I hadn’t seen Insomnia since it was first released and I didn’t recall much about it from my original viewing except for the sequence in the mist which visually stayed with me. Honestly, this was before I knew Christopher Nolan was Christopher Nolan. I was very happy to sit down and take a look at…
Tag: partner
Hill Street Blues (1986) – Jagga the Hunk, and Look Homeward, Ninja
Robin (Lisa Sutton) is due in a few weeks, and Belker (Bruce Weitz) is working undercover at a food truck in an effort to bust some loansharks working a construction site. Oh! And Lucy (Betty Thomas) gets a new partner in Kathryn McBride (Lindsay Crouse). Jagga the Hunk was written by David Milch, Walon Green,…
Flash Point (2007) – Wilson Yip
Donnie Yen continued to prove how awesome he is in the police thriller, Flash Point. Ma (Yen) is a no-holds-barred cop, he’s more than willing to beat a criminal to a pulp to prove his point and make an arrest, and he’s been after three criminal brothers, Tiger (Xing Yu), Tony (Collin Chou) and Archer…
The Punisher (1989) – Mark Goldblatt
The same year that Micheal Keaton donned the cowl and became the iconic Batman for a generation, Dolph Lundgren brought Marvel’s dark antihero, Frank Castle, to life in the low-budget adaptation of The Punisher. If I say ugh will that be enough? Lundgren has never been known for his thespian abilities, and in a role…
The Equalizer (1987) – Solo, and A Place to Stay
McCall (Edward Woodward) squares off against a dirty cop, Cole (Kevin Spacey), who is pursuing a woman, Sarah (Lindsay Crouse) for the murder of his partner in Solo, things become increasingly complicated when McCall becomes romantically involved with her. Written by Carleton Eastlake, Solo first debuted on 18 February, 1987. Sarah approaches McCall after he…
Uncharted (2022) – Ruben Fleischer
Some questionable narrative choices and other stylistic angles held Uncharted back from being a solid blockbuster and probably crippled its chances of turning into a franchise, which is too bad, because despite the drubbing it took, most of the film is really fun, and there’s a nice interplay between Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg who…
Night Call: A Walking Shadows Novel (2020) – Brenden Carlson
Brenden Carlson’s Night Call, available from Dundurn Press is set in the past, an alternate 1933, and yet in describing it, I lean towards the phrase retro-future noir. We are introduced to the cynical hard-boiled detective, Elias Roche, who is haunted by an incident in his past and walks a fine line between the law…
M*A*S*H (1979) – Inga, The Price, and The Young and the Restless
Alan Alda writes and directs this episode, Inga, which first aired on 8 January, 1979, and definitely sees a bit of a course adjustment for Hawkeye’s (also Alda) sexist attitudes towards women. When Hawkeye hears about a Swedish female doctor coming to camp for a brief tour, he gets ready to turn on the charm,…
TAD 2021: Canadian Shorts
Canada delivers its own Shorts programme for Toronto After Dark, with 9 selections, that like the International Shorts features a variety of styles, sensibilities, and genre mashing. There’s some great work in here, and despite the fact that none of the films were as laugh out loud as the highly enjoyable Shiny New World, there…
Millennium (1998) – TEOTWAWKI, and Closure
Remember when the Y2K bug felt like a semi-legitimate fear? That’s what the first episode of Millennium is about. Written by Frank Spotnitz and series creator, Chris Carter, this story, which also takes on school shootings, first debuted on 16 October, 1998. Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) settling back in a little further back at the…
The Mind Reels 