Primary Sites:
* Movie Openings -- Vancouver & Lower Mainland *
This week's new movies for Vancouver & the Lower Mainland.
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*Kilimanjaro (IMAX) *
Kilimanjaro is Africa's peerless treasure...
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A folk-mock star: Eugene Levy never blows A Mighty Wind *
In A Mighty Wind, which opens on Friday, Christopher Guest and his gifted ensemble of improvisational actors, do for -- or to -- Sixties folk music, what they have previously done for amateur theatre in Waiting for Guffman, or dog competitions in Best in Show.
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A giant leap for martial-arts films *
These films don't get no respect, RAY CONLOGUE writes. But a new retrospective could help change that
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A rude shock from Down Under *
Only a few days in, a controversial Aussie film is provoking jeers and walkouts, writes MATTHEW HAYS
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A socko Québécois invasion *
Québec director Denys Arcand's new film must be considered a serious contender for the Palme d'or, writes LIAM LACEY
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A thriller on call waiting: Movie preview, commentary from The Globe *
Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth was to enter theatres last fall. Then a real-life sniper crisis in Maryland made the movie a little too close to the headlines...
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About Schmidt (synopsis only) *
OPENS January 3, 2003 -- A recently retired man realizes that everything that he has come to expect from life is fading away, including his relationship with his daughter.
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Ahoy, Hollywood! *
JONATHAN FOWLIE meets Gordon Laco, a boat captain from Midland, Ont., whose passion for Napoleonic-era ships and expertise in naval history landed him on a film set with Russell Crowe for seven months
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Anne's top 13 movie picks of 2007 *
These are a few of my faves over the past year. I hope they all win Oscars.
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Bend It Like Beckham *** 1/2
Review synopsis from The Globe & Mail
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Breakfast on Pluto (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ****
Gritty and direct, for 135 minutes you'll be thoroughly pulled in by Breakfast on Pluto, which exhibits some savvy filmmaking that uses its scripting and fresh storyline instead of big budget stars and special effects to drive its point forward, with great finesse and ease.
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Brokeback Mountain (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ****
Stirring and controversial, this film explores the mysterious relationship between two men 'way out on the range.
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Capturing the Friedmans (Lacey synopsis) *
Andrew Jarecki's mind-bending documentary about a seriously troubled family started as a film about clowns in New York, but took a strange direction when Jarecki was struck by a photograph of a particularly angry-looking children's entertainer called Silly Billy.
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Casanova (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) *****
Love can be elusive. Would-be Don Juans can study all the lessons of life and seduction through a wily young Venetian in Casanova, a gorgeously shot and delectably tasty main course in the life of the famed playboy.
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Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ***
Smart writing including exploring the ins and outs of parenting serve up some special warmth and insight into this travelogue of a campout that shows just how bad things can get when two zany dads try to outdo each other in all respects. Fun will be had by the little ones here.
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Clooney: 'Solaris' a Tough Acting Job *
Harder than "The Perfect Storm"? George Clooney said his latest role in Steven Soderbergh's "Solaris" has been his toughest acting job to date.
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Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You *
Christmas, 2005 is barely past, and the 2007 Oscar race is already under way.
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Complete Unknown: Trailing the elusive Dylan *
Griffin Ondaatje and Craig Proctor have made a documentary on the myth of Bob Dylan in which Dylan barely appears -- which is fitting, given the subject matter, BRAD WHEELER writes
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Costner's last stand *
Kevin Costner poured his own money into Open Range, his epic western shot in Alberta and opening next week. Disney says it's too violent. The rest of Hollywood dismisses it as a stale genre piece. But, as the actor-director tells DAVID GIAMMARCO, he always has been a bit of a maverick
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Days and Hours (Waldman review) *
Existence in a small Bosnian town comes under the microscope in Days and Hours, a slow-paced yet compelling 96-minute slice-of-life.
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District 13 (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ****
Forget about Mission Impossible. If you want to watch the best action movie of the year trek on down to District 13, a dynamite thriller now kicking up quite a storm.
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Film offers rare glimpse of Parizeau *
'I am not a sad man,' former PQ leader reveals in newly released documentary
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Films: An autumn of hope *
Could it be true? Decent movies in theatres between the uninspiring summer and the traditional Christmas flurry of Oscar contenders? With new offerings from the likes of Weir, Tarantino, Campion and the Coens, LIAM LACEY writes, the fall is looking good
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Five Days in September (Waldman review) *
Viewers will get an insider's look into the lives of a busy orchestra and the surrounding army of personnel charged with getting a night's program in place. VIFF screenings October 3 and 5, 2005, Vancouver, BC.
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Fun with Dick and Jane (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) *****
Evil-doing at a corporation stirs some otherwise stellar employees into action in Fun With Dick and Jane, a lively comedy that reworks the classic Jane Fonda-George Segal romp.
