Latest from Entertainment Reviews

Game review: The Order: 1886

It's good - and it's also bad. For The Order: 1886, a game that promises so much, that's a painful thing to say. But the evidence is irrefutable.

Album review: Songhoy Blues, Music In Exile

It's hard to fully explain this album without setting it in context.

Movie review: The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

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.

This Chinese fable has a warm heart

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.

Album review: Kiasmos, Kiasmos

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.

Album review: Kodaline, Coming Up For Air

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.

Movie review: Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon

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.

Movie review: Treasure Island

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

Drake gets serious on surprise release

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.

Fifty Shades soundtrack sexier than the film

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.

Jupiter Ascending a melodrama on a galactic scale

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.

Colin Hogg: Forget The X Factor, wheels are more fun

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.

The Ladykillers, Maidment Theatre

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....

Thriller show cross between Jackson tribute and karaoke night

A day after seeing Thriller Live at Auckland's Civic Theatre, I'm still trying to work out what exactly it is.

Joanna Hunkin: X-Factor gets its Bad Cop

Those of you familiar with the X-Factor format will know it runs on a pretty basic formula.

Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream

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