TIFF 25: The Wizard of the Kremlin dir. Olivier Assayas

Director Olivier Assayas with novelist Emmanuel Carrere adapted Giuliano da Empoli’s novel that shows the machinations of political evil at work. While a work of fiction, it does tie in with actual events, and the lead character, Vadim Baranov, played by Paul Dano, seems to be more than a little similar to Vladislav Surkov. Dano…

TIFF 25: The Eyes of Ghana dir. Ben Proudfoot

Oscar winner filmmaker Ben Proudfoot turns the objective eye of the camera on the powerful story of Chris Hesse. A man of the cloth, Hesse was once a filmmaker and cinematographer in his home country of Ghana. He was with Ghana’s first president, Kwarme Nkrumah, from his inauguration to the coup that removed him from…

Stargate SG-1 (2006) – Ripple Effect, and Stronghold

Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie pen Ripple Effect from a story they created alongside Brad Wright. It first aired on 20 January, 2006. It was directed by Peter DeLuise, who makes sure he gets himself a cameo. We’re seeing, well, a ripple effect from the creation of the black hole they created to try and…

6 Underground (2019) – Micheal Bay

Micheal Bay films can be very hit-and-miss, and when you factor in his almost seizure-inducing editing style you know the film is going to have a certain look and pacing, To be fair, there are Bay films I do enjoy, but unfortunately even with Ryan Reynolds exuding as much charm and humour as he can,…

Mission: Impossible (1970) – The Choice, and The Martyr

This week we close out the fourth season of Mission: Impossible. The penultimate episode of the season is definitely the stronger of the two, and lets Leonard Nimoy do a little character work as he plays both IMF agent Paris, and the episode’s nemesis, Emile Vautrain (which you should probably read as Rasputin). In a…

Mission: Impossible (1970) – The Crane, and Death Squad

The IMF swings back into action again this week, with yet another mission to save an Eastern Bloc country from itself, and restore it to its prior democratic state but working to turn the current leaders against one another, and reinstate a pro-democracy guerilla leader who is sentenced to be executed. Written by Ken Pettus,…

Mission: Impossible (1968) – The Diplomat, and The Play

Cinnamon (Barbara Bain) is missing from the first assignment this week as Phelps (Peter Graves) takes his IMF team back undercover to run a mission to make genuine U.S. defense information is actual erronous and fake. The Diplomat was penned by Jerrold L. Ludwig, and had an original airdate of 1 December, 1968. To make…

Mission: Impossible (1967) – Action!, and The Train

Dan Briggs (Steven Hill) is missing from this week’s first mission (apparently he was written out of the script as punishment for observing his religious beliefs), so Cinnamon (Barbara Bain) picks up the mission while Rollin (Martin Landau) concocts the plan in Action! written by Robert Lewin. This episode first hit the airwaves on 4…

All the President’s Men (1976) – Alan J. Pakula

One of the films that are on DK Canada’s What Else to Watch list after I screened Battle of Algiers is one of my favorite newspaper films, All the President’s Men. Based on the brilliant expose by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein the film is as relevant now, perhaps more so, as when it was…