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Gibson film stirs passionate debate *
Critics accuse star of anti-Semitism, while he screens movie for D.C. elite
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Globe commentary: A director's gamble pays off *
Remaking an old caper flick wasn't Neil Jordan's idea, LIAM LACEY writes, but it all came together once he found the right language and the right actor.
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Glory Road (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ****
Socially conscious producer Jerry Bruckheimer offers up Glory Road, a glorious look at troubled racial times in the U.S. with a Cinderella basketball team.
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Good, clean summer fun (Cole) *
You know how children want their food the same and are keen on recycling? Hollywood is like that too as it dishes up its kiddie menu over the next few months, STEPHEN COLE finds
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Guy X (Waldman Film Preview-Synopsis) **
Being shifted to the wrong military post provides food for fodder in Guy X, the newest war-time event film to visit local screens.
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ****
Opening this weekend...the new Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets!
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Hoodwinked (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ***
Fresh off the shelf from new producing firm the Weinstein Company and Alliance Atlantis Releasing, comes this ridiculously funny updated take on fairy tales past.
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Hostel (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) **
Bad things happen to good people in Hostel, a thriller in the Saw tradition sure to send chills down your spine -- if you want to be scared witless during this 94-minute descent into hell.
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Is the Earth Doomed? *
Scientific study is announced at a time when Hollywood prepares release of the motion picture THE CORE, which depicts a similar scenario
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Jewish groups left out of Passion *
Thousands have screened Gibson's Christ film, but Jewish officials haven't been invited.
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Keeping it all in the family *
Father and son filmmakers Melvin and Mario Van Peebles talk to LIAM LACEY about the great story in their own back yard -- a tale of two men and two films, 30 years apart
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Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (Waldman Film Preview-Synopsis) **
Only Albert Brooks could come up with such a ridiculous plot: the American Government enlisting the help of a comic to cull the tide of fanaticism sweeping across the Arabic world.
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LOTR: Special Extended Edition Screening Engagement announced *
For one week only, starting December 5, Motion Picture Distribution LP will present a screening series of the Special Extended Editions of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, culminating in an unprecedented marathon of the entire trilogy on December 16th.
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Mama Mia (Robert Waldman mini-review) *
Shot on location in two gorgeous Greek Isles, our tale revolves around the upcoming wedding of twenty-year old Sophie.
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Match Point (Waldman Film Preview-Synopsis) ****
A young man is determined to make an impression in Match Point -- a drama about a young man's rise in society and the terrible consequences of his ambition.
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Matchstick Men: Colour him comedic (Hays review/interview) *
He directed the legendary sci-fi flick Alien, but Ridley Scott says that really, he's always loved comedy. With Matchstick Men, he proves it
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Neil Young, cinéaste *
The musician's most recent foray into the movies may annoy some old fans, but as JAMES ADAMS writes, the songwriter has the heart of a filmmaker
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New Superman Flies High *
Life is about to change in a super-sized way for Brandon Routh, the young actor chosen to don the iconic tights and cape of the Man of Steel.
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NOW PLAYING -- Friday, January 9, 2004 - Thursday, January 15, 2004 *
Current movies -- Friday, January 9, 2004 - Thursday, January 15, 2004
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OFF-SCREEN: TORONTO NO BAROMETER OF OSCAR SUCCESS *
Neve Campbell's dancing gets soft treatment in Robert Altman's The Company, while Jane Campion proves that when it comes to sex scenes, she's hands-on
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Pineapple Express (Robert Waldman mini-review) *
The Pineapple Express is a considerable improvement over the usual summer comic fare since its script is hilarious!
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Pinocchio *
Adapted from Carlo Collodi's classic Italian fairy tale and set in the late 19th century, this film from Life Is Beautiful writer-director-star Roberto Benigni is a wondrous, whimsical take on the story of a wooden puppet brought to life by a fairy.
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Poore Brothers to launch Crunch Toons summer 2003 *
Snack maker Poore Brothers Inc. plans this summer to introduce Crunch Toons, a new brand of salted snacks featuring characters from Warner Bros. classic Looney Tunes cartoons, including Bugs Bunny, Tweety and the Tasmanian Devil.
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Preview: Men in Black II (MIIB; MIB2) *
It has been four years since Agent Jay (Will Smith) and Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) averted an intergalactic disaster of epic proportions by exterminating the nasty Edgar-Bug...
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Preview: Mostly Martha *
Opens August 30, 2002: a culinary charm of a movie about the celebrated head chef of
a chic restaurant...
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Rumor Has It . . . (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) **
Date movies need to say something new to be meaningful. All the talent in the world can't rescue a film whose story comes across as being too contrived. Using the fabled The Graduate movie as its prime motivator is Rumor Has It, a definite chick flick from Warner Brothers sure to appeal to a number of women but bound to leave men scratching their heads.
