film

The Legend of the Ridiculous Nicolas Cage

Nic Cage is one of Hollywood’s greatest eccentrics in a town know for having more than a few. Over the next 11 weeks the TIFF Bell Lightbox will be honoring the master of overacting with the career retrospective Bangkok Dangerous: The Cinema Of Nicolas Cage. Every Saturday night you’ll be treated to another highlight and hairdo from Cage’s illustrious career ranging from camp to legitimate classics and oh are there such sights to be seen.

One for the Money Review

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.

Man on a Ledge Review

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.

The Grey Review

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.

This Week In DVD: 1/24/12

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 Review

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.

Red Tails Review

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.

Coriolanus Review

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.

Haywire Review

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.

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Sci-Fi at the Lightbox!

There are some corners of the cinema landscape I am woefully blind to. One such area is Soviet-era science fiction from the Eastern Bloc. American sci-fi from the same period is quite popular, with films like War of the Worlds and Invasion of the Body Snatchers playing heavily on Cold War anxieties. The only Soviet science fiction films I’d even heard of were those of Russian director, Andrei Tarkovski. Solaris in particular is quite famous, but even that I’ve never seen. Even if I wanted to get into these films, where would I begin? Luckily, the TIFF Bell Lightbox is here to help us out.

DorkShelf.com Opposes SOPA/PIPA

DorkShelf.com opposes the proposed US SOPA/PIPA bills. It is our belief, along with many others, that this legislation poses an imminent threat to a free and open internet and would do very little to curb piracy or copyright infringement. Given the intentionally vague wording of the bills, the possibility of abuse of such laws and […]

32nd Annual Genie Award Nominees Announced

The nominees for this year’s Canoscars, better and more formally know as the Genie Awards (now entering its 32nd year of existence), have been announced, and while there aren’t necessarily many surprises in what’s included there’s always room to complain about it.

Beauty and the Beast 3D Review

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.