ScreenScribe

Sky Movies Premiere: Let Me In (Sky 20, 8.30, 5.1) What sort of vampire film would schlock-horror merchant Hammer make 35 years after its last? Merely one of the finest since Nosferatu first bared his fangs. Let Me In is that rare Hollywood beast, a re-make that improves on the original: 2008 Swedish art house sensation Let the Right One In. [...]

 SoHo Highlight: Strike Back (Sky 10, 8.30, 5.1) Not the British series that’s aired on Prime (and is out on Blu-ray) but a similar-sounding action hour made for US cable channel Cinemax. It stars Philip Winchester (Camelot, Fringe) and Sullivan Stapleton (Underbelly, Animal Kingdom, above) as globe-trotting, anti-terrorist agents. Variety thought it “reduced everyone pretty much to geopolitical stereotypes” [...]

SoHo Highlight: Hell on Wheels (Sky 10, 5.15, 5.1) If you missed Sunday’s screening, catch up with this repeat, in which Cullen’s search for the sergeant is unexpectedly diverted and Durant organises a search party for Lily Bell (Dominique McElligott, above). ”Choo-choo!” exclaimed New York magazine at this stage of the series. “We’re three episodes into Hell on Wheels and [...]

 Sky Movies Premiere: Megamind (Sky 20, 4.35, 5.1) What would happen if Lois Lane fell for Lex Luthor after Clark Kent hung up his cape? That’s largely the premise of this rollicking, fate-versus-free will superhero ‘toon, which explores an arch villain’s dilemma of being the world’s only super power. What would be the fun in that? Plenty, [...]

SoHo Highlight: The Killing (Sky 10, 9.30, 5.1) Encore screening of the season finale that angered critics and will surprise those who have seen the superior Danish original (which is on DVD). As Entertainment Weekly observed: “The Killing concluded its first season with an ambiguous ending that seemed less thought-out than anxious — for something that would strike viewers [...]

SoHo Highlight: Lackawanna Blues (Sky 10, 8.30, 5.1) An uplifting story of unconditional love fueled by rhythm and blues, in which a young boy’s life is shaped by the stories of characters in the boarding house where he lives. Said the New York Times: “This HBO film is set in a poor neighbourhood of Lackawanna, NY, and [...]

The Killing ends its first season tonight on SoHo (Sky 10, 8.30) but fans won’t have to wait long for the second. It will premiere on Sky’s premium drama channel in April, along with season two of Game of Thrones, season five of Mad Men and the miniseries, The Pillars of the Earth. Pillars will [...]

The Press newspaper in Christchurch is using Wednesday’s premiere of the Downton Abbey Christmas Special on Prime to test the credentials of wannabe TV critics. It’s looking for a regular TV columnist for easily the country’s best TV/tech lift-out, The Box (full disclosure: I’m among its contributors). Box editor Will Harvie is inviting freelance opinion [...]

SoHo Highlight: Treme (Sky 10, 9.30, 5.1) LaDonna confronts the return of the crime problem; Sofia channels her father’s YouTube rants; Toni takes the Abreu case; Janette and Albert apply for Road Home money; Sonny barely escapes arrest. ”The return of crime to New Orleans is one of the key subjects of Treme season two,” notes critic [...]

SoHo Highlight: Boss (Sky 10, 9.30, 5.1) Kelsey Grammer won a Golden Globe for playing Chicago Mayor Tom Kane, recently diagnosed with a degenerative brain disorder that’s ripping everything away from him. He can’t trust his memory, his closest allies, or even himself. The Hollywood Reporter dubbed Boss “a wholly impressive new drama that comes out of the gate with gravitas, swagger, [...]