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See No Evil (Waldman Preview/Synopsis) ***
On screen the latest shocker to hit audiences is See No Evil, the newest 100-minute thriller.
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Spellbound: Sleeper spells success for offbeat doc ****
Financed on credit cards, Spellbound has taken a surreal journey to box-office hit
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Star Trek X: Nemesis *** 1/2
Opens wide December 13, 2002
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Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones - The IMAX Experience ****
...coming to the big, big screen...
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Step Brothers (Robert Waldman mini-review) *
Put your brains on hold. If you want to see stupid laughs with two of the best comedians in the business, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly will really do the trick.
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Sunny Kate looks for her dark side *
Comic actress Kate Hudson takes a serious look at her latest movie, marriage and the impending birth of her first child
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Television: Pitch-and-spin business is getting out of hand *
It's May, which means it's summer. Not according to the Gregorian calendar we in the West use, but according to Hollywood money men on the West Coast, who recently adjusted their accounting practices to now include the whole of May in their summer box-office tallying.
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Tête à Tête à Tête with Marv Newland *
Now showing at Pacific Cinemathèque on Thursday, February 16, 2006, Vancouver, BC.
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The Dark Knight (Robert Waldman mini-review) *
Director Christopher Nolan has truly outdone himself with this latest movie that will surely go down in history as the best comic book adaptation ever.
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The dolorous Passion of Mad Max *
So here's me thinking I had not a scrap of religious sensibility left to be outraged. Then Mel Gibson comes along, delicately excavates the last few crumbs of Catholicism embedded beneath my couch, and proceeds to soak them in a fine spittle of hubristic Hollywood derision. Well, I may not be officially of the faith any more, but I still have that in my life that I consider sacred, and this is one thing I know for sure: I'd rather Mad Max didn't make a movie about it.
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The Family Stone (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ****
Coming home for the holidays is a tradition for countless families at Christmas. The Family Stone plays on this cliché as a truly dynamic collection of people come together and grow apart.
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The Hours *
Opens January, 2003 -- This complex, well-realized yet relentlessly bleak story follows three different women in three different times.
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The Human Body (IMAX) *
Three years in the making, The Human Body reveals the incredible story of life.
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The Matrix: Holy Trinity *
"I have absolutely no problem being thought of as an action chick," Carrie-Anne Moss confesses, "because, quite frankly, very few women have ever done that."
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The New World (Waldman Film Preview-Synopsis) **
The New World's real focus is on the relationship between the white man and the Indians -- and particularly a squaw woman whose presence is pivotal to the outcome of history, the legendary Pocahontas.
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The Omen (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ***
Churchgoers may nowadays be opting in greater numbers for the theatre instead of the pews.
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The pleasure of thoroughly mindless movies *
WARREN CLEMENTS finds the secret to happiness lies in films that are so bad, they're good
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The Producers (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ****
Show business gets the Mickey taken out of it in The Producers, a hilarious musical comedy with the added attraction of featuring the original stars of the Great White Way blockbuster.
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The reel alternatives *
LIAM LACEY ventures to the flip side of Hollywood, where films from Canada and abroad beckon.
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The Wackness (Robert Waldman synopsis) *
Dysfunctional families are the stuff of dark comedy in this recent film release.
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The White Countess (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) **
Long at 75 minutes, The White Countess boasts good intentions (and period atmosphere), but ultimately, it is brought down by a romance that simply seems too unlikely to be taken seriously.
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Thirteen: Filmmaker throws teen a lifeline *
Catherine Hardwicke wasn't looking to do a movie about teenage girls. She did it to help a troubled friend rushing headlong into adolescence -- and it worked
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TIFF -- MINI REVIEWS *
The following assessments of films screening today at the Toronto International Film Festival, rated on a system of 0 to 4 stars, are by Rick Groen, Liam Lacey, James Adams and Ray Conlogue
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TIFF: MINI REVIEWS -- Friday, September 12, 2003 *
The following assessments of films screening today at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival, rated on a system of 0 to 4 stars, are by Liam Lacey, James Adams, Ray Conlogue and Mark Peranson
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Timeline contest (and preview) *
Sorry...contest finished
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Toronto's rough cuts *
SARS, a stronger dollar and uncertainty over government funding are causing havoc in the $3-billion film-and-TV industry of Canada's largest city, GAYLE MacDONALD writes (though some Canadian cities are faring better).
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Transamerica (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ***
Look forward to 104 minutes of weird fun in this classy take on crossed wires and cross-dressers that's handled with grace and subtle flair.
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Tristan & Isolde (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ****
Young lovers undergo an ordeal in Tristan & Isolde, a dynamic portrayal of passion and rivalry set in the Dark Ages.
