Tears. Happy tears. When things just feel right, when something is translated so well from page to screen that it looks the way it did in your mind’s eye. The Life of Chuck moved me to happy tears. Mike Flanagan is at the top of his game. He has proven that he excels at adapting…
Tag: screen
Making It So (2023) – Patrick Stewart
Whether Patrick Stewart knows it or not (I’m fairly sure he doesn’t) he’s been an essential part of my life since my formative teen years. He’s always been there in some form or another, and he’s helped me through a lot of tough times. A story he and his fellow castmates of that super popular…
Highlander II: The Quickening Director’s Cut (1991) – Russell Mulcahy
No matter which version of Highlander II you choose to watch (and why would you choose either?) the film is a mess. It screws the previous film either way you look at it, either by making the immortals a race of alien exiles, or just an ancient forgotten, technically advanced race in the prehistory of…
The Shark is Still Working (2007) -Erik Hollander
Oh Jaws. There’s never not a good time for me to watch this movie, so I was delighted when it showed up in DK Canada’s The Movie Book. But having reviewed it for the blog previous to this I moved onto the What Else to Watch list, and there were only a couple of titles…
House of Dracula (1945) – Erle C. Kenton
It’s another Saturday matinee scare-fest as I continue my exploration of Vampires in the cinema while i continue my enjoyable journey through John Landis’ Monsters in the Movies, available now from DK Canada. There are problems and monsters a plenty in House of Dracula, a rather short entry into the Universal Monsters Series. Clocking in…
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Blu-Ray Review
Hitting blu-ray and DVD today from Disney is the latest instalment in the Skywalker Saga, The Last Jedi, director/writer Rian Johnson’s follow-up to 2015’s The Force Awakens. Johnson delivers a strong film that has proven divisive with some fans, but for yours truly, it’s up there with The Empire Strikes Back, it sends characters in…
A Wrinkle in Time (2018) – Ava DuVernay
Disney’s adaptation of Madeline L’Engle’s classic young adult novel is a mixed bag at best. The story’ ideas aren’t realised on the screen very well, but there is some nice talk about quantum physics, physics, and science as spiritualism throughout the film that I really enjoyed. Director DuVernay, best known for her documentary work, in…
The Maltese Falcon (1929) – Dashiell Hammett
Sam Spade. Almost some ninety years on, the name still conjures images. One can see Bogart, fedora atop his head, overcoat hanging on his frame, cigarette dangling from his lips while he has a heater in one hand, and a dame on the other. No matter your experience with Spade, brought to life incredibly in…
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – The Visual Dictionary (2017) – Pablo Hidalgo
Available now from DK Canada is this amazing companion piece to the new Star Wars film. Filled with hints, that are now canon, about characters, both new, like Supreme Leader Snoke, and old, like Luke Skywalker. Leafing through the pages , I catch things that I didn’t see in the screening but ties in nicely…
Dunkirk (2017) – Christopher Nolan
When I saw Dunkirk in IMAX this summer, I came out of the theatre with a one word review, “Wow.” Now Christopher Nolan’s brilliant retelling of the British evacuation from Dunkirk comes home on blu-ray and DVD thanks to Warner Brothers. Running at a taut hour and forty five minutes (Nolan’s shortest film since Following),…
The Mind Reels 