Doctor Who (Jon Pertwee) – The Time Warrior

  Jon Pertwee’s final season as The Doctor begins with this four-part story written by Robert Holmes which ran from 15 December 1973 to 5 January, 1974. There are a couple of noticeable changes right off the bat… there’s a new title sequence, there’s the introduction of perhaps The Doctor’s most famous companion, Sara-Jane Smith…

The Lost World (1960) – Irwin Allen

  Yet another adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Challenger adventure comes under review thanks to the Sci-Fi Chronicles book, but despite having a pretty damned great cast, this one flounders, and you need look no father than the ‘ahem’ dinosaurs to know why. And while Irwin Allen made quite a name for himself in television…

Citizen Kane (1941) – Orson Welles

  I first saw this movie in my film studies class at university. I was bored out of my skull. How was this considered one of the greatest movies ever made? In fact most of that course put me off film for the better part of a year. So I was curious to see what…

Night Film (2013) – Marisha Pessl

  This week’s book shelf brought me a book that was dark, troubling, steeped in film, murder, the occult, interactive elements, and evil. I loved it! It came to me via my sister at Christmas, and reading the inside of the jacket, I was duly interested. Who doesn’t like a good mystery, especially when it’s…

La Dolce Vita (1960) – Federico Fellini

  The strong recommendations from my viewing of Rules of the Game for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book continue with this beautifully made film. Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) is a journalist who runs all over Rome from evening to dawn collecting tabloid stories alongside his sometimes photographer Paparazzo (Walter Santesso). He’s a…

Toronto After Dark: The Banshee Chapter (2013) – Blair Erickson

  The Scary Night programme of Toronto After Dark came to a frightening close last night at Scotiabank, with the film I have been most looking forward to all festival, The Banshee Chapter. Using the 1950s MK Ultra experiments (something I only learned about because of The X-Files initially) as its launching point, the story follows a…