Northern Ballet's noted production of Charles Dickens' famous tale of curmudgeonly greed, grim reflection and a joyous redemption in Act III has all the charm of a very traditional Christmas card.

Following her roles in Gone Girl and Hector's Search for Happiness, Rosamund Pike again finds herself in a troubled relationship, this time as Abi, a mum of three in the process of divorcing husband Doug (Tennant).

Pack the tissues. Although this story of a young woman dealing with a progressive neurodegenerative disease is predictable and emotionally manipulative it's still hard to hold back the tears.

Guns? Knitting? It's still as hard as it always to find a sticking-to phrase that describes the adhesive power of AC/DC when it comes to being glued to their old ways.

It's that time of year, when labels start pouring out Christmas offerings from their stars, best of compilations, and re-releases.

Here's the problem with Batman right now - he's bloody everywhere. The Dark Knight has just appeared in The Lego Movie, he'll be showing up in the new Batman v Superman film, and there's even a real-life Batman doing good deeds in Japan right now.

You want them to remind you why they're great. You want them to teach those hip-hop pretenders a lesson. You want them to spit hard and fast over brilliant beats.

After two old-school jazz albums - the acoustic The Poet's Embrace and Vermillion Skies, recorded live in the studio and direct to tape - multi-instrumentalist Haines here reverts to the amalgam of sax 'n' flute jazz.

I do hope they rescreen Olive Kitteridge. The HBO drama, which finished its four-part run on Sky's SoHo this week, should be made compulsory viewing for anyone with a family, which means, of course, all of us.

It's incredibly cheeky to include on your debut a single that's 3 years old, no matter how good it is.

A very loose remake of a 2008 Argentinean romance which was itself pretty soppy, this story of love in the autumn of life is not without its charms.

French DJ David Guetta is known for his chart-soaring catchy club hits. His previous album Nothing But the Beat was littered with them: Titanium (featuring Sia), Without You (featuring Usher), Sweat (featuring Snoop Dogg).

The American dream is given a twisted makeover as Jake Gyllenhaal goes to extreme lengths to make a living post-GFC.

Set on the streets of Brooklyn, The Drop is a quietly foreboding psychological thriller set in the criminal world.

At first, opening track Next Time suggests Soul Power has a fairly conventional modern soul approach, but then the rock elements creep up, the rougher, grittier production, the wild organ solo, and Curtis Harding's nuanced vocals filter through.

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's Tuscan Summer concert promised a festival of Italian sumptuousness with a poster featuring a double-headed gelato, writes William Dart.

A madcap Satisfaction lit the fuse on the fireworks finale. It was the Rolling Stones’ best NZ show of their senior years.

The Rolling Stones finally broke cover last night to rock New Zealand in spectacular style.

This film's director had a hand in 2007's The White Planet, a visually sublime documentary about the Arctic that was burdened with a teeth-grindingly banal commentary.

At least Assassin's Creed: Unity looks beautiful. The fifth instalment of the history-spanning series renders revolutionary Paris in intricate detail.

John 117 has finally made landfall on the Xbox One. The Master Chief Collection brings together the core titles of the Halo series so far.

No matter what your favourite is of films based on Elmore Leonard books (and I'm for Out of Sight ahead of Jackie Brown), this crime comedy will deliver a surprise.

The Dadrock season is already upon us with everybody from Pink Floyd to Bob Dylan flogging off their odds and ends.

Twice garlanded with Cannes' Palme d'Or, the Belgian brothers who are Europe's modern masters of naturalism lost this year to Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep.

Time has taken tragically little toll on David Hare's 1995 play. The pungent one-liners amuse, but the real sting is that references to inequality and the erosion of social conscience have become more pointed.