling novel by journalist Tatiana de Rosnay on which this film is based, but going by what director Gilles Paquet-Brenner has produced, my guess is that it would be well worth it. Like most Holocaust films, this will bring Read more...

Mozart’s Sister

Posted 11:26pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Nick Hornstein

Directed by René Féret, (2.5/5).   Mozart’s Sister portrays the life of Anna Maria Mozart (nicknamed “Nannerl”), who was denied a similar path to that of her younger brother, Wolfgang. In the beginning, she is still performing, though overshadowed and sidelined as Read more...

Fast Five

Posted 11:17pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Matt Chapman

Directed by Justin Lin, (3.5/5). We’ve come a long way since 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Fast Five wants to make that known. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster return for the fifth installment in the Fast and the Furious series, and Justin Lin returns as director. Yet, Lin takes a Read more...

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (3D)

Posted 11:14pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Sarah Baillie

Directed by Jon Chu, (4/5). I am not afraid to admit it; I am in love with Justin Bieber. Knowing little about the phenomenon of Bieber fever but thinking it would be hilariously awesome to go and see “the Justin Bieber movie”, I headed down to Hoyts, 3D glasses in hand. Little did I Read more...

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Posted 11:11pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Ben Blakely

Directed and written by John Cameron Mitchell. Starring: John Cameron Mitchell, Miriam Shor, Andrea Martin, Michael Pitt. Hedwig is in a bit of a slump. She’s on tour with the band the Angry Inch, but the gigs they play aren’t in flashy arenas; they are in fast food and Read more...

Style shepherds

Posted 10:13pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Eloise Callister-Baker

In New Zealand we seem to be living in the time of choice, so why do we limit our outfits to clothing that will blend into a crowd? Why do girls enjoy oversized off-the-shoulder knits with black tights; why do boys save up for their Lower jeans and black t-shirts? It seems that there is such a Read more...

Queen gives McQueen the royal seal of approval

Posted 10:10pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Mahoney Turnbull

Sarah Burton, quiet achiever of the House of McQueen; what a stunner of a dress. Make that plural sorry, dresses, even if they were curiously similar - you’d swear the latter was a refinement of the first. But when Westminster’s at stake, hell, why not? As the newest addition to the Royal Read more...

From Under the Overcoat

Posted 9:44pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Charlotte Doyle

Author: Sue Orr. Publisher : Vintage, (3/5). You are told all your life to never judge a book by its cover, but secretly everyone does. The cover of From Under the Overcoat by Sue Orr isn’t exactly the most appealing. It first gave me the impression that it would be a light-hearted, Read more...

Sacha Lauchlan: Dunedin sculptress

Posted 9:40pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Elaine Stevens

While Dunedin's art scene may attract less attention than our famous music scene, promising young graduates from the Dunedin School of Art have the potential to reverse the “underground” nature of Dunedin art. One such artist is sculptress Sacha Lauchlan, the inaugural winner of the Feldspar Award, Read more...

Critic reviews the Easter Weekender

Posted 5:02am Monday 9th May 2011 by Sam Reynolds

Warning, warning, warning; the monotonous sounds of MC Beau bounce across a wave of moving bodies, all swaying in time to the rhythmic wop wop of Nero’s beat. The crowd only stops moving for a split second to catch the Foreign Beggars MC as he jumps off a speaker; once he’s back on stage the Read more...

Mortal Kombat

Posted 4:59am Monday 9th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, (4/5). Some fool somewhere said that videogames couldn't possibly get any more violent. That's exactly what they said at the beginning of the twentieth century and look where we ended up. Despite the series being as old as I am, Mortal Kombat hasn't yet Read more...

Portal 2

Posted 4:57am Monday 9th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: PC, MAC, XBOX 360, Playstation 3, (5/5). I can feel it, like ten-thousand drummers marching in a cool valley miles from my ajar bedroom window. An amazonian torrent of internet memes. So many memes. But to focus on the individual moments Valve has created in Portal 2 would be to ignore Read more...

