The charming and candid Marc-André Grondin talked to Dork Shelf about the upcoming hockey comedy Goon and what it’s like to play someone so irredeemable as his character, how to dress like a douche for the camera, and how challenging it can be to make a French Canadian character funny without turning it into a stereotype.
During a big week for DVD releases, we take a look at Brett Ratner's Tower Heist, the film festival favourite Martha Marcy May Marlene, the multiple Genie award nominee Café de Flore, and a trio of big name direct to DVD features starring the likes of Chris Evans, Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, Ryan Reynolds, and Julia Roberts.
In the first entry of the published offshoot of the popular screening series, Defending the Indefensible curator looks back at the "overlooked and under-appreciated" 1993 thriller Judgment Night, starring Emilio Estevez and Denis Leary.
To celebrate TIFF’s ongoing 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 boards Simon West's Con Air – playing tonight at the Lightbox.
While technically a step up in quality from the first film in terms of storytelling, the second entry in the somewhat unnecessary Ghost Rider franchise still manages to feel like a bit of a missed opportunity given the talent both in front of and behind the camera. A film starring Nicolas Cage and directed by the duo of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank, Gamer) should be balls to the wall, action packed insanity. Instead, what we get is a film that feels curiously neutered in terms of content and budget.
Even dubbed into English, it’s hard to go wrong with almost any film bearing the Studio Ghibli name on it. Similarly, the much beloved children’s novel The Borrowers – written by the late Mary Norton with no fewer than four big and small screen adaptations – stands as an enduring brand in family entertainment. While only written by Ghibli head maestro Hayao Miyazaki and only somewhat faithful to Norton’s beloved source material, The Secret World of Arrietty still manages to be another solid, but slight effort from the Japanese powerhouse.
This Means War refers not only to the title of director McG’s latest romantic action-comedy, but also to the exact sentiment I felt about forty minutes into the film. Staggeringly unfunny with a masochistic mean streak, only one of the jokes in the film even manages a single actual laugh, making for an extremely long feeling 95 minute sit. Ugly, incoherent, and all around lazy as hell, this is exactly the kind of movie I feel I will be weeping about when it inevitably hits number one at the box office.
Not much of anything romantic on DVD this Valentine's Day (unless you count the family dynamic in the brilliant Take Shelter), but there are a pair of decent horror films, a drunken Johnny Depp, Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones arguing in a room for 90 minutes, and some pretty great philosophical discussions. Something for everyone! Except romantics.
Few things make filmgoers shudder more than the word “remake.” For years, audiences have been treated to reheated, recast, and reimagined versions of past films, both classics and otherwise. John Semley, Chief Editor for the Onion AV Club’s Toronto branch, aims to create a broader dialogue and discussion surrounding remakes with a new screening series at the Toronto Underground Cinema titled “Remake/Remodel,” where local film writers will present two sides of the same cinematic coin.
To celebrate TIFF’s ongoing 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 analyzes David Lynch's violent road trip Wild at Heart – playing tonight at the Lightbox.
Ever since Paul Greengrass’ Bourne Identity sequels, espionage movies have been about terrorism and government cover-ups, set in third world countries and filmed with shaky handheld cameras and blown out colour schemes. Safe House falls firmly into this camp, loaded with nods to dirty dealings and water boarding. It’s a fairly entertaining movie, just one that definitely feels like it’s coming out a few years too late.
When considering whether or not you want to watch Journey 2, the only question you have to ask yourself is: “Do I desperately need to see The Rock play a ukulele and bounce berries off his pecs in 3D?”
It’s simultaneously mind-boggling and easy to see why director Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin was snubbed and shut out of so many potential accolades this awards season. Despite having a stellar lead performance from actress Tilda Swinton as a mother at the end of her wits, Ramsay’s film might be looked down upon as just another genre film with a high gloss. That’s sad, since it’s one of the best and most outright terrifying bits of familial horror from last year.
Dork Shelf talks to Texas Killing Fields director Ami Canaan Mann about preparing and authentic feeling true crime drama, working with heavyweights like Sam Worthington and Jessica Chastain, and what it was like learning filmmaking from her father, Michael Mann.
We talk to Journey 2 director and Newfoundland native Brad Peyton about the challenges of shooting underwater, adapting Jules Verne, being in awe of Michael Caine, and getting The Rock to play the ukulele.
