Casablanca (1942) – Michael Curtiz

  As we move back to the Romance and Melodrama genre in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book, we get to revisit one of my favourite films (many people share that opinion, and who can blame them?!) – Casablanca. It came along at just the right time, had just the right cast,…

Ride with the Devil (1999) – Ang Lee

  We get a look at the other side of the Civil War, as we join a Confederate guerrilla campaign in Ang Lee’s Ride with the Devil, the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of The Red Badge of Courage. With a top tier cast including…

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) – Stuart Baird

  It’s time for the cinematic swan song of for the Next Generation cast, as my journeys with Star Trek, via the Sci-Fi Chronicles book continue. Directed by Stuart Baird (a helluva editor, not the best director) the film is nowhere near as strong a film as it could have or should have been. One…

Toronto Screenwriting Conference – The Mind Reels Interviews

  The Toronto Screenwriting Conference weekend may be over, but, the ideas, and creative juices are still flowing. Sue and I have been throwing around all manner of ideas, from writing a spec script to get in the habit of writing for the television format, to tossing around story ideas for series that we would…

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) – Stephen Norrington

  The Sci-Fi Chronicles plunges us into the world of Alan Moore’s graphic novels with this film adaptation of his work directed by Stephen Norrington, which suffers from a bit of a haphazard script that hinted at great potential, and just failed horribly to have it pay off. It’s a great idea (mostly), using characters…

The Italian Job (1969) – Peter Collinson

  The recommendations from my viewing of Rififi for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film keep coming, and this one was highly enjoyable. Michael Caine leads the cast in this comic caper that sees he and a group of thieves organizing a gold heist, worth four million dollars, by causing a traffic jam…