Paul Morrison/UK/2003; R4
Warner Bros, NZ$29.95 | Reviewed by Tim Wong

OR, the postcolonial "googly". Sporting a love for cricket, Paul Morrison's immigrant characters do more than indulge in a favourite pastime; they take ownership of a game once propagated throughout Asia, Africa and the rest of England's island trophies (including New Zealand) by way of underlining colonial rule (until people like the West Indians started knocking the Poms for Six). And it's this sometimes rocky transition from Gentlemen's-to-People's game that Wondrous Oblivion appropriates as a life-metaphor-cum-Post-It note for migration and social acceptance into a prejudiced 1960's South London community.

Keith Gordon/USA/2002; R4
Warner Bros, NZ$29.95 | Reviewed by John Spry

THE LEGACY of Dennis Potter is undeniable, and when viewing the impressive oeuvre that he left after his death in 1994, it is fairly easy to see why many believed him to be the finest auteur working in his chosen medium of television. Dennis Potter as auteur is not too brash a claim, as the worst of his work is still better than most other writers best work. This is evident in many of the indelible characters, situations and stories created by him, from his best-received pieces, The Singing Detective (1986), Pennies from Heaven (1978) to his lesser-received works such as Blackeyes (1989).

A postscript to Lumière's 2004 Year in Review, TIM WONG dusted off his 4-year design degree to loiter around the popcorn-odored foyers of movieland, in search of the perfect poster.

Reviewed by Tim Wong

THE SCARY MOVIE, perhaps more so than any other, succeeds or fails on the whim of its audience. It's like the whole "love stories are an inherently fickle thing" thing – a line by my co-editor I've revisited quite pathetically now twice in succession. The same tenuous crux should apply here to Open Water – a high-concept, low budget grenade-of-a-movie, pulling the pin on that most primal of all fears: the shark attack.

MUBARAK ALI gets comfortably numb as he reviews ten classics seen – and loved – on DVD in 2004; DAVID LEVINSON scours the ten films that rocked his world.

The Lumière crew gathered around that most arbitrary of things – the list – before looking back on the year in movies.

Well, 8 ½, unorthodox tele things*, writes TIM WONG – who quite frankly, has had enough of movies for one year.