Navigation for News Categories
At the Movies headlines with summaries.
-
Review: King of Thieves has nostalgic appeal but is low on surprise
24 Oct 2018King of Thieves is a senior heist movie based on a real-life story and starring Sir Michael Caine, Sir Tom Courtenay and Jim Broadbent.
Video, Audio -
At The Movies for 24 October 2018
24 Oct 2018Simon Morris returns in time to review pensioner-heist movie King of Thieves, a new adaptation of Anton Chekhov's famous play The Seagull, and a New Zealand documentary with a title that tells it all…
Audio -
'Johnny English Strikes Again': Lethargic performance in a tired franchise
26 Sep 2018Britain alone is worthy of a whole chapter in the 2018 Planet Earth Joke Book - but this film seems blissfully unaware of it all, going through the motions as if repeating the same old tired clichés…
Video, Audio -
Christopher Robin: More poignant for an older audience
26 Sep 2018In this live-action Winnie the Pooh spinoff, the story boffins at Disney wonder what would happen if the adult Christopher was ever to meet up again with his adorable beloved stuffed animal friends.
Video, Audio -
Australian director Bruce Beresford on his new film 'Ladies in Black'
19 Sep 2018The Australian director Bruce Beresford talks to Simon Morris about his new comedy-drama film Ladies in Black, which is set in a Sydney department store in the late 1950s.
Video, Audio -
'A Simple Favour': a little too self-consiously cute
19 Sep 2018Review - Despite the star power of Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick and the smart, women-led comedy director Paul Feig, A Simple Favour packs in too many tonal switches for its own good, says Simon…
Video, Audio -
The Predator: self-destructed by plot
19 Sep 2018Maverick film-maker Shane Black attempts to breathe new life into the '80s monster movie in The Predator, but the twists and turns lose the simplicity that made the original a true action hit.
Video, Audio -
About Flip 'n Time: Trans-tasman comedy duel
12 Sep 2018In this year's off-peak release schedule are two comedies from either side of the Tasman – a safe, Australian romantic comedy called The Flip Side for no discernable reason, and a rickety, unsafe Kiwi…
Video, Audio -
'McQueen': Fashion bad boy's tale all too familiar
12 Sep 2018The story of unlikely bad boy East End fashion designer Alexander McQueen - aptly titled McQueen - is, like so many documentaries about tortured artists, predictably tragic and sadly unenlightening.
Video, Audio -
McKellen playing the part but light on insight in the film 'McKellen'
12 Sep 2018There is no doubt that Sir Ian McKellen is one of the best actors treading the boards, but his work is so good because he has devoted so much of his life to it - leaving little room for an underlying…
Video, Audio -
On Chesil Beach: a poignant story of star-crossed romance
5 Sep 2018Review - The bittersweetness of Atonement was almost unbearably poignant, and it's repeated in On Chesil Beach, another Ian McEwan book adaptation also starring Saoirse Ronan.
Video, Audio -
Spitfire: marking the passing of an era
5 Sep 2018The documentary Spitfire tells the story of the plane that won the Battle of Britain, and features the last surviving RAF pilots – both men and women – remembering those perilous days.
Video, Audio -
Crazy Rich Asians: Crazy like a fox
5 Sep 2018Review - Hollywood's been trying to tap into the Asian market for years, so I'd have thought a Cinderella story among super-rich Chinese would have been a no-brainer, Simon Morris writes.
Video, Audio -
Review - Leave No Trace
29 Aug 2018Leave No Trace is the new film from director Debra Granik (Winter's Bone) with a star-making role for New Zealand actress Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie.
Video, Audio -
The Happytime Murders: Just not very funny
29 Aug 2018Review - A film noir parody set in a version of LA inhabited by humans and puppets, The Happytime Murders is directed by Jim Henson's son Brian, and stars Melissa McCarthy.
Video, Audio -
Zama: movie review
29 Aug 2018A 17th-century Spanish magistrate is stuck in a dead-end job in the Argentinian film Zama, directed by arthouse favourite Lucrecia Martel and based on Antonio di Benedetto's 1956 novel of the same…
Video, Audio -
BlacKkKlansman - movie review
22 Aug 2018BlacKkKlansman marks the return of director Spike Lee in a true story of a black policeman who joined the Ku Klux Klan. Produced by Jordan Peele (Get Out!)
Video, Audio -
The Darkest Minds - movie review
22 Aug 2018Teen sci-fi thriller The Darkest Minds features possible stars of tomorrow, Amandla Stenberg and Harris Dickinson. Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2).
Audio -
The Meg - movie review
22 Aug 2018The Meg may feature Jason Statham and Kiwi Cliff Curtis, but what audiences want to see is the world's biggest shark.
Video, Audio -
At the Movies for 22 August 2018
22 Aug 2018Simon Morris looks at the mega-hit giant shark film The Meg, the true story of the black cop who joined the Ku Klux Klan, Black KKKlansman and teen sci-fi film The Darkest Minds.
Audio -
The Spy Who Dumped Me - movie review
15 Aug 2018Can stars Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon add a feminist slant to a tired old formula? The Spy Who Dumped Me is pretty much what it says on the wrapper, says Simon Morris.
Video, Audio -
At The Movies for 15 August 2018
15 Aug 2018Simon Morris tries to get past the expectations generated by three apparently predictable movies this week —LBJ, Midnight Oil 1984 and The Spy Who Dumped Me.
Video, Audio -
Movie review- Mission Impossible Fallout
8 Aug 2018Mission Impossible Fallout is the sixth for Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. This one co-stars Rebecca Fergusson, Michelle Monaghan and Vanessa Kirby (The Crown).
Video, Audio -
Review - Whitney
1 Aug 2018Whitney charts the rise and fall of one of the great music stars of the Eighties and Nineties - Whitney Houston.
Video, Audio
