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SoHo Highlight: The Pillars of the Earth (Sky 10, 8.30, 5.1) In the final episode, Jack has become fixated with the cathedral, Aliena’s fixation with the Earldom has married her to Alfred, and Waleran and Alfred plot to get rid of Jack for good. While this marks the end of Pillars, watch for the sequel, World Without […]

Universal Pictures NZ has withdrawn from sale the season-one Blu-ray of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Paramount Pictures spin-off was to have gone on sale today but now will not be released for another month or so. The problem is an “anomaly” with the 7.1 audio track on seven of the 25 episodes. The […]

New Zealand’s definitive free-to-air guide to what’s airing nightly in 1080i: Saturday TradeZone Gone Fishin’ (TV3, 5.00) The Bionic Vet (TV One, 5.20) Hyundai Country Calendar (TV One, 7.00) ITM Fishing Show (TV3, 7.00) Series return: CSI: New York (TV3, 8.30, 5.1) CSI: Miami (TV3 9.30, 5.1) Movie: Sunshine (TV3, 10.25, 5.1, R) Sunday Girl vs Boy (TV2, 5.00) Series premiere: Hart […]

Friends (TV2, 6.30, R) Rachel and Phoebe choose ‘backup’ husbands; Chandler fools Monica into believing he hates the idea of marriage – and she seeks consolation with Richard. Tom Selleck guest stars. Shortland Street (TV2, 7.00) Gabrielle helps Lana; Nicole fights for nurses’ rights; things go from bad to worse for Callum. Road Cops (TV3, 7.30, R) The […]

The Day the Earth Stood Still: TV3, 8.30pm Saturday. Green screen takes on new meaning in this eco-minded sci-fi flop that opened to the kind of box office that virtually stands still. But it is better than its reputation, save for an ending clunkier than star Keanu Reeve’s typically robotic performance. He plays an alien […]

Bottle Shock: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Saturday. What should have been a corker romp about wine snobbery is a cloudy array of clichés, stereotypes and blended storytelling. Alan Rickman is marvellous as a struggling Paris wine merchant who, in 1976, visits the fledgling wineries of Napa Valley to concoct a blind, New World-Old World tasting test […]

There’s nothing elementary about the HD extras on this week’s biggest Blu-ray release, Sherlock Holmes. As well as a segmented making-of half-hour, there’s a highly recommended “Maximum Movie Mode” in which director Guy Ritchie deconstructs his Victorian roller-coaster romp, using clips, storyboards and concept art on a giant monitor, as the movie unfolds. The rest […]

Superheroes, space cadets and Holocaust horrors dominate the state of play next month on Sky Movies. The HD premieres of Watchmen (May 2) and Star Trek (May 30) bookend an eclectic line-up that includes two Final Solution dramas that weren’t released here on Blu-ray: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (8th) and The Reader (22nd), which […]