Just as warm and charming and with pretty much the same cast as the original, this sequel will delight its sizeable fan base, and leaves the door wide open for a third film.

Irish band Kodaline move away from indie folk-fuelled first album In A Perfect World with the release of their sophomore album, Coming Up For Air.

Attending one or both of these two new plays by the prolific Renee Liang would be a great way to start a Lantern Festival visit this weekend.

One of the most interesting, if not visually engaging, artists at Laneway was electronica boffin Jon Hopkins, who added edge and scratchy beats to elevate his sound above the quasi-ambience of his albums.

Mike (Austin Powers) Myers' debut as director is a documentary about a talent agent. The choice of subject matter is perhaps the last word in self-referentiality, though it's not clear whether the titular Gordon ever represented Myers.

More theatrical than knuckle-whiteningly dramatic, this NT Live* production of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic 1883 adventure book is nevertheless an eye-poppingly brilliant display of stagecraft with a show-stealing turn from a remote-controlled animatr

Dan, the fluttery new weatherman on TV One's six o'clock news, says Kapiti just like cuppa tea, so he is trying.

Nestled in beautiful Tapapakanga Park Splore festival became annual for the first time this year, and it seems the move was a very successful one, write Lydia Jenkins and Rachel Bache.

How do you like to kill your zombies? These days, there's an answer for everyone. Arcade splatter fest?

Early on in Eddie Izzard's performance, one of two in Auckland before his 26-country Force Majeur tour returns him to the UK, there was the matter of the pesky fly.

This 33-year old Americana/alt. country singer who played the Tuning Fork last year with his new band has a road-hardened, bourbon'n'catarrh voice which belies his years.

The Foos have given a lot of love to New Zealand over the past 20 years. Chris Schulz examines the proof.

Is it an album, or is it a mixtape? That's the big question surrounding this surprise weekend release from Drake, the Canadian rapper due in New Zealand for the first time this Monday.

I'm going to say it right now: I'm not going to see the cheesy-snore-fest Twilight-fan-fiction film Fifty Shades of Grey.

The Wachowski siblings will always be known as the masterminds behind The Matrix series, and with Jupiter Ascending they deliver another ambitious and elaborate science fiction adventure.

I see TV3's out looking for that damned elusive X factor again. The search might go on forever, but it'll never really be about who wins. It'll always be about the judges.

Auckland Theatre Company's season-opening comedy this year is a black slapstick that crowds in some favourite old gags - you know before they begin how they're going to turn out, but the comfortable....

The brilliantly inventive stagecraft energises a uniformly excellent cast who bring a clear sense of purpose to the smallest details of their performances.

Here's the thing you notice first: they all look so young. These are kids, you think to yourself, what the hell are they doing dressed up as soldiers charging with fixed bayonets up a hill into enemy fire?

Stories about shocking pink taffeta ballgowns, drinking Baileys at the Open Late Café and seeing Dave Dobbyn at the Gluepot; this audio tour shamelessly mythologises Ponsonby in the 1980s.

The artworks of Michael Parekowhai grace many city venues, but their beauties and ironies are silent.

About 20 minutes into this electrifying, often terrifying documentary, the film-maker shows for the first time the man we have come to know as Edward Snowden.

If hype, 'likes' and advanced ticket sales are any indication of success, box offices around the world will get a boost this weekend with the release of the much anticipated adaptation of author EL James' "mummy porn" phenomenon, Fifty Shades of Grey.

If there was a missing link between 60s girl groups, California surf-pop, 90s skater rock and Taylor Swift's assertive pop-sassiness it might be this lo-fi band helmed by singer-guitarist Melissa Brooks from Southern California.

Back in 1998, there was one game that ruled them all. With its stellar storytelling and twisted sense of humour, Grim Fandango soon overpowered Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Day of the Tentacle as every budding adventurer's game of choice.

Recently, guitarist Chris Eldridge said Punch Brothers wanted people to make time for this album and peel back its layers. Indeed.

Bob Odenkirk nails it as hapless hero Saul Goodman in Better Call Saul.

As a setting for Shakespeare it would be hard to beat the café balcony of the historic Pah Homestead.