The U.S.S. Cerritos returns to the screen with Paramount Canada’s release of Star Trek: Lower Decks – Season 4 on Blu-ray. Filled with great stories, deep cuts of Trek trivia, and lots of laughs as well as answering the decades-old question, does Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) look like Nick Locarno? There are promotions, roommates,…
Tag: documentary
Demons 2 (1986) – Lamberto Bava
Demons 2 came fast on the heels of the first, now iconic horror film, and while there are some interesting moments, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one. There are some solid kills, and some pretty sweet practical effects, but it just didn’t have the kick of the first film. Set shortly…
Ghostwatch (1992) – Lesley Manning
Ghostwatch seems like an appropriate film for April Fool’s Day. Seven years before The Blair Witch Project marketed itself as an actual piece of found footage, a documentary, the BBC scarred viewers young and old with their television production of Ghostwatch. Staged like so many other BBC investigative programmes, and despite a brief intro proclaiming…
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021) – Dean Fleischer Camp
Dean Fleischer Camp directed this faux documentary that follows a tiny shell, named Marcel, as he discovers a measure of internet fame, its upside and down, and a measure of loss and the importance of family and change. Filled with beautiful stop-motion animation blended brilliantly with live action, the story finds Camp playing a version…
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) – 4K Review
Sony Pictures’ release of their Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4 brings me another iconic film that was missing from my viewing history, the Robert Benton film, Kramer vs. Kramer. Based on the novel by Avery Corman the film stars Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep as the titular Kramers. Hoffman is Ted Kramer,…
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) – 4K Review
Stanley Kramer’s funny, provocative, and poignant Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner from 1967 has been a hole in my viewing history for far too long. With the arrival of Sony’s release of Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4, I was able to remedy that, and I was finally able to settle in and…
Family Ties (1984) – Keaton and Son, Fabric Smarts, and Hotline Fever
Alex (Michael J. Fox) is looking for a job, hopefully at a bank to be close to the money, but he may have to take whatever comes along, which may mean working with his dad, Steven (Michael Gross) down at the station. Keaton and Son was written by Lissa Levin and was first broadcast on…
TIFF ‘ 23: Mr. Dressup – The Magic of Make-Believe
I’m not crying. You’re crying! Is there anything more Canadian to children who grew up in the 70s/80s/and early90s than Mr. Dressup? I can’t remember a time in my own life when I didn’t know about him, Casey, Finnegan and the Tickle Trunk. In fact I’m sure that at some point I had a stuffed…
TIFF ’23: Summer Qamp
My first documentary of this year’s TIFF was the joyous celebration that is Summer Qamp. The film crew led by director Jennifer Markowitz heads to Camp fYrefly located in, of all places, Alberta. A week-long summer camp for queer, non-binary and trans teens, fYrefly is a safe space for everyone who goes there and allows…
Sharksploitation (2023) – Stephen Scarlata
Sharks. Since Peter Benchley’s iconic 1974 novel, Jaws, they have been a ready-to-use monster for Hollywood moviemakers. With Steven Spielberg’s big-screen adaptation of the novel, sharks became the ‘it thing’ for films. However, they were arguably already on their way to being cast as the baddie thanks to some casting in the 60s Bond films….
The Mind Reels 