Uncharted (2022) – Ruben Fleischer

Some questionable narrative choices and other stylistic angles held Uncharted back from being a solid blockbuster and probably crippled its chances of turning into a franchise, which is too bad, because despite the drubbing it took, most of the film is really fun, and there’s a nice interplay between Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg who…

The BFG (2016) – Steven Spielberg

This one seemed like a surefire winner, you’ve got Spielberg working from a script by Melissa Matheson who wrote E.T. The story is adapted from Roald Dahl’s story, and Mark Rylance brings The Big Friendly Giant to life. But no matter how good, the computer-generated images were, combining the computer characters with live-action ones, specifically,…

TAD 2022: H4Z4RD dir. Jonas Govaerts

Noah (Dimitri Thiviaos) is about to have a very bad day in H4Z4RD an energetic action film from Belgium that boasts a really dark sense of humour and serves as the second film in Toronto After Dark’s opening lineup, having its Canadian Premiere. Driven by a Euro-pop-techno beat, we catch up with Noah, who loves…

Hill Street Blues (1981) – Cranky Streets, and Chipped Beef

Robert Crais pens the teleplay for Cranky Streets from a story by Michael Kozoll and Steven Bochco. It first debuted on 10 December, 1981. With city and union negotiations faltering tensions are running high on the hill. Renko (Charles Haid) and Hill (Michael Warren) find themselves assigned to be training officers. When Renko pulls a…

TIFF ’22: Hunt

South Korean action star Lee Jung-jae makes his directorial debut with the brilliant action thriller, Hunt. Set in the 1980s when tensions were heightened between North and South Korea, the film is a white knuckle ride that sees two government rivals, KCIA Foreign Unit chief Park (Lee) and Domestic Unit head Kim (Jung Woo-sung) working…

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) – Ishiro Honda

Japan’s countryside, city, and infrastructure is in danger again as Godzilla returns in Mothra vs. Godzilla, which sees the giant kaiju slug it out in an enjoyable piece of melodrama. This time around things get underway when a giant egg comes ashore in Japan, and a photographer, Juno Nakanashi (Yuriko Hoshi) and newspaperman, Ichiro Sakai…

TAD 2021: Nightshooters dir. Marc Price

Nightshooters is a kinetic, frenetic, UK actioner laced with humour, cold tea, and explosive gore, and it’s enjoying its Canadian premiere on today’s line up of Toronto After Dark titles, as the virtual format of the film festival continues! Falling squarely into the wrong place wrong time of action films, the film follows a group…

TAD 2021: Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It dir. Yernar Nurgaliyev

Kazakhstan delivers Toronto After Dark’s Opening Night Gala Film, Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It, and it sets up perfectly what to expect from TAD if this is your first time. There is going to be blood, wild on-screen deaths, laugh out loud moments, uncomfortable humour, and a lot of cross genre entertainment. Datsan (Daniar Alshinov)…

A Gathering of Shadows (2016) – V.E. Schwab

The second installment in V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy transports me easily, and enjoyably back to Red London, as well as fiving us glimpses of White and Grey Londons, but before you pick it up, a little warning… this is book two of a trilogy, you have to know that this one is going…