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Movie review: A Royal Night Out
Who knows what happened on May 8, 1945 when Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen, and sister Princess Margaret went on to the streets of London to celebrate Victory in Europe (VE) Day.

Upgrade for entry level zombie action
It seems odd that Microsoft would bother upgrading State of Decay. Released in 2013,it was a middling zombie romp at best, with emphasis on stealth, survival and saving your mates over bloodthirsty brain bashing.

Review: Doggfather uses up another life on Bush
He's been a rapper, an actor, a porn movie mogul and, most recently, a terrible reggae singer called Snoop Lion. How many lives has this Dogg used up already? Six? Seven?

Review: Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell
This exceptional album is named for Stevens' schizophrenic and drug-addicted mother who died in 2012 and the stepfather (married to Carrie for five years when the singer was a young boy) who was his stability and currently runs Stephens' record label.

Backstreet Boys master the art of time travel
The Backstreet Boys brought their 20th anniversary tour to Auckland. Joanna Hunkin says it was everything her 15-year-old self could have asked for.

GoT: It's getting hot in here
Six Game of Thrones fanatics - Russell Baillie, Karl Puschmann, Sophie Ryan, Cameron McMillan, Chris Schulz and Robert Smith - share their thoughts on season five's fifth episode, Kill the Boy.

Concert review: Motley Crue & Alice Cooper
Thousands of music fans were treated to a heavy rock masterclass as veterans Alice Cooper and Motley Crue rocked Auckland's Vector Arena last night.

21 questions Bachelor must answer
The dust has settled, the final rose has been given and Matilda Rice has won Art Green's heart. But Verity Johnson has some key questions for the star of The Bachelor NZ ...

Game review: Zombie Army Trilogy
There is a hierarchy of acceptable deaths in the gaming world. The safest bets are robots, and families have enjoyed slaughtering billions of them with not the slightest moral code bent.

Review: Mumford & Sons, Wilder Mind
On the surface, one might say that Wilder Mind, the third album from the London quartet, has seen Mumford & Sons change from waistcoats and plaid to leather and denim. But that's a bit misleading really, a hokey oversimplification.

Movie review: That Sugar Film
I enjoyed Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, even as I shrank from its outrageous contrivance.

Movie review: Rugby doco The Ground We Won
Documentary that captures small-town, rugby-mad culture enthrals.

Movie review: Paper Planes
Australian film-maker Robert Connolly, known for Balibo and Underground: The Julian Assange Story, enters new territory with this sweet family drama about a 12-year-old boy from rural Western Australia.

Jono and Ben always 'go for the bum'
TV3’s promotion of Jono and Ben to prime time has yet to pay off, writes Duncan Greive.

Duo shine in bard's comedy
The second instalment of a two-parter, this play proposes a solution to the mystery of what happened to the play that matched Love's Labour's Lost by assuming it was (and then delivering) Much Ado About Nothing.

The Gunman is not a hit, man
One of the later sequences in this heavily armed action flick takes place in a bullfighting ring. Yes, we're now in Spain. No kidding.

Full House reunion? No!
There's no use crying about TV remakes ruining the past, writes Karl Puschmann. You're much better off crying about them ruining the future.

Paint by numbers film a fail
The wonderful choristers of the American Boychoir School (is "boychoir" even a word?) in Princeton, New Jersey, are the heart and soul of this production. But all the star power at the top of the bill cannot save a sentimental paint-by-numbers film.

Review: Diaz Grimm, Osiris
Diaz Grimm doesn't muck around. With just a handful of singles to his name, the Cambridge MC kicks off his debut album with his best song yet, a walloping combination of futuristic thuds and cascading choirs that would make Kanye West cry out in envy.

Alone in the spotlight
One of New Zealand's most talented clowns makes magic out of nothing, alone in his spotlight, tights and singlet, Janet McAllister writes.

Evil Within's DLC a hell of a scare
It was a scream that startled the neighbours. I'd been fumbling around a blackened basement looking for the power switch when something grabbed my ankle. It didn't have any legs. And it was trying to eat me.

Review: Blur, Magic Whip
I always thought Blur got more interesting towards the end of their time.

Thrones: A body and a brothel
Six Game of Thrones fanatics share their thoughts on season five's third episode, The High Sparrow.

Concert review: Demi Lovato
Former Disney star, Demi Lovato proved that she's not just a pop princess but a rock queen at her concert last night at Auckland's Vector Arena.

Live review: Marathon gala becomes 'comedy as punishment'
21 comics over three-and-a-half hours became 'comedy as punishment' at last night's Comedy Gala.

Movie review: Lucky Them
Toni Collette is fabulous and utterly convincing in this low-key drama about a magazine music writer whose latest assignment is to go in search of her ex-boyfriend, cult rock hero Matthew Smith, who mysteriously disappeared 10 years ago.