This is 40
Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Seigel, Megan Fox - Dir: Judd Apatow

Billed as a 'sort of sequel” to writer/director Apatow's earlier Knocked Up, this takes two secondary characters from that film and examines their lives and issues upon reaching the titular age. And, like most of Apatow's films after the 'early funny ones”, it has received mixed reactions. (Case in point: when reviewing it 'At the Movies” Empire magazine gave it one star. When reviewing it as a DVD, four stars.)
I liked it a lot. It's a real crack at 'grown up” comedy, avoiding obvious Hollywood tropes such as romantic rivals and infidelity and concentrating on those everyday issues – kids, relationships with ageing parents – that can slowly build to breaking a point in relationships.
The central couple are Pete and Debbie (Rudd and Mann). He's running a failing record label, she's got a clothes shop where the assistant might be stealing. They have two somewhat stroppy kids. They want life to be better but the new 'rules” they put in place aren't helping.
It's long and rambling (but it's hard to know what you could cut), occasionally very funny, boasts great turns from John Lithgow and Albert Brooks as the respective (grand) fathers, and has music (and a very entertaining cameo) by Graham Parker.
Great stuff.

Flight is a tour de force from Denzel Washington. He plays airline captain Whip Whitaker who, in a staggeringly tense opening twenty minutes, saves a malfunctioning plane from crashing and killing everyone on board with a near-impossible manoeuvre. He is hailed as a hero. One problem: Whip is a functioning alcoholic and had booze and coke in his system. Though the idea that he is the only pilot – drunk or sober – who could have saved the flight is largely skirted, the film is a vivid depiction of an alcoholic slowly coming to terms with his disease. Director Robert (Castaway) Zemekis is a fine storyteller and largely avoids condescending clichés.

Just as a chirpy new member of the Garda arrives on tiny Erin Island, strange things start to happen. A fishing boat is attacked and a pod of dead pilot whales washes up on the beach. Grabbers is a lightweight Irish comedy horror outing, its tone comparable to Lake Placid or – more obviously – Tremors. The monsters here may come from the sea but they certainly get around, entertainingly menacing the small unsuspecting population who take refuge in alcohol and the local pub. It's an enjoyable ride, with nods to Aliens, Gremlins, Shawn of the Dead and many more, just the sort of thing I wish we made more of here.

In Mt Zion Turei (the Bay's own Stan Walker) is sick of a life of potato picking under the watchful eye of his strict father (Temuera Morrison). Turei want to sing. And, this being Auckland in 1979, the perfect opportunity arises with the possibility of a support slot for his hero Bob Marley. While the band he forms with his brother and two friends is sensational from the git-go – no stumbling first gigs here – intergenerational conflicts ensue and lessons about familial responsibility are learnt. It's a good-looking film, particularly the striking landscapes, and there is an impressive level of eye-catching detail. It's very Maori and mostly very good (if musically preposterous). Stan, BTW, acquits himself admirably.

Movie 43 is a return to the once-popular format of sketch comedy. Think Kentucky Fried Movie or Amazon Women on the Moon. The loose link is ideas pitched by Dennis Quaid's crazy scriptwriter to Greg Kinnear. These are, without exception, crude, over-the-top, and generally offensive in a scatological or other manner. They're also frequently very funny (if indescribable in a family newspaper). The other hook is the massive cast: Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Seth MacFarlane, Liev Scheiber, Naomi Watts, Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Richard Gere, Kate Bosworth, Justin Long, Una Thurman, Gerard Butler, Halle Berry, the list goes on and on.