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Wah-Wah (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) *
Boredom can be the death of people. Jaded diplomats with nothing but time on their hands provide food for fodder in Wah-Wah, a smart exposé of illicit indiscretions.
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Wolf Creek (Waldman Film Preview / Synopsis) ***
Events based on true events can be most horrific. Down under we go to confront a modern day monster in Wolf Creek, a new thriller from Australia currently causing the hair to rise on the necks of movie-goers.
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Young and shunned in Canada *
With 50,000 young people on the street in Canada, film director Daniel Cross thought it time to show what life is like for squeegee kids, REBECCA CALDWELL writes
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Secondary Sites:
* Globe & Mail Movie Look-up *
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*Space Station 3D (IMAX) *
Space Station is the first cinematic journey to the international Space Station.
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1,500 guests attend Pirates of Caribbean launch *
Johnny Depp joined about 1,500 guests at Disneyland for the premiere of his new action adventure film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
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A-list: Box Office Prophets *
A wonderful site for movie stats, records set, film reviews and commentary...
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BCMPA Ratings *
BCMPA rates the movies . . .
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Canadian film inspires tears, applause at Cannes *
Denys Arcand's film about a French-Canadian man whose friends rally around him as he fights cancer won prolonged applause at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday and had many people wiping away tears.
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Dallaire's Rwandan tale slated for film *
Halifax-based Salter Street Films has secured the rights to retired lieutenant-general Roméo Dallaire's upcoming book on his experience in Rwanda.
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Features editor John T.D. Keyes offers his choices for the 2002 Vancouver International Film Festival: *
evalu8.org's Features Editor, John Keyes helps you cut to the chase, at this year's VIFF...
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Good, clean summer fun (Groen) *
There's no use getting hot and bothered about summer's shallow fare, RICK GROEN explains. Studio bosses are taking a page from Scott and Spenser, in a tradition as old as literature itself.
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How do we define what a movie is? *
There were eight commercials before the feature, Bruce Almighty, on Monday. Before the previews, even. There was a grainy minidocumentary about Gatorade; a white-on-white L'Oréal pitch featuring pouty models with sticky hair enacting the seven deadly sins; a half-live, half-animated ad for the Toyota Matrix; a redhead with a put-on-sounding British accent touting Acuvue colour contact lenses; an Axe deodorant spot where gorgeous girls forgive all manner of male transgressions; plus ads for The Toronto Star, Labatt Blue and the DVD for Die Another Day.
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Jewish group protests Gibson film *
The Anti-Defamation League is worried that Mel Gibson's The Passion will fuel anti-Semitism by reinforcing a belief that Jews were guilty for Jesus' death.
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John Ketcham Directorial Debut *
Vancouver's own John Ketcham directs I Accuse in production in Moose Jaw in April, 2003.
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John Keyes' 10 picks for VIFF 2003 *
The Vancouver International Film Festival is now on. Check out John T.D. Keyes' top 10 picks for this year's festival (and compare your own opinions to his choices for last year).
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Mambo 101 for filmmakers *
Just going for the ethnic laughs won't replicate the success of a Canadian hit like Mambo Italiano, LIAM LACEY writes. You need an authentically personal story, and a lead actor who can keep it real
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Motion Picture Association of America Movie Ratings *
Movie ratings from the MPAA
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Movies: From June to September: It's the perfect story arc *
Looking at the long, hot summer-movie lineup, I see tentpoles and actioners, remakes and laffers, but what I don't see is an example of the most poignant kind of summer picture -- one about the transformative effects of summer itself. No other time of year is as mythic, and therefore as filmic.
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Paycheck contest and preview *
Sorry...contest finished
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Peter Jackson: The lord of the film *
New Zealand's sleepy capital lived up to its Wellywood nickname yesterday as thousands of fans lined downtown streets to fete stars of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy ahead of the world premiere of the blockbuster final instalment.
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Phone Booth (Anthony review) ** 1/2
A phone call can change your life, but for one man it can also end it. Set entirely within and around the confines of a New York City phone booth, Phone Booth follows a slick media consultant (Farrell) who is trapped after being told by a caller -- a serial killer with a sniper rifle -- that he'll be shot dead if he hangs up.
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Sex, Drugs, Love, Marx... *
An underground feature by Vancouver's Flick Harrison. St John's, Newfoundland, Thurs., July 17, 2003
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This debut has 22 minutes *
The Worldwide Short Film Festival includes works by Illeana Douglas, Chad Lowe and Will & Grace's Eric McCormack, who parlayed his entry into a feature-length contract with Disney, writes KAMAL AL-SOLAYLEE
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Two Weeks Notice (synopsis only) *
Two of the highest box office draws in the romance-comedy genre team up for the first time in "Two Weeks Notice," a holiday release about a lawyer and her rich client who annoy each other so much that they fall in love. Sound familiar?
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