Entertainment picks: Journey to the dark side

Katie Melua performs a selection of jazz covers and originals with her four-piece band.

Entertainment highlights for the week ahead:

TV
Current affairs are so hot right now that programmers are doubling up on personalities. On Thursday, 8.30pm, intrepid BBC reporter Donal MacIntyre fronts two docos on rival channels - Expose: Body Butchers (TV One) where he goes undercover in India to expose corruption in the lucrative trade in body parts, and MacIntyre Investigates (TV3) where he finds parents who are abused by their children. Let's hope he investigated them in that order.

Another insight into dodgy human behaviour care of the BBC: The Experiment (Tuesday, Prime, 10.35pm), a reality show where psychologists divide volunteers into groups of prisoners and guards and watch as their behaviour disintegrates into a sort of fascist Big Brother.

Psych students will be familiar with the idea. In 1971, Philip Zimbardo's prison experiment was stopped short to avoid further psychological damage to participants. The TV version has ethical safeguards in place, so no texting in who you want on death row.

Movies
Seven years is a lot of ground to cover in any movie. In A Lot Like Love, that's 2556 days for Ashton Kutcher to figure out if he loves Amanda Peet.

Described by one critic as a "poor man's When Harry Met Sally", the romance begins when they meet on a plane, join the Mile High Club then decide they have no chemistry and get on with their lives.

When serendipity intervenes and they keep bumping into each other, we learn they are, like, so meant to be together because they're both into nude photography and spitting at the dinner table. So no, it's not The English Patient. And yes, I really wanna see it.

A prospect even more terrifying: the remake of the 1979 flick, The Amityville Horror, starring former Home & Away star Melissa George. It's the same old haunted house story based on Jay Anson's bestseller about an American family who move into a grand Dutch colonial in Amityville, only to learn the building has a tendency to turn nice people into murderers. This time the suspense is heightened by creepy, advanced special effects, although some critics say they've overpowered the film because the scariest things are those you don't see.

They've obviously never watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre. (Both films in cinemas from Thursday).

Pick of the week, however is Downfall, a vivid war drama that portrays Hitler in his last days, told mainly through the eyes of his young assistant, Traudl Junge. The film has been criticised for humanising the Fuhrer - played convincingly by Swiss-born actor Bruno Ganz - but surely that only makes his actions more unforgivable. (At the Rialto from Thursday.)

Music
Something a little more soothing: jazz-pop artist Katie Melua performs at the Civic, Auckland on Tuesday night. The 20-year-old Georgian-born Belfast-raised singer, who boasts last year's biggest selling album in Britain, has trembling vocals, a thing for aphrodisiacs and will perform a selection of jazz covers and originals with her four-piece band.

During a gig in Australia last week she did all the songs from the album, plus a solo performance of Faraway Voice, her tribute to Eva Cassidy, and the melancholic Anniversary Song, which Cassidy also covered.

A stranger mix of past and present: the Joker's Circus, Sunday at the Studio. Aja Rock has teamed up with Bernie Worrell and the P-Funk All-Stars to release her new single Boogie Baby. Can she sing? We hope so. But it should be one hell of a party regardless, with LA DJ Isiah Martin, Mikey Havoc, Kourtenay K and drag queens showing up on the night. Best dressed gets a trip to Las Vegas.

Social circuit
It seems odd that the launch party doesn't coincide with the launch but on Tuesday night, Sky City is hosting a party to celebrate Viva, the radio station that replaced Easy Listening i on the 98.2 FM frequency last month.

The station isn't shy about its target audience - so unless you're female, aged 30-54, a professional, confident, self-aware and - get this - a cafe goer, Viva probably isn't for you. Greg Johnson is back from LA to perform to a guest line-up that includes Keisha-Castle Hughes, Simon Dallow, Ali Mau, April Bruce and Danny Morrison.

Festival
Now that we use digital cameras and pxt phones we tend to get rid of the bung shots but if you're getting sick of hitting the delete button, check out the Auckland Festival of Photography. Aside from the 15 exhibitions around the city, featuring work by acclaimed photographers, there's a chance for amateurs to have a go.