The Twilight Zone (1961) – A Game of Pool, The Mirror, and The Grave

Paramount Pictures just keeps guiding me deeper and deeper into the Twilight Zone with their Complete Series on blu-ray. This week’s trio of episodes are a lot of fun. First up is A Game of Pool, penned by George Clayton Johnson, this episode first aired on Halloween, 31 October, 1961. Honestly I would have expected…

Wings of Desire (1987) – Wim Wenders

Remade for those North American audiences who hate to to read as the less than stellar City of Angels, the beautiful Wings of Desire captured hearts and imaginations when it premiered at Cannes, winning Wenders a Best Director award. It is also the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book….

The Stepford Wives (2004) – Frank Oz

  Sigh. You’d think that a film boasting the likes of Frank Oz behind the camera, and Nicole Kidman, Christopher Walken, Bette Midler, Jon Lovitz, Glenn Close and Matthew Broderick in front would constitute a better film. But you can tell just by the casting that the film is slipping away from the dark conformist…

Total Recall (2012) – Len Wiseman

  The Sci-Fi Chronicles brings me to another remake, this time Total Recall. Based ever so loosely on the Philip K. Dick tale, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, it also seeks to prove itself a worthy successor to one of the biggest films of the early 90s. Most viewers will only know the…

The Fly II (1989) – Chris Walas

  Having previously reviewed Cronenberg’s classic remake of The Fly, it’s time to move onto, thanks to the Sci-Fi Chronicles book, the sequel to that classic, that sadly pales in comparison, and ends up being more a popcorn film than a worthy follow-up to the body horror film, that chilled so many. Eric Stoltz is…

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) – Scott Derrickson

  The next title up for my perusal in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book is The Day The Earth Stood Still, I’d previously reviewed the 1951 classic here, so now it was time to take on the remake. And sadly, the updated version would rather focus on visual effects rather than the characters or story or…

The Thing (2011) – Matthijs van Heijningen jr.

  The Sci-Fi Chronicles book brings me to the remake/reboot/prequel to one of my all time favorite John Carpenter films, The Thing. I love both previous cinematic incarnations of this film, the paranoia and isolation that permeates the story and characters of Carpenter’s film, and the crackling dialogue and pacing of the 50s version, The Thing From Another World. So…

Hot Docs 2015: Raiders! – Jeremy Coon & Tim Skousen

  Screening today at the Hart House theatre at 9:30 is a documentary that completely encapsulated my youth and filled me with awe, and a fire to create. Back in 1981, a film came along that changed many a young viewer, myself included, Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. It affected a number of…