Good Boy: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Indy the dog, Shane Jensen
Director: Ben Leonberg

Pushing a concept as far as it can go works wonders for indie horror Good Boy.

But if you're averse to open-ended films that are reliant on your own interpretation, perhaps this won't be the film for you.

Told from a dog's-eye level (not a point of view or perspective), it follows a dog who accompanies his owner to a cabin in the woods after his owner's unspecified medical issues and an apparent rift in his owner's relationship.

However, once the pair arrives at the cabin, the pup begins to see and hear things, and fears his owner's life is in danger from something other than illness.

Good Boy is an incredible piece of film-making thanks to its lead performance of Indy. For a creature that can have no direct understanding that it's in a movie, the work done by the dog is just second to none, and utterly intuitive.

At its heart, the film appears to be an exploration of the impact of illness, dressed up in a supernatural elements story. As his owner is consumed by sickness, the house becomes more active and the supernatural jolts more pronounced. And while some will complain there are only so many times you can show a dog upset by a bump in the night, with a lean 72 minute run time, director Leonberg more than delivers.

Wtih themes of loyalty and friendship, and some genuinely terrifying moments thanks to a carefully constructed delve into fear (at one point, the dog wets itself), Good Boy has an interesting trajectory at heart - what if the person you care most about can't be saved?

It's perhaps pertinent that by setting the film at a dog level and also by hearing things that humans can't, the film gets more out of the haunted house premise than a simple fright-night flick may have done. Plus, making the hero a dog immediately brings audiences on side and emotionally invested.

However, director Ben Leonberg isn't interested in throwing that care and commitment away with just easy and cheap thrills. There's a real heart here that's given beating life by Indy's performance and a human story that cries out for exploration.

If you buy into the premise and the exploration of an animal's loyalty, plus the very real fear of losing that, Good Boy is an utterly compelling and original film that demands to be seen. It's a singular experience given life by its main actor - a very, very good boy.

Good Boy is now streaming on Shudder

Lee Cronin's The Mummy: Movie Review

Cast: Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace, with Veronica Falcón.
Director: Lee Cronin

The latest iteration of the horror franchise takes on new meaning with the director of Evil Dead Rise at the helm.

The young daughter Katie of a journalist disappears into the Egyptian desert without a trace. Eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare.

There's a vicious nastiness in Lee Cronin's vision for the return of The Mummy and its something that's as insidious as it is upsetting.

But Cronin deploys a devilishly slow build-up to events that uses a plethora of nightmarish imagery, tropes and ancient mythology to create an atmosphere of extreme unease throughout.

From child-catcher grooming to Exorcist moments and Evil Dead homages, the film revels in its horror edges and its desire to take things seriously and studiously pays off in swathes.

Creaking, cracking sounds, a teeth-chattering husk of a seemingly locked-in child - this is a movie that employs a soundscape that's at another level in setting you om edge.

Yet once again Cronin uses the fracture between sisters (as he did in Evil Dead Rise) to make for truly upsetting moments and tensions throughout.

With dry, arid vistas and an oppressive palette mixing with extreme close-ups, there's no way to escape the claustrophobia of what's on screen. And thankfully, the film stays away from the camera excesses of the Brendan Fraser boys' own style romps that spawned a swathe of nostalgia.

It's not all perfect - a wake teeters very closely on going OTT rather than using chills and Jack Reynor's performance as the dad who was the last to see his daughter isn't quite as compelling as it could be.

But for the large part, the 'We need to talk about Katie' mentality works terrifically well and the idea of how a family curse manifests is fascinating and horrifying to behold.

Dark, disgusting and devilish, Lee Cronin's The Mummy is an absolute frightfest that will haunt your early morning hours long after you've seen it - whether you want it to or not.

Balls Up: Movie Review

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Paul Walter Hauser, Benjamin Bratt, Sacha Baron Cohen
Director: Peter Farrelly

A film from one half of the duo behind There's Something About Mary and Dumb and Dumber about a condom being launched in the upcoming World Cup doesn't really endow its audience with much hope.

However, in this borderline unfunny piece that salvages only a few laughs from unexpected moments, hope is abandoned within the opening sequence, which sees Paul Walter Hauser's marketing executive Elijah try to pitch a new condom for the upcoming FIFA festivities by unveiling the fact that it covers both the penis as well as the testicles.

As the room watches on as Elijah stumbles and fumbles his pitch to his own company, one of the assembled employees bemoans, "What is happening here?", a sentiment which soon becomes the key mantra for a film that sees a naked Benjamin Bratt swing on a rope while aroused and sees one man being forced to suck out a vampire fish which has gone up another's penis.

Depending on how you read the above sentences will very much lead you to your own conclusions about whether this is a movie for you. For those looking for humour, it is not; for those seeking broad debased laughs that are as scattered as they are scatological, they will be rewarded.

When Brad (Wahlberg) and Elijah (Hauser) score an own goal with their condom pitch, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory during a meeting with Brazilian authorities, they're fired. But having been granted a couple of VIP passes to the World Cup Final, they decide to go anyway.

