Latest FromEntertainment Reviews
![Album Review: The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, Love You EP](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Album Review: The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, Love You EP
You'd have to be in a pretty cynical mood not to smile at their light-as-air, finger-skipping arrangements, sunny strumming and casual vocal harmonies.
![Album Review: Various, Late Night Tales - MGMT](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Album Review: Various, Late Night Tales - MGMT
The most recent addition to the Late Night Tales stable is a typically pyschedelic, dreamy, and occasionally niggly collection of songs pulled together by New York electronic rockers MGMT.
![Movie Review: The Smurfs 3D](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Movie Review: The Smurfs 3D
The Smurfs themselves are as delightful and loopy as ever, so - despite undergoing a digital makeover - this Smurf adventure is still designed to appeal to younger and less discerning members of the family.
![Movie Review: Midnight in Paris](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Movie Review: Midnight in Paris
Four films set in London, one in Barcelona and he's just finished shooting in Rome: that Woody Allen sure gets around.
![Album Review: Wild Bill Ricketts, West Wind](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Album Review: Wild Bill Ricketts, West Wind
More percussive sorcery, soul jazz wizardry and seductive sounds from the south Pacific courtesy of human metranome Will Ricketts (aka Wild Bill) from the Phoenix Foundation, and many other bands.
![Movie Review: The Three Musketeers 3D](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Movie Review: The Three Musketeers 3D
Alexandre Dumas' classic story has been adapted many times, its film history stretching back to the silent era. The last time Hollywood took a decent stab at it was in 1993 with Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Oliver Platt attempting some rapier wit.
![Album Review: Sonic Youth, Hits Are For Squares](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Album Review: Sonic Youth, Hits Are For Squares
The concept is this: the band get an all-star cast of Sonic Youth fans to pick their favourite tracks, which includes everyone from actress Portia de Rossi to Beastie Boy Mike D and Radiohead.
![Theatre review: Arohanui: The Greatest Love](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Theatre review: Arohanui: The Greatest Love
A traditional-style epic tale, this well-paced musical extravaganza is by turns cheesy, dramatic and genuinely moving.
![Album Review: Pajama Club, Pajama Club](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Album Review: Pajama Club, Pajama Club
Sharon Finn brings out the quirky, playful musical side of Neil. They started having jams at Roundhead Studios on Friday nights, with Neil on drums and Sharon on bass, having a bit of fun with a glass of wine or two.
![Album review: Worn Copy - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Album review: Worn Copy - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
The vinyl reissue is something of a victory lap for contemporary musicians – and if there’s any artist from the last 10 years who could claim to having ‘won’ at music, Ariel Pink’s a likely contender.
![History Made: Bo Diddley in Melbourne](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
History Made: Bo Diddley in Melbourne
Bo Diddley was the originator – without him there’d be no Beatles, Mick’n’Keef, no Pistols, no rap. Big call? Yes. Is it true? Absolutely.
![Gig review: Fabulous/Arabia, Kings Arms](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Gig review: Fabulous/Arabia, Kings Arms
You knew this was going to be fun. With 60 per cent of the band in dinner jackets and the salty whiff of yacht rock in the air, Fabulous/Arabia are jovially enjoying a glass of bubbly on stage before kicking things off.
![Gig review: Black Dice, Kings Arms](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Gig review: Black Dice, Kings Arms
It is on rare occasions like this that a quiet Auckland Wednesday night turns into an explosion of energetic noise.
![Gig review: Bachelorette in Dunedin](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Gig review: Bachelorette in Dunedin
This particular Bachelorette performance was always going to be weighted by sentimentality.
![Book Review: Wishing For Snow](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Book Review: Wishing For Snow
Minrose Gwin clearly had a miserable time of it. Her father, Al the airman, only stuck around long enough to witness her birth, then fled to parts unknown, never to be seen again, although, to be fair, he did send Minrose a birthday present every year.
![Book Review: The Women Of The Cousins' War](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Book Review: The Women Of The Cousins' War
Murders, battles, seduction, witchcraft ... and a water goddess. It would be hard not to write a ripping history of the English War of the Roses.
![Book Review: The Below Country](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Book Review: The Below Country
Christchurch-born, Britain-based Edlin's first novel, The Widow's Daughter, was a crammed narrative of World War II Auckland, and the reverberations of a sexual liaison across decades and oceans. It was commendably ambitious and inevitably uneven.
![Movie Review: Footloose](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Movie Review: Footloose
First came Transformers, Tron, The A-Team, Clash of the Titans, and The Karate Kid, to name just a few, and now Hollywood has re-opened the 80s vault again with a remake of pop culture classic Footloose.
![Album Review: Alice Cooper, Welcome 2 My Nightmare](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Album Review: Alice Cooper, Welcome 2 My Nightmare
Thirty-five years on (or thereabouts), this is the sequel to Cooper's Welcome To My Nightmare album, his first solo outing following a clutch of classic records with the original Alice Cooper band.
![Movie Review: Cave Of Forgotten Dreams](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Movie Review: Cave Of Forgotten Dreams
The visual trick that is 3D cinema is designed to heighten reality but, in my experience, makes it less convincing.
![Album Review: Throwing Muses, The Anthology](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=796)
Album Review: Throwing Muses, The Anthology
In typical Throwing Muses fashion, the American indie pop rock band - formed by step sisters Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donnelly in the early 80s - have put together a two-disc collection made up of songs they like.