The Sci-Fi Chronicles book continues its travels with the X-men, but this time around the mutants aren’t guided by the sure directorial hand of Bryan Singer. Taking the helm this time around is Brett Ratner, and you can tell from the off that it doesn’t have the same emotional depth, or action beats that…
Category: Did You See That?!? (Tv & Film)
X2: X-Men United (2003) – Bryan Singer
From apes, I move onto mutants with the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Having previously covered X-Men for the blog, I leapt ahead to X2. Picking up a few months after the ending of the first film, director Bryan Singer expands on the world he helped bring to the screen in the previous film. This time…
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) – Matt Reeves
It’s back to the Apes saga as I dive into the most recent sequel as I continue my way through the Sci-Fi Chronicles. Set a decade or two after the previous film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Caesar (mo-capped by Andy Serkis) is leading a growing nation of evolved apes. But…
The Ten Commandments (1956) – Cecil B. DeMille
Melodrama and spectacle are the order of the day as I dive back into the Historical genre of the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book. DeMille’s remake of his own 1923 is a towering, four hour long epic that boasted top of the line effects (at the time), stellar casting, including Charlton…
Captain America: Civil War (2016) – Anthony & Jo Russo
Marvel does what DC tried and failed to do just a month ago. Building on the universe they’ve already established, lending the stakes a heavier weight, the film brings a number of threads from the previous films, and tying it all together. In fact, they are dealing with the fallout from their actions in…
No Country For Old Men (2007) – Joel & Ethan Coen
The last recommendation for my viewing of Night of the Hunter for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book is this crime thriller from the Coen Brothers. The story follows a trio of characters, and two million dollars. When Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) comes across the fallout of a drug deal gone…
Hot Docs 2016: Beware the Slenderman – Irene Taylor Brodsky
Having its international premiere last night at the Lightbox, Irene Taylor Brodsky’s film is a slick looking, unnerving and surprisingly emotional look at the blurring of fiction and reality in the modern age, as two young girls, Anissa and Morgan succumb to the terrors and stories of the internet created character of the Slenderman,…
Hot Docs 2016: Ukrainian Sheriffs – Roman Bondarchuk
Having it’s North American premiere last night at the Scotiabank theatre, this tragic-docu-drama follows two sheriffs, Viktor and Volodya in a tiny Ukrainian village near Crimea. By turns funny, and emotionally stirring, the two officers, selected by the mayor perform all manner of services in the village as they cruise around in their beaten up…
The Mind Reels chats with A Dog’s Life Helene Choquette
Hot Docs 2016 continues! The amazing thing about the festival is the variety of subject matter covered, and issues confronted, Helene Choquette turned her camera’s eye on the issue of homeless people, specifically, those with dogs. Examining the issue, and way they are treated and seen by the public at large, these people survive…
The Mind Reels chats with Wizard Mode’s Robert Gagno and Nathan Drillot
Hot Docs has been very good to us this year, thanks to some tireless work by a wonderful company known as GatPR, they’ve provided us with a number of opportunities to chat with some of the amazing filmmakers and their subjects as they descended on Toronto for the most renowned documentary film festival in the…
