The final recommendation following Manhattan in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book is the Academy Award winning Annie Hall. And while even now, I don’t understand how this film beat out Star Wars for best picture, I can admit it was pretty good. Except for the fact that I don’t think Woody…
Category: Did You See That?!? (Tv & Film)
Divergent (2014) – Neil Burger
Sometimes my disappointment should be something I can throw at the screen. Not that you shouldn’t always worry about book adaptations, because invariably, the books are almost always better. But by the time we got halfway through screening this film, I wondered whether anyone in the production of this film had read the first book,…
True Detective – Season 1
Released today on Blu-Ray and DVD from HBO is the first season of the stellar police thriller, True Detective. Created and completely written by Nic Pizzolatto and starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey with the entire 8 episode series directed by Cary Fukunaga this show is intelligent, dark, captivating and gritty. Set in Louisiana, the series…
Alan Partridge (2013) – Declan Lowney
Hitting DVD, Blu-ray and VOD today is this British import starring Steve Coogan,. He brings his Alan Partridge character in a hostage story that has some great dialogue wrapped up in a paint-by-numbers story. Reprising his television character, Coogan stars as Alan Partridge, radio DJ and deluded by his perception of his own fame, including driving around in a…
Wrath of the Titans (2012) – Jonathan Liebesman
Sigh. Like the pointless remake that preceded it, this sequel is more interested in spectacle than story, image over substance. And like it’s predecessor, completely lacks the fun, and wonder that inhabited the 1981 original. This time around we have cardboard-cutouts-that-are-pretending-to-be-characters on another quest. And while the casting is good, Sam Worthington, Bill Nighy, Rosamund…
Love and Death (1975) – Woody Allen
The next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Manhattan was, Love and Death. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised to the story, but still don’t care for Woody Allen’s acting ability. This time around, Allen takes on the Russians… He’s a neurotic soldier, Boris, in Czarist…
Men In Black 3 (2012) – Barry Sonnenfeld
For a film based on a rather dark comic property, these films tend to be light and fun and mindless popcorn entertainment, when they work. The third outing, feels way overdue, but I settled in, finally to take a look at the third installment of the franchise. K (Tommy Lee Jones) is in trouble (and…
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (1972) – Woody Allen
So the list of recommendations that accompanied my screening of Manhattan continues with the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book. This time, Allen skewers sex with this collection of stories, reflecting the chapter titles of the famous book of the same name. Some of them are a lot of fun, there is a…
Orphan Black S02E07 – Knowledge of Causes, and Secret Motion of Things
I so love this show! And this week it just kept getting better and better. I’ve never come across a show that can balance drama, thrills, comedy and wrap it all up in one big conspiratorial bow, but Orphan Black consistently does that week to week. From the introduction to someone a little higher up…
True Blood Season 6
Releasing today from HBO Canada on Blu-ray and DVD is the penultimate season of the bloody and sexy vampire series, True Blood, based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. I fell out of the series about a quarter of the way through the third season, briefly after the introduction of a character, who…
