This film is all about have extreme fun in the snow - ski, board, parachute, inflatible ride-on, and ski-do.

Like the Warren Miller film - Off the Grid - I saw last year, there is no plot, its just about getting down the sloop and having fun; an endless search for the ultimate powder sloop, and having the ultimate ride down it.

The film is like southern California meets snow - the dialogue was laid back and poetic and incomprehensible (in a nice relaxed sought of way). Bode Miller’s interview was something else - pure hedonism. It just shows that extreme and /or hardout skiers/boarders are a tribe apart. Jonny Mosley’s narration gave the film a restrained can do attitude - can ski down near vertical slopes, can do a ‘whisky flip’, can do a ‘helicopter 720′, can jump 100’s of feet into a snow bank, can …

The best snow moments for me: the loop-the-loop on the ski mobile, the ski mobile discent down a powder slope, the 250 foot base jump into powder, the helicopters flying parallel with the steep slopes ! and Ski Dubai. The latter is an indoor ski facility that seems bigger than my first beginner slope !

The best people moments for me: interview with Gretchen Bleiler, interview with the Burton Smalls Team (boy snowboarders), and the guy who blowpipes a dart into his friend’s rear.

Overall, I found the film too long: hard as it seems, there was too much action! 120 minutes of non-stop extreme snow sport is too much !!! 100 minutes would have been enough !!The incredible became the norm. I wish there was a little bit more people stuff; I really appreciated Gretchen Bleiler sharing some of her life story. Also, maybe next year, we will see a little bit more of Europe.

0.3

This time, unlike two years ago, there were no workshops for children - no flying trapeze and no tightrope walkers. This time I actually noticed the midway, as I went into the big-top tent: a teacup ride, a stall with rotating clown figure, popcorn-&-hotdog stand and people selling light toys.

The show has a theme: the Black Knight has stolen the laugther from the Kingdom and the Jester is charged by the king to get it back! As the Jester journeys through his quest, we are introduced to the various acts. Only there is a problem: the main act obviously comes from Asian and they never quite get with the theme! Still, while the theme does not go exactly as well as it could, the individal acts weren’t too bad.

I wonder if the Asian troup, when they were training to be circus perfomers, ever thought they would end up on the farside of the world.

I enjoyed boo-ing, along with everyone else, the Black Knight whenever he rode into the arena. The Asians were impressive- tissu, tumbling, double poi, chair balancing, and juggle using the feet. Good to see some traditional juggling - clubs and rings; I was surprised by how entertaining 3 clubs (then 4 then 5) could be - having got use to Cirque-du-Soleil style juggling.

The slapstick sketch harking back to a much early era of Circus acts - four prisoners in stripped garb, a keystone cop character and a character who was a wife of one of the prisoners - made me think twice. It was based around a traditional vaulting box, and everyone vaulting in clever ways, while the chase took place. When family violence is recognised a major issue for society, maybe the violence in the sketch could have been focussed in different ways, but definitely away from the ‘wife’.

The finale was three motocycles riding inside a metal sphere ! The sphere looked like it was three motocycle lengths in diameter. The motocycles did go inverted! I thought the women balancing a a stack of chairs was ‘brave’, but the young women who got into the sphere while two motocycles orbiting took ‘brave’ to another level - The riders had leathers and body armour; she had a bikini !

The show was definitely worth the price of admission.

0.3

Breslin plays Nim Ruscoe - a girl who lives on an island in the South Pacific with her marine biologist father, Jack; the the film takes its title from her. The father is played by Gerard Butler. The location of the island is secret, and dad and daughter secluded themselves there ever since Nim’s mother was lost at sea - when Nim was four years old.

Butler also plays author Alexandra Rover’s fictional action alter-ego Alex Rover: an Indian Jones type of adventurer. Alexandra, played by Jodie Foster, is in ‘real life’ agrophobic and automysophobic and kinetophobic and lots of other obics! Nim loves the Alex Rover books - some kind of Electra complex no doubt! - and Alex lets Alexandra roam the world (’in the company of her ideal man’), without every going outside her apartment. which she has not set foot out of in 16 years!!