However, during a last-minute pitch invasion by a drunken Elijah (Hauser's character is unsurprisingly uptight), the entire nation of Brazil turns on them after losing the game to bordering neighbours Argentina. Forced on the run, the "Os Stuipdos", as they're dubbed by media, try to flee the country with their lives.

Farrelly's sense of direction lurches from one absurd moment to the next, with nary a pause in the script for any serious laughs or character development. Having cut his teeth on broader fare, he's reticent to divert from the usual MO - but even this time, the gross-out laughs feel forced, fraught and fairly unfunny. 

While the banter between the bickering Brad and Elijah is brought to life well by Wahlberg and Hauser, the lurching script does too little with their obvious comedic potential and even throws in another Sacha Baron Cohen character that's forgettable. (One of the finer moments of the film sees the pair doing a karaoke version of Gotje and Kimbra's infamous song.)

Ultimately, this is one film that actually leaves you feeling exactly as its title intended - it's a Balls Up from beginning to end.

Balls Up is streaming now on Prime Video.

Solo Mio: Movie Review

Cast: Kevin James, Nicole Grimaudo, Alyson Hannigan, Kim Coates, Jonathan Roumie, Julee Cerda, Julie Ann Emery, Alessandro Carbonara

Director: Chuck Kinnane, Dan Kinnane

If you’re expecting a goofy Kevin James to bust out the larrikin behaviour in Solo Mio, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

In it, he plays sad-sack elementary school teacher Matt Taylor, who believes he’s found the one in Heather. After a pitch-perfect proposal in among the kids, he and his fiancée head to Italy for their wedding. But to Matt’s horror, he’s left at the altar, smiling and hopeful as his other half makes a run for it.

Deciding to carry on with the honeymoon in the mistaken belief that she’ll return to him, Matt becomes part of a travel group of other couples, all of which appear to be having their own issues. From a bickering duo who’s on their third go-around after divorcing each other twice to another who are both picking at each other, Matt finds he’s not sure he fits in.

But after a meet-cute with Gia at a local café, the pair strikes up an easy friendship that follows the usual pattern of opposites attract. Will Matt mend his broken heart and take up a new life?

Solo Mio isn’t interested in presenting a film that deals with the emotional depth and fallout of break-ups, unexpected or otherwise. It’s a strait-laced, faith-based film that’s aiming for the feelgood factor and is more likely to land with people untroubled by complications in life or in cinema.

That said, with some beautiful scenery around Italy and a depth from Kevin James that’s truly delightful and different, the film manages to balance some of the more uneven edges of what plays out – including the male duo that befriend and ill-advise him on his life journey.

Disappointingly, Alyson Hannigan is massively underused in a film that’s more around the hijinks of Matt and his buffoonish honeymooner buddies. Thankfully, the directors never resort to sending James to the kind of depths he’s explored before in the likes of Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

Solo Mio is a thoroughly pleasant film, the kind that grandparents would be happy to sit through – however, its lack of bite and emotional depth at times proves to be a major missed opportunity to provide a film with definite conflict and a hint more of investment.

Fuze: Movie Review

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Sam Worthington, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Theo James
Director: David Mackenzie

The discovery of a World War II bomb at a building site in downtown London is the ticking fuse that lights a fire under Hell Or High Water director Mackenzie's latest - but thanks to choppy editing, most of the suspense is sucked from the premise.

As the police seal off and evacuate the area (led by Mbatha-Raw's deadpan Chief Superintendent), a military bomb defusal squad, led by Taylor-Johnson's clearly-got-something-to-prove Will Tranter steps in. But as soon as the area is cleared, a heist of a nearby bank begins...

Meshing the kind of cliffhanger twists you'd get in a pulpy Netflix "watch another right now" thriller with the kind of absurdism viewed in the likes of Trigger Point, Fuze deploys its propulsive touch to maximum effect - even if the final third of the film tries to pack more twists than you'd ever think plausible.

Some, however, work, but the ledger's very strongly stacked in favour of the deliberately deployed for the sake of the story.

But perhaps that's part of the proposed thrill of this - Mackenzie's movie doesn't stand still long enough to allow you to consider its contrivances. And certainly, the cross-cut editing, jumping from one scene to the next, allows you little time to deeply engage with the characters.

From scenes in a command centre which follow Exposition 101 to doubts at the bomb site via shady goings-on and thieves falling apart, Fuze ticks all of the genre tropes while using them to stack a story in a different way.

Yet, it's debatably a failure - albeit one that zips its way through perfunctory set-up and execution.

With cursory dialogue serving up pernicious pieces of back-story, the narrative falls into a trap of overloading the bases before showing all of its cards in one final go. It's a move that sadly doesn't work for bomb-thriller heist Fuze, proving this is more damp squib than highly explosive.

Samsung Unveils 115-Inch Micro RGB TV Featuring Next-Generation Colour

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has unveiled the incredible 115” Micro RGB TV, marking its New Zealand debut of the Micro RGB display and a bold new design direction for ultra-premium displays.

