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Fairytale no. 9
In its own right ‘9’, the movie, is actually a fairytale. In the sense that how this film actually got made is all but a fairytale. And that would make Tim Burton and Timor Bekmambetor, as executive producers, the proverbial fairy godmothers…
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Same story, new dimension
Toy Story ranks as one of those impossible anomalies (joining Godfather 2) where the second film, in the what is soon to be trilogy, is as good as the first – if not fractionally better. A decade later both films have been re-released with 3D...
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NZ Fringe Festival 20th birthday
The New Zealand Fringe Festival celebrated its 20th festival in grand style with the launch of the 2010 programme at The Mighty Mighty bar in Wellington complete with a giant cake and Raybon Kan...
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Boys are Back in Town
'The Boys are Back', starring Clive Owen as a British sports journalist living in South Australia, is a likeable enough movie but just too predictable, trying too hard and ultimately, slightly annoying...
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Dressed to the nines
Beautifully staged and set in stunning 1960’s Italy, and visually breathtaking from the opening scene to its finale, Nine is a film that shouldn’t be missed. As Lili, Guido’s costume designer and confidante Judy Dench is perfectly cast and at her witty and sardonic best...
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Lightning-fingered
The story of how Percy Jackson and Olympians: The Lightning Thief got onto the big screen is nearly as marvellous as Harry Potter being written on a laptop in a café while JK Rowling was trying to find somewhere warm....
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Heart of country
The rock biopic path has been fairly well trodden by Hollywood; Joaquin Phoenix and Jamie Foxx both turned in career-defining performances as Johnny Cash and Ray Charles in ‘Walk the Line’ and ‘Ray’...
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Mel-content
It has been a long time since we have seen Mel Gibson in front of the camera and longer since he starred in a film that I am particularly fond of; I'm thinking back to at least Braveheart here, or even Lethal Weapon....
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Precious cargo
PRECIOUS is the kind of story that is rarely told, about a character who society usually writes off, judges as a statistic, or simply ignores. Set in Harlem it tells the story of an overweight, illiterate teen with hope that of a new direction...
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Norwegian Bond
Max Manus is an emotionally-charged, nail-biting war thriller, full of suspense-packed sequences. The lead character, who gives the film its title, is a true 1940s James Bond –without the array of women to lead him astray.
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Foxy and fantastic
I’ve never been overly into Wallis and Gromit so it’s easy for me to say this movie is the best example of stop-motion animation in a feature length film there is to date. We have some fascinating foxy film facts from its production..
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
There is much to be shocked by in this film, not in the least the sexual violence against women, and the abuse of power by those with influence. Saying that, the story is one of victory over adversity, the forcefulness of the human spirit...
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