Against this improbable background Jack sails off - in search of plankton - leaving Nim alone on her island to look after the hatchlings from her ‘pet’ turtle. Alexandra/Alex makes contact with Nim, thinking it is Jake, regarding the volcano on the island. Inevitably, storms and other crises arise to challenge Nim. The growing connection that Alexandra feels for Nim forces her to leave her apartment and travel to the south seas to save Nim.

Alexandra’s journey is just great! It gently pokes fun at all sorts of things, including travel and phobias. Eventually: Alexandra arrives, doesn’t exactly saving Nim, but having grown as a person; the crises are seen off; and goodness, Alexandra even starts to forms bonds with Jack.

All a little far fetched, but entertaining enough for the price of admission. If anything, this film is an example of the power of the Internet - Nim and Alexandra email each other throughout the movie!

0.3

The film apparently combines all five books of the same name by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi’s.

Three children move to the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, played by Mary-Louise Parker, in the middle of the night. The twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace, played by Freddie Highmore, along with their sister Mallory, played by Sarah Bolger, are clearly not keen to be there. The mysterious disappearance of small knick-knacks soon lead to much stranger events - of greater import.

It is very convenient that Mallory is a fencing champion - a fairly ruthless one at that; she is willing to use one of her younger unskilled brothers for practise! Soon she is getting all practise she needs!

It turns out that the house has a secret and dark supernatural forces will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. The children have to defend the house and keep the secret out of the the hands of the dark forces.

The special effects are good and everyone puts in an honest effort. For a children’s film, some quite big issues are covered: the effect divorce has on children; good verses evil; whether the search of knowledge should override commonsense; family loyalty; the use of deadly force.

Overall, the film works, and entertains for its duration; but there were some moments when its flow hiccuped or skipped - perhaps the need to put five books into one movie put a strain on things. I also kept thinking ‘Weeds’ when Mary-Louise Parker appeared - the two roles were too similar. Still, worth the price of admission.

0.3

It was amazing. This seems to be the direction of modern circus: amazing moves woven into dance, the latter all fitting loosely into a theme with appropriate music. These guys danced, sang, played the piano, and did some great acrobats and juggling.

There was a very nice tribute to Fred Astaire - involving skateboards instead of walking canes!

The juggling was low key no showers of 7-9 objects in the air. Instead as people danced about the stage, the chair of basket ball was constantly in motion - just as the ball or chair or person was about to fall to the ground, someone would step up and catch them.

It looked like they could all play the piano and did a solo piece accompanying what every was going on behind them. One of them even sang to the audience, accompanying himself on the guitar!!

The Chinese nolonger have a monoploy on pole aerials. The ‘Fingers’ did some petty amazing stuff. My pick was the vertical back flick from the pole then back to the pole, and the lady who falls from the top to be caught by her companions - amazing body control and trust!

The acrobats was spectacular. My pick was the standing back tucked somersault, from a position of standing on top of someones raised hands back to the same raised hands! There was also a nice slow semi-comic stretch and flexibility solo - by the same woman who fell from the pole.

These guys are worth seeing - everytime.

The only question is: where were the other two fingers ? there were only five performers!

0.3

This is a one-man play about … a circus performance. What a circus though - there are animals, machines, jugggling, balancing and knife swallowing.

The first Act is the animal tamer, but being a one-man play - there are no animals. Instead there is a series of fur covered geometric shapes that pop open and shut, swallow the animal tamer, and a wire cylinder that splits open and sits up when commaned to ! There is the tubular animal - a 4-meter long metal rod that after bending to the handlers’ will spirals back-and-forth and sits up!

The middle Acts blurred together: counter rotating wheels sharing a common axle, rolling itself with candles across the ciecle; meat cleaver tossing and knife swallowing - at least it seemed that way; a paper falcon; a metal horse with many legs; a human arch; and a tame whirlwind!

