There is always something amazing going on in Toronto, and we seem to be inundated with film festivals, which for a movie buff like me, is a good thing! Getting under way today, with a special opening night screening at Sick Kids Hospital and then continuing tomorrow at Innis Town Hall, this festival celebrates…
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The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) Martin Scorsese
Paul Schrader adapts Nikos Kazantakis’ powerful novel about the life of Christ (portrayed powerfully by Willem Dafoe) comes to life under the sure hand of Martin Scorsese, bringing the Christian character to life in a way unseen on the screen before this. Raising questions not only about the concept of Christ, as well as…
The Happening (2008) – M. Night Shyamalan
The Sci-Fi Chronicles continues its foray into the works of M. Night Shyamalan, and if Unbreakable didn’t disappoint you (and honestly I still like that one after all these years), this one was bound to. I think, this one would have worked so much better as a novel, expand out the characters, add a…
2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) – Peter Hyams
We dive into the cinematic universe of Arthur C. Clarke with this next film. I’d previously written about 2001: A Space Odyssey here, so I could jump right ahead to its sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact. This was my first introduction, film-wise into the worlds Arthur C. Clarke had created. I’d previously…
Tomorrowland (2015) – Brad Bird
Hope. It’s something in short supply in today’s films, television and books. We as a culture of become cynically and intellectually lazy (not all of us mind, but that can-do spirit seems to have been diminished, flickering like a guttering candle), gone are the heady days of Mercury and Apollo when creativity, dreams and…
Hot Docs – The Messenger – Su Rynard
The Messenger is a beautiful, thought-provoking film which takes a look at the rapidly-depleting global population of songbirds, and what that likely means not only to the planet, but to our survival as a species, as well. Director Su Rynard deftly takes us all over the world, speaking with various birders and ornithologists about bird…
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) – Brad Peyton
I’m quite enjoying my time spent with the Sci-Fi Chronicles book so far, I’ve enjoyed watching different iterations of the same story and seeing how it’s updated, changed, or adapted. After my viewing of the 1961 version of Mysterious Island, the only other theatrical version of note to take a look at was this…
The Mind Reels 