Doctor Who (Peter Davison) – Castrovalva

  Peter Davison steps into the TARDIS for the first time in this four part story that opened season 19 of the series. It also saw the strange move of shuffling Doctor Who from Saturday evening, where it had been a mainstay since 1963 to airing twice a week, on Monday and Tuesday evenings. The last piece of…

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) – Vonda N. McIntyre

  Vonda N. McIntyre who had previously written the Trek tale, The Entropy Effect, which is given a bit of a reference in this one, adapts the screenplay for the second film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan into novel form. There are some nice differences, changes in dialogue and expanded scenes and characters…

El Cid (1961) – Anthony Mann

  The recommendations for my viewing of Henry V for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book gets underway with this towering film from Anthony Mann. Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren headline in this three-hour epic that chronicles the life and times of El Cid, known in Spain as Rodrigo Diaz (Heston), a…

Theeb (2014) – Naji Abu Nowar

  Opening today at the Lightbox here in Toronto, as well as Vancouver and Calgary, with additional locations to follow on December 18, is the latest work from award-winning director Naji Abu Nowar. Shot in Jordan, and being submitted as their official Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2016 Academy Awards, comes this…

Toronto After Dark: Backtrack (2015) – Michael Petroni

  Last night, the 10th Annual Toronto After Dark film festival took us Down Under for a spooky, and well-crafted ghost story starring Adrien Brody and Sam Neill. And for the first time all festival, a jump scare got me! Brody plays psychologist Peter Bower, who finds himself in strange circumstances as he still mourns…

Revenge of the Creature (1955) – Jack Arnold

  I get to spend a little more time with Jack Arnold, the director, thanks to the Sci-Fi Chronicles book, and I also get to see the next installment in the Creature films… I’ll be completely honest with you, I’m with the Gill-man in this film. The guy is treated incredibly badly, and he’s made…

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) – Mervyn LeRoy

  The Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book brings me back round to musicals again, and I was quite happy to dig into this 1933 gem that I had heard of, but had never seen. Featuring some wonderful choreography by Busby Berkeley, this had one was a complete delight. Set in the depression,…