The finale was a spiral, made of 2″ by 8″ by 120″ interlocking planks and some rope. The rope was used to stop the planks from popping out, the latest piece was always ‘inserted’ will the performer stood on th end of the previous plank ! By the time he was finished, he was able to hand by his finger tips - and his feet did not touch the ground.

It was fitting that at the other end of Frank Kitts Park stood the Len Lye water sculpture. Surely, if the spirit of the late Len was present he would have approved heartily.

All of the acts looked like they were choreographed by da Vinci for Marceau Marcel- there was a huge amount of science on display in a Renassance kind of way and Johann did not speak at all, though he did make rasping sounds for emphasis.

The horse was an upside down bed of nails, with close 1-metre long nails. It supported Johann’s weight, and it moved across the - round - stage when he rocked backwards and forwards when setted atop of it.

The trained bird that returned to his hand, was a very well folded paper aeroplane!

The human arch was an archway made from a set of encylopedias, with Johann acting as the keystone. The showmanship as he stacked the books was superb - keeping the audience gripped, watching, what might otherwise have been a mundane task.

The whirlwind was just some smoke held captive by four planar blowers.

While I have classified the performance as a one-man play, I might also have classified it as performance art. If my lounge was big enough, and it was for sale, I would have tried to purchase the wooden spiral.

0.3

The main act was an evolutionary step from Fused’s 2007 work of the same name. Footnote opened the evening’s entertainment and I was disappointed - less on this later. A stand-up comedian then warmed-up the crowd for the main act: Vinyl Blank.

Vinyl had to really work, to get the crowd onside and generally relaxed. To his credit, I think he did a good workman like job. He struggled a bit to get to grips with the audience, but he got there. His sense of humour did not always sit well with everyone - there was wide range of ages in the audience; but when he started working circus moves in, the timeless ageless magic brought everyone together. He had some good diablo moves. How many people can unicycle and play the guitar !

Fused’s Big Rig was set up so that the audience was under the silver sphere or could see it over the venue - a constant reminder of ‘gravity’. Fused were up to their usual high standards: spectacular aerial work on tissu, hoop, rope and swining trapeze; and some nice hoops, juggling, strength and flexibility work on the ground. The girl-in-a-box was back too !

Fused have tweaked their work from last year and made general enhancements across the board. For me the most spectacular change is that placement of two performers on the swinging trapeze. Only one of which have a safety harness! I am told by those in the know that having two harness would actually decrease safety - as the harness ropes get tangled up. It certainly added a real wow factor. The man on a burning rope was the finale - boy it is spectatcular.

This year, things were a little more polished: there was slightly more ‘acting’ and stronger portrail of the ‘aliens studying gravity and other phenomena’ theme. Full marks for working the tricks into a theme.

Fused need to pay a little bit more attention to their surroundings: some of the fire juggling, hoop throwing and girl-in-a-box was hard to see if you were not sitting on the steps or at the front. While a stage maybe impractical, if these acts could have raised up, they would have been more visible. Maybe a temporary platform that can be worked into the theme. Fused have an entertaining product, and they need ensure that they show it off at its best.

Footnote opened, and they have made no significant advances since they air-ed their piece last month at the Fringe Festival. I am still waiting for the mature dance&aerial work - with a smooth integration of aerial elements into the general story telling or concept. Where the use of aerial moves is used because it is the best move in the toolkit to advance the story; not look I learnt this trick, and this other trick. At the moment it is a modern dance piece immediately followed by a display of aerial skills. What ever was going on in the dance portion - beaches, swimming ? - was not supported by the aerial portion.

0.3

The name of the work is a combination of the two groups: Footnote - a contemporary dance company; and Fused a collective that puts on circus aerials shows. The collaboration was in five distinct parts: some street theatre, modern dance, aerials, aerials and more aerials.

