Charade (1963) – Stanley Donen

The next title on the What Else to Watch list following the recommendation of Casablanca from The Movie Book, released by DK Canada, is this delightful romp starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. Also featuring turns by Walter Matthau and James Coburn, this romance mystery, with a healthy dose of comedy has a score by…

Toronto After Dark 2016: As the Gods Will – Takashi Miike

Things got nigh on bizarre this evening at Toronto After Dark, as it continues to entertain at the Scotiabank Theatre here in Toronto. It was Japanese cinema night, and sadly, thanks to work constraints, I was only able to make one screening today, but what a screening! If you aren’t familiar with Miike’s work, it’s…

Quantum Leap (1990) -Maybe Baby and Sea Bride

Sam (Soctt Bakula) is a kidnapper? This week out time traveller is on the run in Maybe Baby. Penned by Paul and Julie Brown, who also portrays Sam’s travelling companion, and stripper, Bunny, in this episode that aired 4 April 1990. It’s 11 March, 1963, and Sam as Buster, the bouncer from Bunny’s bar, and…

Quantum Leap (1989) – Jimmy and So Help Me God

  Sometimes it’s the simplest stories that work the best, and are the most poignant, the first episode up this week, Jimmy, is just that.Penned by Paul M. Belous and Robert Wolterstorff, the episode aired 22 November, 1989, it sees Sam (Scott Bakula) leaping into an intellectually challenged man, Jimmy, on 14 October, 1964. He…

It Runs In the Family, presented by Drayton Entertainment

  If you missed its run at the Drayton Festival Theatre, the British farce, It Runs In the Family runs deliciously amuck on the King’s Wharf Theatre stagein Penetanguishene starting today, and running to the 27th. Written by Ray Cooney, and directed by Alex Mustakas, the farce is at its best when it reaches Howard…

Red Rising (2014) – Pierce Brown

  With hints of the Hunger Games, Battle Royale, Ender’s Game and the guise of an educational setting, Pierce Brown’s science fiction novel, Red Rising, the first of a trilogy, is strongly written and completely engrossing. I’ll admit it took me about the first third of the book to get really hooked on the story,…

Shooting the Musical (2014) – Joel Ashton McCarthy

  At 7pm this evening the next round of features for the Canadian Film Fest starts at the Royal Cinema on College St. The first feature, Shooting the Musical, is preceded by the fantastic short She Sings For Me directed by Rebecca Davey – a fun little love story with a wonderfully quirky and completely adorable…

The Big Sleep (1946) – Howard Hawks

  The first title in the Crime and Thriller chapter of the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book is this wonderful classic based on Raymond Chandler’s book, adapted by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman, it is directed by Howard Hawks and features Humphrey Bogart as Chandler’s hardboiled detective Phillip Marlowe. The…