Kerre Woodham: Old-fashioned tale of good versus evil is a winner

How cool is it to be a Kiwi right now? With King Kong opening to rave reviews; the film of Christmas, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, packing them in around the world; Niki Caro working on her next film; and In My Father's Den proving a respectable addition to the New Zealand film library, it's not surprising that every hip and now magazine has to include at least one Kiwi in its people-watching columns to be authentic.

I went to the Narnia premiere on Thursday night at the Civic and loved it. This delightfully old-fashioned venue was entirely appropriate for this delightfully old-fashioned film. Oh, the animation and computer generated graphics were state-of-the-art but the story and characters in the film came from yesteryear.

Good was good, bad was very bad, love will win out over evil, redemption is possible and sacrifice for the greater good is rewarded.

There's even a scene where a little girl is locked in a cottage with a half-naked, hairy-arsed man she's never met - and only good comes of it. There are a few Lord of the Rings moments - the trek across snowy wastelands has been done before with hobbits instead of beavers and the battle scene was very LOTR-like - but I can see this being a film I'll be showing my grandchildren.

Marvellous stuff.