The street theatre piece was interesting and gave the audience some light exercise, as three, then six dancers lead the audience from The Bats Threatre around to the aerials rig in Oriental Terrace. The dancers danced and clowned their way around Oriental Bay - occassionally slowing traffic. Much of what they did could not be seen all of the time - especially when there were two groups of dancers on separate sides of the road! Still, it was an enjoyable walk to a mysterious location.

The location of the performance was not publically available: you had to text you SECRET to mobile number and have the starting location texted back to you. I found the process a little disconcerting, as there was a very long delay between my TXT and the answering TXT. Next time they need to make the response immediate: TXT is an electronic medium, and there should be no reason why I had to wait over an hour.

I have not watched dance outside, in a while. The setting for the dance peice was on a driveway that had a partial view of Oriental Bay; I found it very disconcerting not having a presidium arch to frame my world ! I really had to concentrate on individual dancers or tight groups of dancers, to avoid being distracted by the views. Still some interesting stuff.

Then the audience decamped from the driveway into the frontyard of a large property, where the rig - The Big Rig - holding up the aerials apparatus was set up.

The first aerial display was by two members of Fused. They was pretty good, up to the standard that I have seen Fused put on before.

The second aerial display was by members of Footnote. They were pretty good from an aerials perspective. They demonstrated that a group of people who have well trained bodies can pick-up basic and intermediate forms in 20 hours. There was even some inventiveness around two dancers on a single tissu - doing mirror shapes.

This fourth part was introduced as a work in progress. I had expectations of dance with an integrated aerial component. There wasn’t. I was a little disappointed. Still it is early days, hopefully once the dancers get over the fun of aerials they can concentrate on incorporating (grounded) dance into the aerials, and vis-a-versa.

I wait for the more mature work with some anticipation - particularly dancing in the air, that owes its origins in aerial shapes, without being a series of static shapes.

The final aerial display was a short - but cool - sequence on the rope by a member of Fused.

0.3

The play has five characters and three scene settings - actually there are four, but you see three most of the time.

The theatre space has no arch, so the audience is very close to the cast; at the end the audience is co-opted in to be the audience at a gallery openning. The three setting are side-by-side across the stage: a post-graduate office, a student flat, and a lecturer’s office. The characters never actually cross from one directly onto another; clever stage design creates the impression of doors and a series of corridors and roads at the back of the stage.

The cast are:

• Elsie, played by Kate Prior, is a a photo journalist come home to study photographic art and to patch up things with her younger sister.
• Ruth, Abby Marment, is Elsie’s estranged sister. She has a Mac-job, having stopped dancing, to support herself and her student boyfriend.
• Steve, Jamie McCaskill, is the student boyfriend - half way through a two-year photographic art course.
• Julie, Emma Robinson, is a photographic art lecturer and mildly famous as a photographer.
• Harry, Eli Kent, is an alcoholic PhD student studying the Earth’s magnetism. a very geeky guy.

With an uneven number of characters and an uneven number of the sexes, the opportunity for pairing, triangles and quadrangles is explointed to the full. You wonder at times: who else has a relationship who, that is about to be disclosed. There is a love quadrangle !

The play is definitely worth the ticket price. The plot is rich - maybe too rich. I hope that the playwright - Branwen Millar - has not used up all of her material. There is even a knock-down fight. Plus the obligatory shock end.

For me, the best character was Harry: a real nerd !

0.3

The film is really a tribute to Ross Bagdasarian Snr - Jnr produced the film - who wrote and was the voice for the chipmunks in the 1961-62 TV Series.

This time around Justine Long, Matthew Gray Gubler & Jesse McCartney are respectively: Alvin, Simon & Theodore. Jason Lee plays their manager Dave. Cameron Richardson plays Claire - Dave’s on again off again girlfriend.

It is all very sweat and surprisingly watchable. OK the Chipmunks are computer animated and they have very squeaky voices, but there is something for everyone. There is humour for kids and adults - they don’t over do the fart jokes. There is even a mild slapstick chase scene.

It is a bit predicatable: uncle Ian is the exploitative baddy - but you expect that; Dave and the Chipmunks do get back together, and Dave discovers commitment.

0.3