Grand Theft Auto VI launch trailer

The brand-new launch trailer for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI, which releases on November 19, is out now.

The trailer, which shows off more of Jason and Lucia's story, has new music from electronic duo Justice, composers behind the original score of Grand Theft Auto VI.

 “Flower in a Hurricane" from Justice feat. Tame Impala, SZA, and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is also included on Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album, the official soundtrack which is currently available to pre-save on all major music streaming services and up for pre-order on vinyl or CD at gtavi-thealbum.com.

 

For additional updates about the music of Grand Theft Auto VI, visit: https://www.rockstargames.com/VI/music.

Street Fighter: Movie Review

Cast: Noah Centino, Andrew Koji, Joe Anoa'i, David Dastmalchian, Calliana Liang, Orville Peck, 50 Cent, Jason Momoa, Eric Andre
Director: Kitao Sakurai

In a fight, there are always two opposing sides, trying to duke it out and overcome the other.

In many ways, that's exactly how the story (thin as it is) and the tone of the new 2026 Street Fighter movie are represented - constantly at odds with each other, and never quite landing the killer blow.

Set in 1993, giving the film a chance to embrace the slightly camp, slightly camera-leery approach of the era, Street Fighter follows Koji's Ryu and Centino's himbo Ken, a pair of fighters who trained under the same master, became brothers, but then grew estranged.

Lured back to fight one last time in a grand tournament organised by Bison (Dastmalchian, hamming it up at every moment) to discover who the ultimate fighter is, Ken and Ryu find themselves both needing to put aside their differences and to rediscover what it was that made them a formidable combo.

Throw in a side-plot about an Interpol agent (Liang) who's after revenge on Bison for killing her father and the possibility of a series of fight scenes, Street Fighter should be strong enough to deliver a KO.

Unfortunately, even with some incredibly well animated scenes that are scattered throughout and which stretch to cover the entire IMAX screen, Street Fighter somehow misses the mark, delivering a juvenile film that seems to have edited out its tournament fight sequences and after two hours, is no closer to delivering a final blow, preferring instead to tease a future sequel that may not happen.

It's not without its pleasures though.

Whether it's the extremely impressive fight sequences that are splashed throughout (when they're not edited or AWOL) or the occasional bursts of humour that embrace the dumb nature of what's occurring, Street Fighter proves worthy of its mantle and its ambition. And Momoa delivers his most fun role in a long time, finally embracing the macho levels of his persona and the inherent silliness of his premise.

But even the fan service to the game can't escape the need to down 3 or 4 beers before watching this. The tone severely grates after an hour, and the thinness and confusion of what's happening starts to take its toll.

It's amazing that even with a stuffed cast, the Street Fighter movie manages to be both over-stuffed and yet underdone. It's not even a technical victory and while it never lands a killer blow, the possibility there's more to come is enough to make even the most hardened action movie fan want to tap out.

What's on HBO Max in November

Here's everything that's streaming on HBO Max in November 2026.

The Gilded Age Season 4 (November 2)

The eight-episode fourth season debuts Monday, 2 November, only on HBO Max. 

Season four of The Gilded Age follows the fallout from Bertha Russell’s transformation of New York society, as her newfound power comes at a steep cost to her family. As Agnes van Rhijn seizes an opportunity to reclaim her place in the social order, Marian forges a new path of her own, while Peggy strives to earn the acceptance of her future in-laws. In this new era, ambition comes with consequences—and you must be careful what you wish for.

Season four cast includes Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Morgan Spector, Louisa Jacobson, Denée Benton, Taissa Farmiga, Harry Richardson, Blake Ritson, Ben Ahlers, Ashlie Atkinson, Dylan Baker, Kelley Curran, Jordan Donica, Jessica Frances Dukes, Amy Forsyth, Jack Gilpin, Simon Jones, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Ben Lamb, Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Debra Monk, Hattie Morahan, Donna Murphy, Kristine Nielsen, Kelli O’Hara, Taylor Richardson, Douglas Sills, Erin Wilhelmi, John Douglas Thompson, Taylor Trensch, James Scully, Dennis Haysbert, Maggie Kuntz, Neal Huff, Bonnie Milligan, Jim Gaffigan, Dallas Roberts, Andrew Burnap, Elizabeth Marvel, Adrienne Warren, with Bill Camp and Phylicia Rashad. 

Creator/writer/executive producer, Julian Fellowes; director and executive producer, Salli Richardson-Whitfield; writer and executive producer, Sonja Warfield; executive producers Gareth Neame, David Crockett, Bob Greenblatt, Kate Churchill, Davita Scarlett, Elaine Aronson; co-executive producers Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Holly Rymon. The Gilded Age is a co-production between HBO and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. 

HBO Max to launch Turner Classic Movies hub in New Zealand on 6 November

A dedicated destination for iconic films, spanning timeless classics, acclaimed dramas, musicals and genre-defining favourites. 

HBO Max New Zealand will launch the Turner Classic Movies hub on Friday, 6 November, giving subscribers access to an extensive collection of iconic films from one of cinema’s most celebrated catalogues. 

Spanning decades of film history, the collection brings together beloved classics, acclaimed dramas, genre-defining favourites, family films, musicals, epic adventures and historical stories from legendary filmmakers and performers. Highlights include: 

Timeless classics: Casablanca, Singin’ in the Rain, Ben-Hur, Rebel Without a Cause, The Philadelphia Story and Gone With the Wind. 

Acclaimed dramas: Dog Day Afternoon, Cool Hand Luke, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire. 

Genre-defining titles: North by Northwest, Enter the Dragon, Dirty Harry, The Wild Bunch and Soylent Green. 

