This week's DVD column looks at Ryan Gosling's much talked about Drive, Richard Gere and Topher Grace squaring off in The Double, Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz buying a Dream House, and the re-releases of Lawrence Kasdan's 1991 Grand Canyon and 2001's seminal Monkeybone. Yes, Monkeybone.
Canadians have been abuzz that one of their own has made its way to a nomination on film’s grandest stage, and rightfully so. Director Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar takes the well worn template of an inspirational teacher movie and creates something far grander out of a type of film that often lends itself to grandstanding and speeches.
To celebrate TIFF's upcoming Bangkok Dangerous: The Cinema Of Nicolas Cage series, Alan Jones has resurrected his retrospective of the actor's work entitled The Nic Cage Project. In this edition, Jones takes on 1983's Valley Girl - playing tonight at the Lightbox.
Say what you will about the career trajectory of actress Katherine Heigl, there’s a decent story hidden somewhere in One for the Money. An angry, out of work woman becoming a bounty hunter and jumping at the chance to bring in a loathsome ex-lover sounds… exactly like that Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston movie The Bounty Hunter with the sexes reversed. That’s pretty much what this movie amounts to, but this is admittedly somewhat better than that debacle. It’s still not very good.
Ostensibly a cross between Inside Man and The Negotiator with a healthy dose of Michael Bay style ridiculousness, Man on a Ledge might be the most fun to be had in cinemas this January. It’s an unabashed crowd pleaser that really doesn’t care that it doesn’t make an iota of logical sense.
Liam Neeson reteams with A-Team director Joe Carnahan for The Grey, a reasonably entertaining B-movie about men trying to survive in a harsh climate with even harsher wildlife.
In our first weekly column about upcoming and current DVD and Blu-ray releases, we go toe to toe with boxing robots in Real Steel, ghosts in Paranormal Activity 3, cancer in 50/50, and sex traffickers in The Whistleblower.
The Divide is a psychological thriller about post-apocalyptic survival that is often horrifying and all around nightmarish. From claustrophobia to torture, radiation sickness and murder, this movie is intentionally void of anything that makes an audience feel comfortable or at ease for longer than one or two brief moments. On this level it's an achievement, but ultimately the story suffers from a shapeless script.
This past week the newest Gears of War 3 DLC, entitled Fenix Rising, became available for download on Xbox Live. The DLC features several new character skins, five new maps, and a new leveling system for those who just cannot get enough of Gears 3. For 800 Microsoft points Fenix Rising offers some decent content but not everyone will use all the features available for download.
Just let this franchise go, you guys. Just let it go.
It’s hard not to talk about the World War II action drama Red Tails without bringing up George Lucas. Making a fighter pilot film had always been a dream of the man whose greatest strength was filming dog fights in the skies. Lucas, who allegedly oversaw reshoots and worked a bit on the script, receives only a producer credit here, but he probably should’ve had a lot more input on this tale of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. It’s a film that has its heart in the right place and nothing but the best of intentions, but also one the cries out for some sort of real guidance to hold this debacle together.
While there probably hasn’t been much clamouring for another modern Shakespearian adaptation – meaning the dialog stays nearly word for word the same, but the setting is present day – the fact that actor and first time director Ralph Fiennes has made one of the Bard’s lesser noticed plays, Coriolanus, into such a film, seems oddly okay. With a genuine passion for theatrics and bloodlust that the world’s most noted playwright would approve of, Fiennes delivers an engrossing tale of betrayal, hatred, and revenge that manages to overcome any shortcomings he has as a novice film director.
The interesting, but flawed Haywire stands out as an anomaly in director Steven Soderbergh's recent filmography. It’s a straight up revenge film unconcerned with further reaching implications, but dripping with sexuality and action.
If you've been missing the humorously misogynistic d-baggery of Entourage, then Showtime's newest hard hour comedy House of Lies might just be the show for you.
Beauty and the Beast returns to the big screen this weekend (with a 3-D retrofitting) just a shade over 20 years after its initial release and several years after an extended cut of the film made the rounds. The film – which was one of my fondest childhood movie going experiences – holds up nicely in a thematic sense, with as much love for cinematic craft as Hugo and The Artist, but while the 3-D does add to the film, the HD transfer makes a case that maybe not all hand drawn animated films should be toyed with.
