America’s culture of greed has inspired several films in recent years, but Tower Heist decides to take a comic approach. It follows the employees of an upscale condo building who discover that their richest resident — also their accountant — has lost their retirement fund in a Ponzi scheme. The turn comes when the building manager takes personal responsibility for trusting the banker and plots to steal the money back from the banker’s well secured penthouse. It’s like a funny Ocean’s 11. Wait, Ocean’s 11 was already funny. Funnier? No... Hrm.
Genre mash-ups are all the rage these days. Remakes and reboots aside, it seems like the only way filmmakers are able to get a genre film made these days is if they blend well-trod tropes and conventions together. Vampire police procedural? Let's make a deal! Post-apocalyptic rom-com? Sign on the dotted line. Kung fu werewolf revenge drama? Please, just take our money! If any of these made up movie pitches appeal to you, then you might just get something out of the zombie-buddy comedy DeadHeads.
It isn’t uncommon to see movies at the After Dark Film Festival where you can tell others that the plot can be excused. Monster Brawl, which aspires to be a mirror image of a televised WWE special, replaces the scary looking beefcakes with scary looking monsters.The film seems to have a better idea of what it wanted to be rather than how to really accomplish that. “The story didn’t matter” is a common thing to overhear at these events, but I gotta hand it to you, Monster Brawl, “I’m not really sure that was a movie” is a new one.
Redline isn’t about nothing, but it isn’t about much. Nothing stops Redline from hitting goals. Nothing stops Redline from victory. Redline is so ferocious and unwieldy that it’s too dangerous to be bound in your hands, it’s too fast for the qualms of plot or logic. It can’t slow down. The wonderful thing about animation is that it’s a world from scratch, created only by the pen instead of constructs of likelihood. Redline is its own universe, and it rockets through it so fast you’ll miss planets if you blink.
After watching all four Scream films again on Blu-ray, I find it a bit strange that I haven’t devoted more time to talking about a series of films that single-handedly revived the slasher genre with a blend of genuine terror and self-reflexive humour. So here now begins a four week long look back at the history of the now seminal series that has been slaying audiences since 1996.
Manborg is meant to recreate that VHS tape you once found misplaced in the corner concert film section of a pawn shop. In a world being rapidly flooded with these rehashed nostalgia bombs, Manborg is challenged to represent a new era/aesthetic of re-re-re-rehash, and to be more entertaining than many of the other films in the running. Thankfully for Manborg, it is half man, half cyborg, all Manborg.
As his first film since The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers is horror director Ti West’s opportunity to show a winning streak, or at least an uncanny corridor. It also happens to be a chance for star Sara Paxton, often cast as that pretty blonde in really forgettable roles, to earn a new start, not unlike West himself.
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, the only thing comfortable about this movie was how snugly it fit into the middle of Toronto After Dark’s line-up.
The sixth annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival kicked off last night at the Toronto Underground Cinema with not one, but two screenings of the horror-wrestling film Monster Brawl. Toronto After Dark showcases some of the best and most off-beat genre cinema from around the world - from horror and sci-fi, to action, cult and everything in between. Here are a few noteworthy titles playing this year that we think are worth checking out.
Filled with the requisite amount of jump scares the haunted house sub-genre demands, Paranormal Activity 3 delivers the goods in an interestingly different manner than its two predecessors and in a way that will leave fans of the micro-budget horror series clamouring for a fourth entry. Not everything adds up perfectly, but the one thing that many people will deride it for doing is actually the biggest strength of the film: hinting at a possibility that the series might be ready to go in a more interesting direction. In this respect the film is certainly an improvement over the second film and in many ways it manages to be superior to the original.
Johnny English Reborn is a film that will become seminal when speaking about forgettable films and sequels no one asked for. Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo and The Odd Couple II almost have more reasons to exist than this film. While those superfluous follow-ups strike out on huge levels, JE2 is simply a bore from start to finish with little to redeem it and little effort shown on the part of the filmmakers.
There’s a moment when Michael Shannon, chaperoning his sleeping family across the dark flooded highways, pulls over and steps out of his car. Off in the distance, crackles of lightning tear apart the sky, pounding the earth below it in fury. Looking around while cars behind him continue to drive by and his family rests undisturbed, he asks aloud, to the world, if he’s the only one seeing this apocalyptic sight. Jeff Nichols’ second feature Take Shelter has been conjuring its own storm on the festival circuit, a study of a humble man who suffers against an behemoth enemy only he can see.
Since 1999, the Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival has been bringing some of the best environmentally conscious films from around the world to the city. Featuring nearly 100 films, the 2011 edition of Planet in Focus kicks off tomorrow and runs until Sunday, October 16th.
Apple.com has the first concrete look at Joss Whedon’s Marvel ensemble, The Avengers. Fans no longer have to grasp at 30 second preview snippets or shaky phone cam location footage. The trailer hits audiences with Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and the Hulk in action, being led by S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury. The trailer also contains some serious scenes of destruction along with shots of Thor's villainous brother Loki wreaking havoc on New York City.
Sometimes it pains me to say when a film is an unwatchable mess. Films like French Immersion have an incredible amount of talent in front of the camera and behind it. It is supposed to be a comedy about the differences between English and French speaking Canada, but instead it’s a soul-sucking train wreck full of punchlines so misguided they would make Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy think twice. Sickeningly unfunny and dreadfully “Canadian,” Tierney’s film strikes out on almost every conceivable level.
