<-- Okay, so not quite the same degree of torture, but you get the idea. Even so, if you're obsessive enough to try and ride out an entire day and night of non-stop reel changes, then a pincers-around-the-eyelids device won't go astray while attending The 5th Annual 24 Hour V Movie Marathon. Fresh premieres spliced with B-to-Z grade pulp makes up the 24 hour programme – screening first in Auckland (Hollywood Cinema; Sat Oct 29th, 6pm), and then Wellington (Paramount Theatre; Sat Nov 5th, 6pm) – most of which is deliberately left unannounced and up to chance.

Wellington's advantage as second-in-line is usually in the way of a nip 'n tuck to the line-up guinea-pigged by Aucklanders first up. But whilst some selections may change, a few have already been locked-down, two of which we can divulge: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, which Film Comment describes as a "nervous breakdown rather than a movie" by the guy who scribbled ammu-schlock like The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Good Night; and the Australian road-trippers-in-wilderness-peril bone grinder Wolf Creek, which by all accounts, is of the shit-your-pants variety.

» moviemarathon.co.nz