I won’t lie, I loved the idea of Universal’s Dark Universe, a multi-cinematic excursion that ties all the classic Universal monsters together in some new dynamic way. But when I heard the reviews beginning to pour in about the first entry, which subsequently killed any plans for continuing the proposed universe I stayed away. Until…
Tag: popcorn
Red Notice (2021) – Rawson Marshall Thurber
Despite being weighed down in tons of green screen work, Red Notice, actually serves as a solid piece of popcorn entertainment. There’s a story about three golden eggs originally belonging to Cleopatra, but most of it is trappings for action beats, and for Gal Gadot to look absolutely stunning, and bring her acting chops into…
Moonfall (2022) – Roland Emmerich
Roland Emmerich seems to really enjoy putting global destruction, and cardboard characters on the screen, and Moonfall is no different, but unlike 2012 , and Independence Day: Resurgence this one actually like a lot of fun, though there’s a bit of a stumble with the last third of the film, though there may have been…
The Wandering Earth (2019) – Frant Gwo
Liu Cixin who penned The Three Body Problem series of novels, also wrote the book that is the basis of The Wandering Earth, a massive cinematic undertaking from China. An epic tale that easily stands shoulder to shoulder with the epic end of the world films like Armageddon. In this film, the world is in…
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…
Fast Five (2011) – Justin Lin
Justin Lin delivers another action packed entry in The Fast and The Furious franchise. If the fourth film was about tying off the themes and story threads from the first film, the fifth film really wants to up the game and play in the world the series has created, and brings back familiar faces from…
The Expendables 3 (2014) – Patrick Hughes
Dropping their hard R rating, The Expendables are back for a third go round, and Sylvester Stallone returns with a star studded cast that kind of makes up for the lack of gore, but you still find yourself wishing for it anyway. This time it’s personal when Barney Ross (Stallone) leads his mercenary team on…
Caddyshack (1980) – Harold Ramis
Caddyshack remains one of those comedies that just stays with you. And it has stayed with me since I first saw it as a teenager in the 80s, Bill Murray and his nemesis, the gopher puppet delighted me to no end, while Chevy Chase’s zen-like and self-confident (verging on the arrogant) golf player Ty, exuded…
Star Trek: The Kelvin Timeline (2009 – 2016)
Space… There was a lot of it between the end of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005 and the next Human Adventure. For the first time since 1987, there were no Star Trek series or films in production. It was strange for a number of fans, though a large percentage of them realised that it was…
The A-Team (2010) – Joe Carnahan
Sometimes you just want to relax with a fun action movie, where it seems like the heroes are having a great time, and there’s a lot to watch and enjoy as set pieces roll across the screen. 2010’s update on the classic Lupo/Cannell series The A-Team is very much one of those movies for me….
The Mind Reels 