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Funerals and Snakes
The home of Dan Slevin's movie reviews on the web (including the Cinematica podcast and RNZ Nine to Noon audio).
Dan Slevin is a New Zealand-based writer, broadcaster and consultant. He was cinema reviewer for the Capital Times weekly newspaper from September 2006 until its demise in April 2013, seeing and reviewing every film commercially released in Wellington in that time (except, for some reason Beverly Hills Chihuahua).
Dan is a regular contributor to Radio New Zealand National's Nine to Noon programme and produces and co-hosts the weekly movie podcast, Cinematica.
In his spare time he is managing editor of ONFILM — New Zealand's screen production magazine.
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Film Review : Alan Partridge - Alpha Papa | Funerals & Snake
Saturday, 4 January 2014, 10:50 am | Funerals and Snakes
Most big films get a special level of promotion before they are unleashed on the general public–they get we call a ‘radio preview’. More >>
Review: The Turning, Twenty Feet from Stardom and The Butler
Monday, 23 December 2013, 5:05 pm | Funerals and Snakes
I went into The Turning in the dark and in some ways I wish I hadn’t and in others I’m glad I did. I’ll see if I can explain. The film is a collection of related shorts, each based on a single story from Tim Winton’s acclaimed collection of ... More >>
Review:Diana, Runner Runner, Camille Claudel 1915, Prisoners
Thursday, 5 December 2013, 11:36 am | Funerals and Snakes
Apart from the inescapable need to carve out a meagre living from an uncaring world, one of the reasons why these weekly updates have been something less than, well, weekly recently has been that most of the fare on offer at the pictures has been ... More >>
Review: Gravity, Mr. Pip, Grown Ups 2, Battle of the Year 3D
Wednesday, 13 November 2013, 5:19 pm | Funerals and Snakes
Is Gravity the first really new film of the 21st Century? I hazard it may be. It is certainly the first to harness the bleeding edge of the current technologies (performance capture, 3D, sophisticated robotic camera rigs) to serve a story that could only ... More >>
Review: Rush, Mood Indigo, Metallica Through the Never
Thursday, 24 October 2013, 1:01 pm | Funerals and Snakes
Ron Howard’s Rush is a great showcase for Chris Hemsworth (Thor) to prove that he has some potential beyond the comic book beefcake. He plays British playboy racing driver James Hunt with a perfect languid English accent and a rock star twinkle just ... More >>
Review: Blue Jasmine, Riddick, What Maisie Knew
Tuesday, 8 October 2013, 4:38 pm | Funerals and Snakes
When did “late-period: Woody Allen start? Was it with Match Point (when he finally left New York for some new scenery)? Or should we consider these last ten, globe-trotting, years as late-r Woody? The last ten years have certainly been up and down in terms ... More >>
Review: Kick-Ass 2, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Tuesday, 10 September 2013, 5:15 pm | Funerals and Snakes
There has been much discussion in the circles in which I move about the quantity of films released to local cinemas. Not only are there too many films coming out every week — too many for each one to generate much heat at any rate — but the ... More >>
Review: Pain & Gain, Only God Forgives, The Wolverine | More
Wednesday, 4 September 2013, 11:11 am | Funerals and Snakes
Still hovering around some local cinemas—and the longest-delayed of all my outstanding reviews—Still Mine is a surprisingly effective Canadian drama about an elderly man (James Cromwell, 73 but playing a fit 89) determined to build ... More >>
Review: Elysium, Stoker, We’re the Millers, The Heat, & more
Thursday, 29 August 2013, 3:43 pm | Funerals and Snakes
With this year’s festival now a rapidly diminishing memory—and my recovery from that event (plus another magazine published, some “live” podcast recordings, a few Q&A’s, some director interviews and a Big Screen Symposium) almost complete—I ... More >>
Preview: 2013 New Zealand International Film Festival
Tuesday, 23 July 2013, 5:01 pm | Funerals and Snakes
Now, I’m risking the ire of the extremely helpful and generous New Zealand International Film Festival team here, but I’m going to recommend an approach to festival-going that will probably reward you more than it will them. Here goes: don’t book for ... More >>
Review: The World’s End, Pacific Rim, The Look of Love
Tuesday, 16 July 2013, 4:18 pm | Funerals and Snakes
I can imagine some people not enjoying The World’s End. People who don’t care about — or even notice — cinematic craftsmanship, people who think that being self-referential means being self-indulgent, audiences who prefer their action sequences ... More >>
Review: Before Midnight, The Lone Ranger, This Is the End +
Thursday, 11 July 2013, 11:44 am | Funerals and Snakes
As is so often the case at this time of year (usually related to 48 Hours commitments) I am a little behind on my reviewing. This weekend I caught up on a lot the actual watching (although apologies to John Davies who sent me a screener of Remembrance ... More >>
Review: Man of Steel, Everybody Has a Plan and White Lies
Wednesday, 3 July 2013, 12:02 pm | Funerals and Snakes
Man of Steel is a self-consciously epic re-imagining of the Superman story, first told in print in the 1930s and most recently rebooted on screen by Bryan Singer as Superman Returns just prior to the commencement of my reviewing career in 2006. More >>
Review: World War Z, After Earth and The Hunt
Tuesday, 25 June 2013, 12:31 pm | Funerals and Snakes
Bloodless zombies would appear to be that latest trend if April’s Warm Bodies and this week’sWorld War Z are anything to go by. No blood means studios get a lower censorship classification and — hopefully — a bigger audience. But the absence ... More >>
Review: The Great Gatsby, Bekas, The Last Sentence
Wednesday, 12 June 2013, 12:10 pm | Funerals and Snakes
For all the digital glitter and anachronistic hip-hoppery that signifies our latest re-entry into Luhrman-land, The Great Gatsby itself takes fundamental inspiration from a black and white classic from 1941. More >>
Review: Kon-Tiki, Snitch and Broken
Wednesday, 22 May 2013, 5:27 pm | Funerals and Snakes
Speaking as someone whose taste for adventure doesn’t stretch much further than going to the dairy in the rain, the reckless self-endangerment represented by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s Kon-Tiki was a genuine eye-opener. More >>
Funerals and Snakes movie review: Star Trek Into Darkness
Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 4:18 pm | Funerals and Snakes
The 2009 Star Trek reboot went into production on the eve of the writers’ strike and therefore had no right to be as entertaining — or to make as much sense — as it did. In fact, it was so successful that it has become the gold standard of ... More >>
Review: The Company You Keep, Rebelle (War Witch) and more
Tuesday, 7 May 2013, 12:09 pm | Funerals and Snakes
It’s easy to laugh at ageing movie stars. Crumbs, when they make films like The Expendables they actively encourage us to make jokes about creaking joints and dicky hips. But let us pause for a moment and salute the longevity of one of the greatest ... More >>
Review: Iron Man 3, First Position and Identity Thief
Wednesday, 1 May 2013, 4:34 pm | Funerals and Snakes
Whatever they are paying Robert Downey Jr. to play Iron Man, it is is worth every penny. Iron Man 3, the third instalment in his own branch of the Marvel Universe series that also featuresCaptain America, The Mighty Thor and The Hulk is hurtling ... More >>
Review: Iron Man 3, First Position and Identity Thief
Wednesday, 1 May 2013, 4:34 pm | Funerals and Snakes
Whatever they are paying Robert Downey Jr. to play Iron Man, it is is worth every penny. Iron Man 3, the third instalment in his own branch of the Marvel Universe series that also featuresCaptain America, The Mighty Thor and The Hulk is hurtling ... More >>
