reviews

CineFranco at a Glance: Part 1

We take a look at five of the films starting off this year's sixteenth annual CineFranco French language film festival - running this Friday, April 5th through Sunday, April 14th at The Rooyal in Toronto. We look at opening night film Esimésac, the poker set drama Small Blind, the period epic What the Day Owes the Night, the hitman comedy Cassos, and the excellent cop thriller Mains armees

This Week in DVD: 4/2/13

This week at the video store marks the arrival of three European imports - the Swedish gangster saga Easy Money, British cop thriller The Sweeney, and the comedic Irish slasher Stitches - as well as the home video debut of the HBO original movie Hemingway & Gelhorn.

The New Old: Biblical Jazz Panic

We take a trip in the way, wayback machine for a trio of old school classics, including Elia Kazan's noirish viral thriller Panic in the Streets, Cecil B. DeMille's biblical epic Samson and Delilah, and the king of all early talkies, The Jazz Singer.

This Week in DVD: 3/26/13

Did you miss almost all of our theatrical coverage around the holidays? Well this week we look at some of the biggest late 2012 releases including The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Lincoln, Les Miserables, This is 40, and Zero Dark Thirty. Also, looks at Killing Them Softly and the Canadian made sci-fi romance Mars et Avril.

The New Old: The Good, the Badlands, & the Ugly

This week in archival DVD land, we take a look at new Blu-Rays for the Canadian classic sex comedy Porky's, Criterion treatments for Terrence Malick's Badlands and Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear, and a Steven Seagal TV show that was re-edited into a movie with the hopes no one would notice.

This Week in… Festivals

No DVD column this week, but we'll return with it next week. Instead, we take a look at a whopping FIVE film festivals kicking off in Toronto this week: the 7th annual Canadian Film Fest, the Canadian Music Week Film Fest, Water Docs, the 13th annual aluCine Latin Film Festival, and Creepy Christian Cinema.

The New Old: Of Love and Loss and Fun

This week we look at some Blu-Ray and DVD reissues of the iconic Schindler's List and On the Waterfront, the campy fun of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and The Monster Squad, and one of the greatest adventures from the Doctor to occupy the Tardis the longest.

This Week in DVD: 3/12/13

This week brings out some heavy hitters at the video store including Life of Pi, The Master, Hitchcock, Smashed, Playing for Keeps, This Must be the Place, and A Late Quartet.

This Week in DVD: 3/5/13

This week on home video we check out The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, Wreck-It Ralph, The Intouchables, Red Dawn, The Marine 3: Homefront, The Bay, and Girls Against Boys.

Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2013

We take a look at the Toronto edition of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival (kicking off this Tuesday at the TIFF Bell Lightbox) and a trio of the films showing: Academy Award nominee No, Camp 14: Total Control Zone, and The Act of Killing.

This Week in DVD: 2/19/13

This week on DVD and Blu-Ray we take a look at current Best Picture front runner Argo, Leos Carax's Holy Motors, the meta-comedy Seven Psychopaths, the meta-horror films Sinister and Mimesis, RZA's kung-fu epic The Man with the Iron Fists, Steve Austin and Dolph Lundgren in The Package, and the high rise Irish horror of Citadel.

The New Old: Guns, Drugs, and Tobacco

This week for the archival DVD and Blu-Ray column we dive into the 3-D Blu-Ray release of Tony Scott's Top Gun, Michael Mann's The Insider, the forgotten about horror flick Schizo, and head over to the TV side of things for The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour, the second season of the Being Human reboot, and The Best of WCW Monday Nitro, Volume 2.

The 2013 Next Wave Round-up

We take a look at seven of the films playing at this year's TIFF Next Wave festival: Fame High, 5-25-77, Bushido Sixteen, Earthbound, Otelo Burning, Ghost Graduation, and Family Weekend.

This Week in DVD: 2/5/13

This week at the video store we check out Flight, Here Comes the Boom, Celeste and Jesse Forever, Alex Cross, Les Infideles, The Inbetweeners Movie, and L'affaire Dumont.