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Recent releases:
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- Civil War
- Mothers' Instinct
- Sweet East, The
- Ghost Busters: Frozen Empire
- Immaculate
- Roaring Twenties, The (reissue)
- Soul
- Dune: part two
- American Star
- Dune: Part 1 (reissue)
- Jerry & Marge Go Large
- Argylle
- Forever Young
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- All of Us Strangers
- Holdovers, The
- Mean Girls
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- One Life
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Stars: Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Oscar Kightley, Cohen Holloway, Stan Walker, Mike Minogue, Rhys Darby, Troy Kingi, Taika Waititi, Hamish Parkinson, Stu Giles, Lloyd Scott
Director: Taika Waititi
Films with genuine charm (as opposed to Hollywoods regulation by-numbers sugar-sodden storyline seasonings and equally clichéd tropes) are depressingly few nowadays.
So praise is due New Zealand screenwriter/director Taika Waititi for a sweet (but not tooth-rotting) comedy adventure that was one of the most delightful movies I have enjoyed for a long time.
Julian Dennisons portrait of a rejected, defiantly overweight and self-contained young city kid, a bad egg who is given his last chance to avoid juvenile lockup by being sent to live with new foster parents Rima Te Wiata, who greets him with Youre the guy who ate all the pies and grumpy Sam Neill at their isolated New Zealand farm.
Unexpectedly, the lad finds himself living in a happy home for the first time until Te Wiata dies.
While the key storyline leads to a predictable (but happily justified) conclusion, getting there is great fun, decorated with everything from pursuing police helicopters and a wild boar, a girl on a horse and some engaging off centre characters (Is it a man or a bush? asks branches-and-leaves covered nutter Psycho Sam) and propelled by Neill and Dennisons spot-on performances.
All in all, a delightful family film to be enjoyed by all ages.
Alan Frank
New Zealand 2016. UK Distributor: Vertigo. Colour.
97 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.
Review date: 12 Jan 2017