Toronto After Dark 2017: The Villainess – Byung-gil Jung

The hyper-kinetic assassin thriller The Villainess, has it’s Toronto premiere this evening at Toronto After Dark, screening exclusively at Scotiabank Theatre. This South Korean film is nothing short of a high-octane thriller that recalls Besson’s La Femme Nikita with overtones of Tarantino’s Kill Bill. Ok-bin Kim stars as Sook-hee, a violent woman with a violent…

The Godfather Trilogy – Francis Ford Coppola

Paramount Pictures is celebrating the 45th anniversary with a re-release of the 1972 classic The Godfather, and its two sequels. I have a bit of a sordid history with these films. I’ve never been a fan of crime family stories, I can’t relate to them, and have never understood the hypocrisy that seems inherent in…

Magnum, p.i. (1986) – Death of the Flowers and Autumn Warrior

  It’s that time of week again! First up this week is Death of the Flowers which originally aired 10 December, 1986, and was written by Mary Ann Kasica and Micheal Scheff. While Rick (Larry Manetti) plans a birthday for Ice Pick (Elisha Cook Jr.), Thomas (Tom Selleck) helps Carol (Kathleen Lloyd) investigate her mentor,…

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) – Zack Snyder

  The Hero’s Code. It apparently means nothing to Batman (Ben Affleck). It apparently means nothing to Superman (Henry Cavill). And that’s troubling, because as a child, they were two of the characters I grew up with that taught me what it was. But even worse, the creative forces behind the scenes of the latest…

Cloverfield (2008) – Matt Reeves

  Those big, city destroying monsters seem to be everywhere (may be time to watch Pacific Rim again – I like it, so there)… The final recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book from my screening of King Kong, is this take on the kaiju genre that marries it with the…

I Am Legend (2007) – Francis Lawrence 

  The Sci-Fi Chronicles serves up the third and latest incarnation of Richard Matheson’s story. This one was made in 2007 and stars Will Smith as Robert Neville. This version of the film comes across as a much more solid adaptation of the original work but is deeply marred by the very dated CG work on the…