Foccacia

Posted 4:55am Monday 9th May 2011 by Niki Lomax

There’s something very satisfying about making bread from scratch. Getting dough under your fingernails is totally worth the hassle. The last time I did this was in February during the post-earthquake bread shortages. I was kneading for Christchurch, sort of. This week I decided to make some Read more...

Cafe Review - Allpress Espresso

Posted 4:53am Monday 9th May 2011 by Pippa Schaffler

12 Emily Siedeberg Place – just beside the BNZ car park, (4/5). Prices: Flat White: $4.00, Long Black: not offered on menu, Mocha: $4.50   Why I came here: A friend and I were on our way to Ombrellos but changed our minds when we saw all the people outside Allpress.   Read more...

Paul

Posted 4:47am Monday 9th May 2011 by Nell O'Dwyer-Strang

Directed by Greg Mottola, (4/5). Paul is the newest brainchild of genius comic duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the all-round awesome guys behind the classics Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This time, Frost and Pegg play British sci-fi nerds Clive and Graeme who are on a road trip around the United Read more...

Oceans

Posted 4:39am Monday 9th May 2011 by Tom Ainge-Roy

Directed by Jacque Perin and Jacque Cluzard, (1/5). Attenborough must be rolling in his…oh wait, he’s still alive. In that case, may he never ever, ever see Disney Nature’s most recent release Oceans; it will surely send him to an early grave.   Attempting to be a Read more...

Rio

Posted 4:37am Monday 9th May 2011 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Directed by Carlos Saldanha, (3.5/5). I opened the heavy door to the room where the sound of the commercial world was coming from. I then edged my way past rows of velvet red seats. Once I sat down, I realised there were three people in front of me. It looked like a mother with curly blonde Read more...

Scream 4

Posted 4:34am Monday 9th May 2011 by Hamish Gavin

Directed by Wes Craven, (4/5). The Scream franchise gets another outing courtesy of director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson. The requirement of staying true to the self-aware nature of the first three entries, while still providing semi-serious horror scares, while at the same time forging Read more...

World Cinema Showcase

Posted 4:32am Monday 9th May 2011 by Sarah Baillie

The World Cinema Showcase begins on the 5th May 2011, and runs until 18th May. As always, there’s a stunning range of films with over 30 screening during the fortnight at Rialto. Unfortunately, each film screens only a few times, so be sure to check out the full timetable online so as not to miss Read more...

The Room

Posted 4:29am Monday 9th May 2011 by Alec Dawson

Directed by Tommy Wiseau, (5/5). Move over Troll 2 and Plan 9 from Outer Space: The Room is the pinnacle of the so-bad-it’s-funny film. Tommy Wiseau is credited with starring in, directing, writing, producing and executive producing the film, although he’s barely done any of them well Read more...

The Last House on the Left (1972)

Posted 4:22am Monday 9th May 2011 by Hamish Gavin

Directed by Wes Craven Just like most video nasties, The Last House on the Left didn’t deserve to be banned for thirty odd years in the UK or wherever. It’s a fantastic piece of low budget horror filmmaking in which raw production values add gritty realism to a tale of rape and Read more...

Literary lust and the Blue Oyster buzz

Posted 3:51am Monday 9th May 2011 by Eloise Callister-Baker and Libby Fraser

We fashionistas are still ever so slightly affected by overtures of the iD high, which means glorious insights of “the week that was” are still steamrolling along. This week Eloise Callister-Baker shares the down low on the über cool fashion-meets-photography Blue Oyster gig while Libby Fraser Read more...

Cartoon Movement

Posted 6:19am Thursday 5th May 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Various authors. www.cartoonmovement.com (3/5). Another website you should take a look at if your bag is already too heavy to be dragging a book around is Cartoon Movement. It describes itself as “the internet's #1 publishing platform for high quality political cartoons and comic Read more...

