Hug is another freak of the week episode. This one debuted on 5 February, 2002. It was written by Doris Egan. We are introduced to Bob Rickman (Rick Peters) a conniving businessman who has his eyes set on Smallville. And there may be no one to stop him, because he has a strange ability to…
Tag: class
TIFF 25: The President’s Cake dir. Hasan Hadi
Set in the 1990s, young Lamia (Baneen Ahmad Nayyef) lives under Saddam Hussein’s regime with her grandmother, Bibi (Waheeda Thabet) and her pet rooster. Hussein’s 50th birthday is two days away, and every year, one child from each class is selected to make a birthday cake, no matter their circumstances. Lamia, Bibi and the rooster…
22 Jump Street (2014) – Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
With some sly remarks about sequels, more of the same, but bigger, 22 Jump Street takes Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill) to college. Once again, the film walks a fine line between raunchy/silly comedy to delivering a commentary on relationships, bromance, and box-office budgets. When the pair are shipped off to college for…
Family Ties (1986) – A Word to the Wise: Part 2, Art Lover, and Teacher’s Pet
The clip show continues with A Word to the Wise: Part 2. It was written by Marc Lawrence and Susan Borowitz and debuted on 13 February, 1986. The family and Skippy (Marc Price) continue to share stories with Ellen (Tracy Pollan) about Alex (Micheal J. Fox) before she came along. Sure some fun moments get…
TIFF 2021: Attica dir. Stanley Nelson
Taking a look at the five day rebellion, and hostage taking in September of 1971 at Attica prison, Nelson’s documentary is a stark, unflinching look at the prison system, the industry of it, the culture and race clash that is inherent in it, and the larger world as a whole. Filled with interviews from those…
Zardoz (1974) – John Boorman
John Boorman wrote, prodiced and directed this sci-fi cult classic that has Sean Connery running around in red underwear and thigh high boots, waving a pistol and his moustache around. With a commentary on class, knowledge, and sex, the film wasn’t a big hit at the time, and sort of settled into the cultutal subconcious,…
Shogun (1980) – Disc 1
Ah the late 70s and early 80s, the age of the television mini-series, an almost forgotten television event, though slowly being rediscovered by the advent of the limited series. It’s slightly different of course, because back then, there were only a few channels available, making a mini-series an event over consecutive nights. Shogun was based…
Parasite (2019) – Blu-Ray Review
Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design and Best Editing, Parasite, the exemplary film from writer-director Bong Joon-ho is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Universal Pictures. Perfectly balancing a tale of comedy and drama, we are introduced to two families, and…
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1998) – Once More Unto the Breach, and The Siege of AR-558
Station log: stardate unknown Ronald D. Moore pens this episode that debuted on 11 November, 1998. Kor (John Colicos) returns and wants to die as a warrior, so he seeks an opportunity in the latest skirmishes of the Dominion War. There are difficulties in the ancient warrior’s death wish because General Martok (J.G. Hertzler), who…
The Leopard (1963) – Luchino Visconti
The next film on the What Else to Watch list from DK Canada’s The Movie Book following my screening of Ossessione is this three hour epic starring Burt Lancaster. Lancaster plays Prince Don Fabrizio Salina, the ageing patriarch of a dying dynasty. It’s Sicily in the 1860s and political and social upheavals cause Fabrizio great…
The Mind Reels 