The film version of a well-regarded stage play, which was itself based on a true story, was always going to be at high risk of being a weepie of cloying sentimentality.

Leaving the theatre after watching this documentary about Carl Boenish, father of the base-jumping movement, I couldn't help but think how far skydivers have pushed the sport.

He's become a real glutton for punishment has Jake Gyllenhaal; whether it's the pounds he dropped for Nightcrawler, the muscle he packed on for this, or the cold he endured to play Scott Fischer in the forthcoming Everest.

The title sequence of this reboot of 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation includes holiday snapshots of butt cracks, animals humping and peeing, vomiting and an erection.

Director and screenwriter Peter Bogdanovich has often looked to the past for inspiration; this time he revives the screwball comedy genre he enjoyed success with in the early 70s.

Wordless as it is, this debut feature by a Ukrainian filmmaker makes no allowances for its audience's need for dialogue, expository or otherwise.

So here we have a British director reviving an American Cold War show that was the small-screen answer to Bond.

"You say nobody knows who he is? Who doesn't know who he is?" runs a line early in this splendidly entertaining film about three-time Oscar winner, costume designer Orry-Kelly.

A love letter to a life-changing experience, this portrait of a sextet of walkers on the famous Camino Frances that finishes at Santiago de Compostela tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the undertaking.

If the plays of George Bernard Shaw are more admired than staged these days, this one may explain why.

Tom Cruise's latest Mission: Impossible film is darker and funnier than its immediate predecessor and feels more like a Euro-espionage thriller than a spy story stuck on an action chassis.

"I take notes all the time when ideas hit me," Woody Allen told TimeOut in a 2012 interview, "and I throw them in a drawer. So I have a drawerful of ideas and I could probably make a lot more films."

The debut feature for its young writer-director, this unassuming but engaging French dramedy deserves the prizes it picked up at Cannes and at the country's Oscar-equivalent Cesars.

Wondering what to see at the International Film Festival? Here are our latest reviews from the Auckland leg of the nationwide event.

John H. Watson, MD, has much to answer for; just ask this Sherlock Holmes.

Our reviewer Russell Baillie discovers there's big fun to be found in Ant-Man's small-scale thrills.

Revenge, served at various temperatures, is the unifying theme of this Oscar-nominated Argentinian compendium of six blackly comic short films making a welcome return from last year's festival.

The 2002 New Yorker autobiographical essay that was the source of this slight but surprisingly amiable film is really worth reading.

When it comes to sequels, I often wonder "Why?" In this case the answer is easy to find.

The 1856 novel by Gustave Flaubert about a woman whose glamorous fantasies lead her to betray and beggar her decent but unambitious doctor husband is among literature's most filmed.

Beyond praise: Luke Norris, Emun Elliott, Phoebe Fox and Mark Strong in A View from the Bridge.

His hand doesn't work properly, his jokes are worse than your dad's, and in one hilarious scene, he has to jolt his dislocated knee back into place. If there's a hospice for cyborg killers, Arnie's T-800 deserves to be there.

Is it coincidence that the central duo in Carol Morley's film bear a striking resemblance to Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in Heavenly Creatures?

If you thought pitching Ted, a film about a pot-smoking slacker with a CGI talking teddy bear, to studio executives would have been interesting, then Ted 2 takes things to a whole new level.

Emotions are at the forefront of this story, with most of the action happening inside the head of happy, young girl Riley (Kaitlyn Dias).

There have been plenty of declarations of Brian Wilson's pop genius. This is both explanation and exploration of it.

Danish director Vinterberg (The Celebration; The Hunt), might have been expected to turn in a challenging reading of the Thomas Hardy novel, one to loosen the grip of John Schlesinger’s 1967 version starring Julie Christie and Terence Stamp.

Did you know Minions have been around since the dawn of time? That's just one of many interesting facts you'll learn about Minions in Geoffrey Rush's amusing narration that begins this Despicable Me spin-off.