Peter Vere-Jones Movies

The Winter Solstice won't be coming this year thanks to cranky old King Sylvius (Peter Vere-Jones), who has not only outlawed the holiday, but is poised to evict the local orphans. Xena (Lucy Lawless) is all for punching out Sylvius, but Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), exhibiting the true Solstice Spirit, suggests another method of setting things right. All this leads to a dickens of a denouement, with the help of a local toy maker named Senticles (say all the syllables out loud) and the "timely" arrival of the Three Fates at the King's bedside. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Peter Jackson's second feature cheerfully trumps the gross-out quotient of his splatterfest debut, the appropriately named Bad Taste. The tone is cartoonishly comic, and the premise is simple: The village dweeb (Timothy Balme) is trying to maintain a budding romance with the sweet Paquita (Diana Penalver) while concealing the fact that his overbearing mum (Elizabeth Moody, in an amazing good-sport performance) is a flesh-eating zombie. (She owes her condition to a bite from a "Sumatran Rat Monkey" at the local zoo.) Complicating matters even further is Les, a greedy uncle (Ian Watkin), who suspects that his sister has died and is eager to occupy her elegantly furnished Victorian mansion. The climax is a housewarming party Les throws to celebrate his "inheritance;" what he really gets is his comeuppance, thanks to his sister and her similarly afflicted zombie pals, who burst out of their basement prison to turn the guests into appetizers. Our hero finally cuts a wide swath through the zombie party crashers with the help of a rotary blade lawn mower, leaving the house awash in blood and body parts in order to save his romance. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Bearing the same relationship to The Muppet Show that Fritz the Cat does to Felix the Cat, Meet the Feebles is a gleefully rude, decidedly adult comedy about the backstage goings-on amongst an eccentric group of puppets the day before their televised variety special. Made by director Peter Jackson, creator of Bad Taste and Heavenly Creatures, the film features a wide ensemble of creatures known as "The Feebles," led by a walrus named Bletch, the show's gruff, corrupt producer. Amongst the central figures are Heidi the Hippo, the show's prima donna singer; the fey fox Sebastian, who acts as the show's director; and the lovable (and love-struck) Robert the Hedgehog. Other cast members include a sex-crazed rabbit suffering from VD, a junkie frog prone to Vietnam War flashbacks, and a rat who directs porno movies in the theater's basement. Romantic jealousies, drug deals gone wrong, murders, and other scandalous activities all threaten to wreak havoc amongst the cast, with all these problems reaching their climax on the evening of the big show (which comes complete with musical numbers). The film's extremely dark sense of humor is supported by skillful gross-out effects and a winningly irreverent attitude. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Although the ride is bumpy in places, there's an exciting journey offered by John Laing's fast-paced thriller. Three orphans have been best friends since their they were children; now they have decided to end their poverty-stricken existence by murdering an American drug courier in Auckland and then flying to Geneva to withdraw $5 million from his Swiss bank account. Richer but on very dangerous ground, the trio of thieves find themselves on the lead drug dealer's most wanted list. To make matters a bit more complex, one of the grown-up orphans falls in love with the ex-wife of the drug ring's head honcho. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Pictures is an expansive biopic about pioneer photographers Walter and Alfred Burton. Through the eyes of the ubiquitous Burton brothers, we are treated to the history of New Zealand's colonial era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide