The Sci-Fi Chronicles brings me yet another film I’ve never seen, and yet feel I know, because it shows up everywhere, The Day of the Triffids. based on the classic science fiction tale by John Wyndham. This adaptation fairly mangles the original novel, tagging on a Hollywood Happy ending, or as happy as a…
Category: Did You See That?!? (Tv & Film)
Cub (2014) – Jonas Govaerts
Also releasing from Anchor Bay today is this film that hails from Belgium. The blurb had me from the outset. Young Sam (Maurice Luijten) is troubled and imaginative. He’s off on a camping trip with his local cub scout troop, with Kris (Titus De Voogdt), Peter (Stef Aerts) and Jasmijn (Evelien Bosmans) as their…
Ejecta (2014) – Chad Archibald and Matt Wiele
Our friend Julian Richings gives a tour de force performance in the first release from Anchor Bay this week. The film itself, Ejecta, is a bit of hit and miss b-movie affair, but Richings, himself, is perfectly on point giving his all, and elevating every scene he’s in, which is practically all of them….
Black Swan (2010) – Darren Aronofsky
The next recommendation from my viewing of Gold Diggers of 1933 in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book, is less musical, but more behind the scenes of a production, and the lead’s gradual descent into madness, in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. The beauty and sensuality of the ballet, Swan Lake, is…
2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) – Peter Hyams
We dive into the cinematic universe of Arthur C. Clarke with this next film. I’d previously written about 2001: A Space Odyssey here, so I could jump right ahead to its sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact. This was my first introduction, film-wise into the worlds Arthur C. Clarke had created. I’d previously…
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) – Jack Clayton
The Sci-Fi Chronicles book (and I am enjoying it so much) next brings me to Ray Bradbury, and the screenplay he wrote, which he adapted from his own classic story. Dark and moody, this one is definitely a family horror movie, this came from the period in the 1980s, when Disney started to play…
The Knick – Season 1
HBO, in conjunction with Cinemax, have done it again. Director Steven Soderbergh puts Clive Owen as Doctor John W. Thackery through his paces in this series created by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler. Now before you ponder the question of why, oh why, we would need yet another medical drama, take a look at the…
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) – Scott Derrickson
The next title up for my perusal in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book is The Day The Earth Stood Still, I’d previously reviewed the 1951 classic here, so now it was time to take on the remake. And sadly, the updated version would rather focus on visual effects rather than the characters or story or…
Chicago (2002) – Rob Marshall
Rob Marshall not only directs the next title in the recommendations from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book, he also choreographed it as well, bringing the classic musical to the big screen with this Best Picture Oscar-winning version of Chicago, based on the musical play by Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb….
Suburban Gothic (2014) – Richard Bates Jr.
Available now from Anchor Bay is this wonderfully quirky horror comedy. And let me emphasize the quirky, if you’re expecting a typical entry into this genre you are bound to be in for a bit of a shock. Happily, the film’s trailer sells its sense of humor really well. The film is also stocked…
The Mind Reels 