Politically incorrect and with a badass heroine and cynical tone, Bad Teacher takes its title inspiration and a lot more besides from the film Bad Santa, which starred Billy Bob Thornton.

These days, children are used to monsters popping out of screens in 3D, but coming face-to-face with a brachiosaurus is something else.

Significant Lilburn music finally makes it to CD, but the whole story is still to be told.

The original Cars of 2006 was Pixar animation's least fulfilling film with a laboured story and a look that never let you forget you were watching a cartoon.

Male-female duo the Cults seem to want to dispel some of the connotations of their badge "new indie-pop band from New York".

The latest album from the youngest son of the late Nigerian rebel and music maker Fela Kuti is co-produced by Brian Eno, and while Afrobeat is well past its heyday, this sounds fresh and resonant.

Unsensational, intimate and quietly passionate, March's meticulously observed examination of the crisis facing the small atoll of Takuu is an object lesson in patient documentary film-making.

Jazz and metal are linked by the fact that when they are played at their best they are both adventurous, fiery forms of music.

Jools and Lynda Topp's Pakuranga Bowling Club alter egos almost brought the Civic's roof down.

Their dalliances with Josh Homme as producer on third and previous album Humbug might have set out to prove the Arctic Monkeys didn't want to be limited to writing toe-tapping tunes about life down the chip shop.

It's surprising, given Jon Toogood has been making a rock 'n' roll racket for more than 20 years now, that he's never ventured out on his skinny little lonesome.

Mention a trip to see Bridesmaids and someone will likely comment "oh yeah, the female version of The Hangover".

Heartwarming story of an unlikely friendship.

It's time for utter musical madness to take hold once again. And it's about time because it's been four long years since New York instrumental crazies the Battles released their classic brain-addling debut, Mirrored.

The Girl In The Polka-dot Dress could be described as a "road novel", since most of the action takes place on the freeways of America as Harold Grasse drives his newly bought, second-hand camper from Maryland to California in the 1960s.

Two middle-aged ladies are central to Alan Bennett's reflective pair of comedies in Smut.

When anyone precious dies, most people attempt to keep their memory alive. This can be done by using their name a lot. Valuing the things they once touched. Or even wore.

Inkinen puts his stamp on contrasting NZSO offerings.

Beethoven was a man of volatile emotions, a personality trait that, a few years ago, was attributed to lead poisoning. More recently, such theories have been quashed, but there is no denying that Ludwig was an irascible chap.

It's 30 years since this Australian pub rock-meets-synth rock band changed their name from Flowers to Icehouse.

What better way to document 15 years as one of New Zealand's most dependable and pioneering electronic acts than with an album of their best (not to mention diverse) remixes, and some Pitch Black tunes you may not have heard before.

A "tuakana" is a mentor (literally "older sibling") to a "teina", and this $20 double bill includes Strong Hands, a contemporary drama by Michael Rewiri-Thorsen and Te Awarua, a tragicomic melange of history and myth by tuakana Albert Belz.

After a weightless galaxy-soaring opener, hip-hop dance three-piece Kidz in Space throw their debut album a few hard punches, and raise burning questions over how to define them - heavy pop, strobe-lit hip-hop, Kiwi-Brit rap?

The previous album by this Auckland-based four-piece, Cross Your Heart, announced a heartland country-rock band in the Warratahs' lineage, but one given a slightly more alt.country twist.

Ed Helms, the uptight guy from The Hangover films, gets further typecast in this smutty, sweet indie comedy.

This knockabout British comedy has good intentions: to confront the horrors of Arab-Israeli relations by laughing at them.

This earnest but rather stilted historical drama is the first production by The American Film Company, founded in 2008 by internet stockbroking billionaire (and Chicago Cubs owner) Joe Ricketts.