An at-times unusual blend of intense futuristic boxing and schmaltzy, predictable father and son drama, this science fiction adventure is a mixed bag but should find a keen audience these school holidays.

"Life is hard" is one of the Noble Truths and Yang Pao, as a young boy landing on the streets of Jamaica in the 1930s, learns that lesson quickly.

In the opening pages of Michael Ondaatje's new novel, a young boy named Michael sets out for England on a passenger liner. It's the early 1950s.

Playwright Albert Belz has earned considerable acclaim for his treatment of Maori subjects but his re-telling of the Jack the Ripper story seems to be making a statement about the perils of pigeon-holing writers according to their ethnicity.

Wooden Shjips, out of San Francisco, once again serve up their particular brand of astral plane psychedelic drone-rock which sounds filtered through steel wool.

Katy B might have been a no-show but bass heavy dubstep acts Magnetic Man, Diplo and Nero made up for at Vector Arena in Auckland.

Cole Porter's smart-to-be-silly, witty-and-warm songs are so exceptional that they could pull this 1934 hit musical comedy through by themselves.

Posturing rockers Kasabian named their fourth album after a dinosaur, maintaining they are the current dinosaurs of the Brit-rock scene.

The music of Mastodon is perfect for a spot of hunting. It's pure blood sport music because when it's human against beast, and you're pumped up with scything and powerful tunes like Black Tongue and Spectrelight you will not back down.

In 1967 the great critic Frank Kermode published The Sense Of An Ending, a series of lectures that not only mined the apocalyptic theme in art, but reviewed the ways in which fiction carves order and pattern out of the chaotic flux of time.

While it’s easy to be sceptical about the side projects of well-established musicians, particularly when they consist of odd amalgams of collaborators, they can often emanate a certain charm.

Mel Parsons' sophomore album is like high quality aural chocolate - sweet, comforting, sometimes dark, full of subtle layers, and a treat for your ears.

The often disgusting and downright mean things rappers get away with really is something. On Game's fourth, star-studded album everyone from Erykah Badu to the cronies at Interscope records are in his sights.

Pitched somewhere between Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and the 80s Kiwi shaggy dog story Carry Me Back, this unassuming absurdist Israeli feature may have trouble winning hearts on this side of the world.

Atamira Dance Company's's beautifully crafted new Te Houhi - The People and the Land are One draws on intricately connected layers of dance, video imagery and narrated text to share poignant ancestral stories from the Ngai Tuhoe lineage.