Cut Off Your Hands are in tact and in session, and the largest hockey tournament in NZ's history gets under way.
TV
Hockey (Sky Sport 2, Sky 031, noon). First the Rugby World Cup and now this: the largest hockey event in New Zealand’s history, the 2011 Men’s Hockey Champions Trophy, was given to Auckland after some governance issue with the Indian Hockey Federation. Owen Glenn was instrumental in gaining the hosting rights, and the tournament is also known as the Owen G Glenn 2011 FIH Men’s Champions Trophy. Fancy. Eight teams contest the title at North Harbour Stadium, and the tournament is said to have a television audience of 38 million.
Economy Gastronomy (Prime, 7.30pm). Dame Alison Holst would approve: a series about cutting food budgets, eating better and reducing food waste, “rather that just being more nobby cheffy stuff on telly”, co-host Allegra McEvedy told the Guardian. She and Paul Merrett invade the homes of ordinary Britons and teach them, like, wicked food skillz, yeah?
Dancing in the Sky (Maori, 8.30pm). The docudrama directed by Julian Arahanga and starring Tammy Davis, formerly known as Munter in Outrageous Fortune. It’s the story of the first airman to win the Victoria Cross for wartime bravery, William Rhodes-Moorhouse, who had Maori ancestry. William’s mother, Mary Ann, was the daughter of Wellington politician and settler William Barnard Rhodes and Ngati Ruanui woman Otahui. Arahanga says he became intrigued with the gallant pilot after hearing about his Maori roots – and the fact that no one knew anything about his grandmother. “I wanted to unveil the layers,” he says. Rhodes-Moorhouse himself knew nothing of his heritage; he was born into great wealth in England and attended Harrow and Cambridge. At the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Royal Flying Corps and during an operation in Belgium in 1915 came under heavy fire and was wounded. He came to New Zealand once, in 1906, and was greeted with a full powhiri. “That surprised him,” says Arahanga. “He’d never had the opportunity to meet Maori or live in a Maori way.”
FILM
Dr Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts (Four, 6.30pm). And bargain-basement movies. (2009) 4 – Diana Balham
Something’s Gotta Give (TV1, 8.30pm). Nancy Meyer’s more-satisfying-take on older love than It’s Complicated, which played on TV3 last week. Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton’s budding relationship is so much crunchier than Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep’s old one. (2003) 7 – Diana Balham
aimRenderAd(300, 250, '300X250','ContentRect','/POS=POS2'); if(!$.browser.msie){ ContentRect_frame = $("#ContentRect")[0]; ContentRect_frame.src = ContentRect_frame.src; }Children of Men (TV3, 8.30pm). Apocalypse Britain. Okay, so 28 Days Later already went there, but the shock of Children of Men is that everything depicted by director Alfonso Cuarón already exists, just not in one place. Yet. In 2027, the human race is infertile. The world is in chaos (news comes through that the “Siege of Seattle” has reached day 1000, which doesn’t seem so stupid in these Occupy times) and the UK is a militarised state, trying to contain – in cages and detention camps – the tide of refugees. A careworn Clive Owen is a former rebel who reluctantly helps out his erstwhile lover, Julianne Moore, and a group of radicals trying to take a young woman called Kee to the coast. Why she is so important becomes clear, and Owen, who had given up hope, rallies as her protector. What little warmth there is in the world is provided by Michael Caine, a pot-growing Gandalf, but the denouement, featuring one of the most visceral and extraordinary sequences (we won’t give details, except to say that home theatre would be a good idea here), is devastating. (2006) 10
Alice in Wonderland (Sky Movies, Sky 020, 8.30pm). Another glorious hallucination from Tim Burton, who changes the story in ways that perhaps Lewis Carroll hadn’t envisaged. Mostly, that Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is 19, and goes down the rabbit hole to escape a strict, priggish world and an arranged marriage. Alice is a feminist, then, choosing the anarchy of “Underland” over boring grown-up life, although this has its own dangers. Burton’s talent for comic grotesquery is given free reign, from the CG creatures (the Cheshire Cat, Tweedledum and Tweedledee) to the psychedelic makeup of Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter, but the movie is stifled by an over-long third act. (2010) 8
Grandma’s Boy (TV2, 9.10pm). One reviewer noted: “Grandma’s Boy is an Adam Sandler comedy without Adam Sandler, which is kind of like getting a root canal without the dentist.” I don’t think I can improve on that. (2006) 4 – Diana Balham
In this World (Maori, 9.30pm). An award-winning docudrama by English director Michael Winterbottom about two young Afghan refugees who are smuggled from a Pakistani camp along the Silk Road to the UK. That their mode of transport is trucks they are not allowed out of should give a sense of how unenjoyable this journey is. (2002) 7 – Diana Balham
Milk (TV3, 10.45pm). Sean Penn’s uncanny portrait of gay rights activist Harvey Milk anchors Gus Van Sant’s biopic, which is, as biopics often are, a sprawling affair that has to tick all the boxes. Penn quite rightly won an Oscar for his transformation into the Long Island Korean War vet who thought that gay consumers with their pink dollars should have a share of the power in San Francisco. Penn conveys Milk’s unlikely charisma and his ability to be out and still strike a deal with huge and hairy Teamsters (“Don’t worry, I left my high heels at home,” he jokes). It was a carefree time, before Aids, and when there were battles to be fought and won, notably against a notorious referendum that would have banned gay teachers. Perhaps Van Sant paints Milk as too saintly, but nevertheless, despite the ending, this is an uplifting film that shows a world changing for the better. (2008) 9
Never Say Never Again (TV1, 12.10am). Turns out audiences liked Roger Moore just as much as Sean Connery in the 1980s, because this film – Connery’s seventh and final Bond – rated equally with Moore’s Octopussy, even though they were released within months of each other. That was because Never was made by Warner Bros rather than Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman’s EON Productions and is known as an “unofficial” Bond film. Irvin Kershner, who directed the best movie in the Star Wars series, The Empire Strikes Back, gives Bond similar emotional resonance, especially with an excellent turn from Klaus Maria Brandauer as the villain Largo. Nevertheless, 12 years on from Diamonds Are Forever, Connery looks a bit creaky for Kim Basinger, whose career took off after this film. Watch out for Rowan Atkinson as the bumbling Nigel Small-Fawcett. (1983) 6
RADIO
Saturday Morning with Kim Hill (Radio New Zealand National, 8.10am). Today: Grant Morris in New Orleans; John Huckerby discusses wave and tidal energy; linguist Bernard Spolsky discusses saving languages; photographer Robert Catto; NZSO chief executive Peter Walls plays favourites; molecular biologist Julian Rayner; and structural engineer Nick Carman, who is going to ski the Silk Road with nine other Kiwis. Info and audio here.
Cut Off Your Hands/the Broadsides Recorded Live at Roundhead Studios (95bFM, 11.00am and Friday, 2.00pm). Cut Off Your Hands are, er, old hands in the indie rock biz, having been together since 2006. Named after their first EP (they were originally called Shaky Hands but had to change their name when American band the Shaky Hands threatened legal action), they went worldwide with the song Happy as Can Be, which was used on the soundtrack of the FIFA 10 video game. Auckland country band the Broadsides describe themselves as “purveyors of fine used music for the faithless, the disenchanted and the hopeless”, so if you’re any of these, y’all gonna be in hog heaven. Check for podcasts at 95bfm.com, and video here after December 3. – Diana Balham
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