ScreenScribe

Network Premiere: Get Him to the Greek  (TV3, 8.30, 5.1) Russell Brand’s rock star from Forgetting Sarah Marshall has an encore in this less memorable romp from that movie’s star and screenwriter, Jason Segel. Jonah Hill, who was the waiter in Marshall, plays a record industry flunky baby-sitting Brand’s fading celebrity en route from London to Los Angeles for a comeback […]

Sky Movies Premiere: X-Men: First Class (Sky 20, 8.30, 5.1) Rarely does the title of a superhero reboot sum up its content as well as this prequel’s. A new director at the helm, Kick-Ass’s Matthew Vaughn, spectacularly reinvigorates the Marvel mutants franchise, as do new leads James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in the younger incarnations […]

Sky Movies Premiere: Cars 2 (Sky 20, 4.20, 5.1) As co-director John Lasseter says in his cheerfully exhaustive Blu-ray commentary, Cars 2 isn’t just a “retread”. It relocates racing car Lightning McQueen and his tow-truck mate Mater to Europe for a World Grand Prix, where they become embroiled in a plot to sabotage alternative fuel’s prospects. The folksy, small-town […]

Sunday Theatre’s suffragette drama, Votes for Women – What Really Happened, got the thumbs-up from critics but not viewers. The NZ Herald said it did “a fine job of focusing on New Zealand historical events” and The Dominion Post praised the “fine acting” and a script that ”mostly avoided being too preachy”. But as was […]

Network Premiere: Robin Hood (TV3, 8.30, 5.1) Ridley Scott’s entertaining but flawed take on the Sherwood Forest outlaw was his fourth consecutive collaboration with Russell Crowe. His visually impressive revisionism cloaks the 900-year-old legend within the guise of historical credibility but isn’t dark or Elizabeth-an enough to satisfy adults while being too sombre and complex for kids. If only […]

Sunday’s sensational true-crime dramatisation, Siege, deservedly won its slot, averaging 8.7%-13.3% of the major demographics. Why TV One didn’t launch its NZ Sunday Theatre season with this compelling account of gunman Jan Molenaar’s three-day siege in Napier three years ago is puzzling given it was far superior to last week’s Safe House. Siege was from […]

Sunday’s premiere of Golden (TV3, 7.00), which has been dubbed a “flabby” Kath & Kim wannabe, spearheads an upsurge in free-to-air HD commissions. It screened ahead of the HD true-crime dramatisation, Siege (TV One, 8.30), followed Saturday’s premiere of Judy Bailey’s Australia and precedes Tuesday night’s HD newcomer Highway Cops (but not, inexplicably, stablemate Radar Across the Pacific). This […]

Series Premiere: Planet Dinosaur (TV One, 7.00) “This six-part series, narrated by John Hurt, is the most expensive and ambitious monsterfest since Walking with Dinosaurs, and it showcases these newly discovered beasts in all their snarling, thumping, flesh-tearing CGI glory,” said The Times. “Before the latest bone fragments were found, the biggest beast on the block was Tyrannosaurus rex, […]

New Zealand’s definitive free-to-air guide to what’s airing nightly in 1080i: Saturday TradeZone Gone Fishin’ (TV3, 5.30) Hyundai Country Calendar (TV One, 7.00) ITM Fishing Show (TV3, 7.00) Series premiere: Judy Bailey’s Australia (TV One, 8.30) Ice Road Truckers (TV3, 7.30, 5.1) CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (TV3, 8.30, 5.1) Sunday Pretty Little Liars (TV2, 5.30, 5.1) The War at Home (TV2, 6.30, […]

TV One at last is getting with the HD programme and will roll out six new series in 1080i starting the week of June 16. The same week it will screen another movie-length NZ drama in HD and resume thrice-weekly screenings of Coronation Street, albeit still in SD. The pick of the new shows is […]