TIFF 25: California Schemin’ dir. James McAvoy

I had never heard of Silibil ‘n’ Brains, but knowing this was James McAvoy’s directorial debut I had to check it out. It’s based on a true story, and it’s very entertaining. Gavin (Seamus McLean Ross) and Billy (Samuel Bottomley) are just a couple of blokes from Dundee, Scotland. They dream big, and those dreams…

Glass (2019) – M. Night Shyamalan

Glass paired with Unbreakable and Spilt wraps up Shyamalan’s ode to comic books trilogy. It picks up a few weeks after the events of Split, and fifteen years after the Unbreakable. David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is running a security company with his son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark). He uses this as an opportunity to use…

Split (2016) – M. Night Shyamalan

It’s been awhile since I watched a Shyamalan film. I kind of tuned out after awhile. I think Lady in the Water did it for me. But I did remember enjoying his earliest films, The Sixth Sense, The Village, Unbreakable. And it seemed like enough time had past that I could see if I could…

Atomic Blonde (2017) – David Leitch

Charlize Theron is here to kick ass in Atomic Blonde and she does, and does it well. Based on the graphic novel The Coldest City, Atomic Blonde is a spy-thriller that features some solid stunt and fight work, the majority of which Theron, much like Keanu Reeves for John Wick did as much of as…

It: Chapter Two (2019) – Blu-Ray Review

Let’s get this out of the way first. No matter what Andy Muschietti had done for the second chapter of the It story there would have been no way to top the first instalment that was the perfect blend of creepy and nostalgia. And of course, there’s the plague of a Stephen King ending, something…

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) – Bryan Singer

  There’s probably a good, or at least a passable story somewhere amongst the mutants, Singer as a director has done some nice work with Marvel’s X-Men franchise in the past, but this time, it just feels like too much flash, and no substance. To say the visual effects super-saturate this film is an understatement….

X-Men: First Class (2011) – Matthew Vaughn

  Sometimes to go forward, you need to go back, as we learn in the next X-Men film as I journey through the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Continuing its cue of using great actors, Vaughn recasts the characters we’ve already been introduced to as we go back to 1962 and the height of the Cuban Missile…

Filth (2013) – Jon S. Baird

  Releasing on DVD and Blu-Ray today is this adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel, and gives James McAvoy an opportunity to tear up the screen with a brilliant performance. He plays Bruce, a police officer in Scotland, who is a hard ass, a cynic, a bit of a racist, and fits right in with the…

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) – Bryan Singer

The X-Men are back! After the less than stellar Wolverine spin-offs and the horrendous X3, it’s good to see Fox actually giving the Marvel property some respect, viewers and critics know it can work when it’s given the proper time and attention, as illustrated by X-Men: First Class, as well as the first two films….

Tim’s Tops of 2011

I’m gonna take a page from my creative partner, Sue, and give a run down of my favorite films of the year; though it appears that we do have a lot of the same films on our list. 1) The Muppets – This movie is sheer joy, and by far the best time at the…