New Zealand’s first display to feature Micro RGB, a micro-scale RGB LED backlight behind a large 115-inch screen. This breakthrough display establishes a new benchmark for colour accuracy, contrast and immersive viewing.

Micro RGB Technology uses sub-100 μm red, green and blue LEDs that each emit light independently. This advanced display architecture enables incredibly precise light control and improved colour accuracy. Enhanced picture-processing technologies, including 4K AI Upscaling Pro and AI Motion Enhancer Pro,3 further refine brightness, smooth out motion and add clarity in real time.

“Micro RGB represents the pinnacle of TV display innovation, its cutting-edge technology, exceptional colour accuracy and truly immersive viewing experience is unrivalled,” said Tura Gim, Head of Consumer Electronics at Samsung New Zealand. “This new flagship model sets a new benchmark for premium display design, and we’re excited to bring this next-generation display technology to Kiwis.”

Ultimate Viewing Experience to Match Its Scale

The 115-inch Micro RGB model features Samsung’s most advanced Micro RGB innovations to date.
Powered by Micro RGB AI Engine Pro, Micro RGB Colour Booster Pro and Micro RGB HDR Pro, it leverages AI to enhance dull tones and refine contrast, delivering vivid colour and subtle detail across bright and dark scenes alike for realism and picture fidelity.

The display elevates picture performance with Micro RGB Precision Colour 100, delivering 100% of the BT.2020 wide colour gamut. Certified by the Verband der Elektrotechnik (VDE) for precise Micro RGB colour reproduction, it produces finely controlled hues that appear true to life on screen.

Glare Free That Redefines Daytime viewing

The 115-inch model also includes Samsung’s proprietary Glare Free technology, which minimises reflections, even in bright lighting conditions for a more comfortable and focused viewing experience. This impressive Glare-Free performance with a specially engineered low-reflection layer that disperses external light and reduces internal light-scattering without distorting picture quality. A new physical solution for reflecting external light sources, which is backed by AI gamma adjustment to add another layer of refinement.

Football gets even more exciting

As sport is intrinsic to the Kiwi psyche, Samsung also offers intuitive modes to personalise theviewing experience. For football fans, AI Football Mode Pro delivers a more exciting gameday experience through AI-driven picture and sound tuning to stadium-level quality. AI Sound Controller Pro lets you raise or lower the volume of the crowd, commentary, or background music, providing a personalised listening experience for TV shows and movies.

More details regarding the rest of the 2026 line-up will be announced in May 2026.

What's on DocPlay in May

Here's everything that's streaming on DocPlay in May 2026.

We’re warming up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup: Kenny Dalglish, the new documentary from Oscar®-winner Asif Kapadia, streams exclusively on DocPlay from May 14. 

The Scottish soccer icon, who played for Liverpool and Scotland, comes to life in a vivid portrait of his sporting and personal successes. Releasing forty years after the world-changing disaster, Chernobyl: Utopia in Flames is a gripping portrait of the 1986 nuclear explosion and its aftermath. 

Released by Neon in the US, Men of War offers a shockingly prescient account of how, in 2020, a ragtag group of American-led insurrectionists attempted to infiltrate Venezuela and overthrow the regime of Nicolas Maduro. Or spice up your life with three-part BBC series Spice Girls: How Girl Power Changed the World.

4 May

Chernobyl: Utopia in Flames (Exclusive)

A new four-part German production about the 1986 nuclear disaster: the true story of Chernobyl is even more complex, more human, and more shocking than we could ever have imagined.

14 May

Kenny Dalglish (Exclusive)

The new documentary from Oscar®-winning director Asif Kapadia (Senna), Kenny Dalglish offers an in-depth portrait of the Scottish soccer icon. 

18 May

Spice Girls: How Girl Power Changed the World

The must-see story of how five ordinary women became the Spice Girls. A three-episode series from the BBC.

18 May

Freddie: The Final Act

The story of the extraordinary final chapter of Freddie Mercury’s life and how, after his death, Queen staged one of the biggest concerts in history.

21 May

Antidote (Exclusive)

What is the cost of speaking truth to power? In Putin’s Russia, it could mean your life. An immersive and chilling documentary, Antidote follows in real time a whistleblower from inside Russia's poison program, a prominent political activist, and a Russian journalist forced to go into hiding. 

21 May

Men of War (Exclusive)

In May 2020, a ragtag group of American-led insurrectionists attempted to infiltrate Venezuela and overthrow the regime of Nicolas Maduro. 

25 May

This Is A Bomb (Exclusive)

In 1980, an ingenious boobie-trapped ticking time bomb - filled with 1,000 pounds of dynamite - was wheeled in the front doors of Harvey’s Wagon Wheel Casino in Lake Tahoe. Along with the bomb was a note demanding $3 million within 24 hours. While the bomb squad attempts to disarm the explosive, the FBI races the clock to deliver the ransom and simultaneously catch the extortionists. Nothing goes as planned, and each step uncovers darker secrets and suspicions of a deeper motive.