Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) – Monte Hellman

  The next road movie I take on for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book’s recommendation following Easy Rider is this flick that stars James Taylor (yes that James Taylor) as The Driver. The Driver, and his pal, The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson), work together, with as little dialogue as possible, as they…

Smoke and Mirrors (1998) – Neil Gaiman

  This collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman was just what I needed. All the tales deal with magic or illusion, whether in the form of creatures, sex, drugs, or life, the power of each is examined under the eye of this brilliant author in this wonderful collection of stories, some of which I…

Relic (1995) – Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

  I read this one back when it first came out, though I definitely didn’t recall much in the way of details, I think because after I read it, I saw the film adaptation, which, in my opinion dropped the ball (though now that I have read the book again, I may rewatch the film,…

Good Omens (1990) – Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

  So I dove into another Gaiman novel, and while I recognized some of it, I don’t think I ever finished the tale, so something must have happened to stop me from reading it. Anyway, this time, Gaiman pairs up with the author of the Discworld series of novels, and brings to life a humorous…

Eat Your Heart Out (2013) – Katie Boland

  I’ve been fortunate enough to chat with Katie Boland a number of times over the past couple of years. I’ve never met a more joyous and open soul who seems wise beyond her years. She’s gracious with everyone she meets, and made both Sue and I feel like friends straight from the off. So,…

Trailer Tracks: Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) – Barry Levinson

  I was more than a little stunned, when last night halfway through our show, we learned of the death of Robin Williams. This was a man who had been a huge influence on me growing up, especially through my 20s and early 30s… I watched every film and show he made, whether it was…

La Grande Bouffe (1973) – Marco Ferreri

  This recommendation, following my screening of Pulp Fiction for Great Movies – 100 Years of Film was an odd little film, and decidedly dark. Four friends, who all seem to come from different walks of life (how they met remains a bit of a mystery to me) have decided to gather for a weekend…

The Rockford Files (1974) – The Big Ripoff & Find Me If You Can

  This time around private investigator Jim Rockford (James Garner) has a couple of interesting cases… First up, we have The Big Ripoff, with an airdate of 25th October, 1974, written by Robert Hamner from a story by Roy Huggins, that sees Rockford trying to find a man who supposedly died in a plane crash, but may…

What Sue’s Watching – Playing PVR Catch-up

  Last week saw a lot of epic television, but I’m going to try and focus on a few in particular this time – especially the ones that I inadvertently left out last post. Lost Girl – Tim usually writes the episode recaps, and while I thought of trying to write one for last week’s…

Toronto After Dark Shorts Program

  On a Saturday afternoon, there’s nothing better than curling up and enjoying some cinematic entertainment, and this afternoon, I let those festival programmers at Toronto After Dark pick my entertainment, with 9 specially selected from over 450 entries and there were some strong choices. The collection started with an odd little two-minute computer generated…