Show-stopping musicals: Easter Parade, Calamity Jane, High Society and The Music Man. 

Epic adventures: Around the World in 80 Days, How the West Was Won and Mutiny on the Bounty

The Turner Classic Movies hub will offer New Zealand subscribers a rich and expansive library of cinematic history, all in one dedicated destination on HBO Max.

Whalefall: Movie Review

Cast: Austin Abrams, Josh Brolin, Elisabeth Shue, Jane Levy, John Ortiz
Director: Brian Duffield

Based on Daniel Kraus' best-selling book, Whalefall wants desperately to be a whale tale about the claustrophobic nature of grief and guilt.

However, this story of Jay (Resident Evil's Abrams) who becomes trapped inside the belly of a whale while diving to find his cancer-ridden father's remains falters in parts as it foregoes some of the tenser parts for a series of flashbacks that heavily signpost what's due to happen in a truly unsubtle way.

So while some of that may be an issue in terms of the original source material, the film appears to adhere to plumbing the depths of an emotionally bereft rollercoaster of a series of allegories and trite life lessons being imparted in a sentimental overload as the film's final sequences play out.

(It can't be a coincidence that the character is called Jay and is trapped in a whale - the fact it doesn't even deviate from the Jonah and the Whale allegory is perhaps one of the film's failings.)

There's little to the film except for a one-line synopsis - and while Duffield tries to load the emotional bases up with flashbacks between estranged father and son, some of those actually stymy proceedings and leave you feeling manipulated.

While the belly of the beast is meant to be claustrophobic, unfortunately the trapping in the whale is perhaps the most exciting part of the film, one that captures the scale of Jay against this gargantuan creature as he becomes caught up in a fight between squid and whale for food.

Once inside the beast, with only an hour's oxygen left, the film follows a somewhat formulaic route of having Jay being crushed, rolled about and tossed around both by the creature and also his memories of his father.

For what it's worth, Abrams does brilliantly with the one-man physical role, commanding the screen for the entire time he's on it. While most of his scenes see Jay forced to scream or wail through his oxygen mask, Abrams proves to be incredibly tactile as he clambers around the clearly-meant-be-claustrophobic insides of the beast. He even mines some humour out of an encounter with a phosphorous jellyfish that is fashioned into a light.

But at no real point does the film escape its own metaphor - that Jay is being crushed from the outside by the guilt within. And at no moment in the film does Duffield do anything to move that film away from such laudable but obvious intentions. It coalesces into a final sequence that's more laughable than cathartic, a sign that the only blubber on this cinematic whale will come from audiences willing to let themselves be so obviously manipulated.

Whalefall has its moments when it works - from the dark, murky waters to Abrams' scintillating physicality fashioned from so little. And its soundtrack which captures the underwater menace is as immersive as it can and should be.

But with an overload of trite messaging bogging it down in the end, Whalefall sadly sinks to the bottom of the cinematic ocean, when it should rise triumphantly from the waters.

Crystal Lake: Review

The Friday the 13th horror series is iconic with its mix of sexually promiscuous teens, bloody slaughter and the legend of a killer in the woods all wrapped up into one.

So it's perhaps surprising that a TV series feels the need to explore the backstory of the Voorhees family especially, given that most prequels trying to give credence to killers' behaviour generally derails what follows.

And in truth, episode one of Crystal Lake is not really the strongest of openings for what goes on to be a compelling series about grief and the power of awakening against the backdrop of trauma.

While it takes a little while to get going, Crystal Lake belongs squarely to Linda Cardellini who delivers a stellar performance as Pamela Voorhees, the mother whose child Jason drowns in the lake as those in charge are engaged in their own canoodling.

There's a slow and steady pace to episode one, which verges on somnambulant in parts as it builds to the inevitable death of Jason; and while Cardellini makes her Voorhees a grieving mother with subtlety, it soon becomes clear this Pamela is no victim.

Jumping nine months on after the death and with no body in sight, Pam's soon finding herself at the lake, constantly hoping to see Jason - much to the horror of the camp's inhabitants and the villagers themselves. However, with locals claiming to have seen a bear in the woods and body parts showing up, the focus soon shifts to what's haunting the region.

Crystal Lake is a better series when it moves away from the horrors of the slaughter that became so iconic in the film franchise. By giving this more of a psychological bent and slanting it more to Pamela Voorhees, what emerges is a series that's a little smarter and more deserving of the A24 label it carries.

Yes, there's a familiar tale of an oppressed woman finding her power and yes, it's another spin on males abusing their position, but Crystal Lake benefits greatly from both Cardellini's fragility and strengths as an actress. There's much to be said about the show that's currently under wraps at the behest of those behind it, but there are some smart subversions of what you'd expect of the prequel to the infamous killer and certainly episode 7 of the show is one of the most upsetting hours of TV you're likely to see this year.

That's due to the investment you'll put into Cardellini's Pam and her journey (it's never a plight, because the character finds unexpected strengths) and while there are nods to the horror franchise along with some truly gnarly kills that wouldn't feel out of place in the 1980s film genre, the shocks and disturbing elements are mostly of the mind.

Crystal Lake takes a dip into the horror genre but at its heart, this is a tender and upsetting portrayal of the impact of grief, the desperation of a mother thwarted and of a life changed. It's hard to say the word victim here, because in truth, this is a perverse journey of empowerment made all the richer by its final girl's powerhouse performance.  

All eight episodes of Crystal Lake were viewed for the purposes of this review.

Crystal Lake premieres on Neon from Thursday, October 15.