Entertainment picks: Best tracks to burn meat to

Music

I love a good list. And a good barbecue. So, paying homage to the Barbecue God, here are my top five songs to cook outdoors to.

1. Feel Good Hit of the Summer - Queens of the Stone Age. It's got a great recipe within the song. Check it out.

2. Natural Collie - Freddie McGregor. You can't have a barbecue without reggae. One of my favourite songs. Ever.

3. Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz. The ladies, and the kids, love it.

4. Sunshine Of Your Love - Jimi Hendrix. Jimi's version is hot enough to char any steak.

5. Great Southern Land - Icehouse. Hey, it's about Australia and by an Aussie band, but it could just as easily be about us. And it's better than Weather With You by Crowded House.

Happy barbecueing, people.

Elsewhere on the music scene it's pretty quiet. But come the Big Day Out on January 20 we head into the next wave of festivals during late January, and February.

This week though there are a few things on including a reunion show by metal stalwarts Day One, with special guests Kitsch and Fever Lake, at the Kings Arms on Thursday.

And on Saturday the first George FM Beach Party of the year starts around midday at Mission Bay, with Batucada Sound Machine and DJs Dick Johnson, Sam Hill and Scottie Lewis.

At the Kings Arms on Saturday night, for a bit of unhinged pop, check out Ryan McPhun and the Ruby Suns. Your life will never be the same again.

TV

If for some reason you do have to stay indoors, the local documentary Vietnam: My Father's War (tonight, TV One, 8.35pm), is worth a look.

Vietnam was an "unpopular" war and the Kiwi vets who did time there were not hailed as heroes when they returned.

They were more of an embarrassment, and Frank Metcalfe has never forgiven New Zealand for the way he was treated.

In this documentary he and his son, film-maker Matthew Metcalfe, go back to Vietnam more than 35 years after the war to relive memories and to explain why Frank, and others like him, should be honoured.

Also, a new series starting this week on TV One is the drama Empire (Sunday, 8.30pm).

Set in 44BC, it focuses on Julius Caesar's nephew, Octavius, who is forced into exile when his uncle is murdered. It's "sumptuous", apparently.

On the TV movie scene there's Shallow Hal on TV3 tonight at 8.30pm, and let's just say only Jack Black could get away with gags about falling in love with an obese woman.

Elsewhere in movies you should steer clear of The Body Guard (Prime, Wednesday, 8.30pm) because Whitney Houston is in it, Little Nicky (TV2, Wednesday, 8.30pm) is not so bad with Adam Sandler, and there's the okay Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil (Prime, Friday, 8.30pm).

For some absolute horror-film rubbish, Friday the 13th is on TV2, Friday, 10.50pm. Beware though, it is total trash.

Movies

There's no shortage of movies. Let's start with a mention of the possible dud of the week. The Jacket is about a war vet (Adrien Brody) who returns home with amnesia. He's accused of murder, sentenced to life in a mental asylum, and put on a course of heavy drugs. While under the influence he can visit the future and meets a woman who could save his life.

Then there's Just Like Heaven about an architect (Mark Ruffalo) who falls in love with a female spirit (the lovely Reese Witherspoon) who he meets in his closet. Crikey, can't Hollywood's leading men get real women any more? Anyway, the ghost he's spading is in a coma at a local hospital and unless he can intervene, she will be taken off life support.

Meanwhile, on to something a little more meaningful, we have Moolaade, a movie about the brutality and problems of female circumcision in Africa. Directed by 81-year-old Senegalese film-maker and novelist, Ousmane Sembene, it's a touching account of a woman in a West African village who refuses to let four girls be circumcised in a traditional ceremony.

Next up is George Clooney. Now, from his photos, I can't decide whether he's smug, too good to be true, or simply, just a nice guy. He's so polished-looking. One thing's for sure, he's doing well for himself. He stars in, and directs, Good Night, And Good Luck, the story of CBS newscaster Edward R. Murrow who took on the scaremongering senator, Joseph McCarthy, in the 1950s.

It's possibly a movie more for an American audience, but hey, it has been nominated for four Golden Globes, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and is almost certain to get an Oscar nomination or two. So, good on ya George.

But the pick of the bunch could be Zathura - the follow up to Jumanji. It follows two brothers, Danny and Walter Budwing, who discover a mysterious box in the park. Inside there's a jungle-themed board game, and a second board marked with a path to a planet called Zathura.

Make like a (big) kid, get sugared up, and go.