The Essayist

Posted 6:07am Thursday 5th May 2011 by Steve French

Author: Various. http://essayist.tumblr.com/ http://thedocumentarian.tumblr.com/ (4.5/5) A lot of the writing on the internet is trash. There are only so many lists (cracked.com) or poorly written blogs (shit you come across in Stumble) you can read before you start craving a well-written Read more...

The Detainment of Al Weiwei

Posted 6:02am Thursday 5th May 2011 by Hana Aoake

Since April 3, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has been detained by the Chinese authorities for “economic crimes”. Given his international fame and robust charisma he seemed inviolable, but perhaps that was the point of detaining him: to stamp out the idea that any individual is greater than Read more...

Preview: God of Carnage

Posted 5:55am Thursday 5th May 2011 by Jen Aitken

Written by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton, directed by Lara MacGregor. Starring: Claire Dougan, John Glass, Barbara Power and Phil Vaughan. April 29 – May 21 at the Fortune Theatre. Staged around the world to rave reviews and with a spate of awards under its belt, comedy God Read more...

Wounds to the Face

Posted 4:16am Wednesday 27th April 2011 by Clare Thomson

Directed by Jennifer Aitken, Starring Joel Rees and Hana Aoake, (3.5/5). My thoughts, as I watched scenes from Wounds to the Face, kept returning to Antonin Artaud’s precept that words should have the same significance in theatre as they do in dreams. According to the five-minute crash Read more...

FASTER THAN LIGHT

Posted 2:05am Wednesday 27th April 2011 by Isaac McFarlane

The mysterious new kid on the block The New Zealand electronic music scene is a strange beast. From the sustained success of Shapeshifter to the boom and bust of Mt Eden Dubstep, many acts flirt with excellence only to fall on the wrong side of the success-mediocrity divide. But we have a new Read more...

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Posted 11:47pm Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: Windows, MAC, Linux, (4.5/5). What's the quickest route to disrupt the tension in any horror videogame, or for that matter any scary media? Top marks if you said combat, because any direct encounter with the relentlessly stalking depraved shadows immediately undermines any fear Read more...

Gobtron

Posted 11:45pm Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: iPod touch, iPhone, (2.5/5). Gobtron opens by flashing up a faux-ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) rating of “I for Immature”. I ask you, what could possibly be more mature than a majestic, mountain sized, hot-pink, fluffy, rectangular pig monster, enduring Read more...

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Posted 5:42am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Sharin Shaik

I love Sunday brunch. It’s the highlight of my week. My whole week is spent searching for cool recipes that I can try out on Sunday morning. Okay, so maybe I have no life. But hey, don’t judge! Today I would like to share with you a recipe for lemon ricotta pancakes. These pancakes are so Read more...

Cafe Review - The Good Earth

Posted 5:38am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Pip Schaffler

765 Cumberland Street, across the road from St David’s Lecture Theatre, (4/5). Prices: Flat White: $4.00, Long Black: $3.50, Mocha: $4.80   Why I came here: The sun pouring through the large windows looked appealing   Atmosphere: Relaxed, contemporary, smart Read more...

Just Go With It

Posted 5:33am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Critic

Directed by Dennis Dugan, (1/5). Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison crew has been a bit hit and miss when it comes to making comedy films, their repertoire consisting of Little Nicky, Joe Dirt, Mr Deeds and of course, Grandma’s Boy. There are plenty of others, but these ones hit the mark with Read more...

Sucker Punch

Posted 5:30am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Frances Stannard

Directed by Zack Snyder, (0.5/5). A 13-year old boy’s wet dream, this movie is reminiscent of being put through the pain of watching someone play Xbox. Sure, the player is having fun but you, the spectator are not! Here’s the film’s premise: evil stepfather sends girl to a Read more...

Rio

Posted 5:28am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Directed by Carlos Saldanha (3.5/5). I opened the heavy door to the room where the sound of the commercial world was coming from. I then edged my way past rows of velvet red seats. Once I sat down, I realised there were three people in front of me. It looked like a mother with curly blonde hair Read more...