The Shallows (2016) – Jaume Collet-Serra

Blake Lively stars in a tight little actioner that runs shy of 90 minutes, but features some crisp and beautiful location and underwater photography. Lively is Nancy, a med student who has journeyed to Mexico to surf a secret beach that her mother once surfed long ago when she learned she was pregnant with Nancy….

We’re the Millers (2013) – Rawson Marshall Thurber

It took me a while to finally get this one. I honestly didn’t think I would enjoy it. But I was wrong. It’s charming, has some laugh-out-loud moments and features Jason Sudekis surrounded by an incredibly strong, comedic cast. Sudekis plays David, a man who has spent his entire life dealing pot. He has no…

Dark Skies (1996) – Hostile Convergence, and We Shall Overcome

Series creators Bryce Zabel and Brent V. Friedman developed the story for Hostile Convergence which Javier Grillo-Marxauch wrote the teleplay for. It debuted on 7 December, 1996, John Loengard (Eric Close) ends up in Socorro, New Mexico in April 1964 as he investigates the infamous Lonnie Zamora (Robert Carradine) UFO sighting. The original sighting is…

The Venom Business (1969) – Michael Crichton

I dove into Michael Crichton’s next book, The Venom Business, as I work through his bibliography. This one took me a while to actually get into. There’s a bit of a convoluted plot for the first half of the book inundated with the parties and happenings of a swinging London where everyone, apparently, is over-sexed,…

Man on Fire (2004) – Tony Scott

I love Tony Scott films; the saturated colours, the moving cameras, the tight pacing, the visual shorthand he used in his storytelling style. I don’t think I ever met a Tony Scott film I didn’t like. Sure I like some more than others, but all of them have his indelible print on them. Man on…

Starman (1987) – Dusty, and Barriers

This week, Paul (Robert Hays) and Scott (Christopher Daniel Barnes) learn that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Duty was written by Peggy Goldman and was first broadcast on 6 February, 1987. On the road passing somewhere close to Reno, the pair pick up Dusty (Lori Lethin) who claims to be a singer in…

The Arrival (1996) – David Twohy

David Twohy wrote and directed this sci-fi thriller starring Charlie Sheen which was lost in the summer of ’96 when Independence Day shook the world. Obviously a bit of a smaller film than Fox’s big-budget alien attack film, it doesn’t quite boast as big a cast, but has some great names, Richard Schiff, Lindsay Crouse,…

Mexican Gothic (2020) – Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Mexican Gothic is a wonderfully lush, and haunting novel, embracing all the familiar tropes of the Gothic genre, romance, the old dark house, family secrets, and the hints of something preter- or supernatural all juxtaposed into Mexico of the 1950s. We’re introduced to Noemi, a vivacious, smart, stubborn, flirtatious young woman who is still looking…

Young Guns II (1990) – Geoff Murphy

The amount my life changed between the first Young Guns, released in 1988, and Young Guns II in 1990 makes the movies themselves feel years upon years apart. Seeing that there was only two years between them is rather shocking seeing how many things happened in the space of that time. Rewatching it now Young…

TAD 2022: Evil Eye dir. by Isaac Ezban

Spookiness abounds at Scotiabank Theatre tonight as Toronto After Dark continues. Having its Canadian premiere this evening Is the Mexican film, Evil Eye, a creepy entry that blends childhood terror with fairy tales and family. The fear of being in a big house that has memories that aren’t yours but is connected to your family,…