Chicago

Chorus of approval
Stars Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere. Rated M.
Reviewer :: PTE Simone Heyer

Who can resist watching a Broadway musical in all the comfort of your local cinema? I know I can’t, and I didn’t.

Chicago is a fun, very musical film with all the costumes and razzle dazzle expected of a stage musical.

Kandahar
The Afghan way
Stars Nelofer Pazira. Madman Productions. 85 mins.
Reviewer :: PTE Simone Heyer

FANCY a trek through the Afghan desert to reach the last surviving member of your family?
Kandahar tells the tale of Nafas, an Afghan-Canadian who receives an odd request from her sister.

No Man’s Land
Intense fight for survival
Stars Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic. Madman Productions. 98 mins.
Reviewer :: PTE Simone Heyer

THIS film has been dubbed a modern Catch 22 – not having seen the said film, I can’t vouch for the similarities, but I can say that No Man’s Land is a goer.
A Bosnian squad loses its way during a night move to their trenches. In the morning, they’re picked out by Serbs – only two of the squad survives and end up in no man’s land between the Bosnian and Serbian lines.

The Sea Hunters II
Searching the sea for famous wrecks

By Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo. Random House. 446pp. $34.95.
Reviewer :: LS Rachel Irving

Clive Cussler is most famous as the author of the Dirk Pitt adventure series.
But Cussler is also one of the world’s most knowledgeable maritime diving experts and founder of NUMA, the National Underwater and Marine Agency which searches for lost ships and submarines of historic significance. (Cussler fans will recall that NUMA is also the name of the government agency in the fictional Dirk Pitt series).

Getting back on track
The Kokoda Trail : More than just a War Memorial
Friday, April 18, 8.30pm on SBS.
Reviewer: Ben Caddaye

The Kokoda Trail, in Papua New Guinea, is embedded in Australian history because of the campaign against the Japanese in World War II.

But, as we see in this documentary, it is more than just a war memorial.

The native Koiari people, the custodians of the Kokoda Trail, have unfinished business with Australia over the support they gave our soldiers during the war.

But when the Kokoda Trail was closed in 2000, after greedy developers’ calls to the Australian Government for war compensation fell on deaf ears, PNG symbolically closed the gate on Australia playing in their backyard.

They promised to take action against anyone who flouted this ban and Australians were warned not to travel to the area because of violent threats against tourists.

In Kokoda Trail: More Than Just a War Memorial, a group of young Australians travel to PNG to live and work with the native people for two months in a bid to create a new generation of relationships based on the bonds of the past.

It’s a worthwhile hour of television that proves that bridges can be rebuilt.