ScreenScribe

New in Town: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Saturday. Renee Zellweger, JK Simmons and Harry Connick Jr star in a romantic-comedy about a hotshot city-slicker consultant from Miami who finds herself stranded in small-town Minnesota mid-winter. Quipped The Hollywood Reporter: “Strictly old hat — and a poorly assembled hat at that.” (2009) Four Holidays: Sky Movies, 8.30pm [...]

The History Boys: TV3, 10.20pm Saturday. If you liked the stage play, you’ll probably give this quirky comedy high marks. But those new to its questionable scenario won’t be won over by the exaggerated performances, grotesque and clichéd characterisations, or dull direction. The perennially unappealing Richard Griffiths plays a maverick history teacher with a predilection [...]

Sunshine: TV3, 10.25pm Saturday. Only sci-fi diehards will enjoy this trip to the malarkey side of the sun (it has to be re-ignited with a nuclear payload). Duller than a cloudy day, it stars Cliff Curtis, Damages’ Rose Byrne, Inception’s Cillian Murphy and Kick-Ass’ Mark Strong. Slumdog Millionaire’s Danny Boyle directs another screenplay by his [...]

As foreshadowed by ScreenScribe.tv, Sky TV has confirmed HBO’s successor to The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, will screen here in HD. The 12-part Prohibition drama, set in 1920s Atlantic City, is from Sopranos scribe Terence Winter, stars Steve Buscemi and includes among its directors Martin Scorsese (who’s also the executive producer). It will air in double-episodes [...]

Troy: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Saturday. The Achilles heel of this lavish historical epic is its clichéd human dimension. But its spectacle, action and CGI effects are sensational, particularly the screen’s biggest pyrotechnics bash since Atlanta was razed in Gone With the Wind. Like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Troy used ingenious software that [...]

Does CASPA stand a ghost of a chance against Sky TV? TVNZ thinks so – that’s why it invested $8 million in 33% of Hybrid Television Services, the licensee of TiVo in NZ and Australia. Hybrid has used the belated launch of TiVo in this part of the world – a decade after it revolutionised [...]

New chapters in the Twilight, Ice Age and Harry Potter franchises will premiere in HD next month on Sky Movies. Twilight Saga: New Moon will screen on September 19, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a week later. An earlier Potter adventure, The Prisoner of Azkaban, also will [...]

The Proposal: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Sunday. Expert casting, brisk pacing and funny if formulaic odd-couple shenanigans make this Proposal hard to resist. Sandra Bullock plays a cranky career woman who manipulates her persecuted personal assistant (Ryan Reynolds) into masquerading as her fiancée to beat a deportation charge. As slight as it is silly but worth [...]

Funny People: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Saturday. Writer/director Judd Apatow’s obsession with genitalia gags frustrates Funny People’s potential as a standout comedy about stand-up comedians. At least Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen bond beautifully as a terminally ill king of comedy who tries to atone for his womanising while mentoring and tormenting a dogsbody who aspires [...]

Stuck on You: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Saturday. Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear star in this Farrelly Brothers comedy about conjoined twins who share a liver but not the same personalities or dreams: one’s shy and anxious, the other’s an outgoing, aspiring actor looking to make it big in Hollywood. Funny sight gags and a [...]