ScreenScribe

Friends (TV2, 6.30, R) ✫✫✫ When Phoebe takes a job as a telemarketer, her first call takes a disturbing turn; Rachel accidentally kills Joey’s favourite chair. Jason Alexander guest stars. Shortland Street (TV2, 7.00) ✫✫✫ Brooke demands her life back; Jasmine flags down trouble; Vasa puts her heart on the line. Chuck (TV2, 8.30) ✫✫✫✫ Chuck’s secrets […]

The Happening: TV3, 8.30pm Sunday. Everything but the script is happening in another eerie tale from writer/director M Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs). It stars Mark Wahlberg and Bridge to Terabitha’s Zooey Deschanel as a couple in the wilderness trying to survive a mysterious airborne plague that sparks mass suicides across the East Coast of the […]

TV3’s HD combo of NZ’s Next Top Model and the movie, Juno, helped the network to win Friday night’s ratings contest. The season-two launch of Model attracted 9.1% of TV3’s target audience, 18-49 year-olds, and the free-to-air premiere of Juno, 10.9%. Model ranked behind TV2’s comedy duo, Two and a Half Men and Gary Unmarried, but […]

Funny People: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Saturday. Writer/director Judd Apatow’s obsession with genitalia gags frustrates Funny People’s potential as a standout comedy about stand-up comedians. At least Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen bond beautifully as a terminally ill king of comedy who tries to atone for his womanising while mentoring and tormenting a dogsbody who aspires […]

TV3’s Monday night movie got the jump on the competition when it out-rated TV2’s season finale of Desperate Housewives during its first hour. Last night’s HD premiere of Jumper averaged 10.9% of TV3’s demo, 18-49 year-olds, from 8.30pm-10.30pm. It opened with 13.5% (vs Housewives‘ 13.6%) and peaked at 14.1% (vs 13.7%) before losing viewers as […]

Would I lie to you? TV3 will resume season two of Lie to Me from episode 11 on August 4. The HD drama about a body language sleuth (Tim Roth) was one of the network’s most popular shows this year before its Wednesday night run was interrupted for Underbelly: The Golden Mile. Its return will […]

Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Melanie Lynskey, JK Simmons, Sam Elliott. Director: Jason Reitman. Screenplay: Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner. Score: Rolfe Kent. Cinematography: Eric Steelberg. The director of Juno, Jason Reitman, teams with an unlikely collaborator, co-screenwriter Sheldon Turner (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning), to land an unusually sophisticated romantic […]