One of the hardest things to do when you grow up is to recapture that sense of can’t-sleep wonder that once gripped you at Christmas time. As December wound its exciting way ever onwards, adrenaline would pound, anticipation would build and you would find yourself enchanted with every last element Continue Reading
Is it alive? Colony season 2 teaser trailer suggests more unsettling surprises in the offing
Colony was one of the standout shows of 2016. A sophisticated, often tense exploration of the political and social schisms that emerge in society when a mysterious race of aliens arrive and take over the Earth, installing a proxy government to rule in their stead, it was never less Continue Reading
Psst! Here’s the the real deal on Santa’s Secret Stories
Oh my but does Santa have secrets! I mean it stands to reason right? He lives in hiding up on the North Pole, spends his time with reindeer and elves, neither of whom are exactly the stuff of everyday life – unless you’re a reindeer herder in which case Continue Reading
On 9th day of Christmas … I finally watched Nightmare Before Christmas
It’s a rare person indeed who hasn’t, at some point in their life, felt bored with their existence, numbed to the once-transcendant novelty of something that used to be an overriding passion. Jack Skellington, the “Pumpkin King” of Halloween Night and the ring master extraordinaire of everything ghoulish, goblinish Continue Reading
It’s a Stranger Things Christmas Charlie Brown!
SPOILER ALERT – ONLY WATCH THIS IF YOU HAVE WATCHED ALL OF STRANGER THINGS ON NETFLIX (optional for you to have read every Peanuts comic strip but c’mon why haven’t you?) I have always felt like I was Charlie Brown. Never quite fully understood, teased a lot as a Continue Reading
Movie review: Rogue One – A Star Wars Story
For a fable of galactic proportions, Star Wars has never been afraid to confront the realities of war or the destructive excesses of absolute power. The destruction of Alderaan in A New Hope or the freezing of Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in carbonate in The Empire Strikes Back are Continue Reading
On 8th day of Christmas … I listened to Wonderland by Sarah McLachlan
There is an exquisite beauty to Sarah McLachlan’s voice no matter what she is singing. Frankly she could sing her way through the tax code and I daresay it would sound heavenly. Thankfully she has chosen to channel her beautifully emotive voice to delivering up 11 new Christmas tracks Continue Reading
Book review: Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
We’ve all heard a celebrity say at one time or another that they are just like us – they have to pay bills, look after the kids, run errands, and deal with getting stuck in traffic. But, of course we all know that their lives are nothing like ours, buffered Continue Reading
On 7th day of Christmas … I watched Office Christmas Party
Office Christmas Party wants to be funny. Desperately, festively, stick-everything-into-the-script-that-isn’t-nailed-down funny. And yet for all the (usually) luminously hilarious comedic talent hired, staging of over-the-top Christmas festivities and provocative posturing – allusions to a Human Centipede in the mens’ room anyone? No? Good choice – the film consistently fails to Continue Reading
Air New Zealand wants you to come walking in a SUMMER wonderland!
As a Christmas romantic, the great disparity between the traditional northern hemisphere visual look of Christmas and the much warmer southern hemisphere reality has never troubled me too much. Sure there are some people who rile at the idea of celebrating sleigh rides, winter wonderlands and chestnuts roasting over Continue Reading